Author's Notes:

I couldn't leave you guys hanging with that horrible ending of the last chapter. So here it is. Please read and review if you like it.

Just a few days later …

After ringing the doorbell several times, he'd had enough. So Miles decided to retrieve the spare key from its hiding place and unlocked the front door. He opened it slowly, walking in even slower. He was uncomfortable. He could hear Sawyer in his head, "Quit acting like a damn girl, Enos." He'd made a promise to his best friend, and he was gonna follow through on it.

He slowly made his way into the living room. It was empty. The kitchen was empty too.

"Kate?" he yelled looking up the stairs. "Are you home?" He waited for a response. "Decent or not, I'm coming up now." Still no answer. He walked up the stairs. He heard music when he made it to the upstairs hallway. He knocked on the bedroom door, "Kate? It's me, Miles."

He walked in. He found her wrapped up in a blanket lying in bed.

"Hey." He said, making eye contact with her.

She looked at him, her eyes still red and swollen, "Hey." Her voice quiet.

He looked around the room, awkward, he noticed the music that was playing. "I didn't know you like Phil Collins."

"I don't." She answered back.

He sighed. This is going to be even harder then he thought. He sat down on the foot of the bed. Quiet himself now. She ignored him. The next song started playing. The room so quiet. Her lying there so quiet. He just sat there listening to the lyrics of the song playing.

'How can I just let you walk away, just let you leave without a trace
When I stand here taking every breath with you, ooh
You're the only one who really knew me at all

How can you just walk away from me,
when all I can do is watch you leave
Cos we've shared the laughter and the pain and even shared the tears
You're the only one who really knew me at all

So take a look at me now, cos there's just an empty space
And there's nothing left here to remind me,
just the memory of your face
Just take a look at me now, well there's just an empty space
And you coming back to me is against the odds and that's what I've got to face.

I wish I could just make you turn around,
turn around and see me cry
There's so much I need to say to you,
so many reasons why
You're the only one who really knew me at all

So take a look at me now, well there's just an empty space
And there's nothing left here to remind me, just the memory of your face
Just take a look at me now, cos there's just an empty space

But to wait for you, is all I can do and that's what I've got to face
Just take a look at me now, cos I'll still be standing here
And you coming back to me is against all odds
It's a chance I've got to take.

Just take a look at me now.'

The song was over. This was depressing … not that this entire situation wasn't depressing enough.

Miles looked over at Kate lying there, eyes wide open, red and swollen, just staring into space. He wouldn't want this. He wouldn't want her to be like this. What's done is done. That's what he'd say.

"Claire didn't tell you I was coming over?"

"Yeah, she told me." Kate looked at him.

"Then why are you still in bed?"

"The couch got uncomfortable after a while."

He walked over to her, reaching for her, "Com'on, lets get up. You shouldn't be lying around all day."

"I'm not dressed."

He backed off, "Oh, … well, then get dressed. I'll wait for you downstairs."

She didn't look happy, but she agreed, "Fine, but I really don't feel like coming over to Claire's right now. I'm not good company as you can see."

"That's fine, nobodys good company lately Kate. We all miss him. But Claire's right, you shouldn't be alone all day right now. You have to get out of the house sometime Kate."

"I got out of the house yesterday." She stated, sitting up now, still wrapped up like a burrito.

"Where did you go?" Miles was surprised.

"The Cemetery." She stated calm and collected all of a sudden.

"Oh, well, just get dressed so we can go." And with that he left the bedroom.

He walked downstairs, walked into the living room. He noticed a box sitting on the floor, didn't notice it earlier. He carefully opened the lid. Shit! That must be his stuff that they'd found in the cabin. He sighed again, and replaced the lid. He sat down. Then stood back up. He didn't know how to be, didn't know how to act. He tried his best to be himself, even under these circumstances.

If he wasn't such a coward, he would have went to the cemetery too. But he was afraid of being bombarded by hundreds of dead people speaking to him. So he'd chickened out. He'd owed him this, he'd owed Sawyer to at least see to it that Kate's alright!

Several minutes later, Kate finally walked in. "I'm dressed, are you happy now."

"No, not really. But at least you're dressed."

Kates eyes fell on the box, then she looked at Miles, "Lets get out of here then."

"Did you look through it yet?" Miles' question surprised her. She looked at him, and he continued to speak. "I opened the lid, it's his stuff, isn't it?"

She nodded, "Yeah, it's his stuff they found in the cabin. But no, I haven't looked through it yet." She looked like she was about to cry again.

"Well, I'm here now. We could look through it together if you'd like." We all have to start moving on somehow.

She stood there, and Miles could see her eyes shifting. She was thinking about it. Everybody is different, he thought. He's dying to know what's in that box and she? She's afraid of what's in it.

