"Sawyer come on!"
"Hurry up!"
"Run faster!"
"You're too slow!"
"Come on, we want to get to the beach!"
Sawyer stopped and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. How did a three and a four year old get to be faster that him? Aaron never ran this fast, but now he was running just as fast as Kate was, and didn't even look tired. Never mind, just tire them out and do it quickly. After all, he had been given an official task that afternoon: Operation Tire Kate Out.
Tiring Kate out so far had proved to be a long and troublesome task. Sawyer had taken on that challenge, thinking he could break the girl with what he had planned. Everyone else had warned him - constantly. But he had laughed them off. She was just a kid, after all. What could she possibly do?
When they got to the beach, "Finally!" Kate had said, they ran and played in the sand straight away. Sawyer knew to keep them away from the water, seeing as neither of them could swim, especially not strong enough to swim in the sea anyway, which was actually looking quite rough in the high tide. He slumped down beside them as they started to make sandcastles, allowing himself to catch his breath, knowing that there would be need for it soon. He realised
Strangely, they made a sandcastle for around an hour, at Sawyer's guess, but they soon got restless, and Sawyer conducted races between the two along the beach, using an obstactle course he had made when they were playing in the sand.
"Right." he said, using a large stick to draw a line the best he could on the floor. "This is the starting line." He told them. "There's another line between those two trees at the top of the beach. That's the finish line." He pointed with the stick towards the trees on their right. "Before you get to the finish line, you have to do an obstacle course."
Aaron cocked his head to one side. "Whats an obsticy course?" He asked Kate, who shrugged.
"An obstacle course is like an army training course." Sawyer explained.
"Oh!" Kate said. "My Daddy's in the army!" She told Aaron.
"Thats right." Sawyer said. "Has your Dad ever built you one of these?" He asked her. She shook her head. "Right, well, I'll talk you through this one. First off, you have to run through the sticks without touching any of them." He pointed to a collection of sticks he had randomly scattered on the ground with gaps in between them - kind of a substitute for tires. "Then you run up to these big sticks. You have one each, and you have to jump either side of them like this." He showed them, and then went onto a peice of tarp he had draped over the floor. "Then you get on your bellies, and crawl underneath this. Then, when you get to the otherside, you run around that rock over there, and then you run over to the finish line. The first one who gets over the line wins. You understand?"
Both children nodded, and Sawyer grinned. "Ready?"
"Ready."
"Set?"
"Set."
"Go!"
Both of them took of rather fast. Aaron fell behind on the sticks, as he stepped on one and had to go through them again. Kate was already underneath the tarp by the time he had got onto to the larger stick. He jumped slowly, about half the speed as Kate had bounded over it. Sawyer was sure she had done something like this before. She seemed to be a natural at it. When she got to the rock, and turned around there was a split second when she saw how far behind Aaron was, and she stopped, pretending to trip and fall in the sand. Now Aaron was a fast crawler, and by the time she had gotten back on her feet he had got out of the tarp and was back in competition mode.
They ran together, neck and neck to the finish line, and both crossed it - at the same time. Sawyer, who was waiting at the finish line, clapped for them. They kept on racing all afternoon. "Well done, guys, it was a draw." Sawyer announced hours later.
"What?" Aaron asked.
"It was a draw. A tie. It means that you both won because you both won the same amount of races."
"Oh."
Sawyer was about to speak again when he heard a branch snap in the jungle he had his back to. Thinking that it was probably just Jack checking up on him, he shook his head. "Right. Who's up for round fifteen?" He asked, and they both babbled and cheered. "That's a yes then." They went back over to the starting line, and as they walked over, Kate stopped walking and grabbed onto Sawyer's leg. "What's the matter, Freckles?"
"Sawyer. Who's that?"
