Sorry for not answering the reviews again this time, but it's a school night, and I still have to fold some clothes lol. Yeah I know I'm fawesome ( not a typo). Anyways I think you'll all forgive me for not answering reviews for the fluffy fluff of this chapter.

Another

Chapter 19

Lifesavers

Kate felt her head being compassionately lifted off the ground, and her body being pulled into someone's lap. "Kate?" Leo asked, it seemed like every five seconds Leo seemed to be saving her. It was comforting knowing that at least one person would try to.

"I'm okay," Kate mumbled trying to get up, she wasn't a weak girl, but the beating she'd just received could've left a boxer knocked out. "Kate," Leo told her as he delicately pulled her back down to him, "Your lips bruised up pretty badly, and you've got a nice ring of color in the shape of two hands on your neck," he stated softly as he moved her hair to get a gander at her neck.

He winced at it and quickly replaced her hair so it blocked the grotesque image, "Do you feel okay?" he asked her, noticing she wasn't talking much.

Kate looked up at him, her eyes half closed trying to conserve energy, "I think I'm going to be sick," she simply stated. With that Leo carried her to the bathroom and sat her in the puddle of water in front of the toilet he had 'fixed'.

Her stomach immediately emptied into the cracked porcelain bowl as Leo knelt beside her in the water that took on a bluish tinge because of the cleaning products within.

After there was nothing else to remove from her stomach she stared at Leo, "I'm sorry," she apologized, "I don't know where that came from."

He moved his thumb up and gently floated it over her bruised lip that was leaking blood, "you could've swallowed too much blood," he suggested to her, as he helped her up and onto the covered toilet seat, then got a better look at her lip, "You don't need stitches," he enlightened, then darkly added, "this time."

"What happened to the toilet?" she asked quietly, looking up at him as he grabbed a face cloth out of the cupboard and wetting it with water, then a bit of peroxide.

"I heard the commotion out there, and I thought you could use some help, so I grabbed one of the metal pipes from underneath the sinks and beat the toilet like there was no tomorrow."

Kate smiled as the stinging disinfectant touched the bottom of her cut lip. Leo held it there for a moment then wetted it again and wiped away the dried blood. Soon only a small slash and a puffy lip remained.

"He wants me to have a baby with him," Kate divulged looking at the ground, "Actually he's forcing me to have a baby with him," she clarified as tears welled in her eyes.

"Kate," Leo whispered as he turned up her face. The sound of his voice made her tear ducts loose control, and then tears like a torrent of rain from the overcastted skies, rolled down her cheek and mingled with the azure chemical puddle on the floor.

"Leo, I can stand to be hurt, I can stand to be beaten, and tormented, and paraded around, and treated like an object. But when you bring a baby," she paused and sobbed, "When you bring an innocent little child into this mess, Leo, I'm not being part of that."

Kate broke down, her body shaking with defeat, with pain, with fear for what would come. Leo embraced her lovingly as he still rested on his knees, they were digging into the tile but he didn't care.

"Kate listen to me," he told her, "you're not going to have a child with him," Leo promised her as he pulled her down to his lap again. She placed her head on his comforting shoulder while she cried and he whispered into her ear, "I'm getting you out of here tomorrow."

"What?" she asked, pulling away and looking into his eyes, she saw no shred of infidelity. "Tomorrow," he sent a small smile at her, "Tomorrow when I tell the boys we're going to get a new toilet, we just keep driving. Then when we get to just outside the city, I know a guy who owes me a favor, I trade cars with him, and we keep going."

Kate's mouth almost formed a smile but she didn't want to interrupt Leo, "I have to stop off in New Mexico; this is where it gets kind of tricky. I have to get something out of the bank while I'm there, but if I use my real name Tony'll find us lickety-split. So we're going to have to con a couple guys to go with us to rob the bank," before Kate could say anything he continued, "I promise no one will get hurt, and we'll only steal what's in my safety deposit box."

Kate nodded, "I have money stashed away in New Mexico too," She explained. Leo stared at her unbelievingly, "When my parents were still alive, we lived in New Mexico, I have about twenty thousand saved up for college."

He smiled, "After New Mexico, we can head somewhere exotic, retire," he told her smiling.

She smiled back, "I've always wanted to go to Australia," she disclosed.

"Australia it is then!"


Kate screamed a blood halting scream that would terrify anyone who had a soul. Jack almost fell out of bed as Kate shot up, but he managed to regain his balance by grabbing the bed and the nightstand at the same moment. Kate was hyperventilating; sweat was soaking her tank top, making her forehead glisten in the late afternoon light.

"Kate," Jack touched the side of her face and she flinched for a moment, but then recognized him. Kate grabbed hold of him and buried her head in the crook of his neck, crying for all the things she'd done that she hadn't wanted to, for all the people she lost.

