Sink Or Swim
Chapter 38
Mac watched as one of the guys take the phone from Desmond.
"Hey look! Hey, come on! Everybody relax, listen! Look! Daniel wanted to talk to the guy so we brought him the phone, that's all," Frank told them.
"You let Faraday talk to him?" the other man asked.
"He said he could help!" Frank insisted.
"Faraday can't even help himself!" Ray told them.
"Outside now, the captain wants to talk to you," Omar told Frank.
"And I want to talk to your captain," Sayid told them.
"I'll be sure to let him know. In the meantime, have a seat," the man told Sayid as they leave, locking the door behind him.
"I need to get back," Desmond told them.
"Back where? The island?" Mac questioned.
"He said he could help me, said he could tell me what I needed to do," Desmond informed them.
"Desmond, Desmond, can you please explain to me," he started to ask before the other patient interrupted.
"Desmond? You're Desmond?" the man asked.
"Do I know you?" Desmond asked.
"I'm George Minkowski. I'm the communications officer, before they strapped me down here, all the calls to and from this boat came through me, in the radio room. And every so often, I'd get this flashing light on my console, an incoming call. We were under strict orders never to answer it," he explained.
"So? What's that got to do with me?" Desmond questioned.
"Those calls came from your girlfriend. Penelope Widmore," the man answered.
Mac walked over to Desmond, looking at Minkowski. "How does this happen?"
"No one knows for sure," he answered her.
"Hey, hey, you okay?" Sayid asked noticing him coming around.
"You look a lot older now, huh? Welcome back, Desmond," the other man greeted.
"I need to call Penny," Desmond informed them.
"Calling your girlfriend is not our priority," Sayid told him.
"Sayid," Mac warned.
"Listen, brother, I don't know you. But you seem to know me, so...so if you and I are friends, then I need your help. I need to call Penny, now," he insisted.
"Does this have something to do with what Dan is telling you in the past?" Mac questioned.
Desmond nodded. "He says I need a constant, Penny's my constant."
"Whoa! You boys are getting way ahead of yourselves. Two days ago, someone sabotaged all the equipment. We lost all communication with the mainland. I probably could have fixed it, but then...then I went nuts," the other man explained.
"Where's the radio room?" Sayid questioned.
"It's one deck up, I'll take you there. Come on," he offered as they unstrapped him.
"And how do we get out of here?" Sayid questioned.
"Through the door," he told them, opening the door. "Looks like you guys have a, a friend on this boat," he informed them.
"I'm not getting a good feeling about this," Mac whispered to Sayid.
Sayid nodded. "Let me know if it gets worse," he told her.
"Hey, uh...your nose, brother," Desmond told the other man whose nose was bleeding.
"It's clear. Let's go," Sayid told them, Mac noticing Desmond went out of it again.
Mac waited in the hallway of the courtroom, taking a breath, looking at her phone again. She looked up as Jack walked out. "Jack," she greeted standing up.
Jack hugged her. "The lawyer mentioned he had asked you to come as a character witness. Where's Sayid?"
Mac sighed. "Can we leave that discussion for another time?"
Jack looked at her. "What's going on?"
"Jack I really don't want to talk about it here," Mac told him. "We can go somewhere after this, to dinner or something, and maybe, only maybe, I'll fill you in. But right now, I can't have this discussion with you and do any good for Kate."
Jack nodded. "OK, but I'm holding you up on that dinner," he told her.
"That's fine," she answered, with a smile. "How is it going in there?"
"Ok, I think," he told her.
"Desmond. I know...it's getting harder. It starts happening faster too," Minkowski told him as he came out of it.
"Come on, let's move," Sayid told them.
"Hey, how did this happen to you?" Desmond questioned.
"We were anchored here, waiting for our orders, bored out of our minds. Me and Brandon — he's one of the crew members we took off the ship's tender. We just wanted to see the island. But Brandon started acting crazy...so we had to turn around," Minkowski told them.
"Where is he?"
"In a body bag," he answered.
Mac arched an eye brow walking over wires in the communication center.
"There," Minkowski informed them, pointing.
"Who did this?" Sayid asked.
"You got me. But when the captain finds out, I feel sorry," he started to say before he passed out; Desmond cradled him in his arms.
"After your call, someone has to tell me precisely what is going on," Sayid told him.
"Can you fix it, brother?" Desmond asked him.
"I need a minute. Do you have the number to make the call?" Sayid questioned him.
