Disclaimer: I do not own Lost or any of the characters that you recognize. No copyright infringement is intended. All plots and subplots are original.

Author's Note: Here's chapter 21. Hope you like it. It's kinda...well, you'll see what it is. R&R please!
Chapter 21: A Tragedy

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Kate was roused from a rather peaceful slumber with astonishing speed. She glanced at the alarm clock: 3:15 AM. Sawyer again? she wondered.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Definitely not Sawyer. She reasoned that he would be cautious not to attract attention to himself while trying to get in to their holding area. Whoever was at the door didn't care if they were caught. They wanted to be heard.

"Stay here," Jack ordered, getting out of bed and rushing out of the room in nothing but plaid boxers.

"The hell I will," Kate muttered. Rolling out of bed she pulled on her robe and was starting to put on her slippers when she heard angry voices in the next room and froze mid-action.

"He came here didn't he?" It was Ben's voice.

"I don't know who you're talking about," Jack replied.

"You're a horrible liar Jack. Now tell me, did Sawyer come here?"

Kate jumped at the mention of Sawyer's name. Had Ben found out that he had been here? If he had, why was he questioning Jack about it now? If Jack told Ben about what Sawyer escape plan, would they punish Sawyer? What would Jack do? Rat Sawyer out, or keep mum about what he knew? She wasn't sure which action would be better. She listened intently when Jack began to speak.

"I haven't seen or even heard from him in over a month. Why would you think he came here?"

"Stop lying Jack. Why do you feel the need to cover for him? Just tell us if he was here or not and we'll go away."

So Ben wasn't here alone. That can't be good, Kate thought. If Jack didn't give them the information that they wanted, someone was liable to get hurt; it would probably be Jack.

"He wasn't here," Jack's voice raised another notch.

"If you won't cooperate, the information will be taken from you forcibly."

Silence.

"Last chance," Ben warned.

"You're not going to get anything out of me."

"We'll see about that," he sneered. "Go ahead Jeremy."

In that instant Kate's body responded to her brain and she sprinted for the living room. Jeremy was closing in on Jack, who stood ready to fight, even though he had an injured hand and was greatly out-matched. If Jeremy got his hands on him, there was no possibility of victory.

"Don't touch him!" she yelled, stepping into the overhead lights. Jeremy stopped, not because of her edict, but because he seemed humored by the situation. He knew he had the upper hand and he could take his time doing what he wanted to do.

Ben glanced in her direction. "I was wondering when you were going to join us Kate." He gave her a once over that caused knots to form in her stomach. "You look like you're developing nicely. Come closer and let me look at you."

"I'm not getting anywhere near you, you sick bastard."

"That's not a very motherly thing to say."

"Sorry, guess I'll have to work on that," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest and staying put.

"Get over here Kate. No matter how much you despise me, you still answer to me. I'm getting impatient. Come here. Now."

She held her ground because she knew she was safer where she was. A strong feeling that Ben had something up his sleeve kept her rooted to the spot. She didn't particularly want to find out what he was going to do to her if she got close.

"Don't make me repeat myself."

She really hated this man and his I-own-you attitude. Kate knew he was treating her like a child to get her to obey him. She also knew it wasn't a good idea to piss him off. Nonetheless, she didn't heed his order.

"Cane, please help her come closer. She seems to be having some trouble understanding an order when she hears it."

"Gladly," Ben's henchman answered, stepping toward her. Jack made a move to cut off the Other, but Jeremy intercepted him. He twisted Jack's arm with the bandaged hand behind his back.

"Don't touch me," she warned as Cane reached out for her.

He actually laughed. "Or what? You gonna do something about it?"

He grabbed her upper left arm without listening to any pathetic excuse she would make. He also made the mistake at looking at Jeremy and sharing another laugh at her expense.

His not expecting a physical reaction from Kate made her small victory all the more enjoyable. Her fist connected with his left cheekbone. The hit hurt her hand like hell, but his groan of pain made her smile. When he let go of her arm she backed away.

"I told you not to touch me."

"You're gonna pay for that," he mumbled, spitting blood tinged saliva on the carpet and wiping the back of his hand over his mouth.

She couldn't back up fast enough when he lunged at her. She couldn't overpower him when he lifted her up in the air and sent her flying backwards. She couldn't stop herself from landing on the hardwood floor on her stomach. She couldn't keep herself from crying out in pain.

"Kate!" Jack yelled, watching the whole tragedy as it unfolded in slow motion. Jeremy still had him in a position where he was powerless to help her.

Cane wasn't finished. He ignored Ben's yelled orders to stop and walked up to her. She tried to prop herself up enough to crawl away, but it was too late. He was standing menacingly above her, and evil smile planted on his harsh face.

"What do you have to say now bitch?" he asked as he lifted a booted foot and kicked her in the stomach. She flipped over onto her back gripping her growing belly.

Suddenly Cane was laying on the floor next to her, shaking violently. Kate looked up to see Ben with a taser in his hand. He was livid, but he shook his head in disappointment.

"Jeremy, leave the doctor go and get Cane. Take him to section F and leave him in cell three. I'll deal with him in a moment."

The other henchmen let go of Jack's arm and went to obey Ben's command. Jack flew to Kate's side and gathered her up in his arms. She was shaking from the intense pain. Tears flowed freely from her squinted eyes.

"I can't say anything to console you," Ben stated simply. "I can't even say that Cane will suffer as much as he should. He will pay severely for this outburst, but unfortunately he is not expendable…

"You will be given time to recover from this incident, but, assuming the specimen is dead, we will have to arrange a time to continue our efforts. But don't think about that now," he added as he opened the door to leave.

"And as for the Sawyer thing. I know he was here. Our monitoring system was conveinently down last night. I don't know exactly when, and I don't know why, but I will find out. Of that you can be certain. If you'll excuse me, I have some pressing matters to deal with at the moment." And he left.

Despicable, horrid, unfeeling man, Kate thought to herself as Jack scooped her up and carried her into the bathroom. She wrapped her arms around his neck and wouldn't let go, even after he set her on her feet on the marble floor of the bathroom.

After five minutes of clinging, he gently removed her arms so he could start a bath for her. A coldness that couldn't be shaken engulfed her entire body. Kate felt a wetness between her thighs and when she saw the blood on her fingertips she crumpled to the ground beside the claw-foot tub and wept like a lost child.

Later that night, after the relaxing bath and Jack's whispered words of consolation and encouragement, they both lay on the bed, wrapped in each other's arms. Both cried over their loss and understood without words how each other were feeling. Kate tried to think about the future, about the next step, but couldn't bring herself to focus.