Summary: How Jack and Kate first decided to give it a go. Set between Eggtown and Something Nice... One-shot for now, maybe multi-chapter eventually.

Kate sat at her kitchen counter with Aaron helping him with his dinner. The house she had been able to afford upon returning with the Oceanic Six was spacious and comfortable, but far from the home she was hoping it would be. Still, she was glad to be free of her past crimes and ready to be a mother to Aaron. Right now, the infant was refusing to eat the steamed vegetables she had prepared for him.

"Come on baby, one bite."

He simply pushed the spoon out of his face. Finally she gave in and dropped the utensil onto the plate in defeat. She sighed, but had to laugh a little at the child's stubbornness.

Suddenly the phone rang. Kate stood and crossed the room to the wall phone.

"We're not done young man. You're not leaving that table until at least some of that gets eaten." she said, using her newly developed 'mom' voice.

"Hello?" she said, answering the phone.

"Kate?" came the unexpected voice of Jack on the other end.

"Jack?" she asked, even though she knew it was him. She was surprised to hear from him but didn't know why.

"Can you talk?" he asked. His tone was somewhat serious, so she brought the conversation into the living room.

"Yeah what's up?" she said, sitting down on the couch.

"Uh…Well…I've been thinking a lot about what you said and…I was just wondering…" he was struggling to get it out, unsure how to approach the subject. "I was wondering if I could ask you out for dinner or coffee some time."

Kate sighed, thinking back to their conversation outside the courthouse, the last time they had seen each other.

"Jack I told you…"

"I know but just listen…I think I've changed my mind."

Her breath caught. She knew what that meant.

"So, you…"

"I want to see him Kate. And I want to see you." There was a certainty in his voice that was new to Kate, he was confident and knew what he wanted. Somewhere inside of her she realized she had been waiting and hoping for this phone call since that last conversation.

"So…can I?" he asked after a long period of silence in which Kate attempted to grasp the potential of their reconnection.

"I thought you'd never ask." She could hear him smile on the other line, letting go a sigh of relief.

"Great…that's just great. How's Friday night?" he asked.

She thought for a moment, but knew that if she had any plans, she would simply cancel them.

"Friday sounds great. Why don't you come over here? We can make you dinner."

"That sounds perfect. I'll see you then, Kate."

"All right Jack…see you then." She hung up the phone. There was something exciting about all this. She could hear in the tone of his voice that he had the same hope as her, that maybe now, with the island behind them, they could go forward with their feelings for one another without the need for survival taking precedent. They could simply be.

Friday came sooner than Kate was expecting, and she was glad for it. She had fixed the meal entirely on her own including a roast, because she recalled that Jack, unlike her, was not a vegetarian. Aaron ambled around the room playing with a pair of fighter plane toys as Kate set the table in the hardly-used dining room of her house. When she had finally placed the last utensil in its position, the doorbell rang.

"Coming!" she called, stepping into the downstairs bathroom to make sure she looked put together. After coiffing her hair a bit, to make the curls particularly thick, she emerged and made for the front door.

Upon opening it, she saw Jack's back to her, but he quickly turned around.

"Hi there!" he said pleasantly, and the two shared a somewhat awkward kiss on the cheek.

"Come on in," she said chuckling. Jack entered and surveyed the surrounding rooms while Kate shut the door behind them.

"Here, I brought us some wine." He said, brandishing a bottle of red from under his arm. Kate took it from him and quickly examined it.

"Thanks, can I take your coat?"

"Oh that's okay, I got it. Where should I put it?" he said, removing his leather jacket. Kate sighed, picking her battles.

"There's a closet over there where you can hang it up." She said, pointing to a door at the edge of the living room. Jack nodded and made for it, but was stopped by Aaron suddenly bursting into the room with his toys.

"Whoa there!" Jack said as he almost collided with the boy.

"Aaron!" Kate called, "Be careful!"

"He's all right." Jack called back.

Kate entered the room and approached Jack, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Aaron this is my friend Jack. Why don't you say hi?"

"Hi" Aaron muttered. Jack laughed.

Jack knelt down to be level with the child. It was the first time he'd seen him since his father's funeral. The baby had become a blonde-haired blue-eyed toddler. Aaron had moved to the corner of the room where a large chest of toys sat. He was going through them to find something more amusing. Jack noticed that many of them were in fact planes of some kind.

"It's nice to meet you, Aaron." Jack said. "Do you like airplanes?"

