A/N: Well after a much shorter wait here's chapter 3. Thank you for the reviews I did get, but I was kind of disappointed the amount of reviews for Chapter 2. I'm going to chalk it up to a filler chapter and just some bad timing. Hopefully the reviews will pick up this time, or I'm going to start thinking you've lost interest in the story. This is why its VERY IMPORTANT to review, even if you don't like it. Honestly, I can take it. Anyway he's Chapter 3, hopefully you like it.

Chapter 3: Out of the Blue

Jack's meeting with the new Chief of Surgery had taken longer than he'd originally expected, having lasted almost two hours. As he'd feared, Dr. Brennan had tried to convince him to dump the Intensive Care Unit for a surgical career, something Jack was extremely wary of doing.

His father had chosen the surgical path, and it had drastically affected his lifestyle. Extremely long hours at the hospital and longer hours than those drinking away the loss of patients left him with very little time to spend with Margo and his then newborn son- Jack.

Up until the age of 6, Jack rarely saw his father. During those first few years though, Jack rarely noticed as his attention could easily be grasped by blocks, toy trucks and the simple fact that his mother was around when his father was not.

But as Jack reached the age of Kindergarten the problem began to amplify itself. Jack noticed more and more often that his father wasn't around, and had caught him drinking in the living room on numerous occasions. At first he rationed to himself he was coping with the loss of a patient, but as the alcohol consumption grew more routine, he realized his dad had become an alcoholic.

As he moved through the ranks of middle school Jack noticed his absence more than ever. Baseball, Basketball, Soccer; his father was never present. He'd even arrived a half hour late to his 8th grade graduation, a year in which he was salutatorian.

It was when Jack first attended high school that he actively tried to 'replace' his father. He found someone who he could really open up to, who he spent comfortable spending his time around- a girl named Kate Austen. Thinking back, Jack supposed he had his father's alcoholism to thank for becoming so close to Kate, a blessing in disguise.

Jack walked into his apartment, and played off his messages. The first one was from Dr. Brennan. Damn, this guy's persistent.

"Hey, Jack. It's Dr. Brennan from St. Sebastien's. Just calling to let you know that when you've made a decision about the surgical training to let me know and I'll get you started immediately." The message machine replayed.

Delete. Jack pressed the button to delete the message, and it almost made him feel better. The next message that played was from Kate. Finally, a friendly voice.

"Hey Jack, it's me. I know you're probably asleep, I was just wondering if you wanted to get some dinner later, call me." The message machine played.

Jack didn't even bother to listen to the rest of his messages, instead immediately picking up the phone and dialing Kate's number. The phone rang only twice before Kate picked up on the other end.

"Hello?" Kate picked up the phone.

"Hey, Kate. It's me." Jack responded.

"Oh, hey Jack. What's up?" Kate greeted him, smiling on the other end

"I was just calling you back about dinner tonight. You still wanna go right?" Jack asked, confirming as he always did.

"Yea, definitely. I haven't eaten anything but hospital food for days." She quipped, giggling through the phone.

"Same here. So how about I come pick you up at like seven? Then we can figure out where we wanna go?" Jack suggested.

"Sounds good. But nowhere too fancy OK?" Kate checked, just to be sure.

"Yea. I hear ya, I'll see you in a few hours." Jack affirmed.

"Bye, Jack." Kate said goodbye, hanging up the phone.

"Cya." Jack replied in kind before tossing the phone onto a chair and plopping down onto the couch beside it for a well-deserved nap. He had about six hours until he had to pick Kate up, more than enough time to recuperate from his shift last night.

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Jack picked Kate up at seven like he'd promised and, both dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, headed for the nearest diner at Kate's request.

"This one looks good right?" Jack said, as they drove past the Atlantis Diner.

"Yea, Jack. It's not like we haven't been here a thousand times before." Kate joked, smiling.

"Yea, well. Just checking." Jack returned her smile, pulling into the parking lot.

They quickly entered the diner and got a table, almost immediately settling in to order. Having had a diet consisting of hospital 'food', they both ordered hearty meals consisting of breakfast foods varying from pancakes to an omelet.

"So Jack, you never told me how your meeting with the big bad Chief of Surgery went? Was it as brutal as you thought it'd be?" Kate asked as their food arrived.

"You could say that." Jack replied nonchalantly.

"Ohh, you have to tell me! C'mon Jack." Kate almost pleaded.

Jack rolled his eyes, but eventually gave in. "Ok Ok."

"So when I left you to go see him, he kinda tried to convince me to ditch the ICU in favor of surgery like I thought." Jack began.

"Well, what'd you say?" Kate asked, secretly hoping he'd rejected the offer.

"I told him no. I love working in the ICU with you. Every time we get through a night without losing anyone, the sense of pride and accomplishment I get is amazing. It's those nights that get me through the ones where…well…we do lose someone."

"That was the entire meeting? You got home like 2 hours after we talked, something else must have happened?" Kate asked, confused.

"Oh no, that was when he tried just about everything to convince me to go." Jack laughed.

"Like what?"

"Well first he tried to tell me that I'd go down as one of the hospital's greatest surgeons like my dad did when he retired. If anything, that hurt his chances of convincing me. So that didn't work." Jack began to explain.

Kate nodded in agreement at this. She knew Jack didn't have the best of relationship with his father, and had never truly gotten over how much of his childhood Christian had missed while drinking. He'd tried to reconcile with his father in the past few years, but it was always going to be a long, arduous process as Jack got his stubbornness from his father.

