Well, that finale made this whole story even more AU than it was originally. Annoying. Anyway, some of it will still be incorporated in; for example, everything that we learned about Desmond's past, etc. etc. So there may be spoilers, but in all reality. . .this is now just purely fanfic AU deliciousness.
"That is ridiculous!" Kate shouted. "Ow!" She glared at Jack, who held up in hands in mock self-defense, an iodine-infused gauze pad clutched in one hand. Kate stared down at her scraped arm. She yelled, at no one in particular, "why did God create polar bears?"
Diane giggled. Kate looked at her daughter, held tight and secure in Sawyer's arms, and sighed. "Sure, sweetie," she said. "You think it's funny. Mommy gets a boo-boo. Ha ha."
"Bitter don't suit you, sugar," Sawyer said with a smile. "It's not Pickle's fault that Hurley can outrun you."
"Yeah, well," Kate sighed and looked back at Jack. She knew exactly how to deflate the man's attitude. "So, Jack, what are we going to do?"
"What are we going to do about what?" he asked, touching the gauze to her arm again. She flinched, but this time didn't yelp.
"About the polar bear," Kate said. "We can't just let it free. Nobody got hurt this time, but it could attack again."
"We kill it," Kelvin said. Everybody jumped. The man came out of the woodwork, sometimes, surprising everyone by his sudden presence.
"We're not going on a crazy mission to find a polar bear," Jack said. He deftly wrapped up Kate's arm and gave it a finishing pat.
"I am," Kelvin said. He reached over the doctor's arm to grab a gun. Jack held onto his end.
"We're running low on bullets," he said. "There's no way that we're wasting any on a polar bear."
"Why, doc, afraid we're gonna get attacked by the trees?" Sawyer suddenly burst out. Diane shifted in his arms, her face screwing up and getting ready to cry. "We've taken out every other damn enemy in the woods."
"Watch it, Sawyer," Kate said, staring at the baby. Wait for it, she thought. Wait for it. . .
"Can't let rampaging wildebeasts take out our city!" Sawyer spat. Diane screamed. The conman sighed, and looked down at the bundle of joy in his arms.
"She hungry?" he asked Kate. She smiled and shook her head. Sawyer frowned, and gingerly felt her bottom. "She ain't wet. What the hell's wrong with her?"
"She's probably just tired," Kate suggested. "She's had a busy day."
"You can put her to sleep in the bunkroom," Jack suggested. "Claire's crib is still back there."
Sawyer wandered into the back room. A moment later, the low, soothing sound of his singing drifted through the hatch. Jack and Kelvin stared at the room in amazement.
"He sings?" Kelvin asked. Kate laughed a little.
"Sometimes it's the only thing that will calm Diane down," she said. Jack shook his head, as though trying to shake off a sense of amazement. Kelvin took advantage of the other man's distraction to nab the gun.
"You coming with?" he asked the doctor.
Jack sighed. What could really go bad in the day or two it would take to track down a polar bear? Besides, Walt was getting a pretty good grasp on medicine; he could handle almost anything the island would throw at him, provided it wasn't too drastic.
"Yeah," he sighed, shouldering his pack. "I'm coming."
Kelvin nodded. "Sawyer?" he yelled into the adjourning room.
"Shhh," Sawyer hissed back. "Sure. Soon as Pickle here's asleep."
Kate rolled her eyes and smiled. "You're not going, Sawyer," she said. The lanky conman strolled into the central room again, and crossed his arms. He grinned down at her, flashing the dimples he knew she couldn't resist.
"Yes I am," he said. Kate sighed.
"We talked about this. You don't get to go on any more hikes. You always come back half dead."
"Well, we all gotta go sometime," Sawyer said. He glared at Jack, as though warning the doctor to keep his mouth shut. Jack just widened his eyes in feigned innocence.
"I'm coming," Kate said decisively, turning to Jack.
"Fine by me," he said.
