Author's Note: Well here it is, the very end of the story. I'm a little misty, after all this was a BEAST to write. The title of this chapter is "severed luke warm," referring to the old adage, "Revenge is a dish best severed cold." The interlude will be repeated in this chapter and completely explained.

There is a reference to Charlie's solo album in the story- it is the album he wrote BEFORE he was in the crash. It was dusted off the music store shelves when the plane crashed to cash in on his death.

Also there is a Henry Rollin's reference to a story about a Bangkok Cab driver. The gist of it is: The cab driver want to take Henry to a whore house but Henry wants to go to the Bangkok Zoo instead and forced the cab driver to walk around the Zoo with him. Very funny stuff, the whole bit can be found on his DVD "Up For it". Go check it out.

There is a Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince spoiler in this chapter so if you haven't read it and plan to skip the whole Plane scene.

There will be a sequel that will take place off the island, not as long as this story. I'm not sure when I am going to write it, but hopefully over the summer.

I'm working on a new story- two chapters (see I can write short stories) called "Loophole" in which the men discover an "alarming trend" women tend to end up dead after sex on this crappy island. It should be up by the end of the week.

Ok this is the part when I feel like I am giving my acceptance speech at the Oscars.

I want to thank everyone who left feedback, Jarlie, ConfidenceMan and Michelina.

Lauren the Oxymoron-I heart you, you rock in case I don't tell you enough.

Spankymcgee- you rock

SapphireGirl- you are amazing and I am going to pimp out your work for minute. She is the BEST writer (HANDS DOWN) in Fan fiction. Really if you haven't already go check out her work. My faves are "the 8th shift" and her current piece, "The Other"

But thanks to Damom- my beta, I love you the most.

THANKS FOR READING

Chapter 17: Severed luke warm

Interlude:

ACK!

Crash

Step

Crunch

"Oh shit!"

End of interlude.

EIGHT WEEKS LATER

A blond woman stood in front of a hospital, taking two steps forwards then three steps back, trying to work up the courage to walk through the door. She was really quite proud of herself. She had been coming here for four days, and today she was able to make it as far as getting out of her car.

"HOLY SHIT! KATE?" A voice bellowed she turned to see the man running towards her.

"Sawyer?" She coughed in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

He wiggled his eyebrows, "Most likely the same thing you are, I'm looking for Jack."

Sawyer was wearing jeans with a sports coat, cleanly shaven and shorter hair, a vast contrast to Kate who was wearing a gray sweatshirt and baggy jeans.

'Um, I not here for Jack." Kate lied and Sawyer rolled his eyes. As if by magic Jack walked out of the hospital in his street clothes.

Every instinct in Kate's body to her to run, her muscles burned with the desire, but something was holding her in place. It was the death grip Sawyer had on her arm.

"JACK!" Sawyer waved his free arm as Kate struggled to get away.

"Sawyer?" Jack squinted. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm in love with her, Jack!"

Jack looked at the woman trying to claw herself out of Sawyer arms, "Kate? You're in love with Kate?" He asked angrily.

Sawyer blinked away the confusion. "No, I'm in love with Jo, and I need to get back to the island and the only way to do that is to talk to Charlie."

"Then call him, he's been trying to reach you for weeks." Jack put his sunglasses on.

"Um, I can't, my cell phone was stolen."

Jack sighed, "You wanna get some coffee?"

"Great." Sawyer dragged Kate with him.

Sawyer spent ten minutes arguing with the teenager behind the Starbucks counter that he wanted a regular coffee, none of that fancy shit in it. Jack drank his espresso and Kate quietly sipped on her orange juice.

"So how's Charlie doing?" Sawyer asked after he burnt his mouth on the coffee.

"Physically, he's doing great. Full recovery. Oh, they're married." Jack beamed with pride.

Sawyer seemed disappointed. "Oh."

"Well, they're married on paper. But Charlie says it doesn't count until there's a wedding with a cake, white dress, and tuxedos. And most importantly, he gets to propose."

