Finally, the boats began to pull up onshore. The castaways remained motionless, big smiles on everyone's faces. A man with thin graying hair stepped off the rubber boat. He wore a blue-and-red windbreaker, dress slacks and some kind of informal shoes. He looked around and sighed sadly. Jack's expression dropped, as everyone looked around in confusion. He walked back a few steps to the boat. "Radio back to the ship," he said to a man wearing a white uniform with a red cross on his chest. "Tell them we have found flight 815.…There are no apparent survivors." The man held up a military walkie-talkie and did as he was told.
The castaways murmured to each other in confusion. Jack began to walk over to the man. "Excuse me, sir," he said. "Do you not see all these people?" He waved his arm broadly to the confused group. The man looked right past Jack. Suddenly, the world began to change. The tents and various camps around disappeared, as the fuselage reappeared. Everything looked as if it had….just crashed? Hot tears welled up in Jack's eyes as he looked back to his fellow survivors. Several men and women were crying. Charlie was consoling Claire, while trying to hide his tears. Kate looked absolutely dumbstruck. And Sawyer…Sawyer continued not to face the crowd. He stood facing the wind, not a care in the world. Or so it seemed. More men arrived in boats. Jack attempted to talk to them all; with no avail. Charlie and Boone tried to help; but nothing was working.
"We can't be…." Charlie whispered.
"I don't know anything right now," Jack replied. "No one does." The men who arrived seemed to walk around as if in a sped up video, zooming past the castaways, no more than blurs. Everything else was in slow motion. The rain began to fall gently. Charlie walked around amidst the workers and stared darkly as they uncovered the area near the bathroom and pulled his own body out. He was quite bloody around the chest area, and had a black eye. Charlie's fists clenched so hard, he drew blood. "Oh God…" he heard a man's voice say from behind them. Charlie turned around to see them pull a piece of the plane off of Claire. "She was with child…" Except for a trickle of dried blood going down her temple, you would have thought she was OK. Charlie dropped to his knees and screamed into the rain. A hand gently rested on his shoulder. He looked up into the smiling face of Claire. "Charlie…" she whispered. "It's ok." Charlie's face was red and tearstained. "Love Claire…" he said. "Don't you get it! We're...we're all…" he broke off into sobs. She knelt down beside him. "I know. That's why my baby never came." He got up and wiped his tears and stared into her big blue eyes. Somehow he knew everything was going to be ok. She pulled his head closer and closer until they began to kiss passionately.
Jack and the others had spread out, surveying this new horror. He came across Kate, who was watching them pull Sawyer's lifeless body from the wreckage; his lip was bleeding quite badly as was his forehead. She let out a few tears as the men walked within inches of her with Sawyer. She reached out and stroked his cheek one last time. She ran away after they placed him in a bag, over farther down to a more isolated section of beach. She was staring out into the ocean wistfully, when a strong pair of arms gently wrapped themselves around her. "Sawyer," she said.
"Got that right, Freckles." he hugged her tighter; she started to quiver as if she was crying. "I'm so sorry," he whispered in her ear. "Why are you sorry? …it didn't have anything to do with you." Sawyer chuckled softly. "Sorry that I didn't meet you sooner." Sawyer went and sat right where the surf touched the sand, Kate joined him. She curled up in his lap, and he held her as the clouds began to clear, warming them both.
Jack looked around. Sayid and Shannon kissing, Charlie and Claire kissing, Kate and…Sawyer kissing. He stared out into the ocean; wishing this was only a dream. Locke walked up beside him. "Ready to go?" he asked. Jack looked at him, confused. "Go…" Locke nodded. "Yep….you know." he said, motioning upward with his hands. Jack looked over behind him at Charlie, Claire, Sun, Jin, Walt, Michael, Hurley, Rose, Boone, Shannon, Sayid, Sawyer and Kate. They stood together, radiant and strong. Jack burst into tears. Locke joined the group. "Where are the others?" Jack asked. Locke looked at him. "Maybe they were never really here." He motioned for Jack to join them. Jack looked at the sea and the stars one last time.
Everything began to fade away. Nothing was left. Time had come and gone. Eventually, the island was discovered and probably bought by some millionare, maybe even turned into a mini-mall. But every once in a while, you could hear the distant strumming of a guitar, or perhaps laughing. Sometimes even gunshots. But no one ever forgot the doomed destination of Oceanic Flight 815.
A/N- In case you're wondering why the ship sent a flare, it was to signal that they were coming, not acknowleging the horn.
wink Hope you liked it!