Okay, the finals chapters of a story I have been toying with for 11 years now. That is way too long and way too embarrassing to admit, but with how my life has transpired in those years (between grad school, med school, residency, and now, an independent practicing physician),it's a wonder I never just gave up on this story.
And so we begin, again, with the two that captured my attention and love from the start. Jack and Kate. The heart of LOST. I hope you enjoy.
Jack's blurry gaze focused in on his hands, glistening from the remnants of water he used in an abandoned grove to clean them. He was kneeled over the river's edge, his back slumped, his broken soul bowed. The blood was caked along the creases of his long fingers and wide palms. It never bothered him before. The sight of bright, slick and then darkened and dried blood once exposed to the sterile air of an OR. It was a part of the job.
But it bothered him now. Locke's death. Locke's blood refusing to disappear from his trembling hands bothered him.
He dunked them back in angrily and rubbed them roughly under the water this time. He pulled them back out and was almost satisfied. Almost.
"Hey." He heard her voice travel to him from the treeline, soft, almost a whisper.
He ignored her, fixated on rubbing his hands clean, straight to the bones beneath.
He heard her boots stomp through the grass and soft slush of mud he was kneeled over closer to the water. She was at his back in seconds, giving him space and proximity at the same time.
He was in no condition to deal with Locke's body, so Kate and Richard told him to take his time while they took care of it. Kate hadn't notice him slip away through the trees, but she knew he needed to once he had.
The quiet of the jungle swallowed them whole until he spoke up, the sloshing from the water eased.
"Is it done?" Jack asked out of nowhere, his voice raw and low.
"Mmhmm." Kate hummed. She noticed that he was still busying himself with cleaning up, the sound of his hands taking up residence in the water cut through along with a discontented groan.
The blood had to be gone by now, right? Kate thought.
Curious, she craned her head forward. Her eyes travelled over his broad right shoulder to his hands and forearms, where he continued to rub and scratch. There was no more blood.
He could still see the blood, she realized.
"Jack, this isn't your fault." He continued to ignore her.
He slammed his hands back into the water, causing it to splash, ripples effected nearby. He pulled them out again after a few seconds of ardent rubbing and noticed the skin of his fingertips were starting to wrinkle, but they weren't clean yet.
He dunked his hands back in the water, over and over. He had to busy his mind with a task, something simple yet productive.
"Jack." Was all she could say, stern and yet, afraid.
He could hear it in her voice. She was scared. So, he stopped.
"They're all dead, because I left." Jack finally said.
Kate shook her head, refusing to let him carry this. This was Ben. He put all of this into motion. Those deaths were on him.
"No, they're—"
His abrupt movements cut her off as he stood up, wiping the water from one of his hands into his hair as he turned to her, causing the long strands to slick over and off of his forehead.
She could see the tears in his eyes. This was killing him. While she wasn't on the beach when the Monster attacked, she wish she had been. Maybe she could have saved someone, anyone. That same care and concern for others lived inside of him too.
This was killing him dead.
He turned away from her, ashamed and devastated. "Locke told me that night on the dock, not to do it, that I wouldn't be able to walk it back. That I would regret it. I was just so mad."
"It was the only way, Jack." She couldn't see it then, but she could now.
"We tried to be rescued, so many times before. The signal we picked up from the transceiver from the cockpit. Rousseau's message warned us that people died. The raft. Walt was kidnapped, Michael, Sawyer and Jin were left to die."
"You saw your chance to help everyone, Jack, and you took it. No matter how angry you were at Locke, you came back and you even tried to save him too."
He placed his hands low on his waist. He knew that what she was saying was true, but only a part. He was trying to help everyone, but he let his pride get in the way as well. It had given him satisfaction beyond his imagination to walk away from Locke back then. His naiveté about the Island and all the ways it would pull him back masqueraded as certainty.
Jack turned to Kate then. She wasted no time closing the space between them, keeping her eyes trained on his the entire time. She lightly touched her hand to the side of his face, her touch soothing and damaging at the same time.
"Look at where that got us, Kate." Jack said, defeated. "More than half the group is dead. Locke is—"
He hung his head low then, and closed his eyes as her touch to his face pressed firmly, catching his tears. She stood on her tiptoes and pulled him into a hug, not able to bear it any longer. He immediately wrapped his arms around her, hugging her small frame to his chest and torso so tightly he was afraid of breaking her.
He wept, let it all go, and allowed her to comfort him. He couldn't bear it any longer either, both wanting and needing to be freed from this pain.