Kate questioned, "He didn't propose?"

Jack acknowledged her for the first time, "No, he was waking up from a nap and she thrusted some papers in front of him and told him to sign. The marriage license was one of those papers. He still considers Claire his girlfriend until he can "do it up right" Except when he wants to have sex, then he's cool with being married."

Kate smirked, "that sounds just like him."

Jack smiled, then realized what he was doing and frowned. "But they have a lot of other stuff going on. First off, there are the issues with DriveSHAFT and Charlie's solo album."

"What issues; aren't they both doing really well?" Sawyer looked up.

"Both albums are in the top ten in sixteen countries. But Charlie isn't seeing a dime of the money it's making because Liam refuses to recognize Charlie as his brother. See, legally Charlie's dead. Oceanic Air wanted to call off the rescue mission and in doing so; all the family members would have received a lump sum of 250,000 dollars and a ton of frequent flyer miles. Which if you ask me is a little insulting. It was Liam who pushed to declare everyone dead and because Charlie didn't have a will, and as his next of kin, he stood to make the most out of his death."

"Bastard." Kate hissed.

Jack ignored the statement, "Well, Charlie's solo album went to number one and when DriveSHAFT came together for a tribute tour they released a new album, nine song which Charlie wrote. They were song Charlie wanted to debut on the tour he was originally trying to get his brother to join nearly a year ago. His brother has made millions of dollars off of this. When Charlie called him, he showed up at the hospital, took one look at him and said, "You're not my brother." Then he walked out. This was not unexpected from Liam."

Sawyer sipped at his coffee filled with his own personal rage.

Jack continued the sob story, "But the money thing isn't really what's bothering Charlie. It's Aaron. See, Claire wanted to put Charlie down as Aaron's father on the birth certificate but Charlie told her not to. If Charlie wanted to return to his musical career again in all likelihood the press would do some snooping around, they would learn Claire and Charlie already did not have a relationship prior to the plane crash and that Aaron was not really his child. He didn't want her to get in trouble. Therefore, he wanted to do everything as legal as possible. They sent the papers over for Thomas to sign, and since they were legally married, Charlie could adopt Aaron. But Thomas refuses to sign the papers because he feels Charlie is an unfit father since he is a recovering drug addict."

"But Charlie's a great dad. If my dad was a good as Charlie I wouldn't have killed him." Kate slammed her fist in the table.

"I think we can collectively agree that Charlie is an excellent father and none of us would be as screwed up as we are if he was our dad. But I digress, it seems Thomas would be willing to sign the papers…."

"If Charlie and Claire pay." Sawyer completed Jacks sentence.

"Exactly, and since Liam has all the money, they can't pay."

Sawyer rubbed his head and moved his hand quickly to the table, but stopping it just prior to it hitting the table. "What the hell Jack. You were supposed to look out for him. That's what a big brother is supposed to do."

"Yeah and as it turns out, I really am a big brother. Claire's. Long story, my dad was a bigger asshole than I thought."

"Well, double hell, Jack, why aren't you doing anything about it?" Sawyer put his cup down and stood up from the table.

"Where are you going?" Kate's eyebrows creased.

"I think its obvious, Freckles, I'm going to Australia and I'm going to kick some ass."

Jack sighed and pulled out his cell phone, "Sit down, Sawyer, Sayid and I are leaving tomorrow. Hurley's is paying for the whole thing, private flight, first class hotel, a car, everything, as long as he doesn't have to fly. You want in?"

"Um, yeah. I want in." He stated with "duh" in his voice.

Jack looked at Kate across the table, "You want in, too?"

She nodded.

The call was made. Jack gave them instructions and refused to look at Kate again.

Kate and Sawyer sat alone at the table. "You think he's still mad at me." She laughed bitterly.

"You broke his heart Freckles, how do you expect him to react?"

