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diandrahollmanI said I would do an epilogue...well, I finally finished it! Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through this story. I love you guys! *hugs furiously*
If you liked the ending as it was, feel free to ignore this. If you felt that ending left too many loose ends and didn't have enough Jawyer flirting, keep reading. :)
E-Mail: diandrahollman@yahoo.com
Website: http://diandrahollman.tripod.com
Date Finished: The file says 1/7/10. This epilogue was finished on 9/17/2010
Rating: PG-13 overall.
Keywords: crossover, Jack/Sawyer, slash
Spoilers: For Lost: “The Variable” through “The Incident”.
Disclaimer: Sam and Al belong(ed) to Donald Bellisario. The first couple paragraphs of the story are directly transcribed from the introduction to each episode of “Quantum Leap”. Everyone else belongs to Darlton and JJ Abrams, as do any events or dialogue that mirror “Lost” cannon. I’m just having some harmless, nonprofit fun playing with them.
Archive: Just ask.
Summary: Sam Becket leaps into Jack Shephard in 1970s Dharmaville. It proves to be his most confusing leap yet.
Dedication: To the creators – and fans – of two of the best damn sci-fi shows on television.
AUTHOR'S NOTE (from previous chapter): A while back my muse was kicking around an idea for a scene to end this story. I wasn't sure I liked it. I felt the ending I had originally planned was stronger. It was also a more fitting ending if this story was to be treated like an episode of "Quantum Leap". Then this last season of "Lost" happened and I thought about where Jack and Sawyer might end up if Daniel's plan didn't work like it was supposed to. And after the finale, I decided I *had* to write that other ending.
Previous Chapters
*********
Jack awoke with a start, gasping for breath as the last of an all-too-real dream shook him.
“Easy,” a voice said beside him and a gentle hand touched his arm.
He jumped, his head turning toward the voice, his eyes slowly focusing on his surroundings. He was still on Oceanic flight 815. The man sitting beside him had boarded the plane in Sydney and Jack had thought at the time that he looked familiar somehow. Now, as he took in the man’s kind face and grey-streaked brown hair images from his dream tumbled through his mind, including the unnerving memory of the man’s face looking back at him from a reflecting pool. “Sam,” he blurted.
The man smiled with relief. “I was afraid you’d never remember.”
Jack’s eyes snapped to the window, horrific memories of twisted metal and burned wreckage playing in his head. But he only saw fluffy white clouds and peaceful blue-green ocean below. “It was...it was all real?”
“Yes. 1977, The Dharma Initiative, the bomb...it all happened.”
Jack’s eyes snapped back to Sam and he reached out to touch the man’s arm, as if trying to confirm his reality too.
Sam caught his hand and clasped it tightly. “It’s nice to finally really meet you, Jack.”
A laugh burst from Jack’s lips. He was still processing the images flooding his mind of a past he’d technically never had, even though the experiences felt very real. “It worked.”
“It worked.” Sam smiled. “All of it. The island is still there somewhere...most of it. But this plane will land in Los Angeles.”
“And you? You’re really here?”
Sam nodded. “I woke up in my own body back in 1999. Well,” he added hastily. “Technically it was well into 2000 by the time I recovered.”
Jack flinched, recalling the ominous silence that had fallen on the control room, broken by Al frantically screaming orders and rough hands manhandling him back to the waiting room. The last thing he remembered was mind-numbing pain washing over him and then...nothing. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Sam gripped his hand firmly. “You helped me get home. I can never repay you for that.”
Jack’s smile faltered suddenly and he craned his neck around, scanning the faces of the passengers all around him. Rose and Bernard were still across the aisle, too absorbed in each other to notice Jack’s attention. Sun and Jin were a couple rows back. And Locke met his gaze over Sam’s shoulder and gave him a small, friendly smile.
Sam knew exactly who Jack was really looking for. “He’s here. He’s on the other side of the plane.”