He felt her chest heaving against his, weeping for and with him. Through it all, she had been the rock holding him down from flying dangerously out of control. Flashes of moments between them before he left flooded his mind. The gameroom, when she reached out to touch him. His world stopped. Everything flipped. He was a disciplined man by nature and trade, but there was nothing meticulous about how wildly and surely he loved her.
Those shared moments before she and Sawyer were together in the cages haunted him like a phantom. The way she held him after the cave-in almost took his life and the sling she proudly presented to him for his aching shoulder. The laughs and smiles shared over how much golf had provided a respite for him. Failing miserably at denying the curvaceous trail his eyes took down her backside as she leaned over to tie her shoe. Their first fight in the rain on the beach. Their first kiss in the jungle. The fear he felt when she was dragged out in the dark clearing by the Others, bound and gagged, clearly unable to sit still.
The playful, warm, antagonizing, caring, baffling, tender moments and all in-between. Moments big and small, tense and light, buzzing with sexual tension and fuming with pride and jealousy. They rushed back on a fiery tide of love. They were a part of him. She was a larger-than-life part of him now, and forever.
She was also a part of why he had to leave, if only for a little while.
He began to collect himself, slowly untangling himself from their embrace. Being this close to her again, this intimate, it was torture. It was sensory overload.
"It wasn't the only reason." He said, almost above a whisper, becoming lost in her eyes.
"What?" She replied, her eyes questioned him as she wiped her tears. Her hand landed on his chest, over his heart. It was racing, and she was suddenly worried about what he would say next.
He swallowed hard. "My anger at Locke, wanting to save everyone, they're not the only reasons I left."
I left because I love you.
His lips almost moved to say. He wasn't even sure she would understand. He wasn't even sure he understood it, but it was a feeling, a way of being that had already eaten him alive. He came to realize much the same about the tangled way his life was tied to this Island. It wasn't meant to be understood.
"I know." Kate nodded. "You left because of me. Because I broke your heart."
She dropped her hand from his chest and braced herself for the truth. She cleared the lump from her throat. "I know you saw me with Sawyer, and—"
Realizing where this conversation was headed, Jack took several, small steps back, creating the distance Kate knew the topic would.
Jack sucked in a breath, the words bringing the pain of losing her back to the surface. "How do you know that I saw?"
"Juliet." Kate wrapped her arms about her torso to comfort herself from his retreat. "Once she made it to the beach from the plane, she gave me, and the entire group, a pretty big piece of her mind."
She noticed that he was trying his best not to make eye contact. Instead, he closed his eyes, letting out a long, exasperated sigh. He was trying so hard to put this behind him, them. He wasn't happy that Juliet used that information against her.
"I'm so sorry Jack. It was a huge mistake. It never happened again, I swear—" Kate rambled on, her voice and bottom lip quivering, desperate to explain.
"Kate, you don't—" Jack started over the lump in his throat, not wanting to put her in a position to have to explain herself. She did not owe him an explanation. She simply made a choice. "You don't have to do this."
Kate ignored his words, compelled to explain. This was her chance to set things right.
"All this time, you must have thought that I was with Sawyer. But I rushed back to the Others for you. Just you."
She could still hear the beautiful notes he strung together on the piano. She was captivated by him and his many layers. There were still so many things to learn about him, for them to learn about each other. She was hoping they had a lifetime to learn.
"After you left, I felt like I couldn't find air." She closed her eyes, sucking in the air she shared with him, storing more for safe keeping
Kate wiped at the strewn tear that fell down her freckled cheek. "And I knew I wouldn't be whole again until I found you."
"I'm in love, but not with Sawyer."
Frank stood in the dead heat of the afternoon sun, wiping the sweat from his face with his shirt. Now that he was nearing flying this plane into the sky again, he had to make sure the damage from the landing was repaired. He was worried about damage to the leading-edge flaps and the horizontal stabilizer most of all. He was suddenly very grateful for the aircraft mechanic training he received before going for his pilot's license.
"When in doubt, and without supplies, duct tape." He smiled, using his canines to bite off another piece from the roll and affixing it to a gaping, damaged panel on the plane's underbelly.
He heard leaves and brush rustling then, from the front of the plane. Then voices. His instinct was to freeze, reach for his gun and aim before he was ever noticed at the edge of the plane, but he sighed relief when he could make out Juliet's voice among the others.
"About time you showed up." Frank smiled.
