"I just can't do this anymore!" Kate spun around to turn her face away, trying so hard to fight back the tears that were threatening to fall down her face. This had been a long time coming. She was surprised that it had taken so long to boil to the surface.

She was systematically grabbed by the shoulders and spun around to face him. His deep eyes were searching hers, looking for something, anything to let him believe that this wasn't the end. That it wasn't true. That ithis/i wasn't it.

"Jack… I can't do this anymore. It's not working. We can't keep having this fight."

His face was emotionless, almost as if he didn't believe this was really happening. As if this was just another, bad alcohol induced nightmare.

"Kate, we can make this work. We can, I'll… I'll change…"

Kate just shook her head, looking to him as she brushed off his grasp on her arms. "We've tried this before Jack. Between your drinking and all that you do at the hospital, I barely see you. I have to make an appointment! You come home, start drinking and pass out on the couch. When's the last time you itouched/i me? When's the last time you even slept in the bed with me, Jack?"

Kate pushed past him, grabbing her bags on the way from him, hauling one up over her shoulder, her hand firmly gripping the handle of the other. Jack stepped in front of her and snatched the bag from her hand and dropped it on the floor behind her. He grabbed the top of her arms, squeezing until her hands went numb.

"You're not leaving me, Kate! You know what'll happen if you do. I'll tell them everything I know, Kate!" His breath smelled of alcohol and the look in his eyes made Kate almost shrink back away from him.

"Then tell 'em, Jack! Now get the hell off of me!" She shoved out of his grip as hard as she could, causing him to stumble backwards. She grabbed her bag and ran down the front steps, throwing her bags in the front seat and speeding off to her new apartment.

The short drive was nothing, it was entering her new apartment and looking around at the empty walls and the minimal furniture and it finally hit her. Weeks of preparation had finally come to a screeching finale. There hadn't been too much time. Just enough to have the utilities turned on, a couch and a bed delivered and to get her boxes moved little by little. Nothing big at first, but during the course of that day, she had had the rest of her things moved.

She plopped down on the couch and finally let herself cry. Four years of marriage, and this was the end of it. A couch, a bed and boxes.

Of course, this wasn't the end. There was always work the next day. That would be fun. As always…

When Kate woke up the next morning, she had a headache like she had been drinking for the last 24 hours. It took all her energy to get up and take a shower that morning. It literally hurt to move, she had been curled up on that couch all night, not moving, teetering somewhere on the edge of sleep.

She wrapped her long hair up on a towel and went to turn on the coffee pot, although, upon looking around, she realized that she didn't have one. She resisted the urge to burst into tears again. Instead, she just threw on her dark green scrubs and her sneakers and pulled her hair up in a lose ponytail. She sighed as she grabbed her coat and scarf and made the cold walk to the hospital.

Kate sighed as she pushed through the doors of the hospital and tried to plaster on a smile. She made her way right to the cafeteria to get some coffee and prayed to whatever God there was that she didn't run into Jack.

Maybe she should have gone to church more.

"Kate? Kate!" Jack had jumped out of line to a retreating Kate and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked around, hoping to not make a scene and pushed his arm off her shoulder.

"Jack. Let's not do this. Not now, not ever. You'll get the papers in the mail. Let's just try to keep it out of work, ok?" Jack stepped back, looking at her as if she had grown another head.

"Kate, why are you being like this? Why can't we just talk about it?" He was speaking through gritted teeth a kind of sad desperation in his eyes.

"I'm done talking about it, Jack. I got Kristin to scrub you in at 11:00, I don't think we had anything else together for the rest of the day. If there's anything else scheduled for the week, I'll find a replacement for that, too. I have to go, Jack."

Kate turned and walked away before she could hear his voice again. She didn't know when his voice went from soothing to irritating. From making her feel safe and loved to being the cause of her aggravation and anger. She was finding it harder and harder to be around him. The last couple of days had been almost unbearable.

He had been drinking and passing out as usual, yes, but when he was awake, he would act as if nothing had happened. As if everything was happy go lucky. And the fact that there was a light at the end of a tunnel made her even more restless.

She had to wait another week to get officially transferred to another part of the hospital, but she made damn sure she stayed out of the surgery suite. It was a bad idea to work with him to begin with.

Now it was a terrible idea.

She made her way to the terminally ill people. It was a tough place to be, but they always needed someone to talk to. She didn't mind. The people in here always treated her like their child. She was sweet to them, someone they could talk to, and for a while, they were like the parents she never had.

Not that she didn't have parents. They just weren't the ones that you bragged about. But she didn't have time to think about that. There were visits to make.

Two hours and six cups of coffee later, she finally had time to sit down and rest for a second. She took a seat outside of one of the rooms, head back against the wall, eyes, closed, hands wrapped around the warm cup she felt like she could fall asleep right –

"Excuse me, Miss?"

Those three little words in that deep Southern drawl caused Kate to groan audibly. She squinted at the light and opened one eye at a time, her eyes passed up the length of a tall, blonde haired, blue eyed man with a dimpled smile that made her glad she was sitting down.

She narrowed her eyes at him and tilted her head to the side. How long had she been out of it?

"Miss, uh…" He looked down at her name tag and met her eyes again. "…Sheppard. Is this Miss Chase's room?"

She furrowed her brow, looked down at her tag and looked back at him. "Huh? What? Yeah. There…" She motioned to the room behind her.

He nodded in her direction with a smile and passed by her into the room behind her.

She followed him with her eyes and wondered how it had gotten so warm in there.

Kate furrowed her brow and made her way over to the nurse's station. She leaned across the counter, with the other two women and didn't say a word. 'Cause they weren't necessary.

"Ever seen him here before?" Kate was asking, innocently.

"Nope."

The three women stood there for another second before dissipating back to their jobs. At least isomething/i there was worth watching out for in the hospital that day…