Quick Note: A scenario for what could happen season 4, when the frieghter people come, and fully Skate. Please review if you like it, or I'm going to suffer real self-confidence issues (Just kidding, but still, it'd be nice).

PS. This is that bit where I remind you that I don't own Lost, and add some remark that if I did I would either be living on a tropical island (pardon the pun) and that I wish I did. RE: what I just said. (Don't sue me! cringe)

Chapter One

Kate looked at the girl, slightly amused. She was lying on her back on the small cot in one corner, and Kate couldn't help but notice her lips moving, though no sound reached her. There were several cages here – at least ten – but only two had occupants. One, of course, was herself – the other was the young girl, maybe late teens or early twenties.

How long had she been here? She wondered, blinking slowly. She couldn't remember. Maybe a day, or two. It could be a week for all she knew – time moved slowly, and the only light came from a fluorescent bulb hanging from the ceiling, right between the two cages, so it hurt Kate's eyes every time she looked out.

Not that there was much to look at – except for the girl, who hadn't spoken a word to Kate since she'd arrived, her wrists bound and bleeding, her face wet with tears. Her hair was a dark brownish red, and quite long – she'd noticed the girl kept it plaited to keep it out of her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Kate asked eventually. The girl looked over, and sat up. She had an expression of interest on her face, but also a sense of calculation – as if wondering exactly what she could gain from Kate's arrival. Kate wondered how long the girl had been there.

"Counting," she replied, her voice steady and calm. Her eyes pierced the distance between them, a shockingly bright blue which flashed purple when she turned her head. Kate was instantly reminded of how Jack had taught her to count to stay unafraid. Trapped in this under-water prison, maybe her cell-mate was doing everything she could to keep the fear at bay... But it certainly didn't look like it. It was impossible to imagine fear crossing those rough features.

"Why?" Kate asked. The girl looked at her, slightly confused.

"Why what?" she asked.

"Why are you counting?"

"Why not?" the girl replied, and Kate had to bite her tongue to stop herself saying something sarcastic. If she was to get out of here, she'd need all the allies she could get, and starting with her fellow prisoner was smart.

"What does it get you?" Kate asked, though she was beginning to dread the response.

"What do you get from sitting there doing nothing?" the girl asked. Kate wondered whether she should snap at her, tell her to stop answering questions with more questions.

"I don't get anything from it. I just... have nothing else to do."

"Exactly. And I get nothing from this. But if nothing happens either way, what does it matter?" the girl asked, rolling her eyes slightly. Kate couldn't reply.

The girl waited a few moments, before sighing, and lying down again. Within moments, she had resumed the motion of her lips. For a second, Kate wondered whether what she had said was true – after all, who was she to get a truthful response? But then, if she wasn't counting, like she said, Kate couldn't see what else she was doing. Another person maybe would have been praying or planning an escape. Neither of those seemed to fit with the girl opposite her.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Finn," the girl replied, this time without looking up.

"Hi. I'm Kate," Kate said. No answer. "How long have you been here?"

"Define 'here'," said Finn. Kate frowned.

"In this prison. Where else?"

"A couple of years. And I didn't know whether you meant here as in down here, or here as in where the boat is anchored right now, or on this planet..."

"Have you ever been off this planet?" Kate asked. Somehow, the stupid answers only sucked her in further. Everything seemed oddly logical, despite the craziness of everything around them.

"No. Not in this life, at least. Have you?"

"No."

"Not ever?"

"I don't think so," Kate replied. She was beginning to wonder about the sanity of the girl. If she'd been locked up for years... oh god. They wouldn't keep her down here for years would they? Why were they keeping her down here at all?

"Why are you down here?" she asked, hoping to gain some insight into her own imprisonment.

"Because if I'm on deck I keep trying to run off. I've made it to land six times. Once I evaded capture for a whole week, but then I had to come back because I ran out of food."

"Why not find your own food? It's not easy, I know, but it's possible..."

"Oh, but why should I? If I stay here I get free meals three times a day."

That answered one of Kate's questions – no-one had come down here since she'd been locked up, so it couldn't be too long. Odd. It felt like a long, long time. Her whole life seemed to be nothing by a speck on the thread of time, until she ended up in this gaol, in the bowels of a freighter ship.

"Why are you on the boat at all?" Kate asked, returning to her original question.

"Because I'm not on land," Finn replied, her voice making out that Kate must be simple. And she felt dumb – indeed, if she wasn't on land, she had to be on a ship, didn't she? She shook her head and returned to her own world of logic.

"Do you want to be here?" she asked, then immediately regretted it. Hopefully they wouldn't enter another discussion of defining 'here'.

"Well, there's nowhere else I particularly want to be, so..." she shrugged.

"Is Finn your whole name, or a nickname?" Kate asked. The girl didn't seem dangerous, even if she was insane, and she was more interesting than the dark stains on the floor of Kate's cell.

"Dunno," Finn replied. Kate narrowed her eyes.

"How can you not know?"

"Everyone's just always called me Finn. I'm an orphan, you see. My parents could have named me something longer, but if they did, I wasn't ever told."

"Oh. Who raised you?"

"My brother, Russ," Finn said. "His name is short for Russell."

"I guessed as much," Kate said wryly.

"What did your parents call you?" Finn asked. Kate started, though it took her a moment to work out why – it was the first question the girl had asked her. The conversation so far had been rather one sided.

"Katherine," Kate replied slowly.

"I like Kate better," Finn commented. "Less syllables."

"Too many syllables in the word syllables," Kate replied, then wanted to kick herself. Just cause her companion was crazy, didn't mean she got to start saying odd things, too!

"Wow. How insightful," Finn murmured. There was a lull in the conversation, and Kate wondered whether Finn had resumed counting, though the girl still faced her through the bars.

"Say, how close are we to land?" Finn asked suddenly.

"Why?" Kate asked.

"Because if I'm going to escape, I can't do it when we're in the middle of the ocean. That would be stupid." Kate was impressed – at some point, she'd assumed the girl had lost all her logic skills.

"How will you escape?" she asked.

"Are we near land?"

"Yes, but I don't see how that's going to do you any good –"

"How far off shore?"

"A few miles," Kate said doubtfully. "At least, when they brought us over, I think it was about that."

Her chest clenched as she thought about that – where was Sawyer? They'd been separated, and only then had Kate's iron hard resolve faltered.

"That's not too far..." Finn mused, and Kate glanced up sharply. However crazy she may be, if she knew a way out, she'd prove very useful...

"You'd have to steal a boat," Kate said thoughtfully. Finn looked at her sideways.

"Hell no! They'd notice me if I did that. I'll have to swim."

"What?! That's way too far!"

"I'm a good swimmer," Finn said, shrugging. Kate's new-found confidence in her friend's logic vanished.

Despite her talk, though, no escape plans came into effect just then. Kate sighed, and sat down, while Finn looked at the door to her cell, thinking hard. Only after Kate thought the conversation was long over did the girl speak again.

"Ah, fuck it," she muttered, pulling off her belt. Using the tab – which looked a lot thinner than a belt buckle should be – she expertly picked the lock on her cell door, and in less than a second it swung open. Kate stood up, excited, waiting for the girl to open her cage, too.

But she didn't. She replaced her belt, turned, and bolted for the door. Kate blinked, losing a few seconds, before calling after her.

"Hey! What about me?"

"You want out, do it yourself!" Finn called back, and with that, was gone.