Disclaimer: Evershort (Brittany) and I do not own Lost. We're just two crazy fans who got a crazy idea for this fanfic one night. No money is being made off this work.

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I was excited to see Abby again. It had been three years if you excluded her one week visit to tour colleges last year. Since then, I had moved to California after receiving a fairly decent job at one of their public libraries. It had been my intention to escape the cold winters of Pennsylvania and it seemed that Abby thought the same thing about Illinois when she started to search for colleges.

Unfortunately, her strict parents would not let her travel out of state unless she paid for her housing. This would be next to impossible because she would have to work full time just to get a closet sized apartment near California State.

In the end, I volunteered to let her live with me while she went to school. Her parents would save money, and, as I pointed out during the negotiations, my apartment did have two bedrooms. I used the second room as a work/storage space, but I could fit everything into one room. I wasn't in college or graduate school anymore.

Her parents agreed to try it for one semester. She stayed at my apartment for a week while she toured various colleges in the area. Abby got accepted to several but ended up deciding to attend California State, mostly because it was close by. Walking distance, really. No car meant zero money spent in gas.

So she was moving in and I just hoped that my two bedroom apartment would be big enough for both of us long term. I hadn't had a roommate since college and, truthfully, I wasn't looking forward to it. Still, Abby seemed nice enough, and who was I to deprive her of California's warm weather?

I ran a hand through my hair, glanced at the clock, and headed to the car. Her plane was scheduled to arrive in an hour and a half. Sure, the airport was only fifteen minutes away, but what could I say? I like to be early.

Maybe I'd stop at one of the gift shops in the airport and buy Abby a shirt that said "Welcome to California!" Did they make those?

Probably. Or something like them.

As it turned out, I misread the time on the email Abby sent. Instead of being an hour early, I was two hours late.

The 1:30 had looked suspiciously like a 3:30.

She was waiting near the baggage claim and wearing a grumpy look on her face.

Or what I assumed to be a grumpy look. I wasn't too familiar with her facial expressions. Maybe she was just hungry or something.

"Sorry, sorry!" I panted, reaching out to hug her. "Misread the time."

"Yeah, I figured." She smiled as though to say it was no big deal. "Got my bags."

She had sent most of her stuff to the apartment but she was still carrying a lot of luggage. At least four large bags, plus her purse, which was big enough to be a small backpack.

"Got everything?" I asked, looking around.

She nodded happily. "Can you help me with some of it?"

I tried not to roll my eyes. "Sure, sure. You hungry?"

"Starved. The food on the plane was so gross. Usually they have something that's not so bad, like peanuts or a muffin. But the peanuts were way salty and they didn't have any muffins! Plus, the juice tasted like someone had already drank it," Abby said, slinging one of the bags over her shoulder.

I hadn't realized she was this talkative. Well, at least we had a few things in common.

For instance, when Lost was on, we both watched compulsively. We owned DVDs of all the seasons—though I waited for over a year after the final season was out so I could get it cheap used. No way were the writers going to get a cent of my hard earned money after they declared "Jate" and "Suliet" to be destiny. Sure, Sawyer and Kate has escaped the island and some fans (okay, so I was one of them) still wrote post island Skate fanfiction. But the principle of it irked me. The writers had spent three seasons developing Skate, only to throw it away on the whim that Sawyer and Juliet seemed to have good chemistry. My only explanation was that the writers had gone crazy (and possibly addicted to drugs) starting around season five. It didn't destroy the show, but it made the show a lot less appealing.

Still, we both loved the show's earlier seasons. We both wanted to find "our Sawyer".

Neither of us were having much luck, but Abby was only 17. She had time.

I was just about to ask Abby if she wanted to stop at IHOP for lunch when she dropped one of her bags on my foot.

"OW!" I practically snapped. "Quit that!"

"Sarah, you will not believe this!" Abby practically shrieked.

I rolled my eyes. "You've got the wrong bag?"

"I SEE KATE!" she squealed.

"Abby, wake up. This is real life, not TV. Kate Austin is a make believe character."

Okay, maybe I sounded harsh, but if there was anyone who wanted the show to be real, it was us.

As a result, we were the ones who had to be the most careful distinguishing between fact (our life) and fiction (Lost).

"Sarah, I'm telling you, it's her."

Suddenly, a voice came onto the intercom. "Attention, we have a code 341. Repeat, we have a code 341. There is an escaped prisoner by the name of Katherine Anne Austen. The suspect was wearing a white shirt and tan pants. Please be on the lookout for this person!"

Abby began to jump up and down, tugging at my arm. "It's her! It's her!"

Sure enough, heading right for us was the person in question.

"Oh my goodness…"

"KATE!" Abby yelled, before I covered her mouth with my hand.

"Shut up! Do you want her to get caught?"

"No…but we can help her."

Abby said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Let's grab her."

Yes, I said that. Me, the one who was supposed to be looking out for my seventeen year old cousin.

We were about to become participants in a major crime.

Then again, we were also about to meet our favorite character from Lost.

When you looked at it in that way, there was no reason to hesitate.

A small part of me wondered if helping a wanted criminal was the smartest idea, but I told myself that the fact that Kate existed in this life meant that the Lost universe wasn't totally accurate. There had been an alt universe after the characters died. Who's to say we weren't living in the alt alt universe?

Hey, according to the laws of our country, Kate was innocent until proven guilty! We were heroes for fighting to uphold the laws our forefathers had worked so hard to instill. Hadn't we fought a war over this?

Well, this and some other stuff like having a say in government and taxes…

Right, not a history lesson.

We ducked out of view, then approached Kate. Grabbed her arms before she knew what we going on.

I felt kind of bad for her. Her eyes bulged out and she tried to fight us off. Except she couldn't because even though there had been a jacket over her hands, there wasn't anymore. She was handcuffed.

I grabbed the "Welcome to California" shirt and put it over the cuffs. She looked at me as though I had gone crazy.

Well, maybe we had. Then again, I had lived a pretty conservative life up until now. It could be that I was due for some insanity.

"We're gonna help you," Abby explained, still holding one of Kate's arms in a death grip. "C'mon!"

I'm sure Kate could have fought us off but she must have thought she stood a better chance with us than with the police. She nodded briefly.

"Let's go."

We walked quickly. I let go of Kate's arm, but Abby still had her in a death grip.

"You gotta stay with us, Kate," she insisted, her brown eyes widening. "Cause we're gonna help you."

"Who are you?" Kate asked as we walked. I hurried to pick up two of the bags but Abby had slung hers over her shoulders. That girl was going to pull a muscle. Still, more important things at hand.

"We're the good guys," I explained simply.

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