A pretty face don't mean a pretty heart

Chapter 5

Just an ordinary guy, but no ordinary hero

The rain is ceaseless. Boone sits at the entrance of the cave, staring out into the jungle, and hills and ridges beyond. Locke hands him a bottle of water. He nods thanks, and returns to staring. There is quiet, no body talks. The full horror of the day is starting to be realised.

A brooding Sawyer watches everybody, especially Connor in the corner of the cave. Michael cradles a sleeping Walt. Sayid patches up the minor wounds that everybody has, to the best of his ability. Charlie watches over a sleeping Claire. The light is beginning to fade, darkness will soon fall.

Nathaniel watches from his lair, the part of the jungle where the caves are. He smiles a reptilian smile, cold, calculating. God will visit more death on them soon. His wife, sons and daughter are asleep. The doctor and the blonde girl are bound and asleep. He hears movement from his cave. He picks up his rifle, and walks over.

Kate sees him, she tries to scramble away further into the cave. However Nathaniel is upon her within a couple of strides. He crouches down beside her; a massive hand grasps her throat. She gags for breath. Nathaniel smiles, at the power he has. "My child your destiny has been pre-ordained." He coldly smiles. "You have been a sinner all your life, and soon you shall be punished." He whispers into her ear. "Pray that it is swift."

"In the timescale its impossible." Michael argues with Sayid. Connor and Sawyer watch keenly. "A boat for over thirty people, I'm sorry Sayid it cannot be done." He shakes his head. The mood is worse now. "What do we do?" Exclaims a frustrated Sayid.

"We get some sleep, we're tired, and we're emotional." Connor says dejectedly. "I'll take the first watch."

"You look like you could with some company." Connor's smile is genuine, as a black woman, Grace appears beside him. "Thank you." He is surprised when Grace wraps a blanket around him.

There is an awkward silence.

"Whatever happened to that girl and that man this afternoon, it was not your fault."

"It feels that way." Connor whispers.

"Nobody is blaming you." Connor sighs. Grace clasps his hands. "Your husband was on the flight, I saw him."

"He's alive, on another part of this island." It was Connor's turn to smile now. "Must be nice having faith." Grace kindly smiles. "Try having some. You had somebody on the flight as well?"

Connor nods. "Are they lost just like my husband?"

"No I've found them again."

"They are not in the caves." Grace's reasoning is correct. "They are one of the hostages."

Connor nods again. "Its not Jack, or Shannon, Grace, its Kate." He closes his eyes, wishing politely that she'd go away now.

"So this is what the camp gossip is all about." Grace says in stern but mocking friendly way. Connor takes a deep breath. "Grace please stay a while, I'll tell you my side of the story."

Ten metres away, an awake and alert Sawyer listens in keenly. Sweet baby Jesus, he says to himself. What Connor is saying is what is in this letter of his from Kate is true. He shakes his head. The guy is more messed up about freckles, than me or Jack.

Grace puts an arm around Connor, he needs it. "Forgiving yourself is sometimes hard, forgiving Kate must be harder still." Connor buries his face in his hands. "I know, since that day I've been fighting something dark and brooding inside of me, sometimes it almost wins."

"But it hasn't. If it did, you would have destroyed yourself and Kate a long time ago. God will forgive you both for you have did or think you did. Now Connor please listen to me." Grace says sternly. "People here need you, Kate, Jack and Shannon need you, be strong for all of them."

"What part of the phrase its impossible don't you understand." Michael shouts. Sawyer, and Sayid keenly await Connor's explanation. Locke sits on a rock listening in.

"It doesn't have to float, just look like a big enough boat, have enough people swarm over it. Where the caves on the ridge are, Nathaniel can see people working on it with binoculars."

"Lull him into a false sense of security." Smiles Sayid. "Have enough people working on it, day and night, and he'll think he's having an effect."

Sawyer grins. "We'll get off this island, but on our terms." Connor nods. "Michael make it as ramshackle as necessary, we've only got two days."

"Has anybody seen Charlie and Hurley?" Locke asks. "I've sent them to the beach to look for something!" Connor smiles.

"To look for what?"

"Coconuts." Charlie grins. "Big ones, small ones, hairy ones." Two dozen coconuts, roll onto the cave floor. Claire and Sun-jin watch perplexed.