Sawyer turned around to see what she was looking at. Emerging from the trees was a woman. A woman with dark hair, long, unkept and straggles, with that same old constantly confused face, as if she hadn't quite known what was going on around her. As usual, she had that old gun with her. Sawyer frowned when she spotted them. Every now and again, Danielle would make an appearance, trying to get near Aaron, mainly just watching him, asking to hold him or play with him. After she had kidnapped him and tried to take him to the Others though, Claire, Charlie and Jack all had stressed the fact over and over again that when Danielle turned up, Aaron was taken away from her. There had been too many encounters of her trying to lure the child away from camp for any risks to be taken. To a certain extent, they could understand that she just wanted her own baby back, but they weren't sure whether she realised that her baby would be 19 years old now, not the baby she wanted.
"Sawyer?" Kate asked again. "Sawyer, who's that lady?"
"Someone you aren't to go near." Sawyer said seriously. He turned his head to where Aaron was standing on the starting line, waiting for Kate. "Aaron! Get over here!" He called to him.
Aaron knew from the seriousness in Sawyer's voice that he shouldn't argue, and ran as fast as he could over to Sawyer, who instantly lifted the boy, settling him on his hip. He kept his arm on Kate's shoulder, making sure that she didn't move. He looked down at her. "Stay with me." He told her, and she nodded.
Danielle was walking towards them. Sawyer didn't move an inch. When she saw the children, she lower the gun, particularly as it was scaring Aaron from the look on his face. He knew that this was the woman who tried to take him away. "Don't let her take me." He whispered, putting his arms tightly around Sawyer's neck, and making sure that Kate didn't hear him being scared.
"Don't worry, kid, you're not going anywhere with her." Sawyer muttered to him, and Aaron nodded.
She stopped about ten feet away from them. "You...you're Sawyer, aren't you?" She asked.
"What the hell do you want?" He asked, his voice sounding dangerously angry.
"The boy...he's grown so much. How old is he now?" She asked him.
"What are you doing here?" Sawyer asked her again.
"Please, I just want to -" She reached out and Aaron hid himself away against Sawyer. Sawyer automatically stepped to the side making sure that Aaron was well out of reach. Danielle's face fell when she saw this reaction, but her eyes lit up curiously when she saw Kate, who stared right back at her. "A girl?" She whispered to herself, but then she trailed into her own train of thought, speaking to herself. "There was no girl before, has someone had another child? But she is older than the boy. Wise beyond her years. She has those eyes, like Alex's. Curious."
"What do you want, Rousseau?" Sawyer asked, louder this time, not liking Danielle's comparing of Kate to her kidnapped child.
"Who is the girl?" She asked, holding out her arms, beckoning Kate to her.
"Sawyer..." Kate said in a frightened whisper.
"Stay here, Kate." He instructed firmly, pushing her gently behind him. "It's Ok." Again, she nodded, and held onto his leg again. Sawyer was glad, because then he knew that she wasn't wandering off.
"Leave, Rousseau." Sawyer said. "If Claire finds out you've come to see the kid again then they'll all come looking for you. You know that."
"They'll never find me." She smirked confidently. "It was the island, wasn't it?" She said. Sawyer frowned at her. "The girl. The island changed her. Am I right?"
Sawyer looked around, the sun was setting. He didn't want to be talking to Danielle when he knew that Aaron and Kate were both scared of her, but if she knew something about why Kate was four years old, they had to know it. "What do you know about it?"
"The others." Danielle said. "They will come for her. They will take her from you." Kate's grip tightened around Sawyer's leg, and Sawyer put a hand on her head to try and calm her down. "It will be like always," She said, almost with an air of happiness. "First the whispers, then the shadows, then one day, you'll wake up, and she'll be gone forever."
With that, Danielle turned and walked off, leaving Sawyer standing on the beach with the two children. "Come on," He said, taking Kate's hand and keeping Aaron on his hip. "Let's go home."
It's all fun and games with a four-year-old Kate until Danielle shows up. Well, now that the story is taking a darker tone, what do you think? I hope that it's still good for everyone. But don't worry, the next chapter won't be too tragic, remember, Jack still has to give Kate and Aaron their story :D Please review, because I've yet to decide the story he's telling them yet. So if you review with suggestions, I promise that I will work every suggestion into Jack's Story :D
