Alice couldn't comprehend how things had changed so quickly. Just a few hours before she and Jack left the hatch to get some fresh air and visit the people on the beach and now that they were back, there was an injured man in the kitchen. On seeing him and the blood around… the arrow sticking out of his shoulder, Alice just came to a sudden stop and sucked in a breath. She could've almost sworn that Jack had a similar reaction minus the nausea from seeing the man's wound and smelling the blood in the air. After all, in line of his occupation, he must've seen worse.

"Who is this?" Jack asked when walking over to both Sayid and Locke who looked like they were keeping the man prisoner.

"Rousseau caught him in the jungle," the Iraqi explained. "She believes he's an other."

"And you shot him with an arrow?" Jack elevated his eyebrows when squatting by the man's side and checking his injuries.

"Do I have a bow?" Sayid retorted.

"What if he's telling the truth?" Alice asked when she heard the rest of the story. "What if we're hurting an innocent guy who's just lost his wife?" She couldn't help but being compassionate. The man looked miserable and he claimed to have lost the love of his life after crashing on this island in a balloon. It didn't take much for Alice to start feel sorry for him. Besides, would someone really lie so smoothly while being in so much pain?

Then she quickly covered her mouth with her hand and stepped into another room. She didn't like to watch any medical procedures and Jack was just now pulling the arrow from the man's – Henry Gale's, apparently – shoulder. She felt as though it was Boone all over again and it didn't take much for her to remember his sister and feel even worse.

While Jack was working, the man passed out which gave the rest enough time to transport him to the armory where they were planning to keep him locked up until they were sure he wasn't one of the others. Only while doing so, Sayid and Locke crossed Jack and the Iraqi found himself inside with the injured man, the combination to the lock changed and the door closed.

Alice came back to witness Jack and Locke arguing. She was really tired of all those quarrels going around. They should stick together if they wanted to survive on the island for longer, but then again, they were all very different and had their own issues. Conflicts were bound to happen at some point and maybe they would never really end. In the outside world, some of the survivors wouldn't even speak to one another and if they didn't like each other, they would simply avoid meetings. It was impossible on the island. Yet, on the other hand, the crash brought them all together and Alice knew that Shannon wouldn't have even looked at Sayid if she'd met him in different circumstances.

"What if he's telling the truth, John?" Jack just asked, tired of screaming.

"And what if he's not?" he only got in answer and eventually just started cleaning the kitchen from the blood that was there. Alice got down to helping him and then she froze, hearing Gale scream inside the armory. Jack looked like he couldn't take it anymore either and after glancing at the counter on the wall, he charged Locke and held him against the armory door. The alarm sounded and Alice wasn't exactly sure what to do.

"Don't you push that button!" Jack called out to her just like she thought he would. "You said you're always with me, so don't push it!"

"I won't," she promised, folding her arms over her chest and just watching Locke desperately trying to set himself free. Yet, Jack's hold on him was unyielding. "John, just do it," she then advised the older man.

"Open the door or see what happens once you don't enter the code," Jack added.

Eventually, it was clear that Jack won. Locke was afraid of what could happen if the button wasn't pushed, so he quickly did what he was being asked to and Jack pulled Sayid out of the room while John ran to the computer to enter the code in the very last second.

In the end, Jack agreed to keep Gale locked up and not to tell anyone about him, but he wouldn't stand by and watch the man suffer if there was even the slightest possibility that he really was who he said he was. Just to be on the safe side, he also refused to leave the hatch until they were sure and Alice stayed with him. She didn't want to be away and couldn't even explained why. She didn't have to be by Jack's side all the time and she hadn't in the past. They had a very healthy relationship when being together and having their own personal life outside of that, too, but right now she just couldn't shake off this terrible feeling that something bad was about to happen.

Yet, when Claire called for Jack in the middle of the night because Aaron got sick, Alice didn't follow. There was really no point in going to the beach at such a late hour and staying under an actual roof had its benefits. Still, the alarm sounding every 108 minutes wasn't one of them.

