Here they were. All of them. Sitting around, scattered all over Claire's living room.

Kate caught in the middle of a heated discussion about last nights discovery.

She'd stayed up all night, going through every single file that had been retrieved from Sawyers laptop. Miles stayed with her, but at some point fell asleep on her couch.

She never found that chapter he supposedly wrote, but found some other weird little things he'd written. Like letters to someone. She imagined they were meant for her. But one of them was for her, no doubt. Because he'd started it out with 'Freckles'. Just thinking about that letter made her want to cry again. He said everything he did was with the best of intentions, and he was asking for her to forgive him. What does it all mean? None of it made sense. How the hell did this happen? And how had he been keeping this from her?

He'd been planning all of this and she never saw it coming. She thought they were happy … she was trying to make him happy for the rest of their time together. And he? He conned her, but for what? He didn't take anything from her, nothing of value … nothing except her heart. He took that, loved it, caressed it, made her believe this was all real. They were real. Married. Trying to have babies. He took her heart and held it captive, before he threw it away … tossed it aside as if it was nothing, stomping over it, leaving his shoeprints all over it as he just up and left. Walked away from her. Walked away from Clementine. Walked away from all of them.

But then on second thought, she found herself torn inside again. He's alive. He didn't die. He's out there somewhere, living, breathing … she should be happy about that. She is happy about that. Shit! She glanced down at herself. Dug out one of his shirts from the hamper this morning. Dirty dark blue button down shirt. 10 times to big for her it seems, she had to fold the sleeves up. She's wearing it. It smelled like him. She couldn't help herself. Wanted so desperately believe that he had a good reason for doing what he did. That someone made him do this. That this wasn't his choice, … that he didn't have a choice.

Her mind went back to the island. Jack and Sawyer standing there. Both determined on their mission. Jack to save the island and her or all of them in the process, … and Sawyer determined to save her.

"Good luck to you James." Sawyer shaking Jacks bloody hand, "Thanks doc, for everything." Both of them sincere with each other … no pretend to get along for her sake kinda thing. None of it. Somehow these two men had managed to get passed their issues, before she could even begin to face her own … involving both these men.

Sawyer and Jack. Jack and Sawyer. They'd made their peace with one another. Right here, right now. Jack loved her, but he knew that he wasn't what she wanted. And Sawyer? For the first time Sawyer could actually see what he'd never seen before. It took him 3 years to see that after all this time Jack turned out to be the hero after all. Sacrificing himself so that they could leave together. So that they could live. Make it off the island together.

She loved both of them, but not the same, not equally. She was leaving with the man she couldn't live without. She'd tried that already. She'd tried living without Sawyer, but failed desperately … leading to her holding on to a little boy that she had no right to hold on to.

She felt like she was caught in the crossfire of her heart and her mind.

She sat there on the floor with her legs crossed underneath her. She was sooo tired. Not just physically, but emotionally drained as well. She didn't know what to think, didn't know what to feel. Why would he do that? Did he do that? Why the goodbye letters if he had no intentions of sending them out? Was he the instigator in this or was he a victim of some sort?

This was pretty much the discussion unfolding in front of her. She sat there, sad eyes looking on as all the people invested in her life argued about her husbands intentions. She'd stayed quiet, taking it all in and watched on, while almost everyone around her had an opinion on the issue. Her own emotions all over the place, because everyone had a good point. Almost everyone … some didn't matter a whole lot.

Cassidy shook her head, "What kind of man would do that to his daughter? I mean, first he wants nothing to do with her, then he marches back into her life, and for what? To break her heart and make her miss him? She wouldn't miss him right now, wouldn't be heartbroken if she'd never remembered him." She looked into the faces around her, looked for some kind of confirmation that he shouldn't have done that.

"Now that's not entirely true. Clementine knew through Kate that she had a dad that loved her, but that he was far away. And then she asked you eventually again about him, asked you if she had a dad like other kids did. So, she'd already missed him, before she met him." It was clear to see that Claire was on Sawyers side, no matter what his reasons were. She'd have an excuse ready for him.

"You know Claire, you've been defending him all day. Do you know something we don't?" Cassidy was getting annoyed with Claire.

