Far Away .for. Far Too Long (Jake)

[Marie Kennedy]

There was nothing for her, out there. Nothing that could possibly attract her in L.A, and so, Marie remained locked up in her room. She almost nothing of this town, and the less she knew, the better off she was. What she did knew was that she had a 'home', possibly just a few miles away from her comfy hotel bedroom. A home she had never desired, but that her mother bought for the two of them, anyway. This house, apartment, or whatever was rightfully hers, and she could certainly travel to it freely, but the teenager wasn't going to. Everything allowed her to do so, mostly all the money the Oceanic airline had provided her, but the teenager did not wanted that place anymore than she had, three months ago.

She had pulled one of the small notebooks the hotel offered, as well as a pen, out of a drawer, and she had been sketching random things on it for more than a good while. There she was, pathetically sketching, waiting for her life to magically have a sense. She hadn't done any significant effort to take her life in her own hands, ever since they had came back to the civilization, and Marie was determined to deny that she would have to do something, sooner or later.

She had been forced to leave everything behind, three months ago, with no hope to see any of it again, and now that she was 'dead' to all of them, things weren't much different, but somehow easier. She was loosing notion of the time that ticked by until the phone resting on the hand table rang suddenly, startling her. She stared at it curiously, waiting for it to ring again, and when it did, she picked the phone up.

'' Yeah? '' She said, her tone flat as she glared back at the growling polar bear she had been sketching.

'' Good evening, Ms. Kennedy?''

'' Yup... ''

'' Sorry to disturb you, '' The feminine voice responded, her tone very light and somewhat 'ass-licking'. '' but there is a young man here who demands to see you. ''

'' Who? '' Her answer came out after a short silence, and her voice was now curious, almost worried. The only thing that came to mind was a lawyer, or some noisy journalist. The survivors were attractive to them, most certainly the orphaned teenager.

'' A certain Mr.Poncelet... He claims to know you. '' The woman seemed sceptic about the information she had been given, and she waited for an answer, but it wasn't about to come. The teenager tore her gaze off from her notebook and stared right in front of her, dropping her pen, shocked by the sudden familiarity of the name she just heard. The name was not the one of a Journalist. She didn't know any journalist or lawyer, and so no person of that kind could've triggered that sudden emptiness in her chest. The name was familiar. She knew that Mr. Poncelet. She gasped with sudden recognition, lowering the phone to her chest.

It couldn't be Jake Poncelet. The boy she fell in love with. The same person she had shared the past year with couldn't be standing in this very hotel. Jake was in Sydney, were she was forced to leave him. Jake wouldn't try to find her. Jake was supposed to think she was dead. It was a lie, some sort of sadistic trick to make her feel like she had some sort of world, after all. Jake was in Sydney, and Marie was in L.A. Her throat was suddenly burning, preventing her from breathing for a few seconds, and she heard her name being called out. The memories and the existence of that young man were real, but his very presence here couldn't be. Marie wouldn't be foolish enough to hope for the contrary. However, the woman's voice came out from the phone again, wary and forcing her to answer something.

'' Yeah... I'm... tell him to wait. '' She couldn't manage any other words out of her throat and she hung up the phone quickly, before she could hear the woman's answer. The air found its way to her lungs trough her nose after she had shut her mouth to press her lips together. What was she going to do ? Would she really torture herself into believing that Jake had found her, and go downstairs to spot his face, somewhere?

She picked up the oversized pair of jeans from the ground and slipped them on, quickly, before storming out of her room. She headed for the elevator and pressed the 'lobby' button, her every moves zombie-like. Her face was blank and she brought her fingers to her mouth when the doors of the elevator sprung open again, to let her out into the wide lobby. She chewed on her nails nervously as she traveled further into the almost empty hall. She was still convinced that she would be deceived. Jake wouldn't be there, and the only reason she was walking trough the lobby was for some masochist purpose. She needed to see for herself that she was being tricked. A part of her was ready to scream victoriously the second she would spot the impostor that faked to be her boyfriend.

