Walk-In Safe
Weather Vane- Island iteration 4 of 5
At first it feels to Kate like it's taking forever to wake up, she's so drained from the trip there and the mild shock of Jack locking her up so unexpectedly. Then she realizes it's only really been a few seconds. The voices that woke her are followed by footsteps and then the clicking of the combination lock spinning, stopping, spinning. She sits up shakily with her feet on the bench in front of her, puts a hand over her eyes as the door opens and the light from the Weather Vane hits her.
"Hello," she recognizes Sayid's voice, the version of it that she knows means he's deeply surprised, the one that's at the lower end of his register but as smooth and sweet as cake batter. She looks up through her fingers and sees him motioning for Jack to not leave but to stand in the doorway and listen.
"Better use of all of our time," he says to Jack as he slides down next to her on the bench. "No sense having this conversation twice."
Sayid looks directly at her then, eyes blank, is silent for a minute. His body is facing forward, his head sideways and his hands are clasped together in front of him.
"Hi," she says back belatedly, and her lips are smiling but her eyes are not. She knows he has no idea why she's emotional looking at him, probably thinks it's about being held captive by them.
"I'm surprised to see you," Sayid says it with no less amazement than the hello, looking her up and down. "I thought our friend was having a stress reaction. I thought I'd see an empty room, or no room at all. But here you are. Is this time travel?"
"Not only time," Kate says. "Time and space. Heard of the "Many Worlds" idea?"
"Of course," Sayid sits back a bit. "Travel forever in a spacecraft and you'll come upon world after world with you in it. That's pure blue sky. It's theoretical cosmology."
"I'm no theory," she says, wipes her eyes and puts her knees down crossing her legs in front of her. "Our islands are connected by this place."
"So you're saying you're not 'like' our Kate, you are her?" he asks.
"The one person I know who is an expert at all this says yes," she shrugs. "But I try not to think about it too hard or it freaks me out."
She's sensed Jack getting increasingly agitated over the course of the last few sentences and now he steps out of the doorway and she sees him pacing in the next room.
"Why was this place built?" Sayid glances out that way, too.
"It was built by a cult, kind of, some very idealistic people who were out to save everybody if the worst happened. You know, nuclear war, big scale bioterrorism. But of course then everyday people started using it and…."
"And saw it could also be a way to save somebody and not just everybody," Sayid finishes her thought and she nods. "So now there's what, a power struggle of some sort over it?"
"Something like that," she says.
"And is that why you can't take us all to your island to safety?" Sayid asks. "Because I'm pretty sure there are a few here who would take you up on that."
"Really?" Kate asks, looking intrigued by what he has just said but skeptical. "Think about it: Living somewhere you knew wasn't really entirely yours, maybe feeling a little out of synch with everyone else?" She paused, looked down at her hands in her lap. "Not that I haven't spent a lot of my life feeling that way anyway. But, there are rules and I have to respect the person in charge of my island. He doesn't want us playing God and I don't either. But I can't not try to prevent the worst of what's coming."
"In charge of an island?" Jack's back in the doorway, so frustrated he practically snaps it at her. "Who's in charge of it? It's an island."
Sayid reaches back with one hand, a wordless request for him to stop.
"Tell me why you feel so compelled to help us?" he asks, and her throat tightens.
"Because last time I was asked to, I waited too long. I said no at least twice and by the time I changed my mind and we figured everything out it was too late."
"And what if you fail again this time?" Kate's confused both by how fast Sayid asks the follow-up and how suddenly insistent his voice is. He takes the fingers of her right hand in his and while he isn't squeezing hard enough to truly hurt her it's uncomfortable enough to act as a command, focus her attention and bring her eyes straight up to his.
"What?" she whispers it, confused by the question and why he's even asking it.
"You must know there's some chance you'll fail. Jack's told me you feel the need to take it a step at a time. But what if you give us your first advice, come back here next time and find us all dead? What happens to you if you try to save us and you fail?"
"I can't," she says, her eyes squinting, her voice so low and strained it's barely audible to him inches away from her. "I've never come close to letting what we went through destroy me, but if it all happens again it might. It's all so complicated, if we rush this….. You have to trust me. You have to, please."
She broke his grip, threw his arm toward the wall and her hand went to her forehead and her forehead to her knees as she fought to not cry.
Sayid got up and walked the few steps to the doorway, pushed a now stunned-looking Jack toward the bench.
