Thanks for the reviews, especially for the last chapter of "Hide and Seek". I was beginning to think I'd lost whatever attracted people to my writing, but I guess it was nothing personal, just the holidays. :) I'm working on another update, so expect it in the next few days, but until then, you'll have to made do with an extra long chapter of "Going Back". It has been two weeks, so I thought I really should post something so no one thinks I've abandoned it... ;)

Chapter 15. Daniel

There were no trains running from Berlin to Edinburgh since Scotland wasn't part of the mainland; after dismissing the idea of taking a bus to the coast, and crossing the ocean by boat, as too time consuming, they decided that their only option was to fly.

Going into a small, quiet travel agency early the next morning, they managed to bribe the girl on shift into letting them buy tickets for cash, without providing their real names; better she think that they were having an affair than that the people from Hanso find out that they were leading a rebellion against them.

It didn't hurt that she seemed to find Jack attractive; watching him turn on the charm, leaning close to whisper something conspiratorial, knowing that there could come a time when she was forced to let him go, Kate couldn't help feeling an irrational stab of jealousy. Any other woman on the planet was free to be with him, but because of who she was, what they'd done, she was the only one to whom these unfair rules applied.

They had checked out of the hotel before leaving that morning, so once the girl had entered the false information (they were travelling as a married couple, the irony not lost on Kate), and handed over their tickets, they headed straight for the airport to catch their flight to Glasgow.

Just as Kate had imagined, the take off was less unsettling with Jack's palm pressed against hers, his voice whispering the numbers into her ear like he had so many times in her mind ("Ready? One… two… three… four… five…"), making her smile despite of herself.

Once they were in the air, she freed herself from her seatbelt and curled against him, tucking her head under his chin, the shape of his body so comfortable and familiar that she found herself falling asleep.

She woke two hours later to the gentle pull of him snugging the belt into place across her lap; he smiled when he saw that she was no longer asleep, pausing just long enough to place a tender kiss against her lips.

The landing was more turbulent than she remembered, the sharp decline sending her mind reeling back to the moments before the crash; she reached for his hand on instinct, and he pulled her in as close as their seat belts would allow, holding onto her until the plane came to a stop.

"You okay?" he asked her as they waited for the other passengers to file out, and she fixed him with a sheepish grin.

"Yeah," she agreed, only half joking when she added, "I think my life just flashed before my eyes."

"It gets better," he assured her, kissing the top of her head, and using the hand still trapped inside his to propel her to her feet. "Besides, you know what they say about lightening," he finished with a wry smile.

"I guess you're living proof of that," she said, remembering what he'd confessed to her at the airport as he let go of her to rescue their hand luggage from the overhead compartment.

Desmond was living further north, in the city of Aberdeen, so they caught a train out to the coast, where their eyes were met with prehistoric villages, Victorian era architecture, and parks and gardens filled with millions of roses, daffodils and crocuses.

It was exactly how Kate had always envisioned Scotland, minus the lochs and emerald green hills; as Jack parked in front of a grey granite building, cordoned off by a dark fence, and neatly trimmed hedge, she found herself wishing that she and Jack had chosen to follow his lead and run off to somewhere equally remote and beautiful.

When Desmond saw them standing on his doorstep, he almost slammed the door in their faces, but Jack caught it with the toe of his shoe.

"Where're you doing here? Did you not hear those men?" Desmond asked, gaping at each of them in turn, and for a moment Kate was reminded of the wild-eyed man they'd met in the Hatch.

"We just wanna ask you a couple of questions," Jack assured him, and after muttering to himself in silent debate, Desmond stepped back to admit them with a sigh.

"I know I'm gunna regret this, but I suppose it's the least I can do," he agreed as a boy, no more than two years old, and wearing only a diaper, scurried into the hall behind him, peering up at them with a shy smile.

"David!" an exasperated voice called after him, and a few seconds later a blonde woman appeared, stopping when she saw that they had company. "Oh hello, are you friends of Des's?" she asked in a well-to-do English accent, catching the toddler up in her arms, and positioning him on her hip so that he couldn't escape her again.

This must be Penny, Kate thought, matching her face to the picture Desmond had carried on the island.

With no choice other than to introduce them, Desmond sighed again. "Pen, this is the doctor I was telling you about – the one who got us all rescued – Jack, and Kate, from the island as well," he explained and she acknowledged them with a warm smile.

"It's very nice to meet you. I wish I'd known that you were coming – I feel like I owe you a thank you of some sort."

Jack shifted with discomfort beside her; Kate knew that he had stopped feeling like a hero the moment the cost of his actions became clear. She was relieved when Desmond broke the tension by continuing, "This is my wife, Penny—" he grinned at her "—and our son, David."

As he gave the child's hair an affectionate scruff, Kate caught Jack eying them with a wistful look, as if he wished he could trade places with him. Finding his hand, she squeezed it; this seemed to snap him out of his trance, reminding him of why there were there.

"I'm glad you're here – you might be able to help us," he told Penny, and she nodded.

"Of course," she agreed, glancing back at him with a puzzled look as she led them into the living room, setting David amidst a pile of small plastic toys, like J.J.'s, Kate noted with a pang. "Can I get you anything to drink?" she asked, straightening up once he was occupied. "Coffee, tea, no beer, I'm afraid – Des has sworn off."

