Ficinabottle

Here's the next part of my fic. :) Read and review pleeeease! :D

Title: Delicate
Author: __inadream
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost... as always, I wouldn't mind Matthew Fox. :D Or even Joshy for that matter..
Summary: Six months after they get rescued, Kate is on the run and Jack has given up hope on seeing her again. When she contacts him, everything changes.
Authors Note: This chapter is the longest so far, and after this one, things will really get going! So stick with me. The fluff & angst is coming too! Enjoy! Part one is here and part two is here.






Jack woke up to sunlight streaming through his windows and, for the first time in months, with a smile on his face. He stretched his arms above his head, sure that he looked like a fool grinning wildly. But he couldn’t help himself – for once in his life, he had found the perfect thing to say. No stuttering or tripping over words, just the pure honest truth. He was thrilled at the possibility of seeing Kate that day, or even the next. At the same time, he was terrified. While he was eager to see Kate’s reaction to the lyrics, and to know if she felt the same, he was never exactly good at putting himself out there. No one was, but this was especially hard for Jack. He had never felt this way about a woman before, not even Sarah. Was it love? Jack didn’t want to jinx himself and say for sure, but the moment he read the note and all of the feelings about Kate suddenly intensified, he knew that he had been waiting for this day and he had to make the most of it.

With a smile still stretched across his face, he got out of bed and took a shower, making sure to shave carefully, but still leaving the slight stubble on his face. Knowing that he might see Kate today, he put on his best black dress pants and a long-sleeved maroon shirt that buttoned up the front, leaving the top two buttons undone. He put on his gold watch and, making sure they were spotless, tied his dress shoes on before looking in the mirror. He smoothed the front of his dress shirt down once more and finally satisfied, walked back into his bedroom. He sat down on the side of his bed and picked up the stationary he had bought the night before. It was simple, but more elegant than a piece of notebook paper. He knew that that was probably all Kate had been able to find, but he wanted to use special paper in his note back to her, as another hint of how much she meant to him.

Grabbing the folded up pieces of paper from his jacket pocket, he carefully copied the words onto the stationary using the neatest handwriting he could muster. He wanted to communicate with Kate, not make her figure out a puzzle, he thought as he smiled and slightly shook his head. After he wrote down the lyrics, he drew a small heart at the bottom and below it, a ‘J’. Folding the paper in half, he carefully slid it into the envelope, licked the back, and put it in his briefcase.

As Jack was driving to the hospital, the smile that had been plastered on his face since the night before slowly faded. He had been so excited, so happy about the possibilities that lay before him, before both of them. But now, the doubts were creeping in. What if she had left already because he hadn’t left a note immediately? What if she thought the lyrics were corny, or even worse – so true that she couldn’t deal with it, and she ran away again? Endless questions seemed to pour into Jack’s brain, making it even more difficult for him to reassure himself that everything was going to be okay. By the time he pulled into his parking space, his thoughts had calmed significantly. Closing his eyes and leaning his head back, Jack took one last calming breath, imagining Kate’s face in his mind. Getting out, he took the tape from his pocket and carefully taped the envelope on the window. With the silly grin returning to his face, he grabbed his jacket and backpack and made his way into the hospital. With the draw of seeing Kate so real in his mind and heart, he knew he could face anything the day presented him with.

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Kate was standing on the sidewalk outside of the parking garage, pacing. She had only gotten to L.A. about two weeks ago, but already she was restless. After she had made her escape in Australia, she had worked a few odd jobs to save up some money, and got a flight back to the States. Once there, she had wandered around until she found a cop with an eye for brunettes. She had worked the usual charm on him and ended up being able to find out information about Jack – his address, which hospital he worked at, the make, model, and license plate of his car. She hated going back to her old lifestyle – seducing a guy just to get what she wanted and then ditching him and moving on. She hated that part of her, but it was one thing that she knew how to do well. Besides, she had to know where Jack was. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, he was a part of her. Ever since the first day when she stitched him up, she felt a connection to him. He made her feel safe, and made her want to change. No one had made her feel like that since Tom, and that seemed like it was ages ago. He knew her better than anyone else had, and now he was gone. Just thinking of him and their last night together, her eyes started to tear. “You always want to run away, Katie.” “Yeah, and you know why.” She had always run, it was the thing she knew how to do best.

