"What are you smiling at?" Kate asked Sun. They were working in the garden.

"You look happy." Sun told her grabbing some seeds and planting them. It had been a few days since the fight and they were still working on the plans to find the others. No one wanted them to go out alone, they'd had enough deaths, but they did agree that they needed to find the others. But first they needed a plan.

"What's not to be happy about?" Kate asked realizing that a few months ago in this situation she could have found nothing good, but now the island was home. She couldn't imagine living without these people.

"You're spending a lot of time with him." Sun packed in dirt. "I know that smile, when I met Jin…"

"I don't think you can compare mine and Sawyer's relationship to yours and Jin's."

Sun laughed. "You just seem happy, and he does too."

"Sawyer…happy?" Kate smirked and the two girls shared a laugh.

8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

There was some sort of commotion at the camp; Kate could hear it as she got closer. She broke into a run and she could see the people gathered around someone. Charlie looked hysterical, he was clutching Aaron tightly and the baby was crying.

"What's going on?" Kate asked running up to them. Charlie looked at her and she knew. "Where is she?" Kate asked quickly.

Jack came pushing through everyone and Kate used the opening to get closer. Claire was laying in the sand, she was bloody and unconscious. There was also someone laying beside her, someone Kate had never seen before.

"Who is that?" Kate asked. "What happened?"

Jack looked at Kate. "Go get Sun."

"Who is that?" Kate pointed to the man laying in the sand.

"It's one of them. Go get Sun!" Jack screamed at her as he picked up Claire she had been stabbed. Kate gasped. "Get her Kate!"

Kate took off running. Please let Sun still be at the garden, please. She had to be there. "SUN! SUN!" Kate made it to the garden but Sun wasn't there. "Sun! Sun! Where are you?" Kate started running again; maybe she was at the hatch. She was running barely paying attention to where she was going.

She realized she was going in the wrong direction, she didn't know where she was, the whole place looked unfamiliar. Kate screamed for help. "Sun! Sawyer!"

There was someone up ahead of her, crying. It sounded familiar. "Hello?" Kate asked heading towards the voice.

"Help me." The woman stood up and Kate stumbled. It was Shannon. "We're not dead."

"What?" Kate looked at her she must be hallucinating.

"Not dead, the island…it has secrets." Shannon was whispering.

"Shannon? What do you mean? Tell me where you are." Kate pleaded with her. "I'll help you."

"Help me." Shannon whispered and turned.

"No, don't go. Wait." Kate went to chase her but she was gone. She stood there for a second before remembering what she had to do. She ran again, some how finding her place. "Sun!"

Sun came onto the path. "Kate…what's wrong?" She asked putting a hand on her.

"They need you on the beach, Claire, she's hurt." Kate put her hands on her knees catching her breath. "Go."

Sun nodded, her eyes widening, and then she went running.

Kate stood where she was for a while. "Shannon?" She whispered into the silence. The day's events were running through her mind. "LET THEM GO!" Kate screamed into the jungle.

She heard whispers around her, they were laughing, mocking her.

"Kate?" Sawyer walked up towards her slowly as one would approach someone crazy.

"I saw her Sawyer." Kate told him.

"Saw who?"

"Shannon."

Sawyer looked at her strange. "Shannon's dead."

"I saw her! I'm not crazy."

Sawyer looked genuinely concerned and scared. "Kate you need sleep." He got closer to her and she moved away.

"I saw her. We have to save her; they're going to take us all Sawyer. All of us."

"She got shot Kate. It wasn't the others, Ana isn't an other!"

"The island, you don't understand Sawyer, I saw her, she told me! She told me she wasn't dead."

Sawyer grabbed her by the shoulders. "She's dead."

"Boone could be there too, the island, it must have made clones so we'd think they died."

Sawyer was shaking her now. "Kate, listen, they're dead. Come on."

"We have to go to the beach." She told him he started to protest but she stopped him. "Claire's there, she's hurt, we have to help. Come on."

Sawyer watched her closely. "Kate, listen…"

"Claire is hurt! I didn't imagine that!" She was screaming at him now.

"Fine, lets go." He started to walk but stopped.

"Sawyer!" Kate protested.

Sawyer put his finger to his lips. "Shh." He listened closer. "Come on." He almost growled, when she kept standing there he grabbed her pulling her closer. "I'll carry you if I have to but they're coming Kate, we have to hide."

Kate followed him without protest, running and doing her best to keep up with him.

"Here." He whispered going into an overgrown bush. Kate followed.

"Sawyer?" She whispered.

He looked at her and shook his head, to tell her not to say anything, and mouthed the word wait.

It was about thirty seconds later that they passed. Kate almost gasped but caught herself just in time. After they passed they sat in silence for about a minute. Kate was no longer in her hysterical state.

"That's them." Kate asked.

Sawyer nodded. "Come on." He made his way out of the bush and held a hand out to her helping her. "Lets go." He took off running towards the beach.

Claire was breathing shallowly and Charlie was standing over her, Eko beside him with a hand on his shoulder. The man Kate had seen earlier was tied up now and looked like he was rousing. Sun was holding Aaron and brightened up a bit to see Kate but it went away quickly when she saw the look on her face. Everyone looked scared.

