So fitfully- so fearfully-
Above the closed and fringed lid
'Neath which thy slumb'ring soul lies hid,
That, o'er the floor and down the wall,
Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall!
Oh, lady dear, hast thou no fear?
Why and what art thou dreaming here?
Sure thou art come O'er far-off seas,
A wonder to these garden trees!
Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress,
Strange, above all, thy length of tress,
And this all solemn silentness!
- The Sleeper by Edgar Allan Poe
--
Do you believe in Destiny?
Chapter 19, The Closed
--
"Shannon Rutherford was… she was… She was very brave. She and I met here, on this very island… after the crash. She, she lit up my days – she kept me going. If it weren't from Shannon I don't know if I could've gone on. And now she's… she's gone. But, her spirit, her happiness and her joy of life will still be with me. I know you are in a better place. I love you."
"May she rest in peace." Jack took up a hand full of sand and poured it down over her grave. After him Sun and Jin, both holding hands poured one together and the survivors said goodbye to her quietly, one after one leaving.
The stars shone bright on the sky and there didn't seem to be a single cloud. The moon lit up the cross and the engraving on it and the two people still by its side.
Rosalie had cried and she had screamed and she felt like that if Lalita hadn't been holding her she would have fallen apart. Still now, when the ceremony was over and Shannon's body was deep down in earth she expected her to come up from behind, laugh, whine about Boone, comfort her when she was sad, and be alive.
"It was a beautiful speech."
Rosalie thought of Shannon sitting down by her side, not a word, nothing. How she was able to comfort her simply by being by her side.
"No it wasn't. Nobody could hear what I was saying since I was sobbing too much," Rosalie told her wife and dried away the tears with her sleeve. It just kept coming new ones.
Shannon was the only one who had looked her in the eyes at first. Maybe she was a bit scared, but she was still brave, stubborn and so wonderful.
Lalita looked at Rosalie tearfully. "They understood what you meant either way."
Rosalie squeezed her hand and smiled faintly. Lalita kissed her softly and then Rosalie bent to the ground. She took up a handful of dirt in her hand and poured it over the grave. The sand slipping through her fingers just like Shannon's life had slipped past her too.
She whispered, "Goodbye Shannon."
Rosalie's head flew up and Lalita made one fast move and stood before her. From the jungle there came noises, voices and soon three persons arrived.
"Sawyer!" Rosalie screamed and threw herself in his arms.
"Freaking holy mother of – Queenie you're walking!"
--
Andrea's gaze lay on the ruins if the shelter. It was like a stain on the wonderful illusion the survivors had built. Something wrong, that they here actually could get hurt. They were afraid of course, why wouldn't they be? They had all been in the crash, they were all human.
But none of them had felt like fear like they had. They hadn't been hunted like them.
"Hey Andy, fancy a piece of delicious mango?" Libby grinned and held it up under her nose. "I bet it tastes different on this side of the island."
"Not really hungry."
Libby looked sympathetically at her. "How are you feeling?"
Andrea met her gaze. "About what?"
"Boone."
Andrea looked away. She wanted to run; this was not a topic she wanted to discuss. But Libby with her all shrink stuff apparently thought it would be good for her to talk about, she didn't get why, she never knew Boone. "What about him?"
"He's gone."
"He's not gone," Andrea stared into the jungle. "His friend took him."
"And Ana helped him."
"Your point?" Andrea snapped at her.
"When you want to talk you know where I am." Libby walked over to Hurley's side and they strode together by the shoreline. Andrea glared and tried her hardest to feel mad at Libby but she couldn't. Libby just did that to people.
She glanced at the 'kitchen', some sort of dining table they'd built. It was almost funny; while Cindy was getting her head rotated they were feasting on boar by a table.
Andrea's eyes narrowed and se searched her jeans pockets, fishing up a note she'd been carrying for a long time.
"You!" Andrea grabbed the guy walking by her side. He spun around and almost fell. He caught himself in the last second and the girl by his side looked confused.
"Claire Littleton," Andrea said and ignored the last events, "isn't she that mom who was in the fire?"
--
"Hey Foxy!" Owen called. Fox, the clumsy bastard almost fell and she had to grab his arm to save him. "Your mother must have dropped you on the head. Just tell people that and everything will work out."
"Um…" Fox looked utterly confused.
Owen hooked her arm in his and they walked… well, she dragged him across the beach. He looked quite stunned. Which was totally understandable. He was indeed walking arm in arm with the famous Owen Chauncey.
"Before you start stammering like an idiot let me talk."
"Ab-bout what?"
Owen looked carefully around.
"Sawyer's out to get us. I know he's about to do something really evil or whatever to get back his stash. And it's obvious he's going to come after you. Because well," she measured him up and down, "anyway, you got to stay strong. Don't lose your head. Stay at the hatch or something; take Kim with you if you want to. Just don't let him get to you okay?"
Fox looked at her with wide eyes. He was probably amazed by her smartness. Then he blushed.
"Why wo-would I want t-to take Kim wi-with me?"
Oh dear. She rolled her eyes, released his arm and patted him on the back. "One day you'll know."
Fox stammered a bit more, said something that had to be goodbye and quickly walked into the jungle.
"Boo!"
Owen couldn't help but gasp and Sawyer chuckled when she swung around and faced him. Arrogant jerk.
"Did I scare you sweetheart?" Sawyer's lips curled up in that smirk she loathed so much. Why did he have to return? She'd hoped he would get eaten by a polar bear or something.
"What do you want Sawyer?" Better have it done with.
Sawyer's smirk was completely wiped off his face. "I want my stash back." He didn't bother to play around.
Owen threw her head back and laughed. "Your stash back? Sawyer – or should I say James?" Her smile grew bigger when she saw the utter shock in his face. "Yeah I know your real name. Anyway, I got it fair from Rosalie and I'm not interested in giving it back to you, I'm quite enjoying all the alcohol and the magazines."
"Then I'm just gonna take it from your tent."
Owen sighed and clapped his shoulder. "Since it's not there - good luck with that."
----
"Run, rabbit run, Dig that hole, forget the sun… And when at last the work is done…"
The books fell down to the floor with a bang. Owen swung around grabbed one of the books that hadn't fallen and threw it at the one who sneaked up on her.
"Ouch… sorry… I…"
Owen took up the lexicon again and began to punch the guy.
"Stop – stop it –"
Owen blew the hair out of her face. "What the hell are you doing? Are you sneaking up on me? I can karate you know!" She didn't. But lying was necessary in some cases. Like this one for an example.
