Conception - Part 19
Jan. 19th, 2009 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
diandrahollmanObama's taking office and Lost is premiering. Yep. It should be a good week. :D
Conception
By Diandra Hollman
Feedback: Would love it! Here or at diandrahollman@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13 to R.
Keywords: Slash, Jack/Sawyer, Mpreg and a pretty good share of roughing up of Jack just because.
Spoilers: Series follows cannon, sometimes loosely, sometimes very closely, from the Season One finale through season four.
Disclaimer: See prologue. They're not mine. Duh.
Author's Notes: See prologue. Cannon-wise were going into the post-hiatus portion of season 3. Narrative interpretation of thoughts, facial expressions and actions as well as any filler scenes, changes in timeline or references to Jack being pregnant are obviously not cannon.
Previous chapters
*******
"Where is he," Kate muttered mostly to herself as she, Sayid and Locke crouched in the bushes, watching the Other's going about various activities in their quaint little suburban development.
"Kate," Sayid murmured, pointing toward one figure.
She followed his gesture, her eyes widening as she spotted the blonde woman. She was walking along a small path, talking to another woman, rocking a small bundle in her arms. "She's the one who helped me and Sawyer escape. You don't think..." She trailed off, rapidly feeling ill. Of course it was Jack's baby Juliet was holding in her arms, even if it was weeks earlier than Jack had calculated. Where else would it have come from so suddenly?
Tom emerged from one of the buildings, pushing Ben in front of him in a wheelchair. Kate resisted the impulse to leap from the bushes and shoot him. Jack had saved his life against his will and now Jack was most likely dead and they had taken his baby. Would they even tell the child about his true parents when he grew up?
Ben spoke to Juliet for a minute and she nodded, heading for another building with obvious reluctance and disappearing inside. Tom and Ben followed her slowly, pausing outside the door.
The door opened a few moments later. Kate felt relief wash over their little group as Juliet emerged from inside, Jack beside her. Kate frowned as she took in his appearance. He looked tired and pained and he leaned on a cane. Juliet had her hand on the small of his back, seemingly ready to catch him should he suddenly fall.
They watched in shock as Jack talked to Ben for a minute or two and then reached out with his free hand to shake Ben's hand, as if this were a perfectly ordinary business transaction.
"This is gonna be more complicated than we thought," Locke murmured.
**********
They waited until dark to approach the camp, by which point Kate was practically vibrating with nervous energy. She watched through the binoculars as Juliet exited Jack's cabin, closing the door softly.
"Sayid, you guard the front," Locke instructed the second she had moved out of sight. "I'll go around back. You, go in through the side door."
Kate frowned. "I'm going in alone?"
"It's better if you're the first one he sees," Locke explained.
'Better than you, you mean,' Kate thought. She darted toward the main building, Sayid close behind her. She was only mildly surprised to find the door unlocked.
She crept down the main hallway, following the sound of piano music. She found Jack hunched over the keyboard of an upright piano shoved against one wall. A cradle sat a few feet away from him.
She gaped as he finished the song. He sensed her presence and turned suddenly, eyes widening as he saw her standing in the hall, clutching a rifle.
"Hi," she whispered.
He stiffened. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to get you." She set her rifle against the wall but hesitated as his expression turned agitated and desperate.
"Get out of here. Right now. Go!" He looked over his shoulder nervously.
She shook her head. "Jack..."
"Kate, they're watching me!"
Her eyes went to the corner of the room - the direction he had just looked - and she saw a camera mounted into the ceiling, blinking at them. Her breathing accelerated, her instinct to run for her life warring with her determination to save Jack.
"Get out of here," he repeated, standing shakily, leaning slightly against the piano.
"I'm not leaving you," she tried desperately.
He advanced toward her. "Yes, you are..."
Several armed men burst into the room before he could reach her and ordered her to get on the ground.
"Don't hurt her," Jack shouted.
One of the Others responded by turning a gun on him and ordering him to step back. He did without argument.
The baby, startled awake by the loud noises, began to wail. Jack's eyes darted to the crib.