"Okay." She said to his surprise.

"Okay then." He answered. He picked up the box and put it on the floor right by the coffee table. He sat down on the couch, she sat down beside him. He started to get things out, laying them out on the coffee table. Nothing off importance. Miles was clearly disappointed. Kate picked everything up that Miles got out, just to put it right back down seconds later. As if she was trying to see if she could feel something when touching it. It was sad to witness, really. But then at the very bottom of the box was his laptop.

"His laptop." Miles blurted out. He sat it down and opened it up.

Kate looked disappointed now, "It's all melted. And has apparently been soaked."

She was right, the outer plastic casing had been melted, and the screen had a film on it, from moisture within the laptop. So it didn't get burned, but it got flooded when they'd tried to extinguish the fire.

Miles tried to turn it on anyways. And of course. It didn't work. Miles looked at Kate and said, "An old buddy of mine, a pipe broke in his apartment, flooded the entire downstairs cause he was out of town. His laptop got wet. I mean really wet. But it still worked."

"What do you mean? How?" Kate looked at him.

"He just took the battery out. Just left it alone to dry, and it started back up after a couple of days."

Both of them stared at the laptop for a moment. Miles turned it over, trying to get the battery out. But it didn't budge.

"Do you wanna find out if there's still something on here?"

"Of course, Miles. He'd already written one chapter. I'd love to have at least that. You really think it will start back up when it's dry?" She'd suddenly found something to do today. Hopeful to find one thing, anything left from him.

"I don't know. I wouldn't wanna wait that long. But there's this shop on the outskirts of L.A.. It's at least a 45 minute drive from here, with traffic and all. But that guy is a fuckin' genius. I wonder if he could crack this thing open and at least get the hard drive out. I mean, that's all we really need." Miles was hopeful himself.

"Lets do it then." Kate got off the couch, pulling her curls together into a bun.

Miles closed the laptop, and got up too. He smiled when he saw Kate's eyes light up like that for the first time since that fateful Thursday night. He'd given her hope, but he knew in the back of his mind that this might be false hope. But none the less, she had a reason to get out of the house.

"Let me call Claire real quick and tell her that we aren't coming over." He dug out his cell phone but no reception. "Can I use your phone?"

"Yeah, it's in the kitchen."

Miles started walking towards the kitchen, and said, "We'll have to stop by an atm somewhere, that guy only takes cash."

Kate yelled back, "I got cash upstairs, I'll go get it." And with that she disappeared up the stairs.

He picked up the phone and dialed. As he was talking to Claire, explaining everything to her, he looked around the kitchen. He hung up the phone. Something was off. The sink was spotless, so was the stove. The entire kitchen was immaculate. He walked over to the dishwasher. It was empty. He closed it again. Right in that moment, Kate walked in, ready to go.

He looked at her, skinny, pale, bloodshed eyes from crying and lack of sleep. He shook his head.

"Kate, when was the last time you ate something?"

"What?"

"You heard me? This kitchen is spotless. You haven't eaten anything since Claire left here after the funeral, haven't you?"

She sighed, "I-I really haven't been that hungry. I just have no appetite."

"Well, princess, I ain't taking you to that guy unless you eat something first. And when I say first, I mean right now."

She rolled her eyes and huffed, "Fine." Clearly irritated she stomped over to the cupboard, got a loaf of bread out, took two slices out of the bag and stuffed her mouth with it. Chewing it with her cheeks puffed out. Miles went to the fridge, and got the milk out. He poured her a glass. She took it. She finally swallowed and emptied the glass too.

"See, now I ate something. Can we go now?"

Miles grabbed the loaf of bread. "Yeah, we can go now, but you're gonna eat a bunch more of this on the drive down there. 'Cause I ain't dragging you around if you pass out again."

A little while later - West Pico Blvd. L.A.

"If - and that's a big if - I can retreat anything from this thing, it will be about a week."

"A week." Miles blurted out.

"You can't be serious?" Kate was disappointed.

"Look, Lady. This thing is melted, don't even know if I can get the screws out. And it's completely soaked too. Besides, I have some other things going on right now as you can see." He looked down to his desk that was covered in computer parts, and wires and all sorts of things. "I need a week, at least." The little man with glasses sitting high up on his nose looked up at Kate.

Kate didn't look happy. But regardless, she took the approach Sawyer would have taken and opened her purse up, getting a big wad of cash out, counting hundred dollar bills in front of the guy.

"I got 2000 dollars right here. Cash. And I have 2000 dollars more when you give me what's on that hard drive. But I'll need what's on that hard drive by tonight."

The man looked at the pile of cash in front of him. He then looked up at the clock on his wall. He sighed looking up at Kate.

