Fic; It's a Family Thing [Lost, PG]
Title: It's a Family Thing
Author: sweetbelle07
Fandom: Lost
Character(s): Jack/Kate, Claire, Charlie
Rating: PG
Summery: Jack discovers a secret of his father's that could change life on the island.
A/N: Fyi, I don't really believe that the daughter Christian mentions in 2x20 "Two For the Road" is really Claire. I think it'd be way too much of a coincidence. But... it makes for damn good fic.
For a guy who can’t track anything to save his life, his trail is surprisingly hard to find. She could logically ask Locke for help-he is much better at it then she is-but this seems like a time just for them.
One minute he’d been fine, laughing with everyone at Aaron’s attempts to sit up for the first time and then the next he had taken off into the jungle at warrior speeds. She’d been left to face everyone’s stare and questions-to which she had no answer-for only a few minutes before she took off after him. The signs were obvious at first and now they’re becoming a little harder to find, like he knows that she’s following him and is trying to divert her. It isn’t going to work, he should know that. He’s going to leave signs no matter what unless he stops.
He probably knows that, no she’s sure that he knows that, but he still doesn’t stop moving for another half hour.
Kate hesitates at the edge of the clearing, debating on the best way to approach him. “Jack?” she calls softly after watching him pace for a couple minutes.
Jack glances up from the jungle floor to her for a couple seconds and that’s all the acknowledgement she has that he knows she’s there.
So it’s going to be one of those conversations, she realizes with a grimace. “Jack, what’s wrong?”
When he blatantly ignores her, she steps up to him, her hand coming to rest on his bicep. “Jack… what happened? One minute you’re fine and then-“
“Did you see that picture?” Jack asks, throwing her off guard. When someone had asked her about the rest of her family, Claire had pulled out a picture from her back pocket after Aaron’s fourth attempt to sit up. It was of her father, she had proclaimed with a proud smile. It wasn’t that big of a deal.
Kate frowns. “Yeah. It’s just a picture of her dad, Jack.”
“It’s not just a picture of her dad,” Jack snaps and she flinches a little. He sighs and goes quiet again. Whatever’s on his mind, is huge and something that he’d never even seen coming.
“Jack?” Kate asks, squeezing his arm a little. She’s there for him, she isn’t going anywhere and right now she wants him to tell her what’s wrong.
“It’s not just her dad,” Jack repeats. “It’s… he’s-“ he stops again, realizing that his explanation is turning out to be pretty shitty. “… that’s a picture of my dad she has, Kate.”
His actions suddenly make so much sense. “What?” Kate asks dumbly. There isn’t much else she can think of to say.
“My dear, drunken, married father,” Jack continues. “He was married to my mom for almost forty years.” Thirty seven, in fact, the exact age Jack is, but that’s beside the point. “And Claire’s what? Twenty-two? Maybe twenty-three?”
She realizes the depth of the situation, she really does. Her father was a drunk and had cheated on her mom several times too-before she blew him up. Jack didn’t blow up his father but he isn’t exactly alive anymore either.
Kate tightens her grip on his arm. She’s sure that he’ll take off now that he told her the truth; it’s something she’d do and they’re becoming more similar every day. “Jack, I-“
He interrupts her again-not that she minds much, she can’t think of something decent to say. “I can’t believe my dad would do that,” Jack says. “He wasn’t a good father, and I’m not denying that, but to cheat on my mom and have a kid with someone else?” He shakes his head. “And then not tell us about it?”
She wants to tell him that cheating fathers don’t normally tell their children and wives about their cheating but it doesn’t seem like a great time to interrupt him.
“Twenty-two years, she’s twenty-two. I’ve known her for more then four months now and I had no idea who she was-is.”
“No one could’ve known that,” Kate interjects.
“I could’ve if my father had told me about her.”
Kate tries to hold back her reflex of rolling her eyes at him. “It’s not your fault that your dad didn’t tell you about his indiscretions.”
Jack’s stubborn and he’s refusing to see the logic right in front of him. He shakes his head and he would’ve pulled away from her by now if she didn’t have such a tight grip on his arm.
