LOST: Rp4

Juliet stood in the kitchen, watching Carrie sympathetically from behind. Carrie had been sitting on the couch for half an hour now, not talking or moving, just sitting there and thinking. Juliet knew she was thinking about Richard. Juliet couldn't get her head round Richard's actions either - he had never come across as one to cheat. He and Carrie had always seemed utterly in love, there was no reason for either one of them to stray.

Juliet made up her mind. She needed to find Richard and talk to him about it herself.

"I'm gonna go out for a bit, Carrie, okay?" Juliet waited, but there was no reply. "I'll see you later."

Juliet left the house, putting a jacket on in the process. She bit her lip and sighed. Zipping up her jacket, Juliet made her way over to Richard's house. It was just Richard's house now - Carrie was staying with Juliet.

Half way towards his house, Juliet saw Richard storming out of Zoe's house. Juliet immediately knew what had happened - he'd confronted Zoe about telling Carrie. She caught up with him.

"Richard," she called him as she went up to him.

"What?" Richard looked over to Juliet.

"I think we need to talk about Carrie."

Richard was silent for a moment. "I think, Juliet, that I need to talk to Carrie. Where is she?"

"She's staying with me for now. Don't go to her," Juliet stopped Richard, as he went to go to her house. "She's still upset. She needs a few days to cool off."

Richard looked at Juliet. "Juliet, you've gotta try and get her to understand. I didn't want to have sex with Zoe, I really didn't, I just ..."

Juliet raised an eyebrow. "You what, Richard?"

"I don't know," Richard gave in trying to think of an excuse. "I know what I did was wrong. And I shouldn't have done it, if Carrie wants to leave me, then I completely understand. I don't want her to go. I love her. But I just want her to know how sorry I am."

"Okay, I'll tell her," Juliet replied. "But I'm not promising anything, she's been a bit up and down in moods recently. She might be indifferent, she might not."

"Thank you, Juliet."

"No problem," smiled Juliet. Richard returned to his house, and Juliet to hers.

Carrie looked up at herself in the mirror. She'd had a few days off work, and the mixture of depression and staying in for days on end had taken its toll on her. She hadn't washed her hair since ages ago, so it had turned from the blonde it had been before to brown. She hadn't brushed her hair much either, so it was sticking up everywhere. Carrie lifted up a hand and tried to pat it down, but with no luck. She still looked like Harry Potter, no matter how hard she tried to keep her hair flat.

Her eyes were red, both from random spurts of crying and from sheer tiredness - she had been finding it hard recently to get to sleep. Because of this, she also had dark circles under her eyes, and sleepy dust had formed in the corners of her eyes. Carrie rubbed it out, but she looked no better. She reached for the mouthwash and began rinsing out her mouth. At least she had been brushing her teeth regularly - she always got terribly bad breath if she didn't.

After spitting out the mouthwash, she heard a knock at the door. She picked up a flannel and began washing her face as she heard Juliet go to answer it. As she dried her face, Carrie heard voices at the door. She was too tired to try to recognise who it was Juliet was talking to.

Leaving the bathroom, Carrie made her way over to the kettle and began making a cup of tea. She looked up briefly, and her heart dropped to see Juliet was talking to Richard. She quickly looked down again, but was shocked to find her heart was winning the London marathon, butterflies were having a fiesta in her stomach, and her knees weren't quite as able to hold her weight as they had been ten seconds ago. How can he be having this effect on me, she thought. It was the feeling she used to get in the first few weeks on the Island, when their relationship had been nothing but gentle flirting.

Carrie was aching to look up again. All she wanted was to look into his beautiful dark eyes just once more, but she couldn't. She refused to. Not after everything he had done.

Lost in her attempts to prevent herself from looking up again, Carrie hadn't realised her hands were shaking violently. All of a sudden, her hand slipped and the tea mug she had been holding fell onto the floor and smashed. Carrie held herself against the edge of the kitchen surface for a second, collecting herself.

