Notes: New chapter up... I was on vacation, so sorry for the wait... Thanks to hersheygal for reviewing chapter 4! Please read and review...
Disclaimer: The song sung by Rose and Bernard is kind of a parody of "Hope" by The Descendents... It's a good song, so check it out...
"Henry" was locked away in his cell. He smiled faintly, despite his fate. He might be killed, he might be tortured, he might be beaten to a bloody pulp until he admitted to something. But it was better than being returned to him.
They didn't know that he didn't have to sing the truth. He had been trained for occasions like this; each of them had. When anyone else on the island would break into song, revealing everything, he could simply sit back, let it flow through him, and sing some stupid song about how he was Henry Gale and was in a balloon… but it was too late to sing songs of that nature. Now he sang mostly about how he wasn't going to reveal answers… and he had been mostly successful.
Outside, Locke and Jack discussed the fate of the fake that had been locked away. Jack, always adamant about being on top of things, questioned began:
-
We can't just sit around here
Something huge is very near
We can't let this keep going on
We'll lose our secrets singing songs
-
Well what am I expected to do
If bound to chair and crutch?
"Henry" here isn't involved
Least I suspect as much
-
I just can't see just why you trust him
He's lied to use before
It seems the more time you spend with him
You trust him all the more
-
But he sang, Jack
We sang the truth
I trust the man
Though he's uncouth
-
You sure that "Henry" didn't lie?
-
If I'm dead wrong, then let me die
"I really hope you're right, Locke," Jack said, with a number of things on his mind. While the idea that Henry Gale was very involved in this whole singing issue, he also had other concerns. He wondered whether or not the Others had Walt. He desperately wanted this guy out of the hatch and a trade seemed like the best option. Two birds with one stone.
Besides that, Jack was hoping that Sawyer would stay away from Kate and vice-versa. Sawyer wasn't right for her. Jack was. It was supposed to be since the moment on the island. From the minute she took charge and sewed him up that first day on the island, she had stitched in place the idea that the two were supposed to be together.
Charlie helped Eko with his building. He brought Eko whatever he asked for and hammered some things, but he still didn't know what Eko was building. Charlie hoped that through song, he would learn what the bloody hell it was, for even after it was up all around him it seemed to have to very specific shape.
His hopes were raised a bit when he heard the rhythmic swelling of African drums pounding from nowhere that went just in timewith Eko's axe-beats. His hope fell again when Eko began to sing, for he sang in some Nigerian dialect that Charlie had no hope of understanding.
Charlie interrupted Eko's rhythmic chant. "Won't you just please tell me what it is already?" Charlie begged.
"Ilé ìjôsìn ilé Ôlörunìjô onígbàgbô."
"Well that clears it up," Charlie said, frustrated.
"It will be a church," Eko said plainly.
Bloody hell, that made a great deal of sense, Charlie thought to himself. A church was just what this place needed to really become, well, liveable. Since landing on the island, his faith had been almost completely renewed. Perhaps with this thing Charlie could redeem himself, wash himself free of sin and then maybe Claire would take him back. Maybe this was exactly what Charlie needed.
"Bloody brilliant," Charlie told Eko.
"Thank you," Eko said and smiled.
While Charlie's faith was being reborn, Locke's was quickly dwindling. "Why am I here?" Locke yelled at himself silently. "What's the point of this damned place if I can't…" he pounded on the desk in frustration.
"Everything fine in there?" Ana-Lucia shouted from her post near the vault to Locke's position at the computer, where he had failed numerous times at recreating the map he had seen on the vault walls.
"I'm fine, I'm fine…" he said, crumpling up the scratched out circular drawing and tossing it, unrolling a new sheet of paper. Only 8 minutes left on the Dharma clock. He started again, closing his eyes, desperately trying to remember the image in his head. Trying to remember, trying to remember, trying to:
Trying to recall
I don't know what I'm doing here
And every time I fall
My goal becomes even less clear
-
At first I thought I understood
I thought this all made sense
Perhaps this isn't something good
It's all a great big mess
-
This place healed me
And so I thought
Just good stemmed from this place
But I was wrong
The island's not
A better change of pace
-
I've nearly given up
These hints, these clues are not enough
I no longer believe
It's better if we never leave
It's better if…
"Are you sure you're okay?" Ana-Lucia asked, walking up next to Locke as he scribbled on the paper.
"Yeah, fine…"
"Just checking up," she said, turning around, not hearing anything of Locke's song.
"Damn it," Locke cursed under his breath.
Bernard was disheartened for his own reasons. It seemed that no one wanted off this island. That probably wasn't true, he realized, but still no one acted like they cared anymore. Soon there would be a thriving civilization on the island with running water and electricity right on the beach… he hoped to be safe at home with his wife before that could happen.
What discouraged him the most was the way Rose was acting. She more than most of the rest seemed to be intent on staying here. All he wanted was for her to be safe, to be healthy. Not once did he regret his trip to Australia, did he blame himself for the position that both he and Rose were now in because she was healed. She was okay, and that was what mattered most, besides getting home soon to be together:
Why can't you see
What you do to me
It doesn't seem
That you want off this rock
-
But soon we'll be home
Both in each other's arms
Your pain now gone
Because I know
That soon the day will come
Get off this island
With all this torment done
-
Call me selfish, call me what you like
But I think It's right
To take care of your only one
The person whom you love
-
But this is the way
Since if you had your say, anyway
You wouldn't have stood a chance
-
But now you wait for some plane
That you think we'll get rescued on
But Isaac never really healed
The way you thought he healed
Those times I made you cry
Well really, then I lied
-
I don't want the day to come
I need this island
It healed me
It's the reason it's all done
"Rose… why didn't you just tell me the truth before?" Bernard asked, teary-eyed.
"I wanted our last moments together to bespent without you worrying, Bernard." It ended in embrace.
Rose was right, there was a reason that they were on the island. He would be up and walking in no time. The lapse in faith was just some sort of test, Locke assured himself. That explained why most people healed so quickly, both from physical and emotional demons. He had marvelled at the brevity of Charlie's withdrawal, but it could easily be attributed to the strange qualities of the island.
Now I easily recall
I surely know what I'm doing here
And every time I fall
I'll stand again, nothing to fear…
"Jack, no one's coming."
"Yes, there is Kate. I've got a sixth sense about these things. I can just taste it…"
"Actually, Jack, that's one of the five."
"Whatever… I know someone's coming."
"Let's go," she begged. It was cold, damp, and miserable and she knew the Others weren't going to just give Walt to them, even for the man trapped in the cell in the hatch.
They've got to be out there somewhere
"No, Jack…"
They're right here, listening to me
Any moment now they'll give up
Just wait a second and you'll see
-
They don't want him back
I don't think they care
'Bout our prisoner, Jack
In the hatch over there
-
But they must
Since they know
They can't trust
Him for long
Because soon
He'll give up
And he'll croon
And he'll give us
The answers to questions
That we've asked all along
Because sooner or later
He'll reveal them in song
And…
A rustling sound in the bushes interrupted his song and Michael came bursting from the jungle. He fell to the floor, unconscious.
"Michael…" Kate rushed to his side and Jack followed quickly behind.
"Told you someone was coming…"