“Jack, I mean it,” she adds. “No one needs you blaming yourself for not knowing that you and Claire were half-siblings.” There. She’s said it. It’s out there for real now and he has to deal with it. “I think what Claire needs is for you to tell her the truth.”
He looks understandably horrified at that thought. “Tell Claire,” he repeats. It’s not a question. It’s not even an option.
Kate rolls her eyes in annoyance. “What’s so horrible about telling her?”
“Where do you want me to start?”
“The beginning would be nice,” she isn’t backing down over this. If he isn’t going to tell Claire, then he at least has to accept it, and she knows he hasn’t even begun to do that yet.
“You want me to tell her that her father is my father, my drunk, married, deceased father?”
Admittingly, news like that isn’t preferable for anyone-especially Claire. She’s been through so much and now she’s getting back on her feet-with Charlie by her side-and this kind of news will only bring her down again. “Yes.”
Jack gives her a look like she’s lost her sanity in the time it took her to find him in the jungle. “How could that possibly… help her at all?”
“It’s the truth,” Kate points out. “I seem to remember you forcing the truth out of me several times.”
“That was different.”
Kate snorts. “How?”
Jack can’t think of a good way of showing her how it’s different and instead of admitting defeat, he changes the subject. “She’s better off not knowing.”
“You don’t have to shoulder the burden for everything,” Kate says softly. “This isn’t your secret to keep. Just tell her, that’s all I’m asking of you.”
Jack’s jaw clamps and he goes quiet for several long minutes. Kate patiently waits for him to say something-anything-and her hand doesn’t leave his arm. She doesn’t put running past him just yet.
“I don’t believe it.” Jack says finally.
Kate has been expecting this. He’s past anger and he’s diving right into denial. “Why not?”
“My dad wasn’t a good guy, yeah,” Jack says, “but he wasn’t that bad…and he’s never been to Australia before…” he trails off, unsure of how to phrase that. It seems so much longer then four months since the crash. “… Claire was born in Australia.”
Kate wonders when she became the advocate of truth. She saw the picture and she saw Claire’s face when she showed it off. Claire believed that the picture was of her father and if Jack said that was his father too, then no one was lying and it was just a weird twist of fate. “It’s possible to travel in pregnancy,” she comments. “Claire did it.”
Jack frowns. If that’s true, then Claire’s mother was in Los Angeles the same time he was and that thought leaves a bad taste in his mouth. “Why would my father keep something like this from me?”
Kate doesn’t have the answer for that question and she realizes that he doesn’t expect her too. She never met his father; she has no idea what he was like. Jack just wants her to feed him a little white lie, just for now. That’s what he needs right now. She doesn’t mind giving that to him; he’s done it for her enough.
She moves her hand up from his arm to his cheek. “He wanted to protect you because he knew that he wasn’t perfect and he knew that knowing the truth about your sister would only make you hate him more,” she says.
Jack falls silent once more-he does that a lot when he thinks, she concludes. “That was good,” he says finally, a ghost of a smile turning the corners of his mouth.
Just that’s enough to make her smile. “I’m just that good,” Kate answers a little smugly.
Jack seems to be accepting that Claire is his half-sister slowly. In any case, he snakes his arms around Kate’s middle and pulls her against him. She’s only too happy to return the embrace, burying her head against his chest.
Today’s a milestone in their relationship. They’ve switched roles of the messed-up and the savior and it succeeded. Rather well, too. He isn’t okay with it just yet but he’s okay and that’s really all she wants.
“Thank you,” Jack whispers against her hair, “for being that good.”
Kate smiles sheepishly and goes up on her tip toes to kiss him. “Can we go back now?” she asks. “I don’t want to miss Aaron sitting up for the first time.”
Jack laughs and takes her offering for what it is: a distraction. He doesn’t have to tell Claire just yet-though she isn’t going to stop hounding him about that. All he has to do is go back to camp, and join everyone in celebrating this moment in island history.
By the time they make it back to camp, Aaron’s tried to sit up seven more times and he’s really close this next time, Claire swears. She doesn’t ask why Jack stalked off and so does no one else-something Kate’s extremely grateful for.