The Other clenched his jaw and motioned to it with his gun. "Go."
Jack stumbled over to the crib and lifted the baby into his arms, hiding it's face against his neck and murmuring nonsensically in it's ear in an attempt to soothe it.
Kate yelped as her arm was twisted behind her back and Jack watched in dismay as Sayid was dragged through the door and shoved to the ground beside her.
The Other refocused on her, his gun pointed to her head. "Who else is with you?"
She looked at Jack pleadingly. "Jack?"
He shook his head slightly. "Just answer the question, Kate." 'Please.' The baby's cries tapered off until they were only panicky little whimpers.
"One more time," the Other growled. "Who else is with you?"
She tore her eyes from Jack's desperate gaze and looked to Sayid. "Nobody. Nobody else. It was just us." She caught the relieved look on Sayid's face, but missed the brief flash of disbelief and disappointment on Jack's.
*********
She was still torturing herself with thoughts of what they could have done to Jack in the time it took her to find their camp when they shoved her into a rec room. She sat on the pool table and worked to slide her cuffed hands in front of her body. She had just succeeded when the door opened. She froze.
"I didn't think I'd see you again so soon, Kate," Tom said not unkindly. Then he turned to somebody outside, pointed to his ear and the ceiling and said "be careful in here."
Jack stepped in the doorway beside him and put the hand not occupied by his cane on Tom's shoulder. "Thanks," he muttered.
Tom left them alone and Kate watched silently as Jack dragged a folding chair to the center of the room, sitting gingerly. "They hurt you," he asked.
"No. They hurt you?"
He chuckled briefly. "No." Actually they had been keeping him pretty well supplied in painkillers since the birth and he was feeling pretty good.
She looked around as she climbed off the table. "What is all this?"
"This is where they live."
"And the people they took? The kids?"
He nodded, not looking her in the eye. "They're all safe."
She frowned in disgust. "Safe?" She waited for him to look at her. When he did she saw nothing in his eyes. "So you're with them now," she concluded.
"I'm not with anyone, Kate," he said honestly.
"What did they do to you," she asked angrily, advancing on him slowly.
He looked away again uncomfortably. "Nothing."
"Then why are you acting like this?"
He stared at the floor fixedly. "There's no way...you...there's no way that I could..."
"I came here to help you!"
"I told you not to come back here for me," he snapped, looking up again.
She stared at him. "I didn't think you meant it."
He blinked rapidly and looked away.
She softened and stepped as close as she dared, tentatively touching his wrist. He flinched slightly and didn't look at her, but he clutched her hand when she slipped it into his. She glanced at the ceiling. Right. Bugs. That might explain his odd behavior. She crouched in front of him. "What did they do to you, Jack," she whispered, her eyes pleading with him.
His mouth opened and closed hesitantly. "I made a deal with them," he said after a moment. "They're gonna let me go. Me and my baby."
She frowned. "Where?"
He smiled sadly. "Home."
She didn't believe for a second that they would actually do such a thing, but he seemed to. "When?"
"First thing in the morning." He took a breath. "I can bring back help. It's our best chance..."
She shook her head. "You trust these people? They are liars! Why would you believe a word..."
"I trust them because you told me to, Kate," he snapped. "Because I have to."
She reeled, not missing the fact that it was her own words coming back to haunt her. "Jack..."
Juliet stuck her head in the door at that moment and he didn't get a chance to answer.
"Jack, we need to go."
"I'll be right there," he assured her.
She closed the door again and Kate let go of Jack's hand, sinking to the floor dejectedly and wiping at her damp cheeks. It was no use. She wouldn't get through to him.
"I asked you not to come back here for me and I wish...I wish that you hadn't." He leaned closer, whispering almost directly in her ear. "I will come back here for you."
Kate just stared at the floor, listening to him leave. She had no idea what was going on - what the Others were planning - but she just knew that if he went with them none of them would ever see him again.
********
Ben was putting a foil-covered tray in the refrigerator when Jack and Juliet entered his apartment.
"Look, I know you don't owe me anything," Jack began tentatively. "But I need to ask you for one last favor."
