"We're going to have to lie," Jack said. The rescue raft bobbed up and down in the oncoming wake of the rescue boat. Dare looked around and saw she wasn't the only one staring at him like he was crazy.

"Lie about what?" Kate asked.

"Everything, all of it. Everything since we crashed on the island."

"Jack, now I know I'm new to the group and everything, but isn't this the part where everyone starts jumping up and down and hugging each other?" Frank interjected.

"Your freighter, those men came to the island to kill us, all of us. You said that our plane was found on the bottom of the ocean. Well someone put it there. Someone who wants everyone to think that we're dead. So what do you think is going to happen to us when we tell them that that wasn't our plane. What do you think is going to happen to the people that we left behind?"

"Jack, we can't. We can't pull it off," Kate said, holding Aaron close to her.

"Just let me do the talking," he replied.

As the boat got closer, they heard people talking in a foreign language. Then, they heard one of them say, "Mrs. Widmore," and they saw her. It was Penny.

Dare found herself holding her breath, waiting for them to kiss, but they didn't. Desmond had told the truth, then. They were only friends. She wanted to find it hard to believe that Desmond was so happy about seeing Penny, yet they were only friends, but then she looked at Adonia. Dare knew she would react the same way after seeing her best friend for the first time in three years. It would be like coming home, after all. She was instantly grateful for having someone with her for the past hundred days that she cared so much about.

Adonia, Frank, Sayid, Sun, Kate, Aaron, Hurley and Dare all scrambled out of the raft and onto the rescue boat. Desmond and Dare hugged, knowing that now everything would change for the better. But what should have been a reception filled with laughter and excited chatter seemed drenched in tension and bitterness.

They gathered on the upper deck and continued to discuss Jack's ludicrous plan.

"Dude, they'll find out," Hurley said.

"Not if we stick to the story," Jack replied, determined.

"I don't know, Jack," Sayid said. "It could be a risk."

Jack shook his head. "It's the only way. We have to do this."

"You're still at it, huh?" Frank asked as he returned from the lower deck. He passed out drinks.

"Look, we're running out of time," Jack said. "We've got to make a decision now. So are we all okay with this?"

Sayid looked at him seriously. "This is a decision that will affect the rest of our lives. I'm not taking it lightly."

Jack looked at Adonia. "Adonia?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"Kate?" he inquired.

"Yeah," she said.

He turned to Sun. "Sun?" and she reluctantly nodded.

"Frank," Jack said, "sorry you got dragged into this, but we need to know that you're with us."

He grinned. "Whatever you guys decide, I'll just roll with."

"And Dare? Are you okay with this?"

Dare nodded, seriously concerned.

"Hurley, what about you?" Jack asked.

"I don't think we should lie, dude."

"We need to protect the people that we left behind, Hurley," Jack replied.

"How does lying protect them?"

"It protects them from Charles Widmore. The guy hired a boatload of people to kill all of us! He fakes a plane crash! Do you think that telling him the truth, he's going to leave all of them alone?"

Hurley looked at Penny. "Look, he's your dad, right? Can't you just, like, call him off?"

"There's no calling my father off," Penny replied, shaking her head.

"But he'll never find them. I mean the island disappeared. We all saw it. It's gone. Bloop."

"You think anyone's going to believe that?" Jack asked. "Believe any of it? They're going to think you're crazy."

"Not if someone backs me up." He looked at Sayid. Sayid looked over at him and Hurley said, "Sayid, come on. They'll think I'm nuts if I tell the truth, but what if we all do? If we can stick together, we can make them believe us. I don't want to spend the rest of my life lying. Do you?"

"No," Sayid agreed. "But, I don't believe we have a choice. I'm sorry, Hurley, but we have to lie."

"You know what, dude? I'm going to remember this. And someday you're going to need my help and I'm telling you right now, you're not getting it."

Dare tapped her leg against Adonia's, breaking her friend's rapt attention on the conversation at hand. "I need to talk to you after this," Dare said softly. Adonia nodded. They waited out the rest of Jack's speech in tense silence. After he finished, Dare could feel the heat between everyone; it was obvious they didn't want to lie – Hurley, especially.

Dare stood and Adonia quickly followed behind. Dare exchanged looks with Desmond as they rounded the corner. Dare leaned over the balcony on the second deck and looked at the waves below, white with froth from the speeding boat. Adonia joined her. Dare could still see the scar on Adonia's wrist from where the ropes had cut into her when she was taken by the Others. She felt instantly guilty. The girls were silent for a moment before Dare finally spoke: "I'm not going with you to Mambata."