Jack thought he caught a glimpse of Sawyer’s dirty-blond hair and started to undo his seatbelt.
Sam’s hand on his arm stopped him. “I need to talk to you before you see him.”
Jack frowned. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“No,” Sam assured him quickly. “I just need to explain what happened after I...after *we* leaped out of 1977.”
Jack eased back into his seat reluctantly.
“Once I recovered, I went back to work on the project. The problem was always in the retrieval code – instead of bringing me back to my time after a leap, it bounced me to the next random leap like a CD player stuck on shuffle. I thought if I could fix it I could not only come home between leaps – provided I didn’t stay too long – I could choose where I wanted to go. Within certain parameters, of course. Once I was reasonably certain I had fixed the problem, I knew I needed to run a test leap. I thought about you and your friends and how I might be able to repay you for bringing me home and I leaped into Sawyer’s uncle in 1976. I thought maybe I could save his parents.” Sam winced at the memory. “I couldn’t. But I *was* able to help little James Ford another way.” Sam smiled. “He’s a cop now.”
Jack gave a startled laugh. “A cop?”
“He’s still looking for Mr. Sawyer, but now he’s on the right side of the law. So is Kate, which is why she’s not on this plane. Hurley is, but he no longer thinks he’s crazy or unlucky, which was hard to convince him of because he can still see me no matter who I leap into. And Juliet is in Florida somewhere with her sister.” Sam trailed off and then hesitated. “Do you remember that night about three weeks ago when your father showed up at your apartment?
Jack’s smile cracked. “That...that was you?”
“No, this wasn’t a leap. I was out in the car. You told Al your father had died in Australia, but you never said *how* he died. It turns out I couldn’t save him either, but I knew I could at least give you both closure. So I joined his AA group a few months ago and became his sponsor. I convinced him that it wasn’t too late to save your relationship.”
Jack shook his head, tears pooling in his eyes.
“I told him to tell you what he’d already told me. That he was proud of you and he loved you.”
Jack’s breath came in tiny gasps as a tear broke free and spilled down his cheek. “He said he forgave me for getting him fired,” he said, his voice breaking.
Sam reached over to pat his back kindly.
“And he said he had something he needed to show me, but he needed to go to Australia...” He choked back a sob as a memory from the original timeline popped into his head. “Claire. He wanted to tell me about my sister.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He convinced her to come to Los Angeles. I helped him buy her the plane ticket. And I convinced her after he died to get on the plane anyway. I told her I would introduce her to you myself when we got to Los Angeles. She doesn’t know you’re already on the plane.”
“Is she still...” Jack made a vague gesture toward his abdomen.
“About eight months pregnant, yes. She was planning to give the baby up for adoption, but the couple who were going to adopt it backed out. I was kind of hoping Kate and Sayid would be willing to help her, but...”
Jack reeled. “Sayid? He’s...he’s okay?”
Sam smiled. “Yeah. Apparently he met Kate’s father in the military. I introduced him to Kate on one of my leaps. They’re engaged now.”
Jack laughed, surprised. “Kate and Sayid?”
“It turned out the best way to fix the things that went wrong with their lives was to bring them together.” Sam shrugged. “They hit it off almost immediately. They make a good couple.”
Once Jack’s giddy laughter died down he started scanning the plane again. “I should talk to Claire...”
“No, Claire will be waiting for you when the plane lands. Right now I’m more concerned about Sawyer. I could have figured out a way to get you two to cross paths earlier, but I figured this plane brought you together once, it could do it again.”
“How?” Jack looked skeptical, but hopeful.
“I’m going to go switch seats with him. All you have to do is talk to him.”
Jack frowned. “What am I supposed to say?”
“You told Al you were willing to start over – to rebuild your relationship with Sawyer.”
“Yes, of course...”
“Most relationships begin with an introduction.” Sam patted Jack’s arm and moved to stand.
“But what if he’s not interested,” Jack blurted, cringing inwardly at the insecurity in his voice.