Aaron simply nodded and did not make eye contact out of shyness. Jack laughed and stood up.

"I'm sorry, he gets shy around new people." Kate apologized.

"It's fine, Kate." Jack said with a smile. He looked back at Aaron, "…he's wonderful."

He turned to Kate with the hint of a tear in his eye. Kate smiled encouragingly, understanding what a big step this was for him.

"What do you think guys? Time for dinner?"

Aaron shouted an affirmative response and bolted for the kitchen. Jack and Kate followed him, laughing.

"Can I help with anything?" Jack asked, seeing the set-up in the dining room and the many dishes of food in the kitchen.

"If you could pour the wine, that'd be great. I just have to get the little man here set up."

She brought a high chair from the kitchen into the dining room, placing him between her and Jack, who sat at opposite ends.

"This is quite a spread Kate. It looks delicious." Jack said, examining the food as she continued to get Aaron situated.

"Don't speak too soon, I didn't get the chance to try anything."

"I'm sure it'll be great."

Kate reentered the kitchen and began carrying out some dishes. Jack followed suit with the wine.

"Go ahead and sit down, I just have to grab the roast out of the oven."

Jack stopped and sighed.

"You didn't."

"What?"

"Kate…please don't tell me you cooked an entire roast just for me."

"Well…I wanted tonight to be…I don't know, special."

They exchanged a look, silently asking the other if they were both taking the word "special" to mean the same thing. But they were too nervous and looked away quickly.

"You know I would have eaten anything you put in front of me." Jack said, "I don't want to be an imposition."

"It's not an imposition Jack. Besides, this one doesn't like the all veggie diet either. I have to learn somehow." She said, gesturing to Aaron as he munched on chicken nuggets. "Just have a seat, I'll be right back."

Jack acquiesced and sat at one end of the table. He watched amusedly as Aaron smeared his food in ketchup. Kate emerged from the kitchen at that moment and placed the roast near Jack.

"I hope I can get a doggy bag for this." Jack said. Kate laughed.

"Nope. I expect you to lick it bone dry." She said, playing along.

"Well it looks delicious, I'm sure I'll want to."

Kate sighed with embarrassed flattery and took her place at the other end of the table.

"You know, Aaron, I remember when you were born. Your mom was so..." Jack caught himself just in time. Kate looked up at him immediately, reminding him that to Aaron, Claire did not exist. Kate was his mother.

"I'm sorry," he said to Kate, mortified, "God…how stupid can I be?" he scolded himself.

"Jack it's fine, really." She reassured. He took a bite of the roast.

"Well?" she asked. Jack chewed and chewed.

"It's wonderful, Kate, really." he said, attempting to mask a grimace. It didn't help that he immediately reached for his wine.

"Is it really that bad?"

"No! Really! I probably will finish the whole thing!"

"Jack come on. You don't have to be polite."

"I'm not, honestly. It's really good."

Kate knew he would keep insisting, and even though it annoyed her somewhat, she couldn't help but smile to herself at how adamant Jack was at trying to make her feel better about herself. She missed this - she missed him.

"Mommy I'm finished!" Aaron said loudly.

"Okay baby, one second." She stood and took his plate, bringing it into the kitchen. In moments she returned with a red popsicle. Aaron's face lit up at the sight of it.

"Gimme gimme!" he exclaimed. Kate held it back.

"Ah ah – what do you say?"

"Thanks mommy." Aaron replied obediently.

"You're welcome." Kate handed him the popsicle and ruffled his hair. Jack looked on in complete awe of her. When she sat down, Kate noticed.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing, just…You're a real family, aren't you?" his voice was low and reverent. Seeing them together, it was all he'd ever wanted. Kate looked at him sympathetically; she knew in his mind he was thinking of how much time he had wasted by not coming to see them sooner. He could have had all this from the beginning.

They were all but silent for the remainder of the dinner. Afterward, Kate took Aaron to bed and joined Jack in the living room for some more wine. The mood was subdued. There were candles lit about the house, low lighting. Jack sat reclined on the couch with Kate in a nearby armchair.

"He's amazing, Kate." Jack said soon after she returned from Aaron's room.

"He looks like Claire." she replied, enjoying the fact that with Jack she didn't have to lie about who she was.

"Yeah…but you really did it, Kate. You're more of a mother to that boy than most mothers I've seen."

She smiled. The two remained silent for several minutes. Kate was the first to speak again.

"So…are you glad you came by?"

