Chapter Nine

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Supernatural or LOST.

Sam stood as rigid and still as he could ever remember being as the cool ocean water lapped softly against his jean clad legs. All of his life, he'd had a problem with not squirming, highlighted by having spent the majority of his childhood in the backseat of the Impala. John Winchester had noticed it early on and had retained the good sense to dismiss it. Dean Winchester, on the other hand, had spent more than a decade and a half threatening his brother's person with various forms of bodily harm if he didn't remain still. Some of them were creative, some of them weren't, but most of them never made it past idle threats. Even now, at twenty three years old, his inability to keep still and ignore his bladder had resulted in his being separated from Dean.

At least I remember the crap that dad was constantly telling me would come in handy someday, he told himself as he focused his attention beneath the water's surface. His eyes darted back and forth as he followed the trajectory of a fish as it swam, obliviously, in front of him. He barely let out a breath as it stopped it's movements for a moment before it swam even closer to him.

You have to make it think that it's safe. Make it come to you.

He could hear his dad's voice so clearly in his mind as he used it as an anchor to keep himself centered. One of the spears that he'd spent the previous day shaping was poised out in front of him, the sharp point almost directly over the fish. He had to stop himself from chuckling as the fish moved a tiny bit more and stopped directly under his spear and stayed there. These are the actions of a fish that wants to be cooked for dinner, he reasoned with himself.

He watched for a few more moments as the fish, figuratively, threw itself a housewarming party right in front of him before he slammed the spear down. A smile stretched wide across his features as he felt it thud before it hit the ocean floor. "Jackpot," he murmured as he pulled the spear free and nodded at the fish that wiggled weakly from the middle of the stick.

He shouldered his catch and turned to make his walk back up to the beach, more than impressed that he remembered how to fish without a fishing pole. Not that he'd ever had a fishing pole in his life, but he had to imagine that it was easier than having to stand in the water and wait for a fish to approach you.

If he thought back on it, Sam was amused to remember that spear fishing had come more naturally to him than Dean. "Probably because it requires some level of patience," he murmured to himself as he dropped down onto a piece of debris with a sigh. He may have grown up with the inability to sit still, but it was nothing compared to Dean's lack of patience.

Sam smiled wide as he gingerly placed his fish onto the cleanest piece of debris he had been able to find and stared it down. "You would have been a much better victory if Dean had been right next to me trying to catch his own fish," he told it.

"So, you're talking to yourself now?"

Sam jumped at the sudden voice and spun around, his face relaxing as he graced Ana Lucia with a surprised smile. He let out a playful shrug as he motioned to the empty spot next to him with his head and watched as she considered his silent offer before she relented and took the seat that he had indicated. "That's a pretty good catch you got there," she observed as she motioned to his fish.

"Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with it," he told her as he took out his pocket knife and pulled the blade away from the handle with a click.

"How'd you get it?"

Sam shrugged, unimpressively, as he motioned to the still fish in front of him with a wave. "My dad taught my brother and me how to fish without poles when we were kids. To be honest, I'm a little shocked it stuck with me all these years." He chuckled at his statement before he sank the knife into the fish, right behind its gills and sliced its head clean off.

He looked over at Ana Lucia as he heard her sharp intake of breath and snorted at her disgusted expression as she stared down at the headless fish. "He also taught me how to filet what we caught."

"I'm starting to realize that your dad wasn't the typical 'let's have a catch in the front yard' kinda dad, was he?" she smiled over at him as he grunted in agreement before sinking his knife into the fish's belly and pulling it through to the spot where it's head had been.

"Would it be a too much to hope that your dad also taught you how to make the fish you caught into sushi?" Ana Lucia asked him. He turned to her, his nose scrunched up in disgust as his eyebrows lifted in question.

"Sushi?"

"I take it you're not a fan?"

"Of raw fish? No," Sam admitted to her. "My girlfriend in college loved the stuff and was constantly trying to get me to share with her. Never could get past that horrible salty taste."

