A/N Had the idea for this while sitting in my last class. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Lost

Lost After:

"Is the table set Bernard?"

"I'm still working on lashing that last stool together, Rose," Bernard complained back. "Can't you do it?" He asked while twisting the stick he was using to tighten the ropes.

"We agreed that you would set the table while I cooked," Rose said without looking away from the pot over the fire pit. She put the wooden spoon she carved herself down into the Dharma Initiative pot and stirred it around. The broth had some rabbit in it that they caught in their snares out in the forest around their hut. The elderly African American women sipped her stew and hummed to herself with a smile not matching her caucasian husband's annoyed face. "Mmm, Bernard come try this."

"Once I'm finished making this chair," Bernard grumbled, "and setting the table…" Rose rolled her eyes at him as he went on about it, but they both stopped what they were doing when they heard something closer to the forest behind them. They were in a sparse area of trees where the ground was split between dirt and sand as on the other side of the dense forest there was a wide ocean.

Waves crashed behind them but they definitely heard the sound of rustling leaves coming from the trees. Bernard stood up and Rose stepped away from the fire pit to look around their quaint hut. The two of them watched as the leaves on a bush right next to their clearing shook, and then a big arm pushed through and moved the bush to the side. "Aha!" The four hundred pound man who stepped out of the trees wore similar raggy clothing to the couple in front of him. "I knew it was right around here."

"Hurley," Rose greeted, a bright smile coming to her face. "What are you doing here? Would you like to stay for dinner?"

Hurley licked his lips and Bernard's eyes went wide. He looked at the huge man in front of him and then glanced back at the chair he just about completed. He wanted to test it out, but… "Bernard, set up that chair for our guest," Rose said, right as Bernard was about to come up with an excuse for why he could not. Rose looked at him and smiled knowingly, "You said it was the strongest one you've made, right?"

Bernard moaned but he flashed Hugo a smile and then turned around. "I'll get to setting the table. Good thing we have enough Dharma supplies for three place settings."

Hurley chuckled and he scratched the back of his head where his long curly hair fell. "Mind making that four?"

"Four?" Rose questioned. She narrowed one eye and lifted her other eyebrow at the man in front of her. "Who'd you bring with you?" There were not many people on the island anymore, and she did not know how she felt about most of them.

"See for yourself," Hurley said. He finally moved out of the way from in front of the brush he was blocking, and he pulled the branches with him to keep the path open.

A figure stepped forward who had Rose lifting up a hand to cover her mouth. Bernard was rummaging around in the hut for silverware when he heard Rose gasp outside. "What is it?" He asked hurriedly, rushing out the door of the hut. His eyes popped open wide at the sight of the teenager in front of him. He walked forward in a state of disbelief, before whispering out loud, "Walt?"

The teen standing there looked back and forth between the elderly couple in front of him. "Hey Rose, Bernard, long time no see."

Hurley laughed for a second, before yelping, "Ouch!" He turned and Rose hit him again on the arm for good measure. "Hey, what are you-"

"Why did you bring him back here?" Rose snapped. She looked very upset and she shook her head at the man in front of her. "I'm ashamed in you Hugo. You-"

"Rose," Walt interrupted the woman speaking on his behalf. "It's alright. I said it was okay."

"But, why?" Bernard asked the boy.

Walt shrugged his shoulders, but he was still smiling. He nodded at the larger man with him and said, "Hurley said he wanted my help, but it was okay if I didn't want to come. I did though," he said, looking a little more serious now. He shook his head and smiled after a second, "When he told me you were still here though, I wanted to come see you."

Rose frowned at Hugo for a few seconds longer before sighing and giving up. "Bernard, set up a fourth-"

"I know I know," Bernard waved her off and headed back into the hut.

Hurley smiled wide and patted his stomach in anticipation as he could smell the stew from there. He and Walt headed to the table with Rose and Bernard watched carefully as Hugo sat down. The old man sighed in relief as Hurley sat and despite a small creak, his chair held firm. The former dentist got all the silverware out to the table and then pulled up another chair for himself considering the three at the table were taken. He grabbed more of a log that they used for sitting on at the fire pit, but he did not complain about it as it was not often they got visitors.

