"Lena!" Lena glanced up from her book, an old and worn down copy of A Tale of Two Cities that she had found in the makeshift pantry. The voice was unmistakably Kate's, and Lena was slightly annoyed.
She stood up, putting the book down on the tarp that was the floor of her tent. She opened the flap of the entrance to see that it was, in fact, Kate standing there impatiently with her arms folded across her chest.
"What?" Lena groaned. "I am not going on some crazy mission into the jungle again, if that's why you're here."
"Actually, it's not." Kate replied. "Trust me, I don't want to do that again either. I just, um, kind of need some advice." Don't say relationship advice, please don't say relationship advice, Lena mentally begged. So of course, that's exactly what Kate said.
"Okay, first of all." Lena began, annoyed. "Why does everyone assume I'm good at relationship advice? I am the absolute worst! Second of all, I thought you had a happy little thing going with Sawyer."
Kate glanced away, embarrassed. That was when Lena figured it out.
"This is about Jack?!" Lena exclaimed.
"Say it louder, I don't think the Others heard you." Kate snapped sarcastically. Lena shrugged apologetically, although she had been a bit too loud.
Lena supposed that she had to give some sort of advice, or Kate would never leave her alone. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were like a cliche love triangle, and Juliet seemed to now be part of it as well.
"Kate, honestly, I have no idea." Lena sighed. "I'm really not good at this kind of stuff. Usually me in relationships.. it doesn't end well." She pulled a water bottle from inside the tent and took a few sips as Kate contemplated that.
"You seem to be doing fine with Sayid."
Lena choked on her water.
"What?!" She spluttered. "Wh-what are you talking about?" It was Kate's turn to be annoyed, rolling her eyes and explaining why she said that.
"It's a little obvious, Lena." Kate said as she started to walk away. Lena wasn't even sure about her own feelings, and yet Kate had apparently figured everything out?
Was she right?
…
"Dude!" Hurley called out to Lena as she walked along the beach. The sound of the ocean waves was calming to her, and she had become lost in her thoughts. Unfortunately, well, reality struck back.
"Hey, Hurley." Lena greeted. As he came closer, she saw that he looked king of panicked. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"Yeah, kind of." Hurley replied. Oh great, Lena thought. Another problem to solve. "Okay, so you know how Desmond, Charlie, Jin, and I went camping? Well, we didn't actually go camping. Someone parachuted onto the island. Her name's Naomi, and she's wounded. We figured she'd probably want to talk to a girl, and Sayid said we could trust you."
Whoa. That was a whole lot of information to process. Lena had not, actually known, that those four had gone camping, and apparently, they hadn't. And then the news that someone came to the island… if they had found the island, then why was no one besides Naomi there?
And then, of course, the last part of Hurley's explanation caught Lena's attention as well. They trusted her. When looking for a woman on the island that they could trust, they went to her. Not Kate, not Sun, not Claire. Her.
It probably didn't matter to anyone else, but it was sort of a big deal for Lena.
"Okay." Lena said after remembering that Hurley was still waiting for her to answer. Not that he was a particularly impatient person, but Lena had been spacing out for the past few minutes. "Where is she?"
Hurley simply gestured for Lena to follow him, and she followed him at a quick pace. While they went, Hurley explained about Naomi's freighter, phone, and how she was sent by Desmond's girlfriend, Penelope Widmore.
Eventually, Hurley stopped at a tent near the end of the camp, which Lena was pretty sure belonged to Charlie. Or maybe it was Hurley's, she wasn't sure.
"Right this way." Hurley said with a dramatic flair as he pulled the tent flap open. Lena chuckled and rolled her eyes, but both of those soon disappeared as she walked in.
Both Desmond and Sayid were there, but Lena's eyes immediately went to the unfamiliar woman who she assumed as Naomi. Her hand was covering a set of bandaged that were stained with blood.
"Hi." Lena said with an awkward little wave. She realized that she probably should have prepared something to say. "I'm Lena."
"Please don't make me explain everything again." Naomi sighed tiredly. "I've already done it twice."
"Don't worry, Hurley already told me everything." Lena replied. Naomi sighed with relief. Lena, feeling out of place, glanced over at Sayid, not exactly sure why he had suggested she talk to Naomi. But he wasn't very helpful, as he just shrugged.
"I'm going to go work on the phone." He announced. Hurley said something about joining him, and the two of them left the tent, followed by Desmond who said he was getting something to eat. That just left Lena and Naomi.
Damn you, Sayid.
"I hope these guys have at least been helpful." Lena said as she sat down where Sayid had previously been sitting.
"As good as it can get when you've been impaled by a tree branch." Naomi joked. Lena laughed. She could get behind that woman's sense of humor.
Unfortunately, their little moment didn't last long. The tent flap was pulled open yet again by Sayid's hand, and Kate entered, followed by a very grouchy Hurley.
"She saw the phone." Hurley grumbled. Clearly he had enjoyed keeping the secret.
"Oh my god." Kate whispered as she saw Naomi, who just greeted her with a wave of her hand.