"Nice of you to wait for us." Juliet said through a relieved smile as Sayid approached her from behind.
Frank nodded in Sayid's direction. He turned, looking for Sawyer.
Frank turned back to Juliet. "Where's Sawyer?"
Juliet didn't answer, turning to the nearby treeline in just enough time to see Hurley and Charlie coming into view, with Sawyer in tow, sandwiched between the two of them. He had lost steam on the trek, and began to get tired again.
"Shit." Frank muttered. "I thought you were getting him stabilized. He don't look stabilized to me."
"Juliet did the best she could before we made the trip." Sayid offered.
Juliet approached the trio. She cupped the side of Sawyer's face.
"We made it." She said to him. He nodded while Juliet passed grateful glances to Hurley and Charlie for their help.
"We should get him on the plane." Frank said from behind Juliet, who was busying herself with checking his stitched wound from under his wound dressings. She wasn't sure what the gauze was soaked by more, sweat or blood. She hoped for the former.
"There's an emergency medical kit in the back with the rest of the emergency gear." Frank offered.
Juliet smiled her thanks to Frank as Hurley and Charlie took towards the plane with Sawyer. They made it to the seating area inside. All three helped Sawyer descend into a comfy seat, his sweaty, exhausted body sinking into it effortlessly.
"Thanks guys." Juliet said.
Before directing her efforts back to Sawyer, a white, rectangular corner from underneath the seat just next to the one Sawyer was sitting in caught her eye. She reached, pulled at the corner and realized that it was a sealed envelope. She turned it around. Jack's rather sloppy, but legible, handwriting scribed, 'To Claire and Aaron'.
Alex and Claire stood side-by-side, drinking in the enormity of the plane.
"Wow." Alex marveled. She turned to Claire, who looked more petrified than relieved.
Alex placed a comforting hand on the young mother's back.
"I just can't believe it." Claire said to no one in particular, adjusting her hold on her newborn son. "Jack did it."
"He did." Alex said with a smile.
Alex had encountered the handsome doctor under tense circumstances when he was held prisoner in the cages after saving his friends, and her helping him save Juliet from a death sentence. Her stomach involuntarily filled with butterflies at his friendly smiles when he came over to check in on Ben while he lived in the barracks. She knew he was a good person, a man of his word. She felt safe around him and she understood why Claire did too.
Her father had terrorized him, and the people he vowed to protect, yet he still managed to provide compassionate, attentive care to him and no judgment or ill-will towards her. It was no wonder these people were so grateful to hear that he was okay.
"I mean I can believe it, but now I'm not sure if I can really go through with it."
"With what?" Alex asked.
"Going back to the real world like none of this ever happened, you know? One minute I'm here on the Island, fighting for my son's life, and the next, I'm at the grocery buying him bibs, bottles and binkies." Claire said in disbelief.
"Then there's Thomas, who abandoned me during my pregnancy. Do I reach out and tell him I'm alive, that his son's alive?" Alex began to offer comfort, but Claire only thought out loud even more, more distressed and frantic with each question that popped into her head.
"Oh, my mother. She was in a coma from an accident I caused. What if I go back to see her and she's not there? What if I killed her? She was the only family I had left." Claire began to cry.
Alex wrapped Claire up in a comforting hug, comforting her while she let it all go.
"Look around you, Claire." Alex said as they mutually pulled away from each other. "You have so many people who love and care about you and Aaron and are in the same situation."
"And I'm sure that Charlie guy would die for you both he loves you two so much." Alex continued to assure her, making Claire laugh.
Claire watched as Charlie descended from the belly of the plane, and hope welled inside of her again, erasing all of her fears.
"And you have me too, if you want me." Alex offered with a comforting, shy smile. "When I get on that plane, I'm leaving everything I've ever known behind. So, it would be nice if we can get through it together, you know?"
Claire smiled, wiping at her tears. "Yeah, that would be really nice. Thank you."
Back inside of the plane, Juliet folded the envelope quickly and pushed it into her back pocket. She would find the right time to tell Claire that she had a brother who sacrificed everything for her and his nephew, but her sights were back on Sawyer. She used the suture kit to do a better job stitching his wound, the local lidocaine she injected made sure he couldn't feel a thing.
She was done quickly, securing the needle within the needle-driver before throwing several surgical knots to secure the suture into place.
Frank sat in the cockpit, busy with preparing for lift-off. He flipped controls, checked fuel reserve and other safety nets in case he missed something, and jumped when a huge rattle came from the back of the plane, audible by a least two miles.
