When the three got back to the caves, Claire was there to meet them. "You took your time." She said, but was smiling at how tired Aaron looked. "Was he all right for you?" She asked, taking him from around Sawyer's neck. "Hey sweetie." She said to him as he locked his arms around her instead.

Sawyer nodded. "Yeah, he was fine. It's the goddamn French Chick that keeps popping up that isn't fine." He said grumpily.

He watched Claire's look of horror. "She came back again?" She asked exasperated.

Sawyer nodded. "Don't worry. We saw her coming. She didn't get anywhere near him." He assured, and her face showed a bit more relief. He looked down at Kate who was still holding his hand. "She seemed more interested in Freckles after she noticed her, though."

Claire sighed. "Jack's over with Hurley." She said, nodding her head towards where Jack was filling up a water bottle.

Sawyer nodded and went over. Kate saw Jack, and started squirming free of Sawyer's hand until he let go and she ran over. "Jack-Jack!" She said excitedly, jumping into his arms when he turned to greet her call. He fell back into a sitting position before standing back up with her.

"Hey, have fun?" He asked her as Sawyer came up to them with that grumpy look on his face.

"Yeah. It was great! We did an obstacle course!" Kate said.

"Jack." Sawyer interrupted. Jack looked at him, knowing that it was serious because Sawyer had used his real name for once without adding something to make it insulting or annoying. Hurley noticed this look and made himself scarce. "She came again." He said, once he was sure that Hurley was out of ear shot.

"Who?"

"Danielle."

Jack frowned. "What did she want?" He asked.

"As usual. She wanted to see Aaron. To play with him or whatever weird-o creepy stuff she thinks is fun. Then she saw Freckles." Sawyer said, pointing limply at her. "Gave us a warning."

"A warning?" Jack asked. "You mean that you of all people are taking her seriously?" No one took Danielle seriously anymore. All her warnings about the others coming were either too late, or months too early, and whenver she showed up someone always got hurt.

"I'm serious. I think she was talking sense this time. She knew about Kate. About what happened." Sawyer explained.

"How could she know that?"

"She said the Others would come for her." Sawyer said. Jack's eyes darkened considerably as he held onto Kate protectively now.

"Who's coming for who?" Sayid asked, comnig over to join them.

"Your little crazy French friend said that The Others are coming to get Freckles here." Sawyer explained.

"Rousseau came back?"

"Yeah, and apparently she's not the only one intending to pay us a visit." He said.

"Hold on a minute, Sawyer." Jack intervened. "We don't know what she said is true."

"What did she say?" Sayid asked

"First the whispers, then the shadows, then you wake up, and she's gone forever." Sawyer recited. "And correct me if I'm wrong. But the whispers were heard last night."

There was silence for a moment, until Kate was the one who broke it, in a heartbreakingly innocent yet pained voice that made Jack sigh heavily.

"Jack-Jack? Are the whispers going to take me away?"

He kissed the top of her head. "No." He said. "No, they're not. I promise."

Sawyer glared at Jack. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Doc. You should know what happens to anyone who tries to stop the Others from taking someone." He said, refering to all the other survivors that had died at their hands. He stalked away, and Jack held Kate closer with a dark thought on his mind. Surely Sawyer wouldn't make it easier for the Others to get to her? Of course not, his mind told him, after all, Sawyer had just protected Kate from Danielle. As much of a jerk he could be sometimes, even he had a soft spot for kids, and an even bigger soft spot for Kate, so Kate as a child should, in theory, be a big concern for him.

"Jack-Jack?"

He looked into Kate's confused eyes as she twirled a bit of hair between her fingers. "Come on," He said softly, bouncing her a little. "Dinner time."


After Kate and Aaron had eaten, they set up a fire, and place the two children infront of it, sitting on blankets. Jack had spent most of the afternoon planning this, and so it wasn't long before both of the kids were in the mood for a story. Shannon had agreed to help him out, as had Sawyer in the end. After a few hours of preparing, Jack had managed to convince Shannon, Rose, Sawyer, Charlie, and Sayid to help him. However, by the time that they were getting ready, everyone else knew, and Walt and Michael decided to watch it for something to do, Claire sat with the two children; Hurley wanted to watch Sawyer embarass himself; Sun and Jin were just there for something to do as well, and it soon became that evening's island entertainment - which Shannon had mentioned would mean some improvising - and Jack had replied that the whole thing was based on improvising.

