The castaways recount their adventures as the group waits for Danielle's arrival.

Hurley had spotted the large tree by a bend in a river that came close to the eastern shore, as described by Danielle. She had made him promise not to say anything to anyone about how to contact her, and he had agreed, but he did throw in a proviso about revealing that secret in case of emergency. Alex's return unquestionably qualified as an emergency. Hurley was compelled to explain.

"I don't want to get everyone's hopes up too high, but Danielle entrusted me to with a way to contact her. I'm supposed to leave a message in the cutout area of this tree here. She said she'll check this daily. I guess we can write something and tell her we set up camp a little ways from here?"

This news came as a surprise to Alex. She had assumed she would just be going to the castaway's camp, and hope her mother would find her there, but now it looked like she might be much closer. "You mean my mother is close by?"

Sayid stepped forth, "Danielle is sure to see us before we see her under these circumstances. She has been under tremendous emotional strain, and we don't wish to frighten her. If she was here she would have let us know by now. I agree we should leave the message and make camp perhaps one hundred meters south of here, out of sight from that tree."

The group made camp, had their evening meal, and went to bed. This time Alex couldn't sleep. She whispered to Walt, next to her, "Walt, are you awake? I can't sleep. Do you really think my mother is here?"

Walt was doing a better job sleeping the second night he wasn't in chains. He was in fact mostly asleep and didn't feel like responding, but when Alex scratched his head, he let out a sigh of contentment, belying the fact he was at least partially awake.

"What is it? Oh yes, Hurley is very honest, and if he says your mother is around, I'm sure he's right. But if you can't sleep, there's something I wanted to do for you for a long time."

Walt glanced at Michael, who was on Walt's other side, again, and he was sound asleep.

"Here, turn over," he instructed Alex. "I owe you this." When she was on her stomach next to one edge of their makeshift tent, Walt rolled over onto his knees, scooted up next to her, and began massaging her back, trying his best to imitate the motions she had performed on him so many times. Her back was bare except for the strap for her boarskin top, so the task was not difficult. Her back and shoulder muscles were very tense, but she and Walt had time. After a few minutes Alex slowly began to relax.

"Walt, no one ever did this for me before. You have a talent for this."

"Only because you taught me so well."

No more words were exchanged that night, as Alex drifted off to sleep several minutes later. Then Walt lay back down and was soon asleep himself, grateful for the chance to repay Alex a little for all the massages that had helped get him through that awful ordeal.

When morning came, Sayid rose first, and went back to the tree and found that Hurley's message was still there. He returned and asked what everyone felt they should do.

Michael started, "Walt should see the doctor as soon as possible," but was immediately cut off by Walt.

"No! We're staying here until Danielle gets here! At least wait the one day since Hurley said she'll come by every day. They've been waiting more than sixteen years for this, and we can't let anything mess it up now." Walt folded his arms across his chest to emphasize his position.

Michael was torn, but couldn't bear the thought of Walt being unhappy at this point. Then he realized, "If yours and Alex's positions were reversed, and I was in Danielle's shoes, I would want you all to wait for me. All right then, I can stay. But it's up to everyone whether they want to go back to our camp or not."

Sun and Jin looked at each other. If they ever had a child, they would want him or her protected as much as possible in a similar situation. Hurley and Sayid, after having a few brief encounters with Danielle, wanted to see her again.

That would mean Sawyer would go back alone if he was that eager to. Rather than doing that, he offered, "Well, isn't this just cozy. If we're going to be stuck here, is there anything y'all would like to talk about?"

Walt assured Alex that this was Sawyer's way of being friendly. Walt responded, "We told you a lot of what happened to us. Why don't you tell us what's been going on with you?"

Michael answered, "We've been trying to find you all along. I've told you about the expedition around the island, where we found your old clothes used to rig that booby trap. And you know about that explosion when you and Locke were sending those messages. After that didn't work, I built the canoe, with help from Jin. Just as it was ready to go, an unbelievable sequence of monsoons struck. We were stuck in the caves for a solid month. When the rains finally let up enough, the canoe had been damaged, and Jin and I had to start almost from scratch.

There is something else. There was another rescue attempt through the caves, by Jack, Kate, and Danielle. The story I heard was that they blew open a solid metal door with some plastic explosives. There was some kind of machine inside, and it had tentacles, one of which grabbed Kate's leg and started to pull her away. The machine may have been some kind of security system. Anyway, Jack had to throw a couple of grenades to get Kate free, and there was a big explosion. Apparently there was a lot of fire, and some of the cave walls or ceilings may have collapsed. Kate was injured, with burns and cuts, but was healing all right when we left."

"When did this happen?" asked Walt.

"Oh, about a month ago," replied Michael. "Why? Were you aware of it?"

Walt and Alex exchanged glances, and then couldn't help smiling. Walt was excited to be the storyteller.

