Jack dropped his things and sprinted to the direction of Kate's scream. It seemed almost like an instinct now. "What? What is it…" He stopped short when he saw what she—and the growing crowd of survivors—was standing around.

It was Shannon. Dead. Her body bloody and mangled. Who did this? Why did they do it? Was it the Others? Jack felt the fear creep into his body and slowly counted to five in his head.

"Aren't you going to DO anything!" Ana Lucia practically screamed. Jack just stood, his eyes closed. Kate knew what he was doing, and she did the same.

"What the hell is going on? WHY ARE YOU CLOSING YOUR EYES!" Ana Lucia screamed even louder. So, this is what Austin meant by bossy, Kate thought.

1…2…3…4…5…

The fear was gone. When she opened her eyes, Jack was already kneeling down by Shannon's body. Carefully, he placed his hand on her arm and jerked it back. He leaned his head down close to her mouth, waiting. No one moved, no one spoke. Kate fought off the tears.

Jack took a deep breath, rubbing his eyes. He stood and swallowed hard. Kate could tell he was fighting it off, too. It was like he was forbidden to cry, at least in front of Ana Lucia.

The anger within Kate was too much. Too much to bear. She turned away so she didn't have to face Jack. She couldn't fight it any more—a single tear ran down her face.


Sayid stared at the mangled body. No, no, he thought. No, it's all just a dream. All just a dream…he knelt down, next to Jack. He let the tears come. The first time he'd cried on the island. He touched her skin, her face, the deep gashes all over her body, the blood that oozed from her chest. With each touch he felt a piece of his heart breaking into a million, un-replaceable shards. But just as quickly as the sadness had come, it disappeared, and was replaced by hatred. Hatred for whoever—or whatever—did this. Hatred for the whole fucking island.

He stood and faced the group of survivors. "A blanket. Someone give me a blanket." He ordered in his rough Iraqi accent. Someone dug into their luggage and pulled out a blanket, handing it to Sayid. Jack and Locke helped Sayid place Shannon's lifeless body on top of the blanket and lift her up.

Sayid knew he had to move on.


"All right. Let's keep going." Jack said. Kate glanced over at Ana Lucia, who looked the least bit fazed from all of this. The other survivors mingled behind Jack, Sayid and Locke, who were carrying the body. Kate caught up to Jack, glad that Ana Lucia wasn't already at his side.

"What are you going to do?" Kate asked. Jack didn't meet her eyes, just stared forward.

"What am I going to DO?" Jack asked in a voice anything from gentle. Kate didn't back off—she was feeling pretty angry. Angry at Jack, angry at Ana Lucia…but mostly, angry at herself. Like she wasn't good enough for Jack or something.

"Yeah. I asked you a question, Jack; could you at least answer it? Or would you rather talk with Ana Lucia?"

Jack did make eye contact with her this time, but it definitely wasn't friendly. "What does that mean?" He asked, glaring into her eyes. Kate had about a million equally nasty responses under her belt, but Ana Lucia suddenly approached them. Just my luck, Kate thought.

"So, which way to the caves?" Ana Lucia asked briskly, as if all the events that occurred within the last ten minutes hadn't happened. She smiled at Jack, then shot an evil glance at Kate. Kate returned the glare. Ana Lucia smiled again, then walked ahead of them.

Kate looked at Jack. "That's what I mean," She shot back. Kate had a feeling life on the island was not going to be very pleasant.


Jack felt his heart ache as Kate walked off in front of him. Ana Lucia could tell her "move" had made and impact, so she neared Jack. "So sad that she died," Ana Lucia said, looking at Shannon's body.

Jack couldn't concentrate. His eyes lingered on the back of Kate's head as she walked steadily in front of him. No way could he tell her now…

"I said, so sad that she died," Ana Lucia said, in a not-so-sad tone.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah…yeah it is." Jack muttered. He finally made eye contact with Ana, but she was only glaring at him. "What? What is it?" Jack asked, though he knew he shouldn't have asked.

Ana's harsh look suddenly turned into an innocent one--a totally fake innocent one. "Oh, nothing. Just...maybe you should apologize to Kate. I mean, you can't help it if she's overcome by jelousy, right?" Ana Lucia gave Jack a sweet smile before turning her attention over to Sayid.

Jack wanted to punch her right then-- basically every time she even said something he was turned off. And yet, he couldn't help but feel the least bit attracted towards her. Jack needed to talk to Kate.


Whirlwind-2005- So, Kate did indeed see a mangled shannon like in "H&M", only she didn't violate her like Boone did (Don't ask). OMG, I didn't even THINK of Austin being her last name. I mean, I knew that it was, but I used Austin as the name of the kid because I met this really hot guy named Austin, and I wanted him in the story. I'm shallow and proud. Yah, and Kate's not moving the caves...yet.

FanofLOST- How much do you hate Ana Lucia now? And me and Lostgurl and our other friend are big Jaters, while one friend is in love with Sawyer (I don't get it either) and says island romances are stupid because it would never happen in real life(Ummm, if everyone was THAT hot, they would) and the other one just ships Jate because she doesn't want to get beat up by us. Teehee. I have a bunch of pics, and I'm getting a t-shirt. It says "I survived flight 815". Okay, so I'm on page 150 of Harry Potter. I just never got into it. Whatever.

Hey ya'll, I'm leaving for vacation for 2 weeks this Friday, so don't expect any updates (not like I update ANYWAY, but that's a differnt story) Just a heads up ;)