A final thanks to rain1657, October Sky, a.k.a.-ashley, Lilywriter, xpunkprincessx, CharlieClaireforlife, litgal, showmethehobbit, Cas85, and FluteMarcher.

Disclaimer: As I'm sure you know by know, I do not own any of these characters.

A/N: Okay, I know it took awhile to write this chapter, but I wanted to be able to do a good job wrapping up everything and leaving no loose ends. For this purpose, this chapter is longer than any of the others.

"Mandala" is a word meaning circle. You will see the significance of that in this chapter.


Mandala

The twelve islanders who still remained free sat dejectedly in the cramped living room of Hurley's apartment. Claire sobbed softly and clutched Lyle to her as one would clutch a life raft in the midst of a tremendous, dark, cold ocean. He was the only thing in her life that she still recognized, that she could still cling to. He was her one last thread of hope.

Jack looked at his shoes sadly. He felt alone and more lost than ever. It had been just three hours since Charlie's arrest, but it felt as if he had been sitting there with the others for over days.

No one said a word. Everyone sat to contemplate the state of their lives. They had thought that being stranded on an island had been the end of their lives. They had all thought that they would find salvation in being rescued, in going back to the real world. In effect, they had been rescued. But their lives lay in pieces, shattered beyond recognition. The lengthy coma had cost jobs, relationships, and even life's purpose for some. They all knew that a dream shouldn't have that much effect on people's lives. But it did.

When the phone rang out in the silence, everyone jumped. Hurley rose slowly and cautiously answered it. All were apprehensive.

"Hello? Yes… Yes, we're all here, except Kate and Charlie… Okay, that would be great… Yeah, see you there tomorrow. You'll bring them to meet us?... Good. Good night."

Hurley turned and for the first time all day a smile graced his face. "Well, it's not a permanent solution, but we have some time. That was Chief Investigator Robson. The investigation team in Australia needs to interview us, remember? That means that all of us and Charlie and Kate get to fly to Sydney and spend a week there."

"And when we get home?"

Hurley's face darkened momentarily. "Well, then everything will be back to normal. But we have a week's time to try to get ourselves together. We can all spend time with Kate before… Well, you know. Charlie can see his family again; maybe you two can even get married there."

It was Claire's turn to smile. "That would be amazing."

"Okay, so we're all set to go?"

Everyone nodded their assent. It would be nice to have a respite from the barrage of troubles that had become each of their lives.


Three days later, the twelve arrived to the special government plane that would take them to Sydney. It was a small plane that would seat only about fifty people – the forty-six survivors (all of whom were coming this time) and the armed marshal who would be guarding mainly Kate, but also Charlie.

The plane was little used, and the area surrounding it was deserted for most of the time. This was how no one noticed when two figures silently boarded the plane without being noticed.

No one saw anything unusual as they approached the plane, but none could help feeling more than a little apprehensive, given their past experience on a plane together. Most of the people went towards the back of the plane, leaving the fourteen most prominent survivors to sit together in the front.

Claire was the last of them to board the plane. She had strapped Lyle into his seat and was prepared to sit down when she heard a voice softly speak her name. Her face lit up, and she whirled around to see her beloved Charlie.

Without a word, she grabbed him and kissed him as hard as she could. She felt the fear and anger in her evaporate in that kiss until she felt only him.

When she finally pulled back, breathless, she whispered, "I love you, I love you. Don't ever leave again, Charlie, please."

He pressed his lips against hers again, surprised at how much he had missed her during their brief separation. He pressed his hand against hers, feeling for the ring that would reassure him of the promise of spending an eternity with her.


Outside, the marshal, assured that Kate would not attack any of her friends and had no weapons of any kind, allowed her to move freely so long as he could see her and have his weapon at the ready. Kate held herself steady as she boarded the plane and slowly walked down the aisle. She looked with mild interest with Locke, who seemed to be having trouble walking. She passed the still-embracing Charlie and Claire and feigned a smile. She was happy for them, but could not muster enough positive feeling to be happy about anything in this time.