When their audience was finally ready, the all star cast took bows. "Ok, guys," Jack started. "Before we embarass ourselves extremely, I'd like to remind you that this was not our idea, so if something goes wrong and we all look like asses - Blame Kate." He pointed at Kate, who laughed. "And I'd also like to point out to the older members of the audience, that contrary to popular belief, we're making this up as we go along."

And with that, the story started, with the agreed helpers playing the parts that they had decided about twenty minutes ago. Jack was the hero, as Kate had mentioned determinedly that he had to be the hero, and that he didn't get a choice about it, and was then backed up by Aaron, much to Jack's distate, as he had hoped that Aaron would back Charlie up, and then he would get out of the acting that he really didn't want to embarass himself with. Shannon had come up with the idea of Princess Kate, with Rose playing her wicked mother. Sayid made up the rest of Prince Jack's rescue team, with Sawyer having been bribed with a remaining bottle of alcohol to pretend to be a dragon. From the look on his face at that moment in time, it was clear that acting wouldn't be too hard.

Fortunately, Jack had one card up his sleeve. He had asked Charlie to be the narrator, or story-man as Aaron called him. This meant that Jack didn't need to worry about making things up himself - because Charlie was going to do it for him, with Shannon's help.

"Now, kids, are you ready?" Charlie asked.

"Yes." They called back.

"No?" Charlie asked dramatically, pretending to mishear them. He called over to Jack. "Sorry, Jack, they don't want to hear the story..."

"No! We do! We do!" They protested.

"What's that!"

"Tell us the story!" Kate shouted over everyone's laughing.

"Right. Well, the story starts..."

"No!" The kids shouted out.

"What now?" Charlie asked.

"You're not doing it right." Aaron said.

Kate backed him up. "It's 'Once upon a time...'" She corrected him.

Charlie sighed. "Ok. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Princess called Kate." He said, and Kate giggled. The others began to go along with Charlie as he spoke from his rock he had picked out to sit on. "She lived in the wonderful kingdom of...uh...Jungle Land...yeah, Jungle Land. She lived with her mother, who was an evil Queen! One day, when Princess Kate was still very tiny, she locked her up in a tower." The kids gasped. "She stayed there all on her own, and to make sure that no one went to let her free, her mother put a big, nasty, huge, dragon in front of the tower." When no sound came, Charlie looked back at Sawyer who was sitting down at the base of the rock that Shannon sat on. "Sawyer!" He hissed.

Sawyer rolled his eyes. "Roar." He said pathetically, playing with a stick on the ground as he sat cross legged.

"Sawyer!" the rest of them said.

"Roar!" He said louder, very irritable.

Knowing that this was as co-operative as Sawyer was going to be, Charlie continued. "Now, the dragon stayed at the bottom of the tower all day, and all night, and anyone that came to free Princess Kate got gobbled up by the dragon!" Charlie said.

"No!" Kate protested. "Not the dragon!" and Aaron clapped his hands together gleefully.

"So Princess Kate lived alone in the tower, with the dragon keeping watch. Until one day, when Kate was much older, a brave Prince came into the kingdom..." Shannon said, and Jack cut her off by clearing his throat. "Sorry, a brave and handsome Prince called Jack came to the kingdom. He had heard about poor Princess Kate and had decided to rescue her."

"Yay!" Kate said, and Jack held up his long stick that he was using for a sword.

"But the evil queen sent a messenger man ahead, and told the dragon that when the Prince came he had to gobble him up like the rest of them." The look of horror on Kate's face at the idea of Jack getting eaten was rather amusing, and Claire smoothed her hair as she would to Aaron when he got scared. "But Prince Jack didn't care! So he took his faithful friend...um...Lord...uh...Sayid...to go and rescue Princess Kate."

Charlie and Shannon were becoming stuck for ideas already, and Charlie turned his head at Jack with a look that said it all. Jack indicated for him to keep going. "So...er...they went to find the Princess...and..." Charlie was struck with an idea. He leaned in close to the kids. "Do you know what happened next?" He asked them. They shook their heads. "Go on, guess." He encouraged.

"They had their dinner?" Aaron said.

"No, the Prince had taken a sacred vow that he would never eat again until he had found the Princess." Charlie said. "Nor would he sleep, or drink."

"You should always drink lots, otherwise you get dehydrated." Kate said. "Jack-Jack told me."

Charlie mentally added himself to the list of people that had been corrected by Kate within the last few days. Jack called over. "That's my girl." And Kate gave him a thumbs up, which he returned.

"Well, he was allowed to drink some water," Charlie said. "Now, come on, you still haven't guessed."

