When James woke up the next morning, he was still holding Alice and it took everything from him to gently release her from his arms. Then he moved away and sat up, hiding his face in his hands. He was so afraid. He was afraid that he lost everything, including her just because of what he'd revealed to her the night before.

He got up with a sigh and reached for his pants, putting them on and grabbing his shirt on his way out of the bedroom. Maybe he was a coward, but he didn't want her to wake up when he was still there. He was simply afraid of what he could see reflected on her face then. He was afraid that she would regret everything and hate him forever. For now he chose to stay in the bubble, just reliving what happened between them and avoiding the proverbial morning after when everything might go to hell. And it probably would soon.

He was just putting his shirt back on when he pushed the front door open and he stilled, one of his arms still not in the sleeve as he saw Jack standing there on the porch with his hand raised, clearly about to knock.

"Shit," James cursed under his breath, not sure what to do or say. Him sneaking out of Alice's house in the morning while putting his clothes back on pretty much gave everything away. He was bracing himself for the blow, for anything Jack might say or do to him, but then the doctor just turned around and walked away.

James stood there in shock, not understanding the man's behavior at. Still, Jack finding out was the least of his problems. No matter what he did, he couldn't stop thinking that maybe Alice had slept with him because she wanted to punish the doc. That would be the worst thing ever to hear and to experience – the woman he loved more than life itself actually being with him just because she wanted someone else to hurt. It didn't really suit Alice, though, James thought, but it didn't mean that she wasn't confused about what happened either. Maybe he'd taken advantage of her in her vulnerable state, but then again, she should know that their friendship was too precious to him and that whatever happened, happened because he couldn't possibly stop himself any longer. It was just too bad he chose the worst timing possible to act on his feelings.

The day passed by so fast that Alice's head was spinning. She didn't even have to time to think about what had happened the night before and why Sawyer left before she woke up as she was already late for work. She knew that didn't bode well for her and it didn't matter how much she just wanted some peace and quiet to herself to think or maybe try and talk to James once she was ready and figured everything out. She needed to go to work that she was assigned to at the cafeteria, otherwise she would risk blowing her cover. Once there, she basically spent her whole day bringing meals to people and then washing the plates and it was driving her crazy as there was plenty of hungry mouth to feed. Something stirred inside of her when she spotted James entering the cafeteria and as she brought a meal over to him, she nearly lost it and ask him to talk to her outside. Once their eyes met, all she could see was the night before and her hands shook when she put the plate in front of him on the table. He didn't know how to act around her either and eventually settled for pretending he didn't know her at all, even though she could tell something else just by looking into his eyes. And they were scared, actually. Well, she couldn't really blame him as the poor guy had no idea where they stood and what would happen from now on.

Alice already planned that once her shift was over, she would find James and talk to him even though she still had no idea what she would say to him. The time for thinking would have to come later as right now she just really needed to see him and maybe to assure him she didn't hate him or anything of the sort. If so, her body kept on responding every time she remembered what happened, how he kissed her and touched her and… She bit on her lip when the reactions she felt became too much to bear. She couldn't lie to herself any longer, she really wanted James and maybe what happened wasn't a mistake, after all. Then again, she was surrounded by the Dharma people and Jack and Kate and Hugo were there, too and the last thing on her mind should be daydreaming about having sex with her best friend. She didn't even know how her life had gotten so complicated. She was pretty sure it hadn't been that way even after the car crash. Then she'd had nothing and now… there was just too much to solve, too much to settle and too much to lose.

And then her thoughts stopped altogether, her plan going down with the drain when Sayid escaped captivity and Jin found little Benjamin Linus shot and left for death in the woods. There was truly no time for solving her private issues now. They simply needed to wait.

It didn't take much to put two and two together. Ben was seen on the camera footage visiting Sayid whom he thought to be a hostile which was just another word for the other. And Sayid clearly thought he could convince Ben to set him free and then shoot him with cold blood.

Whatever he was thinking, it didn't work. Ben was still alive and Juliet with Sawyer were planning on keeping him that way. Alice could understand that Linus was responsible for some of their misery, but in her mind nothing justified shooting kids. Nothing. What happened only proved to her that she was right never to trust Sayid. Who in their right mind would trust an ex Iraqi torturer anyway?

Barely did they start working, they found themselves under house arrest since LaFleur AKA her James didn't want them to speak to anyone and make the situation even worse.

