Thanks for the reviews. I'm so glad you all liked the last chapter (and the mythology stuff!) -- I was afraid that having Claire go into labour during the fight would be melodramatic... ;)

Chapter 37. Good News

"Are you sure?" Jack asked with one last irritated glance at Kate, as if to say "We'll talk about this later", hurrying over to where Libby was standing with Claire.

The psychologist wrinkled her nose, letting out a tiny laugh when Claire gasped, watching something wet run down the inside of her leg in horror. "I'm sure," she agreed.

All eyes were on Claire now, Kevin having had the grace to slip off with Sayid to tend the signal fire. "Show's over!" Charlie cried, waving his arms in a shooing motion, and with a murmur of voices, the crowd began to disperse, leaving Jack to do his job.

"Help me get her to her tent," he said, sliding his arm around Claire's shoulders, and both Charlie and Libby moved to take her other side, but he waved the British man away. "She doesn't remember you, Charlie – you're gonna have to give her some space."

Charlie's face fell, and he took a step back, allowing Libby to come to Claire's aid in his place.

Seeing how helpless he looked, Kate offered him a sympathetic smile, silently apologising for Jack's brusque manner, but she turned back to him, startled, when he called her name.

"Kate, I need you to go to my tent and get me some things," he called over his shoulder, rattling off each item faster than she could make mental note of them, "Scissors, thread, towels, the lighter, and something to wrap the baby in."

"So that was scissors, towels, the lighter, and…" she repeated, panicking when she couldn't remember what else he'd said.

"You wanna make yourself useful, Charlie – help Kate," he yelled, looking exasperated, when she remained rooted to the spot.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Charlie was off like a shot, seeking out each of these things with the fervour of a child on a scavenger hunt. When he was gone, Kate snapped out of her daze, retrieving Jack's backpack from his tent and taking it to him.

When she let herself into Claire's tent, Claire was lying propped up on her bed, with a blanket over her lap, squeezing Libby's hand while the psychologist talked to her softly, waiting for Jack to issue further instructions.

"I've changed my mind," Kate heard her whimper, her eyes pleading with Libby's to make it stop hurting, as she felt as if she could be saying those words. "I don't want to have this baby anymore."

"It's okay," Libby told her, smoothing the sweaty bangs off her forehead, "You're doing great", but Claire just let out a strangled sob in response; watching her writhe and screw up her face with the next contraction, Kate wanted to run outside and be sick.

She'd never witnessed a birth before, except on TV, much less one outside of a hospital, but now that she was seeing what it was like in reality, she was pretty sure that she never wanted to go through it herself.

"What if… What if They come back for him?" Claire went on when she recovered her breath, and this time, it was Jack, moving over to check her progress, who chimed in, "No one's gonna let Them take your baby, Claire – Not if you don't want Them to."

Glancing up as he replaced the blanket, his eyes met Kate's briefly. "I need you to get those things ready," he said in his sharp surgeon's voice, not seeming to notice how pale she was as he returned his attention to Claire.

"I'm going to ask you to start pushing in just a few minutes," he told her, as gently as he could, and she gave him a weary nod, too exhausted to argue if it meant that the pain would be over soon. He lifted the blanket again, folding it over her knees this time, and Libby helped Claire sit up straighter, smiling encouragingly as she gripped her hand.

Realising that Jack was waiting for her, Kate started to do as she was told, but her hands were shaking on the zipper, and she felt like she was going to pass out when she allowed herself another peak at Claire. She didn't want to be there anymore: at that moment, she would have preferred to be in another plane crash than to stay and watch Claire give birth.

Libby seemed to pick up on her anxiety, because she said, "Jack, why don't you let me do that?", but before Kate could hear his response, she'd dropped the backpack and ducked back out of the tent, leaving the scene inside as far behind as she could.

It was at least an hour before Jack came looking for her, wearing a clean t-shirt, his brow furrowed in a mixture of concern and anger when he found her sitting on a rock, hugging her knees as she stared out to sea.

"How's Claire?" she asked, not meeting his eyes, knowing that he was upset with her for running out on him.

"She's fine," he said, though this was clearly not what he wanted to talk about, and she let out the breath she was holding, relieved that she hadn't caused any complications by baulking. "She has a healthy baby boy. No name, as yet."

"That's great," she told him, forcing a smile, before returning her gaze to the ocean. "You have a nephew. Congratulations."