Jack came back about an hour later, just when it sounded again, so he entered the code, assured Alice that Aaron would be fine and they both went back to sleep.

During the next few days, the three of them were staying in the hatch, pushing the button and watching Henry Gale who was still locked up. Alice felt like she was a part of some bizarre sitcom that wasn't even funny. She was actually playing house with both Jack and Locke. One day she actually walked into the bathroom to see Locke shaving and Jack just getting out of the shower; the latter equally surprised as herself.

"Am I interrupting something?" she just asked, her eyes going to Jack's exposed chest.

"Am I?" John asked when looking from Alice to Jack.

"Please, tell me that I'm going to wake up soon," Alice wished out loud.

"I'm afraid this isn't a dream."

"Couldn't you just wait until I'm done?" Jack asked Locke in exasperation.

"The steam opens up my pores. What? We need to improvise."

After that, Alice left the bathroom, not sure if she wanted to laugh or scream.

The situation changed when Eko found out about Gale and wanted to talk to him, but still… she was surrounded by men and felt tired of it for the first time in her life.

The next day Alice brought Henry food. They still didn't know whether he was an other or not, but she figured he didn't have to starve in addition to other inconveniences. Once she opened the door and gave him the plate, she let her guards down a little. He didn't look good. Far from it. He was bruised all over and she could easily guess that he was in pain even though he did his best not to show any weakness anymore. Before she knew it, she was talking to him, wanting to decide for herself whether he was being honest.

"I just want to mourn my wife in peace," he said, "and you can understand that, can't you? I've heard you and the doctor."

In that moment Alice realized with horrification that maybe she'd said too much, spent too much time in the armory already and maybe she shouldn't let her guards down. Somehow she understood now why everyone was so hesitant to trust Gale. It wasn't anything he gave away, it was kind of a feeling, a sense one got coming from him that something might actually be wrong, but one also couldn't tell what it was.

"I wasn't trying to eavesdrop," the man explained, "it's just that the walls are thin."

"What are you doing?!" Alice heard Jack's angry voice. He must've come back from the beach already. "What are you doing talking to him?!" He came over to her and grabbed her arm, nearly dragging her out of the armory and shutting the door behind them. The man inside was watching them with interest in his eyes and that was just another thing that gave Alice the creeps.

"Alice, you can't let this man get to you like that," Jack was telling her, his voice coming back to normal. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rough, I just…"

"It's fine."

"Are we interrupting something?" they heard Locke and they saw that Ana Lucia was with him.

"No." Alice shook her head, remembering that John was to ask Ana to talk to Henry herself.

"Alice, I really am…" Jack tried to apologize again, but she stopped him right then and there.

"It's ok, really. I understand. I understand your concern."

After coming back from the beach the next time, Jack had his head full of thoughts. He'd just confirmed Sun's pregnancy and it got him thinking. Now that he was back at the hatch and Alice was there, he just couldn't stop. What if…? What if she, too…?

"Jack?" Alice turned to him.

"Yeah?" he answered her, clearly being distracted.

"Is everything all right?" she asked. "You seem… off somehow."

"I just want it to be over. The Locke thing, the guy we have locked up… It's wearing me out," he came up with a plausible enough explanation.

Alice believed him. She walked over to him and joined him on the couch, then she placed her head on his shoulder and he automatically pulled her in. Still, he couldn't help but wonder if she was pregnant, too. He really wouldn't know how to handle such a situation.

Jack was just checking up on Aaron, making sure the fever broke and the little guy was healthy. Then it hit him. He could soon hold his own baby like this - a little defenseless creature that would depend entirely on him and his mother. What if Alice was pregnant? God knew they weren't careful. What if he would become a father before he was really ready? And would he ever be ready? Aaron just felt so small, so light and so fragile in his arms.

"Jack, are you all right?" Claire asked, seeing the change in the man. "Jack?" she then repeated when he didn't answer her.