Sam smiled. “Trust me – he will be.”
Jack started to ask Sam how he could be so sure of that but Sam was already making his way down the aisle of the plane. Jack cringed again as he noted the slight limp to Sam’s gait. He was pretty sure the man hadn’t had that problem before.
He leaned back in his seat and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the instinct to bolt.
He sorted through his memories, trying to separate the ones that belonged to the original timestream from the new ones. Al had warned him he might have trouble distinguishing the two at first, but that over time the memories from the original timeline would fade. Jack thought about the first time he’d kissed Sawyer, the first time they’d slept together, the way Sawyer could send a thrill up his spine with one hooded gaze or sensual touch and hoped Al was wrong. Then he thought of all the fights they’d had in the beginning and how rocky their relationship had been at times – those times when he’d wondered if they could make it work at all. He knew it was absurd to think that he could recreate the good parts of their relationship without *any* of the bad. But he’d been given a second chance – an opportunity to start over and create new memories.
His breath caught in his throat as he felt Sawyer slip into the seat Sam had just vacated. For a moment he feared he couldn’t go through with it. What if their relationship had only worked because the island had forced them into each other’s lives? Without the island, they didn’t really have anything in common. How could their relationship possibly work?
Then he remembered his promise to Sawyer and Sam’s conviction that they were *meant* to be together, regardless of the circumstances. He took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and looked at the man beside him, feeling his stomach flutter a little. His hair was shorter and neatly trimmed, his face clean shaven. But he still somehow had that old, familiar devil-may-care attitude about him that Jack didn't think was totally explained by the black leather jacket he wore.
'God, he's beautiful.'
Sawyer looked up from his well-worn novel when he felt Jack’s eyes on him and smiled, flashing the barest hint of dimples. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t,” Jack answered quickly.
Sawyer held out his hand. “James Ford.”
Jack shook his hand, hoping Sawyer couldn’t feel him trembling. “Jack Shephard.”
Sawyer...James, Jack corrected himself...cocked his head, his eyes narrowing slightly. “We met before?”
“Uh...no...I don’t think so,” Jack spluttered. He would remember something like that, wouldn’t he?
“I never arrested you, did I?”
“No.” Jack *knew* he would have remembered that.
“Huh.” James let go of his hand and shrugged. “Name sounded familiar.”
“Maybe you’ve heard of me before,” Jack offered hopefully. “Have you ever been to St. Sebastian hospital?”
James frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe...you a doctor?”
“Spinal surgeon.”
James shook his head. “I don’t...” then something clicked into place in his mind and he let out a laugh so abrupt that Rose shot him a startled look.
“What,” Jack asked, dazed.
“When I was a kid, my uncle gave me a pocket watch. Really nice one. He put this piece of paper inside it and made me promise I’d never lose it. Said it was real important.” He raised his hand in the air as if taking an oath. “Hand to God, it said when I was older I’d meet a surgeon named Jack Shephard. Said he was my soulmate.”
//I leaped into Sawyer’s uncle...//
Jack understood suddenly why Sam had had so much confidence about this meeting. He turned his head, scanning the faces of the passengers on the other side of the plane until he found Sam, chatting with Hurley across the aisle. Hurley caught his eye and flashed him a thumbs up. Sam turned, following Hurley’s gaze and smiled at Jack.
Jack was momentarily distracted when Locke stood up, unintentionally obstructing his view. He watched, baffled, as the older man stepped into the aisle, stretched his legs and walked toward the bathrooms in the back of the plane. ‘Didn’t he say he was paralyzed before the crash?’ Jack shook his head. No, that must have been one of those false memories Al had warned him about.
“I figured he was goin’ crazy,” James continued, oblivious, re-directing Jack’s attention back to him. “Seein’ as he died of a brain tumor. He said he didn’t even remember writin’ the note. But I just couldn’t make myself throw it away.” He glanced down at Jack’s hands and winced. “Shit. Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you or anythin’.”