Ana Lucia nodded with a smile as she leaned back against the debris and closed her eyes against the warm sun beating down. "Well, I'm an L.A. girl and we're born to love sushi. There was a brief time that I went completely crazy because I had to give it up when I got preg…"

Sam glanced over at her as she trailed off, her eyes snapped open as they glazed and focused far away from the two of them. "Ana?" he asked as he moved to wave a hand in front of her face. She recovered with a fake chuckle and shook it off as Sam put down his knife and looked over at her closer. He hadn't noticed it before, but the usual nonchalance on her face had shifted to aggravation the entire time that they had been talking.

"Are you ok?" He wasn't a stupid person and while he had caught her slip of the tongue, he didn't want to inquire about something that she obviously wasn't comfortable talking about. No, this had to be something completely different.

She nodded over at him with a pinched smile as she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly. Sam watched her for a moment, hoping that she would open up before he shook his head. "No, I don't buy it…something's bugging you. What's up?"

Ana Lucia let out a deep breath and rolled her eyes as she set her feet back down on the sand and leaned over to rest her elbows on her knees. She glanced back over at him, her features dark. "What do you think of that guy Nathan?"

Sam leaned back away from the fish he had filleted and tilted his head curiously. "Why do you ask?"

"Something in my gut," she told him as she sat up straight and motioned to her stomach. "Plus, he was gone for two hours today."

Sam nodded his head as he squinted his eyes against the sun and took in what she was telling him. "By himself?" He waited until Ana Lucia nodded her head before he continued. "Did he tell you where he went?"

"The bathroom," she lifted her eyebrows at the annoyed look on Sam's face.

"Did he forget that we only leave the beach in pairs?" Sam asked.

"Apparently," she told him as she stood up from the debris and dusted off her jeans. He smiled up at her as he straightened back up and went back to work on his fish. "Maybe don't get so worked up about him slipping up, but keep an eye on him?" Sam suggested.

Ana Lucia smirked down at him as she nodded. "The keeping an eye on him thing is already taken care of," she told him. "I have Goodwin helping me out."

Sam's eyes darkened at the mention of Goodwin, but he brushed it off quickly. The last thing he needed to do was ostracize himself by revealing his distrust of people that were, so far, likeable and trustworthy to other people.

"Let me know when you're ready to cook that sucker," Ana Lucia requested as she pointed at his fish. "I heard a pig in the woods earlier, so if you get a free moment, maybe you'd like to help me catch it?"

Sam smiled up at her after he cut the rest of the fish's meat away from its skeleton. "Sure. Never was one to turn down bacon."


Dean thought that when Jack had entered his tent with a smile and a makeshift sling in his hands that he had been kidding. It didn't take him long to realize that Jack was completely serious about him wearing a sling until his shoulder heeled, and he became less convinced of his joking manner and more convinced that he was evil. And, he'd spent his entire life killing evil sons of bitches.

"Well?" Jack asked him as he gingerly pulled Dean's injured arm through the sling and gave it a satisfactory nod. Dean wanted to knock the pleased as punch smile off of Jack's face as he finally looked down at the offending piece of fabric as if it were a snake that held his injured arm immobile against his body. "Nope."

Jack's smile faded as Dean shook his head back and forth while he muttered a string of curses at the sling. "What's wrong with it?"

"Uh, let's see. It's a sling, for one," Dean countered, dismayed that he'd failed to keep the whiny tone out of his voice. He cleared his throat before he continued. "Jack, my arm isn't broken or even that badly injured…"

"You were shot with an arrow."

"In my shoulder," Dean argued back.

"Which, if you'll remember elementary school teachings, is connected to the arm bone," Jack blandly sang to him. Dean's face flushed red with anger as he stood up from the sandy floor of his tent. "It still doesn't mean that I need this sling."

Jack stood up with him and brushed off his clothes with a sigh. "Look, I'm not saying that you don't know your healing processes better than I do," Jack told him. "And, ordinarily, I'd agree with someone as stubborn as you and hand them off to another doctor, but that would be in the real world. I don't have any kind of penicillin or antibiotics here to help speed along your healing. It's a miracle, already, that you didn't develop some kind of infection when you left that arrow in your shoulder while you hiked back here. I'm not willing to take another risk like that until the stitches come out."

