Just so everyone knows, the last chapter was about the halfway point… well, a little past it, I guess, since there will be 17 chapters if I don't change anything. But the story's already like 60 pages on my computer, so I think that's long enough, eh? Well, here's the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost or Driveshaft, but I would willingly be their groupie if they were a real band. Oh, and I don't own any of the bands Ellie and Charlie talk about, or the Led Zeppelin song I used.
Chapter Ten: Preparation
The Expedition Survivors' Shelter
Ellie had spent almost all of the past day with Charlie, and she had enjoyed it, but she felt like it had at least partially gone to waste. If all they were ever going to be was friends, then it was fine, but if they ever wanted to be anything more, yesterday hadn't helped much. Ellie still couldn't decide if she wanted to take the risk with another guy yet, but she knew that if she did, Charlie would be the one.
It was the sixth morning. Early in the morning, Ellie had spent a little time with Charlie tuning their guitars and trading picks, but they hadn't played or kissed. She was glad, but also a little disappointed. She'd like him since she crashed, but she started liking even more when he stopped her from making what would've been the biggest mistake of her life.
Now she was spending some time with Jenny, trying to keep her mind off things, because Andrew was out getting her some more medicine. They were talking fairly casually, and Ellie still felt hugely relieved that she was able to have any conversation with Jenny.
"So are you and Charlie a couple yet?" Jenny asked with a small grin in her soft, weak voice.
Ellie laughed gently from next to the resting girl. "It's complicated," she explained. It actually wasn't that complicated, but it had only been six days, so she couldn't expect things to go too quickly.
"Do you want to be with him?" Jenny asked, her hazel eyes shining.
Ellie considered the question. "Yeah," she said after a second, "I guess I do." But her voice was hesitant, and Jenny gave her a look.
"Are you sure?" Jenny asked interestedly.
Ellie bit her lip. "I'm sure that I like Charlie," she finally said, "but I'm not sure I want to—or know how to, for that matter—be in a relationship."
"Right," Jenny said with a nod. "Because your relationship with Jake really screwed you up."
Ellie laughed slightly, not commenting on her relationship with Jake. Instead she asked, "I'm sorry, did you say you wanted to be a scientist or a psychologist?"
Jenny laughed, too, then her face grew serious. "I'm just glad I can be anything," she said softly.
Ellie smiled sadly. "If there's anyone who deserves that choice," she said, "it's you."
Her words surprised both of them, but Ellie was glad she had said them. She felt like a much more caring, mellow person just from a change over the past few days. Back in the old says, she'd probably be shunning Jenny because everyone expected her to feel bad for her. But now Ellie was spending time with her friend, and it was quality time that she genuinely enjoyed. Ellie hoped that her good changes were also signs that she was ready for a new, actual relationship.
Just as Charlie entered her thoughts again, he knocked on the door.
"Come in," Ellie called with a sigh, glad that he was there but disappointed that her meaningful conversation with Jenny was cut short.
"Hey," Charlie greeted. "Jack said he wanted to have another of those important meetings. I guess I'm the messenger."
Ellie snorted. "Yeah, 'cause the last one turned out well," she said, cocking her head in Jenny's direction.
Charlie nodded. "I know. But apparently they're giving a gun to every one of us and showing us how to use them."
Ellie raised her eyebrows. "Is it really that dangerous?"
He nodded again. "Apparently. As soon as Sawyer and Kate get back, we're going to decide whether or not to just go in and attack them."
"That's suicide!" Ellie retorted, standing up. Jenny watched her lazily from the floor.
Charlie shrugged. "It's dangerous, but we do have a lot of guns and a lot of very determined people."
Ellie considered this, and she had to admit, he was right. "Fine, but I don't think we should do anything until Kate and Sawyer get back."
Heading to the Beach
"You know what the saddest part of this is?" Sawyer asked Kate as they walked back to the beach. They were a strange-looking parade: Sawyer yanking along three tied-up Others, and Kate gently pulling Alex with her right hand and yanking at an Other with her left.
