Awww hugs I love you guys so much! From here on, I'm starting to use some of the classic jate scenes from the show into this story, making them more teenage. I think we'll open with the golf challenge...


Chapter Twelve:

"Holy Crap!" Kate cried out as she lost control of the car and crashed it into the side wall of the race track. The screen flashed up 'Player One wins', and Jack laughed.

"I told you, Kate, you've gotta press the skid button when you go around the corners." He reminded her.

She looked over at him and raised her eyebrow. "You're giving me tips?" She asked incredulously.

"Kate, I'm a guy." He told her, as if that explained everything.

"So you think you could do better?" She asked playfully. She heard Margo laugh from across the room where she was reading her book, but they knew that she wasn't laughing at the book.

"Anyone can drive a car with a controller...that's not winning." He said, trying to appear confident that he could beat her.

"Then what's winning?" She asked him.

"Winning needs accuracy." He pointed out.

Kate looked away and then back again devilishly. "Then, why don't we do two player one more time and see which one of us is more accurate?" She asked him in a tone of voice that Claire and Shannon would consider as flirtatious.

"My, my." Margo piped up as she looked over at the pair. "Is this fighting talk?"

Kate grinned, and turned back to Jack, who eyes her suspiciously. "You're kidding right...'cause I'd mop the floor with you." Margo laughed louder this time, and Jack's ego dropped to the floor and got kicked under the rug with that.

"Three races, best of wins. We play for bragging rights." She told him.

Jack nodded. "What are we waiting for?"

Kate started setting the game up to start again, but then turned back to Jack. "Have you got a coin?" She asked him.

"Kate, we're not playing for money." He told her, shaking his head.

"Heads or tails...see who picks first course." She corrected him.

"Here, I've got one." Margo told them. "Kate, heads or tails?"

"Tails." Kate said.

"Tails it is."

Kate smiled, and Jack shook his head. "How do you do that every time?" He asked her. She always won heads or tails. Even when he picked tails he would lose.

"It's a gift." She said innocently.

"Go on then, you pick first." He said, and she started to flick through the different course options, particularly the harder, more advanced courses. "You know, we can do the beginner courses if-"

"Shut up, Jack." She told him, still smiling, and Margo laughed to herself as she left the room to start dinner.

They played three games, and whilst Jack won the first game, Kate won the second two, leaving her as the winner, and Jack was left comforting what was left of his ego.

"You know that I just let you win, right?" He told her, covering up the fact that she had won fair and square.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." She said as she climbed to her feet. Jack was about to say that having her in his arms helped him sleep at night, especially after waking up to the warm feeling of having her curled against his side as he had done that morning. Instead, he wondered where she was walking off to.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" He asked her. "I want a rematch."

"I'm going to have a shower before dinner." She told him. "Besides...you should practice some more before we have a rematch...'cause you suck." She said, notioning towards the screen before walking out of the room.


Later on, Jack was sorting something out in his room when Margo called to him from the laundry cupboard to knock on the bathroom door and let Kate know that dinner would be ready in a moment. He walked over to it, his hand raised to knock when it was opened before he had a chance, and he came face to face with Kate...wearing nothing but a towel around her.

"Sorry." They both said at the same time.

"Nice shower?" Jack asked, as he tried with all his might to keep himself looking at her face. Do NOT look down, he told himself. He didn't trust himself to look down.

"Yeah, you having one next?" She asked. "I would have left it on, but...yeah." She said.

"Doesn't matter." Jack told her. "Dinner will be ready in a second anyway." Don't look down. Don't even think about it, Jack.

"Okay...you could use one." She told him with a nod, gathering her clothes up from the edge of the bath. Oh my god...was he just checking me out...

"I'll have one later." He told her with a smile.

"Okay...uh...well...I'm going to get dressed." She said, and Jack jumped out of the way, realising that he was blocking her way out of the bathroom, and she went past him, as Margo came out of the laundry cupboard at the same time.

"Ah, Kate, you're out. Dinner will be ready soon, honey." She told her.

"Okay." Kate smiled.

"I've put the hairdryer on Jack's bed if you wanted to use it." She smiled.

"Thanks."

"No problem, honey." Kate disappeared into Jack's room, and Margo turned to look at Jack...who was staring after Kate as if she was an angel walking the earth. "Jack, honey, close your mouth before the flies get in it." She told him.

"Sorry." He said, shaking himself out of his thoughts. He mentally slapped himself. He had looked down as she walked away from him, and he scolded himself for looking at his best friends butt.

"And stop staring, it's rude." Margo reminded him.

"I know...I uh..." He tried to explain, but seemed to have lost command of his tongue.

Margo smiled. "Oh, Jack, you haven't only just relised that Kate's a girl, have you?" She asked him sweetly.

"What?" He asked, looking at her strangely.

"She's always been running around like one of the boys, it's not surprising that you forget she's a girl."

Jack shook his head. "I know she's a girl." He confirmed. He knew all right. Everything she did recently seemed to remind him of that.

"I'm not surprised after this little run in. You know, Jack, you've never looked at Sarah like that." Margo told him.

Jack answered slowly, like he was not really paying attention as he started still at his bedroom door. "No...I guess not." He said, clearly distracted by the fact that he could see the door, and knew that Kate was changing behind it.

"Is it because it's Kate?" Margo asked him.

He finally looked away from the door. "What does that mean?" He asked her.

"Like I said yesterday, I know love when I see it." She smiled. "Now, hurry up and get cleaned up before dinner." She told him, before walking downstairs.


About ten minutes later, Jack knocked on the bedroom door. "Kate, you decent?" He called through it.

"Yeah." She called back, and he walked into the room, where she was brushing her now-dry hair.

"Dinners ready when you want to come down." He told her.

"Okay, wait up, I've just gotta clear this up." She said, gesturing to the towel and clothes draped on the back of the chair.

"Don't worry, leave it for now." He told her.

"No, it's okay." She said, and started to fold it up. "So...Jack...earlier on..." She started but Jack cut her off.

"Sorry that I kinda walked into you like that when I uh...walked in on you." He apologized.

"That's all right." She giggled. "It could have been worse."

"Yeah." He agreed, glad that this clearly wasn't as awkward as he thought it might be.

"So...where you checking me out?" She asked him casually.

"What?" He asked, completely caught of guard.

"No harm in it..." She told him even more casually.

"Trust me...if I was checking you out, you'd know it." He covered up, and Kate smirked, because she did know it.

"Oh yeah? So then what were you thinking?" She asked him.

"Well, I sure as hell wasn't thinking that." He told her with a gentle laugh.

"Thinking what?" She asked further, liking to see him blushing and embarrassed...it was kinda cute.

"About...you in a towel...and..." He stopped, stumbling over his words and becoming very interested in the floor.

"And...?" She tempted, coming to stand very close before him.

"And...uh...how much I wanted..." He swallowed. "Uh...dinner..." He said slowly.

Kate smirked. "Well, that wasn't denial." She joked, and he nudged her arm.

"Come on, you, let's have dinner."


So...flirting...checking each other out...whatever next? hums music maybe a little dancing...