"Who's gonna watch the baby?" Sawyer asked.
"You are," Kate said lightly, grabbing the gun.
"Uh. . .Kate. . ." Jack suddenly recognized the problem with her abrupt decision. "What's the baby going to eat?"
The woman's face fell as she considered what he was saying. "Well. . .can't she. . ."
"No," Jack said, cutting her off. "Sorry." Kate threw the gun down in frustration. Kelvin leaned over and picked it up again, shining it off on his shirt with a great display of patience.
"Sorry, Toots," Sawyer began to whistle. "Guess you'll have to wait for next time."
"Sawyer," Kate said, a warning tone in his voice. Sawyer winced, but kept walking. Jack couldn't stop the smile spreading across his own face. Someone wasn't going to get any action for a while.
"Anyone else coming?" Jack asked as they exited the hatch. Kelvin led them slowly down toward the beach.
"Desmond," he said shortly.
"Hey, brother!" the Scottish man said with a broad smile and a wave as he met them halfway down to the beach. "Are we ready for this trip?"
"Here," Kelvin said shortly, handing him a pistol. Desmond checked the rounds in it, nodded his head, and stuffed it in the ankle holster he always wore.
"How about this?" he asked, still grinning. "All the boys together again."
"Yeah, how 'bout that?" Sawyer drawled, attempting to put a sneer into his voice. Jack smiled, and clapped his friend on the back.
"Nice try, Jimmy," he laughed. "But you're going to have to do better than that." Sawyer grumbled some but didn't say anything else.
The four men headed into the jungle together. It was a looser camaraderie than regular. . .probably because they no longer had anything to fear. Except, of course, for the marauding polar bear.
"And they left me alone in the stupid hatch!" Kate complained. She stared at the computer which just sat there staring stupidly back at her. She was tempted to not hit the button, just to get back at Sawyer. Then again, Desmond had claimed it would cause electromagnetic energy to spew, destroying the whole world. As much as she wanted to shove something up the conman's arse, she realized that her own doom and destruction probably wasn't necessary. She'd just deprive him of sex for a while.
Luckily there were only three minutes left on Jack's watch. Rousseau and Sun appeared only a bit after the men left. Amelie and Star were holding hands and skipping behind their mothers, while the rest of Desmond and Rousseaus' brood was held by either of the older women.
"Hello, Kate," Sun said, smiling as she settled Jacques down on the floor. She glanced around the deserted hatch. "Where is everybody?"
"They went after the polar bear," Rousseau announced, ignoring the fact that the question hadn't been addressed to her. She hurried over to the bookshelf, and began rooting through them. Kate sighed. The woman went through the same exact actions every time she was on hatch duty.
"What are you always looking for there?"she asked. Rousseau glanced up for just an instant, and allowed a small smile to cross her face.
"Desmond has a book he's been saving," she said. "He'll only read it when he thinks he's going to die."
"That's a good idea," Kate mused. She wondered if Sawyer had—no, she didn't wonder anything about Sawyer, other than how he would like to be stuck on baby duty for the next six months.
"I have decided," Rousseau announced, "that if he can never find his book, he can never die."
Kate smiled at that. It was a cute thought, but only went to prove how crazy Rousseau really was. She still didn't understand what the handsome Scot saw in the lunatic Frenchwoman.
"So the men have disappeared again," Sun sighed. "Someday something is going to happen at this camp, and they are going to wish they did not always leave."
"Yeah, well I'm not holding my breath," Kate said, wandering into the room where Sawyer had left Diane. She smiled down at the baby, who was alternately kicking her feet in her sleep. A large string of drool dripped down her chin. Kate debated picking her up or not.
"Maybe when pigs have horns," Rousseau decided.
As much as she wanted the peace of the baby sleeping (and there was no guarantee that Diane would fall asleep again any time soon without Sawyer around) she wanted to get out into the fresh air even more.
