The cry of a baby awoke Kate from her sleep. Grumbling she rolled on her side, pushing herself up from the bed by her arms until she was sitting up. Kate went over to the crib that Locke had built for Aaron, expecting to see a crying child, but not seeing anything besides a blanket. Frowning, she woke herself up a bit more, looking around her to see where the crying was coming from. Looking back at the bed, she saw that Jack wasn't their either.
Stepping out of the shelter, she glanced around her, spotting Jack holding the baby against his chest whilst the waves lapped around his legs. Smiling, she started down the beach towards them, glad that they were both all right. There was Jack, concentrating hard on the horizon, gently rocking the crying little girl in his arms.
"Jack, is everything all right?" She asked, as she stepped closer.
Jack didn't make any move in her direction as she came up beside him. He didn't even acknowledge her presence.
"Jack?" She tried again.
Again, he didn't say anything. She placed her hand on the screaming baby's back, but her hand felt something sticky and warm. Withdrawing her hand, she looked at it, horrified to see that her hand was covered in fresh blood. She looked from her hands to the baby, and then to Jack, who was now looking at her with a fixed gaze.
"Jack, what's happening?" She asked.
"Stop running, Kate." He said.
"I'm not running." She told him. She reached for the baby, and Jack took a step back from her. "Jack-?"
"You ran, Kate." He said. "You ran, and we got hurt."
"I'm not running!" She shouted as Jack started to walk off. "I'm not running anymore!" Jack turned to look at her. "What's happening to her?" She asked.
"You can't help her now." He said, and then disappeared along the waves into the darkness. Kate looked down at her hands, seeing the blood still dripping from them, blood from the baby's back, and screamed.
"KATE!"
Someone almost yelling her name into her ear brought her back to consciousness, and her eyes snapped open. She was already sitting up and there were several people around her. Claire was standing in the doorway with Charlie, Hurley was sitting at the end of her bed, Michael was standing beside him, and crouching at her side, directly before her, was Jack. She assumed that it was him that was calling her name. Somehow, she knew that it would be him. After all, they were together now, even though they hadn't told anyone yet.
Breathing hard, she felt hot tears running down her face. "Wh-wha-what happened?" She asked breathlessly.
"You were having a nightmare." Jack explained calmly to her. Placing his hand over her forehead, he felt the swift fever rising there, and the tremors passed through to his own hands. "Kate, you're burning up and your shaking." He said with a frown.
She was still looking around at them. "Where is she?" She asked.
Jack leaned closer. "Who?"
"The baby, where is she?" She repeated.
"Kate, what baby?" He asked.
"There was a little girl, you were holding her." Kate told him, as if she was horrified that he didn't remember. "She was bleeding, and you said that I couldn't help her." Everyone was looking at Kate with concerned frowns. She gulped, drawing in a shaky breath. "Don't look at me like I'm crazy, there was a baby!" She said as she started to cry.
Jack drew her into his arms. "Hey, hey, hey." He comforted. "It's all right. It's okay."
"No, it's not okay," Kate argued. "There was a little girl, Jack, I swear to you."
She clung to him like she was being dragged away from him as the others watched on with concerned expressions. Kate had gone off to bed earlier than the rest of them that night, complaining about feeling strange, so Claire had sent Michael to get Jack from the hatch whilst her, Hurley and Charlie sat near to her tent to make sure that she was all right until then. About ten minutes before Jack arrived, she started muttering and shifting in her sleep, and then just as Jack arrived she started to cry out. It had taken him a full five minutes to wake her up.
"Kate," He said softly as he rubbed her back, "You were dreaming." He reminded her. "The only baby on this island is Aaron, and he's a boy. There's no little girl here."
"There was." She said, shaking her head against him. "She was right here, you were holding her. I woke up, and she was crying, and there was a cradle right there-"
She pulled away from Jack and gestured over to her right, but the area of sand that she had seen the cradle on was empty.
"I-I don't understand." She said softly. "It was right there. There was blood on her back, Jack! I put my hand on her back and it dripping with blood. She was screaming, and I couldn't help her. You said that I'd ran, and that I'd hurt you both, and that I couldn't help her. I wanted to help her!"
"Kate," Jack said quietly, holding her chin and focusing her attention on him. "It was a nightmare."
"No" She started. "No, it wasn't-"
"Yes, Kate, it was a dream." He said to her. "You're feverish, and you're having vivid nightmares." He told her.
She looked up at him with sad eyes, tears still staining her cheeks. "Why won't you believe me?" She asked in a pained voice.
Claire came over, and sat in the sand beside Jack and Kate, she took up one of Kate's hands in her own. "I believe you, Kate." She said with a reassuring smile.
"You do?" Kate asked.
"Yeah, I do." Claire nodded.
"Thank you."
"Claire-" Jack began, but she shook her head, cutting him off.
"Look at her, Jack." Claire told him. "She's terrified. These are more than dreams."
"How can they be more than dreams?" Michael asked.
"How can they be anything less?" Claire countered.
There was a silent, in which all that could be heard was the shaking breaths that came from Kate. "Alright," Jack said, softly. "What do you suggest?"
"Libby helped me when my memory went." She said simply.
"You think Libby can help Kate?" Jack asked.
"It would explain why these things are troubling her."
Jack looked at the fearful look in Kate's eyes. "Kate-"
"Jack, please." Kate begged pathetically. "I have to know what happened, I have to know why I saw her."
Jack sighed, torn between staying and just comforting Kate, or letting her relive the experience that brought her to a wreckage of her usual self. After a few moments of deep though, he turned to Hurley, who knew exactly what he was going to say. "Hurley-"
"I'll go get Libby." He said simply, getting up and walking out of Kate's tent.