Thanks for your reviews! Was hoping for a few more, but what can I do? This is fun to write regardless!

Chapter Eight

Brand New Life

"You mean he didn't introduce you to anyone?"

Sam's questions were beginning to bother Kate, when she thought she'd made it clear she didn't want to talk about her outing with Jack in the first place.

"We kind of ran out of time and Jack-- Dr. Shephard-- took me to the beach instead."

Sam, perpetually weak from the chemotherapy and radiation he was receiving, managed to sit up on the couch. "That kinda sounds like a--"

"Don't say it," Kate warned. "It wasn't like that at all."

"At all? Really?" With a twinkle of mischief in his eye, Sam glared back at her. She knew he wouldn't believe her.

If she was being honest, she would've told him that she and Jack had potential, if a relationship was what she was looking for and if Jack wasn't Sam's surgeon. If it wasn't so goddamn complicated.

By the time Jack had dropped her off back at the apartment early the night before, Sam had already been asleep. So when she woke earlier in the morning, Kate prepared herself for the barrage of questions she was sure Sam would ask.

Kate huffed and rolled her eyes, two things she found herself doing more often now that she was around him so much. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Sam cocked his head back. "Well Idon't care. I wanna talk about it."

About to snap, Kate considered ways to get out of the apartment. "It was fine," she said. "I'm going for a walk."

"Surprised to hear from me?"

Jack laughed into the mouthpiece of the phone a nurse had just handed him. "Not really, Sam. You're my patient-- I expect to hear from you from time to time."

Desperate times call for desperate measures, Sam had told himself before he picked up the phone and reluctantly dialed Dr. Shephard's number. If only Kate had cooperated...

"Is everything okay?" Jack asked him, and Sam could hear him shuffling through papers on the other side of the line.

"Yeah, I'm fine I guess. Dead tired, though."

"Just make sure you're getting--"

"Listen doc, I actually didn't call to talk about me..."

Immediately Jack was filled with a sense of dread. Of course this would be about Kate. About he and Kate, specifically.

"It might not be, uh, exactly appropriate for me to be asking, but I was just wondering how things went with Kate yesterday? How'd it work out?"

Although he already knew that Sam had gone to Kate first, and had most likely gotten shut down, Jack feigned innocence. "Why don't you ask Kate...?"

"Won't talk about it. Practically ran out the door."

Jack laughed despite how uncomfortable he was. The only thing he could describe the conversation as was awkward. Really, extremely, awkward. More and more easily, Jack was beginning to buy into Kate's explanation that patients and doctors shouldn't have private relationships.

"It was fine," he mustered, not wanting to explain how personal their conversation had gotten on the beach, or the way he couldn't stop thinking about her, or the fact that he couldn't have her only made him want to go after her more.

"Wow are the two of you stubborn," he exclaimed. "Why's it such a big deal to fill an old man in on the details? You know I'm rooting for the two of you."

While he was thankful that Sam was behind them, Jack grimaced into the phone, remembering a particular point in he and Kate's conversation that had shot down any hopes he had. "I know you are," he replied, leaning back in his desk chair, exhausted from an early morning surgery. "But the problem's not entirely with me. I think all of this kinda freaks her out."

Sam laughed weakly. "She'll get over it. Don't let her convince you that it's unprofessional for you to have some sort of connection outside of you being my doctor."

"... I'm beginning to think that way too. I have a feeling that things will get... complicated," Jack admitted. Why the hell was he letting himself fall into this trap? He knew that Sam would try to change his mind, and had no doubts that he would constantly be working on Kate.

"Bottom line, it's not complicated. I'm telling you it's okay, hell, that I want you to pursue her. And my opinion is the only one that really matters."

Jack laughed. Sam was a good guy, with what Jack could only assume were good intentions, who sure knew how to argue his way to getting what he was after.

"Say you're right... but tell me one thing. Why are you so adamant about this?"

"Me and Kate's mom? We never shoulda broken up. I always regretted that Poppy just disappeared out of my life and I hardly looked for her. We argued a lot but we were so passionate..."

Sure, Jack thought, maybe Sam's past could cause him to play matchmaker. But he and Kate hardly knew each other, and Jack hadn't felt any sort of passion between them... Mostly just awkward, curious, tension that Jack wasn't sure he would consider a positive sign.

"I understand your past, Sam," he began. "But what does this have to do with me and Kate?"

"I'm not great at explaining it," the other man admitted. "But I see something that you two aren't letting yourselves see. And I'll be damned if I won't try to get you to."

Maybe Sam was right. After Jack's first conversation with Kate, he had already wondered if there was that something between them, that spark that caused your head to spin, your face to flush, the thing that made your stomach drop. None of these feeling were particularly great on their own, but when they were all put together, nothing could beat them. Infatuation, love, lust...

Cradling his forehead in the palm of his hand, Jack briefly wondered if he was ready for any of this. The chase, the inevitable arguments and problems that had eventually led him to believe that it was easier to be alone. "What if you're wrong?"

After a long pause, when Sam considered telling Jack every little spark he'd seen between him and Kate, every little sentence Kate had spoken that seemed to remotely flatter the doctor, he favored something simpler.

"I'm not."

She wasn't sure what had provoked her into job hunting, when her future in the area was so unclear, and when she thought about how much she hated putting on a fake bravado and shaking lots of hands.

