Lena was in the caves, not really doing anything, when Charlie suddenly ran over, looking like he had just made some kind of discovery.
"Guys!" Charlie shouted as Jack and Sayid also walked over. He waved a blue notebook in the air as he spoke. "You have to hear this!"
"What is that?" Jack asked.
"It's Claire's." Charlie answered. "Her diary."
"You're reading her her diary?" Lena exclaimed incredulously. Why was he invading her privacy like that?
"Yes, I know, I'm bloody scum." Charlie said. Well, at least he acknowledges it. "But listen to this: 'I had that weird dream again, the one with the black rock I can't get away from. I try to leave it but it won't let me.'"
"Black rock?" Sayid whispered.
"It's just dreams, Charlie." Jack said dismissively.
"No, he's right." Lena said. "Sayid, didn't the French woman say something about a black rock?"
"Yes, she told be about her team returning from the Black Rock." Sayid explained. "Maybe it's the triangle on the map." Lena didn't bother to ask what that was.
"Maybe it's where they took Claire." Charlie wondered aloud.
"Maybe." Jack said. "But Charlie, there's no sense going out into the jungle in the middle of the night. We can look for it tomorrow."
…
"I'm telling you, Lena, you're going to love him." Said one of Lena's few friends, Annie. She had set her up on a blind date with a friend of hers, and Lena was extremely nervous.
"I don't really like the idea of going on a date with a complete stranger." Lena said.
"He's very attractive, if that helps." Annie added.
"Excuse me, is this my date or yours?" Annie just laughed as she pulled over next to the restaurant where the date would take place.
"He's wearing a blue v-neck shirt and he'll be holding a white rose." Annie said. "Good luck."
"Thanks." Lena replied dryly as she opened her car door. She took one last glance at Annie, who waved her towards the restaurant. Lena rolled her eyes and walked in.
She immediately scanned the room until her eyes fell upon the man in the blue shirt holding the white rose. He had sandy-colored hair and dark brown eyes. But what struck him the most to her was that he looked just as nervous as she felt.
His eyes met hers, and Lena suddenly became unaware of everything around her, only seeing him.
…
"Jack!" Someone shouted from the cave entrance. "Where's Jack?!" It was Locke and Boone, running as fast as they could. But what caught Lena's eye was the fact that Locke was carrying Claire.
"Oh my god." Lena whispered. How did she escape from Ethan? Or did Locke save her?
"Claire?!" Charlie shouted.
"Is she alive?" Michael asked from the back of the cave. Amidst all the chaos, Jack took Claire in his arms at set her down gently near the water.
"Where did you find her?" Jack asked.
"About a mile north." Locke replied. "She collapsed in my arms."
"Is she injured?" Hurley asked.
"Everybody back off, okay!" Jack shouted. "Give her some air. Claire, can you hear me. You need to wake up. Claire, wake up."
Suddenly, Claire's eyes shot open, and she gasped, scrambling away from Jack.
"Claire, you're safe!" Charlie said. "It's okay."
"Who are you?" She gasped. "Who are you people?!"
Oh shit.
…
"I- I don't understand." Claire whispered after they told her everything that was going on. "I don't know any Ethan. I don't remember any of you, I don't remember any of this."
"What do you remember?" Charlie asked gently.
"I, um, was on a plane flying to LA from Sydney." Claire answered. Lena marveled at the fact that she didn't remember the crash, or any of the days that followed.
"Claire, we were all on that plane." Jack explained. "It crashed here, on this island. That was almost a month ago. Your baby is fine, everything is normal."
"If it's been almost a month, then why has no one come to get us?" Claire asked. Everyone glanced at each other, not really sure what to say. Lena definitely didn't want to break the news to an amnesiac pregnant woman that no one was coming.
…
"How did she get back?" Sayid asked. It was the next morning, and Lena, Sayid, Charlie, Locke and Jack had all come together to discuss what to do next.
"The girl is pregnant." Sayid continued. "Very pregnant. Are we supposed to believe she escaped from him?" As much as Lena hated it, he had a point.
"What are you getting at?" Charlie asked.
"Ethan infiltrated us." Sayid said. "Whoever he is and wherever he comes from, he's intelligent. Who's to say he didn't even send Claire?"
"You're off your bloody head, mate!" Charlie shouted. "That-"
"Charlie calm down." Jack sighed. "That is a stretch, Sayid."
"But I can see where he's coming from." Lena added. "Let me ask you this, Doctor Jack: How many times have you diagnosed amnesia, and especially a case as selective as Claire's?"
"Okay, it's rare." Jack admitted. "But she's been through a major trauma. It is possible that her memory reset to the crash."
"And the chances of that memory returning?" Locke, who had been silent throughout the whole conversation, asked.
"I don't know."
"You know what?" Charlie exclaimed. "You all can talk about Claire all you want. I'm actually going to go spend some time with her. I get the impression she might still be a tad upset." With that, he stormed off towards the caves, clearly angry that they even considered Claire knowing more than what she said.
And then, about fifteen minutes later, Charlie came running back.
"Help!" He shouted. "Ethan… Ethan came!"
"What?" Jack asked. "What are you talking about."
"Ethan." Charlie panted. "He came to me, he said if we didn't bring Claire to him, he's kill us all one by one."
"What do we do?" Locke whispered.
"What do we do?!" Charlie echoed. "We go out and we bloody kill him!" Locke started to tell Charlie to calm down, but it was Jack, surprisingly, who supported Charlie's idea.
"I think Charlie's right." Jack interrupted, leaving the rest of them shocked. "The man threatens to kill one of us unless we bring him Claire, and what, we just wait for that to happen? We tracked him once before, we can track him again."
"You both are forgetting how that turned out." Locke said. "And we're armed with a few knives and a sword."
"I could take him out with the sword." Lena said quietly.
"You're not running into the jungle alone to hunt him down with just a sword." Locke said, shooting down her idea. "We'll only tell a select few about the threat. We post some sentries here and at the caves."
"If we only tell a select few and he does what he says he would do, that blood is going to be on our hands." Lena pointed out. Both Jack and Charlie nodded in agreement.
"Then we tell everyone." Locke sighed, throwing his hands up in the air. "But if you want to protect them, we need to start thinking defense."
"We could move everybody up to the caves." Jack suggested.
"What if Ethan isn't alone? What if he delivered his threat so that we would gather like sheep to the slaughter in a confined space where they can roll in and take us all in one fell swoop." Locke countered. Lena and Charlie exchanged an annoyed glance. Locke was just shooting down every single idea they came up with.
"Alright, clearly you have a plan, John." Jack said. "Let's hear it."
…
"Alright, test run, go!" Lena yelled. Boone purposefully tripped the wire, and a garbage bag fell, making a very loud noise that would wake up even the heaviest sleepers.
"Not bad." Sayid commented. They had built a perimeter trip wire signal, and it seemed to be working very well.
"Four of these will do the job." Locke decided.
"I have fires prepared every 20 meters." Sayid added.
"And I have a sword." Lena concluded.
"Some people have volunteered for sentry duty." Sayid said. "I'll put them on rotating shifts. Lena, did you hand out the knives?"
"I sure did."
"I'll take a shift." Boone piped up.
"Absolutely." Locke said. "We're counting on you."