Quickie:
I LOVE LOST!!! - I'm glad you like it. Thanks for the continuing patronage. ;-)
Tell you all what - I'm not answering any questions in reference to the fortune teller's reading.
SassyLostie - Oh wow. You were the only one who thought past death. Sorry to say though it's not that.
Crap. Did I just contradict myself? Very well I contradict myself. My bad...
Anyway, as you can see I've been consistant with the "every two days" updates. Hopefully it's not killing anyone out there. I'd hate to have blood on my hands. (It just doesn't go with my ensemble! lmao I'm kidding, in case you didn't know.)
Chapter 18
The drive home was excruciatingly silent. The only sound that could be heard was the low humming of the radio which Sawyer had turned on, frustrated with the quietness. Kate stared out the window, watching the world pass her by, still stuck on the old woman's words. How was it that she could know so much, when Kate had said so little? It was possible that it was a scam, as Sawyer had said, but there was one thing that bothered her – one thing that the woman couldn't have heard on the news, as she could have with everything else.
"How did she know?" she said, turning to Sawyer.
"Know what?" he said dully, his eyes glued to the road ahead of him.
"How could she know about…the baby?" she said, feeling uncomfortable saying the words aloud. "She said 'February'."
Sawyer shrugged. "My aunt's gotta sense for when a woman's pregnant. She can tell even when it ain't been two months. Maybe this lady's got the same gift."
"Maybe," she replied softly.
"Don't let it bother you, Freckles."
"But how would she know the month?"
"That coulda been a simple guess. She saw your eyes get big when she said it, and that's probably how she knew she was right."
Kate nodded quietly. He could be right. Everything he'd said solved the mystery. But for some reason, it still didn't satisfy her.
"The last thing she said – 'With every death comes a new life'? What is that supposed to mean? Why did she say that?"
"To get you to believe. Make you think you spent good money!"
She laughed bitterly. "Oh yeah. That fortune was well worth the twenty dollars."
"You wanted to go," he reminded her.
She looked down at the floor mat. It was dotted with dirt.
"She could've been talking about the baby."
He glanced at her, wishing she'd drop the subject already. She sighed, and stared at him, then back down at the floor.
"Maybe it's not meant to be," she said quietly. "Maybe we should just get rid it."
"What the hell are you talkin' about?"
"I don't know."
"Don't even think like that."
She leaned her head against the glass window, sighing. "I just…"
"You just what? You wanna give all that up over some stupid woman dressed like a gypsy who thinks she knows you?!" he spat. "She don't know the first thing about you. She don't know anything you been through!"
"What does that have to do with – "
"The point is she's a dumb hag. Every word outta her mouth wasn't nothin' but lies."
"How are you so sure of yourself?"
He sighed. "Because she was fortune tellin' in Disneyland. It don't take Doc to figure that one out."
She smiled. "You're right. It's stupid."
"Thank you."
"It's just that…"
He stared at her through narrowed eyes. She smiled again.
"Okay fine. We won't talk about it anymore."
"No, say what you wanna say. Get it all outta your system now."
"When she said that I shouldn't blame myself for the past…I was thinking about my mother. Which wasn't really my fault, but I've always felt it. And I was also thinking of…you."
"Me?"
She looked away from him. "You know as well as I do everything we've been through."
"And you blame yourself for some of that?"
"Well…"
He stopped, thankful for the stoplight, and turned his head to face her. His eyes were serious.
"Don't ever blame yourself for anything that might've happened with us, Freckles," he said, sincerely.
She stared back at him, gratefully.
After a short silence he added, "We either share the blame, or blame someone else."
She grinned. "I knew you'd say that."
He dimpled and drove through the green light. "So we good?"
"Yeah. We're good."
For the rest of the drive home, Kate watched the dim moon follow them back to Charlie and Claire's apartment, realizing Sawyer was right. The future didn't matter. They lived in the now. She realized how thankful she was to have him in her life, and were he not driving, she would have let him know just how much...
The sky was dark black and sprinkled with stars by the time they reached the apartment building. They pulled into the parking lot, and Kate got out of the car, the white rabbit in her arm. Sawyer grabbed the wolf she left behind from the seat and followed her up to the apartment. When they got in, they found Charlie and Claire in the living room with Aaron.
"Kay!" Aaron loudly greeted.
Kate instantly smiled. "Hi Aaron."
"Hey," Claire also greeted. "How was your day?"
"It was great. A lot of fun."
"Kay, toy!" Aaron interrupted, pointing to the rabbit.
"Oh. Sawyer won this for me," she said proudly, her grin widening.
"Sawr?" Aaron asked.
She laughed, and pointed to Sawyer. "Yeah. Sawyer."
"Toy!" he said as he looked at Sawyer now.
"Oh," Sawyer looked down at the wolf. He leaned over and handed it to Aaron. "Here you go, bud."
Aaron took it and looked at it with a fascination. Then he held it up for Sawyer to look at again.
"What is it?" he asked, each word clear for a change.
"Well, it's a wolf," Sawyer explained.
"Woof?"
"Here look," Charlie showed him, taking the wolf. "Grrr!"
"Grrr!" Aaron mimicked.
Claire smiled. "Thank you Sawyer."
He looked at her, bashfully. "Well uh, I didn't really…Kate was the one who got that one…"
Claire only smiled.
"So where did you two run off to today that you didn't get in until now?" Charlie asked.
Kate and Sawyer sat down on the armchairs across from them.
"Actually, Sawyer took me to Disneyland."
"Really?" Charlie said, surprised. "Wow."
"That's so sweet," Claire agreed.
"Yeah. It was…" she said, looking up at Sawyer with a small smile.