She struggled to maintain her calm façade as the seconds it took her to walk the length of the small plane began to feel like hours or maybe even centuries. She was reminded of that horrible nightmare where she was going down a long hall with no end where everything seemed to drift in and out of focus and fade to blackness. As soon as she saw Jack standing at his seat, however, she rushed forward and collapsed into his arms.

Once she finally started to release her pent-up emotions, she found it near impossible to stop. Tears began to flow from her eyes and her chest heaved with sobs. Jack clenched her tighter, trying to somehow help shoulder all of her pain and terror.

"Get in your seats," barked the marshal, who then proceeded to the very back of the plane.

Jack and Kate sunk down together. He kept his arms tightly around her body as she twisted to lay her head on his chest.

The pilot soon made the announcement that, "Flight #518 leaving LAX." If anyone recognized the significance of this number, they did not show it. At this point, none could handle more nervousness and stress.


Over ten hours later, not much had changed.

Walt was growing fidgety. "This is so boring!" he whined.

Michael smiled. "Come on, Walt, you weren't this vocal on the flight to LA."

"Well, there we crashed, that was interesting. More importantly, though, we had food and a movie. We don't have anything like that on this little government plane. I mean, it only fits twenty people!"

Claire leaned towards him, smiling. She had been in a great mood since her reunion with her fiancé. "Well, Walt, would you like to play a game?"

"What good games are there?"

Shannon smiled thoughtfully. "When I was younger, we always would play six degrees of separation. You know, with like, celebrities and stuff."

"You still play that now Shannon," Boone put in, smirking.

"Shut up!"

Walt looked at her curiously. "Well, okay, we can try that one. But celebrities are boring, I don't know any. Let's play it with us."

Charlie looked at him and smiled, willing to indulge in his crazy idea. "Sure, Walt, we can try. I should warn you though, aside from the island I don't know how many connections you'll find between us."

Sayid joined the group, happy to find something to lighten the mood. "Okay, so is everyone playing?"

Sun hesitated, but at a smile from Michael, agreed. Hurley nodded, Sawyer shrugged, and Locke cocked his head as he rubbed his legs and tried to get them to move.

"What about you, Kate?"

Kate looked up from her conversation. She shook her head somberly and turned back to Jack, continuing her statement from before. "The idea of death is just so overwhelming, but I can cope. Worst of all is the idea that I'll be going alone. I had sworn to try my hardest not to let that happen. I… I killed my fiancé. We were driving and laughing and I missed the curve and went off the guardrail… The doctors tried their bet, but couldn't save them. I don't blame them. I blame only myself for the fact that he died alone in an old hospital room."

"Kate, it's not your fault."

"Sure."

"What was his name?"

"Lawrence Ragetta."

Claire gasped and let out a little shriek. Jack's face went ashen. "Oh my God, Kate, his death was not your fault. You made a mistake; you can't blame yourself for a mistake. I was the one who couldn't save his life."

"What?"

"He came into surgery with spinal injuries while I was on duty. I tried to help him, but to no avail. To this day I blame myself for his death."

Claire let out a sigh. "Oh, Jack, that isn't killing someone. You scared me that day when you said you had killed a man. Neither of you are to blame; it was just a tragic twist of fate."

Kate was still in shock. "Talk about fate. So you performed surgery of my fiancé two years ago?"

"Yes."

The others began to murmur amongst themselves. Michael turned to his son. "Well, Walt, looks like maybe it won't be impossible for you to play your game. I knew Laurence Ragetta; he worked with me on a major architectural project."

Walt smiled. He was quickly getting caught up in his game, and missing the significance of what he was discovering. "Well, I'm your son, that's easy. Let's see… I briefly went to the Thompson Boarding School in Australia. Anybody know that?"

