Longest chapter so far, no Skate, sorry!!! I decided to put a little more plot into the story and I had been meaning to describe what happened in the hatch for a few chapters now. Hope you enjoy, more soon!!!

R&R!!!

People are STILLLLLL skipping chapters, please dont!!! I'm not saying it just because I want people to read more of my story but so that if they really do want to understand it they can. And that's not possible if you skip chapters. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go back and read missed chapters!!!

The days following Sawyer and Kate's confessions were slow and painful. Jack wasn't speaking to Kate or Sawyer which proved to be worse than either of them had expected. Now they were both bored and not knowing what the hell was going on all the time. Claire had successfully delivered her baby boy, still unnamed, with the help of her new boyfriend Charlie. Boone had fallen out of a plane (go figure) and died. But strangest of all, Locke had returned, and he brought Desmond with him.

They had come back three afternoons after Kate and Jack's fight. Everyone had been wondering about where they had gone, especially Kate. She knew there were others in the woods and was positive they had taken Locke hostage. Although only Jack and Sawyer knew about this and chose to believe Kate was hearing things due to lack of sleep or post dramatic shock. She confronted Jack a couple times to try to get him to listen to her idea but he would have none of it. The same went for Sawyer. Things had been a little off between the two since they had found out about each others' pasts. Sawyer wasn't too shocked that Kate wasn't a good girl, but he was definitely surprised by the extent of her crime. Kate agreed. Knowing that Sawyer had killed a man wasn't what hurt her. It was the fact that he had killed him without reason and that Sawyer was much too much like herself. She had hated herself for too many years over what she had done, could she love someone who was just like her? I guess they would have to wait and find out.

"Jack, look" Sun whispered, standing up from where she was gathering berries and pointing to two figures off in the sunset. One didn't look familiar to her but he seemed to recognize the two instantly, standing up and jogging over to them.

"Where the hell have you been Locke?" Jack questioned quietly

"Well, Jack, the island wasn't ready for us and-"

"I don't give a damn about the island, just tell me where the hell you were, what the hell you were doing, and why the hell you have Desmond with you!" Jack raised his voice.

"Desmond? Is that your name? Well pleased to meet you Desmond, I'm John Locke" the older man said, turning to the Scot.

"You too, brotha" Desmond said, skeptical.

"Well I'm glad you too have gotten to know each other, now what's going on? Locke did you have anything to do with the monster in the woods or the-"

"Monster?" Locke looked intrigued, "What kind of monster was it?"

"It was more like a thick black fog that was-" Jack realized he had let himself get off topic and quickly resumed. "Locke did you cause the sky turning purple? And the noise?" Jack stared at him hard, letting him know he wasn't going to get out of this question.

"Well… I haven't really been awake for the last couple days. I woke up this morning and Desmond here was walking by. He helped me, Jack"

"I don't give a damn! Tell me where the hell you've been or I'll-"

"I found a hatch, Jack…" Locke trailed it out and looked at him thoughtfully

"A hatch? As in a door, in the ground? Locke are you insane?"

"No, Jack. I found a hatch, I opened the door, I went inside, and found this guy running away," Locke pointed to Desmond, "as he was leaving he shouted numbers at me, which I later realized you have to type into a computer. I've been down there since about a week ago, I think. But once I didn't enter the numbers, an alarm started going off and the next thing I knew things were flying all over the place and-"

"Electro magnet" Desmond whispered, "It's an electromagnet that keeps the island running, without it everything changes… You forgot to press the butter, there for, brotha, you just killed us all"

"What is he talking about?" Jack asked

"Jack, the island wanted me to do this. It wanted me not to push the button"

"Don't tell me what the island told you Locke. You are going insane. If you know anything about what's been going on then tell me, if not then just stop and leave us alone!"

"Don't tell me what I cant do," Locke mumbled angrily under his breath, and then again louder now glaring at Jack. "Don't tell me what I cant do!"

"Locke. If you know anything about what happened then-"

"Do you want to know what happened to me?!" Locke was now in hysteria, "When I didn't push the buttons everything was flying around and I was sure I was going to die. Finally there was a huge burst of light and then- nothing. I woke up as if it was 7 years ago, back in my home, back before all of this happened! I was an angry man Jack, I didn't do anyone good. But I decided to pretend like I hadn't had this 'dream' and went on living my life as if the last 7 years hadn't happened. I met a woman…" he lowered his voice, "we talked a little and one day we saw a little boy pass by. She noted the odd color of his mustard yellow shoes, and I thought nothing of it. Later that day a building collapsed and all that was left of him was his shoes, Jack! She knew he was going to die said 'he was meant to die'!"

Jack cut him off before he could continue on with his insanity and looked hard at the balding man. "Locke, where are you going with this?"

"Let me finish" Locke hissed, "I woke up today in the jungle, almost as if going back to the past 7 years was a dream. I sat up and everything went blurry. I looked down and around me and noticed I was naked, damn hatch blew my clothes off. Desmond was running by and gave me this shirt. And now here I am in front of you…" Locke trailed off and Jack had a feeling he was hiding something very big by the look on his face. It was like he wanted to say something but knew he shouldn't. Jack decided to ignore this and walk back to camp with the two men.

"Wait" Jack stopped them, just before walking out of the woods, "Desmond… where did you go?"

"Pardon, brotha?"

"When the hatch was exploding?"

"Imploding" Desmond corrected, "and I needed to save the island… I went back to the hatch, and turned the key, and saved us all…"

"Umm… thanks…" Jack said, annoyed that he had even asked and expected an answer with less BS.

When they returned to camp all hell had broken out:

Claire's baby was missing...