Sorry x a million but hopefully this Chapter will finally make up for that. It's here Shanna lol.
On a sidenote Foxy's play is awesome and it was really weird seeing him in the flesh. He looks taller lol. Anyway a stellar performance from both him and Olivia and I can't wait till I go see it again in a week's time.
He had the evening planned to a tee. Dinner, flowers, champagne, candles and most importantly the one item that would not only commemorate the significance of this night but also his relationship with a woman he'd grown to befriend and love.
Knock, knock
The sound finally brought his fidgeting to a standstill and with one last in taken breath, he moved to answer the door. Mind prepared and heart hopeful.
Neither was in need however when he opened the door and saw who it was.
They simply stared at each other. Seemingly saying something through it, Claire guessed, but when it got too excruciating she decided to end it.
"I'm gonna go call Charlie and see what's keeping him." Claire announced, standing up, as did Kate, and without any further word moving to leave, calming a stirring Isabella on the way out of the Station.
Now left alone, it finally gave them the chance to talk and seeing as Kate appeared more focused on the ground beneath her, Jack broke the silence.
"So…" he started out, still hesitant of how to act or what to say after what had happened.
Half coherent of his effort to make conversation, Kate briefly acknowledged it with visual focus before allowing herself to be overridden by fear once again.
"I just wanted to say…." He continued and simply finished with saying, "I'm sorry."
Looking up, she saw that his eyes were trained on her baby bump and immediately assumed the obvious. Her heart breaking in the process of being forced to do so.
"Oh." She uttered, eliciting a bitter huff to mask the hurt, but unfortunately she couldn't do the same for the tears that were already threatening to spill.
"I need to get out of here", she told herself, physically following through with it but she was stopped by the touch of his hand. His fingers easily coiling around her slender wrist in a firm yet gentle grip and like the force of some trigger she wordlessly obeyed.
"Kate, I didn't mean…." Jack moved to explain, but Kate didn't give him a chance to finish.
"No, it's fine." She interrupted. "I understand." She added, nodding in slight agreement and focusing her glistening eyes on anything else but him.
With that said she thought he would let go but he didn't. If anything it made him more adamant to clarify an obvious misunderstanding with the truth.
"I'm not sorry about this." He firmly confessed, placing his free hand against her stomach, "I'm only sorry that I wasn't there for you."
She didn't know what to say after that. She'd never seen him so determined and the fact that it was about their baby only made her want to suddenly kick herself for questioning his acceptance in the first place.
"I lov….." he started to say it but Kate placed her finger against his lips, then silencing him with her own lips, much to his surprise. However he spent less time analyzing it and more reciprocating with a matching fervour. His arms soon wrapping around her waist to achieve the very extent of that possibility and Kate couldn't help but smile at his insatiability for her.
It wasn't until they heard a passing Officer muttering "get a room", that they decided to follow through, yet Jack still held onto her; not that Kate wanted him to anyway.
"I never stopped." Jack voiced, "loving you." he added in a bid to extinguish any confusion but Kate could see what he meant and she only returned his sentiment with another kiss, followed by saying….
"Me neither." She admitted, rousing a warm smile out of Jack which soon dissolved when realization of where they were caught up with him.
"What's wrong?" Kate asked.
His head still hung in shame and it wasn't until Kate repeated her question, this time gauging his reaction that he finally came out with it.
"I-I didn't mean to hurt him."
"Hurt who?" Kate inquired, frowning with confusion.
"I…." Jack hesitated again, "I came to your Mom's house yesterday and saw you with this guy and I thought….." he explained, breaking off when Kate suddenly started giggling.
"What?" Jack questioned, confused to say the least.
"Sorry, it's just if it's who I think it is then you have nothing to worry about." Kate assured, still failing to ease Jack's confusion and sensing it Kate continued on.
"If anything it's me who should be worried." she added with amusement and Jack's wide eyed expression a minute later was enough convincing for Kate of realisation.
"So, what did he say to you?" Kate then asked and lightly added, "Or do I even want to know."
"He cares a lot about you but in all honesty my jealousy didn't see it that way at the time, so I unfortunately let my fists do the talking." Jack admitted, reverting to his shame once again but Kate was there to bring some resolution to the situation, or so he thought.
"Oh." She instead stated in light of the admission and Jack undoubtedly took it as a sign of tell tale condemnation. A fate he felt he deserved after reacting so viciously.
"Hey, we all make mistakes and I know you're a good man and would never intentionally hurt anyone." Kate quickly reassured, gauging his reaction and hoping it would soon transform into self belief.
"You're amazing you know that." Jack exclaimed, astounded by her continued belief in him.
"I try." Kate shrugged it off, widening Jack's smile in response yet Kate could tell that there was something still on his mind.
"You're Mom." He revealed no longer focusing on Kate anymore but on what or more who was now standing behind her.
"Katherine." A stern, familiar voice instructed "Get away from him."