Jack exchanged a look with Kate as he perched on the edge of the sofa beside her. "We're fine," he assured her, speaking for both of them.

He waited until Penny was seated, Desmond hovering behind her as if preparing his escape, to get down to business, cutting straight to the chase without preamble. "We were wondering if you could tell us anything about a business associate of your father's – Alvar Hanso."

The smile disappeared from Penny's face, replaced with shock, and Kate found herself tensing as she asked, "What?"

"Nothing, it's just… I haven't heard that name in a while," she explained, and Kate felt Jack relax along with her.

"So you know him?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Brilliant man, a little reserved, but nice – I think he gave me a doll once," she agreed, cocking her head to one side as she thought back. "Shame what happened to him, really – he was one of the few men my father worked with that I could actually stand."

Jack opened his mouth to get her to elaborate on this, but before he could, Desmond had shifted around to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder in a protective stance. "There, you got what you came for. She hasn't seen the man in years – no one has," he assured them, and when Jack pushed himself to his feet, Kate was afraid that they were going to come to blows, one trying to protect his happiness, the other to secure it, but excusing them both, Jack drew him aside, into the kitchen.

From where she was sitting, Kate could just make out them out, watching as, saying something in a low voice, Jack slid a crumpled square of paper from his wallet, studying it with the same wistful look he'd given David before handing it over. Desmond's features softened as he forced himself to see whatever Jack was showing him, and for a moment, Kate wondered what she was missing, until she realised that it was the exact size and shape of the picture she'd left his apartment the night he'd tried to kill himself.

Tearing his eyes from J.J.'s face, which Kate knew must look almost accusing in its likeness to Jack's, Desmond shoved it back into his palm, all the fight going out of him as he nodded. He waited until Jack had tucked it carefully into its hidden compartment, replacing the wallet in his jeans, before clapping him on the shoulder and leading him back into the living room.

Pretending not to have seen what transpired between the two men as Jack continued his questioning, Penny about her father's involvement with Hanso (of which she knew very little) and Desmond's about his with D.H.A.R.M.A (of which he knew a surprising amount, but nothing useful), Kate couldn't help wondering why he never talked to her about what he was feeling. She felt as shut out of his life as he did of J.J.'s; searching for something that she might have missed, it occurred to her that she could count the number of conversations they'd had about him since the day she'd failed to bring him to the hospital on one hand. It was like he was trying to forget that he was his son too.

"Well that was fun," he said, trying to sound glib, when the door closed behind them an hour later. Penny had invited them to stay for dinner, but Jack had convinced her that they had reservations somewhere, both of them aware that while it was nothing personal, Desmond would be relieved to see them gone. He had his own family to protect, just as they had theirs. "Thirty years as a Widmore and I think we got more out of Sayid."

He slung an arm across her shoulders, leading the way back to their rental. "What d'you say I take you somewhere nice for dinner, and we talk about going to Korea?" he said, and she knew that he was doing his best to keep from losing heart again after the speech she'd given him the night before. It was like they'd traded places.

"Now that sounds fun," she agreed, letting her head fall against his until they separated at the curb, determined not to bring him down by mentioning the picture. There would be plenty of time to ask him about it when he wasn't in such a good mood.

Her cell went off as he unlocked the doors, so while he reached into the back for the brochures they'd collected at the train station, she tugged it out of her pocket, her stomach tightening when she saw her father's name. She hadn't called him that morning for fear of him thinking that she didn't trust him: what if something was wrong?

"What about seafood?" Jack asked, scanning one of the brochures, "There're a couple of places down by the water," but she wasn't listening as she snapped it open, forcing out a shaky, "Hello?"

Her heart leapt to her throat when she realised that the voice that greeted her wasn't her father's. "Katherine," it said, and she felt her knees go weak.

"Who are you?" she demanded, "What're you doing with my father's phone?" and Jack glanced up at her, as pale as she felt, all hope of a pleasant evening gone from both their minds.

"My name is Daniel – Daniel Hill. You probably don't remember, but we met once, when you were very young," the voice explained and as she tried to determine whether or not this was a lie, she flashed back on a picture taken during her father's Ranger days. "Sam asked me to call you if anything happened to him."

All of the relief of realising that he wasn't one of them rushed out of her, along with the air from her lungs, as he confirmed her worst fear. If those were her father's instructions, then that meant…

"Where is he?" she whispered, feeling helpless, a day away, on the other side of the world, unsure whether she was still talking about her father, or J.J., who she knew was the real target.

There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end of the line, as if her father's friend was trying to figure out how best to sanitise the truth. "He's in the hospital, in the I.C.U," he told her, and she felt her heart shatter into a thousand jagged pieces as she managed to fill in the blanks.

He was there because of her, because she hadn't listened, because she'd refused to let Jack go. He was in hospital, and their son… The nightmare about the glass box slipped back into her mind, and she closed her eyes, the ache in her chest too raw to allow her the refuge of tears.

It took her a moment to realise that Daniel hadn't hung up. "Those people you and your boyfriend are running from?" he said, causing her to jump, startled at the sound of his voice in her ear after almost convincing herself that she was alone. "Looks like they found you."

Next chapter: More on what's been happening on the homefront and J.J.'s whereabouts (Review and you'll get the answer tomorrow!)... ;)