Thanks for the reviews. I'm thinking there will be one more chapter after this and then the usual epilogue. ;)
Chapter 18.
"Pink or yellow?" Kate asked Jack, waving a pair of newborn onesies at him.
He paused in the doorway long enough to glance from one to the other before deciding. "Pink."
They were packing to take the sub back to Ann Arbour, where they would be staying until after the baby arrived. Though the birth itself was expected to take place in the same hospital the other women were sent to deliver, they still wanted Juliet there, just in case, so they'd arranged for her to meet them over there when it got closer to Kate's due date.
"But what if Juliet got it wrong?" Kate said, lowering them to her sides. "We can't introduce our son to our friends wearing pink." What would they say? It was the seventies, when homophobia was still rampant. She didn't want to risk scarring him for life.
Jack was grinning as he joined her in the nursery with a stack of cloth diapers she'd washed ready to take with them. "I've seen the ultrasounds, Kate, and that is definitely a girl," he assured her, placing them inside the suitcase. "But if you don't believe me, just go with the yellow." He opened the dresser drawer and pulled out a third option. "Or better yet – white."
He tossed it to her and she held it up while she examined it critically.
"I don't know why you're getting so worked up when it doesn't even matter," he said. "She's not gonna remember what we bring her home in."
"It does matter, Jack," she insisted, even though she wasn't sure she would ever be able to make him understand why: that somehow whether or not they brought their baby home healthy and safe was entirely dependant on her choosing the right outfit. "I just want everything to go smoothly."
"And it will," he told her, finally seeming to realise that it was about more than just appearances. "In a few weeks we're gonna be back here with our baby girl and you will've forgotten that we even had this conversation."
His words were meant to comfort her, but she knew that they wouldn't be sending them over two months early if they didn't think she was at risk of further complications. "You heard what Juliet said. If I go into labour again now, they won't try to stop it." Even though she hadn't felt any more contractions since Juliet discharged her from the infirmary, she was so afraid of it happening again that whenever the baby stopped moving in the middle of the night she would wake Jack up so that he could coax her into kicking for them.
"She also said the odds of Sydney surviving if she's born in a hospital with a NICU are very good," he reminded her.
She almost smiled at the way he'd referred to her by name, until a new fear occurred to her. "What if it happens on the sub?" She would be better off taking her chances on the island, where they at least had an incubator.
"You'll go crazy if you keep asking yourself questions like that." He took the onesie from her and dropped it into the suitcase with the rest of the baby's things. "Now hurry up, or we're gonna to miss it and then we'll really have a reason to worry."
She still had to finish sorting through her own clothes. "Fine." She sighed, closing the lid. "White it is."
"She's here," Kate announced, peeking out through the blinds as a hideous green station wagon with wooden side panels pulled into the drive. She watched Juliet climb out of the passenger side, followed by the familiar form of the driver. "And it looks like she brought Sawyer with her."
"Good thing there's plenty of room," Jack said, joining her at the window.
At more than thirty-six weeks pregnant, it was becoming increasingly to for Kate to get around, so while he went out to meet them, she followed at a slower pace, holding onto the handrail as she descended the porch steps.
"You look like you're ready to pop," Sawyer called to her from across the lawn.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack issue him with a silent warning, shaking his head and drawing a hand across his throat.
"What he means is you look beautiful," Juliet translated, even though Kate knew that that wasn't what he was saying at all. He was wondering what happened to the sexy woman he'd coveted on the island. She often asked herself the same thing. As much as she loved being pregnant, she was beginning to miss her old body and the ease with which it had allowed her to move.
"Not long to go now," Juliet said, embracing her while the men shook hands. "You nervous?"
"Terrified," she agreed. She was trying not to think about how badly it would hurt.
"Hey, Jack," Juliet said, moving on to greet him next.
When it was their turn, Sawyer stepped forward to hug Kate, only to jump back when her belly touched his. "What the hell was that?" he asked, staring down at it in horror as though expecting some kind of alien creature to come bursting out of it.
"Someone was saying hello," Kate told him with a laugh, rubbing the spot where she felt her daughter kick. "It means she likes you."
Jack helped him get their bags out of the trunk and together they carried them up to the house. "Why don't we give you the tour?" he said once they were all gathered on the porch.
He took them through each room of their temporary living quarters – which were arguably nicer than the ones they'd left behind on the island – starting with the living room, with its thick shag pile carpet, and ending with the guest room where they would be sleeping.
"This place is great," Sawyer remarked, kicking off his boots and flopping down on the edge of the mattress to test its firmness. "The only thing missing is a home theatre system."
Whoever arranged it all had even installed a crib in the master bedroom; inside they'd found a gift basket full of powders and creams and other items that they would need, along with a note congratulating them on their new arrival.
If there was one thing Kate had learned during her time with the Dharma Initiative, it was that they really took care of their own.
"We'll let you get settled and then tonight we were thinking we'd all go out to dinner and maybe see a movie or something afterwards," Jack suggested as they prepared to leave them to their own devices. They hadn't been out on the town much themselves, for obvious reasons, but after almost seven years of being stuck on the island, they figured that Juliet would be eager to get back to civilisation.
"Do you have any idea how long it's been since I ate at a real restaurant?" she asked, warming to the plan even more than they'd predicted. "With tablecloths and wait staff? Or went to a shopping mall?" Kate couldn't recall a time when she'd seen her so excited about anything. She was one of the most composed people that she'd ever met.
