Thanks for the reviews. I'm not sure why, but I really struggled with this chapter. I think it might have been the changing perspectives. Hopefully you'll like the Suliet though. That's one of the things I was really excited about writing in this chapter since we get to see them as the old "married" couple helping Jack and Kate through their marital problems. ;)

Chapter 15.

There were a lot of things Sawyer enjoyed about being head of security for the Dharma Initiative, but having his sleep disturbed wasn't one of them. "It's probably just Phil," he murmured to Juliet when a persistent banging on the front door caused her to moan and reflexively bury her face in his chest. The boy was so damn eager to score Brownie points with him.

He extricated himself from her carefully so as not to wake her fully, shifting her head across to the pillow. "You go back to sleep."

Juliet hadn't gotten around to doing the laundry that night so the jumpsuit he'd taken off earlier still lay discarded on a chair in the corner. He yanked it on over his boxers and went to answer it before the commotion woke the whole village up.

After Phil, his next guess would have been Horace or Miles, but it was Jack who stood out on the porch, his stricken look sending a rush of adrenaline through him as his mind began to go over the possibilities, most of which involved Kate or the baby or both. "Doc?" he greeted him, struggling to read his expression. "Everythin' all right?"

"I need you to do me a favour," Jack explained in a slurred voice and to Sawyer's disgust, he thought he smelt the feint odour whiskey on his breath. He must have used his key to raid one of the supply closets because Sawyer knew for a fact that Kate wouldn't allow him to bring so much as a drop of alcohol into their home.

He was just about to ask him what was going on when he heard Juliet's voice behind him. "Jack?" He turned to see her pulling on her robe as she emerged from the hallway behind him. "What're you doing here? Is Kate okay?"

"She's fine," Jack assured them. "At least she was the last time I saw her."

Which, judging by his state of intoxication, was quite a while ago. "If she's fine, then why're you here?" Sawyer pressed. "Why aren't you at home with her?" Wasn't she supposed to be making him some kind of special dinner? He was sure that she'd mentioned something like that when he ran into her outside the cafeteria earlier.

"I left her."

The words sounded so strange and unfamiliar coming from his mouth that all Sawyer could do was stare at him dumbly, without comprehension. "What d'you mean you left her?"

"I mean, I left her," he repeated in the same matter of fact tone, as if they were discussing the weather rather than the end of his marriage. He shifted his attention back to Juliet. "Do you mind if I crash here tonight? I wouldn't ask except that it's really late."

She glanced over at Sawyer to see what his thoughts were, sighing when he couldn't set side his anger long enough to respond with more than a hostile shrug. If it were up to him, they'd give him a strong cup of coffee to sober him up and send him on his way. "Sure," she agreed finally. "I'll make you up a bed on the couch."

She started for the hall closet where they stored the spare blankets; Sawyer waited until he was sure she was out of earshot to ask, "So what'd you and Freckles fight about?" Surely she wasn't stupid enough to tell him the truth?

"I don't wanna talk about it," Jack said stubbornly, wandering past him into the living room. He cracked open the blinds, peering out across the darkened courtyard at his own house where Kate was no doubt waiting for him.

"I'm just sayin', you must have a good reason for walkin' out on your wife and kid," Sawyer insisted, unable to hide his contempt over what he'd just told them. Sure he'd abandoned his own daughter before she was even born but Jack better than that. At least he'd always thought so.

Leave it to Juliet to choose that exact moment to rejoin them. "James!" she cried, fixing him with a warning glare to pull him back into line like she always did whenever she thought that he'd gone too far.

He let out a heavy sigh as he watched her spread an old cotton sheet over the couch cushions, depositing a pillow and blanket neatly on top of it.

Jack flashed her a grateful smile, sitting down to pull off his boots. "Thanks."

"You already know where everything is," she told him, catching Sawyer's elbow and steering him in the direction of the hall before he had a chance to say anything else. "Just make yourself at home and we'll see you in the morning."

Now that Kate was his wife and they were finally starting a real family together, Jack wished that he could say he didn't care how it happened, but what she'd told him over dinner changed everything. It was much easier for him to sort out his feelings about the pregnancy when he thought it was the result of a slip up on both of their parts; instead, the knowledge that she'd gone ahead and planned it without any regard for what he might want had left him questioning the very foundation of their relationship: after all, would they even be together now if that night had gone differently and she hadn't succeeded in conceiving his child? He wasn't sure that he was willing to accept her forgiveness if she put that kind of price on it, not when he'd already done everything that he could think of to make up for the pain that he'd caused her.

