As dawn broke, three long, faint, blasts of a whistle wailed across the island, unheard by human ear. But not all ears on the island were human. One pair was of the more sensitive canine variety. Vincent hadn't gotten used to the concept of Shannon being his new owner, and was not sleeping particularly soundly. The first blast of the whistle was enough to make him open his eyes wide. The second caused him to spring to his feet. And the third sent him off sprinting in the direction of the sound, barking loudly enough to rouse the entire camp at the cave.

Several groans ensued from the abruptly woken castaways. Aaron cried at quite a high volume, and Claire and Charlie were trying to settle him down. Shannon complained, "What is it with that dog?" and Sayid felt the same way. But Sun sat bolt upright and announced,

"Someone is in trouble and needs our help."

In a sleepy voice Sayid answered, "That dog gets excited over anything," but Sun shot him a stare that made his blood run cold. He hadn't felt like that since fighting in the Gulf War. He corrected himself, "of course, let me help you."

Sun and Sayid gathered up a good quantity of medical supplies, including bandages, antibiotics, splints, and water among other potentially useful items, and stuffed them in a backpack. Sayid, being an excellent athlete, offered to carry them to wherever they had to go. However, they would have to wait for Vincent to return.

On the beach, Jin was still trying to decide what to do when his decision was made for him. A beige blur shot out of the forest, surveyed the situation, streaked toward the smallest of the human figures, and with great zeal, starting licking his face.

It was way too soon for Walt to be woken up. Just one hour of sleep after what he had been through? But that slobbery feel on his face would not go away. And now those paws on his chest were making it hard to breathe. Walt's brain slowly processed the information, and told him that no matter how tired he was he had to open his eyes. It took a few seconds for the image to come into focus.

"VINCENT! Oh, Vincent!" and the dog was immediately wrapped up in a hug.

Just then Jin staggered up, shouting single words and pointing at the man who lay unconscious with a bullet in his arm: "Sawyer! Medicine. Doctor. Jack." No, wait, Jack was at the hatch, away from most of the medical equipment. "Not Jack, Sun!" Jin helped Walt sit up and continued pointing to clarify his instructions.

The events of the past night returned to Walt's memory, and he looked around and spotted his father lying a few meters away and breathing heavily. "Dad!"

"Dad—good. Sawyer—help," Jin continued his explanation.

Walt finally understood, and realized what he had to do. He struggled to his knees, held Vincent's head in his hands, looked his pet straight in the eyes, and commanded, "Vincent: get Sun." Walt turned Vincent toward the forest in the direction Jin was pointing, and gave the Labrador a push on the rear. Vincent took off in the direction whence he came. When he disappeared into the forest, Walt crawled over to Michael, tired to hug him, and collapsed on him with an "Oh, Dad."

Sun and Sayid had been waiting impatiently at the cave entrance. They had plenty of time for a good breakfast themselves, which they were quite likely to need. It was agonizing not knowing in which direction Vincent had run; the dog had raced out of view before anyone else was fully awake. After almost two of the longest hours in their lives, they heard the familiar barking, and met Vincent about fifty meters from the cave. It wasn't a big distance, but any time saved could be important.

The return trip to the beach took close to two hours, as the humans had a much tougher time negotiating some nearly non-existent jungle paths. During that time Jin had to watch in sorrow as the powerboat drifted away with the tide as he maintained pressure on the bullet wound. A potentially very useful item for means of escaping the island floated out of reach. As Sun and Sayid neared the beach, Vincent ran ahead, alerting Jin to the approach of their saviors. A few seconds later, Sun was stunned to hear her husband's voice, shouting an explanation in Korean of what had happened.

Wasting no time, Sun and Sayid completed their trek, and set to work on Sawyer. They removed the blood-soaked strip of cloth, put antibiotics in the wound, and applied a fresh, clean bandage. Only after Sawyer was cleaned up, and Jin assured Sun that Michael and Walt would be okay, did the Korean couple embrace. Jin swore he would never abandon Sun again, and begged for forgiveness, which she immediately granted. Sayid surveyed the touching situation: father, son, and dog, and husband and wife, reunited. But nothing would make him hug Sawyer. Sayid was quite content with being quietly helpful in general. His style was to help out as much as he could, and then not brag about it, such as when he made that pair of reading eyeglasses for Sawyer; it was his way of gaining respect. Looking at Sawyer once more, Sayid realized that he would soon have the opportunity to fashion another pair of glasses, and that was just fine with him.

Jin, Sun, and Sayid helped Sawyer, Michael, and Walt out of the scorching sun, into the shade at the edge of the forest. After everyone had some water, the more exhausted threesome was allowed to sleep for most of the day, before they all returned to the cave encampment.

For all the adventure, the situation of the Lostaways was almost reset to what it was two days before. They were still stranded on the island, and it appeared that they would be there indefinitely. Danger still lurked; there may have been less of a threat from the kidnapping "Others," but there still may be more out there. Still there were some consequences of the ill-fated raft mission. The next father-son activity Michael and Walt got to share was suffering a moderate sunburn, but they were elated to be alive and together in order to be able to share in the experience. They spent the next three days in the caves, with Michael instructing his son in sketching art and Walt teaching his father backgammon. Also, as Walt walked into camp, he suffered some minor embarrassment involving Power Ranger jokes, and the following effort to make him some clothes that would fit. But that was no big deal considering he had Vincent back for good. It would take several weeks for Sawyer to regain most of the use of his left arm. During the recuperation he was pretty much his normal, charming self, which was interpreted as a good thing by all who knew him. But there was also an additional bit of smugness and sense of self-worth in his demeanor, as having taken a bullet earned him a great deal of respect. Finally, Jin and Sun's relationship had become rock solid. Also over the next several weeks Sun taught Jin English, and they vowed they would live together forever, far away from all the unpleasant events in their lives since their marriage, wherever that may be.


Author's notes:

This is the end of my story; I have nowhere else to go from here.

To the reviewers:

Good guess on Sun teaching Jin English after they are reunited; that was part of the plan from the beginning. Sorry, Hurley has human ears. The "unheard by human ear" thing was supposed to be a subtle clue. I just can't leave Vincent out of these. If I do another story Hurley will have a much bigger role.

To Whirlwind-2005: The Others were left floundering in the water after being knocked off their boat by the shark in Chapter 3. It is likely they perished, but the story makes it so that there is doubt as to their fate. The castaways cannot be sure they have seen the last of the Others.

Once again, thanks to all of you.