"What?" Kate asked.
"They're probably still gonna try and kill us."
Kate knew he was right. Even though they had five Others (including their leader) captive, they'd killed five, and they had Alex, the Others would still probably fight them. Because the survivors couldn't kill as easily as the Others.
"So what are you suggesting?" Kate asked. "A war? We wouldn't stand a chance."
"I think we would," Sawyer objected. "We just need to spring it on them when they least expect it."
"Really," Kate said with a hardly-interested look.
He nodded. "If we entered their camps at a completely random time—one we couldn't tell these guys, mind you, 'cause they'll use their cute little psychic powers to tell them—then we could kill the majority of them and fight the rest."
"But that's murder," Kate argued. "We can't just stoop to their level and murder them." She frowned. "Not more than we already have," she added, remembering what Alex had told her.
"Freckles, do you want to get off this island?" Sawyer asked her, stopping and facing her.
She nodded. She could see the beach by now, but she didn't want to have to tell Jack that they were starting a war. "Yeah," she said.
"Then we're gonna have to kill them."
"We can't kill all of them," Kate said. "That's like wiping out an entire race."
Sawyer shrugged. "How 'bout a deal?" he suggested. "If they surrender, they live, but then if they don't help us get off this island, we kill them."
Kate looked up at him sadly and nodded. She knew he was right.
The Beach
Just as Charlie and Ellie were coming out of the college students' tent, Kate and Sawyer stumbled out of the jungle with four Others and Rousseau's daughter. Ellie gasped and grabbed Charlie's arm, getting his attention. He quickly turned to the beach and shouted, "Jack! Locke! They're back!"
A crowd gathered around Kate, Sawyer, and their captives as they exhaustedly reached the sand.
"Good job," Jack said in congratulations, and took two of the Others. "Locke," he said, "get the other two. We'll take them to the Hatch with Henry. Sayid, can you try to find Rousseau?"
"Rousseau," Alex whispered to Kate. "Isn't that my mother?"
Kate smiled a small smile and nodded.
Locke and Jack left for the hatch, and Sayid entered the jungle to find Rousseau.
Kate and Sawyer, now free of the captives, were bombarded by questions from the survivors.
"Shut up!" Sawyer shouted recklessly after a few minutes of dizzy shouting. The crowd, which basically consisted of all the survivors minus Jack, Locke, Sayid, Andrew, and Jenny, hushed.
"We need Jack and Locke," Jake was saying. "Those two don't know what they're doing!"
"Remember what happened last time we listened to Jack and ignored Kate?" Ellie demanded. "Jenny almost died!"
Jake's temple pulsed, and he said nothing.
Kate smiled in gratefulness at Ellie and turned to everyone. "Look," she said, "Sawyer and I just brought you four Others and Alex. If you still don't want to listen to us, fine. We can't control that. But if you want to hear us out, tell us."
Everyone murmured quietly under their breaths, and a basically unanimous decision was made as they all nodded to Kate. She turned to Sawyer, still gently grasping Alex's arm. Sawyer nodded at Kate, encouraging her to just say what was on her mind."
"We now have five of them captive and one of their children," Kate said to the crowd, but not in a proud way. "But they still aren't going to stop. Because they're evil. And even though none of us want a war, I think that's the only thing that will ever stop them."
Everyone burst into argument. The small groups broke off into discussions. Despite the strange past the foursome had, Charlie, Claire, Ellie, and Jake were still standing together, debating what Kate was saying.
"We can't have a war," Charlie said flatly. "This is the bloody island! We're not even in the real world!"
"Maybe that's why Kate's suggesting it," Claire said timidly. "Because in real life, we'd have to sort this out peacefully, but everything's different here."
Jake looked mad. "So Jack yells at me for killing them, and then Kate asks us to start a war?"