As he lay in the dark staring up at the unfamiliar ceiling, he could hear Sawyer talking through the thin walls that separated the living area from their bedroom. "You shouldn't'a told him he could stay here," he hissed, but that didn't stop his voice from carrying down the hall.

"So you would rather we let him sleep on a park bench somewhere?" Juliet countered with her usual pragmatism; to Jack's surprise, she sounded more amused than upset.

"I'd rather he went home to his wife where he belongs," he complained. "She's about to have his kid." There was a break in the conversation as he stopped to gather his thoughts and then he added, "This just ain't like him. You sayin' it don't bother you?"

"Of course not, James," she assured him, dropping her voice so that Jack had to strain his ears to make out the rest, "but whatever happened is between him and Kate. It's up to them to work it out."

Her words were followed by another lengthy pause. "You're right," Sawyer agreed at last. "Still, don't you think we oughta send someone over to check on her?"

As strange as was for him not to be the one to take care of her – as much as he wanted to stride back across the lawn and slip into bed with her and feel her settle into his arms – Jack he couldn't make himself get up off the couch.

"If Jack says she's fine then I'm sure she's fine," Juliet was assuring Sawyer. "She's probably asleep by now but I'll stop by first thing tomorrow."

True to her word, after leaving her own house the next morning, Juliet set off along the path to the Shephard's, which lay in the opposite direction to the motor pool.

She rapped on the door and waited in case Kate was indisposed, but when moments passed without any sign of her she began to get worried.

When she tried the handle she found that it was unlocked. "Kate?" she called as she let herself inside. She wasn't in the living room or in the kitchen so she decided to try the nursery next but that was empty too. Maybe she'd gone down to the cafeteria for breakfast.

At the end of the hall, the door to the master bedroom was ajar; Juliet pushed it open cautiously and poked her head inside. "There you are," she said when she spotted Kate curled on her side in the middle of the bed, still wearing an apron over her dress. Her eyes were pink and swollen from crying, her knees drawn up in front of her, arms circling her rounded belly, but to Juliet's relief she didn't appear to be in any physical pain.

"I heard about what happened with Jack," she told her gently, perching on the end of the mattress. "Did it have anything to do with what we talked about yesterday?"

If Juliet's presence in her bedroom surprised her, she didn't show it. Instead, she remained motionless, her gaze fixed on the empty pillow beside hers. "I told him the truth just like you said and now he hates me," she replied in a hollow voice and despite what she'd said to James about getting involved, Juliet felt her heart go out to her. When she'd suggested to Kate that she come clean, she hadn't anticipated that it would turn out like this.

"He doesn't hate you, Kate," she assured her, doing her best to sound sympathetic despite how ridiculous what she'd just said was. Jack had been in love with Kate for as long as she'd known him: that was why she'd decided to let him go in the end. She couldn't imagine him ever not loving her. After all, from what Kate had told her, the baby was definitely his.

"Yes, he does," she insisted, refusing to be comforted. "He won't even talk to me."

"He's just upset," Juliet tried again even though she could tell that she was too deep in her self-pity to listen to reason. "I'm sure he'll come around." He had to. "He's your husband. You're carrying his child."

Kate shook her head slightly, her eyes filling up with fresh tears. "He doesn't want her."

"He said that?" Juliet pressed, unable to hide her scepticism. Jack had been so involved in Kate's pregnancy from the beginning: just yesterday he stopped by the garage to share his concerns that she was overdoing it; even though she made Juliet promise not to mention her headaches to him, he seemed to have sensed that she wasn't well.

"According to him, this—" Kate patted her bump, her voice betraying the first sign of animation that Juliet had seen from her since she'd entered the room "—has nothing to do with him. He's just the donor."

"And you took him literally?" She was supposed to know him better than anyone. Surely she could tell when he was bluffing? "Kate, Jack loves you. Both of you. Whatever he said, he didn't mean it. You have to believe that."

There had to be a way for her to set things right between them. "You know, he's staying with James and I at the moment. Maybe we could arrange a time for you to come over and—"

"Thanks, Juliet," Kate cut in before she could finish, "but I'm not sure ambushing him is the best way to convince him that he can trust me."

