Title: Conception
Author: Diandra Hollman
Feedback: Would love it! diandrahollman@gmail.com
Website: http://diandrahollman.neocities.org/
Date Finished: 
Rating: R average with a few spots of NC-17
Keywords: See part 1.
Spoilers: Follows cannon, sometimes loosely, sometimes very 
    closely, from the season one finale through season four. 
Disclaimer: See part 1. They’re not mine. Shocker.
Archive: E-mail me and I'll let you know when I finish it.
Summary: See part 1.
Author's Notes: Working knowledge of the show and  
    character's backgrounds (as seen in flashbacks) as well 
    as several major (and some minor) plot points from all 
    seasons is assumed.
    
    All cannon dialogue from this section is from season 3 
    Narrative interpretation of thoughts, facial 
    expressions and actions as well as any filler scenes, 
    changes in timeline or references to Jack being 
    pregnant are mine.  

Conception – part 2
By Diandra Hollman 


Jack came to in a dimly lit room. He groaned softly and blinked 
rapidly, forcing himself to full consciousness. He was laying 
on his side on something hard and uncomfortable. His head felt 
heavy, his mouth painfully dry. He heard a noise above him and 
turned his head, squinting as the blurry shapes gradually came 
into focus. Chains. Hanging from the ceiling.

He pulled himself into a sitting position. He was on a table - 
the only piece of furniture in the room. He caught sight of the 
small piece of gauze taped to his arm and ripped it off 
angrily. Who the hell were these people and why did they need a 
sample of his blood?

He explored his surroundings, feeling like a caged animal 
trying to find a way out. The door - a thick, sturdy vault-like 
door - was locked. The intercom on the wall appeared broken and 
didn't look like it had been used in years. He spotted a shaft 
of light coming from a door at the other end of the room and 
headed toward it, intent on finding these people who had 
kidnapped them and demanding to know what they wanted. He ran 
right into a solid, invisible surface and staggered back, 
dazed. He reached out tentatively and found it: a plexiglass 
wall running the length of the room, completing the fourth wall 
of his prison. He pounded on it and screamed - implied threats 
mixed with pleas and repeated calls to Kate and Sawyer. No 
response, but he noticed a camera in the corner, on the other 
side of the glass, its red light blinking at him mockingly. He 
clambered onto the table with much effort and began yanking at 
the chains bolted to the ceiling.

"Stop that," a feminine voice called suddenly. A woman stepped 
through the open door into the room on the other side of the 
glass. "Hi, Jack," she said pleasantly. "I'm Juliet."

Jack gaped at her for a moment - was she serious? - and then 
resumed yanking on the chains. If they didn't want him doing it 
there had to be a reason.

Juliet fiddled with the dials on the machine set on a table on 
her side of the glass, turning up the volume on the speakers in 
Jack's cell. "Can you hear me in there?" 

Jack ignored her. 

She sat on the table and watched him with the curiosity of a 
scientist studying a lab rat. This one, she realized, would be 
difficult to break. "Is that a yes?"

"Where are my friends," he snapped.

"Come down from the table first."

"You want me to come down, come in here and get me down," he 
sneered. He knew he was being childish but he didn't give a 
shit.

"If you want to talk, I'm..."

"Tell me where my friends are," he screamed.

She didn't even blink. "I will," she said calmly. "If you let 
go of the chain."

"You think I'm stupid?"

She tilted her head and regarded him as one might a 
particularly difficult child. "I don't think you're stupid, 
Jack. I think you're stubborn." Very stubborn.

Jack hesitated a moment before continuing to pull on the chain. 
He didn't see the look of disappointment that flashed in 
Juliet's eyes. 

By the time he finally gave up she was gone. He paced the room 
again, re-trying the door futilely. The baby kicked suddenly 
and he gasped, grabbing the handle on the door and hunching 
over at the sharp burst of pain. He hadn't had anything to eat 
or drink for hours, he realized. In that time, he'd been 
knocked out and drugged twice. It was a miracle the baby wasn't 
in more distress.

He noticed water dripping from the ceiling and tried 
desperately to catch it in his mouth. It tasted like pure rust. 
He spat it out violently and coughed, gasping and barely 
holding back a defeated whimper. The intercom on the wall 
cackled to life and he went to it like a moth to a flame, 
depressing the button on the front. "What?"

A faint voice drifted from the speaker, its exact words lost in 
the overbearing static.

"If you're trying to talk to me, I can't hear you," Jack tried 
again.

"Let it go, Jack."

Jack staggered back from the intercom at the sound of his 
father's voice. No, not this again... The lights in the cell 
came on suddenly and he turned to see Juliet in the adjoining 
room, a tray balanced in her hand, a small smile on her face.

"I know you're hungry," she said. "I brought this for you. This 
is how it will work. You sit there," she gestured to the far 
corner of his cell. "Back against the wall. I open the door and 
leave the tray. Can I trust you to do that, Jack?"

"I don't want your food," Jack spit, ignoring the painful 
twisting of his stomach. He gestured violently at the intercom. 
"I want you to tell the guy who's trying to talk to me through 
that intercom that he can give it up!"

Juliet still didn't flinch. "Maybe you're hungrier than you 
think. That intercom hasn't worked in years."

Jack didn't react. She was bluffing. She had to be. "What's 
that for," he asked, pointing to the button mounted on the wall 
behind her like a fire alarm. 

She glanced at it blankly. "It's for emergencies," she answered 
simply.

"Who's watching me," he tried, his eyes warily darting to the 
camera.

"Are you going to sit against the wall so I can open the door," 
she asked, pointedly avoiding the question. She looked down at 
the grilled cheese sandwich on the tray. "It's just off the 
frying pan."

"You can have it," he grumbled, going back to pacing his cell 
as Juliet set the tray on the table beside her.

"What do you do, Jack? What's your profession?"

It was beginning to annoy him that she insisted on using his 
name all the time - as if she could forge a connection with him 
through that alone. "I'm a repo man," he lied. "You know, when 
people don't pay their bills on time I go into the bank and I 
collect their possessions. I'm a people person so I really love 
it." Let her stew on that one for a while.

"Are you married," she asked.

He glared at her. "What do you think?" Then he answered the 
question himself. "No. I never saw the point." He slowed his 
pace slightly as the baby began to stir. He couldn't push 
himself too much, get the baby too active. He couldn't afford 
to show any sign of weakness in front of her. "What about you," 
he asked, deflecting attention from himself. "What's your job 
besides...making sandwiches?"

"Oh, I didn't make it," she said, smoothly ducking the 
question. "I just put the toothpicks in." She smiled at him, 
offering no further information.

He laughed humorlessly and turned from her, leaning against the 
table. All the pacing was making him winded.

"When your plane crashed," she began again. "Where were you 
flying from?"

Jack looked at her warily. Of all things why would she want to 
know that? The Others already knew all of their names, they 
must know that too. "Sydney."

"What were you doing there?"

He shook his head, feeling the beginnings of tears form behind 
his eyes and forcing them back. "I was bringing my father 
home." 

"Why would you go all the way to Australia just..." 

"Because he was dead," Jack interrupted, his voice flat, numb.

"I'm sorry," she said after a pause. 

He laughed. "Yeah...I'm sure you are." Then he added a belated, 
partly sincere "thanks."

She put her hand on the glass and looked at him with soft, kind 
eyes. "You can trust me, Jack. I'm not going to hurt you."

He hesitated before approaching the glass, leaning against it 
with his hands pressed on either side of her, as if she were on 
his side of the clear barrier and he could trap her, force her 
to tell him what she was really after. "What the hell is going 
on here?"

A look that might have been sympathy flashed in her eyes 
briefly before they lowered. She turned without a word and 
walked out the door, taking the tray with her, turning her head 
briefly so he could see her take a bite of the sandwich. She 
looked sad - possibly defeated - but, he thought, that could 
just be what she wanted him to think.

*********

It could have been minutes, hours or a day before she tried 
again. He had no watch, no window...no way of knowing how much 
time had passed. He vaguely recalled reading somewhere that 
this was one of the simplest, most effective tactics used on 
prisoners to break them. He vowed it wouldn't work on him.

"The drugs we gave you when we brought you here have a fairly 
serious side effect," she began, her former soothing tone 
abandoned in favor of clinical harshness. "Dehydration. Your 
head is probably sore, your throat is raw and if you don't eat 
or drink something soon you're going to start hallucinating."

He knew she was right. He also suspected that the intercom on 
the wall wasn't really broken and they were using it to try to 
trigger his hallucinations early and force him to eat. "So 
you're a doctor, huh?"

"No. I'm a repo woman," she said without a trace of irony.

He laughed softly. Touché. 

"No strings attached," she continued. "You don't have to do 
anything but sit with your back up against the far wall, let me 
open that door, put the plate down and leave."

He stared stubbornly at the wall, not moving.

"I know it feels like you're giving up," she said gently. "Like 
you're losing if you do anything that I ask you to. But you're 
not. You *need* to eat. If not for yourself, for your baby."

He squinted at her. Finally they acknowledged the real reason 
he was here. They didn't care about him, he was sure. Only his 
baby. They would probably kill him once the baby was delivered. 
He couldn't let them do it. He didn't care what happened to him 
- he had accepted his days were numbered when he found out 
about the pregnancy - but he would *not* let these monsters 
take his baby.

"What do you say," Juliet prompted.

Jack debated for a long time, a haphazard plan forming in his 
mind. He finally moved over to the wall she had indicated 
slowly, his shoulders slumped in defeat. He squatted in the 
corner, not quite sitting all the way, hoping she would realize 
it was because he knew if he sat completely on the floor he 
couldn't quickly stand up again. He looked at her, trying to 
convey reluctant acceptance in his gaze. 

She bought it. "Thank you, Jack."

She disappeared and a minute later the handle on the door to 
his cell began to turn with a loud creak. He was up and at her 
side before she was fully in the door, knocking the tray from 
her hands and twisting her arm behind her back. She reached for 
her tazer, which he knocked away as well, hearing it clatter 
across the cement floor. He grabbed a piece of the now-broken 
plate that had once held his meal and pressed it to her slender 
throat. "Which way out," he growled.

"Don't do this, Jack," she gasped, not struggling as he dragged 
her from the room. He was weak from hunger and pain, she knew, 
but he was also unstable and liable to slit her throat if she 
tried to fight him.

He shoved her toward the bright red wheel next to a locked 
door. "Open the door."

"I can't," she babbled. "I can't, Jack. I do that, we die."

"Don't lie to me," he snarled.

"I'm not. I'm not..."

"Open the door," he screamed.

"I can't," she screamed back.

"She's telling the truth, Jack," a voice said calmly.

Jack spun around, dragging Juliet in front of him as a shield. 
Henry stood at the other end of the room, looking hesitant. "I 
swear to God, I will kill her," Jack threatened. Juliet gasped 
as he pressed harder against her throat, stopping just short of 
breaking her skin.

"Okay," Henry said warily. "Have her open the door and she dies 
anyway. We all do."

Jack only took a moment to debate his next move. He didn't have 
any reason to trust a word that came from that man's mouth, but 
either way it didn't matter. He had already made his choice. He 
shoved Juliet toward Henry and turned to open the door himself, 
wrenching the wheel determinedly. He heard footsteps behind 
him, running away, and a door slammed. He stopped turning when 
he heard a loud groan and a faint trickle of water. The door 
sprang open suddenly and a wall of water swept him from his 
feet, carrying him deeper into the room. He surfaced, gasping 
and choking, fighting against the powerful currents as the 
water continued pouring in. He heard Juliet call his name and 
felt her grab his arm, pulling him toward the wall behind the 
door, away from the worst of the flow. Between the two of them 
they managed to force the door shut. He slapped the handle 
closed.

"The button," Juliet yelped, grabbing his shoulders urgently. 
"The yellow button!"

He half walked, half swam to the button she had told him was 
there for emergencies, lifted the plastic cover and slapped it 
with his palm. Then he slumped against the wall, gasping and 
cringing as the baby began kicking him urgently in its 
distress. He felt a hand on his chin and suddenly his head was 
forced back, impacting the wall with a loud thud. A bright 
light eclipsed his vision, his headache growing excruciatingly 
worse before everything went black.

**********

It had taken Sawyer the better part of a day but he had finally 
figured out how to work the contraption in his cage so it not 
only didn't give him an electrical shock but actually gave him 
a reward. Unfortunately, his victory wasn't as satisfying as 
he'd hoped - a barely edible cake-like object shaped like a 
fish and stamped with the word "Dharma" and a pile of what 
looked like rabbit food. But at least he got some water. He had 
his head bent over the water pipe when Tom brought Kate to the 
cell across from his. She looked broken, her eyes shimmering 
with barely restrained tears, and she was bizarrely clothed in 
a light sundress. Tom locked the door to the cage and had her 
reach through the bars so he could un-cuff her, promising to 
have someone bring her some antiseptic for the raw scrapes and 
cuts on her wrists.

"How 'bout you bring me an ottoman," Sawyer snarked. "And while 
you're at it, I could use a blow dry."

Tom ignored the comment. "Hey, you got yourself a fish 
biscuit," he noted, smiling brightly. "How'd you do that?"

"I figured out your complicated gizmos, that's how," Sawyer 
replied smugly.

Tom smirked. "Only took the bears two hours."

Sawyer's face fell. "How many of 'em were there," he retorted, 
but Tom was already leaving, disregarding any further comments. 
He turned to Kate. "You okay, Freckles?"

Kate smiled weakly and nodded. "Yeah. You?"

He looked at the cage surrounding him. "Just swell. I requested 
that cage, but whatever." That got a giggle from her. He did a 
mental victory dance. "Nice dress."

She rolled her eyes. "They made me wear it." She looked seconds 
and a stiff breeze away from a breakdown.

He mentally kicked himself and tried something else. "You 
hungry?" He tossed the fish biscuit to her, which she caught 
easily and hungrily bit into. He smiled as he watched her eat, 
self-consciously glancing at him and covering her mouth. He had 
no idea where Jack was - if he was even alive - and he doubted 
she did either, but at least they had each other.

*********

Jack woke again in the same position as before but this time 
the pounding in his head was worse. He sat up and groaned as 
his entire body screamed at him. Juliet sat on the other side 
of the glass, coolly reading the contents of a thick folder. He 
could hear the groans of water and distant whales now and 
wondered how he hadn't noticed it before. "It's an aquarium," 
he said softly.

Juliet looked up curiously. "Excuse me?"

He gestured to his surroundings. "This thing's for what... 
sharks?"

"Dolphins too," she confirmed.

He swung his legs over the side of the table, turning his back 
fully to her, suppressing a groan and resisting the instinct to 
palpate his abdomen. "We're under water, aren't we," he asked 
over his shoulder even though he already knew the answer.

"Yes."

"Is this one of their...stations? The Dharma Initiative?"

"They called it the Hydra."

He wondered if she planned to answer all of his questions so 
obliquely. "So you people are just...whatever's left over of 
them," he tried, remembering what Sawyer had said on their hike 
across the island.

She paused. "Well that was a long time ago. It doesn't matter 
who we were. It only matters who we are."

He cradled his throbbing head. He could feel the baby moving 
around a little, almost weakly. He knew he wouldn’t be able to 
refuse food much longer.

"We know exactly who you are, Jack Shephard," she continued.

He laughed. "You don't know anything about me." Clearly.

"I know that you're a spinal surgeon based out of St. 
Sebastien's hospital in Los Angeles. I know that you went to 
Columbia and you graduated med school a year faster than anyone 
else."

He got to his feet, trembling, leaning on the table to keep 
himself from falling, and gaped at her.

"I know that you were married - only once - and that you 
contested the divorce. I know your father died in Sydney. I 
know this because I have a copy of his autopsy report."

Jack faltered. "How...how did you get..."

"We got it."

Jack took a deep breath. "What is that?"

She closed the folder and placed her hand on top of it. "This, 
Jack, is your life."

"Do you...Is it just about me or is it about my family too? 
My...my friends?" Not that he had many of either left in the 
states.

"It's pretty much about everything."

"Do you know about my ex-wife?"

"Sarah," she confirmed softly. "Yes, Jack. We know all about 
her." She took a breath and shifted in her chair. "What would 
you like to find out?"

He hesitated. He had begun this line of questioning with the 
intention of asking about the man Sarah had left him for, so he 
could analyze what it was, exactly, that had made him such a 
poor husband. It had driven him crazy when she had told him 
about her affair, knowing that he had failed her somehow, that 
someone, somewhere was a better husband than he was. But now he 
realized that none of that mattered. She had moved on and in 
all likelihood he would never see her again. So he asked the 
only other question he could think of.

"Is she happy?"

He realized now that he had never truly loved her. Marrying her 
had been a mistake; something he had felt obligated to do. He 
had tried to give her the happiness she had almost lost to that 
car crash and a fiancé who proved to be an unfeeling jerk. But 
he had failed. Knowing that her new lover - whoever he was - 
was able to give that happiness to her might at least give him 
some comfort.

Juliet smiled softly. "Yes, Jack. She's very happy."

Jack's face crumpled. He no longer had the energy or the will 
to stop the flood of emotion. He didn't care what Juliet 
thought anymore. Let her wonder why he still cared so much 
about the woman who had ripped his heart out. Let her think he 
was weak, broken.

She stood. "Now, I'd like to bring you some food and water. But 
this time I need to know that you'll behave."

The thought flitted through his mind that if she wanted to 
treat him like a child maybe he should act like one but he knew 
he needed food and water desperately. And it was becoming clear 
that they were not willing to let him starve himself. His 
efforts were better spent trying to regain his strength so he 
would be able to fight or escape when the opportunity presented 
itself.

"Put your back against the wall...please."

Jack shuffled into the corner and slid down the wall, this time 
sitting fully on the floor, his legs sprawled in front of him. 
He heard her door open and, after a long pause, the door to his 
cell opened. 

Juliet stepped in cautiously and set the tray on the table, 
relieved that Jack seemed to have abandoned the notion of 
trying to attack her. Perhaps he finally realized that hurting 
her wouldn't help his cause. 

She turned to leave and hesitated. He hadn't moved a muscle. 
And he looked so broken and exhausted that she wasn't sure he 
had the energy to. She knew he could be baiting her, lulling 
her into a false sense of safety so that she would be off-guard 
when he attacked. But she also knew that in his present 
condition the position he was sitting in would make it 
difficult for him to stand - especially when he was already 
weakened by hunger, dehydration and pain. 

She picked up the tray again and tentatively stepped closer to 
him. He didn't even look at her. She got as close as she dared 
and set the tray on the floor, giving it a little nudge so it 
slid within arm's reach of him. He still didn't react. She 
stood and backed toward the door, slipping through and shutting 
it quickly, re-engaging the lock and breathing a small sigh of 
relief. He might or might not take the offering, but there was 
nothing more she could do about that now. At least he was 
beginning to cooperate.

*******

She had assumed Jack would be the most stubborn of the three 
captives, but when she offered Sawyer her canteen of water and 
was rewarded with a smirk as he emptied it onto the ground and 
tossed it aside she wondered if she might need to revise her 
assessment.

Sawyer shook his head. Woman was crazy if she thought he was 
going to go all Stockholm Syndrome on her if she gave him a 
little water. He grabbed the wheelbarrow, intending to return 
to the demeaning slave labor the Others were forcing them to do 
but became distracted again at the sight of Kate breaking rocks 
in her dirty slip of a dress. He had never seen her wear 
anything other than jeans and conservative tops. Now the Others 
were forcing her to show some skin and expected him to be able 
to work with her bending over and damned near flashing him 
every few seconds. Either they had more faith in his self-
restraint than was deserved or they had a poor understanding of 
the term "bisexual". He glanced at the unsuspecting Others from 
the corner of his eye as an idea occurred to him. Maybe he 
could use this to his advantage.

He tossed the wheelbarrow aside noisily and marched over to 
Kate, pulling her into his arms and kissing her like some 
romance novel hero. If the man they called "Danny" got angry 
with him for even looking at her, this would *really* piss him 
off.

"Hey," he heard Danny scream somewhere in the background. 
Seconds later the butt of a rifle slammed violently into the 
back of his head. He fell and Kate staggered back with a 
surprised yelp. He was up and fighting before Danny could get 
another hit in, relieving him of his rifle and knocking him 
down with a couple of good punches, feeling a satisfying pop of 
cartilage beneath his fist as the man's nose gave way. Two more 
guys descended on him, one brandishing a taser, and he managed 
to fight them back. He waved the stolen rifle at the rest of 
the group and growled "back off!"

"James!"

He turned to see the blonde woman calmly pointing a gun at 
Kate, her other hand wrapped around Kate's arm in case she 
tried to escape. Kate wasn't even trying to fight back. 'What 
the hell did they do to her,' he wondered vaguely.

"Put the gun down," the woman said calmly. 

He did, slowly, and was tasered by an enraged, bloodied Danny.

********

He grunted as he was tossed roughly back into his cage that 
night. He coughed and shakily scooped a handful of water from 
the trough. 

"You okay," Kate asked, gripping the bars of her own cage 
worriedly.

