hi everyone thanks for the reviews i'm glad you're enjoying it. this chapter and the next one were my favorite to right. i know i've been updating daily almostbut it might take a while for the next chapter because i have two papers for next week, i am sooo sorry, please don't hate me. enjoy this chapter and thanks again for the reviews and for reading. take care.

(note to Lostbeth: don't worry :) i'm sure you'll like what's coming)

Chapter 5

No one slept that night, but no one was awake either. Nobody wanted to be caught with their eyes open and drawn into a conversation. So much had happened those past few days and today, yet nobody wanted to talk about any of it. Everyone was struggling with their thoughts.

No one wanted to talk about the raft failing or Walt being taken. No one wanted to mention that Sawyer had been shot or that tail-enders had survived. No one wanted to discuss Shannon's death or that the woman who had killed was amongst them. People were avoiding Michael, and people were avoiding Sayid. People were avoiding the tail-enders, and everyone was avoiding Ana Lucia. However, two people were avoiding everyone else, Jack and Kate. And two people sat fully awake that evening, Jack and Kate.

As Kate sat with her back to the wall of her new cave, she saw Jack in the corner of her eye, sitting opposite the fire, staring at it. She thought of walking up and talking to him. She should at least thank him properly for saving her life, she thought. But she did not know how he would react after what had happened earlier in the hatch, just because he helped did not mean that he forgave her. But he forgave that Ana Lucia for killing Shannon after he was ready to take revenge, Kate thought to herself.

Having drifted further in her thoughts, Kate was brought back to reality by Sawyer's mumbling in his sleep. He had decided to join her and make her cave his home too after returning from the hatch. She had not really negotiated because she neither felt like it and she knew there was not much space anyway. Turning her sight away from Sawyer and back outside, Kate saw Ana Lucia sanding there a few meters away from Kate's cave and looking at her, or actually more like sizing her up. Realizing that Kate saw her, Ana shook her head and walked away. Kate's sight followed her.

Jack was lost in his own thoughts when he heard a voice come from behind him.

"Can we talk?" she said.

"Sure," Jack said without looking up.

Jack moved over as Ana Lucia sat down beside him.

"What can I do for you, Ana?" Jack asked half-heartedly.

"Sawyer told me that he got the gun off a marshal." Ana spat out bluntly.

"So," Jack replied unappreciating Ana's tone or attitude.

"Jack, back in LA I was a cop, and when I saw Kate earlier I though I recognized her, but couldn't tell from where. But then tonight I remembered." Ana explained.

"What are you trying to say, Ana?" Jack was starting to get hot tempered himself, knowing where that was going.

"I think the marshal wasn't an air marshal, I think he was escorting a prisoner, Kate. I recognized her because I'd seen her mug shot. She's wanted in…" Ana said.

"You don't know what you're talking about! You don't even know Kate, she …" the now infuriated Jack yelled back at her before he was interrupted.

"All I'm saying, Jack, is that you guys need to be careful, you might have a criminal walking among you!" Ana yelled back at him.

Jack stood up, "well maybe you should dig a ditch and throw her in there! Hell, make it a big one so we could throw anyone who commits a crime in there!" he yelled as he stormed out of the caves.

In his infuriated stride away from Ana Lucia, Jack passed Kate's cave, oblivious to the look on her face that she had got after overhearing the conversation. Her eyes followed him as he went out into the rain, and before she knew it, she had gotten up and walked after him.

Following Jack through the jungle, Kate could not get the conversation she had overheard out of her mind. She was not sure whether she was more concerned that Ana had recognized her and that she was a cop or that Jack had defended her the way he did. The day's events had gone from bad to worse and her understanding of Jack's emotions and her own had become more confusing.

Kate kept following Jack despite the rain getting heavier and almost losing track of him. But by now she realized he was heading towards the hatch.

Then suddenly a few minutes before reaching the hatch, Kate saw Jack standing still in the middle of the rain in a small clearing. "Jack!" she called out still at a distance from him. But Jack did not budge; he just stood there, pinned to the ground. Kate moved faster towards him. When she was just a step behind him she saw what he was staring at.

There, barely three meters away, looking back at Jack with a smile across his face, he stood. He was drenched with his bullet-torn shirt soaked in blood.

Trembling with fear, Kate whispered, "Ethan."