She wondered if Sawyer could either when she caught him watching Juliet with unmasked affection. "So how about it? You think you could hold that kid in a few more weeks?" he teased Kate and she rolled her eyes.
"I'll do my best," she agreed.
"Let's see what's showing in 1978," Juliet said that evening, once the waiter had cleared away their plates, pulling the newspaper towards her. She opened it at the back, skimming the pages until she found what she was looking for. "Would you believe it? The original Star Wars is still playing."
"I thought Hurley said it came out last year?" Kate asked, leaning in to read the advertisement – where it was listed with a bunch of others that she'd never heard of – over her shoulder. That was why he'd gone ahead and written the sequel, only as far as she knew, he'd never told anyone except his fellow time travellers about it.
"This is not going to work," Sawyer announced and both women turned to stare at him in confusion.
Jack was the only one who seemed to understand what he was talking about. "Why didn't you say so before?" he chimed in.
"I did say so before," Sawyer finished and to Kate's surprise, they grinned at each other.
"What're you boys doing?" she asked, mystified by the exchange, glancing from one to the other as she waited for them to explain.
"Don't tell me you never saw Star Wars?" Sawyer insisted.
"It's only the best movie ever," Jack agreed.
After almost four years together on and off, how could she not know this about him? Then again, he had bought Aaron all those Star Wars toys… "Not since I was a kid," she admitted. She remembered her dad taking her to see to it during one of the many re-releases, right before her parents got divorced. She must have been five years old at the time.
"You've seen it, haven't you, Jules?" Sawyer asked Juliet, slinging his arm across the back of her chair.
"Once, when I was in college," she agreed. "This cute guy from my Organic Chemistry class invited me over to watch it with him and some of his friends."
"What a great story," Sawyer cut in before she could say any more about it, and to Kate's amusement, she realised that he was actually jealous. He covered this by pretending to be absorbed by the paper. "Next showin's in twenty minutes."
"Well then that settles it," Jack said, signalling for the waiter to bring over the check.
Two hours later, they were sitting in the darkened cinema, watching Han Solo, Luke and Chewbacca rescue Princess Leia from the Death Star. Kate was having trouble finding a comfortable position in the stiff seat so Jack folded the armrest away to make room for her to lie on her side with her head in his lap, absently massaging her back.
Normally this action would have been enough to put her to sleep, regardless of where they were, but not tonight.
"You okay?" he asked, tearing his eyes from the screen when she tried to push herself up.
"I just need to stretch my legs," she explained and with his help, she managed to get to her feet.
When she slipped out of the theatre, the lobby was empty except for the bored looking teenager behind the ticket counter. She paced from one side to the other and back again a couple of times but that didn't seem to help, she made her way to the bench a few feet from the entrance.
She didn't realise that Juliet had followed her until she felt her sit down beside her. "Hey."
"You didn't have to come out here," Kate told her. It was a relief not to have to talk to anyone.
"Don't tell James, but I never really got Star Wars," Juliet confessed.
"Me either," Kate agreed, laughing despite herself. Apparently it required having a Y chromosome. "I mean what exactly is Chewbacca supposed to be?"
She was trying to put on a brave face, but just as she expected, Juliet saw through it. "You're having contractions, aren't you?" she asked after a moment.
"Yeah," Kate agreed, deciding that there was no sense in denying it when she'd probably guessed that she was in labour before she had.
"Why didn't you say something?"
"Because I know Jack." He was so protective of her. "As soon as I told him, he'd insist on driving me to the hospital and so far they're about ten minutes apart, so we still have plenty of time." She wrapped her arm around her belly, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt the muscles tighten again.
"Kate?"
"Never do this to yourself," she moaned through gritted teeth when the pain subsided enough for her to speak. She was beginning to think that this, more than anything, was her punishment.
Instead of saying something comforting, about how it would all be worth it soon, Juliet just smiled to herself.
"Wait, are you pregnant?" Kate asked her, forgetting her discomfort for a moment, and Juliet's smile grew. "When did this happen?"
"About eight weeks ago," she confessed. "I didn't know for sure until a few days before I was supposed to leave. That's why James decided to come with me."
It was difficult for Kate to imagine him reacting positively to the news after the way he'd handled their pregnancy scare. Then again, he'd changed a lot since then. "What did he say when you told him?" she asked.
"He's excited," Juliet agreed. "I think he likes the idea of being a father. He never had much in the way of a family."
After everything that happened with Clementine, it was nice to see that he was finally willing to try. "He really loves you," Kate told her. He wouldn't be facing his fear for her if he didn't.
Juliet grinned. "I know."
With Juliet due some time around the end of the year, their babies would be about the same age, born only seven or eight months apart. "Hey, maybe you guys will have a boy and our kids will grow up and get married," Kate joked. "Jack would love that." She could just see the look on his face when his only daughter came home and told him she that was dating Sawyer's son.
"James would too." Juliet's smile faded when Kate doubled over with the next contraction. "That definitely wasn't ten minutes."
It was by far the strongest yet. This was definitely it. "I think you should get Jack now," Kate told her.
Who else has a hard time buying Sawyer not knowing who Anakin Skywalker is? xD
Next chapter: The joys of seventies childbirth. ;)