Chapter one

The leaves cracked under each of his heavy footsteps as each echoing crack reached her ears. Everything that had happened in the prior hours flooded into her memory and all she could do was let the tears take over. She thought about the fears of being pregnant, and having to go at it alone. Then visions of Juliet tearing apart her heart by kissing Jack blocked out any happiness she was trying to reach, hoping that maybe she could run into those moments that she held so close to her heart. A smile was the only thing that etched it's way onto her face as she thought about Jack, trying to comfort her because of what Sawyer said and then saying those four words she was dying to hear. Because I love you...

CRUNCH! Once again the nausiating noise reached her ears and she couldn't help herself as she turned around to face Jack. "Will you stop crunching the damn leaves?!?"

"Sorry..." Jack picked up the phone and looked at it once again. This is going to get me home, away from everything, away from her...Jack couldn't stand to think about the conscience of what he revealed to Kate, the walls that he had let down. He knew that she would never love him, and as much as it pained him, he knew why. He expected to much of her, pushed her to far, while Sawyer, just let her be. Once again he looked down to the phone before throwing it onto his backpack that laid on the ground. They had volunteered to stay up at the radio tower, for fear their signal would be gone if they left. Kate was still sitting on a log not far from Jack when he sighed, he had to go find Locke, he had to know why. "I'm going after him, Locke, here take this...just in case..." The hard metal of the gun drew Kate out of her thoughts as she felt it in her hand.

"Are you out of your mind...You had a gun on you the entire time...when John held you at gunpoint you could have done something? You could have defended yourself, but instead you just stood there..." Kate had stood up and moved closer to Jack throughout her speech, her hands shaking with every move. The tears that had remained in her eyes for most of the day were even more visable as she looked into Jack's hazel ones. Jack looked down only to see her hurt and anger and he couldn't take it. He tore his eyes away from her and looked over to his backpack and the radio, trying to advert her from his mind. "You want to protect me? Fine, now I'm protecting you. If you go after him I'm coming with you." Kate took the gun and placed it into the back of her jeans before returning to grab her backpack. Jack continued to look away from her until she spoke again only to shake his head. She wasn't coming with him, this was something he had to do, and he wasn't putting her in danger.

"No Kate. Your staying here, I'll take the gun but I'm not letting you come, it's not your battle to fight..."

"Oh and it's yours? Jack you maybe a hero but your not Superman. If he was willing to kill you before what makes you think that he's not willing to now? So ready or not I'm going with you." Jack sighed as he walked over to his backpack and picked it up, placing it over his shoulders and walking, in front of Kate, through the jungle. "Did you mean what you said before or were you just trying to make me feel better?" The silence that had been bitterly broken by Kate's words returned. He didn't answer her or even acknowledge the fact that she was speaking. "Did you mean it when you said you loved me..." Kate stopped walking and waited for Jack to turn around. When he didn't she tried to move closer to him but he flinched away from her. She stepped back and looked down to the ground, trying to muster the courage she had to ask him once more. "Or was it just an attempt at revenge..."

"Revenge?"Jack laughed a little as he finally turned around to face her, to only look away from her once again. Those damn eyes...he thought as he tried to block them out, the eyes he always found himself getting lost into.

"I break your heart you break mine..."Kate voice showed pain, the angst of his response building behind her every word. His eyes snapped right back to her's at the words. I lost...he said to himself. He lost the battle against himself, against his heart. Now that Kate knew, he would never be able to recover that strength he once had, that ablity to keep his feelings hidden.

"How'd you find..."

"Juliet. I kept wanting to go back for that day they sent us away and she told me the real reason why you didn't want me to come back for you..." Kate had revealed his lie, his secret and she saw the anger in his eyes, as though she had just told him that someone had betrayed him. "Jack, I didn't mean to hurt you. That was never..."

"Don't." Jack shook his head as he looked, once again, to the ground that seemed to give him strength. "I don't care what the hell goes on between you and Sawyer. I only put up with him for you. So now I don't have to anymore because I lied. I didn't mean any of it. I just said it so you'd keep going, so you'd keep moving." Jack turned back around and sighed as he tried to speak again but his emotions took over, his emotions of anger and hate but they were all masked by love. He hated to lie to Kate, tell her that it wasn't true, but he knew that she wouldn't let him go on if she knew that he loved her, she'd make him stay. He began to walk forward as he heard her continue to follow him. He didn't look back because he didn't want her to see him cry and Kate didn't want him to because her tears were those of a broken heart. Nothing broken their bitter silence except for the sound of a gun cocking in the distance. Jack stood in front of Kate, extistinctively, when out of the trees came John Locke with his gun pointed, once again, at Jack. Kate slowly reached back to the gun in the back of her pants and pulled it out.

"Kate get out of here. This is between Locke and I. You don't need to see this..." Kate nodded and placed the gun in the back of his jeans, so that Locke couldn't see, but before she walked away she leaned up, so that her head was beside Jack's and spoke softly into his ear.

"And just for the record, I love you too..." Kate let herself linger by Jack's touch before walking back through the trees. She could hear them talking for sometime before she heard gunshots.