Lena could tell that her time in the little circle of trust was going to be short lived. First of all, the fact that Hurley, one of the worst secret keepers ever, knew, and the fact that more and more people were finding out by the minute.
…
Well, you know what they say: When one door closes, another one opens.
Or, in that case, when one secret gets out, another one is told. That was Lena's first thought when Sayid and Sawer came to her with the tape of Juliet talking to Ben about spying on their camp.
"Seriously?!" She exclaimed. "I didn't think the Others would be this predictable." They had always been so mysterious and ten steps ahead, but nearly every one of the surviving 815 passengers had seen that coming.
"We can talk about the Others's cliche plans later." Sawyer replied. "But we need to do something about this." Once again, Lena began to wonder why everyone went to her for advice.
"Play it for the entire camp." Lena suggested. "Or just go straight to Juliet. No, even better, show it to Jack first."
"I think we should go to her first." Sayid said. "If this gets out, it'll give her a chance to slip away." Sayid, once again, had presented the best and most logical plan, and it seemed that Sawyer agreed as well, which was rare.
Nothing like a common enemy to unite everyone.
…
"She's not here." Sayid sighed as he dropped the flap of Juliet's tent. They had gone with his plan and went to confront Juliet, but the woman in question was missing.
"Yeah, I noticed." Sawyer remarked snakily, which was what Lena had been about to say.
"You beat me by one second." Lena muttered. Sawyer rolled his eyes, but all three of them were soon on guard again as Kate approached them.
"Are you looking for Juliet?" She asked, saying the name with a bit of distaste. "You're not going to find her in there, she left with Jack. They took off right after I told him about Naomi."
Lena and Sayid exchanged an annoyed glance. Did Kate really have to tell Jack everything?
While Sawyer was simply confused as to who Naomi was, Kate explained that she told Jack about her because he was a doctor, and that she didn't know where it was that he was going, blah, blah, blah.
"You know, maybe you should tell everybody else about Naomi too." Kate called out to Sayid, who had just started to walk away.
"Play her the tape!" Sayid yelled back without even turning around. Lena smirked as Kate turned to Sawyer and asked about what the tape was. Sayid had gotten the final word on that.
…
Telling the rest of the survivors did not go as well as Lena would have hoped.
Mostly, though, people were reacting to the fact that someone had faked the wreckage of their flight, and everyone thought they had died. Sayid was trying to calm them down, but he was failing miserably so far.
"But it's Jack!" Sun protested after Sayid explained why they didn't tell everyone in the first place. "And I believe Juliet is a good person as well."
"Oh really?" Sawyer said. "Would you happen to be basing that on her taking you to a medical station, Mrs. Kwon?" Sun's expression was one of pure shock, and as a reply to her questioning him about knowing about it, he played the tape in which Juliet told Ben that Sun was pregnant.
"Where did you get that?" And there was Jack Shephard. But, he did not seem to be reacting the way Lena would have thought. He didn't seem remotely surprised at all.
"Where did you get it?" Jack repeated, even after Sayid, Lena, Sawyer, and many others asked him numerous questions. Juliet appeared behind him as well, and Lena instinctively put one hand on her sword handle.
"Turn the tape over." Juliet instructed. Everyone stared at her blankly, not trusting a single word she said. "If you want to kill me, go ahead, but first, turn the tape over and press play." Lena had to admit, she admired Juliet's bluntness about the whole situation, but that didn't make her any more trustworthy. Still, Sawyer, who was holding the tape, did as instructed, and the creepy voice of Ben filled the air.
"Juliet, it's Ben." The recording began. "I'm sending four teams to extract Kwon the night after tomorrow. If you determine that Austen or anyone else is pregnant, mark their tents, and we'll take them, too. Good luck."
"I told Jack what they were making me do the night I saw your baby on the ultrasound." Juliet said to Sun. "The only reason we haven't told you is because we haven't decided what to do about it yet."
"Yet?" Sayid and Lena echoed at the same time.
"Come on." Jack said as he turned to walk back into the jungle. "I think we all have some catching up to do."
…
"Danielle!" Jack shouted as he led her, Sayid, Kate, Desmond, Charlie, Sawyer, Claire, Juliet, Sun, Jin, and Hurley through the jungle. All of them had been chosen to see what the oh-so-amazing plan of his was.
Danielle was quick to come, emerging from the trees as if she was a chameleon, blending in the whole time.
"Show them." Jack instructed. Danielle picked up two wires from the ground and linked them together. As soon as she did so, a tree exploded.
Lena jumped back, nearly crashing into Sayid, who helped steady her just in time to hear Jack's big explanation of all his weird behavior.
"When Juliet told me they were coming, I started to wonder where the hell we could hide. But I realized that hiding's pointless. They're just gonna keep coming back. And the very first time we know exactly what they want, when they're coming to get it, and they have no idea that we're gonna be waiting for them. So Juliet's gonna mark the tents just like she was told to, but there's not going to be any pregnant women inside. Instead, there's gonna be plenty dynamite, just like what we just used on that tree. So tomorrow night, we stop hiding, we stop running, we stop living in fear of them, because when they show up, we're gonna blow them all to hell."
