I own only those characters you do not recognize from Lost.

We the People

The survivors wanted to feel more civilized. But Kate, she just wanted to feel.

Chapter 1 – Purposes of Government

There was a crowd gathered around the medical center of the caves. The flimsy blue tarp and makeshift operating table just reminded Kate of the night Boone died. That had been over a week ago, but she still felt his presence there. The energy from his soul being released was immense and overpowering. She heard heated voices, one of which she knew to be Jack's. The other, surprisingly, was a woman's. Kate eased gently to the front of the crowd to see a woman of average height squaring her shoulders before the doctor. She must have only been about 18 or 19 years old.

"How can you let him get away with this?" She shouted, her voice far more commanding than Kate would have guessed.

"What do you want me to do, Kit? Go over there and ransack his stuff?"

"Uh, yeah, that'd be nice! You can't just let someone sneak around and steal things without being punished!"

"We don't even know it was him!"

"I know!" She shouted, balling her fists at her sides. There was a moment of silence in which Jack didn't really know what to say. Kit seemed to take note of the spectacle she was making of herself, and cleared her throat calmly. She smoothed her shirt down, tipped her chin up, and walked through the crowd, back to the beach where she'd set up her temporary home.

Jack was rubbing the back of his neck in exasperation, and the crowd dispersed. But for Kate. She walked up to him with her hands in her back pockets.

"What was that all about?" She asked when he looked up to her.

"She thinks Sawyer stole her bag of fruit and wants me to get it back from him. It's not like I can just invade his privacy for something we don't even know really happened."

"I'll investigate." Kate stated, but Jack snapped his eyes up to her, and she saw the fear and suspicion there. "If you want me to." She added quickly. Jack turned around and pretended to be busy, sorting out medicines and supplies.

"You can do what you want, Kate. I don't have power over any of us."

Kate opened her mouth to tell him that was not true. That he had power over her, but just closed it again. She shook her head with a quiet scoff and a bitter smile and walked away.

Kate sighed, a thing she found herself doing quite frequently lately. She sighed for her boredom, for her pain, her past, but most of all, she sighed for what she didn't feel. There was no racing hearts, no flipping stomach, nothing she had felt in the first days with Jack. She was dying inside, and she knew it. But, she stepped out into the sunshine, and felt the warmth on her face, and decided it was too early to make that assumption. Maybe she was just having a bad day.

Kit was across the beach, arms folded across her chest, fuming to an attractive brown haired boy Kate could only assume was her brother. Kate's eyes gazed slowly down the expanse of the makeshift settlements, until stopping at the furthest down the line. Sawyer's. She started to it. She knew Jack was jealous of Sawyer. Of the time he got to spend with her, of the kiss they shared, of the bond they seemed to have forged. But he didn't have to be, and she wished he knew that. A sudden urge to prove herself sprung on her. She'd get Kit's fruit from him, and she'd do it without giving in to his stupid tricks.

"Hey Sawyer." She began, without previously making her presence known.

"Jesus woman, don't you knock?" He was stretched out on his cot, reading Boone's copy of Watership Down that he'd never given back. The ridiculous glasses Sayid molded together for him were immediately chucked off his face to the sand. Kate chuckled.

"Of course not, then you'd be expect me."

"Yeah, that's usually the point. What do you want, Freckles?" Sawyer asked, swinging his legs to the sand to sit upright. He didn't ask it unpleasantly, but with just enough bitterness that she'd think he didn't want her there.

"What makes you think I want anything?" Sawyer just glared at her, and she acquiesced. "Kit thinks you stole her bag of fruit."

"Kit? God damn that woman…I didn't steal nothin from her. Go interrogate the big one." He said, referring to Hurley, Kate guessed.

"Do you know her?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, I do."

"What happened? Why unfortunately?"

"She's infuriating as all hell."

"Oh, really. I can't imagine what that's like." Kate replied, very sarcastically, not missing a beat. Sawyer just made a face at her.

"She's always hangin around. Lurking. Like she's spyin on everyone. I finally caught her and blew up on her. She probably just wants to get back at me."

"Sawyer, that story is highly unlikely."

"Just because you don't trust me doesn't mean I'm lying about this."

"I have no incentive to believe you." Kate said, cold as ice. Sawyer stood up and stepped close to her. So close, in fact, that Kate had to look up to keep locked with his eyes.