The guy looked at his broken glasses. "I can see that."
Owen took a step forward with the book as her weapon.
"So-sorry. I just… I heard you sing and…"
"And you thought it would be fun to scare me to death?" she yelled.
The boy carefully started to pick up the books from the floor. Owen was still breathing heavily but finally she put the book down. She was embarrassed but she wasn't going to show it. She had just seen that guitar laying in the room and the school was practically empty, she didn't think anyone would hear her.
"I… I just wanted to listen… that's all…"
She felt a little guilty over his glasses but didn't say anything about it. She recognized him slightly, but the school was big and he didn't go to any of her classes.
"You are really good," he said as he placed the last one of her books on the table. "I heard that… You know before you started hitting me. You aren't in the choir… I'm in it and I heard your voice and thought that maybe…"
Said the guy who she had just been punching the hell out of. Owen scowled. Took up all the books in her arms and pushed her way past him out of the room.
"I don't have the time," she mumbled and rushed down the empty corridor.
----
Fox knocked politely on the hatch door.
No one opened.
He knocked a little harder.
No one opened.
He banged both of his fists on the door.
No one opened.
He tried to open it himself.
It worked.
Hoping that no one noticed the whole embarrassing knocking part he went into the hatch. He heard voices, and thankfully not in his head. It was Jack and he walked in a faster pace down the tunnel.
"Fox!"
He almost went right into John Locke. He stumbled and Locke took his arm and he steadied himself.
"Hey," he said awkwardly. Locke was blocking his path. "I was going to push the b-button?"
"That's not necessary." Locke smiled. It didn't give much comfort though.
"Is J-Jack here? Shouldn't he b-be at the beach?"
"Is anyone on fire?"
"Um… no?"
"Has Lori stabbed anyone?"
"I-I don't think so…"
"Is anyone in fatal danger?"
"Not re-really…"
Locke nodded slowly to himself. "Then there's no reason for Jack to be there right now?"
Fox was unsure, he tried to walk past Locke but Locke blocked him Fox frowned. This was very unlike Locke's usual behavior.
"Did you want something Fox?" he asked calmly and continued to block Fox's passageway.
"Yes. I wanted t-to push the button!"
Locke still had that smile on his face "I'm doing that now."
"I c-can may-maybe take your sh-shift?"
Locke shook his head slowly. Fox realized that apparently, for some reason no one else was allowed to be in the hatch. Locke followed him on his way out and stared after him to make sure he really left.
Something was going on.
--
Locke returned from his encounter with Fox and Jack couldn't help but glare angrily at him. He was still confused about this, things didn't make sense, nothing did. The fire, Shannon's death, Boone and Brian just leaving and now this.
"He says he was on the way to rescue us?"
"Yes." Bonnie repeated again. Jack saw she was getting restless as she strode back and forth across the room, still with the gun in her hand.
Locke arched an eyebrow. "He says. Whether he speaks the truth or not…"
"That's why we knocked him out… several times," Bonnie explained. "We couldn't be sure if he was telling the truth. So far all he's given us is fairytale stories of his life. No proof that he is from that freighter he talks about."
Jack still didn't say anything, he had a headache.
"So how do we find out the truth?"
Bonnie threw up her hands – Jack stared at the gun. "I don't know. We brought him to you guys so you could figure out the truth. But as it seems a lot has been going on since we left." She looked directly at Jack. "Like let's say, push the button or the world will end, the raft blowing up, Shannon dying, Brian kidnapping Boone, Kaylee becoming paralyzed –"
"Kaylee's not paralyzed."
"Right." Bonnie nodded. "She just refuses to move her legs out of trauma? That was your explanation right?" she snapped.
Jack looked away. "It doesn't matter."
Bonnie made a sound as to protest but Locke talked before she got the chance. "What should we do about the guns? Since our 'freighter man' is in the armory we need to put it someplace else."
Jack looked at Bonnie. Bonnie got the point.
"Not a part of the A-Team yet huh? What do I have to do? Seriously." She continued to mutter for herself as she left the kitchen.
Locke turned to Jack. "She took the gun with her."
Jack sighed. "Bonnie!"
"Fine, fine," she growled and rushed back. She handed the gun to Locke (not without sending him fierce glares) and with her head held high she left the room again.
"I think we should hide it."
"Hide it from whom?" Locke asked.
"The fire, at the beach, it could have been the others."
"But you think it was one of us?"
Jack shrugged. "It is possible. I think we should hide all the weapons in a place –"
"Only we know of?"
Jack felt like he was making a deal with the devil. "Yes."
From inside the armory the man started to bang the inside of the door. Shouting at them to let him speak, to let him go. Jack gazed at the door and felt the stress rise in his chest at thought of everything that was going on. But he had to prioritize.
"I'm going after Boone and Brian," he told Locke and tried to keep his voice steady.
Locke ran a finger along his jaw, thoughtful. "It's been a day Jack."
"It doesn't matter. I'm going after them. And I need someone who can follow tracks."
"I believe that Brian and Boone leaving was their own decision. I am not going to follow them."
Jack chuckled. "You're not the only tracker on this island, you know that right?"
--
The feeling of happiness thrilling through his every vein quickly evolved into plain fear. Allen was aware that she wasn't really there. Just a hallucination like always and it was stupid for him to hope – to wish still when he knew his daughter was gone.
Then she screamed 'Daddy!"' and threw her arms around him.
He didn't remember much after that. He did cry, the dried tears on his cheeks told him that and Claret said he had been laughing like an idiot, she'd said that with a smile though.
Many of the survivors came up to them. Congratulated them. It sounded silly, congratulating a father and a daughter for reuniting; like it had been a difficult task and they'd done well. But Allen was too happy to care about that.
There were things that still troubled his mind. The man they found in the net, the fire and the death. But he put those aside as Ellie chatted away about the days she was with the other survivors, telling him about Andrea and giggling as memories of Eva came into her mind. But she would get sad too. She would wrinkle her forehead and just stop in the middle of a line and stare past him. Remembering something she didn't want to think about.
And then he'd seen Libby. It was very strange to say hello to your old psychiatrist on an island after a plane crash.
"She looks a lot like you." Claret smiled and cut the piece of meat. Locke had returned with boar the other night.
"No she doesn't." Allen still was smiling like a fool. He watched Ellie talk very fast and very loud with Dom who obviously looked uncomfortable. He held a mango in his hand and Allen suspected he was supposed to bring it to Kay. But Ellie just continued to rant.