Dean looked back down at the sling with a groan. "I really have to wear this thing?"

"You really have to wear this thing," Jack told him. "And don't think that just because I'm at the caves and you're on the beach that you can take it off whenever you want. I'll get Kate involved in this if I have to."

"You wouldn't."

"I would," Jack told him.

Dean narrowed his eyes at Jack as he contemplated his threat. He looked back down at his arm with a frown before he nodded his head with an eye roll. "Fine, I'll wear the damn thing. But, I just want you to know that I'm not happy about it at all."

"Yeah, I'll lose sleep over that," Jack told him as he bent over and packed up his case of medical supplies. "By the way, have you seen Sawyer around?"

"He's still in his tent, licking his wounds," Dean told him distractedly. He grimaced, again, at the sling before he looked back up at the troubled expression on Jack's face. "Dude, what did you expect? You guys really did a number on him."

"I don't really wanna talk about it, alright?" Jack told him. Dean held up his good arm in surrender as he backed up towards the tent's opening.

"You don't have to worry about an attempt at a warm and gooey moment from me. I'm just warning you not to be that shocked if he doesn't welcome you with open arms, even if you are there to patch him up." He told him as they both exited his tent and adjusted their eyes to the bright sun. Jack nodded over at Dean curtly before he turned and hiked up the beach to the tent that Sawyer was staying in.

Dean took in a deep breath as he made his way over to the water troughs for a drink of water. He didn't even want to look down at the fabric on his arm that he'd been forced into wearing. What else could go wrong today?

"Nice sling, gimpy" he heard to his left.

"Spoke too soon," he muttered as he glanced over to see Shannon sitting against a piece of debris, painting her toenails. Dean shook his head with a chuckle as he realized that she was just trying to get a rise out of him. Her own personal US Weekly on a deserted island. Well, not if he had anything to say about it.

"Shannon, hey, I haven't really seen you since I got back. I guess with all the commotion going on lately, it was the last thing on my mind, but I want you to know that I did notice it. All I can say is good for you."

He watched, bemused, as Shannon's face scrunched up as she visibly worked against her curiosity to ignore his comment.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

"What are you talking about, nimrod?" She huffed out in a frustrated voice.

Dean's smile stretched further at the insult as he shrugged his good shoulder nonchalantly. "Oh, it's nothing you really need to worry about. Even after all the years that I spent watching Gilligan's Island, and it was years, thanks to the lovely Ginger, not even I was aware of how fattening coconuts can be." He watched as her eyes darkened before he leaned in closer, "it's ok, though, you wear the extra weight well."

He resisted the urge to pat her cheek sardonically as he smiled wide and turned on his heel to begin his trek away from her. He'd only made it a few feet when he heard the childish gibberish that she shouted at his retreating back, but he didn't even wave her off as he let the distance he walked be his volume button. The day was already shaping up to be better than it had begun, even if he had to move things along in his very own special Dean way to make them happen.

He stopped suddenly as he recognized the place on the beach where he and Kate had said their final goodbye to Sayid before he left. His throat burned as he hoped that his brother and Sayid would be safe in an area that had injured him.

"Well, I'll be damned," he murmured as he turned and saw her. Kate was faced away from him as she gathered up firewood and added it to a small pile under her arms. She stopped after a moment and looked out towards the beach, away from him. He followed her line of vision and tilted his head when he couldn't figure out what she was scrutinizing. "Ah hell," he muttered as he let out a deep sigh and jogged the rest of the space between them. He came to a stop next to her and looked out in the same direction, almost wondering if a man in a striped shirt and hat would come into view soon. "What are we looking at?"

He grinned as Kate stiffened next to him before she turned and graced him with a wan smile. She turned her attention back to the beach and gave him a small shrug, leaving his question still open. "Kate? You ok?"

"We shouldn't have let him go off by himself," she murmured. He turned back to the beach and watched with her.

"Sayid?"

She nodded her head in worry as she dropped the pile of wood at her feet and wrapped her arms around herself. "We should have done something or said something to stop him."