Adonia looked at her in shock. "What? What are you talking about?"

"I'm going to stay here with Desmond."

Adonia looked back out at the ocean and sighed, her breath carried away with the wind. "You have to come with us," Adonia said sternly, "or else Jack's story won't check out."

"I know," Dare replied. "That's why you're going to say I'm one of the people who died when the plane first crashed."

"What?" Adonia stared at her and Dare turned to face her.

"You're going to have to lie," Dare said. "You're going to have to say I'm dead."

"But, you're not! You're right here! I can't lie about something like that, Dare!"

"You're doing it for Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Daniel – all the people on that damned island, anyway!"

"That's not fair!"

"This isn't about what's fair!" Dare snapped. She took a deep breath and said,

"Even if I asked you to stay with me, Addie, you wouldn't. You and I both know you'd go with Jack."

Adonia closed her eyes and rubbed her fingers across her forehead. "Will I ever get to see you again?" she asked in a choked voice.

Dare's frustration melted instantly and she hugged her friend. "Of course, Addie. Of course we will! As soon as you get home and you're safe, I will call you. But first, I have to make sure I'm hidden. I'll get a new name, a new place – I love you, Addie. I'd never leave you."

The girls released each other, both crying silent tears. Adonia nodded in understanding. "What if you get caught?" Adonia asked. "A new identity? That's too difficult to pull off."

"It's my job to be secretive – I know how to tell a lie, Addie. Besides, Michael did it and never got caught. I'm just going to have to lay low for a while is all. I'm not going to be a PI anymore."

Adonia nodded again.

"You'd better get back to Jack," Dare said with a small smile. "I'm sure he needs as much moral support as he can get. You guys are about to pull off a major heist."

Adonia left. Dare stayed by the balcony, watching the first cracks of dawn begin to break through the low clouds on the horizon. After being on an island for months and months, she still wasn't sick of the water or the way it caught the light from an early sunrise.

Desmond walked up and took Adonia's place beside her. "Hello," he said. He leaned his elbows on the railing, clasping his hands in front of him.

Dare simply smiled in reply, too lost in thought to really answer.

"What did you tell Adonia?" he asked.

"The truth."

"Which is?"

"That I'm going to stay with you." She looked at him from the corner of her eye and saw him grinning. "Des, I told her she had to lie. They're going to have to say that I'm dead."

He stood up straight in shock. "Why would you say that?" he asked.

"If I go with them – If I go back, I am in serious danger," she replied. "And anyone I love would also be unsafe."

"Danger? What are you talking about?"

Dare sighed and said, "I've been working for Charles Widmore for the past three years."

This piece of news was more than Desmond bargained for. He gripped the railing hard, making his knuckles turn white. "What?" he asked desperately.

"He hired me as his PI. It wasn't just one case, though. It was little cases here and there – look up a file here, follow this person there. None of it made sense until I got to that island. Suddenly, those people that I researched showed up! Benjamin Linus, Juliet Burke, Richard Alpert – it was insane."

"You told me it was you and your late husband's honeymoon," Desmond pointed out.

Dare nodded. "I told that to a lot of people. Brendon and I hadn't set out a honeymoon yet." She smiled sadly and turned so that her back was on the railing. She folded her arms across her chest. "After working for Mr. Widmore for so long, you learn to not ask questions. So, when he told me to go to Sydney, I didn't hesitate. He even told me to bring a friend. Goddamn, he must have known it would be Adonia. Either way, he got us there.

"I told Adonia we'd be there for a month – I told her that was what Brendon and I had planned. Then, I got a call from Mr. Widmore telling me I had to be on flight 815 in a week. He told he he'd take care of everything.

"Lo and behold, a week later, our passports were revoked and we were being deported to LA on flight 815. But there was something else. When he told me I would be getting on flight 815, I asked him what was in LA. He told me I wasn't going to LA – that I wouldn't quite make it that far. He told me that wherever I landed, I was to collect information on the people around me. He knew we were going to crash on the island."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Desmond asked.

Dare shook her head. "Legally, I'm not ever allowed to tell you what I just did. But, I'm no longer a PI. And I'm telling you this because I need to ask you if you're okay with hiding. I know everything Charles Widmore needs to know to get back to the island. If he found me, everyone on that island would be in danger. I know that whatever Mr. Widmore is planning for those people, it isn't pleasant. And you should know that anyone near me is in danger."

"Oh, a normal life isn't for me, anyway. Who needs that when you could be hiding from your best friend's father?"

Dare hugged him. "Thank you, Des. I love you."

"I love you, too."