When they eventually reached the beach, Kate began to be more quiet and reserved again. Jack was still worried about what she had said about her father. Charlie came straight up to Jack flinging his arms in the air dramatically.

"Finally!" He exclaimed. "You have food right?" He asked.

Jack smiled. "Yes, I have food."

"Good." Charlie said, and took the fruit that Jack had taken out of his bag.

Jack went and sat down with Sawyer and Sayid, closely followed by Kate, and sat down, giving them fruit as well. Kate, as usual, crawled into his lap. Already it was something that Jack was becoming used to.

"The morning report is as usual as ever." Sayid said. "No boats, no planes, nothing."

"Thought so." Jack replied nonchalently.

"Hows mini-freckles this morning?" Sawyer asked, waving at Kate who had been staring at him with a strange expression on her face.

"You're funny." She said, looking at him closely, particularly the glasses he was wearing for reading. She crawled out of Jack's lap, and they all recognised the look on her face that she got when she was curious and up to something. She went right up to Sawyer and stood infront of him, waiting, and then looked back to Jack who was smiling, and as quick as a flash, she stole Sawyer's glasses and ran across the sandy beach with them.

"Why you little- Hey! Come back here!" He said, and was soon up on his feet chasing after her.

Jack turned to Sayid and Charlie. "She mentioned something a few minutes ago." He told her, and explained what Kate had said about her father.

"So she wants you to be her father?" Charlie asked.

Jack shook his head. "I told her that I wasn't, but that I was going to look after her. So she said that I was better than her real Dad. What does that mean?"

"Obviously she has an awkward or frightening relationship with her father." Sayid said. "If she feels, at the age of four, that she is not loved, then it is very bad indeed."

Jack stared out across the sands to where she was still running circles around her. She was smiling, laughing loudly, truly happy. "How can someone not love their own child?" He muttered to himself. "That's disgusting."

Sayid laughed to himself. "That, my friend, is why you will be a good father when the time comes." He said.

Jack nodded. "I hope so."

He looked again at Kate and Sawyer. Sawyer was genuinely having trouble catching her. Finally, she stopped, and stood still while he advanced on her, and he was about to scoop her up and reclaim his glasses when she darted between his legs and he fell over face first in the sand. They all laughed, especially Kate, who ran back over to Jack and hid in his lap when Sawyer stood up to get revenge.

"I see the old Kate is still in her." Sayid laughed. "She hasn't changed that much."

Trudging back along the path, Kate, again ran ahead, until she decided she was too tired to walk anymore. She kept walking slower, and slower, no longer darting into bushes; until: "Jack-Jack? Carry?"

Sawyer turned his head to stiffle a laugh, covering it with a badly faked cough. Jack rolled his eyes at Sawyer, and lifted Kate off the ground and into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and her arms around his neck. Over Jack's shoulder, she frowned at Sawyer, and poked her tongue out at him. Sawyer dropped his jaw.

"Did you see that?" He asked everyone.

"See what?" Charlie asked.

"She stuck her tongue out at me!" He whined.

Everyone looked at Kate, who shook her head. Jack sighed. "Sawyer, really, who's the four year old now?"