"They can have different opinions," Ellie said. She felt bad that she always contradicted him, but she found his opinions to be at least a tad bit blasphemous. "Kate hasn't even pitched the idea to Jack yet. I like it better this way—we're not being left in the dark."
"He does have a slight point, though," Claire said. "I mean, just that everyone was practically shunning Jake for killing five of them, and now they're telling us to kill all of them."
As they continued debating it, Sun translated for Jin, who looked like he would participate, but as usual, he wanted his wife to stay alone and stay safe.
Hurley and Michael were both opposed to war, Michael because of Walt and Hurley because he knew that if he was around, he'd bring nothing but bad luck to all his allies.
Finally they turned their attention back to Kate.
"I know this is a huge change from everything we've been telling you, and I admit I feel really hypocritical when I say we should start a war. I remember that I was actually against the distribution of guns to form an army, but that was before I knew everything they had done, and that they were a part of everything—the monster, the reason we crashed, the kidnappings… everything."
"She's got a point," Ellie admitted, and everyone nodded in agreement.
Rose looked disappointed, but she stayed out of the way of the other survivors for the most part, and that was what she was planning on doing. Bernard, on the other hand, looked furious. He didn't mind staying on the island any more—it had, after all, healed his wife—and the thought of murder and death just to get off made him even more furious.
"We can't just kill," he shouted, "to get off the island! Rescue will come some day, and until then, we need to sit it out!"
"I wish that was an option," Kate said calmly, "but at the rate the Others are going at, we'll all be dead by then."
Jack was walking back toward the gathered crowd, the Others safely in the hatch with Locke standing guard.
"What's going on?" he asked, standing next to Kate.
"Katie here is proposing a war," Bernard said bitterly.
Jack turned quickly to Kate. "What?" he asked in disbelief. "You? I thought you were against this."
Kate looked tired of arguing her point, but she knew she'd have to. "Things have changed," she said, "and I don't think we have another choice. Look, I know it scares you. It scares me, too. In the real world, none of this would have happened. But this isn't the real world. It's the island."
Claire nodded, since this was the kind of thing she'd been saying.
"Those people—the Others—have killed us," Kate was saying. "And hurt us. They tried to kill Charlie, they kidnapped Claire, Aaron, and Walt, as well as Libby and Ana Lucia…" She looked down as she repeated the list. "And now Jenny. You all know they won't stop there. You have to understand—it's not a matter of civility any more. We fight back or we die." The crowd looked almost convinced, but Jack didn't.
"Kate," he said, "this could be suicide."
"Or it could be our only hope." Kate shrugged and looked up at him. "Live together, die alone, right?"
Jack felt his heart tug at the memories of him and Kate, but he knew things were much too complicated to start a relationship, especially on the island. Jack wasn't the kind of guy who needed a girl to define him, really, and he liked it that way. He had everyone on the island depending on him, and that was definitely enough.
"All right," he said quietly, and it meant more than just all right to war. It was, to both of them, a way of moving on and accepting the fact that Kate was with someone new now. Sawyer noticed it, too, and said nothing to make Jack mad. He'd learned his lesson there, and he knew that Jack didn't deserve it.
"So what?" Bernard asked. "So Jack agrees and Kate agrees. It doesn't matter what we want, right? We'll just fight in your stupid war for you?"
Jack sighed. "We can't make you fight," he said.
"But your starting a war affects all of us," Michael reminded him.
"Okay," Kate shouted over the arguments, "let's just work this out in the best way possible. We'll take a vote and decide that way." She didn't say it as a question, and on command, everyone seemed to agree.
"Everyone," Kate shouted, "who is for the war, whether you will participate or not, raise your hands."
There were seventy-five people on the island now—forty-three flight 815 survivors and thirty-two college students—and seventy-one were present (all but Locke, Sayid, Andrew, and Jenny). At least twenty hands shot up in the air including Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Jake, Claire, Sun, Jin, and Hurley.
