A/N: Hope y'all like! Glad to see there are still people reading! Just to let y'all know, I might not be able to update as frequently because I really need to finish my summer assignment. Ugh, I know. Don't worry, I will still do my best to update as soon as I can, but that might be hard seeing as how school starts in three weeks. Anyway, just keeping ya on the heads up. Enjoy the chapter, and remember that if I owned Lost, I wouldn't be writing fanfics.

"Do you really think she's ready for this?" Greg asked hesitantly. He knew he was out of line asking, but he figured that if he didn't at least as the question for the woman's sake, then no one would.

Tom shrugged. "That doesn't matter anymore. We need to quicken the pace. Those survivors are finding more and more ways to push their limits. If we don't start doing something soon, then they may get one-up on us," the older man explained, and it was like he was the only person who could ever know this.

Greg nodded. "I understand. What do you want me to do next?" he asked, eager to help.

Tom gave him a considering glance, as if surveying the young man for something only he could see. Finally he nodded. "Go see if Gale is ready. Then go prepare her," he ordered, and the two men went their separate ways.

They did not see the teenage girl hiding behind a wall, taking in every word.

Jack was silent during their long trip back to the hatch. He didn't want to say anything because he already knew what the Nigerian man would say if he expressed his thoughts. That they needed to plan this out more carefully, better equip themselves, etc.

He was mildly surprised when the hatch came into view. He didn't think that they had gone out that far, but then he remembered that they didn't go as deep as they had when Locke had been leading the search team before. He entered the hatch without waiting for his companion and put his gun down onto the counter. He walked into the computer room because he knew that Locke would be there as usual, waiting to push in the numbers like he always did.

Sure enough, the older man sat in the chair, writing something on a piece of paper, occasionally turning his head to spare a glance at the computer as if waiting for it to show him something amazing.

"John," Jack called, walking into the room with an air of someone who was planning something.

Locke sensed this, and smiled a bit as he asked, "Yes?"

"Have you seen Sayid? I need to talk to him about something," Jack explained briefly, hoping that Locke wouldn't ask why.

But Locke didn't have to ask why. He knew already. "Would this something happen to be another plan to get Kate back? How many times are you going to go out there before you come to the same horrible conclusion the rest of us have?" he asked as he turned the chair in the doctor's direction as a sign of him holding his full attention.

Jack smiled unbelievably and turned his head away so he didn't have to look into Locke's sympathetic eyes. "I'm not going to go into this with you. You've already voiced your opinion on this. I was just asking you whether you've seen Sayid or not. Have you?" he demanded.

Locke's smile disappeared. "No, not for an hour or so. If I see him I'll give you a call," he promised seriously and turned his attention back to the computer.

Jack didn't say anything as he turned back to leave the hatch.

Sawyer couldn't concentrate on anything. Ever since they had gotten back from their expedition into the jungle he hadn't felt quite the same. He had taken out a book from his collection, but had read the same sentence for ten minutes, and gave up when he found that he still didn't comprehend exactly what it said.

He had then taken out a cigarette in the hopes that the smoke would distract him from the dull pain he was feeling in his chest, though it was nothing to do with his health.

When that didn't work, he resorted to staying put on the beach just watching the waves crash into the rocks below. He knew that if he went back into the jungle to distract himself he would be overcome with the temptation to go back and search for Kate even more, and he knew that if he did he would get lost in his futile attempts.

He regretted more than anything not trying to continue following her. He could probably have talked her out of leaving if he had tried long and hard enough. She may be stubborn, but she always saw what was best in the end. Surely she had to have realized somewhere along the line that what she was doing was just stupid and had to come back.

But then he remembered Locke telling everyone that Kate had been taken, and that made the pain in his chest increase tenfold. If he had kept following her than he might have been in the same predicament she was in. He wouldn't mind. In fact he almost welcomed it.

"Sawyer." The deep voice of one of his least favorite people filled his ears and he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them, putting on a false smile that he knew Jack hated.

"Doc."

"Have you seen Sayid?" he asked, standing up in front of Sawyer in what one could call an intimidating posture.

"Can't say as I have. Why? You two going to do some secret plotting without the rest of us?" he asked, standing up to meet Jack's gaze.

When he didn't receive a denial, or an answer of any kind, Sawyer gave him the reply he knew Jack didn't want to hear. "Well, I've got some news for you. Try not to take it too personally. But you're not the only one who cares about Freckles. If you want to put together another little escapade and play hero again, you might want to include the rest of us. We're not very keen on just sitting around and just waiting for her to either waltz right back into our arms or turn up dead somewhere."

"You might think differently if you knew what the others were saying behind your back."

