Notes: Sorry It's been forever since I've updated this one... Here the story makes a major change from what's occuring on the show... and I didn't have the heart to do what the Lost writers did so you'll see some characters survive through some kind of intervention on my behalf...and part of this is in the first person... don't ask me why, I felt like I should but myself in Claire's shoes and just rant for a bit...Anyway, I hope you like it... please review!"

Oh, God…" Daphne muttered under her breath when she heard the news. She was pretty sure she had an idea of what was going on, and she didn't like it.

"What is it?" Charlie asked, and realisation washed over his face. "What do you know?"

"I think…" she searched for the words. "I think that…they traded Michael over for Jack."

"Well that's hardly fair…"Charlie began, than stopped. Ana-Lucia for once agreed with Charlie. "No offence to Michael of course," he added. "It's just, Jack is a doctor. What if someone gets hurt?"

"We're getting him back. Before then." Ana seemed determined.

"But...how are we going to do that?" Daphne considered the options. She looked at Charlie, who appeared to be formulating a plan of his own. She couldn't do anything now without a thoughtful consideration first. The tide was turning. The Others weren't playing by the rules now.

"I'd go see if Michael has come to yet," Charlie suggested.

"I'm coming with," Daphne said when the other two took off toward the hatch, where Michael was being kept.

"No, I think you should stay here," Ana recommended. "Something not quite right is going on here." She kept going. Daphne followed.

"What? No… talking to him might help us both remember and I might as well just come along. I was with the Others for a while, remember? I might be able to dredge up something."

"Just let her come," Charlie persuaded Ana-Lucia. There was something more to Daphne than met the eye, and he needed to know what that was. She was a bit capricious. Her personality swayed a bit from moment to moment- like she was her normal self and then out of the blue something would hit her and then she went to a darker place…

"Have you seen my husband?" Sun asked, walking up behind Locke who was now able to walk a bit without his crutches.

"No, I haven't seen Jin in a while," he said in response.

"It's just, I haven't seen him since this morning. He went to the beach to get some fish and he never came back, and when I went looking for him he wasn't there, and he's never taken this long before…" she began to cry. She hoped nothing terrible had happened to him.

"Sun, I'm sure he's fine. I'll help you look for him if you need me to."

"It's just…I hope he's not hurt."

Locke didn't dare tell her now that Jack was missing as well. Had the Others taken Jack and Jin in return for Michael? Perhaps they had a different plan for Jin…

Charlie, Ana, and Daphne arrived at the hatch door, when from inside they heard a beeping tone.

"Bloody hell," Charlie said, rushing into the hatch and sitting at the computer, and merely twenty seconds were left on ticker.

"What're the numbers?" Charlie asked frantically. "I don't know them yet, I barely ever have hatch duty…"

"4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42," Daphne said quickly. Charlie typed the numbers into the computer and the counter clicked back to read '108:00.' Charlie gave Daphne a funny look, unsure of how she could know the numbers.

Charlie swivelled around in the computer chair. "You ever been down here, Daph?" She noticed a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"No," she lied.

"Guys, did you notice something weird when we came in?" Ana-Lucia asked. Daphne breathed a silent sigh of relief that the subject had been changed, but turned to look at what Ana had mentioned. She stared at the metal door that separated this room and the one next to it.

They each walked up to the door, spying a white rectangular card on the ground. Ana picked it up, then looked at both sides. It was a playing card. Not the standard Dharma cards that they had found when they opened the hatch, but a Bicycle.

"The Jack of Hearts," Ana said.

"Jack…" Daphne started.

"And there's something written here… but I can't read it. Whoever wrote it had really bad writing…" she flipped it around, hoping that maybe Charlie or Daphne could decipher the loops written there.

Daphne saw the card and immediately understood. Oh crap she said in her head. Charlie almost jumped.

"Bloody hell… that's my signature!" He said, grabbing the card to analyse it more closely.

"Wait, I can…" Daphne stammered, but she was interrupted. With the noise of the counter gone, they could, for the first time hear Kate's yells from behind the door. They were muffled and barely audible, but could be understood.

"Who's there? Did someone push in the numbers?" she yelled.

"It's me," Ana-Lucia yelled against the wall. "And Charlie and Daphne. And we did."

"Is that you Ana?" Kate asked through the door.

"Yeah. Is everything all right in there?"

The three on the outer side of the hatch heard an inaudible murmur through.

"Who're you talking to?" Daphne asked.

"Michael's coming to," she explained. He was still barely conscious, but he was gaining his mind rather quickly.

"Wait… is Michael walking around and stuff?" Daphne asked, with a certain amount of concern in her voice.

"What, no. Why?"

"Just… um… I'm pretty sure the blast door will go up soon and we'll be able to do this without wearing our voices out."

As if ordered to open, the doors rose.

"Thank God," Kate said and left the room. "Henry kept trying to talk to me through the wall, telling me he could help. Yeah right…" she trailed off when she noticed the look on the face of the other three.

"What's wrong?" she demanded.

Silence. Finally, Charlie answered. "It's Jack."

Her calm demeanour faded. "Is he hurt?" she stuttered.

