Thanks as always to everyone who read and especially reviewed. You guys are all so sweet. :)

Chapter 17

"So much for separate rooms," Kate joked the next morning.

After she'd assured Jack that she was ready to move forward, they'd made love for the first time in almost six months. When she woke again hours later, he was still in her bed, his body wrapped around hers as though everything since that fateful night at his apartment had all been some kind of terrible dream.

"I can leave if you want," he deadpanned, but before he could get too far away from her, she grabbed his wrist with both hands, using it to pull him back into bed with her, where he belonged.

Ever since she'd left the island without him, she'd dreamt of getting the chance to be with him like this again. Now that she was, she was determined to enjoy it as much as possible. "Don't even think about it."

He let out a soft chuckle, settling back onto the pillow beside hers, and she wriggled closer to him, snuggling into the warmth of his chest.

"I can't believe this is really happening," she told him as he replaced his arms around her, drawing her as close as their son would allow. "I can't believe you're really here."

He might not be the same man that she'd loved, and lost, but some things – the taste of his mouth, the scent of his skin, the weight of his body against hers – hadn't changed.

"So how does last night rank against our greatest hits?" he asked her, his tone equal parts playful and serious.

She couldn't blame him for being curious about that part of their relationship when so far he only had that one melancholy memory to draw on. She raised her head so that she could meet his eyes. "It kind of feels like the first time again."

"I know exactly what you mean," he agreed, and for once, she felt like they were both on the same page.

She wanted to tell him that she loved him like she should have before, but she didn't want him to feel pressured into saying it back, so she settled for kissing him instead, and this time when their lips met it was with renewed tenderness.

"So I have another question for you," he said when he finally released her. He lifted his hand from where it rested in the small of her back, examining the design that snaked over his bicep. "What's the story with all this ink? Was I one of those hardcore spinal surgeons?"

She couldn't help but smile as she remembered how much she'd enjoyed teasing him about how out of character it was back when they were still getting to know each other. What was it that Charlie had called it? Verbal copulation. Even then, everyone could see that they belonged together except them.

"You're gonna have to ask yourself that."

She could see that he didn't believe her. "You're telling me that in all the years you've known me, you never once asked about my tattoos?"

"Oh, I asked," she assured him. "You just never wanted to tell me. You didn't wanna put it out there, you said. The most I could ever get out of you was that you got them after your divorce."

Even that was like getting blood out of a stone. Either he was embarrassed or it was just too painful to talk about; whatever his reasoning, she had long since accepted that that was one chapter of his life that he wasn't willing to share with her.

He studied her with a thoughtful look. "Why didn't I ever get one for you?"

It wasn't until he said it that she realised they'd never gotten around to talking about their break up. They'd fought about it, sure, and said a bunch of things they didn't mean, until circumstances forced them to call a fragile truce, but the one thing they hadn't done was have an honest conversation.

"I don't know. Maybe because we were never really over." Her eyes flicked down to where their son was cradled between them. "Obviously neither of us did a very good job of moving on."

"I'm sorry for what I said about wanting to wipe it all away," he told her, "but I was right about one thing."

"What's that?" she asked even though she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"After everything we've been through, we deserve the chance to start over."

"I'd like that," she agreed, sealing their agreement with another gentle kiss.

After a moment, he pulled away, reaching over to retrieve his boxers from the tangle of clothing on the floor. "Why don't I go fix us something to eat? Then when I get back we can talk about what we're gonna do today."

"Or we could just stay here," she insisted.

"If we're gonna do that, we're both gonna need to refuel," he told her, stealing one last kiss before he headed downstairs to make breakfast.

When he was gone, Kate burrowed back under the covers, grinning to herself as she reflected on the night's events. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this optimistic about the future; not since the last time they were together, before everything in her life began to implode.

The sound of her cell vibrating on the nightstand pulled her out of her thoughts. She reached for it to see who was calling, smiling at the picture of Claire and Aaron that lit up the screen.

"Hey, Claire," she greeted her, settling back against the headboard. "What's up?"

"You sound different. Happier."

"That's because I am happy."

"So I guess you and Jack finally worked things out, huh?"

"You could say that," Kate agreed, deciding that it was best not to go into too much detail. She and Claire might be close, but Jack was still her brother, after all.

"Good for you. I know how hard it's been for you without him."

Kate could hear doors opening and closing as he moved around the kitchen. "Not that I haven't missed you guys, but is there a reason you called, Claire?" she asked, eager to get off the phone so they could continue their reunion. Whatever it was, it must be important for her to interrupt their vacation.

"Actually, there is."

Jack reappeared juggling a breakfast tray loaded up with coffee, juice and other morning staples as she was wrapping up the call.

"Who was that?"

"That was Claire," she explained, dropping her phone onto the bed. "She says we need to go home."

"Why? Is Aaron okay?"

"Aaron's fine."

She relieved him of his tray, setting it down beside her so that she could take his hands.

"We have to go home, because there's someone there who can tell us what happened to you."

They arrived back at Kate's house later that day to find a large Hispanic man Jack recognised from his dream sitting on the rug with Claire. He was helping Aaron push his cars around an imaginary track, but he scrambled to his feet when he saw Kate, rushing forward to embrace her.

It wasn't until he let her go that he seemed to notice how much fuller her figure had become in the months since they'd last met. "You're… You're having a baby?"

