Chapter 3

Promise

"You must…stay alive…" Olga's words echoed through Jack's mind. Then, there was the sound of a gunshot. And Olga Gurlukovich lay dead on the floor. Jack walked into his apartment, and found Rose sitting on the couch.

"Where have you been?" she asked.

"I was…with a friend." Jack walked over, and sat down next to her.

"A friend? Jack, you haven't spoken to anyone but me for the past three months! Who could you possibly…" Rose looked into Jack's eyes. She suddenly quivered with fear. "Did you talk to Solid Snake?" she asked timidly. Jack looked away. "You talked to Snake. I thought that he was gone from our lives! I don't want to lose you, Jack…"

"You're not going to lose me, Rose. I'm fine…it's just that…" Jack looked at her. "Snake has asked me to help him with something…something important."

"It's those damn Patriots again, isn't it?" Rose asked, standing up. "Jack, I thought you were done fighting! What about our baby?"

"There's still six months until he'll be born! I'll have died of boredom by then! Rose…" Jack stood up, and took her hands in his. "Listen. This is going to be possibly my only chance at finding out more about Solidus and the Patriots. I don't want Olga's baby to die because of my ignorance." Jack looked into her eyes, still suppressing his secret. The AI onboard Arsenal Gear had told him that if he died, not only would Olga's baby died, but so would Rose. Jack hadn't told her that yet…he didn't want her to die. Jack would fight as much as he possibly could just to keep her alive.

"But Jack…" A tear flowed freely from Rose's eye. "How do I know that you won't come home alive? It was hard enough praying that you would come home from the Big Shell. I don't want to live through that again! Listening to your voice over that Codec, hearing gunshots, explosions, hearing death after death after death. And constantly, I thought 'was Jack shot by that? Was Jack caught in that explosion? Did Jack die?' There is no way in hell that you will let me live through that again. It was a nightmare!" Rose ran away from Jack, and looked out the window. Her tears were audible. Jack sighed, and walked up to her, embracing her in a hug from her back.

"Rose…I know that it's important to you that I stay here with you and stay alive. But this is important to me. I still have nightmares about fighting as a child soldier. Now, I have one shot about putting those nightmares of mine to rest. Please, Rose." Rose turned to look at him, her eyes red with tears. Jack looked on the verge of tears as well. "Just let me do this one thing. This is something that I need to know. I can finally put aside everything that happened to me on the Big Shell. I can finally live a peaceful life with you."

Rose stared at Jack hard. They were locked in a staring contest of sorts, until finally, Rose looked away. She sniffled.

"Jack…I love you."

"I love you too, Rose."

"If I let you go, you must promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"You have to promise me that you'll come back alive."

"I promise." Jack said without hesitation. He gripped Rose tightly, and embraced her in a kiss.