She closed her eyes as if hoping that when she opened them again, Juliet would be gone and she would be left alone to wallow in peace. "So that's it?" Juliet asked her. "You're just going to give up and admit defeat?" Jack wasn't the only one not acting like himself: she'd never known Kate to lie down and take anything, especially where Jack was concerned. "What about the baby? Don't you think she would want you to keep trying?"

"I can't make him be her father," she said softly. "If he comes back, it has to be his choice."

She had a point: now that he had all of the facts, it was up to Jack to decide what he wanted to do with them. "Well, there's nothing you can do about it right now," Juliet agreed, holding out her hand to help her up, "but you still need to eat, so why don't you let me fix you some breakfast?"

"Here," Sawyer called, tossing something white and cylindrical at Jack.

"You do remember that I'm a recovering alcoholic?" he said when he caught it and saw what it was.

He was reluctant to impose on them another night, but he couldn't bring himself to go home yet, so he was sitting on the swing set outside the schoolroom, thinking about his daughter… or son, if that was what she turned out to be. For months he hadn't been able to walk past it without feeling a thrill of excitement as he imagined spending time with her there, but all of the hopes he'd had for the future were tainted now. More than anything, he wanted them back.

"You didn't seem to care about that last night," Sawyer reminded him, dropping into the swing beside him. He pulled the tab on the can still in his hands and took a long swig.

"Is this some kind of intervention?" Jack asked him, eyeing his own beer dubiously as he tried to determine whether or not he expected him to drink it. If he did, would he be proving whatever point he was trying to make?

"I ain't here to bust your ass for drinkin', Jack," Sawyer assured him. "That's Kate's job. I just thought you might like to share a beer with me, seeings as you're already off the wagon."

While the offer was tempting, Jack didn't trust himself to stop at just one so he placed it on the ground at his feet. He was still ashamed of the way he'd behaved the night before. He hadn't set out to get drunk when he left the house; just like the last time, all he'd wanted was something to take the edge off, until his mind quieted and he felt comfortable in his own skin again.

"I know what you and Juliet must think of me," he began, suddenly overcome by the need to explain himself, "but you should also know that what happened between us... I keep going over it in my head, trying to figure out what I did to deserve it when the truth is, I don't think I did." All he'd done was remind her that Aaron didn't belong to her. He'd never said anything about her giving him up. "I think she did it for herself and now she's using me to justify it."

"You know, you oughta give the woman some credit," Sawyer argued, jumping to Kate's defense just like Jack had come to expect. "I mean look at her. She turned into Holly Housewife for you."

It was at moments like this that he remembered that Sawyer didn't know Kate as well as he did. He'd never seen her with Aaron, so it was difficult for him to understand the side of her that put motherhood ahead of everything else, including him. "She didn't turn into anything for me," he corrected him. "Believe it or not, Sawyer, but Kate quit her job because she wanted to." The only reason he'd encouraged her to take her maternity leave early was because Juliet had told them that her health – and the life of their unborn child – could be at risk if she didn't find a way to get her blood pressure under control. Otherwise he wouldn't have cared if she'd decided to keep working right up until she was due to give birth. "It's not like I keep her chained to the stove."

Sawyer took another pull of his beer before speaking again. "Look, what she did was wrong – she knows that," he said finally, cutting straight to the chase. "But that don't mean she deserves to be humiliated."

Jack wanted to ask him how much Kate had told him, but instead he repeated, "Humiliated? Who said anything about me humiliating her?" No matter how angry he was at her, he had too much respect for her to go airing their dirty laundry in public.

"People're already talkin' about you and how quickly the two'a you got together," Sawyer explained. "You think they won't talk about this too? You know how many folks here're divorced?"

Jack shook his head.

"None. So if you're gonna put her – and your kid – through all'a that you better make damn sure that that's really what you want."

The last thing Jack wanted was another divorce – especially when it meant not seeing his child every day – but he didn't know if he could stay married to a woman who'd betrayed him either. "She used me and then she lied about it," he insisted. She could have told him the truth at the same time she told him that she was pregnant but instead she'd allowed him to believe that they were both on the same page. "Are you saying I should just let that go because of what people might think?"

"I'm sayin' that of all the men in the world, she chose you," Sawyer continued. "There must be a reason for that. So before you go crucifyin' her – and screwin' up all three'a your lives – don't you think you should at least let her tell you what that reason is?"

Next chapter: Kate tries again to talk to Jack but will he listen this time? ;)