"How can someone just shoot a kid?" Alice finally spoke out loud, breaking the heavy silence that was in the room. Along with the awkwardness as they all found themselves under one roof again, that was.

She looked at Jack, but neither did he look back nor did he answer her. It was as though he pretended she wasn't even there.

"I know he's supposed to grow up and become a tyrant, but… he's just a kid now. It seems so… cruel."

Kate was just about to say something when the front door opened, finally showing James.

"Doc, I need you," he turned to Jack.

"What? Why?" Jack asked, his tone more hostile than usual and Alice frowned.

"Ben needs surgery."

"No," Jack simply said and all the pairs of eyes in the room focused on him.

"What do you mean no?" James asked, just as surprised as both Alice and Kate seemed to be. "Jack, if you don't go with me, that boy's going to die!"

"Then he dies."

It was just one short sentence, but it froze Alice to the bones and proved to her once again that this wasn't the same Jack she'd fallen in love with. The man he'd used to be, disappeared somehow, replaced by someone coldhearted and different.

"Jack, this isn't the time to hold a grudge," Sawyer said carefully.

"What happened, happened, right?" Jack just asked with a shrug and left the room.

"James…" Alice couldn't stand this anymore. She had to talk to him or else she would explode. She so didn't want him to think she didn't care about him at all, Jack be damned at the moment. "May I…? I need to talk to you for a moment, please."

He just nodded, avoiding looking directly at her and he walked to the only other room in his house that was unoccupied – his bedroom. Needles to say, the place unsettled them both as the door closed behind them.

"You weren't there this morning," Alice just said, knowing how stupid it sounded, but she didn't have anything better to say at the moment.

"I know. I'm sorry," James apologized, still not looking at her.

"James…"

"Alice, I don't think this is the time for…"

"Just let me say it," she asked him and he finally dared look into her eyes. He nearly released a breath full of relief when he didn't see there what he expected. At least she didn't hate him. What was there was more like concern.

"Alice, it's ok. I understand," he still said just to protect himself some more and to spare her having to say it all to him.

"No, you don't," she told him harshly and his pupils dilated. "I know exactly what you're trying to do here, James, so please, just don't. I want you to know… I need you to know that I don't regret anything. I'm just… confused. But I do not regret what happened, ok?" she made sure when studying his face closely.

"That's a relief," he finally admitted. "Still, as much as I hate to say this, we have bigger problems to worry about right now."

"I know." She nodded. "Let me handle it." After that, she left the bedroom, heading straight to the kitchen where Jack had disappeared to before.

"You can't be serious!" Alice yelled at him.

"Alice…" he just said her name and his voice trailed off like he didn't know what else to add. In fact, he spoke to her as to a petulant child and she would have none of it!

"No, Jack! This isn't right!"

"Thirty years from now you're going to ask me to save Benjamin Linus and I will do it because there will be no other choice," he told her when looking at her.

"Jack…"

"I don't blame you," he interrupted her again. "I just think that maybe the island wants to fix things by itself. So I won't move a finger to help him."

"So you're saying you shouldn't have done it then either?" she asked in a bitter, full of resentment voice. She really wished she could understand him, but she just couldn't. What made Jack so different from Sayid right now? She wondered.

"Where did it leave us, Alice?" he just asked. "We both know that even when I do save him in that thirty years, Sawyer will come right there to rescue you and everything we could've had will go down the drain! Just look at us now."

"How dare you?" she asked, feeling like she'd been asking him that particular question way too often recently. It seemed obvious to her now that Jack knew about her and Sawyer and that actually explained a lot, but she couldn't care less at the moment. "You destroyed our marriage!" she screamed at him, not caring that the people from the other room could probably hear them. "It's no one else's fault but yours, Jack! You have the sole responsibility, so don't you blame it all on me!"

"Why would I?" he asked venomously. "All you did is help destroy it further." After that, he just turned around and left the room.

When she came back to the living room, she suddenly heard Kate, "Alice, I am so…"

"Oh, just shut up, will you?!" she snapped at the woman, so not needing to hear another apologizes, this time coming from her mouth.

"I'm confused," Jin admitted then and Hugo turned to him, relaying in a quiet voice, "It's so obvious, dude! See, I always suspected that Sawyer was in love with Alice when no one else saw it! And now she probably has feelings for him, too, but she's still Jack's wife, but he…"

"Hugo?" Jin interrupted him.

