Chapter 2

Wow guys thanks so much for all the positive feedback, because it truly means a lot to me and I just hope that you'll like this one as well and the direction I'm starting to take it in ;)

Enjoy

A thousand thoughts loomed threw his head at the moment, but none of them seemed to make sense at the moment because all he could think of was her, just like he did for the past ten years and how much things had obviously changed between them, especially her as he looked at the case file in his hand one more time just to make sure.

However his shock grew further as he read the case file. He always knew that she and her father never really saw eye to eye on everything ,but he never truly knew that her dislike of him went to this very extent. There has to be a plausible reason, he kept on saying to himself as he read on further, not believing in the slightest that it was still her name he was seeing being mentioned within this file.

"Jack" Ana called out to the distracted man now standing just feet away from her, not even bothering to respond in any way cause he was too consumed with his thoughts, but being the kind of person she was, she rarely gave up on anything, especially on someone like Jack, so with that she attempted to try again, this time by going over to him to also see what was keeping him so distracted at the minute.

"Hey man are you okay?" Ana asked, with more urgency and concern in her tone, in an attempt to find out what was the cause for the sudden change in him. Jack on the other hand still couldn't hear anything and only snapped out of it when he suddenly felt something making contact with the end of his shoulder and with that he turned around to face the person while silently sneaking the case file behind his back so that he could get a better knowing of it in his office.

"You good man?" Ana asked again while offering him a little smile to go with it making jack just simply return the gesture in the same fashion and then walk off in the direction of his office while keeping Kate's case file tucked safely underneath the back of his trousers.

(A few miles away)

"We have to keep moving" the voice announced itself to the other with hushed urgency and all the other figure could do in response was just sit back against the side of the abandoned dumpster, clearly exhausted and simply not willing to move any further.

"C'mon we've been on the move for three days straight sweetheart, how far do you wanna get" the slightly dishevelled man stressed while trying to get his breath back.

"As far away from this place as possible Sawyer, I just can't stay here any longer" Kate admitted while hanging her head in sadness at the last part. Ever since they had abruptly parted ways since College, she had wanted to call him everyday, but every time she reached out to grab the phone, she started to remind herself that she didn't want to involve him in her mess, so as a result she chose not associate herself with him in any way. So from that point on she kept on reassuring herself of that very thought whenever the pain and realisation hit her in any way. However during that time her pain seemed to have grown in other ways. The most dominant one being her drunken Step Father Wayne whom she despised with every fibre of her being. He was everything she would have never dreamed of becoming, but now ten years later she could virtually be credited in that same category, a bad person, a criminal due to what she had committed a few weeks ago.

"Hey Freckles you alright?" Sawyer asked the thinking brunette suddenly snapping her out of her reverie and making her then let out a huff of annoyance at being referred to the name he used to call her back in College.

Till this day she never truly understood what had led her to him. Well the obvious reason was that he was a criminal like her but unlike him, she never took pride in it or even considered it to be a usual 9 to 5 job, but still she couldn't seem to decipher what was keeping them together. Do I sub- consciously feel something for him? She actually dared to ask herself while glancing back at the slouched man on the floor now dozing off and making her smile slightly at the sight. Maybe it was because he had changed since then, she told herself trying to also reassure herself in some ways that maybe she could trust him now, in the same way she knew she would have trusted the one man she loved, the one man she still loved, but was unattainable due to her unfortunate circumstances.

(Back at the Police station)

The moment he stepped foot into his office, he was immediately on the phone with the one person who also knew Kate inside and out, even better than her own mother who had sadly passed away a few years ago he had regretfully heard.

"Hello" the soft voice spoke into the phone.

"Hey Claire it's me I uh…" he managed to get out before a voice in the background on Claire's side had stopped the two from continuing anything further.

"Okay Charlie I will" Claire shouted into the background, following her husband's instructions of turning on the TV and what she saw come onto the screen made her gasp in shock, not really believing her eyes in the slightest.

"Claire what's goi…" Jack managed to say before the blonde simply cut him off by saying….

"Turn on your TV Jack" Claire replied and once he did, he too was surprised, but hurt as well with what he was seeing. This was not happening, this just wasn't and with that he attempted to turn the TV off and fill his mind with obvious false hope and reason over what was happening, but the voice of the reporter was what snapped him out of his thinking and stopped him as well from moving any further.

"This is KC20 News, I'm Tricia Tanaka and we are now here at the latest hit of the "Dynamic Duo" as they are so called now." the Reporter announced into her mike while also going over to talk to one of the witnesses from the broken in grocery store.

"Can you tell us what happened Mam?" the Reported asked while trying to get past some of the other reporters who were literally hogging the witness like she was prey.

"He shot him….so much blood" the woman kept on saying while trying to get over her apparent shock, and the growing horde of reporters now circling themselves around her didn't seem to help one bit.

Following this, the TV screen was then labelled with the pictures of the "Dynamic Duo", and at that point Jack simply couldn't find the will to breathe. Not only at just seeing her picture, but of another person as well, a man. A man he never thought she would be with in a million years. I guess she has changed, he sadly admitted to himself, the pain in his heart now shattering to the point where he didn't seem to care about anything anymore, not because he didn't want to, but because his heart was so broken now that he had little place to feel anything else.

"Jack, Jack are you there" the voice on the other end of the phone kept calling out in a desperate plea to get through this emotionally distraught man.

"Jack" the voice on the other end called out again, this time with more urgency and determination and with that Jack snapped right out of it and put the phone to his ear to just say a quick goodbye and when that was done he simply took hold of her case file and car keys and then went to ask his boss if he could take the next few weeks off for personal family reasons. Lucky for him his boss agreed without hesitation, knowing that his excuse was legit, and with that he was off, on a mission for an explanation, because he wasn't gonna give up, not now not ever.

"Wow where's the fire" a startled Ana exclaimed as Jack bumped into her on the way in a big hurry she obviously assumed. At first he didn't respond, but just nodded his head while smiling at her and then making the move to walk off, but she didn't give up there, instead she grasped hold of his arm to ask him again while an expression of concern flashed through her gaze to show him that she wasn't kidding around in the slightest.

"What's going on Jack?" she asked him hoping to get an answer out of him.

"Nothing. Everything's alright. I just haven't been feeling too well lately, so I'm just gonna head home and rest it off. I'll see ya later" Jack confessed in somewhat of a hurried fashion and with that he was off, leaving her clueless.

"Hey Ana" an Officer called out behind her to get her attention.

"Hey Marc what's up" Ana replied while her thoughts still lingered with what was really going on with Jack. She knew him long enough to know that when he was hiding something, especially from her.

"Cortez you alright?" the Officer asked again, trying to snap her out of it.

"Huh! Yeah, so what's goin on?" Ana asked trying to stay focused.

"Just wanted to ask you whether you've seen Austen's case file?" The Officer causally asked making the black haired woman knit her eyebrows in genuine confusion, but a part of her had a vague recollection of Jack having used that name once in one of their conversations. However she didn't want to jump to conclusions just yet, so she pushed the thought away and forced herself back into reality.

"No, sorry I haven't man" she replied and then walked off to her own cubicle, her suspicions starting to loom around again.

So there it is guys and there will be some present Jack and Kate interaction in the coming chapters. So what do you think guys? Do you wanna see what happens next?