"Never better," he mumbled.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"I couldn't help myself," he said with a soft chuckle. "You 
just looked so damned cute swingin' that pick axe."

She rolled her eyes. "Sawyer!"

He smiled. Fine. He stepped closer to the bars and looked 
around to make sure they were alone. "Two of those guards got 
some real fight in 'em. The rest of 'em I ain't that much 
worried about. That heavy set guy packs a hell of a punch. 
Shaggy-haired kid's got some sort of martial arts training but 
I think I could take him if I had to. Oh, and FYI...those 
zapper things got a safety on 'em."

Kate shook her head and smiled. She had thought Sawyer's 
behavior was stranger than usual, but now it made perfect 
sense. "Did you see the look on their faces when you got a hold 
of that rifle?"

He caught the proud smile on her face and grunted. Maybe she 
wasn't so broken after all. "I'm guessin' most of these boys've 
never seen any real action. But that blonde had a gun pointed 
at you? She woulda shot you. No problem." With a cold-hearted 
smile he would be willing to bet. "I noticed something else 
too," he added as she started to look away, giving her his best 
charming smile. "You taste like strawberries." 

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "You taste like fish biscuits."

He chuffed. 

"So what do we do now?"

He sighed. "Well, shortcake, now we wait for these bastards to 
make a mistake. Sooner or later they’re gonna let their guard 
down and when they do we're gonna be there to put 'em in their 
place."

She nodded slightly. "What about Jack?"

Sawyer held back a flinch. "What about him?"

Kate's head cocked slightly, her expression making it clear 
that she didn't buy for a second that he didn't care.

"We don't even know if he's here. Hell, we don't even know if 
he's alive." Based on his last conversation with Jack, Sawyer 
suspected he was but they couldn't make any assumptions. "We 
gotta take care of us."

Kate's eyes rolled skyward but she nodded, biting her lip. Much 
as she hated to admit it, he was right. As long as they had no 
idea where Jack was they couldn't help him. If they could 
escape, then they could gather reinforcements from their camp 
and figure out a way to rescue him, but until then he was 
beyond their help.

**********

Jack was still sitting in the corner, having barely touched his 
food before the tray was taken away. He was careful to eat only 
enough to keep himself (or, more importantly, his baby) alive - 
his way of showing defiance. He barely noticed as someone 
entered his cell. It was probably just her again, back to try 
to goad him into eating more.

"Hello, Jack."

It took him a moment to register that the voice was male - 
definitely not Juliet's - and he looked up, his movements slow, 
sluggish. Henry.

The man popped open a small folding chair and positioned 
himself next to Jack. "You know what's crazy, Jack? A week ago, 
you and I were in exactly the opposite situation. I was the one 
locked up and you were the one coming in for visits." He 
laughed at the irony. 

Jack stared ahead blankly, wishing he had let Sayid kill the 
man when he had a chance.

"And I know that you were...angry," Henry continued. "That I 
lied to you about who I was, but...hell...do you blame me? I 
mean, let's face it, if I'd've told you I was one of *those* 
people that you and your friends have been calling 'Others' all 
this time...it wouldn've been right back to Sayid and 
his...fists." Craziness was a more appropriate term, he 
thought, but saying that wouldn't get him on Jack's good side. 

"What do you want from me," Jack asked, his voice sounding dead 
even to his own ears.

"I want for you to change your...perspective. And the first 
step in doing that would be for me to...be decent enough to 
introduce myself honestly, so..." He crouched beside Jack and 
held out his hand for a handshake. "Hi. My name is Benjamin 
Linus and I've lived on this island all my life."

Jack glowered at him for a moment and went right back to 
staring into space. 

Ben waited until it was obvious Jack wasn't going to take his 
proffered hand and gave up. He stood and moved toward the 
glass. "Bring it in, please!"

Two people appeared in the adjoining room, dragging a 
television on a cart. Jack ignored them. "Where are Kate and 
Sawyer?"

"They're fine," Ben said, keeping his back turned. "And they're 
close. That's all I'm able to tell you right now."

Jack chuffed. "You can tell me anything you want."

Ben turned to face him. "Fair enough. It's all I want to tell 
you." He pulled a remote from his pocket. "I'm going to make 
this really simple, Jack. If you cooperate, we send you home."

Jack frowned. "Cooperate with what?"

"When the time is right, I'll tell you..."

"You tell me now," Jack interrupted pissily. 

"Patience, Jack," Ben calmly scolded.

Jack rolled his eyes and switched gears. "Home...is that where 
you sent Walt and Michael?"

Ben gaped. Did Jack really think they had killed them? What 
kind of monsters did these people think they were anyway? 
"Yes."

Jack laughed, the sound half-hearted and utterly humorless. "If 
you could leave this island, why would you still be here?"

"Yes, Jack, why would we be here," Ben responded as if Jack was 
a particularly slow student but he was on the right track.

"You're lying," Jack said bitterly. "You're stuck here just 
like we are. You don't have any..."

"Your flight crashed on September 22nd, 2004," Ben cut in 
impatiently. "Today is May 8th, 2005. That means you've been on 
our island for about eight and a half months. And yes, we do 
have contact with the outside world, Jack. That's how we know 
that during those eight and a half months your fellow Americans 
re-elected George W. Bush, Pope John Paul II passed away, as 
did Christopher Reeve, the New England Patriots won the Super 
Bowl and the Boston Red Sox won the World Series."

This time Jack's laughter was genuine.

"What," Ben asked, puzzled.

"You, uh...if you wanted me to believe this you probably 
should've picked somebody else," he said through his giggles. 
"Besides the Red Sox." And George W. Bush, come to think of it, 
but even that was more likely than the Red Sox winning the 
World Series.

"No, they were down three games to none," Ben said seriously, 
flustered by Jack's response. "Against the Yankees in the lead 
championship and then they won eight straight."

Jack only laughed harder. He was going from ridiculous to 
complete fantasy. He put on a straight face long enough to say 
"sure. Of course they did" before dissolving into chuckles 
again.

His laughter faded as Ben flipped on the TV, which was already 
playing a recording of the game. "The Boston Red Sox are World 
Champions," the announcer's voice boomed as fans screamed and 
players embraced each other giddily. 

Jack hauled himself to his feet and staggered over to the 
glass, leaning against it, dazed. This had to be a joke... But 
the scroll on the top of the screen confirmed everything Ben 
had said. The uniforms, the stadium, the 
announcers...everything was right. There was even a scroll 
reminding viewers to watch a new episode of a show he vaguely 
recalled from billboard ads was supposed to have premiered in 
October. If this tape was a fake it was incredibly elaborate.

The TV flipped off suddenly. "That's home, Jack," Ben said 
quietly. "Right there, on the other side of that glass. And if 
you listen to me - if you trust me - if you do what I tell you 
when the time comes...I'll take you there. I will take you 
home."

Jack closed his eyes, letting his head fall forward heavily, 
chin toward his chest. Ben was lying. He had to be. Even if 
these people did have contact with the outside world there was 
no way they would just let him go. Certainly not with his baby. 
And even if they did he couldn't leave everybody else behind. 
He was, for all intents and purposes, their leader. He couldn't 
just abandon them.

"I'll let you think about it," Ben said, retrieving his folding 
chair and quietly slipping from the cell, the door closing 
behind him with a harsh squeak.

********

Not long after Sawyer had finished explaining to Kate his plan 
to give the next person who came to his cage the shock of their 
life, Henry approached, stopping just short of the puddle 
Sawyer had painstakingly formed by dislodging the water pipe 
and setting off the machine a couple times. Sawyer glanced down 
and nonchalantly asked if it was time for lunch yet.

"What do you weigh," Henry asked.

"What?"

"What do you weigh," he repeated, louder, more pronounced.

'I heard ya the first time, jackass,' Sawyer thought. "180 give 
or take."

Henry stepped closer, still not quite into the puddle. "How old 
are you?"

"Thirty-two," Sawyer lied, exasperated. 

"Don't lie."

Sawyer sighed. "Thirty-five."

Henry nodded, said "good" and stepped directly into the puddle, 
reaching for his keys. 

Sawyer leapt for the bars, grabbing Henry's arm. "Sayonara 
sucker," he hissed, kicking the button with his bare foot and 
bracing himself for the inevitable shock. Nothing happened. He 
kicked two more times just to be sure. Still nothing. "What did 
you do," he snarled.

"We turned it off," Henry said simply, bashing Sawyer's face 
with a club and opening the door. He knocked Sawyer to the 
ground amid screams from Kate's cell. The last thing Sawyer saw 
was Henry's boot coming at his head.

*******

When he came to he was inside...somewhere. He heard voices 
babbling about some people named "Colleen" and "Juliet" 
and...was that a whale moaning? 

"Where am I," he asked groggily. He tried to sit up, realized 
he was strapped to a table and panicked. "What the hell are you 
doin' to me?" 

A man shoved a piece of wood in his face and told him to bite 
down on it. 

"You bite down on it," he snarled, but the man just pulled his 
head back by his hair and forced it into his mouth.

"It's for the pain," Henry explained.

Sawyer's eyes grew wide and he yelped garbled protests as 
another man produced a large, scary-looking hypodermic needle.

The intercom in Jack's cell burst to life and he looked up from 
his half-eaten tray, stopping mid-chew, as a muffled voice 
shouted frantic pleas to some unseen entity through the bursts 
of static. Jack's eyes widened and he swallowed. He would know 
that voice anywhere. 

He dropped the tray on the ground and clambered to his feet, 
staggering to the intercom and jabbing the speak button. 
"Sawyer!"

More incoherent shouting.

"Leave him alone!"

"No, wait," Sawyer shouted, his voice muffled, the sound making 
the hair on the back of Jack's neck stand up.

"Sawyer!"

Sawyer screamed incoherently and then fell silent. Jack heard a 
couple other voices, barely loud enough to carry over the 
static, and then nothing.

"Sawyer," Jack shouted frantically. "Sawyer!" 

He staggered back from the intercom, his hands trembling 
slightly, feeling ill, wondering if he had just been allowed to 
listen in as Sawyer was murdered.

*********

Jack was still listening to the voices murmuring to each other 
beneath the static, desperately trying to figure out what had 
happened, when Juliet burst into the adjoining room, looking 
frantic, wearing surgical scrubs splattered with blood. 

"What did you do to Sawyer," he demanded, meeting her at the 
glass barrier. 

"Nothing," she said hurriedly.

"I heard him yelling! You've got blood on your clothes. What 
did you do to him?!"

"Jack!" She slapped the glass to get his attention. "It's not 
his blood!"

He faltered. "Then whose blood is it?"

"It's the blood of a woman who's dying, Jack." She was nearly 
in tears, her eyes pleading with him to hear her out. "I need 
your help."

His first instinct was to say yes, in spite of everything these 
people had done. He was, first and foremost, a doctor. He had 
given an oath to help those in need. He couldn't just let 
someone die if there was something he could do to stop it, even 
if it meant helping the people who had kidnapped him, his on-
again/off-again lover and the woman who had been his rock since 
the crash. He went willingly. 

Kate and Sawyer flinched as the speakers near their cages 
blared what sounded like a fire alarm at deafening volume. 
Three figures appeared from around the corner, heading their 
way.

"It's Jack," Kate shouted unnecessarily, her voice almost 
completely lost in the cacophony. Even if Sawyer hadn't been 
able to recognize the man's form and the large tattoo on his 
shoulder, the bulge around his middle made it clear it was Jack 
approaching, flanked by two Others, a bag covering his head. 
Sawyer and Kate shouted his name repeatedly as he was marched 
past their cells. 

Jack hesitated a moment, twisting in the direction of a noise 
he could have sworn was Kate's voice, barely audible beneath 
the klaxon. The hands holding him forced him to keep moving 
forward. 

Sawyer's shoulders sagged in relief as the three figures 
disappeared from sight and the alarm stopped. Jack was alive. 

*********

Jack flexed his hand unconsciously, shifting to try to ease the 
discomfort of his position. He had done what he could but the 
damage had been too great. He couldn't save the woman. He had 
watched a man with a broken nose scream at Tom that "they did 
this!" and storm off in a rage. Then the body had been covered 
and he had been cuffed to the gurney without a word. But, he 
thought, at least this time they gave him a stool to sit on.

He still didn't know how much time had passed - no room in this 
entire place had clocks, it seemed - before Juliet entered and 
apologized for the cuffs. 

"I'm uh..." She looked at the dead body, wavering. "I'm a 
fertility doctor. I'm not used to death."

"What was her name," Jack asked, only mildly interested.

"Cole...was short for Colleen. I shouldn't...uh...I should've 
come to get you sooner."

"It wouldn't have mattered," he said bluntly. "There wasn't any 
more that you could've done. She was dead before you put her on 
the table."

"Are you...are you just saying that to make me feel better," 
she asked, her voice small and frail. 

He stared at her blankly. She may be comfortable letting her 
guard down around him but it didn't change his perspective of 
her. "I don't care about making you feel better." He knew now 
that, in all likelihood, when it came time to deliver his baby 
she would be the one wielding the knife. Both to birth the 
child and to slit his throat afterward. 

"I'm going to take you back now," she said after a long pause, 
moving to uncuff him. "I'm sorry for bringing you here..."

He grabbed her arm before she could unlock the cuffs. "Whose x-
rays are those? Outside?" He nodded to the door, where a set of 
x-rays had been clearly displayed while he had scrubbed up. 
"Those are spinal x-rays and they belong to a man about forty 
years old. And whoever he is he has a very large tumor on his 
L4 vertebra. And I just happen to be a spinal surgeon. So, you 
tell me, Juliet: who am I here to save?"

She flustered. "I don't..."

"Don't lie to me. You left those x-rays there because you 
wanted me to see them. Whose are they?"

She fumbled with the key to the handcuffs. "I can't..."

The door to the operating room opened abruptly and the man who 
had helped Juliet take Jack from his cell entered. "What's 
taking so long?"

Juliet shook Jack's hand from her arm before the man could see 
it and bent to unlock the cuffs. "Just a second." 

Jack clenched his jaw as she popped the cuffs and pulled him to 
his feet. Obviously he wouldn't be getting any answers any time 
soon.

He was silent as they put the bag over his head and led him 
back to his cell. He didn't hear the noise when they passed the 
klaxon again. He was wondering if he had imagined it the first 
time when he felt something small strike his lower back. He 
paused, instinctively turning in the direction it seemed to 
have come from, and heard it. A male voice, barely there, 
drowned out by the alarm. He felt a small, relieved smile tug 
at his lips as his captors continued to push him forward. 
Sawyer was alive.

********

"It's not much further, James," Henry assured after a good hour 
of walking - most of it uphill. "Just to the top of the next 
rise." 

Sawyer never liked hiking. Being rudely awakened at the crack 
of dawn and forced on one by men with guns wasn't warming him 
to the concept any. "What's up there," he asked warily.

"Something I want you to see," Henry replied cryptically.

"That little place you always wanted, George?" Sawyer cracked. 

Henry paused and frowned at him. "Sorry?"

"What, don't you read?" he gloated. "It's from 'Of Mice and 
Men'. You'd like it. Puppies get killed."

Henry ignored the comment and continued climbing. 

Sawyer's heart monitor watch began beeping and he faltered. 
"Bring me up here to kill me? Make that thing you put inside me 
blow up my damned heart?"

Henry stopped again. "Your heart's not gonna blow up, James." 
From his tone of voice he seemed almost disappointed that 
Sawyer hadn't figured that out himself yet. "The only thing we 
put inside you was doubt."

Sawyer glanced at the watch.

"Oh, the watch is a heart rate monitor," Henry confirmed. "But 
nothing more."

The only thing keeping Sawyer from killing Henry with his bare 
hands when the man showed him the rabbit with the number 8 
branded on it's back - the same one he had "killed" to 
demonstrate the pacemaker's capabilities - was the knowledge 
that the men behind him were heavily armed. That didn't stop 
him from punching Henry though. 

Henry took it in stride, calmly wiping the blood from his lips. 
"The rabbit wasn't the thing I wanted to show you," he said. 

Sawyer wasn't sure what he had expected to see as they reached 
the top of the next rise but it sure as hell wasn't another 
island, separated from their current location by a couple miles 
of ocean.

"You ever been to Alcatraz," Henry asked as Sawyer gaped. 
"Right now you're standing on a small island roughly the size 
of Alcatraz."

Sawyer looked back. Sure enough, he could see clear to the 
other side of the island they were standing on.

"And that over there? That's your island," Henry continued. 
"The one you've come to know and love."

Sawyer would have laughed at that if he wasn't so busy trying 
to wrap his brain around the fact that these people had 
kidnapped them and taken them to *another* island without their 
knowledge, seemingly just so they could play mind games with 
them.

"I just wanted you to know there's nowhere to run."

Sawyer shook his head. "You did all this just to...just to keep 
me in a damned cage?"

"We did all this because the only way to gain a con man's 
respect is to con him," Henry corrected. "You're pretty 
good...*Sawyer*...we're a lot better." He said it like it was a 
simple, obvious fact. "Funny thing is us telling you about the 
pacemaker wasn't what kept you in line. It was when I 
threatened *her*." 

Sawyer glared at him.

"You work so hard to make her think you don't care, that you 
don't need her, but...'a guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. 
It don't make no difference who the guy is as long as he's with 
ya. I tell ya...I tell ya a guy gets too lonely and he gets 
*sick*.'"

"What the hell are you talkin' about," Sawyer spat.

"It's from 'Of Mice and Men'," Henry said, eyes wide as if to 
convey innocence. "Don't you read?"

Sawyer couldn’t remember the exact context of the quote, but he 
was fairly sure Henry was no longer talking about Kate. Or 
maybe he was, but what the hell did that prove? So he cared 
about Kate. He didn't want to see her hurt any more than the 
next guy, especially over something he had done. But if they 
really wanted to keep him in line why hadn't they threatened 
Jack? Did they know the child Jack carried was his? Or was it 
all intentional? If he was willing to stay locked in a cage 
with nothing but a lame excuse to explain his odd behavior to 
keep Kate safe...what was he willing to do for Jack and their 
unborn child? 

"Come on," Henry said as Sawyer's head spun. "Let's get you 
back to your cage."

Sawyer took one last look at the island he'd reluctantly come 
to call home and slowly followed Henry back to the compound.

********

Jack was different - more relaxed and confident - the next time 
Juliet brought him his lunch. He still sat in the corner like 
she had instructed him to but his body language clearly 
suggested that he was doing so by choice, that no matter what 
he might lead them to believe he was completely in control. 

He laughed and shook his head as she showed him what was on the 
tray. "You people have cheeseburgers?"

"You have no idea what I went through to make this for you," 
she said, placing the tray on the table and climbing up beside 
it, sitting cross-legged. "I killed the cow, processed the 
meat, baked the bun...and the fries...try rendering animal 
fat." She cocked her head at him, holding a poker face that 
didn't quite reach her eyes.

"No ketchup?" he fired back.

She smiled but before she could say anything the door opened 
and Ben entered.

"I'd like to talk to him," he said stiffly, his beady eyes 
fixed on Jack.

"Okay," Juliet said easily, smile still on her face. "So talk 
to him."

"*Alone*...please."

Jack frowned. "I'm fine with her being here." He was beginning 
to feel oddly comfortable around her though he wasn't sure why. 
Maybe because she didn't seem like the rest of them.

"And I'm thrilled that you're fine, Jack, but it's private," 
Ben said shortly. "Doctor-patient confidentiality." 

Juliet slowly uncurled herself and slid from the table, 
brushing past Ben out the door. 

Jack pulled himself up - he was getting stronger but it was 
still difficult for him to get up from the floor. "Mind if I 
eat?" Ben nodded and he took a big bite out of the burger. It 
had been a long time since he'd had anything other than fruit, 
fish and the occasional boar. He had almost forgotten what 
"civilized" food tasted like. 

"We had a wonderful plan to break you, Jack," Ben began 
mournfully. 

Jack blinked at him. "Break me," he repeated around a mouthful 
of burger.

"Wear you down until you were convinced we weren't your 
enemies," Ben explained almost proudly. "Get you to trust us. 
Of course we'd lead you to believe that you were *choosing* to 
do whatever we asked you to do. All of this assumed, of course, 
that you would get...invested."

Jack's confusion deepened. "Invested in what?"

"Has it not occurred to you that Juliet bears a striking 
resemblance to your ex-wife," he asked as if it should have 
been obvious.

Jack gaped. Where the hell was he going with this? Did Ben 
think he was still in love with Sarah? Or was he just hoping 
they'd bond somehow - that Jack would feel obligated to help 
them for her sake? "Why are you telling me this?"

"I'm telling you this, Jack, because my wonderful plan got shot 
to sunshine when you saw my damned x-rays and figured out I was 
dying."

Jack nodded slowly. "All of this," he gestured to his 
surroundings. "You brought me here to operate on you. 
You...want me to save your life."

"No, I want you to *want* to save my life. But we're beyond 
that now, so...all I can ask is that you think about it." He 
turned to leave.

"So this has nothing to do with my baby?"

