_borntorun's Journal

Kate Austen
She grew up in Iowa, the daughter of a soldier and a diner waitress. Her parents divorced and Kate's mother married a man named Wayne, an alcoholic who physically abused Kate's mother (Diane) and may or may not have abused Kate. When Kate was making a scrapbook as a present for her father, she discovered that the man she thought was her real father was still in Korea when she was conceived, and realized that Wayne was her biological father. Kate took out an insurance policy and blew up the house with Wayne in it, meaning to benefit her mother. She explained all this to her mother and then fled, but was captured at a bus station by US Marshal Edward Mars, who claimed that Kate's mother had gone to the authorities with what Kate had told her. She later escaped from him, while being driven to the indictment hearing for Wayne's murder, after a large black horse appeared in front of the Marshal's car, causing him to swerve off of the road. While the Marshal was still stunned from the deployment of the air bag, Kate was able to take his keys. After a brief tussle in the car, Kate knocked him out of the car and drove off.

Kate travelled around the country with a car trunk full of license plates from various states, and she used hair dye to disguise her appearance.

When she received a letter that her mother was dying from cancer, Kate took a chance and went home. There she met and reignited the romance with her childhood boyfriend Tom Brennan, now married and a doctor at the hospital. The two dug up a time capsule they had buried 15 years earlier, which contained a tape recording and a selection of Tom's toys, including a little toy airplane. Kate convinced Tom to arrange a visit with her mother, who was being guarded, apparently in case of her daughter's appearance. However, once Kate revealed herself to her mother, Diane began screaming for help, and Kate was forced to flee. She asked Tom for his car keys, but he demanded to go with her, saying that the police would be easy on her if she co-operated. Kate sped through the parking garage, directly at a police car blockading the entrance, but an officer fired off a few shots as she passed, and then crashed into another car. Kate turned to Tom and saw that he was dead. Kate fled the scene, leaving behind the toy airplane.

Subsequently, Kate was involved in an elaborate bank robbery in New Mexico, in which she presented herself to the bank manager as an innocent bystander, while she was actually romantically linked with the bank robbers' supposed leader. Posing as a "Maggie Ryan" applying for a loan, Kate was rounded up by the robbers as one of the hostages.

When another hostage overpowered a robber, Kate grabbed one of their guns, but she immediately claimed not to be able to use it. The lead robber then took Kate into a back room, and after a quick kiss, hit her to continue the ruse. The robber brought in the bank manager and claimed he would kill the seemingly innocent Kate, unless the vault were opened. Thinking he was saving her life, the bank manager complied. In the vault, the robber revealed that Kate had actually planned and organized the whole operation. Appearing intent on shooting the manager, the robber was stopped by Kate, who instead shot the leader in the leg, then forced the manager to open a safety-deposit box. Inside was a single item: Tom's small toy airplane.

Sometime later, Kate turned up in Australia as a fugitive. Using the name Annie and claiming to be Canadian, she arrived at the house of an Outback farmer, who, in exchange for help around his farm, offered her a wage and a home. Months later, in the middle of the night Kate attempted to sneak out of the house. The farmer caught her and insisted he drive her to the train station the next morning.

On the road, their truck was followed by Marshal Mars. The farmer had seen Kate's picture on a wanted poster at the post office and turned her in for the cash reward. Kate grabbed the wheel and drove off the road, rolling the truck. Despite being free to escape, Kate pulled the injured farmer away from the wreck, giving the Marshal time to capture her.

Immediately prior to the flight, the Marshal revealed to an Australian law enforcement officer that he had been chasing Kate for three years, and that he had put the toy airplane in the safe deposit box as bait. He had the toy airplane in his possession, presumably having recovered it from Kate's possessions after capturing her.

On board Flight 815, she was in handcuffs, sitting next to the Marshal. Just prior to the crash, she asked the Marshal a favor, which she later claimed was to make sure the farmer received the reward for turning her in. As the plane began to break apart, the Marshal was injured. Kate stole the keys to her handcuffs, but made sure to apply the marshal's oxygen mask before putting on her own.