Claire meekly raised a hand. "My niece attended there. Her name is Kelsey Ray."

"I knew her! We hung out together while I was there all the time."

"She may have spoken of you in her letters, then. I loved pen pal correspondences. I was constantly writing to her and to this woman whose profession I just could not figure out. She was very vague about it. Helen, I think her name was."

Lock nearly rose out of his seat. "Helen! I loved her. I… I had thought that we had a good relationship going. I spent my days at the box shop trying to get enough money to support her."

Hurley looked over at him. "Box shop? Hey, dude, I owned a box shop."

Locke nodded absently. "Oh, Helen. Maybe if I had kept my job at that wedding catering place…."

It was Boone's turn to interject. "How could I have forgotten, John Locke! Of course. You worked at my mom and my business. And, hmm, now that I think about it, when I went to get Shannon from Australia, I briefly talked to the police. There was this guy there who looked a lot like Sawyer being dragged into a cell."

Sawyer grinned recklessly. "That would have been me. I had been caught trying to con this Korean guy."

"You mean Jin!" Kate asked, getting excited.

"Oh, yeah. Wow, it was him."

"Great memory, Sawyer. You are so impressively observant."

Sun softly began to speak. "Yes, it was you, Sawyer. How I hated you at the time. I had just decided not to leave Jin. I had decided that everything he had done was the fault of working with my father and brother, Ran."

Sayid, who had been silent throughout this interchange, finally spoke up. "It was a man named Ran who aided my Nadia in her escape by donating a good deal of money to the Free Iraqi Women Fund."

Charlie put in, "Wow, Driveshaft supported that charity!"

Claire looked at him in surprise. "I hadn't gotten the impression that you and your band-mates were charitable people back then."

"Our manager suggested it because it would give us a tax break, honestly. At that point, you know, I was so drugged out that I barely knew where my money was going. Once, I almost died when I slipped into a coma. I still thank God for that amazing doctor, Samuel Gonfield."

Jack took in a deep breath. "Sam Gonfield was my best friend in med school."

Walt bounced excitedly in his seat. He could not understand why the adults seemed to be taking things seriously. "This sis great! That makes a circle, right Dad? Right. Let's see.

Jack performed failed surgery on Kate's love (who she killed in a car accident), Laurence, who worked as an architect w/ Michael, whose son is me, and I attended school in Australia with the niece of Claire, whose pen-pal was Helen, who was loved by Locke, who before working for Hurley's box company, worked a brief stint at a catering company that provided food for a wedding planned by Boone and his mother that enabled them to raise enough money to bring Shannon home from Sydney, where her brother encountered Sawyer, who was being taken after trying to swindle Jin, whose marriage to Sun caused him to dirty work for her father, which involved working with her brother, who unknowingly aided Nadia, the love of Sayid, in her escape when he donated money to a charity to aid Iraqi women that was supported by the band of Charlie, who got revived from a heroin-induced coma by the best friend of Jack.

Right?"

"Right," Claire repeated slowly. "You know, it really makes you think. Every day, you encounter hundreds of people who you just pass by. You ignore them and forget them and move on without a thought. But you never know if that man who just beeped his horn at you could be your future husband."

Silence enveloped the plane. All were looking around at each other, seeing themselves in a new light. They had all felt connected, but it was the supposition of all that it was only because of a dream.

Suddenly, the silence was shattered by a bang and a yell from the back of the plane. Every person there jumped and screamed. "Not again!" cried Hurley.

Instead of a ripping noise and the roar of a dying engine, however, they heard a man's angry voice and footsteps. They watched intently as the armed marshal dragged a ragged-looking Danielle Rousseau into the main cabin, along with a young, dark-haired boy. He shoved them onto two empty seats and barked, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm… I'm so sorry. I am Danielle and this is my son, Alex. We are here because… because we had no choice. We had to get away, his prescience was poisoning us. Ethan! That horrible devil for a man…"

"Woman, you are making no sense. Hey, weren't you in an asylum at some point?"

