The island was the last place that Daniel Hume wanted to be.
Not only was it the fact that he was sent there by Eloise Hawking of all people, but the fact that… it was the island. The place his father had been trapped on for over three years, the place where so many people had died, the place that he interpreted as the stuff of nightmares.
The fact that he was sitting across the table from Ben Linus, the man who tried to kill his parents once, made it even worse.
It had been 21 years, Daniel reminded himself. That was a long time to change.
"Eloise told you to come here?" Ben's question pulled Daniel back into the conversation, as he had zoned out when Elizabeth started to explain how everything happened.
"Yes." Elizabeth said in an annoyed tone, allowing Daniel to infer that she had already explained that.
Ben rubbed his temples, trying to decide what the best course of action was. Emma, meanwhile, was leaning against the wall with her arms folded across her chest, clearly angry or annoyed about something, Daniel just didn't know what.
"The island is in danger though, isn't it?" Elizabeth asked. "So we were right in coming here."
"We had everything under control," Emma commented. "Mostly, at least." Elizabeth looked taken aback. Daniel almost felt bad for her, but it was overshadowed by the fact that she had been the one to convince them to see Eloise, which landed them in the situation they were currently stuck in. It wasn't that he resented her, per se. She was one of his closest friends. He was just a little angry that she let her faith in the island blind her logic. Then again, Elizabeth was never much of a logical thinker, more of a run-into-things-head-on type of person.
"Alright," Ben said suddenly, looking up sharply. "Look, I have too much to deal with already, and I'm going to need you to go to Hugo with this."
"That's why I came here," Emma replied. "I thought he'd be making plans with you."
"No, I made him go to a safe location," Ben explained. "He's at the new cabin, with Walt. I assume you know the way, Emma?"
"I helped design and build it, I sure hope that I know the way."
"Good then," Ben said. "Get them to the cabin safely. You three will be able to get through the circle of ash. Tell Hugo what happened, and follow his orders."
Emma nodded and grabbed her rifle, which was leaning against the counter. She motioned for Daniel and Elizabeth to follow her before walking to the back door.
"Wait a second," Dan interrupted. "Don't we get any say in this?" Everyone turned to look at him, including Elizabeth, who seemed to be regarding him as odd for some reason.
"You made that plane crash here, Daniel Hume, so no, you don't get a say in this." Ben said, sounding just like the man from all of the stories Daniel had heard. He didn't want to go along with the plan whatsoever.
Still, he followed Emma and Elizabeth to the back door, knowing it was the only plan they had.
…
The cabin was smaller than Daniel expected. It had been described as a safe place, but he didn't understand what was so safe about a random cabin in the woods.
"Looks pretty dumpy, doesn't it?" Emma commented, as if she was reading Daniel's thoughts. "It's not the cabin itself that does the protecting. It's what's around the cabin that you need to watch out for."
Daniel frowned and looked at the ground, only then noticing the thick circle of ash that ran around the perimeter of the place.
"How will we get in," Elizabeth began. "If that's supposed to keep us out?"
"We can get in because Hugo wants us to come in," Emma explained. "Otherwise we'll all be very, very dead when we step through that ash."
Great, Daniel thought. Evil ash that might kill them was just another thing to add on to the now never-ending list of things he had to worry about.
It seemed that even Emma wasn't entirely convinced that she ash would allow them to pass through, because she tentatively put her foot over the line, flinching slightly, as if she expected something to happen. However, she relaxed when nothing did, and she regained her confident attitude as she walked towards the cabin at an even pace.
Daniel glanced at Elizabeth questioningly. His friend only shrugged in response, and she followed Emma towards the cabin, free of any side effects.
If they got through, there was no reason Dan couldn't, he supposed. He carefully stepped onto the other side, but, as he had predicted, nothing happened, and he hurried to catch up to the other two, who were already at the doorstep.
Emma knocked twice, then paused before knocking three times. She paused again for a moment, and then knocked five times.
"There's a secret knock?" Elizabeth whispered to Daniel, clearly stifling a laugh. He had to admit, it was a little ridiculous that a group as complex as the Others had one of those.
Once Emma was finished knocking, the door to the cabin opened, revealing two people: One was a man who looked to be around Emma's age, with dark skin and evenly cut hair. The other was someone Daniel immediately recognized as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes.
"Dude." Hurley whispered upon seeing Daniel and Elizabeth. His face had gone as pale as a sheet, and he looked as if he was about to faint. "How… what… why-"
"Hold on," The other man interrupted. "What's happening?"
"Walt," Emma began. "Meet Elizabeth Austen and Daniel Hume."
"You mean she's Jack and Kate's…" The man, Walt, trailed off staring at Elizabeth, who just nodded in confirmation. It was then that Daniel realized who he was: Walt from flight 815, the only kid in the middle section.
Hurley, meanwhile, literally shook himself out of his shocked state and motioned for the two of them, as well as Emma, to go inside the cabin. The three of them did so, and once again, Daniel noticed Emma's confident demeanor start to fade a little. She looked uncomfortable inside the small cabin, even though she had seemed perfectly fine outside.
Before Daniel could turn away, Emma caught him looking, turning quicker than he had expected. Instead of being angry or annoyed, however, she simply gave a small smile and said: "I've never been great with small spaces."
Daniel, who wasn't really sure how to reply to that, just nodded awkwardly before turning to look at Hurley, who had started pacing across the cabin.
"Alright," Hurley began, stopping his pacing abruptly. "I need you to tell me exactly why and how you came here."
…
Daniel Faraday had always been Daniel Hume's namesake.
His parents always told him that there was zero question of that when they learned his mother was pregnant. Boy or girl, Daniel Faraday would be the reason for the name.
So, when Daniel was born and assigned female, they named him Danielle.
He hated it.
He was Danielle Hume for fourteen years. Ten of which, he was fine being "she." He didn't understand the idea of being transgender, so he just accepted what he was.
Then he had started to grown uncomfortable in his own body. Everything felt so wrong. He thought something about him was broken.
It ended up being a good thing that the first person he told was Elizabeth.
"Dani-" She began, but cut herself off, realizing that Daniel wasn't comfortable with his birth name. "There's nothing wrong with that. From what you're saying, I think you're transgender, and that's completely fine."
"But… do you think everyone else will understand?" Dan had said, already having come to that conclusion about himself. "I know Kate and Claire are married, and Miles and Richard are together, but this is different."
"If they don't understand, then we can explain it," She insisted. "And of course your parents will accept you, and so will everyone else."
Much to Daniel's immense surprise, things had actually worked out. Gradually, he came out to the rest of his family and friends, Charlie being the second one after Elizabeth, followed by his parents.
Daniel Hume. He couldn't even begin to describe how much better that fit him.
…
"You listened to Eloise?" Hurley sighed after the two of them had finished explaining their story for the second time.
"I don't understand why you all are so disappointed by that," Elizabeth interjected. "Yeah, she did a horrible thing, but she's still an Other, right?"
Emma and Walt glanced at each other quickly, their expressions unreadable by Daniel.
"We're not disappointed, dude," Hurley began. "We're worried."
"Why?" Daniel asked, leaning forward in his seat. Hurley sighed once again, making Dan a little annoyed, but he kept his annoyance in for the sake of getting answers.
"We're worried because ever since Daniel Faraday died, Eloise has been working with Jacob's brother."