Thanks for the reviews. I'm remembering why I hate this multiple fics thing: I know you all have your favourites, and I'll get to them all eventually but right now I'm doing my best to be fair to everyone (I am only one person) so you'll just have to bear with me. I haven't decided what the next update will be: I want to say Brother's Keeper but it really depends on what I feel most inspired to write. I'm not gonna bribe anyone but I would really love to make it to 100 with this chapter... ;)

Chapter 7.

"There must be someone here who can do it," Jack rushed on, standing up to pace the length of the couch.

It was all happening so fast. Too fast. They hadn't even set a date and now he wanted to get married? "Do you really think a piece of paper is gonna change anything between us?" Kate insisted. She couldn't help the note of scepticism that crept into her voice as she added, "Between now and morning?"

"No, I don't," he agreed with a stubborn expression, "but it will as far as everyone else is concerned."

"Since when do you care what anyone thinks of us?" she complained in what she was sure must be an exasperated tone. It wasn't like him to worry so much over something like that.

She expected his temper to flare up then but he sank back onto the cushion beside her. "It's different for you, Kate. You're the one who's pregnant," he reminded her. "People feel sorry for you. They look at me like…" He closed his eyes, expelling a heavy sigh, and she knew that whatever he was trying to say must be hard for him to get out "…like I'm the kind of guy who isn't man enough to get it together and take responsibility for the situation."

She could feel her frustration with him melt away in a rush of sympathy. It was just another reason for her to feel guilty for putting him in that position in the first place. Of course back then she had no idea that any of this was going to happen. "Jack…" She placed a comforting hand on his bicep but he shook it off.

"I don't think you understand, Kate," he told her, his voice low and grave as he dropped his head into his palms. "I can deal with being just a workman, I can deal with Sawyer—" He let out a self-deprecating laugh as if he was still having trouble believing it "—being in charge… What I can't deal with is knowing they all think I don't have what it takes to do the right thing by my family." He glanced up at her, his dark eyes pleading with hers not to fight him on this. "This way we can demand our own house, you can give up work if you want to and just focus on the baby – we can start building a life here."

He had a point there. She was tired of sneaking around – of leaving his place before dawn so no one knew that she'd spent the night – and of feeling like they were doing something shameful when they weren't trying to hide the fact that they were sleeping together.

He'd given her what she needed at a time when her world was falling apart – even if he hadn't been aware that he was doing it – how could she refuse him this one thing when it was so important to him? "If we do this – if we get married – then will you stop?" she asked him.

"Stop what?" he insisted, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"Stop questioning me, stop acting like you don't believe me when I say I love you…" Maybe Sawyer was right and it wasn't important how they got here, just that they were here now. "Can we just forget the past and start over?"

He smiled. "Okay," he agreed, lighting up for the first time since they'd left the doctor's office.

"Okay," she echoed, breaking into a grin of her own as a bubble of excitement rose up inside her. If everything went according to plan, by the time they went to bed that night, she would be Jack's wife. The thought was almost too good to be true. "Then let's get married."

She offered him her hand and he allowed her to pull him up off the couch. "But we're still asking Juliet to be our doctor," he argued with a stubborn frown as he followed her out onto the porch.

She rolled her eyes in response, but she couldn't help the jubilant laugh that burst from her lips as he wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing her into side.

"I don't trust that guy."

He didn't let go of her until they were climbing the wooden steps leading up to Horace and Amy's front door, flashing her a nervous smile as he raised his fist to knock.

"Jack, Kate," Horace greeted them, when he opened it, glancing from one to the other. "What can I do for you?"

"You can help us get married," Jack explained.

It couldn't at all have been what he was expecting because he looked taken aback. "Come in," he told them, waving them through into the living room where Amy was folding laundry. "Take a seat."

They sat down on the sofa together while he perched in the armchair adjacent to them.

"I'll go put on some coffee," Amy announced, setting aside a pile of cloth diapers and excusing herself from the room; it was with a mounting sense of dread that Kate realised she had no idea how to pin them. All of her experience had been with the disposable kind: what if she got it wrong and stabbed the baby? She'd never had to worry about that with Aaron…

"First of all, my congratulations to you both," Horace said, drawing her out of her thoughts once they were all settled.

Jack picked up Kate's hand. "Thanks," he agreed, speaking on behalf of both of them.

"Now, when were you thinking of holding the ceremony?" Horace asked them. He consulted the diary tucked into the breast pocket of his jumpsuit. "We can probably arrange something—"

"Tonight, if possible," Jack confessed before he could finish.

Horace's mouth opened in surprise. "That soon?" He turned to Kate as his wife returned from the kitchen with four mugs on a tray. "Amy tells me you're pregnant, Kate?"

Just the smell of the coffee turned Kate's stomach; she pushed the cup Amy placed in front of her away with a polite grimace.

"Do you mind if I ask how far along you are?"

She shook her head even though she had a feeling that she knew where he was going with this new line of questioning. "Twelve weeks. I'm due at the end of next fall," she explained. It was still hard to believe that in just six short months, she would finally have a child of her own; a family, just like she'd been dreaming of ever since the day her father moved out.

