Thought you all deserved an update after your amazing responses. I think I replied to all of you to try to explain my situation more, and I hope you understand what I was trying to get at- it wasn't a beg for reviews but rather the simple question of if you were still interested. I do write for myself, I really love to and nothing would ever stop me, so you have to know that too! But why not share it, right? It was great to hear from people who I hadn't before, so I know that there really are people who are enjoying this and are along for the ride. So thanks, you guys are amazing:)

So Margo (yes I finally spelled it right after spelling it wrong in my ENTIRE first story... buah!) is introduced in this chapter- think of my Margo as the Emily Gilmore type- annoying, overbearing and sometimes mean, but always wanting the best and truly loving her family. Might be a bit fluffly at the end, but I think the last sentence kind of explains why, with Jack's family in the situation they're in. Enjoy and leave me something if you want!

Chapter Ten: Semi Constructive Critcism

Margo folded her arms against her chest, her usual defensive stance. Jack was watching them from outside his house. They'd just arrived and were standing outside in the driveway arguing. Growing up Jack had never doubted that his parents loved each other, he just wasn't sure that they were in love. They seemed to bicker and fight a lot, although it was probably just the battle of clashing personalities.

Finally he saw them approach the door. He hadn't seen his mother for awhile now, and he was a bit nervous. That morning he'd cleaned the house from top to bottom- anything to earn his mother's respect. Margo grasped Christian's arm to her side, and Jack laughed when he saw his father roll his eyes but allowed it to happen.

He opened the door as they were climbing the steps on the side porch. Margo seemed to forget about her husband for a moment, dropping his arm and hugging Jack tightly.

"I never see you anymore," she complained, Margo style.

"I know, I know. I'm a busy guy," Jack replied.

"Well that's no excuse for not visiting your mother," she warned him in her typical catty tone. She wasn't saying it meanly or to be condescending- she was a mother who missed her son.

Margo was always blunt- Jack had learned to appreciate that for what it was worth. The Shepherd family had always gotten what they were after, that's for sure. In some ways his mother seemed to drive fear into people, even though most of the time she was a personable character. Brash, opinionated, sure, but you just had to know how to take it from her.

"So," she clapped her hands together in front of her. "What's going on with you Jack? I need a serious update."

Jack sat next to his mom on the couch and Christian took the chair across from it.

"I guess dad's probably told you about struggling a little bit in one of my classes," he put out there, sincerely hoping Christian had.

Clearly he hadn't.

"What? I haven't heard anything about this. I hope you're not jeopardizing your future by being unprepared now. The last thing you need is to fail a class and not get into medical school. What would everyone think?" she pondered, her eyes turning hard in Jack's direction.

"I know. But it's getting a lot better now in biochem- I'm pulling a solid B, and the final is coming up pretty soon."

"That better be an A by the time the end of the semester comes around," Margo threatened. "How did you pull it up?"

"Oh, Kate helped me. I'm sure dad's told you about Kate," he offered, smiling slightly.

"Who?"

Jack shot Christian a look- had he talked to her at all?

"We didn't get around to talking about much- other than my condition," he tried, shrugging his shoulders.

"Who is this girl?" Margo cut in, clearly interested.

"I guess she's my girlfriend. I don't think we've put it in those words yet though," he offered, looking over to Margo to see what she had to say. She was silent for a moment, though Jack could practically see the thoughts churning in her head, her opinion surely about to be spit out.

"You don't need a girlfriend right now," she stated bluntly. "Too much of a distraction."

"I'm not going to dump Kate because you don't think I 'need' a girlfriend," he emphasized.

"Well how do you expect to raise your grades, keep up with your volunteering, and study for your MCATs with a girlfriend always hanging around and getting in your way?" she tried. Her face had turned a bit stoic. "Besides, you know how it turned out last time. What makes you think this will be any different?"

The blow hit him hard. It was one thing to not approve of having a girlfriend- but comparing a previous relationship to this one just wasn't fair. She was overstepping her boundaries very quickly.

"No, I won't let you do this mom. I don't doubt anything that I have with Kate, okay? I don't want to hear this from you. Is that clear?"

"Jack, I'm just trying to point out how hard it's going to be to juggle everything at once."