He almost jumped and then he finally looked up from the baby at his mother. He didn't say anything, he just gave her Aaron back. While he was doing that, he caught Alice's eyes from across the beach.

Alice hadn't had the chance to speak to Jack ever since she'd seen him with Claire's baby, but there was really nothing to talk about. She didn't feel nauseated or dizzy or weak – she'd made sure to ask Sun all about her symptoms the day before – so she probably wasn't pregnant. Not that she would mind, but she didn't want to trap Jack. To be honest, she actually didn't think she could have a baby anyway. Living in constant stress and difficult conditions didn't make it easy for women and in many cases conceiving a baby just wasn't possible or was extremely hard to achieve. And she could most definitely live with that.

Now she was watching Jack and Sawyer playing cards from afar. She didn't want to come over as she still hadn't – and probably never would – forgotten what the latter had done. She was simply done trying to get to him. The game itself was interesting only because Jack was actually the only person on the island who could outplay Sawyer in almost anything and now she needed to add poker to that list. Her doctor just won back all the medicine and Sawyer wasn't the champion anymore. No one hid it – they all enjoyed the man's defeat.

"My hero!" Alice called out to Jack and when he walked over to her, she put her arms around his neck and kissed him. "It was so great to see the look on Sawyer's face when you won every single time! No one has beaten him until you came along!"

Jack reciprocated her smile and after making sure that there was nothing to do on the beach for him anymore – meaning taking care of sick people, not playing cards – they slowly made their way into the jungle, directing themselves back to the hatch.

Just then, Alice saw strange light in the darkness and she tightened her hold on Jack's hand, pulling him in that direction.

"What do you think it is?" she asked, fear evident in her voice. They hadn't seen something like this yet, after all.

"Let's find out."

"Jack, what if it's dangerous…?" she started, but he was already going in that direction, so she followed just to see… a whole new load of Dharma food. Before they managed to get over their surprise, suddenly a group of people came out of the jungle. At the front was Ana Lucia and then they noticed Charlie and Sayid.

"We found the balloon," Ana informed.

Alice could sense it just like everyone else. There was something seriously wrong with Henry Gale. They hadn't had any proof before, but they did now. He wasn't who he claimed to be. The most terrifying was actually the fact that they were close to not finding out the truth at all. There was a balloon and there was a fresh grave out in the jungle, but Sayid still wasn't convinced by that and decided to dig up the grave. And good thing he did since there was a man buried there and not a woman. The man had an ID with a picture – it was the real Henry Gale.

It was too scary and devious, Alice thought. The others were so patient, so comfortable on their own territory, thinking over their strategy, working on it slowly and even now when the survivors knew about the danger coming from them, they still didn't know the others' reason for their infiltration.

Jack was tired of waiting and quite frankly, the atmosphere in the hatch was too strained as not to do something about it. The fact that Locke was practically immobilized because of the trap door falling on him during the time the Dharma food had been delivered, didn't help at all. Eventually, Jack decided to trade the man they'd captured for Walt.

"All right," Alice just nodded, knowing better by now than to argue with him. Jack was stubborn, so if he wanted to do it, he would. She could either stay or go and somehow she still didn't want to leave his side, led by one of those strange feelings she'd been having recently. "But I'm going, too," she decided.

"Alice…" Jack nearly sighed, bracing himself for another fight. Only this time she was having none of it.

"Oh, no!" She pointed her finger at him. "You are not going there alone!"

"But…" he started.

Yet, she was faster this time, already having an answer ready for him, "I'll go get Kate."

"Alice…"

"Jack, you're not the boss of me. I make decisions for myself and only I."

To her astonishment, he actually smiled on hearing that.

"What?!" she bridled, not understanding his reaction.

"You're getting feisty."

"Shut up! Let's just go!" Now that she was mad at him, she looked even cuter, so Jack's smile only widened.

"Wait… do we really have to get Kate, too?" He asked Alice when she turned to the door.