All eyes fell on Claire, but she just shook her head. "Do you really think I'd know about this? Really?" She shook her head again. "I just can't picture him doing this. I mean staging his own death. Everything. It just doesn't make any sense to me why he would do that. I'm going over every conversation I've ever had with him in my head … over and over again, and I come up with nothing that would explain this."

Cassidy looked over at Kate, "What about your money?"

Everyone had left her alone so far. Miles had been the one explaining everything. So for the first time Kate actually talked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean is any of your money missing?"

Kates eyes grew mad, her lips pulled into a straight line before she answered. "No Cass', there isn't any money missing as far as I know."

"What do you mean with as far as you know?"

Kate found this conversation irrelevant, and she didn't try to hide her feeling either, her lips frowned and her eyes reflecting disappointment, "Not that it is any of your business, but we did have some money in separate accounts. And no, I don't know what he did with some of his money, but either way, he left all of what's left to me. In his will. He asked me in his will, to give some of it to Clementine and some of it to Aaron, but still said, I can do with it as I see fit." The more she spoke she grew angrier of having to defend him, but she continued, "So no Cassidy, he didn't con me out of my money, instead he left me with all of his."

Cassidy just nodded, "Okay then." She regretted having brought it up. Kate looked so fragile to her already. She hadn't meant to upset her any more then she already was. "I'm sorry Kate."

Kate's eyes went soft again, "I know you are. I'm just a little on edge … I know that this isn't your fault."

Miles hadn't said anything in a while. When everyone showed up he explained about the whole conversation with Sawyer and the laptop and all that, but he said he didn't understand it any more than they did. But after everyone babble on and on, he'd finally had enough.

He stood up from the couch and started pacing, "It doesn't really matter what his fucking reasons where to begin with, that's beside the point right now. What we need to think about is this. If he isn't dead, then where the hell is he?" He looked around the room for possible answers.

Finally Frank chimed in, "The way I see it, whatever he did, he did with …" he looked at Kate with a sympathetic smile on his face while he talked "He did it with the best of intentions. I mean that's what he said in his letter to Kate. So we can assume that he felt the need to do this, whatever his reasons might have been. Here is what I don't understand guys. How the hell did that DNA test come back as a match? And second, who is that guy that got buried in his place? How did he pull that off?"

Miles said, "I'm agreeing with Frank, we gotta take a look at the facts that we know for a minute. A staged death with a burned body, who fyi died of a gunshot wound quite some time ago. And not to forget the faking of a DNA test. I might be totally wrong here, but there is only one person that I know that could possibly pull that off." Everyone stared at him eager to hear what he had to say.

"Isn't it obvious guys?" Miles blurted out. "Linus has to be behind all of this somehow."

Desmond spoke, "Ben would be my first guess too now that Charles is dead, but regardless, Sawyer was part of it. The letters and his conversation with you made that pretty clear, Mate."

"So, it could be possible that Ben blackmailed Sawyer into going along with it." Claire had a theory.

"Blackmailed him how?" Cassidy didn't buy it.

"Maybe Ben threatened Kate or any one of us, and Sawyer made a deal with him, agreeing to go along with his plan."

"So you're saying Ben staged Sawyers death, and Sawyer was in on it?" Frank wanted to clear up what Claire was implying.

"Something like that, yeah."

Cassidy couldn't butt out, she just couldn't understand why Claire kept on trying to excuse Sawyer every chance she got. "Why are you so convinced that this wasn't his doing? Why do you keep on finding excuses for him?"

Claire closed her eyes, her chin quivered; she was fighting back tears, "Because I have too. I owe him that." Tears were rolling now, unable to control her emotions. She looked at Kate, "I tried to kill you."

Everyone looked on clearly shocked and confused. Miles said, "What? What are you talking about?"

"I was so upset about Aaron, I had all this anger inside of me. I tried to kill Kate. And even though I'd tried to kill her, and he knew that, he helped me. He talked to me, he was there for me. Just him, Aaron and me … he forgave me. So whatever his reasons are why he did this, I forgive him. We just have to get him back. If Ben brought him back to that island, we have to get him back. We have to save him." Claire stared into the crowd. Judging by their looks, some couldn't believe what she was suggesting.