Ben blinked up at him in surprise. "You don't knock," he asked indignantly, as if he had any business being offended that the man he had kidnapped and locked in a cage wasn't respecting his boundaries.
Juliet looked off in the corner, disgusted but not at all surprised. She refocused on the baby in her arms. Jack refused to go anywhere without his baby unless she could watch it. She was the only one of them he trusted.
"I need you to let my friends go," Jack continued. "After I'm gone."
"And if I said no, would that stop you from leaving," Ben asked bluntly.
Jack frowned. "Of course it would."
"Your friends are only here to rescue *you*," Ben pointed out. "But you seem to be doing a good job of rescuing yourself, so..." he sighed. "I suppose there's no reason to keep them here."
"I need your word on that."
Ben wheeled his chair closer and held his hand out. "You have my word," he said easily as Jack accepted the handshake. "I'll let them go just as soon as you've left the island."
Jack nodded warily. Something didn't seem right, but he wasn't quite sure what it was.
Ben turned to Juliet. "Well, I guess this is it," he said flatly.
"Thank you, Ben," she said, her voice thick with tears. "For keeping your promise."
He nodded and gave her a tight smile. She turned to leave and Jack followed her out the door, giving Ben one last wary look over his shoulder.
The nagging feeling stayed with him up until the moment he and Juliet were escorted out onto the dock where he was told a submarine waited to take them back to civilization. An Other at the front of the group raised his rifle suddenly. "Hey! Hold it right there!"
Jack clutched the baby tightly to his chest and watched in shock as Locke came into view, standing at the end of the dock with his arms raised, calmly sinking to his knees at the Other's orders.
"What are you doing here, John?"
Locke's eyes turned to him. "I'm sorry, Jack," he said softly.
Jack frowned. "Sorry for what?"
An explosion at the end of the dock sent everybody ducking for cover. Jack turned away from the blast, instinctively shielding the baby with his body. When he looked up all that was left of the submarine was a burning pile of wreckage floating in the night-darkened water. He met Locke's wide-eyed, apologetic look with rage and betrayal, the stirring, whimpering baby in his arms the only thing keeping him from tackling the man to the ground and throttling him. He dimly heard Tom call his name and then hands were guiding him up and away from the dock. His eyes remained fixed on Locke as the Other's scattered frantically. He saw the butt of a rifle crash into Locke's temple a moment before he was pulled out of sight range.
***********
It had been two hours since Jack had been left in “his” house and he hadn’t heard word from anybody – Juliet included. So far he had managed to keep him from going stir crazy, but once the baby was fed, changed, bathed and ready for bed he knew the fact that his best chance of getting off the island had gone up in flames would sink in. He needed to regroup – come up with a new plan. There had to be another way off the island. He could *not* raise his child here.
He was just settling the baby in the crib when he heard a noise at the back door. He froze, his heart pounding as his survival instinct warred with his instinct to defend his child. He could take the baby and run, but if there was danger, he could just be bringing the child closer to it.
He moved down the hall cautiously, hoping he had imagined the sound. He gasped as his cane was ripped out from under him suddenly. He clutched the handle tightly, letting the momentum spin him around to face his attacker. He barely got a look at the man's face before a hand reached around him from behind and clamped a towel over his face. He gasped instinctively and shouted, his eyes wide with fear, letting go of the cane and reaching both hands to rip the towel away. But it was too late - the ether was already taking effect. The room spun and grew fuzzy.
'Please, don't take my baby,' was his last, frantic thought before he sank into unconsciousness.
TBC
Sorry for the shortness. It seemed like a natural stopping point. ;)
Conception
By Diandra Hollman
Feedback: Would love it! Here or at diandrahollman@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13 to R.
Keywords: Slash, Jack/Sawyer, Mpreg and a pretty good share of roughing up of Jack just because.
Spoilers: Series follows cannon, sometimes loosely, sometimes very closely, from the Season One finale through season four.
Disclaimer: See prologue. They're not mine. Duh.
