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Chapter Twenty

Jolt

Twelve hours was a long time. It was enough time to complete half of every crossword puzzle in the small book she'd brought with her, finding her mind too distracted to get through them. It was enough time to field calls from Marc and even Jack's mother, whom Kate had never spoken to before.

She was easy to spot when she walked in the lobby. Her outfit reminded Kate of something Hilary Clinton would wear, in the nicest way possible. She looked stressed. The woman blew past her when she made a feeble attempt to introduce herself, making her way to the nurse's station.

Jack never spoke much about his parents. Kate had managed to get out of him that his father had died a few years before, and he'd said his relationship with his mother was a little sporadic but otherwise fine. Six hours into the surgery, and now she shows up to support her son?

Margo was worried, frantic even. Kate could see the older woman was frazzled. She settled her palm on her arm, directing her attention. Maybe calming Jack's mother down would calm her down, too.

"You must be Jack's–"

"He didn't tell me!" the older lady interrupted. "I had to find out from Marc that Jack was even having surgery. He asked me if I knew what Jack's room number was or something like that. Said he couldn't get through to you, who I must say I didn't know about either."

Kate breathed. "I'm Kate. I'm sorry we haven't been introduced before. I figured I would let Jack decide when the time was best."

Margo's eyes surveyed her, and suddenly Kate wished she'd paid a bit more attention to herself that morning when she'd gotten dressed. Had she even brushed her hair? Self consciously, she combed her fingers through her wild hair and looked back into Margo's eyes the best she could. She could see a bit of Jack in her.

Finally, Margo let out a terse, "You must be Jack's new... girlfriend."

Kate smiled pleasantly, for a moment forgetting about both her father and Jack, passing into girlfriend mode and trying to please Jack's mother. "I suppose you could call me that. I'm sorry we had to cross paths like this, but it's nice to meet you anyway."

Margo gave a curt nod. "Yes, well, any word on him?" Before Kate could answer, Margo had continued. "Why did he go and do this, anyway? He gets this from his father, you know," she said, glaring at her in what Kate suspected was anger toward her deceased husband. "Has to be perfect, be the hero, can't ever just let things be. And who's getting this chunk of his liver? An alcoholic? A child molester?"

"My father. And he's neither an alcoholic nor a child molester. He has cancer and needs a liver more than anything, and your son was unselfish enough to give that gift to him."

Kate did an internal victory dance at putting Margo in her place, but hoped she hadn't alienated her already. It appeared that things with Jack were getting pretty damn serious, and it would be easier for everyone if the two women could just get along.

Suddenly her phone vibrated and Kate held up a silent finger of apology as she answered it, fielding questions from Marcia, Sam's... well, she didn't know quite what Marcia was. Sam's girlfriend felt too weird. "We don't know that much," Kate explained. "A few of the nurses came out an hour or so ago and told us they were both doing fine but there's still a long way to go."

She let Marcia voice her fears and babble a bit longer. "Can I call you with an update a little later? Maybe when they're closer to finishing you could come to the hospital."

After snapping her phone shut, Kate looked to Margo, whose hands were pressed together in her lap to the point that her knuckles were turning white. "They really said Jack's OK?"

She nodded. "So far."

"Your father must have made quite the impression on my son to have him volunteer a liver."

Kate laughed. "Well, it all started when I came to Los Angeles to find my father – I had never met Sam, my dad, before. Anyway, I found him, then find out he's sick. He's supposedly terminally ill. No one will operate on him–"

Margo raised her eyebrows. "No one but Jack, correct?"

"I think you're sensing where this is going. You're sure you want to hear it all?"

The older woman nodded, and Kate could see her expression soften.

So Kate told her how she'd begged Jack to see Sam, how confident her son had been before the operation, how it had worked, and how Sam seemed to be more concerned about his matchmaking skills than his actual prognosis.

"And somewhere in all of this the two of you got together?"

Kate blushed, remembering the back and forth of their relationship before they had become a couple. It might have seemed obvious to an outsider, but to them it was like a soap opera. She wasn't sure about a romance with Jack until it had already happened, and was still waiting for something to uproot their happiness. Something like a liver transplant.

"It's OK if you don't want to tell me," Margo said, and Kate found her transformation amazing. "Some things are private, I understand that."

"Thank you," she said sincerely. "Plus, Jack will probably kill me if he finds out we're talking about him like this."

Jack's mother shifted in her chair and hesitated. "Can I let you in on a little secret?"

Kate froze. She wasn't sure it was the woman's place to be letting Jack's secrets out of the bag. She nodded anyway.

"He secretly enjoys it. Feeling important– part of why he became a surgeon, I think. But it goes deeper than that, and I saw it in his first marriage – he gives so much of himself sometimes that he forgets he's supposed to be getting something back. I'm his mother so of course I'm biased, but don't forget about him and what he might need."