"Hurley," Michael whispered, "I thought you were against this."
"Dude, they make some good points," Hurley said with a shrug, and kept his arm up. He'd just have to stay far away from everyone else during the war.
"C'mon," Claire urged Ellie and Charlie, "please put your hands up. Do you really want to be stuck on the island for the rest of your lives?"
Ellie glanced at Charlie. They were both considering it. "I have a really bad feeling about this," Ellie said, referring to the churning in the pit of her stomach whenever war was mentioned. "I'm not sure if they're taking this seriously."
"On the other hand, are we taking the Others seriously?" Charlie asked her, raising a fair point. "They'll just end up killing us, anyway. It's kind of one way or the other."
Ellie glanced around at the faces urging her on. Normally she'd keep both hands deep in her pockets, but again, she was different now. She lifted her arm, noticing in surprise how extremely weightless it felt, and Charlie did the same.
For some reason, Ellie and Charlie's discussion had an effect on others, who also rose their hands. The crowd was up to about half-and-half.
Finally there were about ten people who, after talking about it for a few minutes, raised their hands. The deal was done: over half of the survivors had decided on war.
The Expedition Survivors' Shelter
Everyone had filled Jenny and Andrew in on everything. They'd given Andrew the option of staying with Jenny, but he wanted revenge, and Jenny agreed that he should fight with them. Now several scattered college students sat in the tent including Jenny, Andrew, and Ellie. Charlie was with her, and they were strumming at their scales together.
"So," Charlie said to Ellie casually as they strummed over their notes and chords, "are you going to fight in the war?"
Ellie nodded. She'd never been a major feminist, but she'd certainly never been an antifeminist, and she didn't think it was right for just guys to go. "Yeah, I will," she said. She wasn't looking forward to it, but she wouldn't mind helping them for a change. "You?"
Charlie nodded, too. "Yep. I'm one of the few people on this bloody island that can hold a gun, a fact that seems to be thrown in my face a lot."
Ellie laughed casually, but stopped herself. "I… I just keep telling myself this is another little game, you know? But it's not. We could all just die, and there'd be no one left to look for."
"There'd be Bernard," Charlie joked, but he quickly stopped himself. "I know what you mean," he said instead. "But look on the bright side—if we do win, we'll be able to go through their camps and search for anything that signals with the outside world."
"Plus they have their psychics," Ellie said, surprised at how there was almost no doubt in her voice as she said it. "We could try to get them to help."
Charlie nodded and leaned back, silently observing Ellie.
She lifted her eyebrows and looked up at him curiously. "What?" she asked.
He shrugged. "You seem so different now," he said. She tilted her head, and he quickly added, "Not in a bad way. You just seem less uptight and reserved, you know?"
Ellie nodded. "I feel like it, too. I guess the island is just more relaxing."
"Maybe for you," Charlie said with a sigh. "I suppose I could've stopped myself from that fight with Jake, eh?"
Ellie frowned. "Yeah, but he did kind of lead it on. Let's just not talk about it."
She looked disappointed at the memory, just as Charlie felt ashamed at the memory. "I really am sorry for that," he said. "I know you're not the kind of girl who appreciates this, and I didn't do it to make you appreciate me, but I was fighting for you."
Ellie kept her eyes locked on his. "For me," she repeated, setting her guitar down beside her. Charlie followed suit as she asked, "How do you figure?"
"I mean, it wasn't like I thought I'd get you if I beat him up," Charlie explained in a rush, "but I thought he was being a bloody lunatic about how he was treating you, and I got really mad, and I figured that somehow if I hurt him enough, he'd hurt you less."
He was being so bold with his words. Ellie wasn't good at being bold with her words, but she was good at being bold with her moves, and she suddenly felt a wave wash over her to kiss him—again. But just as she leaned forward, she stopped herself and leaned back. As was custom, her eyes wavered and sank to the ground, thinking.