"I just can't picture Hurley going along with this, it doesn't sound like him. He was so against lying about the island the first time around. There is no way he would go along with this plan to bring Sawyer back to the island. I mean, he was the best man at your wedding." Frank looked at Kate for reassurance.

Kate just nodded in agreement.

Desmond said, "But then again, Hugo is listening to Ben and he is the protector of the island now. This might be out of his hands, … if the island isn't done with Sawyer, then maybe he had no choice in the matter."

Claire said, "You always have a choice, I still think it was Ben's doing, and I don't think Hurley had anything to do with it. Kate? What do you think?"

All eyes fell on Kate this time, she faked a shy smile.

She cleared her throat before she spoke, "I don't know what to think really. But I don't see how or why the island would need Sawyer for anything. Locke is dead. Hurley doesn't have anything to worry about other then someone finding the island. And we all know that's not that easy to do." She looked around the room, making eye contact with Claire, Miles and Frank.

Frank said, "Can we even be sure that that thing is dead."

Kate said, "He's dead."

"You're sure 'bout that, princess?"Frank asked again.

"Yeah, I'm sure, because I shot him and then Jack kicked him down a cliff. He's dead!"

"You shot him?" Cassidy was surprised.

Kate just nodded in response, looking at her friend across the room.

Claire looked at Kate, "So what are we gonna do? How are we gonna get him back?"

Desmond looked at Penny, they exchanged a look, she nodded then looked at Kate and gave her a sympathetic smile.

Then Desmond spoke up, "There is a church, right here in L.A. and underneath that church is or was another Dharma station."With that he'd caught everyones attention. He went on, "They called it the Lamp Post. That's where I found Faradays mother that time, along with Jack, Sun and Ben. Eloise was explaining to them how with the help of that station they could determine where the island was going to be."

"What do you mean by 'going to be'? Claire asked confused.

"The island apparently moves, or at least that's what she said to them, and that there would be so called windows or something like that."

"That place, it's here in L.A.?" Miles continued, "Then what the hell are we still doing here? Let's find us a way back to the island."

Desmond stood up now, "Kate, I'm really sorry, I'll bring you to that church, but I cannot go back to that island. I can't leave my wife and kid again."

Kate nodded, "Of course, I'll do this on my own."

"No you're not." Miles and Claire said at the same time, then looked at each other in surprise.

Cassidy chimed in, "I can't believe you guys are even considering going back to that place, after everything you've been through, … haven't ya' all learned anything?"

Kate looked at Cassidy, "You got Clementine and Shawn. What do I have? He's all I have, and I'm beginning to agree with Claire, he wouldn't do that to me unless someone forced his hand, somebody made him do this. And I'll be damned if I'm just gonna sit around and do nothing. I have to find him and bring him home. One way or another." She then looked at Claire and Miles, "But I'm doing this on my own, both of you have something worth staying here for, I won't let you leave Aaron. I can't let you do that."

"But Kate, how are you going to get back to that place on your own?" Penny finally spoke up before Claire and Miles could answer her. "I do not want my husband to go, but I do think you should not take this on yourself either. If Ben has your husband, then you are going to need help. Benjamin Linus shot Desmond and then pointed a gun at me. And yes, he helped bring Des back to me and has been apologizing ever since, but I do not trust him. Who knows what that man is capable off? Isn't there some way we can get in touch with Hugo? Or what about Richard? Can't he be helpful in some way or at least tell us who really is in charge? Maybe something happened and Ben is in charge now? That would explain some of this, or would it not? Isn't James the last Candidate?"

"If we knew how to get in touch with either one of them, do you really think we'd all be sitting here having this conversation right now?" said Miles looking at Penny.

"I'll do it." Frank spoke up, catching everyones attention again, while looking at Kate.

Kate looked at him puzzled.

"If we find a way to get back then I'll come with you."

Kate couldn't believe it, "Really? Why would you do that for me?"

"Hell, call me a romantic or whatever, but I agree with Claire over here. He wouldn't do that without a good reason. I got nothing here for me. You guys are all I got now … the love of my life died many years ago, so there's nothing here holding me back. And besides, I'm an optimist. Both of us have been to that rock 2 time and came back, and who knows? Maybe the 3rd times the charm. Maybe when we leave the 3rd time we can finally leave that place behind us, once and for all."