Reaching a hand up, she started twirling her hair. She had bought a very real-looking blonde wig at a shop in L.A. and a pair of trendy over-sized sunglasses that hid most of her face. She had caught a glimpse of herself in a shop window and found that she looked ridiculous, but she had figured that by staying at a women’s shelter and wearing the wig and sunglasses, she was less likely to be found by anyone who might be looking for her.

She had been watching the parking garage at the hospital for a week now. She wanted to make sure that there weren’t very many security officers and to be sure of the times when they were there and when their shift changes were. She had also gone into the hospital and, pretending to be an old friend of Jack’s, successfully received a copy of his schedule after coming in on three consecutive days and telling the nurse how important it was to see him. She had watched him come to work and leave for two more days before she finally felt like it was safe enough to put her plan into action.

The day she left the note, she hadn’t even stayed to see if he had gotten it or not. She was so nervous about his reaction that she couldn’t bear to wait and see if it was bad. Since then, all she’d done was worry. Worrying wasn’t a natural reaction for Kate – being on the run wasn’t exactly conducive to worrying, just thinking fast and putting a plan into action. But she wasn’t running away this time, she was running to something, someone. Jack. That made all the difference in the world. She’s never been one for much sentimentality and romance, but this was different. And now here she was, twirling her hair like some senior in high school worried about getting a date to the prom.

Sighing, she leaned against the concrete post. Watching the people walk down the sidewalk, she barely noticed a black SUV driving up until she turned and saw it pull into a space marked ‘Dr. Jack Shepard.’ Her heart leaped into her throat at the sight of him getting out of his car, and she had to turn away. She was afraid that her intense gaze might make him sense someone’s eyes on him, and she didn’t need him seeing her right now, especially not when she would hardly be able to talk to him because of her nerves.

Trying to calm her nerves, Kate looked back and saw him walking into the hospital’s double doors with his jacket and briefcase in hand, a huge grin on his face. All of her nerves quickly resurfaced as she saw him, thinking that there had to be another woman. He couldn’t be that excited just to go to work, could he? She’d seen him every day for two weeks and every time he’d walked through those doors, he’d looked as if he was walking to his own death. She couldn’t even imagine that he would be so happy because of her note. He had probably been so upset about it that he had wandered to a bar and met a great girl, and here he was, grinning from ear-to-ear because he was thinking of her.

Against her own will, her eyes started watering again. She knew she shouldn’t have come here to do this. It was so out of character for her, how could she ever think it would work? Turning her face away from Jack, she blinked rapidly, trying to clear the tears from her eyes. As she did so, her eyes landed on Jack’s black SUV, with something taped to the window. No, it couldn’t be... could it? He left a note for her? Shaking her head, she looked around, making sure there was nobody watching her, before she started towards the vehicle. As she got closer, Kate saw that there was a light pink envelope taped to the window with a ‘K’ on it and a small heart in the corner. Blinking again, though this time not to dissipate tears but to make sure she wasn’t imagining this, she lifted the envelope carefully off of the window. She turned it over in her hands twice before she finally stopped at the back. Lifting her hand, she ran her thumb under the top flap and pulled out a sheet of stationary folded in half. She unfolded it and looked at the paper – an off-white color with colored tropical flowers around the bottom left corner. She smiled, knowing that it was definitely Jack who had left this – the flowers were the same as some in Sun’s garden on the island. With a faint smile still on her face, she saw the writing on the paper. Reading slowly, her eyes began watering again as a grin that matched Jack’s filled her entire face.

“It’s hard to breathe when we’re apart
You’re that sunshine in my heart
I keep you here inside
And I know it’s hard to believe
You’re still the biggest part of me
All I’m living for

I still think about you
I still dream about you
I still want you and need you by my side
I’m still mad about you
All I ever wanted was you
You’re still the one.”