The intense darkness began to lift. The pale sliver of the waning moon rose and cast its weak light upon the coast of the island. With a great sigh of relief Kate saw in the horizon beyond, the faint outline of the island's shore.
As she approached, the plane was losing altitude. Without panicking, Kate relied on her intelligence, instincts and experience. She glanced toward the artificial horizon on the control panel; held the control yoke in her hands and corrected her pitch. She looked down, the beach was now below her and she maneuvered the plane so that she could land it along its narrow length.
Kate assessed the situation. The beach was such a thin strip that upon landing, the leaves of the jungle trees would nick the plane's wings. It was going to be very close; she would have to land with extreme accuracy. She looked at her instruments and noticed that she was losing speed; the plane was falling below seventy knots. She pushed the nose of the plane down so that it wouldn't stall. Kate pulled back the throttle and listened carefully for the whine of the engine to change its pitch.
Ahead of her the jungle loomed, the beach was ending abruptly and the plane careened forward. Kate needed to touch down. She felt panic rise like a gorge in her throat, she swallowed hard and started the mental count that Jack had taught her well. Upon its completion, Kate felt a familiar sense of calm and her busy hands took over. She grabbed the trim wheel and held tight onto the yoke and while holding fast, she gingerly turned the tiny rubber knob. The plane was properly prepared for landing. Kate then grabbed the gear handle with her other hand and let the landing gear down.
Just as the dark beach began to trail off she raised the nose of the plane and with her feet she put pressure on top of the rudder pedals. The wheels touched down on the sand, bouncing at the sudden contact. Kate was knocked back and her head rocked forward, she braced her legs for more impact and opened her eyes wide. The plane seemed to gain speed upon landing because the jungle trees were now pummeling the wings of the plane on one side.
With one shaking hand, Kate grabbed the talisman. It had never been a good luck charm but she held it tight. Her prayers had never worked before but she prayed even so, to any god still in the business of listening to her. Gritting her teeth and clenching every muscle in her body she braced herself for the final crash. It never came. The roar of the Cessna's engine ceased and in the sudden silence, Kate looked around in shock. The plane had shuddered and stopped, just inches from the edge of the jungle.
Meanwhile back in the clearing, Bernard and Rose continued to care for Jack.
"Kate…Kate…damn it.…Kate." Jack thrashed around and his arms wheeled violently. He wrestled with his blankets, throwing them off as he struggled to rise from his pallet. His voice was a faint whisper but Rose could hear him as he continued his battle with the woman long gone. Sweat was pouring off of his face and Rose tried to settle and sooth him. She held his shoulders down and tried to calm him by softly whispering gentle words, "Jack, it'll be okay, she's not here, she's safe at home." She dipped her cloth into the bowl of cooling water and gently wiped his forehead. Jack grabbed her hand, his fingers gripped her tightly and Rose winced at the pressure. "No. Kate. I can't..find..." The whisper was desperate, and Rose looked at Jack in alarm. He stared at her, fear was drawn upon his face and horror widened his eyes. Jack collapsed onto his back and fell into unconsciousness again.
Thirty minutes earlier
Jack's visions, memories and dreams were no longer distinct, they blended into a mosaic of sensations. His fantastical visions of flight continued.
The ocean breezes led him and Kate on a journey through the night sky. They were carried farther and farther over the Pacific. A waft of air caught them in its current and spun them in circles. Jack looked up at Kate's whirling body; she was leaning back with both of her hands grasping his, lost in the sheer physical wonder of their aerial dance. They lost themselves, abandoning their bodies to the breezes and to the vast and empty sky. Kate looked deep into Jack's eyes and gave him a smile of pure delight. Jack put his head back and laughed, it came from somewhere deep inside of him. He was experiencing true joy, a great ringing kind of gladness.
She pulled his body closer to her own, tightening their circles into a small vortex, until their movements were barely discernable, a faint blur on the horizon. Their spinning began to slow, wobbling to an end like a top and they fell over, Kate entangled in Jack's arms. The breeze continued to support them as they lay together breathless with the pleasure of their dance.
Kate placed her hand upon Jack's face, a tentative touch, barely felt. Jack groaned at the feeling of her delicate fingers tracing his mouth. His senses were heightened by their dizzying dance and even the slightest of Kate's feather like gestures were enough to fill him with sensuous pleasure. His mind was suddenly filled with the sensations of her small body's pressure against his own. Kate shifted herself upward and placed her mouth upon his. She let her tongue trace his bottom lip, waiting patiently and almost shyly for him to open his mouth to receive her. Jack found her gesture to be so endearing, so young and vulnerable, so unlike the Kate that she sometimes tried to be that he thought that his heart would break. He opened his mouth to her and invited her in and the feeling of her joyous entrance vanquished the possibility of any reasonable thought.
The wind pulled at them and they climbed impossibly high. The air was thinning and they continued to rise. As they reached the peak of their ascent, they suddenly dropped. The air ceased to carry them and they fell like shot birds, plummeting in a straight, terrifying line into the black water below. Jack felt the force of the water's impact on his body, and he sank deep into the sea. The darkness surrounded him and he struggled to push himself back to the surface. He straightened his arms above his head and pushed against the weight of the water. He kicked his legs with a powerful surge and broke through to the surface. Breathing great gulps of air he looked around desperately. All he could see all around him was a glassy darkness; it was still, without a breath, without a whisper of motion.
