Author's Note: Well, dear readers, we have come to the end – this is the last chapter. Please review and let me know what you think, I love to read your comments. I hope you have enjoyed this story, and will continue to check out my writing. Thanks for reading, gitania

Hope Anew

Chapter 15: New Beginnings

"I lost my baby," Hope said quietly to Jack as he cleaned the blood from her head wound.

"What?" Jack smiled kindly, "Hope, your baby's fine. You landed on your back – I see no reason why your baby would be affected at all. It was only a short fall, and there's no lasting damage. I can understand that you're worried, so we'll keep close tabs on you for a few days, and make sure that everything's as it should be. Okay?"

Hope nodded slightly, "I know, Jack. I meant my other baby."

"Other baby?" Jack looked concerned as he rinsed the cloth in some water, returning it to the back of her head.

"The baby from before."

"Before?" Jack's confusion was evident. "Before the crash?"

Hope nodded again, still feeling light-headed from her fall. "I fell down the stairs. He'd already left, but he came back and I couldn't fight him. He kicked me in the stomach – I miscarried."

Finally Jack caught her meaning, and sat down so they were face to face. "In your dream?" he asked. "In your life before?"

"Yeah," Hope nodded sadly. "The doctor told me I might not be able to get pregnant again."

"Well," Jack smiled his kind smile. "You'll be happy to hear that doctors don't know everything."

Hope smiled through forming tears, saying adamantly, "I'm going to work so hard for this kid."

Jack touched her stomach lightly, "I don't think it'll be hard work for you at all, Hope. You were born to be someone's mommy – anyone can see that."

A tear fell down her cheek at Jack words. "You think so?"

Jack nodded sagely and returned to his work. He cleaned her wound thoroughly, letting the water drip down her back and onto Sawyer's makeshift bed.

"How long was I gone?" she asked softly, wiping her tears away.

"Two nights out there alone," Jack said, rinsing the cloth out one final time. "We were all getting pretty worried when you didn't make it back to camp. Everyone else showed up fairly quickly, but it was like you just disappeared…"

Hope sighed. "I thought I saw Sawyer out there," she confessed. "I know it's crazy, and I was pretty out of it, but just for a second I thought…" She laughed at herself and shook her head hopelessly.

Jack sighed in frustration, "Even with a gunshot wound, nothing was going to stop him from coming with us to look for you." He shook his head with disapproval.

"What?" Hope stood up too fast, feeling dizzy and sick, and quickly sat back down. "He's really here?"

"He washed up on the beach while we were all at the caves," Jack said. "While you were running from a boar, he was lying on the sand, waiting for someone to find him." He looked at Hope with a grin, "You should have heard him after he found out you were missing. I tried to tell him that he needed rest, but he wouldn't hear it. 'Just try and stop me finding her, Doc'."

Jack's imitation of Sawyer was so close to Clint Eastwood that Hope couldn't help laughing out loud. Jack laughed along and shook his head, glad to get her smiling again.

He turned serious, and said softly, "He must really care about you, you know. He was shot in the shoulder, but there was no way he was going to let anyone else go out into the jungle and bring you back, safe and sound. We were lucky he let us send out search parties – if he'd had his way he would have been the only one out there looking."

Hope smiled, genuinely happy to hear that Sawyer wanted to be the one to rescue her. "He can be pretty stubborn," she agreed.

Jack looked concerned for a moment. "Are you sure he's what you want?"

Hope smiled hopelessly. "Yeah," she sighed.

Jack laughed as he gathered his belongings. "Well, you take care of yourself. You should be fine to stay here, but I'll come by every day to check in, okay?"

"Okay," Hope smiled. "Thanks, Jack."

"No problem." He turned and left the shelter, glad to have his patient on the road to recovery.

"Hey," Hope smiled genuinely as Sawyer entered his shelter for the first time since leaving on the raft. "Good to be home?"

Sawyer smirked at her, "Yeah, I really missed all the creature comforts."

He sat on the bed beside her and Hope looked at him intently, taking in his wounded shoulder. "How are you doing?"

He shrugged off her concern. "Girl, I'm fine, never better. You're the one who's been seeing the doctor – how are you doing?"

"Jack says I'll be fine," Hope said lightly. "A few bumps and bruises, but nothing permanent."

"And the bub?" he asked, eyeing her stomach.

"We're going to keep tabs on it, but Jack says that it shouldn't have been affected at all."

"Well, the doctor's word is law," Sawyer said mockingly, kicking off his shoes and sitting back on his bed, leaning against the makeshift headboard.

"That's not what I hear," Hope replied, pulling her bare feet up onto the bed and sitting at his side. "I hear that you couldn't care less what the doctor says – even when you're injured."

Sawyer raised his eyebrows. "Is that what you hear?" he challenged. "Well I hear that the hunter's been giving you bedtime drugs…"

Hope laughed. "If that's the case, I think I overdosed when I was out there," she gestured to the trees that were visible through the shelter's open entrance.

"You did look pretty out of it," Sawyer remarked. His face softened, and Hope watched him become the Sawyer that was reserved for private. "So, you're gonna be fine?"

"Fit as a fiddle," Hope answered. "You?"

"Well, he had to pull a bullet out of me," he said with a smirk. "That was uncomfortable. But I'll heal up soon enough."

Hope felt very small as she asked, "What happened on the raft? How did it come to people being shot?"

Sawyer sighed, and Hope could feel the tiredness coming off of him in waves. "We made a mistake," he said quietly.

Hope knew that the subject was closed, and she let it go as she moved to lie down on her back. He stayed sitting beside her, with his eyes closed gently, and Hope felt safe just knowing he was there.

"I missed you," she said suddenly.

His eyes snapped open and fixed upon her own. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Hope said matter-of-factly. "I thought of you every day, just like I promised."

Sawyer's guard lowered an inch as he said, "I thought of you, too, Peaches." He smiled as he leaned down and kissed her gently, secretly relieved when she kissed him back. He placed his hand firmly on her stomach through her shirt, thinking of the day he had first learned about the baby.

"You know," he said, moving to lie beside her. "Maybe it wouldn't be too bad if the kid took a liking to my voice."

"Well, I know the kid's mom likes it," Hope joked.

"Is that so?" he asked triumphantly.

Hope pulled him down by his collar for another kiss, and noticed that for the first time, she felt no guilt at the thought of being with Sawyer. She was really moving forwards.

"I'm thinking of making this the invalid's tent," Sawyer said conversationally.

"Oh yeah?" Hope asked, sitting up beside him.

"Yeah," he nodded. "You'll stay here, I'll stay here, and then Doctor Jack only has one destination when he comes for house calls."

Hope laughed at Sawyer's roundabout way of asking her to stay with him.

She kissed him lightly on the mouth. "Whatever you want, Sawyer."

Sawyer put his hand to her cheek, pulling Hope in to kiss her deeply. "You know, Peaches," he said with a smirk. "Women used to say that to me all the damn time."