He let out a loud snort at her words as he spared her with an incredulous glance. "So, you're cool with me going off by myself, but Sayid's cause for worry…" He continued to stare out as he practically felt her eyes roll.

"If you'll remember correctly, I wasn't happy with you leaving either," she corrected him with a shake of her head. "Plus, you weren't even gone for a whole day before you came back with an arrow sticking through your shoulder."

"Yeah, keep on rubbing in that salt, Kate." Dean rolled his eyes as he glanced down at the top of the wrappings he could see under his shirt. He could feel Kate's eyes on him as he turned back over to her, his eyes brows raised. "Nice sling."

"Thanks, I hear it's all the rage this season in island fashion," he snarked back at her.

"That's not what I meant," Kate clarified. "I made that sling. For Jack."

Dean looked down at his arm and back up at her, his expression as passive as he could make it. "You mean for Jack to use in case anyone gets injured?"

"Nope," she told him, popping the 'P' in annoyance. "I made it for him, when he dislocated his shoulder," she explained.

"He dislocated his shoulder?" Dean asked in confusion. Kate nodded, meekly, as his confusion grew. "Where the hell was I?"

"In the jungle," Kate motioned towards the trees. "Getting shot up with booby trapped arrows."

Dean looked back down at Kate as she shook her head in dismay at her own words and forced a deep sigh from him. "Sayid's not going into the jungle, Kate. He's mapping the beaches. If there's anything out there that can hurt him like I got hurt, I think it'll be easier for him to spot it on his route."

He gave her a reassuring smile, which she returned with a nod before he turned back towards the beach. They continued to stare down the beach in a commiserated silence, both hoping that Dean was right about Sayid being safe.

"You guys looking for someone?" Jack cut in as he stopped in front of them. He turned in the direction they were looking before he gave them both a curious smile. "Or, just admiring the view?"

"It's been two days since Sayid took off on his own," Kate murmured, not even making eye contact with him. Dean watched as Jack's smile fell with the realization that Kate was still angry about the events that had led to Sayid leaving. "I keep looking up and thinking I'm gonna see him coming back."

"Kate, it's gonna take a hell of a lot longer than just two days to map the island," Dean reminded her.

"Besides, he'll come back when he finds what he's looking for," Jack agreed. "The French transmission…"

"He wasn't looking for anything," Kate cut in, shaking her head at his denial as she gave him a scathing look. "He went because of what happened. Because of what he did."

Jack looked down at his feet, guilt crossing his features before he looked back up at them. "It was an accident…"

"Yeah, well…accidents happen when you torture somebody, Jack," Kate informed him, sarcasm lacing her tone.

Jack looked over at Dean, begging him for help with his eyes before Dean just gave him a half hearted shrug. "Dude, you didn't see him before he left. The guy was torn up."

Jack nodded his head at the both of them in understanding before he held out his hands at his sides. "Sayid's a trained soldier, alright? He can take care of himself." He turned, reluctantly and left them as they continued to stare at an empty beach.


It had taken all of the smooth talking skills Dean had acquired during his entire life to convince Kate and her guilty conscience not to go after Jack, but he'd finally done it. Someone seriously needs to sit those two down and inform them both that they're jonesing for each other, he thought as he watched Kate listlessly pick up another piece of wood and add it to the pile tucked under her arm. At least for the sake of those of us that have to deal with them.

He chuckled at the thought as he readjusted his grip on the small pile of wood he had collected, his patience depleting as he dropped another piece. "Damnit!"

It had gone this way since he had offered to help Kate gather firewood and she had glanced down at his injured arm for the tiniest of moments, which he hadn't missed. "I am capable of picking up a piece of wood and adding it to a pile," he had hissed as she held up her hands and ruefully thanked him for his offer.

"Dean, maybe you should just sit this one out until you've got two usable hands," Kate admonished as Dean threw her a contemptuous look. He rolled his eyes before glancing over at Shannon, his irritation turning into anger as she continued to read through a magazine while sunbathing.

