Summary: This is an alternate season four of Lost including a character I created named Andrea Parker.
Warnings: Some violence and mild course language
Status of Fic: WIP
Author's Notes: Follows season 4 episodes.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story accept for Andie Parker, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Lost". They were created by JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof and they belong to them, Touchstone, and ABC.

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CHAPTER ONE: The Beginning Of The Truth

Andie was numb.

She barely paid attention as Sawyer, Jin, Bernard and Sayid helped Desmond pulls his boat back up onto the shore. Charlie was dead. He'd drowned in the underwater hatch. His final act had been to write "Not Penny's Boat" on his hand and show it to Desmond before accepting his fate. He was gone. All Andie could think about was Claire. Who would tell her? How would they tell her?

Hurley was in shock, too. Andie could see it on his face. She didn't know how to comfort him; she wasn't sure there was a way she could. Her head was so muddled at that moment she wasn't sure what was going on.

"Look; we gotta call the Doc." Sawyer's voice broke through the silence.

"Did you listen to Desmond?" Sayid immediately bit back. "Charlie wrote on his hand-"

"Look; I'm sorry he's dead, alright?" Sawyer said back loudly; though he did actually sound sincere. "But I don't even know what the hell "not Penny's boat" means."

"Calling Jack accomplishes nothing." Sayid replied shaking his head.

"It would accomplish warning him." Juliet offered."

Andie looked to their newest 'friend'. She was still unsure about Juliet; the thoughts of what she'd done to her when she'd been taken by the Others, both times, still swam around Andie's mind. They joined the thoughts of Andie's unborn baby. Juliet had said she was healing; that it was likely her baby would be alright as long as she didn't do anything strenuous. Andie appreciated her seemingly sincere concern but she was definitely not going to trust it.

"It also means warning the people on the freighter that we're suspicious of them." Juliet continued. "I've no doubt they're monitoring our communications, if we call Jack..."

"You know what? I got the walkie, I'm making the call." He held the walkie to the group. Hurley snatched it out of Sawyer's hand and tossed it into the ocean. "Hey!"

Hurley's blank expression seemed to affect all of them the same way; it was uncomfortable seeing happy-go-lucky Hugo so devastated. "We better get going." He muttered; turning and walking back towards camp.

Andie glanced at Sayid. He moved to follow Hurley so Andie followed him. Juliet and Bernard were close behind.

"Going where?!" Sawyer shouted from the shoreline.

Sayid immediately headed for the guns so Andie followed him. "What do you think?" She asked him.

Sayid glanced up at her and sighed. "If it was Charlie's dying wish for us to know that these people are not who they say they are..." He shrugged. "We need to trust that."

Andie nodded; she felt the same way. She often found that her relationship with Sayid was much smoother then her relationship with Sawyer. Probably because Sayid was more like her best friend. She adored him and wasn't shy about showing it; a fact that caused the bulk of the tension between Sayid and Sawyer.

"What the hell's gotten into you, Hugo?" Sawyer said as he trailed behind the group back to camp. "They'll all be back in the morning; if you just wait-"

"You don't wait with warnings, dude. You warn." Hurley interrupted. He didn't even stop walking; he just continued towards the jungle. Bernard hurried after him.

Sayid started handing out the guns. He gave Juliet, Jin and Andie a pistol each along with whatever was remaining of the ammo. Desmond picked up a rifle and followed Hurley. As Andie checked her gun she couldn't help but notice Bernard kept giving her odd looks. When she slung her gun into the back of her jeans and went to follow Hurley, he pulled her back.

"Hey." Bernard said as he took her arm. "Should you be doing this? I mean, a woman in your condition…"

"He's right; it's not safe." Juliet spoke up as she joined the conversation. "The best thing for your baby is to stay here."

Andie's mind flashed back to when she'd lost Gracie and her other two children. The pain of those events had scarred her heart irreparably. She didn't think she could survive another one. But on the other hand; this island was healing her, her friends were in danger, and Claire...she needed to be there for Claire when she found out about Charlie.

"You're not leaving me behind." Andie told Juliet. "Good thing I'm travelling with my doctor." She offered Juliet a small smirk. Juliet gave her a little smile in return.

Sawyer slung the rifle Sayid had given him over his shoulder. "And here I was thinking I was gonna get a good night's sleep."

The terrain turned out to be quite easy on Andie. It was basically all flat, she didn't have to run and took breaks when she had to. There were so many of them walking along that she was always in sight of someone and couldn't get lost. The plan was to head to the fuselage of the plane and rest there for the night; hopefully they'd cross paths with someone from the other group before too long.

They walked well into the evening. Walking in single file, Andie found herself about ten feet ahead of Hurley and Sawyer and ten feet behind Desmond and Bernard. She knew Juliet was in front of him and Sayid and Jin were leading the way. So focused was she on the ground below her; watching for pot holes or large rocks she could trip on, she didn't notice Sawyer jog up beside her.

