World's Apart

Her

Jack froze, his heart pounding in his chest.

It was her.

Erica.

Her silky brown hair blew gently in the breeze. She wore a knee length white dress with red polka dots. In her hand she clutched the handle of a medium sized suitcase.

Her eyes met and she half smiled at him, half frowned. Erica slowly walked towards him.

"Hello Jack,"

"Erica," he says back.

A current of sadness hangs in the air around them.

"It's been a long time," she gazes up at him.

He nods "Too long,"

"I-I didn't even know you were back?" she questions sadly.

"I know,"

"I thought you were dead," she affirms.

"I know-"

"I waited for you! For months," she's crying now.

"I know," Jack pulls her in towards him and hugs her against his chest.

Erica beats a weak fist against him "I thought you were dead," she sobs heavily.

"I'm sorry," Jack mumbles into her hair "Erica I'm sorry,"

His eyes are glassy with tears as he feels her shoulders shaking in his grasp.

"I shouldn't have left you. It's my fault," Jack is whispering now, his mind speaking the words he'd thought about for months.

"There wasnt a day in France that I didn't think about you and the baby. The way I treated you, the way I hurt you. I should have been here. For you,"

Erica pulls back from his grip and stares up at him through teary eyes. "There's something I need to tell you,"

Jack's brows knit together "Tell me," he's anxious now and his arms grip ger shoulders as he searches her face.

Suddenly a group of soldiers laughing and joking bustle past the two of them. Erica turns her face away.

"Not here," she shakes her head "Follow me,"

She steps out of his grasp completely and picks up her suitcase once more. She walks down the familiar path and Jack follows after her. The two of them say nothing until they are at the very edge of the air base. Erica sets her case down and grips a steadying hand onto the chain link fence. She stares desperately at the dark foreboding runaway ahead of her.

Jack slips his hands into his pockets and watches her for a moment. He inhales and takes a step forward.

"What is it you need to tell me?"

Erica turned to him once more. She searched his face again, she was certain he didn't know.

His blonde hair had grown since she'd seen him last and as he stood watching her, his hair swept back in the breeze.

"If you didn't hate me before, then you will now," she sighs.

Jacks eyebrows furrow as he listens to Erica reveal the truth about her baby. As she speaks he finds himself pacing slowly in the grass. His heart and head in a futile battle of emotions. Listening to her words brought back every memory he'd bottled up over the last year. Everything from losing the baby, meeting Erica, betraying Ali, losing Ali, finding out the truth of Ali's baby...it was too much.

Jack sank into the grass. His bank agsinst the chain link fence. He picked idly at a strand of grass as Erica's story came to its end.

Silence.