"Ellie?" Charlie asked caringly.
"Sorry," she said, her face turning red. "It's just that last time that happened, we determined that you were my rebound boy, and I really don't want to treat you badly."
"Do you still feel that way about me?" Charlie asked. He felt like an artist interpreting a new piece of work as he looked at her. He had to figure out what each expression and each glance of her eyes meant, or he wouldn't understand her as a whole. And he desperately wanted to.
She raised her eyes to his again, looking through his baby blues and into his heart. He was such a good, committed, funny, and deep guy that she felt like she didn't deserve him. Most people said there was a lot to Ellie, but she knew the truth: there was almost nothing to her. She was just simple: she did what was unexpected, and didn't care about reactions. She didn't have quirky, entwined motivations for things. She just did them without thinking. It was all a misunderstanding, and she didn't want Charlie to be dragged to where Jake had once been dragged.
Charlie changed the subject slightly, but she had a feeling that it had to do with their conversation at hand. "You know what I think about relationships?" he asked her. She shrugged and he continued. "People read so much into them and ponder them so deeply that they waste them. Like, you're probably wondering who's better than whom and what'll happen if one of us dies and what'll happen when we get back to the island, right?"
She shrugged again. "Kinda," she admitted, listening closely to him.
"But if relationships really are based on love, then why do we ask all those questions? Those questions don't determine love. Love is its own thing, right? Its own spontaneous, point-blank, no-questions-asked, nothing-more-to-it thing."
This was a lot like how Ellie had just been assessing herself. She also managed to grasp his point.
"So," he said, "why don't you just give us a chance?"
She wondered if that had been his own cocky way of saying he loved her, and instantly stiffened. She could deal with a relationship with him—she could enjoy it, actually—but love? After six days?
"I'm not going to scare you and tell you I love you, if that's what your worried about," Charlie said, but fondness was written on his face as he said instead, "But as I said before, I like you a lot. And you know why the stuff about love comes in handy?"
Ellie felt her brain and heart spinning as she interpreted everything. She shook her head in response to his question. She hoped he didn't mind doing all the talking, because her throat felt so prickly, she couldn't get a sound out.
"Because I want you to give me the chance to learn to love you," he finished, smiling at her.
It wasn't too much commitment for her to fear, and it wasn't too bland for her to shake off. It was perfect, and Ellie decided that if he knew her well enough to say all of that and have it hit her the right way, he knew her well enough to start a real relationship with her.
"I'm sorry I kept treating you so badly," she said softly. "First with the making fun of Driveshaft, and then the rebound boy thing… you never deserved it."
Charlie shook his head, his eyes smiling but his face serious. He touched the side of her head with his hand, tucking her long red hair behind her ear. "Don't apologize," he said softly. "Our twisted history will always be there, but we don't have to care."
She smiled. "I like that," she said. All she had to care about was the situation at hand: the romantic kiss that she was sharing with him, the start of a new relationship, with nothing to worry about.
Well, besides the upcoming war.
The Hatch
"Are you serious?"
Locke's reaction wasn't exactly what Jack was hoping for, but it was just what he had expected.
"Do you remember what happened last time we fought over distributing guns?" Locke demanded. "Sun could've died. Sawyer ended up with all the guns. Locke's reaction wasn't exactly what Jack was hoping for, but it was just what he had expected.
"Do you remember what happened last time we fought over distributing guns?" Locke demanded. "Sun could've died, and Sawyer ended up with all the guns. Do we really need that again?"
"This is different," Jack argued. Kate had offered to join him in convincing Locke, but this was something he had to do on his own.
"Really," Locke said skeptically.
Jack nodded. "Yeah. Because if we don't fight them, we're all going to die, anyway, especially with Henry and the other Others captive."
Locke snorted. "So you're suggesting we free them?"
Jack shook his head. "No. I'm suggesting we fight a war that should've been fought a long time ago."