Ben paused and slowly turned. "Why would you think it did?"

Jack swallowed his mouthful of food and said nothing. 

"Think about it," Ben repeated after a moment. Then he turned 
and left Jack's cell without another word.

Hours later Juliet entered the adjoining room, a videotape 
clutched in her hand.

********

He was holding Ben's x-rays to the dim light in his cell the 
next morning when both Ben and Juliet entered the adjoining 
room. Ben wore a hopeful, anxious smile.

Jack set the x-rays back with the paperwork in the file on the 
table and hunched over it. "You took these blood tests," he 
asked Juliet. "Made all the notations?"

She nodded.

"How old are the x-rays?"

"A week."

Jack shook his head. Why did everybody think he was a damned 
miracle worker? "The tumor on your spine is borderline 
inoperable. And at the rate it's growing that borderline goes 
away in about...one week."

The hope dimmed in Ben's eyes. "Oh."

There was a long pause. Then Jack turned back to Juliet. "Your 
ER we were in, is it fully equipped?" Aside from the lack of a 
defibrillator? Not that Juliet expected him to need one. 

"Yes."

"Anesthesia...sterile?"

"Yes."

He took a breath. "You need to be in surgery yesterday."

"All right then," Ben said easily. "Whatever you need - it's 
yours."

Jack laughed. What he *needed* was to be rescued from this hell 
hole and a hospital that could perform a cesarean. "No, I think 
you misunderstood me." He carried Ben's chart over to the 
glass. "I didn't say I was gonna do it. I just wanted you to 
understand how you're gonna die." 

For the first time he saw genuine fear in Ben's eyes. Good, he 
thought. 

"You think I believe you people? You think I trust you? That 
I'm just gonna do the surgery and *hope* that you let me go?"

"Jack," Juliet scolded.

Jack flung Ben's file at her angrily. She flinched as it 
impacted the glass in front of her face and quickly composed 
herself, staring at him defiantly. "Don't," he snapped. He 
glared at them. Juliet was actually gloating, he realized. He 
could see it in her eyes, in her confident posture. She thought 
she had won him over. 

"Well, Jack," Ben finally said. "I'm very disappointed in your 
decision."

Jack smiled cruelly. "Well, Ben. At least you won't have to be 
disappointed for very long." He stepped back from the glass and 
held his arms out at his sides, as if daring them to take a 
shot at him. “You can threaten me all you want. I won’t do it.”  

Ben stared at him blankly for a good minute, as if confirming 
that this was, indeed, the decision Jack had reached. Then he 
turned on his heel and walked out of the room in disquieting 
silence.

**********
(Later that day)

Jack climbed off the table as the door to the other room opened 
and Juliet led a familiar figure in. 

She pulled the bag from her head and Kate squinted at her 
surroundings. She knew they were underwater somehow but this 
didn't feel like a ship - it was too stable. She forgot about 
their location when she saw Jack on the other side of a glass 
wall. When Juliet had told her what they wanted her to do she 
had prepared herself for the worst, but he appeared unharmed. 
Healthier, even, than he had been before. He smiled and stepped 
up to the barrier, pressing his hands against the glass. She 
mirrored him, wishing she could actually touch him, reassure 
herself that he was really there.

"I'll give you two some privacy," Juliet said softly, slipping 
out the door and closing it behind her.

Jack watched her nervously and swallowed, flashing Kate a 
brittle smile. "Hey. Are you okay?"

Always trying to be the strong, reassuring one, she thought. 
"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah, I'm...I'm great," he said, barely convincing. Judging by 
what little she knew now she doubted they had done anything to 
hurt him. At least not physically, though he seemed to have a 
faint bruise on his chin. "Where are they keeping you?"

"Outside. In a cage."

He nodded. She had wondered at first why Jack had been 
separated from them but now she understood. 

"Sawyer," he asked hesitantly.

She nodded. "He's in a cage too."

His shoulders sagged with relief.

"They're making us work," she added.

He shook his head, confused. "Work? On what?"

"I don't know what it is but it's big."

He glanced at the camera. It blinked at him silently. Why had 
they brought her here to see him suddenly? She continued 
talking about hauling rocks, oblivious. 

"Hey," he interrupted, staring intently into her eyes, 
quivering slightly with building rage as a horrible thought 
occurred to him. "Did they hurt you?"

Her face crumpled instantly, her eyes growing wet with tears.

"Hey," he soothed, feeling helpless, wishing he could comfort 
her. What the hell did they do to her? "It's gonna be all 
right."

"Jack," she whimpered. "You have to do it. This thing that they 
told you to do, this operation."

He reeled back and looked at the camera in shock, beginning to 
understand why they had sent her in. "What did they do to you," 
he demanded.

"Jack..."

"*What* did they do to you," he repeated.

"Nothing," she sobbed.

"How did they get you to ask me?" His voice got louder with 
each question as at least a dozen possibilities flitted through 
his mind, each more horrifying than the last.

"Nothing," she repeated.

"Then what are you doing here," he shouted.

"They're gonna kill Sawyer," she wailed.

Jack staggered back from the glass, glancing at the camera 
before turning his back to Kate, running his hands over his 
hair in a vain effort to stop his hands from shaking. This was 
their back-up plan. Threatening to kill his lover if he didn't 
do what they wanted. And they needed Kate because they knew she 
would be complicit – she was, after all, a survivor - and they 
knew the threat would be more believable coming from her. They 
needed her to be the middle man.

"I'm sorry," Kate sniffled. "I'm so sorry but she said that if 
you do it and if you do it soon that they'll let us go."

His shock turned quickly to anger and he returned to the glass. 
"And you believe them." 

It wasn't a question. In fact, she thought, he made it sound 
like she was betraying him. "I have to," she whispered.

Jack dropped his head. When he raised it again and looked at 
her his eyes were cold. "We're done here."

He repeated it louder, for the benefit of whoever was watching 
and walked away from her, steeling himself against her 
desperate pleas for him to not shut her out. How stupid did 
they think he was? For all he knew Sawyer was dead already and 
Kate didn't know it yet. Either way it didn't matter. These 
people were not about to let any of them go, regardless of what 
they said.

*******

Kate was horrified to find Sawyer's cage empty when they 
brought her back. She never thought she would be so relieved to 
see him as she was when Pickett shoved him in his cage a minute 
later, unnecessarily giving him a particularly hard jab to the 
fleshy part of his shoulder, making him yelp, before locking 
the door.

"You got something you want to say to your girl, you best say 
it tonight," Danny smarmed before storming off.

Sawyer stood and looked at Kate as if nothing had happened. 
"And how was your day, honey?" he cracked.

She gave him a look that made it clear she wasn't in the mood 
for jokes at the moment and he grumbled under his breath, 
slumping to sit on the concrete wall protruding into his cell.

"I saw Jack," she said.

He looked up, feigning disinterest, but Kate knew she had 
gotten his attention.

"They brought me in to see him. They want him to do surgery on 
Ben."

Sawyer frowned. "Who the hell's Ben?"

"Henry. The guy who brought us in. He's sick. And they say that 
if he does it they're gonna let us all go."

"And you 'n me are what, bait?"

She nodded. "Something like that."

Sawyer snorted. He never thought he'd see the day when Jack had 
to be coerced into saving someone's hide. "At least the Doc 
ain't dumb enough to do it."

She blustered. "I told him he had to."

Sawyer blinked. "Why the hell would you do something so 
stupid," he snapped.

"To save your life!"

"My life don't need savin'," he yelled. 

She raised her voice to match his "You want to die? 'Cause 
that's what's gonna happen!" She kept yelling as she climbed to 
the top of her cage and squeezed between the bars like she had 
back when Sawyer thought he had a pacemaker keeping him from 
escaping. Same scenario, different disincentive. "Pickett is 
just *waiting* for his chance. I've seen him look at you."

"Damnit Freckles, stay put," he hissed.

"You know what he's going to do, so don't pretend that you 
don't care."

He didn't have time to sort out the meaning of that statement. 
"Get down, Freckles, we've already been through this."

"Shut up, James," she snapped, climbing down the outside of the 
bars. She jumped down and stomped over to his cell. "You don't 
want Jack to save your life then you're gonna save your own." 
She picked up a rock and smashed the lock, breaking it, and 
threw open the door. "Go! Get out of here! Run!"

"You're outta your cage," he flailed. "Why don't you run, Kate? 
Cause me - I ain't runnin'..." He faltered, his words 
softening. "'Cause there ain't no place to go."

"What are you talking about," she demanded, wide eyed.

"We ain't on our island. We're on another island, like 
Alcatraz, couple miles off shore. So unless you're a mermaid or 
you got a boat there ain't no point."

She shifted quickly from denial to anger, jabbing him in the 
chest violently, forcing him to stagger back. "When were you 
planning on telling me this?!"

"Never," he whispered.

"Why not," she shrieked, her voice beginning to crack. "Why 
wouldn't you?"

He sighed in defeat. "Because I wanted you to believe we had a 
damned chance," he said, pained. It was at that moment that he 
realized he and Jack were not so different after all.

Her jaw quivered and her eyes flashed. She slapped her palm 
against his chest again with an incoherent sob but the blow was 
weaker – made out of frustration instead of anger. Sawyer held 
back a sigh and pulled her into his arms, ignoring her half-
hearted struggle of protest. 

Kate buried her face in his chest and clutched his dirtied 
shirt tightly in her fists, willing her body to stop trembling. 
She hated feeling so helpless, so trapped, so...weak. “What do 
we do now,” she mumbled.

Sawyer sighed quietly and tightened his arms around her 
shoulders, burying his nose in her hair – which still smelled 
sweet and clean somehow in spite of everything. “We’ll think of 
somethin’.”

*********

Jack was shaken from sleep when the intercom let out a loud 
burst of static. He rolled from the table, ignoring the 
screaming in his back, and staggered over to it, pushing the 
button and calling "who is this?"

"Try it," a faint female voice replied urgently. "The door."

He reached for the door handle without thinking and hesitated, 
surprised when it actually opened. He looked out into the empty 
hallway warily, wondering what kind of game the Others were 
playing now. He crept toward the door Ben had escaped through 
the first day they had been held prisoner and found it open as 
well. He found a room with a small bank of black and white 
monitors, all of which seemed to show abandoned locations. 
Further down the hall he found a gun closet and grabbed a 
pistol that was already loaded. 

He went back the way he'd come and paused when he caught 
movement on one of the monitors in the first room. He moved 
closer, eyes widening as he recognized Sawyer, sitting in a 
cage with Kate curled sleeping in his lap. He was stroking her 
hair absently, staring into space with a pained expression. A 
smile flitted across Jack's face and he shook his head. The 
Others hadn't been bluffing. Sawyer was still alive. But not 
for long if Kate was allowed so close to him. 

"If it helps I was surprised too," Ben's voice said from behind 
Jack. 

Jack whirled, pointing the gun at the man's chest, his face 
twisted with rage. "Shut up," he snapped. There was nothing on 
the monitor to suggest anything had happened between Kate and 
Sawyer if that was what they wanted him to believe. Even if it 
had, it would hardly be the first time Sawyer had philandered. 
What did they think such a revelation would accomplish now?

Ben looked down at the gun and over at the monitors. "Well...I 
suppose this would be the proverbial nail in my coffin, 
wouldn't it?"

Jack clenched his jaw. He could easily shoot Ben. But then he'd 
be stuck in an underwater hatch with no way out and Kate and 
Sawyer would die for sure - quickly. He needed a plan. 
"Tomorrow," he finally said, lowering the gun.

Ben blinked at him. "Sorry?"

"Tomorrow morning. First thing. And everything I mentioned 
before; the instruments, the anesthesia and someone who can 
hold a damned clamp."

"Yes," Ben said quickly, instinctively. "Of course." He 
resisted the urge to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't 
dreaming. He had given up hope that Jack would come around. He 
certainly hadn't expected it to happen so easily.

"I'll get it out. Your tumor," Jack vowed. "And I'll keep you 
alive." He stepped closer until he could feel Ben's elated, 
stuttering breaths on his face, his voice taking on a note of 
desperation. "But I need your word. I need what you promised me 
before. I need to get the hell off this island." He didn't 
expect they would keep that promise but it didn't matter. He 
just needed them to believe him and this was the only thing he 
knew would convince them he was willing to cooperate.

Ben stared at him, debating. "Done."

*********

Ben watched as Jack snapped on a pair of surgical gloves. "You 
get nervous," he asked. "Before you do surgery?"

"I used to," Jack admitted. "But not anymore, no." 

Except this wasn't a routine surgery, he knew, and after Ben 
was out and Juliet handed him a scalpel he hesitated, his 
stomach fluttering. If this didn't work... He pushed the 
thought aside and made the first incision.

He got Ben open, swabbed and clamped, feeling Juliet's eyes 
bore into him, waiting to see if he would do as she'd asked. 
She turned her back for a moment and he reached for the scalpel 
again. He hesitated. If he did this there was no turning back. 
They wouldn't hurt him, he knew, as long as he was pregnant, 
but there was no telling what they *would* do. He closed his 
eyes and thought of Kate and Sawyer. It didn't matter. His life 
was forfeit anyway. At least he could save them. He made a 
small incision and the heart monitor began beeping erratically. 

"What's happening, is he okay," Juliet asked as if it was a 
line she had rehearsed until it sounded sufficiently clueless.

"His blood pressure's dropping," Jack's other, under qualified 
"nurse" noted. "Should he be bleeding like that?"

"No, he shouldn't," Jack said, elbowing the man in the face 
before he knew what was coming. He barked at Juliet to back 
away from the table and she did easily, her hands out in front 
of her, her face showing no emotion.

Jack ripped off his mask and shouted to Tom, watching in shock 
from the observation room. "I just made a small incision in 
Ben's kidney sac. Now if I don't stitch that back up in the 
next hour...he's dead. Now get in here and bring that walkie 
talkie!"

*******

"Sawyer," Kate yelped as she saw Danny and another man marching 
toward their cell. Within seconds she was ripped away from him 
and shoved against the bars, one arm twisted roughly behind her 
back. 

Sawyer fought against Danny as the Other tried to drag him from 
the cage, but when his partner put a gun to Kate's head and 
Danny threatened to shoot her too he surrendered in spite of 
Kate's protests. 

She swore at him and begged as Danny pushed him out of the cage 
and forced him to his knees in the mud. "I'll do anything you 
want," she shouted desperately.

"I want you to watch," Danny said.

"Close your eyes, Freckles," Sawyer countered, his voice soft, 
defeated. As if he had already accepted his fate. Kate could 
barely hear him over the sudden tropical downpour.

"Stand up," she snarled at him.

"Close your eyes," he snarled back.

Kate screamed and cried as Danny pulled back the hammer on his 
pistol. He was just starting to pull the trigger when his 
walkie burst to life, Tom's voice drifting from the small 
speaker. 

"Danny, you there?" 

He fumbled for the walkie with one hand, keeping his gun 
trained on Sawyer. "I'm here, what?" he shouted.

"You anywhere near the cages?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Give your walkie to Kate."

"Why the hell would I do that?"

Pause. "Because if you don't the doctor's gonna let Ben die."

Sawyer clenched his jaw. Son of a bitch. What the hell did he 
think he was doing now?

"What are you talking about? What's that beeping?"

"Just hand her the damned walkie, Danny! Do it! Just do it 
now!"

Danny's partner released his hold on Kate and she reached 
through the bars as Danny held the walkie out to her, snatching 
it eagerly. "Jack!"

Silence.

Sawyer stood up. Danny didn't try to stop him but he didn't 
take his gun off him either. Kate's wide eyes remained fixed on 
both of them as she waited anxiously for Jack to answer.

"Kate," Jack began after an eternal minute. "You have about an 
hour head start before they come after you. Take the walkie, 
take Sawyer and go."

Kate froze, unable to speak. What the hell was he doing? "Wait, 
where are you?"

Jack paused, a myriad of emotions playing across his face for 
no one to see. "You remember what I told you on the beach. The 
day of the crash. Do you remember the story I told you when you 
were stitching me up?"

Kate's mouth worked impotently and she began to shake - whether 
from the cooling effect of the rain, fear or anxiety she 
couldn't be sure.

"Do you remember it," Jack shouted.

"Yes, I remember," she shrieked. 

Jack calmed again, lowering his voice. "When you get safe, you 
radio me and you tell me that story."

Tears ran down Kate's face, blending seamlessly with the rain. 
Sawyer glared in her general direction. Of course Jack would 
try to play the hero - no matter how bad the odds were. 

"Jack, please," she sobbed.

Jack's voice hardened again. He couldn't afford to show any 
weakness here. The plan was too fragile. The slightest slip 
could mean the end of all of them. "If I don't get a call from 
you in the next hour I'm gonna know something went wrong and he 
dies!" He shouted the last couple words for the benefit of the 
few Others who surrounded him.

Kate clenched her teeth. "I can't leave without you!"

"Yes, you are," he said firmly. "Go!"

"Jack, I can't!"

"Go. Now."

"No, I can't," she yelled frantically.

"Kate, damnit, RUN," he screamed. 

Danny glanced back at Kate, confused and annoyed by this turn 
of events. Sawyer took advantage of the momentary distraction, 
sending him staggering with a punch to the jaw. The movement 
broke Kate from her stupor and she whirled, slamming her fist 
into the temple of the man behind her. Within seconds they had 
subdued both of their captors.

"Let's go," Kate shouted. 

Sawyer ignored her, lifting Danny's barely conscious body and 
slamming him head-first into the button on the Skinner box. 
Once for trying to kill him, once for kidnapping them all in 
the first place and once for putting Jack in a position where 
he felt the only way out was to make himself a martyr.

"Sawyer," Kate barked impatiently.

Sawyer vaguely realized that his plan to shock Ben wouldn't 
have worked as well has he thought - he only felt a mild shock 
as the current went through Danny. He dropped the man's 
twitching, bloody body on the ground and followed Kate, locking 
the cell door behind him.

********

"Juliet," Tom ordered. "Stop the bleeding and stitch him up."

"She's not a surgeon. She can't fix this," Jack objected.

Juliet looked calmly between the two men and removed her mask. 
"He's right." 

Tom flustered. "Then what the hell do you suggest we do," he 
demanded of her.

She didn't answer. She simply turned to the other "nurse", who 
had just come around after Jack had knocked him out cold, and 
said "go get Danny. Then find Austen and Ford and bring them 
back."

Jack's eyes widened and he advanced on the man. "No, you do 
that and Ben dies!"

"Go," Juliet urged him softly.

"You think I'm lying?" Jack shouted. "You think this is a 
bluff? I will let him die!"

"No, Jack, you won't," she snapped. She turned to the other 
man. "Go. Get them back. If you have to...kill them." She 
looked defiantly at Jack, who gaped at her in horror as his 
plan seemingly crumbled all around him. "You haven't thought 
this through, Jack. Your plan's not gonna work."

"Yeah? Why is that," he asked, his voice wavering only 
slightly.

"Your friends aren't going to make it back to your side of the 
island because we're not *on* that island. We're on a smaller 
island, two miles off shore."

Jack blinked at her stupidly, his remaining confidence 
threatening to shatter. Another island? He glanced at Tom.

"'fraid so," Tom confirmed.

Jack turned his back on them, bringing his wrist to his 
forehead and taking a deep breath, nearly gagging at the 
coppery scent of the blood on his surgical glove. He had 
failed. He had killed them all.

"So why don't we see if we can come up with some sort of 
peaceful resolution," Juliet continued.

Jack laughed weakly at the ridiculousness of the suggestion and 
turned to glare at her. "A peaceful resolution? Is that what 
you call asking me to kill Ben while on the operating table? 
Making it look like an accident?" He knew he was lashing out 
but he was desperate. She was the one who had backed him into a 
corner; she should have known this would happen. 

"That's ridiculous," she spluttered as Tom looked back and 
forth between them in shock, unsure what to believe anymore. 

Jack turned to Tom and continued, telling him that Juliet 
wanted Ben dead and had sworn to protect him if he helped her, 
his words all but drowned out by her loud declarations that he 
was lying and trying to turn Tom against her.

"Enough," Tom shouted. They fell silent, glaring at each other. 
"Juliet," he continued, his voice softer but still underlaid 
with anger, eyeing Jack warily. "Get out."

"Tom, he's lying," she spit. 

"You said you can't stitch him up. Then you don't need to be in 
here. Go, Julie."

She looked at Jack. Tom couldn't see just how close he was to 
breaking. He couldn't see the hope and fear in Jack's eyes for 
what it really was. She stepped closer to Tom, looking him in 
the eye. "Don't let him fool you. He'd never let a patient just 
die." She looked back at Jack, whose face was twisted into so 
many emotional displays at once that it was nearly impossible 
to read. 

She slammed the door angrily on her way out.

*********

"Is it true?"

Jack barely looked up from the machine monitoring Ben's heart 
rate. "Is what true?"

"Did Juliet really ask you to kill him?"

Jack looked up and nodded. "Yeah. And in about forty minutes 
she's gonna get her wish."

"Hey..."