He swore, flipped a control on the large panel, and headed out and towards the back of the plane.
"What the hell was that?" Juliet asked, following Frank to the outside of the plane.
Jack was taken aback, confused. He had no idea why she would choose to follow him out here instead of watch over Sawyer like he asked, but this gave him more insight than he could have ever been prepared for.
His breathing deepened, quickened. She could see the tears filming in his eyes, the hope he was trying to hide. He was failing.
"Do you remember when you found me in that cabin?" Kate asked.
Jack simply nodded, still too stunned for words.
"I'd been living there, waiting for you. It was the only place I felt closer to you. I almost killed myself finding it. I was scared the first time I found it. Something was off, eerie, so I ran away."
Jack swallowed hard. "But I couldn't give up on you. So, I went back out to find it. I never left when I found it again, because I knew you'd find me there. I don't know how I knew, I just did."
"But no matter what I feel, what I've always felt, and always will, you have to stay here on the Island, to protect it."
She could see that he felt the same way. It was in his eyes, where all of his unedited emotions and thoughts resided. Where there were feelings reciprocated, there was also a great struggle, she knew. The tears, emotion in his eyes at her words, crashed into surprise.
It was his turn to confess, not sure how to say the words, to reject what he always wanted for the mysterious leaves and grass that surrounded them, crowded them, scared and terrorized, yet birthed the changed people they now were.
"How do you know that?"
"Locke said as much when he came to the cabin to stop Ben. He said that staying on the Island was your destiny."
Kate remembered how she felt when she heard about it, and how she wondered how long Jack had known about this. She had only seen him once, in the cabin, and again after detonating ELMA. Then she followed him to find Jacob's dead body and revealed to him what she knew about his place on the Island. They hadn't talked about it since.
"Turns out Jacob built the cabin, he lived there for years." Kate admitted. "Jack, I think he led me there, to protect me from whatever Ben was planning."
"Protect you?" Jack asked, his tone on high alert. His body language matched the tone, his fists clinched, and his biceps twitched. He was ready to fight anything and anyone that came for her.
Ben was dead, but he still felt this sinister energy lingering over them. Even though he saw Richard shoot Ben several times, watched as he fell violently over the cliff's edge, and committed his broken body below to memory, he would need a bit more time reconciling his demise in his head before he could ever begin to let his guard down.
Kate continued, "There was this circle of ash drawn around it. I didn't think much of it when I first found the cabin, but when I got inside, I heard someone call out my name. In the moment I thought I was going crazy. That was the first time I found the cabin and ran away."
"Did you recognize the voice?" Jack asked.
"Kind of, it felt so familiar." Kate admitted.
She knew she wasn't making much sense. "When me, Sawyer and Sayid came back to it, to detonate ELMA, I was the only one who could cross the ash. Sayid and Sawyer were stuck behind it. It was like the cabin was being guarded from everyone else but me."
Jack soon realized with dread that Kate was just as connected to this as he was.
"That's because it was." Richard suddenly appeared, drawing Jack and Kate's attention.
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. "I meet Jacob once and he never mentioned anything about Kate or using some old cabin in the middle of the jungle to protect her."
"He didn't have to." Was all Richard offered.
"Care to elaborate?" Jack asked, impatiently.
"Jacob would correspond with lists or sets of instructions that he tasked me with delivering to his proxy, Ben. The night you left the Island Jack, before you boarded the submarine, Jacob sent me to deliver instructions to Ben."
"What did it say?" Jack asked.
"I don't know, I never read any of the lists I deliver. It's part of the rules. Only Ben could read them and interpret their meaning." Richard replied.
"He knew that Jacob was warning him not to let you leave the Island." Richard shared.
"But he did it anyway." Kate said. "He was practically gloating about it before he let me and Sayid go."
"What does this have to do with Kate and the cabin?" Jack asked through gritted teeth, growing more protective, defensive by the second.
He wasn't at all concerned with himself and unwinding the timeline of Ben's deception and Jacob's attempt to stop it. He already knew about that and didn't need added details. He needed answers about how Kate factored into the messy twine of the Island.
Richard cleared his throat. "A long time, ago, Jacob saved me."
"What do you mean he saved you?" Kate asked.
"I was shipwrecked here in the late 1860s as a slave aboard the Black Rock, the ship you looted for dynamite. He found me, gave me a job, a purpose." Richard replied.
