A/N: Hey guys I'm back! Oh, it feels good to write again. This is a long chapter. I'm just getting things started so forgive me if it's "long". It starts out slow in my opinion but I promise things will heat up soon.

A Stranger

A stranger. She was a stranger to them. No one knew who she was or where she came from. All they knew was that she just walked onto their beach. She didn't look like a threat and she didn't act like it. In fact she seemed more confused then they were.

Her eyes scanned over the terrain. Who were these people? She had thought some of them looked familiar but no names came to mind. She might have had them as patients but that seemed unlikely. They surrounded her forming a huge circle around her. She was confused and afraid but she wouldn't let them know that.

A rather large man with red curly hair said something under his breath referring to her. Someone else said something to the person next to them and then another said something. Soon all she could hear were whispers, about her mostly. Things like what was she doing there, who was she, where did she come from, etc.

She adjusted the backpack she had earlier swung over her shoulder as a dark headed man approached her. He had a leader sense about him, considering he was the first to step forward and say something directly to her instead of whispering. Come to think of it…the whispering stopped as soon as he made his appearance. She mentally readied herself for anything. God only knows what could happen in this place.

"Who are you?" Jack asked as politely as possible.

"I'm doctor Casey Call. Who are you?" She replied in a strong voice.

"I'm doctor Jack Shepard. Might I ask what you are doing here?"

"I should ask you the same thing."

"We're the survivors of flight 815." Jack declared simply.

"That's impossible." Casey accused. He heart nearly stopped when he said this. The news stunned her but once again she wouldn't let them know how she felt.

"Why is that?" Jack asked.

"Because I'm a survivor of flight 815." She looked around at all of the people that were 'supposed' survivors. "How many of you are there?" She asked calmly.

"Around forty-eight. Are there anymore besides you?" Jack asked back.

"Twenty-three of us. We're the tail section of the plane." Casey's eyes just kept traveling over everyone's faces. 'That's why some of them look familiar. I saw them on the plane.' she thought.

"And we're the fuselage." Jack nodded. "Where's your guy's camp?" He sounded curious.

"I walked pretty far. I'd say several miles that way." She pointed to the way in which she came from. "We're on the other side of the island from you. It's no wonder we didn't run into you guys before." Casey smiled.

"I want to go to your camp. I want to see things for myself." Jack turned around and started walking away.

"Why? Don't believe me?" Casey yelled after him. The people started to disperse.

"Oh, I believe you. I just want to see things for myself, like I said." He turned around and exited Casey's line of sight then suddenly reappeared with a backpack in hand.

He was serious. Casey noticed that there was woman with him now. She had dark curly hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and a small face. She was pretty in Casey's opinion. There was also a Middle Eastern man. He was well built and he had black curly hair like most men of his race did. He too had a backpack.

"Casey this is Kate," Jack gestured to the woman, "and this is Sayid." He then gestured to the other man.

"It's nice to meet both of you." Casey smiled a welcoming smile. "Now if you don't mind it's quite a walk and we need to get going."

000

The small group had been traveling for over and hour without speaking to each other. It wasn't that they did like each other, it was just they didn't know how to get a conversation started. There were so many questions Jack had for the mysterious girl. She looked extremely familiar but where did he know her from?

"Casey." Jack spontaneously called to her. She turned to him. "You said you were a doctor." He caught up with her.

"Yes I did." She pushed her loose blonde hair out of her face.

"What do you work in?"

"A hospital." She looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Yeah, I know that. Pretty much all doctors do. I meant what department do you work in."

"Oh." She laughed with embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I can be spacey at times. Not in the overall scheme of things but every once in a while I have my moments. It's the hair color." She pointed to mop of blonde straight hair. "I work in obstetrics mostly. The emergency room is my home away from home though." Jack nodded in approval. "Where do you work, Jack?"

"I'm in surgery." Jack wasn't willing to give up to much information about himself if the girl wasn't who they thought she was. Who knew if she was telling them the truth? She could be one of the others for all he knew. "Tell me Casey, how have you guys made it this far? What have you done for food, shelter, you know, survival."

Casey was hesitant. "We've had a hard time. Umm…We finally got brave enough to hunt some of the boar. It's been a relief from fish, I have to say. No one really hunts though. We don't have fresh water at all but we did find a way to use rain. We have little trough we put together from wreckage that holds whatever water we have. When that runs out we just pray for it to rain with in the next day or so." Casey looked defeated. Jack knew by the way she was talking that she had stepped into the roll of leader in her camp. She once again tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear. She was so familiar.

Jack took a goo look at her to make sure he wasn't confusing he with someone else he knew. She didn't look like anyone else he knew though. She had shoulder length, blonde, straight hair and her eyes were hazel in color. She had a small frame of figure that was obviously from working out. She had a small face in general; narrow jaw line with a small forehead, and a small nose.

She looked back at Jack and it was then that he knew she was telling the truth about her being a doctor. She carried weight in her eyes like every professional did. The longing to be the best doctor one could be, the sadness of not being able to fulfil it to the highest potential at times, and the stress of life itself.

"What are you staring at?" Casey asked somewhat rudely.

"Nothing. You just look extremely familiar that's all. Are you sure we've never met?" Jack asked confused.

"I'm sure, because I would remember you." Jack smiled at her. "A fine doctor like yourself. No…I'm positive I would remember you." Now Casey smiled and she walked farther ahead of her fellow doctor.

Kate approached Jack from behind. "What was that all about?"

"I swear I know her from somewhere." Jack confessed.

Kate looked at Casey's back. "Maybe you saw her at the airport or something." She suggested.

"Maybe…" Jack trailed off. 'Or maybe there's more to her than meets the eye,' he thought to himself. He watched her talk to Sayid about something and decided to get back to his conversation with Kate.