Jack looked down at his hands, puzzled, and was surprised to see a wedding ring on his finger. He searched his memory frantically but all he could come up with were images of an Italian woman crying in his arms, a lawyer showing up at his office with papers for him to sign and a woman...no, a man...no...both...possibly in different universes... sprawled across a bed in Thailand. “Oh,” he said. “No, I’m divorced.” ‘Sarah left me in every universe,’ he added silently. But while he was pretty sure he had still been licking his wounds when he’d gotten on the plane to Australia, now he realized that it didn’t matter. She had already moved on. There was no reason he couldn’t do the same.
He slipped the ring from his finger, stared at it for a couple moments longer, and then reached over to drop it in the seat pocket in front of him.
James smirked, amused. “You sure ‘bout that?”
Jack smiled, feeling like a weight had finally been lifted from his shoulders. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
James searched his eyes for a minute and nodded appreciatively. “Tell you what...”
He set his book down on the seat between them and reached into his back pocket, retrieving his wallet. Jack glanced down at the cover of the book and suppressed the urge to laugh out loud. ‘Lord of the Flies’.
James fished a business card from his wallet and held it out to Jack. “Here’s my card. You ever need anythin’, you give me a call.”
Jack felt his eyebrows creep upward. “Anything?”
James shrugged. “Well...long’s it don’t involve breakin’ the law. Might have to arrest you after all.” There was a hint of playful suggestion in his voice and Jack felt his skin tingle as the idea of putting Sawyer’s handcuffs to new use sprang into his mind.
Jack glanced down at the card. ‘Detective James Ford,’ it read. ‘Los Angeles Police Department, 42nd precinct.’ “Are you hitting on me, Detective,” he asked, trying to keep his tone light and teasing and not sound desperate.
James smiled charmingly. “Yeah, I guess I am. So...can I buy you a drink sometime, Doc?”
Jack smiled back, feeling his body relax for the first time since he’d woken up. “Yeah,” he said. “I’d like that.”
THE END
If you liked the ending as it was, feel free to ignore this. If you felt that ending left too many loose ends and didn't have enough Jawyer flirting, keep reading. :)
E-Mail: diandrahollman@yahoo.com
Website: http://diandrahollman.tripod.com
Date Finished: The file says 1/7/10. This epilogue was finished on 9/17/2010
Rating: PG-13 overall.
Keywords: crossover, Jack/Sawyer, slash
Spoilers: For Lost: “The Variable” through “The Incident”.
Disclaimer: Sam and Al belong(ed) to Donald Bellisario. The first couple paragraphs of the story are directly transcribed from the introduction to each episode of “Quantum Leap”. Everyone else belongs to Darlton and JJ Abrams, as do any events or dialogue that mirror “Lost” cannon. I’m just having some harmless, nonprofit fun playing with them.
Archive: Just ask.
Summary: Sam Becket leaps into Jack Shephard in 1970s Dharmaville. It proves to be his most confusing leap yet.
Dedication: To the creators – and fans – of two of the best damn sci-fi shows on television.
AUTHOR'S NOTE (from previous chapter): A while back my muse was kicking around an idea for a scene to end this story. I wasn't sure I liked it. I felt the ending I had originally planned was stronger. It was also a more fitting ending if this story was to be treated like an episode of "Quantum Leap". Then this last season of "Lost" happened and I thought about where Jack and Sawyer might end up if Daniel's plan didn't work like it was supposed to. And after the finale, I decided I *had* to write that other ending.
Previous Chapters
*********
Jack awoke with a start, gasping for breath as the last of an all-too-real dream shook him.
“Easy,” a voice said beside him and a gentle hand touched his arm.
He jumped, his head turning toward the voice, his eyes slowly focusing on his surroundings. He was still on Oceanic flight 815. The man sitting beside him had boarded the plane in Sydney and Jack had thought at the time that he looked familiar somehow. Now, as he took in the man’s kind face and grey-streaked brown hair images from his dream tumbled through his mind, including the unnerving memory of the man’s face looking back at him from a reflecting pool. “Sam,” he blurted.