"I can see you've got your mind set on this. I'll guess we have a deal then." The man sighed, "But I can't make any promises. There might not be anything on here to retrieve."

Very late, that same night – same place

"It's all on here." The man held up a blue flat thing, resembling … hell, she didn't know what that was.

"What is that?"

"This, sweetheart, is an external hard drive. I've transferred everything from your laptops old hard drive to this one. You take this, plug it into your usb slot on any other computer. It will open up with a menu on its own, and you just click on 'Open folders to view." And ta-da everything will be there."

Miles looked at her with a big smile on his face, her face lit up too, she couldn't believe it worked. She handed the guy the rest of the cash she'd promised him.

"Gotta tell ya' though, they'd used some sort of cleaner on here, trying to erase the entire hard drive."

Kate was surprised, "What? What are you talking about?"

"This laptop, everything was erased, but it was obvious that this guy or gal didn't know what they were doing, cause you can retrieve anything, even if it's been erased. They should've used a dban to completely overwrite and erase everything, but instead they only used a ccleaner program. Amateur. Never works completely." The man shook his head.

Miles wanted to make sure he understood what this guy just said, "So, you're saying someone had tried to erase everything that was on this hard drive. I mean on purpose."

"Definitely!" The man answered him.

Miles continued, "And there's no way that could like happen, let's say because something melted or something?"

"Look buddy. Someone installed a ccleaner program on it, then with that program tried to erase everything, then the ccleaner was even uninstalled, to leave no trace of anything."

"So how did you …?" Kate wanted him to explain, but the man interrupted her before she could finish her question.

"Because I'm that good Lady." He flashed a slick smile. Guess sometimes it pays off being a geek.

Even later that night – Kate's house

Miles hooked the external drive up to Kate's laptop. And just like that guy said, it popped up with the 'Autoplay' menu. Kate sat beside Miles at the kitchen table, leaning onto him, while staring at the screen.

There was a lot of stuff on here. Pictures of them. His entire itunes library, some things about investments he'd apparently planned on making. A bunch of word files. But nothing really stood out. Except one. One in particular caught her attention.

"Click on that." She pointed to the screen. "The one that says Clementine."

Miles opened it. It was a letter, apparently to Clementine. They both started reading it. What the hell is this?

'To my dear beautiful daughter,

I'm writing you a letter. That's right, a good old fashioned letter. It's a lost art really. I have a confession to make. I didn't like you very much at first. A picture shoved in front of me. You were just this annoying little blob. Then years later I got to finally meet you. You smelled nice. But you didn't seem to have much interest in me, which I of course found vaguely insulting. It was just you and your mom against the world. Funny how some things never change. But you finally warmed up to me. Saw that there was more to me than just a scruffy looking guy with stubbles that scratch when I kissed your cheek. Anyway, so I cruised along, doing my thing, acting the fool, not really understanding how being a parent changes you. And I don't remember the exact moment everything changed. I just know that it did. One minute I was impenetrable, nothing could touch me. The next my heart was somehow beating outside my chest. Exposed to the elements. Loving you has been one of the most profound, intense, and painful experiences of my life. In fact it's been almost too much to bear. As your father, I made a silent vow to protect you from the world. Never realizing I was the one who'd end up hurting you the most. When I flash forward my heart breaks, mostly because I can't imagine you speaking of me with any sort of pride. How could you? You're father is a child in a man's body. He cares for nothing and everything at the same time. Noble in thought, weak in action. Something has to change. Something has to give. It's getting dark around here. Too dark to see clearly.'

Kate looked at Miles. Miles couldn't take his eyes off the screen, he was reading it again.

Kate's mouth moved, her lips trying to form a word but no sound came out. Finally she'd managed to form the words on her tongue, "What is this Miles? What does this mean?" Too shocked to even ponder the thought of crying. She was stunned.

Miles stopped reading. Shaking his head in disbelieve. Then closed the file out. Right clicked on it, went to 'Properties'. A little window opened up, Miles finger pointing to the screen were it read 'created' followed by a date and time.

"That was what? 'bout 2 weeks ago?" Miles asked Kate, looking at her, searching her face. She looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, looks like he wrote that about 2 weeks ago."

Miles heart sank when he remembered an odd conversation with his best friend, also 2 weeks ago. He'd pushed it into the back of his mind, after Sawyer had died. Too big of a coincident, it had actually creeped him out, but he'd told no one about it. But now, this letter that almost read like a suicide note changed everything.

Miles jumped out of his chair, "Lets go."

Kate stood up, looking at Miles questioning. "Go where?"

Miles impatiently already opening the front door. "To the cemetery."

