Title: Moving On
Characters: Kate/Jack & James/Juliet, David.
Rating: PG
Summary: An afterlife fic that picks up right after the finale. Heavy Jate with some serious Suliet. Also David is around. How these 5 will manage to make it all work? :P
Notes: Thanks to Nia for review!
They’ve finished eating. Kate and Juliet’s washing the dishes, leaving the guys on their own. Kate is putting the plates in the cabinet when she turns to Juliet andasks, “Don’t you think it’s strange? Us being here and a kid in the middle?”
Juliet replies quietly, “After being on a mysterious island for six years and seeing the things I saw, this is not so strange. It can be odd because for once it’s a good strange, not a freaky one.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I suppose. So do you think that David is coping ok with all of this?”
“He has questions, a lot of them, and neither Jack nor I have the answers. I can sense that he really wants to know who he is.”
After seeing Kate’s puzzled look, she explains better. “He knows about the flashes, about each one of us remembering our previous life, but he hasn’t flashed, Kate. So he surely wants to know who he was in the previous life.”
She finishes putting the dishes away, letting Juliet’s words fully sink in. Then she asks carefully, “Do you have any theories?”
Juliet sighs. She has several theories but not a single one of them fully satisfies her. There’s always something missing, something that doesn’t add up.
Eventually she says, “Yes, I do. I think David didn’t flash because he didn’t get a chance to live, therefore he has nothing to remember.”
“Care to elaborate that thought?”
“I… was pregnant when I died.” Juliet confesses, Kate can only stare at her, speechless. “I never told anyone, not even James knew.”
Kate slowly try to process this information. It makes sense, even if it doesn’t explain why Jack is David’s father in this life, it can’t simply be because he and Juliet met in this life first.
“I think I can relate to that,” she says trying to avoid Juliet’s gaze.
“You, too? But I didn’t know you had a baby,” Juliet states, puzzled.
“I didn’t. I…” she has to stop to wipe away a tear that has escaped from her eyes. She tries to recompose herself and continues, “I found out I was pregnant when I returned home, but I’ve also found out I had miscarried.”
Juliet moves closer to her, unsure if she should hug the other. Their relationship has never been an easy one. Juliet got in the middle of Jack and Kate. Then later, she feared that Kate would come between her and James.
But nothing of that matters now, so she closes the distance and hugs Kate, the other holds on tight and tears up a little.
When they lose the hug, Kate specifies, “Jack has no idea of any of this, I want to tell him but not yet. So please… can this conversation remain in this room?”
“Absolutely.”
After Juliet reflects a little about Kate’s ‘news’, she shares her theory, slightly updated, “I think that somehow, even if it’s totally against logic and nature, David is half my baby and half yours.”
“That surely would explain why Jack is his dad ‘here’. Do you think we should share this with the boys?” Kate asks.
“Not yet, eventually they’ll ask us our opinion on David anyway,” she says smiling.
They head for the living room where they find all the boys asleep. Juliet shakes her head and goes to wake James up. She gently shakes him. He rubs his eyes and tries to understand where he is. He takes a look around and he finally realizes he has fallen asleep on Jack’s couch.
“Okay, time to go to bed, all of us,” Juliet announces loudly.
Kate kisses Jack, trying to wake him up but he keeps his eyes shut. She is about to pull up when she hears him saying, “You should try one more time, you know. I still feel sleepy.”
She can’t help but laugh and oblige. This time he opens his eyes and kisses back. He pulls her down on his lap. Their kiss turns into a full make out session.
Juliet try to look anywhere but at them while James gladly teases them, “I’ve told them earlier to get a room but apparently they just can’t listen.”
Their make out comes to an end and Jack asks her, “Stay here tonight.”
“Are you sure?” she asks uncertainly.
“Positive. I don’t think you have another place to stay anyway.”
“You might have a point. But what about David? I mean he has been understanding, do we really wanna push our luck?”
Juliet jumps into their conversation “That’s not a problem. I’ll take him home with me.” James can’t hold still his tongue, “What about me?”