Kate looked around and found him; she turned and put a hand on Sawyer's chest. "I'll be back." She headed towards Sayid.

He looked at her sadly. "Kate…"

She hugged him. "I saw her."

Sayid pulled back looking at her. "Saw who?"

"I saw Shannon, like she saw Walt, she said she wasn't dead."

Sayid shook his head. "She was shot."

Kate's heart sank, no one believed her. Maybe she was crazy after all. "I know Sayid but I saw her, I can't explain it but she was there. I don't understand it at all, I wish I did but…" She looked into his eyes pleading him. "I need you to believe me, I wouldn't tell you if I didn't think there was hope. But I'm not crazy, I saw her Sayid, when I was looking for Sun. Please believe me."

Sayid nodded. "I believe you that you saw her." The statement normally would have sounded patronizing but not from Sayid. "I don't know if you saw her, but that you think you did, I believe and I hope it was her."

Kate nodded. "What happened?" She motioned towards Claire.

"Charlie and Hurley were golfing and Claire was there, but she felt bad so she came back, and they must have been waiting in her hut. Eko was in the jungle right over there and heard her screaming, he came running and the man that the baby and Claire was chasing him. When the man saw Eko he stopped for a second and Claire grabbed him. He stabbed her and started to run but Eko got to him and got him down. When I got here Charlie and Hurley were back, and that's what I've put together from asking people."

"Is she going to be okay?" Kate asked.

"Jack said he missed any of her major organs and she should be okay. But he's worried about infection."

"I'm going to go see her." Kate looked at Sayid. "Are you okay?"

Sayid nodded. "Thank you."

Kate smiled. "And thank you." She hugged him again before heading towards Claire, but was stopped as she passed The Other. He had woken up and whispered something as she passed.

"What?" Kate turned to him, her adrenaline immediately starting to pump through her.

"There's no use fighting us." The man told her.

Kate kneeled down in front of him. "Where are they?"

The man smiled. "Who?"

Kate grabbed his face, pushing his head up against the pole he was tied to. "Where are they?"

He continued to smile in silence.

Kate let him go throwing his head back. "You're dead." She went over to Kate who had fallen back asleep. Charlie looked up at Kate. "I should have went with her."

"It's not your fault." She sat down next to him. "We're all doing our best."

"It's not good enough. We're all going to end up dead, or taken by them."

Kate sat with him in silence. "Stay with her, don't worry about the baby. I'll take care of him."

Charlie looked at her. "I'm not letting that baby out of my sight."

Kate could feel the tension between the two of them and turned. "Bye Charlie." She headed towards Sawyer but was stopped by Jack.

"Kate." He looked at her with an unreadable expression. "Are we ever going to talk?"

Kate looked down for a second gaining her composure before looking at Jack. "I don't like the way things are between us but I don't know how to fix it."

"I understand what you were going through when you kissed me Kate." Jack had that annoying empathetic look that drove Kate crazy.

Kate wanted to scream at him, to shake him and tell him that he didn't understand, but she couldn't do it. "The man who attacked Claire is awake."

"Kate…." He moved towards her.

Kate put a hand on his chest. "Jack, I can't do this right now, I can't be with you, and at the moment I can't have this talk. I'm sorry, more than you know. I wish I could be with you." She took a breath. "You're a good man Jack, a great man and that scares me because I'm not who you think I am."

"Kate, we all have skeletons in our past."

"I promise, we will talk and I'll try to explain to you, but you need someone like you…you deserve someone like you. Someone to take care of you and you can take care of them." Kate lowered her hand, fighting back tears, this day was one of the most emotionally and physically draining days she'd had in years and she was wearing thing. "You will always be important to me Jack, and thank you for everything you've done." She kissed him on his cheek and walked off quickly, she didn't to cry and she really didn't want him to see her cry.

She broke into a run down the sand and didn't stop till she was away from everyone. She wouldn't cry she told herself as she sat down leaning against a rock, she had went past a turn and couldn't see past a rock that was jutting out. She wanted to scream and pound on the ground but she didn't, she'd been through worse than this, or at least she told herself that.

Kate was deep in thought and jumped at the sound of someone knocking on her window. She turned around and let out a sigh of bittersweet relief when she saw who it was.

Kate opened the window. "Tom what are you doing here?" She asked as he climbed in, beautiful as ever. She stood back and watched, every movement he made seemed graceful and strong. Kate shook her head; she couldn't have these thoughts, not now.

"You seemed so upset today." Tom stopped looking around and realizing what was happening. "Kate, you can't run away."

"I can't stay here." She closed up the suitcase and sighed. "I have to get out before my mom and Wayne get home."

"What are you going to do? You're too young." He was as rational as ever.

"I just turned 15 I'm old enough." Kate sat on her bed.

"Where you even going to tell me?" Tom asked grabbing a chair and sitting in front of her.

"I was going to call you when I got to the next town." Kate bit on her fingernail nervously.

"I thought we would be together forever, remember?" He was hurt and she could tell. It made her feel awful.