Locke stared at him for a moment, deep in thought, and finally decided that it was the right thing to do. Jack was right—it was pretty much either certain death (no war) or possible death (war).
"Okay," Locke finally said. "We'll do it. Are you sure Sawyer will give you his guns?"
Jack looked pained. "Yeah. Kate'll get him to."
Sawyer's Tent
Sawyer and Kate were sitting in Sawyer's tent together, loading guns and sharpening knives, talking lightly. Alex was timidly sitting in the corner, one wrist tied up. None of them wanted to tie her up, but they knew that if they didn't, she'd dart out of there.
Finally Kate brought up a more serious matter than small talk.
"What if something happens?" she asked Sawyer uncertainly.
"I sure hope something's gonna happen," Sawyer said with a snort. "If it doesn't, then honey, we are really screwed."
Kate laughed, but she straightened her back and said, "No. I mean what if our people die?"
"With luck, they won't. What'll probably happen is, some of 'em die, but it's for the greater good, eh, Freckles?"
Kate sighed. "You need to take this seriously," she pressured. "You've already been tortured and shot. Do you want anything else to happen?"
Sawyer grinned. "Ah, but see, I can't hold the torturing to them, 'cause that was Muhammad."
Kate bit her lip. "The point," she said, "is that either of us could die, and we really need to be careful."
Sawyer finally seemed to calm down. The thought of himself dying didn't seem to bug him much, but the thought of losing Kate was way too much for him.
The Expedition Survivors' Shelter
As was their custom at this point, Ellie and Charlie were sitting together, talking at a steady pace over the tuning and scaling of their guitars.
"If we die," Charlie informed her, "I'd love to have a good tune in mind."
Ellie laughed. "Like what?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, but you have to sing with me."
She shook her head. "C'mon, no."
"Who do you want?" Charlie asked, obviously pushing her. "Girls… Joan Jett? The Yeah Yeah Yeahs?" When she didn't say anything, he wrinkled his nose. "Not the Bangles…" She shook her head.
"Why don't you sing something," she demanded, "and I'll play?"
"How 'bout Blondie?" Charlie suggested eagerly.
"I'm not singing a girls' song," Ellie said with a shake of her head. "It's okay, really. Let's just play Ramones, or something."
"And die with that in my head?" Charlie snorted.
Ellie laughed. She loved being able to talk with him about things no one else would even understand. "You want a sad song?" she teased.
He nodded. "Yep. Drippy-sad."
She considered this. It would be perfect, she had to admit, to sing a drippy song with him at the start of a war. She shook the thoughts of war away—she wanted to have fun first. "If you want weirdly sad and emotional, there's Babe I'm Gonna Leave You."
Charlie grinned. "Awesome. A Led Zeppelin? Then you've got to bloody sing with me!"
Ellie nodded in defeat. "Okay," she said softly, not wanting to think about the war. All she wanted to think about was this.
The Hatch
Kate, Jack, Locke, Sawyer, Michael, and Jin had all met in the hatch to discuss the plan for the upcoming war. They were far away from the dungeon cell so that the prisoners couldn't hear them, and Sun was with Jin to translate. Sayid was still searching for Rousseau.
"So we're just going to hand out guns to anyone who wants one?" Michael asked. "Do we even have that many guns?"
Jack nodded. "We should. And Locke, we need you to distribute all the knives you have to the soldiers, and we should make sure that everyone not fighting also has a knife for self-defense."
Locke nodded. "I already gave them all to Kate, and she and Sawyer sharpened them all. We'll distribute them with the guns."
Kate took a notepad from a bookshelf, grabbed a pen that was near the computer, and asked, "Okay, who's going to be fighting?"
"We all are," Sayid said. Kate nodded and wrote their names down.
"Sun, I'm guessing you can't?" Kate asked, referring to Sun's pregnancy.
Jin immediately shook his head. Sun crossed her arms self-consciously. "I guess not," she said in defeat, resting her hand on her stomach, where her new baby was growing.
