It's been awhile, I know:) I'm fairly happy with this chapter, hope you all enjoy it to, or at least try to... (you'll see). Review, only one more chapter left!

For some reason, even though the woman she'd called her mother for most of her life had just told her she in fact wasn't, Kate couldn't quite get it through her head.

"Your father," Diane started, "Had someone else. Your mother." Kate gave her a puzzled look while Jack stood behind her, frozen in the fear of what would surely unravel. "While we were together."

Kate turned around, brushing by Jack quickly. Diane followed her, and Jack thought it was best to stay out of the situation.

"I know now that I should've just told you," the blond said after she'd caught up with her in driveway. Kate stopped and put her hands on her hips. "And your father and I had planned to, but then he left and you really weren't mine!" The older woman covered her face with her hands and then grabbed Kate by the wrist, hurt when she recoiled from the touch. Frankly she was shocked to be met with such silence from Kate, who had never bothered to edit her opinions before. Maybe more had changed than she'd previously thought.

Reacting to the touch she'd wanted for so long, until all of this, Kate tugged her forearm away from Diane's wrist, rubbing it with her free hand.

"You know that your father and I didn't have the best history, Katherine." Her eyes were pleading with Kate's. "But I thought I was doing the right thing, and then Joan, the woman your father was with, had you and took off. Then your dad left, too when you were older, but still not old enough to understand... and there I was, with this beautiful little girl. I couldn't give you up."

Countless questions danced through Kate's mind, but she managed only to speak one. "I'm not arguing with that," she pointed out.

"I want to explain everything-"

"You already have. Don't bother."

"There's- there's more to it, Kate!" Diane yelled after her when she'd yet again begun to walk away, feeling strange to call her what everyone else did, when she'd always been 'Katherine' to her. "When I left," she said, as calmly as possible, when Kate had faced her again, looking more disapproving than ever, "Your father had just contacted me again. Threatened to hurt you if I didn't leave."

"Why? He left us when I was four! What would make him want to come back into my life?"

Suddenly tears spilled over Diane's face. "I was so afraid of him. And he knew that... he just wasn't done messing up our lives. So I did what he said, the morning after he showed up and held a knife to my throat at the house. You weren't there," she added. "He said that Joan... your real mother- wanted you. I couldn't be there when they took you away from me."

Kate looked at her, her eyes icy. "I was wrong, I know. I know that now. They never tried anything with you, did they?"

She shook her head slowly. "And I know all kinds of things now, Katherine, like how I should've gone to the police, how I never- no matter what, should've left you, how I should've stood up to him, how he never should've been in our lives in the first place..." she trailed off. "I know that now, and that- that has to be enough for you." She met her daughter's green eyes, hoping that maybe, after all of this, Kate would still consider her as a mother. The silence broke her by the second as she tried to brace herself for harsh words.

"It's not," Kate said softly. "It's not enough."

"I don't know what else-" Diane started, but was interrupted.

"But I don't think anything you told me would have been," Kate explained. "I don't know how to say this..." Standing awkwardly with her arms crossed in front of her, she looked down at the flat pavement of the driveway beneath her. "Look, Jack's dad, he's... really sick, and we have to get back to New York," Kate said, seeing Diane's face fall.

"Okay," she mostly whispered.

"But," Kate hesitated, "I want to get your phone number. And maybe I'll call you. Maybe I won't," she offered. "I can't promise you anything, not after all of this, but maybe someday I'll think you're worth it."

Somehow Kate felt relieved. What followed in their relationship was up to her. Finally.

"And," she continued, because somehow she felt like she owed it to her, "I'll never consider this Joan lady my mother. That will always be you, for better or worse."

"Thank you," her mother offered, head ducked. "I have to say that I'm surprised though- that you're even considering any of this," Diane told her choppily.

Kate involuntarily half-smiled, thinking of Jack and Christian. They'd changed her. "Yeah. Me too. But I figure that if I can find some way to get through this, then I can get through anything."

"You always could."

Twirling pieces of her hair absently through her fingers, Kate rocked on her heels, not sure what to say next. "I, umm, I'm going to go inside and get Jack," she said pointedly.

When she opened the screen door Kate found him a few steps away, caught up in the pictures of her with Diane. She rested her hands lightly on his sides, hoping not to scare him.

"Hey," he said, though his eyes were full of questions she silently let him know he'd find out about later.

"Let's go," she told him, surprised by the lightness in her voice, but most of all the lightness, the relief she felt inside.

"Are you sure?" he asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"Yes," Kate told him almost immediately, and he could tell she meant it. "I know everything, and that's enough," she said softly, smiling shyly at him to his surprise. She seemed so... different, more assured.

Diane entered silently, scrawling her phone number down on a piece of paper and watching Kate with Jack out of the corner of her eye. She watched as he put his hand to her cheek and talked to her softly, and she was touched, maybe a little jealous, that Kate had managed to find someone she never had- a caring man. The two noticed her when she stood in the doorway for a moment, turning towards her.

"So... yeah, I guess we're going to take off." Kate didn't know how to say goodbye. She hadn't been given the chance before.

Diane sensed this and pressed the piece of paper with her number on it into Kate's palm. "I'll be here," she told her. "Whenever, if ever..."

Kate took a step forward, though she wasn't sure why. She couldn't be sure if it would be the last time she'd look into the eyes of her mother, see her short hair and her tired face. "Okay," she said with a small smile. "I'll keep it safe."

It was hard to tear her eyes from the woman she'd grown up with and gone through so much with, but this time, Kate knew, she'd be there the next time she came home. She gave her one last unfamiliar half-smile and pushed the door open in front of her. Jack followed but gave Diane the same grateful glance when he left. Even though he didn't know what had happened, he knew that Kate seemed different, felt different if it was possible.

