Author's Notes/ Disclaimer: #Disclaimer# I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Lost". They were created by JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof and they belong to them, Touchstone, and ABC.
Reporters gathered around the airport terminal that the plane would be arriving into in just a few minutes. Anxious family members of the survivors of the flight 815 crash stood in front of the yellow caution tape, praying that their loved ones had made it. Ever since a small personal airplane pilot had spotted the wreckage of the Oceanic Airline Jet after four years of searching for it, every minute of their time had been spent fretting about the fate of their relatives. Silence fell over the room as the plane arrived at the runway in Sydney. People held their breath as it slowly taxied into the gate.
Meanwhile, on the plane, the forty-eight survivors of the crash sat in their seats, many of them looking relieved that the flight was over. Sitting in the first row was Hugo Reyes. Pulling his headphones off of his ears, he unbuckled the seatbelt that held in his girth. He sighed, knowing what was ahead of him. Reporters, stock brokers, his money. He had made the decision a long time ago on the island that he couldn't keep it any more. It was a part of his past.
Sitting next to him was Charlie Pace. He was smiling from ear to ear and holding onto his guitar possessively. It was all going to be okay. He was off the bloody island, he wasn't addicted to heroin anymore, and he had written over twenty new songs. He turned to look at Claire Littleton, who was sitting next to him, and whose hand was in his.
Claire looked back at him, and then turned to look at her now four year old son Aaron who was in the seat beside her. Unbuckling his seatbelt, she bit her lip; worried about how he would adjust to the world he had never known. She remembered how he had reacted to rescue helicopters and people from civilization; she herself had cried. Now, she was worried about how he would feel around cars and buses and all of the cameras that she knew would be around. Then, she realized that she might not know what to do in face of missing out on four years of life in the world.
A bit further back in the plane, Kate sat, idly holding her small coveted airplane. Even after all this time, she couldn't let go. He had meant so much to her, he had been the only man that she had ever loved. But the experience on the island had changed her; she knew that she couldn't hold on for much longer. Looking around at everyone's excited face, she sighed. She knew that all that lay ahead of her was prison.
She and Sawyer had been seated in the same row, a police officer in between them. Sawyer tilted his head to the police officer, "This really isn't necessary." The cop just laughed. Sawyer grimaced and leaned back, talking to Kate he said, "Guess we're in the same situation freckles."
Kate frowned, "Another 16 hour flight back to L. A. with you…Why'd you have to get deported anyway?"
"It's not like I wanted to sweetheart." Kate fell into silence and Sawyer shook his head. Sitting behind them and listening to their exchange was Jack, he sat in stony silence. He had never thought that they would get off the island. The past week of being airlifted off of it, taken in secret to a small airstrip on an island near there, and then finally being boarded onto this plane had been surreal. He couldn't believe that he was going back to his life; it still all seemed so unreal, so different. Somehow, he felt an odd sense of closure as he pulled his bag out of the overhead compartment.
Farther behind him were Michael and Walt. Michael leaned his head back on his seat, glad that the flight was over. He turned to Walt, who was staring straight ahead at the seatback in front of him, "Hey little buddy, you okay? Do you want your Game Boy?"
"I'm fine Dad." The fourteen year old boy answered vaguely. He was going back. Walt couldn't connect with who he had been before the flight had crashed. It was just so long ago. He had been a different person then. Memories of the island flooded through his mind. Playing backgammon, hunting with Locke, when he was kidnapped. He still hadn't talked to anyone about what had happened when he was taken. Walt knew that his father resented that, but the time wasn't right.
Next to Walt was John Locke. As the plane stopped, he pushed himself up nervously. As he did, he thanked God that he could still stand. His legs had been holding up surprisingly well since they had been rescued off of the island, but every day since then, he had been worrying whether things would go back to how they had been before the island. He couldn't go back to being in a wheelchair. Not after four years.
Sitting in the row behind Locke was Shannon Rutherford. She brushed her hair out of her eyes as she stood up, ready to get off of the plane. Though she knew she would have to, Shannon never wanted to see a plane again. The task that faced her when she got off of the plane daunted her. She had to tell her step-mom that her only son had survived the plane crash, but had died just a few weeks later on the island. She moved to take her and Boone's bags from the overhead compartment and found that Sayid had already taken them out.
Sayid accepted her thankful look and stood in the isle. He couldn't believe that they had made it off. In the end it didn't really matter what he had done with technology to try to help, but he was just glad that they were off. The only thing that he would miss was his alone time with Shannon. He felt sad that they would just go their separate ways, but he still knew that he needed closure with Nadia and he would go to the ends of the world to get it. It was just something he needed to do.
In the third to last row of the plane sat the Korean couple Jin and Sun. Sun began pulling her bag out from under the seat and Jin asked in perfect English, "Do you need some help?"
Sun nodded and he helped her pull it out. In the four years that they were on the island, Sun had taught Jin English and they had worked out most of their relationship problems. But Jin knew now that it wouldn't be that simple. They were going back to the real world. Back to the world where she was going to leave him, where he had almost killed a man, and a world where Sun's father ruled over every move that he made.
So, each stuck in there own minds, they stepped out gate into the bright lights of the airport and the new chapters in each of their lives.