"Come on Dru, live a little!" Mason called out from the top of the rock, his arms out stretched to me. We were all stood around a small lake and despite me refusal everyone had taken turns jumping into it from a large rock in the corner. It was a easy climb up to the top of it, a climb I had told Vincent not to do with his shoulder- and a climb he had done anyways.

"I'd prefer to keep going, you know- look for something that might be able to help us?" I fired back, my tone teasing and light although my words couldn't ne any more true.

"Well you can't go any where without us and I don't think that any of us plan to leave anytime soon." Caila called out just as she reached the top of the rock herself. I watch as Vincent grabbed onto her hand, his effect on her evident as she took a sharp inhale.

"You're missing out, Doc. It's the first bit of fun we've had since we crashed." Vincent yelled out before he pulled Caila to jump off with him. I watch the two of them go threw the air with screams of joy. Each time they did this my breath held until I saw them rise back out of the water. I knew they could all swim, what Australian couldn't? But I didn't know what was down there. It was pretty deep, the bottom not clear behind the weeds and dark water.

"Fun isn't in her vocabulary." Jesse added, it was now his turn at the top of the rock. His eyes were on me, challenging me to come up and join him. He held out a hand, "Come on, princess, one jump and we can move on- the longer you drag it out the less time we'll have to find anything."

I rolled my eyes at him, crossing my arms over my chest in annoyance. Not only didn't I have time for this but my stitches should not be any where near water- something that Vincent refused to listen to. Lifting up my shirts I pointed to the large bandage that covered my hip.

"Sorry guys." I wasn't sorry at all, I was annoyed that no one else wanted to keep going. I understand they wanted fun, I did, but I also needed them to see that Cara was out there unprotected. I knew I'd was fighting a losing battle so with a huff I turned and began to set up the fire for the night.

The sky was beginning to darken and I knew there was no dragging them away so I just gave in. I would set up the fire and then go out and search for myself until it got dark.

"Why haven't they come to find us yet?" Caila broke the silence with her question. Caila, Vincent, Mason, Jesse and myself all were on our backs staring up at the night sky. It was beautiful- a sea of stars with the faint outline of the Milky Way in the distance. I'd always found stars beautiful, there was something magical out how small they look even though there were stars out there bigger than earth. Growing up I'd always found that I was most at peace when I was just watching the stars, the wide open sky making all my problems disappear.

When Darcy and I used to go camping every school holiday we'd go to Moreton island, a place where the sky was uninterrupted. It was so clear, so beautiful and so untouched that we'd both fallen in love. We hated it when we'd come home to out backyards and we could only see a small part of the sky.

Out here you could see it all, the trees only obstructing the sky that was on the outskirts of out vision. I could have laid like that forever, watching the sky besides the people I'd grown to trust.

"I've never heard of a search taking this long, except for the ones that never get found." Caila spoke again, this time dragging my full attention away from the stars.

"Maybe they think we crashed into the ocean and that's where they are searching." Vincent suggested, running his fingers threw his hair then placing his hand behind his head.

"But don't they have a black box or something? Shouldn't they be able to find us?"

"Maybe someone hacked into the black box before they bombed us- so that no one could find where we were?" Mason said it like it was no big deal, shrugging as he spoke the boy didn't seem to care. But his words caught my attention and Jesse's too- I could feel his eyes on me but I didn't have the cuts to met them.

"But that's pretty unlikely, terrorists would only do that if they were going to steal the plane or something." Mason continued like it was no big deal, the rest completely oblivious to how my mind was running one million miles and hour with all the possibilities now.

Pushing myself up from the ground I moved away from them all, perching myself on the far edge of the clearing with my back up against a tree. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to gather my thoughts. Is it possible someone had hacked out plane so that they would have no idea where to find us? That means that they were going to be here longer than they thought, longer than they already had been. Mason hadn't realised how right he might have been and neither did the others.

"Are you still in danger?" The voice came from right next to me, his shoulder brushing mine as he sat down. My eyes opened but I didn't turn my head.

"I don't know." I responded honestly, a deep sigh releasing itself. "But I wont stop until I get everyone else off this island alive."

"The note you found, it meant something to you didn't it?" He pushed further and if it had been anyone else I wouldn't have responded but I couldn't help myself.

"It had out flight number along with a lot of others. This guy could be out there still targeting our people all because I stole a stupid book." I was beyond frustrated at myself, how could I let it come to this? "Not only did I get everyone into this mess, I'm going to be the reason we can't get out of this mess either!" I exclaimed in a hushed yell. My breaths were speeding up and I could feel the tears swelling.

"Stop this." Jesse grabbed onto my lower arm, turning his body to face mine. "If you need forgiveness for all of this- it's yours. I forgive you, okay?" His words didn't just stop my meltdown- they stopped me completely. I was frozen in his presence again unable to respond as I felt his hand go from my arm to my hand. I could feel his trust, feel his forgiveness oozing out from his eyes he meant every word he said. I've never felt so understood and at ease like I did in this moment with his hand yanking mine- he pulled me closer and repeated himself. "I forgive you."

He was so firm with his words, so sure of what he was saying that I was too. This time when his thumb ran over the back of my hand I melted completely, allowing myself to believe in his words.

Silence grew as I placed my hand over his, we had this unspoken connection that we could both feel in the air. There was no need to romanticise it, there was just a pure and simple need for each other- a need to have the others strength pull us through. I needed him and from the look in his eyes he needed me too and that was something I wasn't going to let go of.

"Thank you." I whispered as my back further down the tree in exhaustion.

"You're beginning to make a habit of thanking me, Dru, I think I could get used to it."

~~~~~~~~~