"One of the first instructions he gave me was to create a circle of ash around a clearing, deep into the jungle. He never told me what it was for."
"It was for the cabin." Kate breathed, her green eyes wide with wonder. Jack looked down at her, not a fan of where this was going.
"He built it all by himself and planned to live there with someone he met centuries later. It was his hope that she would want to stay with him, protect the Island together, have children. Be a family, something he never had, but she had to leave."
"Why did she have to leave?" Kate asked.
Richard didn't know all the details, but he did remember how much Jacob changed after she left. His retreat to the far East side of the Island was inspired by the intense heartbreak he felt.
"Lets just say, love is complicated." Richard shared.
Jack and Kate shared a knowing glance then, the awe in her eyes met with the fear mingling in his. He turned to Richard, a puzzle piece fitting into place in his mind.
"This someone Jacob met years ago, was her name Eloise Hawking?"
"Yes." Richard laughed lightly in amazement. "How did you know that?"
"She and her son, Daniel, they helped me get back to the Island."
"Daniel." Richard said, the acknowledgement in his voice told Jack he knew exactly who Daniel was. Jack felt like there was more to Daniel than Richard wanted to share but decided to let it be.
Richard turned to Kate. "Jacob doesn't go out of his way to protect just anyone. You were drawn to the cabin, protected by it, because he wants the two of you protect the Island, together."
Kate let the weight of that statement stick to her bones. It was settled in her mind. She was staying. She always was. She knew that if leaving were even a thought in her mind she'd have Claire and Aaron to care for, to love and protect, but her love for Jack easily overpowered. That feeling not only stuck to her bones, it embedded itself within her soul and mind.
Richard turned to Jack. "You weren't the only one who didn't, couldn't listen to Locke's warnings. He told me in so many words what was going to happen, and I failed him by not acting sooner. He died protecting this place, making sure you knew exactly who the enemy really was. We can't let his death be for nothing."
Jack looked over at Kate, who was quiet, contemplating. She was the one who went with instinct over thought and reflection. He always thought about cause and effect, the balance of things in relation to the tangible. This place had changed that, but not when it came to Kate's safety. She was not safe here. He couldn't ask her to accept the fate he already had. There was a plane now, waiting. She didn't have to do this.
"If Jacob wants to mess with lives beyond the grave, he can mess with mine, but leave Kate out of it."
"You don't get to decide that for me, Jack." Kate scolded him.
"Kate, I'm—" Jack stammered. She hadn't allowed him to finish. He was also going to say that she could do what she wanted. She was a free spirit that way. He didn't want her committing herself to this Island or him out of obligation.
"Richard, can you give us a moment alone, please?" Kate asked, never taking her eyes off Jack. He swallowed hard, seeing the fire and battle churning in her eyes.
Richard retreated as Jack practically paced the small clearing they were standing in. "I don't want you to feel like you have to do this, Kate. You have options."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Kate asked.
Jack shrugged his broad shoulders. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't do that. About Jacob, about the Island, about all of it, before you ran off to save Locke." Kate accused. "Even when you showed up at the cabin."
"Kate." Jack sighed. He didn't want to argue, but she apparently did.
"I had to hear about it from Locke, in front of Ben. Did you really expect me to just get on a plane and leave you behind?"
"Yes." Jack said simply, which made Kate even angrier.
"Did you even hear me before, Jack?" Kate snapped at him. "Jacob built a cabin that only I had access to. I found it in the jungle without a map, tracks, just the feeling that I needed to find it. To find you."
Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Kate continued. "After you left the Island to bring back help, to save the group."
"To save you." Jack pointed out, looking down at her, matching her frustration and fire.
"From the moment I met you, all you've wanted was to get off this Island. You followed Sayid into the jungle two seconds after the crash to find a signal for the transceiver. You didn't want to move into the caves, because you were scared we'd miss our chance at a plane or a ship seeing us on the beach. It's possible to leave this place, Kate."
After everything he just heard, was he really trying to convince her to leave him? Kate thought. Did he not want her around that badly? She decided she didn't care. Jack could be stubborn to the point of insanity, but he met his match in every way.
"No." Kate stood her ground. "It's not what I want anymore. You can change your mind about the Island, but I can't?"
"Of course you can change your mind, I just—"
"Well thank you for giving me permission, Jack." Kate shot back angrily.