"Which of the college students?" Jack asked everyone.
"They all want to," Kate said. She'd been in the tent with Ellie and Charlie a lot, and she'd determined who was going and who was staying. "Jenny's staying, and her Andrew asked friend Natalie to stay to make sure she's okay. We're leaving a gun with Natalie, just in case. Everyone else is fighting."
Kate nodded and scribbled, 28 college students, since there were thirty counting Jenny and Natalie.
They wrote down the rest of the people who were fighting. Even Bernard had caved. Rose, who was more about peace than fighting, agreed to stay behind with the others and help Natalie with Jenny.
"I guess that's it," Locke said when they were finished.
Jack nodded. "So we go in, surprise them, and fight for all we're worth?"
"We shouldn't kill the psychics, if we can help it," Kate said. "They're our best chance off the island."
"What a weird set of words," Sawyer mused. "'Off the island.'"
The Expedition Survivors' Shelter
Led Zeppelin's Babe I'm Gonna Leave You didn't have much to do with war or their situation, but the mood of the song made everyone near them realize the deepness of the upcoming war. It made Ellie feel like crying for the second time since the island, and it made Charlie want to forget the war and keep Ellie safe. But he knew he couldn't, so he did the next-best thing: he played with her.
The guitar parts at the beginning were well-played and meaningful, but Ellie and Charlie sang the words together, as one, and Charlie wondered why she'd been hiding her voice. It wasn't like the singer's voice, but it fit the mood of the song, and she sang it with actual passion that Charlie doubted he had. But whatever the case, they sang together. By the time they were at the chorus, a tear was rolling down Ellie's cheek.
Babe...I'm gonna leave you
Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you
Oh I can hear it callin 'me
I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?
Just like You All Everybody, the music seemed to roll around the whole island, affecting the people on the beach and even the people in the hatch from a distance. It was hardly scientifically possible that they would hear it, but they did, and it brought everyone to silence: the beginning of a war, and the smallest piece of hope.
Baby, baby, baby, baby, I don't want to leave you.
END OF CHAPTER TEN
I don't know if you've heard that song, but it ALWAYS makes me sad, and I thought somehow it fit in here. And next chapter, everyone, is War, Pt. I. After that? War, Pt. II, as you could guess. So keep reading & reviewing! Thanks, everyone! And here are your responses:
meangenius: It would be AWESOME if Alex killed Jake… but unfortunately that's not going to happen. Sorry. He's one of the unbearable characters you'll have to bear. This chapter had a lot of Chellie and a little Skate, so you should be happy. And Claire telling Jake off? She's done it before, and she'll do it again. Thanks, and keep reviewing!
TweakyTree: Aw, thanks! Hope you liked this chapter!
samdean4567: YAY, you're back again! Hi. Anyway, yeah, I'm not that great at the mystery thing, but I thought the Jake-being-the-killer would be, well, Jake-ish. Thanks!
Redemption-Isle: I think the idea behind Ellie was that she's not real or understandable, she's just different, and it's hard to figure her out. It's complicated to make a character like her, so I did the best I could. No, she's not a Mary Jane. Thanks for the advice and the comment… and I'm very sorry that my story made you "cringe."
xlostangelx: Ah, don't worry about rambling, it's fun to hear about people's lives. If you want my advice on the falling-for-a-guy-that's-not-your type thing, well, as long as he's not a BAD guy, I don't think it should matter. Follow your heart, not your guidelines! (pounds heart) Lol, that does sound like Claire. Anyway, thanks a ton, hope you liked it!
Thanks to EVERYONE—your reviews make me SO happy, and now there are a lot of really loyal people who keep coming back (meangenius, samdean4567, xlostangelx, and astronomylover, you're the best)! Of course, I love you if you drop one review, too. So danke. (Thanks in German.)
#(kissbangx3)#
Review please!