Kate froze again. She wasn't completely surprised to find out Jack had been married, but nonetheless, because she'd never heard the words come out of his mouth, her shock was apparent.

"Oh no," Margo groaned. "That wasn't what I was trying to tell you, that he was married. I figured you knew. I just... wasn't thinking."

A nervous habit, Kate chewed on her fingernails, silently willing the older woman to judge her. She couldn't be angry with Jack while he was lying on a surgical table getting half of his liver removed, and couldn't expect him to let all his secrets flow so early in their relationship. But he'd told her he loved her – didn't secrets as big as a previous marriage usually make their way out before that?

"It's OK." Kate struggled with whether it would be appropriate to ask Margo about his ex-wife. Sensing that Jack wouldn't try to hide it when she would bring it up to him later, Kate decided it would be OK to follow through on her curiosity.

"How long have they been divorced? If you don't mind me asking."

Kate tried to do the math in her head. Jack had said he'd dated Dr. Holland about five years ago, but was that before or after the divorce?

"Oh geez," Margo sighed. "We've all tried to forget about the woman, believe me. It would've been about five or six years ago. Took a toll on him, let me tell you."

"Oh," Kate replied, satisfied she wasn't a rebound girl. "I didn't think it would be such a long time ago."

"They married when Jack was in the last year of medical school. It didn't last all that long, thankfully." Kate shot her a look. "I know that sounds terrible, but they just weren't right for each other."

"And after that? Has he dated... a lot?" She cringed after asking the question. It felt loaded.

Margo let out a frank chuckle and Kate could suddenly picture her own mother, sucking on a cigarette, her elbows resting on the countertop of the diner, making some lonely trucker laugh with her bitter humor. "Honey, you're the first one I've met."

Jack woke in recovery, at first unsure where he was. Was the surgery over already? It felt like he'd just gone under.

Satisfied that he must be awake and alive, the doctor in him was afraid to look down at the dressings, sure they were already bled through.

A blurry figure shook his arm lightly. "Dr. Shephard. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Do you need anything?"

"How's Sam?" he croaked, then realizing the figure was Trisha, the nurse he suspected had a crush on him.

He could make out her smile. "He's still in surgery. It takes much longer to replace a liver than to take a piece of yours out. Your surgery went as expected, very well. There were a few complications, more bleeding than normal, but nothing Dr. Cubert didn't get under control. How's your pain?"

Trisha reviewed his chart and adjusted his IVs, which Jack refused to look at.

He wasn't in pain, which he thought was strange. He felt weird, fuzzy and numb, like part of him was missing, though he supposed it was.

"It's OK. I feel terrible though."

"Nauseous?"

Jack nodded.

"As I'm sure you know, that's most likely from the anesthesia. There's this here," she pointed to a pink kidney-shaped basin on the rollaway tray, "if you need to vomit. There are ice chips on the bedside table if you need them, but I'm going to let you rest unless there's something else you need."

"What about... Kate?" he swallowed. "Can I see her?"

Trisha shook her head. "Not yet. Get some sleep and then you can have visitors."

Two hours later, Jack woke again and alerted Trisha. He needed more pain meds. He no longer felt numb, and it wasn't a good thing.

He watched her push the medication into his IV. "You should feel that pretty quickly, but let me know if it's not enough."

"Kate?"

Trisha was oddly silent. "I'm sure she'll be in soon enough." She ended with a smile, erasing the strange behavior from Jack's mind.

Moments later, as Trisha rearranged the angle of his bed so he could somewhat sit up, he saw a flash of long brunette hair. He smiled.

"Mom," he said, surprised as she strode through the doorway.

He accepted her brief hug as best he could in the bed. "Sweetie, I'm so glad you're OK. Why didn't you tell me about this?"

Jack rolled his eyes, glad he was beginning to feel the medication take effect. He didn't know how many 'sweeties' from his mother he could take. "I'm sorry. But I'm fine. Just waiting to talk to Dr. Holland and Dr. Cubert."

Margo sat in the chair next to the bed, taking her son's hand in hers. "So to add to the list of things you haven't told me about, I met someone in the waiting room. Spent quite a bit of time with her."

Jack froze, momentarily horrified by the thought of Kate trapped for hours with his mother. "Yeah, about that... I didn't want to tell you until I was sure it was turning into something serious."

Margo nodded. "And by the looks of it, and by that I mean you donating part of one of your organs to her father, I'd say it's getting serious."

Jack nodded, thinking back to the day before and how easily he'd told Kate he loved her. The surgery gave everything a sense of urgency, of course, but he still meant it. He might've said it earlier than he normally would in a relationship, but he didn't regret it.

Just as he was becoming comfortable in his mother's presence, Kate appeared in the doorway, hair tangled, tears streaming out of her red, watery eyes and down her cheeks.

He felt a jolt. Something had gone wrong.

Up next: What happened to Sam?