"Then he said that this surgical path was the beginning of the road to Chief of Medicine. But, as much as I'd love to be Chief of Medicine someday, I don't want to sacrifice what free time I have left to get there. So that didn't work either. But he had one last ace up his sleeve." Jack continued.

Kate laughed, knowing exactly how he felt. The ICU was a very time consuming place to work, especially on those nights you were on call. In their line of work, free time was very hard to come by.

"Then he offered me a raise. A big one." Jack finished.

"And you said yes?" Kate asked, sensing he had.

"No, I called him just before I left to come and get you and said I wasn't interested. He was kinda pissed off at first, but he told the offer was open if I reconsidered in the future." Jack said. "Remind me to talk to my dad about it over the weekend."

"Wait, you're actually going to consider your dad's opinion on this? I thought you guys still didn't get along very well." Kate asked disbelievingly.

"No, I'm not." Jack said flatly. "But he doesn't know that."

Kate laughed. "Well, that's good right? That he offered it to you in the future, I mean. If you wanna do it in a few months you still can." Kate said.

"Yea, I guess so. It would take something pretty drastic for me to change my mind though." Jack remarked.

Kate smiled. "That's my Jack. Stubborn as usual."

"So how about you, have any news of note to tell me about?" Jack asked, not expecting much to have happened since breakfast.

"Actually I do, and it's pretty big." Kate said.

"Oh yea? You got yourself a boyfriend, didn't you?" Jack said, happy for her.

"No. Way bigger than that." Kate said, still cryptic.

"Hmm…another promotion? Wait, you can't go higher than head nurse can you?" Jack tried again.

"Nope. That would be pretty big, but it's even bigger than that. It's going to change my entire summer." Kate quipped mysteriously.

"Alright, I give up. What is it?" Jack asked, thoroughly mystified.

"I'm going away." Kate said softly.

"You're going away? Like moving away?" Jack asked incredulously, almost immediately worried.

"No, no. The hospital is sending me to New York for some extra training. I'm going to be coming back, but I'll be out east for the whole summer." Kate explained, her heart panging because of the worry in Jack's voice.

"Oh." Jack barely mustered, breathing a sigh of relief. When he'd asked Kate if she had any news, he would never have expected something this big.

"Yea." Kate agreed softly.

"Yea." Jack repeated.

"You're OK with this, right?" Kate asked uneasily.

"Yea, Kate, I'm fine." Jack assured her. "But even if I wasn't, it's not like I have the right to tell you not to go. I mean you're my best friend, but that doesn't give me the right to choose how you spend your summers. If you want to go to New York, then you should do it, whether I want you to or not."

"That was the worst denial I've ever heard, Jack." Kate commented, hoping a joke would lift Jack's spirits.

Unfortunately, it had the exact opposite effect. It spurred Jack into stating how he truly felt about this trip. "Kate, what do you want me to say? I've just been told that my best friend is going away for the entire summer. Am I supposed to be happy about that?" Jack asked almost rhetorically.

"No, I guess not. But you still have Hurley, Sawyer, Charlie and Mark. It's not like you're going to be all alone. Right?" Kate said, defending herself, although she wasn't exactly sure she had to.

"Yea, but I'm not as close with any of them as I am with you and you know that." Jack retorted, temper flaring.

"Look, I'm sorry, Jack. But this is something I need to do for my career, OK? I'm sorry you're not happy about it, but I have to do this. You said it yourself, I don't need your approval to go." Kate apologized angrily.

"No, wait." Jack said, calming down, feeling bad for his sudden outburst. "I'm sorry I reacted like that Kate. You're right, I don't have the right to tell you not to go. You'll have a great time in New York; it's an amazing city. When do you leave?" Jack asked guiltily.

"Sunday morning."

Jack sighed. "That soon, huh?"

"Yea. I wanted to tell you this morning, but then you told me about your dad's thing on Saturday and I forgot all about it." Kate admitted, somewhat guiltily.

"It's alright." Jack said, checking his watch. "I'll get the check." Jack said, breaking their normal routine. Jack always insisted on paying the bill, but Kate would never let him, so Jack generally took care of the bill while Kate paid the tip. That way they were both satisfied, and it never felt awkward. But tonight he had a lot bigger things on his mind than who paid the bill. He'd apologized for his anger, but the truth was he felt like shit about the entire thing.

Jack quietly paid the bill, and they drove back to Kate's house in silence. About fifteen minutes later, they arrived at her house and she quickly got out of the car.

"Bye Jack, thanks for dinner." She said softly, not looking him directly in the eye, feeling guilty about not talking to him about the trip.

"It was no problem, Kate. Oh, and you don't have to come to the ceremony tomorrow night, it will give you some time to pack." Jack said throwing her a sad smile, resigning himself to defeat.

Kate desperately wanted to tell him that she still wanted go, despite leaving just the morning after. But before she had the chance, Jack looked down at the passenger seat, effectively ending the conversation.

She felt bad that Jack had to find out on such short notice, a fact that probably played a big part in his reaction. She obviously cared about Jack, and didn't want to damage their friendship over this trip. Seeing Jack look away from her hit her hard, and she shut the door slowly and walked off toward her apartment.

Jack reached home a short while later, and tossed himself onto the couch. He didn't know why Kate going to New York bothered him so much. He just knew that it did.

It was going to be a really long summer.

A/N: Hope you liked it. Please LEAVE A REVIEW on the way out. All it takes is two clicks and typing a few words. I'd greatly appreciate it.