Thanks for the reviews. For some reason the controls are all weird on my end so I wasn't able to update until now. Just so you know, I am working on an update for Destiny but it's turning out to be one of the most complicated fics that I've ever written. Hopefully I'll be able to post something soon though. ;)

Chapter 10.

"Don't make me regret this," Sawyer griped for the umpteenth time, unlocking the door to the medical clinic a few nights later. To Juliet, he added, "Whatever you're doin', do it fast."

The plan was for him to stand guard outside under the guise of carrying out his nightly patrol. That way he could distract anyone who came along. "Thank you, James," she said sweetly, with just the faintest trace of sarcasm, brushing his cheek with her lips as she passed. "We'll let you know as soon as we're done."

It wasn't until the three of them were safely inside the exam room that she switched on the overhead lights. "There are a few tests I won't be able to run, but from what I've been able to gather, all of the basic equipment is here," she told Jack, pushing a tray of surgical instruments out of their path. She shifted her attention to Kate, who stood just inside the door, awaiting instructions. "The first thing I want to do is a physical exam, to confirm your due date, so I'm going to ask you to lie down."

With Jack's help, Kate managed to manoeuvre herself up onto the exam table, lifting her shirt to reveal her protruding belly. She was amazed at how much it had grown in the weeks since they were last there; she'd finally been forced add an extra panel to the front of her jeans and they were still a little snug.

"Is that hurting it?" she asked, craning her neck to watch as Juliet felt her abdomen, mapping the size and shape of her uterus and of the tiny being inside.

"It might be a little uncomfortable, but the baby is protected by the amniotic sac," Juliet reminded her. "It's very safe." She unwound a measuring tape, checking the numbers against those recorded in Kate's file. "When did Dr Petrovsky say you were due?"

"Late April, early May," Jack answered for her from his place on the stool on her other side.

"I'm going to have to agree with him," Juliet said once she finished examining her. "Based on these measurements, I'd say you're about fifteen weeks along, give or take a few days… but then you already knew that."

Kate's first thought was that this was a not-so-subtle criticism directed at her, until she realised that she was just stating a fact. Regardless of her intentions, that was the only night within a three month window that she could have conceived. Jack was the one who'd told her that.

You said your morning sickness was gone and you're feeling pretty good," Juliet continued. "Have you experienced any spotting or bleeding?"

"Not since the first week." That was one of the best things about being pregnant on the island, though she was sure tampons must be among the necessities that the Dharma Initiative managed to supply its members with.

"Good," Juliet said. "Contractions?"

"No, just some cramping," Kate confessed.

Jack turned away from Juliet with a sharp look. "You never told me that," he complained, a wounded note in his tone, and Kate couldn't help but smile at the way his eyebrows knitted together in concern.

It was more discomfort than actual pain: no worse than when she was about to start her period. "Because I didn't want you to worry," she protested. He was so damn protective of her and the baby that she could never bring herself to fuel his imagination with minor complaints.

"Do you mind showing me where?" Juliet asked her.

Kate laid her palm against the underside of her small bump. "Just in my lower belly."

"That's okay, right?" Jack insisted, and Kate could almost see him running through the list of possibilities in his head. "It doesn't mean anything?"

"Lower abdominal cramping is very normal during the second trimester," Juliet assured them, the corners of her lips twitching with amusements. "It just means your body is changing to make room for the baby."

Kate tried not to think too hard about what she'd read in Amy's books, about her internal organs shifting. The image was unsettling, to say the least. "See?" she teased Jack. "It's very normal."

She was forced to lie still while Juliet collected a blood sample from the vein inside her arm, switching the syringe for a blood pressure cuff once it was sealed and labelled with her name.

Jack tensed visibly when she paused over the reading, frowning at it without speaking. "Is there something wrong?"

"Your blood pressure is unusually high for this early in a pregnancy," she agreed, addressing her words to Kate. "Have you been feeling particularly anxious lately? About work or the baby…?" There was no subtext to her question; as far as Kate could tell, she really didn't know. Ever since the night she spilled her secret to Sawyer, Kate had been under the impression that he had gone home and repeated the story to her, but it seemed that he hadn't.

She couldn't risk saying anything with Jack still in the room. "I don't think so," she lied. "Everything's fine." She smiled reassuringly at him. "Everything's great." And for the most part it was. They were happier now than they'd ever been, even when they first got together. She loved being married to him, the familiar routine of sitting down to dinner with him every evening and falling asleep with his arms around her each night. It was as close to perfect as her life had ever been.

She could see that he wasn't entirely convinced. "Are you sure?" he pressed. "Because I meant what I said, Kate – you can tell me anything."