The man smiled with relief. “I was afraid you’d never remember.”
Jack’s eyes snapped to the window, horrific memories of twisted metal and burned wreckage playing in his head. But he only saw fluffy white clouds and peaceful blue-green ocean below. “It was...it was all real?”
“Yes. 1977, The Dharma Initiative, the bomb...it all happened.”
Jack’s eyes snapped back to Sam and he reached out to touch the man’s arm, as if trying to confirm his reality too.
Sam caught his hand and clasped it tightly. “It’s nice to finally really meet you, Jack.”
A laugh burst from Jack’s lips. He was still processing the images flooding his mind of a past he’d technically never had, even though the experiences felt very real. “It worked.”
“It worked.” Sam smiled. “All of it. The island is still there somewhere...most of it. But this plane will land in Los Angeles.”
“And you? You’re really here?”
Sam nodded. “I woke up in my own body back in 1999. Well,” he added hastily. “Technically it was well into 2000 by the time I recovered.”
Jack flinched, recalling the ominous silence that had fallen on the control room, broken by Al frantically screaming orders and rough hands manhandling him back to the waiting room. The last thing he remembered was mind-numbing pain washing over him and then...nothing. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Sam gripped his hand firmly. “You helped me get home. I can never repay you for that.”
Jack’s smile faltered suddenly and he craned his neck around, scanning the faces of the passengers all around him. Rose and Bernard were still across the aisle, too absorbed in each other to notice Jack’s attention. Sun and Jin were a couple rows back. And Locke met his gaze over Sam’s shoulder and gave him a small, friendly smile.
Sam knew exactly who Jack was really looking for. “He’s here. He’s on the other side of the plane.”
Jack thought he caught a glimpse of Sawyer’s dirty-blond hair and started to undo his seatbelt.
Sam’s hand on his arm stopped him. “I need to talk to you before you see him.”
Jack frowned. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“No,” Sam assured him quickly. “I just need to explain what happened after I...after *we* leaped out of 1977.”
Jack eased back into his seat reluctantly.
“Once I recovered, I went back to work on the project. The problem was always in the retrieval code – instead of bringing me back to my time after a leap, it bounced me to the next random leap like a CD player stuck on shuffle. I thought if I could fix it I could not only come home between leaps – provided I didn’t stay too long – I could choose where I wanted to go. Within certain parameters, of course. Once I was reasonably certain I had fixed the problem, I knew I needed to run a test leap. I thought about you and your friends and how I might be able to repay you for bringing me home and I leaped into Sawyer’s uncle in 1976. I thought maybe I could save his parents.” Sam winced at the memory. “I couldn’t. But I *was* able to help little James Ford another way.” Sam smiled. “He’s a cop now.”
Jack gave a startled laugh. “A cop?”
“He’s still looking for Mr. Sawyer, but now he’s on the right side of the law. So is Kate, which is why she’s not on this plane. Hurley is, but he no longer thinks he’s crazy or unlucky, which was hard to convince him of because he can still see me no matter who I leap into. And Juliet is in Florida somewhere with her sister.” Sam trailed off and then hesitated. “Do you remember that night about three weeks ago when your father showed up at your apartment?
Jack’s smile cracked. “That...that was you?”
“No, this wasn’t a leap. I was out in the car. You told Al your father had died in Australia, but you never said *how* he died. It turns out I couldn’t save him either, but I knew I could at least give you both closure. So I joined his AA group a few months ago and became his sponsor. I convinced him that it wasn’t too late to save your relationship.”
Jack shook his head, tears pooling in his eyes.
“I told him to tell you what he’d already told me. That he was proud of you and he loved you.”
Jack’s breath came in tiny gasps as a tear broke free and spilled down his cheek. “He said he forgave me for getting him fired,” he said, his voice breaking.
