Does anyone know what's going on with the menu?
I haven't heard anything, so I'm not sure how many of you missed me, but just in case you did, I will explain my week-long absence. It was a combination of things: the flu, Harry Potter, and lack of motivation due to the fact that reviews have been steadily declining.
So basically I've spent the last few days reading The Deathly Hallows instead of working on my usual daily updates... (I'm not quite finished yet, so please, no one comment on the ending!)
Chapter 19. Telling Kevin
Even though Jack was prepared to come with her, in the end, Kate decided that it was probably better if she talked to Kevin alone. She wasn't sure how he was going to react to the news, and she didn't want to tempt fate by offering him someone to lash out at.
She got her chance just after sunrise when she spotted Kevin sitting alone by the dying fire, emptying the sand out of his shoes. He ignored her approach, his attention focused on reknotting the laces; she wasn't sure he knew she was there until she said "We need to talk," and he glanced up at her, his eyes fierce.
"You're damn right we do."
She was so taken aback at his anger when she hadn't said anything yet that all she could manage was a startled, "What?"
With a final, violent jerk on his shoelace, he pushed himself to his feet. "You came to tell me that you're sleeping with that Jack guy, right?" He let out a sardonic, self-deprecating laugh as he added, throwing her words back in her face, "The doctor who just came along to help with the wounded. I can't believe I actually bought that."
"I'm not sleeping with him," she told him softly, feeling guilty, since while she'd managed to refrain for Kevin's sake, it wasn't like she hadn't wanted to. She almost had. "I haven't been with anyone else since we met." She was telling the truth this time, but after all of the lies she'd told him, she wasn't surprised when he didn't believe her.
"That's why you came back from the jungle looking all flustered last night," he retorted, his voice bitter as he turned away from her, towards the ocean, in disgust. "It may've taken me six months to figure out your real name, but do you really think I'm so naive that I haven't noticed the way you look at each other? Or that that's the second time you've gone off with him in the middle of the night? For someone who makes a career out of lying, you're not doing a very good job of hiding it."
After days of suffering his hot and cold persecution, of enduring both verbal and non-verbal guilt trips, her patience with him was beginning to wear thin. "You're right," she agreed, matching his tone, "I'm not gonna insult your intelligence by telling you there's nothing going on, but I did not cheat on you. I wanted to be straight with you, so you knew that this really was over, before I slept with him."
"Then where'd you get the love bite?" he pressed, eyeing her throat as he added, "'Cause I sure as hell didn't give it to you."
Surprised, Kate brought her fingers up to her throat, running them over the spot he was glaring at. She bit back a smile when she realised he was right; the skin beneath her jaw, just below her ear, felt bruised, where Jack's lips had touched it the night before. Untucking her hair from behind her ear so that it was hidden from view, she made a mental note to tease him about it later.
Kevin was still giving her an expectant look, waiting for to try to defend herself again, so she said, "If I remember right, you were the one who decided we should get our marriage annulled, so I don't have to justify myself to you. This is just a courtesy."
His expression darkened when she didn't deny the fact that her relationship with Jack had taken a physical turn. "I didn't hear you put up much of a fight – you were waiting for me to give you an out. Guess I know why now." His eyes flashed with wounded anger, and she almost felt sorry for him, until he added, sounding uncharacteristically juvenile, "Go, enjoy your fling with this guy – I hope he's worth it."
"That is not what this is," she corrected him, though in the back of her mind, she wasn't sure. Even after her conversation with Libby, she hadn't been able to get Jack to describe his feelings for her, or put a label to what was happening between them.
Kevin seized hold of this uncertainty, grasping at straws as he asked "Did he tell you that? Or are you just hoping he will?"
It took her a moment to answer, flashing back to the scene in the jungle the night before. When she referred to herself and Jack as "us", he hadn't contradicted her, but he hadn't confirmed it either, unless she counted his non-committal "Mmm".
"He's not like that, Kevin," she said finally, setting her doubts aside, her instincts telling her that Jack wasn't the kind of guy who only cared about having a warm body in his bed. "I told him I was married when we met, and he respected that. He never pushed me for anything – when I was upset because I thought you were cheating on me, and I kissed him, he was the one who pulled away."
She was so busy trying to defend Jack's honour that she didn't realise what she'd said until Kevin gave her a sharp look. "This kiss – how long ago was it?"
Knowing that she'd been caught out, she stared down at the sand, confessing quietly, guiltily, "Three days ago. On the way over here."
Recoiling from her as if she'd slapped him, he ran his hands over his face as he walked in a slow, frustrated circle. "So while I was on the other side of the island trying to get Ana to leave you alone, you were making out with some guy you just met?"
Since discovering the truth, she'd tried to avoid thinking of it like that, but now, tears burned her eyes as she whispered, "I'm sorry, Kevin – I never meant for any of this to happen. I wanted this to work, but it just… didn't. I don't know why it does with Jack, but it does. It's different."
"So what happens when he finds out the truth?" he asked, his voice breaking, and looking up at him, she could see that he was torn between his desire to lash out at her, and the love that prevented him from doing so.
"He knows," she admitted, returning her eyes to the sand when she saw the raw pain in his expression at these words, "and he's okay with it. I don't know what we're gonna do, but he didn't run like I thought he would."
Like you did, she added silently, the words hanging in the air between them.
Neither of them spoke for a long moment; Kate had never seen him look so wretched and angry, like for once if his life, he could have hit her, until a snatch of conversation broke into the silence.
Jack was walking along the beach with Ana, glancing over at them distractedly before returning his attention to her. Kevin's head jerked up on hearing his voice, the sound causing something inside him to snap; before Kate had time to realise what he was planning to do, he was striding across the sand towards them, swinging his fist into Jack's face.
The first blow seemed to catch Jack by surprise, sending him stumbling backwards as it connected with his jaw. "I take it she told you," he said as he straightened up, clutching his injured face, but his lack of remorse only seemed to incense Kevin further.
"So you admit you've been trying to screw my wife behind my back?" he growled in a tone Kate had never heard him use before; Jack was ready when he pulled back to hit him a second time, blocking his arm as he threw a punch of his own.
"I wasn't trying to do anything," he returned as Ana rolled her eyes and jumped on him, pinning his arms.
Following her lead, Kate rushed over to do the same thing with Kevin, before either man could hit, or get hit, again.
He shook her off once he began to calm down, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand as he glared at Jack. It didn't look broken, Kate realised with relief, since there was little chance he would let Jack treat it later.
"I wasn't trying to do anything," Jack repeated, meeting Kevin's eyes as their breathing began to slow. "This was your choice. Sooner or later you're going to have to face up to that. You chose to end things with her – if you hadn't, I would've backed off. I'm sorry she lied to you, but you can't keep playing the victim, not when it sounds like you never really wanted the truth."
Kate expected Kevin to leap on Jack again for making such presumptuous comments, but his anger faded to resignation at these words. "You know what? I give up," he said, looking over at her, his eyes sad, but full of acceptance. "Go, be with him if that's what you really want – if that's what'll make you happy."
She bit her lip to keep from crying, offering him a grateful nod, relieved that he wasn't going to try to stand in the way anymore.
He gave her a tiny smile in return before turning back to Jack, staring him down with his best bad cop look as he added, a hint of menace in his tone, "But if I find out this was all to get her into bed…"
There you go midnight-sk8r -- I made Kevin punch Jack! ;) (And of course Jack hit him back, because we all know he's no weakling!)
Next chapter: Jack and Kate discuss their relationship while Kate tends to his wounds...