her.
"Aah," she said. "It's so beautiful."
Jack was looking at Kate. "Yeah." he said. "It is."
Kate sat up. "You're really something else, you know that?"
"Yeah," said Jack.
Kate laid down again to look at the sky.
For once in your life, Jack told himself in his mind, be spontaneous. Just tell her.
You know you want to...
"You're amazing," said Jack, barely hearing himself.
Kate looked at him. "Thank you. I think."
"I love you."
That's it, thought Jack. You're an idiot, Jack. Who does that? How do you know
she's not going to hate you for this?
Kate sat up and looked him straight in the eyes.
"You want to know a secret?"
"Shoot."
She came up close to his face and whispered, "I love you too."
Sawyer, who had been watching this from afar with growing annoyance, was
infuriated. You idiot, Kate. Fall for a rocket scientist instead of me, he thought. He was so
angry.
He couldn't bear to watch anymore. He turned around and left.
Sawyer was angry. He kicked a nearby tree, but only ended up stubbing his toe.
"Son of a BITCH!" he grunted, but he just left.
The story of Sawyer's life. He was always being let down. Maybe he was too
obnoxious for his own good. He pushed Kate away. He had it, and now it was lost.
"Son of a BITCH!" said Sawyer again. He was such an idiot sometimes! He'd
practically had Kate, and now it was all gone.
Sawyer kicked a tree again, but this time not as hard. He should have known. He
could never compete with Jack. He had set himself up.
And it was beginning to seem pretty obvious that the life of James Sawyer was
just one upsetting, crushed hope after another. And he hated it.
"Are you all right?"
Sawyer hadn't realized that he'd wandered somewhere close to camp. He turned to face
Sun.
"Yeah."
"You seem... distressed."
"Yeah, well..." he groped for words. "what else is new?"
"Do you need help with something?"
"I don't need help from you or anyone else, can you leave me alone?" Sawyer turned and
left. Sun shrugged and left too.
Back on the beach, Jack and Kate had ended thier first kiss and were now sitting
in the sand, overcome by and awkward silence.
"Tell me something." said Jack.
"What?"
"Anything. Just tell me something."
"Okay," said Kate. "What's up with that?"
"I feel like you give me half of who you are. I want to know the real Kate Ryon."
"Okay," said Kate. "First off, my real name's Kathleen."
"I figured that." said Jack, smiling. "Keep going."
Kate smiled, too. "Okay..." she laughed awkwardly. "This is hard. What do you want to know?"
"Anything. Just tell me something."
Kate thought. Then she pointed to her knee. "When I was six, my brother pushed me off the
top of our staircase, and I got that scar." she looked at Jack. "Good enough?"
"Tell me about you."
"Okay," said Kate. "I don't have a middle name, and I like spiders, and when I was a kid I
learned how to play the piano. I'm afraid of small places, my favorite color is green, and I'm
allergic to cats." she smiled. "That good enough for you?"
Jack smiled and kissed Kate's cheek. "Yes."
"Tell me something, Jack."
"What kind of 'something'?"
"Anything."
"Anything?" repeated Jack.
"Yes. Anything." said Kate. She looked at him with that twinkle in her eyes. That twinkle made
half of Jack want to cry, and half of him want to kiss her again.
Jack said, "I can tell you anything?"
"Yes."
"And you won't get mad at all?"
"Is there something I should know?" questioned Kate.
"Sort of." said Jack. "I'm kind of... married."
"What do you mean, 'kind of'?"
"I mean..." Jack struggled to tell her this. "I mean I'm married to someone, and I don't love
her."
"Who's this someone?"
Jack looked at Kate. He almost couldn't tell her this. "Look... a few years ago I had this
patient, and I sort of saved her life." Jack looked away from Kate for a minute. "I almost
didn't want to marry her. It's like, somehow, I knew someone else would come into my life. I
almost left her at the altar. But I didn't want to see anyone get hurt." he shook his head a bit.
"Weird how things work out."
Kate said, "Then why'd you tell me you loved me?"
"Because I do."
"Then why did you marry this... someone?"
"Sarah." said Jack. "Her name is Sarah. And I think I only asked her because I saved her
life."
Kate was a little upset.
"You said I could tell you anything." said Jack.
"Do you feel guilty?"
Jack looked at Kate. "What Sarah doesn't know can't hurt her."
"It can hurt you. And it could hurt me."
"Does it?"
"Hurt me?" asked Kate. She looked at the waves. "No. But I want to know what you think."
Jack said, "It probably seems really selfish of me, but there's no way I could have possibly
known I was going to meet you."
Kate stared at the waves. "So we can just forget about Sarah?"
"Yes."
"Why did you tell me in the first place?"
"I didn't want you to feel like you were being kept out of my life." said Jack.
"Jack, Jack, Jack!"
Jack and Kate turned around. It was Walt.
"We need your help, Doctor Shepard!" he cried.
Jack and Kate ran to the caves.
"What's wrong?"
Jack and Kate turned and walked into the campsite. There was a crowd of people surrounding someone lying on the floor.
"What's going on?" Kate asked Charlie, who was standing nearby.
"Jin just fainted."
Jack knelt down beside the man. Sun was weeping silently.
"Help him!"
"I can help him," Jack said. "Jin. JIN! Can you hear me?"
Jin opened one eye. He said something in Korean.
"Sun... Sun! What is he saying?"
Jin mumbled some more.
"He isn't making sense!" cried Sun. "He's just babbling."
"Kate, water!" said Jack. Kate passed him a bottle of water. Jack held it to Jin's lips and he
drank.
Jack sat him up. "What's going on?"
Jin said something else in Korean.
"He said he's tired." said Sun.
"Hey, you know what?" said Michael. "He's probably dehydrated. I didn't see him drink a
damn thing all day. Workin' on the raft, hot as hell."
"That's probably it," said Jack. He handed Jin the bottle. He thanked him in Korean.
"He'll be fine." Jack assured Sun.
Sawyer watched Jack smile at Kate once more. Kate grinned back Sawyer could
have killed Jack right then.
Nah. he thought. Too many witnesses.