Thanks for the reviews, everyone:) Oh, and yes, I did get the idea of Kate finding his ring before Jack told Sun his was at home, so I'm going a bit AU with that.

Kate walked onto the beach, breathing erratically, trying to think straight. She had quickly given Jack what he needed and asked to take a raincheck on being his nurse, telling him she'd suddenly remembered something she had to do. He'd seemed confused, but told her that was fine, and Kate had taken off running, desperate to find someone to talk to.

She gave the area a quick scan, and saw Charlie, Hurley, and Claire sitting nearby. She briefly tried to think of a way to get Claire by herself, but couldn't think of one, and sighed, resigned to having Charlie and Hurley there as usual.

"Is this what I think it is?" Kate demanded as she walked over, wasting no time with pleasantries before whipping out the ring.

"Oh my god," Claire said softly, immediately understanding.

"Wow…" Charlie echoed.

"I know," Kate said miserably.

"You're going to ask Jack to marry you!" Charlie shouted excitedly, jumping up, his eyes wide.

"She's gonna what!" Hurley cried, grinning.

"No, I'm not asking Jack to marry me!" She snapped in exasperation.

"…He's going to ask you!"

"No, Charlie! I found it in his bag, read the engraving!"

She threw it at him, harder than necessary, and he caught it, shooting her a quick glare. Claire set Aaron in his crib, and joined Hurley as he leaned over Charlie's shoulder, and they all read it.

"Who's Sarah?" Hurley asked, confused.

"Exactly!" Kate hissed. "Who is she? Why does this ring have an engraving from her that says Jack has her eternal love? Why does he even have a wedding ring!"

"I can't believe he's married," Claire said, still in shock.

"Yeah, came as a bit of a shock to me too," Kate muttered, trying to focus on her anger instead of her pain, not willing to let it in.

"It's definitely a wedding band?" Hurley asked.

"It definitely is," Charlie told him, examining it. "It looks a bit like the one my mother has, actually. I guess this makes Jack my island father." He looked up, and saw Kate giving him a look that could kill. "Apparently this isn't the time for jokes."

"No, it's not the time for jokes! Oh my god, what if he has kids? I could be his…mistress!" She spat, feeling sickened at the thought of her relationship with the Jack, the one thing she had that she thought was pure and good, being wrong and cheap, like so many other things in her life.

"Well, you'd only be his island mistress, which isn't actually that bad, because I think his wife would understand that a man is going to have needs. And he thought he would never see her again, and the kids don't ever have to find out about you… you're gonna kill me in my sleep, aren't you?" Hurley asked, wincing at his own stupidity.

"Just, stop talking!" Claire ordered, pointing her finger at both him and Charlie, sounding like a mother admonishing her children. "Kate, have you asked him about it?"

"Well, no. He…was busy." Her response was the three of them just staring at her. "What was I supposed to say? 'Here's the stuff you asked for, by the way, why didn't you tell me you were married?' "

"If you have to, yes!" Hurley told her firmly, glancing at Claire to make sure he hadn't said the wrong thing again.

"Yeah, I'll just go do that," She snorted.

"No, he's right," Charlie backed Hurley up.

"What?"

"You have to at least ask him about it!" Said Hurley. "Maybe there's something you don't know about the situation."

"Maybe she's dead," Charlie put in, prompting slightly horrified looks from the others. "Not that I'm saying it's a good thing, or that I'm hoping for it!" He cried, defensively. "But maybe she is-oh, maybe she died in the crash, and…I'll just stop talking now," He trailed off, realizing how bad he sounded.

"Seriously, Kate, just talk to him," Claire said gently.

Kate nodded, giving them all a very small, thankful smile.

"I should have just done that in the first place, huh?" She asked quietly.

"Yes," They said in chorus.

"Thanks, guys. I'm gonna go find him."

"Good luck!" Hurley waved her off.

"What would these people do without us?" Charlie asked brightly, wrapping his arms around Hurley and Claire's shoulders.

"Dude, I don't know."

"So, do you think she'll come back to tell us how it went, or do we have to follow her again?"

Claire just shook her head.

Kate walked over to the cave, where Jack was putting away his medical supplies, and took a deep breath.

"Jack? Can I talk to you?" She asked softly, walking up behind him.

'Just stay calm, just ask him what's going on.'

"Of course. Is everything okay?" He asked warmly, as he turned around.

A few hours ago, Kate would have that he was being sweet to her because he cared. Right now, Kate had to wonder he was being sweet because he knew how she felt about him, and thought it couldn't hurt to play along with her until he got his wife back. Being forced to question him like that made her snap, and all thoughts of remaining calm flew out of her head.

"YOU'RE MARRIED!" She exploded, pulling the ring out, throwing it at his feet. A few people walking around the caves stopped what they were doing and turned to stare. Kate glared at them all, and they promptly looked away.

Jack was momentarily stunned, as he picked up the ring, looked back at Kate, who looked absolutely furious, and realized what she was thinking.

"Oh god…Kate, this isn't what you think."

"What, it's a friendship ring cleverly disguised as a wedding band?"

"No, it is a wedding band-"

"Then what about this am I not understanding!"