"Yes she does, she got your eyes," Claret argued. Ellie finally stopped talking to Dom when Sawyer walked by and quickly started to ramble on to him instead.
"She looks a lot more like her mother," Allen admitted.
Ellie left Sawyer's side and skipped over by her father. "Son of a bitch!"
Allen dropped the meat on the sand. "What?"
Ellie's eyes were gleaming with joy. "Sawyer said it."
"I'll watch her." Claret said with a sigh as Allen left to kill Sawyer. He didn't get far. He froze in his tracks when he saw him sitting down with Rosalie at the outskirts of the camp.
--
"Jack – what's going on?"
Jack thought he would be used to Lori just knowing stuff. But as usual her eyes didn't look at him, never did. Jack continued to walk in a hurried pace towards the camp.
"Hey – Jackie, slow down!" Lori ran up by his side.
"I'm going after Boone and Brian."
"Isn't it a bit late for that?"
Jack glared at her.
"You're glaring at me. I'm not blind – well I am blind but I know you're glaring at me!"
"Boone was really hurt."
"Just like Brian."
Jack shook his head. "Your point Lorraine?"
"My point is that Brian healed, okay, he was knocking on heaven's door and maybe he knows how to fix his friend. And don't call me Lorraine! I will kill you. When you're awake so you'll feel the pain."
Jack laughed to himself even though he was frustrated. "I'm going after them."
"And I'm going with you. Just which direction are we supposed to take? Or are we just going to wander aimlessly through the jungle with ninja assassins?"
"Ninja assassins?" Kim was working on building her shelter. From what Jack saw it was not working very well as one of the poles supposed to hold it up broke in the middle just as she took a step towards them. Kim grimaced but didn't turn around.
"Yes. The others."
Kim frowned. "I always thought they were cannibals."
"I like you," Lori said and smiled, "do you want to come along on a suicide mission with no point?"
--
"Coconut?"
Rosalie stared at the sea. She sat on a flat rock in the sand and she didn't acknowledge Sawyer's presence at all.
Sawyer sighed. "Rosalie. You got to eat."
Rosalie still gazed out at the waves and her hair blew in her face. Sawyer reached out a hand to stroke it back but hesitated. Rosalie rose slowly up on her feet, and without a word she began to walk back towards the camp.
--
"I-I can't hold him."
Owen looked almost with pity at Claire. She wasn't holding Aaron, Fox was at her side was and he looked extremely uncomfortable with the baby in his arms.
Claire shook her head and there were tears in her eyes. "It just hurts… my hands… what if I drop him?"
"Okay, Claire, let's put it like this – Fox is a very clumsy and nervous person. He will drop Aaron. And unless you want the kid to come out like Zidler either you take him or he does."
Claire took a deep breath and reached out her hands. Fox awkwardly handed Aaron over to her. She winced slightly at the contact of her sore hands but then she smiled down at her son.
"Miracle of the day - check. Come on Fox let's cure Kaylee!"
Owen left her shelter (that she now was sharing with Claire) but Fox didn't come after her. She turned around.
"Edwards?"
"I-" He was looking at the group that was starting to form by the jungle, "I-"
"I what?" Owen shouted as he just ran towards them.
----
"Hey Dad."
Her father put on the light and his eyes met hers. She was sitting in the sofa in the hall and the whole house had been dark before he came home.
"I swear Owen, you must be a bat." He kissed her forehead and put down his case. "I know no one who likes the dark like you do."
He didn't mention that there was no music on, that the whole house was quiet, that Owen was quiet.
"I was at the hospital," she suddenly said, "I dropped off a couple of books."
Owen followed him into the kitchen and leaned against the wall as he began to take things out of the fridge. He didn't acknowledge that's he had spoken.
"I heard good literature can cure the worst diseases."
Her father's hand stopped in mid-air. With a sigh he closed the fridge and glanced at her. "So how was school?"
"Did you visit Mom at the hospital?" she said just as quickly. "She said you didn't."
Her father still didn't acknowledge it. "At work it went great, you know the coffee machine –"
Owen grabbed the plate and threw it on the floor. Her father stared at the broken pieces, his mouth wide open.
"When are we going to talk about the fact that Mom's dying?" Owen shouted.
Her father avoided looking at her. His eyes went to the window, it was black outside. The lamppost was broken.
"You have to clean that up," he said and left the room.
----
"Sean says he might be able to pick up a trail."
"Might," Sean reminded him, "it hasn't rained and since Boone was pretty hurt I think he at least left some heavy trails."
"Awesome," said Lori and took one of the guns. She was almost knocked over by Fox who seemed to have no coordination of his feet. Jack frowned. He hadn't seemed so clumsy a week ago. Just nervous.
"W-where are you g-guys going?" He stammered and his gaze fell on Kim.
"We're going to find Boone and Brian, maybe some trails and…" He couldn't say he hoped to find some clue of where Flor and Walt were, but he did hope they would.
Fox's eyes widened. "C-can I come too?"
Kim's smile shone. "Sure!"
Jack was a bit put off by the fact that Fox wasn't asking him. Fox stretched out a hand towards Jack. Jack looked down at it.
"Um…"
"G-gun?"
"Oh, right." He handed one over to him and he grabbed it was strangely ease. Kim had refused to take one, but instead she held a long knife and she waved with it as they left the camp.
--
Kaylee was sitting by her tent. She looked out at the camp and her eyes fell on Claire, she was walking by the water with Aaron in her arms, from the way her lips moved she was singing to him, smiling. Claire was fine, why wasn't she just as okay?
Maybe it was a punishment. The thought crossed her mind before she could stop it. It was a punishment, for her murders, for all she'd done. But then, why had Claire also been in the fire? Claire had done nothing bad.
Claire saw Kaylee looking at her and smiled even brighter. She walked up the beach and her feet were full with sand. "Hey Kay."
Kaylee was grateful that Claire looked her in the eye. "How's the baby?"
"He's fine." Claire gazed dotingly at her son. "Oh, wanted to talk to you about something."
Kaylee gestured for Claire to sit down and she did. "What about?"
"I heard Jack said that the reason you're not able to use your legs is because of some sort of emotional trauma?"
Kay nodded and remembered Dom punching Jack on the jaw. "Yes he did."
"You know we got our own island shrink," Claire said carefully.
"Who do you mean?"
"Libby, I think maybe we could talk to her. You about your leg and I about…" Claire sighed and gazed down at her son again, "the time I spent with the others."
