"Claire?"

Claire looked up to find Sun looking down at her as she did some homework waiting for Jack to get out of detention. Dear god, was it boring the hell out of her.

"Hey!" Claire said, thankful for the distraction as she almost threw her books onto the ground beside her and waited for Sun to sit down. "What can I do you for?"

"I've been having some dreams lately...a-about what happened before I came to America and I wanted to speak of them with you." Sun said, stuttering mid-sentence as she played with a white object in her hands that Claire couldn't quite see. "I always have the same feeling when I wake-I'm scared and I can't explain it."

"Does the dream-does it mirror anything that's been happening lately at all? What kind of dream is it?" Claire asked, intrigued by Sun's predicament.

"I'm not being chased, but I'm always running away from my...from something." Sun said, barely catching herself.

"Well, chasing dreams usually mean stress from your waking life is leaking into your subconscious and, because you're afraid to confront it, or because you can, you turn tail and rocket off." Claire explained, getting into a flow as she babbled on about dreams to Sun. "I'd say that there's something in your life you're afraid to confront and until you do, the dream will repeat over and over."

"Claire?"

Claire and Sun turned to find Jack looking around the grounds for her.

"Sun, I've got to go." Claire said, hurriedly stuffing her things into her messenger bag and pulling it over her head before turning back to Sun."Jack's dad said he'd drive me home today, but I hope I've been of some help to you. You know my number if you still need to talk, feel free to call me any time, day or night, all right?"

"Thank you." Sun said and Claire nodded before calling Jack's name and walking off, leaving Sun alone with her thoughts.

Sun cowered behind her mother as the person approached and Sun worried that they had been caught. The urgency in her mother had not escaped her senses and she began to understand that this was not something to be taken lightly.

"Hea, is that you?" the dark figure asked, moving into the moonlight. A kind-looking man wearing a hat squinted through the darkness at them and Sun deemed that this man could be trusted so she relaxed against her mother's leg.

"Gi?" Hea asked, relaxing visibly in the moonlight. "Thank goodness."

"Are you well? Did everything work out?" the fisherman, Gi, asked Sun's mother as they began to walk along the docks.

"Nothing went wrong." Hea said in reply and Gi knew that he had to hurry them along.

"My son and I will take you up the coast where we will meet a boat on the way to America. A friend of mine will get you on board and take care of you both from there." Gi explained, approaching one of the boats and Sun saw a boy about her age toying with one of the ropes aboard the boat.

"Welcome to my humble boat." Gi said, bowing low as he ushered them onto the boat and Sun couldn't help but giggle.

"Such a pretty little one." Gi said, crouching down and looking into Sun's eyes. "What is your name , pretty one?"

"Sun." she replied and he reached around behind her ear, pulling back and handing her a sweet of some kind. She clapped her hands over her ears in surprise, wondering if the sweet had truly come from behind her ear.

"Such a pretty name for a pretty young lady." Gi said, placing the sweet in her hand before turning away and pushing the boat away from the dock.

Sun watched the moonlit docks grow smaller and smaller until she couldn't see them anymore, no matter how hard she squinted.

"So, your dad's picking us up?"

Jack blinked from his trance and looked over at Claire, sitting beside him on the steps.

"What?"

"Your dad is picking us up, right?" she asked again, a worried look crossing her face.

"Duh...yeah. Yeah, today." he replied and Claire looked at him inquisitively.

"Are you okay? You seem kinda distant, y'know?" she asked and he shook his head.

"Distant, how?" he asked and she sighed as she tried to think of how to describe it.

"I don't know...'distant' distant. Far off. Aloof. Removed."

"Spaced out?"

"That, too." Claire said, jabbing her finger at Jack's chest which...well, it hurt, but mostly it made him laugh. "What are you laughing at, mister?"

"You called me aloof." Jack said, still chuckling as he rubbed at the spot where Claire's finger had jabbed him. "And then you poked me in the chest."

"Oh, c'mon, it couldn't've hurt that bloody much!" Claire exclaimed, throwing her hands up in something that resembled defeat before pointing her finger at him again and narrowing her eyes. "You're trying to deter me. With-with laughter and amusement and making me think that I actually hurt you more than I did and-and it won't work, Jack Shephard, because...because...what was the question?"

"Distance." Jack replied and Claire picked up right where she'd left off.

"Right, you're too bloody distant, mister! So, you get your arse back from wherever it has decided to go without me and you sit it right there on that step!" By the time Claire finished her rant, her face had turned pink and Jack wasn't sure if he should be more worried for her or more worried for himself.

The look in her eyes made him worry about himself as the pink faded delicately from her face and she dropped herself to the step beside him.

"Oh, hey, look." Claire said, changing demeanor so quickly Jack's eyes almost bugged out of their sockets and rolled under the wheels of his dad's approaching Bentley. "Your dad's here."

The car barely pulled to a stop as Claire tugged open the back door of the car and disappeared inside, Jack following warily.

"Afternoon, Claire." Christian said, nodding at her in the rearview mirror.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Shephard." Claire said, dumping her backpack on the floor of the back seat as she and Jack buckled themselves in securely.

"Come now, Claire. I've asked you to call me Christian, dear." he said, smiling into the rearview mirror as he pulled away from the curb and took to the road.

"All right, Mr. Shep...Christian." she said, catching herself mid-phrase.

"So, how were your days today?" he asked, turning a corner smoothly as he waited for an answer.

"Besides having to wait for Jack to finish detention, everything went surprisingly well."

"Yes, well, I'm sorry you had to pay for Jack's mistake Claire." Christian said, his eyes turning on Jack in the rearview mirror. Jack shifted uncomfortably as his father's eyes bore holes into his head but Claire didn't seem to notice. He chewed at his bottom lip as he stared down at his feet instead of the back of the headrest where he could see his father's eyes watching him.