By nine o clock the next morning Jack was seating on the plane stewing in his own anger. It was a beautiful private plane, plush leather seats, wood paneling, crystal glasses, no expensive spared.

Kate took her seat as far from Jack as possible. He studied her through his sunglasses, livid at her flat stomach. Suddenly he was grateful he was wearing sunglasses and no one could see his tears as he turned away. Sawyer and Sayid were next to enter the plane, greeting the other sojourns.

Kate pulled out her book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince; she was about a quarter of the way through. A smirk to rival Hitler's crossed Jack's face. "It's a shame that Snape kills Dumbledore in the last few pages."

Kate's eyes grew wide. "You son of bitch! What the Hell JACK! What did I do?"

"What did you do? You hauled ass out of Japan WHILE Charlie was still in surgery. Now you're pretending to care about him. You know what really got me pissed. You were pregnant and now you're obviously not! Damn it Kate, how the hell did you expect me to react?"

The air was heavy with his rage. Sawyer and Sayid made awkward eye contact.

"Excuse me," All eyes focused on the man in uniform shifting his weight, "It's going to a LONG flight. Um, I am your captain and if there is anything you need you can see me or Nancy your flight attendant." His eyes shifted between Jack and Kate, "A very long flight."

Sayid sighed and pulled his book from his bag, yanked the bookmark from its spot and glared at Jack. "I just spent the last three weeks reading all the Harry Potter books." He glanced down at the Half Blood Prince in his lap, "I guess there's no need to finish this."

The flight was, as promised, long. Of course, flying with four survivors of a plane crash did make it slightly more interesting for the crew. Each of the survivors packed the items they would need if they crashed on an island.

When they landed, there was a sigh of relief and a rant from Sawyer about the ending of Little Women, "What the hell? Amy marries Laurie? Beth dies? Jo marries that other guy. Why would anyone name their children after this book?" Sawyer threw the book in disgust.

The hotel was as lavish as promised, complete with spa, which Sawyer pointed out to Kate that this was her opportunity to get a Brazilian Waxing. She slapped him.

Jack pointed out, "you do have an account at the spa, Hurley set it up for you, get a dress while you're at it. It's cheaper to set you as the bait, instead of paying some local whore." Venom spewed from his mouth.

Kate turned on her heels and stormed to her room. Sayid glared up at Jack, "You should be a little bit more kind to her."

"Why?" Jack asked bitterly and headed into the shower.

Sawyer continued to read his new book, "Hey Sayid, did you notice what Freckles drank the entire flight?"

"No." He shook his head.

"I did." With that he returned to his book.

Kate was fitted with an earpiece, hidden camera, and new dress. She was also a brunette, again. Sawyer made a comment about her looking as hot as a thousands suns, Jack found his eyes glancing in her direction and hating it.

"If you get in trouble come up with a code word and we'll come to help you out." Jack offered but kept his distance.

Kate rolled her eyes, "how about 'help'?" She hated that Jack always made things more complicated then it needed to be.

They rode in silence to the club. It had become a weekly practice for Liam to come to cheat on his wife there and be escorted to the VIP section. Kate was already back there when he arrived. Within ten minutes his hand was working its way up her thigh. Jack felt predatory urges.

It took a half an hour to get Kate to work her magic on Liam. Hurley had set up a second hotel room for the "interview" to take place. Liam's tongue was half way down Kate's throat when she pushed open the hotel door. The room was dark, except for one lamp in the corner of the room where Jack had been reading a newspaper. Sawyer sat on the obligatory hotel desk in the other corner, Sayid paced back and forth next to the bed.

"What kind of party is this?" Liam asked Kate. "Because I'm not into that sort of stuff, anymore."

Kate pushed Liam down onto a chair in the center of the room. "We're here on behalf of your brother." Kate's eye narrowed.

"My brother's dead, he died in a plane crash." Liam stammered.

"Considering your brother is the one that got us off the island, I beg to differ." Sayid hissed.