The group ate dinner and caught up, but it was not long before Rose brought up the question her and her husband were both stuck on. "Hurley," she began, and from the tone of her voice they could tell it was going to be serious. Hurley did not put down his spoon though and just kept chowing down. Rose frowned and asked, "Why did you bring Walt back to the island? It's dangerous here."

"I'm not a kid anymore Rose," Walt argued.

"Really?" Bernard asked the boy who frowned back only for Bernard to start laughing. "You could have fooled me," he joked.

"If you want to know-" Walt started, but Hurley held up a hand and he quieted down.

Rose and Bernard looked at Hurley strangely, Bernard even a little nervously. "It's not that dangerous here really," Hurley said, his voice calm and his face the same as it usually looked, but a strange aura around him at the moment that kept the others quiet. "We're pretty sure the polar bears have all died, and the smoke monster's dead," Hurley took another sip of his stew. "Not to mention I'm in charge of the Others now," he said and laughed.

"You're in charge of the Others?" Bernard questioned, wide-eyed. "But, when? How?"

Hurley scratched his chin, realizing that he never really did tell these two about anything. He only visited them once after the plane left the island with most of his surviving friends when they returned to the outside world. They lived alone, but they were happy and he did not want to drag them in to the business of the island. "It's not important," Hurley finally decided. He looked into Bernard's eyes and continued, "Cindy is safe though. Emma and Zach too."

"Wh-What?" Bernard asked, almost falling off of his log.

"Cindy?" Rose mumbled. Her eyes lit up and she spun to her husband, "Wasn't she the flight attendant who-"

"Got kidnapped by the Others," Bernard finished for her, sounding a little mad about it.

"She's one of us now," Hurley said, before quickly realizing that he said 'us' which made Bernard and Rose look extremely uncomfortable. He tried to skim right over it but Rose realized something and snapped at him first.

"And hold on, are Zach and Emma those children?" She looked at her husband who nodded while still frowning at Hugo, and when she looked back at Hurley he did look somewhat nervous. Rose stood up and she looked down at the heavyset man, "You bring those kids back to their mother-"

"No," Hurley said. He looked apologetically up at Rose who seemed shocked at what he just said to her so callously in her eyes. Hurley looked at Walt for help but the boy shrugged as he had not idea what to say. Hurley looked back at Rose and he said, "They stopped asking about their mother long ago. Cindy acts as their caretaker now."

Rose shook her head at the younger man who she did not feel like being very friendly with anymore. She realized that she had forgotten her original question and she gazed at Walt who had not said a word as she interjected about what Hurley was doing. "And what do you want from Walt? Are you ever going to let him go home?"

"This is his home now," Hurley said, making Rose's eyes turn huge. He shook his head at the woman and smiled softly, "Once you come to the island, you aren't supposed to leave. I've made exceptions, but, the Others, they were more than just kidnappers hiding in the jungle. I know that now."

"Then what were they?" Bernard asked.

Hurley smiled but he shook his head. He still did not want to involve the two, but he also could not leave them here thinking he was doing something weird with Walt. "Walt is going to help me send the trapped souls on the island to the other side." Both Bernard and Rose stared at Hurley like he was crazy, but Hurley was very much used to that and it did not bother him anymore. "The whispers," Hurley explained, and Bernard's eyes opened wide as he remembered them very vividly. He always thought they were the Others though, and Hurley could see the confusion in his eyes. "They never were the Others," Hurley explained. "They were the people stuck here, on the island, warning us that the Others were near."

Bernard shook his head at first, but slowly he stopped and his eyes opened huge. The Others don't even make tracks in the woods. They were always so stealthy when they came and took us, but those times we heard whispers, they let us know the Others were closeby! Then… Bernard started nodding at Hurley, but Rose still shook her head like it was silly.

"My dad's trapped here," Walt suddenly said, making Rose and Bernard turn to him in surprise. Hurley's smile lowered as he thought about the hard conversation he had to have with Walt on their way back to the island about his father's death. Hugo had seen Michael on the island, stuck there among others who could not leave yet. "I'm going to help him move on," Walt stated confidently.

Bernard slowly nodded and he leaned back on his log thoughtfully. Rose sat back down but she looked at Walt to Hurley looking troubled. "What can Walt do to help ghosts? You better have a good reason for me Hugo," Rose said, saying Hurley's real name to show she was serious.