They walked a few minutes in silence, only guessing what would come next. Sawyer took them back to the hotel, bidding his goodbyes and wishing them well in his own special way.

"I never thought I'd say this, Sawyer, but thank you so much for all you've done," she told him thankfully, leaning on the outside of car and speaking into the open window once they'd reached the hotel.

"No problem, Freckles. Maybe I'll come visit ya again?" He winked when she gave him a disapproving glance. "Jack," he nodded, and Jack did the same.

"Flight's at nine," Jack told her when he came back up to the room, where Kate was flopped back on the bed. Patting the spot beside her, she scooted over to make room for him. He dropped his head back on the pillow, exhausted, and felt Kate stroking his forehead in a relaxed manner.

"So what happened?" he asked her tentatively, keeping his eyes closed. Once she'd told him, she snuggled her head on his chest and let out a deep breath.

"I'm happy for you," he whispered softly, lovingly, wanting desperately to concentrate on Kate's newfound truths. She rolled over on him, warm body against warm body and kissed him lightly, craving the closeness that it brought. Resting her cheek against his, she asked him, "How is he?"

Jack sighed into her hair. "No change." He wasn't sure if that fact was good or bad- was he fighting or suffering? "Talked to my mom when I looked up the flight. She thought it was best if we were back by the afternoon."

"Kate?" he asked after awhile, feeling himself slip.

"Hmm?" Her breathing was slowed and pointed at his neck.

"Can we just sleep?" When he heard no response Jack looked down the best he could, seeing her face relaxed into him, clearly asleep.

She woke him in the morning with a start, sitting up quickly and hitting his chest quite heavily. "Jack!" she hissed. "Get up, we're going to miss our flight." They ran around the hotel room, stuffing their possessions into their bags and rushing to the cab they'd called.

They just made their plane, sitting mostly in silence. Oddly enough, there was a lot to talk about, but neither felt the need. Kate had her mother if she so wanted. Jack was losing his dad, and there was nothing he could do about it. What was there to say?

When they landed, they put their bags in the trunk of Jack's car and went straight to the hospital. Margo greeted them heartedly, with none of her usual uptight attitude, embracing Jack quickly and nodding pointedly, appreciatively, at Kate.

"He'll be happy to see you," she told them, and Kate could've sworn she meant both of them.

Jack walked in first and almost turned right around. His eyes were closed and his breathing labored, even with the oxygen mask strapped to his face. Christian was pale- paler that Jack ever remembered seeing him. Somehow, even holing himself up in operating rooms for most of his life, his father had always managed to keep that glow. Approaching the bed slowly, he sat down in the chair and felt for his father's hand, holding it tightly. Christian opened his eyes at the contact and smiled as largely as he could given the constraints of the mask.

"Jack," he said, louder than anyone would've thought possible. He supposed that, even in this state, his father would always be somewhat intimidating.

He squeezed his eyes shut, attempting to blink away the tears that were threatening increasingly. "I brought someone with me," he laughed, shifting so Kate came into Christian's view. Kate smiled sadly at him, placing her hand on top of his and Jack's. Margo held his other hand and rubbed her thumb over it comfortingly.

"I knew I could talk some sense into you kids," he joked, coughing lightly.

"You were right," Kate told him. "You usually are."

Christian shook his head. "Maybe lately. But I've had a lot to make up for," he said, looking at Margo and Jack decidedly. After a few deep breaths, he took the mask off, despite the warnings he heard from all three.

"I'd like to talk with Jack if you ladies don't mind," he told them with a small smile. Kate's eyes clouded with tears as she and Margo left, and to her great surprise, she felt Margo's hand reach for her own, giving it a squeeze.

Jack and Christian saw this, raising their eyebrows at each other. "I guess... she's had a change of heart," he said slowly about his wife. "Jack... I don't really know what I expected to say to you. I never thought this day would come," he admitted.

"Don't say that. You could... you could still-"

"Jack," his father whispered. "I can't still... I can't do anything." Jack was hesitant to look up, his tears instantly rolling down his cheeks when his brown eyes met his father's wet, glassy ones.

"I just want you to promise me something. A lot of things actually." Jack nodded, knowing that anything his father asked him, he would do. How he had changed, from the son who dismayed his father, to now, the son who would do anything to hold onto him. "Promise me that you'll look out for your mother, keep her in line," the older man added with a chuckle. "Make sure she doesn't claw away at Kate, because I want you to hold onto her, too." His father gave him a long glance.

"Okay," Jack sniffled.

"And Jack?" He paused, searching for his words. "All of your life I've... I've pushed you. And I regret it, and before you cut in and tell me I'm wrong... I just want you to promise me that you'll do what's best for you. I want nothing more than for you to be happy, for you to turn into the successful man that I know you can be, one that I've hopefully raised that way." His words were soft and a bit breathy, but measured and poignant.

Jack ducked his head and pushed it into his hands, trying to control the shaking of his body as his father reached out a hand to his back. "I will," he promised as best as he could, through the wracking of his frame.

"Dad, I-" he started, before Christian clenched his hand on his shoulder.

"Let me- I haven't told you nearly enough," he said through his own emotion filled voice, wavering. "I love you Jack, from the minute I found out your mother was pregnant, maybe even before, just the idea of you. And I still love you now, and I will forever, no matter happens after I'm gone..."

Jack would've been lying if his fathers words, however heartfelt, weren't still a bit awkward, but he raised his watery eyes to meet his father's and nodded, his mouth in a tight line. "I love you too, dad," he admitted shakily. He felt like a baby for crying, for professing his love like a little child being tucked into bed, but he realized he'd have it no other way.

Horrible things had manifested from this disease- chemotherapy, pneumonia, sleepless nights, but Jack had never imagined there'd be a positive from it all. He'd learned to love his father.