The lobby was silent, she could only hear some employees chatting cheerfully, but other than them, no one was going around the wide circular room. She heard some distant laughs behind the reception counter that she had just reached. A woman stood there and Marie seeked her glance, and when she obtained it, the receptionist answered her questioning look by pointing out a chair, further away to their right. She followed her direction and spotted a tall masculine figure, sitting thoughtfully in one of the chairs, his back turned on her.

Her teeth were now sinking into her fingers rather than her fingernails, and she went straight for him. What a clever bastard. Not only did he think to use the familiar name to trigger her attention, but it also thought about getting this familiarly old leather jacket. Time seemed faster than her steps, which she felt were very slow and careful. Her barefoot tapping on the cold ground were causing soft 'taps' sounds, but they were soon covered by the pounding of her heart in her ears as she made her way around the chair, her eyes burning with expectations or tears. The short girl was soon standing right in front of the chair and she stopped dead in her tracks.

She let out a gasp, or maybe a breath, or even a sob. Whatever it was, Marie didn't hear it. All she knew was that her lips were parted and that Jake Poncelet was really standing in front of her.

[jakeponcelet]

There were no survivors from Oceanic Flight 815. That's what had been repeated to Jake over and over again over the course of the past three months. He could remember where he had been when he had first heard about the crash as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. Standing in line at the liquor store, a headline on one of the newspapers caught his attention and his stomach had dropped through the floor.

At first he only felt numb. It wasn't like hadn't said goodbye to her before, knowing full way that he might never see her again, and if her mother had her way, he never would have. He didn't know why he had always come off as so much of a threat to Mrs. Kennedy, but figuring it had something to do with his being older than Marie, it didn't matter how hard he tried to gain her favor when the deciding factor in his likability was something he had zero control over.

So he had never tried very hard to impress the woman. Sure, he had never been anything but civil and polite, but Jake wasn't the type to bend over backwards just to earn someone's approval. He wasn't a kiss-ass. The only time he went even remotely out of his way to show Mrs. Kennedy that he was responsible was when Marie asked him to. Marie.

Jake had fallen for a few girls before meeting her, but none of them had or would ever come close to her and what they had together. She was insane, that much was true, but she was the good kind of crazy. The kind that could keep up with the stunts he pulled, even when he told her firmly to stay home. Used to taking care of no one other than himself, Jake became extremely protective of her and would have thought nothing of slitting a throat if it meant keeping her safe. Of course when it really counted, he hadn't protected her.

He hadn't kept her from getting on that plane, and that was something he would regret for the rest of his life. If he had done something, anything to keep her mother from taking her away, then he never would have had to face arguably the worst three months he had ever lived.

He had made a conscious decision to let her go. What he was thinking at the time, Jake had no idea. He could have asked her to run away with him, kidnapped her, killed her mom- something. His mind had run to the extreme and back during all the time he had alone to reflect. The exact date he had snapped was unknown, but it had happened, and when he picked up that fateful newspaper and read that damn article about the crash of Flight 815, Jake's brain had done the only thing left to do. Shut down.

Jake spent countless hours shut away in his little room, putting away bottle after bottle after bottle of booze like he had forgotten how to do anything else. He lost his job and most of his friends during that darkest period of the first month, and nothing but Marie herself knocking on the door could have brought him out of it. She was dead and nothing else mattered to him anymore.

Eventually, he had come out of his room and gotten another job, but Jake wasn't the same person he used to be. He was more detached than before, less responsive to the rest of the world. No one besides Donna seemed to be bothered by this, and thanks to her he had managed to get some of his bearings back, but it was never the same.

So when Jake had heard that there were survivors of the crash, he reacted as quickly as he wish he would have the second she announced she was leaving. With a little research, he found out that most of the survivors were in L.A., and with a little more research he found the out the exact hotel. Running on impulse, he put all of his savings toward a plane ticket (of all things) and jetted out on the earliest flight he could book.

And now he sat tense in the lobby, his hands drumming a restless tattoo into his thigh. He wondered if she even remembered who he was. All that time stranded must have affected her somehow, and there was a chance when it came down to it, he might not have been that high up on the list of people she would have wanted to see before she died. The absolute worst case scenario would be to come face-to-face only to have her look at him blankly- 'Jake who?

Shit, shit, shit, fuck. Maybe this was just another mistake. He still had time to book for the front door, and he probably would have done just that if it weren't for a sudden gasp. Jake looked up slowly, a breath caught in his throat at the sight of the petite figure standing before him.

