[For Kate & Lionel] Pre-play Homeplot

[jack_crew]

Over the past couple of months Jack has grown used to waking up on the mattress he shares with Kate in their hut, the sheets they got for that weird gift day smooth and soft against his skin. He's grown used to smelling her hair and waking up with his arm around her waist or her arm draped over his chest, so when he wakes up that morning nothing

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[new_ophelia]

"Schmerble," Kate murmurs, face smashed into the pillow. She's still tired and why the hell is Jack....that thought is lost as she burrows back down and falls asleep again.

[jack_crew]

"Kate, wake up," he says, still looking around, taking in the room they're in. The window is familiar and beautiful and God, he doesn't realize until right now how much he's missed his house. The sheets are a soft blue, the walls an off-white, the entire room is big and clean and it smells like... well, not like home anymore. Familiar, but not like home.

[new_ophelia]

"Jack? What's wrong?" she croaks out, his tone finally waking her up. She sits up and opens one eye before quickly sitting the rest of the way up. Because this is not their home. "Oh my God...where the hell are we?"

[jack_crew]

"You see it, too?" Jack asks, just to make sure, because maybe he's gone crazy for real this time. Maybe Hamlet didn't drive him crazy like he thought when he first got to the island. Or maybe it did. Maybe it did drive him crazy and now he's just getting back to normal.

"Kate, do you remember an island?" he asks, turning toward her hesitantly.

[lionelthayer]

Bright sunlight eventually wakes Lionel up, which is his first clue that things aren't exactly the way they were when he eventually dropped off to bed the night before. It's quiet, the way the room's been since Otto disappeared, but there's none of the noise that usually goes on in the compound all the time. Not to mention the fact that Lionel's in an honest to god bed, the kind with a real mattress and sheets, almost like his own back home.

For a groggy moment Lionel thinks that's what it is; he's shown up back home again, in his apartment with the huge bed he still can't sleep in the middle of, and maybe he's not crazy anymore, if he ever was in the first place. It's almost enough for Lionel not to want to open his eyes, maybe to just bury his head under the pillow and sleep for a while before dealing with the new change. But there's a reason he's a photojournalist, and he just needs to know. That's all

[jack_crew]

When Jack sees Lionel, the first thing he thinks to say is, "What the fuck?" which is only slightly more intelligent than anything he'd said to Kate upon waking up. But there's Lionel with his head peeking out of the guest room and there's Jack in his underwear and there's Kate in her underwear and Jack's really beginning to think that he has gone crazy. Maybe he's been crazy since this whole island thing began.

"I mean... no, I mean what the fuck?" he repeats, staring blankly at Lionel. There's a small part of him that's overwhelmed by this relief, this insane, gushing sort of relief over the fact that Lionel's there. It means he hasn't lost everything the island gave him.

[new_ophelia]

Kate lets out a startled shriek when Lionel calls out and jumps behind Jack. Then she realizes it's Lionel and what the hell is he doing here? "Oh my God, Lionel?" she boggles, still half-hiding behind Jack. "Oh my God. Oh my God," she says, pointing at Jack, then Lionel, and then Jack again. "I told you it's an island thing."

[lionelthayer]

Lionel's caught between wondering if he's gone totally insane, and trying not to laugh at Jack and Kate's reaction. Especially Jack's. The idea of it being an island thing like Kate says fills him with relief, mostly because waking up in someone's guest room with no idea how he got there is not how Lionel ever has or ever wants to spend his days.

He steps out of the room, not really caring that he's in his underwear when both of them are as well. "So I guess we've all gone insane this time?"