A/n: Thank you for reading! Here's where a couple of subplots crop up... Enjoy!

Chapter 8

"Well, I got a call from Dr. Hahn at Seattle Pres," said the Chief, a wide grin on his face.

"Yes, Mark and Derek told me about the interview."

"They weren't being very subtle, were they?"

Addison chuckled. "I don't think they know the meaning of the word. So, what did she say?"

"She's excited to come work for us. She's extremely qualified, and it's easy to see why the only person she came in second to was Burke. She'll make a great Head of Cardio."

"That's great, Richard," she looked up and smiled warmly at him. "Is it just Lacey's job that needs filling now?"

"It is." Chief beamed. "I can't believe how lucky we've been to find replacements so fast."

Here was her opening – it couldn't be better. All she had to do was say he'd need to find one more replacement, that here was her two weeks notice, and it's been wonderful but it was time to move on…

But somehow the words seemed to catch in her throat and she couldn't make herself say them. Then she missed her chance altogether.

"Oh, excuse me, Addy. There's Dr. Bailey – I need to have a word with her. She's still mad at me because I didn't choose her for Chief Resident. Miranda! Wait!" He hurried after her and Addison found herself frozen and silently cursing herself.

She told Naomi she was coming. She had to tell the Chief she was leaving. She promised herself that she would… later, as soon as she was done her charts. And rounds. Ok, first thing tomorrow…

Addison was nearly done her shift in the early evening and was getting ready to head home when the door to the senior residents' locker room flew open with a bang.

"Go home, Torres!" Bailey barked. "And get yourself together, because I don't have the patience to deal with nothing from you again tomorrow."

Callie was visibly shaking as Bailey shut the door behind her.

"Callie! What happened?" Addison stared. She hadn't seen much of her friend lately, and hadn't had the chance to hang out with her since they'd played darts at Joe's several nights ago.

"It wasn't that bad – it's not a big deal."

"Miranda just came storming in here and told you to go home over no big deal?"

"I just nearly beat up a patient's husband, that's all." Callie shrugged and wouldn't meet her friend's eyes as she opened her locker with more force than was necessary.

"You what? Okay, what is going on? I keep asking and you keeping saying things like not now or later or some other time and I keep backing off because I'm your friend and I'm trying to listen to you, but if you don't explain – "

"He cheated on me." Her voice was so small Addison nearly missed it.

She came closer, heart sinking, hoping she hadn't heard right. "What?"

"He cheated on me." Callie repeated, her back to her friend. Then her shoulders started to shake and she sunk down onto the bench.

Addison rushed forward at once, seating herself beside her and wrapping her arms around Callie's shoulders. When her friend's tears finally slowed, Addison asked quietly,

"How do you know?"

"He told me," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "We fought and he left. He came home the next day after work, and then a few days later… he told me. He… slept with Izzie Stevens."

Addison closed her eyes briefly. She didn't know O'Malley that well, but he had never seemed like the cheating type. She'd always wondered if something was going on between O'Malley and Stevens too, based on the way they always interacted, but everyone said they were best friends, so she didn't bother to think much of it.

With a sickening feeling rolling around in her stomach, she remembered a brief conversation she'd had with Izzie several weeks previous. The blonde had quietly admitted to having "sex with the wrong person" and Addison had been thrown off guard by the confession. She wasn't sure she would call herself friends with Stevens either, really, and in any event they certainly were not close enough to be swapping stories about their sex lives.

"The thing is, it didn't feel wrong at the time. It felt like… like something was falling into place."

She should have somehow realized then what Izzie had meant.

"I'm so sorry, Callie," she finally said. "What are you going to do?"

Callie wiped her eyes. "I don't know. I… said I forgave him, but… I didn't. I can't. I always hated the way he always chose her, and I was constantly convincing myself it was just because they were best friends. I didn't… I never believed if anything happened, he would follow through. He's George. He's… he's my husband."

A fresh wave of tears made their way down her olive-toned cheeks and Addison felt her heart breaking for her friend. She remembered with a twist of her gut the day she was in George's position, the one who was married and cheating. She thought of the look on Derek's face, the way she stood in the rain pounding on the door, and the way he simply disappeared. She recalled the divorce papers he finally signed earlier in the year and how bad it felt some days to see him so in love with Meredith.

Was the same thing going to happen to Callie and George, only George would be the one stepping out and in love with Izzie? Or was it a one-time thing they would have to now deal with?

"I can't even look at him," Callie continued softly, her voice pained. "I can't stop thinking about how stupid I was. I… I don't think this is something we can get past. And… the worst part is, I'm not even sure I want to anymore."