"What just happened?" Juliet had turned around at the noise of the smashing. Carrie looked up at her, trying her best not to look at Richard.

"Nothing," she replied. "I just dropped a mug. Where's the dustpan and brush?"

"I'm not sure. Hang on, let me find it," Juliet went into the utility room, and didn't seem to realise she had just left Carrie and Richard alone.

Carrie leant her back against the kitchen counter, facing away from Richard. She then remembered what a mess she was, and ducked under the counter, clearing up the smashed mug. She could sense Richard had taken a few steps into the house, and was aching to say something to her, but unsure what. Don't say anything, Carrie thought desperately, please don't say anything, Richard, I don't want to talk to you.

Juliet then emerged from the utility room, clutching a dustpan and brush. She glanced over at Richard, then at Carrie, and it dawned on her what she had just done. Silently, she handed the dustpan and brush to Carrie and went over to Richard, and began talking to him again, about something to do with pregnant plane crash survivors. As she cleaned up the mess, she could tell in the tones of Juliet and Richard's voices, that even though they were talking about pregnant women, they both wanted to mention Carrie. But they couldn't with her in the room.

Emptying the shreds of the broken mug into the bin, Carrie put the dustpan and brush back into the utility room and made her way into her bedroom. As she shut the door behind her, and leant her back against it, Carrie knew Juliet and Richard had already started talking about her.

Day 61

It had been a few days now since Zoe had arrived in the Other’s village. She had settled reluctantly, and the only good thing that had come out of it was being able to see Jo and have her freedom, in the comfortable knowledge that Charlie and the rest of her friends were safe - for now.

The night before her first day of working for the Others, Jo had popped over after she had dinner. Zoe smiled immediately when she opened the door to find Jo on her doorstep and invited her in eagerly. Jo looked slightly worried, and angry when she saw Zoe, not because she was here, but because of the bandage on her neck.

“What did they do?” Jo asked before saying anything else. Zoe bit her bottom lip nervously as she had temporarily forgotten about her chip since she had showered for the first time in a long time, had some good food and changed into some fresh clean clothes that hadn’t been washed in the ocean.

“They’ve planted a tracking chip in my neck. So if I escape, they’ll find me.” Zoe told her. The anger in Jo’s eyes flared.

“I could kill them. I could kill them all.” She shouted outraged.

“Yeah, well get in the queue. Are you alright though? I’m sorry I ran off. You wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t so stubborn. The I heard you fall, and the Others got to you before I could do anything to help.” Zoe apologised, getting a little worked up as she began to realise more and more how badly she had ill-treated her friends.

“Oh God I’m an awful person!” Zoe burst out into tears suddenly and sank back into her sofa. Jo hushed her and comforted her.

“Don’t be stupid, it isn’t entirely your fault. These people are the cause of it all, you wouldn’t have been so determined to seek answers as a result of something they had done, and I was in the same boat. We had all lost our memories, and we wanted to find out what happened. I remembered, and I needed more answers. You probably went about it the wrong way, yes, we should have come up with a better plan, and you should have allowed yourself to get back to better health before you went off through the jungle on your own in the dark, but there is no point on dwelling what you should have done, what’s done is done and now we will just have to think carefully about our next move.” Jo told her.

“What are they making you do, Jo?” Zoe asked. “Do you know anything about what they have planned? Why they’ve gone to such drastic measures to get us here?”

“They have me working in a medical lab. With Chase and Juliet. They haven’t told me much though, much like I expect that they haven’t told you much either.” Jo explained. “There appears to be some interesting issues with pregnant women on this island.”

“Oh?” Zoe asked, looking suddenly interested. “Is that why they took Claire before then?”

“I guess there would be some significant relation somehow.” Jo agreed, but Zoe was sure there was something else important Jo wasn’t telling her. “What are they making you do?”

“Well, it is kind of complicated, I’m not entirely sure, but, it is to do with animals. You see, I’ve never told anyone since the crash, that I have a special connection with animals. I can communicate with them, and obtain psychic connection with them. They are having me work in a lab, but I’m not sure what they want me to do yet. I start tomorrow.” Zoe explained, and something suddenly occurred to Jo.