"Hey, don't give us a hand with this or anything," he growled in her direction.

"Wasn't planning on it," she threw back, not even sparing him a glance.

Dean could feel all of the blood in his body as it pooled into his face while his anger rose. "I'll be right back," he hissed at Kate. She stood up straight with the wood in her hands and threw him a curious look.

"Where are you going?"

"To go get my knife," he told her as he stomped away. He could hear the wood she had been gathering as it hit the sand and she rushed in front of him, her hands held out to stop him. "Whoa, just calm down."

"Calm down?" Dean barked. "How the hell am I supposed to calm down when I've got a useless arm holding me back and spoiled princess brats lounging around that refuse to help out with anything," he yelled over his shoulder. Kate glanced over his shoulder at Shannon, wondering if she'd heard his outburst and decided not to tell him that he was being flipped off for his comment.

"Ok, look. Your arm is gonna take some time to heal, alright? That's outta your hands. You gotta stop pushing yourself as if you were never injured," Kate admonished him. She shook her head as Dean opened his mouth to argue. "No, you have to listen to me on this one, alright?"

She watched as the darkness left Dean's eyes before he solemnly nodded his head. "Good, now, sit down and relax while I finish gathering up this firewood. I'm almost done anyways."

Dean let out a deep huff as Kate walked back to her pile of wood and began to gather it back up while he took a seat in the sand. "Following your own sage advice?" Shannon snarked at him.

"More like thinking about how none of us really knew each other before our plane crashed. Take me for example…I could be a serial killer in the real world and you'd have no way of verifying those facts. I don't know about you, but I sure wouldn't wanna piss off that kind of person," Dean told her, smiling wide as her face paled and she turned back to her magazine. He smiled up at Kate who rolled her eyes at him around a smirk as she continued her task, barely paying any attention to Boone as he approached Shannon.

"You're never gonna believe this."

Shannon looked over at Dean with a grimace before giving her brother a sarcastic smile. "You finally learned how to tie your own shoes."

"Funny," Boone commented sarcastically as he knelt down next to her. "Someone at the caves built a golf course."

Dean looked over at him strangely as Shannon let out a disbelieving laugh. "Are you high?"

"Seriously, a golf course," Boone chuckled back at her as he nodded his head. "Apparently Jack's playing with them right now." He explained.

"Jack?" Kate interrupted incredulously. Dean glanced over at her, smiling at the look of disbelief that was covering her features. He watched as she moved aside the hair covering her face before speaking again. "…is golfing?"

"It's what I hear," Boone told her with a nod and a smile.

She threw a crazy look to Dean who only shrugged as he rested most of his weight against the piece of debris behind him. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna go check this out," Boone told them as he stood and walked away from them. Dean threw him a nod as he remained in his spot, more entertained to watch the disbelief still on Kate's face.

"Wait for me, bonehead," Shannon yelled after him as she gathered her over shirt and stood to follow. Dean didn't even spare her a glance as she kicked some sand his way on her exit. "Bitch," he muttered as Kate threw down the wood in her arms and approached him.

"You're coming, right?" she asked as she towered over him.

Dean glanced up at her, his eyebrows raised. "To watch a bunch of guys play golf?"

Kate nodded her head happily as Dean let out a deep sigh and held out his good arm for her to help him up. She grunted as she helped him stand and steady himself before he turned to her with a look of appreciation. "Ok, let's go check this thing out."

"I kinda can't believe Jack's just playing golf right now," Kate told him as they sauntered off in the same direction that Shannon and Boone had disappeared down.

"Boy howdy, a doctor playing golf," Sawyer interrupted them. "What's next? Cop eating a donut?"

Dean let out a deep laugh at the amused look on Sawyer's face while Kate threw him a groan, the simple request of not to encourage the southern man plain on her features. "Hey, how's the arm doing?" Dean asked him.

"Better than yours it seems," Sawyer answered. "I'm not at the sling stage yet."

"Nope, but I didn't have any arteries get ruptured," Dean threw back.

"Are you two seriously having a pissing contest over your arm wounds?" Kate asked incredulously. She laughed at the sheepish expressions both men were sending her before she shook her head and turned to Sawyer. "Are you up to coming with us?"

