Author's notes: Again, no obligation to review, Zombie Kitty, but since you have:

Shannon and Sayid did not realize their link at the airport. That is one of several explanations I made up to address some of the many omissions from the real show.

Danielle is frequently confused and doesn't always communicate clearly. But she did not know whether Aaron was a boy or a girl. When Danielle said, "The Others wanted the boy," she thought she was unambiguously referring to Walt. She did not realize that her comment could be misunderstood like it was.

I can't realistically introduce the two tail-end kids without bringing in the rest of the tail-enders, and that would disrupt my story too much at this point. Michael and company would have seen them, or least the wreck of the tail end of the plane, on their journey around the island in Chapter 11. I have to stick with the Season 1 characters in this one. Though Alex and Walt rescuing the smaller children, or all four combining efforts somehow, could make for a good part in another story.

I do not intend anything romantic between Walt and Alex in the future, but was trying to make it more like a brother-sister relationship (but not like Boone and Shannon!)

I really wouldn't feel good using all your ideas in my fic. I encourage you to write your own Lost fic; you have the talent and imagination to do so.

October Sky, I wouldn't expect you to answer if I asked you if Kate and Jack or Sawyer will be together at the end of your epic, so I'm not answering the Danielle/Alex reunion question here. The question will be answered eventually, though.

Frustrated at his situation, the temptation of the heroin becomes too much for Charlie to bear.

Jack and Danielle helped Kate back to the caves where the latter's injuries could be treated as properly as possible on the island. The doctor had some salve for the burns, and some peroxide for the cuts. He bandaged Kate appropriately, and told her she had to rest in the caves for the rest of the day.

Danielle appeared ill at ease in the company of the airplane crash survivors. Her efforts to assist had not gone well, and she preferred the solitude of her bunker. She stayed around long enough to say hello to Sayid and Hurley, and was about to depart when the thought occurred to her that it might be important for her to be reachable. Not wanting to make a big announcement to this effect, she drew Hurley aside, sketched a crude map, and told him, "If you need to contact me, leave a message at the indicated position. This is a large tree almost surrounded by a bend in this river. I will be near there and check that location daily, but please don't let anyone else know where I am."

Hurley replied, "Okay, I won't say anything unless it's an emergency."

Danielle thanked him, and slipped away quietly.

Down at the beach, Michael and Jin were finishing repairing the canoe, or so they thought. They took it out for a test run, and soon found that there were small cracks in the bottom, that only became visible when the canoe was in the water. It was also hard to maneuver. Disappointed, they made they way back to shore. Jin explained through Sun that the cracks could be sealed by heating a type of sap from some of the trees, which would be faster than building another canoe from scratch, but it take another day of work.

For many days while Sawyer was recovering from his shoulder wound, and particularly on those days when it was constantly raining, he would read to Aaron when Claire couldn't get him to stop crying within a few minutes. There was not a large selection of literature available on the island. This didn't matter to the infant, but Sawyer needed new material to keep from going crazy. Reading "Watership Down" once was fine, but that was enough. Luckily, one of those thick airplane magazines found in the holders in back of the seats had washed ashore, and that provided weeks' worth of bedtime stories. Sawyer wondered if anyone ever read those magazines cover to cover. Still it was something to do, and life had to get better after this.

Meanwhile, Charlie was seriously jealous of this ability of Sawyer's. Charlie wanted to act like the father of the baby, but the great majority of his attempts to quiet the infant resulted in louder and more prolonged wailing. Claire told him not to worry about; that it was her job anyway, but that didn't make Charlie feel any better. Rather, Charlie felt increasingly frustrated by the whole situation.

There was one possibility of relieving his anxiety. During one of Sawyer's reading sessions Charlie drifted off by himself to his own little corner of the cave. Concealed within a suitcase was the Virgin Mary statue containing a packet of heroin. Charlie had done an admirable job of resisting temptation for this long, but he was reaching his breaking point. He took the statue in his hands, and held it tightly. So tightly that it broke. And there he was, staring at the packet. He picked it up … .

No! He couldn't revert back to being a junkie. Claire would have nothing to do with him after that. He had to be strong. He stuffed the packet into his pocket, and as casually as he could, strode past Claire and Sawyer and a few other survivors still in the caves. Then with no one looking, he tossed the packed into a fire near the cave entrance. For a few seconds he was proud of himself. Then he regretted his action. Continuing like this just wasn't possible. He was certain he would go insane without a fix.

No one was paying any attention to him, and for once clouds were absent from the sky, so Charlie shuffled off on a path well known to him but just a few others, like Sayid and Locke. It was like his feet knew in which direction to go, functioning independently of his brain. There may have been danger lurking, but he simply didn't care. Within a couple hours he reached the dreadful scene: a small airplane in shambles on the ground next to a cliff. There was plenty of debris scattered across the ground, including a couple dozen more statues. That wouldn't be enough. Charlie stepped gingerly to a broken open door, and peeked inside. There were hundreds more of those statues, perhaps a few thousand, inside. Many were still well preserved in sturdy shipping boxes, and several more were strewn about the plane's interior.

Charlie picked up one of the broken statues, and immediately found the packet it contained. The temptation was getting unbearable; he needed the drug now. He held the packet as if to tear it, and with one last bit of resolve, hesitated. Was he that much weaker than the other survivors who had been here before? Locke and Boone had discovered this place, and regarded all that heroin as a worthless commodity. Sayid had a similar reaction when he and Charlie were in pursuit of the kidnapped Aaron. Why was Charlie so different? Were Locke, Sayid, and Boone all that much stronger men?

"Yes!" Charlie angrily shouted out to no one in particular as he ripped open the packet. Somehow the powder wasn't quite the right color; a little too dull, but that didn't matter. Charlie touched the powder, the substance immediately adhering itself to the perspiring digit. He held it up to his nose, and made a startling discovery.

The powder, having been subjected continuously to tropical temperatures for two or three years, had lost its chemical potency.

Charlie stood there dumbfounded for several seconds, and then started laughing. There was no temptation, only a bunch of worthless powder lying around. He had been so worked up over nothing. A great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and things would be much better from now on. In high spirits, he quickly walked back to the caves. When he arrived, Claire was watching over Aaron who was now asleep, and Sawyer was off somewhere else, actually checking up on what was left of his stash he had so carefully amassed before the fateful raft trip.

"And how is the island's most beautiful mother this fine day?"

Claire gave a little laugh, and responded, "Just fine." Then she added, "Weren't you gone for a while? What have you been doing?"

"Oh, just looking for something."

"Did you find it?"

Charlie paused for second, and replied, "I found that it wasn't important. It was nothing compared to your and Aaron's happiness and well being."