CHAPTER 2

By the time they had reached the Hatch, dawn was emerging. Kate was exhausted. She sat in the kitchen area, quietly watching, as Sayid, Ana, and Locke, all stood around Michael lying down in the lower bunk bed. Jack was tending to his wounds. Michael, now more coherent, was describing what had happened to him. Michael went into details of knowing where they, the others were, and knew where to find Walt. Michael was confident that they had a chance, to win the fight against these people. Jack suggested that they should let Michael get some rest.

Jack looked over towards Kate. He caught her gaze and held it for a moment. Kate watched as he made his way over to her. "What are you doing over here all by yourself?" he asked. "It was getting a little too crowded in there for me, besides you handled the situation just fine without me." She ended with a smile. "Do you think that shower of yours is in service now?" she asked squinting her eyes up at him slyly. She knew that he had lied to her before about the shower, to keep her away from the hatch. The reason wasn't as clear then as it was now. Jack laughed a little as he smiled. A little embarrassed, he knew he was caught, but he ignored it. "Yeah, the shower a…, it's fixed now, sure, go ahead, it's all yours." He managed to finish. They were both smiling at each other. Ana Lucia approaches them. Ana to Jack; "Hey um, when Michael wakes up, he's going to want to go trekking into the jungle again to find his kid. He's going to go after them Jack," she pauses, "and I know a lot of us are planning on going with him, and I don't know about you, but I'd feel a whole lot safer if we were all armed." Jack ponders this for a moment, glances over at Kate, then back to Ana, "Don't worry I'll take care of it," states Jack.