Epilogue

As promised here it finally is guys and thanks so much for the reviews whether it be signed or anonymous, THANK YOU ;)

P.S. I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm thinking of ending my Jate AU fic "Choices" with the newest chapter I had posted a few days ago. The reason for it being that it doesn't seem to be very popular with you guys which moi kind of understands. Anyway all we would have had for the next few chapters was some makeup jex, Jack and Kate's wedding with a little twist (the honeymoon as well lol), the birth of the third jaby, Jill's return, plus a few familiar faces from the island with possibly life changing surprises but ah well……

Enjoy

"Any change?" an immensely worried Kate asked for what felt like the thousandth time and Jack was forced to give her nothing but the same answer in return.

It had been two weeks now and Aaron's condition had worsened considerably leaving Jack to really consider what Claire had more or less demanded for him to do. However being a man of science willed him to rely on that rather than what he medically classed as a delusion.

Or was it , he thought to himself as he gazed at the extremely pale face of a boy who was more livelier than ever two weeks ago, especially when Jack moved back in with them seeing it as the best way to monitor Aaron's rather erratic illness, but he did it for the more obvious reason as well and Kate definitely wasn't one to complain. Her baby needed a Father and so did Aaron.

It's the only way.

What exactly did she mean by that? He always wondered trying to search for some kind of logical answer, but Aaron's condition itself didn't seem to be medically logical, in the sense where he had a lot of symptoms that didn't connect. At times the little guy was right as rain and other times he grew so weak that he could barely stand. Unfortunately the effects of this sickness seemed to strengthen and without any sense of hesitation he was immediately admitted into hospital the next day, only to then be told that it was some kind of rare fever not completely unusual for a child of his age to catch, but never the less the only thing they could do was wait it out and hope that it would subside.

Aaron of course made a fuss about staying in the restricted confines of his hospital bed, and with some begging and reassurance from the Doctor's that it was okay, the little guy was finally granted his wish to be able to go home.

Though what seemed like a good option at the time became a considerably regrettable one over the weeks when Aaron's condition failed to subside in the slightest.

"What am I going to do?" Kate mumbled to herself feeling completely responsible for not taking heed of the tell tale signs that this was a bad idea. However her self berating was brought to a complete and immediate halt when Jack pulled her into his arms, softly soothing and assuring her that he would value the solemn oath he had made to keep them safe no matter what, and that went for the baby growing inside of her as well.

"Why don't you go rest for a bit and I'll keep an eye on him." Jack then suggested suddenly realising that all this worry wasn't really good for her and the baby.

"I can't leave him. It's all my fault that this is happening and I should have never….." she started babbling through her tears breaking Jack heart even more, but he managed to keep his emotions in check for the time being and after continuously assuring her that Aaron would be fine and well taken care of she gave in with a prolonged sigh to show the very extent of her fatigue.

After tucking her in safely much to her slight amusement, he slowly closed the door to her room and retrieved hold of his mobile, then punching in a number he was secretly issued in case of an emergency such as this.

"Hi, I was just……" Jack barely had the time to voice his concern before the voice on the other end of the line beat him to the punch saying……

"It's happening isn't it."

"Look we don't even know if the island is related to all of this." Jack shot back defending his reasons for ignoring this crazed man's warning at the time.

"But Claire is and no matter what you might think of me we both know that Aaron was meant to be with her instead." The man explained feeling like he'd been over this a thousand times already, but thankfully his patience and determination to make the Good Doctor see the bigger picture hadn't weaned out yet.

"Kate is…."

"Capable yes but she plays no part in Aaron's destiny or Claire's for that matter, but you do Jack and sooner or later you're gonna have to accept it." The man simply explained to Jack hoping that he would think a little outside the box and consider such a thing as fate.

Whenever this man talked to him about destiny he always felt like he was talking with Locke again, but the only difference was that this man was a lot more determined and forceful in his warnings of what he supposedly foresaw. Still he wasn't overly convinced that such things existed in the world, but with what happened in his life on and off the island, he couldn't help but feel that maybe there was a higher power somewhere working to keep the balance in order as Jeremy constantly put it.

"And what if I don't, what if I think that this destiny thing is a whole bunch of crap?" he had the audacity to ask, knowing he could probably lose the one possible answer to Aaron's cure, but at the same time he had to be sure that this Jeremy guy was legit in what he was saying.

"Well we'll just have to see won't we." The man simply said clearly attempting to convey who the right one here was, and before he could hang up he decided to issue Jack with one last piece of information.

"Oh and Jack you might wanna consider your son's welfare as well because you never know when it might change at the click of a finger." Jeremy added and then hung up leaving Jack in a complete state of shock for so many reasons. The good kind being that he was going to father a son and the bad one being the danger his son would have to endure as a result of his stubbornness.

For once in his life there was something he couldn't fix and it frustrated him to no end, but in some ways he used this to mask the true fear he felt at being put in this kind of position. Plus the very mention of his unborn son being put in any kind of danger amplified his worry even more.