"You really don't like her, do you?" she rolled her eyes. "I just thought you wanted someone else who can shoot a gun and we are so not taking Sawyer."

"I can teach you how to shoot," Jack just said and it surprised Alice so much that she looked at him incredulously.

"Really?"

"Yeah." He shrugged. "All you needed to do was just ask."

"That's actually great." To be honest, she'd never even thought of that possibility, but once it was said, once the idea was planted in her head, she marveled at how obvious and useful that would be for her. There were other people on the island, dangerous people whom they couldn't trust. People who had the ability to fit into any crowd. She had to be able to defend herself.

Once Alice and Jack were already out in the jungle, marching towards the border the others had established the last time Jack had tried to find them, Alice felt the need to say something. "Jack, we need to talk."

"You're not going to break up with me now, are you?" he asked as though she really could.

"God, no," she put his mind at rest quickly.

"Good, because it's how these words usually go, you know. We need to talk. It's not you, it's me…"

"Oh, come on! Like I could leave you!" she scolded him and bumped into his side playfully. "I just wanted to say that you can't keep leaving me behind because you love me," her voice grew serious. "You can't keep me locked out of things. You can't keep protecting me anymore, Jack. I'm fine now, I promise."

"I wasn't trying to tell you what to do or to impose on your independence," he said apologetically. "I was just…"

"I know," she interrupted when placing her hand on his arm. "I know, but I need you to trust me that I can take care of myself, that I can fight for life this time. Don't you think that it's easy for me when you go somewhere and I know you may not get back."

"I'm sorry. I think get it now."

"Good." She smiled.

Alice couldn't comprehend how they just gave them Michael back with no reason. Even though the man was alone and claimed to have escaped, she could feel like someone was watching her. She was really surprised by all those strange feelings she'd been having recently and wondered what they meant. According to Michael, the others were savages living in shacks. They apparently had no civilization and there were only few of them, which would explain why they hadn't attacked yet, but still, something seemed off. Michael claimed those people weren't really dangerous and they didn't even have guns besides those they'd taken from Jack when they'd captured Kate. Then the man started planning how they would all get Walt back when using his newly acquired knowledge to their advantage, but there was still this nagging pricking in Alice's bones, the sense that Michael wasn't completely honest with them. It was just like the feeling she'd had when talking to Henry Gale.

When Michael finally looked at her and asked, "What is it?" she realized that she'd been staring as though she could somehow get into his head and see what was there, what he wasn't telling them.

"Nothing," she dismissed with a shake of her head, choosing some point on the horizon to look at for a change.

"There's something wrong, Jack," she finally said when they reached the camp and Michael was far enough from them as not to overhear. "I can almost feel it."

"If there is, we'll find out eventually," Jack assured her.

"Damn it!" Alice cursed and actually stomped her leg, which caused Jack to laugh. "Don't you laugh at me!" she yelled at him angrily.

"I'm sorry, but you're just so cute when you're angry," he said and dodged when she actually took a swing to swat him over the head.

"You couldn't say a bigger cliché! Just get back here and teach me!"

"Can you promise not to injure me in the process?" he asked when raising his hands up into the air in a gesture of surrender.

"Very funny. Although…" she pretended to think about it, "if you turn out to be an extremely bad teacher, I make no promises. I may actually shoot your foot instead of the target."

"You're hilarious," Jack said when shaking his head and finally getting closer to her again. "Ok, you know how to take the safety off by now, don't you?"

"Jack, I'm not a child, I knew that one even before you offered to teach me."

"All right, I was just making sure… Here, place your finger on the trigger," he instructed when putting his arms around her and covering her hands on the gun with his own. "Don't close your eye, it won't make your aim better. Just keep both of your eyes open and don't pull the trigger, just squeeze it gently." Now his whole front was plastered to her back and she actually found herself forgetting all about the target practice. Especially with the heat coming from his body and his breath that she could feel on the side of her face and his fingers gently covering her own and… making her squeeze the trigger and hit the target in perfect aim.