Claire looked at her like she expected her to get mad.
"Okay," Kay said and surprised her. "We can talk to her."
--
"Hey!" Bonnie smiled and stepped into the computer room. Locke pressed execute and the timer reset again.
"Hello Bonnie, back so soon?"
Bonnie stared up at the timer. "Jack left the camp to go on a mission. Sawyer's busy attending to Rosalie and Allen's occupied being cute with his daughter so I thought I'd come over here and help you… with our um, 'freighter' problem." She turned around to him again. "Have you interrogated him?"
Locke shook his head. "I had to deal with the armory first."
"So…"
Locke raised an eyebrow in question.
Bonnie waved her hands. "The interrogation?"
In the jungle the man in the net had looked eerily calm before they approached him, and then he had started to yell and shake the net and begged to be released all the sudden. They had acted fast, Allen cut down the rope and the man fell and hurt his shoulder pretty badly but he had been thankful. Repeating that he had been on some kind of freighter, asked if they were survivors and before he knew it Bonnie had knocked him out with her gun.
It was something about the eyes. How cold and insensitive they were. She didn't trust him. She just got the feeling that he was lying.
But now, as they opened the door to the armory and the man looked up from the small bed inside. She felt a pang of guilt in her chest, even though she still felt suspicion. His shoulder was blue with bruises and he had dried blood in his hair from all the times she silenced him. He was probably over forty.
Bonnie was an actress, and she got the feeling this man knew how to act too.
"I guess you aren't here to let me go?"
"No," Locke said, "we aren't."
The man sighed and looked down at the floor. "I don't know why you are treating me like this. I have done nothing against you… I just…" He looked up and those blue eyes stared directly into Bonnie's, "was here to see if you – if you were alive."
"Is that so?" Locke asked in his calm voice.
"Yes!"
"Let's cut to the basics," Bonnie said quickly. "Name?"
She noticed a slight hesitation. "Frederic Phelps."
Bonnie glanced at Locke. She recognized the name… where had she heard it?
"You said you were on a freighter." Bonnie was trying to remember where she had heard that name before.
"Yes… I was on a freighter on its way to this island. A mission to try to find and save the survivors from flight 815!"
"Why?" Bonnie asked before Locke had a chance to say anything.
The man looked taken aback. "What?"
"It's one word and one question, why?"
The man still didn't understand.
"If you were on a freighter on its way to the island. Then why were you stuck in a net? Why aren't the rest here? Why aren't we all rescued by now?"
"Because… we weren't sure you were alive. We didn't even know where the island was! It was a lucky shot –"
"How did you get here?" Locke asked before Bonnie got the chance.
"Helicopter, it dropped me off. There was some malfunction and I crashed down… I had a parachute though that saved me and I wandered around trying to find my equipment and packing with a radio so I could contact my people but – I got caught in a net."
Bonnie blinked and frowned in thought, she was unsure, the man sounded like he was telling the truth. Somehow he was less threatening now locked in, than out in the open and she felt like maybe, she believed him. She knew that there was something coming to the island, she remembered that time when Sawyer had led them to the station – the computer.
"Hello party people – oh lord of The Beatles!"
Bonnie closed her eyes and hoped that the person standing behind them would disappear. The person didn't.
"Hey Owen," Locke greeted her.
----
"I think I saw an Elvis lookalike walk down the corridor."
Owen stopped touching her mother's bald head and let her hand fall to her side. "Yeah… you told me that yesterday."
"I did? Oh…"
"Hey," Owen took her hand and smiled. "I got a B in math."
"That's great honey." Her mother's smile was weak, bit it made Owen feel a whole lot better. Despite the clinical smell, the white hospital robe around her mother and the monitors that beeped - her mother's smile made it not be that bad.
"I brought you…" Owen reached into her bag, "this!"
Her mother let out a little laugh. "Another book?"
"No, actually it's a comic book. It got all these pictures in it, great for when you're high… I mean…"
Her mother raised an eyebrow.
"So I've heard. From the… um…"
Her mother closed her eyes. It was sudden but Owen was used to it. She got tired all the time, from the smallest of things, picking up a book… talking… watching the TV.
"Bye Mom," she leaned in to kiss her mother on the cheek. But then her eyes opened.
"No… can you stay a little while longer?"
"You're tired."
"Yes… I am… But I can't sleep. Can you sing me to sleep?"
Owen looked around, on the mute TV she suddenly saw flashing lights, a black girl wrapped in a red dress, from the way the crowd was cheering and the microphone in her hand she was singing.
"Of course."
----
"Wait – so you captured this… guy who's supposed to rescue us?"
Either Owen could run to the beach and tell everyone about the man in the hatch, or Locke and Bonnie could share all they knew with her – and they chose the latter. None of them felt the need to upset and worry everyone right now, not with everything going on.
"Yes," Locke answered and looked slightly bored with the whole situation. Huh, Bonnie, Allen and Sawyer had been forced to listen to he and Jack rant when they explained it.
"Why?" Owen asked. "I mean, he's here to help us and you go and imprison him!"
"Or, maybe he's not."
Owen hesitated. "What do you mean?"
"We think he might be one of the others."
Owen blinked and then she laughed nervously. "Are you serious? You – you think he's an other? Guys, the others kidnapped me and Claire and infiltrated us and they held us captured – and you think one of them just went and got caught in a net just like that?"
"Or," Bonnie repeated, "he's here to infiltrate us."
Owen frowned. "That makes a little more sense to me. But really, how are we going to find out the truth?"
"The parachute," Locke said after a moment of silence, "all his equipment – if we find it, it means he's probably telling the truth."
Owen smiled. "Probably telling the truth sounds better!"
----
"I… I talked to the school shrink."
Owen turned off the radio. Stared at her father and slowly raised from her bed.
"YOU DID WHAT?"
"I knew you would get mad…" her father said desperately. "But… I didn't know what to do about your mother… I was blaming myself Owen. And I was selfish, I thought it would all go away if we didn't talk about. That it all would be some kind of dream. I'm sorry. I'm ready to talk about it now –"
"Did you talk to Mom?" she snapped.
Her father exhaled deeply. "No… but…"
"Talk to her first and then we can talk."
Her father nodded slowly. "Okay. I'm going now."
The phone rang and her father stopped in the entrance to her room.
"Hello?" Owen answered the phone. "Yes this is her…"
She put down the phone almost immediately, her eyes wide and her hands shivering. She ignored it when it started to ring again. Slowly she turned to her father.
