Thanks for the reviews. (The response to "Good News" has been so encouraging that I may actually have to consider a follow up! I already have an idea for my next ongoing fic, and strangely enough, that wasn't it!;)) Now, there's two ways I could have gone with this chapter -- hopefully you'll all find this one interesting... ;)

Chapter 29. Guy Stuff

Now that her father had regained consciousness, Kate was eager to get home, so Claire and Aaron spent the night in with J.J., and the next morning, once they'd given her a copy of the flash drive, Claire followed them to the airport to see them off.

"Take care of yourself," Jack said at the gate, surprising everyone by pulling her into a brotherly hug, pressing the key to the apartment into her palm when he stepped back. "It's paid up until the end of the week if you wanna keep staying there…"

"Thanks," she told him, eyeing it with a grateful smile as he bent down to say goodbye to his nephew. "I think we will."

Both she and Aaron hugged Kate and J.J. too, and then she led him off to one side to wave as the three of them made their way down the tunnel, onto the plane.

"You okay?" Kate asked when they were in their seats, and she caught Jack staring out the window, back towards the terminal with a pensive look. They couldn't see Claire from where they were sitting, but she knew that she was still weighing heavily on his mind.

"It's her I'm worried about," he confessed without seeming to feel the need to elaborate, turning to Kate, his dark eyes troubled. "If something happened to her because of what we did…"

"She's survived worse than this," Kate reminded him, shifting her grip on their son so that she could find his hand with her free one and squeeze it. "She's a smart kid – she'll be fine."

"You're right," he agreed, forcing a smile as he reached out for J.J., and deciding that he was the best distraction she could provide him at that moment, she let him lift him over the armrest, into his lap.

"I'll wait with him if you wanna go in by yourself," Jack told her when they arrived at the hospital hours later.

It was morning again, but it still felt like night. J.J. was dozing against Jack's shoulder after drifting off in the cab; smoothing the curls back from his forehead, noting the way he didn't even stir at the contact, Kate nodded.

"We'll be right here if you need us," Jack added with an encouraging smile, pecking her lips before he stationed himself in one of the hard plastic chairs in the waiting room.

She took a deep breath, steeling herself as she walked down the hall, but any fears she might have had about her father's condition evaporated when she entered his room to find him still wrapped in bandages, but otherwise alert, his face lighting up at the sight of her.

"Daddy," she choked out, feeling like a little girl again as she rushed over to his side, enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug. "Don't ever scare me like that again, okay?"

"Hey, careful there, Katie – my ribs are still broken," he reminded her with a soft chuckle, groaning as he put a hand out to protect himself, but when she met his eyes, releasing him, she saw that he was crying too.

"Where's J.J.?" he asked when she perched on the edge of his mattress, taking his hand in hers, and he had time to digest the fact that she was alone. "Daniel said he gave him back to you."

"Outside, in the waiting room," she assured him before he could jump to any conclusions about her son's whereabouts. When he didn't seem satisfied with this answer, she hesitated before adding, "With Jack."

"Jack's here?" he repeated, his voice taking on a sharp tone, and for a moment, she was tempted to lie to him and say that he'd been called into surgery. It wasn't that she was ashamed of him, because she wasn't; it was just that she didn't think she could choose between them if, in light of everything that had happened, her father decided to withdraw his support.

"Yeah," she agreed, but before she could finish explaining, he ordered, "So send him in."

"Now?" she repeated, fixing him an incredulous look. He'd just come out of a coma thirty-six hours earlier, and his first impulse was to check up on her? "Don't you think you should at least wait until you get out of hospital?"

With any luck, she thought, it would all be over by then.

"Katie," he warned her, doing his best to sound patient, but his voice was stern, commanding; his army voice, she'd called it when she was younger. It made her feel like she was fifteen again, and dating for the first time. "Those bastards almost killed me so that the two of you could be together – I wanna know if he's worth all the trouble. Besides, don't you think it's time I met the father of my grandson?"

His tone made it clear that he wouldn't accept any excuses this time; if it was safe for Jack to come with her to the hospital, there was nothing stopping him from coming into his room.

"Okay, Dad," she agreed, kissing his cheek as she slid off the bed, "but I want you to remember I'm not a kid anymore. I'm a big girl – big enough to make my own choices… and my own mistakes."

"So I've noticed," he told her, looking her up and down with a sad smile. "Seems like it all happened overnight."

"How's he doing?" Jack asked her when she found him in the waiting room, thumbing through a magazine with J.J. stretched across his lap.

"He wants to meet you," she told him, watching the apprehension creep into his features.

He was worried, and with good reason too; she knew him well enough to know that his biggest fear was that her father might never respect him for skipping out on his responsibilities. Even if he wasn't aware that he had any. "Now?"

"That's what I said," she agreed with a grin, swinging J.J. up onto her hip so that he could get up. "We'd better hurry – he's waiting."

Her father had arranged himself to so that he was sitting upright when she led Jack into the room, still clutching his hand.

"Dad, this is Jack," she told him, her tentative smile increasing when she realised, from his stunned expression, that this tall, handsome, clean-shaven man wasn't at all what he'd been expecting.

He'd been preparing himself for a drunk, a junkie, someone dangerous. Someone he could disapprove of.

Instead, he didn't seem to know what to make of him.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Sergeant Austen," Jack said politely, letting go of her, and stepping forward to offer him his hand. "Kate's told me a lot about you."

"Likewise," he agreed as he accepted it, the wariness in his tone assuring him that this was more in response to the latter.

"I can see why you called him Jack Junior," he added to Kate, postponing his judgment, though she could see the tiny smile forming at the corners of his mouth.

It was the same smile he'd always gotten during her visits before she wheedled him into making pancakes for dinner, or taking her on a camping trip, when he was still trying to maintain the illusion that he was in charge.

"Katie? Would you give us a minute? I'd like to have a little chat with Jack if you don't mind," he said, glancing sidelong at her before he continuing to size Jack up, staring him down.

To his credit, Jack didn't break eye contact. "It's okay, Kate, just take J.J. and go get some coffee or something," he told her when she hesitated, not sure she liked the idea of them chatting without her. About her. "I think there're a few things your father and I need to discuss."

She shot him a questioning look, wondering why he was going along with this, but when he failed to offer her an explanation, she decided that it might be best to let her father have his moment. Maybe then he would see what she saw and accept Jack.

"Be nice," she said, levelling him with a warning stare as she slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

J.J. was getting fussy after going all day without a proper nap, so she took him for a walk around the corridors, stopping once to change him before heading back to check on them.

While she was pretty sure that her father had no real intention of intimidating Jack, she couldn't help feeling confused when she pushed the door open in time to catch them shaking hands again, having apparently reached an understanding, most likely about her.

"What'd I miss?" she asked, hoping that one or both of them would clue her in as to the terms, but Jack just shrugged.

"Guy stuff," he told her with an evasive grin, and her father laughed, clapping him on the shoulder.

"You remember what I said before?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Well I've decided he is."

More on Jack and Sam's conversation later, but first, another poll: The last stage of the plan, before Jack and Kate are in a postion to blackmail the Hanso Foundation, involves delivering the flash drives to the other survivors (Which will require them to visit at least Juliet, Sawyer and Hurley to explain what's happening). I can move straight on to that, starting with Hurley, or have them spend another chapter or two with Sam... ;)