Sawyer paced around the chair, "It must have been tough living in the shadow of your younger and more talented brother. Sure you could fake it to the world, but not yourself."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Kate leaned in and ran her fingers through his hair until her hand gently landed around his neck. "Give him back his money."

"No! Its mine! I worked for it; I toured and set up the gigs. I AM the BAND, not Charlie."

Jack glowered from behind his newspaper and jumped across the room. "You're also the one who got him hooked on drugs and abandon him every time he needed you." Jack fist crushed Liam's nose. "You were supposed to look after him, THAT'S what a big brother is supposed to do!"

Liam blinked away his tears, the natural reaction to a broken nose. "What the bloody hell? Are you daft?"

Jack moved his face within inches of Liam's blood soaked face. "I'm your best friend in this little room, because I'll just break your nose. Him," he pointed to Sawyer. "He'll beat you. And that guy," he pointed to Sayid, "He'll break you. But the one you should be most afraid of is the girl. She'll kill."

Liam swallow, "Look I'm not giving him the money until that little whore of his gives up her on that dreams of leaching off of him as her baby's daddy." He naturally assumed Claire would only be with his little brother for his money, which he intended to keep away from Charlie while Claire was still in the picture.

The room was still. The rage was visible, tiny waves of vile hatred emanated from the people in the room.

Sayid turned away recalling the screams that haunted his dreams. The night of the attack, when Charlie fell to the ground, Claire was at his side, hold his blood in her hands, screaming for Jack. She followed Jack to the operating room. Her cries when Charlie started to convulse and shake echoed through the metal hallways of the island. She screamed as if it was her body that had been torn apart by bullets. To question Claire's love, her loyalty, was a horrific thing to do.

Sayid often pondered late at night if Shannon had loved him as deeply. He always came to the same conclusion. No. He slammed the toolbox on the table next to Liam, his eye like arctic daggers, "My name is Sayid Jarrah and I am a torturer."

The team returned to their five star hotel, feeling satisfied, a job well done. There was a little bounce in their collective steps.

"Night, guys." Kate waved and started ahead of the men towards the elevators.

Sayid stated he was hungry and wanted to get some dinner. Sawyer stated he would tag along if Sayid paid. Jack rolled his eyes and stated he was going to the bar.

"Hey, Jack," Sawyer kicked at the potted plant in the lobby, "did you notice what Kate's been drinking this entire trip?"

"No, should I?" He looked annoyed that anyone should bring up her name in his company.

"Orange juice. Gee, what would make a grown woman only drink orange juice?"

Jack's heart stopped, his feet seemed glued to the ground as he watched Kate push the elevator button. He sprinted towards her, his anger and hatred melting with each step.

Kate stepped into the elevator; he followed a half step behind her.

The doors closed and they watched the lights as they ascended the floors.

2 bing

"So why did you come back?" He asked.

3 bing

"I was tried of running."

4 bing

"What changed?"

5 bing

"I thought if I left you, put some distance between us I could get you out of my mind."

6 bing

"It didn't work, did it?"

7 bing.

"Nope, I thought leaving you was the best option, I didn't want to ruin your life."

8 bing

"Why would you think that?"

9 bing

"Habit, history, fate, destiny."

10 bing

"You decided to say 'screw it' and came back?"

11 bing

"Yep. You have a strange effect on me, Jack."

12 bing

"Ditto, I spent twenty grand to hire a detective to find you."

13 bing

"Why would you do that?"

14 bing.

"I think the answer is pretty obvious. For the record, I'm sorry for the way I treated during this trip.

15 bing

"I'm still pregnant, the doctor says I'm carrying long. I could pee on a stick if you don't believe me. "

16 bing

The doors open and they walk out hand in hand.

The next morning Sawyer was in a new huff over Charlotte's Web, claiming it was a snuff book and no child should read it. He also questioned Jo's sanity because, after all, it was her favorite book.

Kate and Jack were arguing about the directions to Thomas' flat. She said to turn left and he turned right, he was wrong.