Jack sighed, exhausted. Anything he said would be tied up in knots, so he decided to get to the heart of the matter. "If this is about what you said earlier, about Sawyer…"
"You mean about being in love with you, Jack?" Kate asked, tears filming in her eyes, loosening her grip on her anger. "Because I am, from the moment I laid eyes on you, and I am not leaving."
He could see the determination in her eyes. He turned off into the distance, biting his lower lip in contemplation. She could literally see the wheels turning in his head, but his feelings always showed. It was so interesting to her. There were moments she was shocked by Jack's actions, but it was always because she'd missed his true motive for doing what he did. His actions always sought to bring protection to those he cared about, and in her case, loved. He was trying to protect her.
He loved her too. She sighed happily.
"Tell me you're not in love with me Jack, and I still wouldn't leave. We can go to our separate corners and never see each other again, but I'm not leaving you." Kate decided, catching the sparkle in Jack's eyes then, his lips curled into an amused smile at her tenacity.
She continued to drink in his handsome face as he laughed and the tears in his eyes as they threatened to well over.
"It's too dangerous." Jack said barely above a whisper, his last attempt to resist her, to resist that she was at the center of this storm too. She was a siren for danger, for thinking on her feet and taking charge. She had stared so much danger in the eye to survive, with or without him, and had come out on the other side of it.
But could he get through the other side of this without her? He wasn't so sure.
She stepped closer, enough to smell his scent, to know that his resolve was cracking. "I know you're prepared to let me go, but you don't have to."
"I love you so much." Jack admitted, tears streaming down his face, overcome with emotion as he drunk in the soft calmness yet steely persistence in her eyes. He knew just by looking at her that she would love him and protect him through anything. She already had.
"Too much. It happened so fast, I—"
"I know. It's okay. It's okay." Kate coaxed, taking his face into her hands. It happened quickly for her as well, the rush of emotions centered around him from day one had taken her into its undertow and hadn't let go.
"I can't imagine getting through these last few months since the crash without you." Jack choked out, his face wet with tears, finally allowing the flood gates to open.
"Me too. You heard Richard, Jack." Kate wiped at his tears. "Jacob brought us both here for a reason. To do this together. Even before we knew about Jacob, before this battle between Locke and Ben for the Island, it was you and me. Fighting side by side to protect our friends, to make sure nothing happened to them. We protect each other."
"Live together, die alone, right?" Kate continued to wipe her thumbs over his cheeks, catching his tears into her palms.
Jack took this moment to taste her again, after so long. He brought his hand up to her nape under her long brown curls and brought her mouth up to his. He closed his mouth over hers thirstily, stealing her breath and sealing the deal.
Nearby, Richard stood at the shoreline of a small river, watching as the ripples stretched over the small pebble he threw in. He pulled a pouch out of his pocket, weighting it in his hand. Tucked inside were Jacob's ashes.
Afrer years on the Island, Jacob shared with him the steps that needed to be taken if he died and how to dispose of his body.
Richard prepared his body carefully, wrapping it in a ceremonial drape and placing it over the flames of the central fire near the spot where Ben had stabbed and killed him. The body combusted into a bright light within seconds, leaving behind mounds of ashes, that would eventually burn away with the flames. Once the flames were gone and all the ashes with it, so was Jacob. For good.
Richard used this very important detail to his advantage.
"I believe those belong to me."
Richard turned to the sound of his voice. There he was, as if he never died, as if he never watched his body burn so bright he couldn't see. He handed him the ashes, their hands barely brushing against each other, but just enough for the second-to-last part of Jacob's plan to take shape.
"Hello, Jacob."
"Hello, Richard."
"Is there something you'd like to ask me, Richard?" Jacob asked.
There were a plethora of questions, but Richard knew he couldn't ask them all.
"What does it feel like to die?"
Jacob allowed his mind to chew on the question. He wanted to be careful. He was in fact the reason why Richard hadn't aged a day since being stranded on the Island after the Black Rock. He had lost so many people over the thousands of years. He was tired. Jacob could hear it in his voice.
"In my case, very painful." Jacob said.
Richard nodded, sadly. Even in death, Jacob was a mystery left unsolved.
Jacob could sense that Richard needed comfort, not an off-color joke that was only meant to ease the tension. "But, very quickly, it brings a peace I never dreamt of experiencing."
Richard nodded as his eyes stared out into the sea of green in front of him.
Jacob could sense his longing and understood it. One day it would be over for Richard too. He would know eternal peace. He just didn't know it yet.
"Do you remember the steps?" Jacob asked, breaking the silence.