Author's Notes: See prologue. Cannon-wise were going into the post-hiatus portion of season 3. Narrative interpretation of thoughts, facial expressions and actions as well as any filler scenes, changes in timeline or references to Jack being pregnant are obviously not cannon.
Previous chapters
*******
"Where is he," Kate muttered mostly to herself as she, Sayid and Locke crouched in the bushes, watching the Other's going about various activities in their quaint little suburban development.
"Kate," Sayid murmured, pointing toward one figure.
She followed his gesture, her eyes widening as she spotted the blonde woman. She was walking along a small path, talking to another woman, rocking a small bundle in her arms. "She's the one who helped me and Sawyer escape. You don't think..." She trailed off, rapidly feeling ill. Of course it was Jack's baby Juliet was holding in her arms, even if it was weeks earlier than Jack had calculated. Where else would it have come from so suddenly?
Tom emerged from one of the buildings, pushing Ben in front of him in a wheelchair. Kate resisted the impulse to leap from the bushes and shoot him. Jack had saved his life against his will and now Jack was most likely dead and they had taken his baby. Would they even tell the child about his true parents when he grew up?
Ben spoke to Juliet for a minute and she nodded, heading for another building with obvious reluctance and disappearing inside. Tom and Ben followed her slowly, pausing outside the door.
The door opened a few moments later. Kate felt relief wash over their little group as Juliet emerged from inside, Jack beside her. Kate frowned as she took in his appearance. He looked tired and pained and he leaned on a cane. Juliet had her hand on the small of his back, seemingly ready to catch him should he suddenly fall.
They watched in shock as Jack talked to Ben for a minute or two and then reached out with his free hand to shake Ben's hand, as if this were a perfectly ordinary business transaction.
"This is gonna be more complicated than we thought," Locke murmured.
**********
They waited until dark to approach the camp, by which point Kate was practically vibrating with nervous energy. She watched through the binoculars as Juliet exited Jack's cabin, closing the door softly.
"Sayid, you guard the front," Locke instructed the second she had moved out of sight. "I'll go around back. You, go in through the side door."
Kate frowned. "I'm going in alone?"
"It's better if you're the first one he sees," Locke explained.
'Better than you, you mean,' Kate thought. She darted toward the main building, Sayid close behind her. She was only mildly surprised to find the door unlocked.
She crept down the main hallway, following the sound of piano music. She found Jack hunched over the keyboard of an upright piano shoved against one wall. A cradle sat a few feet away from him.
She gaped as he finished the song. He sensed her presence and turned suddenly, eyes widening as he saw her standing in the hall, clutching a rifle.
"Hi," she whispered.
He stiffened. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to get you." She set her rifle against the wall but hesitated as his expression turned agitated and desperate.
"Get out of here. Right now. Go!" He looked over his shoulder nervously.
She shook her head. "Jack..."
"Kate, they're watching me!"
Her eyes went to the corner of the room - the direction he had just looked - and she saw a camera mounted into the ceiling, blinking at them. Her breathing accelerated, her instinct to run for her life warring with her determination to save Jack.
"Get out of here," he repeated, standing shakily, leaning slightly against the piano.
"I'm not leaving you," she tried desperately.
He advanced toward her. "Yes, you are..."
Several armed men burst into the room before he could reach her and ordered her to get on the ground.
"Don't hurt her," Jack shouted.
One of the Others responded by turning a gun on him and ordering him to step back. He did without argument.
The baby, startled awake by the loud noises, began to wail. Jack's eyes darted to the crib.
The Other clenched his jaw and motioned to it with his gun. "Go."
Jack stumbled over to the crib and lifted the baby into his arms, hiding it's face against his neck and murmuring nonsensically in it's ear in an attempt to soothe it.
Kate yelped as her arm was twisted behind her back and Jack watched in dismay as Sayid was dragged through the door and shoved to the ground beside her.
The Other refocused on her, his gun pointed to her head. "Who else is with you?"
She looked at Jack pleadingly. "Jack?"
He shook his head slightly. "Just answer the question, Kate." 'Please.' The baby's cries tapered off until they were only panicky little whimpers.
