DISCLAIMER: I don't…hang on, why am I even bothering to write a disclaimer! This FAN FICTION so I OBVIOUSLY don't own Lost!

A HEART TO HEART

The next day, Jack was taking a much needed break when Luke came and sat next to him.

"This island is great for her, I haven't seen Katie so open and happy since she was about nine," Luke told him.

"Open?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Luke replied, watching his sister laughing with Claire, "She used to laugh all the time, she could never keep a secret for more than a day before she blurted it out, she hated being alone and had a VERY short attention span! She would always find something to do on the farm; she loved it there and said she never wanted to leave. Unfortunately, that all changed when Wayne moved in." There is was again, that disgusted tone.

"Who's Wayne?"

"Wayne was Ma's boyfriend. Ma divorced Dad just after Katie was born, and dated Wayne until I was about twelve and Katie was nine, then they got married. As much as I hate to admit it, I actually liked him before they got married, but then he showed his true colours and I left to live with Dad about a year later. Dad and I desperately wanted Katie to come too, but Ma wouldn't let her. Ma was always making Katie's decisions for her, but she never made the right ones. I never got along with Ma for that very reason, but Katie loved and defended her, just like Ma loved and defended Wayne." Luke paused and smiled sadly in Kate's direction.

"Anyway, after he came along, she would run away from home at least twice a month, she locked herself up in her room for hours and she stopped talking to her friends.

They all gave up on her, except for Tom, my best friend who lived next door; he was the only one who realised that her pushing him away was her way of dealing with things. He realised that she believed that isolating herself would cause less pain for both herself and those she loved, because then she wouldn't drag them down. He was determined to fix her.

They started going out about a year later and then Katie stopped running away, at least for a while, then he left for college to become a doctor, and I had already left to travel the world, so she was alone."

Jack was in complete and utter shock. "When I questioned Kate about the toy plane she said that it belonged to the man she killed." It was more of a statement than a question, and he was surprised when Luke chuckled sadly.

"That's Katie's guilt talking, she told me last night. She told me that too when I questioned her, but I knew better and kept going until I got everything out of her, she has a bad habit of blaming herself for everything that goes wrong. She likes to make a mountain out of a molehill.

You see, Katie does things on impulse. She thinks that she's doing the right thing for her family, but it always ends up backfiring. She thought she was protecting Ma and the next thing she knows she's on the run as a wanted criminal. She would have done anything for Ma and Ma repays her by turning her in."

"What did she do?" Jack blurted out before he could stop himself.

Luke shook his head, "That's not my story to tell, she'll tell you when she's good and ready. You know Jack, it may seem like she doesn't trust you, but she trusts you more than anyone else on this island, in fact, you're the only person I've seen her get this close to apart from Tom. Oh, and she doesn't want to tell you because she's terrified that you'll hate her for what she did."

There was an awkward pause.

"How did Wayne change?" Jack was almost afraid to find out.

"He didn't, we just never knew that side of him existed. He started to abuse Ma and Katie. I know for a fact that he physically and verbally abused them both, I heard him yelling at Katie often, and I once saw him hit her. That was on her fifteenth birthday. She always denied that he sexually harassed her, but I know he did, I could see it in her eyes when I confronted her about it."

Jack was horrified. He could never have imagined that all those terrible things could happen to Kate.

Oh my God, I had no idea that she had been through so much. And I've been so harsh to her!

"Shh, listen," hissed Luke suddenly.

Jack went quiet and faintly heard something in the background. "What is that?"

Luke suddenly smiled and stood up, "I think that you might want to see this."

A/N: Sorry that it's a bit short, and I left it on a bit of a cliffhanger just to torture you!

ANOTHER A/N: the next chapter is almost finished BUT I am not posting it until the number next to 'Reviews' says (at least) 20, instead of 12!