Sam reached over to pat his back kindly.
“And he said he had something he needed to show me, but he needed to go to Australia...” He choked back a sob as a memory from the original timeline popped into his head. “Claire. He wanted to tell me about my sister.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He convinced her to come to Los Angeles. I helped him buy her the plane ticket. And I convinced her after he died to get on the plane anyway. I told her I would introduce her to you myself when we got to Los Angeles. She doesn’t know you’re already on the plane.”
“Is she still...” Jack made a vague gesture toward his abdomen.
“About eight months pregnant, yes. She was planning to give the baby up for adoption, but the couple who were going to adopt it backed out. I was kind of hoping Kate and Sayid would be willing to help her, but...”
Jack reeled. “Sayid? He’s...he’s okay?”
Sam smiled. “Yeah. Apparently he met Kate’s father in the military. I introduced him to Kate on one of my leaps. They’re engaged now.”
Jack laughed, surprised. “Kate and Sayid?”
“It turned out the best way to fix the things that went wrong with their lives was to bring them together.” Sam shrugged. “They hit it off almost immediately. They make a good couple.”
Once Jack’s giddy laughter died down he started scanning the plane again. “I should talk to Claire...”
“No, Claire will be waiting for you when the plane lands. Right now I’m more concerned about Sawyer. I could have figured out a way to get you two to cross paths earlier, but I figured this plane brought you together once, it could do it again.”
“How?” Jack looked skeptical, but hopeful.
“I’m going to go switch seats with him. All you have to do is talk to him.”
Jack frowned. “What am I supposed to say?”
“You told Al you were willing to start over – to rebuild your relationship with Sawyer.”
“Yes, of course...”
“Most relationships begin with an introduction.” Sam patted Jack’s arm and moved to stand.
“But what if he’s not interested,” Jack blurted, cringing inwardly at the insecurity in his voice.
Sam smiled. “Trust me – he will be.”
Jack started to ask Sam how he could be so sure of that but Sam was already making his way down the aisle of the plane. Jack cringed again as he noted the slight limp to Sam’s gait. He was pretty sure the man hadn’t had that problem before.
He leaned back in his seat and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the instinct to bolt.
He sorted through his memories, trying to separate the ones that belonged to the original timestream from the new ones. Al had warned him he might have trouble distinguishing the two at first, but that over time the memories from the original timeline would fade. Jack thought about the first time he’d kissed Sawyer, the first time they’d slept together, the way Sawyer could send a thrill up his spine with one hooded gaze or sensual touch and hoped Al was wrong. Then he thought of all the fights they’d had in the beginning and how rocky their relationship had been at times – those times when he’d wondered if they could make it work at all. He knew it was absurd to think that he could recreate the good parts of their relationship without *any* of the bad. But he’d been given a second chance – an opportunity to start over and create new memories.
His breath caught in his throat as he felt Sawyer slip into the seat Sam had just vacated. For a moment he feared he couldn’t go through with it. What if their relationship had only worked because the island had forced them into each other’s lives? Without the island, they didn’t really have anything in common. How could their relationship possibly work?
Then he remembered his promise to Sawyer and Sam’s conviction that they were *meant* to be together, regardless of the circumstances. He took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and looked at the man beside him, feeling his stomach flutter a little. His hair was shorter and neatly trimmed, his face clean shaven. But he still somehow had that old, familiar devil-may-care attitude about him that Jack didn't think was totally explained by the black leather jacket he wore.
'God, he's beautiful.'
Sawyer looked up from his well-worn novel when he felt Jack’s eyes on him and smiled, flashing the barest hint of dimples. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t,” Jack answered quickly.
Sawyer held out his hand. “James Ford.”
Jack shook his hand, hoping Sawyer couldn’t feel him trembling. “Jack Shephard.”
Sawyer...James, Jack corrected himself...cocked his head, his eyes narrowing slightly. “We met before?”
