A/N – Okay, guys. This has been a disaster, so I'm so sorry about the wait. My computer or the website or something wouldn't let me update the teaser I was going to put up before I went on vacation. So it looked like I was back to my old ways of never posting chapters, but I WASN'T! So here's the teaser until I can finish chapter 7. I'm ALMOST done.

After four days of recovery and going crazy in the hospital, Kate was told she could go home. Unlike the last time, they didn't mourn when she was released. This time she wasn't going back to prison, she was really going home. Jack was ecstatic, but Kate had to hide her uneasiness.

The car accident had frightened her and weakened her physically and emotionally; there was no doubt about that. When she thought she'd killed Jack just like she'd killed Tom, she wanted to die more than she ever had in her life. And yes, there were other times when she despaired and wanted to die, not that she would ever even think of suicide. If she believed it wasn't time, it wasn't time. But all the same, Kate recognized her frailty. This didn't change her mind about leaving Jack; in fact it cemented her decision.

She couldn't lean on him so heavily. She couldn't bring him down. All she was was a burden. Kate hated to be dependent, she hated to be tied down, but these were prices she would pay a thousand times to stay with Jack. What she refused to be was a burden. She was unstable, moody and hurting, and she wasn't offering anything that could redeem her pathetic state. It tore her heart out. She hadn't had the courage to bring up the subject because Jack had been so loving to her.

Every kiss on the forehead, every night vigil by her side, every soft, kind word made her want to change her mind. She would often get a lump in her throat, and a few times she cried openly. He would be concerned and she would brush it away.

She loved Jack more than ever. It was going to be the hardest thing she'd ever done.

They left the hospital in the late morning, him supporting her and guiding her to the car, her stepping gingerly, trying not to grimace, trying not to think about what he would say when she said she had to go.

"Are you doing okay?" Jack asked in her ear as they painstakingly ignored the several reporters and cameramen that followed them and hollered questions.

Kate closed her eyes for a moment. "Let's just get to the car."

The car was a rental, of course. She lay down in the backseat. Her breathing was labored, and her chest hurt as if she was on fire. She turned her face to the seat, away from Jack, who was perfect and somehow forced himself to deal with her. She couldn't let him do it anymore.