"Jack, you didn't come back to the room, what happened?" Sawyer smirked.

"Shut up, Sawyer." Kate answered, defending her man's honor. Bob Segert's voice filled the car as Jack's cell phone rang. He knew by the ring tone who was on the other end of the line.

"Hey Charlie," he looked nervously around the car. Their actions the night before were supposed to be secret in nature; Charlie had too much pride to ask for help.

"Hi Jack, I tried calling your house but you weren't home." There was some off about his voice, "So where are you?"

Jack shrugged, even though it was useless, "Just driving around."

"Really?" Charlie didn't believe him. "So, how's Kate?"

"Kate?" Jack nearly choked on her name. "Why do you ask?"

"I got this strange phone call from my brother this morning and his lawyers. It seems that my Swiss bank account is being reopened and a large amount of money will be deposited into it."

"Well that's great, Charlie, congrats."

Silence

"Jack, cut the bloody crap. Is Sawyer there?"

Jack handed his cell phone back to Sawyer. "Hi Charlie,"

"Where have you been? I've been trying to find you for the last six weeks."

"I was mugged in Bangkok." Sawyer watched Sydney's streets pass him by.

"Bullocks. Tell me the truth! I was on the phone with you at the time."

"Why should I?"

"Because I need your help with something and if I can't trust you to tell me the truth, what's the point in asking you for this favor?" Mystery wrapped itself with every word he spoke.

Curiosity was too much for Sawyer, as always. "So you know that Henry Rollin's bit about taking the cab drivers to the Bangkok Zoo?"

"Yeah, the cabbies don't like that." Charlie had tried a couple of times in his lifetime.

"No they don't. Anyway I was at the hippopotamus exhibit when a bee left over from the Jurassic period attacked me. I dropped my cell phone in the hippo pit. That's when the hippo stepped on it. I think its some kind of karma for calling Hurley fat all those times."

Sayid held in his snickers, Kate's shoulders started to shake and Jack was cracking up.

"You were attacked by a bumble bee?"

"It was huge, genetically altered or something." Sawyer huffed.

Charlie laughed, "Remember when you used to be a bad ass?"

"Remember when you used to snort heroin off of strippers tits." Sawyer mocked back.

Silence.

"Sawyer you're on speaker phone and Claire's right next to me." Charlie stated flatly.

"Hi Sawyer." Claire added bitterly.

"Hi Claire." Sawyer rubbed his face, now the rest of the car was roaring as they pulled up to the apartment. The other passengers started to get out of the car, as Sawyer stayed in and continued his conversation. "So what do you need me to do?"

Charlie sighed, but as he spoke his smile started to reflect in his voice. "I need you to take a little trip for me. I don't think I can physically do it another few months and I really can't wait that long. There's a boat waiting for you in the Sydney harbor named, The Swan. You need to take it back to the island."

"What?" Sawyer's eyes opened but everything still seemed blurry.

"Yeah, there's a package I left behind and I need you to pick it up for me. It's small and rather a large boat, so if there's anything else you want to take back with you, it's fine. The boat is scheduled to leave tomorrow but if you get there sooner…"

Sawyer jumped into the front seat of the car, contemplated stealing it, and thought better of it when he saw Jack standing outside. Charlie continued with his instructions, there was a pier in La Jolla where he would meet Sawyer in ten days. "Take good care of the package."

Sawyer, with a clear and new incentive bounded out of the car. Sayid asked Jack, "Can we beat the crap out of him?"

"Let's see what he has to say first." Jack stated.

Sawyer was bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I'm going back to the island." He announced while he pressed the buzzer.

The others looked at him as if he was crazy.

Thomas opened the door. "Who are you?"

"We're here on behalf of Claire Littleton." Kate stated.

"What does that little bitch want?"

Time stopped, slowly all eyes looked at Jack. "Yeah NOW we can beat the crap out of him."