He sighed, putting his hands in his face. "I don't suppose you know that Kate's the only reason I'm managing to pull a B in biochem. She was my tutor- that's how we met," he tried to explain.

"You went to a tutor?" Margo asked. She sounded a bit flabbergasted, as if going to a tutor was a damper on the family name.

"I wasn't going to sit around a fail the class, mom. Now I'm sure you'll meet Kate fairly soon since you're going to be here with dad for quite awhile. Don't do this to her."

"You know I don't make promises," she smirked, crossing her legs. "Now can you get me something to drink? I'm terribly parched."

Christian had been to two more treatments since he started. He hadn't been experiencing many side effects yet mainly because it was early on, but he'd been more tired than ever before in his life.

It was way too early in the process to check the progress of the tumor in his eye, but while he could live with the tumor in his eye, although his vision might be impaired- the chances of the cancer spreading were likely. That's what they were more worried about now. Christian would have to have full body scans regularly, to check if the disease had spread. Luckily the cancer normally spread to certain known places- so he was getting top of the line screening in those areas.

Jack was driving his father to his treatment that morning. Christian was sitting in the passenger's seat, Margo in the back chattering away.

"Christian, we just simply cannot stay in that hotel any longer. Those sheets were terrible," she complained. "Thought I was going to be able to see through my skin by the morning."

"Dear we'll just buy some new sheets in the meantime," he tried, rubbing his hands over his tired eyes.

"And did you see that maid? We should lock everything up in case she tries to steal my jewelry and pawn it off to feed her family."

Jack broke in. "Where do you think of things like this mom?" he asked her, as Christian started laughing.

"It happens Jack! I saw it on 20/20!" she exclaimed.

"We'll get a rental place soon, okay? How about we look later on today if I'm feeling up to it?" Christian tried to comfort her. No matter how much his wife complained, he knew it was because she was used to the best. She was used to the best because he provided it for her- something he couldn't help but take pride in.

"Fine."

Jack sat in the waiting room with his mother while she chatted about the women's club back home, and how she was so upset she had to miss the upcoming functions.

"But you're here for dad. That's what matters," Jack said finally, finding it hard to get a word in edge wise.

"Yes, I suppose you're right," she conceded.

Soon after Christian appeared, having finished his radiation. He of course looked tired, like always of late, but smiled nonetheless. Jack watched his mother fawn over him, still taken aback how Margo could switch personalities in the matter of seconds. She was rubbing his back gently, her face etched with concern, but trying not to show that to her husband. Jack had always known that his temper and personality weren't all from his dad- he surely had some characteristics of his mother. Margo taking care of him wasn't the first thing he thought of, but he did have some fond memories of Margo being a great mother, and he'd always thought that some of that care had rubbed off on him.

Jack left the two alone for the remainder of the day and drove them back to their hotel. He got a call that afternoon from Margo, gushing that they'd found the perfect place to rent. Coincidentally it was also in Manhattan, although probably a 15 minute drive from his place in the busy New York traffic and not far from Christian's treatment center.

"So your father asked you about going back home to get some things settled for us?" she asked him. "We'd really appreciate it. I just don't trust strangers with all of our valuable possessions," she breathed. "There are several generations of family heirlooms and I wouldn't feel right letting anyone else doing it," she explained.

"I mean, I honestly don't mind doing that for you and dad, but you're going to have to realize it's going to be hard for me to find a little break in my schedule. You're going to have to stay here with dad, and I'll probably have to fly over on a weekend or something," he started.

"But it needs to be done soon," Margo complained.

"Not everything can be done exactly when you want it to," he fought back. "It will get done."

"And he told me about asking Kate along. I don't think that's appropriate," she bit out.

"Why's that mom? Think she's going to steal something?" he referred back to her complaints in the car that morning.

"No, I think this is a private matter, that's all."

He sighed audibly into the phone. "Well Kate's a part of my life mom and I guess you're just going to have to deal with that. You haven't even met her yet, but you're passing a hell of a lot of judgment on her."

"I know that girls can be gold diggers Jack. You should've seen all the women I had to beat off with a stick for chasing after your fathers money."

"I haven't even asked her about going with me because I'm not sure I want her to, and just so you know she doesn't know anything about our money. She probably assumes we have some since dad's a doctor, but she's not really aware of just how much," he tried to tell his mother.

