As much as she hated the idea of missing time with her children, Kate fell into an unsettled sleep that night. Every second was haunted by faces...Wayne's drunken face...her mother's terrified expression in the hospital...Tom's determination to stay in the car with her, followed by his lifeless body...Sam's near embarrasment to do his duty and call the police on his step-daughter...the Marshal's teasing face, taunting her with the plane...then there was Jack's face, and Kaia's and Curtis's. She ran towards them, running as fast as she could away from the past and towards the present, to her future. Yet as fast as she ran, they were just out of reach. Jack was calling her. Kate...Kate...Kate...

"Kate?"

His voice brought her out of her nightmare, and sitting bolt upright where she came face to face with Jack. She could feel the cold sweat on her forehead, and her heart was still racing as if she really had been running.

"Kate, what's the matter?" He asked, his hand running down her cheek, feeling the heat radiating from her skin.

"Nothing." She said, shaking her head and managing to control her breathing once again. "It was just a nightmare." She told him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, feeling his hold on around her waist, and she let out a heavy sigh. He knew that she had a lot of nightmares because of her past, but he had no idea how different this was.

"You want to talk about it?" Jack asked her, wiping her hair away from her sweat beaded forehead.

"I couldn't get to you." She admitted. "You were standing there, all three of you, and as fast as I ran, I couldn't get to you. They were all behind me...Tom...the Marshall...Wayne." She tried not to cry on the final name, and leaned her head on Jack's shoulder again, taking deep breaths while he rubbed gentle circles on her back.

"It's Ok." He whispered to her. "I'm here now, you got to me." He assured her.

"And I didn't even need to run." She mused aloud, the thought of running still playing on her mind. Maybe she might still have the chance to run, to get away from them...

"Please don't run, Kate." Jack asked softly, his voice breaking slightly, as he read her thoughts. "If you run then we'll definately never see each other again."

Kate knew that he was right. If she ran, then Jack and the kids would constantly be under watch from the police, knowing that this would be where she was trying to get to. She wouldn't be able to slip past them for long, especially seeing as she had been away from running for nine years now, and when she did get caught, it would be worse for running yet again. She didn't want to be in another state, knowing that her children were growing up somewhere else in the world without her, and she didn't want them to see their mother's face on the news or on the front page of the paper for still being the criminal at large, dangerous, do not approach under any circumstances. She was sick of seeing that plastered all over the towns. Sure, at one point, it had had given her a strange kick to know that this was all attention focused on finding her, one person in six billion, but now she had a family, others to think about, the attention sickened her.

"I won't." She said after a long time, raising her head to look at him. "I won't run."

"Thank you." He whispered, and embraced her again.

"Where are the kids?" She asked him, looking over his shoulder and seeing their sleeping area empty.

"Outside playing with Aaron. Sawyer's taken them out to play a little way in the jungle, you know, one last time." He explained. Kate smiled sadly. She knew how the children, Kaia especially, would miss playing in the jungle everyday.

"Good, I'm glad they're having fun." She smiled, then her smile faded. "How long?" She asked.

He knew what she was asking. Not how long before the children were back, or how long they had been gone. Instead, it was how long did they have left? How long before the boat came? The sun was high now, around 10am already, and yet the boat, due at sunrise, was clearly not here.

"I don't know. It should have been here by now." Jack said, "But personally, I'd rather it didn't come at all."

"Me too." Kate agreed.

Jack stood up, extending his hand and letting Kate pull herself up on it. "Come on, lets go get some breakfast." He told her, and hand in hand, they walked out of the cave.

Kate looked around their camp for what would be the last time to see it funtioning normally. There was Claire, clearing up after Aaron's breakfast, talking cheerfully with Charlie while he folded up their clothes, putting them into the one suitcase they had between them. Eko and Locke were talking peacefully over some boar for breakfast, Locke leaning over to cut another chunk of meat off for Hurley, who went and sat beside them, joining in the talk. Sun and Jin were eating their breakfast quietly together, speaking in Korean even though Jin had picked up English pretty well over the years. Ana Lucia sat with Libby off to one side of the camp, Ana Lucia looking grumpy about something, while Libby seemed to comfort her about it. Kate guessed that even Ana was sad to be leaving.