Richard remembered the steps of how to dispose of his body by way of cremation, so he must have committed the order of ceremony and Latin phrases of the incantation to memory as well. Jacob recalled testing him several times over the centuries, much to Richard's annoyance.
Richard nodded. "I do."
"Good, but you don't need to anymore. You're going to go, Richard." Jacob said, his tone darker, deeper.
Richard turned to him, confused, curious. "Where am I going?"
"Home." Jacob said, the word dropping like a brick.
In a flash, Richard was gone. Disappeared into thin air.
Jacob stood alone, in waiting. The sound of rustled leaves from the direction of the clearing Jack and Kate stood in met his ears with anticipation.
The group looked on as Frank assessed the source of the noise at the back of the plane.
"What's wrong with the plane?" Juliet whispered, standing behind Frank.
"Nothing a little elbow grease can't fix." Frank replied loudly, alerting the crowd of worried on-lookers.
"Okay guys, lets give Frank some room to work. Come on." Juliet ushered the group back towards the clearing next to the plane.
Claire wasted no time, speaking directly to Juliet. "When are Jack and Kate getting here?"
Juliet shared a knowing glance with Sayid. "I don't think they're coming with us, Claire."
"What you talking about? Jack and Kate wanted off the Island too. We can't just leave them."
Juliet and Sayid shared another glance, which caused Claire even more frustration. "Stop looking at each other like that and tell us what's going on. And if you don't, I'm not getting on that plane."
Sayid started first. "Saving us wasn't the only reason Jack came back to the Island."
"What other reason could there be, dude?" Hurley asked.
"The Island itself." Juliet said.
"What does that even mean?" Claire said.
"It means that Jack has to stay here, Claire." Juliet tried. "Before he came back to the Island, he was in a bad way. He was convinced that he needed to come back to the Island for a reason, a bigger reason than he fully understood."
Claire began to think about it. The tension between Jack and Locke was always palpable when it came to leaving the Island and only grew to a fever pitch once Ben was involved.
Then there was Kate, who couldn't stand to be on the beach, in their camp, without Jack. An earlier conversation of theirs came into memory. Kate was certain there was something out in the jungle that was calling to her, pulling her and she couldn't shake it anymore. She remembered Kate telling her and Sun about the cabin. She was like a dog with a bone about it. Then she came back after the Monster attack, saying she'd seen Jack in the cabin, which led to, well, she wasn't sure. She did know that Kate wasn't going to be easily pulled away from any of it.
"Why do you think he was missing when I showed up on the beach? Why we didn't know where he was?" Juliet asked.
Charlie could see that Claire's distress was rubbing off on Aaron, who was still in her arms, squirming. As if reading his mind, Claire turned to Charlie, passing Aaron to him.
"I don't think we should leave without at least seeing them again and knowing that they're okay." Claire only wanted her friends to be safe, and to know that they were before she just got on a plane, never to see them again. She would take a witness account of their safety at this point.
Juliet was adamant. "Claire, we can't wait. We need to leave as soon as we can."
Claire shook her head as others supported her stance, speaking up to Juliet and Sayid all at once.
Frank continued with his task at the back of the plane. The soldiers were mutinous towards Juliet and Sayid, he thought. There was nothing he could do to help their cause, so he focused on what he could do.
"Stop!" They all heard come from nearby. Sawyer stood at the entrance of the plane, staring down at all of them with his patent scowl.
Juliet moved from the center of the group to the stairs for the plane's entrance, looking up at him with tenderness and exasperation in her eyes. "You're supposed to be resting."
"How am I supposed to do that when everyone is yellin' at each other out here?" Sawyer snarled, descending the stairs slowly.
He met Juliet at the last step, passing an apologetic glance for being so cranky.
"What the hell we fightin' about now?" Sawyer asked.
Everyone grew quiet then, which made Sawyer even crankier. "Don't all talk at once."
"Juliet is asking us to leave the Island without Jack and Kate." Hurley spoke up. "We just want to make sure they're okay before we get on that plane. They would do the same for us."
"Am I the only one who was there when that damn cloud of smoke killed our friends?" Sawyer reminded everyone. "We should already be off this damn rock."
"It's Jack and Kate, dude, we can't just save ourselves." Hurley defended himself.
"Well that ain't for you to decide. I was there when Locke showed up at the cabin, looking for Ben. He said Ben knew that Jack was meant to stay on the Island, that it was his purpose."
"His purpose?" Claire asked.