"I shouldn't have been there, it was all Ethan. It was to his advantage to make us look crazy; he needed it for his business…"

Claire sat bolt upright. "What business?"

"Ethan was a horrible man. He… He sold babies. Sweet, beautiful little babies. All in the illegal adoption trade, he got lots of money from that. That was all he wanted from life, his money. He took Alex years ago; I thank God that I found him again. He wanted your little Lyle, he had him pre-sold, everyone wants little blonde babies. If your Charlie hadn't shot him…"

The marshal interrupted her. "Look, lady, I don't know who you think you are, but I want you to stop spilling this nonsense. Calm down and shut up, got it?"

He waved his gun, and Danielle fell silent. She sat back in her seat and wrapped her arms around her son.

Claire looked at her with the deepest sympathy. "I believe her. I think that what she is saying is true. Ethan wanted Lyle for money."

Locke raised his eyebrows. "Ah. So Ethan had to feed the monster."

"What are you talking about?" Sawyer growled.

"His own, slowly overwhelming greed."

"Sure, whatever. Keep up the philosophy. The point here is that this guy was a total asshole who deserved to die."

Locke began to lecture. "Philosophy is the key to understanding. One must…" He moved to cross his aching legs as he spoke. "I…" A look of panic slowly spread over his face. "Damn it, I can't move my legs!" he yelled.

"Buddy, I think that that's the least of our problems," remarked Hurley.

The rest followed his gaze to the back of the plane, where a rupture was slowly beginning.

Suddenly, there began a sickeningly familiar series of bumps and bangs.

Then, there was blackness once again.


In Los Angeles, Deborah Shepard was cleaning her home at warp speed. She liked to keep busy during times of tension. Today, however, she was feeling especially bothered by the silence in the house.

Going into the living room, she flipped on the television to one of her favorite news channels. She proceeded to dust and listen to the news simultaneously, until she heard the binging that signified breaking news. She turned towards the television and watched intently as a dour-looking reporter appeared on the screen. Next to him was a picture of a plane.

"We have just gotten word of a tragic example of cruel irony. Of curse, you all remember the survivors of the brutal crash of Oceanic Flight #815. Today, fourteen of the main survivors boarded Flight # 518 to go to Australia again to testify about this crash. Tragically, the plane crashed in nearly the same spot. Only the pilot and an armed marshal were able to survive the crash. Sadly, all of the survivors were killed, along with a stowaway woman and her son. The cause of the crash is yet unknown. We'll keep you updated, so stay tuned to…"

Deborah reached forward and turned off the television in shock. The silence was welcome now.

She thought of her beloved son. The knowledge that he would not return this time hit her full force, coupled with the strange feeling that, wherever he was, he was happy. She sank to the couch and cried, taking comfort in that and the fact that she had told him that she loved him before he left.


"We're back!" yelled Walt, jumping up and down excitedly.

His joyous scream caused the others to rub their eyes and slowly sit up. They found themselves on a familiar beach.

"Look, look!" continued Walt. "Everything's just how we left it!"

Hurley slowly pulled himself up. He saw that he was lying next to his old walkman. He was surprised to see that Walt was right; the little piece of civilization that they had built for themselves in the dream was here.

Danielle reached over to clutch Alex's hand. At any given moment before this, she would have claimed that she would be miserable to find herself back on the island. But now, with Alex, it didn't seem that bad. In fact, it felt like home. She even had the vague notion that maybe, with some searching; she would even find her Robert.

Locke slowly tried to stand up. He was happy to find that his legs were in great condition again. He reached down and picked up one of his spears, fingering it contentedly. "I've been anxious for a good hunt."

He passed by Charlie, Claire, and Lyle. "Oh, Charlie," she was saying. "I can't believe that we are all okay again!"

"Yeah, but I don't know that we'll be able to get off here this time."

