Author's note: Hi all, here I am posting the second to last chapter. Yeah I know I lied to you. I said this was going to be the last one, but the original chapter was 23 pages long, so poof you're getting two normal size chapters instead of a super sized one.

The scene with Daniel I cried when I was writing, (I know I'm such a loser). Oh and there is one scene with Sawyer that would have been a lot more meaningful if the last ep of LOST didn't already say the same thing. Hope you liked it.

Oh I am going to pimp out my own work for a second, I wrote a post ep story for 3 minutes called "the Revenge of the Virgin Mary" it's no "You'll Accompany Me," but I smirked.

Chapter 16: Goodbye

Words. Words lingered in the air, hushed through cold, steel doors. Dire words, if spoken could change the entire future of the island. Three female voices, logical, emotional and reasonable, trying to convince the much older male voice.

Youngest female voice, "There's nothing else I can do for him."

Middle female voice, "Why must you sit there so complacent, if there is something you can do for him, do it!"

Oldest and saddest voice, "It's the only way to save him." Her voice quivered, understanding completely what she was giving up but uttering the statement, "It is the only way to save any of them."

Silence.

Heavy hearts, drooping eyelids, and indiscernible grunts. The group walked back to the Community in silence.

Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Locke's minds were elsewhere.

They had just buried one of their own.

Sawyer rubbed his muscle burning arms hoping to massage the soreness out of them. He had done more then his fair share of labor in the past three days. Holes, six feet deep by six feet wide, six times. He was making his offering to the island, bargaining, if he worked hard enough, maybe it would spare another life.

Claire walked down the hallway, holding her arms against her; a constant chill had clung to her for the last three days. Lost in her own dazed thoughts, it took her a second to recognize her friends. "How was the funeral?"

Jack cleared his throat. "Nice, respectful."

Her arms tightened around her, "I'm sorry I didn't go. Chahlie needed me and," she offered unnecessary excuses.

Kate waved and dismissed Claire's excuses. "You didn't need to be there, its ok. Anna Lucia would have understood."

Three nights ago, the Community was violently attacked. The Dark Ones demanded Alex back, Jacob refused and the Dark Ones shot Charlie. This launched a horrific retaliation. The battle lasted four hours.

When the gun smoke clouds cleared, the island lost the entire Dark Ones Clan, and the other three clans lost an equal number of members. Anna Lucia hung in as long as she could, but it was a futile effort. At 8:15 in the morning, Jack, bitterly, declared her dead.

Claire coughed, "Um Jack, Charlie's asking for more morphine."

Sawyer's head snapped up, and bit back the rage in mouth, "Why is he on morphine?"

Jack didn't answer. Sawyer grabbed at the doctor's shirt, "What the hell Jack, you want to be the second brother to get him hooked on drugs?"

Jack pushed Sawyer off of him. "You're not his doctor, you don't understand." Jack's eyes watered, unable to look at him.

Suddenly Sawyer understood, horrified he pulled away, "You don't think he's…" He couldn't finish the sentence, as if saying it aloud would make it real. "You can save me, but you can't save him. He's a father! He's," Sawyer's voice soften; every letter contained his pain, "he's my friend."

"I'm sorry." Jack looked at Kate, searching for comfort in her gaze.

Sawyer stormed off, "I'll take care of this." He pushed past Claire and the other people milling around in the hallway.

Beth walked from the opposite direction; her voice was solemn, matching the tone of the room. "Jack, my father would like to speak to you."

Sawyer knocked on the door but didn't want for an answer. The room that was once so warm and inviting now felt cold and sterile. He glazed at the man in the bed. Charlie looked like a shell of what he had once been, hollow, pale, and empty. It was his eyes that broke Sawyer's heart; icy water reflected in glass. Charlie was stoned.

'Hey, Charlie."

Charlie blinked for a few seconds trying to recognize the person in front of him. The dim light bulb flickered, "Sawyer?"

"How are you feeling?"

His voice was as hollow as his eyes, "My hands feel tingly." He sounded childlike, "hey, you got any more morphine?"

Charlie just made a fatal mistake, a devilish and evil smile cross Sawyer's lips. "Sure, I have some." He said light and airy, "But hey, aren't you hungry?"

Charlie nodded, his head weighing ten thousand pounds on his neck, Sawyer grinned, "Do you know what I could go for?" With his foot he pulled a garbage can closer to the bed, "A hot mayonnaise sandwich." Charlie's face became a new shade of pale as Sawyer continued his description "You know when the white goo is bubbling and boiling and the smell of eggs fill the room. Yum!"

Charlie turned to two shades of green.

"Yum yum yummy. Hey, doesn't the morphine make your stomach queasy. You know what will fix that. Curdled milk. The chunky kind is the best."

