Little Lotte- see, I didn't do what you told me not to do. I really wouldn't be so mean as to do that, okay... so maybe I do have a history of that... but this is different. Haven't you come to know by now I write bittersweet endings? Where is the sweet if I used my age old tactic of (whispers quietly so none of my readers can hear and have the chapter spoiled for them) killing of the main character? Anyway, I love you darling, and I miss you!And I miss the notebook (but less than you!), oh, and Eragon is AMAZING on big screen TVs. He he he... very fun to pause. Don't worry... I'm looking more at Garrett than ed... and since I won't bring any of Garrett's other movies over, since I am after all watching a little kid...love ya.

Thank you everyone who reads and reviews, you guys are amazing!

Chapter 12

Jack couldn't recall what time he and Kerri were asked to return to the waiting room as Kate was taken into surgery, or how long they sat there, his arm turning numb under the weight of Kerri's sleeping form. He refused to let Kerri out of his sight after the shoot out ended, nor would Kerri let himself stay home when his mother was in trouble.

Jack waited on pins and needles, begging God to leave Kate on this earth. Desperately he pushed back tears and thoughts of Kate laying in a coffin. He had just buried his mother, he couldn't loose her, not now, not after he just got her back. He cursed the bastards who had done this, thankful for Bobby's gun. He was the last person to preach violence, he had had enough of that before he came to Ms. Evelyn's, but anyone who would hurt someone like his mother, and now his love, they deserved it.

"Mr. Mercer?" A young doctor approached him, a comforting smile playing off her radiant face.

"yes?" He nearly jumped up from the uncomfortable plastic chair he had occupied for hours now, but Kerri's sleeping figure on his lap prevented that. Shifting him to his arms, he stood to face the doctor, his worry taking its toll on his face, making it pale and almost haunted with deep circles beneath his eyes.

"Your wife is out of surgery." His heart skipped a beat, she was safe. He didn't even stop to dwell on the fact she had called Kate his wife, that didn't matter, just that Kate was alive. "there where some complication however." Any color left in his face fled. "Don't worry sir, she is alright, she went into cardiac arrest while the doctors where repairing her lung, but the surgeons where able to revive her, we however require her to stay in intensive care, policy requires that we keep any attempts to disturb her at a minimum."

"shes going to be alright?" Kerri began to stir in his arms, noticing that he was no longer laying in a curled up ball, as well as hearing the voices around them.

"yes." The doctor paused, looking between Kerri and Jack. "We only allow one visitor at a time. If you would like, a nurse could watch over your son if you would like to see her, the anesthetics should be wearing off."

"Is mommy okay?" Kerri asked, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes.

"yes, mommy is. The doctors will let only one person at a time, do you want to see her first? She would want to see you." Kerri looked at him, almost as to study his soul through his eyes.

"Tell mommy I love her, Simba needs to see Nala first." Kerri smiled as he gave his dad a deep hug. The doctor smiled sweetly as she took Kerri's hand and lead him behind the nurses counter, where one of the mid aged woman dressed in scrubs dotted on him.

Jack's breath caught in his throat as he saw Kate laying on the hospital beds, IVs attached to her arm dripping clear liquids into her veins, her heartbeat marking up the monitor beside her with a jagged line. He eyes fluttered open when she heard him approach, the smell of his clothes something familiar in a new setting.

"Oh Jack." She smiled wearily, feeling as if her body was drained of all energy, but she had to push herself to exhaustion, she had to speak with him, she had to see him. She motioned for him to come closer to her, bringing him up to the side of her bed.

"Oh... Kate." Overwhelmed by just the sound of her voice, he kissed her forehead tenderly, relishing the feeling of her skin against his lips, how close he had come to never feeling her skin again.

"You're here? Why didn't you go home?" she may not have known how long she had been at the hospital, but was not stupid, the doctors had told her of the surgery she had before Jack entered, extensive surgery like what they preformed on her she knew most have taken many hours.

"Of course I'm here." he pressed his lips to hers, " I love you Kate." She let out a deep, satisfied sigh.