"They said she fell asleep…" Owen whispered. "They said Mom fell asleep and that she never woke up."
----
"Kaylee – Kay were you crying?"
Kate pulled the blanket off Kay's face and behind it tears streamed. She felt hopeless as she got a lump in the throat and watched her friend cry to herself in the dark of the tent.
"No," Kay answered weakly through the tears. She sat up and Kate seated herself next to her. Kaylee leaned on her shoulder and the tears continued to spill and soon Kate was sobbing too.
Kay tried to dry her tears away and she sniffed. "Who do you think made the fire Kate?"
Kate looked at Kay's big, sad eyes and tried her hardest to keep her voice steady.
"I don't know honey, I don't know."
"And then," someone chirped from outside the tent, "Megan told me that Santa didn't exist! But I know she was lying because –"
Dom put his head inside the tent and mouthed 'save me'. Kay giggled but Kate saw out of the corner of her eye how another tear fell.
A voice came from behind him, but it wasn't the little girl. "Dom, is Kay there? Can I talk to her?" It was Claire.
Kate couldn't be around it any longer. She ruffled Dom's hair (he was so sensitive about that) and smiled at Ellie who waved. She glanced at Claire who stepped into the tent to talk with Kaylee about something and she walked over to the place Claire's shelter had been. Zidler and Margo were currently carrying away the burned pieces and cleaning up the mess, Kate wondered why both of them had black soot smudged on their faces and suspected there had been some sort of dust war earlier.
"You guys need some help?" she asked when she came up to them.
"Yes please!" Zidler grinned.
"Everyone else abandoned us," Margo said cheerfully, "Andrea too just because I accidentally ruined her clothes."
Kate looked down at her simple brown shirt and blue jeans shorts. She liked those shorts. Still, she decided to help them. It kept her mind off Kaylee, well, most of the time when Zidler and Margo were chatting away happily. But when they went silent her mind just went back to Kaylee. Kaylee with flames around her. Kaylee with red skin and no breath. Kaylee who couldn't move her legs anymore. Trauma. Jack said it was trauma and she hoped it was.
"I mean," Margo rambled about something Kate hadn't been paying attention to, "the closed hatch door must be mad at me. I can never open it and I have to knock and knock and…"
Kate glanced sideways at Rosalie staring at the jungle, just standing in front of it with dead eyes. Her wife who had apparently gone to get some water hurried over the sand to her side.
Kate wanted to ask Rosalie questions, because she had been in the same position as Kaylee, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, not now and not in a long time.
--
Kay managed to get Dom to leave and then Claire brought Libby back to her tent. Libby sat down in front of them.
"What do you want help with?" she asked gently.
Claire looked at Kaylee. "You first," she whispered.
Kaylee avoided looking at them. "I… uh, Jack thinks the reason I can't move my legs is because of trauma and um… I wondered if there was some way to… if its' true or…"
"Sometimes," Libby said in her same calm voice, "bad things happen, you do bad things or bad things happen to you or both. It can lead to depression or trauma from events that hurt us badly. It's possible that you just think you can't move your legs but you can."
Kaylee didn't get it. She glanced at Claire who seemed to take in every word Libby was saying.
Libby continued, "Do you feel like you deserve it?"
Kay turned to her quickly. "What?" she croaked.
"Have you had thoughts, like it's a punishment and that you shouldn't be able to walk?"
"I…"
"Maybe you do know that you can walk, but you just won't do it."
"All right that's enough!" Kay yelled. "That's just crap, if I wanted to walk then I should be able to walk right… you're just confusing…"
"Your leg just flinched."
"What?" Kay's eyes got wide.
"Yes it did!" Claire stared at her legs like they were the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. "It just did!"
Kay pointed a finger at Libby. "Don't say I told you so!"
--
"You think it's safe to leave the camp after you just had a fire?" Kim asked Jack and pulled away a branch. They both stepped over the small rocks on the ground.
"I didn't leave it unguarded." Jack thought of Bonnie and Lalita. Even though Jack barely knew Lalita, he knew she was Rosalie's wife and she sent off some kind of warning signal as soon as you came close to her, one that said 'hurt my family and you die'. Jack was glad to have her on their side.
Kim fell back and began to walk side by side with Fox. Jack saw Lori smile as Fox began to stammer more and more while getting redder and redder in the face.
In front of them Sean was walking with a very serious expression, inspecting the jungle around them. Jack had no idea how he did it, for him it all seemed like rocks and trees and more and more green, no pattern or anything to tell where someone had been walking.
Suddenly the sky opened up and the rain poured down on them. Kim yelled in surprise and immediately Fox gave her his backpack to protect herself from the rain. The action seemed to surprise even him.
"Look – smiley face plus shelter – equals awesome!" Lori shouted and rushed further into the jungle. They all followed her quickly and soon Jack found that the rain wasn't dropping down on them anymore.
"That's so…" Kim looked up at the air balloon and was at loss for words.
Jack was looking down at the grave.
--
Owen convinced Locke and Bonnie to follow the man's direction to where he had landed. The man even wrote down a map for them with a smug smile in his face, and then Locke told Owen how important it was that she pressed the button and didn't tell anyone about him.
Owen promised and watched after them as she left. Then she ran to the door to the armory, opened the lock with the code and pulled the door opened. She stood there and stared at the man across the armory, leaning against the wall.
She didn't say anything, just held her head high and with her eyes dared him to speak.
"Hello," he said after a while. Owen rolled her eyes.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
The man blinked and for one second Owen saw confusion in his face but it was quick.
"I am here to rescue you."
"That's crap and you know it. I know who you are Ben."
"I knew you would remember," he said slowly.
"Well," Owen took a step forward, "you looked pretty surprised to me." She smirked. "Didn't expect me to remember a thing did you?"
The man stood silent and she arched an eyebrow.
"I did not," he admitted. "I thought that if you would remember you would tell your friends about me. I'm a little confused about that now, why didn't you tell them the truth?"
"That you are an other and definitely not Frederic Phelps?" Owen shrugged. "Honestly I'm not really interested in telling that to you. Since, you kidnapped me and all, ah the good times. Switched positions now right?"
He didn't show any fear or confusion, but she knew it was there underneath his mask.
"What should I do first? Drug you, take one of your friends and torture him or her, oh! Maybe I should just dig up information about your family and blackmail you! Like you did remember?"
The man looked down but it wasn't a sign of weakness, almost – like he was laughing at her and didn't want to show it.
