Jack sat in the waiting area of the Accident and Emergency wing of the hospital. They had just taken Kate in to prepare her for surgery, and she was only half-conscious when they had wheeled her through, but she was moaning in agony. They hadn't allowed Jack to see her yet, even though he was a doctor, so hearing her pain, and knowing that he was the cause of it, broke his heart. She probably didn't even know he was there, waiting for her. If he had said the right thing, rather than letting the first words that came into his head spill out, she wouldn't have been involved in that accident, and she wouldn't be in so much pain.

Jack and Charlie, who had stayed with him to try and keep him sane, took up seats outside the Observation Room, and spent ten minutes listening to her consistant agony before they put her out. Charlie saw the look on Jack's face as the sounds of her pain surrounded them, and he looked like someone was playing a tug of war with his ears; and when he had heard her calling out his name in sobs, he looked to the door helplessly and wanted nothing better than to hide away and stop the screams. Instead, he kept his gaze on the door, and whispered gently, even though she couldn't hear it; "I'm here, Kate. I'm right here." Doctors came over constantly, asking them questions, questions that he had onces asked on a daily basis. Who was she? Did she have any allergies to medications? Was she currently taking medication? Jack answered as best he could, but in the end there was only so much he could say without having to hear another of her moans. Jack suddenly realised how much pain relatives had been in when he had operated on people, and then had to speak to them. He understood every feeling that was running through them.

When the wheeled her out and into surgery after putting her into an unconscious sleep, Jack stood up instantly, followed by Charlie, and saw the sight of his blood covered love. Even though they had tried to clean her up a little, red smears still remained on her once untainted skin, first streaked with tears, now with blood. It would haunt him forever, seeing her like that, pale, lifeless even. She could have been dead at that moment and if he weren't a doctor, he wouldn't know the difference. How many people had he seen in this condition throughout his career? Too many count, but now that Kate was one of them, it was a completely different sight, especially as he knew who's eyes hid behind those lifeless lids. One doctor approched him, whom he had known from when he worked there. His name was Damon Burrows, and he and Jack had been in med school together.

"Jack?" Damon asked, extending his hand to shake his. Jack wearily shook it back. "Long time no see, I'll be operating on your Fiancee." He had to lie about being her fiancee to the hospital desk just so he could stay with her seeing as no one else was around who was family.

"How is she?" Jack asked with a break in his voice.

"I'll be honest with you, Jack, it's not looking promising." Damon said awkwardly.

Jack looked like he was about to cry. "What do you mean 'not promising'?" He asked desperately. "She's going to be all right, isn't she?" She has to be all right. She just has to be. He couldn't lose her, not now, not when he had made the biggest mistake of his life. He had always known that he would pay for his mistakes, but he found himself begging whoever was up there not to take her away from him. I'll do anything, just please, let me keep her.

"Jack, you have to understand, she is is seriously hurt. Providing the surgery goes well, we may be able to save her." He explained, putting an emphasis on the word 'may' that gave Jack the sinking feeling that there was no hope at all. He remembered his fathers words, "people would rather pay attention to that 1 of hope than the 99 against them." He was right, for once. Jack was willing to hope on less than that if it meant Kate would be all right.

"And the baby?" He asked, just as helplessly. I might not just lose Kate, I'm going to lose my baby as well.

Damon looked at Jack strangely, as if a large problem had just dawned on him. "Baby?" Jack didn't like the look on his face, it sent fear down his spine. His voice wouldn't respond, his tongue was glued to the insides of his mouth.

"She's pregnant." Charlie explained, stepping in when Jack found himself unable to answer.

Damon didn't look overly thrilled about this. "This does complicate matters somewhat." He admitted, and Jack hung his shoulders, running his hands over his face before looking back at Damon with tear filled eyes.

"Please," He begged, finding his voice and now choking back tears. "Please, tell me they'll both be all right." Charlie looked on, concerned not only for Kate, but for the man that he had never seen beg for anything. His leader, who was always confident, always knew what to do, but was pleading like there was no tomorrow for him. The man who had been their island leader was reduced to near nothing because Kate was possibly dying.

The doctor was quiet for a moment and then replied. "I'm sorry, that isn't a promise I can make." He said.

"What?" Jack asked in disbelief. He was a doctor! Wasn't that what Doctors did? He always made that promise. But wasn't that his downfall? He had promised he'd fix Sarah, even though he thought he couldn't...He'd promised to fix Kate's heart...had he done that? Well, yes, if only for a while...

"The baby may prove to be a complication during the surgery that we need to save her life. There's a chance that we may have to abort the baby to save her." Damon told him, even though he knew that this was something Jack would already know. "Kate's life is the main priority here."

The word 'abort' stung his ears, and now he was really having to fight his tears. I didn't mean it, Kate. Really, I didn't. I'm sorry. His voice was breaking dangerously as he spoke. "No, you don't understand." He explained, repeating Kate's words from earlier. "If she loses this baby she might now ever have another. I can't lose them."

"There's still a chance, Jack, even if it is a small one." He assured, holding a hand up to try and calm Jack "How far along is she?" He asked.

Jack thought back, had she mentioned that? No, she hadn't. "I don't know. She only told me a few hours ago." He said.

"Jack, I've dealt with similar cases to this and seen mothers up to seven months pregnant come through with their lives and go on to have a normal delivery and healthy baby." He said, which gave Jack some hope. "But as she isn't showing yet, she can't be more than three months, at the very most. So that does narrow the child's chances, if it wasn't killed during the accident of course."

Jack tried again to explain. "You don't understand, she-"

"Let me hazard a guess? She thinks you don't want the baby, drove away upset, and thus impaired her driving." Jack nodded a little. "I see cases like this every day. I'll do all I can to save them both. It will be a few hours at least until the surgery is completed. If you leave a number at the front desk we can call you if there's any problems."

There was no way he was sitting at home waiting for a phonecall to say that something had gone wrong. He shook his head firmly. "No, I'm not going anywhere." He said stubbornly.

"I understand." Damon said, before going down to the operating theater.