"Oh Jack," slowly, she brought her hand to his, entwining her fingers, squeezing his hand with as mush energy as she had. "promise me something."

"Anything."

"Don't leave me." Tears slid down her cheeks. Laying up against the snow covered ground, watching the white turn to red made her realize how much she needed him. Even when he was gone, she thought of him, and made every decision based off of what she thought he would think. She didn't want to be alone, she couldn't be. Never was she as terrified when she returned to consciousness in the ambulance, away from anyone she knew or loved, and it wasn't until she took her into surgery and heard through the pain that her husband had arrived.

Husband. If she had any strength in her at that moment, she would have laughed. It would be easy for them to think Jack was her husband, she thought, especially with Kerri, but she dared not let herself think that was possible, enough of her dreams had already shattered.

"I never will." He vowed, knowing she wasn't talking about just here and now. "Kate, I... I was so scared. I... I couldn't bear the thought of losing you." He laid his forehead against hers, forgetting any pride or self reserve he had, this was his Kate, he could tell her everything, down to the feelings Bobby, Angel, and Jerry had tried to push into submission by teasing him.

"How is Kerri?" Kate choked back a sob, she couldn't handle seeing Jack fall to pieces now, not then she needed him to hold her together.

"He's fine. He's waiting with one of the nurses... what a fearless boy we have. He never stopped to cry, even when all hell was breaking loose, even when his world was so close to slipping away." He ran the back of his hand over her check, so gently that his flesh only barely grazed her, and yet the simple tender gesture caused her to close her eyes and sigh to savor it. "He must get that from you, you were always brave, I can't remember how many nights I had wished for your bravery, then, I wished for you." A single tear slid down her cheek. Jack caught it with his thumb before it could reach her jaw. "God granted me one of my wishes, even if it was only for a while." he voice faded off as he spoke, his eyes no longer locked on hers, but laying in the space between them, afraid of what reaction she would have to his words.

Kate remained painfully silent, simply looking at Jack, and wishing she had more strength.

"You have me for a lifetime." She gave his hand another exhausting squeeze. "Did you mean what you said? Would you really have married me if I told you about Kerri?" She tried not to let her desperate hope lace her voice, but she was in no position to hide anything from him.

"Of course! I love you Kate. I would have married you at thirteen if I could, I would marry you now." her heart skipped a beat. He couldn't have said that, she thought, he couldn't have. "Kate... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to upset you... I know I'm... I'm too vocal about my feelings-" Kate strained to lay her finger against his lips, silencing him.

"Jack stop," She was crying again, tears of pure, unimaginable joy. " I love you, you fool. I always have, and always will. Do you know how many nights I sat up wondering what it would be like to be your wife? How many times I pictured our family while you were gone? Although I must say, when I was pregnant I always imagined a little girl..." Kate noticed the nurse standing the the doorway, waiting to escort Jack out. "Please Jack, say it? Just once, I... I need to hear it." A grin spread across his face, shining from ear to ear.

"I love you Kate. Will you marry me?"

"Yes, of course." He pressed his lips to hers, tasting the salt of tears, although he was unsure if they belonged to her, or his own eyes, but nothing trivial like that mattered, she was his.

His Kate, she was back.

"Mr. Mercer." The nurse interjected quietly, hating to break up their tender moment, but she had already given him far too much visiting time as it were. "She needs her rest."

"Yes, yes of course." Running his thumb down her jaw line, he kissed her goodbye tenderly, letting his lips linger near hers for every moment they could. "Don't worry about Kerri, he has his daddy to worry about him, you just get better."

"Anything for you and Kerri... My family." The nurse escorted Jack out, smiling at Kate as she almost instantly passed into slumber, her time with Jack stealing away every last bit of energy she had, or perhaps, the nurse thought, it was he who gave her energy, and in taking him away she was deprived of it.

Kerri attached himself to Jack the moment he returned to the waiting room, his clinging manor something Jack had come to love.

"Mom?" his question was returned by Jack kissing the top of the boy's head.

"Mom is going to be just fine, she loves you, we both do."