"Hey, I did it!" Alice called out enthusiastically, turning around and nearly hitting her forehead against Jack chin.

"Easy there! Don't swing the gun around or else you really will shoot me in the foot," he reprimanded her and then called, "Hey!" when she actually dropped the gun. He shut up after that because she caught his face into her hands and kissed him hard on the lips. They couldn't really seem to stop and Alice discovered that Jack was just as much affected by her closeness as she was by his. They didn't bother getting rid of their clothes in fear someone might actually walk in on them. They needed to settle for a quickie, but that didn't mean they didn't enjoy it. There was something exciting about the rush of it all, about being out in the open and so close to the hatch. Jack raised Alice up until she wound her leg around his hips and then he pressed her against a tree to gain purchase as he undid his own pants and while getting enough access, plunged deeply inside of her with a groan. Alice reciprocated, tightening her arms around his neck and clinging to him while he was pushing inside of her, bringing them both to completion.

"What do you think about Michael's story?" Alice asked a while later when they were just sitting together on the shore. "Could he really watch the others for so long without them noticing? Something about this just seems fishy to me."

Jack only sighed. "I don't know, but why would he lie?"

"To get us to get Walt?"

"But if his story doesn't check out, doesn't that mean that we're not going to get Walt back because we'll outnumbered? I don't think Michael is that stupid."

"Well, you make a lot of sense, but… I just don't know, Jack. All I can tell you is that I can feel that something's wrong."

And something was, indeed, horribly wrong.

Alice and Jack came back to the hatch, holding hands and being happy. They were so relaxed that for a moment they forgot about their problems and were just enjoying their time together when talking and laughing. Well, that stopped once they walked inside the bunker and saw what happened.

There were dead bodies. Dead bodies seemed to be everywhere. At least that was Alice's initial reaction when she spotted Ana Lucia dead on the couch and Sawyer just getting to her, checking her pulse and then when she noticed Michael holding his arm awkwardly as though he was shot and finally, Libby just lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

Alice could barely hear all the voices around her. She only managed to catch something about the prisoner escaping while shooting his way through the people that had been down there. Next, she found herself thanking God that she and Jack chose that time to go and shoot something in the jungle. And then she felt sick when Libby actually came alive.

"Alice?" she heard Jack voice like through a fog. "Alice…"

There was only darkness when she hit the ground. The voices stopped. The nausea stopped as well. All that remained was the precious nothingness.

When she came to, she discovered that she was lying down. It wasn't the bunker bed, but it also wasn't the couch that was placed left to the armory door. They must've put her on the couch in the music room which they called like that because of all the records there, taking up most of the space on the shelves. Finally, Alice actually noticed that the man sitting right by her side wasn't Jack. It was Sawyer.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" she asked him in a sharp voice as she slowly sat up.

"Well, it's nice to see you, too," he said. "Jack's taking care of Libby, so I thought I'd sit by your side and wait till you wake up."

"No need." Alice was too tired and still too woozy to argue with him or to ignore him completely. "Is Libby…?" she started to ask, but then Jack appeared in the door.

"Are you ok?" he made sure when looking at Alice's face like he was trying to diagnose her. He then made his way to her and Sawyer was smart enough to get out of the room. Jack did seem drained and angry and exhausted all at once. The fact that Alice had fainted didn't help much and it laid hard on him that he couldn't be there for her since being shot kind of trumped being unconscious. He sat right by her side and cupped her face, looking her deeply in the eye, but still, she could tell he was looking at her as a doctor would, not a lover. "I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up," he apologized when letting go of her face, clearly not finding anything wrong with her pupils. "Libby…" his voice broke a little, "I did everything I could, but…" He shook his head and swallowed tears.

"It's ok, Jack," Alice assured him, forgetting about her own discomfort and grief for a moment in order to tend to his. She took his hand and then looked up at him. "It's ok. I understand." Then she couldn't hold it in her anymore and she burst out crying. "I'm really sick of all those bad things happening to us. The plane already fell! We shouldn't keep on dying!"

