Title: I Saw a Man on the News Today
Author: augrah
Fandom: Lost
Rating: PG
Spoilers: slight for 4x09
Summary: Of all the people in the world, he was the last she ever expected to see. Ben/Kate 30 minute fic.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, etc. For entertainment only.

For crazy_pill, as a gift to her mad skillz, and as a bribe for her to make oodles and oodles of icons. :D


~o~

Kate saw him on the news. She figured they all did.

Celebrity.

Celebrity for being alive, for being a ghost from a sunken ship, a symbol of humanity’s survival. And through the aching and the motherhood and the guilt and denial there was always the knowledge that they were out there, somewhere, hiding the same shadows as she was.

So when she saw Sayid on the news, a widowed husband to a dead wife, she had truly been sorry. She had hoped that at least one of them could have found happiness. But even through her sorrow, there was a strange sense of satisfaction of knowing that it wasn’t the case.

So the months passed. And she lied. And she pretended. And she took care of a child not her own, loved him instead of feeling pain for the ones left behind. She hid from the spotlight, from the cameras, from the shadows.

It all ended when Jack called her. Begged her to meet him at the airport. But he wasn’t the man she once knew. And she wasn’t the woman she once was. So turning away had been easy. It was as if they were strangers. Strangers instead of survivors.

And besides, he would be waiting.

Aaron. Her son. He belonged to her as much as he had belonged to Claire. She had cared for him longer than his mother had. It was all becoming too easy. A life created, a life lived. Everything just happened; there was nothing anybody could do to change it.

But then she drove home. Her dark home where she knew her son rested near his nanny, where everything was safe.

Except her front door was open.

Except the hall light wouldn’t turn on.

Except when she started to run for the stairs to check on Aaron, she saw a figure lingering in the darkness instead.

Content in the darkness.

“Hello, Kate.”

Her eyes closed without checking with her first. And she felt a wave of revulsion dizzy its way through her body before settling in her stomach. When she opened her eyes he had turned on a small lamp. And she saw. Saw what she didn’t want to see.

Ben.

Ben sitting in her favourite armchair.

Ben, with her sleeping son in his arms.

She took a few hard steps forward before he raised his hand to stop her.

“Shhh,” he whispered, his hand pushing back Aaron’s hair. “He just got back to sleep.”

“Where’s. . .” But he interrupted her, again shushing her to silence.

“She’s fine. Just a little bump on the head. Your nanny will be right as rain by morning.”

Kate took another step forward, her body stiffening. “Give me my son and leave.”

Ben merely smiled in response, again gazing down at the sleeping toddler in his arms. “It’s amazing how fast they grow, isn’t it? It seems like they will be this small forever. You convince yourself nothing will ever change. And then before you know it, they are teenagers.” He looked up at Kate, continuing, a new edge in his voice. “They hate you. They want nothing to do with you. It all just goes by so fast.”

He pushed back Aaron’s hair off his forehead and the child shifted in his arms, turning towards Ben. Towards his warmth.

And it was only the fear of what he would do that kept Kate standing still. “What do you want?” she asked, seething.

“I have no intention of kidnapping your child, Kate. I think he has had enough of that already. I just wanted to. . . see how you were. To make sure you are doing okay. It seems this whole Oceanic Six thing has been more of a burden then a blessing. So many of you just unable to adjust.”

There was a threat in his voice, a knowledge of more. As always he smiled at himself, at his unceasing power. Still acting as if he had popped over for a friendly afternoon visit.

He stood and Kate tensed. But he merely took a few steps towards her, holding Aaron in his arms. He offered and Kate quickly snatched her son, holding him tight to her chest.

And Ben smiled.

He smiled.

“Well, I should let you get your rest. Late night airport meetings can be so exhausting, don’t you think?”

“What do you want?” she asked again.

But he was silent, reaching to touch Aaron’s forehead again before walking to the door.

“You know you should really get better locks, Kate. You never know who might try to get in.”

He smiled again, bowed his head in goodbye and walked out of the house, down the sidewalk.

“What do you want?” she asked, begged.

He turned, grinning. “Take care, Kate. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”

And he walked to the fence, turned at the sidewalk, walked slowly away, his body disappearing and reappearing with the street lamps.

Holding in a shudder, Kate went inside, locking and bolting the door. And her eyes clenched, and she leaned against the door, slipping down until she was sitting on the floor, Aaron still curled in her arms. And she covered her eyes. And she cried.

And down the street, Ben whistled as he walked.

~o~

FIN

Well, it could have been better. But hey – that’s the whole fun of 30 minute fics!