Thanks for the reviews. I'll be going away for about a week starting Thursday so I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again. I'm halfway through writing chapter 8 of Destiny at the moment, so hopefully that will be next. ;)

Chapter 12.

"Why don't you take the afternoon off?" Amy told Kate when she came back from feeding Ethan and saw her sitting hunched over the desk, pushing her fingers into her temples. Her head felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. "You're no good to me like this."

"No, Amy – I'm fine," Kate assured her, picking up her pen again and trying to concentrate on the file she was updating even though what she really wanted was a long soak in a warm bath, feeling her baby kick while she tried not to fall asleep.

"I mean it, Kate," Amy insisted, almost as if she were reading her thoughts. "Go home. Relax."

Kate didn't have the energy to argue with her so she closed folder and stood, bracing her hand against the back of her chair until her vision cleared.

"And while you're at it," she added, walking with her to the door, "think about when you're gonna start your maternity leave."

Alone in their darkened bedroom, Kate slipped off her shoes and stretched out on her side on the bed to take a nap. The baby had been becoming more active since the night it startled Jack with its first real kick; closing her eyes, she could feel the soft reassuring taps of its limbs striking out against her insides as it tried to get comfortable too.

What seemed like seconds later, she drifted awake to the sound of footsteps in the hall, rising into a sitting position as Jack turned the corner. "Hey," she greeted him with a sleepy smile. "You're back early."

"I wanted to take a shower before I stopped by to pick you up for lunch," he explained, shrugging out of his damp jumpsuit. "Bathroom duty." He grinned. "What about you? What're you doing home?"

"Amy sent me," she told him, leaning back against the headboard.

His expression softened with concern as he crossed to her side, sitting down on the edge of the bed and covering her forehead with his palm. "You don't have a fever," he announced, shifting it to her cheek. He stroked it in a tender, loving gesture that made her smile despite herself. "Are you feeling okay?"

"It's just a headache," she assured him, even though she was sure this wouldn't stop him from worrying.

The furrow in his brow deepened. "Still?"

She knew what he was thinking: it was the fifth day in a row that she'd complained about having one. "Lots of women get headaches during pregnancy," she felt compelled to point out, as much to ease her own mind as his. "Something to do with the hormones. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

"You're probably right," he allowed. "But I think we should talk to Juliet about it, just in case."

"Okay," she agreed; as stubborn as she knew she could be at times, she wasn't prepared to take any chances with their baby's health either.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Are you kidding?" She was always hungry. All this baby seemed to do was eat. "I feel like I could eat my own hand," she joked and he laughed.

"Well we better do something about that then," he said, peeling off his t-shirt and tossing it in with the rest of the laundry. Food wasn't the only thing she was hungry for; as he leant over to pull some clean clothes from the dresser, she couldn't help noting how well hard labour seemed to agree with him. "Just give me a few minutes and we can go down to the cafeteria," he called back over his shoulder on the way to the bathroom.

As she lay there waiting for him to come back, she felt an unfamiliar ache in her upper abdomen, but since it was difficult to distinguish from the cramps caused by the stretching of her uterus or heartburn, she decided to ignore it, focusing on the baby's movements instead.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack stop in the doorway, his hair wet, dressed in a fresh t-shirt and jeans, watching her when he saw her lying there with her head bent over her belly.

"She's moving a lot today," she informed him; as soon as he was close enough, she placed his hand against it so that he could feel it too and he grinned.

"Amy thinks I should go on maternity leave," she told him, testing his reaction.

"It's not a bad idea," he agreed. "We're married now so you can stay as long as I'm here, and Juliet did say your blood pressure was a little high. It might be good for you to try to cut back on stress until after the baby's born."

Despite the near-completed nursery down the hall, her due date was still a long way off. "What'm I gonna do with myself for the next four months?" she complained. Last time she found herself stuck at home she'd had Aaron to keep her from getting too bored; she wished the baby were here right now. Then she wouldn't care about going to work.

He pressed a soothing kiss to her lips before offering her his hand to help her up. "You could always keep sewing," he teased her.

They ate lunch at one of the long tables in the cafeteria, where Hurley's cooking had begun to draw crowds. His latest 'invention' was pastries stuffed with meat, cheese and vegetables, which he'd named 'Hot Pockets' to the amusement of his friends. He was working from memory, so he hadn't gotten the recipe exactly right, but it was still nice to eat something that reminded them of home; Kate made a mental note to ask him next time she had a craving for something more exotic than the staples each house was supplied with.

"How's your headache?" Jack asked, gathering up their plates to take back after the meal.

"Better," she told him with a smile. She always felt better after she ate; she was afraid that the baby alone was going to weigh ten pounds by the time it was born, and she was dreading the shapeless housedresses the other pregnant women seemed to wear. She already felt like a blimp.

"Feel like taking a walk?" he asked. "There's something I wanna show you."

Mystified, she slipped her hand into his and together they strolled out into the sunshine. Her back was beginning to ache and her feet felt puffy and huge and she knew by the looks people gave them that there was a rumour going around that said she'd only married him because of it, but she didn't care because she was happy just to be out enjoying the day with him.

When they reached the shed, he dropped her hand, fishing a set of keys out of the front pocked of his jeans and using them to unlock the door. "Wait here," he instructed, going in ahead of her. He switched on the lights, moving about straightening up before calling, "Ready."