"Oh, no, it wasn't a problem. I did some homework, so more time for me at home." Claire said, noticing how Christian's eyes grew dark and turned to Jack in the mirror and how he shifted uncomfortably, chewing on his bottom lip. The red was a shock for her as it dripped slowly down his chin.

"Oh my god...Jack, you're bleeding." Claire said, pulling out a tissue as Jack wiped at his lip with the back of his hand.

"Let me see it." Claire commanded, grabbing Jack's chin and making him face her as she dabbed at it.

"Did you get this from Ana?" she asked and he shook his head, making her brow furrow. "Well, where..." Claire trailed off as Jack's eyes flicked to the front of the car for a moment before flicking back to her worried face.

"I walked into the screen door at my house."

"But, you don't have a-"

"I walked into the door at my house." Jack said, a little more forcefully and Claire snapped her mouth shut as he ripped the tissue from her hand and turned away.

Ana sprinted home as the darkness set in, backpack bouncing painfully against one spot where a book corner kept slapping itself against her lower back.

'sh-t.' she thought as her legs burned. 'Mom's gonna friggin kill me!'

Her detention had run longer than was expected (she still wasn't sure how that had happened) and then she'd decided to watch the sunset on a bench in the park she took a shortcut through. All in all, she was now running late and running home in the dark, hoping that her mother would already be asleep and she could just sneak in.

The car parked in front of her house was a surprise that made her stop short as she didn't recognize it.

She didn't recognize the blond man getting out of the car either and that made her nervous. The guy made her nervous. He looked seedy.

Slowly, Ana approached the house as the man walked up to the front door and pressed the doorbell.

"Who're you?" Ana said and the guy tensed, turning in surprise at the voice behind him. Seeing it was just a girl, he relaxed.

"Why?" he asked, an almost mockingly playful look in his eyes as he did so.

"I live here." she said, cocking and eyebrow and pointing to the house.

"Really? Are you AnaLucia?" he asked, truly curious and Ana began to back away from the guy, wondering why he knew her name. She shifted her book bag so she could swing it at him if he tried to attack her. He realized what she was doing and waved his hands wildly. "No! No, no-your mom and I met through a friend and we're going to see a movie tonight! That's all, I swear."

Ana looked at him critically until the front door opened and her mother stood there wearing a flowered dress.

"Hi, Jason." she said to him before turning on her daughter. "Where have you been?"

"Obtuve tenido arriba al colegio." Ana said and her mom looked at her in disbelief. So she changed the subject. "Usted nunca me dijo usted tuvo a un novio."

"Es ninguno de su negocio, la señorita." her mother said, pulling on a jacket and closing the closet door. "Now, I don't want to come back to find the house burned down, you understand me? I know you like to make...things in the kitchen."

"It was only once, mom. And I was eight."

"It was twice and I already made you dinner anyway." her mom said before leaning down and kissing her on top of her head. "Buenas noches, mi vida."

"Night..." Ana said, but her mother was already walking away. "Jason" closed the door of the car after she got in and shot a look back at Ana, giving her a smile that creeped her out beyond belief and made her retreat into the safety of the house.

She was drowning. She had fallen in the water at the boat passing and she was drowning for her mistake.

Sun's vision began to get hazy when she felt someone grab her around the waist and tug her upward through the haze of blue and purple and deepening black.

Sun spluttered as she broke the surface of the water and her mother cried out in relief that her daughter was alive.

"Are you all right?" asked the owner of the arm around her waist. Unable to speak, Sun just nodded and she felt him tug her along toward the boat. Someone lifted them both onto the boat and the arm laid her on the boat's deck and she looked up into the worried face of Gi's son.

"Thank you." Hea said, pulling him to her and hugging him with all she was worth before releasing him and turning to Sun, brushing her hair from her face. "You gave me a scare, sunshine. We should be more careful."

Sun's eyes followed Gi's son as he moved into the darkness behind her mother and vanished. She heard a soft splash and it occurred to her that he'd just saved her life.

Later, when she and her mother were safe and warm in a room on the boat, it occurred to her that she never learned the boy's name.

Claire Littleton sat snuggled under the green comforter of her bed, up against the wall as the table lamp shined in the dark room. She sat in her bed and she wrote in her journal about everything that had happened in her life so far and her reflections on it. She wrote about school and her friends and the last movie she'd seen in the theater.

She also wrote about dreams.

I've been having the same dream, over and over again for the past few days and it troubles me. The outcome is always the same but the players change about, like my mind is trying to fit a puzzle together unsuccessfully. At times, the main players are Kate and Boone, at times myself and Jack, always changing, nothing remains but the final outcome.

Death.

It scares me that I'm having this dream but what scares me even more is the feeling of finality I get each time I wake.

I'm starting to fear sleeping because then, I'll dream and one more of my friends will die and I won't be able to help them.

Love,
Claire

Translations:

Obtuve tenido arriba al colegio - I got held up at school
Usted nunca me dijo usted tuvo a un novio - You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend
Es ninguno de su negocio, la señorita - It's none of your business, young lady
Buenas noches, mi vida -Good night, my life

Preview Time!

Interlude 2: Thomas
The author takes the day off to visit her son in the hospital.

Alice in Wonderland-A Claire-Centric Chapter
Claire has a terrifying dream that seems far too real, the kids get paired up by Locke and Jack finds comfort in Eko's presence.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico-An AnaLucia-Centric Chapter
Ana meets her mother's boyfriend properly, Shannon tutors Sayid and Michael does something stupid.

Fly Away Home-A Cindy-Centric Chapter
Cindy has a talk with Michael, Hurley grills Charlie about his sister and Ana and Sawyer research their topic.