He was split between wanting to tell Kate and keeping her in the dark for her own benefit. Either way he knew that it wouldn't make a lick of difference but it would at least give him some time to figure things out and maybe avert what was apparently coming in the process.

Weeks had passed and all he earned from it was a decision. A decision that could potentially jeopardise things in the bargain, particularly between him and Kate, but in effect he was doing this for them, for their future.

He decided that today was the day he was gonna come clean with everything. Who Jeremy was and what he was trying to find out, Aaron's real reason for falling ill, and more importantly the risk of their own child's future.

He spent the majority of his shift mentally rehearsing what he would say and by the end of it he saw that it was time.

(Meanwhile)

Thinking of herself and her needs had become a thing of the past since Aaron's condition had worsened and with no change or hope for a cure she was left feeling more useless than ever.

Knock knock

She grew confused by the sound at first being that she wasn't expecting anyone apart from Jack and he had his own key. Regardless of that however she answered it and was faced with a middle aged man she vaguely remembered seeing before, but couldn't seem to recollect from where.

"Can I help you?" she asked as she still kept a majority of her form behind the door to mainly convey her weariness of this person. His very presence sending shivers down her spine, especially when he said the words…….

"I think you know Kate."

He pulled into the driveway a half hour later, immediately knitting his eyebrows in confusion when he spotted what looked like the very man he had been trying to keep away from Kate all this time leaving their house, obviously suggesting that he was simply too late. Never the less he played it cool but braced himself for the worst when he finally walked through that front door and unfortunately it seemed the worst was yet to come when he came face to face with a weary pair of green eyes.

"How long have you known?" Kate asked in a low and dangerous tone, but there was a hint of a tremble within it due to the emotion she felt overwhelm her at being betrayed by yet another person she foolishly chose to trust.

"Kate I….." he attempted to explain but she seemed to be past the point of explanations or reasoning and to a certain extent he couldn't blame her. He would have probably done the same if he were in her position.

"HOW LONG!!" she stressed growing frustrated by his hesitation to simply give her a straight answer

"A few weeks." He shamefully revealed feeling that maybe a lot more could have been done if he had just told her then, but he didn't and why, because he thought he could somehow fix this all by himself.

"Do you believe him?" she then asked secretly basing her other decision on the kind of response she would get from him and unfortunately it wasn't the one she hoped for.

From there on the events of that day had taken a turn for the worse and Jack was left with no choice but to relent and respect her decision to figure things out on her own despite his reluctance to stay and fight her over this, because there was a lot more than Aaron's welfare at stake here. However if there was anything he knew about her was that when her mind was made up there was simply no changing it. So with that he momentarily gave up the fight but still firmly vowed to himself that he would never give up.

(A month later)

His endless mission or more so obsession had subjected his life in more ways than one. Of what he heard Aaron had thankfully made a full recovery but still it didn't stop him from what he felt was necessary in an attempt to stop something like this from happening again. Though there was only so much he had control over and the dreaded phone call he received a few days ago literally sent him over the edge, leading for him to seek the nearest form of temporary relief in an attempt to wash away the immense pain he felt at continuously hearing the words…...

"Kate lost the baby."

Self blame seemed to be a bit of an understatement after hearing this devastating news, and he knew Kate felt the same way judging by her complete lack of communication with him. Never the less he tried his level best to be there for her through this tough time, but she wouldn't even see him let alone talk to him and to be fairly honest he wasn't courageous enough to face her in such a state.

(3 months later)

Loneliness seemed to be his only friend now, that and the half empty bottle of liquor he was currently grasping with all the strength he could muster in this lucid state.

Ever since their loss the ties between them had weakened even further, but still Jack tried to salvage what they had and much to his surprise she also agreed to it. Though her intentions for doing so were completely different from his and in the end they both felt that they were better off the way they were before this "phase" as she so bitterly called it.

He reluctantly accepted it at first but of course had a hard time letting go, and it was this kind of end result that made him think about fate and if it would have been any different if they had stayed on the island instead.

Would he and Kate have had their baby?

Would he and Kate still be together?

He couldn't answer these questions for sure but he was curious to find out whether there was still time to make it right, but in an effort to do that he needed to convince her as well.

To make her see the bigger picture the way he did now.

So with that he dialled her number one last time, partly expecting to get her voicemail just like every other attempt but luck seemed to finally award him with a response.

"Hello." The voice tiredly spoke into the phone and it was only then that he realised what time it actually was.

"Hey, it's me." He replied and before he could sense being hung upon he quickly went onto explain his need to simply see her, and with some more begging she finally gave in, evoking a streak of hope that maybe just maybe this could work.

All he needed to have was a little faith.

THE END

Well there it is and yay this is the one fic I've finished...or has it lol. I've already started planning a partnering oneshot to this because I seem to have a problem with giving my fics a firm end hehe.

Anyhoo what do you think guys?