Title: Positive
Rating: PG
Summary: Does she really want to know? No. But she needs to.
Disclaimer: I do not own Lost. At all. I wish but alas...
Author's Note: Used for philosophy_20, prompt #1: birth.



“We don’t have very long before they notice that we’re gone,” Juliet tells her, handing her a rectangular box. Kate nods a few times, takes it from her with a stiff hand. She hates that she had to ask Juliet for this. But not as much as she hates not knowing.

“You can’t…” Kate takes a deep breath. “You’re not going to…”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Juliet replies, nodding slowly, her voice as even as ever. Kate nods back, walking into the bathroom at the far end of the hatch. She slides the door closed the door from the other side, leaning back against it and closing her eyes.

She doesn’t know how long it’s going to take her to work up the courage. She doesn’t know how long she’s going to be in this bathroom. But she’s slightly comforted by the fact that she hears Juliet’s footsteps clipping softly as she leaves.

Setting the box down on the counter, she looks at it, studies it. She doesn’t remember it being this hard the first time. She remembers holding the stick in her hand after. Her hands were shaking and there were tears in her eyes. To this day, she doesn’t know whether she was relieved or disappointed.

But now…now there’s a hard knot of fear in the center of her chest, and all she can think about is what will happen if the test is positive, of what that will mean, of how everything will fall apart even more than it already has. She can barely breathe as it is, can barely think.

She nearly goes crazy waiting. The box tells her it will take a minute and a half, and she paces the length of the bathroom for every second of it, looking down at her watch, watching second after second pass by. Tick, tick, tick. Until five, four, three, two, one. And then her eyes close and she takes a deep breath.

Does she really want to know? No. But she needs to. She turns around, walks over to the counter, and tilts her head down. She stops breathing.

She’s pregnant.