'"Marie," he choked out, standing up and wrapping his arms around her so tightly, that it seemed he was under the impression she would fall apart if he let go.

[Marie Kennedy]

Jake was there. It wasn't some sort of joke, no impostor - it was just him. She was still kidding herself that it could be some kind of set up, but the second he looked up and that their eyes met, there was no further doubts allowed. His dark stare pierced right trough her soul with its outstanding familiarity, and memories as well as worries that had been buried in the very depths of herself crawled back to the surface, gasping desperately for air. His very glance brought too many questions and realisations. A part of her realised why she had resented the idea of seeing him again, because his very presence could make her realise how she had missed him, how much she loved him, and how he was absolutely all she had left...

She had realised that way too long ago, but she had buried that fact like she had with a tons of other things, like maybe the fact that her mother was dead, and she came to realise that yet again - all in one single pair of eyes. Nothing had told her that he was capable of coming for her, that he was capable of waiting for her when she was declared dead to the world. She had been selfish enough to dream about some foolishness of that kind, but now it was supposed to be ... real ?

No. No it couldn't be real. Even if he had just got up, his height completely revealed and shadowing over her, and that he had just chocked out her name, which send tingles in her stomach again, eating her alive from the inside. Another sob escaped her lips. It was a dream. It had to be.

Marie's face was soon resting against his chest, and the teenager froze into place to the sudden contact. Very slowly, and really carefully, she rose a hand up to put it on his back, tentatively, still expecting him to turn to ashes the second she would try to reach out for him. But he was there... She could fell him with her own flesh. Jake was there. The air she was trying to breath got stuck in her burning throat, and her green eyes were itching. His hold on her was tight, while she remained shaky and uncertain. The proof was there, however, and the girl brought up another hand on his back.

''Oh my god...'' The words escaped her lips in a painful whisper, he voice choking. She closed her eyes and gave herself fully into the embrace, wrapping her arms around his waist tightly. She allowed herself to breathe again, and the air escaped her body, leaving burned scars on her lungs and throat, but she was oblivious to it all. She could hear Jake's heart pounding, and she had the impression to hurt him while she clung to him so desperately, her fingers sinking in his leather jacket, and all of that only meant that his presence was real. She didn’t know how much time passed as she stood there, sobbing in his arms and savouring his touch, his scent, his presence, his… everything.

'' Oh god, Jake... '' Her hands traveled up to his shoulders to try and pull away, but her every moves were extremely slow and hesitant, most likely fragile, yet again. She pulled away very slowly, assuming that he would cooperate, that he would allow her to look at him again. There was still a faint fear lurking in the back of her mind that he would've suddenly morphed into someone else, ready to laugh at her cruelly for thinking that she deserved the relief of seeing Jake again, of witnessing that he was safe and sound. Jesus.

He might've been trough some sort of hell… on all the levels imaginable, mostly if he had gone trough all the trouble of coming up here all on his own. What a complete idiot… She felt horribly guilty all of a sudden as she looked up to him again. She studied his face very carefully, for what seemed an eternity and she pressed her lips together, searching for something to say. So much had to be said, so much… but a question was all she managed to gasp out.

‘’ Why… How did you get here ? ‘’ It sounded wrong, when she heard herself. It sounded like she had just reproached him of finding her, but however, her wet eyes were enough to let him know better.

[jakeponcelet]

He held onto her for who knew how long, as if stuck in one of those cheesy lifetime dramas. If he had been told that this was the direction his life was to take, that a girl would come to mean so much to him that he would travel all the way to L.A. to see her again, Jake would have laughed until his jaw ached. He had never depended on anyone other than himself before, and that Marie was this important that he was actually getting choked up over her, meant something big. Jake did not do choked up.

Carefully he touched her hair. Like she was some kind of fragile doll that had to be handled with care. He could feel her breathing as she rested against his chest, her heart beating like a butterfly trying to get free of a net. This was what he had gone so many miles to find.