He dove back into the water, pushing blindly through the waves, desperately reaching through the darkness to feel for her body. He came up for breath and dove back in again and again. As the minutes passed, all reasonable hope died. And yet he continued on.
Bernard and Rose listened to the night sounds of the jungle especially aware of the faint and raspy breathing of their friend. Jack lay, out cold like a stone and the battle was almost over.
"Rose", Bernard arranged himself on a log next to his wife's slumped figure. "Don't lose heart, Jack was", he gestured toward Jack, "is, a great man. The end comes for all of us, at least he knows that he hasn't been alone. We've been here for him, there is value in that."
Rose looked up at Bernard with tears on her cheeks. "Bernard, I know that, I'm glad that we found him and that we have been able to be with him, but I wish that his last hours weren't so tormented. Something is terribly wrong, I can feel it. I don't know what it is, but he would not have such fear for no reason. I do not think that Jack fears death, he has been too good a man for that. There is something else pulling at him, there is some reason that he can't find peace and I think that it might have something to do with Kate."
"Kate is long gone, honey. She went back, I'm sure, on that plane we saw leave after the earthquake. I think everyone is gone except for us and Jack. I'm not sure about it and I didn't think I cared." Bernard rubbed Roses shoulders gently bringing her the reassurance that his words couldn't provide.
"Well, Bernard, I think that Jack cares. He can't find a peaceful exit for some reason. I wish I knew what it was. I wish that we could help him somehow, not just with his body but with his spirit. You didn't hear him, Bernard, you didn't see his face. The terror was so real."
Meanwhile, Jack continued to dream. His mind was transported far beyond the realm of his suffering body as he continued in his frenzied search for Kate. He dove into the waves repeatedly, carefully planning a perimeter around himself, trying to take a tactical approach to his fruitless search. His body began to wear out, he felt a burning sensation in his arms and legs and his lungs were on fire. He felt as if he had run a marathon at a sprinter's pace. His body finally gave out and he began to sink. The water swallowed him in the dark. He felt a strong grip around his midsection that pushed him up, interrupting his descent. A surge of energy pushed him up higher into the shallower parts of the ocean, he was swallowing vast gulps of sea water and as he was pushed out and onto the surface he sputtered and snorted and shook his head, his eyes shut tight against the water. He wanted it to be over already, he couldn't find her, he couldn't find her and he did not want some shark, sea otter or mermaid or whatever the hell it was to save his skin. It was better left undone. The grip around his body shifted and grasped his shoulders taking the weight of his weary body onto itself. He struggled mightily to resist it but he was so tired and he couldn't resist anymore. He opened his eyes. In the dark night he saw the delicate shape of Kate's silhouette, as she used every ounce of her strength and energy to support his weight in the water. She was pulling him through the waves toward a raft. She brought him to the edge of the vessel and he was pushed up and into the waiting arms of his friend Hurley. Jack looked around and saw an exhausted Sayid, Sun, Desmond, Frank and Aaron. Kate hoisted herself into the raft and fell, completely spent by his side. Floating in the dark water around them he saw the debris of a helicopter, the helicopter that had carried them many years ago, the first time that they had escaped the island.
The dream continued. The dawn came, the sun rose over the horizon and Jack opened his eyes. His friends were still there, sleeping the deep sleep of the truly exhausted as they were rocked on the waves by the large rubber raft. Kate however, was awake perched in her familiar position, one that Jack recalled seeing her in many times at the beach. Her chin was supported by her knees which were drawn up close to her chest and she was looking far out to the horizon. Upon hearing his rustling body, she turned slowly and looked at him with wide eyes.
"What in the hell were you doing out there, Jack? I had to fight with you to bring you in, you wouldn't come. I almost had to knock you out, you kept on diving back into the water."
"You couldn't." Jack shook his head, he was so confused that he decided to approach this conversation like a snarly algebra problem, one step at a time, first things first.
"I couldn't what, Jack?" Kate hissed her words, she would have been yelling if she hadn't been surrounded by sleeping castaways.
"You couldn't knock me out." Jack smiled and let out a short, weary laugh. He wiped his forehead with his hand and bent his head to the side, looking up at Kate from under his lowered brow. "You weigh, god, what is it, half what I do?"
"Jack, it's certainly more than that. And yes I could." She straightened her shoulders, and sniffed in mock injury. "It's not just size that wins in a fight, Jack, there's skill and I bet I have the advantage in that department." She looked at him and in spite of herself she let a smile twist the corner of her mouth up. "Seriously, Jack, what happened out there? I thought that we were both going to go down. Are you all right?"
Jack became frustrated at her attempts to pin him down. He didn't know what happened out on the ocean in the night. So he resorted to sarcasm. "Yeah, Kate, I'm just fine. I'm in the middle of the ocean with seven other people and we just crashed our helicopter and there is no rescue in sight. Aside from that, everything is dandy."
Kate turned aside and dropped the conversation. She returned to her former reverie staring out onto the horizon, this time though she reached deep into the pocket of her salty, grubby jeans and pulled out a tiny plane, the talisman.
"Bernard, look, he's waking up!" Rose was shaking him, he had fallen asleep by the fire and the dawn had just broken.
"Rose, I don't think…he can't be, he…" Bernard looked at Jack's reclining figure on the blankets nearby. He was still feverish and he still seemed in pain but his breathing was even and his eyes were open. He looked at Rose and Bernard and gestured weakly toward the water bottle. Bernard handed it to him and Jack took it with shaking hands and drank.