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Hurley looked at Charlie. "Kate?" Charlie rubbed his eyes. "Charlie, what do you MEAN? What about Kate?" Charlie looked up at Hurley. "I need to see Jack."

Charlie told the entire story to a befuddled Jack. When he got to the part about finding Kate, Jack stopped him with a wave of his hand. "No," he smiled. "You're kidding, right, Charlie?" Charlie shook his head sadly. "See my hands?" he asked, thrusting them under Jack's eyes. "Could I have bled that much from this cut?"

Jack still refused to believe it. Charlie watched him pace around remembering the feeling deep in his stomach, the heavy weight he had felt when he lost Claire. "I saw her, Jack," Charlie said. "There was nothing you could've done. I made absolutely sure that she was gone before I left her…Jack, it was almost like she didn't want to be saved…"

Jack shook his head. "This isn't funny, Charlie," he said, his smile wider than it needed to be. "She's not dead. You can stop kidding!" He threw Charlie a towel. "Use this to stop the blood." Charlie let the towel drop at his feet.

"Jack," he said. "I'm not kidding."

Jack sat down and rubbed his neck. "You're bleeding a lot." Charlie picked up the towel. "It's Kate's blood. I sat with her." Jack stood up suddenly. "Now, you're starting to piss me off, Charlie," he said threateningly. "I know you're kidding."

Charlie stood up just as quickly. "I'm telling the truth. Are you calling me a liar?" "Don't bring your oversized ego into this. We're talking about the well being of a person here, Charlie.

"Charlie?" Charlie had closed his eyes and sat back down. "Charlie?" Jack asked again. Charlie turned away. "Charlie?" He looked up at Jack, who had tears in his eyes. Charlie merely nodded.

Jack shook his head. "No…no…she's not dead. She's not. She wouldn't die, she wouldn't give up, not Kate…not my Kate, not the Kate that I know."

"Knew," Charlie silently corrected.

"You can come out now, Kate!" Jack yelled to jungle. It didn't reply. "YOU CAN COME OUT!" People in the caves began staring.

"GOD DAMMIT KATE, WHERE ARE YOU?" Jack said. He stormed away from Charlie and looked up, as if Kate would jump from a tree, smiling at him, saying, "Good job fooling him, Charlie!" "KATE!" he screamed. "KATE!" Charlie closed his eyes again, as if he could block out Jack's torment. "KATE!"

Jack's frantic screaming gave way to animal like sobbing. Charlie began to cry, too, even though it hurt his injury, the salty tears.

The next night, after Michael had calmed Jack down, they had a memorial for Kate on the beach. A huge bonfire burned, and everyone sat huddled close together. There wasn't a sermon spoken about the nonexistant morals of Kate, only from Sayid, who said, simply, "She was, to everyone, a sister foremost." At the end, Jack threw in the toy airplane. He watched it melt with a sad, wistful quality in his smile.

One person didn't join the circle. Sawyer stood beyond the fire, much like Charlie had the night two days before. He glared at Charlie, and after the cave dwellers decided to depart, Sawyer stopped him.

"I'm going to ask you one time, and one time only," Sawyer said to Charlie, dominating over him in size. "Did you kill her?"

Charlie looked up at him. "No," he said with quiet confidence. "But I know who did."

"Who?" Sawyer said. "Tell me, or so help me God I will crush you." Charlie was quiet for a long time.

"I can't."

Sawyer ran his fingers through his hair. "What? You can't, or you won't?" "Both," Charlie replied. "If you excuse me, I have to get back."

"Boy, you ain't goin' nowhere!" Sawyer stood in front of Charlie.

"Please," Charlie said. "I've already been hurt enough." Sawyer laughed and leaned down and whispered in Charlie's ear,

"I didn't love Kate. I liked her, I liked her partly because our hero liked her, and I like to piss him off. I liked her for myself, too. She liked me, too. She told me. She trusted me. We were friends. We were lovers. Can you understand me?" Charlie nodded. "If you laid a hand on her…if you hurt her…I will kill you. Or, I will tell Jack, and he will kill you. Can you understand me?" Charlie nodded, and Sawyer was finished. "Good," he said.

"I didn't kill her," Charlie said. "I didn't hurt her. I would never hurt her…I would never hurt anyone."

"You hurt me, Charlie," Sawyer said, gesturing to his black eye. "Just tell me, who is you're trying to protect?"

Charlie shook and hung his head. "I can't." Sawyer nodded. "I know, I know. You won't tell me either. But if I find out that you had anything to do with it…"

Charlie nodded his head. "I understand. But you won't find anything." With that, Sawyer let him pass.

Charlie went back to the caves, but only for a moment. He pulled his guitar from behind the safe spot in his tree, where only two days before he had been teaching himself to play. People saw Charlie run out of the campsite. "Charlie!" a weary Jack called after him as he disappeared, running through the branches. "Come back! We don't want to lose you, too!"

Charlie ignored his claims and got to the beach. Sawyer, who was still reading Watership Down, even if only by firelight now, saw Charlie drag his guitar towards him. "What the…"

Charlie continued to drag his guitar, aware that almost everyone on the beach was following him now…to Kate's bonfire. He stood for a moment, inhaling deeply and exhaling in short, little spurts. Sawyer pushed to the front of the crowd. "Charlie…" he said quickly. "You don't have to do this. You don't have to prove anything to me." Charlie shook his head quickly. "I…I believe you! You didn't kill her, you couldn't…you…you couldn't hurt a fly!" Sawyer looked desperately at Charlie, and to the fire, and back at Charlie. "You love that guitar…it's your guitar…man, don't give it to Kate! She wasn't musically inclined…Charlie…come on man, be reasonable."

Charlie ignored his pleas. He took a deep breath, and threw it into the fire.

He spun around and ran back to the caves. He didn't even watch it burn.