“Uh...no...I don’t think so,” Jack spluttered. He would remember something like that, wouldn’t he?
“I never arrested you, did I?”
“No.” Jack *knew* he would have remembered that.
“Huh.” James let go of his hand and shrugged. “Name sounded familiar.”
“Maybe you’ve heard of me before,” Jack offered hopefully. “Have you ever been to St. Sebastian hospital?”
James frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe...you a doctor?”
“Spinal surgeon.”
James shook his head. “I don’t...” then something clicked into place in his mind and he let out a laugh so abrupt that Rose shot him a startled look.
“What,” Jack asked, dazed.
“When I was a kid, my uncle gave me a pocket watch. Really nice one. He put this piece of paper inside it and made me promise I’d never lose it. Said it was real important.” He raised his hand in the air as if taking an oath. “Hand to God, it said when I was older I’d meet a surgeon named Jack Shephard. Said he was my soulmate.”
//I leaped into Sawyer’s uncle...//
Jack understood suddenly why Sam had had so much confidence about this meeting. He turned his head, scanning the faces of the passengers on the other side of the plane until he found Sam, chatting with Hurley across the aisle. Hurley caught his eye and flashed him a thumbs up. Sam turned, following Hurley’s gaze and smiled at Jack.
Jack was momentarily distracted when Locke stood up, unintentionally obstructing his view. He watched, baffled, as the older man stepped into the aisle, stretched his legs and walked toward the bathrooms in the back of the plane. ‘Didn’t he say he was paralyzed before the crash?’ Jack shook his head. No, that must have been one of those false memories Al had warned him about.
“I figured he was goin’ crazy,” James continued, oblivious, re-directing Jack’s attention back to him. “Seein’ as he died of a brain tumor. He said he didn’t even remember writin’ the note. But I just couldn’t make myself throw it away.” He glanced down at Jack’s hands and winced. “Shit. Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you or anythin’.”
Jack looked down at his hands, puzzled, and was surprised to see a wedding ring on his finger. He searched his memory frantically but all he could come up with were images of an Italian woman crying in his arms, a lawyer showing up at his office with papers for him to sign and a woman...no, a man...no...both...possibly in different universes... sprawled across a bed in Thailand. “Oh,” he said. “No, I’m divorced.” ‘Sarah left me in every universe,’ he added silently. But while he was pretty sure he had still been licking his wounds when he’d gotten on the plane to Australia, now he realized that it didn’t matter. She had already moved on. There was no reason he couldn’t do the same.
He slipped the ring from his finger, stared at it for a couple moments longer, and then reached over to drop it in the seat pocket in front of him.
James smirked, amused. “You sure ‘bout that?”
Jack smiled, feeling like a weight had finally been lifted from his shoulders. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
James searched his eyes for a minute and nodded appreciatively. “Tell you what...”
He set his book down on the seat between them and reached into his back pocket, retrieving his wallet. Jack glanced down at the cover of the book and suppressed the urge to laugh out loud. ‘Lord of the Flies’.
James fished a business card from his wallet and held it out to Jack. “Here’s my card. You ever need anythin’, you give me a call.”
Jack felt his eyebrows creep upward. “Anything?”
James shrugged. “Well...long’s it don’t involve breakin’ the law. Might have to arrest you after all.” There was a hint of playful suggestion in his voice and Jack felt his skin tingle as the idea of putting Sawyer’s handcuffs to new use sprang into his mind.
Jack glanced down at the card. ‘Detective James Ford,’ it read. ‘Los Angeles Police Department, 42nd precinct.’ “Are you hitting on me, Detective,” he asked, trying to keep his tone light and teasing and not sound desperate.
James smiled charmingly. “Yeah, I guess I am. So...can I buy you a drink sometime, Doc?”
Jack smiled back, feeling his body relax for the first time since he’d woken up. “Yeah,” he said. “I’d like that.”
THE END
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Date: 2010-09-19 05:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-20 02:38 am (UTC)