Almost as if he sensed what she was thinking, Jack beamed at her, squeezing her hand in his.

Horace nodded. "That would've been my guess," he agreed. "I understand your impatience, but marriage is a very serious commitment – not something to be entered into on a whim. Surely you can afford to wait another month or two? It is 1977 after all."

Jack changed positions beside her; when she snuck a sidelong glance at him she could see that he was growing frustrated with the Dharma leader's well-intentioned interference in their relationship. "We appreciate your concern, Horace, but Kate and I have discussed this and this is what we want," he insisted, his voice terse with suppressed hostility.

Horace shifted his attention back to her. "Kate?"

"I know three months probably doesn't seem like long enough to you, but it feels like three years to us," she agreed, the corners of her mouth curling into an ironic smile to match the one her words elicited from Jack. "Right, honey?"

She tore her gaze from him in time to watch Horace glance over at his wife, nodding in agreement. "Do you have a witness in mind?" he checked.

They exchanged wary looks. Would he refuse to help them if they admitted that they hadn't considered any of the logistical details? "Do we need one?" Kate asked. She wasn't even sure who they could ask with without it becoming weird. Hurley, maybe, but he'd taken off with Miles after dinner to give them some space.

"Amy? Would you do the honours?" Horace asked her.

She smiled at them. "It would be my pleasure," she agreed.

"You're performing the ceremony?" Kate asked him. She'd figured he would just tell them where to go.

"Unless you'd rather we brought someone over from the mainland – a priest or a rabbi…" he offered, but Jack shook his head.

"Just as long as it's legal," he insisted.

"I assure you, Jack, that won't be a problem," Horace agreed as he pushed himself up from his chair. "I'll lodge the paperwork first thing in the morning. Now if you could just stand over there—" He pointed to a spot at one end of the rug "—And, Kate—" He steered her into position opposite Jack so that they were facing one another "—We can begin."

"Just a minute." Amy plucked a bunch of flowers from a vase on one of the side tables and thrust them into Kate's hands. "Here, take these," she told her. She took a step back, surveying the scene with an appraising eye. "Beautiful."

Kate cast her eyes over her faded jeans as Horace cleared his throat. There was a hole in one knee and the hems were frayed. They weren't exactly traditional, but at least the blouse she'd chosen that morning was white.

Jack was in such a hurry to get it over and done with that he was still in his jumpsuit. She wished that they'd thought to borrow some nicer clothes from Sawyer and Juliet, but it was too late for that now. They would just have to make do with what they were already wearing.

"We are gathered here today in the presence of this witness to join Jack and Kate together in matrimony," Horace announced, even thought it was only the four of them in the room. "I'm going to start with a short reading from the Bible – I Corinthians 13:1-13…"

As she listened to him speak about love, Kate could feel herself tearing up. She blinked hard to reign in her emotions. It was all so surreal; she hadn't expected something so simple and impersonal to affect her as much as it was.

"Hey, I know this isn't how you pictured our wedding day…" Jack whispered, catching her hands in both of his; she could see that he was afraid he'd upset her by pressuring her into settling for less than she deserved.

She shook her head before he could convince himself that none of this was good enough for her. "It's fine, Jack," she assured him. When he first proposed to her at home in L.A., she'd dreamt of marrying him in a church, surrounded by family and friends, but the only thing that mattered to her now was that she loved him and he loved her and that the three of them were going to be a family, for real this time. Instead of wiping them away, she allowed the tears to spill over onto her cheeks. "It's perfect."

He broke into a watery grin of his own that was half elation, half relief.

"…'Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres'." Horace closed the Bible and held it out for Amy to take. "Kate, if you could repeat after me…"

"I, Kate, take you, Jack, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward," she promised, "for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forward, until death do us part."

"Now you, Jack…"

"I, Jack, take you, Kate, to be my wife..." he repeated, his eyes never leaving hers.

"We're going to need a ring," Horace announced once they'd finished saying their vows. Watching him scan the room with a thoughtful expression, Kate wished that she still had the one Jack had given her, but the chain she was wearing it on broke when they flashed back to the seventies. It was probably at the bottom of the lagoon where they'd landed by now.

Amy tugged the gold band from her finger, pressing it into her husband's palm. "Use this," she told him.

He handed it to Jack and he slid it onto Kate's finger. "I, Jack, give you, Kate, this ring as an eternal symbol of my love and commitment to you," he recited as he eased it over her knuckle.

She did the same with Horace's when he passed it to her, slipping it onto Jack's left hand. It was loose, just like hers, but it worked as a substitute, until they could get rings of their own. "I, Kate, give you, Jack..." she repeated.

And then it was done. "I now pronounce you husband and wife," Horace declared. He smiled at Jack. "You may kiss the bride."

She inched closer to him, self-conscious as she waited for him to make the first move, but then his mouth was on hers and they were both laughing as he tilted her back over his arm, kissing her like they were the only two people in the room.

Next chapter(s): The Shephard family gets a new home and a dinner party... ;)