Both men's eyes widened in shock as the groggy voice drifted up 
from the operating table. Jack looked at the mirror beneath the 
gurney, horrified to find Ben's open eyes looking right back at 
him. No, this wasn't happening...

"That's...not helping...anything," Ben slurred.

Jack glanced at Tom helplessly. This was getting completely out 
of control.

"Now," Ben continued. "Could somebody please get Juliet?"

"What happened," Tom demanded. "Why is he awake?"

"I don't know," Jack snapped. "I'm a spinal surgeon, not an 
anesthesiologist!"

"Hey," Ben cut in, his voice strained. "Get...Juliet. I need to 
speak to her."

Tom hesitated, unsure whether it was safe to leave Ben alone 
with Jack in his vulnerable state - strapped to a table with 
his back cut open. But if Jack wanted to kill him he wouldn't 
have given up Juliet...would he?

Jack looked up at Tom, his eyes pained, and nodded. "Go."

He didn't have a choice. There was no one else he could send to 
fetch her and he certainly couldn't let Jack go anywhere while 
they still needed him to finish the surgery. Tom left, throwing 
one last wary look at Jack on his way out.

Jack looked back down at Ben, feeling his stomach twist in 
knots. "I stopped the surgery," he said hesitantly after a 
long, uncomfortable silence.

"I know," Ben said placidly. "I've been able to hear you for a 
few minutes now. It's very clever of you. I should have seen it 
coming."

Jack looked away nervously, blinking back tears. "Are you in 
pain," he asked weakly. "I can..."

"No. But thanks all the same."

Jack nodded tightly and fell silent. The erratic beeping of the 
heart monitor sounded loud and intrusive suddenly in the empty 
room.

"I suppose it's safe to assume Ford is the father," Ben said 
conversationally, his voice gradually growing stronger. 
"Sawyer," he added when Jack didn't react. 

Jack looked away uncomfortably. "Yes."

Ben hummed woozily. "I should've known. Tom thought he saw 
something between you."

Jack just stared at him in the mirror blankly. 

"Who are you doing this for, Jack? Him? Kate?"

Jack frowned. "What difference does it make?"

"You're a smart man, Jack," he continued. "Do you honestly 
think he would go to such extreme lengths for you?"

Jack felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Sawyer's words 
from nearly a year before came floating back to him. 'If the 
tables were turned, I'd watch you die.' He had told himself 
over and over that he hadn't meant it - that he'd have said 
anything to get Jack to let go of his arm because he had a 
death wish and goading Jack into letting him bleed out was 
easier than taking his own life. Besides, things had changed 
since then. "Don't," he said weakly.

"I'm not trying to hurt you, Jack," Ben said mildly. "I'm just 
wondering why you would risk your neck for a man who is little 
more than a sperm donor."

Jack closed his eyes tightly. He knew that on some level Ben 
may be right. But he had to believe that Sawyer felt something 
for him - that somewhere, deep down, was a good man, buried 
beneath the harsh exterior he presented to the rest of the 
world. He saw glimpses of that man whenever Sawyer looked at 
him, touched him. He saw it in his eyes the day Sawyer told him 
he met his father in Sydney...and again that day by the stream 
when he said he loved him. As much as he might say otherwise, 
he cared. But that wasn't Jack's only reason for doing what he 
was doing.

"I guess you people don't know us as well as you think you do," 
he said dully. He met Ben's gaze in the mirror, steeling 
himself as the man searched his eyes for an uncomfortably long 
minute. 

"You're a good man, Jack," he said finally, a note of grudging 
respect in his voice. "I hope you haven't made a mistake."

The door burst open again as Tom returned with Juliet in tow. 

"I'd like to speak to Juliet alone, please, Jack," Ben ordered.

Jack shook his head. "No. No, I'm sorry," he said softly.

"Please. I'm asking you," Ben argued, his voice unchanging. 
"One gentleman to another." He caught Jack's subtle flinch in 
the mirror at that. "It won't hurt you to give us three 
minutes, will it? Knowing I have only twenty-seven left?"

Jack complied reluctantly, pausing beside Juliet on his way 
out. "If you touch him...if you try to..."

"I won't," she said. She looked sincere, but that didn't mean 
all that much. 

Jack glanced down at Ben and nodded. "You've got three 
minutes." 

He went into the viewing area to watch as she sat beside Ben, 
watching their lips move, their voices too low to be heard 
through the glass. He flinched as Tom stepped beside him. He 
half expected one of them to lash out at him at any moment, 
even though he told himself that they needed him now.

"I'm Tom, by the way," the man said unexpectedly. 

Jack glanced at him briefly but didn't reply, watching as 
Juliet seemed to break down in tears. 

"They've got history," Tom explained mysteriously.

Jack frowned and watched Juliet stand, pace for a moment, 
visibly try to compose herself and leave the room. He moved to 
meet her in the scrub area.

"I would like for you to go back in there," she said, her tone 
contradicting the building tears in her eyes. "Put Ben under 
and finish the surgery."

He steeled himself. "And why would I want to do that," he 
asked, fully expecting her to threaten him, Kate and Sawyer 
with any number of things if he refused.

"Because I'm going to go help your friends escape," she said 
unexpectedly.

**********

They had just gotten Karl into Alex's canoe/sailboat when Danny 
staggered out of the jungle, pistol aimed squarely at Sawyer. 
Sawyer froze. He couldn't run again - he wouldn't get far 
before Danny got off the first shot. This was it. After 
everything he had survived he was going to be gunned down like 
a rabid dog because one of their people had killed Danny's girl 
and he had no one else to blame. 

Danny cocked the pistol and Kate ran forward, screaming "no!"

Sawyer felt her arms go around his chest as another figure 
emerged from the trees and shouted "Danny!"

Three shots were fired. Sawyer flinched instinctively and for a 
moment, Jack's face flashed in his mind. It only took another 
moment for him to realize he hadn't felt the familiar sting of 
bullets ripping into his flesh. 

Danny collapsed to the sand, bleeding from three fatal wounds 
in his chest and Sawyer gaped at the blonde woman standing a 
few feet away as she calmly lowered her weapon. 

*********

Jack glanced at Tom from the corner of his eye as he pried at 
the tumor in Ben's back. The man was turned away, gasping into 
his mask. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Tom replied, not looking at him. "I just don't like 
blood too much."

Jack rolled his eyes internally. Why was he always stuck 
performing procedures with squeamish assistants around here? 
"Well then you probably won't wanna be looking at that," he 
taunted, holding up the excised tumor between some pincers 
pointedly and dropping it in a metal bowl. Tom glanced at it 
and took deep breaths.

"So," Jack continued as he bent back over Ben, making sure he 
had removed the whole tumor. "If you can get off the island why 
didn't you just take him to a facility?"

"Because ever since the sky turned purple..."

Tom trailed off as a small geyser of blood erupted from Ben. 
Jack froze, startled, and looked at the monitor, which 
instantly began beeping even more frantically. 

"What the hell happened?!"

"I nicked an artery," Jack muttered, frantically grabbing gauze 
and tools to stop the bleed.

"Isn't that what you already did," Tom yelped. 

"Yeah, well, that was on purpose," Jack said with measured 
calm.

Tom rolled his eyes skyward. "Can you fix it?!"

"Damnit," Jack muttered to himself. "I can't see..."

"What?"

"I can't see, there's too much blood." He jerked his head 
impatiently. "Get over here." Tom hesitated and he barked "he's 
gonna die if you don't get over here right now!"

Tom scrambled to tie his mask and staggered over to the table, 
obediently following Jack's orders to pick up the suction tube 
and hold it steady, siphoning blood away from the area.

He was just making headway when Kate's voice drifted from the 
walkie on the counter several feet away. "Jack, are you there?" 

He clenched his jaw in frustration. Of course now, of all 
times, would be when she would call. "Hold that up to me," he 
ordered.

Tom hesitated. "What about the surgery..."

"Just do it," Jack shouted and Tom scrambled to retrieve it, 
returning quickly to pick up the suction tube, holding the 
walkie up to Jack with his free hand. "Yeah, I'm here, Kate," 
he said, forcing his voice to remain calm. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I...we've got a boat. They're letting us go."

Jack frowned. "Who's letting you go?"

"The blonde woman."

"So you're safe...you and Sawyer?"

"Yes...yeah."

Jack pushed aside the urge to demand she put Sawyer on the line 
so he could verify that for himself. He couldn't afford to get 
emotional right now, while 
Ben's life was literally in his hands. If he screwed up... he 
didn't want to think of what the consequences might be. "Tell 
me."

"Tell you?"

"The first day on the beach, the day of the crash, the story I 
told you. If you're safe, tell me." It was the only thing he 
could think of that he had told Kate and Kate alone. If she 
told him the wrong story, he would know she and Sawyer had been 
compromised.

"Do you think this is the best time," Tom interrupted. 

"Shut up," Jack barked.

Kate hesitated, looking out at the ocean as she tried to recall 
what Jack had said that day while she had nervously stitched 
the wound in his back. "You... were doing surgery on a girl and 
you messed up... You tore something on her back and all the 
nerves came loose." Her voice wavered as the gravity of the 
situation seemed to crash in on her suddenly. This could very 
well be the last time any of them spoke to Jack. A couple tears 
spilled down her cheeks and she took a deep breath, struggling 
to continue. "And you said you were so afraid...and you said 
the fear was so...real. And you didn't know what to do. So you 
counted to five...and then you weren't afraid anymore."

Jack looked up as Ben's heart rate stabilized, the line on the 
monitor leveling into slow, steady blips. It was over. He felt 
a painful tightening in his chest as he realized that he would 
never - *could* never - see Kate or Sawyer again. He had sealed 
his fate. Tom stared at him expectantly, his eyes seeming 
softer suddenly, seeming to sense the weight of the moment. 

Jack nudged his hand closer. "I need you to make a promise, 
Kate," he said softly.

"Jack," she sniffled.

"Promise me that you'll never come back here for me."

"Jack, where are you, please," she pressed.

Jack looked at Tom pleadingly. "Turn it off."

"Jack please, where are you," Kate begged.

Tom silently turned off the walkie and set it down, staring at 
Jack in something that looked like sympathy.

Kate cried openly as the line was filled with static. Sawyer 
took the walkie from her gently, his face drawn in pain. 
"Trades are comin'," he said softly. "We gotta go."

*********

Jack was looking down at the still unconscious Ben from the 
observation deck when Juliet returned. He straightened as she 
approached.

"Were you able to remove the tumor," she asked.

"Yeah." His voice sounded utterly defeated. "You'll want to do 
a biopsy...see if it's malignant."

She nodded.

"So what now, I just...go back to my cell?" 

She nodded again, eyes fixed on Ben. "Until they figure out 
what to do with you," she said flatly.

Jack sighed and blinked back tears. "They," he repeated. He 
knew exactly what 'they' would do with him and he wished he 
didn't. "What did he say?"

"I'm sorry?" she said innocently.

"Ben. What did he say that made you want to save his life?"

She smiled briefly, the expression pained. "It doesn't really 
matter."

Jack stood, feeling too vulnerable sitting, having to look up 
at her. "It matters to me. After everything that I have been 
put through you owe me an answer." His voice wavered. 'After 
everything we've all been put through,' he thought. "I want to 
know what he said."

She was silent for a moment. Then she swallowed and hesitantly 
began. "I've been on this island for three years, Jack. Three 
years, two months and twenty-eight days." Tears gathered in her 
eyes. "He said that if I let him live and I helped you..." her 
chin quivered, her voice faltering. "That he would finally let 
me go home."

Jack's eyes widened, realization finally dawning on him. She 
wasn't one of them...she was their prisoner. He tried to think 
of something to say to her but she fled from the room before he 
had a chance to say another word, as if she couldn't bear his 
empathy, leaving him to gape after her in shock.

*********

Sawyer held a mango out to Kate. "You sure you ain't hungry?"

"No, James, I ain't hungry," she replied snippily, continuing 
to glare into the campfire. She had been openly hostile toward 
him ever since he had refused to turn the boat around and go 
back for Jack.

"You shouldn't fight," Karl piped up.

"When the hell'd you wake up," Sawyer grumbled, parking himself 
next to a stump.

"You shouldn't fight 'cause you're lucky to be alive."

Sawyer rolled his eyes. "Golly, I think he's got a point," he 
exclaimed sarcastically. He hardly considered barely escaping 
after being locked up, beaten, tortured and nearly shot lucky.

"That island we were on, is that where your people live," Kate 
asked.

"Just where we work," Karl corrected. 

"Work on what?"

"Projects," he said distractedly. 

"So you don't actually *live* on that island?"

"Nope."

"Do you live here," she pressed. "On this island?"

"Yes ma'am," he said, seemingly oblivious to her line of 
questioning.

Sawyer went silent, watching her warily. She was obviously up 
to something. He could practically see her mind whirring, 
fitting the pieces of some puzzle together, and he would bet 
money the picture it made had something to do with rescuing 
Jack. 

"And what did you do with the people that you took? The kids?"

"We give them a better life."

She frowned. "Better than what?"

Karl finally looked at her, seemingly startled. "Better than 
yours," he said as if they were perfectly justified in their 
cause. Which, Sawyer realized, they probably thought they were.

Kate let go and went back to staring at the campfire, likely 
continuing to concoct a plan in her head. Sawyer chewed his 
fruit slowly and wondered if Jack was right after all. Maybe 
the Others had been after his baby all along.

***********

He walked docilely behind the woman who had introduced herself 
as Isabelle. She led him into a room with a large desk facing 
three chairs. Tom sat in one, Juliet in another. Jack hesitated 
as he noted the handcuffs securing Juliet's wrist to the metal 
back.

"Please have a seat," Isabelle said brightly, her deep, raspy 
voice hinting at a possible lifetime of cigarette use. She 
settled herself behind the desk as she continued. "As you may 
have gathered, we don't live on this little island. In fact, 
most of us don't really even like coming here."

He clenched his jaw and took the empty seat between the two 
Others, his eyes stubbornly not meeting hers. 

"There's been an incident that I'm investigating and I need to 
ask you some questions. So I was hoping you may help me clear 
up a few of the...inconsistencies." She sat up straight, hands 
flat on the desk, looking for all the world like a grade school 
teacher beginning her lesson. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, 
Tom. You said in the midst of a surgical procedure Jack made 
several comments indicating that Juliet had asked him to kill 
Ben."

Jack didn't even care enough to laugh. With that kind of 
evasive speech she had clearly missed her calling as a lawyer. 
He had said Juliet asked him to kill Ben and make it look like 
an accident. There hadn't been any "indicating". But maybe he 
could work this to his advantage...

"Yeah, that's right," Tom grunted.

"Is that true, Jack?"

He looked at her blankly, like he hadn't heard the question.

"Did Juliet ask you to kill Ben," she prompted.

His mind spun as he tried to formulate a new plan. 

"The question's simple," Isabelle said, growing impatient. "Did 
Juliet ask you to kill Ben?"

He chuckled. "No. No, I was lying. I would have done anything 
to get my friends out. And turning you people against each 
other was my best chance of creating chaos." It was mostly 
true. At least it was now.

Isabelle's face hardened and she stood, rounding the desk 
slowly and sitting on the edge of it so she towered over him 
intimidatingly. "Why are you lying for her, Jack?"

He looked up at her wearily. He didn't care anymore. He was 
sick of playing their mind games. Kate and Sawyer were safe now 
- that was all that mattered. They could threaten him all they 
wanted. He would be dead in another month anyway. "I'd like to 
go back to my cage now."

*********

Karl was gone when Kate and Sawyer woke the next morning, but 
he hadn't gone far. His loud sobbing could be heard from 
several yards away. He quieted and wiped his tears away 
frantically as Sawyer approached. Sawyer drove the heel of his 
hand into the boy's bicep, hard.

Karl yelped. "What the hell was that for?"

"So you'd cowboy up," Sawyer growled, dropping to sit beside 
him. "Cryin' in the jungle," he muttered. "I thought you people 
were supposed to be tough."

Karl glared and shoved Sawyer. "I am tough."

Sawyer rolled his eyes. "Sure ya are, Bobby." 

Karl stared blankly.

"Bobby Brady? The Brady Bunch?"

Karl's expression didn't change. "What the hell is the Brady 
Bunch?"

Sawyer sighed. "Okay. Anyway, look Karl...I've been with a lot 
of girls. Some of them worth the trouble, some not. Every now 
and again there's one..." He trailed off, feeling a lump 
threaten to form in his throat as an image of Jack's smiling 
face flashed unbidden to the forefront of his mind. He shook 
off the guilt and sadness that accompanied it and met Karl's 
questioning gaze. "One you name dumb stars with," he finished.

Karl blinked at him. "What about the doctor?"

Sawyer scowled. "What about 'im?"

"He's not a girl."

Sawyer rolled his eyes. "Gee...coulda fooled me."

Karl's expression grew hopelessly confused. "But you just 
said..."

"Look," Sawyer snapped. "We ain't talkin' about *me* here, 
Romeo. Pay attention." He forced his posture to relax. Slapping 
the kid might make him feel better but it wouldn't do any good 
in the long run. Besides, he realized, Karl was obviously just 
some clueless kid who happened to have fallen for the daughter 
of the Others' sociopathic leader. "This girl...Sally 
Slingshot."

"Alex."

"Yeah," Sawyer said flippantly. "You love her?"

Karl nodded, tears beginning to pool in his eyes. "More than 
anything."

"Then go back to wherever the hell you people live and get her 
back," he said as if the answer should have been obvious all 
along. If only it were as simple for him.

Karl shook his head. "If I get caught...they'll kill me this 
time."

"Then at least it'll be worth it." 

He patted the boy on the shoulder and gave him a brittle smile 
as he walked away. Whoever said giving advice was easier than 
taking it was right, he decided.

********

"The cavalry has arrived at last," Ben said with a hint of 
sarcasm as Jack burst into his recovery room, stopping the 
"nurse" from giving him an injection.

"I'd be much more impressed with you people if you had a good 
surgeon," Jack sneered, perching on a stool beside Ben's head.

"We had an excellent surgeon, Jack," Ben murmured, looking up 
at him pointedly. "His name was Ethan."

Jack ignored the accusation. "You have a very serious 
infection, Ben. That infected tissue needs to be reincised, 
debrided and you need to be very closely monitored from here on 
out." Basically he needed the infected tissue cut away and a 
round or two of antibiotics but Jack wasn't about to make it 
sound like a simple procedure, even if he could do it in his 
sleep. "There might be nerve damage or any number of other 
complications. You may not walk again." That much was true.

Ben just stared at him blankly. "Your bedside manner leaves 
something to be desired."

Jack chuckled at the irony. "Well then, it's too bad you're 
stuck with me."

"Am I?"

"You need a doctor, Ben. Someone to stay with you. Bring you 
back to good health."

"And here we go again," Ben groaned. "I've already given you a 
ticket off this island, Jack. What's it gonna cost me this 
time?"

Jack repressed the urge to point out that Ben never really 
intended to give him that, but maybe he could force his hand if 
he got the right leverage. "Right now your people are in a room 
deciding whether or not to execute Juliet. You're gonna stop 
it."

Ben stared at him for a long time. "Juliet doesn't care about 
you, Jack," he said evenly. "It doesn't matter what she's done. 
No matter what you think...she's one of us."

It didn't matter. If Jack was going to get the Others to 
cooperate he was going to need her. "Do we have a deal or not?"

*********

Jack leaned against the back of the cage, eyes screwed tightly 
shut, rubbing his abdomen in a desperate attempt to soothe the 
baby, who seemed to be making up for a long bout of calm by 
attacking him especially violently, even though it didn't have 
much room to move around anymore. The sudden burst of activity 
- rushing from the cage to Ben's recovery room to the room 
where the Others were deciding Juliet's fate - after being 
confined to a cage for so long was a shock to his system. The 
baby seemed intent on punishing him for it.

The baby was just beginning to settle down again when he heard 
someone approach. His eyes snapped open and he relaxed when he 
realized it was Juliet, a paper plate cradled in her hands. He 
frowned as he noticed the stiffness of her gait and stood 
slowly, moving to meet her at the bars.

"I heard you only like them grilled," she said with a smile, 
folding the plate and handing it to him through the bars.

He smiled back, somewhat dazed and still feeling residual pain, 
and accepted the sandwich. 

"Are you all right," she asked with a frown.

He shook his head clear and took a deep breath. "Yeah. I'm 
fine." He hesitated and set the plate down behind him. "Let me 
see it."

"Jack..."

"They said they were gonna mark you. Let me see it."

She turned reluctantly and lifted her shirt, revealing the raw 
brand shaped like an elongated asterisk. He ground his teeth 
and ordered her to get a branch from the aloe plant near the 
clearing. She hesitated but retrieved it with little argument.

"Why did you help me," she asked as he applied it to the burn.

"He told you he was gonna let you go home. He told me the same 
thing. I'm gonna make sure he keeps his word."

"And how are we going to do that," she asked, complacent. 

"Together," he said simply. 

She bit her lip silently for a few moments, seemingly trying to 
keep her emotions at bay. "They'll be coming for you. In a few 
minutes. All of them. Your friends know where we are so we have 
to leave this island to go back where we live."