He was silent for a long moment, and she hoped that he was going to leave, but when he spoke again, she realised that he was just choosing his next words. "What was all that about, Kate? I asked you to help me, and you took off," he said finally, the tone of his voice making it clear that not only was he disappointed in her, but he was utterly clueless as to why she'd let him down. "You've been moody and secretive for days, and I let it go, because I thought it was about your mom, but now I have to ask – is something else going on?"

She'd spent the last hour bracing herself for that question, coming up with excuses to explain her behaviour, but now that he was standing in front of her, his brown eyes boring into hers, she couldn't stop the words from tumbling out. "I don't wanna be like Claire – I don't wanna have a baby here."

It was the best way she could think of to express what she was feeling: her fear, not just for herself, but their unborn child, but all this was lost on him.

"No one's asking you to," he said, looking perplexed as he sat down beside her, but his expression softened, and he took her hand, when he saw that whatever was distressing her was real.

"Yes, they are," she sobbed, and his body tensed beside hers as he seemed to flash back on the conversation he'd had with Kevin; dropping her hand, he stood up, pacing in a small, confused circle as he tried to regain his composure.

"So that's it," he said, swallowing hard, "You're pregnant," and she nodded. "Are you gonna go back to him?"

"What?" she asked through her tears, incredulous.

"Kevin – are you getting back together with him?" But before she could answer, he brought his hand up to massage his brow, shaking his head angrily as he added, "So all that crap about wanting to know what this was… You were just filling in time until he forgave you."

"I wasn't…" she began, hurt by the way he was lashing out at her. "It's not… I'm not getting back together with him. I don't have any reason to."

"A baby – that's a pretty big reason, Kate," he retorted, but before he could walk away, she grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at her.

"Libby helped me do the math," she told him, determined to finish this time. "He's not the father, Jack. You are."

He stopped trying to shake her off on hearing these words, staring at her, stunned. "You're not just saying that?" he checked, and she shook her head for emphasis.

"No."

His knees buckled, and he sat down again as a series of incongruous emotions passed over his face. "How long have you known?"

"Since yesterday," she explained, returning to her former position beside him now that he wasn't going anywhere. "I got a test from Sawyer."

She hadn't expected him to be overjoyed, but even so, she couldn't hide her disappointment when his eyes flashed angrily and he said, "And you let me take you to that station?"

"Why wouldn't I? There's no way They could've known – you didn't even know."

He shifted his gaze from hers guiltily, his voice coming out hoarse as he argued, "It doesn't matter, Kate. Do you have any idea how many others things can go wrong this early in a pregnancy? You could have fallen, we could've been attacked – just the hike itself could've been enough to cost us the baby… you too if I couldn't stop the bleeding in time. No wonder Kevin was pissed."

His anger dissolved, and he rubbed his eyes tiredly, as if just the thought of losing her had caused him to age a decade in the time they'd been sitting there. "How could we let this happen? I just assumed you were on the pill…"

"I was," she assured him, embarrassed, and a little afraid that he would see this as her fault, or worse, think that she'd done it on purpose, "but I skipped a couple of days, and I guess it didn't work."

He fell silent again, and she was sure that he was wracking his brain for a safe way out of this situation, when he smiled.

"What?" she asked with a hopeful grin, her heart lifting at the thought that he might actually be happy, or at least, not too adverse to the idea.

"I was just thinking about Claire's baby – my nephew," he said, his face lighting up with pride, "and how, in a couple of months, bar any complications, that'll be ours."

She allowed herself to return his smile, loving the casual way he'd referred to the baby as "theirs", but there was genuine apprehension in her voice as she joked, "That's assuming I make it through God knows how many hours of labour first."

He took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers as he said, "You're stronger than you give yourself credit for," his eyes full of love and admiration for her. "You're gonna be great."

Even though, through his fear, he looked happy, she couldn't help feeling timid as she asked, "So this is good news?"

His smile faded as he considered her question, too honest to give her anything less than the truth, even if it wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear. "It means I'm not gonna be able to let you out of my sight for the next eight months," he said carefully, and she knew he wasn't kidding, "especially after the stunt you pulled this morning, but it's… a baby…" he repeated, breaking into a grin, shaking his head again, this time in awe.

So that was my big dramatic scene. I hope it was worth the wait, or at least, that it didn't suck too much.

Next chapter: Everything's been so angsty the last few chapters, I'm thinking pointless baby fluff... ;)