Thanks for the reviews. I'm going to try to get another update of Destiny up over the weekend. I'm all inspired by the premiere. ;)
Chapter 11.
"Honey, I'm home," Jack called to Kate from the foyer, followed by the thud of his heavy work boots hitting the floor as he kicked them off and trudged into the living room where she was stationed on the couch, surrounded by rolls of fabric. "What's all this?"
"I'm sewing," she told him, glancing up from the row of stitches she was reinforcing in time to catch his expression shifting from one of humour to perplexity.
"No offense, Kate, but since when do you sew?"
While she'd never really embraced the role of housewife before, now that they were settled again in a home of their own, and the nesting instinct that she'd read so much about had begun to kick in, she had to admit that she was enjoying the peaceful domesticity of life in the seventies. It was a nice reprieve from the years of fear and uncertainty she'd faced as a fugitive, then as a refugee from the island. "The first time we met, I told you I made those drapes," she insisted. She'd sewed him up, hadn't she?
"That was almost four years ago," he reminded her with a sceptical frown. "I don't think I saw you pick up a needle except to sew a button back on the entire time we were living together."
"Well babies need clothes and I can't exactly go down to the Gap," she pointed out. Not only were there no stores in Dharmaville, but there was no compensation money or wages or credit cards either. Everyone worked in exchange for food and lodging and the chance to change the world. "I asked Amy and this is what the women here do."
"This is all for the baby?" he asked, picking up one of the little outfits she'd just finished pinning.
"Uh huh," she agreed, returning to her work. "Amy loaned me some patterns."
"It's blue."
"Uh huh," she replied again. She'd decided to use both colours, just in case. "Juliet said she didn't see a penis – that doesn't mean he doesn't have one." To get him back for not being more supportive, she couldn't resist teasing, "Maybe it's just small."
Just as she expected, he looked horrified. "Shephard men do not have small penises," he complained; if he could reach the baby's ears, she was sure that he would have tried to cover them then. "He is definitely a she."
"You think so, do you?" she teased him as he stooped to kiss her a proper hello, even though like him, she trusted Juliet's judgement. If she thought it was a girl, then it probably was, although Kate couldn't blame her for her unwillingness to commit one way or the other until she was certain.
"I know so," he agreed with a smug grin, his brow resting lightly against hers.
"And what're we gonna do with all those pink things if you're wrong?" she asked him.
He kissed her again, his smile growing, taking on a hint of suggestion as he said, "We could always try again…"
This time when the doctor ordered Jack to wait outside while he carried out his examination of Kate, he didn't put up much of a fight, though she could see by the tense look on his face that he wasn't any happier about it; she was glad that they'd asked Juliet to monitor her pregnancy as well so that he could be involved in those appointments at least.
"You asked about the sex last time?" the doctor reminded them once he'd allowed Jack to rejoin them for the ultrasound and they both nodded eagerly.
"It's a girl, right?" Jack supplied, grinning at Kate, as if to say 'I told you so'.
"No, it looks like a boy to me," the doctor corrected him. He pointed to a pale blur at the bottom of the screen. "Right there."
"Are you sure?" Kate insisted, exchanging a glance with Jack, who appeared equally bewildered by his reading. If it were really that easy to spot, surely Juliet would have reached the same conclusion? "Maybe you should check again."
"I've done this hundreds – if not thousands – of times," the doctor assured them, removing the wand and gesturing for the nurse to come over and clean Kate up, and she wondered if he thought she was reacting out of disappointment. She was a woman, so naturally, she had to want a daughter. "That's why I feel pretty confident in saying you've got a little football player on your hands."
"How can it be a girl and a boy?" Kate wondered aloud as they walked home from the clinic. She turned to Jack in alarm as a disturbing thought occurred to her. "Oh God. You don't think it's a hermaphrodite, do you?" What exactly were the chances of something like that happening? Would they be able to pick it up before birth?
She found herself relaxing when Jack laughed, apparently unconcerned. "I think it's safe to say it's definitely one or the other," he assured her, slipping his arm around her and she knew that he had to be right.