"Everybody plug your ears!" she yelled, and then reached down and grabbed Diane. Surprisingly, there was no outraged scream from the infant. Kate's grin widened. How about that? Maybe the monster was finally admitting that she was its mother.
"I'm going down to the beach," she told Sun when she entered the main room again. "Do either of you need anything?"
Both shook their heads. Rousseau gave up her inspection of the bookshelves, and wandered over to look at some of the electrical wiring on the wall. Kate shot a significant look at Sun. They both knew about Rousseau and her penchant for hitting buttons without knowing what they did. She was skilled with electronics, no doubt, but sometimes she liked to play before thinking things out fully.
Kate waved good-bye to the women before wandering up out of the hatch. She blinked at the bright sunlight. She would never understand how Jack was able to stand staying in teh hatch for so long. The staleness of the air would have driven her crazy.
She began to whistle as she headed down to the beach. It scared her, sometimes, how much she was coming to enjoy her life on the island. True, there was more death and sickness than she would have liked. And admittedly, giving birth in the sand had not been a pleasant experience. But she'd never felt as free and clean as she did here.
"Hi, Claire," she greeted the younger woman as she entered the beach.
"Hullo yourself," Claire grinned. She was sitting on an old recovered chair, her familiar, filthy hat shading her fair skin. Aaron was down at the edge of the water, playing happily in the sand.
"No Liam?" she asked. Claire sighed and shook her head.
"Charlie took him today," she said, a sad look on her face. Kate nodded sympathetically, and settled herself down beside the other woman.
"He still won't come home, huh?"
Claire sighed. "No. I think he's afraid that I'll fall asleep some day and not wake up. He thinks he's safer out at his church."
"He probably thinks that his prayer is helping," Kate offered.
"Maybe," she shrugged. "Anyway, let's talk about something different. Like you, here all alone. Did Sawyer finally accept that you and the baby don't need his protection 24/7?"
"Hardly," Kate jerked her head in the direction of the jungle. "He and Jack headed into the jungle to hunt down that polar bear."
"Polar bear?" Claire raised her eyebrows. "There are polar bears on this island?"
Kate stared at the other woman. They'd been stuck on the island for over five years, and she still hadn't heard about the polar bears?
There was one nice thing about not having Jack or Sawyer around; namely the free time to herself. Kate settled Diane down in the crib within Sawyer's shelter, and then put on a bathing suit and lay out in the sun. She read some of Sawyer's magazines (though the majority of them were pretty disgusting) painted her toenails, and went for a walk along the shore. All in all it was a pretty relaxing day, until Claire and Cindy came by in the afternoon.
"Um. . .Kate. . ." Claire scuffed her toe in the sand nervously. Kate looked up from the book she was reading (Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens; curiously, it had been hidden beneath a stack of Playboys, instead of in his book section) "There something I think you should see."
Cindy shook her head. "We're better off finding the men," she said. "No offense, Kate, but you've never really understood the hatch."
"What's wrong with the hatch?" Kate asked, instantly rising to her feet. Her mind shot back to Sun and Rousseau. Oh, God, and the babies!
"Just. . .come look," Claire urged. Kate looked back an instant at Diane, wondering whether it was safe to bring her. . . "Don't worry," Claire said. "Charlie can watch her."
Sure enough, there at her back was a worried-looking Charlie, holding Aaron's hand tightly with his right, and clutching at Liam with his left. Kate nodded, trying to choke down the fear that was rising in her throat. Sun was her friend. . .if anything had happened. . .
She practically ran into the jungle, but was forced to slow down by Claire and Cindy's slower paces. All she really wanted was to run ahead to the hatch, but she knew it was better to wait.
Kate was expecting something horrible at the hatch. Mangled bodies, leering Others, maybe even a polar bear or two. Instead, she was simply confused.
"Why is the door closed?" she asked, turning to the other two women.
"That's the thing," Claire sighed. "We don't know. And we don't know how to open it."