Happy Lotte? I gave you what you wanted. I love you darling!

Thanks everyone for reading, I know I took my time with this chapter, but its a long one, I hope you guys like it!

Chapter 7

Kate handed Bobby a cup of coffee, while Sofi tended to a flesh wound he had acquired sometime during their excursion the night before. Bobby flinched as she pressed the clean rag to his wound to insure it wouldn't become infected.

"Stop being such a pussy Bobby." Sofi scolded him, pressing harder in spite. "Why is it Kate can't deal with you Bobby?" Whining in her thick Spanish accent, Sofi made Kate remember why she used to avoid Angel's long time girlfriend, she was annoying.

"This is my home, I do not need to earn my keep." She spoke coldly, walking past the two towards the kitchen. "Being Angel's fuck puppet doesn't mean you get live here for free." Bobby chuckled as Kate continued on to the kitchen, although not quick enough to miss Sofi's comment.

"What gives her the right to speak to me like that? She isn't even a Mercer! Only reason she got here was because she was fucking Jack." She fumed, glaring in Kate's direction. The sound of Bobby's hand slapping her face resonated around the room to the kitchen.

"Don't you dare say anything about Kate," He threatened, "She's a greater woman than you'll ever dream of being." Sofi's glare now found itself on Bobby, as Spanish curse words admitted from her lips. Bobby was never known for flattering words, he was the kind of man who let you, and anyone around you, know exactly how he liked, or disliked you.

Kate stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, her eyes locked on the person who also happened to decide this moment to be perfect to ender the Mercer Kitchen, Jack. Standing in the frame of the door, he stood awkwardly, the conversation he had just begun with Angel who was sitting on the stool next to the counter immediately seized. The older Mercer watched the two with entertained curiosity, silently wondering what was going on in what he decided to refer to as The Soap Opera between Jack and Kate.

Kate's eyes wandered over Jack, he must have woken up during the night and changed, she thought, seeing that he was no longer in the clothes she had left him with, instead he stood before them in only a pair of rather flattering boxer briefs, all of his tattoo's visible with the lacking apparel. She felt her face turn red as she brought her eyes back up to his face, who equally shared her embarrassment, after his eyes made a trip down her own Cami and skirt.

"I…" Jack stumbled for something to say, his voice groggy from just waking up. "...should get dressed." He turned and left the kitchen as quick as his feet would carry him, leaving her and Angel alone.

"You guys act like kids who just screwed for the first time." Angel received a glare from Kate, but he only shrugged. "I'm just saying."

"I don't need your commentary, Angel."

"How else am I supposed to find entertain?" He grinned at her, clearly amused at the situation.

"Screw your loca girlfriend?" His brilliant grin faded as she walked off in the direction Jack had disappeared off to.

She had prepared everything she wanted to say to him in her head as she laid awake last night, but as she approached his room, the words fled her mind. Opening his door, she found him pulling on his Jeans, his chest still without a shirt. She cleared her throat to get his attention, his ears turned red as he spun around to see Kate watching him getting dressed.

"Oh... Kate..."

"I just wanted to talk to you, but I'll wait for you to throw some clothes on." She left his room to wait for him to finish, leaning against the wall of the hallway. When he came out, he was sliding a studded belt through the loops of his jeans, giving off his best attempt at being a rock star.

"What do you want?" He smiled faintly at her, grateful that they were at least on speaking terms, their tender moment the night before fresh in his mind.

"I'm stealing you." She informed him, turning to head down the stairs to the first floor. Confused, Jack followed her.

"Stealing me?"

"Yes, unless you wish to go gallivanting with Bobby again today, probably end up dead." She didn't turn around as she spoke to him, instead she continued to descend down the stairs.

"Where?"

"You have something you have to do." She stopped at the edge of the stairs to grab her purse off the stand beside the door, Finally turning to face him. "just grab a jacket." She instructed as she threw her own over the rather skimpy shirt she chose for the occasion, her deepest wishes slowly making their way to the surface, she wanted to impress Jack, she wants him back. Throwing on his leather Jacket, he followed her out to her car, taking a seat on the passenger's side . Silence hung in the air as they drove, each afraid to shatter it. It wasn't until they finally parked in front of Jerry's home did one of them speak.

"What are we doing here?" Jack questioned, following Kate out of car.