"Yeah?"

"Don't we have bigger problems right now than to worry about other people's complicated relationships?"

"Yeah, you're probably right, dude."

"Screw that!" Alice suddenly yelled, completely oblivious to Jin and Hugo's little talk. They did jump in their seats, though. "Screw you, Jack! You swore! When you became a doctor, you swore to protect and to help!"

"Well, that didn't involve me getting thrown back in time, did it?"

"Who are you right now?!" She truly couldn't believe her own eyes and ears. Her feelings for Sawyer aside, what had happened to him? It couldn't just occur when he found out. Something had been happening to him ever since they'd gotten married. "You know," she said in a quiet voice now, just shaking her head at him, "I actually thought that you were such a great guy once."

In the end, their personal issues set aside, Kate, Juliet and James helped Ben by taking him to the others. Everything seemed broken. Everything seemed to be holding on, on thin threads. And then Faraday came back from the land and immediately gathered them all in James's house once he heard about their arrival.

"We need to leave," Sawyer said and Alice could see that it wasn't easy for him. How could she blame him? He had a home and actual friends in the village and she was taking all of that away from him. Only, he'd done exactly that to her once, she reminded herself. She couldn't help but thinking what would've happened if he'd arrived a day later back then or not at all. She and Jack would have come back home earlier, found a way to send someone back to the island to rescue the rest. Maybe then Widmore's freighter would have never come? Or it would, still… Maybe even then they'd end up in a mess.

"We need to leave because we've been made," James continued. "I keep the guy in my closet for now and I don't know for how long I can do that until someone realizes he's missing."

"It's all right, James, I can help," Faraday offered. "We all need to leave this village anyway. We need to find the hostiles."

"Hostiles?" Jack asked. "Why?"

"Because they can help us."

"Won't they just shoot us first for violating the pact?" Juliet asked. "They barely let James and Kate live after they took Ben to them."

"They won't hurt us because one of them is my mother," Faraday informed and there was silence. "I know that she can get us back to where we belong."

Eventually, they all gathered up and left in small groups. Jack and Kate volunteered to lead the way and Alice refrained herself from saying anything hurtful. Yet, it did sting that they seemed to work together so well. Maybe they'd always had, Alice suddenly realized, remembering their first time around the island. Jack had claimed to dislike Kate then, but she knew better than to think that hate couldn't turn into something completely opposite.

They hoped to grab the needed guns without being noticed, but they failed. Alice was the one to save their lives as she could actually sense what would happen and told them all to get down just in time. Then she took the wheel by shooting at the enemy herself, trying to be in synch with her ability. Actually, accepting this gift instead of trying to repress it, made it more bearable and she didn't feel so sick anymore. She didn't have the time to think about it, though, because they jumped into a car and drove the hell out of the village.

Once they were in a safe distance, they decided to stop for some rest. They had to ditch the car once they entered the jungle anyway. Faraday used that moment to try to explain his plan.

"In about an hour, The Dharma people will drill into a massive pocket of magnetic energy," he informed. "There'll be an incident comparable to Chernobyl and they'll seal it by building a hatch over it and putting the button there. Then Desmond will come to the island and will be pushing that button for three years. One day he'll forget and your plane will crash here and because of that, I will come on the freighter."

"It's nothing we don't know," Jack simply said whereas Alice just sat there quietly, already feeling that she wouldn't like where this one was going.

"I studied relative physics at Oxford," Faraday continued, "and there's one absolute rule that you cannot change what already happened. That you cannot travel back in time. Then it hit me. I spent too much time looking at the constants that I missed the variables and you know what the variables are? It's us, actually breaking the rules and traveling in time, making choices, living. This isn't the past anymore, it's our present and therefore, I think we can change something."

"What that could be?" Jack got interested and Alice just felt sick. She seemed to know already what he was thinking.

"Years ago on this island I came across a hydrogen bomb. If I can get to it and destroy the pocket of magnetic energy with it, your plane will never crash. Flight 815 will land in Los Angeles just like it was supposed to."

"What?!" Both Alice and James asked at once, but they seemed to be the only ones objecting. And when Alice looked at Jack, she felt something breaking inside of her once and for all. She saw it clearly on his face. He was going to trust Faraday. He was going to do exactly what the physicist just said. And therefore he was going to either kill them all or erase everything that had happened ever since the plane crashed.