The sound of giggling could be heard, and the three children, Kaia, Curtis and Aaron, came running into camp happily, spreading in different directions as Sawyer made roaring sounds and chased after them. Curtis ran straight over to Kate and hid between her legs as she sat down, crouching down low and hiding because he couldn't run as fast as the other two, who darted circles around Sawyer. Aaron was an extraordinary runner, and his reflexes were extremely fast, Kaia, on the other hand, just liked to wind Sawyer up. The ducked under low hanging braches and dodged around objects at the last minute, one time leaving Sawyer to trip over the cooler box of water, sending their water bottles spilling out onto the ground. Rather than getting angry, he burst out laughing, and Kaia and Aaron snuck up on him, both tickling him until he surrendered.

Kate ran her hands over Curtis's hair. "Don't you want to go play as well, honey?" She asked him, kissing the side of his head.

He shook his head. "No.Stay with Mommy and Daddy." He said, and then moved from between Kate's legs and crawled into the space on the log between them, sitting down and helping himself to some of the meat on Jack's plate while Kate ate her fruit. Jack didn't complain, Curtis usually did this, as he rarely ate his own food, only off of someone else's plate, usually Kaia's or Jack's. Kate remembered even as a young child, before he could even crawl, that he was always grabbing things off of plates when he could reach them, just like Kaia used to do with hair, and Aaron occassionally still did with bugs.

"We'll finally have birth certificates." Kate mused with a smile.

"And photographs." Jack added, with a little laugh. "What do you say, Curt, what do you want to do first when we get to Australia?"

Curtis thought long and hard, and then said in his childish voice. "Where's Australia?"

"That's where we're going to." Jack told him. "Where we're going to live from now on."

"What can we do there?" Curtis asked.

"Well, we can go to zoos and see the animals there." Jack explained, knowing how much Curtis was always trying to get near the wildlife of the island. "There's big tigers, lions, sometimes even bears." Jack said, watching the youngsters face light up incredulously.

"Yeah! Yeah! Wanna go there!" He said, clapping his hands together.

"Whatever you say, little man." Jack said, patting him on the shoulder. "I can't wait to show them things like ice cream..." Jack started speaking to Kate, but she was looking away, over towards the path leading to the beach. He followed her gaze, to see Sayid standing on the edge of the clearing with Shannon.

"Guys, come on!" Shannon yelled, causing the whole camp to quiet. "It's waiting for us."

They knew that by 'it', she meant the boat. Kate took a deep breath, and called for Kaia the same time that Claire called for Aaron. Sawyer walked over to Claire with the children, who was standing closer, then took Kaia over to her parents. Kaia looked a little scared. She knew what Shannon coming back meant. It meant they were going away. It mean that Kate was going away.

"Mommy." She said, and hugged Kate tightly, while Sawyer and Jack exchanged helpless glances.

Kate tried her best to show no fear infront of her children and smiled at Kaia, kissing her and hugging her back. "It's Ok, baby, just remember what I told you, Ok?" She reminded, and she felt Kaia nod against her.

"Ok." She said in a tiny voice.

The four went back to the cave, to get together the last of their belongings. There had been small children's backpacks which at first had been used for carrying smaller items around the cave, and Jack was glad that he had saved them, and he had put some food and a bottle of water each, as well as Kaia and Curtis' personal belongings so that they felt important being able to carry their own stuff. Aaron was doing the same, and they all felt strangely happy with the responsibility. Kate and Jack had their own bags, and of course, there was no need to take the airline blankets with them, but Jack had seen Kate fold one up and stow it away in the bottom of her bag anyway. Mainly, all they took was clothes, but there were other things that they wanted to take with them, to remind them of their stay.

Around his neck, Jack still had the key to the gun case, which was more of a habit now, and he still didn't take it off. Kate had a similar necklace, but hers had a seashell on, with beads made from beautiful pebbles off the beach that Kaia and Jack had made her a few years ago. Kaia had been so proud with her handiwork, that Jack had stayed up that night and made her a smaller replia for herself, so Kate and Kaia were always wearing their matching necklaces.

In the front pocket of Jack's bags were the most imporant things to them. The baby bracelets. When they had been born, Jack hade braided strands of leather from one of the shredded backpacks to create bracelets that tied snugly around the childrens wrists when they were younger. Both were so tiny, and yet they weren't as fragile as the ones they would have got from a hospital back home. In the leather, Kate had one day carved the names of the children, so that they would always know which belonged to whom.