Jack blinked up at her. "Where?"

She sniffled lightly. "Well, Ben calls it home."

**********

"We there yet?" Sawyer groused.

"If we are where I think we are then our beach should be just 
through those trees," Kate pointed flatly, not slowing down. 
"We'll be home in about five minutes."

"Try to contain your excitement, Freckles," he snarked.

"Forgive me if I'm not excited about explaining why there's 
only two of us coming back, James."

"Well, maybe they should explain why they ain't come lookin' 
for us," he spit. He yelped and stumbled as something sharp bit 
into the bottom of his foot. Kate rounded on him, demanding to 
know what happened. He sat on a fallen log and gaped at the 
decidedly unnatural - for jungle wilderness - object sticking 
from his shoe. 

"It looks like a dart," Kate proclaimed, kneeling beside him.

"Well, how the hell'd it get out here?"

"Okay, just relax your foot and I'm gonna take it out," she 
said, getting a firm grip on the metal shaft. "On the count of 
three, ready? One..."

"Ow," he yelped as she yanked it out abruptly. "I thought you 
said three!"

"Yeah, well, anticipation's the worst part. I thought I'd spare 
you," she said with a smirk. He glowered. 

She sat on the log next to him, her eyes scanning the jungle 
ahead. "We have to go back."

"Are you serious," he scoffed. 

"We can't just leave Jack behind."

"Yes, we can." He looked away, avoiding her angry stare. 

"How can you say that," she accused. "After everything he's 
done. After everything you've been through..."

"Cause that's what he told us to do," he snapped.

She resisted the urge to punch him - shake him violently until 
the truth just tumbled out of him. "Since when do you follow 
anyone's orders?"

"Damnit, Freckles, just drop it! I ain't goin' back there."

Her glare melted into a frown as she caught a flash of pain in 
his eyes. "What's going on? What aren't you telling me?"

Sawyer looked toward the sky and sighed. "He's dyin'. The Doc. 
He said havin' the baby would kill him."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"He didn't tell you 'cause he didn't want you to give up hope."

Kate fell silent as the information sunk in, feeling tears pool 
in her eyes. She wiped them away angrily before they had a 
chance to fall. "It doesn't matter. We can't just leave him."

"Fine," Sawyer muttered, waving in the general direction of 
where she said the beach should be. "Go round up your posse and 
go on back. Just leave me out of it."

She hesitated. She wanted to scream at him. If she were in his 
place she was sure she would want to spend every last minute 
possible with Jack. She would want him to be surrounded by 
people who knew and loved him when he died, not the cold, cruel 
Others who had kidnapped and abused them. But a part of her 
thought she understood why Sawyer wouldn't want that. He still 
hadn't gotten over his parents' violent, senseless deaths years 
ago. He didn't want to face Jack's death if he didn't have to. 
As tough as he pretended to be, deep down he was a coward.

"Fine," she mumbled, standing up and continuing down the path 
without any further comment.

*******

It was easy for Sawyer to distract himself once they got back, 
as it turned out. Finding the majority of his stash missing 
fueled his anger, giving him an excuse for lashing out. Not 
that he needed one, really. He hadn't anticipated that anybody 
would actually be glad to see him.

"Dude, you're alive," Hurley shouted gleefully after Sawyer 
found him and Jin in the jungle trying to upright and old 
junked van. 

"Yeah, good to see you too, Snuffy," Sawyer admitted as 
Hurley's enthusiastic hug nearly crushed his ribs.

Jin hugged him companionably and greeted him in broken, 
hesitant English.

"What about Jack and Kate? They with you? They all right," 
Hurley asked.

And just like that, the tiny smile that had crept onto Sawyer's 
face faltered. "Kate's with me. But the Doc...they still got 
him."

"Okay," Hurley said cheerfully. "It's okay. Jack's gonna be all 
right. We all are."

Sawyer gaped at him and wondered if maybe the has been wasn't 
the one who had snatched the heroin from his stash. 

"See, things are getting better," he added chipperly. "The car. 
You coming back safely. It's a sign."

"Yeah, a sign I want my stuff back," he retorted. 'And a sign 
you're crazy.'

"Uh-uh. You're gonna help us fix this thing," Hurley said.

"And why would I do that?"

Hurley smiled triumphantly. "'Cause there's beer."

**********

Sawyer perched next to the uprighted van, sipping a flat, foul-
smelling beer and listening to Hurley badger Jin about being 
unable to get the van started. 

"Hey, leave the man alone," he finally called. "He's right. No 
fix. There's no way it's gonna get running. How thick are you?"

"What's your problem, man," Hurley accused. "Why don't you want 
this to work?"

"I don't *care* if it works. Why's it so important to you?"

"Because we could all use a little hope!"

"If it's hope you're lookin' for, S.A., you're on the wrong 
damned island." Sawyer lowered his voice and added "Cause there 
sure as hell ain't no hope here." 

Hurley gaped at him as he dropped his head back against the 
frame of the van dejectedly and took another sip of beer. Once, 
maybe, he had held out hope of them being rescued. Now it 
didn't matter anymore. He had nothing to go back to. And all he 
had to show for his time on this godforsaken island was one 
more failed relationship and a dead lover.

The fact that the van did, ultimately, start may have given 
Hurley hope, but the brief excitement wore off quickly for 
Sawyer. He carried the case of beer back to his tent and 
watched Jin and Charlie reunite with their wife and girlfriend 
- Sun smiling and holding Jin's hand, Claire laughing while 
Charlie talked animatedly. Sawyer had been a loner for most of 
his life but, ironically, he had never felt more alone than he 
did at that moment. He drank his beer and stared out at the 
ocean, letting the alcohol numb him. It still tasted terrible, 
but maybe if he drank enough he wouldn't have to think about 
Jack and how he had let him down.

*********

"Where is he," Kate muttered mostly to herself as she, Sayid 
and Locke crouched in the bushes, watching the Other's going 
about various activities in their quaint little suburban 
development.

"Kate," Sayid murmured, pointing toward one figure. 

She followed his gesture, her eyes widening as she spotted the 
blonde woman. She was walking along a small path, talking to 
another woman, rocking a small bundle in her arms. "She's the 
one who helped me and Sawyer escape. You don't think..." She 
trailed off, rapidly feeling ill. Of course it was Jack's baby 
Juliet was holding in her arms, even if it was weeks earlier 
than Jack had calculated. Where else would it have come from so 
suddenly?

Tom emerged from one of the buildings, pushing Ben in front of 
him in a wheelchair. Kate resisted the impulse to leap from the 
bushes and shoot him. Jack had saved his life against his will 
and now Jack was most likely dead and they had taken his baby. 
Would they even tell the child about his true parents when he 
grew up?

Ben spoke to Juliet for a minute and she nodded, heading for 
another building with obvious reluctance and disappearing 
inside. Tom and Ben followed her slowly, pausing outside the 
door. 

The door opened a few moments later. Kate felt relief wash over 
their little group as Juliet emerged from inside, Jack beside 
her. Kate frowned as she took in his appearance. He looked 
tired and pained and he leaned on a cane. Juliet had her hand 
on the small of his back, seemingly ready to catch him should 
he suddenly fall.

They watched in shock as Jack talked to Ben for a minute or two 
and then reached out with his free hand to shake Ben's hand, as 
if this were a perfectly ordinary business transaction.

"This is gonna be more complicated than we thought," Locke 
murmured.

**********

They waited until dark to approach the camp, by which point 
Kate was practically vibrating with nervous energy. She watched 
through the binoculars as Juliet exited Jack's cabin, closing 
the door softly.

"Sayid, you guard the front," Locke instructed the second she 
had moved out of sight. "I'll go around back. You, go in 
through the side door."

Kate frowned. "I'm going in alone?"

"It's better if you're the first one he sees," Locke explained.

'Better than you, you mean,' Kate thought. She darted toward 
the main building, Sayid close behind her. She was only mildly 
surprised to find the door unlocked. 

She crept down the main hallway, following the sound of piano 
music. She found Jack hunched over the keyboard of an upright 
piano shoved against one wall. A cradle sat a few feet away 
from him.

She gaped as he finished the song. He sensed her presence and 
turned suddenly, eyes widening as he saw her standing in the 
hall, clutching a rifle. 

"Hi," she whispered.

He stiffened. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to get you." She set her rifle against the wall but 
hesitated as his expression turned agitated and desperate.

"Get out of here. Right now. Go!" He looked over his shoulder 
nervously.

She shook her head. "Jack..."

"Kate, they're watching me!"

Her eyes went to the corner of the room - the direction he had 
just looked - and she saw a camera mounted into the ceiling, 
blinking at them. Her breathing accelerated, her instinct to 
run for her life warring with her determination to save Jack.

"Get out of here," he repeated, standing shakily, leaning 
slightly against the piano.

"I'm not leaving you," she tried desperately.

He advanced toward her. "Yes, you are..."

Several armed men burst into the room before he could reach her 
and ordered her to get on the ground. 

"Don't hurt her," Jack shouted.

One of the Others responded by turning a gun on him and 
ordering him to step back. He did without argument.

The baby, startled awake by the loud noises, began to wail. 
Jack's eyes darted to the crib.

The Other clenched his jaw and motioned to it with his gun. 
"Go."

Jack stumbled over to the crib and lifted the baby into his 
arms, hiding it's face against his neck and murmuring 
nonsensically in it's ear in an attempt to soothe it.

Kate yelped as her arm was twisted behind her back and Jack 
watched in dismay as Sayid was dragged through the door and 
shoved to the ground beside her. 

The Other refocused on her, his gun pointed to her head. "Who 
else is with you?"

She looked at Jack pleadingly. "Jack?"

He shook his head slightly. "Just answer the question, Kate." 
'Please.' The baby's cries tapered off until they were only 
panicky little whimpers.

"One more time," the Other growled. "Who else is with you?"

She tore her eyes from Jack's desperate gaze and looked to 
Sayid. "Nobody. Nobody else. It was just us." She caught the 
relieved look on Sayid's face, but missed the brief flash of 
disbelief and disappointment on Jack's.

*********

She was still torturing herself with thoughts of what they 
could have done to Jack in the time it took her to find their 
camp when they shoved her into a rec room. She sat on the pool 
table and worked to slide her cuffed hands in front of her 
body. She had just succeeded when the door opened. She froze.

"I didn't think I'd see you again so soon, Kate," Tom said not 
unkindly. Then he turned to somebody outside, pointed to his 
ear and the ceiling and said "be careful in here."

Jack stepped in the doorway beside him and put the hand not 
occupied by his cane on Tom's shoulder. "Thanks," he muttered.

Tom left them alone and Kate watched silently as Jack dragged a 
folding chair to the center of the room, sitting gingerly. 
"They hurt you," he asked.

"No. They hurt you?"

He chuckled briefly. "No." Actually they had been keeping him 
pretty well supplied in painkillers since the birth and he was 
feeling pretty good.

She looked around as she climbed off the table. "What is all 
this?"

"This is where they live."

"And the people they took? The kids?"

He nodded, not looking her in the eye. "They're all safe." 

She frowned in disgust. "Safe?" She waited for him to look at 
her. When he did she saw nothing in his eyes. "So you're with 
them now," she concluded.

"I'm not with anyone, Kate," he said honestly.

"What did they do to you," she asked angrily, advancing on him 
slowly.

He looked away again uncomfortably. "Nothing."

"Then why are you acting like this?"

He stared at the floor fixedly. "There's no way... you... 
there's no way that I could..."

"I came here to help you!"

"I told you not to come back here for me," he snapped, looking 
up again.

She stared at him. "I didn't think you meant it."

He blinked rapidly and looked away.

She softened and stepped as close as she dared, tentatively 
touching his wrist. He flinched slightly and didn't look at 
her, but he clutched her hand when she slipped it into his. She 
glanced at the ceiling. Right. Bugs. That might explain his odd 
behavior. She crouched in front of him. "What did they do to 
you, Jack," she whispered, her eyes pleading with him.

His mouth opened and closed hesitantly. "I made a deal with 
them," he said after a moment. "They're gonna let me go. Me and 
my baby."

She frowned. "Where?"

He smiled sadly. "Home."

She didn't believe for a second that they would actually do 
such a thing, but he seemed to. "When?"

"First thing in the morning." He took a breath. "I can bring 
back help. It's our best chance..."

She shook her head. "You trust these people? They are liars! 
Why would you believe a word..."

"I trust them because you told me to, Kate," he snapped. 
"Because I have to." 

She reeled, not missing the fact that it was her own words 
coming back to haunt her. "Jack..."

Juliet stuck her head in the door at that moment and he didn't 
get a chance to answer. 

"Jack, we need to go."

"I'll be right there," he assured her.

She closed the door again and Kate let go of Jack's hand, 
sinking to the floor dejectedly and wiping at her damp cheeks. 
It was no use. She wouldn't get through to him.

"I asked you not to come back here for me and I wish...I wish 
that you hadn't." He leaned closer, whispering almost directly 
in her ear. "I will come back here for you."

Kate just stared at the floor, listening to him leave. She had 
no idea what was going on - what the Others were planning - but 
she just knew that if he went with them none of them would ever 
see him again.

********

Ben was putting a foil-covered tray in the refrigerator when 
Jack and Juliet entered his apartment. 

"Look, I know you don't owe me anything," Jack began 
tentatively. "But I need to ask you for one last favor."

Ben blinked up at him in surprise. "You don't knock," he asked 
indignantly, as if he had any business being offended that the 
man he had kidnapped and locked in a cage wasn't respecting his 
boundaries.

Juliet looked off in the corner, disgusted but not at all 
surprised. She refocused on the baby in her arms. Jack refused 
to go anywhere without his baby unless she could watch it. She 
was the only one of them he trusted. 

"I need you to let my friends go," Jack continued. "After I'm 
gone."

"And if I said no, would that stop you from leaving," Ben asked 
bluntly. 

Jack frowned. "Of course it would."

"Your friends are only here to rescue *you*," Ben pointed out. 
"But you seem to be doing a good job of rescuing yourself, 
so..." he sighed. "I suppose there's no reason to keep them 
here."

"I need your word on that."

Ben wheeled his chair closer and held his hand out. "You have 
my word," he said easily as Jack accepted the handshake. "I'll 
let them go just as soon as you've left the island."

Jack nodded warily. Something didn't seem right, but he wasn't 
quite sure what it was.

Ben turned to Juliet. "Well, I guess this is it," he said 
flatly.

"Thank you, Ben," she said, her voice thick with tears. "For 
keeping your promise."

He nodded and gave her a tight smile. She turned to leave and 
Jack followed her out the door, giving Ben one last wary look 
over his shoulder.

The nagging feeling stayed with him up until the moment he and 
Juliet were escorted out onto the dock where he was told a 
submarine waited to take them back to civilization. An Other at 
the front of the group raised his rifle suddenly. "Hey! Hold it 
right there!"

Jack clutched the baby tightly to his chest and watched in 
shock as Locke came into view, standing at the end of the dock 
with his arms raised, calmly sinking to his knees at the 
Other's orders. 

"What are you doing here, John?"

Locke's eyes turned to him. "I'm sorry, Jack," he said softly.

Jack frowned. "Sorry for what?"

An explosion at the end of the dock sent everybody ducking for 
cover. Jack turned away from the blast, instinctively shielding 
the baby with his body. When he looked up all that was left of 
the submarine was a burning pile of wreckage floating in the 
night-darkened water. He met Locke's wide-eyed, apologetic look 
with rage and betrayal, the stirring, whimpering baby in his 
arms the only thing keeping him from tackling the man to the 
ground and throttling him. He dimly heard Tom call his name and 
then hands were guiding him up and away from the dock. His eyes 
remained fixed on Locke as the Other's scattered frantically. 
He saw the butt of a rifle crash into Locke's temple a moment 
before he was pulled out of sight range.

***********

It had been two hours since Jack had been left in “his” house 
and he hadn’t heard word from anybody – Juliet included. So far 
he had managed to keep from from going stir crazy, but once the 
baby was fed, changed, bathed and ready for bed he knew the 
fact that his best chance of getting off the island had gone up 
in flames would sink in. He needed to regroup – come up with a 
new plan. There had to be another way off the island. He could 
*not* raise his child here.

He was just settling the baby in the crib when he heard a noise 
at the back door. He froze, his heart pounding as his survival 
instinct warred with his instinct to defend his child. He could 
take the baby and run, but if there was danger, he could just 
be bringing the child closer to it.

He moved down the hall cautiously, hoping he had imagined the 
sound. He gasped as his cane was ripped out from under him 
suddenly. He clutched the handle tightly, letting the momentum 
spin him around to face his attacker. He barely got a look at 
the man's face before a hand reached around him from behind and 
clamped a towel over his face. He gasped instinctively and 
shouted, his eyes wide with fear, letting go of the cane and 
reaching both hands to rip the towel away. But it was too late 
- the ether was already taking effect. The room spun and grew 
fuzzy.

'Please, don't take my baby,' was his last, frantic thought 
before he sank into unconsciousness.

*********

"Jack," Kate's voice called, drawing him back to awareness. 
Hands shook him frantically. "Jack, wake up! It's me!"

He startled awake and she leapt back, her back hitting the wall 
behind her with a dull thud. He gasped as he fought to clear 
the remaining fog from his head. "What happened?"

"They all left."

He blinked up at her. "What?"

"Because of me...I'm so sorry." 

His eyes widened and he dragged himself to a sitting position, 
grabbing the edging on the wall for support. "The baby," he 
gasped, his chest tightening as he saw the debris at the end of 
the hall next to the open door - evidence of the apartment 
being ransacked.

Kate's hands flew to his shoulders, discouraging him from tying 
to stand. "Stay here. I'll look."

He stayed reluctantly, letting his head fall back against the 
cool wood edging as the world slowly stabilized, listening to 
Kate's footsteps disappear into the next room. He didn't 
realize he was holding his breath until she reappeared, the 
baby cradled in her arms. He felt his whole body relax in 
relief. 

"He's okay," Kate said, kneeling carefully beside him.

"She," he corrected absently, holding his arms out to her.

Kate's eyes softened and she carefully transferred the baby to 
his arms. "She," she repeated. She sat back and watched him run 
his free hand over the infant's body, assuring himself that she 
was unharmed. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I should have 
listened to you. I never...I wanted to come back to help you. 
But you didn't need me to. And now because of me, you can't 
go." She took a shaky breath, tears rapidly taking shape. "I'm 
so sorry," she whispered.

The baby made a few gurgling noises, unhappy to have been so 
rudely awoken, and tried to hide her face in Jack's shoulder. 
"They just...left," he repeated numbly, eyes fixed on the tiny 
creature.

Kate nodded, barely keeping herself composed. "Yeah."

"Even...even Juliet?"

Kate stared at him, her tears subsiding with her growing shock. 
"No. They left her too."

"Why," he breathed, more to himself than her.

"You know her better than I do."

He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall. He 
should have known this would happen, he realized dejectedly. 

"Now what," Kate asked.

He opened his eyes and sighed. "Now we go back."

***********

They set up camp for the night in a small clearing. None of 
them particularly liked the idea of spending the night in the 
open, least of all Jack, but they had little choice. The beach 
was too far to reach in one day - especially with Jack still 
recovering from his surgery and moving slowly. The Others had 
taken his cane, leaving him to find a sturdy tree branch to 
lean on for support. 

Kate watched him from the corner of her eye as she helped Sayid 
build a fire. He leaned against a tree tiredly, Juliet hovering 
beside him, helping him feed his daughter. Kate thought it 
should seem strange that Jack was able to breast feed but 
strange had long since become the norm on this island. Besides, 
she vaguely recalled him saying something about developing 
mammary glands a couple months ago. Right now she was more 
concerned about Juliet. Jack had insisted they bring her along, 
pointing out that the Others had left her behind too. Kate and 
Sayid had reluctantly agreed, although neither one of them 
trusted her. Kate wanted to believe Jack's instinct to trust 
her was well founded but...well...he had trusted Michael to 
know what he was doing and been led into a trap. 

She finished with the fire and tentatively moved closer to 
Jack. "What's her name?"

Jack looked surprised by the question. "I haven't named her 
yet."

Kate bit her lip hesitantly. Juliet excused herself and slipped 
away from the two of them, sensing she was not meant to be a 
part of the coming conversation.

"You told Sawyer you wouldn't survive the delivery," she said 
softly, her voice tinged with mild accusation.

A look she couldn't decipher flashed across his face briefly. 
"He told you?"

She slid closer to him. "That's why he wouldn't go back for 
you. I think he couldn't face the thought of you dying."

Jack's breath caught slightly in his chest, his eyes searching 
hers. He hadn't been all that surprised to find that Sawyer 
wasn't part of his rescue team. He hadn't bothered to wonder 
why Sawyer might have chosen to stay behind.

"He may be an ass," she added. "But I think he really does love 
you."

He swallowed the forming lump in his throat, nodding. Then he 
returned his attention to his daughter, stroking her cheek, his 
vision blurring with tears.