Yep, that provided Sawyer with his desired results. Charlie vomited all the contents in his stomach. Sawyer rubbed his back; "You're never going to ask me for morphine or any other drugs again, are you?

"Uh ah." Charlie moaned and flopped back onto the bed.

The two men sat in silence for a while. Charlie pushed on his head for a few seconds, "Sawyer, I know something, I know I know something. Its like its right here!" He struggled with his thoughts, "I can't remember what it is, but I know it's important. It's about music. I think. Claire doesn't believe me. Do you?"

Sawyer smiled, "Of course I do." He didn't and cleared his throat, "I need your help."

Charlie blinked, "Sure, anything."

"I think I'm falling in love with Jo." His voice was filled with a rare panic and honestly. "You're my Yoda with this sort of thing. What should I do?"

"Tell her." Charlie stated as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. He rolled over and fell asleep.

Jack walked into Jacob's office. He saw Jo wiping tears off of her face with the palm of her hand as she brushed past him.

Jacob offered Jack a chair and asked about the funeral. "She was a hard one to bury."

Jacob nodded understanding completely and sighed, "How's Charlie doing?"

Jack shook his head, "Not as well as I would like." His voice was heavy and grave. The first bullet wound hit his stomach is still bleeding and his hand is infected." The bones in Charlie's left hand were shattered from the second bullet that penetrated him. At first Jack had assumed the bullet to the vital organ was going to be fatal but treating his hand was making his condition worse. The bullets had been used, recycled and not clean; it was creating massive infections.

"We could amputate his hand…"

'But he won't be able play the piano." Dread filled Jacob's eyes, but he knew if something wasn't done soon Charlie's fate would be worse. He sighed, "He's on the morphine?" Jacob asked. But he already knew the answer and the reasoning. Jack didn't want Charlie to spend his last days on earth in pain. "How much longer do you think he has?"

"Three days, maybe four. He's losing hope fast, we all are." Jack sighed and slammed his hand down on the table. "Damn it! This wouldn't be a fatal injury if I, if we, were in a hospital."

Jacob pinched the bridge of his nose. "I liked Charlie the instant I met him. Trying to save the life of a child and woman who wasn't his." He was lost in his own memories, "You know the girls aren't mine. Anna, my wife, she was married and had three kids before she came to this island. Her husband met one of the polar bears in the jungle about two years after living on the island. Suddenly she was a widow and the girls were fatherless. I had no experience with children, but Beth didn't seem to care, she adopted me. Much like Daniel adopted Charlie." He exhaled; hoping all his pain from the past would leave with his breath. It didn't. "I'm so sorry for all that you lost." He confessed to Jack.

Jack ran his fingers through hair. "Its not your fault."

Jacob shook his head, "No, I could have done more. I could have done it sooner." He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a black box. He lifted the lid away from Jack and a sound so familiar, and yet nearly forgotten by Jack's ears, emanated from the box. Jack's eyes grew wide when remembered the sound. It was Windows XP starting up.

Jacob spoke over the sound, "We all have our secrets Jack, and I just hope you can forgive mine."

In a hateful whisper Jack uttered, "You have a laptop! You had contact with the outside world."

Ten minutes later Jack left the office, scratching the back of his head as prying eyes questioned him. Sawyer rested his head on his hand as he sat next to Kate. Claire rubbed her arms looking back at Charlie's room, it had been ten minutes too long for her taste since she had seen him last.

Kate finally questioned Jack, "Well?"

He blinked his disbelief away. "The son of the bitch has Windows."

Sawyer muttered, "Really? Good luck trying to download naked pictures of Anna Kournikova, my system used to crash."

"Those pictures aren't real." Locke sighed rubbing his neck.

"Well, that's disappointing." Hurley frowned.

Jack jaw dropped slightly, in awe that the men had not made the necessary connection. Maybe it shouldn't be too surprising. Hope left this island days ago. He stated quietly barely above his breathe, "We're going home."

He needed to say it once, to hear the words, to make them real. At first all his emotions were entangled by his anger towards Jacob, but now with the words out in the open, new feelings occurred. A feeing long forgotten in the chaos of the past few days: joy.

He repeated the statement, now with a small smile of his face. "We're going home."

Claire glanced at Jack, unable to believe his mouth. "What?"

Kate's eyes started to grow wide, her lips started to curl. "What was that, Jack?"

Jack's smile grew, a sound like a laugh and cry left his mouth, "We're going HOME!"

"You're kidding, right Doc?" Sawyer looked up from the patterns on the tiled floor.

Jack shook his head, "We're leaving. Tomorrow."

