The two women are both so close to literally sobbing; hearing what just went on in there broke their hearts. Knowing what now had happened. He sacrificed himself for her safety even after knowing she had screwed Sawyer. Now that was love. And they could hear the complete devastation in her voice as well, sensing she too loved him just as much as he loved her.

"Are you ready?" Sun asks Claire sadly. Claire reaches out and grabs both of Sun's hands, squeezing them tightly. "I'm not sure, but she needs us more than ever right now. Plus we need to fix that horrible looking knee of hers before she loses any more blood."

Sun nods. Both women take a deep breath and head into the small tent.


"Finish it Jack. Fix him." Tom demands coming up behind him.

Jack starts knowing he might get let off a little easier if Ben actually lives through the surgery. Jack pushes himself hard to repair this man lying in front of him. The kidney sack is repaired quickly and just in time. And after a few hours of surgery Ben's spine is scraped clean of the infectious tumor. Jack slowly sews up Ben's skin and closes it tightly so it won't reopen. Jack sighs. "It's done."

His hands start to shake, fearing what is going to happen next. He quickly places them on the table so they would stop, not wanting anyone to see how terrified he is.

"Good boy." Tom says coming towards Jack. He quickly grabs onto the back of Jack's scrubs and rams him into the wall extremely hard. Jack is too exhausted to fight back. Tom holds Jacks hands behind his back tying them tightly with coarse rope. It itches and burns his skin, but he's still stands strong. Even when Tom starts to press him into the wall even further, face squishing against the freezing cold bricks. He can already feel the bruise spreading its way across his entire body from the shear force of the impact.

"You are in a lot of trouble Jacky-boy. You'll be lucky if you just make it through the week. And after that stunt you pulled to get her safe, you can bet your ass that promise you made with Ben ain't being' kept no more."

Jacks jaw clenches tight. He suddenly gets the urge to fight, even though he is extremely weak at this point. Luckily Juliet notices what he is about to do. "Jack." She calls his attention. It is given to her. She shakes her head no. She sees' the passion and fight in his eyes. She didn't want him to fight because that would only kill him sooner which means less time for her to try and find a way for him to escape. And less time she got to spend with him. And she didn't understand this, she had never been so infatuated with a man that she would be willing to kill another to save the woman the man she loves, loves, and now risk her own life to save him. What the hell is wrong with her?

"Common, time to go back to your suite." Tom chuckles as he starts pulling him back roughly causing him to lose his balance. He lands on the floor with a loud thump and Tom doesn't stop moving. He drags Jack outside, across rocks and sticks, then over cold cement and throws him into the hydra. Jack is so utterly worn now from the long strenuous surgery, and then there was the emotional exchange he and Kate had shared, and now being dragged down into the hatch just made his day. He curled up into a ball in the corner and soon fell into a sleep filled with nothing but nightmares.


"You really messed up you're knee Kate." Sun states while wrapping it up with a clean cloth. She had just finished washing it out and now it was time to shield it from infection. "It could be slightly fractured but I don't know how to tell. The best I can do is wrap it and have you use the crutches."

When Kate had heard that tarp rattle earlier she quickly tried to wipe away all her tears. It didn't really work since the first thing Claire did was wipe away a few herself. Kate hadn't said anything since they came in, all she did was clench onto that damn walkie-talkie. In all honesty she never wanted to ever let that thing out of her sight. She just couldn't. It was her only way of communicating with him, even though she already presumed it was snatched out of his hands the second their conversation ended. She just needed it just incase they needed to get a hold of her, or tell her about Jack, or even make a deal to give him back. This was the closest thing to Jack she could get and she damn well wasn't going to let it go. It was as almost she couldn't breathe without him near her, she realized this now. This was her only source of Oxygen, and she was slowly dying of suffocation.

She winces as Sun tightens the material around her leg. She would take this physical pain over the emotional pain any day. Unfortunately on this day she had both.

"Common hunny, say something, anything. Let me know you are still capable of speaking." Claire begs holding tightly onto Kate's hand.

Her dazed eyes finally lift off the radio which she had been staring at for the last twenty minutes and meets Claire's pleading eyes.

"I should have stayed." Her words come out monotone. Almost as if she was a robot instead of a real person. She wishes she was a robot. No feeling and no attachments. No love.

"Oh Dear if you would have stayed they would have hurt you in front of him, he would have been so tortured seeing you in pain."

"No. Instead he's hurt knowing Sawyers hands have been all over me making me dirty and worthless."

"Don't you dare say that Kate!" Claire exclaims.

"Kate you are not worthless. Jack knows Sawyer is the type who would take you in a second if he could. And it did. It's just how he works. And Jack….well Jack would spend eternity waiting to just hold you for a mere five seconds." Sun says taking Kate's other hand in hers.

"There are over six billion people in this world and I had to crash on an island with Jack... The one person who has ever made me want to stop running, just for him. I thought it would take so much more to get me to stop, but it just took him, that's all. I just wish we could decide who to love. Life would be a whole lot simpler." Kate says with a sigh as yet more tears are released from her blotchy red eyes.

Sun looks right at her with all her wisdom and knowledge residing in her gaze. "But it would be a lot less magical." She says quietly, while gently rubbing Kate's back in small circles.

Kate feels Claire squeeze her hand tighter.

"I don't deserve you two." Kate simply states, tears still spilling from her eyes..

"No." Claire pauses. "You deserve more."

"Don't say that, it's not true." Kate says with sadness filling her voice.

