Alphabet Soup II (Part 5/8)
Title: Alphabet Soup II (Part 5/8)
Characters: Kate, Jack, Kate/Jack
Summary: A series of drabbles. Jack/Kate. Post The End. Set in the Afterlife-verse
Never
He never asks her if she loved again after him; if she met someone, married or had a family. He is afraid of what she might answer, whatever way her answer goes. He never asks because the answer scares him whether she did or whether she did not.
She never tells him how lonely she was after him. She tells him she was happy. And she was, that is the truth. She had Aaron, Claire, her work… she was truly happy. She lived a full, content life because of him and for him. But she never tells him how lonely she was; how her broken heart remained shattered, waiting for him, until the day she died.
Ocean
There was a time when she would stand for hours staring at the ocean, staring and waiting; waiting for a ship or a raft or even a plane, one she knew would never come. She would stand longer than her feet could hold her, not leaving until the tears had dried in her eyes.
She had thought she could never again welcome the ocean breeze with a smile, but she was wrong, so very wrong.
She stands barefoot in the sand, the waves lapping at her feet, the wind blowing against her skin, brushing through her hair. She closes her eyes and lets the warm morning glow engulf her. She feels him coming up behind her and smiles when his arms wrap around her waist, pressing her back to his chest. He buries his face in her hair, rests his head against her shoulder and kisses tenderly at the warm skin and smiles against her ear, “good morning”.
Pregnant
It takes her some time to finally tell him about that night three weeks after she last saw him. It takes her a while because the memory still hurts and she is afraid of his reaction.
They have just come back from an early morning swim and are sitting in the shade of a large tree that they have come to call theirs in a secluded part of the beach (the resemblance it holds to the place they first met on the island not lost on either of them). She has finally built up the courage to say, “I took a pregnancy test.”
He looks at her, wide eyed, and asks, “Today?”
She lets out a strangled chuckle and says, “no… three weeks after I returned from the island.” She looks at him as he pushes himself, sitting up straight. He blinks twice, three times, before he mumbles, “oh,” unable to look her straight in the eye.
The tears start falling and she does not have the strength to stop them. “It was negative,” she starts, her voice betraying the courage she thought she had. The tremble in her voice breaks his heart and he knows her tears match his before he looks up.
She is crying freely now and she feels him wrap his arms around her waist and pull her into his lap. She buries her face in his neck and his embrace crushes her body to his. His fingers tangle in her soft curls, damp from his tears more than the swim they’d shared. He kisses her gently and whispers, “I’m sorry, I am so sorry you had to go through this alone.”