Owen fought the urge to stomp her foot in the ground. "I don't get why you want to be captured, I'm not going to ask why, just one thing…"
"Yes?"
"Am I supposed to let you go?"
They stared at each other.
"No," he answered, "you aren't."
"Owen?" Owen swung around. She heard Locke's steps in the tunnel and with one last look at their prisoner she closed the door and the lock. She ran towards the sound of Locke's voice and he looked stressed.
"We forgot the map."
Owen stared at him. The map… oh right that map. Hadn't they taken it?
"It's on the table," she told him quickly. He looked worriedly at her before he left the tunnel. Owen looked after him.
Suddenly a beeping sound started. Owen turned around and looked around, it didn't sound like the usual alarm.
"Please… proceed… protocol…"
"Locke!" Owen shouted, she saw a speaker and hurried to it, the voice came from there.
"What's that noise?" she heard their prisoner shout from his cell.
"Ten seconds to lockdown… nine… eight… seven…"
"Locke!" Owen called again and tapped the speaker with her hand, not that it did much good.
"… six… five… four… three… two… one…"
With horror Owen heard a screeching sound. She swung around and ran through the kitchen and into the same room Locke was in. The blast door was going down but Locke grabbed a crow bar and slipped it under the door.
"What happened?" their prisoner shouted.
----
His name was Sven, and he was the most annoying person in the world.
Owen let him sit with her at lunch because she broke his glasses, but following her around every single step was taking was too far and introducing her as his friend to people – the madness had to stop.
"Leave me alone!" she spat at him when he was waiting at her locker.
Instead of getting hurt or snapping back. He looked at her pitying.
Owen should never have told her teacher about the death of her mother. He promised not to tell anyone. Of course he did. Only good thing was that she suddenly got better grades. But now, every time she got mad or threw a punch at someone's face they all thought it was because of her mourning.
He stayed as she took out her books, still with that irritating look in his eyes.
"You know. I can kill you and not get a punishment," Owen said. "They will blame it on issues and give me an A in gym."
"Join the choir."
"No."
"Please."
"I will strangle you and smile as you die."
"You are talented."
"You are an expert in being an idiot."
"You have the time now."
She met his gaze and looked away. "Nice, real nice. So now when my mother's dead I'm suddenly allowed to have fun?"
He started to stammer excuses, she just walked away, the good thing was that he at least stopped stalking her – for that day.
----
"One word: Poker."
And that was how Hurley found himself seated underneath Wendy's shelter playing that stupid game together with Claret, Wendy, Allen and a five year old.
"Four actually," Ellie said and smiled angelic at him. Hurley had no idea how she knew what he was thinking. Outside the rain was falling heavy and they all had to almost shout to be heard.
"I bet four papayas," Claret declared and smiled.
"You have no poker face at all," Wendy said who had held the same expression through the entire game. Stone hard cold. No matter how ridiculous cute Ellie was and funny he himself was.
"You can't bet," Wendy said in a matter of fact tone. "I just bet. Either you raise or lay them down."
"Um…" Ellie said and looked around at the adults, "Are we supposed to stand up or lay down? I don't understand."
"That's enough playing," Allen said determined but warm, "come on princess."
"She's such an angel. She doesn't even argue," Claret said after they left them.
"Angel?"
Hurley looked up and saw Sawyer stand there with a water bottle; he was soaked wet from the rain. "Sorry to ruin the illusion Mary Poppins but that little thing is so damn traumatized she can't even see straight anymore."
"Oh really dude?" Hurley said and tried to get the mood up. Sawyer looked so serious and Claret was suddenly broody, "at least she's better than you at poker."
"Better than you Muttonchops." Sawyer smirked. "But unfortunately I ain't got the time to beat that straight out of your hands."
"What do you have better to do?" Claret asked.
"Me and you at the hatch, candlelit dinner – what do you say?" Sawyer didn't wait for an answer, just smirked again and without a single hesitation of the pouring rain he went into the jungle.
"Dudes, just so you know," Hurley said after Sawyer left, "I don't have a straight, just so you know!"
--
"Hey what's going on?" the man called but they both ignored him. Locke tried to get the door to budge but it didn't even move.
"Let me help," Owen said between their prisoner's shouts and together they managed to budge it barely.
"What were those noises? What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong!" Owen shouted angrily, but to Locke she whispered: "What the hell just happened?"
Locke just shook his head and stared at the door. "I-I have no idea."
Owen took a deep breath. "I got to check something…" She rushed out from the room and Locke continued to inspect the blast door. He trailed his hand across it and didn't understand why it had come down.
Owen returned, panting. "We – we can't leave."
"What?" Locke turned to her.
She looked at him wide-eyed. "There's a blast door covering the way out too. No one can come in…"
"Don't worry. Bonnie's out there waiting, she'll know that something's wrong and go get help."
Owen nodded but still looked afraid. "Don't worry?" she then snapped and her fear became anger. "This whole place is at lockdown! Lockdown! And you expect me not to worry? This is just crazy…"
Locke let her feel sorry for herself for one whole minute, then he opened his mouth again.
"We have to get the blast door up," he told her. "We have to push the button."
"Who knows if the world will really end if it goes below zero?" she whined but she still helped him try to get the door up again.
"Hurry!" Locke shouted and sweated with the effort to hold the door up. Owen slid a toolbox underneath it and they both exhaled in relief as it stuck there.
"Good," Owen said. They looked at each other for a moment.
"I'm not going down there!" Owen exclaimed. "What if it comes down and crushes my leg?"
Locke laughed to himself bent down and began to slid under the door with his legs first.
"STOP!" Owen yelled but the blast door creaked and the toolbox got crushed. It slammed into Locke's leg and he screamed in pain. His leg stuck underneath the blast door. He wrenched in agony and Owen quickly took the first things she found – which were records and threw them away. She got several weights from the barbell set instead.
"Put them there," Locke managed to say and he groaned in pain again. Owen put them to relieve some of the pressure from Locke's leg.
"What happened?" their prisoner asked.
"SHUT UP!" both Locke and Owen yelled.
----
They were singing songs.
Songs about God, Jesus and Christianity.
Boy, when he said choir she had not expected this. Not that she had much of a problem with song with those themes – but singing them with low uneven voices while smiling? How could that Sven guy think she was supposed to fit into the group? She liked The Beatles, Pink Floyd not songs about fuzzy feelings of love to the opposite sex.
Yes, they sang that.
Owen turned around and walked right out of the auditorium. Her steps echoed across the walls and she didn't know why she felt such disappointment. She hadn't even wanted to join; she just wanted to see how it was.