Aaron attempts sitting up two more times before he finally does it on his own. There’s so much cheering and laughter and kissing of his head afterwards, that he starts to cry from the overload of information.
“I got him,” Charlie announces, swooping in and picking up the baby before Claire can. Claire looks ready to protest-she’s still not very comfortable with others around her baby; even if it is Charlie-but she nods tensely after a moment. Another milestone on the island. It’s an entire day of them now.
Kate rests her head against Jack’s chest, feeling completely content. She isn’t the one that always needs saving. When it comes down to it, she can save and pick him up just as easily as he can for her. She likes it. It’s a good feeling knowing that she isn’t the only one to be mess up anymore.
Jack slings his arm around her shoulders, his eyes set firmly on Claire. The decision’s right there, right on his face for everyone to see. He could very easily get up and go to her and tell her the truth about his father-their father. There really isn’t any reason why he shouldn’t, now that he thinks about it.
He pulls away from Kate who gives him a curious look in response. “I have… I’ll see you later, okay?”
Kate smiles-she gets what he’s going to do-and nods. “Okay.”
Jack smiles at her in return and kisses the top of her head before he gets up and walks over to Claire. She watches them talk for a few seconds before Jack gestures for them to go for a walk. Claire seems suspicious but she agrees.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asks. It isn’t a bad thing that Jack’s talking to Claire. It’s the look on Claire’s face that’s worrying him right now.
Kate puts out an arm to stop him from going over there and interrupting the conversation that has to happen. “Just give ‘em a few minutes, Charlie,” she says.
Charlie gives her an accusatory look. “Do you know what that’s all about?”
Kate nods. “It’s something they need to deal with alone first,” she tells him. “She’s going to need you later, just not right now.”
“What is it, Kate?” Charlie asks. He’s two seconds away from going over there no matter what she says because Claire’s crying now and it isn’t nothing if she’s crying.
Kate watches Jack pull Claire into a hug-their first as siblings-and smiles softly. “It’s a family thing.”
Author: sweetbelle07
Fandom: Lost
Character(s): Jack/Kate, Claire, Charlie
Rating: PG
Summery: Jack discovers a secret of his father's that could change life on the island.
A/N: Fyi, I don't really believe that the daughter Christian mentions in 2x20 "Two For the Road" is really Claire. I think it'd be way too much of a coincidence. But... it makes for damn good fic.
For a guy who can’t track anything to save his life, his trail is surprisingly hard to find. She could logically ask Locke for help-he is much better at it then she is-but this seems like a time just for them.
One minute he’d been fine, laughing with everyone at Aaron’s attempts to sit up for the first time and then the next he had taken off into the jungle at warrior speeds. She’d been left to face everyone’s stare and questions-to which she had no answer-for only a few minutes before she took off after him. The signs were obvious at first and now they’re becoming a little harder to find, like he knows that she’s following him and is trying to divert her. It isn’t going to work, he should know that. He’s going to leave signs no matter what unless he stops.
He probably knows that, no she’s sure that he knows that, but he still doesn’t stop moving for another half hour.
Kate hesitates at the edge of the clearing, debating on the best way to approach him. “Jack?” she calls softly after watching him pace for a couple minutes.
Jack glances up from the jungle floor to her for a couple seconds and that’s all the acknowledgement she has that he knows she’s there.
So it’s going to be one of those conversations, she realizes with a grimace. “Jack, what’s wrong?”
When he blatantly ignores her, she steps up to him, her hand coming to rest on his bicep. “Jack… what happened? One minute you’re fine and then-“
“Did you see that picture?” Jack asks, throwing her off guard. When someone had asked her about the rest of her family, Claire had pulled out a picture from her back pocket after Aaron’s fourth attempt to sit up. It was of her father, she had proclaimed with a proud smile. It wasn’t that big of a deal.
Kate frowns. “Yeah. It’s just a picture of her dad, Jack.”
