No, you aren't reading this wrong... I'm back! I can only apologise. Life really does fly by... I've not forgotten about this fic, or about these two characters - I've actually been working on this quite a lot. Everyone that's left a review even though I haven't updated in months... thank you so much. I love reading them - really I do. It makes my day. So, I'm going to post another chapter straight after this one. I hope it makes up (slightly) for the total lull in updates recently. :)

Chapter 14

The next couple of days passed in a bit of a flurry. Jack was at work again - unsurprisingly - and striding down the corridor to his office. He had almost been feeling like, in actual fact, he had never really been in a huge plane crash and stranded on an island for two months. The halogen lights and the buzz of his pager were so familiar, he felt like he hadn't ever been away from the long, white corridors. It really was quite easy to put everything else out of his mind when he was in the hospital. Which was, he knew from experience, both a blessing and a curse. Before he had time to start reflecting on the various ways in which his job had ruined his marriage, he heard his name being called behind him. Turning, he saw his one of his bosses - a member of the board who he had met with when he'd first come back to the hospital the previous week.

"Jack!" She called his name again and caught up to him. Jack turned and smiled as she approached him - she'd probably been the most open and the least patronising when he had discussed the practicalities of coming back to work - a discussion she was keen to continue. He appreciated her concern over his readjustment to the real world. They agreed to head downtown for some fresh air and a coffee and to discuss Jack's feelings on the matter away from prying eyes.

Their discussion was reassuring. Jack was a bit nervous but generally quite confident about starting surgeries again, but she didn't want him to rush it or to push himself too hard too quickly. He smiled at these typical traits of his, and held open the door for her, both of them clutching hot coffee cups as they left the shop to head back to the hospital.

Kate pulled the business card out of her bag, re-checking the address, her neck straining as she looked up at the tall buildings, trying to recognise which one belonged to Duncan's firm. Downtown LA was not an area she knew well, and she was running late already as she trailed along behind a group of tourists, looking like one of them herself as she looked every which way, except for the fact she was dressed for a business meeting and in high heels. She pulled out her phone to check the time. "Dammit," she muttered, seeing that she only had a minute or two until she was supposed to be there.

Her eyes wandered down the row of buildings across the street, peering through the traffic and squinting to make out the numbers and the signs on the buildings. The strip was mainly made up of cafes and bars and food shops, and she frowned with frustration, about to pull out her phone again to call Duncan and express this thought, when her attention was caught by something else entirely.

On the other side of the street, where her eyes had been lingering, she saw a door swing open and, to her astonishment, Jack appeared. She watched as he held open the door for a woman, who he smiled at as she walked out. They had coffee cups in their hands, and before she knew it, they had been swept up in to the crowd and disappeared in to the mass of bustling bodies on the other side of the street. A confused frown had drifted down and settled on her face. She saw him appear and disappear so quickly that she could've thought she'd imagined it, except for the fact that the sudden pang of jealousy that had started to coarse through her and taken her by surprise could not have been stirred by anything apart from seeing Jack. She thought fleetingly of herself stood in their makeshift island kitchen... trying shamelessly but without success to flirt with Jack, only to watch as he sat for dinner with Juliet... she'd felt that same pang back then... And what came next - she shook the thought from her head.

Still staring absent-mindedly at the coffee shop across the street, she jumped when her phone started buzzing in her hand. It was Duncan.

"Kate, where are you?"

"I can't find your damned office, Duncan..."

Jack settled on to his sofa that evening with a copy of the LA Times and a large mug of coffee, propping his feet up on the fouton and popping a biscuit in his mouth, feeling almost relaxed, for the first time in as long as he could remember. His living room lay in relative disarray around him, but he didn't mind. Just as he opened the mammoth paper, his phone, lying next to him on the sofa, buzzed. He picked it up absent-mindedly, still reading the headlines on the first page, and then glanced down at the screen.

"Hey. Sorry I can't make it at the weekend. Hope the hospital was ok today. Kate."

Jack frowned down at the phone, his mood slipping immediately towards discontent. He stared at the message for a moment, and then snapped his phone closed, dropping it back on to the cushion. He returned to the stories in the paper and tried to concentrate, but he couldn't stop his mind nagging at him - was this over before it had even really started..?