"Kate, please just calm down, and-"

"Calm down!" Kate felt the tears she'd been trying so hard to fight sting her eyes, and begin to fall. "How do you expect me to be calm after finding out that the man I'm in love with is married to another woman?" She choked out. Jack was now watching her with a look that was a mixture of love and pain. He moved to step closer and comfort her, but she stepped back. "Don't," She told him firmly, angrily swiping at her eyes. "Just explain whatever it is that you insist I'm not getting."

"Okay," He said quietly, looking slightly pained. "I was married, but I'm not anymore. We got a divorce."

"Who was she?" Kate asked, feeling a bit better upon hearing that, and also curious about the woman who had apparently been lucky enough to have Jack fall in love with her.

"We met because she was a patient of mine. I saved her life after she was in a car accident. Actually, everyone thought she was going to be paralyzed, and I was sure the surgery failed, but somehow, it worked. I still don't know how. Her fiancee left her, and the day she was released, she asked me out to dinner. Things just progressed from there, and after we'd been together for a while, we got married." Kate looked away from him sadly, and Jack had to resist the urge to close the distance between them and hold her.

"What happened? Why did you get a divorce?"

"Well, we started the married life, and just realized we weren't in love, and we weren't right for each other. She told me that she married me because of hero worship, and I figured out that I married her because I felt obligated to. We were both lonely, and we wanted to love each other, but we just didn't, and we couldn't make it work." Kate finally looked back at him, beginning to feel better about the situation, now that she knew she wasn't just his side project.

"Why do you still have the ring if you don't love her?"

"You know I have a hard time letting things go. I couldn't stop thinking about how I could have made things work, or if I should have just said no the first time she asked me, and just… every other 'what if' you can think of. I couldn't get rid of the ring, it would have meant accepting what happened and moving on, and I wasn't ready for that before the crash." Kate held back a smile, understanding what he meant by that.

"Jack, why didn't you just tell me that you had been married, if she meant so much to you at one point? I thought we could be completely honest with each other."

"Kate, I didn't tell you, because I haven't given her a single thought ever since the moment I met you," He said honestly.

Kate finally broke, and smiled, crossing over to Jack and wrapping her arms around, resting her head on his chest. He slipped his arms around her waist and hugged her to him even tighter.

"Can I ask you something now?"

"Sure," She smiled, pulling back slightly to look at him.

"Why didn't you just ask me as soon as you found it? Did you actually think that I ever would have started this if I was married," He asked, finally letting it show how hurt he was by her accusations.

"Jack, I just…" She trailed off, her body tensing as she began to pull back from him.

"No, don't run away, just talk to me," He said firmly, refusing to loosen his grip. She sighed, and briefly looked away from him, before bringing her eyes back to meet his, taking a deep breath.

"Whenever I've had something good in my life, it always turned out badly, and just got ruined in the end. This, what we have, is the best thing that has ever happened to me, so it makes me feel like I should constantly be prepared for something to go wrong, so I don't have to be surprised again."

"Oh, Kate…I can promise you that it won't happen with us," Jack told her, brushing her hair back.

"You can't promise it, that's-"

"Yes, I can."

"Oh, really?" She smirked. "How?"

"Because I just feel it. Because I love you too."

The smirk disappeared from Kate's face, and slowly turned into a grin. She pulled Jack down to her and kissed him deeply, her heart pounding.

"You caught that, huh?" She breathed once they pulled apart, referring to her mentioning that she loved him mid rant

"You actually thought I wouldn't?"

"Well, I was hoping you would, but you can never be sure with men."

Jack chuckled, and kissed her again. Life was good.

"Did you know that Jack is married?" Elizabeth asked, passing by Charlie and Hurley.

"Yeah, but how did you know?" Hurley asked.

"I was at the caves, and I heard her screaming at him. I thought they were dating!"

"They are!" Charlie insisted. "Why would you say they're not?"

"It just didn't sound like it anymore," She shrugged.

Charlie and Hurley slowly turned to each other, terrified expressions on their face, and then both jumped off, running towards the cave without even giving Elizabeth a good bye.

"So what if he's married! That's no reason to break up! They're not that stupid, right? Hurls? Are you listening!" Charlie shouted while they were sprinting through the jungle.

"Dude, can't…talk…now," Hurley panted.

Charlie shut up, and they reached their destination quickly. They scanned the area for Jack and Kate, and quickly found them.

"What the hell?" Hurley muttered, between gasps of breaths.

Kate was sitting in Jack's lap inside one of the caves, and they were talking quietly, stopping occasionally to kiss. They looked like the direct opposite of a couple who had just broken up.

"Well…I guess she just lost her temper, but then remembered our advice," Charlie shrugged.

"That has to be it," Hurley nodded.

They watched the two for another minute, happy for their friends, before turning to talk a walk back to the beach.

"Thank God," Charlie muttered.

"What?"

"Can you imagine how bad things could have gotten if they broke up? Kate might have tried to convince herself that she wanted Sawyer, Jack would have been jealous for a while before searching for female companionship elsewhere, and they'd both be completely miserable, and it would have sucked."

"Jack and Kate with other people? I don't even wanna think about that," Hurley grimaced.

"Believe me, I don't either, which is why we prevent it."

"They're lucky to have us."

Charlie highly agreed.