"Uh, yeah, we remember that. I was working in the mines way at that end when the explosion happened, and Alex was kind of nearby. The ceiling and back wall gave way, and I got completely buried in the mud that poured through. And I was standing straight up. I thought I was going to die. But then I was able to clear enough mud away from my head to hear Alex's voice. She got hurt, spraining her ankle. But if I couldn't have heard her I wouldn't have known which way to go. It was hard, and it took me a long time to climb my way out of there, and crawl along the top of the mound of mud to get to the opening of that tunnel into the main corridor. But a lot of good came out of that. After that Alex and I completely trusted each other."

Alex cut in. "Walt hasn't told you everything. At first, the Others had me completely under their control. I had to do a lot of their dirty work. There is something strange about this disease, but if they got too close to Walt, he wouldn't be able to sense the mineral he was mining. But for some reason my presence didn't affect him, probably because I used to have the same ability, but to a much lesser extent. That's why they wanted Walt, because children on this island have this ability, and I was getting too old for that purpose. But I was useful as a guide. I would bring him meals, and – I have to admit this – I was the one who put the chains on him almost every night. But there is something about Walt that made me change – to restore my desire to see the outside world. We had to learn to trust each other, and that cave-in finally did it."

Michael looked at Alex with surprise. "You … chained my son to that bed every night?"

Walt immediately answered, "She had to; they threatened us. If she didn't, then they would have …" Walt decided he may as well tell about the water torture now, to justify Alex's actions even though they didn't need any.

"You don't know all the horrible things the Others did. When they caught me communicating with Mr. Locke, they drugged me, and when I woke up, I was tied to a table like this. Completely stretched out."

Walt lay back on the ground with his arms and legs extended.

"I couldn't move at all. And then water started dripping on me. Here and here and here." Walt pointed to his forehead, chest, and navel in order. "They just left me alone like that. For like eight hours! I was going crazy, but luckily passed out. If Alex didn't chain me to the bed each night, they would have done something like that, or worse, to both of us more often. So don't blame Alex for anything. After I got buried in the mud, she was terrific for being able to lie to the Others, and help us to get rescued." Walt got back to his feet.

Michael again was disgusted at the way the Others treated Walt. Water torture on a ninety-nine percent nude ten-year-old boy. Walt may have looked eleven or twelve by then but that didn't matter. Michael thought he should have been rougher on the Others while he had the chance, and he was ashamed for thinking Alex might have done something awful. "I'm sorry, Alex, for reacting that way. I know you did what you had to, and I'm eternally grateful."

"Thank you, Michael," answered Alex. "Under the circumstances Walt had to be afraid of confiding in me, but that buried by mud thing did something to us. Would you like to hear how Walt affected me? He got me to laugh for the first time in … forever. He had almost made it to the end of the long pile of mud, but got careless and sank in very deep at the end. He looked so funny with the expression on his face then."

"Right up to here," interjected Walt, placing his hand horizontal to the ground at the top of his chest. "Guess we were so crazy we played in the mud a while. That was the one time I got the rest of the day off."

Sawyer let out a guffaw, and rubbed Walt's head. Michael gave Alex a big hug. Then someone else's voice was heard.

"It really is you – my Alex."

Everyone had been so absorbed in the conversation that Danielle had been able to approach them easily without being seen or heard. She had listened in on the conversation for a few minutes, long enough to understand what had happened to the two children who had been missing. She put down her rifle, and Alex ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug in either's life. Tears came readily, while words did not, though the latter were unnecessary to convey the feelings of mother and daughter.

After a few minutes, Danielle released Alex, and went to each of the castaways.

"Sayid, I am so sorry I treated you the way I did. If I had known …"

"It's all right, I might have reacted the same way you did if I were in your position. Good to see you again."

Next was Hurley. "You are a good man, and true to your word. I will always be in your debt."

"Um, thanks, but you don't owe me anything. Seeing you and Alex together is all I could ask for."

Danielle didn't really know Sawyer, Sun, or Jin, and thanked them politely for their help. She then turned to Michael.

"You have tremendous determination, and this has served you well. You have shown you will do anything within reason for your child. You have a most amazing son, dear Michael. You have done a great job raising him in the short time you have known him. His tenacity and sense of righteousness comes from you. Don't lose him again, and spend many wonderful years together."

"Uh, thank you. You give me too much credit. Parenting is hard, and I made mistakes at first, but I think we're getting the hang of it now."

Danielle turned to Walt. She placed her hands on his shoulders, and looked into his eyes.

"This is the boy I saw that day on the beach, the day you set sail on the raft. You have grown so much. The Others have abused you, done nasty things to you. They have robbed you of much of your childhood. But if it weren't for you, I probably never would have seen my Alex again. I can never thank you enough."

Walt had something to say. "Hey, it wasn't just me. If it weren't for Alex, I probably would have been a slave for the rest of my life. And even that might not have been for long; you can't tell with those guys."

"Thank you, Walt, in any case." Danielle slid her hands down Walt's arms.

"Now if you will excuse us, Alex and I have some catching up to do. I will take her to see your doctor tomorrow."

The castaways waved good-bye as Danielle led Alex to Danielle's current home, a bunker in the middle of the forest. There was no question that the two of them needed some time alone. When they were out of sight, they packed up, leaving the canoe behind, and headed for the caves, a journey that would take about half a day on a direct route.