Kicking his ass would take too much time, Sawyer raised his gun to Thomas's head, "sign the fucking papers." He thrusted the papers into the man's, whose pants were now wet, chest. Sayid handed him a pen. When the papers were signed Sawyer stole Thomas's car keys, telling everyone he would see them in a few days.

TEN DAYS LATER.

Charlie paced on the pier. "What's taking so long?" He whined.

"It's a long cruise, Charlie, calm down." Claire rubbed his back with one hand and held Aaron with the other. Slowly other people arrived on the dock, which greeted Charlie and Claire with hugs and handshakes.

Aaron walked around the dock under the watchful eye of his father and mother. (Charlie was officially Aaron's father according to the papers.) Kate, who was now showing her pregnancy, grabbed Claire's hand and ooed and awed over her diamond ring.

"So how's married life?" Jack asked.

"It doesn't count until we have a wedding. White dress, cake, all that crap." Charlie added angrily, "Until then we're engaged. Expect when it s time to file for taxes, then we're married."

"A white dress? Charlie, I think the cat's out of the bag." Claire laughed holding up Aaron as proof.

Charlie's eyes remained fixed on the water as Jack approached him. "Hey Jack, you wanna help me paint my house?"

Jack blinked a few times at Charlie as the women started to talk about Claire's diamond ring. When Sun asked her about the brand Claire shrugged, "I didn't want him to spend a lot of money. So I said no to Tiffany's but the box did have an H W on the inside.

"He bought you a Harry Winston diamond!" Sun yelped.

"You dropped thirty grand down for an engagement ring and you're getting cheap with paint?" Jack hissed.

"Look, I got a second chance with money and I don't plan on blow it this time. Why pay someone for a job I could do myself." Then he started to play on Jack's heartstrings, "Besides I could fall and hurt myself, I am recovering from a gun shot wound."

Jack rolled his eyes, "Please, you were have sex three days after the surgery."

"Which, once again, Sawyer walked in on. I need to get that man a bell or something." Charlie crossed his arms and grumbled.

The dot on the horizon started to get bigger as it approached the dock. Charlie started bouncing, jumping and yanking on everyone's shirts. "THEY'RE HERE!" He yelled swinging Aaron around.

His frustration and impatient started to grew with each passing second. At one point Jack had to hold Charlie back from jumping on the boat, with the promise he would help paint the house as long as Charlie waited until the boat was completely docked.

The ramp slammed down on the pier and the bridge was formed.

A tiny body came sprinting out off of the boat and launched himself into Charlie's arms.

"Dad!"

For a long time nothing happen, just the unimaginable bliss of reunion. Charlie buried his head in Daniel's neck. "Missed you, Little Man."

Other people left the boat, Sawyer, with his hands entwined with Jo's. He caught Charlie eye briefly, unspoken thank yous were exchanged.

Two more people bounded off the boat, one called out Charlie's name. He turned in the direction of the voice; he had always assumed he would never hear her voice again.

Beth and her husband stood on the dock. "What? You didn't think you could do this all on your own?" She waved at him.

"I'm not alone, I've got my family." He nodded his head at Claire.

Beth rolled her eyes, how could anyone be so dense? "No Charlie, you've got your family." She motioned with her hand to all the people standing on the dock. Jin and Sun holding their new born baby girl. Hurley with his ever present grin. Jack with his arm around Kate stood next to Sayid. Even Sawyer disconnected his embrace with Jo to smirk at Charlie.

Charlie groaned, hating that Beth always seemed to be right. Everything he had ever needed was in front of him. While the future seemed hazy at best, everyone was taking risks by leaving the island and to form a new life here on the mainland, the future didn't seem as dark and foreboding as it once did.

Charlie lifted Daniel onto his shoulders, ignoring the protest from Jack. Aaron was steady on Claire's hips, as she walked over and kissed Charlie on the cheek.

Charlie looked over his family, his brand new hope, all that he ever wanted and proclaimed, "Let's go home."