**********

"Well, if it ain't three men and a baby," Sawyer drawled as he 
strolled past Charlie, Hurley and Aaron. He gave them a moment 
to ponder that before adding "I counted Hugo twice."

Hurley gave him a wounded glare.

"Oh, what? I used your name!"

Claire staggered up, looking ill and exhausted. "Hey. Does 
anybody know where there's any aspirin?"

Aaron squealed in recognition of his mother's voice and reached 
for her but Charlie kept a secure hold on him. Nobody had any 
idea what this sudden illness that had taken over her was, but 
they knew they couldn't risk Aaron catching it. Claire was so 
out of it she barely seemed to notice.

"Claire, you don't look so good," Desmond pointed out. 

'Psychic my ass,' Sawyer thought with an inward eye roll.

"What are you doing up," Charlie scolded. "You're meant to be 
in bed!"

"Yeah, I know, I just...my head's pounding..."

"I gotcha covered," Sawyer cut in, shoveling oatmeal into his 
mouth. "Two aspirin coming right up."

He was making his way toward his tent when he caught movement 
from the corner of his eye. He glanced toward the end of the 
beach and stopped in his tracks. Coming around the foliage at 
the edge of the shoreline were two figures. One walked slowly, 
stiffly, leaning on a crude looking cane. The other, smaller 
figure, supported him. Sawyer squinted at them, certain he was 
seeing things. "Son of a bitch..."

"It's Jack," Sun exclaimed nearby, her voice joining the 
excited murmur rolling through the camp. Several people ran to 
greet the pair. Kate smiled and relinquished her hold on Jack 
as they were surrounded. Sayid appeared several steps behind 
them and was quickly swallowed in the growing crowd.

Sawyer stood rooted to his spot, waiting for the moment when he 
would wake up and realize this was all a dream. His feet 
started toward the group of their own volition, the bowl 
falling, forgotten, from his hands. 

Jack looked up as he approached, his smile faltering slightly, 
his eyes wary.

Sawyer wordlessly gathered Jack in his arms, closing his eyes 
as Jack's arms instinctively wrapped around his waist, the cane 
bumping the back of his knee. 

"Don't ever do that to me again, you son of a bitch," he hissed 
in Jack's ear.

All the remaining tension flowed out of Jack and he leaned into 
Sawyer's embrace, burying his face in the man's neck and 
inhaling his familiar scent.

Sawyer reached to cradle the back of his head, pressing him 
even closer, lost for the moment in the feel of Jack's solid, 
warm body in his arms again - something he had convinced 
himself he wouldn't ever feel again. He opened his eyes and 
stiffened as he caught sight of the blonde woman standing at 
the edge of the foliage hesitantly, a small bundle in her arms. 
"What the hell is she doin' here," he snarled.

Jack pulled back in his arms. "It's okay. She's with me."

Sawyer's eyes widened. "What?" Had Jack totally lost his mind?

"She's not one of them. It's okay."

Sawyer gaped at him, at least half a dozen comments running 
through his head. Before he could settle on one, Juliet stepped 
closer, slowly folding back the edges of the blanket in her 
arms to reveal a peacefully sleeping infant. "Congratulations," 
she said softly, her cool blue eyes piercing his. "It's a 
girl."

*********

"I don't trust her, Jack," Sayid said, speaking for the rest of 
the gathered group. "If she's so innocent, why won't she answer 
our questions?"

"Give her some time," he pleaded tiredly, leaning against the 
"table" in the pantry. "She's afraid."

"How much time," Sayid pressed.

"Look, the fact that I trust her should be enough."

"It's not," Sayid said bluntly. Jack had proven himself a poor 
judge of people's intentions once already.

"Where did Locke go?" Desmond piped in. 

"He went with them," Jack sighed. "Right after he blew up the 
sub. The sub that was gonna take me off this island."

"They were gonna let you go," Sawyer asked, shocked.

Jack looked at him guiltily. "Yeah."

Sawyer frowned. "Said who?"

"Ben."

Understanding dawned on Sawyer. "Ben. Who's life you saved."

"Sawyer..." Kate warned.

Sawyer ignored her. "You shoulda let that bug-eyed bastard 
die!"

"Look, I spent every moment over there trying to find a way off 
this island," he defended, appealing to the entire group. "I 
was trying to help all of us - trying to get us rescued."

"Jack," Charlie interrupted. Everyone looked to him, their 
argument forgotten as they caught sight of Claire slumping 
against him, blood spilling from her nose. The group dispersed 
as Charlie rushed her to the medical tent, Jack following 
behind, firing off questions, falling instantly back into 
doctor mode. For now, this would have to wait.

**********

Jack had just gotten the bleeding to stop when Kate pulled him 
away, claiming Juliet needed to talk to him.

"Claire's immune system is turning on her," Juliet began 
urgently. "She's having a latent reaction to a medication in 
her bloodstream."

"What medication," Jack demanded.

"It was designed to keep her alive during the late stages of 
her pregnancy."

"Designed. By who?"

Juliet sighed. "By me." She turned to Kate. "For some reason 
the women here can't have babies. The mother's body turns on 
the pregnancy, treats it as a foreign invader. I saw it happen 
over and over."

Kate's wide eyes darted to Jack briefly. He didn't seem 
surprised by this news.

"Every pregnant woman on this island died," Juliet continued. 
"Until Claire...and Jack."

"What did you do to her," Jack asked numbly. 

Juliet took a deep breath and explained how Ethan had 
infiltrated their camp and taken blood samples from Claire. He 
discovered that she showed some of the same symptoms as the 
other women who had died and once their group realized he 
wasn't one of the survivors of the plane crash he took it upon 
himself to kidnap her so he could treat her. "He kidnapped her 
on his own - that was never the plan. Look, I know how this 
sounds, but without those injections Claire would have died. 
Without the serum she's going into a form of withdrawl and if I 
don't treat her quickly her immune system could shut down 
entirely."

Jack blinked rapidly, seemingly struck dumb.

"Did you treat Jack too," Kate asked warily.

Juliet faltered uneasily. "No...we didn't know he was pregnant 
until your people captured Ben," she admitted. "He..." She 
glanced at him hesitantly. "He never showed the symptoms. I 
don't know why. Maybe this...disease doesn't attack males the 
same way." She turned fully on Jack, her eyes pleading. "Jack, 
I can fix this. I just need the serum. Ethan kept a stash of 
medical supplies near the caves where you used to live. If I go 
right now, I can be back before it's too late."

Jack looked to Kate hesitantly, then slowly nodded. "Do it."

**********

Juliet had just unearthed the metal case when Sawyer and Sayid 
descended on her. "It's full of medical supplies," she 
explained. "They're for Claire. Jack knows all about it."

"Jack ain't here right now, is he," Sawyer growled. He ripped 
open the case and glared at the medical equipment inside.

"I'm telling you the truth!" Juliet insisted. 

"You said earlier that if you told me everything you knew I'd 
kill you," Sayid said calmly. "I'm going to test the validity 
of that statement."

"He means talk," Sawyer put in.

She shook her head, her expression vaguely reminiscent of an 
animal caught in a trap. "We don't have time for this."

"We got all the time in the world," Sawyer argued, his voice 
dropping to a dangerous snarl.

She hesitated for a moment longer and then proceeded to evade 
them expertly. "You know what's interesting? That you two are 
now the camp's moral police. I'm curious, Sayid. How long was 
it before you told everyone on that beach exactly how many 
people you've tortured in your life? Do they know about 
Basthra?" She turned to Sawyer, her confidence growing. "And 
I'm sure the first thing you did when you got here, *James*, 
was to gather everyone in a circle and tell them about the man 
you shot in cold blood the night before you got on the plane."

Sawyer blinked at her stupidly. How could they possibly know 
about that?

"So why don't we just skip the part where you two pretend to be 
righteous. I'm taking that medication back to Claire. And 
you're gonna let me. Because the last thing that either of you 
need right now is more blood on your hands." Her intense eyes 
bored into Sawyer's as she slipped her hand beside his on the 
handle of the case, daring him to stop her from taking it.

He clutched it tighter. "I don't know what you've got on Jack," 
he growled. "But if anything happens...I'll kill you."

She barely bat an eye. She merely slid the case from his 
loosened grip, turned on her heel, and walked back toward the 
beach.

*********

Sawyer entered his tent that night to find Jack leaning against 
the airline seat, feeding their daughter. Jack sat up straight, 
looking up at him self-consciously. 

"Don't let me interrupt."

Jack relaxed slowly as Sawyer flopped down next to him. "How's 
Claire?"

"Fine. She's askin' about you."

Jack smiled softly. "That's good. That means she's cognizant." 

"So..." Sawyer broached hesitantly. "This blonde 
woman...Juliet...you really trust her?"

Jack sighed. "They've kept her here for three years against her 
will. She just wants to get off this island, more than 
anything. She's one of us."

Sawyer still wasn't convinced, but arguing with Jack was 
pointless. He obviously trusted her - whether because he had 
good reason or because he was deluded. Until she did something 
that warranted further suspicion all they could do was watch 
her and wait.

They fell into a lengthy silence. Jack looked up, surprised, 
when Sawyer reached out suddenly to trace his finger along the 
exposed scar on his abdomen.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again," he said softly.

Jack's eyes softened. "I know. Kate told me why you didn't come 
for me."

Sawyer frowned, then groaned as his conversation with Kate the 
day of their return came back to him. "Woman's got a big 
mouth."

Jack smiled. He realized suddenly that the baby had stopped 
nursing and looked down to find that she had lulled herself to 
sleep. He shifted her in his arms and awkwardly tried to stand.

Sawyer's hand on his arm stilled his movements. "I got 'er."

Jack hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"She's mine too, ain't she? C'mon, I can do it."

An emotion Sawyer couldn't quite identify flashed in Jack's 
eyes. It was gone in an instant. Jack nodded, carefully 
transferring the baby to Sawyer's arms.

Sawyer held her awkwardly for a moment, then slowly eased into 
it, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He carried her 
to the crib Charlie had built a couple months earlier. It was 
cruder looking than the one Locke had made for Aaron, but it 
was a sweet gesture. She shifted restlessly as he laid her 
down, frowning in her sleep, and settled with a tiny sigh. 
Sawyer smiled down at her in spite of himself. "She looks just 
like you, Doc. You got a name for her yet?"

"No," Jack replied softly, his voice tight.

Sawyer cocked his head, squinting at her. She really did look a 
lot like Jack. Maybe a little like his father too. In fact, he 
didn't see much of himself in her aside from the blue eyes he'd 
caught a glimpse of earlier. "How 'bout Christine?"

Jack didn't respond. After a minute, Sawyer turned to him 
questioningly and was surprised to find him crying. "Hey..." He 
moved to Jack's side, gathering him in his arms. Jack clung to 
him tightly. "It's all right..."

"I love you," Jack blurted.

Sawyer frowned. "I know. I love you too, baby." What the hell 
had brought on this sudden outburst? "You're not having 
that...post...parting depression or somethin', are you?"

"Post-partum," Jack corrected automatically. He loosened his 
hold and wiped away a couple stray tears. "No, I just...I 
didn't think I'd see you again either."

Sawyer gently tilted Jack's chin and covered his mouth in a 
reaffirming kiss. "I missed you," he murmured against Jack's 
lips. "Don't you go anywhere...y'hear me?" Jack nodded. Sawyer 
sighed and pressed a kiss to his forehead, drawing him back 
into a tight embrace. 

"You really want to name her after my father," Jack asked 
hesitantly.

Sawyer shrugged. "Only met the man once, but I kinda get the 
feeling I woulda liked him."

Jack huffed. "'m not sure he would've felt the same."

"We seemed to get along just fine," Sawyer argued indignantly. 

"That's because you bought him alcohol."

Sawyer snorted. "Figures." 

They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Sawyer ran his fingers 
over Jack's hair absently, perfectly content to just hold him 
until morning.

"Okay," Jack finally said, shaking him from his reverie. 

Sawyer opened his eyes and squinted at the top of Jack's head - 
all he could see from his present angle. "Okay what?"

Jack kissed his collarbone. "We can name her Christine."

Sawyer smiled. "Christine Shephard," he murmured. He kind of 
liked the sound of it.

"Ford-Shephard," Jack corrected.

Sawyer cringed a little but didn't object. He fell silent, his 
fingers massaging the back of Jack's neck absently, feeling the 
doctor grow heavy in his arms. "You still with me," he asked 
after a few minutes.

Jack grunted and lifted his head with obvious effort. "Tired," 
he mumbled.

Sawyer stifled the urge to laugh at the irony. Jack could go 
for days without sleep, driven completely by the need to fix 
everything and everybody, but having a baby to take care of 
around the clock wiped him out. Sawyer moved to stand. "C'mon," 
he coaxed. "I ain't gonna carry you."

Jack groaned and let Sawyer practically drag him over to the 
"bed", only protesting when Sawyer tried to undress him.

"Relax," Sawyer soothed as he pushed Jack's shirt off his 
shoulders and eased him down to the thin blanket. "I ain't 
gonna take advantage of you." He gave Jack a crooked smile and 
moved to unbutton his altered jeans, sliding them off quickly 
and efficiently. Then he sat back to strip himself down to his 
underwear before climbing into the bed as well. He frowned as 
he caught the deeply sad look in Jack's eyes and slipped his 
arms around him, Jack instinctively returning the gesture. "You 
okay?"

Jack gave him a small, unconvincing smile. "Yeah. I'm fine. I'm 
just still trying to adjust to being back."

Sawyer brushed his lips against Jack's softly and pulled his 
body closer. "Get some sleep 'fore Chrissy wakes up cryin' for 
her momma."

"Call me that again and I'll shoot you," Jack mumbled sleepily, 
resting his head on Sawyer's shoulder.

Sawyer smirked. "Sure thing, Doc," he whispered as Jack drifted 
to sleep.

************

Sawyer awoke from what was possibly the best damned sleep he'd 
gotten in at least a month to the annoying call of nature. He 
lay still for a minute, loathe to move, relishing the feel of 
Jack's warm body curled against his back, arm draped over his 
waist, heavy in sleep. He slipped from the bed carefully, 
trying not to wake his lover.

Jack woke anyway, squinting at Sawyer blearily. "Th’ baby," he 
mumbled.

Sawyer leaned over to kiss him. "She's fine," he whispered. 

Jack relaxed and kissed him back sleepily. "Stay."

Sawyer swallowed a groan. He would like nothing better than to 
spend at least another twenty-four hours in bed with Jack but 
his bladder had other ideas. "I gotta pee," he grumbled. "Be 
right back." He kissed Jack one last time indulgently and 
forced himself to pull away. Jack sighed and closed his eyes, 
drifting back to sleep.
 
Sawyer stepped out of the tent, stretching the last couple 
kinks from his back and frowned when he saw Hurley and Jin 
crouched secretively beside Hurley's tent.

"What the hell are y'all doin'?"

They jumped and turned toward him, Hurley looking oddly 
shifty...or at least more so than usual. "What the hell're you 
doin'?" he shot back in a poor imitation of Sawyer's drawl.

Sawyer's eyebrows pinched. "Goin' to take a leak," he said 
slowly.

"Yeah, well..." Hurley fidgeted. "So're we."

Sawyer shook his head. The man was a terrible liar but he was 
probably just concocting another one of his bizarre plans to 
cheer people up. It wasn't worth pushing him over. "Well, all 
righty then," he mumbled.

He ducked into the bushes and was just unzipping his pants when 
he heard a rustle nearby. He froze, holding his breath. The 
rustle grew louder and was accompanied by the distinct sound of 
footsteps. He reached for the gun and whipped around, aiming 
right at the approaching figure, barely flinching as it shined 
a light directly in his face. The light lowered slowly and 
Sawyer's eyes widened as the intruder's face became visible.

"Hello, James," Locke greeted.

***********
(Two weeks earlier)

By the time they reached the main land Jack was no longer able 
to hold back his nausea. He collapsed to his hands and knees in 
the sand and vomited the sandwich Juliet had given him only an 
hour earlier.

Juliet was at his side within seconds, Tom close behind, eyeing 
Jack warily from a short distance. 

"Jack, do you feel dizzy," she asked worriedly. 

He nodded and continued to heave dryly. 

She tried to palpate his abdomen gently and drew back when he 
moaned in pain.

"What's happening," Tom demanded.

Juliet shook her head. "I don't know, but we have to get him to 
the medical station. There could be something wrong with the 
baby."

"What the hell did you people do to me," Jack groaned. "What 
did you do to my baby?"

"We didn't do anything, Jack," Juliet replied calmly. "Just 
come with us and we can figure out what's going on." She took 
hold of his arm and tried to help him stand. "Please, Jack, you 
have to trust me."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, forcing his stomach 
to still, and slowly stood.

***********

"Claire," he gasped as Juliet led him into the medical station.

"I think Claire survived because she was pregnant before she 
came here," Juliet explained, steering him toward an exam 
table. "Whatever happened to those women...I think it happens 
at conception."

"They all died?" His mind was still reeling from everything she 
had told him on the trip to the station. Nine women. Nine 
patients that Juliet had lost because the island had affected 
them somehow.

Juliet's movements were stiff as she moved about the room, 
setting up the ultrasound and retrieving a tube of gel. Jack 
recognized the posture and the look on her face all too well. 
It was the look of a doctor who had seen more death than they 
were equipped to deal with. "None of them made it to their 
third trimester," she said shakily. "You have survived longer 
than any of them. I don't know why, but now I'm afraid your 
body's response was just delayed."

Jack chuckled humorlessly and let his head fall back against 
the raised table. "You still gonna try to tell me this 
abduction has nothing to do with my baby?"

She paused, the bottle of gel half uncapped. "We didn't know 
you were pregnant until Ben was captured," she said sincerely. 
She finished uncapping the tube and squeezed some of the cold 
liquid over Jack's exposed abdomen. "This is going to be 
cold..."

He watched as she picked up the baton and adjusted the controls 
on the monitor. "What's going to happen to my baby?"

She gave him a faint, sad smile, but didn't answer. "Relax."

He closed his eyes as she ran the baton over his abdomen, 
unable to bring himself to look. He felt a sob build in his 
chest as he heard the unmistakable sound of a strong fetal 
heartbeat. Maybe his child still had a chance to survive, even 
if he didn't.

"Oh my god," Juliet murmured.

Jack's eyes flew open but Juliet had already pulled the baton 
away, cutting off the image on the monitor. She dropped the 
baton on the cart and rushed to the door. 

"Prep the O.R.," she said to the man standing guard outside. 
"We need to deliver this baby now!"

Jack felt his heart begin to speed up and struggled to sit up 
on the exam table. "No! It hasn't even been eight months..."

"No, Jack, you were wrong," she said, returning to his side and 
hastily wiping the gel from him. "The fetus is about eight and 
a half months developed." She smiled with seemingly genuine 
happiness. "You're not dying. You're in labor."

"That's not possible," he sputtered. "That would mean..."

"You were pregnant before you got on the plane," she finished. 

"I was infertile..."

"No, Jack, you weren't. I read your medical file. Your sperm 
count was too low even with treatment for you and your wife to 
conceive without IVF, but you never tested the viability of 
your ova."

He felt a heavy numbness spread over him. "The baby isn't 
Sawyer's," he murmured, dazed.

Juliet looked up from the equipment she was putting away, her 
smile faltering. She had forgotten to consider that fact - 
forgotten to ask if Jack had had unprotected sex with any man 
other than Sawyer. There hadn't been any reason before to 
suspect Sawyer wasn't the father. "I'm sorry."

Jack nodded at the confirmation, blinking against his building 
tears, his face crumpling in a way that made Juliet's chest 
tighten in sympathy. She held her hand out to him tentatively. 
"We have to get you ready."

He took her hand after a moment's hesitation, but instead of 
standing, he pulled her closer. "No one can know," he said 
softly. "Including Sawyer."

She searched his eyes for a moment, finding only sadness and 
desperation. She nodded silently. 

"What will happen to the baby," he asked as she helped him 
stand.

"I don't know," she said honestly.

He closed his eyes tightly, letting her guide him slowly from 
the room. "If I don't make it...let my people bury me..."

"Jack..."

"Please," he begged tiredly. "At least promise me that much."

She spared him a pained glance and tightened her grip around 
his waist. "I promise."

***********
(Present)

It was still dark when Jack woke up. He reached for Sawyer 
instinctively and frowned when he found only cool blankets. He 
only had a moment to process this discovery before the reason 
for his sudden awakening announced itself in the form of a loud 
whimper drifting from Christine's crib. Judging by the 
intensity of the sound, he guessed he had less than a minute 
before she graduated to full blown cries. He staggered to his 
feet and rushed to retrieve her, babbling apologies and 
soothing nonsense.

He kept one eye on the door flap of the tent while she nursed, 
his mind straining to kick into gear. He knew someone would 
have come for him if something disastrous had happened to 
Sawyer. He *was* the only island doctor. But did that mean 
nothing had happened or nobody knew he was missing yet?