“You’ve your place, James. Kate doesn’t. So this is the best solution, at least for now,” Juliet carefully explains. James’s face darkens so she adds, “Don’t worry, I will still have time for you.”
“You better find time, Blondie,” he replies, only half joking.
She gently wakes up her son and helps him get a bag ready. After a few minutes, Juliet, James and David say goodnight to Jack and Kate.
“Mom, how are we going home? Didn’t you come here with dad?” David asks, looking in the parking lot for her mother’s car.
“I’m gonna give you a ride, doc junior,” James says leading the way to his car. He opens the door and they all get inside. Tthe ride is pretty much silent except for a little background radio.
“Home sweet home,” James says parking the car outside her house. David turns to James. “Thanks for the ride and it was cool meeting you.” Then he gets out of the car to give them a minute alone. He let himself in the house.
“So I guess we are calling it a night, Blondie?” he asks leaning dangerously close to her. She closes the distance and their lips collide in a kiss.
After a minute or so, she pulls away and sensually answers, “Too bad. I was kinda enjoying where this was going.”
“We’re so gonna have a rain check on this one. And Doc and Freckles totally owe us one for letting have them a kid-free night.”
“Sure, but now I’ve really gotta go,” she says, kissing him one more time and then practically running in the house. David is waiting for her on the other side of the door, looking at her like he was her dad and he has just spotted her making out with her boyfriend.
“What are you doing still up?” she asks taking off her jacket. He hangs it for her and replies, “I was waiting for you to come inside. I kinda wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure. Anything, David.”
“Why does James call everyone with a nickname?”
She laughs hard because she has no idea how to explain to her son that nicknames are kinda James’ signature. It’s one of the few traits of his personality which didn’t change, not when they first got together, not in this life.
“Sorry for laughing but when you really get to know James, you’ll know. It’s a thing he’s always had. It’s not a bad thing. You get used to it after a while. I think James has been calling me ‘Blondie’ since 1974.”
David has to sit. 1974? What the fuck is his mother saying? He looks at her with utter confusion.
“Oh, your father forgot to mention that island where we all met was kinda unique… in more ways than one. We travelled through time.”
David closes his eyes, puts a hand on his forehead and says, “I think I really need to go to bed. This is way too much information for one night.”
Juliet nods. They go upstairs, say goodnight and they both go to bed.
James is driving home with a sense of happiness and excitement running through his veins. This morning when he woke up, he was sure this was going to be a day like any other but it turned out to be the greatest day he could imagine.
He has her back, alive, smiling, beautiful, and loving him exactly how he loves her, and sure there are a couple of things that surprised him, the kid, being dead, but in the end, he is more than willing to take the whole package.
He parks the car, gets into the apartment and quickly hits the sack, a long day awaits him when he’ll wake up.
In the meantime, Jack and Kate get ready to go to bed. Jack is already in his pajamas, brushing his teeth in the bathroom when she calls for him.
He puts down his tootbrush and comes into the bedroom where he finds her waiting for him with her only in her underwear.
He says as a joke, “Did you have to start without me?”
She gently slaps him on the head and replies, “No, stupid. I have no pajamas. I didn’t exactly pack before coming over.”
“Just give me a sec,” he says while searching in his wardrobe. After a few seconds, he finally finds what he has been looking for: an old pair of boxers and his college t-shirt, Kate’s favorite outfit when she crashed at his place.
He offers them to her and she just smiles like a fool. She cannot believe he still remembers how she likes to sleep at his apartment.
He asks tentatively, “Do you still like those, or should I look for something different?”
She shakes her head. “I can’t believe you remember.”
He lifts up her chin so he can look directly into her eyes and says, “There’s not a single thing I don’t remember about you Kate.”
She doesn’t ever realize she’s softly crying until Jack wipes away her tears. She wants to tell him that they’re happy tears, not sad ones, but instead she just uses her mouth to kiss him.
He lifts her up and walks toward the bed where they both collapse laughing. They stare into each other’s eyes and Jack gently tucks Kate’s hair behind her ear.
Then they just forget all about the clothes and they proceed to get Jack’s off.
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