Rescued from Paradise

Disclaimer: I don't own Lost or any of the characters on it.

Summary: The raft plan works and the castaways are rescued. But after a harsh and frightening experience on the island, how will they cope with civilization again?

Notes: For this story to work I had to cut out the part about the Others showing up. Other then that everything is as it was on the show. Eventually will have snippets of K/S, S/S, and C/C.

Prologue

It was approaching Two AM. It was cold and rainy outside. A herd of helicopters were flying through the air quickly and with a purpose. Their target, a small island somewhere off the coast of Australia. It was an uncharted island, but the survivors they had located in the middle of the ocean insisted that it was there. It had been a small plane that had discovered the castaways. The plane was making its daily rounds of the area, full of a family of American tourists enjoying their vacation in Australia, in all irony. When the small child had pointed out the small oval window and asked "What's that mommy?", the pilot and the other passengers assumed that it was just another of the many fish the boy had asked about during the ride. But as the mother turned to look out the window, a look of confusion crossed her face.

"Excuse me, Richard?" Richard was what the pilot preferred to be addressed as. "Do people usually come all the way out here to sail?" The pilot shook his head matter-of-factly.

" I'm afraid that would be mighty dangerous mam. Only way anyone would be on a sailboat all the way out here would be if they got way off course." He explained confidently in his Australian accent.

"Look mommy! That man is waving to us!" The child shouted in pleasure. The mother continued to look concerned. The pilot, now slightly concerned as well, turned his head away from the sky for a moment to look out the side window. It was then that concern flashed across his face as well.

"I'm gonna turn around an take a closer look." The pilot announced and pulled the plane into a sharp angled turn.

There they were. It was a raft, not a badly crafted one at that. There were four people on it, three men and one small child. They were waving at the plane and shouting something that he couldn't understand.

"Well I'll be a monkeys uncle." He declared, making the child giggle.

"But you don't look like a monkey!" Exclaimed the little boy. The mother shushed him. Richard reached for his radio and called in a request.

"Hank? Yea this is Richard. We might have a bit of a situation here. I need you to notify the coast guard about an unidentified sea craft. Looks like we might have some castaways on our hands here."

The tourists perked up at the announcement of the word 'castaways'. They would have quite a story to tell their friends when they got home.

The pilot make one more roundabout turn and waved to the castaways. Three of the them were jumping up and down happily. The other had sunken down to a sitting position and was covering his face. The pilot assumed that this was an act of relief.

He picked up the radio again and pressed a different button this time. "Help is on the way, mates!" His voice was heard outside the plane and the castaways celebrated more, or at least three of them did.

And the tourists snapped their pictures and chatted excitedly at their discovery. The pictures would forever be placed in their photo album and slid to the bottom of the dusty bookshelf, only to be seen again during family gatherings and chances to show off to their friends.

And on the raft, the mood was excited. The sun beat down warmly on a group of people who had saved the lives of all of their fellow castaways. They were heroes. They were relieved. They were not afraid anymore.

They were ready to go home.

The nightmare was over. Or so they thought.