“Hang on, you said they captured you not long after me. Why is it you’ve only just arrived here?” Jo asked.
“They locked me up in a cell on another smaller island, just off shore from this one.” Zoe explained. “It was horrible.”

The next morning, Tom and Danny knocked on Zoe’s door in the early morning. Zoe answered the door begrudgingly, and followed them, both armed with guns to the labs in which she was working, which she later found out were only next door to where Jo was working.

Zoe was giving one of the rabbits a check-up. It was white and had the number 8 painted on its back, and along with the health check, Zoe was asked to test seditives with it and responses to active behaviour with the animal once the seditivies had been given.

Zoe walked out the lab temporarily to the medical closet for a selection of seditives. She picked up various bottles and read the lables desprictions before either discarding them back on the shelf, or piling them in arm while looking for others.

As Zoe was sorting, Zoe heard a sudden click, the familiar sound of a gun being cocked, and as she realised this, she felt something hard and metal like being pressed against her back.

"Drop everything." Came a familiar cold voice. Zoe did as she was told, dropping all of the several bottles of seditivies on the floor, some of them in glass bottles smashing on the floor.

"Carrie, what-" Zoe began.

"Shut up." Carrie interrupted. She spoke seriously, but Zoe could see Carrie was shaking, with anger? Zoe didn't know. "Now turn around. Slowly." Zoe turned slowly, and Carrie moved the aim of her gun at Zoe's head with one hand, and with the other, she withdrew a set of handcuffs from her pocket and indicated to Zoe to take them. "Put these on."

"Why-" Zoe began again.

"Shut up." Carrie repeated and thrusted the handcuffs into Zoe's hands, and she put them on relucatantly.

"Tighter." Carrie emphasised through gritted teeth. Zoe tightened them without another word, glaring at Carrie. Carrie then proceeded to grab Zoe by her shoulder and shoved her out of the medical closet, and out the back door of the lab in which Zoe worked, which led to a small grassy area that seperated the lab between the outskirts of the jungle. Carrie continued to push Zoe towards the jungle.

"Where are we going?" Zoe demmanded.

"For a little stroll." Carrie replied sarcastically and the both of them continued through the jungle.

"So, does Ben know of this little adventure?" Zoe asked.

"Course not. Not if he knew what was happening at the end of the 'little adventure'."Carrie scoffed.

"And you don't think Ben is going to work out that I'm no longer in Othersville?" Zoe asked with a raised eyebrow as they continued walking through the jungle.

"The tracking chip is turned off. By the time Ben checks and works it out, then turns it back on, it will be too late." Carrie replied coldly, plus she knew Ben was currently somewhat disposed elsewhere at the moment, but she was sure Danny, Tom or Richard would soon find out that Zoe was missing, and wouldn't be long till they checked the computers to track her down.

"Too late for what?" Zoe asked curiously, managing just to hide the worried tone in her voice. Carrie didn't answer though, and they carried on through the jungle.

They had walked through the jungle for what felt like hours now, and they came into a clearing, where the sun shone brightly through the surrounding areas and into the clearing in which they stood, highlighting the entire area.

"Ok, so, if you are going to kill me, which I am now certain of your plans now, why did we have to walk all the way out here?" Zoe asked.

"Simple, I don't want anyone back at the village to know that I've killed 'one of our own'. It's a serious crime, in whic follows serious consequence." Carrie replied. "Now, get on your knees."

"Wait - Carrie - think about this..." Zoe pleaded.

"Shut up! You have wrecked everything!" Carrie shouted. "Richard and I had been together for five whole years, and you wrecked the whole thing! You've murdered our relationship. Richard is dead to me, and I feel like I'm dead, all because of you. Life isn't worth living, and certainly not yours. Now. Get on your knees!" Carrie hissed.

"Carrie...just listen..." Zoe continued, but she kneeled down anyway.