"Jack, meet Kate," he said. "She's telling us the truth. And if she's willing to risk her self in this way, who are we to maybe screw it up by forcing things? She does have the benefit of hindsight."
Kate realized Sayid had recognized her, had seen through to her heart practically the minute he walked in the room. His questions had really been aimed at showing the same to Jack.
"I'll be outside," Sayid said, "getting some air. Come up when you decide what's next."
Jack sat next to her as she dried her eyes for the third time in an hour. She could tell he wanted to put an arm around her and comfort her but was hesitating, seemingly realizing he was a good part of the cause of her current misery.
"I'm sorry," he said, "You're not the only thing that's happened to us this week that's been pretty unbelievable. It's all so… messed up." He began to say more but then shook his head, faced forward and was silent. She'd barely heard anything he'd said after 'I'm sorry,' she was so busy trying to remember if she had ever heard those words out of his mouth before.
"It's okay, it's nothing new," she said, her voice still low and heavy with the emotion of what Sayid had forced her to face. "We are almost never exactly on the same page. Always been our biggest problem."
"How about that ends today," he turned back toward her slightly, "for good?"
"I would love that," she said, "so much. You have no idea."
Then she reached up and kissed him for the first time, for the second time in her life. But this time there was no pulling away and running off through the jungle. There was only the way that their mouths and their arms fit together and the familiar rhythm of the way he kissed her back, slid one arm down behind her so he could both pull her to him and push against her at the same time.
She started to drop back on the bench and was confused when he stopped her.
"We haven't," he looked unsure how to say it, "You and I haven't done this here yet. Plus I just doubted you, locked you in a safe. And Sayid is standing about twenty yards away waiting for us."
"Right," she said, "Don't bring him here next time, okay?"
"Yeah, was just thinking that," he said as she stood, re-twisting her hair into a fresh ponytail. "So, what exactly is next?"
"I have a couple of hours left," Kate said, "And I could really use some help from you both. We need to go push a small plane off of a cliff."
Los Angeles
42 Panorama Crest
Miles and Evan each held their breath as Miles punched in the security code at Kate's house. Sawyer had only rattled it off to him the once over the phone as they were heading their separate ways. Sawyer had sounded confused, even a little concerned, when Miles told him Ben wanted him to head for L.A. but Miles just chalked it up to how much was going on and what Annie and Sawyer had to deal with next.
The door opened silently, no alarm. Evan gave a little whoop of joy and headed straight back to 'his' room, formerly Claire's room, intent on getting Joop settled in and getting them both some food.
"For a skinny kid," Miles shouted to him, "You are quite food-focused, Evan. Better watch that, it'll only catch up with you when your metabolism shifts."
He went to toss his keys on the table between the front door and the living room and saw a red light blinking rapidly on the phone. Miles stood staring at it for a second, thought 'what the hell, someone has to….' and pressed play.
"Kate, it's Carole Littleton," His ears heard it but he couldn't believe it, took a half step back in reaction. "I'm fine. Aaron's fine. Please don't think horribly of me, but my daughter is not there with you, not the daughter I know. She'd never hurt Aaron on purpose but I'm afraid of what she will do. And I'm convinced whatever it is you all are going through, well it's never going to be over is it? I can give him a really good life. I promise I will. I'll get in touch someday, but leave us alone until then, please, if you love him."
"No way," Miles muttered it, shoved his hands in his pockets at the clicking sound of her hanging up. "Poor Claire, you can't catch a break, can you?"
He had a mind to turn around to go tell Evan when he heard another beep and the next message started to play.
"It's Cassidy, Kate, are you there? Pick up…" Another pause, another promise of something ahead he was pretty sure he didn't want to hear. Miles started pacing in place almost. "Okay, call me, all right? I didn't want to put you in the middle of this, but Sawyer came to see us for that long weekend the other week and barely spent a day and a half and suddenly he had to take off. Now Clem's moping around the house convinced it's something she did and I'm getting angrier every day I see her so miserable. He isn't up to what I think he's up to again, is he? Dammit, I really could kick him. Call me."
There weren't even any words for them, the thoughts swirling around Miles' mind now. He just stood staring at the phone until he heard the knock at the door.
He turned right, stared at the door, didn't move.
"Evan… could you get that?" He asked loudly, even though he was about a yard and a half away from it. "I really don't think I want to."
"Kind of busy," Evan yelled from the kitchen and Miles heard the clang of pans and plates, the refrigerator opening. He sighed deeply and walked to the door, turned the knob and opened it just enough to peer out. A curvy woman with a straight face in a business suit held an I.D. badge up to his face.