"I'll look around for tools," Mac offered.
Minkowski seized in Desmond's arms. "Wake up, wake up, you've got to come back! You've got to come back."
"Desmond! Do you know the number?" Sayid repeated, as Mac handed him tools.
"No," Desmond answered.
"Well, you better remember it," Sayid told him.
Desmond noticed a calendar on the wall. "It's 2004..."
"I didn't realize it was almost Christmas. It's been..." he stopped, seeing Desmond's nose bleeding. "Desmond."
"I...can't...get...back!" Minkowski yelled before he died.
"What happened to him?" Sayid asked.
"The same thing that is going to happen to me," Desmond answered.
"Don't give up on us, Des, we're doing what we can," Mac answered.
Mac walked into the court room, up to the witness stand.
"Please raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" the bailiff questioned.
"I do," Mac answered.
"Can you please state your name for the court?" the lawyer questioned.
"Mackenzie Jarrah," she answered.
"When you met the defendant, you weren't married correct? Could you state the name that the defendant and all of us who read the papers are familiar with?" the lawyer asked.
"Grayson," she corrected herself.
"Could you please tell me how you met Miss. Austen?" the lawyer questioned.
"We were passengers on Oceanic Flight 815 heading from Australia to Los Angeles that crashed in the South Pacific," she answered.
"Were you aware that Ms. Austen was a fugitive being transported by a United States marshal on that flight to Los Angeles for trial?" he asked.
"I eventually learned about it, yes. She told me herself," Mac answered.
"Did you ask if she was guilty?" the lawyer questioned.
Mac shook her head. "I didn't need to. I was a Major in the United States Army for over 15 years. I was in charge of military intelligence; I'm a pretty good judge of character. And I believed, as I do now, that Kate is innocent."
"Did you ever have any doubt of her innocence?" he asked.
"No, not at all," she answered. "There were only 8 of us that survived the crash, I had a big gash on my head, and Kate helped me. Guilty people usually don't do things to help others," Mac responded.
"No further questions," he answered sitting down.
The judge looked at the prosecution. "Your witness, Miss Dunbrook," he said.
The prosecution walked toward the witness stand. "You were no longer in the military when you met Miss Austen were you, Miss Grayson?"
"No, I wasn't," she answered.
"You had retired due to a personal tragedy, and had spent two years roaming the country, isn't that true?" the other woman questioned.
"Yes, that's true," Mac replied.
"Would you say you're judgment was clear at the time of the crash? Are you not married to a fellow survivor?" she asked.
"My judgment was and is perfectly clear. And yes I am married to a fellow survivor," she answered. "We all survived for a reason," Mac answered.
"Trust me," Desmond commented out of the blue.
"I do trust you. But you still have to remember that number," Sayid informed him.
"I think he just joined us from the past again," Mac informed him.
"7946-0893, it's a London number," Desmond told them.
"Excellent timing...the patch is done, but I don't know how long the battery will last. I hope she's there," Sayid told him.
"I hope so too," he stated.
"Hello?" Penny answered.
"Penny?" Desmond responded.
"Desmond?" Penny questioned.
"Penny...Penny, you answered. You answered, Penny," Desmond kept repeating.
"Des, where are you?" Penny asked.
"I'm...I'm, I'm on a boat. Um...I've been on an island, and — Oh my god, Penny. Is that really you?" Desmond questioned.
"Yeah! Yes, it's me!" she responded.
"You believe me? You still care about me?"
"Des, I've been looking for you for the past three years. I know about the island. I've been researching-and then when I spoke to your friend Charlie, that's when I knew you were still alive. That's when I knew I wasn't crazy. Des, are you still there!" she asked franticly.
"Yes, yes, I'm here! I'm still here, can you hear me?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's better."
"I love you, Penny. I've always loved you. I'm so sorry. I love you."
"I love you too," Penny told him.
"I don't know where I am, but—"
"I'll find you, Des—"Penny reassured him.
"—I promise—"Des told her.
"—no matter what—"Penny continued.
"—I'll come back to you— "Des added.
"—I won't give up—"Penny informed him.
"I promise. I love you," both tell each other before they get cut off.
"I'm sorry. The power source went dead, it's all we have," Sayid told him.
"Thank you, Sayid," he told him, shaking his hand. "It was enough," he informed him. Desmond hugged Mac. "Thank you."
"Are you alright now?" both Sayid and Mac ask him.
"Aye. I'm perfect," he answered.