Author's Note: Things are not going well in the House of Shepard. Fortunately for Jack, there's someone on hand for him to talk to. /enigmatic

Kate was discharged from hospital later that day, and Jack had the day off, so he took her, the children and the new baby home. When Ana was safely tucked up in her new crib, and the older children in the playroom, Jack headed for his and Kate's bedroom, where Kate was lying down to rest. He sat down next to her, gently touching her hand where is rested on the covers.

"Hey, Katie."

"Mmm… oh, Jack. Sorry. I just can't seem to stay awake for long today."
"That's understandable."

"I guess I should have expected it, really."

"Don't worry about it. You'll get over it, you know."
"I know. I've got you to look after me." She said as she smiled at him.

"Yeah, you have. And you're going to have me looking after you for a while, I called the hospital and they gave me some time off to stay home with you."

"That's great."

"Yeah." Just then, they were interrupted by baby Ana crying in her crib, in the adjoining room that they called the nursery. "I'll go and see what's wrong."

Jack went over to the baby girl, and after checking her nappy he found that she was hungry. He picked her up swaddled in her blanket, carrying her over to Kate.

"It looks like this little one is hungry. And… we never really talked about it… are we going to bottle-feed her or not?"

"Look, Jack, I'm so tired right now, if I breastfeed her now I'll fall asleep before she's done."

"Couldn't you…"

"No, Jack. Just bottle-feed her for now. I breastfed her a bit in the hospital, and the bottle shouldn't do any harm."

Jack was worried. "Kate, are you sure?"

"Yes, Jack! I'm sure. You know where the bottles are, go and feed her. Just leave me alone." When he hesitated a little, she yelled at him. "Get out, Jack!", which only made little Ana scream louder.

Jack beat a hasty retreat then, trying to soothe Ana as he left the room. When the door closed, Kate lay back against the heaped-up pillows, sighed, and tried to get back to sleep.

Jack, meanwhile, took Ana to the kitchen and prepared a bottle for her. He sat down in the living room as he fed her. As he watched her drink, his thoughts drifted back to Kate, wondering why she had been so snappy towards him and the baby, when earlier at the hospital she had been her normal self, though very tired. He sighed to himself, thinking that it was just the strain of the birth, and that she would be back to normal in a few days.

Kate didn't get "back to normal". After that day, when she came home from the hospital, things just got progressively worse. Most of Jack's time off was spent looking after the children, but when he did see Kate, she was always in bed, wearing an old t-shirt and sweats. He took her food three times a day, but she rarely ate a whole meal, she would just pick at it and leave the rest. He took Ana to her, thinking that maybe seeing the baby would help her, and maybe she would bond with the little girl, but she just pushed them away. She wouldn't even let Jack sleep in the same room any more, so he moved into the spare room.

For three weeks, Jack struggled to look after two young children and the baby, while at the same time trying to help Kate get better, help her get back to normal. But nothing he tried worked, so – beginning to despair of ever succeeding – he called a friend of his from the hospital, a psychiatrist, and asked her to come to the house and speak to Kate. He debated with himself for a moment, wondering if he should tell Kate now, and decided that it couldn't do any harm. The older children were at school, so he quickly checked that Ana was still asleep in her crib, then gingerly knocked on the door of their- no, Kate's – bedroom.

"Yes?"

"It's me. Can I come in?"

"If you must."

"Okay." Jack opened the door, pulled a chair over to the bed and sat down. "Kate, Katie…"

"Don't call me that."
"What?"

"Don't call me Katie. Seriously, Jack, don't."

"Fine. Kate, I'm worried about you. You don't seem to be yourself, you haven't left the house – no, you've barely left this room for weeks, you ignore the children, especially Ana, and she should be spending the most time with out of everyone."

"I know that."

"Why, Kate? Why are you acting like this?"

"I don't know. But I know I can't look at that baby. It feels like the baby isn't mine. I don't feel any love for her."

"Look, Kate, I'm trying to help you. I called someone from work, from the hospital, and they're going to come and see you next week."

"Why? Is this 'friend' of yours a shrink? Do you think I'm crazy? Are you going to have me taken away, is that it Jack? Is it?"

"NO! No, no-one's going to take you away. No-one thinks you're crazy. She just wants to talk to you, about how you feel since Ana was born."
"Ana?"

"The baby, Kate. Remember? You told Claire you liked the name."

"Oh, yes. I guess I did."
"So, will you see this lady from the hospital?"
"I'll talk to her. Because you asked nicely and you seem tired."

"Good, that's great, Kate, that's wonderful. Is there anything you need at the moment?"