"SHUT UP!" Carrie shouted as she aimed to take fire. "I loved him. You have no idea. You aren't capable of the love that I felt for him, you could never understand the love I felt for him, even when you were with your precious Jake...or Charlie. You could never understand how much damage you have caused. You don't deserve to walk on this very earth. And for what you've done, you deserve to die."

"Carrie, don't do this. You're not a murderer." Zoe continued to plead, as she tried to think desperately for something to stop Carrie killing her.

"SHUT UP!" She shouted again, she was shaking more and more each time she spoke, full of anger, fury, upset. She was clearly very damaged, and although Zoe was pleased at how easily she managed to break one of them, she sure wasn't ready to die yet. Carrie continued to shout after a brief pause. "EYE FOR AN EYE!" She took aim to fire again.

"Carrie, I'm pregnant!" Zoe blurted out, but it was too late, as she shouted it, a gun fired, and Zoe's eyes closed tight as she heard the shot, but when nothing penetrated through her body, she opened one, and Carrie was lying on the floor, moaning in pain, clutching her shoulder, which was bleeding, and just to one side, standing eight feet away, was Charlie, arm out stretched from holding the gun out at Carrie. Zoe stared at Charlie is disblief, her heart skipping beats, and she stood up, her hands still cuffed, and her eyes welling and she ran at Charlie, flinging herself in his arms.

"Charlie! You have no idea how pleased I am to see you!" She spoke with relief in her voice. Charlie, still stunned again at what he had done, dropped the gun for a moment and embraced Zoe in a hug.

"Are you ok?" He just managed to whisper, and he felt Zoe's head nod against his shoulder. Zoe slipped down from his grasp.

"How did you know I was here?" She asked quietly.

"I was taking a break, from a trip looking for a balloon, and I heard voices - I heard your voice." Charlie explained. "Do you have the keys?" Keys? Zoe thought to herself, and then realised that Charlie was talking about the handcuffs. Zoe ran over to Carrie, who was still yelping in pain from her gunshot wound, she still managed to give Zoe furious glares though, as Zoe checked her pockets, and found the key, uncuffing herself, and grabbing Carrie's gun before Carrie found enough strength to get it herself. Zoe ran back to Charlie.

"The Others could be around, especially if they heard a gun shot. We better get out of here." Zoe looked at Carrie slightly guiltily, she didn't want to be responsible for her death, so she aimed Carrie's gun into the air and fired five clear shots, before Charlie grabbed her arm, and dragged her away through the jungle.

Day 61

"Charlie - wait. I have to make sure she gets help." Zoe stopped Charlie from dragging her any further.

"What? Are you serious? She was about to kill you Zoe!" Charlie protested.

"Maybe, but she had her reasons. Please, can we just stay hidden until we see she gets help?" Zoe pleaded, looking at Charlie with doeful eyes. Charlie looked in the direction in which Sayid, Ana Lucia and that were and then back towards the clearing in which he just shot Carrie.

"I don't want to be a killer." Zoe added.

"You're not. You didn't shoot her." Charlie reminded her.

"Leaving her there though, I might as well have done. Please Charlie." Zoe continued. Charlie then sighed.

"Alright. We'll hide, keep and eye out and wait. But I'm only giving her an hour, and then I'm going. Ok?"Charlie offered.

"Ok." Zoe agreed, and they silently made their way to the outskirts of the clearing and watched. Zoe was sure the gun shots would have attracted someone, but when they got to the clearing, Carrie was on the phone.

"Help me." She managed to gasp before she collapsed lifelessly, her phone remained open and still in-call.

"See - she called for help. We can go." Charlie told her fidgetly.

"No - she didn't say where she was." Zoe replied. So Charlie and Zoe sat together and waited, and as they did, Charlie started to whisper a converstation.

"So, is it true?" Charlie whsipered.

"Is what true?" Zoe asked.

"Are you pregnant?" Charlie whispered back. Zoe didn't answer. She stared out at the clearing, watching Carrie.