"That's okay. We have each other, we have our son, and we have our friends. What more could we want? If we were to be back in LA, Kate would die and you would be locked up and we all would be miserable. Here, there's a chance at happiness, a second shot at a new start."

Charlie smiled. "I suppose you're right. One thing, though: what about the wedding? How will we get married?"

Sawyer came up behind her. "I can be a minister."

"What!"

"Don't ask why or how, but let's just say that I have the proper paperwork."

Upon hearing this, Walt rushed over. In the hours since the crash, he seemed to have a boundless supply of energy. "Can I be the ring-bearer? Please?"

"Of course, Walt."

"Okay, good! I'll go get Kate and Jack and we can have a wedding!"

Somehow, Claire felt that they wouldn't wholly appreciate that at the moment. "How about we have the ceremony at sundown, Walt, okay?"

"Alright."


Meanwhile, Jack and Kate had landed a little apart from the rest of the islanders. They had found their way to Jack's old medical tent. In silence, they walked in and sat on the pile of seats and blankets that had served as a pallet.

Jack watched Kate. She looked up at him. Suddenly, she broke out into a smile and began to laugh happily.

Her joy bubbled over into Jack, and he joined her in laughing. She turned and pushed him down on the pallet, briefly kissing his lips before lying down next to him and snuggling against him. "We're going to be okay," she said when she could finally speak. "Who would have thought that a plane crash could be such a wonderful occurrence?"

"Yeah, it seems like crashing here saved your life."

Kate looked thoughtful a moment. "Did it? We were here before because we were in comas. Now, we all want to stay here. If we do, wouldn't that mean that we're all…?"

"We don't have to debate that. All in all, it isn't that important, is it? Heaven or hell, life or death, what matters is that we are all here together. What matters is that you are safe and happy. What matters is that I love you."

"And I love you," she echoed.

Jack pulled her closer and began to kiss her once more. Kate reciprocated with all her heart. They both knew that they shared an unbreakable connection that had lasted despite near impossible odds. They were wordlessly resolving to love and stand by each other no matter what came.

The kiss grew more passionate as they slowly removed their clothes until there was nothing between them.

And this time, there were no interruptions.


Later, Jack and Kate emerged from the tent to find everyone in high spirits. They were delighted to learn of the upcoming wedding.

The sun had begun to sink under the horizon, setting the sky ablaze with streaks of pink and red and purple. Claire sighed at the beautiful view and picked up the bouquet of flowers given to her by her maid of honor, Kate.

She walked slowly over to where Charlie stood next to Sawyer, Jack, and Kate. She smiled as she said her vows and promised to love Charlie forever. He did likewise.

When they kissed, it was the most magical moment of both of their lives.

At this, everyone yelled and cheered happily. Claire took Lyle from Kate and sat down with her new husband.

They were all intent on having a nice celebration for the newlyweds. Hurley was grateful that he had packed extra batteries in his pocket, just in case. He began playing love songs and cheerful music. Locke was cooking a boar over the large fire he had set up in the center of a ring of longs and mats that could be used as seats.

The islanders laughed and danced and talked merrily, each declaring that they could spend the rest of their time on the island and be happy. Jack and Kate raised their eyebrows at each other, recognizing that many had not realized that this was a probable occurrence.

Locke finished cooking and serving everyone. He stepped back to see the others as a whole. He saw the same faces he had seen in his dream, and he felt that something was going on here beneath the surface that he did not quite understand. He also knew, however, that he would have quite awhile to try to figure it out.

Stepping close, he commented, "So, looks like we're right back where we started."

Many nodded agreement, but none seemed to mind.

Claire and Charlie looked at each other and laughed.

Jack smiled and puts his arm around Kate. "Not exactly."


So, that's it. I had a great time writing this and I hope that I was able to do a good job wrapping everything up. Please let me know one more time what you thought of this chapter and the story overall.

Thanks for reading!

Blue Twilight