Kate was touched that he of all people would volunteer for this, but she couldn't accept it. "I can't let you do this. There's no reason for you to go through all of that again. I can't ask that of you Frank."

"Good thing you ain't asking then. But I do have one condition."

She smiled cause Frank reminded her of Sawyer, "What's that? What's the condition?"

"We're gonna do this my way. The right way this time. Meaning we're gonna get ourselves some fake passports and you're gonna make a visit to your probation officer downtown. You'll squeeze a few tears out, tell 'em that you're leaving town for a while, but of course not California. And considering that a little over a year ago you'd buried your kid, and now you buried your husband, I think they'll cut you some slack and leave you alone to get back to normal."

"Don't you think going there and talking to them would put more of a spot light on her back Frank?" Cass put her 2 cents in.

"No, I think this way is better. Her husband just died … if we're gone and they try to get a hold of her and can't, they'll put a damn warrant out for her again. Puttin' her pretty little face all over the news again, that's the last thing we need right now. If she tells them that she needs to leave town for a while, just drivin' up and down the coast, getting her mind of the fact that she just had to bury the love of her life … don't you think that sounds a hell of a lot better than being put back in cuffs again."

They all seemed to agree and Kate nodded, "Okay, I'll do it."

"Well, then lets go and find ourselves a Dharma station … and we'll see where we go from there."

At the same time somewhere else – half a world away

He was sitting all alone in a comfortable chair, his legs stretched out on the coffee table in front of him. Button down shirt, blue jeans and hiking boots. He took a swig from the beer in his hand, before placing it back onto the coffee table in front of him. Then with his reading glasses on his nose, he had his eyes narrowed on the page of the book he was reading. He heard a knock on the door.

Looking up from his book, annoyed look on his face, "Come in."

He watched the door open, and saw one of the new recruits walking in with a big manila envelope in his hand. He remained seated, looking up at the twenty-something kid that seemed to be nervous being in his house.

The young man started talking, "Uhm … Mr. Linus send me over to give you this." He held the manila envelope out to him.

He took it knowing what it probably was, but asked anyways, "What is this?"

The man shrugged his shoulders, "Uhm … I'm not sure, Mr. Linus just said that it's what you've been waiting for this whole time, and I should bring it to you immediately. And he also said if you don't know what to make of it, you should just stop by his house. He would go over it with you."

"Is that so, Billy?"

"Yes, but sir, my name is not Billy. It's …"

"I don't care whatever the hell you name is, get the hell out of my house." That look in his eyes alone would have sent the kid running for the door. Within seconds he was gone. As soon as the front door shut he ripped through that manila envelope … Dying to know if it had worked … His heart was pounding as he looked through the paperwork in front of him.

His eyes staring at the pages in front of him, as his expression grew even colder. Gibberish! What the hell is this? This doesn't prove anything; he doesn't know what any of this means.

Angrily rolling the papers up in his hands, he jumps up and heads for the door.

"Captain Bunny-Killer is going to have some explaining to do."

Less than 2 weeks later

Shaking his head to himself. He was thinking back to the early morning when that cabin started to get engulfed in flames. All he cold see were his dreams going up in smoke.

Can't believe I'm hiking through this damn Jungle again. Wearing this damn monkey suit again. So much for ditchin' this place and living with her out on the west coast.

His strap from the large duffle bag digging into his shoulder. He turns around to make sure that kid's still following him close by. He does. Same looking green duffle bag strapped onto his back. He stumbles on, that bag almost too big for the young mans smaller frame. But Sawyer doesn't bother to hold back any branches for the guy. No, he just keeps on going. Not really givin' a damn whether or not the kid gets hit in the face with a damn branch every other minute.

Ain't no one holding leaves, bushes and branches out of my way. If Brandon over here wants to survive this rock then he better gets used to getting dirty and banged up. Cause chances are, someone's gonna get hurt sooner or later, and it damn sure ain't going to be me again. Neither my body or heart could possible take another beating. I'm getting to old for this shit.