"Hey." He mumbled. "We might wanna slow down a little." He jeered his head backwards. "Hurley."

Andie nodded. In the moonlight she could see his face looked more weathered than normal, but she didn't ask him what was wrong. She'd given up on that. She'd had to make peace with the fact that something went on in the jungle that night he'd disappeared. And whatever it was; it had changed Sawyer. In what way; she couldn't be sure. At first she'd thought he had reverted back; become the Sawyer he had been when she'd met him. But she had overheard him talking to Hurley not ten minutes before; asking him if he was alright and did he want to talk about Charlie; things he would never have said before.

"You ok?" Sawyer asked her.

Andie nodded again. She didn't really know what to say. Physically she wasn't exactly fine, emotionally she was in shock after losing Charlie and mentally she was exhausted. Nodding seemed to be the only option she had left. The two of them continued walking along side by side. Every now and again their hands would graze or they would lean into each other. But they didn't speak. Andie was pretty sure Sawyer's mind was where hers was, torn between Charlie's death and the fact that their rescuers might in fact just be complete liars.

"I'm gonna catch up to the others; see how close we are to that damn plane wreck." Sawyer said eventually. "Keep an eye out for Hurley."

"Ok." Andie replied as he sped up a little. Was there tension between them now? Had something shifted that Andie wasn't aware of? She felt...different with Sawyer. She still loved him; that she didn't doubt. But there was something else there now. Something that caused a knot of worry to ball in the centre of Andie's chest. She thought of her baby for a moment then noticed the knot became tighter.

"Hang in there, Angel." He mumbled under his breath as he left.

"Yeah." Andie muttered back. She wondered if he felt the shift between them as well.

Her focus now back on the ground, Andie let her mind wander to how life had been when they first crashed. Right now she would give anything to go back to that chaos. Chaos was one thing you could trust. No matter what; chaos was always chaotic. And when you recognized it; you could deal with it. This uncertainty Andie was living in now was just too much. It was a silent chaos; a chasm of the unknown.

The clouds above shifted in the cool air and revealed the bright glow of the moon. Andie's left hand shone slightly. Looking down, she noticed her ring. The ring Nick had given her the morning of the crash. The knot in Andie's chest grew tighter still.

xxx

It was only when Andie followed Desmond towards the wreck of Oceanic 815 and saw Sayid, Jin, Juliet, Bernard and Sawyer that she realized Hurley wasn't with them.

"Oi; where's Hugo?" Desmond asked her as she arrived.

Andie could do nothing but shrug. "I thought he was right behind me." She turned and frantically searched the forest with her eyes.

"I'll get him." Sawyer offered.

"No; we need to stay together." Sayid stopped him.

"Hurley's lost; I'm not gonna leave him out there!" Sawyer snapped back.

"What if he got hurt, Sayid?" Bernard added.

Andie watched Sayid; she could tell he wanted to go back but was reluctant to turn around. They needed to warn the others about what had happened with the boat and Charlie. Andie opened her mouth to agree with Sayid but it turned out that she didn't have to; Hurley came stumbling in from behind the fuselage.

"Where the hell have you been, Hugo?" Sawyer asked with annoyance and obvious relief on his face.

"Sorry." Hurley muttered. "I was just er... I got lost."

Behind him; Locke arrived.

"What are you doing here?" Sayid asked bitterly; glaring at their former friend.

Locke then proceeded to explain why he was there; also to warn Jack about the people on the boat. He claimed he'd already tried but needed some 'support'. Andie folded her arms over her stomach and just watched Locke. She prided herself in her ability to read people; but with Locke it had always been difficult. It was as though he had a million different layers and you never knew which one he was wearing.

"You want my support?" Sayid spat at Locke. "You can tell me why you destroyed that submarine."

Before Locke could protest; a smattering of voices could be heard approaching them. Everyone cocked their weapons and aimed them at the noises. At first Andie thought it was those telltale 'Other' whispers, but moments later she saw that it wasn't. The other survivors who'd trekked to the radio tower walked into the clearing beside the fuselage. Sun was the first one to speak when she saw Jin. She shouted something in gleeful Korean as she ran over and hugged him. Rose spotted her husband and trotted towards Bernard with her arms wide open. "Still in one piece" he muttered into her ear.

"Rambo." She replied with a kiss.

Andie's heart shattered as she saw Claire with Aaron in her arms, smiling widely and looking for Charlie. Beside her, Alex hugged Juliet and everyone greeted each other but Andie's mind was only on Claire. She made a move towards her friend but was stopped by a steely faced Hurley.

"I'll tell her." He muttered.

Andie didn't protest. Tears appeared in her eyes as she bit her lip and hugged her arms around her middle. She watched as Hurley's face broke into tears as he neared Claire and shakily muttered the words. "Charlie's dead."

Claire looked stunned. "No." She shook her head. Hurley's tears spilled over as he grabbed Claire into a big hug.