"California Department of Parole," she said, "Can I please speak with Ms. Austen? I need proof she hasn't left the state in violation of her court agreement."
"Of course," Miles said, "of course you do."
The Island
Iteration 4 of 5 via the Weather Vane
Cliff-side, near the Beechcraft crash site
Kate was glad they only had a short hike to the site of the Nigerian drug plane, it meant more time to forge up the hill behind it and scope out the options.
"I think we have to push it down. There's no way to pull it back here to level ground, right?"
Jack's expression suggested he wasn't sure at all. He crouched down to try to see how it was tilting. Sayid walked back and forth the length of it, doing about the same.
"I take it from what you told us on the way over," Sayid said, "That the plane falls not after someone climbs into it but pretty quickly after they move toward the cockpit. So yes, that suggests weak support out front. It'll be a lot easier to push than to pull."
"That's what we'll do then," Kate said. "This plane can serve as a 'sign from above' from the ground just as well as from up here."
"Who takes it as a sign?" Sayid asked. "And who would have died in it?"
"Does it really matter as long as they don't?" She asked and he frowned, but nodded ever so slightly in appreciation of her practicality.
They used large rocks to make the plane crash. Sayid and Jack collected several from the jungle and then struggled together to half toss, half push them out far enough to weigh the branches down. Kate had worried how they'd accomplish it safely but it turned out to be the work of just a few minutes. They stood enjoying a silent moment of accomplishment, watching the dust settle, then went slowly back down the hill behind them.
Jack and Sayid were ready to start hiking back, but stopped when Kate cut around toward the plane rather than away from it, reached into a side window and pulled out the handset of a two-way radio. She hit the key switch, heard the squelching sound of the radio working and put the handset right back.
"I thought you said the radio wouldn't work?" Sayid asked.
"I said it couldn't help you get rescued," Kate said, "Not that it wouldn't be of any use. It will."
Sayid said nothing, looked to Jack, who stood with his hands on his hips and shrugged.
"Need to know basis," Jack said.
"I guess we don't need to know." Sayid finished the thought.
Sayid took his leave of them at a spot where he could turn toward the beach camp.
"Wait," Kate pulled a folded piece of paper from her pack, held it out to him. "Can you read this, and keep anyone from seeing it? Something I did earlier to help out, well it's going to prevent a meeting that needs to happen. Hopefully this time it'll happen more on your terms. Just be careful."
Sayid took the paper, but his eyes didn't leave hers.
"Shall I tear it up and eat it after I read it?"
She grinned at the barest hint of a smile she saw at the corners of his lips, shook her head.
"Tossing it on the fire will do fine," she said.
Sayid looked to Jack.
"See you back there. And Kate... well I'll see you back there too."
They made it to the Weather Vane with just five minutes to spare.
"Want me to wait with you?" Jack kept walking to the side entrance, opened the door of the hatch but Kate stopped him.
"No, it's okay. Maybe next time, all right? I'm so tired, I could use a minute alone and it'd just be more stressful on me to watch you watching me leave."
"Is this safe?" He nodded toward the hatch, "for you, for the baby?"
She shook her head.
"Probably not. Someone you'll meet eventually was using it and didn't stick a landing. He ended up all the way down an air shaft and almost didn't make it out."
"That's great," Jack said. "Beautiful. Next time I ask a question like that, could you make a mental note to tell me a happy lie?"
"Okay," she laughed, then looked surprised. "Oh wait, next time… I almost forgot. Your note," she handed him a piece of paper and he unfolded it to see two dates written down. "That's when I'm coming back. Meet me here? It's easier than chasing you around the beach and avoiding everyone else."
"Smart," he said, set it back in her hand. "But keep it. I've got them memorized."
"Are you sure?" She asked, started to hand it back to him.
"I'm sure," she just caught his eyes as he said it, went silent at what she saw in them.
"You're so different from her. So much more… " Jack said it so quietly she barely heard it, didn't finish the sentence.
"Don't hold it against her. She hasn't gone through what I've been through," Kate said. "Hopefully she never will."
Kate's trip home was uneventful even though she was a little nervous, trying not to think about air ducts or bad landings. She got up off the floor as soon as she had her balance, walked to the kitchen counter and scrawled out a note for Richard and Walt.
"Wake me up when you get back. Let's catch up."
Then she fell into the bottom bunk bed, flipped up the top of the covers and was asleep before they settled over her.