"No. I'll tell you if I think of anything. Now could you leave me alone, please?"

"Of course. I'll check on Ana."

Jack left the room through the nursery, reassuring himself that Ana was still asleep in her crib. He quietly went downstairs to the kitchen and poured a glass of water for himself, putting it down on the table. He sat down, rested his head on his hands, and started to cry. He sat like that for what felt like hours, just sobbing without caring about anything else. When the tears ran finally dry, he just sat at the table, staring at the table-top, wondering if he could survive this, if his marriage would survive, if KATE would survive. He needed someone to talk to, but none of his friends at work would understand, he knew that. He needed someone who had been on that bloody island, someone who would be able to understand. Someone who knew his past.

He would normally call Charlie, but Jack knew the Brit would not be able to help here. Jin was no good either, as they were not close and Jin's English still left a lot to be desired. The other survivors of the crash? He hadn't seen Michael since that day on the Pala dock, and wouldn't confide in him now for all the money in the world. Boone and Eko were dead, he had no idea where Locke was living these days. On the island, he would have spoken to Rose, but he had only a vague idea of where to find her – he thought she and Bernard had gone to live in New York. He thought of Sayid, briefly, but they had had a rather ugly argument at the last 'reunion', so he was out. Everyone else? Ana-Lucia, Libby and Shannon had died on the island, Walt was only a kid, and he didn't feel able to burden Claire or Sun with his thoughts.

There were only two options left. He could speak to Sawyer, but Sawyer was Kate's best friend, and fiercely protective of her, so he would not want a 'shrink', as Kate put it, seeing her. And the final option, the only one left. He needed to find his address book to get the number, and was oddly surprised to see it was an address that was quite near.

Thinking about this person made him think of the day they were rescued. He, Kate and Sawyer had escaped the Others, and – roughly four months after the crash - a ship came looking for them. It later transpired that the whole operation had been organised by one Penelope Widmore, who had insisted on going with the ship to rescue them. Jack smiled as he remembered that day.

That day, that day started as just another day on the beach. Until Claire spotted the ship on the horizon, and cried out the rest of us, and suddenly everyone was shouting and waving at the ship, trying to attract attention. The ship came closer to the island, and a small boat loaded with people came over to the beach. Desmond was behaving quite oddly, he had run down to the shore and was standing almost knee-deep in water watching the boat. When the boat came close to the shore, some of the people inside jumped out and pushed it up onto the beach. One of those people was a young woman, with quite long, dark-blonde hair loose around her shoulders. She stared at the island behind us for a moment, then looked out at us on the beach, her eyes searching for one particular person. She looked back at the water's edge, saw Desmond standing there in shock, and ran over to him. He took a while to register what was happening, but then his face broke into a broad grin and he moved towards her, ending in a hug. It turned out that Penelope Widmore was the love of his life, and she had been trying to find him for getting on for five years.

Penelope – Penny, as she wanted us to call her – told us all that she had come to rescue us and bring us back to civilisation. She even sent some of her team from the ship to the Others' village, offering them the chance to leave the island, and locating Danielle Rousseau as well. Only a few of the Others chose to leave – Alex was reunited with her mother, and they decided to leave together, and Juliet and a few others decided to leave as well.

After the ship arrived in Sydney, Desmond and Penny announced that they were getting married. Her father wasn't terribly happy about it, so they were moving to the US. Jack had heard they had had a baby a few years back, but aside from reunions they hadn't seen much of each other.

He checked the number in the address book again, and dialled, holding the handset to his ear. It rang a few times, before he heard a familiar Scots accent on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Desmond? It's Jack."

"Jack? Why are you calling me?"

"I… need to talk. You were the only person I thought would understand."

"Uh, okay, brotha, but I'm still a touch confused. What's your problem?"

"It's not really something I want to talk about on the phone."

"You have my address, don't you? We're not that far apart, yea?"

"Yeah, I have your address. Should I come over?"

"Don't you have bairns, Jack? Ya shouldn't leave them. I'll come to you. Pen's out with Lizzie, it's fine."

"Okay, come over."

"I will. I'll leave now, an' I should be at yours in a few hours."

"Thank you, Desmond. I really need this."

"Well, you're a friend, and if ah needed to talk to you you'd help. Only fair. An' I did help you out that day at the stadium."

"Yeah, you did. I guess.. I'll see you in a few hours then."

"Okay then."

As Jack hung up the phone, he slumped back into his chair. He wondered for a fleeting moment if calling Desmond was the right thing to do, but remembered that there was no-one else who would understand.