Okay, so I'm going to attribute the decline in reviews to the fact that most of you are disappointed that I didn't reveal what was said between Jack and Sam. As you'll see, it wouldn't make any sense for Jack to tell Kate at this point, so I'm going to break formula and post a short flashback instead of the Hurley chapter. I've started writing it, and can have it up as soon as tomorrow, but if interest doesn't pick up, this will be the last update for a while. ;)
Chapter 32. Welcome To The Family
"So you're Jack?" Sam repeated once Kate had closed the door behind her.
The man standing in front of him wasn't what he'd pictured all those times she'd tried to describe him, though one look at him assured him that he was indeed J.J.'s father. They had the same eyes, the same intelligent expression. The same smile.
"So they tell me," Jack quipped with a nervous laugh, shoving his hands into his pockets.
He didn't come across as arrogant, rather serious and unassuming, even a little sad; Sam liked him already, but he wasn't about to let him off the hook. "What do you do for a living, Jack? My daughter says you're a doctor?"
"A surgeon," he corrected him, making the rest of the conversation a little tricky, but it didn't take Sam long to figure out how to address this.
"If you're a surgeon, I don't need to tell you that that stuff you've been taking can kill you," he pointed out, so that he wouldn't kid himself into thinking that he was ignorant of his drug problem.
"I know. It almost did," Jack confessed as he sank into the chair nearest the bed, pushing his head into his hands.
When he lifted it again, Sam could see the shame and the guilt written across his features, and he felt his heart soften towards him. He didn't look like an addict; he looked like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. "I want you to know how sorry I am for putting Kate – and you – through that. I'm working on getting clean – I'll even go to rehab, if that's what it takes, just as soon as I can be sure she'll be safe."
"You'd do that for my daughter?" Sam asked, touched by his honesty, and the vulnerability he was allowing himself to show; more so when he answered, "I'd do anything for your daughter – and my son."
"This isn't just about doing the right thing, though, is it? You love her?" Sam checked, just in case he was only saying what he thought he wanted to hear. He couldn't bear the thought of him staying with Kate out of a sense of obligation when he knew how much she loved him.
But he needn't have worried. "More than I've ever loved anyone," Jack assured him, and he knew, by the softness in his eyes, and in his tone, that he was telling the truth. "J.J. too. He's only been in my life a couple of weeks, and already I can't imagine not being there to see him grow up."
"So how serious would you say you were about your relationship with her?" Sam continued, though these words had already told him everything he needed to know.
"I've convinced her to move in with me once this is over, and if it works out, with your permission, I'd like to ask her to marry me," Jack told him, less confident now, as if afraid that he would refuse to give it to him under the circumstances.
He didn't seem like the kind of man who could go ahead with it if he did.
As sad as the thought of her and J.J. leaving him made him, it was better than anything he could have hoped to hear. "That serious, huh?" Sam teased him.
"That serious," Jack agreed with a grin, sensing that he had as good as given him his blessing.
"Can you promise me that you won't give me a reason to regret it? That you'll take care of her and that beautiful little boy of yours?" Sam asked him, though he no longer had any doubts that he would.
"I'm not going anywhere this time – not unless it's what she really wants," Jack promised solemnly.
"Well then, Jack," Sam agreed, holding out his hand, just as the door opened. "I guess I should say, welcome to the family."
Next chapter: Hurley and another encounter with someone from the Hanso Foundation... ;)