"Think I'll pass on that, Freckles. Not big on crowds."

"They don't seem too big on you, either," Dean commiserated. Sawyer gave him an understanding nod as he smiled back over at Kate. "No man, what I mean is that you coming with us might change that opinion," Dean told him with a shrug and a wince. "I'm, clearly, never gonna get used to this damn injury." He told Kate.

She chuckled at him with a cringe before she turned her attention back to Sawyer, her eyes brows raised. "Well?"

"Well what?" he asked with a grin.

She let out a deep sigh, "one outcast to another? I'd think about making more of an effort."

"That's fortune cookie advice right there," Dean told them. "You only know if you can add 'in bed' to it successfully." He watched with a smug smile as Sawyer replayed Kate's advice to him with Dean's message on the end and smiled. "Never had that complaint before."

"Dude, me neither," Dean scoffed. "But, seriously, you two ain't the only outcasts on this island. I've just managed to keep my secrets buried for the time being."

Sawyer chuckled as he shook his head in understanding, but remained in his spot. "Duly noted."


"So when Boone said that somebody had built a golf course…" Dean began as they stopped near another group of people.

"He meant that somebody had dug out a few holes and marked them," Kate explained to him.

"But, where's the big windmill and the castle and the Mount Everest that explodes?" He asked as he motioned around. He looked over at the blank expression on Kate's face before she burst into hysterics, aggravating him further. "What?"

"Dean, that's miniature golf," she clarified for him. Dean looked around and back at her, holding his arms out in question. "They're two completely different things."

"Alright then, I assume the point of this one is to get the ball in the hole, also?" Dean asked. Kate nodded her head at him as he quickly studied their surroundings. "There just aren't any obstacles?"

"Nope," Kate told him with a smile. "Just distance."

"Distance? This is crap. Anybody can hit a ball far enough away with the right club," Dean told her incredulously. "I feel like I'm eight years old all over again and I just realized that you don't get a growth spurt with each birthday."

"Stop being so dramatic," Kate laughed. Dean grinned in her direction as he realized that her dark mood had disappeared and he couldn't help but feel responsible for helping her get through her funk. If only Sam could see him now, being nice to a cute girl that he had no feelings for whatsoever. He was getting soft in his old age.

"There's Jack," Kate pointed out. Dean followed her gaze as Jack stood completely still and stared down his golf club before he swung it back and then forward with a smile. The entire group of people grew quiet as Jack remained in his stance, his posture solid as they all watched the ball land very close to a handmade flag. "That's it?"

"That's it," Kate told him.

"Dude, I think you stuck it," Hurley commented next to them.

"Ugh, lucky lucky lucky," Charlie agreed.

"I'm so friggen lost," Dean admitted as he ran his good hand through his hair in frustration. Kate smiled wide as she nodded her head in Jack's direction. "I'll be right back."

"Whatever, go make goo-goo eyes," Dean waved her off. He nodded over at Charlie as he walked through the crowd and stopped next to him and Hurley.

"Hey, how goes the arm?" Charlie asked with a smile as Hurley rooted around in the stash of golf clubs and pulled one out. Dean rolled his eyes as he motioned to his gimp arm begrudgingly. "It's a pretty sling, though. Right?"

Charlie held up his hands as Dean growled at him, not able to contain the impish smile that spread across his face, not matter how menacing Dean looked. "When did Jack have time to organize all of this?"

Charlie and he watched as Hurley took his place on the putting area while Charlie shook his head. "Nah, this wasn't Jack. Hurley put this little thing together."

"Is that true, man?" Dean asked as Hurley took his stance. He grinned sheepishly as he nodded his head at Dean. "Well, yeah. I Figured it'd be nice to have something to do other than survive," he admitted.

Dean let out a deep laugh. "No, surviving is definitely on the backburner to golf. Think you can arrange for some windmills and castles next time?"