She wanted to believe that he would take it all in stride, but there were some things that even he was incapable of understanding. She knew him well enough to know that once she admitted to having an ulterior motive for going to him that night, she would never be able to convince him that that wasn't all it was. He would think that she'd used him and he would be right. She lifted a hand to cup his cheek, stroking it with her thumb. "Absolutely," she agreed.

"This isn't about Aaron?" he checked, clearly misreading the situation.

All she had to do was say yes and he would let it go; she was saved from having to decide whether or not to lie to him again when Juliet interrupted. "There's no cause for panic at this stage, but I think we should keep an eye on it, just in case," she suggested. "Have you felt any movement?"

Once in a while, Kate became aware of an indistinct fluttering that she thought might be her baby, but so far nothing that she was able to distinguish. Amy hadn't felt Ethan until well into her fifth month. She shook her head. "No. Should I?"

"Not necessarily," Juliet agreed kindly. "Some women don't feel anything until the end of their second trimester. But just in case, I'm going to do an ultrasound."

Jack picked Kate's hand up and held it while Juliet went about prepping her. Even though it was her second ultrasound, she couldn't help feeling nervous, especially after the complications she'd just hinted at: afraid that there wouldn't be a heartbeat this time, that she would find some abnormality that would bring their world crashing down, that she would lose this child too. With Aaron, he was always so conflicted; she was glad that he was able to share those fears and doubts with her now, as well as the joy of hearing Juliet announce, "One hundred and fifty beats per minute. Everything looks very healthy."

The first thing Kate noticed was that the baby was bigger and more person-like than the last time they saw it, with a neck and almost comically long limbs; she could just make out it sucking its thumb while it slept, floating in the amniotic fluid, unaware that three sets of eyes were observing it.

"Shouldn't it be somersaulting around in there?" Kate asked, disappointed that it wasn't going to put on more of a show for them. There was always next time, she supposed.

"Watch this," Juliet said, grinning. She probed Kate's belly gently with her index finger, and as they continued to focus on the monitor, Kate saw the baby start awake, its tiny foot flying out to kick her back.

While she felt sorry for it, having its slumber disturbed, she found herself laughing along with Jack and Juliet when the baby rolled over, turning its back on them as if it meant to ignore them.

"That was amazing," Jack enthused, giving Kate's hand an ecstatic squeeze. "You're telling me you didn't feel that?"

It was strange for her to think that the image on the screen was of what was happening inside her own body. "All I felt was Juliet poking me," she confessed.

"Well you should enjoy the peace while it lasts," Juliet told her. "Before you know it, it'll be kicking so hard it'll keep you both awake at night."

That didn't sound so bad. In fact, Kate was looking forward to it. "When will you be able to tell what it is?" she asked. She was getting tired of having to call it an 'it'.

"That depends on the baby's position," Juliet explained. "Provided I can get a clear shot, I could probably give you an indication today."

Kate turned her head towards Jack, to see what he thought and he nodded eagerly.

"Okay then," Juliet agreed, brightening, "let me take a look."

They waited impatiently while she hit a series of buttons, adjusting the controls. "I need you to turn on your side," she told Kate after circling her belly with the wand a few times, apparently without success.

She did as she instructed, and finally, she stopped, zooming in on what, to Kate, appeared to be a pair of grainy grey blobs. "There are the legs," she announced, leaning forward to squint at the image on the screen. "I don't see a penis…"

"So it's a girl?" Jack supplied, and as he glanced over at Kate with one of the biggest smiles she'd ever seen him give, pressing a soft kiss to the centre of her palm, she was secretly relieved. While she'd decided that she didn't mind what it was, as long as it belonged to her, he hadn't exactly made a secret of the fact that he was hoping for a baby daughter to worship, the way he worshipped her; knowing that she might be able to give him that made her feel less like what she'd done was a mistake. It wasn't how she'd pictured it happening, but did it really matter if the outcome was the same?

"I wish I could answer that with some degree of certainty," Juliet said as she switched off the machine and began wiping the gel from Kate's stomach, "but the picture isn't as clear as what I'm used to. Maybe in a couple of weeks…"

This did nothing to diminish Jack's happiness. "Does that mean you've decided?" he insisted. "You'll keep seeing Kate?"

"When did you say your next appointment with Dr Petrovsky was?" Juliet asked, and for a moment, Kate was sure she was going to say no.

"He wants me to come back at sixteen weeks," she told her with a heavy sigh. She wasn't looking forward to having another argument with him about Jack, or hearing any more of his insane theories about childbirth.

To her surprise, Juliet smiled. "Then just to be safe, maybe we should do this again in about a month…?"

Next chapter: Sewing... ;)