She entered cautiously, picking her way past mops and buckets and brooms and a rusted lawnmower to where he was standing. "What d'you think?" he asked, throwing a drop sheet off something large and rectangular with a flourish. It was a crib, made of teak and stained with the same brown finish as the rocking chair in the nursery at home. "It still needs another coat but it's basically done."

For a moment, she was speechless; then she felt herself begin to tear up with emotion. She hadn't really believed him when he said that he was going to build it himself, but as usual, he'd proven her wrong. "It's perfect," she whispered, running her hand along the smooth surface of the rail, trying to picture them putting their baby down there every night. Jack would read to her and Kate would enjoy listening to him even more than their daughter, and when they were alone, she would sing to her.

Five months ago, they'd both thought their lives were over, but now, she thought as she beamed up at him, it seemed that the best days were still ahead of them.

"You're in your nineteenth week? Is that right?" Juliet checked, taking Kate's measurements as she had during her last exam. Once again, Sawyer was patrolling outside to ensure that they didn't get caught breaking and entering.

"Twentieth," Kate corrected her. She waited for her to return to the usual friendly banter, but when she didn't, she pressed, "Is something wrong?"

"It's just that the baby is measuring a little small," Juliet confessed.

Her poker face bothered Kate more than her words. The obvious explanation was that she'd gotten the date of conception wrong, but Kate couldn't see how she could be off by more than a month. "I don't understand," she insisted. She knew the baby was growing because she was. "I put on two pounds this month."

Juliet picked up Kate's wrist, turning over her palm, frowning at the way her wedding ring pinched her finger; while Kate knew that she wouldn't be able to wear it for much longer, after the fuss Jack had made about making an honest women out of her, she couldn't bear the thought of taking it off yet. "Judging by the swelling in your hands and feet, I'd say that's mostly from fluid retention."

She let go of Kate's arm, gesturing for her to lie back. "I'm going to do an ultrasound just to make sure," she told them, lifting her shirt, "but given that your blood pressure is still extremely high, it could be an early indicator of preeclampsia."

"What is that? Is it serious?" Kate asked, forcing herself to remain still while Juliet applied the gel to her stomach. She managed to calm herself when the now familiar image of their baby filled the screen, its tiny heart beating, the rhythm as sure and steady as the last time they'd heard it. Whatever was happening, it didn't seem to have hurt her yet.

"You might have heard the other doctor call it toxaemia," Juliet explained. "It's a narrowing of the blood vessels that limits the flow of blood to your kidneys, liver, brain and the placenta."

"I thought that only happened with multiples?" Jack chimed in once he'd given himself time to digest this.

"Usually it does," Juliet agreed, "but we see it in single pregnancies sometimes too – especially first time moms. It could be that Kate has a family history."

They both turned to her for confirmation and all of a sudden she felt like crying. She'd spoken to her mother exactly once in the last three years. "I don't know," she confessed. "My mom never talked about when she was pregnant." Maybe if she had, Kate would have discovered the truth about Wayne sooner. "And my grandma died before I was born."

Jack reached for her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, but when she glanced up at him for reassurance, she saw that he'd gone into doctor mode. "How do we fix it?" he insisted. "There must be some kind of medication you can give her."

"That's just it, Jack – I can't," Juliet told him and Kate wondered if she was going to quit then and there. Textbook. That was the word that she'd used. "When I came here – in 2001 – we were still working on ways to treat it. The only guaranteed cure is delivery and that would be fatal for the baby at this stage of development, so you're gonna have to take it easy," she finished, redirecting her attention to Kate. "Try to rest, drink plenty of water, limit your stress as much as possible."

"And then she would be okay?" Kate pressed, feeling a small glimmer of hope at the idea that it was really that easy. If rest was all the baby needed then she would take her maternity leave right now.

"If we can keep your blood pressure down, then we should be able to get you closer to term," Juliet continued, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her, she noticed. "Normally we would induce after thirty-two weeks, when it's safer for the baby, but we don't have the facilities here to support a premature birth. Which means you would have to deliver on the mainland where they could monitor both of you properly."

She could see that Jack wasn't happy; she knew that he wanted Juliet to supervise the birth and that wouldn't be possible if it took place in a hospital. But he couldn't put them at risk like that either. "Why didn't the other doctor tell us any of this?" he asked in a tired voice, massaging the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.

"We know a lot more now than they did back then," Juliet reminded him, stopping herself when she seemed to realise how confusing this sounded. "Except now is then." She shook her head with a wry smile. "You know what I mean. There's a chance he just hasn't picked up on it yet. That doesn't mean he won't."

She didn't have to say it: it also didn't mean that he would.

"You didn't answer my question," Kate said softly, even though she still didn't know if she wanted her to. "If I do what you said, will she be alright?" She would never be able to live with herself if she wasn't when she was sure that it must be her fault: she had had taken advantage of Jack – a recovering addict and then man who loved her – during one of the most vulnerable periods of his life and now God was punishing her for it by taking her baby away from her after she'd fallen completely in love with it. "I already lost Aaron – I can't lose her too." It would be better for everyone if her plan had failed and she'd never gotten pregnant at all.

"I'm a fertility doctor, Kate, not a fortune teller," Juliet reminded her gently. "What I can tell you is that aside from her size, everything else seems healthy. She's doing the best that she can…"

Next chapter: Jack gets a promotion and Kate confides in Juliet... ;)