Sawyer landed on the wood floor with a loud thump. "No..." he groaned and swatted at the air lazily. He kept his eyes closed tight, too exhausted to try to figure out how he ended up on the floor instead of his bunk.

"Is he awake?" A voice whispered cautiously. A small hand poked him in the back. "Is he dead?"

"I dunno," someone answered in a hushed voice, "You rolled him out of bed. Not me" Sawyer chuckled to himself when he realized who it was. It wouldn't hurt to play along... he told himself. One of the little rascals shook him lightly, and Sawyer made his move.

"Arghh!" he leapt up playfully. Charlie and Aaron screamed in shock. Charlie stumbled and almost fell, his curly blonde hair bounced up and down. Sawyer laughed. The boys recovered when they noticed he was just having fun too. Charlie looked to Aaron and he nodded; they used their combined weight to push him back onto the ground.

Sawyer looked around the room while the boys jumped up and down on him and noticed that both Kate and Claire had already left. He had tried to ignore it, but he had overheard Claire crying over Charlie last night. He'd pretended to be asleep when Kate walked in for a moment. He had wanted to go after her, but he figured she wanted to be alone.

"I'm a pirate!" Charlie yelled, while pinning Sawyer down, "I'm captain, get some rope, brotha!" he yelled proudly. Sawyer couldn't help but laugh when the kid said "brother" the way Desmond always did. He wondered if Clementine had any of his traits.

"Aye, aye!" Aaron shouted back, "And I'm a cowboy! Don't let him up!" Aaron ran around the room, looking for something to tie Sawyer up with.

"Now you wait just one minute!" Sawyer cried, and struggled noncommittally. He pretended to be scared.

"Don't move!" Charlie ordered, and pointed at Sawyer, "You under arrest!" he said in his high-pitched child's voice. Sawyer chuckled and decided to go along with their game just a little longer.

"Wanna make a deal?" he asked Charlie. Charlie shook his head, and Aaron returned, somehow dragging a large coil of rope behind his back. He handed it to Charlie and gave him a salute. "Hey!" Sawyer yelled as they began to tie him up, "No fair!"

"You broke the law, Mr. Fowd!" Aaron yelled, mispronouncing Sawyer's last name, "And now you gotta go to...to..."

"Jail!" broke in Charlie as he bounced up and down with excitement. "Put him in the brig!" They had no idea where to put him, so they simply closed the door instead. They stood guard and whispered not too quietly to each other. Sawyer began to wonder how much longer this would go on for; he was beginning to get hungry, and he wanted to apologize to Kate and see how Claire was doing.

"Should we ask questions?" Aaron asked Charlie. Charlie shrugged.

"You two wanna know something?" he asked them. They looked at each other, deciding what to do.

"Remember," Aaron whispered, "he doesn't have...what's the word?"

"Authority?" Sawyer offered. Aaron shook his head.

"Control!" yelled Charlie.

"Control," Aaron agreed. Their minds were made up. Aaron nodded to him, and Charlie moved forward towards Sawyer. Aaron stayed guard.

"What?" He asked suspiciously. He slapped a wooden sword in his hand and paced around Sawyer. He laughed again.

"There's a new Sheriff in town boys!" Sawyer proclaimed, standing up. "And he don't like pirates!" Aaron and Charlie froze and stared at him, their eyes wide. They backed up slowly until they hit the wall. Sawyer grinned playfully just as he heard footsteps.

The door to the room opened and Kate peaked her head in. She caught sight of James, standing up with rope tied loosely around his chest and arms. He looked at her for help, desperate to escape from the situation. For a moment, Kate stood still, taking it all in, and then she burst out laughing. She clutched her sides and slid to the floor.

"What's going on here?" she asked through barely suppressed giggles.

"How ya doin' Freckles?" Sawyer asked her casually.

"Momma, why does he call you Freggles?" Aaron asked her, confused. Sawyer noticed that the munchkin still thought of Kate as his mom as well as Claire.

Kate smiled sadly, "It's just an old nickname," she informed him. Aaron nodded his head up and down.