"But" Kate called out as panic started to set in, "I'm a wanted criminal. I could go to jail."

Jack shook his head, "Nope, see Kate Austin or Rodd or whatever the hell your name is, died in the plane crash. So did James Ford, something tells me you've had a few run ins with the law. All we need to do is cross you off the flight manifest and label you as dead. Jacob is getting everyone who needs to new passports, birth certificates and America citizenship papers if needed. Do you understand what this mean? You get a clean slate!"

Jack lifted Kate into the air and kissed her passionately.

Claire stopped rubbing her arms, "What about Chahlie? He can't possibly travel."

Jack broke his kiss and embrace from Kate and gleefully grabbed Claire's arms. "There will be a helicopter here tomorrow which will lift Charlie to the boat. Once we get two hours away from Japan, I am going to start to prep him for surgery. He's going to one finest private hospital in the world." Claire's eyebrow creased, not fully understanding what Jack was saying. "Claire, I'm going to be able to save him. You've got a long and happy life ahead of you, together."

Claire broke down in heaving sobs in Jack's arms. Relief is a wonderfully cleansing thing.

But as with everything, there was a catch. Actually, there were two. "Daniel needs to remain on the island." Jack stated once Claire was in private. "There is a chance, even though it is a small chance, that Charlie won't make it through the second surgery. Raising two children on your own is an unfair burden; Jacob does not want to put you through that. When Charlie is well enough, he can come back to the island and pick Daniel up. Promise."

The second catch was, "Anyone who wants to stay on the island, can." Jack announced, "Except, you Sawyer." The logic was obvious; an overprotective father didn't want some hooligan thug hanging around his eldest daughter. If Sawyer didn't get on the boat, Jacob will call off the helicopter and Charlie would no doubt die on the island.

Sawyer, the man who had convinced himself he couldn't feel anything, was on a rollercoaster of emotions. Elation, going home, healed Charlie to parting ways with Jo, being forced to leave because he wasn't good enough for her in her father's eyes. Sawyer's heart broke twice that day, once when Charlie asked him for more morphine.

Sawyer milled around the living area until he found Jo in the kitchen. She saw him and his hair masking his face. "Hey, I'm just packing some food for you guys. I'm sure the boat will have some, but you can never be too careful." She called to him from the pantry, her voice light and cheery.

"Jo, there's something I need to tell you."

She knew what he was going to say, it was written all over his face.She longed to hear the words, but knew if he said them there was no gShe had to stop him before he uttered the words, "Look Sawyer, there's nothing to feel bad about. We were just messing around. Having fun, you know. Go get on the boat, start your new life, forget all about this island and me. Hell, in a week I'd forget all about you." Her smile was fake, a poor quality mask.

He turned around, slamming his fist on the doorway on his way out. His heart was crushed twice. Not by her dismissal of his entire existence. No, it was because this was the first time she had called him Sawyer.

Claire brought Daniel in to say goodbye to Charlie. Hiding his tears was no longer an option for Charlie. Daniel crawled into the bed with Charlie, but refused to look at him, instead, he played with the dinosaur picture in his hand.

"Hey, Little Man." Charlie voice was hoarse. Jack took him off the morphine as soon as he was told they were leaving the island. Charlie had no desire to say goodbye to Daniel stoned.

"Hi." Daniel turned the paper over and over again in his hands.

"I'm going away for a little bit." Charlie rubbed Daniel's back.

"Is this whole thing my fault? My real mom and dad died, because I was bad luck. Is the same thing happening to you?" Tears were caught on the darkness of his eyes lashes.

Charlie arms wrapped around Daniel's tiny body, ignoring his own personal pain to sooth the crying child. "No, this wasn't your fault. When bad things like this happens we blame Mr. Hurley." The child didn't believe him. "Daniel I promise you, I won't be gone long. We'll be together soon, and you'll get your own dinosaur bed room."

Daniel rubbed his head against Charlie's chest, "You don't have to promise that, Mr. Charlie."

Claire turned away as tears soaked her skin. Charlie mustered all his strength, "Dad," he corrected, "You can call me Dad. We will be a family, you, me, Claire and Aaron."

Daniel wept into Charlie's chest and nodded. "Daniel, Mr. Jacob has a computer with a camera on it, we can talk to each other every day until I get better."

"I love you, Dad." Daniel pulled himself off of Charlie, leaving the paper and a tiny black rock behind and ran out the door.

Beth and Charlie had a tearful goodbye, filled with verbal abuse about ghosts and big ears and bad hair.

Jo was in the Hatch, unable to say goodbye to anyone when the boat arrived. It was just easier this way.

In his left hand Charlie held Daniel's final picture and rock, in his right he held Claire's hand as Jack injected a sleeping agent into his arm.

