A/N: Kate's POV in What Kate Did.
Kate backed away, horrified with herself. How could she? She could help but feel that by kissing him – letting him comfort her – she had in some way tainted his goodness. He didn't know but…
She couldn't let it happen. He was too good for that, to good for her. He deserved better than to be pulled into her web of pain and lies.
And as he stood there, looking at her… waiting? Oh god she wanted to kiss him again but she couldn't. She couldn't let him get that close. Couldn't let him get hurt like the others, the others she had loved.
She didn't deserve love. Not after what she had done with it. What she would do with, like a broken record; skip, skip, skipping over the same painful lines.
Jack was an angel; she was sure. That he came after her, held her, knowing even the tiniest bit of what she was; that was proof.
The kiss was a moment of weakness on her part. Her fear and his beautiful kindness had made her slip… It wouldn't happen again. It couldn't.
Oh, but that look in his eyes… she knew what it meant. And paired with that knowledge came a single, familiar thought.
Run.
And she did.