Kate was confused, "It's past midnight Miles. Why do you want to go to the cemetery now? I don't understand."

He'd never told Kate of his 'gift' or whatever you wanna call it. And apparently neither had Claire or Sawyer. "Just trust me Kate. I'm going, come with me or don't." And with that he turned around and walked out the front door.

Kate stood there for a second, she looked back at the screen, then back at the still open front door. She grabbed her purse, and her key of the table by the front door and pulled the door closed behind her.

Flashback – about 2 weeks ago

Sawyer and Miles sitting on a park bench, watching Clementine and Aaron playing together on the playground in front them.

"Buddy you and I go way back," Sawyer said, looking over at Miles. He rubbed his hands over his jeans, as if his palms were sweaty and he was trying to rub the sweat off.

"Dharma initiative and all that nose-bleeding good stuff right before that. So I don't mind tellin' you I'm scared to death sometimes."

Miles' head jerked over staring at his friends face. Sawyer gave him a sad look.

"Scared to death? What are you talking about?" Miles asked sincere, realizing how serious Sawyer was when he saw that look on his face.

"After everyone we've lost, you know. Shit happens sometimes. We've all been lucky, fuck, some of us more than once. Kate and I are doing great. Clementine actually likes me." He smiled for a moment. "I guess I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"What? You're scared of dying?" Miles didn't understand where all of this was coming from.

"Guess you could say that." Sawyer sighed and just shrugged his shoulders.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I'm telling you this because …" he looked at Miles and frowned. "Because if something should happen, I want you to promise me that you'll take care of them." He nodded towards the playground, Aaron and Clementine.

Miles looked to the kids playing. Sawyer added, "And Kate too."

"I'm not doing this, you're creeping me out dude."

"Not doing what?"

"I'm not having this conversation with you. This can lead nowhere good."

"Since when are you superstitious?"

"I can hear dead people. I think that's grounds for being a little superstitious, don't you think?"

"Quit being such a girl, Enos, and hear me out. If something should ever happen to me, stop in some time and spend some time with Kate. You and Claire can always keep her laughing. I picture shes gonna need a lot of that ."

Miles threw him a dirty look, like stop this nonsense.

"I know you think I'll be fine and I'm talkin' crazy. But there's always that chance."

Both of them stayed quiet for a while, just watching the kids running around.

"Little Aaron's growing up so fast. I can't believe he already turned 4. And look how big Clementine already is. She wants to be a Softball player when she grows up."

Miles smiled at him. He smiled back, "Yeah, I know. Anyway, I'm supposed to coach her team next spring."

Miles said, "Aaron wants to be a football player."

Sawyer nodded like he knew that already, then frowned again, "He's gonna need someone to catch a pass … and to throw it back."

Silence again, "Just promise me you'll take them two out campin' sometime. Throw a line out in the water sometime … and answer any questions they might have. Maybe once Aaron gets older, you can sit and have that first cold beer together. Tell Clem a couple stories on her father. She already knows you're my best friend."

"Fine Jim, if I agree…" He looks over at him again. "If I promise, will you shut the hell up and call it good now."

Sawyer chuckled, "Hey man, I hope I live until I'm 80. And I get to see my daughter get married, and have babies. And I get to make a million more memories with my wife."

He sighed and grabbed Miles arm to get his attention. "But if it's my time to leave. Could you watch over them for me?"

Miles stared at his friends. He didn't say anything, just nodded his head. Looks were exchanged, this conversation was over and agreed on.

Miles opened the trunk to his car and searched for his flashlight. He got it out, turned it on, and shut the trunk.

Kate looked at the front gate of the cemetery. It was dark.. She had to admit, she was a little scared being here at night. But she wouldn't let it on, not in front of Miles. She put on a brave face.

They slowly started walking into the cemetery. Miles was going slow, then fast, then he would stop completely. She held onto his arm, they only had one flashlight.

"This place kinda creeps me out in the dark. You too?" She almost whispered.

Miles let out a nervous chuckle, and said, "You have no idea."

They made it to his grave. He stood there, reading his headstone. It was put up the day after the funeral. Miles handed Kate the flashlight. She didn't know why, but she took it anyways. He kneeled down on top of the grave, his hands buried in the still lose dirt.

Kate watched him. She didn't know what he was doing, but was afraid to ask. Everybody grieves differently she thought. But this was weird. She had the flashlight shining on Miles' back. He was shaking.

All of a sudden Miles stood up, "You son of a bitch."

Kate blurted out, "Hey."

Miles looked at her, "This guy." He pointed downwards to the grave underneath his feet.

"This guy is not Jim."

End Notes:

The letter to Clem is inspired by the tv show Californication. Have to give credit to that. Please rate and review if you still like this story. Thanks for reading!