Jack continued to sit there for a few moments, trying to collect his thoughts. He hated seeing her like that; so alone. She was re-building the walls that had begun to come down during the years on the island. He felt so frustrated, knowing he couldn't just take her away from this place. She deserved so much better than this, but there was nothing he could do.

BANG!

He slammed his fist angrily onto the table in front of him, earning himself a glare from the security guard. Jack resisted the urge to glare back and sighed. He got to his feet and slowly headed back out to his car. He drove back out to the hotel in silence, his thoughts on her, on the day their life had changed so much.

--

Jack awoke sometime during the early hours of the morning. He opened his eyes, slightly confused by his awakeness, before becoming aware of the movement within his arms. Jack had always been a deep sleeper, not responding to anything or anyone, but after almost two years with her, his body reacted out of instinct. If she moved or made a noise he noticed. He pulled his arm away from he middle and gently shook her shoulder.

"Kate," he whispered. "Wake up, your having a bad dream."

"No," she muttered, still asleep. "No, please, no. I didn't do it. No. Please don't take me away." Jack pulled away so that she was flat on her back and shook her a little harder.

"No. No." Tears had begun to fall down her cheeks.

"Kate, its okay. Wake up, sweetie." He cupped his hand around the side of her face. Suddenly she jerked awake, flying up into a sitting position. He sat up to meet her.

"You okay?" He asked quietly.

She nodded, her breathing returning to normal.

He wrapped an arm gently around her for support and used his other hand to wipe the tears off her face. She put a hand up to meet his and was surprised at the dampness. She wasn't one to cry.

"That musta been one hell of a dream," Jack joked.

She allowed a short laugh. "Yeah, it must have been."

"Don't remember it?"

She shook her head. "No, I just remember feeling…" She trailed off, trying to find the right work. Jack waited patiently, knowing she would share with him. "I don't know, afraid and…helpless." She shivered, pulling closer to him for comfort. Jack allowed himself a small smile, knowing just how hard it had been for her to learn to accept comfort, to allow herself to be vulnerable in front of another person. He lay back down, gently pulling her to rest on his chest.

"Don't worry Kate, I won't let the monsters get you."

This time she laughed for real, burying her face in his chest, trying to muffle the sound so she didn't wake anyone else. Jack even smiled, happy that he had made her laugh. He loved her laugh. After a moment she looked up. "Sorry to wake you."

Jack shrugged and offered a cheeky smile. "It's my job," he said.

She smiled, one of those real, one-of-a-kind smiles that made his heart leap, one of those smiles that he knew he was the only one who ever got to see.

She planted a kiss on his cheek before laying her head back down on his chest. It wasn't long until they were both asleep.

It couldn't have been more than two hours later when he found himself disoriented for the second time that night. He immediately noticed the weight on his chest was gone. Blinking his eyes into focus, he recognized her form sitting beside him, facing away.

He reached out to touch her back, feeling her jump as he slowly sat up, moving himself to sit beside her, leaving his hand on her back. He stayed silent, knowing she would talk when she was ready.

"Sorry," she said. "I tried not to wake you."

Jack shook his head. "That's okay. You should wake me. That's what I'm here for."

Kate gave a short nod. "Thanks," she said, before taking a deep breath.

"Did you have another dream?"

Kate shook her head. "I don't think so. I just woke up and my heart was going double time."

Jack reached a hand up to her neck; even in the dark his fingers knew exactly where to land. He was silent for a few seconds, then, "your pulse is racing."

Kate snorted. "Yeah, you're telling me."

Jack wrapped his arms tightly around her, and planted a kiss on her temple. "So, what's going on?"

Kate opened her mouth and struggled for a few seconds. "I just have a bad feeling."

"You think something bad is going to happen?"

"I'm not sure. I just feel…anxious or something."

Jack's forehead creased. "Well, that's not good."

Kate put a hand on his chest. "Don't worry, maybe I did have another dream or something. I'm sure I'll be fine."

Jack offered a smile. "Hey, I'm allowed to worry, right?"

Kate looked him right in the eye, biting her lip, before slowly nodding her head. It was the look that reminded him of the past that he wished he could take away from her, of the trust she had yet to develop. He promised himself that one day she would be able to trust him completely, that she would be able to trust the world again. He had no idea the hurdle that was about to be put right in front of that promise.

They had been in the jungle picking fruit, Kate high up in a tree dropping her find down to Jack, when Charlie's voice had filtered into their clearing.

"Jack! Kate!" Jack heard a voice through the forest. From his experience, hearing his voice being screamed through the forest usually didn't yield anything good. He stood a step forward, tilting his head trying to situate the source of the sound. He shouldn't have moved as he narrowly missed taking a papaya to the head.

"Hey!" He yelled up at Kate.

"Don't hey me." She countered. "It's not my fault you moved."

"I think I hear something."

"Jack! Kate!" He heard again, recognizing Charlie's voice.

"Charlie!" Jack yelled. "We're over here."

Charlie suddenly burst through the clearing out of breath. "There you are. I've been looking all over the bloody jungle for you."

"Well, we've been here," Jack said.

"Where is Kate, anyway?" Asked Charlie, looking around, a suspicion in his voice. Jack knew it came from him having caught he and Kate in the jungle more than once.

Jack glared at Charlie and pointed a finger upwards.

Charlie followed Jack's direction. He smiled and waved up at Kate. "Oh, hi Kate! How are you doing on this beautiful morning?"

"What do you need Charlie?"

Charlie gave him a grin that had Cheswire Cat written all over it. "You'll never guess."

Jack sighed and allowed himself a smile at Charlie's childishness. He certainly was a breath of fresh air compared to the seriousness that was often adopted on the island.

"What is it Charlie?"

