Author's Note: This take place at the beginning of 'Through The Looking Glass' but things in the plot are different. Firstly Kate never slept with Sawyer so Jack never had anything to catch on camera; instead, Ben has told Jack that Kate has fallen in love with Sawyer. With her pleas to save Sawyer's life, he's pretty sure Ben isn't lying. Other change in the plot is that Naomi never arrived so there's still no hope in any rescue. So instead of making their way to transmitter tower they all head to the caves for safety whilst Sayid and co wait for the others. This has no one direction so it could end up anywhere. This story is more of a survival drama rather than the amazing mythical science-fiction fest it became!

THE BEAUTY IN THE TRUTH

His feet were tired. He felt like he had been carrying every piece of everyone's anxiety through the jungle. He had purposely put himself a few paces in front on the trek to the caves. It had seemed like a good idea; hide and wait; now he was rethinking it.

What if the three men left behind could not succeed in their mission? Who would father Sun's baby if Jin was shot by an other? How could he look Rose in the eye knowing that for so long she held hope for Bernard being alive just to have him snatched away? And how would the team survive without Sayid? They needed him. He had to shake these thoughts and allow himself to be positive. Right now, the people who began unpacking their things and rushing to the water, needed him to be positive. They needed Jack.

Jack spoke to no one before he had made the decision to sit outside and play guard. He couldn't be that positive, he still felt he needed to protect. He watched several sit down in peace whilst others like Sun, sat restless. Several people had tried to speak to him but he had brushed them off without really realising their presence. Until she came.

He sat outside in the dark by a small lit fire and her heart melted. Why had he placed himself outside of the group? More than anything the group needed each other, and more than she realised, she needed him to be ok.

'Jack?' She stuttered over the word that she had spoken so many times before. He jumped a little but turned to face her. She walked around him and sat on a log in front of him. The fire made it just possible to see each other. 'Are you ok?'

She felt a barrier between them, one Jack had built himself. 'I think so, Kate.' He seemed reluctant to talk but she couldn't leave him.

'You know…' she felt the need to change the tone and engross him in something else. 'Who would have thought we'd end up back here? It feels like forever ago, you and I were arguing about moving here!' she smiled with sincerity and looked up at him. That look flawed him. He was trying to stop himself from feeling the way he did in that moment, but he couldn't help staring at her eyes. They were so beautiful, he found himself, strangely smiling back.

'We really didn't have a clue what was in store for us.' He bantered.

'I think if it was now, I'd move here,' she thought out loud. It hadn't occurred to her that, that was how she felt. Thinking about it, that is how she felt.

Jack fell intrigued in her statement 'What do you mean?' he gave her a puzzled look that she couldn't deny the truth to.

'Well when we first got here, I wanted to run. That's all I knew. But now…' Kate hesitated trying to search for the right words, '…I don't think that think is a bad place to be. I don't have to run. I just get to be here.'

'So are you saying that you don't want to be rescued?'

'No…, well I'm not sure. It's just there are houses with beds a few miles away that they abandoned, you know we could live there.' Kate felt herself put the weight on 'we'. Is that what she was thinking? She had been so busy gushing the truth to Jack, she had forgotten that he had been basically ignoring her the past few days and her feelings for him were probably not shared.

A few seconds past and an awkward silence filled the air. Kate's palms began to sweat and Jack's heart began to pound a little.

'Kate, why did you choose Sawyer?' Jack hardly believed the words that came out of his mouth and by Kate's expression neither could she. The fact he had been so literal about it. When had she chosen? And who said she was choosing between anyone.

'Excuse me?' she felt a little stung. 'I didn't chose anyone and how dare you make it sound so…' she couldn't find the right word. Kate found herself on her feet looking down at Jack; she wasn't that angry she just felt like she needed to react.

'I'm sorry,' Jack knew that although he didn't want to fight with her but it kept her here and that meant feeling her warmth.

'What the hell did they do to you Jack?' she crouched near to him placing a hand on his knee.

'You know, he told me the truth. He told me how you had fallen in love with Sawyer...' he spat it out of his mouth a little angrier than he had intended to. Kate leaned back and found herself on her feet, this time Jack followed suit.

'And you believed them?' her voice started to find volume to which she quickly changed aware there were people not too far away. 'How dare you!'

Kate positioned herself right against Jack so he could hear every word. The look in her eye reminded him of the first time they had kissed. He remembered how he felt that moment and how he never felt anything so real in his life before.

'It's just you begged me to save his life, Kate. I thought that made it true...' Jack found himself in a calmer state. He realised that hurting her wasn't what he wanted to do; a part of him gave up if it meant her being happy. He turned to sit back down before she grabbed his arm.

'Jack, don't you dare turn your back on me!' she begged in a demanding way and he faced her.

'Kate, it's ok. If you're happy than I can live with that, if you are where you want to be...'

'I'm not yet. Because..' she felt her eyes water and voice waver '.. it's you I love. You're just an idiot when it comes to listening to me…' she said in jest winning him over with her small grin, 'Jack…, I love you.'

He took a small step back, in a small daze of what he had just heard. The woman he had fallen for 5 seconds into their first meeting had just been the first to declare their love for one another. He felt his body fill up with joy and his heart to beat faster. He looked straight at her taking in all her beauty, as much as he could before he decided to lean in.

Jack placed his lips softly against Kate's and when she opened her mouth to his, he kissed her as though he was trying to taste every part of who Kate Austen was.