"Ellie?" Kate's voice drifted through the darkness. Receiving no reply she leaned up on one shoulder and looked over to where Ellie was sleeping. Her dark hair was slayed out on her make-shift pillow, and one foot peeked out from underneath the blanket that was covering her. Her eyelids flickered as she dreamed, her fingers curling underneath her chin. Kate moved slowly to the opening in the tent. Wincing at the cold air from the sea she glanced around. Sawyer was still sat by his fire, reading. She walked over to him, checking over her shoulder to make sure that Ellie was asleep.

"Evening." Sawyer said, not looking up from his book.

"Where did you and Ellie go today?" It had been bugging Kate for the entire afternoon; ever since Ellie and Sawyer had come running into camp, grinning like schoolkids. They had been sopping wet, and when Jack had asked why Ellie had dissolved into a fit of giggles and refused to tell. Sawyer had followed her lead, which just made her giggle more. They had been like a pair of five year olds, everytime Jack or Kate had asked them - which was at least 20 times - Ellie had answered in French.

"Nowhere." Sawyer said, his eyes firmly fixed on the page but his mouth curling into a smile.

"Sawyer." Kate sat down on the sand next to him, the heat from the fire radiating through her. "Just tell me OK? It's not funny anymore. Where did you go?" Sawyer finally set the book down and turned to face her.

"We went for a walk, ended up at that lagoon place you and me found. Took a swim, talked a bit."
"That's it?" Kate stared at him. Sawyer shrugged.

"That's it. She just wanted to have some fun." Kate turned her attention to the fire, thoughts swimming around her head.

"Don't feel bad Freckles. It ain't personal."

"I know that." Kate snapped. Inwardly she groaned. "If it wasn't personal why wouldn't she tell me? Better yet, why not ask me in the first place? Why ask Sawyer?" Sawyer's voice broke through her thoughts, as if he was reading her mind he said,

"You and Jack are kind of like the parents; the ones she trusts to take care of her, make sure she eats right, gets enough sleep. Parent stuff. And me...well I'm Sawyer."

"You're fun." Kate interuppted, her voice stinging.

"No. I'm the bad influence, the uncle who lets her do stuff she shouldn't. She's 17 years old Kate, she should be out with her friends doing things her parents wouldn't approve of. Instead, she's here, without anyone she knows and who knows her and she doesn't know what to think anymore."

"She said that?" Kate asked, surprised.

"How did you guess?" Sawyer joked. "Like I said, we talked. Don't go gettin' jealous, Freckles." he warned, seeing Kate breathe in sharply. "Why does this bother you so much?" He asked.

"It doesn't!" Kate lied.

"Freckles." Sawyer scolded gently, "Is it really that big a deal?"

"Yes" Kate whispered, turning her head away from Sawyer and staring into the darkness. Her face was flushed from the heat of the fire and she felt cold tears slide down her cheeks.

"Kate?" Sawyer laid a hand on her shoulder and she shied away from him. "Kate? Why is this such a big deal?" he repeated. Kate tried to catch her breath.

"She...she reminds me of someone I used to know, OK?" Sawyer moved his hand from her shoulder and cupped chin in his hand, turning her face towards him. The firelight made her teartracks glitter as she looked at him.

"Who?" he asked. Kate stared downwards at the sand. Sawyer didn't let go of her, instead he grazed his thumb tenderly over her cheek. "Kate," he whispered gruffly, "who does she remind you of?"

"She reminds me of me."

"Morning." Ellie yawned. She had had a surprisingly good night's sleep, considering that she was essentially sleeping out in the open air. She had never been good at the whole camping experience; the only time her father had tried to take her she had woken at 3am and screamed until he let her sleep in the car.

"Hi." Kate, already dressed, was sitting cross legged, running a hairbrush through her hair. "Sleep well?"

"Mmm." Ellie nodded, stretching her legs underneath the blanket.

"Comfortable? Not too cold?" Kate continued,

"Yes Mom." came the muttered reply. Suddenly it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the tent. The small words hung between them, Ellie reclining on her elbows with her hair all mussed and Kate still sitting with hers half brushed. Thankfully they were interuppted by Jack sticking his head through the doorway of the tent.

"You're awake!" he said to Ellie, his voice full of energy.

"I guess." Ellie replied, her eyes fixed on Kate.

