Jack wearily trudged down the hospital corridor towards the cafeteria. After an 8-hour surgery on a 16-year-old boy he was in desperate need of some coffee. Getting his much needed beverage he took a seat looking out of the window. As had become common when his mind was not occupied with trying to save someone's life, Jack's mind drifted to a particular brunette who, although he had only known her for a grand total of 2 hours and 45 minutes, he could still remember every detail of her face – he could recall the exact shade of green of her eyes and how when she laughed she got a cute little dimple in her left cheek. It would be 1 year tomorrow that he had met her and she had been haunting his dreams ever since. That day had been one of the best and the worst of his life: the best because he had met her but the worst because he had lost her. Jack was a practical kind of guy and couldn't understand why he was still thinking about her – it had been a year and she was still his first thought in the morning and his last thought at night. 'But maybe that's the whole point', he thought, 'you're not meant to understand love'. Jack chuckled to himself, 'love', he'd spent a couple of hours with her a year ago – he couldn't possibly be in love with her. 'Why are you still thinking about her then', the defiant part of his brain asked. Jack sighed and took a long swig of his coffee, welcoming the slow burn that glided down his throat.

After that fateful day Jack had been eager to throw himself straight back into work to try and keep his mind off of Kate. However the world was seemingly conspiring against him as the Chief of Staff had had other ideas – his jaw had almost hit the floor when Jack told him that he wanted to return to work the following day. He reminded Jack that he had just been shot and instructed him that he would be taking 2 weeks paid leave, and as he had never taken a sick day for the entire time he'd been at St Sebastian's, now was as good a time as any to start. Jack had tried to argue that he was fine but the Chief had countered that if he didn't go home and rest right now he'd increase it to 4 weeks and so Jack had begrudgingly gone home. Those 2 weeks were probably the longest of his life as sitting alone in his apartment, with no patients whose lives depended on his undivided attention; he had nothing to keep his mind from thinking about Kate – if she was ok, if there was anything else he could have said to stop her from leaving. There was a connection between them, which had been confirmed when she had kissed him – he could still remember the jolts of electricity that shot through his body when her lips were on his. He almost drove himself crazy thinking about her and so when the 2 weeks were finally up he arrived an hour early for his shift, desperate for something else to occupy his mind. For every day since then he had only gone home when he had literally been forcibly removed by his boss and on the 1 and a half days a week he had off, he slept due to sheer exhaustion.

Even though his chosen workload gave him very little spare time, there was never a day went by when he didn't think about Kate. Sighing, Jack looked at his watch, '3AM', realising that his shift had finished 3 hours ago and that he should probably go home. Downing the last mouthful of coffee he got up and turned to leave. Having taken no more than 2 steps from his table, something caught his eye – just beyond the door to the cafeteria standing with her back too him was a woman with familiar long, curly brown hair. With his heart rate increasing ten fold Jack bolted towards her, stumbling over a table leg in the process. Regaining his composure he hurried towards her and reached out his hand to touch her shoulder, "Kate", he sighed, the happiness evident in his voice. The woman turned towards him and Jack's heart sank, "Oh…I-I'm sorry – I thought you were someone else…", he sighed, his shoulders slumping and walking away as the woman smiled apologetically at him. It wasn't Kate – the woman was probably 5 years older than her and the only thing that was the same was her hair. Driving home that night Jack had never felt more alone.


Kate stomped into her motel room, slamming the door and hurling her purse at the couch. "Men are fucking pigs!", she fumed. Just because she was a waitress doesn't give them the right to feel her up or to make lewd comments every time she went over to take their order. But of course she had to smile sweetly and pretend like it didn't bother her because she needed the job. Sighing and still annoyed, she slumped down on the couch, raking her hands through her unruly curls.

Kate had left LA about a month after the day of the siege. Unusually for her though she had not left the state – she was still in California. After spending the next 5 months in San Francisco, she had been in Santa Monica for the past 6 months – which by her standards was a long time. For some reason she just couldn't bring herself to leave California. It wasn't that the work was good here, it was no better than anywhere else – some of the jobs she'd had weren't half bad but her current one sucked and as soon as she could find alternate employment she would have no problem telling the greasy letches that frequented the bar exactly what they could do with their beers. No, it wasn't the work that was keeping her here it was the fact that Jack was in LA, like being in the same state as him gave them something in common, keeping them connected somehow.