"Jack, what if I don't wake up?"

Jack smiled down at him, "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, that's what a big brother is supposed to do."

Before Charlie's eyes fluttered shut, he told Claire, "I've loved you for such a long time, I'm sorry for every tear you've cried."

"I've loved you since you tried to woo me with imaginary peanut butter." She laughed through her tears and kissed him one last time before he was loaded into the helicopter.

Soon the swirling dust faded from the helicopter and the waves from the boat become unrecognizable from the normal waves that crash into the shore. There is no evidence of the survivors of Flight 815, save for Locke, Rose and Bernard who stayed behind on the island.

The cool whites and greens of the hospital were a vast contrast to the bright natural colors of the island, which they called home, or something sort of like it for the past eight months.

Sawyer was unusually quiet, as he handed Aaron off to Sun; he had been that way since they left the island.

Sayid and Hurley left the hospital to get supplies for the rest of survivors. Before anyone could leave, Jack notified the hospital staff that everyone needed a complete physical and needed to be in "good" health.

Kate walked out of the doctor's office, pale and with the same chill Claire had, as she rubbed her arms nervously. She approached Claire who was watching Jack perform the surgery. Kate studied Jack for a moment, his intensity, and his focus. She smiled.

"Don't worry, Charlie's going to be fine."

Claire was getting a little tired of everyone's constant reassurance, "How do you know that Kate? How do you know?"

Softly Kate answered, "Jack's smiling."

Claire rolled her eyes, "He's wearing a mask."

"I can see it in his eyes." Kate put her hand on Claire's arm, her eyes becoming salty, "I've got to go, and if I stick around I'll just ruin Jack's life." Kate was running down the hallway away from Claire's cries when she crashed into Sawyer. He saw her panicked look, her glances towards the door.

Kate was going to run.

He held onto her arm, "Don't do this Freckles, don't do this to him."

Her eyes plead with him, surely out of everyone Sawyer would understand, "I have to."

He did understand. He let her arm slip though his fingers.

Four hours later, Charlie was out of surgery.

Jack was finally able to get a hold of Kate's medical chart. She was four weeks pregnant, had five thousand dollars in her pocket, (she ran into Hurley on the way out of the hospital) and she had a three day head start. On the fifth day Jack came the conclusion, Kate was gone, so was the baby.

By the sixth day most of the survivors had left the hospital. Hurley had supplied all of them with money and pay-as-you-go cell phones so everyone could still keep in touch. Sayid set up Charlie's laptop with a Web cam. True to his word, Charlie called Daniel nearly everyday at the same time.

On the tenth day Sayid left to search for a long lost friend.

On the fifteenth day, Charlie kicked out the remaining stragglers, "there's a whole big world out there. Start living your lives."

Sawyer, Hurley and Jack knew he was right. They had been avoiding going home, mostly to look after Charlie and Claire. Hurley was afraid of flight home. Sawyer had nothing to go home to. While Jack, well he didn't really want to face his mother.

"Now, don't lose your cell phone, Sawyer." Charlie shook his finger in front of Sawyer face.

He rolled his eyes, "I won't." The two men hugged and pounded each other on the back, as is the only way men are allowed to hug.

Claire hugged Sawyer; "Maybe I will be able to shag with my boyfriend without you coming in."

He smirked, "You know you'll miss me." His voice became serious, "If you need anything, anything at all, you come get me ok."

She kissed him on the forehead. Jack made a similar request to Claire.

Outside the hospital, Hurley was getting into a cab; he was taking a private flight back to the US, he didn't want to risk taking a public flight and it crashing again. "Sawyer, I almost forgot." He handed the Southern man an envelope. "Here. You got five thousand dollars for every day you stayed."

Sawyer pushed the envelope back to Hurley that wasn't the reason he had stuck around and didn't really want anyone to think that, either. "Dude, you need the money more than I do."

Sawyer watched as the cab pulled away, "Crazy son of a bitch."

"Which way are you heading home," Jack squinted sun out of his eyes.

Sawyer looked around, "West, I'm taking the long way, staying on the land as much as I can, maybe take a boat to cross the Atlantic." He shrugged and added as if he needed to, "I need to get her out of my veins." Jo was a constant thought in his head.

"Sounds good, I'm heading out to Tokyo and flying to LAX."

"Brave man."

"Nope I'm self medicating with sleeping pills." Jack laughed. "You were a real pain in my ass."

"Mine too."

"See ya."

"Bye."

On a busy Kobe street, two men who started out hating each other, parted ways.

Interlude:

ACK!

Crash

Step

Crunch

"Oh shit!"

End of interlude.