Deception, part 2

"I really don't know any Alex." Casey repeated herself trying to get through to the hysterical woman.

"But I saw you…you took her from me." Danielle whispered. She held her gun close to her chest as if she was holding a child.

"I've never been here before. I've never met you. I'm a survivor of the plane that crashed here. And for once and for all I don't know of any Alex!" Casey pushed her way in front of Jack. He went to grab her but she brushed him off.

Danielle raised her gun again. "I promise to kill you if you don't give her back. She's mine. She's my baby."

"I take it, Alex was your daughter." Casey began conversation with her. If she got her to calm down maybe she could find out a little more with out loosing a body part.

"Yes. I had here on the island. But then you took her from me." She tightened her grip on the gun.

"I can only imagine how hard it was to loose her like that." Casey relaxed her body to show Danielle she wasn't a threat. "You know, I can't even have children. At least you got to know the joy of being a mother for a brief moment." Casey walked slowly toward her, still relaxed and talked softly to her. "I know pain too."

"How can you know the pain?" The French woman asked her voice cracking.

"It's a different pain but pain none the less. You see, you got to hold your child in your arms. You got to be proud of your baby. And I could adopt one if I wanted but it's not the same. Sure you can still love them just the same but it's different. There's a longing in me that will go away." Casey choked back tears. She couldn't cry…not now.

"Why?" Danielle asked after a moment of silence.

"Why what?"

"Why can't you have children?" She seemed interested enough.

Casey smiled a small, sad smile. "My uterus is tilted. I can't carry a baby to term. It be murder if I ever tried to have a baby of my own." Danielle slowly lowered her gun so that it pointed at the ground. "I found out when I was seventeen." She looked very thoughtful for a minute then asked Danielle if she had always known that she wanted a little girl named Alex.

"Yes. I always loved the name Alexandra and Clayton for a boy. I can't even remember when I picked those out." She smiled at herself. "What names did you have?"

"I always want and Ian and a Taylor." The sad flooded back into her face. "I know what it's like to have dreams taken away, Danielle. I know how you much feel." Casey was close enough to the other woman to try and reach for the gun. "If you put down the gun we can talk more if you want. Just please don't hurt anyone." Casey laid an hand on the barrel of the weapon and Danielle saw it.

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO TALK! I WANT MY DAUGHTER BACK!" She shot the gun in wild haste and Casey fell to the ground. "GIVE HER BACK!"

The piercing pain in her side, her left side burned with the gunpowder that dusted the bullet. Danielle had shot her in the side, luckily no where near her lung. Casey held her hand over the wound to try and relieve the pain and it helped some.

"I didn't take her! I told you that even if I did adopt someone else's baby it would be the same. Why would I take her if I felt that way!" Casey stressed to her.

Danielle became glassy eyed and she choked out, "I'm sorry…I have to go."

Casey watched her stumble through the trees and she sighed in relief and sat up slightly to examine herself. She grunted in pain when Jack was suddenly by her side doctoring it for her.

"Ow!" She yelped. "Don't touch it!" She demanded that they get back to camp.

000

Once back at the caves Casey, who was not modest at all, whipped off her shirt as fast as she could to let Jack retrieve the bullet form inside of her.

Jack was somewhat taken aback by how forward Casey was. Of coarse Jack, being of male species, couldn't help but check out the type of body she had.

She was lean and muscular. Maggie had mentioned earlier that she ran everyday. You could defiantly tell she had worked out a few times before. And her tan skin added a nice touch as well. 'Probably from being on the island so long. Everybody's gotten a tan here.' Jack thought silently to himself. Then something caught his eye.

She had smallish round scars on her body. There was one on her arm and three around her waistline; Casey had pulled her pants lower so that Jack had better view of the injury.

'She lied,' Jack thought. 'Her uterus wasn't tilted…she had been shot before and it had effected the way her reproductive system worked.' The scattered scars covered the area right about her uterus. Something had happened in her life that she was trying to hide.

NEXT CHAPTER: Truths

Jack asked Casey why she lied and she tells him relentlessly. A disturbing past in uncovered and Jack learns a little more as to why Casey is so cold.