"I can't believe you talked me into this," Jack muttered as he and Sawyer wandered through the trees that night. "This is so dangerous, I mean if we make them angry it's not just us who'll suffer. They'll take it out on everyone."

"Look," Sawyer paused. "One, shut up, we need to be quiet and two, if you've gotta better idea I'd love to hear it."

"Well I did have one actually," Jack admitted. Sawyer glared at him.

"Could've told me earlier," he muttered shaking his head.

"Sorry," Jack replied. He opened his mouth to continue but Sawyer clapped a hand over it. He nodded towards some trees and they crept forward slowly. There in the clearing they could see three people. Michael, Walt and Kate! That meant the 'others' must've been around somewhere close by.

Sawyer cocked his gun as quietly as he could and looked all around for any sign of an 'other'.

Jack put his hand on the gun and pushed it down.

"You might hit one of them!" Jack said in a whisper so low that Sawyer had to strain to hear. Jack nodded at Michael, Kate and Walt and Sawyer rolled his eyes. Jack was acting as though he'd never used a gun before.

Sawyer pocketed the gun just to make Jack happy and picked up a large stick instead. He gestured at Jack to wait there. They'd discussed earlier that Sawyer would go in first so that if the 'others' were around they'd capture him and not the islands only doctor.

Walking carefully into the clearing Kate, Michael and Walt looked up in alarm expecting to see an 'other' and almost cried for joy when they saw Sawyer. But the man put a finger to his lips before they could make a noise. Glancing around he stepped slowly towards them.

"You ok?" He mouthed, not daring to speak. They nodded and Sawyer took a few more steps towards them. He was so close… almost close enough to touch his friends.

The wind suddenly picked up and Sawyer whirled around as the whispering started. He jerked his head every which way trying to locate the source of the whispers. He heard Walt gasp and turned to look where the boys gaze had fallen. Stood there were three large men, barefoot, and all looking at him darkly.

Sawyer raised the stick in a threatening manner but inside all his instincts were telling him to run. However he stayed because part of him, the part that loved Kate, knew he had to protect his friends.

"Bring it on," Sawyer growled as the men stepped forward. It was the last thing he remembered doing before they caught him.

Back on the beach Jack was sat on the sands leaning against a tree, his hands over his face. He'd abandoned them. He couldn't believe he'd gone through with Sawyer's plan. Admittedly it had taken a lot to tear himself away from the scene as Sawyer battled ferociously to free Kate, Michaela and Walt, but it still didn't make him feel any better for leaving them.

"Jack?" A voice from somewhere above him asked gently. He looked up, despite the fact that he was trying hard not to show the fact that he'd been crying. Ana Lucia stood over him, looking at him with concern.

"What?" He asked bitterly, not meeting her gaze and realising how pathetic he must've looked, a grown man crying.

Several more people stepped into view as he spoke. Ana Lucia glanced at them smiling then looked back at Jack.

"We've come to help," she said. "We reckon there's enough of us to take on the 'others'."

Jack looked from one survivor to the other and couldn't help smiling at their bravery. Despite the fact that they'd all been strangers on the plane and most of them didn't really have any motive to save Michael, Walt, Kate and Sawyer they were all stood in front of him willing to help.

He smiled slightly and stood up. There were around twenty of them. Ana Lucia, Libby, Hurley, Charlie, Sayid, Bernard, Rose, Eko, Locke, Claire, Sun, Jin and many random survivors that Jack was unsure of the names of.

"If we can't live together we'll have to die alone, right?" Charlie said reciting the words Jack had said on their second day on the island.

"You didn't have to," Jack said finally meeting Ana Lucia's gaze and knowing instinctively that it was her idea to round up followers.

"The 'others' have taken twenty three of us. It's time we take back what doesn't belong to them," She replied, eye flashing darkly.

"Claire, who's looking after Aaron?" Jack asked frowning at the blonde girl who, for the first time in months, was seen without her infant.

"Sullivan and a couple of his mates are down in the hatch guarding him for me," Claire replied, her voice strained and Jack knew how much effort it had taken to leave her only child there.

Jack rubbed his face briskly and then looked over everyone once more. With their help they had a good chance of getting Sawyer, Kate, Michael, Walt and the nineteen others who had been in the tail section back.

"We'll get going at night fall, yeah?" He said looking at them all one last time. "Sayid, Ana and Locke come with me."

He led his three companions to the hatch whilst the other survivors dispersed until nightfall.

"We can't risk having too many guns floating about the place," Jack said handing out shotguns. "But we're gonna need these just in case. Do not fire unless absolutely necessary, we all know what happened last time one of us got scared."

Ana Lucia looked down at the gun she was holding and then at Sayid who refused to meet her gaze.

"Jack, I can't," she said looking at him pleadingly. "I can't be responsible for another death."

Jack nodded understandingly.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked you," he said apologetically. Sayid looked up dumbfounded.

"Ana," he began in a hoarse whisper. "You used to be a police officer, you are probably the on person on this island who is trained to hold a gun. Take it. You won't make the same mistake twice."

Ana looked Sayid straight in the eye and actually felt slightly better. The one person she'd hurt the most because of her antics was telling her that she wasn't to blame. It was the one thing she needed to hear.

"Ok," she said, holstering the gun.

Jack smiled at them all again.

"Let's go get our friends," said Locke.