Lena couldn't believe it at first. After all, Kate and Sawyer had been captured by the Others. But there they were, on the beach, alive and safe.
At that point, everyone had run over, seeing the two of them walking out from the jungle. It was practically a miracle.
While neither of them were very "openly expressing emotions" kind of people, Kate and Sawyer both had a variety of emotions clearly visible. Both seemed happy and relieved, but also worried about something. And there seemed to be a whole host of confusion about feelings for each other.
At least, that's what Lena thought.
She didn't really think about it too much, though. She wasn't a very "emotional expressing" kind of person either, but she was really happy to have them back, even Sawyer.
Lena and Kate hugged, which was rare for Lena and probably rare for Kate as well, but neither of them cared in the situation. But, as Kate pulled away, it dawned on her.
Where was Jack?
…
"And then he told us to run and not come back for him." Kate concluded. For the past few minutes, she had been explaining to Lena, Sayid, and Locke what had happened to Jack. It turned out that he made a deal with Henry Gale, who's real name was Ben, apparently, and enabled Kate and Sawyer to escape.
"Why wouldn't he want you to come back?" Lena asked. She didn't really know Jack that well, but she knew that he probably didn't want to stay with the Others.
"He let us escape, even though he had to sacrifice himself." Kate replied. "He probably didn't want it to be for nothing."
Sayid continued to ask Kate about what happened to Michael and Walt, and about the Others having boats. While Kate answered those questions, Lena thought about what Kate said happened. Back when they had first crashed on the island, Lena had thought of Jack as a selfless robot. And, while he wasn't exactly a robot, he sure as hell was selfless.
"We escaped with a kid named Karl." Kate was saying as Lena tuned back in to the conversation. "He said they live here on, this island, not the one where we were held. Sawyer let him go before he could take us there."
"Why?" Sayid demanded. "And why would Jack-"
"Look, I don't know!" Kate exclaimed suddenly, clearly fed up with all the questions. "I don't know why Sawyer let the kid go, and I don't know why Jack did what he did. Do you think I wanted to leave him there?!"
Lena could see the guilt in Kate's eyes over leaving Jack behind, and she could tell that Kate wanted to go find him.
"Alright, females only." Lena said, turning to Sayid and Locke. She never thought of Kate as someone needing 'girl talk,' but she certainly needed it now. "Shoo."
Sayid raised his eyebrows and Locke looked sort of amused, but both of them silently agreed, and they turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.
Lena turned to Kate and suddenly realized that she wasn't very good at 'girl talk.'
"Okay, um." She began awkwardly. "I don't want to sound like some kind of therapist, but you need to tell someone what you're really feeling about this whole thing. It's not good to keep it bottled up."
"And is that someone you?" Kate asked.
"It can be." Lena replied with a shrug. "But it's the same with all of you: You, Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, everyone else. Even me. We keep our emotions locked up inside until they burst. I'm still not sure why, even in my own case. I'm still kind of figuring that out. But what I'm trying to say is, I know it's not good to keep it all in."
"I just… Jack has always done everything for all of us." Kate sighed. "And we just abandoned him without a second thought. I know that's what he wanted, but still. And now with Sawyer… everything has kind of turned upside down."
It even looked like a huge weight had been lifted off of Kate's shoulders. Lena had at least been right about one thing, because Kate did look better.
"I'm going to get him back, Lena." Kate said. And from the way she spoke, Lena could tell her mind was made up. "I owe him that much."
…
"What did you say to Kate?" Sayid asked. Lena abruptly looked up from the tarp she had been tying down to see Locke and Sayid standing before her.
"Um, nothing." Lena said. "She just told me more about what happened. Why?"
"Kate went into the jungle a little over an hour ago." Locke answered. "She gave no explanation as to why."
"So instead of going after her, you decided to wait an hour and them talk to me?" Lena pointed out. The two of them glanced at each other, prompting Lena to sigh and roll her eyes. "Come on, then."
She dropped the tarp, stood up, and made her way towards the jungle, not really caring if either of them followed, although they did.
It didn't take them very long to find Kate. For someone who was supposedly good at sneaking around, she left a very obvious trail, and Lena spotted her examining some kind of net.
"You know, you really could have just asked us for help if you wanted to find Jack." Lena called out. Kate looked up abruptly, but then relaxed when she saw who it was.
"Well." Kate began. Oh, she has a whole excuse prepared. "You don't know where to look and you're not motivated. I don't really blame you. Why would you want to risk more lives just for one?"
"You're wrong." Locke countered. "We didn't go to look for you before not because we weren't motivated, but because we didn't know where to look. Now we have a compass bearing, and it will lead us right to him."
"How?" Kate asked. Lena was very confused as well. She didn't know anything about a bearing that they had found.
"Because of the way the sunlight hit Mr. Eko's stick when John was burying him." Sayid replied, with a hint of sarcasm in that statement.
"What are you out here to find, Kate?" Lena asked, changing the subject. "If you didn't know where to look, then why are you here?"
There was rustling in the bushes, and the sound of a bullet clicking into place could be heard very clearly. Lena put one hand on the gun that Sayid had given her. She had seen Raiders of the Lost Ark enough times to know that she shouldn't bring a sword to a gun fight.
"No, don't shoot." Kate exclaimed. She then turned to whoever it was that was hiding and spoke to them. "We're just here to talk! You can come out!"
Emerging from the darkness was Danielle Rousseau herself, gun in hand, looking as ready to fight as ever.
"What are you doing here?" Danielle asked, noticeably not putting her weapon down. Kate explained everything to her, and how Danielle could help them because she knew the island very well.
"And what makes you think I have an interest in helping you?" Danielle wondered in an annoyed tone of voice. She did have a point there.
"Because there was a girl who helped me escape." Kate said. "About sixteen years old, and her name was Alex. I'm pretty sure that she's your daughter."
And, judging by the look on Danielle's face, her mind was made up immediately.
A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks again for reading yet another chapter of this story. Coming up in this book is one of my favorite episode runs of the show, and the remaining chapters of Uncharted, 16-22, were by far my favorite to write out of all of the chapters in this series. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them!