Wow! I'm glad you're all enjoying the story so far. I won't spoil the plot, but hopefully by the end of this chapter you'll have a better idea where I'm going with it...

Chapter 2. Preparing For The Worst

Sitting by the light of one of the campfires that evening, Kate still couldn't believe that this was happening, that Kevin was gone. It had been six hours since the crash, and he still hadn't appeared; watching the tree line that afternoon, she had waited for him to wander dazed and dishevelled from the jungle like she had, but so far, that hadn't happened.

Shifting her attention to her left hand, she fidgeted with her wedding band, remembering the look on his face as he slipped it onto her finger. He was so happy then, so content; she'd never felt as loved or as wanted as she had at the moment, even if it was a lie. Even if she wasn't who he thought she was.

She wished she could go back to that day and tell him not to take her to Australia for their honeymoon, that she would have preferred somewhere closer to home, like Hawaii or Las Vegas. That would have been fun. They could have had a tacky second wedding at one of the casinos, then spent the rest of the week celebrating in their hotel room. If only she had, then they would be home now, having dinner with his mother, instead of…

Her thoughts were so focused on Kevin that she didn't hear the man who treated her after the crash drop down into the sand beside her, draping a blue airline blanket around her shoulders. "How're you feeling?" he asked, seeming to realise how ridiculous this sounded as he flushed, adding, "Your head, I mean."

The pain in her skull was nothing compared to the tightness in her chest when she thought of Kevin, so she said, "Better," hoping that he would take the hint and go check on someone else, but he didn't, offering her a kind smile.

"Good, because without a CAT scan or an MRI I'm a little out of my depth."

"You're a doctor?" she asked, curious in spite of herself, glancing over at him for the first time since he'd joined her by the fire. That would explain their meeting earlier, and the authority in his tone when he'd told her she was suffering from a concussion.

"A spinal surgeon," he corrected her, looking bashful as he added, "I know, for all the good it'll do me here. My dad always said I would've made a better G.P – maybe I should've listened to him." He laughed, but the sound was hollow and bitter, his expression darkening almost imperceptibly at the mention of his father.

There was a story behind that, Kate realised, but she knew better than to ask.

She allowed herself to crack a tiny smile at what was obviously an attempt to distract her, if only to make him feel better. "It could be worse, you could be unemployed like me – then you'll really have something to offer."

He looked uncomfortable hearing her be so self-deprecating, so he said, "So you're a housewife… sorry, Domestic Coordinator they call them nowadays, right?"

It wasn't all that funny, but he was sweet, so she rewarded him with another weak smile, causing him to break into a grin of his own. He had a nice smile; it reminded her a little of Kevin's. Both were boyish, making the wearer look younger, though in the surgeon's case, it was weighed down by something else. Sadness, maybe, or guilt. Those were two emotions she'd a lot of experience with herself.

"For want of a better term," she agreed, resisting the urge to add "among other things". That would lead to too many questions, questions she couldn't answer. "My husband informs me that he wants at least six kids, so he's not all that eager to see me go back to work."

A pang gripped her heart at the thought of her husband, but she forced herself to remain in control. If she wanted their marriage to work, she was going to have to get used to not knowing where he was all the time, or what he was doing, or even if he was okay. She couldn't convince herself that he was dead every time he failed to show up for dinner; the time they spent on this island was good practice.

"Six, wow – that's a lot," the surgeon said, looking slightly incredulous as he ran his fingers through his close-cropped hair. "How many do you have?"

He was just trying to make polite conversation with her, to keep her mind off the crash, but his words struck a nerve. More than one nerve, actually, since she knew that even one child would be too many under the circumstances. "None," she told him softly, withdrawing from him again as she added, "We only just got married. This trip was supposed to be our honeymoon."

"Some honeymoon," he said, looking sad as his eyes fell on the wreckage in front of them. "I'm sorry, Kate. You seem like you were really happy."

"I am happy," she corrected him, losing patience with his pitying look. Kevin wasn't dead, not until he could show her a body. "If we survived, then why not the people in the back of the plane?"

"It is possible that they ended up on the island too, I guess," he agreed diplomatically, his voice slow and even, as if he thought his words might cause her to snap. She probably sounded crazy, she realised, like a grief-stricken widow in denial about her husband's death, but she didn't care, not while there was still a chance of finding Kevin alive.

"I just don't think you should get your hopes up," he continued gently, his dark eyes sympathetic. It would have been sweet if she thought that she deserved his pity. "Even if there are other survivors, there could be miles of jungle between here and there – without a plane or a helicopter to narrow the search grid, we could be out there for days." He licked his lips, looking uncomfortable as he added, "I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, Kate, but our best bet is to wait for Search and Rescue. They have the manpower and the resources to deal with it."

He was right, that wasn't what she wanted to hear. She couldn't just sit there doing nothing, not until she knew what happened to her husband. She deserved answers, his family, deserved answers. "What did you say your name was again?"

"I didn't," he reminded her, looking distinctly uncomfortable at what he must have realised was coming. "It's Jack."

"So, Jack, if someone you loved was out there, lost, you wouldn't do everything in your power to bring them home?" she pressed, disappointed that in spite of all the heroic behaviour she'd witnessed from him since the crash, he was going to refuse to help her with something this important; to help them. Even though she hadn't known him very long, her initial impression was that he was a better man than that. "You'd just sit on the beach and wait for someone else to take care of it?"

He gave her a strange look, her words seeming to resonate with him on a deeper level than the one she'd intended. "Okay," he agreed, after a long moment, though he still didn't look happy about it, "if you think you can figure out which way the tail went, I'll come with you. But just in case, I want you to prepare yourself for the worst."

I really want to avoid rehashing season one, so I thought it would be interesting if they actually went looking for the Tailies rather than the cockpit... ;)