By this time; everyone had heard it. There were tears and shocked gasps all around. Andie felt sobs trying to escape her throat but she didn't want to cry. Instead she just sucked in the air and tried to swallow her sadness. The breaths she drew in shook uncontrollably. She heard the footsteps of someone arrive behind her followed by Sawyer's unmistakably heavy sigh. He didn't say anything; he just pulled Andie by her elbow back towards him. She was grateful for his concern for her; it was comforting. Her tears stayed behind her eyes as she leant into Sawyer's chest. Her arms stayed cuddled around her middle but she felt Sawyer's hand hold her to his body.

Andie noticed Jack and Danielle arrive with Ben on a leash but it took her a moment to register that they were there. Apparently so had everyone else because Jack lunged at Locke and punched him to the ground before anyone could stop him. Jack also got his hands on Locke's weapon and aimed it at the traitor's head.

"Jack." Juliet spoke up warningly.

From the ground, Locke shook his head. "You're not gonna shoot me, Jack. Any more than I was gonna shoot-"

Jack pulled the trigger; but no bullet was fired.

"It's not loaded." Locke said matter-of-factly.

Jack tossed the gun away and started fiercely attacking Locke. Sawyer left Andie's side and ran with Sayid to retract Jack from Locke.

"Let go of me!" Jack yelled as Sayid and Sawyer pulled him away. "Do you know what he did?!"

"Yes; I know what he did!" Sayid shouted back.

Locke climbed up off the ground and tried to explain himself. Saying that everything he had done was in the best interests of all of them, even risking his life to tell them that Juliet was a traitor. To which Jack snapped back with "All you ever did was blow up every chance we had of getting off of this island. You killed Naomi."

This was the first Andie, and everyone who had stayed at the beach, had heard of that. "What?" Andie spoke up.

"Well, technically, he didn't kill her." Ben said aloud. "Yet."

"Yes, he did." Kate arrived from the jungle. "She just died. She didn't give you up, John. She covered for us, and she fixed this." Kate handed the satellite phone to Jack. "They're on their way."

"She didn't cover for anyone. She wants her people to come here." Locke said loudly. "And trust me, when they go we had better be far away from here. I'm going to the Barracks. The Others abandoned them. It's the only place on the Island with any form of security right now; it'll have to do until I can think of something else. Until then, if you wanna live, you need to come with me."

"No-one's going anywhere with you, John. Because they're not crazy." Jack countered.

"He's not crazy." Hurley snapped. "What about Charlie? Charlie went down to that place so we could all be rescued. And whatever he did down there, it worked. But then something must have happened. He must have heard something before he..." He paused and bit his lip. "I don't know why, but he changed his mind." Tears ran down his face, mimicking the ones showering Claire's cheeks. "Because the last thing he did was to warn us that the people on that boat are not who they said they were." His voice shook. "So I'm not listening to you. I'm listening to my friend. I'm listening to Charlie." Then he walked over and stood with Locke.

Locke looked to the rest of the group. "Anyone else. There isn't much time."

A heartbroken Claire moved slowly with Aaron towards Locke and Hurley. A number of others split up and went with either Jack or Locke. Rousseau, Ben, Alex and Karl went with Locke while Rose refused to so she and Bernard stayed with Jack.

Andie looked over at Sawyer. He looked at her. Going with Locke meant she'd have to leave Jack, Kate and Sayid behind. As well as Sun and Jin, of course and both the island's doctor's. But then Andie looked over at Claire, sobbing into Aaron as she cradled him to her body, and she knew where she had to be. Then before Andie knew it; Sawyer was beside her.

"Let's go." He half-asked half-hoped as he nodded towards Locke.

Andie nodded and walked towards Claire. Claire looked up at her with red, tearful eyes. Andie put her arm around her and felt Claire's frame shaking. There was a soft rumble from up above in the clouds and seconds later; the rain began to fall.

"You know where to find us when you change your mind." Locke said to the remaining survivors. He turned and led them away.

Andie let Hurley take over helping Claire for a moment as the two teams went their separate ways. Sawyer caught up to Locke. Jack, Kate and Juliet all turned and led their group away. Sayid, however, came over to Andie.

"Are you sure?" He said to her.

Andie could see the sincerity in his deep, brown eyes. She nodded and smiled. "Yeah." Sayid nodded slowly. Andie reached out and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "Be safe." She told him.

"I will." Sayid replied.

As Andie pulled away from him she kissed his cheek. She didn't want to think that this was the last time she'd see Sayid; he had become one of her closest friends.

"Andie?" Sawyer called from behind her. "You coming?" he noticed her and Sayid standing together.

"Yeah." Andie replied. She smiled at Sayid. "See you soon?"

"I hope so." He replied.

Andie turned and walked towards Sawyer, noticing the two men behind her exchange a smile and a nod; a silent truce.

xxx