Danielle and Alex move, while Walt's test results come in and another attempt is made to break into the mines.
Alex and Danielle had a long talk well into the night. It wasn't nearly enough time to describe their adventures of the past sixteen years, but as it grew quite late, Alex remarked,
"I can't image living alone for so long. Isn't it time we lived in a real community?"
"Whatever you want, my dear Alex. We can build a home on the beach starting tomorrow. This place – this bunker I've lived in for so long – has no good memories. It is time to move."
"Thank you mother. These are good people. I want to get as far away from those Others as possible."
When morning came, Danielle and Alex made the trip carrying some of Danielle's possessions. As they agreed, Jack would give Alex a physical examination.
"Good to meet you, Alex," greeted Jack. "I've heard a lot about you since yesterday. You sound like quite an amazing young woman to have gone through what you did and perform so well in a crisis. Now I need to know, did those Others give you injections like they gave Walt?"
"They tried a few injections a long time ago, but nothing that affected me like the injections they gave Walt, Doctor … Jack. No pronounced growth spurts, if that's what you mean. By the time they figured out what they wanted to accomplish, I was too old for them."
"Well, I guess that's fortunate for you. Have you had any other injuries or illnesses I should know about?"
"Actually I've been pretty healthy. Oh, I did sprain my ankle in a cave-in accident about a month ago. Walt almost got killed by being buried in mud and debris. But he got out of it, and we worked much better together after that."
"Oh, right, Walt told me about that." Jack sighed. "To tell the truth, I threw the grenades that touched off that mudslide, to get some machine to release its hold on Kate. If only we had known, we could have tried something else. Maybe you know something about this machine?"
"You had no way of knowing we were nearby, and were doing your best to rescue us. I believe that machine was a security system. It was stationed at the far southern end of the mines. Your explosion did a lot of damage to it, and the Others were trying to repair it when your group rescued us."
Alex thought for a moment.
"With the machine inoperable, we could break through to the mines form this end by clearing some rocks, if done in a safe manner."
Jack made a mental note of that and went on with the physical exam. Alex was in above average condition by everything he measured, but not extraordinarily so. Steady, slow pulse, quick reflexes, good agility and strength for her age. Jack took a blood sample and a strand of hair for further testing, like he did for Walt the day before.
Jack had let Walt's blood sample react with some chemicals overnight. He sought Walt and Michael out to inform them of his findings. Once he found them, he explained.
"First, it is impossible to say with any great accuracy how much longer Walt will grow quickly based on what I can do here. But based on his hair samples, my best guess that he will experience accelerated growth for another month or two. This drug appears to wear off over time, and I have some idea by examining the hair under Sayid's microscope. There are stretches were hair growth, and the correlated body growth, slow down. The root of the hair indicates Walt has not reached that stage yet from his latest injection. However, samples from the middle of the strands show the rapid growth will decelerate over time. It appears that Walt's last injection was given at a time where his growth had slowed down."
Walt nodded. "That makes sense. I was having a harder time sensing their mineral before that last shot. All these things seemed related."
Jack continued, "You must be aware of the possibility that Walt will reach his full adult height in approximately two months. Beyond that, I don't have any data to estimate his final height. We'll know more in a month or two. It's quite possible Walt will stop growing then, and there's a fair chance he will wind up a few inches taller than he would have without those injections. In any case I'm sure it's a good thing they stopped when they did."
Michael and Walt weren't going to disagree with that.
"Now there is one more important result I was able to determine from Walt's blood sample. Walt, I imagine you didn't get any natural sunlight or much in the way of dairy products these last few months, have you?"
"No, I was underground the whole time, and had mostly fruit juice and water to drink. What's wrong?"
"Now don't be alarmed, but you have a serious Vitamin D deficiency, and it must be attended to immediately. Our diets on this island are rather low in that vitamin, but being outside a fair amount of the time that hasn't affected us to any significant extent. But what you need to do is spend several hours each day in the sun. Best would be a couple hours each in the morning and late afternoon. Too much direct sun around noon is going too far. There's a chance your skin might be able to handle that, but we don't need to take that risk. In any case, you should move to the beach, and I mean today. And, well, I may as well say this directly. The ideal attire for you, Walt, are those charming outfits your friend Alex made for you."
Walt laughed while Michael's face showed a concerned expression. Then he recovered.
"Building a beach house would make a great father-son project. We may be starting from almost nothing, but the challenge will make it interesting."
Walt ran over to Vincent, who had been waiting in the shade of a nearby tree.
"Did you hear that, Vincent? We're moving to the beach, and building a beach house. Let's go!"
Walt couldn't wait to get started, and Michael had to hurriedly gather a few clothes and belongings from the caves to catch up. They met up with Danielle and Alex on the beach. Alex jumped a little at her first sight of the new Walt, with much more clothing and much less hair.
"Good morning Walt. You look … a lot different today." She looked a little disappointed.
"Hello Alex. Yeah, I got a haircut, but I saved some of it for you. I know you liked it that way."
To Alex's surprise, Walt handed her a mass of cut hair wrapped in the leaves. Nonetheless, she appreciated the gesture.
"Why, thank you."
"You're welcome. And one other thing. The doctor says I have a big vitamin D deficiency and need to spend a lot of time in the sun, preferably in the loincloths you made. I hope you won't mind."
Now it was Alex's turn to laugh.
"I think I can manage to put up with that. But only if you let me play with your dog. Of course the Others never let me have pets."
"Deal. Vincent is friendly, see, he likes you."
Meanwhile, news of the quick way to access the mines connected to the hatch spread quickly. More plans were made to remove the multitude of rocks blocking the machine rooms and connecting passages. Upon breaking through, the islanders would have access to equipment of the Others, and it would be easier to lock them up somehow. While Michael, Walt, Danielle, and Alex were moving to the beach, a crew with Jack, Kate, Locke, Sawyer, and Sayid organized the project. Jin, Sun, and Hurley remained on top in case of trouble. The work was tedious, but similar to that when they were digging Locke out from the avalanche nearly three months before, so they were efficient about it. After a few hours, a rock from the top of the pile was rolled away, and they could look into the machine room. Collecting weapons just in case, they crawled over the top.