Unmake, Remake
Title: Unmake, Remake
Pairing: barely implied Jacob/Jack
Rating: G
Word Count: 624
Spoilers: Through the S5 finale.
Summary: Preventing the crash has wider effect through time than Jack could have imagined.
Author’s Notes: Assumes a complete reset after the bomb. For emiliglia , at lostsquee 's Luau. Posted here for archive.
For a long time everything seemed to be a white nothing. Slowly, the sound of waves crept into his ears. Then the sensation of sand, wet and grainy beneath his back. Finally, his eyes opened, staring into a familiar blue sky he had hoped to never see again.
“Guess it didn't work,” Jack rasped.
“Oh, but it did, Jack. Lucky for me.”
Jack turned his head towards the strangely familiar voice, blinking at a blond man standing near the base of an enormous statue. He walked over to Jack.
“Not so lucky, however, for you,” he said, sitting down on the sand.
“Do I know you?” Jack tried to place his face.
“We've met briefly once before, and I do mean before. I'm Jacob.”
Jacob? Jack sat up, shaking his head, John and the Others' Jacob?
The man smiled as if he'd heard the thought, “The problem with changing the timeline, is that everything is connected. Pull out the wrong thread, and everything unravels.”
Fear flashed across Jack's face, “What happened to everyone else? Are they okay?”
“That's just it. Nothing that came from Oceanic 815 crashing ever happened. That spans a lot of history, Jack. Your friends never traveled in time to meet Richard Alpert, Benjamin Linus was never shot, nor was Daniel Faraday for that matter. They'll live their lives and sometimes make different choices. But the reason you aren't out there, equally unaware of any of this, is that your parents never met, and you were never born.”
Jack bit his lip, thinking, “I... If all that's true, why am I here now?”
“I was never killed, Jack, because of what you did. That should merit some action on my part, though I loathe to interfere so directly. I would hate to be so...ungrateful,” Jacob rested a hand on Jack's shoulder for a moment, then pulled a canteen from his pocket and took a drink. “Water?”
Dazed, Jack took it and drank deeply, he was thirstier than he'd thought. He closed it and passed the canteen back to Jacob. “And now what will I do?”
“Choices run towards the infinite Jack, but if you don't mind suggestions...” Jacob lay back on the sand, resting his head on his hands behind him. “It's a big island, you're free to set up anywhere you'd like--Richard would see that you're left alone. For that matter, if you'd like, I'm sure Richard would be happy to have you with them.”
Jack had a vaguely horrified expression, and Jacob laughed.
“No? Bad memories I guess. How about this?” Jacob pulled a coin seemingly out of the air, like a stage magician. He held it out and dropped it in Jack's palm.
“What's this?” Jack prodded the copper colored coin with his fingers.
“A penny, the rare kind you don't find everyday. In about two hours though, a girl in Atlanta is going to walk by this coin. Maybe she'll only look at it, maybe she'll pass it by completely, and just maybe, she'll pick it up. But you see, somebody has to drop that coin on that particular sidewalk. Somebody could be you Jack, if you choose it,” Jacob was looking at him intently. “Though I must admit, it's not all pennies and sidewalks.”
Despite everything that had happened to him, Jack couldn't turn down the chance to help someone, even if it was only a chance. And there was just something about Jacob... “I think I'd like that.”
“I'd hoped,” Jacob smiled at him and stood up, brushing away errant particles of sand. “Come on, Jack. You've got quite a way to go.”