Chapter Six

"No!" little Jimmy screamed. "That's the wrong order! That's not the way daddy does it."

"Okay," murmured Kate. "Okay, what's the next song then?"

"Hush Little Baby. Hush Little Baby HAS to come after Rock A Bye, not Twinkle Twinkle! It HAS to."

Kate clenched her teeth. Jimmy's fastidiousness could be annoying, but she knew that wasn't really what was making her angry at the moment.

She knew it was better for Jimmy that she and Sawyer had taken up separate lodgings, so he wouldn't see them fight the way they had been fighting lately. It would be easier to be cordial in front of their son if they didn't have to live with one another. Sawyer was always going to be a part of Jimmy's life. And hers. It was an island, after all. She believed this arrangement was better for Jimmy, and yet, the divorce wasn't going to be as easy for him as she had been trying to convince herself it would be.

"Fine," she said. "Hush Little Baby then." Kate slid off her knees, a position that was growing uncomfortable, and sat down on the floor. She let one hand ruffle the delicate hair on Jimmy's brow. "Hush, little baby don't say a word," she sang softly, "papa's going to buy you a mocking bird—"

"NO!" Jimmy shouted. "That's not how daddy sings it!"

Kate sighed. "How does he sing it, then?"

"Not a mocking bird! A cattle herd!"

"And if that cattle herd don't – " Kate looked at Jimmy with an expectant expression. She had heard Sawyer sing to him, of course, but she hadn't paid attention to the words. The bedtime ritual had been her quiet time, a chance to sneak away and read by firelight without interruption.

"Trample the Others."

"Trample the Others??" she asked, unable to conceive of what word could rhyme with others.

"Yes!"

"And if that herd don't trample the Others, papa's gonna buy you a - " she looked at little Jimmy again.

"Dozen brothers! A dozen brothers!"

Kate shook her head. "That's ridiculous. You can't buy brothers."

"Daddy could! If he needed to daddy could! You're not singing it right! It's not fair! You keep stopping. It's not fair!"

"Stay here!" Kate barked, a little more sternly than she had intended. She rose and poked her head out of the hut. She looked left and then right and spied the closest figure. "Hurley!" she shouted.

The young man turned. It looked like he was headed on his way to his girlfriend's hut, the one he still hadn't mustered the courage to propose to, after more than three years of dating. "Yeah?"

"Get Sawyer for me, would you?"