Disclaimer: I do not own LOST.

Thanks for the reviews. I love writing this fic but the support helps a lot.

Okay, this chapter is just a brief interlude in the story. It was just an idea that I had to add in some different perspectives. And I changed the prologue at the beginning of the fic to work along with this chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven: Claire's Interlude

On September 22, 2004 two hundred and thirty-eight people boarded Oceanic Flight 815 flying from Sydney to Los Angeles. The plane took off four minutes late at 10:04 a.m. Two hours later the plane had disappeared. There had been no emergency transmission from the pilot, no suspicious activity reported. It had simply disappeared.

A massive search and recovery mission was organized. It lasted sixteen weeks. Nothing was ever recovered. There were no bodies, no survivors, no trace of wreckage. After those sixteen weeks the search was called off.

The story didn't end there though. Each family had a story to tell about their lost loved one. There was the rich Los Angeles socialite whose son and stepdaughter were on the plane. She lived up the attention of course, crying on camera with pleas to her precious children to come home.

There was the young man whose ex-girlfriend was on the plane. She had been carrying their child. No one knew why she had been flying so late in her pregnancy.

The older woman whose son was one the plane caught a lot of media attention. Apparently he had been bringing home his father's body for a funeral.

The stories were endless and the media ate them up, splashing pictures of the dead across magazine covers and newspapers. The public couldn't get enough of the mysterious story… Until of course it died out, as all stories do. Pretty soon some beauty queen pop star would be caught smoking pot or a rich socialite would have a "wardrobe malfunction" and the mystery would be forgotten.

Eventually, even the families moved on, declared their loved ones dead and tried to pick up the pieces of a life that still didn't have all the answers.

There were those who still speculated about the story. After all, it was an unsolved mystery. How could a plane just disappear? What happened to all those people? Some said it was the Bermuda Triangle. Others claimed alien abduction. Still others speculated on the fact that there had been a criminal and a former member of the Iraqi guard on the plane. Perhaps it had been foul play? But no one ever really knew, there were no answers. And soon the story faded into myth… into the folklore of history and people began to wonder if it had ever really happened.

But it did… Trust me it did. I was there. I was on that plane. I was one of the survivors. And what happened to us? What's the answer to the unsolved mystery?

You'd never guess.

I never did at least. All I knew was that I was stuck on some island with forty-seven people I didn't know, pregnant, scared and alone. Life had dealt me some pretty hard blows before but nothing could prepare me for this. Nothing could prepare me for monsters and polar bears and psychos who try to take your baby. Nothing could prepare me for losing my memory and watching someone get shot six times in the chest, having to deliver my baby on the beach or trying to start from scratch. Nothing could prepare me for falling in love, having babies, friendships or life in the most unlikely of places.

And nothing could prepare me for death. And the eventual answers that came with death. I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to miss seeing my children grow up. I didn't want to leave behind a husband that would sing softly in my ear when I couldn't sleep at night.

But sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do… like die.

It was the hardest thing I've ever done. And now that I'm here I understand. I get it now. I see it all. And it's bigger than I ever imagined. The memory of that missing two weeks was returned and I was shocked at what I saw, thankful that I hadn't been able to remember.

They're down there now trying to figure out what I already know. Sometimes I return and lay my head down on my husband's chest and tell him that I miss him. I want to give him all the answers but all I can give are hushed phrases, nonsense really… I want to make him understand, make them all understand that they already have the answers. They can't be afraid of the truth anymore.

And then there are my children. They have the answers too… They are the answers. I knew they were special in the way that a mother knows her children are special from the day they are born. But it's more than that. It's something that goes deeper than even a mother's love. Although I've realized now how important that is.

My children are special. More so than I ever could have imagined. Adam was my salvation… and now, well…. I suppose that would be giving too much away.

You must wait for the answers. I wait. We all wait. For the whole mystery to be revealed. For everyone to finally understand. And it's funny really. Because the whole thing is so simple. So basic. So elemental. Sometimes the things that are the hardest to understand are also the most glaringly obvious. You just need to continue to search. Ask the right questions.

Have patience. It will come. All you need is a little time.

Author's Note: Okay, the next update returns to the storyline. The next couple chapters are going to be a little different as they will not include flashbacks. I'm going to try and get the next two chapters up within the next week. So please read and review.