Addison didn't know what to say, so she simply stayed with her friend, holding her until Callie was ready to go home and figure things out.

Jack was very much looking forward to having lunch with Hurley. Not only did it mean seeing a familiar face from LA, but it was a familiar face from the island too, which somehow was a strong comfort.

When Jack entered the bright café, he spotted his friend immediately at a table by the window, not because of his size but because he was already waving. Hurley's face broke into a wide smile as Jack approached and stood to embrace him once he'd reached the table.

"It's been a while." Jack slapped Hurley's back and took his seat.

"Glad you could make it, dude."

Jack chuckled. He'd forgotten how much he'd missed hearing Hurley's dude all the time. "I'm glad you had a conference in Seattle this weekend."

The pair made the usual small talk about lives and jobs, and gave their order to the waiter. Hurley seemed to know everything about what everyone was doing while Jack was content to sit back and listen.

"Frank's flying planes again. He took a couple months off but he just flew to Guam last week. Claire is living with her mom still, but she got a job at a jewelry store like 10 minutes away. Oh, and Sawyer didn't tell me, but Juliet mentioned she and him went out the other day – like out out."

Jack leaned forward, a bit surprised. "Sawyer and Juliet are dating?"

Hurley nodded and sipped his water. "Back a couple months ago, at Sayid and Nadia's wedding? I guess there was a spark or whatever, and they've been hanging out a lot."

Jack didn't know how to respond. He knew Sawyer had fallen in love with Kate on the island, same as him, and he knew things with Kate had somehow fallen apart between them after they were rescued. Jack also was very aware of the connection he personally had with Juliet, and though he'd never fallen in love with her, he had wanted to, just so he could get over Kate. He'd liked Juliet, respected her and felt connected to her. She was so different from Kate and, he felt, seemingly incompatible with someone like Sawyer.

"I know, dude, weird." Hurley shook his head and continued. "Oh, and Sun told me they went in for another check-up – she and Jin are really excited about the baby. She said she's glad it will be over soon."

"That's good to hear."

"And speaking of pregnant, I guess Penny is pregnant too."

Jack smiled at the news. He'd only met Penny briefly when they were rescued on the freighter, but she was the girl Desmond had talked so much about. He almost felt as though he knew her in a way, and it had made him feel so warm to see Desmond finally reunite with her.

"They, uh, Desmond said if it's a boy, they're going to name him… Charlie." Hurley grew quiet and dropped his gaze to his water so Jack wouldn't see his eyes begin to swim with tears.

He felt a sharp stab of sadness himself. Charlie Pace: the one who had rescued them all by swimming to that underwater station and flipping a switch so they could get a signal from Naomi's phone. Memories flashed past him: Charlie getting him out of the cave-in, giving Charlie the remaining aspirin so he could cope with the heroin withdrawals, surviving being hung by his neck at the hands of Ethan, his friendship with Claire...

The day they returned from the radio tower and Desmond told them Charlie was gone, that he'd drowned to make sure Desmond got out safe, that everyone could be rescued.

His own eyes pricked with emotion. He saved us all. Jack thought.

"I… I had headstones made," Hurley finally said. "There's a cemetery like a dozen blocks from my house. I had headstones made for… for everyone."

Jack nodded, unable to think of what to say next.

The silence stretched.

"Do you… " Hurley raised his head, meeting Jack's gaze. His eyes looked sad and haunted instead of their usual bright and cheerful glint. "Do you still have nightmares too?"

Jack regarded his friend. "All the time."

Their food came about then, and as they ate, the conversation returned to more every day or mundane topics. Despite those few uncomfortable moments, by the end of lunch, Jack's spirits felt lifted. Hurley tended to have that effect, no matter what was going on. He was often endlessly optimistic, more so since they were rescued, as he believed he'd broken the "curse" he'd felt had hung over him since winning the lottery a few years earlier.

As they were finishing up and paying the bill, Hurley hastily dug in his pocket for a crunched up sticky note.

"Dude, I almost forgot." He flattened out the little yellow paper and passed it to Jack.

"What's this?"

Hurley leaned forward and dropped his voice to a near whisper. "She came to my house – looking for you."

Jack's heart sped up. "When?" He didn't need to ask who she was.

"About a week ago." His friend glanced around as if afraid someone might be eavesdropping and lowered his voice even more. "I told her you'd gone to Seattle. She wrote that down and told me to give it to you in person as soon as I could. Dude, she looked rough."

Jack swallowed and stared at the paper. It was hasty, scribbled writing but he recognized it nonetheless.