"No, you have to guess?"

Jack rolled his eyes.

"What's going on?" Kate yelled down from her perch high above them.

"Kate! What are you still doing up there? Get your bloody ass down here." Charlie yelled up.

"I can't, Charlie. There's still lots of fruit up here."

"You don't need it."

Now it was Kate's turn to roll her eyes. "Not if you want to starve."

Charlie shook his head. "You don't need it." He repeated. "There'll be food on the rescue boat."

"The what!" Jack exclaimed.

"Oh, bloody hell," Charlie muttered. "I wanted you to guess."

Jack shook his head and gave Charlie a pointed look. "Explain."

Charlie smiled. "We've been rescued. Or we're being rescued. Which one is it? Cause we're not off this god-forsaken-excuse-of-an island yet, but we will be soon and the rescue guys are here, so…"

"Charlie!" Jack said, stopping the rambling. Sometimes he swore there was a small ADD child buried somewhere in Charlie.

"Sorry Jack, I guess it doesn't really matter which is right. Anyway…"They were cut off by a small scream from Kate as she took a misstep in her hurry to get down the tree. She slipped off her branch and managed to grab another on the way down. She had swung around and was now hanging, her feet about four feet off the ground.

"Jesus, Kate," Jack muttered as he rushed over to help her. "Please don't kill yourself." He wrapped his arms around her legs, as high up as he could reach and slowly lowered her down until her feet were on the ground.

"You okay?" He asked.

Kate blushed slightly. "Yup, sorry, I was going too fast."

Jack shook his head and turned back to Charlie.

"Sayid and Shannon went down to the beach thins morning and suddenly Shannon comes screaming back into camp, yelling about a helicopter. Apparently it landed on the beach and it was the bloody US army! They're out on a ship about a mile from here. They saw the island and decided to do a fly over and investigate. They saw the SOS on the beach and landed right as Sayid and Shannon came out of the jungle. And now we get to go home!"

"Wow," Jack said. He had long since accepted the fact that they might be on this island for the rest of their lives. He felt Kate's hand enter his and he squeezed it tightly. "Wow," he repeated, turning to face her. Her face was a mix of emotions, but it wasn't until they were back at the caves, packing up their stuff that he realized how scary this must be for her.

It had taken only a few minutes for them to pack their few belongings, and they were headed down the path to the beach when he looked over to see tears forming in Kate's eyes. He stopped and turned to face her.

"Hey," he said softly. "What's wrong?"

Kate tried to smile. "I'm scared, Jack."

He was about to ask why when he realized. "Oh, Kate," he said. "I'm sorry. I didn't think. I forgot that you…I'm sorry. I didn't think."

"It's okay," Kate said, shrugging her shoulders and not meeting his eyes.

"No, its not okay, Kate. This must be terrifying for you." He pulled her into a tight hug. "I promise you we're going to figure it out, okay? Together. We're going to prove that you're innocent."

Kate only nodded against his chest as she collected herself.

"We're going to have a good life, Kate," he said. "We're going to be happy and free, okay?"

Again she nodded, this time pulling away, gazing directly into his eyes. He quickly closed the distance between them and kissed her, hard. He felt her arms wrap up, around his neck as he used his arms to pull her in close.

"Hey, break it up you two," Charlie said, appearing behind them, two-year-old Aaron in his arms and Claire by his side. "They'll be plenty of time for that later."

Jack laughed and wrapped an arm around the now smiling Kate. "Anyone still at the caves?"

Claire shook her head. "Nope, we're the last ones."

"Good."

Once they arrived at the beach they were met with the sight of a large army helicopter, its propellers swinging aimlessly about it. Beside it stood two men in uniform and a very relieved looking Hurley.

"It's about time," Hurley said, shaking his head and clucking his tongue. "We were thinking about leaving without you," he joked.

"Sorry, man," said Charlie. "I had trouble finding these two love birds in the jungle."

"Charlie!" Kate exclaimed, blushing. "We were picking fruit."

"Oh, is that what you're calling it now?"

Even Jack blushed now, as Kate reached over and smacked him on the back of his head.

"Dude," Hurley said, looking at Jack, "control you woman." He joked, earning himself a glare from Kate and a laugh from Jack as he put a calming arm around Kate's shoulder, preventing her from stepping towards Hurley.

"She hit me," Charlie said, making a face for Aaron's benefit.

"Hit." Aaron said, excitedly. "Hit." The toddler had been talking for a few short months now, and had recently taken to repeating words that were spoken to him. "Hit," Aaron continued, laughing.

"Well, I'm glad someone thinks its funny," Charlie muttered.

"Give it a rest, Charlie," Claire said, taking his hand. "You know you deserved it."

"Is this everyone?" One of the officers asked.

"I believe so," Hurley said, checking something off on a clipboard in his hands. Jack recognized the sheets as the original census. "I've checked everyone off as they boarded the helicopters. We're all that's left."

"Smart idea," Jack said. "Well, shall we?" He motioned at the helicopter.

"Dude," said Hurley. "Just take a moment before you go. Say goodbye."

They all turned to stare at the island for a few moments. The island had seemed like a hell on earth to them all at first, but had ended up saving them all. There were a few sniffles, as Jack felt Kate move closer to him. He automatically wrapped Kate tightly into his arms. He felt her sigh. He found himself suddenly aware of just how much their lives were about to change. Aside from Kate's problem with the law, there was the whole concept of living in the 'real world' again. He placed a kiss on her temple, and closed her eyes for a moment, wishing he never had to let her go.

AN: Sorry about the delay. I though I could get it up before turkey day, but ran out of time. Sorry that it didn't stay in the present much, but the next chapter will. Let me know if I seem off character at all. Thanks for reading.