Her mother used to say she had a beautiful voice, but her mother was partial, all mothers were. But Sven said that she was talented too, but he had also stalked her when she walked home and hid behind bushes.
And her father… her father was talented in music. He taught music. But somehow she'd never let him hear her sing.
"I'm supposed to sweep there."
Owen blinked and stood up and moved away from the wall so the cleaner could sweep. He was staring at her, more precisely staring at her eyes.
"Yes, one is blue and the other one is green. And yes, I am David Bowie's long lost daughter!" she yelled. Brushed the dust of her jeans and ran down the hall.
----
The rain dripped from Bonnie's clothes and hair and her cries were probably not heard but she continued to hit the blast door. She had to get inside. Locke told her he was just going to get the map and then that freaking thing had come down in front of her before she could do anything. She had gone outside and back and she didn't know what to do. But she knew walking in circles didn't do much good.
"Locke? Owen!" she screamed.
"That ain't doing much good is it?"
Bonnie swung around and saw a soaking wet Sawyer stand behind her. She restrained herself from throwing her arms around him.
"What are you screaming and banging for?"
"Locke," Bonnie breathed, "and Owen, they're inside and this thing just came down and I don't know why. I think they're locked in."
Sawyer looked like he didn't believe her and he touched the blast door with his hand, realization passed his face. "What the hell…"
"We have to open it. I thought about going back to the beach to get some help but –"
"Hang on a second there Missy. They could be in real trouble in there. Remember we got our very own Jean –"
Bonnie's eyes widened. "The Phelps guy."
"Yeah."
"You think maybe he –"
"That's exactly what I'm thinking. We need weapons but Doc and Mr. Clean are the only ones who know where they are…"
Bonnie bit her lip and looked at the falling rain that seemed to have calmed down. "Actually, I kind of overheard them."
There was a gleam in Sawyer's eye. "Where are the guns Blondie?"
--
The rain finally stopped and so did Sean's long whining over the fact that all the tracks would be gone. The sky was darker and the night was closing in quickly. Jack sat underneath the big tree next to Lori and waited for Sean to admit that he couldn't find the tracks again.
Two people who weren't tired of the long endless waiting as the rain fell were Kim and Fox. At least not Kim who seemed to enjoy talking about random things to Fox who barely said a word. Not that he seemed offended by it, he was actually grinning.
"BRIAN! BOONE!"
Jack almost fell to his side and Kim yelled in shock. "Why'd you do that?" she screamed at Lorraine.
Lori shrugged. "No one had tried that yet. Had to see if it worked."
Kim looked at Lorraine like she was crazy, even though she had just been telling Fox about why pants were far better than trousers – when Jack knew there was no difference between those at all.
"It's over." Sean came back and almost fell over the grave – he wasn't usually clumsy but now he looked so hopeless. Jack wondered why it meant so much to Sean that they succeeded in this mission.
"Don't be such a drama queen," Lori told him. "It's not over. Kim here will run back to the beach and get Eko and he'll track for us.
Now Jack was staring at Lori like she was crazy.
"I th-think we should g-go back," Fox said quietly.
Jack stood up and Lori did the same. "We're not going back – Sean, are you sure you lost the trail?"
"Yes I'm sure… maybe we could go back further into the jungle but… there wasn't really a real trail to begin with!"
"I agree with Fox," Lori said. "We should go back."
"If we go back we will have no chance of finding them!"
"It's really dark now," Kim stated the obvious, "I think we should make camp and light a fire."
"Just be careful you don't burn down the whole jungle."
Kim gasped and gripped Fox's shoulder tightly. Jack swung around and saw a tall woman come out from the jungle. Her hair was long and brown and her eyes a stunning blue color. She wore something that looked like rugs and she had no shoes on her feet.
A light smile rested on her lips. "You should point the gun down Sean."
"Who are you?" Jack asked the woman.
Sean still held the weapon high. A shot rang out and he stumbled, for one moment Jack thought he had been shot but the bullet had just blown past his ear.
"Let's all just calm down," she said gently. "Put down your weapons."
"Where are the kids?" Kim suddenly cried out and was followed by Sean and Lori asking about Flor and Walt.
"Don't worry about them," the woman answered. "They are fine."
"We're supposed to take your word for that?" Sean spat at her.
She turned her eyes to him. "Yes you are."
Jack glared at her. "What do you want?"
"Do as Kimika said, build a fire and we'll talk."
--
The alarm went off and the sound was unbearable.
"You – you got to push the button."
Owen shook her head. "It's impossible. There's no way to get there…" Her eyes glazed over and then she left his side.
"Where are you going?" Locke shouted after her and groaned in pain again.
When Owen came back, she didn't come back alone.
"Oh…" the prisoner stared at the blast door.
"Come on," Owen said quite rudely and together they tried to get the blast door up by heaving more weights underneath it.
"It's not going to work," the man informed them. "Is there another way to get into that room that you are so fond of?"
Locke wondered what Owen had told him to make him cooperate. Maybe he really was here to get them off the island – if that was the case he had a lot of planning to do.
"The vents." Locke grimaced. "Through the vents… the grate and then you can climb…"
"Okay, okay," Owen calmed him. She turned to the man at her side.
"Just got to get you back to your prison first."
"There's not enough time –" Locke protested but they were already gone.
--
"Just calm down everyone, Jack – sit down," the woman said in the same freakishly calm voice. Sean stared at her, he still held his gun but he hadn't fired it.
Lori shook her head. "How do you know our names?"
The woman just smiled.
"Where's Flor?" Sean snapped at her. "Where is she? Have you hurt her?"
The woman sighed. "Florence is fine."
"Where is she? You tell me where she is or I'm going to shoot you."
"You are not going to shoot me."
Sean's fingers shivered in want to fire a bullet at her but he held himself back. He couldn't kill her. He had to get answers. "You said you wanted to talk."
"I said that yes. How long have you been on this island? Not that long have you?"
Sean stared at her and wondered what her point was, she continued to speak:
"When you go over a man's house for the first time, do you take off your shoes? Do you put your feet up on his table? Do you eat food that doesn't belong to you? Open doors to rooms you know he wanted locked?" She looked directly at Jack at every word she said. "Someone very clever once said: 'Since the dawn of our species man's been blessed with curiosity.' This is not your island. This is our island. And the only reason you are living on it is because we let you live on it."
Jack smiled and the woman for the first time seemed a bit put off by it. "I don't believe you."
"What don't you believe Jack?"
