I honestly cannot apologize enough for the delay in updating this story. Really, I am really really sorry, but I hope you guys have not given up on this story or on me. I think I am quite out of practice, so this felt choppy and well not my best. Hopefully it is not as bad as I feel it is. I'm just getting back into it, so be gentle my wonderful readers. Enjoy!

Chapter 21: The Night of the Concert

Claire looked up at Jack with an apologetic look. She watched his lips curve in a sad smile as he nodded and walked back out of the apartment.

When he walked back in a few hours later, in the afternoon, the apartment was quiet. He called out Kate's name and followed with Claire's as he walked further in, finally reaching the little hallway between the two rooms and hearing the sound of a hair dryer in Claire's room.

He knocked gently before popping his head into the slightly open door.

"Hey," he said once he'd caught her eye in the mirror.

"Hi," she said back, turning to meet him with a sheepish smile on her face. She still felt bad for what had happened earlier, especially since she did not have a chance to talk to Jack yet.

He walked over towards her, stopping by the bed to play with Aaron.

"I'm sorry… about earlier," she said, turning his attention away from the infant, "I shouldn't have stuck my nose where it didn't belong."

He shook his head and smiled, "don't worry about it, it's ok," he said.

"Are you and Kate going to be ok? I don't want to be the one who messes things up for you," she said, her emotions starting to get the best of her.

"We'll be fine, stop worrying yourself about it," Jack comforted her, "speaking of Kate, where is she?" he asked.

"She went for a run… to clear her mind," Claire said, "are you sure you don't want me to hang around tonight? I'll ditch the concert if you need me or if you don't want to look after Aaron…"

Jack laughed, "Oh, God, no! I will never hear the end of it if you miss the concert and miss out on meeting the man of your dreams!" he shook his head, "please go to the concert."

Jack left Claire to finish getting ready and headed towards the shower. It had been a long day and he had a lot going on through his mind. He was looking forward to an evening alone with Kate having decided to find a way to confront her with regards to what he heard, but he was also dreading it, hoping he wouldn't choose the wrong words and push her away.

Kate walked into the apartment after a long run at had helped her clear her mind a bit. Her talk with Claire had not been something she was especially willing to get into and it had drained her. But a few hours later she had come to the realization that she had needed that. She was finally able to put into words all the confusing feelings she had kept inside, all the emotions that had been crippling her from taking the next step with Jack. She did not know what the next step from was but she was glad that her own feelings were starting to become clearer to her, less scary and more tangible, something that she could control and let them control her.

She entered the apartment and was greeted by a bustling Claire, putting the final touches on her make up and clothes, waiting for Shannon and Boone to pick her up. She stopped Claire from trying to apologize for the hundredth time and made her way towards the bathroom for a shower after her long run. She grabbed her things from the bedroom and headed towards the bathroom, not paying attention to where she was going when she almost walked straight into Jack who was exiting the shower himself. She was stopped by his strong arms grabbing onto her shoulders and steadying her.

"Hey," he said, his lips drawing into a smile when he saw the flustered look on her face.

She looked up at him and her smile matched his. No matter how hard a day either of them was having, seeing each other after a long absence always brought a smile to their faces. He pushed a stray curl behind her ear and brought his lips down to hers. She expected it to be a quick peck, but was slightly surprised when he deepened it. It was a slow, sweet kiss, one that left her hanging on to him for balance.

He held onto her when they pulled apart, trying to catch their breath, their foreheads resting against each other.

"What was that for?" she asked with a shy smile.

"I just missed you all day," he said, his fingers trailing over the flushed skin of her cheeks.

She giggled, "but I am all sweaty and sticky."

"You're beautiful," he said, pecking her lips quickly, "but yeah you do need a shower," he teased, earning a playful smack on the arm from her.

Jack was in the living room, trying to feed Aaron when Kate walked out of the shower.

"Do you need help with that?" she asked, watching him struggle slightly.

"No, it's ok… I thought if I took care of the feeding then you could be in charge of changing…" he said, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

Kate laughed, shaking her head and she walked towards him, "no way, buddy, we take turns with the feedings and the changing."