"When did it happen?" Charlie asked. "Sorry, I'm prying, aren't I?"

"It's ok." Zoe whispered. "A week before my flight home. Not that it matters. Jake, the father. He's dead now."

"I'm sorry." Charlie whispered sympathetically.

"Don't be. Not your fault." Zoe replied. "Besides, it doesn't matter anymore."

"Why not?" Charlie asked, watching Zoe closely.

"I'd rather not talk about it now, if that's ok." Zoe asked.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Charlie replied softly. There was a pause.

"So what happened? I didn't realise you were missing. You were so wrapped up in your own little world, then Kate came back to the beach, claimed you hit her over the head, and ran off with our prisoner." Charlie asked.

"I got captured - again. I wanted answers, to find out what happened the first time I was captured. They locked me up for a while-" Zoe started to explain, but they were disturbed by someone coming through the jungle from the direction Zoe and Carrie had treckked through. It was definately an Other then.

Then, from the shadows on the opposite side of the jungle, a figure appeared, and he looked frantic and sick with worry as his attention strictly snapped to Carrie and her well-being.

"Richard." Zoe whispered more to herself, but at least she managed it as a whisper rather then blurting it out loud.

"Richard?" Charlie whispered back as a query.

"He's one of them. The two of them. They are meant to be together." Zoe explained in hush tones.

"Meant to be?" Charlie asked.

"I kinda caused a break-up type argument." Zoe replied meekly. "They had it coming."

"What did you do?" Charlie asked.

"I told her that we had an affair a years months ago. Four years ago." Zoe replied, looking Charlie in the eye. Richard scooped Carrie in his arms and dissappeared back towards Othersville. Charlie and Zoe both stood up.

"So, what now?" Charlie asked. Zoe looked deeply into his eyes. She knew she couldn't stay. It wouldn't be long until she was tracked down and captured again with the GPS chip in her neck. This could be her last chance to see Charlie again. So, without hesitation, she placed her hands on Charlie's shoulders and lifted herself to the same height as Charlie and kissed him, deeply, and to her great suprise, he kissed her back, his hands slided up over her cheeks, and he kissed back passionately. They fell back onto the jungle floor, rolling on top of each other, still kissing, their hand wrapping around each other's back.

Zoe tore Charlie's t-shirt up over his head and discarded it on the jungle floor, and they rolled over again, Charlie unbuttoned Zoe's t-shirt, and they continued kissing each other wildely, Zoe's heart raced, and she was still in disbelief that this was actually happening. She was wrapped up in her own utopia, and nothing could make this moment more perfect...

Day 61

Zoe woke up, embraced in Charlie's arm. They were in the middle of the jungle, naked under their clothes they had used as blankets. Zoe sat up and quickly shoved her clothes back on. This distrubed Charlie from his sleep too, so he awoke and did the same.

"We better get back to Sayid and Ana Lucia." Charlie said to her as he zipped up his pants. Zoe did not turn to look at him as she finished buttoning her shirt.

"I can't." She said eventually. "I have to go back."

"What?" Charlie asked, not understanding.

"I have to go back to their village. Back to the Others." Zoe sighed reluctantly.

"What? Why? You can't!" Charlie protested. Tears were already starting to well in Zoe's eyes as she turned to look at the man she loved, for probably the last time.

"Charlie, I have too. I haven't got a choice." She insisted, and bent her head to show Charlie her neck, and pointed at the small scar from where the incision was made to implant the GPS chip. "They are probably tracking me right now. I have to go. If I don't leave you now, they will find you too, and hurt you. I'm sorry Charlie." Charlie hugged her and kissed her forehead.

"Sayid is good with technology - and I bet Jack knows something about implants like these. Maybe they can help, you know, destroy it or something." Charlie suggested.

"I can't risk the Others finding everyone in the meantime of them trying to fix me." Zoe shook her head. "I won't allow it. Besides, I can't leave Jo. She needs my help too." Charlie recognised the determination in her face, and he knew he was defeated.