"The FBI dude has flipped." Hurley shrugs his shoulders, and walks away.

"These maps that I stole from the French woman." Connor studies one with Locke and Sayid. "Show that it will take at least a day's hiking, then a climb up a five hundred meter high cliff."

"It was never going to be easy." Locke whistles. He looks at Connor, and grins. Connor grins back. "I think we have a plan."

"Myself, Locke, Sawyer, Sayid, Charlie and Boone." Connor says to Michael. Both look at the skeleton of a raft. Survivors are scurrying over it. Homesteads are being taken apart to build the raft. Ironically nicknamed "The Ark".

"Sunyin, her husband, Claire, and Hurley will join you soon. They're helping us build a couple of surprises."

Michael watches Walt playing with Vincent. "What happens if this doesn't work?"

"The six of us will be dead, along with the hostages, and five religious zealots will be coming down the mountain with rifles blazing!"

"I appreciate your honesty."

Michael faces Connor, eyes meet eyes. "The morning after next, is when we hope this will be over. We'll light a bottle rocket if we're successful. If not, somebody will try to get to you to warn you."

"It'll not come to that!"

Michael extends his right hand, Connor firmly shakes it. "Good luck Connor."

Nathaniel is worried. The fires at the beach are lit, the sinners are building a boat. He passes the binoculars to Mary. Who now looks in the direction of the beach.

"God be praised." She says. Nathaniel does not share her joy. "Soon this Eden will be ours."

Locke is out on point, a few hundred metres ahead. Sayid follows, clutching the rifle, its magazines now restocked with ammo from the crate that Sawyer found. Connor, Sawyer Boone and Charlie follow. The four are armed with pistols and knifes. All are carrying day-sacks with rope, water bottles, some rudimentary first aid, some food, and a couple of surprises in each of them. Boone carrying a pistol follows behind, stopping now and again to see if they are being followed. They are not, they expect to be at the cliff by nightfall.

"We'll climb it in daylight." Locke announces grimly. Nobody questions the decision, looking up at the sheer black cliff, in the fading sunlight. A camp is made in a small sandy cove. No campfire is allowed, the sun now starts to fade into the horizon, it is a blood red with a crimson background.

"I think these are yours." Sawyer hands Connor a letter, photograph and his FBI ID card in its wallet. Connor stares at them. "I found them at the site Kate was abducted from."

"Thanks. I owe you one." Sawyer shakes his head. "Just get Freckles back." Both look at each other for a moment. "Ok" Is Connor's reply.

In the dying light of what was a busy day. Connor leans against a rocky wall. He smiles at the photograph, his niece Emily's first photograph. Connor is grinning, with his little brother and sister, his older brother and his wife with their elder daughter. Connor's mom and dad are there, and at the edge, holding Connor's hand, a smiling Kate. The photograph along with the ID Card is put in his pocket. He opens the envelope and starts to read the letter addressed to him.

"Connor

I'm sorry for everything that is happening to you at this moment. What I have done to you is unforgivable, and I wish it was me not you.

I've done a lot of things in my past that you're going to find out about soon enough, and they are not nice things. I can't take those back. I know that you'll forgive me , long before I can forgive myself. You were one of the most genuine and kindest men that I have ever known, there was something between us, and I wish I could have been a part of that.

The thing about running away from your past, is when you're well out in front, you get off guard, and it catches up with you with a vengeance. There are some bad people in my past that want to harm me, I can't let them, but I don't want you harmed as well.

That's why I had to do what I did.

Remember me for the good times that we had together. Don't come after me, you'll only get hurt.

Yours with regret

Kate"

Strangely for once after reading it, he feels at peace, as day now becomes night. He settles down for a sleep, and whispers a prayer.

"God we ask only for one thing in these coming hours, that you give us the strength and courage to protect the ones that we love, and the ones that we care about, and to deliver them all from harms way. Also please forgive those that have corrupted your word, and welcome them back into your teaching with love. Amen."

The five other listen to the prayer as well, all look at one another. An unspoken bond is shared.

The bastard is enjoying this. Kate sobs. Nathaniel appears at the mouth of the cave she is held in. Silhouetted by the moonlight, he is holding something. Moonlight glints off it. It is a knife. Kate tries to scream, but it is muffled by her gag. Nathaniel walks towards her.