It's late morning a week later and Kate's out picking fruit and has climbed half way up a tree in the jungle.
The morning sickness has passed and she's got her backpack half filled with fruit when she starts to feel suddenly dizzy.
She's starting to make her way down the tree when she loses her grip on it and tumbles down to the floor, hitting it with a sharp thud.
It's not until an hour later that Sun starts to worry that Kate hasn't returned for lunch – when she would normally be back in time to help prepare the food.
She goes to Jack first off.
"Jack have you seen Kate? I think she went picking fruit but she's normally back by now," she states.
Jack opens his mouth then shuts it again, and shakes his head. He remembers telling Kate to stop going into the jungle alone – but he can't say he's altogether surprised to hear she hasn't listened to him.
Jack has a fair idea of a few of the areas where Kate goes fruit picking and he quickly picks up a backpack with emergency medical equipment and slings it over his shoulder.
"I'll go and check on her," he tells Sun and he's quick to exit the beach.
As he makes his way into the jungle, his mind starts to hum over the possibilities for why Kate's late, and he doesn't like any of the reasons.
Maybe she's fainted again. Maybe she's throwing up and can't get back. Maybe she's tripped and injured herself. Or maybe worst of all she's been taken the way that Claire was taken when she was pregnant…
He hopes it's none of the above and she's just lost track of time, but he needs to find her and make sure she's safe.
He tracks her down half an hour later in the second place he looks, and his heart skips a beat at what he finds.
Kate's on the ground, barely conscious, with overripe squished fruit laying around her.
Jack can't help but feel anger flare in him for a second when he figures she's been tree climbing again, but it's gone when he gets in closer to Kate and sees that there's blood on the back of her pants.
"Kate," he says, and he's starting to feel desperate as he checks her pulse and her temperature.
"It's me Jack. Did you fall?" he asks urgently.
Kate opens her eyes and looks at him briefly then her eyes slide away. "It hurts Jack," she moans softly.
Jack runs his hand over her forehead and smooths her hair. "I know. I'm sorry. Did you fall Kate?" he tries again.
Kate nods slightly, but is too weak to reply.
"Where does it hurt, Kate," Jack asks her gently, one hand holding hers tightly while his other hand is still in her hair, running small strokes over her hair.
Kate moans again. "My tummy."
Jack nods, and his heart contracts sharply. He wasn't expecting anything else because to all appearances it looks as if Kate is having a miscarriage, but it still hurts to have it confirmed.
He starts speaking to her in a low, soothing voice, trying to give her a confidence he doesn't feel inside. Because inside he feels terrified that he is out of his depth, because this is far from his speciality area, and he's worried that in a worst case scenario something could go horribly, impossibly wrong and he could lose Kate.
Jack bends over and starts speaking into Kate's ear, "Kate I'm going to get you back to the hatch. You don't need to walk I can carry you. And then I can get you some painkillers and you won't feel bad anymore. You can go to sleep and when you wake up you'll be feeling better. Ok?"
His breath tickles her ears and there's something warm and reassuring about having Jack here with her.
Inside her jumbled mind though Kate feels guilty, and she opens her mouth to speak.
"Jack, I'm sorry," she says, and Jack has to lean over closer to hear her speak.
"You don't need to be sorry Kate," Jack tells her, running a hand over her cheek softly.
Kate breathes out and opens her eyes for a minute, while her eyelids flicker.
"I'm sorry I was climbing Jack," she says gravely.
At first he was angry with her, but by now he's so far beyond angry it's not even funny. All he wants now is for her to be live, to not be in pain, to recover and to be happy once more.
"Kate, stop it," he scolds her gently. "You don't need to be sorry," and he emphasises it by placing a kiss on her forehead. "You only need to get better."
Kate loses concentration and drifts off again while Jack keeps talking to her.
"Now I'm going to pick you up, and you can put your arms around me and I'll get you back to the hatch," he starts to lift her and there's a sense of relief once he has her secure in his arms.
It takes him a further fifteen minutes to get her back to the hatch, and Jack's heart is beating fast and loud in his ears as he travels back.
His heart is urging him to run back with her, but his brain prevails on him to slow down, because he doesn't want to drop her or trip with her in his arms.
When he gets back to the hatch, Locke and Hurley are there on hatch duty.
"Get out," he orders them, sweat glistening on his forehead as he stands with Kate cradled in his arms, and he's never been so rude before.
Then he barks at Hurley. "Go get Sun and bring her back here, but only Sun."
Hurley stares at Kate in Jack's arms. "Dude is Kate alright, has she been shot?" he asks, seeing the blood stains on them both.
Jack ignores them both and hurries to get Kate into the bed.
A minute later Hurley and Locke are still watching them both, and Jack turns to look at them both.
"Get out. Go," he barks again.
Hurley blinks then nods, and runs off towards the beach, while Locke follows after.
Seven hours later Jack is beside himself.
He's been sitting with Kate as she slips in and out of consciousness for the past couple of hours. He's dosed her up with pain medication and it may be maker her feel better but it's not helping ease his heartache.
Sun's been helping him with clean sheets and towels, and providing him with morale support.
And it's no fucking good, because she is still bleeding.
He doesn't know how long this should take. He's only dealt with two miscarriages before when he was a junior doctor and they seemed straightforward and were over in a few hours.
He knows that the risk to Kate should be low, that there must be at least a 95% chance she'll recover from this with no complications, as nature takes it's course.
But it's Kate,so his mind dwells on the chance that she might lose too much blood. Or that there are complications he's not equipped to deal with, because he's out of his depth in something so far away from spinal surgery it's not even funny.
He knows that this was what she wanted, what she asked for, but it feels so painful to think that there's a possibility, however faint, that he could lose her entirely, here today.
So he sits with one hand tangled in her hair, and his other hand interlaced with her clammy palm and watches her so intensely, as if just by pure willpower he can breathe life back into her, and get her to stop bleeding, open her eyes and be whole again.
And while she's sleeping he talks to her in a low voice that Sun can't hear from the kitchen.
"Kate sweetheart, I know you can hear me. Baby, I know you're going to get better. You're going to get so much better, and you're going to be great. You're going to go back to beating me at golf again in no time."
Sun comes through from the kitchen and pauses in the doorway.
She doesn't want to embarrass Jack so she pretends she can't hear what Jack is saying to Kate. She pretends she doesn't see the way he reverently touches her hair and her cheek or the way he clutches at her hand like a desperate man would grasp for water in the desert.
But she can't unsee or unhear what's she's witnessed here today.
She can't pretend, because it is impossible not to know, that Jack isn't 100%, undeniably irrevocably in love with Kate.
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