"I was gonna take a walk to the Hatch, wondered if you wanted me to get the rest of your stuff and bring it down?" Jack had insisted that Ellie only took a few items with her down to the beach, in case she didn't feel safe there.

"Can I come?" She asked quickly. Jack looked surprised, Ellie still sometimes seemed distant to him, wary. If he was honest with himself, it had kind of annoyed him yesterday, when she and Sawyer had arrived back at the beach. It wasn't that he was jealous, as such, it was just that he didn't understand why she was willing to go off with Sawyer, but not with him.

"Sure." he said, trying to hide a smile. "5 minutes?"

"Fine." Jack walked off and Ellie swung her legs around, trying to re-arrange her thoughts. Kate had put down her hairbrush and was absently playing with a stray thread on her jeans.

"Your sneakers are over there." She pointed to the bottom of Ellie's 'bed'.

"Thanks." Ellie said, grabbing them and bolting out of the tent towards the water trough where Jack was filling up water bottles. She balanced easily on one foot as she put on her sneaker, then hopped lightly onto the other foot to put on the other one. Jack looked sideways at her.

"You still have three minutes and 40 seconds you know. I wouldn't have left without you." He joked. Ellie tried to laugh but Jack could see her heart wasn't in it. "Let's go."

"I called her mom." Ellie blurted out. They had been walking for about five minutes, neither of them talking. Jack could tell something was bothering her; the difference between her today to how she had been a few weeks ago; silent and pensive compared to bubbly and energetic, it was enough to tell him that something must have happened. And apparently it had.

"Kate?" He asked.

"Yeah. Just now. She was asking if I slept ok and if I was comfortable and I said 'yes mom'. I didn't mean to...it just came out but ... I mean, is that how I see her? Yesterday I was talking about it with Sawyer and it kind of got me thinking that maybe I've latched onto you and Kate as sort of surrogate parents, you know? Cos I don't have mine anymore. Is that insane?"

"Not insane. Understandable. What did Kate say?" Jack and Kate hadn't really had a chance to talk properly since the night Ellie had freaked out on them. The night they had almost kissed. He had wanted to, but everytime they got remotely near to being alone they had been interuppted.

"She didn't. I think she was as surprised as I was." Ellie fell silent again, remembering the stunned look on Kate's face. They walked on again, Ellie a few steps behind Jack. He slowed his pace slightly, so she could keep up if she wanted to. She wanted to. There were so many things she wanted to ask him; thoughts buzzing through her mind. But everytime she opened her mouth, it was as if she couldn't find the words.

"Ellie?" Jack spoke first

"Yeah?" she answered, relieved that he had spoken first.

"The other day, when Sawyer brought some of your stuff to the hatch, he found something else. We didn't give it to you, we weren't sure if we should."

"What was it?" Ellie was intrigued and hurried to catch up with him. He had continued walking, calling out to her over his shoulder. Jack stopped walking, and fished around in his jeans pocket. He pulled out the orange pill bottle that contained Ellie's prescribed anti-depressants. The second Ellie heard the rattle of the pills her face paled. She couldn't breathe and her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest.

"Ellie. It's ok." Jack placed his other hand on Ellie's forehead and angling her head so that he could look into her eyes. She blinked rapidly and tried to formulate a coherent sentence.

"I...I...I didn't, I never took any."

"I know. I thought you might want them; you can get rid of them or whatever."

"How about you keep them? You have all the other medication, you never know when something might come in useful, right?" Ellie pushed away Jack's outstretched hand; pushing away the pills. "I never wanted them - they were my grandfather's idea. He thought they might help, but I don't want them."

"Fair enough." Jack replied, putting the pill bottle back into his pocket. "So..."Mom". That's pretty huge."

"Is it?" Ellie asked, turning away from Jack and beginning to walk again.

"Is it?" Jack mimicked. Ellie laughed, the light sound echoing around the trees.

"I don't know. Maybe I do think of you as kind of my parents..." " Ellie looked at him, her green eyes reflecting the sunlight streaming through the leafy canopy above them. "I mean, would that be so bad?" Jack felt his heart swell with a feeling close to pride. She acted so mature; when he looked at her it was the same as when he looked at Kate, seeing a young woman who had been through far too much, far too soon.. But she was only 17, and deep down she was scared and wanted someone to protect her, reassure her.

"No," he finally answered. "It wouldn't be bad at all."