"It's okay," Jack rubbed her back benevolently, "My mom's gone," he informed her, "She's not coming back, she'll never do that to you again." He felt her settle down somewhat, her pounding heart slowing its pace to a moderate level.

He felt her cheek wet with newly shed tears as it pressed against the warm skin on his neck, "Kate I'm sorry," he apologized, "I shouldn't have let my mom take you anywhere, she thinks that her ideals are right and therefore, her way of fixing you is the most appropriate and successful," he pulled her back to see her face, "But what she doesn't realize is that you don't need to be fixed."

Kate stared at him, she was dumbfounded, in all her life, no one had ever said anything that nice to her in all her life. She wanted so much to tell Jack that she loved him, she loved him so much, she wanted to kiss him like before this whole mess began, to feel his strong arms around her body protecting her from Anthony, from her past, from all the other evils.

Kate went to open her mouth, to explain to Jack everything, who Anthony was, what he did to her, to Leo, to Lindsay. What he would do to Jack if given the chance, what happened that day, what Jack meant to her, how much she loved him. But when she opened her mouth to speak, nothing came out. Apparently her body was still disagreeing with her mind, that it wasn't time to start talking yet.

She closed her mouth in defeat and lay back down broken, believing she'd never speak a word again. Jack smiled reassuringly at her and leaned back to lay beside her, it was only a few seconds before she moved towards him and he cuddled her against his chest, relieved that for once she was relaxed for a second, but he sensed her melancholic feelings towards her failed attempt at conversation.

"Kate?" she turned her head up from his chest to look at him at her name, "You'll talk when you're ready," he kissed her forehead; "There's no rush."

He wrapped an arm around Kate's back as she got comfortable against his chest, just as he began to close his eyes and drift into unawareness he noticed the silence of the room, the sheer empty silence that echoed everywhere.

The only sound was the vague electric humming of Jack's alarm clock, all these tedious everyday noises that annoyed him as he tried to catch up on missed sleep after a late shift at the hospital. Suddenly a sound cut through the blandness, not just a sound, the most exquisite sound Jack had ever heard, it instantaneously became his favorite sound.

In the softest, raspiest voice he heard the bravura words, "I love you Jack." His eyes shot open and he looked down at the head of brown curls that lay on his chest. Kate sat with her hands crossed over one another and her chin resting on them, she had gotten that playful gleam back into her beautiful green-gray eyes.

"I love you too Kate," Jack to her as he spun one of her curls around his finger and chuckled, "Say it again?"

In the loudest voice Kate could manage, she repeated herself, "I love you," as she crawled up so her face was even with his.

"No, just my name," he told her, when her face was inches from his.

She beamed and obliged, "Jack."

He grinned for a split second before his lips tackled hers in a passionate fury, moving against each other like that first trip to Wal-Mart that they were sure neither of them would ever forget, but more meaningful. They had kissed each other before, but never like this.

As Jack sat up, Kate linked her arms around his neck, holding herself to him, she wasn't letting go, at least not anytime soon. Not breaking the kiss for the end of the world, Jack brought his dexterous hands under Kate's shirt and skimmed her sides, tracing the smooth skin's curve.

Kate giggled provocatively and she remembered that was the precise moment when Jack decided that her tank top was too much. Mutually agreeing it was quickly discarded to the floor.

His hands were free to move around her back tracing the soft edges of her skin with his thumb as his lips teased hers, until she made the executive decision to expand the kiss fully, which delightfully surprised Jack.

He broke the kiss and began to form a line down her neck and to her shoulder with kisses; his hand shot up and slid the bra strap down from her shoulder because it was an interference. His lips quickly covering the area where it once lay.

Kate's arms snaked from around his neck to under his t-shirt, lightly caressing the muscles that he had improved on during his time on the island, the muscles that had gotten water, fruit, fire wood, and that had saved her more then once.

She instinctively pulled his top over his head and threw it with a fury across the room, as his hands slide up her back dancing over her skin just under her bra. She moved her legs to either side of him for support to keep her up, she felt as if she were melting.

Jack pulled away abruptly, his hands still covering the better part of the small of Kate's back and she looked at him in puzzlement. Her hands slid up to rest on his shoulders as she stared intently at him, holding his gripping gaze.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Jack asked her, concerned for her mental and emotional heath. She brought her lips to his, seizing a reaction immediately, after all their breathe was lost, she finally pulled away, "I've never been more sure of anything in my life," She answered.

He grinned at her, the happiest, fullest smiled she'd ever seen him wear, and he leaned forward and began to kiss her shoulders and chest again. Kate's hands skimmed over his broad back, giggling with delight as she was gently being guided back to the bed. Jack's eyes met hers, and he gazed in awe at her for a moment, just taking her in, and he knew once they did what they were about to do, he'd never be able to let her go.


I hope y'all liked it and sorry again for not reviewing…