"But, Kate… I am so out of my comfort zone here," he argued.

"No you're not," she said back, "I've seen you change him before, you do it like a pro. And anyway, you are much better with kids than I am."

"What makes you say that?" he said, finally getting Aaron to take the bottle.

"Well, I've seen you with Aaron, and I saw you with the kids in Phuket," she said with a smile, watching his cheeks turn slightly red, "you're a natural."

They decided to go for a walk. Aaron was showing no signs of going to sleep any time soon and was getting restless in the apartment. Jack pushed the stroller with Kate walking next to him when an elderly woman stopped them.

"Oh my, that is just the most adorable baby I have ever seen," she said gushing over Aaron.

"Thank you," Jack and Kate said in unison.

"How old is he?" the woman asked.

"Almost three months," Kate said, thinking back to the day of Aaron's birth.

"Really?" the woman said, eyeing Kate questioningly, "you look amazing for someone who gave birth no to so long ago."

Kate stuttered, tripping over her words trying to explain to the lady that she is not Aaron's mother, but the other woman seemed only interesting in Aaron and paid no attention to Kate's explanation.

Jack on the other hand was watching Kate's flustering, trying hard not to burst out in laughter. He eventually did though, when the woman walked away and earned himself another smack on the arm by Kate, "thank you very much, by the way," she said.

"What? She said your body looks great and I agree," he said with a smirk.

The made it back to the apartment and tucked Aaron in after he'd fell asleep on their way back. They met on the couch in the living room and snuggled together in the middle, Kate grabbing the remote control and flipping through the channels.

"Oh yeah! Die Hard is on!" Kate cried joyfully and fell back into the couch.

Jack looked at her with amusement, "you like Die Hard?" he asked.

"Are you kidding? I love it!" Kate said excitedly.

"You love it?" Jack asked again, the smile on his lips spreading wider.

"What's not to love? It's the perfect movie! Now shush! That's my favorite part," she said.

Jack kissed the top of her head, "you're perfect you know that," he whispered.

Kate was not kidding when she said she loved the movie. She knew almost every line by heart and was completely immersed in it that she failed to notice Jack had not been watching with her. Instead, Jack had been watching her the whole time. It was not until a commercial had come on that she turned to ask him if he wanted another drink that she saw him watching her intensely.

"Hey…" she said quietly, "are you ok?"

He smiled at her, his finger tracing her forearm gently, "I need to tell you something… but please don't get mad," he said anxiously.

She looked at him in confusion, "ok… is it something that will make me mad?" she asked.

"I don't know…" he answered, his gaze growing more intense with every moment, "I hope not… just hear me out, ok?"

She turned for a moment, shutting off the television, and turning back to face him, nodding gently, urging him to say what he needed to say.

"Earlier today, I came home, and you were talking to Claire," he swallowed, seeing the look on her face turn blank, "and I heard what you said. I didn't mean to I wasn't eavesdropping, I just happened to walk in…"

She shook her head, not sure if she should feel angry, embarrassed or betrayed by him listening in on a private conversation. She needed to get out, to get away from him before he did that thing he always did, where he managed to break down whatever wall she could build around herself. She pushed off the couch, trying to get away from the conversation as fast and she could. But he was quicker, knowing her flight instincts would kick in, he grabbed her wrist, not too rough but strong enough to let her know she was not running away from him this time.

"What? What do you want me to say Jack? You obviously heard everything I had to say, so what's the point of me staying here?" She said with her back turned to him, fighting the tears of hurt and anger that were threatening to spill.

"She felt him stand up behind her, heard him take a deep breath before he spoke, "You're right, Kate, I did hear everything. And I am sorry, I know this is something you would not have wanted me to find out like that. But I know now, and it's not something you can keep hiding anymore," his voice was calm and soft, he gently pushed at her shoulders, turning her around to face him, "and I don't need you to say anything, I just need you to listen to me, ok?"

She looked at him, watched as his brown eyes softened with care and understanding and she understood that what he was looking for was not a fight or an argument, and she believed she owed him that much to hear him explain what he needed to. After a moment, she nodded and he breathed a sigh of relief. He sat them back down, taking both her hands in his and he spoke again.

