Chapter One
The next day, Kate woke up to a loud, high-pitched scream. As soon as she got up, she knew was happening. She had a gut feeling that something was awfully wrong. She saw Sun running through the cave entrance with something in her hands. As a crowd of panicked people surrounded her, Kate made her way to Sun.

"Sun! What's going on?"

"I found this on the beach," Sun replied as she handed Kate a piece of burnt bamboo.

As soon as Kate saw it, she knew exactly what it was. The raft. Something happened.

As Sun asked the most obvious question, "how could it be burnt?", Jack and Charlie made their way through the crowd.

"Who was screaming?" Jack said, panting heavily. Him and Charlie were out getting firewood since the camp was running short. Especially since they had moved to the caves, fire had to be on all day to keep the light in.

Jack's eyes locked in on the inanimate object in Kate's hands, an object that spoke a thousand words that didn't want to be spoken.

"W-where is that from?" Jack demanded.

"Sun found it on the beach," Kate answered, miserably.

"That can't be… what I think it is?" Charlie said, joining in.

"Sun, did you find anything else?" Jack asked, whipping sweat off his forehead.

Sun shook her head in answer to his question as she sobbed uncontrollably.

She knew exactly what this meant. The thing that was on everybody's minds was finally answered. The raft hadn't capsized nor had it found help; it came across some sort of danger. Someone had burnt it down and… she didn't want to think about what else. What about Walt and Michel? What about Sawyer? More importantly, what about Jin?

Kate reached over and hugged Sun, letting Sun cry into her shoulder. She knew how she was feeling. She tried her best to hide it, but she felt the same exact way about Sawyer.

After Sun found the piece of bamboo, everybody assumed the worst; the men were either in grave danger or hadn't survived. They thought that if they were… dead… that the bodies would have washed up on shore by now. But they also knew that the island was rather large and the bodies could have washed up anywhere.

The new discovery had ruined the mood on the island. People were just starting to forget about the danger from three days ago. Now, their fears were renewed.

Kate walked up to Jack as he was curing a sprained ankle of a woman. She admired him for a while… he always kept himself busy. She had hardly spoken to him since they had opened the hatch. She thought he might be a bit mad at her for criticizing him about going into the hatch.

"Jack? Do you want to go take a walk with me along the beach? I haven't been out of this cave for three days," Kate asked, surprising Jack.

Jack looked up and nodded. "Give me five minutes, I'll meet you outside."

Kate started walking outside the entrance to the caves. She hated the caves. She understood why they had to move into them, but she hated them. For her, the caves were almost like prison. Dark and depressing. It seemed that the mood in the caves was always so sullen, while in the beach, everybody was carefree and happy. As happy as they could be for being stranded on an island, anyways.

Interrupting her thoughts, Jack tapped her on the shoulders.

"Hey," he said simply. He was so tired. He tried to busy himself in order not to think about everything that was happening. He hadn't slept for three whole days. He felt like the island was his responsibility; he had to make sure nothing happened to these people.

"Hey," Kate said simply. After three days, all they had to say to each other was hey?

They headed towards the beach without saying a word. The silence wasn't the least bit awkward; on the contrary, it was the most relaxing silence they had ever experienced. Every time Jack was with Kate he felt at ease.

"What do you think happened to them out there?" Kate asked, breaking the silence as she stared out into the ocean.

"I don't have the slightest idea… it couldn't have been good though."

Kate sighed.

"Kate… Sawyer's a tough guy."

"What?"

"I know you've been worrying about him. Wait, let me rephrase that. Everybody knows you've been worrying about him. The look on your face says it all."

"I have not. I've been worrying about them all!" Kate lied, looking down into the sand.

"Look, Kate. We've been on this island for quite a while now… I know that you have feelings for Sawyer."

"Oh, really? Well you obviously don't know me at all," Kate argued and then sauntered off, heading in a direction she had never took before.

"Who does he think he is? Telling me who I 'have feelings for' and don't," she thought to herself. She was walking in a direction she never took before. She was enraged at Jack. He hadn't spoke to her for three days and when he finally did he insulted her.

Jack sighed. He didn't mean to upset Kate. Ever since Sawyer left she was acting sort of odd. He knew she wanted to say goodbye to him, but he didn't know it meant that much to her. He concluded that if she cared that much about not getting to say goodbye, she must have romantic feelings for Sawyer. As much as he hated it, that conclusion nipped at him from the insides. Every time he thought of Kate and Sawyer, he felt sick.

"Why do I care so much?" he had asked himself. He never thought he would fall for Kate. He's a doctor, she's a criminal; they come from different worlds.

As much as he wanted to run after her and protect her, he didn't. It took all the self-restraint he owned not to run after her and apologize. It took all the self-restraint he owned to not run after her and take her in his arms and fight away all her past demons. It took all his self-restraint not to run after he and kiss her like he had been wanting to ever since he first looked at her. "She likes Sawyer. Not me," he told himself and walked back towards the caves. If only she knew.