A/N: Here you go… Late again but sooner than before… I would like to thank you all for the reviews, I was so glad to see that you liked it. And I hope I won't disapoint you with the next chapters… Enjoy!

Chapter 9

"Hello?"

"Hi Miss Austen. Can I speak with Kate?"

"Uuh… she's… she's not home yet. I sent her to do some shopping. You want me to tell her anything?" Diane told Shannon.

"Uuh… no thank you. Just tell her to call me when she gets back." Shannon replied.

"Ok hunnie, bye bye"

Once she had hung up the phone she turned and glared at her daughter who was sitting at the table.

"What the hell was that for?" she asked Kate trying to figure out what was going on.

"What?" Kate asked innocently.

"You know I hate lying so I expect you to tell me why you put me in this position" Daine said in a firm voice.

"I'm just not in the mood to talk right now" Kate said with a shrug and stood up to go to her room as soon as possible. She really didn't want to confront her mother about this. However Diane had other ideas.

"Katherine Austen sit back down right now!" she said in a steady and firm tone that was too hard to disobey.

Kate reluctanly sat down again, not daring to look her mother in the eye. She fumbled with her hands waiting for her mother's outburst.

"So? Are you gonna tell me what's wrong or do I have to guess?" Diane asked her daughter sitting too at the table, watching carefully her reaction.

Kate didn't answer. She just kept staring down, ashamed for bringing her mother into this.

"Ok then. I'll ask and you'll answer. Okay?"

"k" Kate said in a small voice, preparing herself for the worst.

"Did you do your homework?"

Kate's head snapped up. "Mom" she said in a warning tone.

"Sorry just kidding" Diane said with a smile. "But did you?"

"Yes mom, can we drop this?" Kate said with a sigh.

"Okay okay. Did you and Shannon have a fight?"

"No" Kate answered, staring back at the floor.

"Are you hiding something from her?"

She hesitated for a while but finally answered "Kinda"

"Is it about a boy?" Diane asked carefully. She rarely had a talk with her daughter about boys and that was because she trusted her daughter and was sure she would make the right choices. Another reason was that Kate always reminded her that she had more important things to think than boys-problems. She believed that the right guy would find her at the right time. So she wouldn't worry till that happened. Diane was really proud of her daughter's percpective of the matter and that was why she respected her wish to not talk about such kind of stuff.

But now was different. She remembered the days Kate dated Tom and realized that what she felt for him then, was nothing compared to what she was feeling right now for someone Diane didn't know about. Watching her daughter's behaviour the last few days was something new for Diane. And that was because Kate had never really fallen in love before. And she was definitely in love now. The question was with whom?

Kate was thinking hard what to answer to her mother but Diane beat her to it.

"Ok it's about a boy, we got that clear." Diane said with a smile as she saw the confusion in Kate's eyes.

They were silent for a while until Diane decided to speak.

"Do you like Shannon's boyfriend?"

"What? No!" Kate yelled.

"Is it someone whom Shannon likes too?" Diane continued.

"No mom! That's not it! For God's sake!" an exasperated Kate said.

"Then what is it hunnie? Cause you got me confused. If it's just a boy you like then I don't see what the problem is" Diane said in a calm voice.

"The problem is that we're friends mom!" Kate finally said, not mentioning his name.

Diane thought about it for a minute and then spoke.

"So?"

Kate looked at her inridiculously.

"So it's gonna end up badly. Our friendship will be destroyed and we'll end up hating each other and wishing we never got together!" Kate said baring her soul to her mother.

"Hunnie, you watch way too many movies" Diane said with a smile causing Kate to get furious at her.

"It's not funny mom!" Kate snapped. " These last days I have been tortured by the thought of losing him! I need him in my life so badly that my heart hurts when I think myself without him! I can't just go and tell him I'm in love with him and expect everything to be perfect! I'll just ruin our relationship and it means too much for me to risk losing it!"

Diane was silent watching her daughter's outburst. She finally admited she was in love and that was a good thing. However she was really troubled as to what to do about her feelings and Diane felt sorry for her.

"Kate, baby, listen to me." Diane said going over to her daughter and taking her in her arms trying to calm her down.

"Being in love is a very very very hard thing. Whatever you do you won't avoid getting hurt or hurting other people's feelings. It's just how it is hunnie. But that doesn't mean you have to stop loving and being loved because that would be just dumb. "

Kate was silent, enveloped by her mother's arms, listening to her carefully.

"Now, as for the friendship you think you'll destroy, you're wrong. If you really are friends then nothing will tear you apart no matter what happens between you and him. The only think that could drive you apart is lying to him about your feelings." Diane said to her.

Kate slowly pulled herself together and looked at her mother with teary eyes.

"So what do you think I should do?" Kate asked her sniffing a little.

"I think you need to think first what you want, and then tell Jack how you feel about him" Diane said slowly.

"But I don't even know if…" she trailed off realizing what her mother had just said. She looked at her and was stunned when she saw her smiling.

"How did you…?" she started but was cut off by Diane.

"I'm your mother, remember?" Diane said smiling to her daughter and stood up.

"I'm going to Jane for a cup of coffe. Provided that you have done your homework you can go out. I suggest you went to Jack and cleared this thing up." kissing her daughter goodbye she left.

Meanwhile Jack was being bombared by Claire's questions over the phone.