"How about this? Can you look in my eyes and tell me I'm lying. Can you tell me you don't believe me?" He whispered, staring straight into her eyes. Kate just swallowed and ducked quickly out of the tent flap.

She breathed a deep sigh as she walked away from his tent. Their proximity was too much for her to handle. The way he smelled, the warmth of his body so close to her, his breath on her lips. And the way his eyes, so goddamn beautiful and blue, bored into her. She grit her teeth and tried not to look so angry.

"I know he took it, Cole. I just know he did." Kit ranted to her brother, who was sitting in the sand, trying to block her voice out of his head. She paced next to him, and he could practically hear the steam rolling from her ears.

"Take it down a notch sis, geez. Maybe you misplaced it."

"Mis-misplaced? The bag that held our only goddamn food source? I don't think so." Kit threw her arms in the air and started pacing again.

"Kit stop pacing." Cole commanded. "Stop. Kit, goddamnit knock it the hell off!" Cole shouted, jumping up and holding her shoulders. "There's nothing you can do about it. Even if he did take it, which I'm pretty sure he didn't, there's no way to prove it or to get him punished for it." He reasoned with his younger sibling. Kit narrowed her eyes at him.

"Take your grimy paws off me. Cole Powers, I'm warning you." The fire he'd seen far too often in her brown eyes made him comply, and he held his hands up in surrender and plopped himself back in the sand. He rolled his eyes when she began pacing again, but thankfully she didn't see it. After a few more minutes, Kit huffed angrily.

"No way to make him pay, my ass." She growled under her breath and stormed off. Cole lifted his eyelids to see her walking away, but thought nothing of it.

Kit threw open the flap of Sawyer's tent. He looked up lazily from his book, and set his glasses low on his nose. Upon seeing her, he just looked back at his page, and said,

"Well howdy there Kit Kat. Find your bag yet?"

"No, but I'm willing to bet it's somewhere in here." She said maliciously, and started tearing through the numerous airline bags Sawyer had stacked around his makeshift home.

"Hey, hey!" He shouted, and jumped up. He pulled her up in front of him. "What's the idea, here?"

"You stole my bag with our fruit and I'm going to prove it."

"What good would that do, anyway?"

"That way I'll have evidence and Jack can punish you."

"Jack? Punish me? Honey, this ain't no democracy. This is Every Man For Himself Island. Don't you know that?" He scoffed when she just grit her teeth at him and sat back on his cot. Kit turned to leave, but thought better of it. Just to give her peace of mind, she decided, and began ripping through his things once more.

"Dammit woman!" He shouted, and pulled her up, whipped her around and shoved her out of his tent. Kit lost her footing and pitched headlong into the sand. From across the beach, Cole had gotten up from his sunbathing to make sure his sister wasn't getting into any trouble, and saw that she, unfortunately, had. He shouted her name and tore across the beach to her. He helped her up, but she shook him off her.

"What the hell is your problem, man?" Cole shouted incredulously at Sawyer, who had not bothered to see if Kit was alright. Cole opened up the flap to see the southerner lazing on his cot, Watership Down in hand. "You could've hurt her."

"She'd've deserved it."

"That's it." Cole muttered, and stormed the few steps in to Sawyer and ripped the book from his hands.

"What're you thinking, boy?" He growled maliciously, standing and advancing upon poor little Cole, who was beginning to question his decision to get into it with this powerful looking man.

"You apologize to my sister, asshole." Cole demanded, his voice thankfully not showing his fear.

"No way no how, little man. She deserved what she got." Before he could turn back to his cot, Cole threw the book on the floor and gave Sawyer a mighty shove backward. He stumbled over a pile of suitcases before regaining his footing and looking up at the shocked boy with murder in his eyes. He growled deeply and football tackled Cole right out onto the beach. He straddled him and punched him once across the face before Kit's screaming attracted beach dwellers to yank him off.

"What is going on here?" Sayid asked, helping Cole to stand and then holding him back from retaliation.

"Big Brother here tried to justify Kit Kat's invasion of privacy." Sawyer explained in his own colorful way, struggling against the man who was holding his arms.

Sayid just shook his head. When would these people learn? Jack had told them all before, if they couldn't live together, they'd die alone. Some people just didn't seem to care.

