So Here We Are Now

The pounding in her ears was louder than she ever could have imagined. She partly wished she'd never gone through those few palm fronds and come out in the clearing. Though, she reasoned with herself, if she hadn't...well, she didn't want to think about that.

She recognized the body immediately just as her stomach plummeted to her feet.

Instead of throwing up, which was her first instinct, she followed Jack over to the tree and frantically climbed up, getting ready to cut down the rope hung around Charlie's bruised neck. His arms hung loosely at his sides and his clothes were plastered to his body, his eyes covered by some black fabric that did nothing to hide the purple tint around his eyes.

Tears were already flowing freely down her cheeks as she reached as far as she could, the knife clutched in her shaking hand. Below her, Jack was trying desperately to lessen the pressure on Charlie's neck, and finally she succeeded in cutting him down, watching as they both tumbled to the ground.

She jumped down from the tree, sobs raking her entire body and sat down on the other side of Charlie's body as Jack began CPR. She couldn't see for the tears blurring her vision, but she could hear Jack's labored attempts and the lack of Charlie's breath in the silence.

She held onto his hand, desperately wishing there was heat radiating off him, but all she felt was cold. She frantically wiped tears out of her eyes and peered down at him, crying uncontrollably when she saw how bruised his neck was.

There was nothing they could do. He was already gone.

"Jack," she whispered. "Jack, stop, he's gone."

Jack, however, was acting like a man possessed and kept pounding on Charlie's chest trying to get him to spring back to life.

He wouldn't give up on him. Not yet.

Kate didn't know Charlie very well, but she knew enough to feel that the island wouldn't be the same without him. She wished, while she tried to pull Jack off the ground, that Charlie would jump up and say "Gotcha!" which would, of course, result in her punching the crap out of him...but as Jack continued pounding, she knew it wasn't going to happen.

The gotcha wouldn't come. She cursed as tears fell from her eyes, blurring her vision once more as strands of hair hung in her face, drenched from the rain that had stopped moments ago.

Kate was busy wiping her tears from her eyes when she heard it.

The unmistakable intake of breath. And it wasn't Jack.

She looked quick, watching as Jack smiled brightly and cradled Charlie's head in his lap.

Tears started falling down her cheeks anew, but this time they were tears of happiness.

Kate was glad, for the first time, that Jack was the most stubborn person she'd ever met.