Hurley smiled again and he leaned forward on the table. "Do you ever wonder why they took Walt?" Rose and Bernard did not know what to say, so Hurley continued, "Well I did. It was one of my first questions after becoming leader. I learned that Walt really was special, like, really really special."

Walt nodded his head while the older people just stared at the two of them confusedly. Hurley motioned around himself and he said, "Sawyer, Kate, Miles, Claire, Frank, and Richard all left the island. When I went to get Walt, we found out that they told the truth this time about what happened to them on the island, and not just the second time they came, but after Oceanic 815 too." The other two were surprised and Hurley nodded and kept going, "Most people were shocked, and although many called them liars, it was pretty hard not to figure out that there was some truth to it considering Sawyer and Claire were on the first flight."

Rose shook her head and started, "What does this have to do with-"

"When this island was a secret, people were still able to find it. Barely anyone off the island knew about it, but people could still track it down if they wanted. Imagine everyone in the world searching for this place now," he said. He waited for that to sink in for a second and then continued, "Walt is going to hide the island."

"Hide the island?" Bernard repeated, as if that was the craziest thing he had heard today. "How is he going to do that?"

Walt scratched the side of his head and admitted, "I don't, really know. But Ben says I can do it, and he's trying to show me-"

"Ben?!" Rose exclaimed. "Uh uh," she said and spun to Hurley. "You keep that man away from him."

"Rose, it's okay," Walt started. "Ben's changed-"

"I don't like it either," Bernard agreed. "You're sure they aren't forcing you to do any of this?"

"I asked him to help me," Walt snapped.

Hurley could see tension rising and he held up his hands again. Again, there was silence around the table, an odd, unsettling silence. "Ben just wants to help. After he gets back from bringing Desmond home to Penny and their son, that is." Hurley watched as the other two gained shocked expressions as they had been wondering what happened to Desmond.

"Ben's bringing him back?" Bernard asked. He shook his head, "And I thought this day couldn't get any weirder. Are you sure you're safe with him around?"

"Ben almost died saving me when the island was falling apart," Hurley said to erase all doubt in the elderly couple's minds. "I trust him."

"Hmm, if you say so Hurley," Bernard relented.

There was an odd silence that followed as Rose wondered what she wanted to say. Hurley took another sip of his stew and he turned to the older woman, "I actually came here, because I wanted to thank you Rose." Her eyes widened and Walt looked at Hurley confusedly as he thought they came because he asked Hurley to bring him. Hurley smiled softly at Rose and said, "When we got into the hatch, and I almost blew myself up trying to get rid of all that food, you talked me down. I wanted you to know I was grateful for that, in case we don't see each other for a while."

Rose's anger at Hurley from before subsided and she could not even remember why she was mad at him. "Oh honey, you don't need to worry about that. It's a big island, but I'm sure we'll bump into each other again."

The larger man smiled back at her but the look in his eyes saddened Rose. "Yeah," Hurley said knowingly, and he got up from his seat. Rose got up too and she stepped to the side where Hugo met her halfway. He put his arms around Rose and gave her a tight hug. "Thank you," he said.

Rose didn't know why, but she started to tear up. The hug lasted almost ten seconds before Hurley pulled away. He looked down at Walt and nodded back at the woods behind him. Walt groaned but got up, then started creeping towards the parting in the thicket they came from. The way he was walking looked funny and Hurley turned back to the old couple to explain, "The Others can all move through the jungle without leaving any tracks, so he has to practice."

Bernard thought it was silly but after a few seconds, Rose started laughing and she wiped her wet eyes. "Oh Hurley, I don't know what I was worried about. You're going to be looking out for him after all," she said, and Hurley nodded his head in agreement. He smiled at her even more softly as he stopped nodding his head and Rose had a strange feeling in her gut.

Rose turned back to her husband, "Bernard, do we have any of that Dharma cake from the 70s still…" She saw her husband's jaw lower and his eyes dart from her to her back. Rose spun around and her jaw dropped as well, because there was no one in the clearing with them anymore. "Hurley?" She questioned. She looked all around and then back to her husband who was just shaking his head, as lost as she was.

Rose looked towards the densest part of the jungle that she could see from their little clearing. She shook her head one last time and let out a deep sigh. When she lifted her head she had a drop of water coming down the left side of her face, "Goodbye Hugo."