Chapter Eleven:

The pair walked home from school, seeing as the rain was over and the sun was shining again. It wasn't a long walk back to Jack's house, but they had to go the opposite way to the rest of them who walked over the back field and jumped the fence, except on days when Shannon wore a skirt, which was nearly every day.

"So, was that as bad as you thought it would be?" Jack asked her once the others had walked off in the other direction.

"Hmm...besides a load of people telling me they were sorry about my Mom, and arguing with Tom again...I guess not." She said with a smile.

"See, I told you that it would be fine." He said, nudging her shoulder with his whilst they walked.

"Could have gone better, though." She shrugged.

"Could have gone worse." He said, trying to bring some optimism into the conversation. "At least you're still smiling."

She couldn't surpress the smile from that, but changed the subject anyway. "I can't believe Mr Douglas says we have to apply for college now." She complained. "I mean, what if I change my mind at the end of the year?"

"You can always change your course at the last minute." Jack reminded her.

"If I go." She pointed out.

"Kate, stop worrying about not getting into college." He told her. "You're getting straight A's - of course you're going to get in."

"It's not that..." She told him.

"Then what are you worrying about?" He asked her.

"I'm thinking...maybe...I don't really want to go to college." She turned to him as they walked and held up her hands in mock defence as he went to speak. "Now, I know that you're going to tell me otherwise, but I'm really starting to think that it's not for me." She explained.

"But Kate..." He protested. "You're getting the best grades possible...are you going to waste that?"

"No," She assured him. "But I don't know what I want to do with my life yet." She shrugged. "I don't know what sort of career I want, or where I'm going to work...I need time to figure that out."

"We're not heading off for another year." He pointed out. "There's still time."

She frowned a little. "I'm still not sure." She told him. "There's nothing stopping me from going to college when I'm a bit older, and I'll have more to fall back on if it doesn't work out then as well."

"I thought that you wanted to get away from here, though." Jack reminded her. Kate was always going on about how much she wanted to run and get away from this place.

"I do...but I can still do that without college." She told him.

"What? Just...move away?" He asked her.

"Yeah, start over somewhere new." She said with a smile on her face.

"On your own?" Jack pried.

She nodded. "It'd be hard, yeah, and kinda scary...but I guess so."

Jack grinned as he got a brainwave. "I've got a better idea." He said, very pleased with himself at his idea.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah...come with me." He told her.

"Come with you?" She asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, why not?" He asked.

"You'll be living in a dorm...and I'm not living underneath your bed off of scraps of food from the canteen." She told him, remembering the conversation they'd had a while ago about how if for some wacked up reason she didn't get into college Jack insisted that he would hide her away in his dormroom.

"No, not like that." He told her. "I mean, we'll get a place out there. Be flatmantes...roomies...and then I won't have to live in the dorms." He explained.

Kate have him an exaggurated look of shock. "Jack Shepherd, are you asking me to move in with you?" She asked him, acting touched and pretending to get teary as she put her hand on her heart.

"Are you saying yes?" He asked her.

"Are you serious?" She giggled.

"If you say yes, I'm serious. If you say no, I'm joking." He said with a smirk.

She looked at him for a moment, and then smiled, shaking her head. "I guess you're being serious." She told him.

"You're saying yes?" He asked, making sure that he hadn't misunderstood her.

"I must be mad, but ... I'm saying yes." She told him.

Jack looked slightly amazed. "Woah...I didn't think you were going to say yes." He admitted as they started walking.

"Why ask me then?" She said with a laugh.

"Not sure...hope?" He suggested.

"So you were hoping that I'd move in with you?" She questioned.

Jack realised that he had somehow talked himself into a corner and just laughed. "If there was anyone I had to pick to be my roomie, it would be you." He told her.

"One condition." Kate told him. "You're doing the cooking."

Jack nodded. "I'm not arguing with that." She thumped him lightly on the arm but they both laughed because it definately didn't hurt. "You do realise that we can never tell the others about this, right?" He pointed out to her.

"How come?"

"Because they'll ask me when I'm proposing to you." He said simply, knowing that they definately would.

Kate smirked. "Oh really...so, when are you going to propose to me?" She challenged him.

Jack almost seemed to blush, and then had another brainwave. "Tell you what...let's make a deal." He suggested.

"What kind of deal?" She asked suspiciously.

"If we're not with someone by the time we're thirty, I'll propose to you." He told her, and she turned her head to look at him.

"Thirty?" She said with a playful frown. "Don't most people make this promise for when they're forty?" She asked him.

"Yeah, but we're doing it for thirty." He told her.

"Why?"

"Becuase if I'm going to marry you, then I want it to have time to be a good marriage. I want it to last." He explained. "I mean, not that you can't do that at forty, but hey, and extra ten years, who's going to argue that?"

Kate giggled. "If I didn't know any better, Jack, I'd say you've been planning this for a while." She teased him.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were enjoying the idea, Kate." He said, and they caught each others eye and smiled. "Besides..." He added, "I don't want kids when I'm forty...I won't be able to run around and play with them because I'm old."

"Forty isn't old, you know." Kate pointed out to him. "And besides, you always said that breeding with me would be dangerous because the kid would never sit still and never do as they're told, and would always use the puppy dog eyes against everyone." She reminded him.

"Yeah, but that doesn't matter." He shrugged off. "They'd have my genes to balance it out." Kate thumped him again and this time he pretended to be hurt.

"And you're sure I can't tell the girls this?" She cheched.

"Absolutely not." He said with certainty.

"But Jaaaaaack..." She pleaded, drawing out the vowel in his name. "That's what I'm supposed to do!"

"Oh yeah, how?"

"When a guy promises anything like this this I'm meant to go to the nearest phone and call them and chat for hours about it." She said, remembering what Shannon had told her the minute she had started dating Tom.

"But you're not going to." He said, making her mind up for her with a smile.

"And why's that?" She asked him.

"Because you're coming home with me, and we're going to play the PlayStation." He said, and started running ahead. "Race ya!"

A/N: Just a quick one I'll put up whilst I'm suffering a family bbq...enjoy!