One of the doctors was obviously mistaken. The question was, which one? Juliet had said that she wasn't familiar with the equipment, but then Dr Petrovsky had an arrogance about him that she didn't like. It annoyed her that he was so quick to dismiss all of her questions as those of a hysterical and overly cautious pregnant woman.
"We didn't need an ultrasound to tell us that," she complained, wishing for a moment that they were back in 2007, where medical technology was much less primitive. If they couldn't even tell the sex without a huge margin for error, what else could they be missing? Would they even know if something was really wrong?
"Hey," Jack murmured, seeming to pick up on her downbeat mood. "I know you're excited, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
The same could be said for any developmental problems that he or she might be having. At least Miles and Ethan were both healthy; being born on the island hadn't affected them, or Aaron, thirty years later, so chances were, their child would be okay too. She sighed. "Do we really have a choice?"
"What d'you think she'll look like?" Kate asked Jack as they lay in bed. Her stomach had been feeling strange and fluttery since before her last appointment, and she was beginning to wonder if it wasn't so much the burrito she'd eaten for lunch as their son or daughter finally deciding to make its presence known.
"So you believe it's a girl?" Jack teased her, still wide awake despite the lateness of the hour.
"I haven't decided," she confessed, finally settling on her back, her hands folded awkwardly beneath her breasts. At almost five months pregnant, it was getting harder for her to find a position comfortable enough to sleep in, especially now that her stomach was off limits. She tilted her head to look at him. "Maybe you can convince me."
He shifted onto his side so that he was facing her, propping his cheek on his hand. "Well," he began, the moonlight softening his features, making him appear younger than his forty plus years, "she'll have dark hair, of course – curly, like yours. And green eyes. And when she gets older, she'll have freckles…"
No wonder he was adamant about it being a girl. "You just described me," she pointed out, wishing that he'd at least decided to give the baby the soulful brown eyes that she'd come to love so much. "Doesn't she have anything of yours?"
"You mean other than my eternal devotion?" His tone was joking, but something in his voice told her that he was talking as much about her as he was the baby inside of her.
"I'm glad she's yours," she whispered, even though he couldn't possibly understand the significance of what she was trying to tell him. Sawyer had hit the nail right on the head when he argued that she didn't just want a baby, she wanted their baby, because for the first time in her life, she was irrevocably bound to another human being and yet she couldn't think of a single reason to run from him. The thought was both terrifying and exhilarating. "I couldn't imagine choosing a better father for her."
In spite of all her mistakes, it was still the best gift that she could have given it, one that she herself had never had. Though there were some parts of him that weren't in his genetic code, and therefore couldn't be inherited, like his dogged determination and good heart, she hoped that he would find a way to pass those traits onto their child too.
His eyes were glistening as he leant over to kiss her, and she knew that her words had touched him. He'd always needed to hear that she had faith in him before he could have faith in himself, even though she'd never understood why he believed that she – a murderer and ex-con – was the one who could give that to him. Clearly he saw something in her that she didn't. Maybe that was just how love worked.
After a moment, they broke from each other, and he moved down her body, carefully peeling back the blankets, then her shirt so that her belly was exposed.
"What're you doing?" she asked him, struggling up onto her elbows to watch, but instead of answering her, he just smiled, bracing himself over her as he placed a gentle kiss above her bellybutton.
"What is she saying?" she teased him when he moved to cup her belly in his hands, laying his ear against it, listening, as if he were expecting the baby to try to speak to him.
"She's saying—" He jumped back when what she figured was a foot connected with his cheekbone, his smile fading, caught between astonishment and distress, as if he wasn't sure how he should react.
His startled expression was enough to send Kate into a fit of laughter. There was no question this time that what they'd both felt was a kick. "She's saying, 'Hi Daddy! I can't wait to meet you!'" she told him, and recovering from his shock, he began to laugh too.
Once she'd sobered enough to lie still again, he pushed down on her belly just like Juliet had showed them to coax the baby into kicking for him again, and this time, they saw a slight ripple go through her skin, causing them both to erupt into fresh peels of laughter.
Replacing her shirt, Jack stretched out on his back beside her, his hands behind his head, grinning broadly as he turned to look at her. "I can't wait to meet her either," he told her.
Next chapter: More Juliet and some bad news... ;)