Jack pulled her into his chest and hugged, then he said while stroking her hair, "That's why we need to go after them and put an end to it once and for all." Yes, he was finally ready to act, finally determined to just finish it all, to fight.

They stayed like that for quite some time, Jack trying to soothe Alice's pain when they heard Hugo apologizing Libby for not remembering about the blankets for which she'd apparently gone to the hatch for and gotten shot, being simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Alice only started to sob again on hearing that story. She felt so sorry for Hurley and her hold on Jack's arms tightened as she cried some more. She could also hear Kate sobbing quietly in the kitchen and some soothing words Sawyer was just saying to her.

They were really doing this. It seemed like the deaths of Libby and Ana Lucia were the straws that broke the camel's back and they were going for the others, they were going to fight them. Michael and Jack mostly disagreed when talking strategy. Jack wanted as many people as possible whereas Michael just wanted to keep it all simple and discreet. He initially suggested Jack, Alice and Sawyer, but Jack told him it wasn't a smart choice and they should at least add Kate and Sayid to the mix. The Iraqi was very suspicious of Michael and Alice was glad that someone shared her opinion. In the end, Jack and Michael compromised and Sayid stayed, but Michael didn't know that the Iraqi borrowed a boat from Desmond – who strangely crashed on the island when trying to get away from it – and offered to meet Jack and the group on the other side of the island.

All this time something seemed off to Alice, something kept nudging at her as though it was her sixth sense, but still, she couldn't pinpoint exactly was that was all about and quite frankly, she had some other suspicions to why she felt weird. Only there was really no way for her to make sure. Still, soon enough it all became terribly clear when Kate realized they were being followed and opened fire.

Alice found herself panicking and then felt a pair of hands on her, dragging her into the trees to take cover there. Jack shielded her with his body, protecting her when shooting at the others. She kind of wanted to remind him that she could more of less handle a gun by now, but she turned out to be so shaken up that she just stood there, waiting for the whole thing to be over.

And once it finally was over, Jack turned to Michael angrily, demanding explanations. It soon became clear that he, not Henry Gale, was responsible for killing the two innocent women in the hatch.

Alice felt sick again.

"You killed two people! And now you're selling us to them?!" Jack kept on screaming at the Afro-American. "You're putting in danger the people you're supposed to care about, Michael! We were going to help you get Walt!"

"And what if you can't?!" Michael screamed right back. "I'm sorry! I am really sorry for all of this, but it's about my son! I have to do everything I can to protect him! To get him back!"

"So you just decided to trust those people?" Jack asked. "Do you really think they'll give you Walt back? You think that killing someone justifies saving someone else's life?"

"They let me see him. They gave me a list of your names and I was to bring you to them," Michael finally explained and Alice felt cold dread in her stomach. If it was a trap, if they were really to be handed over, what would happen to them? "Besides, I didn't lie to you! They really live in shacks! They're hillbillies!"

"Did it ever occur to you that they might've been pretending? Just putting on a great show for you to see?" Kate suddenly asked. "I took Claire to a Dharma bunker. The one she remembered she was kept in after they took her. I found theatrical make-up and fake beard there."

"Well, it's too late now, is it?" Jack just said with a sigh. Alice could tell he was angry and felt helpless. In fact, it'd been a while since she'd seen him like this or maybe she'd never had. Because this wasn't on him. This was on Michael and he'd believed Michael like they all had because they'd felt sorry for him and for Walt. Apparently, that was a mistake.

In that moment, Sawyer pointed something in the distance and they saw the black smoke Sayid had promised to lit up once he'd find himself on the other beach.

"It's miles away!" Jack got back to screaming at Michael. "You said you'd take us to the beach on the other side of the island!"

"I was! I really was!" Michael was trying to explain himself, but that didn't help him much.

Suddenly, something shot through the air and soon Kate was lying on the ground. The strange thing was that she wasn't really shot and there was no blood. Finally, they noticed a small dart sticking out of her neck. Right after that, she started convulsing.