"I am," she agreed, radiating a quiet joy that made Jack wish they were alone so he could kiss her again. "It's good to see you, Hurley."

"A baby, wow, that's awesome." Hurley hugged her again with exaggerated caution, as though she were made of glass. Then his brow furrowed as a new question occurred to him. "But who's the, you know… the dad? It's not Sawyer, is it?"

Jack should have been jealous that their friend even thought it was a possibility, but he couldn't knowing that she'd chosen him all over again.

"That would be me," he announced, coming up behind him. "Hi, Hurley."

If anything, Hurley looked even more thrilled to see him than he was to see Kate. "Jack! You made it!"

Jack was almost bowled over as Hurley launched himself at him, crushing him in a fierce bear hug.

"If you're here, and you guys are having a baby, does that mean you're back together?" he asked, glancing between them with a hopeful look.

Jack slipped his arm around Kate's waist, resting his hand on her hip. "As a matter of fact, we kind of are," he agreed, beaming at her, and she beamed back.

They still needed to work out the details – particularly where their son was concerned – but for now, he was happy to take each day as it came, and he sensed that she was too.

"So it worked?"

"What worked?" Jack asked him. All Kate had been able to tell him was that Hurley was somehow responsible for the fact that he'd survived.

"Maybe you should sit down or something. You too, Kate. I don't want you to, like, go into labour."

Jack smiled at how little their friend knew about childbirth. "I'm not sure it works like that, Hurley," he assured him, but he led Kate over to the couch anyway.

Hurley settled himself in an armchair opposite them while they waited for Claire to hustle Aaron upstairs.

"So what's this about, Hurley?" Jack prompted him once his sister had returned and everyone was seated. "What is it you wanted me to know?"

"Kate told you about what happened? How you got stabbed by Evil Locke?" Hurley checked.

Jack felt her reach for his hand then, as much for her own comfort, he guessed, as his. As difficult as that story was for him to hear, he knew that it had been much harder for her to tell, since she was the one who had to live with that memory.

"When I found you in the jungle with Vincent, you were, like, dead," Hurley continued, his cheerful demeanour slipping. "But then I figured out a way to fix it."

"What do you mean, you 'fixed it'?" Kate asked him, glancing over at Jack to see what he made of this. "How is that even possible?"

"You remember the temple where we brought Sayid?"

Both women nodded.

Jack shot Kate a puzzled look, trying to remember if she had mentioned it before.

"Sayid got shot, when we went back," she explained. "He would've died, but we took him to the Others so they could heal him."

"But then he died anyway," Jack pointed out, thinking of the dream that wasn't really a dream at all.

"Yeah, but not from the gunshot," Hurley agreed.

"So you took him to the Temple, and then what?" Kate asked, steering the conversation back on track.

"I didn't know how much time we had, so I ran all the way there," Hurley continued, picking his story back up where he'd left off. "When we got there, I put you in the water like we did with Sayid.

"Don't worry, I didn't, like, drown you or anything," he added, seeming to think this point needed clarifying. "I pulled you out as soon as you started coughing."

Jack drew in a sharp breath. "You're saying I woke up?" he pressed, wondering why he had no recollection of this either. If he was suffering from a form of PTSD like his doctors had suggested, surely his memory would have returned once the immediate threat to his life had passed?

"Yeah, but you were pretty out of it. You didn't know who I was, or who you were."

His amnesia must have something to do with the water, he realised. You didn't invoke dark forces like that without offering something of yourself in return; he wondered if his memories were the cost of doing business, the price he'd paid for his new lease on life.

"That explains how he's alive, but how did he get all the way to Tunisia?" Claire insisted. "I mean, it's not exactly near the island, is it?"

He directed his answer to Kate. "I thought if I could just get him to you, you could help him remember, so I used that wheel – you know, the one that lets you, like, teleport off the island?"

He turned back to Jack, looking sheepish as he added, "I put a note in your pocket with your name and address, and where you worked and stuff, but I guess it must've got lost."

Jack glanced over at Kate in time to catch her stricken expression, and he knew she must be thinking of all those agonising months she'd lived with the belief that she would never see him again. He wished she didn't have to go through that, but he couldn't deny that it had all worked out for the best.

"I can't thank you enough for everything you did for me, Hurley." Jack squeezed Kate's hand and she flashed him a tearful smile in response. "For us, but if I was dead, or almost dead, when you found me, why wouldn't you just let me go?"

He flashed back to the memory he'd reclaimed the night before, of their disastrous submarine voyage. Sayid was gone, blown to hell, while Sun and Jin lay together somewhere at the bottom of the sea. Then there was Juliet, Charlie, Ana, Libby, Shannon, Boone… He was far from the first member of their group to fall victim to the island, only none of his friends had been so lucky.

Hurley stared at him as if this should be obvious. "Because if anyone deserved to go home, Jack, it was you."

It looks like most of you already figured out that it was Hurley who saved Jack. While re-watching season four, I realised I should have factored in the time jump that happens when you use the frozen donkey wheel to leave the island, but I'm pretty sure no one wanted to see Kate grieving for Jack for three years, so it's probably just as well I forgot!

Next chapter: Jack reacts to Hurley's story, and he and Kate discuss what it means for their relationship...