Kate lay Amy down in her crib beside the bed she shared with Jack. It had definately been a long day. It was past midnight now, the children had all stayed at their house, and Sayid was driving over in the morning to help Jack with the school run. The shock of Ethan coming back was like a stun-gun to the brain. It was something that none of them would have expected, and yet none of them could deny it. Somehow, Ethan Rom had returned from the grave...even though he had taken four bullets to the chest, and been buried all their time on the island.

Kate hovered over the crib for a moment, watching her youngest daughter sleep. She wished that she could be that young again, with no sense of fear, or pain. All Amy knew was family and happiness, and it scared Kate to think that any of her children were in danger. Her hair was getting longer now, curling out at the bottoms like Evelyn's had done at that age.

Jack came up behind Kate, wrapping his arms around her waist and she leaned against his chest, both sighing heavily. They stayed in silence for a moment, both watching their daughter's rythmic breathing matching their own. But soon the silence was too heavy.

"It's going to be Ok." Jack whispered to her.

"Is it?" She asked doubtfully. "Look at what he did before, Jack. He killed people, just to get to Claire and Aaron."

"We were unprepared." Jack reminded her. "He can't do that again."

"What if he hurts them, Jack?" She asked fearfully. "We still don't know what he did to Claire out there in the jungle. What if he does something to the kids?" She turned in Jack's arms to face him, one of his hands settling on the small of her back while the other cupped her cheek reassuringly.

"Kate, we're not on the island anymore." He said to her, hating the fear in her eyes that had been gone for so long. "We're not lost anymore. There's so much more that we can do to protect them here. If, if anything happens, then we call the police."

Kate nodded. "Not lost anymore." She repeated.

The embraced, and Jack led her over to the bed. "Come on, let's get some sleep." He urged.

Once they had got into bed, Kate lay her head on Jack's chest, lifting her head to kiss him goodnight before he turned the lamp beside them off. In the darkness of their bedroom, they held each other closely, listening to the sounds of the night, because neither of them could sleep. Jack waited for an hour before Kate's breathing slowed and she fell into a sleep, before finally letting his own eyes close, forcing himself to believe that nothing was going to happen to his children.

Two days later, Evelyn bounded downstairs last, as usual. The others were already seated at the table, except for Kate, who had just finished fixing Evelyn's breakfast. When she entered the kitchen in a rush, Jack raised his eyebrows and shared an amused glance with Kate.

"Morning, Sleepyhead." Jack teased.

"Why did you let me sleep in?" Evelyn asked frantically, running over to the calender and pointing to the date on it. November 7th. "It's picture day today!"

"Evie, I came into your room three times before you actually got up this morning." Jack reminded her.

"And I came in once." Kate added. "You didn't even wake up when Evan threw a pillow in your face."

Evie glared a little at her twin as she sat beside him, but Evan only grinned cheekily. "Be glad it wasn't a glass of water." He said to her daringly.

Her grudge against Evan was forgotten as she started on her breakfast, and Jack started to feed Amy. He looked up every few seconds, watching the twins. It scared him when this happened.

Everything they did was in unison. Even though they weren't paying the slightest bit of attention to what the other was doing, they were still eating and drinking at exactly the same time. He could have sworn that they were talking in some telepathic language sometimes as well. Like a time when they were much younger.

The twins were four years old, and Kate had just found out that she was pregnant again with Jasmine. Only both the twins were acting strangely at present. They were extremely quiet, and didn't play much. They just sat together on the couch, staring at the television even when it was off. Even their kindergarten teacher had noticed the difference in the usually bubbly twins. After the third day, Jack had taken the twins to his practice, and gotten a second opinion from the other three doctors who worked with him, but between them they couldn't find anything physically wrong with them.

It was six days into the strange behaviour that they started to get paler. This was when Jack had panicked. Kate hadn't liked it from the start, insisting that something was wrong with her babies even though that doctors were coming up with no results. Again, he checked them, but again, there was nothing. Then on the eighth day, Evelyn had come to Jack while he and Kate were discussing it.

"Daddy," She had said in her tiny voice. "Evan, he don't feel well." She said.

How Evan had told her this was beyond them, as for a few days he had done little else than nod of shake his head. "Did he tell you that, sweetie?" Jack had asked.

Evelyn shook her head. "He don't need to."

Both Jack and Kate were now crouched before Evelyn. "How do you feel, Evie?" Jack asked her softly.

"Like Always." She complained.

Like always. That was enough for them. They had taken the twins to the hospital and had tests run. The next day when the results had come back, it was revealed that the twins had a form of meningitis. However, after a sleepless few months, both of the twins had recovered fully, which for the type of illness they had, was very rare, especially to recover with no side effects.

That was the first time Jack had seen evidence of their mental bond. They seemed to know things about each other without being told. If one of the hit their arm on the counter, both of them would feel the pain. They could make a decision together without speak aloud. It amazed him somewhat, but it was sometimes scary, especially when they would spontaeneously start laughing for no reason whatsoever.