Jack was already getting to her, trying to help her, but then another dart got stuck in Sawyer's neck, so the doctor just took Alice's hands and screamed at her to run, choosing to save her and himself since it was obvious that he couldn't do anything for the others while being out in the open and shooting range.

They were running until Alice felt a sting on her neck.

"Jack…" she barely managed to call his name before she seemed to lose the ability to speak and her whole body started getting out of control as well.

Jack, in his last desperate effort, lifted her body from the ground and tried to carry her before he himself was shot. Then everything went black.

Once Alice came to, waking up from a strange stupor, she realized that a sack was put over her head and she started panicking. She then felt a pair of hands on her arms, lifting her up and leading her somewhere. She had no choice but to walk along, too scared to even say anything, much to call for Jack or someone else to make sure they were all right.

She was pushed downwards until her knees painfully hit the ground and the sack was suddenly taken off, the light of the day blinding her. Once she could see, she quickly looked for Jack and spotted him in the same position right next to her. On her other side was Sawyer, but she couldn't spot Kate anywhere and she hoped the girl was all right. What was more, they seemed to be on small dock and soon enough a boat came over and Henry Gale got out of it, walking straight towards them. Now Alice was really speechless since he seemed to actually be the leader of the others. She frowned, trying to see the logic behind him getting captured. Was it an accident? Why would a leader just be walking around the jungle and falling into a trap?

When she finally felt like she could say something, there was this sudden blinding light and with that even worse came, it was a sound so unbearable that Alice could not focus on anything but wish the pain and the vibrations in her head just stopped. For a moment there, she thought she was dying, but she was still breathing, she could still feel the tightness of the ropes her hands were bound with. If they weren't, she would surely put them to her ears, trying to muffle the sound. Still, it seemed to be coming out of everything. It wasn't just something she could tune down by shutting her ears. It seemed to exist in her body as though it was coming right from the inside of the earth, vibrating through her bones and affecting every organ…

Then, just as suddenly as it started, it stopped, causing them all to feel a strangely precious relief, although their ears were still ringing.

The boat was soon given to Michael and Walt turned out to be waiting inside. At least the boy was safe, Alice thought, but for what cost? Michael had done some pretty terrible things and they would not only affect him; they would also affect his son since Walt was so dependent on his father. Alice couldn't help but wonder that one day Walt would find out the truth. How would the boy feel then? Would she do something so terrible to get her child back? Speaking of children…

"What do you want from us?!" Sawyer just asked Gale. "You wanna kill us?!"

"I just promised Michael I wouldn't, would I?" Henry answered.

"Yeah and so what? I don't trust you, people!"

A woman came over to Sawyer and cut the ties binding his hands.

"What the…?"

"You're free to go, James," Henry informed him.

"Say that again?" Sawyer seemed shocked when he raised to his feet, rubbing his sore wrists. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"No, I am not," Gale assured him. "Your task is to come back to your people and tell them never to come back here."

"I ain't going anywhere without them!" Sawyer pointed Alice and Jack, but then he was struck with the woman's weapon.

"Go or we will kill them," she threatened him.

"It's all right. Just go," Alice spoke to Sawyer. She thought she'd never do it again, but the circumstances were extenuating enough and she knew he still cared about her.

He didn't say anything in return, but he did meet her eyes and they were just looking at each other for a moment. He knew he was outnumbered and that she was right. He could get back or probably die. At least this way he would be safe.

Eventually, he listened and turned around, leaving.

The others waited until he disappeared and then they turned back to the couple still kneeling on the hard deck. In that moment Alice thought they would truly kill them and that there was nothing she, Jack or even Sawyer could do about in the end. She only wished she could touch Jack somehow, be in contact with his body in those last moments. Next thing she knew, they were gagged and they couldn't even say anything. All they could do before the sacks were placed back on their heads was to look at each other, saying a silent I love you.

Then the darkness came.