underneath and unexplored, islands and cities I have looked

[hightail]

It isn't until turbulence hits, both unexpected and not, that Kate finally allows herself herself to believe. Jack, despite all insistence to the contrary, was sold from the start. Even if he himself didn't know, she could tell. She saw what it did to him; what it did to them. He's always been a man of greater faith than he ever imagined he could

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[sallyslingshot]

A lot of the time, Alex just wandered. A few months here and she was becoming well-acquainted with this place, but it simply didn't compare to fifteen years, and anyway, it wasn't like she had anything better to be doing. Since discovering her father's disappearance, she had felt strangely like she was just going through the motions, mostly trying to keep herself from feeling too much, still not quite having come to terms with the fact that she was actually bothered by it. It left her somewhat aimless, which was what led her in the direction of the waterfall, needing to keep moving to keep from getting too caught up in her own head.

She wasn't, at first, fazed by the presence of a person, but when she got a glimpse of the woman's face, one she would have recognized anywhere, her eyes widened, and without hesitation, she crossed to her side. "Oh, my God, Kate?" she asked, as if she couldn't believe it. "Are you okay?"

[hightail]

During the few seconds she has to herself, Kate has some time to begin processing everything around her, and what she sees is just as she expected. It's the island, just as they left it - lush and breathtaking, just as deceptive a landscape as ever. She expected to get hurt, to feel the force of the crash and subsequent rush of panic and adrenaline. Instead, she feels dizzy and disoriented; confused. She's about to call for Jack when she hears her own name, turning to find a face that she, too, has no trouble recognizing

[sallyslingshot]

It was a question that Alex wasn't entirely sure how to make sense of, though the reaction itself wasn't especially surprising. There wasn't any elaboration necessary. She was a dead girl; Sawyer had been the same way, when she'd found him in that cage, certain, however temporarily, that he had somehow died, and found himself in the same afterlife as her. Even Alex herself had temporarily toyed with the possibility. It didn't make sense, though - there was air in her lungs, and people here who hadn't been killed before - and so she was left to try to piece together reassurances, to figure out what to say to convince someone that she wasn't dead, despite the explanation for this island being more incomprehensible than she'd been told her own was.

"It's an island," she started with, as if that much didn't speak pretty clearly for itself. They weren't on the beach, but Kate had spent months on their same island; she had to recognize the climate. "But not - not the same island. It's complicated. And, no, you aren't dead. I was, but then

[hightail]

After enough time spent on the island, one develops a healthy, nearly essential ability to suspend disbelief. Polar bears in the jungle, a button that needs pushing every one-hundred-and-eight minutes, an enormous mass of killer black smoke. Belief becomes essential to survival, but this doesn't mean that Kate is comfortable with it. She accepts because she must that one runs in the face of the black smoke - staying still gets you dead, and that she knows because she's seen it happen. But it doesn't compel her to believe that the island ever wanted her - her - back, not anymore than she can believe she's really talking to a girl who was killed three years ago

[cibosity]

It's too soon.

Everything in life is just a matter of time. You give a man enough years, he'll travel and see the world, one way or another. You walk along enough paths, you'll come across the same faces, some more frequently than others, but encounters all the same. In the back of his mind, Sawyer's been expecting this, coming across that girl again, the one who was always on the run and never stopped even to take a breath. But he hasn't been hoping for it. Instead, he's tried to wear away frantically at the memory of her, sanding it down until the details smoothed out and blurred in his head. Some days, he's even able to convince himself that he's starting to forget, because he doesn't really have the right to remember when he stopped fighting to keep her long ago. But that's just the thing.

When he comes across a woman laying next to the waterfall, hair damp but still curling in stubborn waves, he knows, and it's like someone's driven a knife into his gut all over again, turning it with a painful wrench. It's too damn soon"Son of

[hightail]

Had Sawyer decided to voice those thoughts, they might have finally found themselves agreeing on something, Kate too believing it to be much too soon when she hears his voice coming from somewhere above her. She was expecting it, of course; she knew this day was fast approaching, inevitable, but even once back on the island, she thought she would have more time. Days, at the very least, in which they searched through beach and jungle for those left behind. But, as usual, the island had other plans for her.

"Sawyer?"

With a short, low groan, Kate lifts herself up by the elbows, taking it slow not because she's hurt but because the water is freezing, the smallest of movements sending a cold shock along her spine. "Long time," she says, coughing through a casual smile which is in no way appropriate for the situation, yet in every way necessary. Joking tones and fake lightheartedness; it's always been their way of avoiding the important subjects. Her way of ignoring, if only for a moment, the past three years.