It wasn't even so complicated in the Guard. There, at least there was no one worth fighting for. There was no one whose eyes would beg him to do the right thing and correct the oppression. Until Nadia, of course.

Here, there were 44 different opinions pulling everyone apart. It was alright for the first few days. Everyone kept to themselves, holding onto hope of rescue. But now, now that rescue was so apparently not an option, people who lived thousands of miles apart, with different cultures and customs were forced to buckle down together and live with each other. It was like someone had asked them to build the Great Wall of China with a toothpick and a piece of chewing gum.

They wouldn't even try. That was the worst part. They just bickered and brawled, and left civilized words and thoughts behind. They were on an island, why not act like primitives? It was like this place reversed all the thousands of years of domestication humans had gone through to get to their so called 'advanced' state of mind. Monkeys seemed more advanced to him, sometimes.

Sayid contemplated their situation while trekking to the caves to find Jack. He knew something had to be done. Jack had known for a while, only he didn't know what to do.

The doctor was staring into the fire when Sayid found him. Trying to find answers there, as he had seen the man doing so many times before. He wanted to tell him what was so obvious to the rest, but knew it would not be wise. These things must be learned for one's self. It would be an important lesson to him.

"Something happened at the beach today." Sayid began by way of greeting, and Jack snapped his eyes to him.

"Of course something did. Why wouldn't it?" Jack said sarcastically, standing to retrieve another log to place on his small campfire.

"Sawyer got into a fight with Cole."

"Who?"

"Cole Powers, Kit's older brother." Sayid explained, and Jack looked into the flames. Cole Powers, Kit's older brother. Jack didn't even know who he was. He'd been spending so much time babysitting their cuts and bruises he forgot to ask their names. Typical of him, he was sad to admit. When he got into his doctoral business, the thing he really knew, there wasn't much room in his mind for anything else.

"What was it about?" Jack asked mechanically, only half listening.

"Kit apparently was rummaging in Sawyer's tent, and Sawyer threw her out, quite literally. Cole only wanted to retaliate for her."

Jack laughed humorlessly into the flames. "Stealing, fighting, revenge. People should be concentrating on surviving."

"Yes, they should. But unfortunately, not all people have their heads on as straight as some."

Jack chuckled, with real humor this time. "You got that right." He shoved himself up off the ground. "Why is it that I have to referee every argument?"

"That is what I wanted to suggest. To keep from overloading a few leaders, we need some organization within ourselves."

"Assign different tasks to certain people who we agree are fit to do them?" Jack offered.

"Like a government?" Hurley asked from a few feet away, where he stood with his hand full of water bottles and berries, blatantly listening in on their conversation. Jack looked to him in surprise; he hadn't known he was there. Hurley looked around in confusion, then turned away, as if he'd just gotten caught eavesdropping. Sayid considered him, and nodded.

"Yes, actually, that is a perfect idea."

"Absolutely not." Kate stated, as she looked up to the canopy for good leaves and fruit to eat.

"Why not? It's the perfect solution." Jack insisted, hovering around the base of the tree nervously, watching as Kate skillfully scaled it.

"It's too much like giving up. Like making a new America here. I want to believe we can go back to the old America and not have to start a new one." She explained down to him.

"Well, you can keep your hope and keep order, too. Because until we get rescued, we're stuck here together. And it's pretty evident that people can't get along on their own. The jungle isn't the only danger here. We need direction to keep us alive. To keep us safe from each other." He defended fervently. Kate had stopped gathering her leaves and was watching him. The way his face was tilted up toward the sun, lighting his eyes.

"So what is it you're asking me to do." She asked, once her feet touched the ground again.

"Well, this is going to require a lot of consideration, and we need even representation of the population. Since you seem to know a lot of the people, we though you'd be a good representative to help write our rules."

"You're a charmer." Kate said with a teasing grin. "You know just what to say to a girl."

"So you'll help?" Jack asked, and Kate's smile faded. She began walking to find another fruitful tree and just looked back in his direction with a curt nod.

So there it is. The first chapter of my new Lost story. This one is a bit more interesting. J/K/S love triangle! The ever interesting dilemma. So, tell me what you think. What do you want to see? Am I still doing good? I've been out of the business for a few weeks, I feel kind of rusty. So Review!

LiveStrong and Love Everybody,

-Austin B.