But Sam's chemo and doctor's visits, even with his insurance, were clearing his accounts fast, and Kate had no one else to rely on financially, nor did she want to.

After college she'd gone straight into the working world, and had settled for a job in marketing which she had never liked, but never hated enough to look for something else. And since he had already considered staying in the area for a while, no matter what happened to Sam, it was probably time to start looking. She shuddered. She didn't even want to think about that part of the equation.

That morning after Sam's verbal assault, and during her walk through the neighborhood, Kate had scrolled through her cell phone contacts and dialed the number Jack gave her the day before. During lunch he'd asked her if she was looking for a job, and when she'd said maybe and explained her background and degree, Jack said that he knew of the perfect opportunity for her.

His best friend, he'd told her, had recently opened his own publishing company, and was looking for a graphic designer for all of the publications and advertisements. Admittedly, Kate was excited at the sound of it, and the creative aspect of it appealed to her. At her previous job there hadn't been nearly enough creativity.

After stopping at a copy shop and faxing her resume over to Marc per his request, he'd already called her back and set up an interview.

She only had an hour to rush to a department store and buy an interview outfit, and then over to the address that Marc told her over the phone. She trusted Jack's choice in friends, but she was more nervous about what would happen if she got the job than if she didn't.

The last thing she needed was another connection to Jack, but the first thing she needed was money. It wasn't an easy problem to have.

"She's supposed to be here in fifteen minutes, man. Let me prepare my excellent interviewing skills. Aren't you supposed to have some high priority job to be working on anyway?"

Jack laughed into the phone. Marc had called him earlier after Kate explained that Jack gave her the company's information and told her about the job opening. He knew that Kate would cringe and most likely yell at him if she knew he and Marc were talking about her behind her back, but he wanted to give her a chance.

"I think she'll be a good fit, that's all," he explained, looking over Sam's file and the updated scans his oncologist had sent over. He had an appointment with him the next day, and desperately wanted to tell the man some good news.

He imagined Marc rolling his eyes before he spit out his next sentence. "Have you even seen any of her designs? Know anything about her?"

"...Well, no," he hesitated, waiting for Marc to pick him apart.

"I'm not hiring her just because you two are dating--"

"We're not dating," he said in a hurry.

Marc mocked him, throwing out a fake laugh. "Okay, then I'm not hiring her just because you want to date her."

Jack sighed and glanced at the blinking light on his phone that alerted him to another call coming through. "I've gotta go. Just give her a chance, alright?"

If Kate had stumbled on Marc and his publishing company by chance, she would've been absolutely thrilled by the find. But such as it was, with Jack's help in yet another area of her life, it wasn't quite so exciting. After a brief interview in which Kate thought she did well and her personality had clicked with Marc's, he'd given her a prompt for a mock design, and had left her alone for thirty minutes to produce it.

She'd found it easy to get her creative juices flowing, with all of the stress in her life and the opportunity to start over. Happy with the finished product, she'd fetched Marc and watched him critique the design.

"It's great," he said. "I've been trying to cover all of this on my own but I'm not great at the visual aspect. I just stick to the writing."

He made a few additional clicks and sent it to the printer. "What d'ya say?"

"I don't know... what do I say?"

"I'm prepared to offer you the job if that's what you want," he said. "I can give you the details of the position and give you a call later, give you some time to think it over?"

Kate nodded numbly, surprised at the hasty offer. She thought she was qualified and that she would enjoy the work, but there was a lot to think about.

Unsure if she should bring Jack up at all, she finally spit out her question. "You're not doing this because... Jack didn't tell you to do this, did he?"

Marc shook his head. "He suggested you, yeah, but I wouldn't offer the job to you if I didn't like you, Kate. I think you'll be an excellent fit, and your past experience is great. You're just what I'm looking for."

Kate smiled genuinely. It was exactly what she'd needed to hear. "Okay, as long as you're sure you're not doing anyone favors..."

"The fact that you know Jack only helps you. He has a good read on people."

"Heard you were offered a job today," Jack said after Kate had reluctantly picked up her phone.

"I was," she agreed, biting back a smile. He sounded so happy for her.

"And you weren't even going to tell me?" he mocked, pretending to be offended.

She had thought a lot about the offer, and when Marc had emailed her a tentative contract, she'd liked the offer. The money was right, the hours were great, and the job description matched what she actually wanted. She'd already called Marc back and accepted the position.

"I was thinking about it," she offered. "Listen, I just wanted to say thanks for putting me in touch with him. At first I wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but it's kinda perfect actually."

"I'm happy it worked out for you. I was getting pretty sick of listening to all of Marc's whining, to be honest. You're doing me a favor."

Kate laughed, then looked to Sam's bedroom door to make sure he wouldn't come out and check on her. "Okay," she said awkwardly, "I guess we'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Wait... what are your plans for tonight? We should celebrate..."

Jack thought of his conversation with Sam earlier. He had to try...

"Jack," she said, sounding exasperated. "Yesterday was a one-time deal."

"I know," he said smartly. "But you have to celebrate getting a great new job, and I'll even invite Marc and you can invite Sam, see if he's up for it. So it won't be a date."

She did kind of like the idea of getting dressed up and going out, and getting to know Marc before she started the job could only help...

"Well... okay," she said after a minute, imagining Jack squirming during the wait. "As long as it's not a date."

Up next: Who will show up to Jack and Kate's non-date besides Jack and Kate? ;) Leave a review!