Jack, all of the anger left her at the thought of him. He was one of the few decent guys who were unfortunate enough to enter her life. To this day she could remember every detail about him. He was a good guy – genuine, and he actually cared about her, but as much as it pained her she couldn't let anything happen, knowing that she would only end up hurting him and he didn't deserve that.

Kate was exhausted after holding down 2 jobs; during the day she worked at a quaint little café near the beach – she actually quite liked this job as it was never too busy and the staff and customers were nice. However in order to be able to eat as well as pay the rent, 3 nights a week she worked in a seedy back street bar. Tonight was one of those nights and she felt the same after every shift, but she needed the money. Not having the energy to move but knowing she'd have a sore neck all day if she fell asleep on the couch, she pushed herself up and trudged into her bedroom.

Opening the drawer to her bedside cabinet, Kate rummaged around in search of aspirin to alleviate the pounding in her head, when she came across the one memento she had from Jack – his business card. She had kept hold of it, always keeping it in the drawer next to her bed – it was a small comfort to know that a piece of him was nearby. It would be a year tomorrow, well today she realised looking at the time, that she met him and she had not forgotten a single thing about him. Every day there would be something that reminded her of him, like if she saw an ambulance zoom by she would wonder if it would be Jack that would be working on whoever it was that was inside, or even when she was pouring coffee for someone she would think of him and his caffeine addiction. Picking it up she ran her fingers over his name – it was well worn by now as she had sat like this many a time and even though some of the print was fading it didn't matter as she had long since memorised the number. No guy had ever affected her in the way Jack did and she found it ridiculous that a year after spending a few hours with him he was still the primary occupant of her thoughts. 'Get a grip', she thought to herself, 'he's probably with someone now, moved on, he probably won't even remember who you are'. Although she wanted him to be happy and to have moved on, there was a part of her that knew he would remember her as she recalled the one and only time she had dialled that familiar number…

It was the last night she spent in San Francisco, waiting at the bus station for the last bus that would take her to her current 'home'. She was absently running her fingers over Jack's card, which was in her pocket, when she noticed a young woman drag her suitcase from a bus that had just pulled up, and hurry towards a guy that was waiting a few metres away from her. When she reached him they kissed fervently before he enveloped her in his arms, picking her up and twirling her around. Kate got a lump in her throat watching the scene and wanted more than anything to call Jack, she just wanted to hear his voice. Pulling out his business card, not that she needed to check the number, she pulled out her cell and punched in the number. She didn't think he would answer at this time of night and hoped that it would just go to answer-phone so that she could hear his voice without having to explain why she had called.

"Ring, ring, ring, ri – Jack Shephard".

Kate was startled that he'd actually answered and was unprepared for talking to the live version of Jack. He sounded tired, like he hadn't slept in days.

"Hello?", he added".

What was she supposed to say, 'Hey, I know you probably don't remember me but I miss you and I've bee thinking about you every day since we met' – yeah right. There was a pause while she tried to figure out what to do.

"Kate?" he asked, sounding more awake.

Kate was shocked; both at the fact that he actually remembered her and that he knew it was her that was calling him.

"Ka-", but before he could say anything else she hung up.

Staring at the card once again she wondered if she should have said something back then. Hating herself for going against all of the promises she'd made herself back when she was 18, never to get emotionally involved, never to get attached, she dialled the familiar number once again and held her breath waiting for a reply.

"Ri – Jack Shephard". Kate was slightly startled that he picked up straight away but smiled at his standard response. There was another pause in which she willed herself not to hang up again.

"Kate?", he questioned, replicating his words from 6 months ago.

"Hey"

A/N: There will be a bit more interaction in the next chapter but thought I'd angst it up a bit first! Although they've made contact now things are never easy with these two so expect many trials, tribulations and much more angst to come.

Hope you like it and please drop me a review…and thanks to those of you who've sent me such nice reviews already.