"We tied up the Sheriff!" Aaron told her proudly, forgetting entirely about the nickname. He tried to stand a little taller to show her that he was tough. She ruffled his blonde hair, and smiled.

"He doesn't like pirates, brotha!" Charlie added. He flashed a glare at Sawyer and pointed angrily with a chubby arm. Sawyer pretended to appear offended.

"Now, you wait just a minute! I didn't mean it!" Sawyer argued playfully, "Honest!" Kate grinned at him. Thank you, she mouthed.

"All right, but the sheriff and I need to talk now." Kate told them. She gave Sawyer a look that meant whatever she had to say was important. Aaron looked dejectedly at the ground.

"Awww!" they complained in unison. Charlie tossed his sword onto his bed and sat down on the floor with a thump. "I like playing with the sheriff." Aaron complained in a small voice. He too sat down in a defeated manner.

"I'll need your badge, Sheriff." Kate teased. The boys looked up, interested. Sawyer pretended to not want to give in. He shook his head. And then, he remembered that Kate had something important to tell him.

"Oh, all right." he said with mock bitterness. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an invisible badge which he handed over to Kate. The boys cheered and clapped. Aaron hugged Kate's leg and then ran over to give Charlie a high-five. They whooped joyfully.

"Go on, get some breakfast Goobers." Kate smiled at them. They ran out of the room, Charlie yelling at the top of his voice, "We got the sheriff! We tied him up!" Kate and Sawyer left Penny and Claire to figure out what they meant.

"Can we talk up on deck?" she asked him cautiously. Sawyer nodded his consent. Personally, he would rather talk down here where no one could overhear them. But Kate usually got what she wanted, so there wasn't much point in arguing with her.

"So, what is it, Freckles?" he asked Kate once they were out and in the sun. The unusual outburst of warmth permeated his skin; it reminded Sawyer of the island. A light breeze played through his and Kate's hair.

"You're good with kids," she told him while completely ignoring his question. She seemed upset, but unable to let out what she needed to tell him.

"Look, Kate, I'm sorry about last night I didn't-"

"I don't care about that James, I've already forgiven you... It's something else. It happened last night" Kate began slowly.

"You mean when you were wandering around the boat?" he interrupted her casually. She laughed to herself, in a manner that said I should have known. She ran a hand through her long brown hair and then nodded.

"I came up on deck, because I couldn't sleep...and I noticed something." she looked down before continuing, "I swear, I saw someone staring at our boat, but when I looked closer, they disappeared." She pointed a little ways down the dock to the spot. Sawyer walked forward and stared, although he had no way of doing anything about it yet.

Kate walked over next to him and looked out at the docks. "I need to protect my son." she whispered. "Will you help me? If they come back?" she looked at him pleadingly, begging for his help. Sawyer sighed and then nodded.

"Sure." They stood quietly for a while, and listened as the boys recounted their story to Claire. She laughed happily, and Sawyer knew that he needed to protect his friends at any costs.

"You two need to find a better hiding place." came a snide voice from behind them. Sawyer whipped around and laughed grimly. Standing before him was the one and only Benjamin Linus, squinting slightly in the sunlight and smiling up at them mischievously. Kate shook her head angrily.

"What are you doing here?" she questioned him.

"You do realize that you're being watched...don't you?" he asked them coolly. He spoke to them slowly as if he were talking to small children. "Am I the only one who has managed to maintain some sort of cover?" he goaded. Sawyer rolled his eyes.

"What are you doin' here, bunny killer?" he asked in a rude tone. Ben chuckled lightly.

"Hugo sent me to save you," Ben replied, "Unless, of course, you don't want me to. Personally I thought it was a waste of time" He trailed off and turned around to leave. Sawyer was infuriated to see a smirk play across his lips. Just as Ben had wanted, Sawyer knew couldn't let the little weasel leave without finding out how he knew where they were.

"Hey Ben! Hold up!" Sawyer called out. Ben looked up at them, and smiled. Kate glared at Sawyer, but he shrugged back and shook his head, saying without words What else was I supposed to do?

Ben smiled to himself again before looking back up at them. "Mind if I come in?"