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Chapter Seventeen

Nice Guys

"Wait," Jack whispered, looking into Kate's confused stare after he broke from their kiss.

"Don't tell me you're a virgin, Jack," she joked, propped on his chest. "'Cause ya know, I think this is okay..."

He laughed despite the facts and potential fight he faced.

"No, it's just – what about Sam?"

Kate rolled her eyes and sat up. This wasn't what she pictured herself doing with Jack by now.

"I know you and my dad have a good relationship, and I appreciate that, but I'm pretty sure he has nothing to do with this."

"Is he doing alright?"

Kate pouted. "Can't we talk about him... later?"

She almost said 'after,' he thought...

If what he was about to tell her wasn't so serious, Jack would've brushed by the whole thing and let Kate's idea come to fruition.

Please, please, let there be a rain check, he thought.

"You didn't leave him by himself, did you? It's his first night home, I don't want him trying anything stupid just because there's no one there to yell at him."

"Seriously? Can't something not be about Sam for once? Sorry if that sounds selfish, but it would be nice if it was just the two of us. Doesn't that sound appealing at all?"

Jack groaned. "Of course it does. You have no idea how much I want that."

Her hand inched up his thigh and Jack laughed at her boldness.

"Just give me some peace of mind. I'm one of those doctors who can't let go of his patients."

Kate huffed. It was cute, Jack thought. "Marcia's with him, if you must know."

"Ahh, the elusive Marcia," Jack said, forgetting for a moment that Kate might hate him in only a few moments.

"You're weird," Kate said, picking up her wine glass again and swallowing the remnants. "You stopped that," she pointed to the couch, "so we could do this? Talk about my dad?"

"Not entirely," he sighed, resting his head on the back of the couch, unable to face her. "I just... I'm probably not the one who should be telling you this, but I didn't want us to get any further and have you hate me more than you already will..."

Creases frowned into her forehead, Kate rested a hand on his leg. "Spit it out Jack. I don't like to wait."

"There's a match for your dad. We found him a liver."

"Jack, that's fantastic!" she said with enthusiasm, jumping from her seat on the couch. It was the most animated he'd seen her in a long time. "Why shouldn't you tell me?"

"I, uhh, well I just thought Sam might want to instead," he lied. It broke his heart that Kate was practically jumping up and down in his living room, excited for her father.

Maybe she would react positively, Jack thought. Maybe, for once, she wouldn't make a big deal about something. He was trying to do something nice, he reminded himself. There was no reason for her to punish him.

"When's the surgery? Doesn't it have to be soon? So the liver will... keep and whatnot? How did UNOS find him a liver so fast? I thought he was pretty far down on the list."

Jack shook his head. "UNOS didn't find him a match, Kate. It's a living donor. It's a perfect match."

"A living donor? I wasn't a match, so who the hell does that leave? Marcia? He hardly knows her!"

From the minute they'd been introduced, Jack figured out that Kate was a sharp woman. Normally she could put two and two together. Why couldn't she do it now so he didn't have to do it for her?

Jack stood from the couch and caught Kate's wrists lightly in his grasp. "It's not Marcia. It's me."

Kate shook her in confusion. "...What?"

He kept her wrists in his hands, rubbing his thumbs over the soft skin.

"My liver is the match."

"You're telling me you're donating part of your liver to Sam? Can you even do that? You're his doctor!"

"I was his doctor," he reminded her. "Now I'm just Jack."

Pulling away from him, Jack thought he saw relief in her eyes.

"I won't let you do this," she said. "There's no reason for you to be the one."

While Kate thought he was zoning out the past few hours, in reality Jack had been constructing comebacks in his head. He knew she would fight him on this and wanted to be prepared. One moment's hesitation and she would walk all over him, destroying any chance he had of making her okay with the transplant.

"You know as well as I do that he's going to be on the UNOS list for way too long. There's no one else. This is the way it needs to be done."

She sank back into the couch. "It's too dangerous."

"It's dangerous," he agreed. "But not nearly as much as letting him sit on that list, laying in his hospital bed waiting to die."

Her head snapped up and Kate finally met his eyes. "You think that's what I want for him?"

"'Course not. I think you want what's best for him, but you just don't see my donating as being that."

Resting her forehead in her hands, Kate sighed. "And what about what's best for you?"

"I want to do this. That's enough."

"So you two just went behind my back and made this little plan and decided you'd eventually have to tell me about it?"

He was afraid Kate would feel betrayed or inadequate in some respect. He didn't want her to think that because she wasn't able to donate to Sam, he'd jumped in, wanting to save the day and steal Sam's attention.

Jack sat down next to her, keeping his distance. "I snuck around behind both of your backs. I started getting tests done the day after we found out you weren't a match. Sam didn't know anything about it. I just told him today, and believe me, he put up just as much of a fight as you are."

"He's okay with this?" she asked, and Jack could practically see her blood boil. "He's going to let you do this, as if you haven't already done enough?"

