"Woah, what a day." Jack announced when he and Kate got ready for bed a few hours later. The kids were all in bed, with Amy and Jasmine fast asleep hours ago, but the twins only going into their bedrooms half an hour ago after talking with them in the kitchen.

"Tell me about it." Kate agreed stepping up beside him and embracing him.

Jack put his arm around her, drawing her close. "At least it ended on a good note." He reasoned.

"You mean after we told the kids that Ethan's after them, or when they all made up?" She asked.

"I think it's safe to say the latter." Jack nodded.

Kate sighed heavily, a sound that wasn't lost in the quiet of the room. "I shouldn't have broken down like that." She said, her voice full of regret. "I've probably really scared them."

"Hey, it's alright." He whispered, stroking her hair softly.

"I told them he would kill them." She said. "That's the last thing I should have said to them."

"As much as I hate to admit it, you were telling the truth." Jack agreed, and he felt Kate's shoulder shudder from the withheld tears that she was refusing to release. "Kate, baby, we've been through this a thousand times...you can't be strong all the time. Everyone has to break at some point."

"Why does it always have to be me?" She asked.

"Because when you break, you've always got me to pick up the peices and put them back together again." He reminded her.

"Thank God." She murmered, buring her face against his shoulder whilst he held her.

"We should get some sleep." Jack told her.

Kate shook her head weakly. "I don't think I'll get much sleep tonight."

"Then you're just going to lie down with me, at least." He told her.

"Okay. I'll just go and check that the twins are actually in bed." She said, and kissed Jack.

She first checked Jasmine, seeing that she was still fast asleep, but was half hanging off the bed. She smiled gently, and lifted her daughter back into the bed, retrieving her stuffed dog from the floor, and then kissed her forehead as she she replaced the quilt over her.

Her next stop was Evelyn's room. Her big window was open still from earlier, so Kate walked across the room and pulled it so it wasn't wide open, but still allowed a breeze into the room. She turned and saw Evelyn fast asleep, curled up on her side. She always slept on left side.

Just as she suspected when she entered his room, Evan was also sleep, curled on his right side. When the twins were younger, and they had shared a bedroom, Evan and Evelyn would still sleep on their sides, Evelyn on her left, Evan on his right, and they would face towards each other across the room. Kate wondered whether they were the positions they lay in inside her womb all those years ago, curled tightly facing each other.

She went back into her bedroom, and climbed into bed beside Jack, who was lying on his back. He opened his arms to her as she crawled beside him, and she laid her head on his chest.

"They okay?" He asked.

She nodded against him. "All fast asleep." She confirmed.

"At least some of us are." He muttered.

"What happens now?" Kate asked him.

"We protect ourselves." Jack nodded. "Keep the kids away from Ethan at all costs."

Kate nodded with him, and then curled closer around him. "I'm scared, Jack, I don't want to lose them."

"We're not going to lose them." He assured her.

"I don't want to lose you either."

Jack kept one arm around her, and brought the other one to pick up her hand that lay on his chest. He kissed her knuckles. "Kate, I married you because I love you, and I always will. Nothing is going to change that." He kissed her on the lips, caressing them with his own. "We might get seperated along the way sometimes, but we'll always find each other. Nothing can keep us apart."

She smiled, and they kissed again. "Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad that it's you who picks up the pieces." She told him, settling her head down on his chest again. "You always glue them in the right places."

Jack smiled, kissing the top of her head. "That's what I'm here for."

Kate sighed again. "I can still remember the first time we nearly lost the twins." Nothing would take away the memory of the fear she felt that day she thought she had a miscarriage.

"So can I." Jack whispered. He, too, remembered every agonising moment of it. "There was a crazy old man in the bed next to you, telling me that everything was going to be okay."

"He was right." Kate nodded.

"He said that you couldn't have lost your child because you still have a mother's glow, and that never lied."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure he was crazy?" She asked him.

Jack thought for a moment. Whenever he thought back to that day, he always remembered the 'crazy old man' in the bed next to Kate. He had never seen that man again other than that conversation. He had been right about everything. Kate did still have the glow of pregnancy around her, and they went on to have two beautiful twins.

"Come to think of it, no." He realised.

"Fifteen years ago..." Kate mused. "We didn't even know each other. It's only been fourteen years."

"Wonderful years." Jack agreed. "I'm glad I spent them with you."