"I think you've got one guy up there with a gun. I think there are more of us than there are of you. I think if you had any real strength, you wouldn't have had to send a spy – Ethan"
"Oh we didn't send a spy Jack. And that other theory." She smiled back and held her arms up in the air.
Sean rotated and saw torch after torch getting lit. He swallowed and turned his gaze to the woman.
"Since you crashed here on this island there's been a misunderstanding, Sean, Kim, Jack and Lori, you're all here looking for two of your friends –listen to me now. Imagine a line, a line right here underneath this balloon. If you cross this, we will go from misunderstanding to something else. Please, just put down your weapons and go back. If you do that, we will consider returning them to you."
"No," Jack answered her harshly.
"Jack…" it was Kim, "maybe we should –"
"No!"
The woman looked with disappointment at Jack. "Bring him out Alex!"
Sean gawked at the bound and gagged man. Juliet put her hand on his shoulder and a gun to his head. Brian was bruised; hurt and he looked pleading at them. They just stared.
"Brian here wanted to save his friend, but he couldn't even save himself could he?" She looked pitying at him. "So, either you put down your weapons – walk away or I will shoot him."
Kim and Fox didn't even hesitate; they dropped their knife and gun immediately. Sean looked at Jack for some kind of order.
"Where is Walt?" he asked abruptly.
"Jack –" Lori begged.
The woman's cold eyes glanced at the blind girl before she turned to Jack again. "I'm going to make this easy. I'll count down from ten… nine… eight…"
Lori dropped her gun and Sean did the same but Jack still held the weapon in his hand.
"… seven… six… five… four…"
With a sigh Jack put down his gun on the ground. The woman stopped counting. She pushed Brian at them and he stumbled and fell at Lori's feet. The woman disappeared and the fires around them blackened. There was no sound from the many people that had been surrounding them, like they all vanished into thin air.
Then, Jack realized that the woman had addressed every one of them but Fox.
--
Owen jumped down on the floor of the computer room from the vent. She fell on her hand and twisted around on her back. She grimaced in pain and held her wrist and fought back the tears of pain.
With a groan she pulled herself up in a sitting position. The alarm still rang and the timer counted down. She stumbled over to the computer and with a shivering finger typed the number four.
Suddenly the computer gave a beeping sound and the number four was gone.
1. A
2. B
3. D A
Owen just stared at the screen and the options. The clock was ticking and the pain in her hand faded away as she had to think of what to do. What the hell was going on?
She hesitated. She pressed one.
And then everything went blue.
Owen looked bewildered around at the eerily blue color that radiated through the room. Her eyes landed on the blast door beneath the timer.
A map had appeared, drawn on the wall. Lines and red marks what all her mind could process over the piercing alarm. She gasped and remembered what she was there to do. The options were still there, irritated she pressed one again and the blue light disappeared, and so did the map.
She typed in the numbers and pressed execute. Finally it stopped and went back to 108. The blast door moved up and Owen leaned back in the chair, panting.
"What – everything turned blue – Owen what happened?"
Owen glanced at the man lying on the floor.
"Curiosity happened."
----
Years later she sang to her father for the first time.
Owen looked around at the crowd in the restaurant, some of them were watching her but most were busy eating and talking to each other. She knew her father was sitting on the left side of the room but she didn't glance at him. She pulled her now fierce red hair back and took a deep breath.
And she sang.
It wasn't a song she liked that much, it wasn't her style. But she knew that she was good, one after one the people stopped talking and looked at her. Saw her and heard her. And at the end, they applauded.
She still didn't look at her father; she just smiled and said thanks. Then when she stepped down from the stage she let herself look at him.
For the first time since her mother's death, he was smiling.
----
Bonnie and Sawyer both held one rifle each and hurried through the dark jungle. Sawyer had a flashlight but they both found themselves stumbling into trees or over rocks every other second.
"I hope they're okay," Bonnie mumbled. Sawyer didn't bother answering her. He was probably thinking about Rosalie.
"I can't see a damn thing!" Just as Sawyer uttered those words Bonnie grabbed his arm.
"Look!" she said and pointed through the trees.
"What the…"
A light flickered in the dark and they both carefully moved towards it.
"That's a parachute… it's a beacon that's making the light…" Bonnie studied the cargo.
"Look at this!" Sawyer smiled and held up a box. "It's food."
--
Owen had helped Locke up in the couch and she'd brought the medical kit.
"Are you sure you know what to do?" he asked when she took up a syringe.
"Yes, I know this stuff. I was a Girl Scout."
Locke didn't look that comforted by her words, so she began to tell him what happened in the computer room.
"…Then I couldn't press in the numbers! And there popped up three options, A, B and D A," she told him. "It was really weird. I pressed one, since I'm number one so I figured what bad could it do and then everything became blue."
"Yeah I saw that." Locke had his face in a grimace and Owen thought it would be kind of fun if it stayed that way.
"And then this drawing thing came up on the door, really strange and then I pushed the numbers in and the world didn't go under, all thanks to me."
"Locke!"
Owen looked up and saw Sawyer and Bonnie rush in. Both looked like drained cats and carried one gun each. Their eyes went immediately to the blood on the floor.
"What happened?"
"You can tell them," Owen patted Locke on the shoulder, stood up and went to get some cookies from the storage room.
--
Fox and Kim quickly went to set up her shelter for the night. Lori mumbled goodbye to him and Sean just walked away without a word. Jack was left with Brian.
The man wasn't so bad they thought he was. Brian was mostly just confused and hungry. Jack looked over his wounds and tried to ease the pain as much as he could. Andrea, who was awake came pretty quickly and helped him without asking questions. He was thankful for that.
Jack gave Brian a shirt and let him have some rest, their conversation could wait, he wasn't happy about that but sometimes he had to just… wait.
Jack walked Andrea back to her shelter; it was mostly four sticks in the ground and a big piece of garment.
"Andrea," he said quietly, "how did you defend yourselves?"
Andrea looked curiously at him. "What do you mean?"
"You, the other survivors, how did you fight against the others?"
"By taking them by surprise and sheer luck. That's how Ana killed Goodwin."
Jack nodded to himself. "Tell me Andy, how long do you think it would take to train an army?"
--
Author's Notes: You can't see it, but I just made a very big invisible sign in the sky with the words 'THANK YOU' on it, I love your reviews and now I got 160! So I updated! Feel the logic.
And, I hope it is okay I changed Owen's past a little.
Thank you again for your reviews.
Namaste.