[cibosity]

It feels wrong not to be extending a hand in aid, but maybe it's necessary to keep her in his dreams for now. Touching her would be too real. Even just the warmth of her hand in his might be too much, so soon after he made the decision to fall behind. And maybe some part of him jumped off of that helicopter for noble reasons- there was no one else on that craft who could have coped any longer back on the island, he was sure- but there's no denying that some part of him was simply searching for that excuse. He's just not ready. The dirt is coarse under his feet as he steps a little closer, enough so that mist hangs in the air and kisses his skin, sending a shiver down his spine. He licks his lips, too dry for lack of care, before he crouches just an arm's length away and shrugs off his shirt to wrap around her shoulders as soon as she climbs out

[hightail]

The day of the press junket for Oceanic Airlines, Kate remembers waiting backstage (Aaron asleep in her arms) with the other five. Together they sat as partners in crime, shoulders heavy with the burden of a lie they hoped would protect their friends, though they all knew the likelihood that they were, in fact, achieving the exact opposite. It was, however, decided, and far too late now for any of them to pull back. And so they sat, silent and anxious, waiting to hear their introduction echoed from the podium at center stage. It was then, Kate recalls, that she first heard in plain English exactly how long they had been stranded. All at once, she felt shocked and confused, incapable of understanding how all that time could be condensed into such a small number; into mere days and months as opposed to years, to a lifetime

[once_invisible]

Rodney had never been one to stay in a single place for too long. (Invisibility had been more symbolic a boon than he'd ever admit.) Although his wandering was restricted on the island, it didn't mean he ever really stopped moving. There were a certain number of things that he'd come to expect during his (admittedly) short tenure on the island so far, but a body washed up on the bank of the creek wasn't one of them.

"Oh, bloody hell," he murmured under his breath, glancing around to see if he could spot anyone else in the vicinity before going anywhere near the woman in the water. The anxiety that had immediately popped up in his chest at the sight of her died down when it became more apparent that, despite the circumstances, she seemed unharmed.

As soon as he was close enough, he reached out a hand, lightly shaking her shoulder. "You alright?"

[hightail]

The touch sends a shock through her bones, less out of surprise than out of discomfort; she's soaked, freezing, and smallest touch or movement only worsens the sensation. Which is not to say that Kate isn't surprised to feel a hand on her shoulder; she is. But she was also expecting it.

It's the unfamiliar face that she doesn't anticipate, one she can't remember from the plane or the freighter or the island three years ago. One she can't say she's ever seen before, and she can't keep herself from asking, "Who are you?"

Why and how he came to be on the island are questions soon to follow.

[eggman_henry]

There was a certain jolt that came with seeing someone appear out of nowhere, one that served as a good reminder of how they'd all come to be in such a crazy, fucked up place. Henry, as someone who'd had his share of jolts of a various nature in his lifetime, recovered from this one fairly quickly and quickened his pace to crouch down next to the woman who hadn't been there a moment before.

"Hey," he said, trying not to startle her, and pushed his glasses up on his nose with his index finger before reaching out to touch her arm gently with the hand that was whole. "You okay?"

[hightail]

Kate groans. Blinking against the sunlight, brighter than any bulb in the cabin, she can't quite make out the man's face yet. His voice, however, is unfamiliar to her - not one belonging to those on the plane, and definitely not the voice of Jin or Sawyer. It leads her to assume that he, too, was on the plane, and she feels the instant sting of guilt. Despite Hurley's best efforts, the flight was still more crowded than any of them were comfortable with, but they boarded anyway. It's their fault all these people have now crashed here; their fault all these lives are now changed forever.

"I'm so - fine, I'm fine," she mumbles, barely managing to rise from where she lay. With the help of both arms and all the force she can muster, Kate finally sits up, turns, and asks, "What happened?"

[eggman_henry]

She'd started to say something else, it seemed like, but Henry could only venture a guess as to what that might have been. He held out an arm, ready with steadying hands in case she needed them. "You're on an island," he explained calmly, figuring the welcome to the island speech might be even more confusing if she was disoriented on top of being new. "Wherever you were before, you're not there now, as you might have guessed. This is Tabula Rasa, where people are pulled from all over time and space without warning or explanation. There are a couple hundred of us here."

He paused. "It's a little overwhelming at first, I know."

[assured_of_this]

Appearances come with their own set of stresses and uncertainties. Having someone appear hurt or unconscious or otherwise in possible peril certainly doesn't make the experience any easier, and as he hurries over to the recumbent form beside the stream, Nate can't help but curse the island's canny sense of timing.

"Hey," he gently greets as he dips into a crouch beside her, careful not to touch, not yet. "You're probably disoriented, but before I try to explain, are you hurt?"

[hightail]

It's odd enough that her first habit is to roll on her side, a former comfort which proves to be anything but comfortable when done over a jagged-edged boulder in lieu of her warm, soft bed. Despite having lived for less than a year on the island as opposed to the three years she spent in Los Angeles since, Kate still finds herself stopping to give silent thanks for luxuries like air conditioning and hot showers. (It made it a little easier to decide to come back, even if it wasn't really easy at all.)

Odder still is the voice she doesn't recognize asking if she's okay - that's Jack's line, she thinks, but the laugh gets caught somewhere in her throat. "I'm good," she promises, and it just so happens to be true. "Who are you?"

[assured_of_this]

That's a relief, and Nate finds himself offering her a genuine, if bewildered smile. "Nate," he replies, and finally reaches to offer her a bit of support if she wants it. "Can you sit up? Not that I don't believe you, but this is kind of an awkward position to be having a conversation in."