"One more time," the Other growled. "Who else is with you?"
She tore her eyes from Jack's desperate gaze and looked to Sayid. "Nobody. Nobody else. It was just us." She caught the relieved look on Sayid's face, but missed the brief flash of disbelief and disappointment on Jack's.
*********
She was still torturing herself with thoughts of what they could have done to Jack in the time it took her to find their camp when they shoved her into a rec room. She sat on the pool table and worked to slide her cuffed hands in front of her body. She had just succeeded when the door opened. She froze.
"I didn't think I'd see you again so soon, Kate," Tom said not unkindly. Then he turned to somebody outside, pointed to his ear and the ceiling and said "be careful in here."
Jack stepped in the doorway beside him and put the hand not occupied by his cane on Tom's shoulder. "Thanks," he muttered.
Tom left them alone and Kate watched silently as Jack dragged a folding chair to the center of the room, sitting gingerly. "They hurt you," he asked.
"No. They hurt you?"
He chuckled briefly. "No." Actually they had been keeping him pretty well supplied in painkillers since the birth and he was feeling pretty good.
She looked around as she climbed off the table. "What is all this?"
"This is where they live."
"And the people they took? The kids?"
He nodded, not looking her in the eye. "They're all safe."
She frowned in disgust. "Safe?" She waited for him to look at her. When he did she saw nothing in his eyes. "So you're with them now," she concluded.
"I'm not with anyone, Kate," he said honestly.
"What did they do to you," she asked angrily, advancing on him slowly.
He looked away again uncomfortably. "Nothing."
"Then why are you acting like this?"
He stared at the floor fixedly. "There's no way...you...there's no way that I could..."
"I came here to help you!"
"I told you not to come back here for me," he snapped, looking up again.
She stared at him. "I didn't think you meant it."
He blinked rapidly and looked away.
She softened and stepped as close as she dared, tentatively touching his wrist. He flinched slightly and didn't look at her, but he clutched her hand when she slipped it into his. She glanced at the ceiling. Right. Bugs. That might explain his odd behavior. She crouched in front of him. "What did they do to you, Jack," she whispered, her eyes pleading with him.
His mouth opened and closed hesitantly. "I made a deal with them," he said after a moment. "They're gonna let me go. Me and my baby."
She frowned. "Where?"
He smiled sadly. "Home."
She didn't believe for a second that they would actually do such a thing, but he seemed to. "When?"
"First thing in the morning." He took a breath. "I can bring back help. It's our best chance..."
She shook her head. "You trust these people? They are liars! Why would you believe a word..."
"I trust them because you told me to, Kate," he snapped. "Because I have to."
She reeled, not missing the fact that it was her own words coming back to haunt her. "Jack..."
Juliet stuck her head in the door at that moment and he didn't get a chance to answer.
"Jack, we need to go."
"I'll be right there," he assured her.
She closed the door again and Kate let go of Jack's hand, sinking to the floor dejectedly and wiping at her damp cheeks. It was no use. She wouldn't get through to him.
"I asked you not to come back here for me and I wish...I wish that you hadn't." He leaned closer, whispering almost directly in her ear. "I will come back here for you."
Kate just stared at the floor, listening to him leave. She had no idea what was going on - what the Others were planning - but she just knew that if he went with them none of them would ever see him again.
********
Ben was putting a foil-covered tray in the refrigerator when Jack and Juliet entered his apartment.
"Look, I know you don't owe me anything," Jack began tentatively. "But I need to ask you for one last favor."
Ben blinked up at him in surprise. "You don't knock," he asked indignantly, as if he had any business being offended that the man he had kidnapped and locked in a cage wasn't respecting his boundaries.
Juliet looked off in the corner, disgusted but not at all surprised. She refocused on the baby in her arms. Jack refused to go anywhere without his baby unless she could watch it. She was the only one of them he trusted.
"I need you to let my friends go," Jack continued. "After I'm gone."
"And if I said no, would that stop you from leaving," Ben asked bluntly.