"Kate, you have helped so many of us, I mean you delivered my baby for Christ's sake."

"I wanted to help Claire; I couldn't just let you deliver him yourself."

"But you could have."

Kate looks down and nods. "Yeah…yeah I suppose I could have."

There's a pause.

"Why did you have sex with Sawyer?" Claire blurts out.

"CLAIRE!" Sun exclaims smacking her gently on the arm.

"I was just curious, I mean he's good looking and all but why?" Claire continues, ignoring Sun.

"It just happened that way. They were going to kill him the next day and I felt as if I had to."

"That shouldn't be the reason you sleep with someone Kate. What if he got you pregnant or gave you an STD."

The tarp is brought back unexpectedly as Sawyer strides in. "Skedaddle." He says shooing the two women away. They get up giving Kate a glance. "We'll be back." Claire states and the two head out of the flap, leaving Sawyer and Kate alone.

"Did you talk to the others about getting Jack back?" Kate asks immediately.

Sawyer nods.

"And…" She impatiently waits for a response.

Sawyer watches as each tear cascades down her face and onto the blanket below her. It's almost as though there is a small puddle forming. Because he is not so quick to respond Kate takes a corner of the blanket and starts to fiddle with it in her free hand. Trying to help calm her nerves down.

"We are going to see what they are doing to him before we come up with a plan, to see the amount of urgency needed."

"What?" Her mouth drops. "IT IS URGENT! HE COULD BE HURT OR WORSE! AND HOW THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HIM?" She screams at Sawyer. He almost cowers in the corner from the animosity present in her voice.

"They have this other hatch, it has TV screens and Sayid is going to try and get a signal from the room he is being kept it." Sawyer explains.

"I can see him?" Kate questions as hope fills up her eyes like milk being poured into an empty glass.

He pauses. Knowing he might regret what he is about to ask.

"Freckles, can I ask you something?"

Kate nods. Eyes still brimming with hope.

"So were you just saving his life too? Or did you actually mean it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on freckles, I heard what you said to the Doc. I think every one but the good ole' Hero heard what you confessed back there." He pauses. "When I asked you if you meant it when you said it to me that kiss wasn't a yes, was it?"

Kate stops and looks down at her hands which still fiddle the blanket. She looks up into Sawyers sky blue eyes and saw nothing but sadness and pain. And all he saw were the tears that clouded hers, not being able to get past that barricade.

"I see." Sawyer utters.

"I do love you Sawyer, just not…"

"Like you love Jack." He finishes her sentence. He lets out a defeated sigh and takes her hand in his. "Well if he ever leaves you on a line hanging out to dry, you know where to find me."

"Thank you Sawyer."

Sawyer gets up to exit the tent. Kate stops him by calling out his name.

He turns to face her.

"When are we going?" She inquires.

"Tomorrow morning." He says with a slight nod as he departs. Leaving Kate alone and hopeful.

She couldn't sleep that night. These last few days were just so much to take, and plus the fact she didn't know if he was alright ate at her. Thinking he could be getting hurt or is already hurt right now with no one to hold him or help him tore at her heart. God she wishes she had stayed back even if it was dangerous.

Because of her inability to sleep, she slowly gets up and heads out the tarp. Crutches are laid next to her tent. Probably a present from Sun. She smiles picking them up, loving how they were so helpful with the pain, but hating how hard they were in the sand. She almost fell about four times before she got the hang of them with the unequal ground.

She took a short stroll to the waters edge and sat. She stared at the sky and how empty it seemed for the first time in weeks. Rarely any stars were showing their bright faces in the vast blue atmosphere. She felt the same way as the celestial sphere that surrounded their island. Completely bare of all forms of existence. But as if by chance, on this certain night she was shown her first shooting star.

Make a wish Kate.

And so she did. She begged the heavens for Jack. That's it. The only thing she could possibly wish for. Not to get off this island. Not to be free. Not money or riches. Just for Jack. For he had given her the best thing she could ever wish for; a reason to stop running. That reason was love.

And after hours of just thinking about that one wish, praying it would come true, dawn started to spread over the island. Causing pinks and yellows to paint the sky.

Claire came down to the shore, seeing as Aaron had woken her up for a feeding and Claire just couldn't get him to fall back to sleep.

"Hey." Claire greets Kate as she slowly sinks into the sand next to the slender brunette.

"Hi Claire." She pauses and looks over. "And good morning Aaron." Kate says reaching over to tickle the small baby.

"We'll you're in a pretty good mood considering the circumstances." Claire says noticing the change in attitude.

"I got my period." Kate says with a grateful smile.

"Oh that's just wonderful." Claire says as a huge grin spreads across her face.

"And don't I know it." Kate says with a slight laugh followed by a happy sigh. "They are taking me to the hatch with the TV screens to see if Sayid can get a signal from one of their cameras. And we can see if he is being hurt…" She starts to tear up. "Or already is hurt, and if either of those are the case then it's really urgent and we have to come up with a quick plan that could be dangerous, or if he is still alright we have time and can think out a almost fault free plan."

"I hope it's the later."

"Me too." Kate sighs. "God do I hope it's the second one." Kate says as her eyes fall to the sand. She pauses. "I thought I was done crying, I don't feel as if there is anything left in me to cry out but now I have been proven wrong." Kate states as Claire looks over towards her. Frowning with sympathy. "

"Aw hunny, you have every right to cry." Claire puts an arm around Kate's shoulders.

"I just don't want to have a reason."