Disclaimer: I do not own Lost or its characters. I only own the story in my head.

Summary: They changed everything. Flight 815 never crashed, the island is underwater, and the same people are living different lives. So they think, because fate as other plans.

Sideways Stories from the Castaways

Claire

Claire Littleton gripped the sides of the bed as another contraction hits her. She tries to do the breathing she was taught but she's having enough trouble to remember to just breath so she doesn't pass out. She opens her eyes to look at Kate who was by her side. Kate holds he hand with her free one; the other was handcuffed to the bed. The cop that arrested her was dressed in scrubs and standing in the back with a strange look on his face.

It took some convincing to let Kate be here with her, but she needed her. The blond detective somehow charmed the nurses into letting him be in the room too and that Kate needed to be handcuffed to the bed. When they asked what her crime was, he told them it was classified. Claire was impressed that he was able to get his way, when she talked to them they seemed very rule oriented. She guesses she just as a talent for that kind of stuff.

"Ok, It's time to push, Miss Littleton" Dr. Goodspeed tells her.

She starts to panic "I'm not ready for this. I'm not -- I'm so scared. I'm scared." Claire says squeezing Kate's hand.

Kate squeezes her hand back. "It's ok honey. We're going to get through this together, okay?" she tells her.

She nods her head and looks back at the doctor and starts pushing. She was so happy that Kate was here and that she didn't need to be alone. She's sweating and tired; finally she hears the first tiny screams.

"Congratulations" Dr. Goodspeed says and hands her, Aaron. She didn't know where she got that name but she knew it was perfect for him once he was in her arms. Tears start streaming down her face, how could she ever think of giving him up. She looks up at Kate who also smiling.

"He's beautiful" Kate tells her through her own tears.

"Thank you" Claire tells her. Kate must have come into her life for a reason; out of all the cabs at the airport she hijacked hers. She was so shocked on that being her first experience in America that all she did was sit there and then she came back with all her stuff. She knew it was stupid to ask the woman in handcuffs to accompany her to the house of the adoptive parents but she didn't know anyone else and she couldn't do it alone. Then they ran into each other again, it had to be fate, Kate was supposed to be here involved in Aaron's life that much she did know.

"Do you want to hold him" She asks Kate.

"I don't know" Kate replies shyly. "I never held a baby before"

"It's not that hard" Claire replies pushing herself up so she could hand Aaron to her. She places him in her arms. She looked like a natural holding him. "Are you sure you never held a baby? It looks like you know what to do." She tells her as Kate slides her arms underneath his head.

She sees Kate look down at her son. "It feels familiar" Kate replies.

"Well you'll make a great mother one day." She tells her smiling.

"That will be awhile, cause I'll probably be in jail" Kate tells her nodding over to the cop in the corner.

"Can I ask what you did?" She was interested but she figured it was none of her business and if it was something horrible it would be better off pretending that Kate was just a nice person not a psycho. She knew that was idiotic but Kate hadn't done anything to really hurt her, she was just running away. That's what she kept telling herself anyway. So now she waited with bated breath to see what Kate would tell her.

Kate looks down at Aaron then back at her and sighs. "I'm being framed" she whispers to her. "I got involved with these people and I know shouldn't have. They got mad…and…now everyone thinks I'm a murderer."

Claire's eyes widen as she takes that in. "I guess you don't have to tell me the whole story" Claire tells her since that was very vague.

"I've done some bad stuff in my life...and I'm probably making it worse by running… but I never killed anyone" Kate tells her. "I couldn't"

"I believe you." Claire tells her.

"You're the only one" Kate says.

"You came all the way back to give me stuff my back. I don't think a bad person would do that." Claire says and she honestly believed that. Kate wasn't a bad person; she just made some bad choices.

Kate asked the cop if she could stay awhile longer, surprisingly he said ok. But he did call in his partner to take over watching her. He said he needed some air and all the baby stuff was making him uncomfortable, his partner was better equipped for this. He tells her congratulations and walks out of the room.

She watches as the he throws his scrubs in the bin like it was basketball hoop, he turns around just as a blond woman slams into him drenching him in hot coffee.

"Son of a...."

A/N: I think from that you can tell what couple I'm writing about next. :D It's on to the shipper chapters now.