"That's miniature golf, dufus," Shannon told him. Dean rolled his eyes over at Charlie, who looked like he was holding back laugher while he shook his head incredulously. "You know, I'm pretty damn lucky that she's around to keep me as well informed as she is. Think she'll teach a seminar on how to avoid those pesky tan lines if a plane crash strands you on a desert island?"

"Go to hell," Shannon told him with a fake smile.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm already stuck on an island with you," Dean countered with an equally fake smile.

"Hey, I'm trying to concentrate over here," Hurley interrupted them. Dean turned back to watch him set up with a smile, only to wince as Hurley sliced the club into the grass, not once connecting with the golf ball. "I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen."

"Ah crap," he muttered. "Do over."

"It's a mulligan," Charlie corrected him. "Mulligan. It's a gentlemen's sport, you gotta get the words right."

"Gentlemen's sport?" Dean asked.

"Uh yeah," Shannon interrupted. "Golf is elite. You don't see Tiger Woods with the sort of Neanderthal behavior you seem to favor."

"Sweetheart, he's a guy and he's rich. He's probably banging a whole slew of women on the side."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Shannon told him as she rolled her eyes.

"No, you're right. What could I, a guy, possibly know about how guys think and operate," he scoffed as he watched Michael take his stance and swing his club with a groan. Why the hell would anybody pay large amounts of money to belong to a golf club? He thought with a grimace. Of course, if people knew about his life, they'd probably question why he did what he did.

"You look bored out of your mind," Kate commented with a chuckle as she rejoined his side.

Dean threw her an eye roll as he nodded over at the spectacle. "How could I be bored with the wonderful sport of golf and that harpy to keep me entertained?" Kate laughed loudly at the sarcasm flooding his voice, earning her a smirk. "Laugh now, Bonnie. But when Led Zeppelin comes to this island, you're buying the tickets."

"Deal," she told him with a smile and a nod. He turned his attention back to the game and tilted his head as Charlie knelt low on the ground so that he was eye level with the intended trajectory of his golf ball to the hole. He couldn't help but laugh with the rest of the group as Charlie picked at a piece of offending grass and threw it away from his ball.

"Guys, please," Charlie reprimanded them as he took his stance. "I've never made par on a course before."

Dean furrowed his brow as he leaned over in Kate's direction. "Par is the pre-determined number of strokes it should take for a golfer to complete a course," she whispered before he could even ask the question.

Dean chuckled as he shook his head incredulously. "It's a little scary that you know me this well."

"I agree," she told him as they watched Charlie tap his ball. He was amazed at how quiet the group became as they watched Charlie's golf ball roll too quickly to the hole and straight over it.

"Oh, bollocks! Did you see that?" Charlie despaired.

"Dude, you were robbed," Hurley assured him around a chuckle.

"Ok, Jack, it's up to you," Michael announced. "You sink this and you get to wear the blazer."

"You win a blazer in golf," Kate answered as Dean leaned back in.

"A blazer like a jacket?" Dean asked her. At her nod he tilted his head. "Really? After all that, all you get is something you could just buy at Burlington Coat Factory?"

Kate laughed as Jack grabbed a club and marched up to his ball. "No pressure," Kate yelled out to him with a smile. He looked back at her with a grin before he took his stance as the group got quiet again.

"Five bucks says he sinks sit," Hurley broke the silence.

"Ah, gambling. Now, this I know," Dean commented.

"Wait, you're betting against me?" Charlie whined as he stepped forward.

"Sorry, dude. You're a duffer like me," Hurley explained to him with a grin.

"Make it ten and you're on," Boone announced.

"I don't have any cash, but I'll bet my dinner on the doc," Sullivan offered.

"Hmm, dinner and ten bucks," Dean commented to Kate. "I'm one of the guys that's been doing the hunting and there's no use for the cash except as kindling while we're on this island. That just might be worth it."

"I got two tubes of sunscreen and a flashlight that says he chokes." The entire group turned to see Sawyer standing in front of them, a wry grin on his face. "Now that is a bet to mark our situation. I'll take that action, man," Dean exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah…me too," Boone agreed.

"You just bet on Jack, dumbass," Shannon scoffed.