"No. But he's missing."

Ana, Charlie, and Kate discussed Jack's disappearance while Daphne cautiously approached Michael who was rising from his collapse. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed until after he had passed out… he was different. Being with those people changed you-made you do things you didn't want to…

"Michael," Daphne prompted him to speak.

He remained silent. What was there to say? He imagined that she had a similar mission-and nothing could stop them.

"Michael…did you know they were making a trade when they gave you back?"

"Don't discuss this. Not here. Not with them right there."

Daphne tried to evoke something in Michael, but he wouldn't respond.

"We need to get Jack back," Kate said. How are we going to… what's our plan?" For a moment she actually considered handing Michael back over. She was ashamed for even thinking it. Michael was a human being, not some kind of wagering chip… but she needed Jack.

She saw the same sense of urgency in Ana-Lucia. Jack and Ana had spent quite a bit of time together, she noticed. She had been almost jealous sometimes, but she herself had spent quite a bit of time with Sawyer. She, however, didn't know what happened out in the jungle before Ana knew that Jack was missing.

Ana-Lucia felt responsible in a way now. She was supposed to be searching for Jack and she got carried away trying to get answers out of Sawyer…it hadn't exactly ended like she expected. Maybe if she hadn't stopped and gotten it on with Sawyer she would have caught up with Jack and saved him…and then she might have her way with him as well.

"We have nothing," Ana responded. "We don't know where he is, who took him…"

"But we have this," Charlie said, handing the Kate card he had been scrutinising. "I guess it's some kind of clue."

"It's a Jack," Kate whispered. "And… is this your signature?" she demanded from Charlie.

"Wha… yeah. But…" he tried to remember when he signed it. "It must be years since I did that. I don't even remember…What're you implying?"

"That you were involved," Kate accused.

Charlie was incredulous. "Wait just a bleeding second here. If I were involved with any of this, which I'm not, why the bloody hell would I sign my name on a playing card and leave it outside the door?"

"He was framed," Ana-Lucia defended Charlie. He was at the beach helping Eko out all day."

Kate put her hand to the side of her face and apologized. "I'm sorry… it's just, Jack is gone. And I'm not sure what everything is going to be like without him."

"It's okay Kate," Charlie said in a calming manner. "I'll help you out, any way I can. We all need Jack back."

Michael sat up and stared from the bed.

Sayid paced. No one would let him talk to Michael, as if they believed that he would go right to torture before asking him questions liked a civilised person. But there was something very wrong with him and it seemed that Sayid had been the only one to notice.

And perhaps he would have to torture Michael. But not without due process first. Not unless he kept secrets from them, and if Michael was telling the truth and everything was right with him, there would be no reason for him to lie and keep secrets.

But Sayid recalled Michael's departure. He threw Jack and Locke inside the locked cell and stole one of the guns and ran away. And for what? His son… if he was willing to do such a thing for his son- if he was willing to risk his life confronting the Others to get Walt back-Sayid believed that he would do just about anything for his son.

Perhaps he could convince Jack and Kate to let him speak to Michael if he told them that there was someway he could help- that he had been through the same thing and he could help Michael through this. Then he might be able to get some answers…

Aaron gives a sharp, sudden cry and I bolt up from an incredibly unsound sleep. I get up, hurrying in a half-daze to Aaron's cradle, bare toes crunching in the sand, and when I arrive there I know immediately that he's wetted his diaper and that I'm going to have to go wash some nappies for him and he's going to be wallowing in his own filth until I'm able to do so.

It's not supposed to be like this. We should be somewhere else, with beds and baths and wall-to-wall carpeting…

But it's not. It's like this. And I'm stuck here, and I think that I have some work ahead of me, but as my head falls in frustration, I see the pile of clean cloth diapers left by my blanket and realize that maybe I don't…

I'm relieved and exasperated at the same time at Charlie's concern. Sometimes I wish he would just stop with all of the help. At the same time I believe that I can't keep on going like this without him.

I pick up the nappies and get Aaron changed, but soon I find that I have to hold back the tears and I have to wander off to a close but secluded place in the jungle where I'm free to cry without everyone else wanted to know what's going on. It seems around here that one person's business is everyone's business… Then the baby notices that I'm upset and he gets upset and begins to cry, and it's the two of us, mother and child, crying in the jungle, with no one but each other.

And then I wish we had someone- someone who could love the both of us and be father to Aaron and make everything right. But it's not supposed to be.

And Charlie… I don't even know what I feel. I want to just walk up to him sometimes and tell him that I need him and I love him and I want him to be there for me. And then I realize that I can't do that because I don't even know if all of that is true, and remind myself that he's not the person I thought he was and that I don't really know him. What I do know is that he lied to us and I can't let him be Aaron's father.

Yesterday, I saw Charlie alone, focused on the setting sun, and for some reason I can't explain I decided that I was going to finally tell him that everything was all right and that I forgave him, but as I approached him from behind I flashed back to the night he took Aaron. Before my eyes was Charlie, ankle-deep in the ocean, eyes red and streaming with tears, with Aaron dangling from his arms.