Jack felt a swell of emotion inside him. He wanted to tell her that he never wanted to leave, that he wanted to sit on this couch and replay this night over and over for the rest of his life. But he simply nodded.

"Why did you wait so long?"

He gathered his thoughts for a long moment, preparing himself for vulnerability.

"I was afraid I'd ruin it."

"What?"

"Did you know I was married once?"

"Jack, I don't…" Kate was confused.

"Her name was Sarah. She was a patient of mine. I thought she'd never walk again, but…I fixed her. Or at least she got fixed. But it didn't work out."

"What happened?"

"What I knew would happen. No matter how hard I tried, I could never put her first. It was always my patients, always the people who needed my help. I guess I forgot that she needed me too…she ended up leaving me for someone else."

Jack swigged down the rest of his wine. Kate stared at him like one would a wounded animal, helpless and heartbroken.

"But that was before the Island…and honestly everything from back then just feels like a dream now. Almost like it wasn't real." he said.

Kate came and sat beside him on the couch. Jack adjusted himself so he was sitting up straight, looking deep into her eyes. She took his hand in hers, on the verge of tears.

"This is real, Jack. Everything here is real. Believe me, I'm scared too. The people in my life, the people I've cared about…terrible things have happened to them and mostly because of me. But if we let that fear take over we'll never be happy. We'll never even have a chance," she paused, letting out a breath of a laugh to herself at a sudden memory, "Maybe we should count to five."

Jack shook his head.

"It's not that simple, Kate."

"It is that simple, you're the one who told me it was."

"Well that was different." Jack stood, anxious and distressed. "I don't want to hurt you."

She stood and moved slowly toward him, bringing her hands to his face.

"Don't you think we owe it to ourselves to at least try?" she pleaded.

He saw the hope in her eyes and so desperately wanted to feel it in his own, but he was crippled by his fear of failure. He knew that if he couldn't get it right with her this time, he would never have another chance.

"I'm sorry, Kate. I don't know if I'm ready yet."

Kate removed her hands from his face and stood bereft before him, frustrated and exhausted.

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have come."

It broke Jack's heart to hear her voice so bitter and angry, but he knew it was for the best. His only regret was leading her to believe he was a new man. Despite his best efforts, there were demons inside him that were simply too powerful for her to help, he was better off alone.

Jack nodded and followed Kate to the door. She didn't say another word to him and stared at the ground.

"I'm sorry." He said, but she slammed the door in his face before he could finish. Standing on the stoop, he could feel his eyes swell with tears. What had he just done? It was if merely stepping out of the house forced him to realize he had probably just walked out on the best thing he'd ever had.

Suddenly, he saw a light turn on in an upstairs bedroom, and watched as Kate soothed Aaron from a nightmare. She lifted him out of his bed and paced the room, gently rocking him and quieting his frightened tears. After a few minutes, she put him back to bed and turned the light off.

Seeing them was the final wake up call. This was it. This was the only chance he had left to prove himself as a provider and compassionate and loving man. Kate saw the potential in him, she had always seen it, and if anyone was going to help him live up to himself, it was her. If he turned his back on it now, he would never forgive himself. He only hoped it wasn't already too late as he approached the doorbell once again.

Moments later, Kate yanked the door open, knowing it was him and frustrated by that fact.

"What is it Jack?"

Without a word, he took a brave step forward and kissed her. At first she protested, but quickly gave in, stepping back into the house and taking him with her.

"One," he said as they parted briefly, "…Two," Kate smiled against his lips, "…Three…Four…Five," he continued, placing kisses between each number.

She rested her forehead against his, grinning and crying with happiness.

"See? I told you it would work." She said. Jack laughed and kissed her again. Within seconds, she deepened the kiss and began moving toward the bedroom, removing items of Jack's clothing as they went.

Later, as the pair lay spent together in bed, Jack thought back to earlier in the evening. How could he have considered letting this pass him by? He lay on his back with his arm around Kate who rested her head against his chest. She traced lines across his abdomen and examined his tattoos with her fingertips absentmindedly.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"Nothing really just…I don't think I've ever let myself be this happy before."

She looked up at him and put her hand to his face, reassuring him that she was real, that all this was really happening, and that she too had never been this happy. They kissed once more, sweet and sincere, and slowly drifted off to sleep in one another's arms, eager to begin a new life in the morning.

A/N: I'm thinking of turning this into a multi-chapter and taking it to the end of season 4 and then maybe a few later chapters about her life off the island after Jack has died. So...stay tuned for that! Thanks for reading!