I only had 4 reviews, but, since it's Christmas, I updated anyway.

Merry Christmas.

And for the person who asked; the titles are in Italian.

Chapter 16

In Un Momento Scuro

"Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow."

After a few hours of Kate and Jack sleeping, the door to their room slowly opened. A man walked in, and looked at them before glancing around. He walked over to Jack and shook him slightly, doing his best not to wake the sleeping woman next to him. "Dr. Shephard." he whispered. "We're ready for you."

Jack shifted slightly, quickly opening his eyes when he noticed the man was there. "What?" he asked in confusion. He stared up at the man, looking tired.

The man rolled his eyes. "I said we're ready for you." he said. "Everything is ready. Come on."

Jack rubbed his eyes for a moment, then glanced down at Kate. He leaned over and placed a kiss on her forehead. He sighed and stared at her for a moment, then stood up. "Alright." he said. He'd been thinking about this and had an idea. He just hoped it would work.

The man nodded his head slightly. He turned and headed out of the room into the dimly lit hallway, the lights flickering.

Jack frowned as he headed into the hall, watching as the man shut the door behind him. "What's up with the lights?" he asked. "You don't have a mechanic?"

The man shrugged. "It's just from the storm." he said. "We have a generator in the room you're going to be working in though."

Jack nodded his head. He glanced at the lights once more, then continued to follow the man down the hall. He stopped once they got into the room and walked over to the x-rays, looking at them carefully. "Alright." he said. He turned to the man they were beginning to put to sleep on the table.

"So what's the chances he's going to live?" The man asked him, glancing over at his boss. "Are they good? Bad?"

"It's about a fifty-fifty chance." Jack replied, walking over to the sink. "Can you get those?" he asked, nodding to the gloves.

The man nodded. He watched Jack wash his hands, then helped him slip the gloves on.

Jack sighed and took a breath, counting to five in his head. He glanced at the people who were going to help him, then turned back to the man. "Feel free to leave if you're not going to do anything." he said. "It'd be better if no one was in the way."

The man nodded his head slightly. "I have other stuff to do anyway." he told him. Turning, he left the room to gather everyone else just incase things went wrong.

Jack turned back to the man and nodded. "Alright." he muttered to himself, walking over to the man.

He spent quite awhile on the surgery, doing everything that he should for the time being. The machine that monitored the man's heart rate suddenly started beeping faster though, and Jack glanced over it. Time for his plan.

One of the other doctors shot a look at Jack. "What's going on?" he asked him, quickly.

Jack continued with what he was doing for a moment. He then stopped and turned around. "Let my friends out of here." he said. "If you don't, I'm going to let him die."

The man looked at him, not seeming to understand what was happening. "What did you do?" he asked.

Jack narrowed his eyes at him. "Did you hear me?" he asked. "I said let my friends go if you want your boss to live."

The man stared at him, then turned to the door. "Hey! Manny!" he yelled. "Get in here, NOW!"

The man who had brought Jack into the room rushed in, followed by Kate, Sawyer, Jayla, and Jessie. "What's going on?" he asked quickly, his gaze going from the man, to Jack, to the heart monitor.

Sawyer looked around, then looked at Jack, staring at him for a moment. He seemed to read his eyes slammed his fist into Manny's stomach, grabbing the gun as it dropped. He pointed it at Manny, then turned to Kate and Jessie and Jayla. "Run." he told them.

Kate stared at them for a moment, then took off as fast as she could. She was a criminal, used to doing things quickly and running.

Jayla took off right after Kate did, though ran in a different direction.

Jessie took a few moments, almost in shock. She soon turned and ran after Kate though, trying to catch up to her, but ending up getting separated from her. She took a random direction, but ended up running smack into another person that worked there. She fell to the ground, letting out a whimper as he grabbed her by the arms and lifted her up, glaring at her.

Kate managed to take a direction where no one was. She wasn't sure where she was going, or even if she wanted to know where she was going. It was getting darker and darker and the stone walls soon turned into dirt walls, the ground also becoming dirt. She took no time to look around though. She just kept running as fast as she could, hoping that where ever she was heading had an exit.

It was quite suddenly when she tripped over a tree root and landed on the ground. She groaned smally and shifted slightly, realizing she was lying in something very moist. Slowly, she pushed herself up and looked at her hands. Her eyes went wide as she noticed whatever she had landed in was a deep red color. She quickly looked at the ground, feeling even more sick than she already was when she noticed what she had landed in was a puddle of blood.

She tried to whimper, but her voice got caught in her throat and she coughed. Hurriedly, she tried to wipe the blood off of her hands and onto her clothes, not wanting it touching her skin. She didn't even know what, or who, it had come from. She wasn't sure if she wanted to find out either.

The effects of running hadn't hit her yet, maybe because she was in shock from all that was happening. She began walking quickly down the tunnel of the cave she was in, looking around in horror. Weird designs were painted on the cave walls, indescribable, weird, yet brilliant and beautiful. They didn't resemble anything for the most part, and gave her a horrible feeling inside. She crossed her arms tightly and continued walking, a breeze making her shiver more.

There was a movement behind her and she quickly turned around, though couldn't see anything. This time a whimper escaped her, though she tried to hide it, not wanting to be heard. She tried to be the brave Kate, who wasn't afraid of anything…but she found herself being the Kate she normally wasn't; sick, terrified, confused. She mouthed Jack's name, trying to calm herself as tears began to fill her eyes and she began to fill horrible again. Something moved beside her and she quickly turned, finding herself face to face with a terrifying looking thing. What it was, she wasn't sure. It seemed so oddly familiar though. She couldn't seem to place it though. It looked like a thing…not a human, not a creature.

The thing looked at her, seeming to be floating slightly. It whispered in an inaudible voice, seeming to be wanting her to understand, or even follow it.

Kate shivered, though she wasn't sure if it was from fear, cold, or fever. Slowly, she began to follow the creature through the cave, occasionally glancing around. Her mouth seemed to be glued shut and she felt like something was pulling her along. A few tears traced their way down her cheeks and her body shook again.

The thing suddenly came to a halt, and Kate stopped right behind it. She tried to look around it to see what was going on, but found that whenever she tried, it blocked her view. She closed her eyes and crossed her arms tighter, sniffling a bit. She coughed suddenly and the thing turned to face her, glaring at her hatefully. She opened her mouth to apologize, but then shut it again. The thing obviously wanted her to shut up, and what was the point of apologizing anyway? She didn't even know if the thing spoke English. She didn't even know what the thing was! So instead she stayed silent, gluing her eyes to the floor.

It seemed like they'd been standing there for quite awhile before the thing turned around again. More things of it's kind began to fill the room, and Kate suddenly remembered why this was all so familiar. Her eyes landed on the thing from her dream, the one that looked different than the others. It walked on the floor, not floating. If only it would take off it's cloak. Then maybe she could tell who it was.

The things began to gather in a circle, leaving her on the outside of it. In the middle, the creature that she seemed to recognize was. Everything was still for a moment, then the figure slowly took it's cloak off, revealing who it really was.

Kate frowned. She jumped weakly, trying to see, but when she caught sight of who it was, her jaw dropped. She fell to the ground, just staring. "Tom." she managed to mutter.