The twins were talking about picture day, something that Evelyn, for once, was taking seriously.

"You aren't seriously wearing that, are you?" Evelyn teased.

Evan looked down at the navy hoody with a band logo on and the jeans he was wearing. Then he looked over at Jack, who shrugged, and then at Evelyn again. "What's wrong with it?" He asked her incredulously.

"It's scruffy."

"It's clean."

"It's smelly."

"I've only just put it on."

"It smells of your room."

"There's nothing wrong with my room."

"Guys, please. We can do this without arguing." Kate intervened, as the phone started ringing. She left the room to go and answer it.

"I want the picture to be natural." Evan pointed out. "I don't get dressed up for nothing or no one. Unlike you."

Evie frowned, and turned back to her breakfast. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said innocently.

"Oh come on!" Evan laughed. "You mean to say that you're not getting the tiniest bit dressed up for Ben today?"

"Who's Ben? Jack asked, suddenly interested.

"Evie's boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend." She defended.

"But you want him to be."

"Bite me." She warned her brother, before standing up and leaving the kitchen. "I've got to get ready."

"What's the matter with her this morning?" Jack asked aloud, noticing Evelyn's clearly foul mood.

"God knows." Evan shrugged. "But if I have to spend another lunchtime with that new girl then I'm not going to be happy." He said grumpily, leaning his cheek on his fist.

"New kid?" Jack remembered what the teacher had said the other night at parents night about Ethan's daughter becoming friends with them. He pretended to be none the wiser about it. "Just started in your class then?"

"Yeah, moved down with her dad or something. I don't know, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention." Evan admitted. "Aaron doesn't trust her." He added slowly, as though it was something he was considering deeply.

"He doesn't?" Jack asked.

Evan shook his head. "We were talking about her yesterday, and he said that there's something about her that's just not right. I think that he's right as well."

"What makes you think that?"

"He says its something about her name."

"What is her name?"

"Kerry. Kerry Rom."

Jack knew for sure that this must be Ethan's daughter. He was about to answer when Kate came back into the room. She ran her fingers through her hair and took Evelyn's abandoned plate from the table and put it into the dishwasher with the rest.

"Everything Ok, Kate?" Jack asked her, noticing the stressed expression on his wife's face.

"That was Claire. She's having some problems with Aaron." She admitted.

"Oh." Evan said. "Is it about his real Dad?"

Kate looked at Evan. "You'd better go get ready for school, sweetie, it's getting late." She said glancing at the clock.

Evan knew that this was not the time to be asking questions, so disappeared upstairs. When he crossed Jasmine on the stairs, who wanted Kate to braid her hair for her, he made her go back upstairs saying that he would do it for her. He didn't do that bad a job either.

"What sort of problems?" Jack asked, as Kate sat next to him on the table.

"She told him that Thomas was back, and wanted to see him. She said that he was old enough to make that decision for himself."

"Well, he is thirteen." Jack agreed.

"Exactly." Kate said with a nod. "So she asked him whether he'd like to see him or not, and he started to kick off because of it."

"What was he saying?" Jack asked her.

"God knows, but it upset Claire." Kate sighed, then smiled. "I just feel sorry for Charlie." She muttered. "This must be killing him."

"He's been Aaron's father since he was born, now the real father turns up, he's going to take it hard."

"I guess so. Claire's got the morning off work. I'm going over with Amy for a few hours."

Jack nodded. "Ok. I might be a bit later home tonight than usual, busy day. If I am, I'll give Sayid or Sawyer a ring and get them to pick the kids up. I don't want them walking back on their own. Especially now it's getting darker earlier." He didn't need to voice the fact that he was worried about Ethan, because they both knew.

Kate nodded. "Ok. We'll have take-out tonight." She said. "I really fancy an Indian."

"I second that!" Jack agreed.

"Mom look."

Jasmine came into the kitchen, her hair now braided. Kate smiled. "Jazz, honey, did you do your own hair?" She asked with a proud laugh.

Jasmine shook her head. "No. Evan done it for me." She giggled.

Jack and Kate laughed as well, and then Evan came up behind his little sister. "Remember what I told you, Jazzy?" He asked her, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"This never happened." She laughed harder.

"That's right. It didn't."

"Trying to hold onto your masculinity there, Evan?" Kate asked, while he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"I am masculine." He said defensively.

"You braided your sisters hair." Kate said. "Which is a very sweet thing to do."

"Can we use a word other than sweet, please?" Evan groaned.

"Ok, you braided Jasmine's hair, which is a very manly thing to do." Jack said with a grin.

Evan shook his head. "You're not gonna let me forget this are you?"

"No." Both parents and his sister answered together.

"Just try and cheer Aaron up a bit today, Ok?" Kate suggested.

"By any means necessary?" Evan asked sneakily.

"No explosives, no girls locker room, no makeshift weapons, and no leftover fireworks." Kate warned, remembering the incident yesterday.

"For the fiftieth time, I didn't know they were going to go off in my locker." He said, holding his hands up. "But, Ok. I'll cheer him up."