"Why are you lying to me?"

"I'm not lying to you Claire. Nothing happened. Now can we drop this?" Jack said swearing himself for lying to Claire about Kate. The thing was that he wasn't ready to tell anyone about his little encounter with Kate. He was not only embarrassed but didn't know what to make out of it as well. All he knew was that he couldn't get the image of Kate out of his mind. But that was not the problem. He was used to thinking of her now. The problem was he kept thinking of her shirtless, or her touching him like in their earlier encounter, or imagining what could have happened if his mother hadn't interrupted them. What if…

Snap out of it, Jack thought.

"Jack? Are you there? JACK?" she screamed losing her patience.

"Jesus! I'm here! Stop yelling!" he swore rubbibg his ear.

"Good. So you ready to tell me what really happened?" she asked.

"Claire I'm gonna say it for the last time. She came here to give me a book she thought was mine, we realized it wasn't and then she left. Nothing more, nothing less." he said with a sigh, praying to God to make Claire believe what he was saying.

"Cut the crap, lover boy. I know when you're lying, especially when the lying happens because of a girl. I know you too damn well to buy this shit you're telling me." Claire said.

"Lover boy?" he laughed. "Claire, have you been drinking?" he asked her still smiling at the nickname.

"No, Jacky boy. I'm very well, thank you. But if you keep lying to me I won't be. So spill it." she said in a firm voice that reminded him of his mother.

"Have I ever told you that you sometimes sound just like my mother?" Jack asked her, even though he was sure he mentioned it to her at least twice a week.

"Yes Jacko, you keep telling me that." she said with a sigh.

"What's with the nicknames, today?" he said laughing.

"You piss me off, that is. I can't believe after all we've been through you don't want to tell me what happened with Kate. What? You don't rust me any more?" she asked.

Jack felt guilty imeddiately. She was right. She had been there for him from the beginning. She had helped him through some very difficult situations and now here he was lying to her for something he couldn't comprehend.

"Claire…" he started but was cut off.

"Don't bother" she said and hung up.

"Damn it" he said to himself.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. His mother wasn't home so he had to get that. So he reluctanly, got up and went down to answer it. Opening the door, he revealed a very nervous and embarrassed Kate taking him by surprise.

"Kate?" he said as if to make sure she was there.

"Jack" she said, her voice trembling.

They stared at each other for 2 whole minutes, without saying a thing, when Jack remembered his manners and invited her in. They went to his bedroom silently, both lost in their thoughts. When they got inside they both sat on his bed, staring at the floor not daring to look at each other's eyes.

They were silent for a while until Kate couldn't stand it any more.

"Look Jack, i….. i….. " she trailed off not knowing what to say.

"I'm sorry" Jack said interrupting her.

"For what?" she asked quickly looking straight at him.

"For… for… you know what for." he said while he blushed and averted his eyes from hers.

"Oh" was her answer.

Was that disapointment in her voice? Jack thought.

"I don't… I don't know what got into me… I just… I'm sorry." he said or better he tried to say.

"Don't. Don't be sorry. I did kiss you back and if I remember correctly I've kissed you before." she said in a small voice not looking at him.

"Yeah" he whispered.

"And we're friends, right?" she told him now looking at him.

"Yeah" he whispered again, looking back at her.

"Best friends" she corrected, realizing now just how close they were. They were inches apart and she could feel his breath on her face making her have goosebumps all over her body.

"Yup" he said, his eyes traveling to her lips and back up.

"And we wouldn't want to ruin that, right?" she whispered, going closer to him.

"No" he said, now looking only at her lips, not being able to avert his eyes from there.

They stayed that way for a while, breathing heavily, both too afraid to make the first move. And when Jack was about to pull away and apologize once again, Kate spoke making him change his mind.

"But… it wouldn't hurt… if we… if we just mpfmpf…"

She was cut off by one Jack Sheppard, as he forcefully crashed his lips upon hers making her gasp. His hand went up to the back of her neck tilting her head to the side so that he could have a better angle to kiss her. His tongue didn't waste any time and explored her mouth fully making her moan and whimper in pleasure.

They slowly fell back onto the bed, him on top of her. Her hands traveled up and down his back and then inside his shirt. She dragged her nails on his back making him groan and kiss her harder. She was beginning to take his shirt off when he suddenly pulled away from her and sat up.

Breathing hard, Jack, put his face in his hands, trying to figure all this out.

Kate was left stunned and panting as well. She sat up slowly, fixing her slightly discarded shirt and said with a trembling voice

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…"

"No Kate, listen to me." he cut her off.

"We shouldn't be doing this, I shouldn't be doing this, I really don't know what's wrong with me and I wish I could figure it out" he said, partly lying cause he did know that he was very much in love with a certain brunette sitting next to him. But she didn't have to know.

"I don't know either" she lied too. "I just can't help it" she whispered, blushing furiously.

They stayed in silence for a couple of minutes till Kate spoke.

"Maybe it's just physical" she tried to explain and continued when she saw the confused look on Jack's face. "I mean physical attraction. Maybe we're just attracted to each other even though we're friends" she said.

"Yeah I think you're right." he replied.

They were both lying of course. They knew they were in love with each other but they feared of being rejected. Each one thought that the other was only physically attracted to the other and it was killing them.

"So what now?" Kate asked.

"Now… now nothing"