A Fate Like Gravity
Title: A Fate Like Gravity
Character(s): Jack, Sawyer, and Kate
Fandom: Lost
Rating: PG- PG-13
Words: 1,672
Spoilers: Season six
A/N: I’ve been feeling Jate deprived. This is also in response to the rumors that there is a line where Kate says, “Because I love him!” be it true or not. I’d like to think that if it is, this is how it would go down.
Disclaimer: I don’t own LOST, Kate, or Jack (as much as I wish I did).
The boat pushes off from the shore, its bottom scraping the sand, waves fighting to push it back to the island, just like everything else. It is as though they are held here by every force save for duct tape and super glue. James holds the boat still as she steps in one foot at a time, slightly unsteady in the waters of the rising tide. She sits on one of the benches and James follows suit as he begins to row toward the large submarine out on the water, looming in the distance.
As far as they were aware, there was no one on the sub, and it was theirs to take. She has tried to save Claire, but it has been a failed attempt. As much as she would love to bring Aaron’s mother home to him, she won’t expose him to a woman who has been all too willing to push a knife to her throat. James already knows; he doesn’t even bother to ask if she wants to go back for Claire. Besides, there is no longer time.
“This is it, Freckles,” he grunts, as he rows, the muscles in his arms flexing. She bites her lip as she looks over her shoulder at the island which stole so much from her. There are people all over the beach further down. She sees Hurley, Jin, Claire,'Locke', Jack. Jack.
She must acknowledge that this is the last time she will ever see him. She must stay with James now to get off the island and back to her son. So much of her life and Aaron’s had been spent with Jack, and now she was choosing to leave him to his fate as she took the cowards way out. She feels blind tears fill her eyes, but they don’t blur her vision enough for her to miss James’ hefty eye roll.
“Don’t tell me you’re gonna miss this place?” he growls, face reddening with the strain of rowing the boat on his own. She would help, but they only have one pair of oars.
She is tempted to tell him that she is going to miss it. After all, it will be understandable having spent years here, if inconsecutively. But she knows it is not the truth. She will not miss this place; she will only miss him. Even if their years together had been on borrowed time, simply playing house until they were called back by the island’s siren call once again, they still mean something to her. She knows her heart, but her heart doesn’t want what is good for her, she’s convinced herself.
The island gets further away, the submarine closer, and she knows they are running low on time to perform their act of piracy unnoticed. James’ jaw is now locked, and she knows better than to ask questions while he is obviously in deep thought. Normally she would have gone ahead, not afraid to annoy him, in fact, it would probably have been her goal, but now, it is their lives that are potentially on the line, so she keeps her lips locked, her teeth biting down on them so hard that she was amazed she isn’t tasting blood.
“Say goodbye, Freckles,” James says, as the boat bumps into the sub and he crawls onto the top, unscrewing the entrance hatch. She watches him, and then turns back to look at the island one more time. She sees the battle commencing on the beach, many of her friends blood soaked or dying. Her eyes instinctively seek Jack, her entire body sinking inward with relief to see him still standing, blood-free, yelling something at Hurley.
“Goodbye,” she whispers to no one in particular, knowing exactly what she has to do. She stays low to the bottom of the boat as she walks to the sub, placing her hand on James’ back to get his attention. “James…” she says, voice catching with emotion, “I have to go back.” She knows he will be mad because she’s mad at herself, but she can’t bring herself to get in the sub with him when half of her is still on the island.
James’ brow furrows as he throws open the hatch. “Don’t be stupid, Kate. Get in the sub.” It isn’t an option; it is a demand. She shakes her head, which only upsets him more. “Don’t tell me that you want to go back for Jack. Don’t even tell me that! You broke up, Kate. He doesn’t want you. Now get in the damn submarine!” He puts his feet in the hatch, holding to the top of the ladder with both hands, staring at her with two burning eyes. “Don’t make me drag you in here. You’re getting off this island, Freckles. I won’t let you die for him!”
She looks away from his gaze, and then back to him. “It’s always been him, James…” She feels the need to say more, but can’t. Instead, she leans up to the sub, risking him grabbing her and pulling her in after him, but he doesn’t. She kisses him sweetly, almost motherly on the cheek. “Good luck getting off the island. I hope you make it.” And she really does. She only wishes she was smart enough to go with him.
“Don’t do this, Kate,” he growls, his knuckles white with anger on the top of the ladder. “It’s always going to pull you back unless you don’t let it. Fight it. Why do you always have to go back for him?”
She can hear the desperation in his voice, but she already knows what she has to do. “Because I love him,” she says both calmly and yet with such intensity that James can only sigh and pull the hatch half closed behind him. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Freckles,” he says in a tone that tells her he’s given up trying to stop her. She hears the hatch close as she dives into the water, not bothering with rowing the boat back. It will only slow her down.
She swims faster than she ever has before, yet she can’t feel her lungs burning. There is too much blind adrenaline in her system for pain. She makes it to the beach quicker than she thought she would and allows herself a few seconds to catch her breath before she runs up the beach toward all the noise.
She barrels into the middle of the onslaught in desperation, eyes searching for one thing and one thing only. She finds him almost instantly and her heart leaps. Now that she has let herself admit what she has known for a long time, feeling it is easier. She loves him, and nothing can stop that force now. He is crouching, his shoulders tensed as he pushed a rag against someone’s bleeding forehead. As soon as the person is holding it to their own head, and Jack’s hand is out of the way of their injury, she crashes into him, locking her arms around his middle, sobbing hysterically into his chest.
There is no hiding the shock in Jack’s face as he instinctively wraps his arms around her. “Kate…?” He doesn’t know why she’s here. He’d seen her rowing to the sub with Sawyer. He keeps his arms on her shoulders, pushing her out a bit to stare into her eyes. “What are you doing here?” he asks seriously, now fearing for her life in the middle of the violent outbreak.
She tries to speak, but can only sob for a few moments, and she feels Jack lead her over to the edge of the trees, out of the way of the running and shouting people. “Jack,” she cries as his thumbs rub over her face, clearing away the tears, “I couldn’t leave you. I--I love you.” She knows it’s blunt and to the point, but it isn’t the first time he’s heard the words from her. His brows furrow, and his lip quivers. She knows that face, and she loves that face.
He holds her head to his chest as she continues to sob. “Kate,” he says seriously in a tone she’s heard before. “Kate, I promise you, I will get us off this island, and I mean it. We’ll do what we have to do, and I’ll get you away from here, and we’re never going to come back.” She knows that he keeps his promises, so she smiles, her sob breaking as she does so. She is now so close to his face that she cannot hold herself back. She leans up and kisses him, not realizing before how much she’s missed his taste.
His hands are on both sides of her face, his touch tender, and she leans into him, knowing that now is not the time for romance, but she can’t make herself stop. She wraps her hands around his waist, allowing them to travel up his back, feeling all the familiar muscles along his spine and through his shoulders. His hands are now in her hair, causing forgotten emotions to once again stir. It makes her wonder why she’d ever seriously contemplated leaving him on this godforsaken island.
She finally allows herself to place her palms on his chest and shove, causing their growing emotion to break. “Do what you’ve got to do,” she whispers, her lips still on his, “then we go, and we never look back,” she reminds him. He nods, holding her close to him as though he’s afraid he’ll never have the chance to again. “I love you,” he whispers into her hair before turning and walking back into the thick of the action with occasional glances over his shoulder at her, and she knows he means what he says. The island would have to try harder if it wanted to keep them apart as it’d been trying so hard to do. Love may evade them, but it never escapes them, and that is the beauty of fate.