Thank you for all your wonderful reviews, everyone:) It's good to know that you're all liking it so far. Here is the next chapter where Kate and Claire have a little talk. Next chapter will be Jack and Sawyer playing the game. ;)

Chapter 6

"Thank you." Kate smiled politely as she walked into the house.

Claire led her through to the living room and told her kindly to feel at home. The place was very untidy, with baby clothes and food all around the room, stains on the carpet, dust around the furniture… the list was endless. Anyone who would come in here would notice the state that Claire was living in.

A few minutes later, the crying had stopped and Claire came back into the living room.

"I'm sorry about the mess, I don't really get time for cleaning with this little one." She said as she looked back at where Aaron was lying down, sleeping peacefully.

"Don't worry, it's not really that messy." Kate laughed, waving a hand in the air, trying to seem as kind as possible.

"Erm… would you like anything to drink?" Claire asked, hoping that Kate would say yes.

"Yes, please." Kate said, not because she wanted a drink, only because it meant that she could spend another few minutes trying to think of how to start explaining the whole situation.

Claire came back with a glass of water, which she carefully placed, on the table right in front of Kate.

For the next minute or so, they stayed silent not knowing what to say. Kate drank her water as slowly as possible, so it looked like she was doing something.

"What happened exactly?" Claire's voice broke as she tried to fight back the tears which were coming to her.

"Well… it was all very unexpected, actually." Kate began, as she moved closer to Claire, trying her best not to cry too. "We decided to make a stop at a gas station and when I came back… they had him."

Claire stood up and walked towards the window, sighing.

"It's very strange… we were so close to getting caught so many times… and the one time when you think that nothing would happen and you were safe-that no one could come and get you… it all ends." Kate took a deep breath and looked over to where Claire was. She was looking away from her, however Kate could still see by the way her shoulders shook uncontrollably and she was looking down, hugging herself tightly, that she was crying.

She walked over to her and faced her.

"He loved you a lot, you know." Kate said as she took Claire's hands, comfortingly.

"Yeah, Jack was always like that…" She trailed off.

"I-I meant Desmond." She said, but regretted it straight after the words had come out of her mouth. Claire sharply turned her head to face her, and the anger was visible on her face from far away.

"How do you know about him?"

"Jack told me everything." Kate sighed. Claire looked surprised; her brother was not like that. He would never share his feelings with everyone, not even her.

"He trusts you a lot." Was all that Claire said. Kate expected her to start questioning almost immediately and explain the whole situation all over again… but she didn't. Instead, Kate just smiled.

"That's us." Claire said as she pointed to the photo frame that was placed right in the middle of the mantelpiece. Kate immediately felt sorry for her. The photo was one of them both looking into the camera, laughing and hugging each other.

"So, this was before he-" she started but was cut off.

"Yeah, it was before he changed." Claire nodded vigorously. Kate could see that she was very sensitive on this subject and so she decided to stop here and not ask anymore.

"Jack didn't mean any of what he did. It was an accident." Kate pointed out.

"I know," she said sadly, "but it was a very bad one. The one person that I truly loved… he's gone forever."