05: Kate x Claire

Early-morning sunlight glints off the silver Subaru Outback parked in the driveway of Kate and Claire's West Hollywood house. Still in pajamas, Aaron darts in and out the front door, each time bearing another stuffed toy for the trip ahead.

Kate loads a cooler laden with drinks and snacks. It's been a year since she and Claire have come back from the Island, and no one is more relieved than Kate to climb behind the wheel and hit the open road.

Aaron holds up a well-loved plush whale. "Grampa can sleep with this one. I'll let him."

"It's perfect, Goober."

"Grampa" is Kate's father Sam, living in retirement in Scottsdale. The last time he visited, she and Claire slept in separate rooms for his sake, and Kate gives a little sigh. She steals a glance at Claire, who's arranging Aaron's books and toys in the back seat.

Claire looks up, alert. "Come on, Aaron. Grandma's going to help you get dressed." Her tone says, I want to talk to you too. Just not in front of Aaron.

Kate rearranges luggage until Claire comes back. She slips her arm around Kate's waist and says, "You didn't tell him, did you?"

"It's just that... Claire, he's from a different generation, and military at that. And I've already—"

"Disappointed him so much?"

How does she know all this without being told? Kate asks herself. Almost as if she were psychic. Two years ago Kate would have scoffed at the notion, but no longer. Not given what they've both seen, and survived.

Life now is so much more than survival, though, and Kate doesn't want to screw that up. Despite Claire's outward and inward Island scars, she's Kate's rock. This trip was her idea, even. Sam's driven out for Aaron's and Kate's birthdays, as well as last Christmas, never blaming Kate for the terms of her probation. In his own way he's been as steady as Claire.

Even so, Kate's kept this secret from her father, of the love which came for her when she thought love had fled for good, when she was sure her life would be as dry as the desert between LA and Arizona.

Claire quietly waits as Kate rearranges thoughts so much harder to pack and unpack than luggage for a road trip. Finally Claire says in a soft voice, "I think it'll be okay. He loves you, you know."

"I know." She pulls Claire close to her, and just as rain waters the desert, it waters Kate's life as well.