They walk in silence for a while, finally making it to what seems to be a well worn path. The young man following him is tall, short dark brown hair, with what Sawyer would describe as a 'babyface'. He looks like he should still be in high school. Brandon speeds up to walk side by side with Sawyer.

"Mr. LaFleur, can I ask you something?" Brandon's trying hard to keep up with him, so he can have a face to face conversation.

"No." Short and sweet.

"Why not?"

"Cause I ain't in the mood for talkin' son. So shut it and walk."

"It's just that I was wondering about the whole sex thing?"

Now he has Sawyers attention, he can't pass up a chance teasing him,"What? Your daddy never told you about the birds and the bees kid?"

Brandon blushed a little, "No, I know about that, it's just that someone said we'll get kicked off this place should we get one of the female recruits pregnant. Is that true?"

He's in a bad mood, been in a bad mood since he'd left his life behind, but none the less, he can't help but smirk at Brandons question, "Why do you wanna know? Planning on becoming a daddy already?"

"No." he shakes his head vigorously, "No, it's just with the whole clause in the contract and all, I was just wondering what that's all about."

quo;Should you be lucky enough to find someone willing?" He looks the kid up and down, "And I highly doubt that. Just use protection. Or otherwise you can kiss all that money you're supposed to get from Mr. Reyes when you're contracts up bye bye."

"Really? He will not pay me if I get a girl pregnant?"

"Didn't you read the fine print before you made your xs and os and crossed all your ts? It's all right there in black and white. You'll lose all of your money, every single penny, because that money's going to the unlucky lady you knocked up … she'll have to leave, quit her job here because of you, so her compensation is everything you would've gotten."

"Well, that doesn't really sound fair."

"Sure it is. Not only does she lose her job here, but now she's gonna have two mouths to feed. Sounds more then fair enough to me." Can't really freak the kid out and tell them the woman would die if she'd stay.

Brandon's quietly walking for a while.

"So who is she?"

Brandon looks back over to him, "What?"

"Who's the chick you're dying to get busy with?"

Brandon smiles, "Oh, it's just … it's Kimberly, you know, with the blond long hair."

"Walk away while you still got a choice kid."

"Why? What are you talking about?"

"I saw that Kim chick with that other guy the other day. Seems like she's got her sight set on him. If you walk away now you can save yourself a whole lota pain, trust me on this Brandon. Kelly's destined to be with Dylan."

Brandon made a face, "What are you talking about? And who are Kelly and Dylan?"

"Kelly, Dylan, Brandon. Don't you watch tv?"Sawyer searched his face for a reaction, but there was nothing.

"We didn't really get to watch tv at the foster home I was at."

Sawyer shook his head, "Never mind, all I'm saying is she likes this other guy, which means all you're gonna end up with is a broken heart."

Brandon doesn't say anything. Doesn't want to believe that Kim's already chosen somebody else.

"What makes you think you know so much about this? You don't even know her."

"I know her type." Sawyer blurts out self-assured. "Trust me, falling in love with someone on this island can lead to no good, Lee. Advice is free, take it or leave it."

They walk in silence again for a little while until Brandon speaks up again.

"It seems like you found the right one."

Sawyer jerks his head around, "What makes you think that?"

Brandon pointing to Sawyers ring on his hand, "You're married. So you found the right one."

Sawyer sighs and touches his ring on his hand, twisting and turning it as if he was nervous. Then tosses Brandons statement aside, "Nah, I'm not married. I was - once, but not anymore."

Brandon doesn't understand, "Then why are you still wearing that?"

"Cause I'm here to work, don't have time for some twenty-somethings to hang all over me. And this ring…" he chuckles, while twisting his ring around again. "…this ring keeps the good girls off my back. And the ones that don't care that you're married. Well, those you wanna keep your distance from in the first place."

"Oh." That's all Brandon responds with after this little confession.

Several minutes later he goes on to say, "But I really like her. I think I might even love her. I can't just walk away from that, can I?"

Sawyer felt sympathy for the kid. Haven't we all been there and done that. Couldn't walk away. Sure you can. I did.