"Did they find a boat, and go on a river, and get chased by a big mean fish?" Aaron asked.

"No."

"Did they fight a polar bear?"

"No."

"Did a pink panda called Lola run through the woods and steal all the wood before the wood chuck could chop wood?" Kate asked innocently, as if it were a completely normal situation.

Some laughed. Some cried with laughed. Others, like Charlie, stared blankly at her. "Uhhh...No. But I'll tell you what they did do." Charlie said. "They came to a long bridge with a big big hole underneath it." Charlie stood up, and connected a long plank of thick wood between two rocks. Sawyer looked at it strangely, then got bored, and picked up another twig. "Now, the Prince Jack and Lord Sayid walked across the bridge..." Nothing happened. "I said: They wallked across the bridge..." Charlie repeated, louder, and Jack and Sayid stood up to get on the plank of wood and start slowly walking across it. "They were only halfway across when - "

Sawyer had a brain wave, saw an opportunity, and took it, flying into action. "When the dragon jumped up and pulled the Prince off the bridge!"

Jack had only a split seconds realisation before Sawyer's hand connected round his ankle and tugged it swiftly. He fell from the log, which was only a few feet, but it made him land on Sawyer. Everyone laughed, with Kate and Aaron nearly in tears from laughing so hard. Kate stopped laughing and looked up at Claire. "Is Jack-Jack Ok?" She asked.

Claire looked at Jack, who was getting off Sawyer and grabbed his stick/sword. "Yes, honey, he's fine."

Charlie seemed out of a narrating job now, as Jack spoke. "The Prince got his sword, and chased the dragon for pulling him off." Jack proceeded to chase Sawyer around the camp with a stick.

Some of the others who had just watched for the sake of it were definately liking their choice to watch now. Obviously this story idea had given Jack the excuse he needed to chase Sawyer with a big stick. When they eventually made it back to where the others were sitting after weaving in and out of tents, rocks, bags, and avoiding a very close call with a campfire, Jack put the stick between Sawyer's torso and arm.

"Ha! I slayed the dragon!" He said.

Kate and Aaron clapped and cheered. "Yay! Jack-Jack did it!"

Jack bowed. Charlie took up his seat again. "So Prince Jack defeated the nasty dragon, and went into the castle to save Princess Kate." Charlie went forward and picked Kate up from beside Claire, and sat her on a rock behind him, then went back to Shannon. When Kate moved he shook his finger at her. "Uh uh uh, no, stay there, Princess Kate."

Shannon continued. "The Prince went up the stairs, to the tallest tower, to the highest room, and he found a beautiful Princess Kate lying asleep." Even though Kate wasn't lying down, Jack picked her up anyway. "Then he gave her a big kiss, and they lived happily ever after." Shannon finished.

Kate giggled. "Excuse me, Princess." Jack said. "I didn't get my kiss yet." Kate leaned up and placed a sloppy kiss on his cheek. The crowd applauded, and people took their bows.

"Thank god that's over." Charlie said, going over to Jack. Aaron was over in seconds and jumped into his father's arms.

"At least they enjoyed it." Jack said, indicating the children.

"Oh, come on Jack," Shannon interevened. "Admit it, you had fun being a prince." She teased. "Just like Kate had fun being a princess."

"But when I get to be a big girl, I'm going to be a queen." Kate said proudly.

Sawyer walked past just as she said this. It seemed that Sawyer had been and taken his pick of the remainder of the alcohol that Jack used for medical purposes, and was walking past drinking from the tiny airplane bottle. He didn't even stop walking as he smirked and teased: "If precious Jack-Jack gets into the Princess's dress then he could be a Queen as well."

Shannon held back a laugh, and Jack gazed off after Sawyer with a disgusted look on his face. He had had his share of insults from Sawyer, but he had obviously left gay accusations out of it before. Jack rolled his eyes and was prepared never to mention it again, leaving it to be another one of Sawyer's comments that simply brushed off him, when Kate piped up:

"Jack-Jack, what's Sawyer mean?"

Everyone looked at Kate and Jack as if they actually expected him to tell her. "You'll learn when you're older, Kate." He said.

He said his goodnights, as did everyone else, and they all set off for bed. It had been a long evening for them, and a long day for Kate. As planned, she was asleep within minutes. Jack watched her for a moment, curled up on his chest, and closed his eyes himself, hoping to catch up on the sleep he had missed from the night before.

In the middle of the night, he woke up to Claire screaming.