Lost Fic: Family Portrait (Jack/Kate)
8/18/10 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ozmissageTitle: Family Portrait
Characters: Jack/Kate, Aaron
Rating: PG
Words: 444
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: They eat and she counts how many times Jack refills his wine glass as she listens to Aaron babble about his toy train.
A/N: For queens![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
angela_weber and we_are_as_gods who requested the Shephard family.
The ring twists on her finger, half a size too big; Jack promises to get it resized, but he never remembers, not even when she slips it into his jacket pocket before work. She’s glad she doesn’t believe in signs.
She takes it off while she’s making dinner, puts it in a little saucer shaped like a cow. Aaron picked it out one afternoon when she forced him to come along on a shopping trip; it was the only thing that could shake him from his sullen mood.
He’s watching her make the spaghetti, his blue eyes staring intently at the bubbling mess of sauce simmering on the stove top. He reminds her of Claire when he gets that look, so curious and open, just like his mother. She shakes the noodles into the boiling water and tries not to remember that she’ll never see herself in him.
Jack comes home, follows the smell of garlic into the kitchen. He grins too widely for it to be real, kisses her on the cheek. She smells the liquor on his breath, but she grins back. It’s an easy lie.
They eat and she counts how many times Jack refills his wine glass as she listens to Aaron babble about his toy train. This is good, Jack says between sips. Really good.
After the plates are cleared, she kisses Aaron goodnight, smooths his wispy bangs out of his eyes and hands Jack a copy of Goodnight Moon. He smiles and picks Aaron up, swinging him through the air making the room echo with his happy squeals. Night, Mommy! he calls over Jack’s shoulder as they head towards the stairs.
Kate leaves the dishes in the sink and heads upstairs to sit on her own bed, in her own room, to practice telling him to leave. This isn’t going to work out, Jack. Not if you won’t stop…
She leans back on the bed and stares at the white ceiling until her eyes begin to blur. She’s not sure what exactly it is she wants him to stop doing. Drinking, fading, fighting---the door opens and she feels the bed dip as he sinks down beside her.
Hey, he says. This time the smile is real, she can always tell. She smiles back.
Hey, yourself.
They lie facing each other, Jack’s hand resting on the slope of her hip. She reaches out to run her hand across the stubble on his chin, and her ring slips from her finger. Jack laughs and sets it on his nightstand. I’ll get it fixed tomorrow.
Kate kisses him then, forgets about telling him to go, at least for one more night.
Characters: Jack/Kate, Aaron
Rating: PG
Words: 444
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: They eat and she counts how many times Jack refills his wine glass as she listens to Aaron babble about his toy train.
A/N: For queens
angela_weber and we_are_as_gods who requested the Shephard family. The ring twists on her finger, half a size too big; Jack promises to get it resized, but he never remembers, not even when she slips it into his jacket pocket before work. She’s glad she doesn’t believe in signs.
She takes it off while she’s making dinner, puts it in a little saucer shaped like a cow. Aaron picked it out one afternoon when she forced him to come along on a shopping trip; it was the only thing that could shake him from his sullen mood.
He’s watching her make the spaghetti, his blue eyes staring intently at the bubbling mess of sauce simmering on the stove top. He reminds her of Claire when he gets that look, so curious and open, just like his mother. She shakes the noodles into the boiling water and tries not to remember that she’ll never see herself in him.
Jack comes home, follows the smell of garlic into the kitchen. He grins too widely for it to be real, kisses her on the cheek. She smells the liquor on his breath, but she grins back. It’s an easy lie.
They eat and she counts how many times Jack refills his wine glass as she listens to Aaron babble about his toy train. This is good, Jack says between sips. Really good.
After the plates are cleared, she kisses Aaron goodnight, smooths his wispy bangs out of his eyes and hands Jack a copy of Goodnight Moon. He smiles and picks Aaron up, swinging him through the air making the room echo with his happy squeals. Night, Mommy! he calls over Jack’s shoulder as they head towards the stairs.
Kate leaves the dishes in the sink and heads upstairs to sit on her own bed, in her own room, to practice telling him to leave. This isn’t going to work out, Jack. Not if you won’t stop…
She leans back on the bed and stares at the white ceiling until her eyes begin to blur. She’s not sure what exactly it is she wants him to stop doing. Drinking, fading, fighting---the door opens and she feels the bed dip as he sinks down beside her.
Hey, he says. This time the smile is real, she can always tell. She smiles back.
Hey, yourself.
They lie facing each other, Jack’s hand resting on the slope of her hip. She reaches out to run her hand across the stubble on his chin, and her ring slips from her finger. Jack laughs and sets it on his nightstand. I’ll get it fixed tomorrow.
Kate kisses him then, forgets about telling him to go, at least for one more night.
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no subject
Date: 8/19/10 04:47 am (UTC)She’s not sure what exactly it is she wants him to stop doing. Drinking, fading, fighting---the door opens and she feels the bed dip as he sinks down beside her.
and just like that, moment by moment, you pull the two halves of the story together :) I also like how you added aaron here (there, in the background, but there). he's always a hard character for me to write. lovely fic!
no subject
Date: 8/19/10 07:00 pm (UTC)I hate writing kids. It's so hard. I have written an adult Aaron though and that was fun. (Mostly because in my head adult Aaron is like a slightly, creepy enlightened young Locke. I'm never letting go of my Aaron theories, never.) ;)
no subject
Date: 8/19/10 05:19 am (UTC)This time the smile is real, she can always tell. She smiles back
breaks my heart. And that she's lying in her bed, practicing telling him to go, is so believable and sad. Fantastic ficlet.
no subject
Date: 8/19/10 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/19/10 03:57 pm (UTC)Oh, damn. Those two.Wonderful, I really think you captured their relationship off the island for those three years.
no subject
Date: 8/19/10 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/19/10 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/20/10 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/19/10 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/20/10 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 8/20/10 01:47 am (UTC)Speaking of awesome first and last lines recently, this is AMAZING. Like, perfect, perfect, perfect. Just a glimpse and it says so much about them. And the rest -- all the "easy lies" about him and herself and Aaron; it's so incredible the tableau you paint. The ending too, is such an awesome call-back to the beginning, and again, just perfection. I wish I had more brain power to express myself right now, but suffice to say I love this.
no subject
Date: 8/20/10 03:38 am (UTC)