Thanks for the reviews and for your suggestions. I decided to use a couple to move the story along. ;)


Chapter 9.

When Jack came back from calling the airline to check for news on their flight, Kate was curled up on the couch with her chin in her hand, staring listlessly at the glass doors. "I bet you were one of those kids who hated being cooped up inside," he teased her.

Rather than come back with a retort of her own she just acknowledged him with a weak smile, letting his attempt at friendly banter fall flat.

The view couldn't be what was keeping her so absorbed; all he could see was rain and fog, concealing the bridge and the harbour beyond. "Is everything okay?" he asked her, setting down the coffee cups that he'd brought back in with him. She wasn't the most communicative woman that he'd ever met, but it wasn't like her to be this distant either. "You've hardly said two words since we left that woman's office."

"I was just thinking about what she said," she confessed, drawing her legs in to make room for him.

Something about it was obviously upsetting her. "Hey," he murmured, reaching over to cup her cheek with his palm. He wished he'd never taken her there when all it had done was mess with both of their heads. "Don't worry about it, okay? The woman is obviously not playing with a full deck."

"I'm not talking about the plane crash," she corrected him, finally turning to him. "I'm talking about what happened this morning. What if she was right about one thing?" For a moment he thought she was going to bring up Aaron, until she rushed on, "What if I get pregnant?"

He wanted to assure her that that was just as unlikely as they being marooned on some mysterious island, but he knew it wasn't completely outside the realm of possibility. "You're not on the pill?" he asked her as delicately as he could, not wanting to sound like he was accusing her of something.

She shook her head, staring down at her lap to avoid meeting his eyes. "I could never risk asking for a prescription."

Of course she wouldn't be able to go to a doctor: she was on the run. How could he be stupid enough to just assume that she would be? "Oh God, Kate, I am so sorry," he told her, even though he still wasn't entirely clear on who had jumped who. It all happened so fast. Too fast. "I wasn't thinking."

"No, Jack, it's not your fault," she insisted. "I'm sure it's fine." She let out a nervous laugh as she added, "I mean, what are the chances?"

Not as small as he would like. It was better not to take the risk. "It doesn't look like they're going to reschedule our flight for at least another twenty-four hours, so we'll go to the drugstore first thing tomorrow morning and…" he trailed off, but the rest of the sentence lingered in the air between them.

It wasn't like he was proposing she have an abortion, he reminded himself. He was just being responsible, heading off a potential problem before there was an actual child involved and things got a lot more complicated for both of them. Still, something about it didn't sit right with him. Maybe it was because he'd almost gotten used to the idea of sharing a son with her, or maybe it was just the implication that he wasn't meant to interfere.

As soon as the thought finished forming, he shook it off, resisting the urge to laugh at himself for buying into Eloise's insane fantasy. He wasn't about to start basing life-altering decisions around something a complete stranger had told them... at least until he had something more concrete in the way of proof.

"Thanks," Kate said softly, clearly as uncomfortable with the conversation as he was. "I don't know what I would have done with a baby. I'd be a terrible mother."

That wasn't entirely true, Jack decided. She didn't seem to have any problems handling Aaron in the few memories that he had of them together; then again, she didn't appear to be fugitive there either. If anything, he was the one who would be a terrible parent. He hadn't even bothered to ask who Aaron was, much less what had happened to him.

By then their coffee had begun to go cold; he moved to get up, to put on a fresh pot, but the sound of her voice stopped him.

"I know he isn't really my son, but I miss him – Aaron," she explained when he froze, wondering if she was about to tell him that she'd changed her mind.

"You're not even related to him," he said whispered along with the memory.

He didn't realise that she'd heard him until he caught her wounded look. "What?"

"That wasn't me," he assured her; off her frown he added, "Obviously it was me, but I don't know why I said it." The words were meant to hurt; he didn't like to think of himself as being that cruel.

"You weren't yourself," she agreed and he knew that she must be right: he saw his hand reaching for a beer.

"I think I was drinking," he confessed, ashamed of himself even though he wasn't sure it was really himself that he was remembering; he felt as if he didn't know this other Jack who would get drunk and lash out at the people who loved him. After what he'd been through with his own father, he was careful to limit his own drinking. He'd never imagined that he would have a problem with alcohol himself.

"I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? But if I'm not the same, the next question is, 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"

One of his earliest memories was lying tucked up in bed, listening to his father read to him from read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but that wasn't the one that he was evoking now. In the new memory, he was the one sitting in the chair at the little boy's bedside, reading those same words aloud to him while Kate watched, smiling, from the doorway; a sense of contentment, mingled with regret washed over him and he found himself wishing that he could go back to that moment. He still wasn't sure about a plane crash, but they certainly felt like the last survivors of something.

"For what it's worth, I miss him too," he confessed.


The object in Jack's hands was heavy, but not as heavy as his heart, as he lowered it into the opening of the shaft.

"Hurry up, Doc," a man's voice, edged with a thick Southern drawl, shouted from somewhere above him when he couldn't seem to bring himself to release it. "What're you waitin' for? Drop it!"

He glanced up into Kate's tear-streaked face for what he hoped wasn't the last time, to make sure that she still was still with him, supporting him in this one final thing, and she nodded, as if to say, 'Go ahead'.

It was exactly what he needed from her — he wasn't sure that he could do it unless he knew that she was on board – but when he turned back to the shaft, he found that it wasn't as easy as he'd convinced everyone that it would be, because once it was done, there would be no going back.

Closing his eyes, he watched fragments of the three years play out like a movie inside his head, the best and worst days of his life, but through it all: Kate. She was the one thing that he wished he could take with him wherever he was going and he prayed that he would meet her again there. After how badly he'd screwed up the first time around, he was certain that it was the only way that they would ever truly be able to start over.

With this thought in mind, he counted to five and forced himself to let go…

He started awake so suddenly that he disturbed Kate, who was sleeping pressed against his side with her arm slung over his stomach.

"Jack?" she said, blinking groggily at him, and recalling the way he'd longed for her in his dream, believing that it was all over between them, he felt such an overwhelming rush of love and gratitude at finding his way back to her that he embraced her before she'd even finished sitting up.

"What's going on?" she asked him, slowly coming alert as he buried his face in her soft curls, hugging her tightly. She slid her own arms around him to brace herself, rubbing his lower back in a way that he figured was meant to be soothing.

"I remember now," he told her when she finally pushed him away so that she could study his face, his mind racing as he struggled to piece it all together. "I remember what happened…"


Next chapter: Jack and Kate pay Ms Hawking another visit and encounter a familiar face (who just might inspire some jealousy)... ;)