"I'd most certainly like to meet this young lady before we talk about this any more."

Their conversation was straining with Margo bringing up Kate once again.

"I don't want to talk about it. I'll call tonight to check in on dad."

He hung up quickly and called Kate since he hadn't seen her for a few days. She invited him over, and he accepted straight away, glad to be going to an environment where his parents wouldn't be.

He decided to walk to her place since it was only the afternoon and arrived shortly. He let himself in since he was expected, and saw Kate smile when her eyes set on him.

"I missed you," he breathed as she wrapped her arms around him tightly. They hugged for a few minutes, each reacquainting with the other. They pulled away a bit, Kate rubbing the outsides of his arms with her palms.

"So your mom's here?" she almost cringed.

"Yeah, you could say that," he laughed a bit. "It's always stressful with my mom around. She got in yesterday afternoon."

"Is she taking all of this okay?" she asked, concerned.

Jack nodded. "I guess so, as well as she handles any kind of stress though. By annoying everyone and picking fights. But that's my mom for you."

"That bad?" she scrunched up her face.

Jack could tell immediately that Kate feared meeting Margo.

"And sorry to break it to you, but she's not exactly thrilled with the idea of me having a girlfriend…" he trailed off.

"So I'm your girlfriend now?" she teased him. They'd both assumed it, but hearing it for the first time was awkward.

"Uh, yeah, I mean I just thought-" he stammered, looking flustered.

"I was just kidding Jack .Of course I am," she swatted him playfully on the arm. "So she doesn't exactly want to meet me, huh?"

"I'm sure you'll find a way to win her over," he tried to appease her. "I mean, you converted the all mighty Dr. Christian Shephard. You must be doing something right."

"Fair enough," Kate replied. "But mothers are a completely different story. You know that," she glared at him. "They feel threatened much more easily, like a girlfriend is trying to replace them or something," she pointed out. By the sounds of it, she had experience.

"Let's not worry about that now. I'm sorry I haven't been around much," he said, changing the subject.

They sat together in Kate's room, flicking the TV on and snuggling up.

"It's okay Jack. I understand that you need to be there for your family. It's really important," she understood.

"Thanks," he smiled at her, kissing her softly.

"I'm bored," Kate complained awhile later, although she loved snuggling up to Jack's warm body.

He laughed, as she always seemed to bring things up randomly.

"And how do you think we should fix this?" he asked flirtatiously, winking at her.

"Very funny," she deadpanned, gazing outside through the window. "Let's go outside," she smiled.

She hurried him into putting his shoes on and practically dragged him outside and started walking.

"So I see this on my walk to and from class every day and I always think about it," Kate started.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Jack asked, puzzled. They were headed in the direction of campus, although he had no idea where they were going.

They soon arrived to the big grassy area in the middle of campus, which was now filled with scattered fall leaves on the grass. It was the same field they'd cloud watched in, and Jack smiled at the memory.

"See that?" she pointed over to the far end of the field, where a giant pile of leaves had been collected by the university's maintenance workers.

Jack smirked at her and took off running towards it, laughing as he heard her huffs of protest.

"That's not fair," she breathed, and he slowed down a bit to let her catch up. She hopped onto his back, surprising him and sending him face forward into the pile of leaves.

"Ugh," he protested as he raised his head up, picking the dried leaves from his mouth in the process.

Jack rolled onto his back, although it was difficult in the bed of leaves. Kate was looking at him with an amused but slightly worried look on her face.

"Sorry?" she tried, but burst into laughter.

He caught her around her waist with his hands, pulling her to him as she tried to wriggle her way out of his grasp. Finally he'd turned her over and pinned her underneath him jokingly.

"You know something?" he asked her lightly.

"Hmm?" she teased.

"I love you," he said with a smile, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to say. In a way, it was.

She looked a bit shocked for a moment but responded.

"Good, because I love you too," she laughed.

It felt as if a weight had been lifted off of her chest, as if somehow saying those words freed her of a bind. Maybe she wasn't as scarred from her past as she thought. It felt right to say it this time.

She kissed him lightly on the lips, distracting him so she could get up from the pile and run away. He saw what she was doing and chased after her adamantly. They would both willingly admit that their behavior was childish, but deep down they had the feeling their youthful innocence would be gone soon enough.