"I don't wan't you to go." Charlie whispered in Zoe's ear, and kissed her neck.

"I don't want to go either. But I have no choice." Zoe replied, and she moved away from Charlie's hug. "I'm sorry. I have to go now, before they find me and you. This is hard enough as it is, the longer I stay, the more impossible I'll find it to leave. Goodbye, Charlie Pace." Zoe started to walk away through the jungle in the direction of the village, she turned to Charlie for one last time.

"Just in case I never see you again Charlie, I love you, and from the moment I met you, I have always felt something there." Zoe poured out her heart to him, then before Charlie could reply, she was gone.

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Zoe knew she wasn't too far from the village now, but before she could get any close, two men emerged from her surroundings. It was Tom and Danny, they had their guns aimed at her steadily. Zoe put her hands up instinctively.

"It's alright. I wasn't trying to run away. I'm coming back." Zoe spoke cautiously as she started to explain. "This wasn't my fault. Carrie-"

"We know what happened." Tom spoke flatly. "We've not come to 'fetch' you. We come to ask you to go back to your camp, and when Michael rejoins you, you will help him get Ben set free."

"What?" Zoe asked. Ben set free? Why was he at their camp, Zoe didn't even know he wasn't in the village anymore.

"Ben went to get himself captured on purpose, to spy on your camp and gather information, however, we believe your Doc is gunna try and use him to trade for Walt. We can't allow that. We have Michael, and we are going to get him to help us get Ben back. You must do the same. When you get Ben free, you must come back with him, make sure he gets back here safely, then you will continue your duties. Understand?" Tom spoke calmly. Zoe nodded, and knew she wasn't going to get out of this one. She couldn't believe what she was being asked to do. To infiltrate her own camp, lie to them all, and help their enemy escape? She didn't know how she would live this one down. Zoe turned around, fury surging through her body, and she made her way back towards where she had found Charlie, and started to think of adequte story to tell Charlie and the rest of the oceanic survivors to why she was let go.

News of Ben's intentional capture trickled back to Jo via Chase. She shook her head in frustration; she was always the last to know anything in this village.

"He intentionally got caught? What is he up to?"

Chase shrugged. "He always has a plan. Only a few of us are privy to it - and I'm not one of them."

"I hope Sayid knocks him around a bit, after everything he's done to us," Jo responded vehemently.

"There's just one other thing," Chase mentioned, trying very hard to act casually. "They've also sent Zoe after him to get him out."

Jo slammed her fist down on her desk and rattled the delicate equipment surrounding her. Her eyes flashed angrily. "Goddammit!" she exclaimed. "Do you realize Ben implanted a GPS chip in Zoe? They're using her! Why do you people do these things? Why?"

"Hey, hey, take it easy!" Chase grabbed Jo and held her arms to keep her from lashing out. "I'm not like the others! I helped you escape from the Staff, remember? I'm on your side, Jo!"

Jo shook her head and fought to free herself from Chase's grasp. "No, you're not," she growled. "You're one of them. If you were on my side, you would have let me go by now."

Now Chase was getting angry. "I'm keeping you here because you're safer here. Do you have any idea what's out there? You wouldn't survive! This is where you belong, Jo, and the longer you fight it the longer you'll suffer. Just as Juliet - she's resigned herself to her destiny. You would be wise to do the same."

Jo scoffed at his choice of words. "Right, destiny. Locke told me it was Boone's destiny to die. So is it Zoe's destiny to be a slave to Ben's whims? I'm leaving, Chase. I'll find a way around the goddamned sonar fence."

Chase's expression darkened as he blocked the door. "If you leave, we can make things very nasty for Jack and his friends," he snarled.

Jo's face paled. She had never seen this side of Chase before, and was pretty sure it was the result of his time spent with the others.

Chase relaxed his combative stance when he saw that his words had the intended effect on Jo. "It's much better to cooperate, Jo. Trust me." Suddenly, he was smiling at her again. "It's not so hard now, is it?"

oooooooooo, plot thickens