“It’s not just a picture of her dad,” Jack snaps and she flinches a little. He sighs and goes quiet again. Whatever’s on his mind, is huge and something that he’d never even seen coming.
“Jack?” Kate asks, squeezing his arm a little. She’s there for him, she isn’t going anywhere and right now she wants him to tell her what’s wrong.
“It’s not just her dad,” Jack repeats. “It’s… he’s-“ he stops again, realizing that his explanation is turning out to be pretty shitty. “… that’s a picture of my dad she has, Kate.”
His actions suddenly make so much sense. “What?” Kate asks dumbly. There isn’t much else she can think of to say.
“My dear, drunken, married father,” Jack continues. “He was married to my mom for almost forty years.” Thirty seven, in fact, the exact age Jack is, but that’s beside the point. “And Claire’s what? Twenty-two? Maybe twenty-three?”
She realizes the depth of the situation, she really does. Her father was a drunk and had cheated on her mom several times too-before she blew him up. Jack didn’t blow up his father but he isn’t exactly alive anymore either.
Kate tightens her grip on his arm. She’s sure that he’ll take off now that he told her the truth; it’s something she’d do and they’re becoming more similar every day. “Jack, I-“
He interrupts her again-not that she minds much, she can’t think of something decent to say. “I can’t believe my dad would do that,” Jack says. “He wasn’t a good father, and I’m not denying that, but to cheat on my mom and have a kid with someone else?” He shakes his head. “And then not tell us about it?”
She wants to tell him that cheating fathers don’t normally tell their children and wives about their cheating but it doesn’t seem like a great time to interrupt him.
“Twenty-two years, she’s twenty-two. I’ve known her for more then four months now and I had no idea who she was-is.”
“No one could’ve known that,” Kate interjects.
“I could’ve if my father had told me about her.”
Kate tries to hold back her reflex of rolling her eyes at him. “It’s not your fault that your dad didn’t tell you about his indiscretions.”
Jack’s stubborn and he’s refusing to see the logic right in front of him. He shakes his head and he would’ve pulled away from her by now if she didn’t have such a tight grip on his arm.
“Jack, I mean it,” she adds. “No one needs you blaming yourself for not knowing that you and Claire were half-siblings.” There. She’s said it. It’s out there for real now and he has to deal with it. “I think what Claire needs is for you to tell her the truth.”
He looks understandably horrified at that thought. “Tell Claire,” he repeats. It’s not a question. It’s not even an option.
Kate rolls her eyes in annoyance. “What’s so horrible about telling her?”
“Where do you want me to start?”
“The beginning would be nice,” she isn’t backing down over this. If he isn’t going to tell Claire, then he at least has to accept it, and she knows he hasn’t even begun to do that yet.
“You want me to tell her that her father is my father, my drunk, married, deceased father?”
Admittingly, news like that isn’t preferable for anyone-especially Claire. She’s been through so much and now she’s getting back on her feet-with Charlie by her side-and this kind of news will only bring her down again. “Yes.”
Jack gives her a look like she’s lost her sanity in the time it took her to find him in the jungle. “How could that possibly… help her at all?”
“It’s the truth,” Kate points out. “I seem to remember you forcing the truth out of me several times.”
“That was different.”
Kate snorts. “How?”
Jack can’t think of a good way of showing her how it’s different and instead of admitting defeat, he changes the subject. “She’s better off not knowing.”
“You don’t have to shoulder the burden for everything,” Kate says softly. “This isn’t your secret to keep. Just tell her, that’s all I’m asking of you.”
Jack’s jaw clamps and he goes quiet for several long minutes. Kate patiently waits for him to say something-anything-and her hand doesn’t leave his arm. She doesn’t put running past him just yet.
“I don’t believe it.” Jack says finally.
Kate has been expecting this. He’s past anger and he’s diving right into denial. “Why not?”
“My dad wasn’t a good guy, yeah,” Jack says, “but he wasn’t that bad…and he’s never been to Australia before…” he trails off, unsure of how to phrase that. It seems so much longer then four months since the crash. “… Claire was born in Australia.”