"She didn't say much else – just that she was pretty sure the police would be watching you so she couldn't see you herself." He leaned back in his seat. "And you're supposed to use a pay phone."

The doctor nodded and pocketed the paper, his mind reeling.

"Sorry to spring that on you, dude, but there wasn't exactly a good way to…"

"No, it's fine. Thanks, Hurley."

Moments later, they parted, and Hurley promised to keep Jack in the loop about everyone else via email. He commented that his parents had not-so-subtly hinted that they were going to throw him a big "surprise" birthday party next month and Jack was likely invited. Jack laughed, promised to watch for the invite, and bid his friend goodbye.

As he was heading to his car, he suddenly found himself feeling quite paranoid about Kate's message. The police were still watching him? If they were, how would he know? He glanced up and down the street as if they would be right there, but of course, it was a busy downtown street and he no idea if he was being watched or not. He decided, just to be safe, that he would wait until it was dark and then head to a pay phone far away from his apartment to make the call.

Jack didn't know if he was being overly cautious or just cautious enough, but he decided it couldn't hurt to be rather safe than sorry. So he drove across town, doubled back and stopped outside a late-night diner near the outskirts of Seattle. Once at the payphone, he retrieved the paper Hurley had given him earlier that day from his breast pocket and smoothed it out. It had an unfamiliar area code followed by the rest of the phone number:

555 – (the first and last numbers of the hatch code)

It was a good code, as the only ones who would know it were those who he and Kate had been rescued with. He took a deep breath, put money in the phone and started dialling, finishing the phone number with 4842. As it began ringing on the other end, his heart hammered loud in his chest in anticipation of hearing her voice, of hearing what she had to say.

After what seemed like an agonizing amount of time, she picked up.

"Jack?"

He exhaled, leaning against the booth's wall. He could hardly believe he was finally hearing her voice again after what felt like an incredibly long time. There were so many things he wanted to say, wanted to ask.

"Are you ok?" He managed after a couple seconds of dead air.

He heard her exhale in relief too. "You got my message from Hurley."

"Just today. He came to Seattle for a management conference for his, uh, that box company he owns. We had lunch."

"How is he? I didn't get the chance to really talk to him when I…" she trailed off.

"He's good. Better – a lot better. He still misses… he still misses them."

"We all do."

He shut his eyes. "Kate – "

"I just had to hear your voice," she interrupted. "I needed to… It's just that this has been a lot harder than I remember."

"What, running from the law?" He hadn't meant his voice to sound so cold and he softened immediately. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine." Kate paused. "Jack, I don't have much time."

He rubbed his free hand over his forehead. "I know. Where are you?"

"I can't tell you."

"I know that too. I just…" He hesitated, having trouble choosing what to say. Their time was so limited and he only had a few minutes left.

"So… Seattle, huh?"

He smiled a little though she couldn't see it. "Yeah."

"Why Seattle?"

"Because it's not LA." Silence stretched for a small moment before he added, "I miss you."

"I miss you too," she sniffed.

"I actually… I check, every day, to see if you're – if you've been… you know."

"Not yet," she chuckled, though it was the saddest, quietest laugh he'd ever heard.

"I wish you could come home."

"Me too."

"I want to see you."

She sighed. "You know we can't. They're probably watching you. It's bad enough we're doing this."

"I wasn't followed – "

"You don't know that."

"Kate, I'm not living in LA anymore, it's been more than a month since – "

"They're not going to back off just because it's been a month, Jack. They'll probably never back off."

He shook his head, frustration rising. He didn't want to waste their time fighting.

"You didn't answer my question," he said a moment later. "Are you ok?"

Another bitter, sad little laugh. "Define ok."

He heard a loud dinging in the background like a timer but before he could ask what that was, Kate's voice was rushed.

"I have to go, Jack."

"Kate, wait – "

"I'll get another message to you next time I can, but don't try this number again, it won't work."

"Kate – "

"I love you."

"Kate!"

The line went dead and he reluctantly hung up. He didn't know how he had expected to feel after speaking to her – reassured? Glad? Relieved? – but all he felt was empty somehow. Because this was it: short, secret phone calls from pay phones or cryptic messages delivered by friends. He wasn't going to see her again anytime soon, if ever, and this was going to be all that could be, as long as he loved her, as long as he held on.

He exited the phone booth and hurried to his car, slamming the door shut. He picked up a six-pack of beer and a few bottles of various hard liquors on his way home. He figured if he could numb himself sufficiently with alcohol, then he could sleep soundly.

A/n: Thank you for reading, and reviews are immensely appreciated. Merry Christmas!