madwomanwithabox

Title: Waiting Is
Fandom: LOST
Pairings: Jacket (Juliet/Jack), Jate (Jack/Kate)
Rating: NC17 for some graphic language and heavy sexual content...i.e., overall HAWT
Warnings: graphic sexual content, spoilers for LOST S3 up through MAN FROM TALLAHASSEE, and speculation that could be spoilery. Y'know...if it actually HAPPENS.
Summary: AU version of the iconic scene from MAN FROM TALLAHASSEE

A/N: my take on the big moment from MFT, to keep from being too spoilery...hee. I love Jate. I love Jacket. But Jate pwns. This is the result.

Dedicated to and beta'd by rogueapprentice, the Jack to my Kate. Maybe now that muse'll finally WAKE UP. KATE MISSES YOU. ;P Also dedicated to lollobrigida, the Juliet to my Jack, and mysticxf, who gave me Jate cake. Hee!

Oh, and while beta'd? If it sucks, blame only me. Ready? Then ON we go!

* * * * *

They’re kissing when she reaches the door.

Her hand stills on the knob, eyes transfixed as she sees them through the wire mesh...Kate on her knees before him, their hands locked as their foreheads touch, their lips meeting a moment later. Time seems to stop, but maybe it’s just the two of them...every movement unhurried and excruciatingly slow as they sink deeper and further into the warm, hungry touch of mouth against mouth. Within moments the contact grows more frenzied...and yet there’s still no hurry. Tongues delve and taste, hands lift to touch cheeks and faces, clutch slim shoulders, but every sensation and flavor is taken in...remembered, cherished.

Juliet can almost feel his lips on hers...what it might be like to be kissed that way. To be known just by being touched.

Jack rises from the chair and wraps his arms around her. Juliet sees the split-second hesitation as Kate’s hands rest on his chest...barred from holding, restrained from touching as the cuffs bite into her skin.

He presses her back onto the pool table and pulls back her clothing to get what he wants...what he needs. Her shirt lifts so he can nuzzle her belly, the soft cup of her bra nosed aside so he can taste the curve of her breast. Her jeans unzip and tug down...quick but unhurried, brisk but deliberate and decisive.

Juliet knows Kate is already wet and wanting, because she’s in the same state. She wants to be Kate...wants to suspend herself in a moment like the one she feels ashamed to be watching as Jack hesitates, leaning over her body and simply staring.

She watches him push into Kate’s body with his cock, and into Kate’s soul with his gaze, both at the same time.

It’s the only time, and that’s what makes it this way...fast and quiet and a little rough, but with no rush to any of it. They have to remember...they have to hold on, because they’ll never touch this way again.

When they come, it’s at the same time, bodies tensing and cries muffled in each other’s skin. Juliet sees Jack turn his head, lips to her ear, leaving Kate’s profile bare to Juliet.

She can’t see what he says, but she can read the ‘I know’ that comes from Kate’s lips as she finally loops her cuffed arms over his head and holds on as best she can.

She waits until they’re both dressed before she finally opens the door and walks in.

* * * * *

After the submarine is blown up, Jack accepts Ben’s offer to go back to the beach...to be free, as agreed.

He asks Juliet to go with him.

They explain to the other survivors about Sayid, Locke, and Kate...how they couldn’t come back with them. He never says her name...Juliet thinks she’s not the only one who notices.

Within days, Jack is their leader again. Within a week, Juliet begins to find herself in the same position as she does her part...helping, chipping in, earning crumbs of trust and larger portions of respect. She answers questions, shares their joys, and eases Jack’s burden by tending the few instances of minor injury around the camp that would otherwise be his responsibility.

At the end of three weeks, he finally comes to her on the beach and kisses her for the first time. Within days, she’s sharing his tent.

He’s always respectful of her...eager and attentive, even affectionate, but the fervor of passion takes him every time...rushes the moment. He misses things as he explores her body...as he moves with her, she only ever feels his flesh, hard and hot sheathed in her wetness.

The weeks melt into months, and their lives are wonderful. There are rough times, and Jack is careful to apologize when he hurts her in an argument.

Her sins are forgiven, day by day...Juliet knows this beyond question. She finally wakes up one morning to find she’s a part of their family when Sun asks for her the day she delivers a healthy baby girl.

Sun’s daughter is a year old the day Jack asks her to marry him...a symbolic gesture. He never says he loves her...she lost her chance to ever see him say those words when he hid his face in the curve of Kate’s neck.

Juliet says nothing...she never does. She just smiles and kisses him, carefully making sure she frames his face with her hands instead of reaching for him. She can’t bear to feel his body freeze or see his face pale whenever she tries.

Jack doesn’t allow her to hold him...and he never holds her.

She can forgive him that, just as she can forgive him when he makes love to her that night. She can forgive him for letting desire sweep him away, for letting the feel of her touch and the ministrations of her body filter through him. She understands he will always be in too much of a hurry to love her the way he loved on the other side of a wire mesh window.

It takes patience to wait for something, and Jack is a patient man.

But she will never be the one that Jack is waiting for.