Sawyer let out a bitter laugh. "I've already heard the talk. No one seems to think one of our best trackers can't take care of herself. If you want to put together another rescue mission, it's fine by me, but you can include me in."

Sawyer could see the wheels in Jack's mind turning. He knew that he couldn't say no. He knew that saying no to a volunteer was hurting Kate more than helping.

"Okay. You're in. But we need to find Sayid first," Jack gave in, and handed Sawyer a gun as he turned to leave.

Kate rubbed her hand against the newly found gun as if she had never seen anything quite like it before. It hadn't been that long since she had seen one, only about two months. But it felt much longer. She was surprised by how much she missed it. She knew she was a horrible person for missing it.

Now it brought her nothing but joy. She placed the gun in the lining of her jeans in the back so that there was a chance that the Others wouldn't notice that she had it. The handle stuck out the most, put in that position on purpose just in case she needed to make a break for it.

She slid to the ground, her knees brought up close to her chest. She wrapped her arms around her legs, and pretended like she had never found anything resembling a new-found hope, and put on a petrified face, just in case they decided to barge in unexpectedly.

She didn't have that long to wait. Only they didn't barge in. She could hear the lock turning from the outside, and the door opened leisurely, as if they weren't in any hurry to get to her. To her disgust, Tom's face greeted her, and Kate resisted the temptation to roll her eyes.

"I know you must be wondering why you were brought here, instead of your previous residence," he said in what could only be described as a sympathetic voice, though Kate knew he was anything but compassionate.

"You've wondered that twice now, and I haven't gotten an answer for either time. Are you hear to tell me, or are you hear to goad me on yet again?" Kate asked smartly, doing her best to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

Tom smiled his famous smile. "I'm afraid to say that I am on orders not to tell you anything yet, but I promise that soon you will know all that you need to. For the time being, I can only tell you that this is just temporary and that you will be out of here sooner than you think."

"And by here, I'm assuming you mean just the room, am I right?"

"I'm afraid so. If we let you go now, it's giving them what they want. They cannot be rewarded for their disobedience. They will soon understand what happens when they disobey, I can promise you that," Tom replied, though Kate wasn't sure he was talking to her anymore.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Were they talking about Jack? Was this about the other day? Or were they talking about someone else, someone only they seemed to know about?

Tom paled just then, and for the first time, Kate could see him just as scared as she felt. "Oh no. Oh no no no. I shouldn't have said that!" he repeated in a terrified voice, and his eyes wandered up to the corner right above Kate's head.

Kate followed the man's gaze up above, and to her horror, she could now see a small camera.

"They can see me?" she demanded, her voice filled with fear as well. Did they see her take the gun? Suddenly an unpleasant thought occurred to her. What if she was meant to find the gun? What if they put it there on purpose, to see what she would do with it?

She decided not to react more than she already did. "What are you talking about? What the hell is going on?" she cried, but Tom was already out of the door, slamming it shut and locking it behind him as he did.

Kate sighed in defeat and fell back against the wall. Great, she thought anxiously, they're watching me.

Where the hell was Jack?

Alex watched in bittersweet satisfaction as Tom hurried from The Room trembling in fear. He knew as well as she did that Gale could see and hear everything that went on there. She had heard him as well muttering to himself about Jack. He was in for it. For once it wasn't her.

She carefully took out the keys that she had swiped from Greg. She needed to tell Kate before they came back for her. She needed to know exactly what she was up against before they started the real damage.

Alex had seen it happen before. Keep their prisoner isolated from much human contact. Make them think they were going crazy until they believed whatever Tom or Gale said. Made them think it was their destiny to serve them and the island until their time was up.

She couldn't let that happen to Kate. Kate was too good to be put through it. She wouldn't, even if she suffered the fate they promised her that they would give to her if she helped one of them escape again.

She took slow and determined steps on her way to The Room. She held the keys tightly in her hands, stifling the sound of them clanking together. When something echoed in these halls, it was heard throughout and filled everyone's ears, and there was no hiding from them. They would know that she was going to help Kate, and she could not let that happen.

It felt like an eternity before she reached the door. Looking behind her shoulders for signs of anyone crossing her path, she waited two minutes before deciding that she was, in fact alone.

She cautiously fit the key through the lock, and gently turned it until she heard the click to indicate that it was unlocked.

Before she could open the door, it opened on it's own, and before she knew it, she felt the cold metal against her cheek, and found that Kate was standing behind her threateningly, holding a gun against her cheek.

A/N: Sorry about the delay. Nothing I can say except summer homework. Horrible, I know. Thanks so much to jimmy-barnes-13, shirik, Numbers, Orlando-crazy, Peppy87, and DarknessBlossoms for updating. Glad to see that you all like the story, and I hope this one doesn't disappoint. Please let me know what you all think.