"We are picking up Kerri." Jack stopped suddenly, looking and Kate with almost fear in his eyes. "You are okay with that, aren't you? I just... I want you to at least know him." She spoke quietly, unable to bring her eyes to look at his.

"He doesn't know.. does he?" his voice cracked as he spoke, "Who I am?"

"I don't know who you are anymore." Kate whispered more to herself than to Jack, her words stung him all the same. Kate continued to the front door, Knocking gently, before simply entering. "Jerry? Camille?" She called from the doorway, kicking the snow off her shoes on the welcome mat.

"Mom!" Kerri's voice pierced her ears only moments before his arms attacked her torso in a deep hug. He buried his face into his mother's shirt, missing the person he loved more than anything in the world.

"Hey baby." When he finally pulled away from her she scooped him up her arms, kissing his forehead, and squeezing him with the same intensity as he had just attacked her. Jerry found his way into the front foyer, a grin on his face seeing Kate and Kerri's display, as well as the fact Jack was with them.

"Are you steeling him back?" He questioned playfully.

"Just for the day." Kate threw her glance over at Jack. "We are spending the day away from Bobby and all his shi- nonsense" Kate caught herself at the last moment, remembering that her son was in her arms, she refused to swear in front of her child.

"You mean you, Jack, and Kerri?" Jerry couldn't stop himself from raising his eyebrow in curiosity, all the Mercer Brothers found what happens, and doesn't happen between the youngest Mercer and Kate the greatest form of entertainment.

"Yeah." Kate let Kerri down, the boy immediately going to face Jack.

"You're coming too?" Kerri wrinkled his nose, still not the greatest fan of the man who stole his bedroom.

"Yes." Jack stared at Kerri in almost amazement, still drinking in the fact that the child who disliked him so much was his. "That is, if it's okay with you." He squatted down so that he was face to face with Kerri, looking into the eyes that matched Kate's, while most of his other features resembled what Jack say when he looked in a mirror. Kerri looked over Jack, crossing his arms over his chest with a look of grim uncertainty on his face.

"Mommy likes you, so I guess it's okay."

Jack and Kate entered their Mother's home silently, each lost in their own thoughts. A faint smile played on Jack's lips as he recalled Kerri's weight when he carried him from the car into Jerry's house, the boy completely exhausted from the day's entertainment. He recalled how peaceful Kerri looked when he laid him down in his bed, pulling the covers over the boy's body.

Kate wanted to cry seeing Jack be so caring towards her son, their son. It was like all her hidden dreams where coming true, but she knew not to put too much faith in such things. Kate refused to let her heart break again when the fairy tale she fell into shattered, which she was sure it would.

"He loves you." She spoke quietly, climbing the stairs, Jack right at her heals. " I didn't expect him to warm up to you so quickly." But then again, who couldn't love you, she longed to say, but kept her mouth shut.

"He's a great kid." Jack attempted to find something to say to Kate, anything to express the thoughts screaming in his mind.

"Not too bad for being raised by a single teenage mother." The memories of crying herself to sleep when she was pregnant over the loss of Kerri's father invaded her mind, causing her voice to sound bitter.

"You know if you had just told me you wouldn't have been a single mother." He returned in the same tone, causing her to snap around and face him completely.

"If you didn't have to fucking leave in the middle of the night, I would have told you!" She glared up at him, The mere inches between them seemed like miles, each one lost in heated anger.

"I wouldn't have fucking left!" His hands gripped her forearms, bringing her body even closer to him. " I would have shoved aside that ridiculous rock star dream and married you!" Without a single thought, he crushed his lips to her's, as if his existence depended on her acceptance. She could not deny what every fiber of her being had longed for for so many years. Opening up to him she wrapped her arms around his neck, crushing his face closer, bruising each other but neither caring, any self control either had was shattered with desperate longing. His fingers grasped at the fabric of her skirt, as her hands tugged at his jacket.

The long years apart made no difference that night, it was as if they were back in high school together, when Kate would sneak Jack into her room when her parents weren't home, there was no one to over hear them then, a lesson they learned once with Bobby at the Mercer home. Neither on of them cared of the other brother's occupying the house. Nothing mattered but the two of them, not Kerri, or Bobby, Angel, or Jerry. Just Jack and Kate.