This was written a really long time ago, before Juliet's motivation was clear, when people were still speculating that Ben was her ex-husband... ;)

STAY WITH ME

Chapter 1. Stay With Me

When the gunshot pierced the stillness of the beach, Jack thought he was a goner. That was until he turned around to see Kate stagger backwards, eyes wide with confusion, blood blossoming across her shirt. The second bullet found her a little higher, just below the ribcage, and she crumpled to the sand. Jack managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

"You bitch!" he heard Sawyer snarl from somewhere far away, but for now, all of his attention was focused on Kate. He couldn't let her die like Shannon, or Libby, or Ana Lucia, another innocent victim in the survivors' never ending war with The Others. He couldn't let her die because of him.

If only he hadn't tried to be a hero, to save her back at The Others' camp. If only he had followed the Hippocratic oath and done Ben no harm, fixing him like he was supposed to. Then Juliet and the others wouldn't have come after them looking for revenge.

And Kate wouldn't be lying in his arms with a bullet in her chest, and a second in her stomach.

Flashing back to Libby, in the hatch, unable to speak except to murmur her killer's name (if only they'd understood that at the time), he knew what her chances were. Even if they managed to secure passage back to the island where they'd crashed, she'd be dead before they reached the mainland. Judging by the amount of blood staining her clothes, maybe even before that. Still, he had to try. They'd been through too much, together and apart, for him not to at least give her that.

But the fear was overwhelming. He hadn't been this afraid since his first solo procedure, when he'd ripped that girl's dural sac. He'd managed to stay calm when he operated on Sarah, and after they'd crashed, only losing it a little with each of his critical patients: Charlie, Boone, Sawyer (how many times had he saved the southerner's life? Two, maybe three times by now), and of course Libby. But this time was different. This time there was more at stake. If he hadn't known if before, he knew it when he saw her with Sawyer. He loved Kate, maybe more than he'd ever loved anyone in his life. As hard as he tried to resist it (and God knows he had after that kiss, when she'd run from him again, not just physically, but emotionally), he couldn't switch it off. In spite of everything he knew about her, and the other things he feared (the marshal had said she was dangerous, and maybe she was. He still didn't know what she did), he loved her. That was why he needed to fix this, but at the same time, that was why it was so hard.

Taking his own advice, he let the fear in, but only for five seconds. Then he launched into action, refusing to allow himself to consider what would happen if he failed. Pressing his palms to the wounds, he did his best to stem the bleeding. He had to get her out of there, away from Juliet and the rest of The Others before they did any more damage. Once they were safe, he might have a chance.

Jack looked down the beach, and out at the horizon. There, sailing towards them, was Desmond's boat, the Elizabeth. At last, the cavalry had arrived. All he needed now was for Kate to hold on.

She was already drifting in and out of consciousness, her mind wandering from the tense scene in front of them. Catching her eye, he told her to focus on him. "Just stay with me, okay? Sayid and the others are almost here."

"I can't," she whispered. "It hurts."

Her breathing was growing increasingly laboured as she struggled to comply. "I know," he told her, his heart breaking at what he knew was coming. "But you have to stay with me."

Her eyes flickered shut for a moment, then opened, as if she were fighting off sleep.

"I need you to stay awake, okay?" he said, choking on the words as his throat tightened in fear. "If you don't, you might not… I won't be able to… just keep looking at me, okay? Focus on my voice." Tears were welling in his eyes now. He could feel her blood, wet against his palms, cool where it had been warm only moments before. "Just stay with me," he repeated, more as a plea to the heavens this time than as a request to the woman he loved, the woman who now lay dying before him. He wanted to anchor her there, to him, but she was shaking with pain, and so cold all of sudden. He didn't know how much longer she could hold on. He prayed Sayid would get there in time, that today wouldn't end with him standing in the beach cemetery like the Iraqi and Hurley before him, choking on a eulogy for a love cut short. He couldn't bear it.

Kate's eyes grew a little duller, pain clouding her expression, and he knew the next words were hard for her to utter.

"I… love… you."

Her voice was so soft now, so strained, that at first he wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly. Then another thought occurred to him, one that wrenched his heart. "No, you love Sawyer," he argued stubbornly. "I saw you with him, last night."

She shook her head ever so slightly, a tiny smile playing on her pale lips. "Jack…" she breathed, letting him know that she knew full well who she was talking to, who she'd claimed to love. But he never heard her next words, because her eyes closed again, this time, he feared, for good.