"Stop it," he said, the words coming out more harshly than he'd intended. "I get that this is hard for you. But this is what's going to happen. Sam's okay with it now, I'm more than okay with it, and sorry, but you really can't do anything to stop it."

The silence between them was heavy and awkward, similar to the long pauses that plagued their conversations when they met.

Finally, "So you haven't thought of all your other patients, how they're not going to have a surgeon for awhile? What if something goes wrong?"

Jack shrugged. "You were ready to lay down on that table the day you found out about Sam's failing liver," he snapped. "You didn't care about the dangers and didn't even question it. Save the lecture."

"Oh, I'm a doctor, I know everything," Kate mocked. "Sorry, I forgot."

Fighting to keep his frustration under control, Jack tensed his fists, feeling his jaw clench in automatic response. He knew he would get angry.

"Why is it so bad that I want to do this? Don't you get it? Sam won't have cancer anymore. He'll be in remission and should be fairly healthy. That's the bottom line."

Hearing no response, Jack finally looked Kate's way, seeing her dig through her purse to retrieve her cell phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling Sam," she said curtly as she dialed a quick succession of numbers.

Oh God, Jack thought. This is gonna be good.

Sparing a greeting, Kate launched into her speech.

"Why didn't you tell me that Jack is giving his fucking liver to you? Did that somehow strike you as unimportant? Did you think, 'Oh, maybe I'll tell her an hour before I'm wheeled into the OR?' Did you think I would be okay with this?"

She set the phone to speaker, and Jack received the pleasure of hearing their conversation.

"Jesus, shut up for a minute, will ya?" said the tired voice.

"Fine," Kate said tersely.

"Now, as I'm sure Jack has already explained to you, we've talked about the implications of this. I wasn't sure I wanted him to go through with something so serious either, but I can't let this pass by. Let the man do it if he wants to do it. He knows how much we both appreciate him."

Jack snorted. Not at the moment.

"I can't even describe how mad I am right now," Kate said to Sam, who sighed in what Jack assumed was frustration.

"Mad? You're mad that Jack wants to help save my life? Yeah, he's already done a lot for me, for both us. He's not showing off, Kate. It's called being a good human being. Now let him."

Jack shifted closer to the phone so Sam had a prayer of hearing him. "That's what I tried to say!"

"Shut up," Kate said. "I really think you get a kick out this. And if you really wanna know, I don't think you've thought this through."

"I have!" Jack said, not sure how many different ways he could rephrase his points. "The surgery's gonna happen. I'm prepared. Sam's prepared. You need to be too."

Kate threw her hands up. "Don't you realize that I'm the one who's in the terrible situation? I know I don't have cancer, and I didn't have to operate on Sam or anything like that, but I'm the one who's gonna be sitting in the waiting room, worrying about both of you. It might sound selfish, but I'm the one who's gonna be affected if something goes wrong."

Jack sighed; he understood how she felt, but there was nothing he could do about it. Part of him was touched she was so concerned for his safety.

"Nothing's gonna go wrong–"

"Oh, he's a psychic, too, did you hear that dad?"

"Yeah, I heard it," Sam said tiredly. "I'm gonna go now if that's okay. I'll let the two of you fight it out. Jack, you call me and we can get this thing scheduled."

Jack told Sam he would do that, thankful that he and Kate's fight was no longer on display.

They were quiet again, though this time not awkwardly so. Was it possible that Kate had no more words?

Daringly, Jack snuck his hand out and rested it on top of hers. She didn't pull away.

"I know you don't like this," he started, unsure where he'd go from there. He hadn't planned what to say after she was done arguing with him. "But I really, really want you to be okay with it. Sam and I are both gonna be okay, I promise."

Kate nodded, forcing back the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. "The match is really perfect?"

Relieved, Jack smiled. "It's pretty perfect, yeah."

"And the surgery's really as safe as you say it is?"

He nodded. "We'll have the best transplant team there is... I know this will be hard for you, and I know I can't stop you from worrying, but try to not let all of the 'what could happens' outweigh all of the positives. Good things are gonna come from this," he told her.

Kate agreed. "I wish this would've happened differently. I wish you would've told me you were doing this from the beginning."

He faced her. "Didn't want to get your hopes up. And you probably wouldn't have let me go through with it, by the way," he joked, glad to see her crack a smile.

"True..."

She snuggled up beside him, resting her head on his shoulder and lacing her fingers through his. Jack wrapped his arm around her shoulder and let her fall to his chest.

"Are we okay?" he hesitated. Their time together was brief– what the hell had they been before?

When her hand eventually crept to the side of his face, running her fingers up and down his scruffy cheek, he knew that they were.

"Yeah. We're okay." She leaned up and Jack searched her eyes for signs of deceit. This felt too easy.

"Well aren't you gonna kiss me?" she laughed, cupping the sides of his face before pulling his head down to hers.

He kissed her, thankful that the night was ending better than he anticipated, grateful for the soft lips pressed against his.

Kate pulled away and let out a long, content sigh.

"Why do you have to be such a good guy?

Up next: Surgery is scheduled and Jack and Kate try to settle into a routine, but have some difficulties.