"Amy, what are you doing here?"
Kate was terrified. Matt stood in front of her, eyes wide with betrayal and confusion. How was she supposed to cover this up? Jack knew about her Matt, just the few things she'd shared with him not his whole name thankfully, so he wouldn't recognize it off of his name tag, but Jack had no clue that she was a different woman with Matt. Literally a different woman.
Quickly she blinked a few times. "I'm sorry, who?" She played the dumb card.
"What do you mean who!? Amy, you just spent the last year of your life with me and left a note on my kitchen table telling me that it meant nothing to you. The man you left for whoever this is? Don't you remember me?" Matt's voice was angry and hurt. Kate couldn't help but feel a little part of her wither with guilt. Still she kept up the façade.
"I'm so sorry, but I don't know you." With that Jack stepped past him into the open elevator, still holding Kate's hand, she followed.
Suddenly she felt a pressure on her arm. Matt grabbed her and brought her close to him, vengeance written across his face. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you can't just…"
"Hey!" Jack interfered. "Let her go, she already said she didn't know who you were."
"Excuse me; do you know what it's like to be in love with this girl?" Jack felt something stir within him; yes he did know what that felt like. He knew very well, but he didn't say a word. Instead he just stared at his fellow doctor and waited for him to continue. "I fell in love with her the moment I heard her laugh. Again when I watched her sleep. And once more when she met my parents. Do you have any clue…any at all…how painful it is to loose that in seconds, and not know why?" Jack didn't say a word. "I didn't think so."
Even more afraid than before, Kate tried to pull away but Matt's grip tightened. "Let me go," She said simply.
"No, not before you tell me why you left." He looked at her with his brown eyes glazing over. "What did I do, Amy?"
"My name's not Amy. I'm Kate." She a deep breath and held it.
Matt stared at her for a long moment. Then knowledge crept onto his face. "No," he said quietly. "No! You're lying!"
That was it for Jack. He punched the other man square in the jaw. Matt fell to the ground, releasing his hold on Kate.
Jack grabbed her quickly and pressed the elevator button, holding her close. He pulled her inside the second the doors opened but just as the doors were closing Matt climbed up off the floor stared at Kate directly and said, "Be careful, she's not who you think she is."
000
Once outside, Kate ran to the grass and as quietly as possible, emptied the contents of her stomach. She felt the hair lift off of her face and knew he was there. Closing her eyes, she tried desperately to catch her breath. Her heart was still beating wildly.
"You okay?" Jack asked, concerned.
"No. But I will be." She rested her hands on her knees and breathed deeply.
Jack just held her hair and waited for her to pull together. If truth be told he felt like vomiting himself. What had just happened was very out of the ordinary and it seemed to shake up Kate more than it should have. That worried him.
"Kate, do you know that guy?" His voice was low and non-threatening.
Kate paused and exhaled loudly. "No."
"Well, he sure seemed to know you."
Kate stood up and looked Jack straight in the eye. "I don't know him. He's obviously confused. He just told us that the love of his life just left him without a word. Honestly, I feel sorry for him. He's not stable." She turned on her heel and started toward the car leaving Jack behind.
000
They hadn't spoken since the day before when Matt confronted Amy through Kate.
Kate had held herself hostage in the bathroom taking one of the longest baths known to man, leaving each other to their devices. Probably the worst thing they could have done.
He fixed them dinner and went to bed early. There he laid there thinking about everything that had happened in the last few days.
Kate had not talked to him in over twenty-four hours, he took inventory. If it was possible she had made him laugh harder than he had in his entire life, he had taken her out to eat in celebration of the baby…he was told he was going to be a father; everything that had happened in the last week or so revolved around her.
He sighed in realization. He didn't know what to do without her. The last day 'without' her had been the hardest he'd endured since he'd met her two months earlier.
He was completely in love with her.
000
Kate climbed out of the tub and reached for her towel on the back of the door. She caught a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror. Recoiling with her towel she stood up straight still looking at herself, almost as if she was seeing her own body for the first time.