Ten minutes later, Jack emerged from the tent, Christine still 
in his arms. The camp was eerily quiet, everyone either 
sleeping or out on the morning boar hunt. He found Claire 
walking along the beach, gazing contemplatively out at the 
ocean. She smiled as he approached. "Hey."

He nodded in greeting, distracted. "Claire, have you seen 
Sawyer?"

She frowned. "I thought he was with you."

"He stepped outside for a few minutes...it's been at least an 
hour."

"Maybe he went hunting with Desmond," she offered.

Jack scoffed. "When has Sawyer ever volunteered to help hunt 
boar?"

"A few days ago, actually," Claire answered. "He's been acting 
strange since he came back." She brushed off Jack's look of 
surprise as the baby squirmed and a tiny fist spilled from the 
folds of the blanket. She held her arms out. "Can I..."

Jack shook himself from his daze and carefully transferred the 
baby into Claire's arms. "Yeah..." 

"She's beautiful," she admired, instinctively swaying to soothe 
the baby's fussing. "What's her name?"

"Christine."

Claire smiled. "That's a pretty name."

"Are you feeling okay," Jack asked belatedly, kicking himself 
for not thinking of it earlier.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Claire dismissed. "I feel great, actually. I 
just slept so much I feel like I can't sleep anymore. And now 
that Aaron's not waking up every three hours..." She squinted 
up at him. "Are *you* okay?"

He frowned at the note of suspicion in her voice. "Yeah, I'm 
fine. A little sore, but that's to be expected."

She snorted softly. "Trust me, 'a little sore' is going to feel 
like 'normal' from now on."

A smile flitted across Jack's face. He hadn't spent much time 
with Claire since the crash in anything more than a doctor-
patient capacity, but he got the impression that might change 
now that they had something in common. He scanned the quiet, 
peaceful camp again, his gaze drawn to the still jungle as his 
earlier concern resurfaced. Claire might not think it was 
strange that Sawyer had disappeared in the early morning hours, 
but it gave Jack an uneasy feeling. "Could you watch her while 
I try to find Sawyer?"

Claire frowned and opened her mouth, ready to protest, then 
closed it again silently when she saw the desperation on Jack's 
face. She knew this particular look well and knew that it was 
unlikely anything she said would stop him from searching the 
jungle for Sawyer. She nodded.

He gave her a brittle smile and squeezed her arm gratefully. "I 
just fed her, so she should be okay for a few hours."

"Just...be careful, okay?"

Jack nodded and gave one last lingering look at his daughter 
before turning and walking toward the jungle, his gait hampered 
by his slight limp.

He was barely past the tree line when Juliet suddenly appeared 
behind him, her voice slightly breathless as she called his 
name. 

"I need to talk to you," she said urgently.

He bit back the urge to scream. She had only spent a few days 
on this side of the island and she was already running to him 
with her problems like everyone else. "Can it wait?"

"It's about Sun."

He hesitated. "Is she okay?"

Juliet swiped a loose strand of hair from her face, her eyes 
darting toward the jungle nervously, as if she expected to find 
her former "people" eavesdropping on her. "She's fine right 
now, but she's in danger."

"What?"

"Please, just..." she looked back over her shoulder at the 
vacant beach. "Come with me. I can explain everything."

Jack debated with himself for a long minute before reluctantly 
following her back to a distant corner of the beach.

***********

"...you're sure," Kate heard Jack saying as she marched up to 
where he and Juliet were deep in discussion.

Juliet opened her mouth to reply, but hesitated when she saw 
Kate approaching. 

"I need to talk to you."

Jack blinked up at Kate, surprised by her sudden urgency. 
"Okay..."

"In private," she looked pointedly at Juliet.

"No problem," Juliet said quickly, moving to stand.

Jack halted her progress with a firm hand. "Anything you wanna 
say to me, you can say in front of her."

Kate shook her head. "Not this."

"It's okay," Juliet protested.

"No," Jack argued. "You can stay."

Kate finally snapped, exasperated. She was getting tired of 
playing these adolescent games, keeping track of who was in the 
loop and who wasn't at any given moment. "Yeah, you know what? 
You should stay. It seems only fair considering that she's the 
reason no one wants to tell you that there's a woman in 
Hurley's tent who parachuted onto the island yesterday."

Jack's eyes practically bulged. "What?"

"A woman," Kate repeated. "She jumped from her chopper before 
it crashed. She says that the boat she took off from is about 
eighty miles off the coast and that if she can find a way to 
contact it we'll all be rescued."

Jack reeled. "Why didn't anyone tell me this?"

"Nobody told you," Kate said like it should be obvious. 
"Because they don't trust you."

Jack looked at Juliet for a long moment. Kate couldn't read 
either of their expressions. "How," he finally asked.

"How what?"

"How is she supposed to contact her boat?"

Kate squatted in the sand in front of him. "Did you hear what I 
just said? Hurley, Charlie, Sayid...your *friends* are afraid 
to..."

"Kate," he snapped, cutting her off. "How?"

Kate brushed back some loose curls and sighed in frustration. 
"She had a phone/radio thing. Sayid's trying to get it to 
work."

Jack looked to Juliet again and they seemed to share a silent 
agreement.

"We should tell her," Juliet said.

Kate's eyes widened.

Jack shook his head, standing up. "No."

"Tell me what?"

Juliet grabbed his wrist. "We should tell her," she repeated.

"Not yet."

Kate watched, wide-eyed, as he walked away, wondering if maybe 
everyone else was right. Maybe he couldn't be trusted.

**********

"What happened to you," Sayid demanded as Sawyer appeared 
suddenly, looking traumatized. 

"I was with Locke," he muttered as if that explained 
everything.

"And where is he?"

"He went back."

"Back where?"

"With them. Don't ask me where the hell it is 'cause it don't 
matter right now. What does matter is this." He held out a 
small tape recorder. 

Sayid said nothing, but his expression demanded an explanation.

"Locke took it from 'em." Sawyer's eyes panned over the camp. 
"Where's Jack?"

"I have not seen him. I thought he was with you." Sayid nodded 
to the recorder, redirecting Sawyer's attention. "What is it?"

Sawyer sighed. He didn't like keeping this particular piece of 
information from Jack, but maybe it was for the best. Who knew 
what sort of hold that blonde bitch had over him. Sawyer jerked 
his head toward a vacant spot further down the beach. "Not 
here."
 
**********
 
"So, what, the whole world thinks we're dead," Claire asked in 
disbelief.

"That's not important right now," Sayid said gently.

"What do you *mean* it's not important," Claire squawked.

"Excuse me," the parachuter - Naomi - interrupted. "I'm sorry, 
don't you people want to be rescued?"

"We kept her a secret to keep her safe," Sayid said, trying to 
direct the conversation back on track.

"Safe from what," Kate asked.

"Safe from Jack," Sayid looked pointedly at Sawyer. Sawyer 
shifted uncomfortably, looking at the ground. He hadn't wanted 
to believe that Jack could turn on them, but now...he didn't 
know what to think. Jack had been acting strangely ever since 
he had returned to their camp - like his time with the Others 
had changed him somehow. The last time that had happened to one 
of them two people had been killed, Ben had been freed and he, 
Jack and Kate had been practically delivered to the Others on a 
platter. He couldn't blind himself to the possibility that Jack 
had been turned.

"He spent two weeks with the Others," Sayid reminded the group. 
"And he brought one of them back with him. Here. Amongst us. 
And every time we try to get answers from this woman he 
prevents her from giving them."

"But it's Jack," Sun protested. "He would never do anything to 
hurt us. And Juliet...I believe she's a good person."

"Good person, huh," Sawyer asked. "And you're basing that on 
what? Wouldn't involve her taking you to one of their medical 
stations, would it now, Mrs. Kwon?"

Sun gaped at him, wide-eyed. "How..."

He pressed play on the tape recorder Locke had given him and 
Juliet's voice drifted from the small speaker. "Kwon is 
pregnant. The fetus is healthy and was conceived on island with 
her husband. He was sterile before they got here." Sun seemed 
to stop breathing, barely registering her husband's plea for an 
explanation. "I'm still working on getting samples from the 
other women. I should have Austen's soon. I'll report back when 
I know more."

Sawyer turned off the tape.

"Where'd you get that," Jack demanded, appearing suddenly, 
Juliet at his side.

"Where have you been, Jack," Sayid demanded.

Jack didn't take his eyes off Sawyer, the accusation and 
betrayal blatant. "I asked you where you got it."

Sawyer bristled. "You really think you're in a position to be 
askin' us questions?"

"Turn the tape over," Juliet ordered.

"Stay out of it," Sawyer snapped.

She didn't back down. "You want to burn me at the stake, here I 
am. But first, turn the tape over and press play."

Sawyer seethed quietly as he followed her instructions.

"Juliet, it's Ben," the psychopath's voice announced. "I'm 
sending three teams to extract Kwon the night after tomorrow. 
You won't have time to run Austen's sample, so if you determine 
that she or anyone else is pregnant, mark their tents and we'll 
take them too. Good luck."

Sawyer stopped the tape and looked up at Jack guiltily.

Juliet turned to Sun, her voice breaking the stunned silence. 
"The night I saw your baby on the ultrasound I told Jack what 
they were making me do."

"Why didn't you tell us," Sayid asked Jack softly.

"Because I hadn't decided what to do about it yet," he replied.

Sayid's eyebrows raised. "Yet?"

Jack nodded and scanned the group of shocked faces. "I think 
we've got some catching up to do."

***********

Sawyer followed Jack to his tent later, noting the stiffness of 
his shoulders warily. It was obvious he was upset and Sawyer 
fully expected to be the target of a lengthy rant. 'Let him,' 
he thought. 'It's not like we didn't have a reason to be 
suspicious.'

"Where did you get the tape," Jack demanded once they were 
inside. 

"Does it matter?"

"Who gave it to you," Jack snapped, his voice cracking 
slightly.

"Locke," Sawyer fired back. "You satisfied?"

A spark of angry betrayal lit in Jack's eyes. "Why didn't you 
come to me? Why would you hide it from me?"

"You kiddin' me? You may be able to out-bluff me, Doc, but even 
I can tell you've been hidin' somethin' ever since you came 
back. Don't try to put that guilt trip on me."

All of the wind seemed to go out of Jack's sails at once, but 
Sawyer wasn't finished. "And you're still hidin' something', 
ain't you? What the hell'd they do to you that's got you so 
scared, Doc?"

Jack blinked rapidly in a vain effort to stave off a sudden 
flood of emotion. "Nothing," he choked.

"You're lyin'," Sawyer barked. "What'd they do? Did they hurt 
you?"

Jack took a step back, seeming to flinch under Sawyer's 
demanding glare. "No."

Sawyer grabbed him, fingers digging into the back of his neck 
painfully, forcing Jack to look him in the eye. "Did they 
threaten you? The baby?"

"No..."

"What're you not tellin' me?!"

Jack's hands went to his wrists, his eyes pleading. "Please...I 
can't..."

"Quit lyin' to me!"

“I’m not...”

“Then tell me what the hell is goin’ on!”

"She's not your daughter!"

Sawyer froze, his anger suddenly eclipsed by stunned shock. 
"What?"

A tear fell openly down Jack's cheek. "You're not Christine's 
father."

Sawyer let go of him and stepped back, watching numbly as Jack 
sank to the ground, his breath hitching in tiny sobs.

"I'm sorry," he babbled, curling in on himself protectively. 
"I'm sorry."

Shock turned to confusion, which threatened to turn back into 
anger. "Who's is she?"

"I don't know."

"What d'ya mean you don't *know*?" Had Jack slept his way 
through half of the camp?

"I don't know his name! He was just some guy I met in a bar."

Sawyer's face twisted in confusion. "You were pregnant before 
we got here?"

Jack nodded shakily.

"I thought you said that wasn't possible."

"I was wrong. I didn't know..."

Sawyer sighed and dropped to the ground beside Jack, taking his 
face between his hands. "All right, settle down," he muttered 
as he thumbed away Jack's tears. "Are you sure?"

Jack nodded. "Juliet did an ultrasound. The baby wasn't 
conceived on the island. That's part of the reason I'm still 
alive. Whatever killed those women..."

Sawyer shook his head. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't...I was afraid to. When I saw you with her..." He 
shook his head, his face crumpling in anguish. "I *wanted* you 
to be her father. Not some guy I let fuck me in a bathroom 
stall at a gay bar."

Sawyer clenched his jaw, torn between twin urges to kiss Jack 
and slap him senseless. Finally he just pulled Jack into his 
arms.

Jack buried his face against Sawyer's neck. "I'm sorry...I 
shouldn't have..."

"It's all right," Sawyer sighed. "I ain't mad at you."

Christine’s frantic whimpers reached them seconds before 
Charlie entered the tent with her in his arms. 

The rocker hesitated as the two men separated, Jack wiping 
subtly at his cheeks. “I uh...think she’s hungry.”

Sawyer stood and held his arms out for her as Jack 
instinctively fumbled to unbutton his shirt. “I’ll take ‘er.”

Charlie ignored him. “You all right, Jack?”

Jack nodded, not looking up. “I’m fine, Charlie.”

“Hey.” Sawyer directed Charlie’s attention back to him, 
gesturing pointedly with his outstretched arms.

“Right,” Charlie muttered, transferring Christine to his arms. 
He hesitated a moment longer, uncertain. Then he jerked his 
thumb toward the tent opening. “I’ll just...” But Sawyer had 
already turned his back to him dismissively. “...go.”

“Thanks, Charlie,” Jack called absently as Charlie moved to 
duck out of the tent. Charlie waved a hand at him in 
acknowledgement and disappeared. 

Sawyer deposited Christine into Jack’s arms and watched as she 
latched on immediately and settled. “I have a daughter,” he 
blurted suddenly. “Back home...least her momma thinks she’s 
mine.”

Jack looked up at him, startled.

“Tried to pull one over on her and she went and got me 
arrested. Then she comes and tells me I got a kid.” He sighed. 
“Don’t matter. I ain’t ever seen her. Hell, for all I know she 
ain’t even real. Wouldn’t put it past that woman.”

Jack just stared at him silently, his expression blank.

“I didn’t believe her. Told her she was wrong...it wasn’t mine. 
Then...*this* happened.” He gestured vaguely at the infant in 
Jack’s arms. “I guess I got used to thinkin’ I was the one that 
got you pregnant.”

“You’re here,” Jack said softly. “That makes you more of a 
father than her biological father will ever be.” He looked down 
as Christine finished nursing. “Could you grab the towel?”

Sawyer reached for the scrap of cloth they used as a burp towel 
and handed it to Jack, watching quietly as he arranged it and 
propped Christine against his shoulder, gently patting and 
rubbing her back with one hand. 

“Where did you see Locke,” Jack asked suddenly. 

“Out in the jungle. Says he’s spyin’ on the Others.”

Jack frowned. “Spying?”

Sawyer waved dismissively, his brow furrowing. He wasn’t about 
to go into details about his time spent with Locke. Not if he 
didn’t have to. “It ain’t important now. How’re you plannin’ on 
stoppin’ ‘em?”

If Jack noticed the brush off, he didn’t let on. He climbed 
unsteadily to his feet and carried Christine to her crib, 
tucking her in and waiting to make sure she was, in fact, 
falling asleep. “Tomorrow. I have something I need to show 
everyone and I want you to be there.” He turned to find Sawyer 
had moved to stand directly behind him. He gasped as Sawyer’s 
hands gripped his waist, pulling him against his firm body.

“Promise you won’t do something stupid?” Sawyer prompted.

Jack didn’t respond, his body tensing against Sawyer’s hold. 
Sawyer didn’t really notice the lack of answer though, as 
something else grabbed his attention. He cocked an eyebrow at 
Jack. “Are you hard?”

“It’s a side-effect of the breast-feeding,” Jack muttered 
flatly.

A slow grin melted onto Sawyer’s face. “Is it, now?” He 
tightened his grip and deliberately rolled his hips against 
Jack’s, delighting in the choked sound that erupted from him. 
His smile faltered, however, as Jack stiffened even further and 
tried to pull away.

“Sawyer, we can’t.”

Sawyer frowned. “What’re you...” He trailed off, his eyes 
closing with a heavy sigh. “You think I might get you pregnant 
again.”

Jack was reasonably certain that he wasn’t capable of 
conceiving again so soon after giving birth, but if the island 
was really messing with their physiologies there was no telling 
what was possible anymore. “I can’t take that risk.”

Sawyer rolled his eyes and leaned in to brush his lips against 
Jack’s jaw, his hands sliding around to his backside, pressing 
him close and preventing him from escaping. “I don’t gotta be 
inside you, y’know,” he murmured.

Jack’s breath hitched. He remained frozen, torn between 
instincts to give in to the building desire or pull away before 
things went too far. “You’ve said that before.”

“What,” Sawyer murmured, working his way to Jack’s ear and 
playfully dipping his tongue inside, making him gasp. “You 
don’t trust me?”

Jack didn’t say anything, his posture remaining stiff. Sawyer 
stopped his attentions abruptly and pulled back, meeting Jack’s 
eyes. “If I’d wanted to kill you I’d use a gun, not my dick.”

Jack’s eyes shifted nervously. “I know, but...”

“Then relax.” Sawyer kept his eyes on Jack’s as his hands 
slowly slipped around to his front, gently undoing the 
remaining buttons on Jack’s shirt.

Jack didn’t pull away, but he still didn’t relax either. His 
breath hitched as Sawyer’s hands slipped inside the material, 
palms smoothing across his stomach and around to his back, 
pressing his body closer. “Christine,” he tried weakly.

“She’ll be fine,” Sawyer murmured, his voice dipping into a 
husky register that made Jack’s knees feel weak. He shivered 
helplessly and Sawyer smirked. He pulled back and nudged Jack 
deeper into the tent. “C’mon.”

Jack spared one more look at the peacefully sleeping baby. 
Sawyer was right. She would be asleep for at least an hour. His 
resistance slowly crumbled and he let Sawyer guide him to the 
bed. 

***********

Sawyer and the rest of the group Jack had herded up the hill to 
a clearing in the middle of nowhere to “explain everything” 
watched, baffled, as Rousseau touched two wires together. A 
tree several yards away exploded and collapsed in a cloud of 
dust, making them all jump and cringe back instinctively. 

When the dust cleared and everyone had calmed, Jack explained. 
“When Juliet told me they were coming the first thing I thought 
was ‘where the hell are we gonna hide this time’? Hiding’s 
pointless. They’re just gonna keep comin’ back. So I went out 
and I found some help.” He glanced at Rousseau. “For the past 
few days she’s been bringing dynamite back from the Black Rock. 
For the first time we know exactly what they want, when they’re 
coming to get it and they have no idea that we’re gonna be 
waiting for them. So Juliet’s gonna mark the tents with the 
white rocks just like she was told to, but there’s not gonna be 
any pregnant women inside. There’s gonna be plenty of what we 
just used on that tree. So tomorrow night, we stop hiding. We 
stop running. We stop living in fear of them. Because when they 
show up...we’re gonna blow ‘em to hell.”

Sawyer sidled up to Jack as they made their way down the hill 
some time later, Rousseau leading the pack. “You sure this is 
gonna work?”

“You have a better idea?”

“No,” Sawyer admitted. “Just wonderin’ how you plan on keepin’ 
Chrissy safe while you’re playin’ Davy Crockett.”

Jack sighed. “Sun will watch her.”

“She gonna take care of her after they kill you?”

Jack stepped in front of him, stopping their progress down the 
hill. The rest of the group kept walking, oblivious to their 
argument. “If we don’t stop them they’re going to keep coming 
after us. Me, you, Christine...I can’t just keep waiting for 
that to happen. I can’t keep looking over my shoulder and 
wondering when they’ll strike next.” 

Sawyer could plainly see the fear and desperation in Jack’s 
eyes. He realized suddenly just how much Jack needed his 
support. He was trying so hard to be the leader their group 
needed him to be, but the pressure of having everybody look to 
him for guidance in such an impossible situation was 
threatening to break him. If this plan didn’t work, Sawyer knew 
Jack would never be able to forgive himself.

He sighed. “I know. Just don’t like the thought of you leadin’ 
the charge.”

Jack’s eyes softened a little and he leaned in impulsively to 
kiss Sawyer. “If this works...there won’t be a charge.”

********

Hurley was the first to spot Karl when he pulled up in a canoe 
further down their beach. Sawyer barely managed to stop Sayid 
before he beat the kid to a pulp.

“It’s okay! He was in the cage next to me! I know this guy!”

Sayid reluctantly backed off but continued to scowl at the 
newcomer, posture stiff, ready to subdue him again at a 
moment’s notice.

“They’re coming,” Karl gasped. “My people...”

Sawyer relaxed slightly. “Sorry you came all this way for 
nothing but we already know.”

Karl’s eyes bulged. “Then why are you still here?”

“’cause when your people show up here tomorrow night we’re 
gonna be ready for ‘em.”

Karl blinked stupidly. “Tomorrow? No...no, they’re coming 
tonight!”

********

Jack paced in front of Karl. His face a mask of anger and 
determination, but Sawyer could still see the fear in his eyes. 
“Is that everything?”