"Jack how far doing think we have to walk anyway?" Kate said as if reading Jack's mind.

"I don't know. She said it was a long walk. I guess she wasn't kidding."

Kate looked very thoughtful for a minute. "What's going to happen when we find everyone?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what are we going to do with two separate camps so far apart that you can't even walk to the other within day." Kate said looking into the early signs of sunset. "Are they going to merge or what?"

"I don't know." Jack replied again. "I don't know what's going to happen Kate. I think that merging would be the best bet for survival for all of us. Casey said that their camp has had a rough month. They don't have fresh water even. I think that a mass move would be smart on their part." Jack thought out loud.

000

They had been walking for little over three hours now. Jack, Sayid and Kate were getting restless and were repeatedly asking Casey how much further they had to go. They had always thought the island was fairly small but they were having second opinions. They turned one more gradual corner and were met by a quaint little camp. It was composed of mostly small shelters made out of plane wreckage and small fires. There were people washing clothes and people standing around talking, just a variety of things going on; exactly like their camp.

"Come on. No one's going to hurt you." Casey said encouragingly at the wary new comers.

The walked slowly, and deliberately. The three friends were earning many strange glares from people. Everything seemed to stop as they came more inside the vicinity of these people's homes. Everything was very quiet and still here. Probably because there wasn't half the people here as there was at the beach across the island.

"Welcome to our home." Casey said invitingly. Casey turned around and walked over to a handsome family of three.

There was a woman with long brown hair with her husband and a child that looked no more than two. They were talking with Casey for sometime.

Jack, Kate and Sayid just gawked. They didn't no where to start. Yeah, things were primitive but, hey, they were still alive after over a month here on the island so they couldn't have been doing to badly for themselves.

Jack finally moved and made his way over to where Casey was. She met half way when she was finished with her conversation. "Casey, what do you think we should do now?"

The female doctor looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't you think it's kind of…foolish to have two different camps of survivors so far away from each other? I think it would be best if we found someway to get the two parties together."

Casey crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you suggesting a merge, Jack? You want the to camps to unite as one big one instead of two small ones. Is that what you're saying?"

"HELP!" There was a scream from the distance. Everyone's head whipped to the direction in which it came. "HELP!" It came again. A girl appeared at the edge of the forest with a small body in her arms. The girl was covered in red liquid and as she got closer everyone could see tears on her face.

"Angie what happened?" Casey was suddenly by the girl, trying to calm her screams.

"We…we were walking…and that…that thing…" the girl, Angie sobbed.

"Calm down. I can't understand you. Tell me one more time." Casey remained composed for the Angie's sake.

"THAT THING GOT HER!" Angie finally choked out.

"Set her down." Casey said forcefully, referring to the younger child. The hysterical girl did as she was told. She still was frantic about who ever this young person was. She sat grasping the child's hand and rocking herself back and forth.

Doctor Call went straight to work identifying the wounds and how to treat them, if she could. There was blood everywhere. Casey knew that it was going to be a miracle if she saved the victim. She pulled off her zip up jacked and waded it into a ball, applying it to the girl's side. There were teeth marks imbedded into her side.

Angie was still holding the girl's hand, rocking back and forth, muttering things to her. "You're going to be okay, baby. I'm so sorry I yelled at you. I promise Casey is going to take good care of you." She whispered over and over.

Casey looked up at the group of three that just stood there. 'Someone take her,' she mouthed. Kate jumped at the plead. She took the teenager's free hand and led her away from the trauma. She left Sayid and Jack watching Casey continue CPR on the small girl.

"Please don't leave," she whispered. "You can't leave us. Come on, Mary." Suddenly she stopped. Casey just stopped CPR and sighed. She gently propped her elbows on her legs and rested her head on a spot of her hand that wasn't crimson colored.

Jack kneeled to try to help Casey in someway, so he restarted CPR. "No Jack." He stopped and watched Casey lift her head slowly from her hands. She looked at Mary's blood soaked cloths and her chest didn't move. She nodded. "Twenty-two survivors." She swallowed hard and got up leaving a red handprint in the sand. "I'll go tell her sister."

Sayid just watched Jack sit in front of the little girl's body. She was young. Very young, about seven or eight, he thought. Her eyes were fixated into a stare and Jack gently closed them with one hand. There was a moment of silence before they heard Angie scream again. None of the flinched as she shouted again.

000

"Mary was a sweet girl. She was always very eager and energetic. She was optimistic enough to satisfy us all." Casey spoke clear and loud. They had decided to have a burial service before they lost the light. Now Casey was speaking in honor of the little girl. "She was bright and brave. She was loving."

Jack didn't know the girl who died but he felt as though he could have done something to help save her. He felt badly for Angie whom was standing silent now with an older woman's arm around her. She was stone compared to what she had been earlier. Her face held no emotion; she didn't blink and she didn't talk, it barely looked like she was breathing. He listened to Casey speak more about how Mary had been so courageous for and eight year old. Jack smiled. Casey had a lisp. Not a very noticeable one, nothing serious. She just over emphasized her 'S's.

"She was the kind of girl who made you smile no matter what. And she never ceased to amaze me at how no matter how young she was…" it was becoming increasingly harder for Casey to maintain a strong voice. "She never let hope die. Amen." The people comforted each other as they left the small cemetery holding six graves.

"That was a beautiful service." Sayid complimented.

"Thank you." Casey sighed and looked closely at all of the grave markers. "We've lost to many to that monster out there." She said monotonously. "What were you saying about that merge Jack?"

NEXT CHAPTER: Trouble with a capital 'T'

Casey decides to move her camp to the beach with the other survivors. And Jack disagrees with Casey's way of running things. But will the monster put an end to their differences?