Pangs of Guilt

Chapter 37

Lost and Found

"Here's mommy," Claire called as she ran over to Alex who was still playing with the tiny red car in the dirt. She knelt down beside him and began to litter kisses all over his face, "Did you miss me Button?"

"Claire, you're suffocating the poor child," Charlie noticed, as he walked to stand beside her, "give him some room, huh?"

"How is she?" Shannon asked as she rested her scrawny elbows onto her knees, "Is the baby okay?"

"She had us worried for a bit," Claire stated truthfully, "But you know Kate, she's not going down without a fight," she added as she picked up Alex who giggled.

"And the baby's fine, she had a little boy, but she wasn't really with it when we left," Charlie announced. "Charlie!" Claire scolded as she hit him, "What it's true, she looked worse then me when I was under the influence."

"Still she just had a baby, with no anesthesia," Claire argued, "But now poor Maverick's the only little girl on the island," she stated, "Where is the little Bumblebee anyways?"

Shannon smiled, "She's just sleeping over there," she enlightened as she pointed to an empty blanket. Her eyes became wide and she swallowed harshly, "Or, umm was."

"Where could she have gotten to?" Sayid asked rhetorically, "She's not capable of walking," with that he got up and began to search around the area.

"Alex, did you see where Maverick went?" Claire asked the tiny boy in her arms as the others kept exploring the area.

Shannon had tears in her eyes, "I was supposed to watch her," she sobbed while spreading the leafy branches in a near by bush.

"Shannon, you're not the only one responsible for her, I was here as well," Sayid answered gently comforting her.

"But I didn't watch her," Shannon wept as Sayid hugged her, "Now Maverick's out in the jungle by herself. She's not even one, and there's still one of those evil guys out there," she stated from inside the serenity of his arms.

"Well now you need to have a kid and give it to Jack and Kate as a peace offering," Charlie suggested. Everyone stopped moving and looked at him, "What? It was a joke."

Maverick crawled across the soft sand of the cave floors; she moved to get to her destination of the cave where her mom was. Placing her hand in front of her, a small smile crept to her face as she felt the downiness of the light soil press together underneath the weight of her.

She kept crawling until she came to an obstacle in her way, a rock. Not just any rock, the biggest, heaviest, most unmovable rock in the world- at least to her. Slowly she placed her hands on it, and raised herself up from her crawling position. Wobbling awkwardly on her feet she took a step to the side and another until she was clear of the boulder.

She was only a few feet from the cave where Kate was when she heard a soft laughter and felt herself being lifted off the ground.

Locke beamed as he held the tiny child who misunderstood the situation that everyone was in. Holding her softly under the arms, he turned her around, her tiny dress swayed with the movement, as did her pigtails.

"And where were you going Young Lady?" Locke asked her, and she stared upon him with awe. Her huge, round eyes taking in everything that was 'Locke', her mouth agape. "Ah that's right, I remember your daddy telling me that you haven't talked yet," he disclosed to the child, "I know you want to see your mommy, but she's busy now, so why don't we have a little rest until she's better?"

Maverick giggled, she hadn't seen this man very often, but he intrigued her. He grinned another clown smile and she threw her arms around his neck in admiration. At a young age, the only way she knew how to express herself other then broken syllables was actions, Locke seemed to understand this.

Jack approached Shannon, if Sayid weren't besides her holding her down, she would've made a run for the woods, everyone was still looking around the caves for tiny Maverick.

"Jack, we have a small problem," Sayid began, not wanting to take it any further. Jack stopped and arched an eyebrow; he didn't like the tone of Sayid's voice, "What's the matter?" he questioned immediately not liking where this was going.

Everyone stopped searching for a second and looked at the ground or their feet, which had suddenly become so interesting, "Well it's Maverick," Claire stated.

"What? What about Mavey?" he asked his eyes quickly scanning the area for her.

"Well, we seemed to have misplaced her," Charlie simply announced, as he mindlessly drug his foot over the ground.

"What?" Jack asked, "Where is she? How long has she been missing?" he interrogated his face loosing all color, as he moved around the area looking for his daughter.

"Jack, I'm sorry," Shannon apologized, fresh tears leaking from her eyes "I was supposed to be watching her, but I turned away for a second and she was gone."

"Shannon," Jack sighed, "Just help me find her okay?" he asked his voice breaking up, "No one tell Kate, this is definitely the last thing she needs," he declared.

"Maybe we should ask people if they've seen Maverick?" Sayid suggested wrapping an arm around Shannon's shoulders, "Someone must've seen her recently."

Jack nodded agreeing with his idea, "Was there any tracks leading away from where she was?" Shannon shook her head looking at the area of rough dirt around the blanket that lay crinkled on the ground, "Someone could've taken her," he stated nervously.

"No," Shannon shook her head, "We would've noticed that, for sure."

Jack sighed as he wiped his eyes with his hand. He was beginning to get a headache, Kate was going to need a few days before fully recovering, his new son was born premature, and his daughter was out in the wilderness.

"Jack?" Locke asked coming up behind the young doctor, "I believe you're looking for this?" he asked, holding up the young smiling infant under the arms, as Jack spun around.

"Mavey!" he called and tenderly took his daughter from Locke, and pulled her close to him, laying kisses on her face; she giggled from the loving attention she received. Locke smiled at the site of reunited father and daughter, "Where did you find her?" Jack posed as he held her; she wrapped her tiny arms around his neck and rested her head under his chin.

"She was walking over to the cave, she appears to have mastered the technique," Locke announced, "I think she just wanted to see Kate," he smiled.

"I'm going to take her there now," Jack stated, "But thank you Locke, you have no idea how much she means to me," he said graciously.

Locke grinned as Jack lowered Maverick to the ground and held her tiny hand as she started to walk to the cave, "I have some idea," he chuckled softly.

Jack slowly walked her into their cave; Kate still sat against the wall cradling a sleeping Liam, "Look who came to visit us," she declared with a smile as he slowly walked their daughter over.

Maverick squealed with delight at her mother, not liking the fact that they'd been separated for so long. She flopped to her bottom on the cave floor and looked curiously at the bundle her mom held.

Jack bent down beside her, "Mavey, this is you little brother, Liam," he explained calmly as he took the napping baby from Kate, who then reached out and sat Maverick down on her lap.

He sat down parallel to Kate and moved Liam so Maverick could get a better look at him. She stared at him, her green eyes trying to pick up exactly who or what he was, but after a few moments he became a bore to her.

She leaned back against Kate's chest and fell asleep after her long tiring morning. Kate looked over to Jack who grinned proudly, and she leaned her head against his shoulder, "Well if the rest of the days go like this, parenting should be a piece of cake," she stated.

He chuckled and kissed her temple gently, "This is one of the good days," he reminded.

She sighed with defeat, "Just promise me, no more for awhile okay?" she mumbled as sleep began to claim her too.

"I'm not promising anything," he replied.

Well there you go guys, after a 2 month wait, it's finished! It's done! Like Ethan's career with the boy band, it's history! So now you know what you have to do. You have to tell me which story to write more of because right now, the sequel isn't started, and the next chapter to just incase hasn't begun. So tell me whether you want...

POG sequel
or
Just Incase
or
The Stand

...to get written and published first (meaning I always work on it first)