Again: People are skipping chapters 7, 8, 10, 12, 13!!!!!!! PLEASE READ THEM TO AVOID CONFUSION!!!!! As you can see I have added more chapters to the skipping list because more and more people keep skipping... DON'T!!!!

So sorry it took so long to get this chapter up!!! I think you'll really like it and its a little bit longer than the most recent chapters. Warning: its a little Jatey!!! This is also my longest chapter so far so it may take a little longer... not that my other chapters are long at all to begin with but whatever.

I'd like to thank all of the people who have reviewed!!! Thank you so much for your support and ideas and you might notice I've used some of them in past chapters :)

Enjoy and R & R!!!

The following days were painful for everyone. Kate and Sawyer hadn't spoken to each other since their almost fight three nights ago. Jack was wondering if him and Kate actually meant something. Claire was nearing her due date more and more every second. Charlie had found a stash of Heroine that wasn't exactly helping his addiction. Hurley was hiding food in the jungle and pigging out when ever he felt the need. Sawyer and Jack were both constantly wondering about Desmond and the near blinding sky. And finally, Locke had been missing for a week.

Being their leader, Jack had gotten so many questions regarding the noise, sound, monster, and his mysterious disappearance and then return with Kate. Both luckily and unluckily everyone had shared the earsplitting experience so Jack didn't have to inform them. Now the questions were all about the cause. He had been giving Sawyer knowing glances for the past 3 days about Desmond and tried to get a moment alone with him to talk about it but being bombarded with needs for answers was making it hard. Instead he decided to talk to Kate.

"Hey Kate, can I talk to you for a minute?" Jack asked as the sun was going down outside their makeshift kitchen.

"I guess so…" she said calmly, but her face showed that she had obviously been fretting about this conversation for the past few days and was doing all she could to prevent it.

"How about we go back to your tent and talk," Jack offered.

Kate, taking this the wrong way, shot back, "How about not. You want to talk, talk. I'm here to listen or I'm walking away." Her face iced over, and she saw all of his features harden.

"Kate, that's not what I meant. Just… can we go somewhere more…" he gestured to all the people around them who were watching them not so inconspicuously, "private? Maybe?"

"Fine," Kate gave in but walked them over to Sawyer's tent instead by instinct and blushed. "Um... hold on one second" she covered up her mislead by going into the tent and luckily finding it unoccupied. She grabbed a long-sleeved shirt she had left there a week ago and then emerged again. "I left this here" she said, as if it wasn't obvious. Yet this seemed to anger Jack just a little. The fact that she had spent enough time inside Sawyer's tent to actually forget things in it wasn't the best thing you wanted to know about someone who you were in love with…

"Your tent?" He asked, gesturing to a tarped shelter not 10 feet away.

"Uh, sure" Kate said hesitantly, not wanting Sawyer to see her go into her tent with Jack but then remembering how angry Sawyer had gotten over nothing and let this feeling quickly slip away.

"So…" Jack said, letting out a breath once they were inside Kate's tent.

"What did you want to talk about?" Kate said, not wanting to make this take any longer than it needed to.

"I was wondering if you'd told anyone else about the uh… monster in the woods" Jack said, not really knowing what to call what they'd seen.

"Sawyer asked about it, but I haven't said anything. But people are wondering Jack. About the monster, about us" She quickly stopped herself realizing she had used 'us' in the wrong context, "I mean, about us coming out of the woods together" she tried, "I mean-"

"I know Kate, people have asked me, not so tactfully either, about why we came out of the woods looking as suspicious as we did. I also wanted to say that again, I'm sorry that you told me… everything. I'm so sorry you've gone through all-"

"Gone through?!" Kate questioned angrily. "Jack, I've done horrible things, I've killed people. That's not really something you just go through and move on. I'm not a patient Jack, you cant sweet talk me out of this one by saying you can do some miracle surgery to make the pain go away. I'm a bad person Jack, you can't remove that." Her emotions were starting to get the best of her and she did everything she could not to cry. "And besides, Jack. That's not what I'm mad at you about…" she looked into his eyes and waited for a response. The look on his face showed that he wasn't expecting that she was mad at him.

"What is it then?" He asked curiously

"'Caught in a net'? You couldn't have said something a little more… I don't know, unsuspicious?"

"Unsuspicious?" Jack questioned her word with a grin but quickly realized she was genuinely angered by him

"Yes Jack. Now he won't even talk to me. He thinks I slept with you. Why Jack? Why did you lead him on like that? Yes, I kissed you, but I apologized because I didn't mean it! Jack, I'm sorry but don't you get it? I don't like you. You're a great leader and all, but… that's all your ever going to be to me. Just a doctor I met when I crashed on an island" With that Kate couldn't hide her tears any longer and spun around, walking out of the tent. Only when she crashed into him did she notice Sawyer had been standing outside the door the whole time.