He said nothing at first, his eyes closed gently to shut out everything else- not only the other people in the lobby, but his doubts, his fears. Just the very idea that he might have lost Marie forever, that he could have very well shown up only to find out that she hadn't survived the crash and that he was stuck in a city with no way to get back home alone would have been more than he would have been able to take. A lot was riding on this meeting to say the least.

But now the best was confirmed. She had survived somehow, and now he had a second chance to take care of her the way he was supposed to, the way he always should have. He had taken her for granted before. There was no denying that, but now with this second chance he would have to find some way to prove to Marie that he could be everything she needed him to be.

"I had to come," he said, his lids slowly sliding open. Jake was determined to keep his voice from shaking, but it was a loosing battle, "I had to see you again. I had to know you were still alive."

He purposely avoided answering her question since he knew she would have hit him smack in the mouth if she knew how much this trip had cost him, starting with his job and ending with most of his savings. The money didn't matter to him anymore, and it wasn't something Marie would be able to understand.

He pulled back, grasping her firmly by the shoulders, scrutinizing her facial expression. "Have you eaten?" he asked, his voice laced with genuine concern.

Now that his new focus in life was to make sure she was taken care of properly, the least he could do was get her something to eat.

[Marie Kennedy]

She kept her eyes locked on his the best way she could, hoping that they would stop burning the way they did. It did felt like she was about to cry, but she didn't want to, and so she would use all the strength left in herself to keep the tears from escaping her eyes. She had enough of crying, although it was different this time, she still had enough. Now she had some sort of reason to cry. She wasn't just crying to herself pathetically, and although those could be referred to as tears of joy or relief, she still didn't want to let them show. The teenager pressed her lips together, trying not to remember why she had cried so much during the past months, and she studied his face, waiting for his response nervously. She studied him silently and closely, noticing some sort of change in him.

She knew all too well that he was willingly not answering the question concretely. He knew how she could react, that was for sure. He knew that although the result of his actions were worth it, that they had offered her the things she wanted the most, she was still bound to disapprove of what he had done to accomplish it. And he would've been predictably right. So she titled her head to the side lightly, her gaze saddening to his words. She knew that whatever he had done to get here wouldn't please her, but she couldn't completely bring herself to be mad at him. Marie had no strength left to reproach him, she was just too happy to see him safe, and the confession he had just made caused the air to get stuck in her throat. She bit her lip and looked down as she tugged at the bottom of his coat pointlessly, one of her countless peculiar quirks when avoiding his gaze.

So he did believed her dead, at some point. That was more than understandable, but it stroke her with guilt once again. What could she possibly tell him? She wanted to apologize, but she remained silent. She hated to know that Jake would've done stupid things, wasted his money or even spent hours worrying all because of her. She hated to know that he might've been in pain, all because of her and the fact that she had to follow her mother on that plane.

His next move somehow startled her and she looked up to him quickly as he stared at her warily. His question came out fast, and was more than unexpected. Eating? When was the last time she had done that... Right. She did went for one hell of a big breakfast, the precedent day. She remembered it only because of the fact that she had followed a grumpy Sawyer all the way to the restaurant, and because the idea of eating more or less came from him, in the first place. But ever since then ? She probably had a snack, here and then, but no proper lunch. No. She hadn't eaten.

'' No, '' She chuckled lightly to his somehow sweet concern. '' No, I didn't. '' She responded softly, her lips cracking into some sort of ashamed grin. He was down right capable of reproaching this to her, not that this was his main goal for now, as far as she could tell. She studied him even longer, her grin slowly disappearing as she realised what was different about him. He did looked thinner, somehow, and his tone paler, but god how could she tell. She hadn't seen him in forever, but she still returned the question with more or less the same kind of concern. '' Did you? ''

[jakeponcelet]

It was bad enough that she was in tears, but what was even worse was that he himself could feel the little bastards trying to well their way up into his eyes. But he blinked them back, and focused on the here and the now, not the past in which they had almost been torn apart. He wasn't the type to get emotional- the type of guy who preferred to leave history as history and not dwell on the negative. The here and the now was far more important, and he wasn't going to endorse a sob fest anytime soon, even if she could easily make the point that it was called for.

