Kate walked into her temporary house, finding Jack opening a bottle of water in the kitchen.
"Hey, you." He said as she walked in "Did you see Richard? He stopped by."
"Yeah, I saw him on his way out. He told me he talked to you?"
"Yeah, he said there's really nothing to do now but wait; which, actually, I completely agree with." Jack said as he began to sip his water.
"I do too. I mean, there's nothing here we can do. We can't escape the island. What would the point in that be? And we can't "save" the island or find any other survivors in this time period. So, we just need to wait." Kate responded.
Jack nodded. Finally they agreed on something. It had been a while since something like that had happened.
"I do think we should try to figure things out from these people though. I think Richard knows something. He seemed like he had something on his mind when he stopped by. I just wasn't able to get anything out of him" Jack stated.
"I agree. I spent most of the day with Beth, and I think she knows things that could benefit us. And, I think she wants to tell us, she's just scared. The poor girl has so much to deal with right now. She's basically me, just 20 years later."
Jack looked at her in the eye. "Then keep talking to her. Maybe help her if you can? As long as we're here, we can do some good I suppose." Jack put his hand on her shoulders and gave a soft smile; he then walked out into the living room.
"Jack…can I ask you something?"
"Mhm, what's on your mind?"
"Were we in love?"
The question took Jack off guard. He turned around and looked at her with a confused smirk.
"What?"
"Were we in love? I know you were married before, and I just didn't know if the love you felt for me was as strong as that love. Or maybe you just felt bad for me at the time and decided to pursue whatever we seemed to have…"
"Kate." Jack interrupted. She stopped, scared of what the response would be.
"I loved you SO much. I would have done anything for you. I still would. The love I felt for you was more than anything I had ever felt before."
"Then why did you want to erase the past? It couldn't have been that miserable…"She began.
"Kate, you were the one who cancelled our engagement. Don't throw this all on me. YOU wanted to end this."
"Because you didn't trust me Jack! And then you started drinking."
"I didn't trust you because you wouldn't tell me what you were doing for him. You left me in the dark. I thought you still loved him! And you never told me why or what you were doing. You cared more for him than you did for our relationship."
Kate was taken aback. Caught at a loss for words, she stopped to think of her counterattack.
"Jack, do you want to know what I was doing that entire time? Do you? I was financially supporting James' daughter. When he jumped from the helicopter, he told me he had a daughter with a woman I used to know. He asked if I would make sure she was ok financially so she could have a good life. So that's what I was doing! I wasn't still in love with him Jack, I was just trying to do what was right."
Jack had an obvious look of surprise on his face. He didn't know what to say. All he could do was stare at her.
"Are you happy now?"
"Kate, I…I didn't know. But why didn't you tell me that. I would have understood."
"Because it wasn't my secret to tell. Plus, I didn't want you to think I was taking in everyone's children all at once…..Especially when we didn't have children together."
The end of her sentence she said under her breath.
"And Jack, the reason why I called of the engagement was because of your drinking habits. You were losing control. I thought maybe if I called it off, you would stop and try to get me back. But you didn't. And because of that I thought you chose the alcohol over me."
"Kate…"
"I'm not finished, Jack. I wasn't about to stay with you if you were going to become an alcoholic. I wasn't going to turn into my mother. The last thing I wanted after everything that happened in my life was to become the wife of an abusive, alcoholic husband. Not for me, and especially not for my son." Kate let out, tears streaming down her face.
Jack moved closer.
"I would NEVER hurt you Kate. I loved you so much and my jealousy got the best of me. I never knew you felt that way. I would have never touched a drop of booze if I knew this would happen. You are more important to me than anything."
Kate's green eyes shimmered as she looked up at him, tears sitting on her cheeks. She had nothing left to say. Everything was finally said. They stood there in silence. Jack then walked up to her and put his arms around her.
"I won't let anything happen to you. I still love you."
She looked up at him. Their lips grew closer. All she wanted was to be with him again. Feel his warm skin and kiss his soft lips. As they made contact, everything around them went dark. All they could concentrate on were each other.
Minutes passed and they broke away.
"I think we shouldn't rush back into anything. Just take it slow for now. I want to treat you like a lady, for once in my life." Jack smiled and gave her a peck on the cheek.
"I would love that." Kate said back, falling back into a silent reverie.