Eventually, their cave was empty, and the couple stood together staring around the place that had been their home for nine years. "Woah." Kate commented. "It's kinda big without all our stuff."

"Yeah." Jack mused, hearing his voice echo a little somewhere near the back of the cave.

"Goodbye cave." Kaia said loudly, loving to hear her voice echo around her. The returning echoes, to her, were saying goodbye to her. "See, Curt." She said, turning to her brother who's hand she was holding. "Cave says goodbye!"

They walked back out into camp, and unlike Jack, Kate didn't look back, knowing that it would bring tears to her eyes. Standing on the edge of camp with the other survivors was heart-wretching though, and tears came to everyone's eyes. Aaron cried, screaming that he didn't want to go, and tried desperately to hide away from Charlie and Claire in the shelter. When they eventually got hold of him, Aaron cried still, and to make him feel better, Charlie whispered something to him, then slipped a bug into his pocket without Claire seeing, a reminder of the island. Kaia sniffled when she saw Aaron crying, but didn't scream and shout like he did. She just ran over to Jack and held tight to her father's hand.

Together, they surveyed the camp, and the empty ruin that was until ten minutes ago, their home. The fires that had recently been diminished still had whisps of grey smoke rising and curling in the air, giving the camp the same smell as when you blow out the candles on a birthday cake, only weaker, because none of them could remember what that smelt like anymore. All around them, twigs were dug into the ground along with leaves, where their footsteps could still bee seen in the muddier areas. On one large blank area of the cave wall, Sawyer was adding something to the carving that had once been a calender for them. They all croweded round to see Sawyer's inscription.

We are the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. 48 of us crashed here on September 22nd, 2005. 41 of us were rescued on November 12th, 2014. We'll remember those we lost in our struggle to survive, and we hope that you've got the peace you deserve. Brought together and leaving together by fate.

"Come on." Sawyer said, holding out the sharpened rock he was using. "Everyone write their names on it."

Gradually, the cave face had a list of 41 names on it. And the observed the rock again. "Now everyone will know." Sawyer said. "When people start to investigate this place with cameras and all, they'll know that this is where we lived, where we survived."

People were surprised that it was Sawyer, of all people, giving the leaving speech about their rock, with countless days and months and years all crossed over with slanted lines. But they all nodded and agreed with him, because he was right. This was where they had lived, and survived, together. And sooner or later, now that the island had been discovered, reporters, and land developers would visit the island to try and make something of it, but this area would be untouched. This special place in the heart of the island. Their camp, their home. No holiday hotel chain or shopping centre would be built over this, and not a thing would be touched. Because they had made it, and it was a sign, a living memory to those who had struggled, yet still been lost.

The walk to the beach along the familiar path was quiet, with people finally knowing that this was really the last time they would walk it. What was even worse, was the realisation that once they got to the beach, that they would need to diminish the Great Fire. The fire on the beach was still burning. Every day, wood was added, and somehow, they had managed to keep the signal fire burning for the better part of the nine years. It was their hope, their way out, and now it needed to end.

They all stood together by the fire, even though the boat was waiting down by the beach. Overnight, no one had thrown wood on it, knowing that the boat would be there tomorrow, and so it was already only the size of a regular campfire, only with a larger surface area. Like some kind of ceremony, they all stood around it with handfuls of sand, even the children. They had agreed that it should be done together, and simultaeneously, they all released the sand onto the fire. Slowly but surely, the flames became embers, and embers became ash, and the fire that had burned bright for them all was gone.

They turned towards the boat and saw that smaller boats had been there on the shore to take them to the larger one waiting just out of the shallows. Kate shifted Curtis, who had grown tired of walking, on her hip, holding him tightly for a moment, before they set of on their final walk across the beach. There, on the first boat, Michael and Walt jumped out to meet them, followed by a few sailors from each boat making sure that everyone was getting in Ok. Kate held back, and Kaia stayed with her, Jack turned to them, saw the fear in Kate's eyes, and went to them. All four of them embraced, holding on to each other tightly. Then, after they started to be harrassed to get onto the boats, some of which were already setting off across the ocean, they climbed into one of the remaining boats, and sat together silently, because no-one knew what to say. All they did was watch the beach get further and further away from them.