"We need the sunscreen, princess," Boone countered.

"Especially considering how much of the stuff Paris Hilton's going through on a daily basis," Dean added with a laugh. He ignored the finger Shannon flashed at him as he sent a friendly nod to Sawyer, which Sawyer immediately returned.


Sam snapped awake as screams filled the night's silence. He could barely see past the fire they kept lit as he felt the panic that had settled into the air even before he heard Libby yell that someone had taken the children.

He flew up and rushed past several people that were running in the opposite direction.

When in doubt, run towards the danger.

Sam shook Dean's voice out of his head as he turned towards the direction that most of the noise was coming from and took off at full speed. He used the sounds around him as a compass until his feet collided with something big enough to send him sprawling face first onto the sand in front of him. He recovered in enough time and looked back at what he had tripped over only to watch as Ana Lucia grabbed a nearby rock and used it to hit a woman that was fighting with her.

"Hey," he yelled as he scurried up and crawled back to where she was knelt, the rock she had used to knock the woman out clutched tightly in her hand. "Are you ok?"

"This crazy bitch rushed me," she muttered, not able to take her eyes off of the woman.

"They're gone," Libby announced in a panicked voice as she stopped behind them.

"Which way did they go?" Ana Lucia demanded as she stood back up.

"It doesn't matter," Sam muttered. "It's too dark to find them and they know their way around this island better than we do."

"No, I don't buy that," Ana Lucia growled. She reached down and grabbed the woman that had tackled her and shook her roughly. "WAKE UP. WAKE UP!" She continued to yell. "WHO ARE YOU? TALK TO ME!"

Sam watched as Ana Lucia continued to try to rouse her, while the woman's weightless head snapped from side to the side. He reached down and placed two fingers at her neck, his heart sinking. "Stop. She's dead."

Ana Lucia looked over at him in shock as he gave her a grim nod and laid the dead woman down softly in the sand. "No," she hissed as she scrambled forward and began to search through her pockets hastily. "Ana, stop. What are you doing?"

She ignored him as she pulled out a pocket knife and moved it around so that the light from the fire hit it.

"Is that a knife?" Sam asked as he reached forward and took it from her grasp while she continued to search the woman. He opened up the blade and held it up better to the light, his eyes widening as they landed on the base of the blade.

U.S. ARMY

Holy shit, this is a military knife, he thought. How the hell did an American military knife end up on this island?

His lowered the knife away from the light as his attention refocused on Ana Lucia as she pulled a tattered piece of paper from the woman's pants. "What is that?" Sam asked as she unfolded it. He waited as she scanned through the contents on the page, her breath hitching the further she got. "Ana, what is it?" Sam asked again.

"It's a list," she answered, her eyes closing as the tension on her face melted into anxiety.

"A list of what?" Libby asked as a throng of people gathered around them.

"Nine…" Ana Lucia told them raggedly. "…of us."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sam asked her as he grabbed the paper from her stunned hands. His eyes adjusted enough to scroll through and read the names that were written down in neat handwriting.

"The kids are on here," Sam observed.

"Yeah, they are," she told him. "How much do you wanna bet that the other people that were taken will be on there also."

"They've been watching us," Sam observed, his eyes wide as he glanced over at the dark trees that cut the beach off from the rest of the island. "We're not safe here anymore."

Ana Lucia glanced over at him, her expression pinched with anger as she let out a deep sigh. "We were never safe here."

Author's Note: I am so sorry that this update has taken me as long as it has. Between the last chapter and this chapter, my grandmother passed and that occupied most of my thoughts and time. I don't have a whole lot to say during this note, which is bizarre for me, but I do hope that this chapter is more liked than the last. I want to thank those readers that sent in their critiques and messages in a neutral manner and didn't flame me for leaving Dean on the beach while Sayid left. It never even occurred to me that that would be a hot button topic. Again, I want to stress that the timeline of this story will be pretty consistent with LOST, including 48 days until both camps meet up. I'm trying to make it worth the while for when it does happen. Thank you for reading and reviewing when ya'll do. It makes my day to read what ya'll think of this story.