"Listen kid, I've broken a couple of good girl's hearts cause I said I loved 'em knowin' that I couldn't. And then I've given my heart to a woman who said she'd stay, then I left her when I knew that she wouldn't." Right after he finished talking he wondered why he was even telling this guy about all of this. And just like that, his heart closed up again. I'm done talking to this punk.

"That explains a lot." Brandon says thinking he has him all figured out.

"Explains what?"

Brandon nervous again when he sees the evil glint in Sawyers eyes, "Uhm … I mean that explains why you seem to be angry all the time."

Sawyer lets it sink in for a moment, then let out a chuckle and says, "Yeah kid, that explains it. Now will you shut the hell up for the rest of the way or do I have to shoot you?"

At the same time on the beach somewhere - the same island

Kate and Frank pull the raft onto the sandy shore.

Frank looks back out to the ocean, the submarine that brought them here had disappeared out of sight again, "Turnin' back now is out of the question."

Both of them pull their backpacks on, and decide to hide the raft somewhere by the edge of the jungle. The colorful raft is to easily spotted on the sandy beach, it makes more sense to cover it up with a few branches and leafs.

Kate digs her map out and both of them are studying it. She looks up and down the beach, the sun still high in the sky, shinning in her eyes. She'd thought of everything to bring, except sunglasses. Already missing the luxuries of living in the real world.

"So princess, any idea where the hell we are on this map?"

"Yeah, I think we're right here." Pointing to a spot on the piece of paper. "We're north of where Rousseau's camp was. If we stay on the beach and keep going north, we'd get closer to the barracks. At our wedding Hurley told me that that's were he lives now."

"Sounds like a plan. Barracks here we come."

Kate smiles at him. She doesn't know what she would have done without Frank. And Penny? She could never repay her for everything she's done. She'd inherited everything from her father. Besides the fact that the Humes now had more money then god himself, Penny had access to every resource her father had at one point acquired. Her and Frank would have never made it here without Penny's connections and financial support.

They start marchin' on.

"Theres a big sonic fence around the housing area. Don't walk through it, it will kill you."

"Here for a total of 30 minutes and you're already warning me about the first way that might lead to my death? That oughta be some kinda record." Frank smiles at her.

Thank god he's here with me. I can need all the help I can get.

After heading into the jungle a while later, they decide to make camp when it got dark. She can hardly sleep, keeps wondering if he's somewhere here or if all of this was for nothing. She can't take her mind off of him. It's been 3 weeks since she last saw him. She misses him so much. And now that everything in her life was good again… now she definitely had to find him. Can't wait to try having babies with him.

If Ben is behind this I'm going to kill him. I can't believe he was at our wedding. I can't believe I cared enough to save his life when he was child. Maybe Jack was right, maybe they weren't supposed to save him back then.

She shakes her head as if she could shake those thoughts out. No, we did the right thing. It is wrong to let a kid die. She'd do the same thing all over again if given the choice. But god help him if he has anything to do with this.

The next morning.

He walks out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. He's about to head to his bedroom when his eyes fall on the two duffle bags sitting on the floor by his front door. He sighs and seems to think about it for a moment before he walks over, opening the one he'd carried back from hydra island, retrieving the dirty dress that once belonged to Kate. He holds it in his hand, staring at it. He walks back into his bedroom, laying the dress carefully folded onto his dresser, before he gets dressed.

He goes on about his day, leading a group of new recruits, or as he likes to call them 'outcasts', through the jungle to disarm old traps from Rousseau or Claire. That's his job today, getting the recruits familiar with their surroundings and being able to spot a trap.

As he's standing in the middle of the jungle his walkie-talkie goes off. "LaFleur, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"We have a security breach. We need everyone to come back now to secure the perimeter around the barracks."

"What do you mean we have a breach? What kinda breach? Other then us the island's secluded."

"Someone's tried to deactivate the solar fence, and now we have movement within our perimeter. You all need to come back now."

"Alright, we're on our way. In the meantime, make sure Hurley … I mean Mr. Reyes is secured in the bunker."

"Linus is already on his way to take care of that. Over and out."

"Over and out."

He turns around to face the group. "You've heard the man, make sure your guns are loaded. Keep your eyes out for anything suspicious, and keep on moving. We have to get back to the barracks asap."

End Note: Reviews are always welcome. Thank you for reading!