"Yeah, and Freckles is connected to it all too. How? I'm not too sure, but I'm sure of the fact that if the Doc is stayin', so is she and there ain't nothin' us sittin' here out in the open waitin' for word is gonna do about it."
Nearby, they could hear the rustling of leaves, rushed footsteps along the grassbed approaching.
"Ah shit. Here we go." Sawyer sighed, pointing his gun in the direction of the noise in the nearby jungle. Sayid also took a protective stance, pointing his handgun towards the unknown.
Soon, a figure stepped into the clearing, garnering less fear the more apparent he became.
"Richard?" Juliet asked, surprised. Sawyer let his gun drop to his side.
"Juliet." Richard replied, calmly. "I figured this is where you would be."
Sayid lowered his weapon as he continued to stare. He remembered the man from the barracks before the submarine launch, and the showdown at the cabin. He clearly wasn't on Ben's good side the last he saw of him.
"How did you find us?" Sayid asked.
"The very large tailfin of your plane here for starters. To be honest, I had help. Jacob sent me here." Richard said.
Sayid remembered that name. Suddenly it clicked. Alex had told Kate that the cabin she'd been looking for this entire time belonged to a man named Jacob. Before that, Locke had said the same name in relation to Jack, Ben and the Island.
"Where were you before Jacob sent you here?" Hurley asked.
"I was on the Far East side of the Island. Jack and Kate were there too. They still are I presume." Richard said, taking in the collective sighs of relief from the group.
"Are they okay?" Claire asked, stepping up closer to Richard.
"Yes." Richard said. "They're fine."
"What about Locke?" Hurley asked. The rest of the group, while angry and frustrated with Locke, did care about his condition.
Richard took a deep breath. "Locke is dead. Ben killed him, and then I killed Ben. He's not able to hurt any of you ever again."
The group took in the news about Locke with solemn silence.
"Why didn't Jack and Kate come with you?" Claire asked with a tint of sadness in her voice.
"Because they're not supposed to. They're staying here on the Island where they belong." Richard shared with the young woman.
The course had corrected, just as he warned Ben it would.
"Why should we believe you?" Claire replied.
"Because I've never done anything to harm any of you and if you'll allow me, I'd like to leave this Island with you." Richard shared.
"Since when?" Juliet asked.
"Since now. My work here is done." Richard said, confidently.
He smiled quietly to himself, replaying those last moments before he woke up in the jungle of Hydra Island, a hair distance from the group and their ticket home. He quietly thanked Jacob for this gift, a normal life off the Island.
If his love Isabella were alive, it would be that much sweeter. He remembered feelings of jealousy bubbling up inside at the vision of Jack and Kate in the jungle, standing toe-to-toe, devoted only to each other, even if they were blasted angry at the other at the time.
Sawyer, with his good arm curled tightly around Juliet's waist, keeping her close, turned to the group. "Ben's dead, and even if he wasn't, Jack and Kate can hold their own here. Hell, they kept us alive for months with all the odds stacked against 'em. Doc could've, and probably should've, killed me a few times, but he didn't. He was compassionate and became a true friend to me, maybe the only one I've ever had."
"Freckles, well," Sawyer looked lovingly into Juliet's eyes. "She believed I was a good person underneath all the crap I'd been through. She believed I was capable of givin' and receivin' real love, and because of her, I know I am."
Touched by his uncharacteristic display of emotion and honesty, Juliet brought a hand up to caress the side of his face.
"We all owe them so much, but they owe it to themselves to decide what they want, and if that's the Island, then so be it."
Everyone took in Sawyer's words before he turned to Claire, his eyes questioning.
"What'ya say, Mamacita? Wanna get off this God forsaken rock for good or what?"
Claire looked down at the face of her son as he contently laid against Charlie's chest. She wiped a curled finger against his pudgy cheek. Jack and Kate had given her son a future away from this place, and she wanted to hug them and thank them, but time was of the essence. She couldn't deny their gift for one more second.
Before Claire could respond, Frank came from the back of the plane with a loud whoop, clapping.
"I take it you fixed whatever you needed to fix." Hurley observed.
"You bet your ass, big guy. Who's ready to get the hell out of here?" Frank asked.
He watched the group take less time celebrating and more time loading themselves into the belly of the private airliner.
To Richard's surprise, the group allowed him to come with them.
Minutes later, the plane revved to life, set for the skies.
Thanks for reading! Ready for a Jack and Kate stand-alone adventure in the next, and final, chapter? I know I am.