Then I flashed back to the present and I turned around before Charlie can see that I was ever coming his way because I really everything will never be right and I don't forgive him for how he hurt me. I started toward him and turn back a dozen times before I gave up and went back to camp.

But I'm going to try again today, I'm sure of it. And I'm going to do something about this and soon things will be right again…

Libby began walking toward the hatch in search of some blankets so she and Hurley could have a proper picnic.

"Wait, wait… Libby," Hurley called, waddling after Libby on the beach. "I'm sure there's some blankets here on the beach. And we're going to find that beach. I'm sure of it. Just don't go away, please?" He had a weird feeling that he needed to keep her here. Things would stay be fine as long as she was here to help him through.

"Okay, Hurley," she said and took his hand. "How about we just forget the whole picnic aspect?" Hurley frowned slightly. "Just a romantic stroll down the beach would be fantastic. And if we don't find it, we'll still have had the search, right?"

"Yeah, awesome," he said and smiled. He didn't know what he would do without her. He couldn't believe he had her. The way her blond hair glistened in the sun and her brilliant smile…

God, that smile looked familiar. He knew that smile somewhere, somewhere…

"You were in the institution with me," he said with the dawn of realization.

"Hurley, I…"

"No, I…I get it. You don't have to explain."

She was silent for a moment. "Thank you."

"No prob, dude," he said in response, and then Libby started to cry. She rested her head against Hurley's chest and embraced him. Hurley's shirt became soaked with tears. Hurley was a bit shocked, but he understood and welcomed her reaction.

"Thank you." She felt saved.

Claire was looking for Charlie and Aaron would not stop crying.

"Hello," Eko said, stepping away from his church for the moment to speak with Claire.

"Oh, hi," she said, smiling and cradling Aaron in her arms. She knew that Charlie and Eko had been working on something lately. It was all coming together now and was beginning to look like a proper church.

"How is Aaron?" he asked, curious to see how the baby he had baptized was faring.

"Oh, fine…but he's a little cranky right now."

"Why did you come here?" Eko questioned. Since the two had been baptized, she had never come back to talk to him.

"I want to ask you about Charlie."

"What would you like to know?" he enquired. There was quite a lot to Charlie that the two could discuss.

"I don't know… I kind of really wanted to speak with Charlie himself, but… how is he doing?"

"He is faring well, I believe," Eko stated. "But he is not really happy. He wants to see the baby. He wants to see you."

Claire knew this already…it helped to hear it out loud. "Where is he?" she asked.

"Are you aware that Jack is missing?"

"What?… no, I wasn't…" she stopped to consider. "I guess it's better not to just tell everyone though, right? But where did he go?"

"We believe the Others are involved. Charlie went with Ana-Lucia and Daphne to speak with Michael at the hatch to answer some of their questions."

"Thank you, Eko," she said and took Aaron's chubby little hand and waved it buh-bye at Eko. Eko smiled lightly and Claire parted.

Sawyer took a long knife and began to peel the blood-red skin from a mango. He considered what had happened between he and Ana-Lucia. He tried to convince himself that he had been in control. He was the one who pinned her down in the first place. But she was the one who kissed him-she had been the dominant figure in that act. She was in charge, and he hated it.

And when they were spent, she got up and redressed and stole his gun. And what did she say to him? 'Have you seen Jack?' That girl… he couldn't stand her. But they had done what they had done, and there was no taking it back now.

But what about Kate? He loved her and he just knew that she had something for him and always would… this would definitely complicate things. Not because Ana would blab, which he doubted, but because eventually he would have to tell Kate. He could lie to her, yes, but not something like this.

But she liked that other guy-Captain Hero. The guy who always saved the day, Mr. Surgeon-Hero-Good Guy…he couldn't ask what she saw in Jack because, honestly, he saw it too. Perhaps the correct question was what she saw in him.

And the Doc was apparently missing. Maybe he was dead… no, even Sawyer saw that Jack's death would be horrific. Nearly everyone on the island owed their life to that jackass. But maybe if Jack was gone things wouldn't be so complicated. Maybe he could have both Ana and Kate… he took the knife and cut a thin yellow slice from the fruit and ate it right off of the knife.

"Jin..." Sun ran to her injured husband and knelt down by his side. She spoke to him in Korean and gave him a drink of water.

Jin didn't respond. His head was badly gashed and he was bleeding steadily and his right arm looked to be broken.

Locke couldn't understand what Sun was telling her husband but she was very concerned. He could tell she was asking him questions, but he would not say anything. He was in a great deal of pain, but he tried to keep calm for Sun so she wouldn't worry.

"We need to get him to Jack," she told Locke. Help me pick him up…"

"Jack's missing," Locke had to tell her at last.

"What… but he's hurt…" Sun said, frantic.

"We'll have to figure this out without him… I'm sorry."

Locke took Jin's shoulders, being extra careful with his arm and Sun took his legs. They lifted him. A small card fell from the hand of Jin's broken arm.

The two looked at the card on the ground and could only imagine what it all meant.

"4 of Clubs…" Locke read from above and tried to decipher the black marking in the upper right-hand corner of the card.