She cocked her head to one side, her hair sticking to her back, and laid a hand on her stomach. To the untrained eye there was nothing out of the ordinary about her, but there was something.
It still felt strange to think that there was something living inside of her. It had a beating heart just like she did. It felt things just like she did. And at that particular moment she was feeling a lot of things.
Overwhelming happiness. Guilt. Desperation. Love.
All of these emotions she worked so hard to suppress were now bubbling up to the surface. She blamed it on overactive hormones but in the end but she knew that's not what it was. It was all her fault. She was the one who was in too deep. She was the one in love with a man that she had no business loving. She was the one who destroyed every life she built with someone. She was the one who was pregnant and happy about it. What killed her is that she shouldn't have been.
She leaned over the sink to look at herself in the mirror more closely.
"You are a fugitive. What have you done?" She asked her reflection, hurt in her eyes. "You should've got out while you had the chance. Now…" she trailed off, hanging her head.
She thought back to the first night she'd spent with Jack. How anxious she was to get away. How scared she was that something would come of her staying…and it did. A sense of relief washed over her knowing that she had made the right choice. For once in her pathetic life she felt like she'd done something right and the sadness came.
Kate looked back at herself, tears starting to sting her green eyes. Shaking her head ever so slowly she whispered, "You don't deserve it."
000
Jack was half asleep when Kate crawled into bed with him. She touched is shoulder and he immediately put out his arms, silently asking her to come to him.
She snuggled into him as if the riff that had been little more than a wall between them the last day and a half had never existed.
Sleepily he kissed her damp hair and stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. She smelled like their soap and couldn't help but smile ever so slightly. And so that's how they stayed for a long while; him holding her and her letting him.
Until Kate couldn't stand that pain in her gut any longer. It was that heavy feeling she always got when she knew she was wrong about something; when she had something to apologize for.
"I'm sorry about yesterday." She said it so quietly she wasn't sure if Jack had heard it or not due to his lack of response. Then he stirred, loosening his grip around her waist.
"You don't have say anything."
"Yes I do." She nodded to no one. "I'm sorry that…"
"That what? That some guy practically attacked you? You have nothing to be sorry about." His voice was soothing despite the seriousness of their conversation.
"No. I'm not sorry for that." Matt shouldn't have done it but she understood why he did it. But it was strange that at his work of all places he would have shone such a display. Then again it was irresponsible of her to not check the name of the hospital before going. She was very aware of Matt's work and had been to the hospital many times. Why hadn't she been more careful? "I'm sorry that he was right." She ended the battle of faults in her mind.
"What was he right about?" Jack asked cautiously.
"He was right about me not being the person you think I am." Her heart beat hard with fear and anticipation. Rolling over to face the man in bed with her swallowed hard and took a deep breath.
He looked tired. The kind of tired that makes everyone look older than they really are, the kind that makes your heart break for them.
She couldn't do it. She was going to tell him everything and let him decide whether or not he still wanted her. She was going to lay all of the cards on the table, but after looking at his face, she couldn't do it.
"What are you talking about, Katie?" He called her Katie, just adding another crack to her already injured heart.
Thanking God that it was to dark for him to see the tears in her eyes; she smiled a small smile and said, "I don't know. I guess I'm just scare, you know?"
He nodded. "Me too. But don't worry. We have plenty of time to whatever we want to do before things get crazy around here." Jack laughed just a little after that.
"Yeah. You're right." Feeling her heart sink lower in her chest than it ever had she closed her eyes to sleep still wrapped up in Jack's strong, secure embrace.
A/N: Happy New Year everyone! I figured this was an adequate Christmas/New Year's gift. I know I can apologize all I want for not updating sooner but in the end…it doesn't really matter. My New Year's resolution is to finish this story without there being to much wait time. We'll see if I can keep that promise.
On another note: so sorry this was such a slow chapter. Trust me we are building up to something big. I think it's going to take another chapter and we'll finally get to the meat of the story. Trust me guys…I think you're going to want to hang around to see all of the twists and turns I've got planned for the rest of this story! Review guys…REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!