Jack frowned. "Of course it would."
"Your friends are only here to rescue *you*," Ben pointed out. "But you seem to be doing a good job of rescuing yourself, so..." he sighed. "I suppose there's no reason to keep them here."
"I need your word on that."
Ben wheeled his chair closer and held his hand out. "You have my word," he said easily as Jack accepted the handshake. "I'll let them go just as soon as you've left the island."
Jack nodded warily. Something didn't seem right, but he wasn't quite sure what it was.
Ben turned to Juliet. "Well, I guess this is it," he said flatly.
"Thank you, Ben," she said, her voice thick with tears. "For keeping your promise."
He nodded and gave her a tight smile. She turned to leave and Jack followed her out the door, giving Ben one last wary look over his shoulder.
The nagging feeling stayed with him up until the moment he and Juliet were escorted out onto the dock where he was told a submarine waited to take them back to civilization. An Other at the front of the group raised his rifle suddenly. "Hey! Hold it right there!"
Jack clutched the baby tightly to his chest and watched in shock as Locke came into view, standing at the end of the dock with his arms raised, calmly sinking to his knees at the Other's orders.
"What are you doing here, John?"
Locke's eyes turned to him. "I'm sorry, Jack," he said softly.
Jack frowned. "Sorry for what?"
An explosion at the end of the dock sent everybody ducking for cover. Jack turned away from the blast, instinctively shielding the baby with his body. When he looked up all that was left of the submarine was a burning pile of wreckage floating in the night-darkened water. He met Locke's wide-eyed, apologetic look with rage and betrayal, the stirring, whimpering baby in his arms the only thing keeping him from tackling the man to the ground and throttling him. He dimly heard Tom call his name and then hands were guiding him up and away from the dock. His eyes remained fixed on Locke as the Other's scattered frantically. He saw the butt of a rifle crash into Locke's temple a moment before he was pulled out of sight range.
***********
It had been two hours since Jack had been left in “his” house and he hadn’t heard word from anybody – Juliet included. So far he had managed to keep him from going stir crazy, but once the baby was fed, changed, bathed and ready for bed he knew the fact that his best chance of getting off the island had gone up in flames would sink in. He needed to regroup – come up with a new plan. There had to be another way off the island. He could *not* raise his child here.
He was just settling the baby in the crib when he heard a noise at the back door. He froze, his heart pounding as his survival instinct warred with his instinct to defend his child. He could take the baby and run, but if there was danger, he could just be bringing the child closer to it.
He moved down the hall cautiously, hoping he had imagined the sound. He gasped as his cane was ripped out from under him suddenly. He clutched the handle tightly, letting the momentum spin him around to face his attacker. He barely got a look at the man's face before a hand reached around him from behind and clamped a towel over his face. He gasped instinctively and shouted, his eyes wide with fear, letting go of the cane and reaching both hands to rip the towel away. But it was too late - the ether was already taking effect. The room spun and grew fuzzy.
'Please, don't take my baby,' was his last, frantic thought before he sank into unconsciousness.
TBC
Sorry for the shortness. It seemed like a natural stopping point. ;)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 08:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 09:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 08:59 am (UTC)Second: are you kidding me?????? I'm gonna die here waiting for the next part. Natural or not, that stopping point is driving me insane. Grrrr!
:-D
And I know you won't tell if Jack's baby is a boy or a girl on purpose ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-20 09:30 pm (UTC)Second: are you kidding me??????
Bwahahahaha....did I mention I'm evil? ;P
And I know you won't tell if Jack's baby is a boy or a girl on purpose ;-)
Yep. ;D You'll find out in the next post, I promise! In the meantime, here's a hint: this is my third mpreg story where the gender of the baby is revealed and the babies in the other two stories were both female. On the other hand, taking into account genetic probability, the odds of two men having a female child are three to one against so maybe this will be the story where I finally break pattern and try to be more realistic.
In other words, it is either male or female and I could totally write cryptic spoilers for the show. ;)
::ducks rotten fruit and death glares and darts away cackling::
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-24 04:40 pm (UTC)