"I have to admit, when I first heard what you told Claire, I didn't understand why you said what you said, what you meant by it, but I took a walk, cleared my head, tried to understand things from your perspective, and… well, I cannot say I understand completely, but I think maybe…"

He let go of one of her hands, raising his hand, running his fingers through his hair, the back of his head, "I know that you may feel that you're a fugitive now, that you don't deserve good things to happen to you until your proven innocent. I understand how scary it might feel to think you are getting attached to someone and caring for someone when any day the phone might ring saying that you're going to jail… that giving in to something you cannot control will be unfair to either of us if things do not end up the way we want them to."

He was quiet for a moment, weighing his next words carefully, he reached over to wipe the tears that had escaped down her cheeks, "I understand the second part Kate, and I feel it to. As much as I believe that you are innocent, sometimes I fear that the lawyers might screw up and not find a way to prove that. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I feel like I cannot breathe when I think that there might come a day when I wake up and my arms are not wrapped around you," he said, and they both felt a sob escape their throats at that thought.

"But, Kate, I don't understand the first part, I don't… I don't believe it, and it kills me that you believe that… you believe that you do not deserve to be happy, you do not deserve something good. Kate, what happened to you, all the bad luck, the unfair circumstances, they do not define you. On the contrary, they helped form you and turn you into this amazing, wonderful woman, and just because you have had some bad luck along the way, it does not in any way make you bad or damaged…" he smiled at her, watched as a quick sparkle returned to her eyes and found himself drowning into her green orbs again.

"I know that you think you should wait till after the outcome of this situation to decide whether you deserve any of this happiness, I don't know… maybe you think an innocent Kate would deserve things that fugitive Kate doesn't?" he said and she managed to let out a strangled chuckle at the way he put it.

"But you see, Kate, a piece of paper won't define who you are or who you will be. It will always be the same person, and I don't need that piece of paper to decide how I feel about you either," he suddenly stopped midsentence, closing his eyes for a moment before he continued, "because I know the who the woman I fell in love with is, and it's you Kate, fugitive or innocent, I don't care."

Kate's eyes shot wide open at his words, she opened her mouth but the words failed to leave her lips. She breathed deeply and tried again, "you… you fell in love with me?"

Jack nodded, growing anxious, starting to worry that maybe his declaration came too soon, at an inappropriate time. He felt the seconds turning into hours as he watched her, her head dropped, her eyes strained at their entwined hands in her lap, chewing her lip mercilessly. When she looked back up at him, he was slightly relieved to see a smile on her lips.

"What if this doesn't work? I go to jail?" she asked.

"Or we run away together…" he said, trying to hide his anxiety with a light comeback.

"Where will we go?" she asked.

"How about Phuket? We can buy an old house, turn it into a restaurant…" he said.

She shook her head, still smiling, "I can't cook, and I've tasted your cooking, it's horrible," she retorted.

He chuckled, "ok, we'll find something that I am good at… besides cutting people open."

She fell silent again, watching him, his smile fading again to be replaced by the anxiety that has failed to leave him since he said those words.

"Jack?" she said, looking up at him, the smile on her lips growing wider.

"Yes?" he said, silently begging for her to put him out of his misery with any answer. But again she said nothing; instead, she got up and reached a hand out for him. He took her hand and followed as she led him towards their bedroom. The walk to their bedroom seemed longer than he'd ever experienced it to be. Once inside the room, she stopped, shut the door and turned to face him, the lips never escaping her lips. She reached up and caressed his face gently, getting up to her tiptoes and kissing him softly, she pulled back and whispered, "I love you too."

Ok… That was insanely hard to write you have no idea! I hope it did not disappoint. And since this is not an M-Rated fic, you do not get the details of what happened afterwards (or if it even happened… just kidding, just kidding, no more platonic sleepovers with those two). Seriously though, I hope I managed to deal with this whole situation convincingly.

Only 2 chapter left…

Chapter 22: Dear Katherine

A letter addressed to Kate gets delivered and in this letter lies Kate's fate

Chapter 23: In Phuket

What? Why? Again?

Please drop me a review and I promise I will never leave you again to wait so long for an update.