Kate wonders when she became the advocate of truth. She saw the picture and she saw Claire’s face when she showed it off. Claire believed that the picture was of her father and if Jack said that was his father too, then no one was lying and it was just a weird twist of fate. “It’s possible to travel in pregnancy,” she comments. “Claire did it.”
Jack frowns. If that’s true, then Claire’s mother was in Los Angeles the same time he was and that thought leaves a bad taste in his mouth. “Why would my father keep something like this from me?”
Kate doesn’t have the answer for that question and she realizes that he doesn’t expect her too. She never met his father; she has no idea what he was like. Jack just wants her to feed him a little white lie, just for now. That’s what he needs right now. She doesn’t mind giving that to him; he’s done it for her enough.
She moves her hand up from his arm to his cheek. “He wanted to protect you because he knew that he wasn’t perfect and he knew that knowing the truth about your sister would only make you hate him more,” she says.
Jack falls silent once more-he does that a lot when he thinks, she concludes. “That was good,” he says finally, a ghost of a smile turning the corners of his mouth.
Just that’s enough to make her smile. “I’m just that good,” Kate answers a little smugly.
Jack seems to be accepting that Claire is his half-sister slowly. In any case, he snakes his arms around Kate’s middle and pulls her against him. She’s only too happy to return the embrace, burying her head against his chest.
Today’s a milestone in their relationship. They’ve switched roles of the messed-up and the savior and it succeeded. Rather well, too. He isn’t okay with it just yet but he’s okay and that’s really all she wants.
“Thank you,” Jack whispers against her hair, “for being that good.”
Kate smiles sheepishly and goes up on her tip toes to kiss him. “Can we go back now?” she asks. “I don’t want to miss Aaron sitting up for the first time.”
Jack laughs and takes her offering for what it is: a distraction. He doesn’t have to tell Claire just yet-though she isn’t going to stop hounding him about that. All he has to do is go back to camp, and join everyone in celebrating this moment in island history.
By the time they make it back to camp, Aaron’s tried to sit up seven more times and he’s really close this next time, Claire swears. She doesn’t ask why Jack stalked off and so does no one else-something Kate’s extremely grateful for.
Aaron attempts sitting up two more times before he finally does it on his own. There’s so much cheering and laughter and kissing of his head afterwards, that he starts to cry from the overload of information.
“I got him,” Charlie announces, swooping in and picking up the baby before Claire can. Claire looks ready to protest-she’s still not very comfortable with others around her baby; even if it is Charlie-but she nods tensely after a moment. Another milestone on the island. It’s an entire day of them now.
Kate rests her head against Jack’s chest, feeling completely content. She isn’t the one that always needs saving. When it comes down to it, she can save and pick him up just as easily as he can for her. She likes it. It’s a good feeling knowing that she isn’t the only one to be mess up anymore.
Jack slings his arm around her shoulders, his eyes set firmly on Claire. The decision’s right there, right on his face for everyone to see. He could very easily get up and go to her and tell her the truth about his father-their father. There really isn’t any reason why he shouldn’t, now that he thinks about it.
He pulls away from Kate who gives him a curious look in response. “I have… I’ll see you later, okay?”
Kate smiles-she gets what he’s going to do-and nods. “Okay.”
Jack smiles at her in return and kisses the top of her head before he gets up and walks over to Claire. She watches them talk for a few seconds before Jack gestures for them to go for a walk. Claire seems suspicious but she agrees.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asks. It isn’t a bad thing that Jack’s talking to Claire. It’s the look on Claire’s face that’s worrying him right now.
Kate puts out an arm to stop him from going over there and interrupting the conversation that has to happen. “Just give ‘em a few minutes, Charlie,” she says.
Charlie gives her an accusatory look. “Do you know what that’s all about?”
Kate nods. “It’s something they need to deal with alone first,” she tells him. “She’s going to need you later, just not right now.”
“What is it, Kate?” Charlie asks. He’s two seconds away from going over there no matter what she says because Claire’s crying now and it isn’t nothing if she’s crying.
Kate watches Jack pull Claire into a hug-their first as siblings-and smiles softly. “It’s a family thing.”