As expected Kate failed to follow through with the order, but Jack cowered with fear considerably, especially when Kate saw that her Mother wasn't alone.
"Tom? Are you…."
"You see this. You see what he did." Diane pointed out, glaring at Jack and roughly grabbing a lightly bruised Tom by the arm to show Kate even though Tom clearly didn't want to be there or used as a piece of evidence for that matter.
"I can Mom and it was a misunderstanding." Kate argued, defending Jack and the situation.
"Is that what you told her?" Diane snapped at Jack, annoying Kate even more.
Instead of dignifying the accusation with a response, Kate turned to focus on Jack instead and suggested to him, "Let's get out of here."
What infuriated Diane more was when Kate punctuated her suggestion with a firm kiss placed against Jack's slightly frozen lips.
With that she took hold of his hand and proceeded to walk out of the Station, but Diane stopped her.
"Don't do this." Diane pleaded, almost, yet Kate still ignored her continuing to walk away.
Still adamant as ever Diane quickly followed Kate outside the Station and in a fit of rage shouted, "don't make me do something I'm gonna regret again!"
It wasn't so much the threat but more mention of the word "again" that got Kate's attention.
"What do you mean 'again'?" Kate immediately questioned after turning around to face her Mother.
"What?" Diane replied, clearly playing dumb to dismiss what she'd just exposed.
"Just spit it out Mom, what did you do?"
A little taken aback by Kate's attitude, Diane decided to go with voicing her concern in the end.
"All I care about is you sweetie and all I'm trying to point out is that you and Jack live in different worlds now. Would you want to put a baby through that, especially after what happened to Lilly?" Diane stressed.
"So you'd rather have this baby live without it's Father then?" Kate challenged, but it was Jack who wordlessly demanded attention with a revelation the next minute.
"It was you." Was all Jack said, looking straight at Diane with an expression of shock. He'd not only kept that letter but remembered every single word in an attempt to interpret any other meaning than what it was suggesting.
Seeing everyone, other than Diane, looking back at him in confusion he added, "You wrote that letter."
"What letter?" Kate asked, unknowingly giving Jack the evidence needed to support his claim.
A claim which was undoubtedly a fact judging by the lack of a defence from Diane.
"What letter? What the hell is going on?" Kate repeated, louder in tone to finally get an answer from either Jack or Diane. It was Jack who volunteered in the end.
"The day you left I went to your apartment and I found this letter written by you." Jack explained, then casting a brief glare at Diane and saying, "or at least I thought it was you."
"What did it say?" Kate inquired.
"It doesn't matter now. What matters is how far your Mother would go to keep you under her thumb." Jack spat at Diane who just acknowledged the accusation with absurdity.
"That's ridiculous." Diane stated, letting out a laugh to convey the extent of it.
"Is it?" Jack challenged, squaring up to her in what he felt was a long overdue confrontation. "All you ever wanted was what made you happy and you're still doing it."
"How?"
"How? Are you kidding me?" Jack exclaimed, baffled at her denial and all he did next was focus on a cowering Tom behind her, saying…...
"It's comforting to know that at least someone was looking out for Kate when you took her away from me."
For the first time, in probably ever, Diane had nothing to say and Kate didn't know what to say in light of what her Mother HAD done.
Feeling he'd said enough to make a point, Jack made his way back to a still speechless Kate. Wrapping his right arm around her shoulders, he brought her snugly into him and with a kiss placed on the side of her head he looked down at her and warmly suggested, "let's go home."
Without looking back, Diane watched her daughter walk away and she knew it was all her fault.
He thought about what James had said yet refused to believe it.
Marc believed that he and Kathy had been through enough to still be living in the past.
"Marc? Where are you?" he then heard Kathy call out and with clearing his head of any residual doubt, he went into the living room to meet up with Kathy.
"Mmmmm, what's all this?" Kathy asked, surprised not only by the kiss Marc had just plastered her with but also with the rather romantic display of candles decorating the room.
"I just wanna show you how much you mean to me." Marc explained.
"And…" Kathy stressed with amusement, knowing there was more.
"And I made us dinner." Marc revealed, really surprising Kathy now.
"Okay, what did you break this time?" she joked and he simply shared in her smile before escorting her into the dining room.
Dinner had gone off well, but with each passing minute Marc grew more nervous up until he decided the time was right to pop the question.
"Kath…" Marc started, taking hold of her hand, kissing it and then continuing on, "we've certainly been through a lot these past couple of months, but I wouldn't trade it for anything."
"Ditto." Kathy agreed with a smile.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is would you like to do it for a little while longer." Marc added and before Kathy could fathom what was happening, Marc made his way to her side and went down one knee, searching his pocket for the ring and then presenting it to her, along with his heart.
"Will you marry me?"
"I…" Kathy could barely find the will to say, though the next words to come out of her mouth threw Marc completely and resurfaced his worry along with it.
"I can't."
Oooooooh now what could the reason be? Wanna find out?