"I would have come back." Kate took his hand and pulled him towards her so that he came and sat on the bed. She moved to the middle of the bed and sat Indian style and he did the same across from her. They had always sat like that thinking up wild plans when they were younger.

"Wait Kate, I'll be able to drive in a few months and I've got a job, we'll get a car and leave. Me and you."

"No, you have to go to college." Why did he have to come now? Kate thought it would have been easier without him.

"I don't want to loose you." He took both her hands and held them scooting closer so that their knees were touching.

"I don't want to loose you either Tom."

"Kate?"

"What?" Kate was doing her best not to cry but he was making it to hard.

"I love you." He looked at her nervously. "I mean I'm in love with you, I've always loved you but I've fallen in love with you now." He saw smiling a bit and she noticed his jaw had squared some.

"I'm in love with you two." Kate smiled laughing just a bit.

He leaned forward and kissed her, they'd kissed before .Tom had been her first kiss. The first time they kissed, really kissed they were 11 and they were wrestling and he just kissed her. But this kiss was different from the rest. It was more real, more powerful. Kate had thought nothing could hurt her and then she heard the car pull up. She pulled away quickly.

"They're back. It's to late." She jumped up throwing the suitcase under her bed. "Tom go."

"Come with me."

"I can't."

"I'll steal the car and we'll go to your dad. Kate please."

Kate kissed Tom again. "I can't, not right now. Leave! Go! We're not supposed to be alone together." She pushed him towards the window and he left.

"You think it's safe sitting by yourself?" Sawyer asked sitting next to her. "You scared the hell out of Sun, she said you'd just taken off running."

"Sorry." Kate realized she was biting on her nail and put her hand down.

Sawyer shrugged. "Don't matter to me. I think we should move up to the caves."

"We?" Kate asked smiling just a little.

Sawyer looked annoyed. "Well I mean I am. I don't really care if you do or not, I just thought since…."

"Shut up." Kate cut him off and he looked at her quickly.

"Well hell…"

She did it again. "I need to tell you something."

"What?" Sawyer looked vaguely interested.

Kate seemed to loose the nerve because she didn't say anything and Sawyer sat looking at her.

"Kate?" He asked when the silence started to seem like it wouldn't break.

Kate looked at him with an expression Sawyer had seen before but it surprised him that she had it now. It amazed him how fast women could change their emotions and he raised an eyebrow. "Well if that ain't something Freckles."

"What?" Kate asked annoyed, in him and in herself, for being so readable. "What I was going to say was…"

"You weren't going to say anything." He looked so cocky and arrogant. "You might have told yourself that you were but I know you well enough to know that isn't the truth."

"You know me?" Kate asked.

"I know that you want to kiss me."

"You wish I wanted to kiss you." Kate protested.

"If you had wanted to tell me something you would have."

Kate looked at him frustrated. It drove her crazy how he could read her and it made him even angrier that he was arrogant enough to tell her how she felt. "You're so pompous! And if I do want to kiss you? Is that such a bad thing?"

"God!" Sawyer exclaimed making Kate look at him. He grabbed her kissing her deeply. Kate put an arm around his neck and tangled her fingers in his hair. But just as quickly as he had started kissing her he stopped.

Sawyer looked almost vindicated as he smiled at her silently and mockingly.

"You think that's funny don't you?" She asked annoyed. "I don't know how I stand you."

He continued smiling at her silently. It was driving her crazy and she found herself kissing him. This time she pulled away, just enough so that she could see his face.

"We're even." Sawyer said so quietly if she had been any further away she probably wouldn't have heard him. And then he was kissing her again. He kissed like Tom; it was the kind of kiss that you read about in books, the cheap romance novels. It wasn't the kind of kiss described so painstakingly in classic novels but a real kiss. One that made you want to melt. The world didn't spin or stop it just didn't matter because of the kiss, it wasn't religiously pure or soft and full of love but complete and wild. Kate had no doubt that this was the kind of kiss that awakened princesses.

She pressed her body into him as wrapped his fingers in her hair. They were putting everything into this moment, all the fear and wildness of the day. All the panic and screams it was all there, an electrical current between the two of them.

Kate pulled him down to the sand with her, she needed him, she needed to get away from it all for a while, to remove herself from the hell of the island. She wanted Sawyer not because he drove her crazy and not because he had eyes that could read her a lot better than she could read him but because they were alike and because she understood him. She understood the kind of man he was and it was the kind of man she hated and she loved him. It made no sense and all her prior experience and lessons screamed to get away from him to run and yet she found every cell in her body wanting him.

Sawyer need Kate, he needed the beautiful confusion she brought to him. Sometimes without reason he knew how she felt and he could read her and other times she was like some strange creature that he couldn't even begin to comprehend. Sawyer knew girls like Kate, the wild damaged girls but those girls weren't Kate. No she was a completely foreign object to him, he had never met anyone like her. She wasn't like the other girls he knew, she seemed like them and to an outsider there was no difference but Kate was nothing like them. He couldn't explain her complexity and he couldn't even begin to grasp it. All he knew was that he adored her. He liked to watch her, he liked the way she moved so graceful yet sure of herself, yet somehow still completely naïve. She was a terrifying paradox that he needed to survive.