So his eyes shifted away until Marie was able to pull herself back together. And he didn't pretend that she didn't notice him side-stepping her question either- neither of them were stupid enough to fall for the other's tricks, and while it might have been nice to get away with things every once in a while, Jake honestly wouldn't have it any other way. Marie challenged him, and there weren't many girls he could say the same for. That's what made her special. That's what made her unique.

He met her gaze once again, and found himself troubled by her expression. This was supposed to be a happy moment, and obviously he wasn't being a good enough boyfriend if he couldn't get her to smile at least once at their reunion. His stomach twisted south, and his hand found hers, giving it a tight squeeze.

She went on to inform him that she hadn't eaten. Big shocker right there. Marie never had a big appetite, and she was so stubborn about her eating habits, that he could only worry about her. And Jake was tired of worrying. He had worried enough to last him the rest of his life, so some changes needed to be made in their relationship, that was for sure.

"Knew it," he said with a crooked smile, ignoring her as she fired the question right back at him. Solution to relationship problem #1? He would only allow Marie to bother with her own personal well-being, and it needed to be made clear that he could take care of the both of them just fine. He needed that much.

Casually, he dropped her hand and slipped an arm around her shoulder. "Let's go back up to your room and order up," he insisted. If he gave her the chance to be picky then it was a chance she would certainly seize.

He led them over to the elevators, but paused at the shiny metallic doors, turning to her sheepishly, "Which floor are you on? I fail as a stalker, I know."

[Marie Kennedy]

Marie sighed, admitting defeat yet again as her tired glance shifted down to their hands. That made two intentional strikes at avoiding her questions in just a few minutes but she wouldn't let him get away with it if he got past the limit of three. However long it might have taken him to get here and no matter how he managed it, he would need to eat, and later on he wouldn’t be allowed to shrug off her investigation. She didn’t personally care about ordering anything, but she definitely would, if only to stuck it down his throat and force him to swallow it.

Jake wouldn’t be caught dead, caring openly about his own well being, and she knew that all too well, but he also knew how it angered her, and thus prompted her to take care of his own ass very carefully. However, right now, she could not bring herself to feel the slightest bit of anger, toward him, and a very light grin even established itself on her lips, proving that she was making an astonishing job at keeping herself together.

She stared up at him curiously as he spoke, allowing him to slip his arm around her. Now, not only was he evasive to her questions, but he was taking decisions for the both of them, therefore sending their inexistent conversation flying another way. She cleared her throat in a hurry, so that her voice could come out as dry and casual as possible.

‘’ Geez, fine, boss! ‘’ She sighed, her tone sarcastic and accompanied by an irritated roll of her eyes, but she let him lead her away, all the same. The girl secured both her arms around her boyfriend’s waist and they made their way further away into the hall, toward the elevators.

The oversized jeans she was wearing wouldn’t even let her feet show, and it seemed unavoidable that it would make her trip fatally, but it also seemed that if the fall occurred, she wouldn’t let go of Jake. It was already such a heavy burden; to keep herself together, not to let her eyes show how this reunion affected her in all sort of shitty ways, and not to let herself blurt out some sort of cheesy crap. He wasn’t a big fan of those, nor was she, hence how peculiar it was that she still managed to say the very kind of things that annoyed her.

However, she couldn’t prevent her body from clinging to the reality, to reassure itself that he was there and that he wasn’t getting away. Marie needed at least that kind of security, right now. She needed to stay close to him, to mentally thank whatever had allowed him to come back to her. He was the only thing she wanted, yet probably didn’t deserve, after the hell of craphole Island.
She spun her head around, toward him, when they came to an halt and that he questioned her about her exact floor. She grinned lightly and extended her hand forward to press the ‘up’ button. ‘’ You do fail! ‘’ She commented, trying to sound disappointed.

It took a little while before the doors opened to let the latest ‘passengers’ out. Then, they were all free to get in. Marie stepped in first and pressed the button of her floor, and then the door closed in on them, and the elevator fell silent. Oddly enough, the teenager didn’t mind the silent and didn’t find herself fumbling for something to say. The small elevator felt safe, the silence even felt safe, and Jake’s presence felt way over that. Maybe it wasn’t the same for him, but she still didn’t do anything to break the silence. Instead, she closed her eyes and pulled him into another hug.

She sighed, exhausted and completely distressed. God. He really was there.