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[starsinurpocket]

Glancing down at Aaron sleeping in his crib, I reached in, tucking his blankets a little tighter around him. It had been a rough time lately, with the new arrivals and the strange occurrences that had been going on both before and since they’d gotten here. Kate and Jack have kept a close check on me and Aaron, and of course, Charlie has been his

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[starsinurpocket]

The stranger started walking towards me with a purposeful stride, a very angry look on her face. Then she starts yelling at me. Calling me Tess? Who is Tess? I frowned, tilting my head as I gave her a confused look. The look on her face frightened me enough to reach down and grab Aaron from his crib and hold him tight against my chest.

"Tess? Who's Tess?" I shook my head, my eyes wide as Aaron started to cry. "I don't know any of these people you keep speaking about. I have no idea who Max, Tess or Zan are."

She took another step closer, her eyes dancing with an anger that I'd never seen before. Whomever this Tess girl was must not be very friendly with this girl.

Aaron's cries grew louder and I kissed the top of his head. "Shh, sweetie it's okay. Don't cry." I bounced him a little. He had to be scared, they say babies can sense their parents emotions, and right now, I was scared myself. "Look, I don't know who you are, but you're scaring my baby! Please get away from us!"

My eyes searched the beach for any sign of Charlie. I hadn't seen him since early this morning, when we'd woken up. Jack and Kate were nowhere to be seen either. Where was everyone? I held Aaron closer, taking a step backwards.

[fated_stranger]

"What is this, Tess? You know damn well who Zan and Max are. Is this another one of your games? Come back from the dead to wreak havoc back in all of our lives like it's a game? My life is not a game, my life with Max is not a game, stealing your son back is NOT a game!" I shook my head at her, narrowing my eyes as she kissed the top of Zan's head like she had any right to go and uproot a baby that Max had already taken great pains to seperate himself from. Why? Because he was at least selfless enough to know that a life with us, was a dangerous one. I guess Tess was just selfish. Not like I didn't already know that.

It hurt me though, to think about the fact that I trusted her. Granted, it had only been for a quick moment when we'd sat in the car right before she decided to take care of our problem once and for all by sacrificing herself to throw the feds off our trail, and Zan's. I guess some people just can't be good, no matter how much they seem to try.

"I'm not going anywhere, Tess. Not until you tell me what you're up to. I'm not letting you come back into our lives to try and split us all up again. I won't do it."

And if she thought I was above hurting her? She was wrong. Not that I didn't think she could hurt me just as badly if not worse if she wanted to, but I could hurt her now too. I might not be one of them, but I wasn't exactly completely human anymore now was I?

[starsinurpocket]

"Games? I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not playing any kind of games!" I yelled back at her, cradling Aaron as tight as I could against my chest without hurting him. Did she say coming back from the dead? Stealing my son back? When did I loose him?

"Look, I don't know what's going on. But, this isn't a game, I'm quite aware of that. Nothing since my plane crashed on this island has been a game!" I was really getting upset here. I needed to calm down, I was scaring Aaron. "Mommy's here, sweetie. I'll stop yelling. It's okay." I whispered to him in effort to comfort him.

"I'm not this Tess person you think I am." I shook my head, lowering my voice and trying to stay calm. I wasn't letting my guard down though. She could be one of them. The Others. Trying to get Aaron. Or me. Or both of us. "My name is Claire Littleton. I'm from Sydney, Australia. My son is not Zan, his name is Aaron. I didn't steal him from anywhere. He was born right here, on this island."

I nodded my head, trying to convey my meaning. Trying to establish an understanding. I only hoped my intentions came across.

[fated_stranger]

I was getting more infuriated by the second as Tess tried to make up some stupid cover story about how her name is Claire and that baby's name was Aaron when I knew damn well who she was and who that baby belonged to.

"Shut up!" I snapped at her. "God, I've already caught you why are you trying to lie to me? Isabel's here too you know, what do you think she'll do to you when she finds you here?" Isabel had been known to be even harsher to Tess than the rest of us were. The reasons were obvious, Alex. I loved Alex but not in the same way that Izzy had.

And that was when I noticed the accent. Was Tess really that good of an actress? To pull off an accent like that? Her voice had always had an odd inflection but not a full-on Australian accent.

It wasn't the voice that was throwing me for a loop though, it was the look in her eyes. As if she actually believed everything she was telling me. If I didn't know any better I would say that she was terrified right now.

Dark eyes raked over her and I immediately noticed that she was trembling. Okay, Tess would definitely not be scared of me. Not like this.

"You're not Tess?" It was a question, but it came out more like a statement. I was starting to believe it, which was insane because she looked exactly like Tess.

[starsinurpocket]

I flinched as she yelled at me. I couldn't help it, I was scared. She was frightening me. And more importantly, she was upsetting Aaron. This was all too much. Isabel? All these names of people I didn't even know. It was so confusing. I frowned as she insinuated that this Isabel person was going to be even less pleased to see me. Someone was going to be worse to me than this girl was?

I looked past her again, trying desperately to find any of the people I knew. I was tempted to scream 'Help' but something kept me from it. Suddenly she stopped yelling and just looked at me. I could feel my body shaking out of fear as I clutched Aaron tightly. He was finally starting to quiet down a little.

Her voice was calmer when she finally spoke. Like she was finally maybe starting to realize.

"No, I'm not. You have to believe me." I met her eyes, pleading for her to understand I wasn't lying. "I don't know any of these people, including this Tess person. It's just some sort of misunderstanding apparently." I nodded, Aaron finally stopping his cries. "There has to be some sort of explanation."

[fated_stranger]

I shook my head as I took a few tentative steps closer to her, waiting to see the difference, there had to be at least subtle ones. But even when I could see her in the light more clearly there were no differences, subtle or otherwise besides the already obvious accent. This was Tess and if not Tess than her twin sister. Was she another clone? Like Ava? Ava hadn't been a thing like Tess, and frankly I had sort of liked Ava. Tess on the other hand I could hardly stand.

"I believe that you're not Tess." I finally said as I looked over which didn't mean that she wasn't something else. In fact, she probably was another clone or something which meant I didn't trust her very much at all. Rath and Vilandra had tried to betray Max and Tess and just because Ava had been good obviously didn't mean that they were all were.

"I'm sorry, it's just....well, it's just you look exactly like someone I used to know...obviously." I smiled at her a little sheepishly before quickly letting my face become serious again. "I'm sorry."