“Yeah.”

Jack turned to Kate. “Do you trust him?”

“You don’t trust me,” Karl blurted. He pointed an accusing 
finger at Juliet. “What about her? She’s a spy! She’s supposed 
to mark the tents of the pregnant women with white rocks so 
they can take them!”

“They know, Karl,” Juliet interrupted, a note of amusement in 
her voice. “But thanks.”

“So what’re we gonna do,” Hurley demanded.

“We have to leave now,” Sun offered. “Hide.”

“Where? It’s their island. If they want to kill us, they’ll 
find us.” 

Sawyer sent a scowl in Bernard’s direction. The man was 
building an SOS sign just a couple months ago but suddenly he 
was a pessimist.

Jack continued to pace restlessly. “Do we have enough wire 
yet,” he asked Rousseau, desperately trying to gather the 
threads of his quickly unraveling plan.

“Not even close.”

He clenched his jaw and turned to Sayid. “We have to figure out 
another way of setting that dynamite off.”

“We could shoot,” Sayid offered calmly.

“We don’t have enough guns. He said that ten of them are coming 
– armed.”

“Not the others. The tents. We can camouflage the dynamite next 
to the tents. Target it from our positions at the tree line.”

Jack debated for a moment. “Juliet marked three tents – that 
means we need three guns.”

Karl pulled a pistol from his waistband and handed it to Sayid. 
“You can have mine too.”

“I’ll be your third,” Rousseau volunteered.

“We’ll take your gun, but you’re not staying here,” Jack 
argued. “You’re gonna lead everyone to the radio tower. If this 
doesn’t work we can’t risk losing the chance of getting in 
contact with Naomi’s boat, so everything has to happen at the 
same time.” He spun on Charlie. “You still up for a swim?”

**********

“You’d better get going,” Jack told Sayid a few hours later. 
“Rousseau says it’s about a day’s walk up to the radio tower.”

“I’m not taking them to the tower, you are,” Sayid responded 
bluntly.

“Excuse me?” Jack knew he should have expected this to happen 
but he had expected the argument to come from Sawyer.

“You’re not staying behind.”

“This was my idea,” Jack argued weakly.

“And I am perfectly capable of executing it.”

“I owe them!”

“What are you more concerned with? Killing the Others? Or 
getting our people off this island?”

Jack turned his back to Sayid and tamped down the urge to 
scream. He had been ready for Sayid – or anyone else for that 
matter – to use Christine in their arguments against him 
staying behind. But she was the main reason he wanted to stay. 
Until this threat was neutralized, she was not safe. And he 
wanted to make damned sure it was – he wouldn’t rest until 
then. But Sayid knew this. He had anticipated Jack’s argument 
and avoided it, presenting him with an entirely different 
reasoning – one he couldn’t argue against.

“This afternoon you said you were our leader,” Sayid continued. 
“It’s time for you to act like one. Lead them to the radio 
tower, Jack. And then take us all home.”

Sayid turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Jack standing 
in the clearing, feeling chastened.

*******

“You have everything you need,” Jack asked as the group 
prepared to leave. 

Sayid glanced at the gurgling baby in his arms as he said “no. 
But I made the best out of what we have.”

Jack nodded and bit his lip, looking back at the other two 
shooters saying goodbye to their wives. “Bernard and Jin?”

“They’re both excellent shots. And highly motivated. The 
dynamite’s in place. We won’t miss,” he assured. “Jack, no 
matter what happens here, I want you to keep moving. Keep 
moving for that radio tower. Don’t turn back for any reason. 
I’m willing to give my life if it means securing rescue, but 
I’m not giving it up for nothing.” His intense eyes locked with 
Jack’s. “You understand.”

Jack nodded slowly, unconsciously clutching his daughter 
tighter. 

Sayid rested a gentle hand on Christine’s partially covered 
head, a sad look in his eyes. “Good luck.”

Jack made a shaky attempt at a reassuring smile and failed 
miserably. “You too.”

Sayid took one last wistful look at Christine before Jack 
slowly turned and walked away.

********

Jack held his breath as the group paused their climb, listening 
to the explosions down on the beach. There were two loud 
explosions, followed by a series of muffled pops and then 
nothing. The silence that followed was excruciating. 

“There were supposed to be three explosions,” Rose said 
frantically.

“Why were there only two explosions,” Sun added.

“It didn’t work,” Kate gasped.

Jack tore his eyes from the two clouds of smoke billowing into 
the night sky and glanced at Sawyer, standing nearby, the baby 
sleeping in his arms. Claire stood just behind him, Aaron 
dozing on her shoulder. “Maybe they didn’t have to blow the 
third tent,” he offered. It was a dim hope, but he couldn’t 
bring himself to even entertain the dismal alternative.

“But those gunshots,” Rose persisted.

“He’s okay, Rose.”

“Do you believe that,” Sun demanded, her eyes wide with 
disbelief.

“Listen, they had no idea that we were waiting for them,” Jack 
argued desperately. “And Sayid’s with your husbands. They’re 
gonna be fine and they’re gonna be a couple hours behind us.”

“Then we should wait for them here,” Sun tried frantically.

Jack cut her off. “No. No one gets left behind.”

“If you say ‘live together, die alone’ to me Jack, I’m gonna 
punch you in your face,” Rose growled.

A tiny bit of tension eased at that and Jack huffed out a 
laugh. “Fair enough. But we have a plan. And for all we know it 
worked. It’s gonna be okay – everything’s gonna be all right. 
Let’s just keep moving, okay?”

Sawyer was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one who could hear 
the uncertainty in Jack’s voice. He edged closer to Jack as the 
group slowly started moving again. “You really believe all 
that?” he muttered quietly.

“I have to,” Jack murmured back.

Sawyer lay facing Jack that night after the group stopped to 
rest, Christine sleeping between them. He watched Jack twitch 
slightly, muttering nonsensically under his breath in uneasy 
sleep and carefully rested a hand on his arm. 

*********

Kate dropped down beside Sawyer as he filled his water bottle 
in the stream the next morning. “Jin, Bernard and Sayid 
should’ve caught up to us by now. I wanna go back to make sure 
they’re all right.”

Sawyer held back a snort, knowing that would only provoke her. 
“Course you do.”

“What’s the matter with you?”

“Nothin’,” he muttered under his breath.

“Nothing?”

“I’m fine, Kate,” he snapped.

She huffed and tossed her head lightly, flipping a couple stray 
locks of hair from her face. “Ever since you got that tape from 
Locke, it’s like you’ve been sleepwalking. If you don’t care 
about our friends, fine. But it’s like you don’t care about 
anything anymore. And since when did you start calling me 
Kate?” She didn’t wait for an answer, storming off back to the 
group.

Sawyer followed slowly, his eyes catching Jack’s as someone he 
only vaguely recognized helped Jack situate Christine in a 
sling around his torso. If Kate had sensed something was 
different, why hadn’t Jack said anything? Surely he had noticed 
something was off.

A couple hours – and miles – later he stopped walking and 
sighed heavily. Damned woman would be the death of him.

“I’m goin’ back,” he called.

Up ahead, Jack stopped and turned. “What?”

“I’m goin’ back to the beach.”

Jack shook his head. “No way. We keep movin’.”

“I ain’t askin’ permission.”

Jack saw the determination on his face and broke away from the 
group, walking back toward him. Sawyer met him halfway, 
lowering his voice nervously as Kate and Juliet stopped to see 
what was going on.

“Look, you got a job to do here. I ain’t gonna stand in your 
way of doin’ it. You sure as hell don’t need me.”

Jack shook his head, forehead creased with confusion and maybe 
a little worry. “No, Sawyer, I...”

“I’m goin’ back,” Sawyer repeated firmly. “I just thought I’d 
give you a heads up.”

Jack flailed. “What do you think you’re gonna get done? Alone 
and unarmed?”

“He won’t be alone. I’ll go with him,” Kate volunteered 
quickly.

“No,” Sawyer snapped. For a moment, he understood Jack’s 
continued, seemingly irrational need to keep her from harm.

She bristled. “Twenty minutes ago you weren’t even interested 
in going and now all of a sudden you’re...”

“I didn’t want to go with you,” he interrupted. She was bound 
to hate him for this, but if it kept her from running headlong 
into danger then so be it.

“Sawyer,” Jack broke in, pulling his attention back. “It’s a 
suicide mission without guns.” His eyes pleaded with Sawyer to 
see reason.

Juliet stepped forward. “I know where there are some guns,” she 
offered. “There’s a hidden cache a couple of miles from here. I 
can take us back to the beach in a route past it.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Jack protested, silently cursing 
her for punching holes in his case – even though she did mean 
well.

“Yeah, Jack, I kinda do.” 

Juliet and Sawyer shared an unspoken agreement. She knew he 
would go back one way or another, no matter how hard Jack 
fought him. And Sawyer knew that Jack wouldn’t let him go alone 
and unarmed. If Juliet wanted to help him out...well, Sawyer 
didn’t know why she would want to but that was her problem, not 
his.

Sawyer nodded. “Let’s do this.”

He started to leave, but Jack caught his wrist. Jack’s mouth 
opened and closed a couple times and he felt tears threaten to 
form. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he pleaded.

A smirk tugged at the corner of Sawyer’s lips at the familiar 
words and he nodded. He kissed Jack, ignoring the women 
shifting uncomfortably nearby. “Take care of Chris,” he 
murmured.

Jack nodded, blinking rapidly, and watched him walk away, 
Juliet trailing two steps behind. He took a deep breath and 
squared his shoulders. Sawyer would be all right. He had to be. 
Jack let Kate’s hand on his elbow gently turn him, guiding him 
back to the group making its way up the hill.

*******

“So how far away are these guns,” Sawyer asked what he figured 
had to be at least a couple miles later.

“There aren’t any guns.”

He reached for Juliet’s arm, spinning her around. “What?”

“I lied.”

He glowered. “You lied.”

“It was the only way he’d let us go back.”

Sawyer hesitated. She was right. Jack would have fought him 
tooth and nail if she hadn’t stepped in. But even though he 
knew very little about Juliet it didn’t seem like her to just 
jump in and back his cause. She had to have a reason. “Why are 
you goin’ back?”

“Karma,” she replied smoothly, cryptically. 

********

When they got closer to the top of the mountain, Jack handed 
Christine to Sun to carry and wove his way back to the head of 
the group. 

“Danielle.” Rousseau slowed only slightly to allow him to catch 
up. “How much further?”

“About an hour.”

“The radio tower - when was the last time you were there?”

“The day I recorded the message.”

Sixteen years. And yet Jack didn’t doubt she remembered exactly 
where the tower was.

“I’ll take you to the tower,” she continued. “But I’m not 
leaving the island.”

Jack gaped at her. “What?”

“There’s no place for me back there,” she said perfectly 
lucidly. “This is my home now.”

Jack didn’t have time to ponder her statement as they reached 
the top of the rise...only to find Ben leaning on a cane, 
calmly waiting for them.

“Hello, Jack,” he called. “We need to talk.”

******

“Have a seat,” Ben offered when they were several yards away, 
as if Jack were merely a house guest.

Jack glared but complied, sitting on a log. Ben sat a few feet 
away.

“Not so long ago, Jack, I made a decision that took the lives 
of over forty people in a single day. I’m telling you this 
because history is about to repeat itself.”

Jack scoffed. He no longer had any reason to believe a word Ben 
said, not that he ever had. The man had cried wolf one too many 
times. “Let me guess – you’ve got us surrounded and if I don’t 
do what you say you’re gonna kill all my people.”

“No, Jack,” Ben said patiently. “You are.”

Jack laughed at the absurdity of the suggestion. “And how am I 
gonna do that, Ben?”

“The woman you’re travelling with. The one who parachuted onto 
the island from a helicopter? She’s not who she says she is.”

The intensity and conviction of his words might have given Jack 
pause, had it come from anyone other than Ben. “She’s not, 
huh,” he said.

“No, she’s not.”

“Then who is she?”

“She’s a representative of some people who have been trying to 
find this island, Jack.” He paused. “She’s one of the bad 
guys.”

“Oh,” Jack snit. “I almost forgot. You’re the good guys.”

“Jack, listen to me,” Ben pleaded, a note of desperation 
entering his voice. “If you phone her boat every single living 
person on this island will be killed. Including your daughter.”

Jack fell silent. Either Ben was a better actor than he 
remembered or he really believed what he was saying. Neither 
option sat well with him.

“So here’s what has to happen,” Ben continued. “Get that device 
– the phone she carries with her – and give it to me. I will 
turn around. I’ll go back to my people. You will turn around, 
go back to your people.” It was at that moment, seeing the 
expression settling on Jack’s face, that Ben realized Jack 
would never cooperate.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Ben stood silently. “May I have my walkie back? There’s 
something you need to hear.”

********

A collective gasp came from the group as Jack returned several 
minutes later, dragging a beaten, bloodied Ben with him, 
tossing him to the ground in the middle of the clearing. “Tie 
him up,” he ordered, his voice unsteady, his face twisted in 
pained rage. “He’s comin’ with us.”

Kate followed him as he staggered out of sight of the rest of 
the group and collapsed to his knees in the grass, digging his 
water bottle from his pack with shaking hands.

“What happened,” she demanded. “What’d he say?”

“It’s not important right now.”

She caught sight of the bloody scrapes and cuts on his hand and 
dropped to her knees beside him. “Jack,” she breathed. “Your 
knuckles...” She pulled a cloth from her pack and grabbed his 
hand, gently wiping away the blood. Her eyes flitted to his 
face as she tended to the damage. It was obvious he was 
struggling to keep his composure. She could feel the slight 
tremors in his hand, hear the sob he strained to hold in as he 
took deep breaths to calm himself. “What happened?”

Jack stared at the ground, unable to meet her shocked gaze as 
he muttered “he killed them. Bernard...Jin, Sayid...all three 
of them. He...he radioed the beach...and I let it happen. I had 
to let it happen. We can’t tell Rose or Sun. Not yet.” He 
pulled his hand free of her slackened grip, still refusing to 
look at her, as if seeing the distraught look on her face would 
shatter his tenuous composure. “We’ve gotta keep moving. I 
promised Sayid that we would keep moving.”

Kate didn’t move, frozen in shock. “So why did you bring him 
back? Why didn’t you just kill him?”

Jack got a distant, cold look in his eyes. “Because I want him 
to see it,” he said numbly. “I want him to experience the 
moment that we get off this island and I want him to know...” 
His voice warbled and he sniffed, swallowing heavily. “That he 
failed.” He finally looked at her, determination in his eyes. 
“And then I’ll kill him.”

********

Sawyer and Juliet crouched in the bushes on the edge of the 
camp, watching Tom and some guy Sawyer didn’t recognize argue 
about whether they should have killed Bernard, Jin and Sayid 
instead of just shooting bullets into the sand. A third man 
stood over the three prisoners, wielding a pistol menacingly.

“All they got left is three guys and four guns,” he muttered.

“And all we’ve got, James, is two people and no guns,” she 
fired back.

He mentally rolled his eyes. “So we’ll wait ‘til night.”

“Night isn’t gonna change the fact that we’re unarmed. If you 
want to kill yourself, that’s fine, but before you go...”

“Shh!” Sawyer looked back toward the jungle, where he could 
have sworn he’d heard something that sounded strangely 
mechanical. “You hear that?”

He and Juliet barely dove out of the way before the van Hurley 
had been so determined to fix came barreling through the 
bushes, the big man himself at the wheel.

Hurley gunned the engine and burst into the clearing, knocking 
down a tent and plowing right over one of the remaining Others.

Sawyer grabbed a broken piece of wood and crouched behind the 
van as it came to a halt, ordering Hurley to stay inside. He 
grabbed the dead man’s dropped gun and sprang into the open, 
aiming at the man holding their guys hostage. He didn’t get a 
chance to shoot, however, as Sayid used the distraction to 
knock the guy off his feet and break his neck – all with his 
hands tied behind his back. Sawyer made a quick mental note 
never to piss the Iraqi off again and turned to Tom, who was 
attempting to crawl toward his discarded weapon. Juliet got to 
it first and held it steady on him. 

He turned to look at Sawyer closing in behind him and plopped 
down in the sand, holding up his hands in a gesture of 
surrender. “Okay. I give up.” 

Sawyer raised his gun and shot Tom in the chest without a 
second thought. Tom slumped, wide-eyed, to the sand. 

“Dude,” Hurley murmured, coming up behind Sawyer. “It was over. 
He surrendered.” 

“I didn’t believe him,” Sawyer grit.

**********

“Attention Others,” Hurley’s voice crackled over the walkie 
talkie in Jack’s pocket. “Come in Others. If you’re listening 
to this I want you to know that we got you bastards. Unless the 
rest of you want to be blown up, it’s best if you stay away 
from our beach.”

Hurley was surprised when Jack’s confused voice answered. 
“Hurley? Where are you? What’s going on?”

“Dude, I’m back at the beach.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I went back to help Juliet and Sawyer, I...I saved ‘em.”

“You’re...” Jack swallowed thickly. “They’re okay...”

“Everyone’s fine. Me, Sawyer, Juliet, Sayid...Jin, Bernard. 
We’re all...”

“Wait.” Jack’s hand shook. “Bernard and Jin and Sayid, they’re 
with you?”

“Yeah, dude, I told you, I saved them all.”

Jack sagged with relief as the crowd behind him began cheering, 
laughing and hugging. He turned to see Rose and Sun, hugging 
each other, nearly in tears, and for the first time possibly 
since the crash he felt a genuine smile spread across his face. 
“Hey, stay where you are. We’re almost up to the tower. You’ll 
be safer there.”

“I gotcha. We’ll stay put until you, like, you know, phone 
home.”

Claire appeared beside Jack, her hand joining his on the 
walkie, pulling it to her. “What about Charlie? Did he make it 
back yet?”

“Not yet, but they’re probably paddling home as we speak. Don’t 
worry, I’m sure he’s fine.”

********

The group watched anxiously as Naomi paced back and forth, 
trying to find a clear signal. 

“Jack,” Ben called frantically. “I know you think you’re saving 
your people, but you need to stop this! It’s a mistake!”

“The mistake was listening to you,” Jack sneered.

“This will be your last chance, Jack! I’m telling you, making 
that call is the beginning of the end.”

“I’ve got it,” Naomi yelped. “I’ve got a signal!”

“Jack, please, you don’t know what you’re doing!”

Jack stepped closer to him as Naomi began to dial. “I know 
exactly what I’m doing.” Naomi grunted suddenly and several 
members of the group gasped. Jack turned in time to see blood 
spill from her mouth a second before she pitched forward into 
the grass, a knife embedded in her back.

Jack felt rage bubble up within him again as he spotted Locke 
several feet away, bent over double, his eyes fixed on Naomi’s 
fallen body. “John,” he screamed, rushing toward Naomi to check 
her pulse, even though it was fairly obvious he wouldn’t find 
one. He stood and slowly faced his on-again off-again enemy, 
who now brandished a pistol. “What did you do,” he demanded, 
his voice low, murderous.

“What I had to,” John replied calmly. “Now step back.” He waved 
the gun pointedly and Jack reluctantly began to take a step 
away from Naomi. He froze as the SAT phone began to ring. “Stay 
away from the phone,” Locke warned.

Jack glared at him for a moment before deciding he was 
bluffing. He dove for the phone, not even hesitating as the 
ground inches from it exploded from the force of a bullet. He 
straightened and faced Locke. “What are you doing, John?”

“I don’t wanna shoot you,” Locke pleaded.

“Do it, John, shoot him,” Ben shouted. His voice dissolved into 
a wet gurgle as Rousseau elbowed him in the face and he lost 
consciousness.

“Please,” Locke begged. “Put the phone down.”

Jack shook his head. “No. You’re done keeping me on this 
island.”

Locke’s eyes narrowed and he cocked the pistol. Several gasps 
rose from the group. “I will kill you if I have to,” he 
threatened.

Jack took a step toward him. “Then do it, John.”

“Jack,” Kate pleaded.

Jack ignored her. Locke wouldn’t shoot him. He was crazy, but 
he wasn’t a killer. Jack locked eyes with him, daring him to 
prove otherwise. 

Locke seemed to debate with himself for a few moments more 
before slowly lowering the weapon. “Jack...you’re not supposed 
to do this.”

Jack’s brow furrowed, but before he could think about what the 
hell that could mean the phone burst to life in his hand.

“Minkowski,” a voice answered. “Hello?”

Jack stared at Locke as he raised the phone to his ear. Still, 
he didn’t register the movement until it was too late. Several 
castaways screamed as Locke suddenly raised the gun again and 
fired.

Jack gasped as the phone shattered in his hand. He barely 
registered the blood dripping from his hand and face, drawn by 
the exploding shards of plastic as the ruined remains of the 
phone fell to the ground. He barely registered the enraged 
scream that spilled from his lips as he charged at Locke, 
mindless of everything but the overwhelming urge to break his 
neck.

Locke took a step back, his finger squeezing the trigger 
instinctively, the shot eliciting several more screams from the 
group.


To be continued...