Chapter 23: The Truth
After the murder of Charles Widmore, Ben and Valerie spent several months living quietly in southern California.
Valerie quickly slipped back into old domestic habits—her life with Ben had never been ordinary, but they'd been profoundly content living together. There was a comfort in resuming those familiar rhythms—as far as they were from the Island, it was the closest she'd felt to being at home in a long time.
In a sense, she was home—she'd never really been happy in L.A., but she'd lived here for years. She didn't have any interest in visiting her old haunts, preferring to spend her time inside the little house they were renting. It had a lemon tree out front, and a pool in the back yard—a perfect place to disappear into oblivion while Ben followed the threads of his plan to get back to the Island.
She wished that she'd pressed her version of him for more information about the time he'd spent off Island. She knew the rough outlines of it—he'd told her a bit about Sayid, and John's death, and Penny. She knew that they'd all have to get on a specific flight—but beyond that, the details were fuzzy. Saving Alex had been the priority—Ben had never liked to talk about the time immediately after her death, and Val had decided that it wasn't worth forcing him to relive it.
Even though the picture they had was incomplete, Ben seemed sure that they just needed to make sure the conditions would be right when the time came. Val kept an eye on the local Oceanic Six passengers for him—fortunately Hugo, Kate, and Jack were all in the area.
Sun had gone back to Korea. Val had never really had a chance to meet Sun on the Island. Ben—in her time—had always spoken highly of Sun's grit, intelligence, and love for her husband. Ben seemed certain she'd show up in L.A. when she needed to, so Valerie had not let herself get too concerned.
She had been, however, very concerned with Sayid's situation. In what was a either a remarkable coincidence or a cruel twist of fate, Sayid had—without any help or encouragement from Ben—tracked down the people responsible for Nadia's death. He'd eventually placed the blame at the feet of Charles Widmore and had gone to Widmore's London penthouse to take his revenge, only to find the man already dead.
In his confusion, it seemed, Sayid had examined the gun Valerie had left behind, leaving behind his fingerprints. He'd been identified, and eventually arrested and extradited to England for the crime.
She wasn't all that familiar with British criminal procedure, but she had been a good prosecutor in her day, so she had set herself to work compiling enough exculpatory evidence that the Crown couldn't bring charges in good faith. She and Ben had paid some good defense lawyers to take his case and anonymously tipped them off to the evidence that Crown was in possession of. He was set to be released later that week.
She had also convinced Ben not to trust Dan Norton—the lawyer Mittelos Bioscience usually engaged. He was—in Valerie's estimation—a bit of a sleazy second tier bottom feeder. She handled the paperwork in the custody dispute over Aaron, leaving Dan to meet with Kate in person. They had been successful in returning Aaron to his grandmother, though Valerie hated seeing Kate spiral into despondence.
Valerie was sitting in her black Jeep outside of Hurley's house—nothing interesting had happened in a few weeks—Hurley had been staying at home as much as possible. Valerie assumed he'd been seeing things—the way he had in her time. This time, he seemed to have enough support from his friends that he hadn't yet needed to get professional help.
She wasn't surprised to see that Hurley had a visitor, but she was startled to see that it was John Locke, being wheeled around by Matthew Abbadon.
As soon as Locke entered the house, she called Ben from her car. He didn't answer.
"Hi hon," she began, after the automated voicemail prompt. "An old friend just stopped by Hugo's house."
She paused and watched as he became agitated, racing out his front door. "I'm not going back there!" she heard him shout to a dismayed John.
"Doesn't look like it's going well—I'll call you back. Love you."
She watched Hurley peel away into the road. Abbadon wheeled Locke around and hurriedly got him into the car.
Valerie watched as they tried to chase Hurley through a yellow light. Hurley's car veered into oncoming traffic and was stopped by a minor collision. Abbadon's car, however, was hit violently on the driver's side by a car speeding wildly into the intersection.
As Valerie started driving cautiously away from the scene, Ben called back.
"Got your message," he said.
"Well this is a clusterfuck. It's John. I think he tried to convince Hugo to go back which did not go well for him. Widmore's elusive friend Matthew might be dead though—so there's a silver lining, I guess. How's your day going?"
Ben didn't say anything.
"Are you there?"
"If you could come home soon, that would be great."
"What?"
"We have a guest. She would like to speak to you."
His tone sent a chill down Valerie's spine. "I'll be right there," she replied decisively and hung up.
She drove home as fast as she could, her heart racing the entire time. She assumed that Kate had snapped—Aaron had become a son to her, and her life was being ripped apart. An extreme reaction would be justified.
She pulled into her driveway and pulled the gun out of the glove compartment, just in case.
She walked swiftly into the house.
"I'm here," she announced.
"We're in the kitchen," Ben called back. He seemed composed, but she could tell he was in distress.
She turned the corner into the kitchen. He had a gun to his head, as she'd suspected—but Kate wasn't the one holding it. It was Sun.
"Put it down," she instructed, aiming her gun at Sun's head.
"You first," Sun replied.
"Could we perhaps all lower our guns at the same time?" Ben suggested.
"Shut up!" they both snapped back at him.
"Sorry," Val added.
He glared at her.
"What do you want, Sun?"
"I want my husband back from the dead," she answered, angrily forcing the barrel of the gun against Ben's head. He winced.
"First of all—Jin isn't dead. Why do you think he's dead? And why do you think it's Ben's fault?"
"Jin was on the freighter when it exploded. And I know who would have wanted the freighter gone—the man it was there to capture."
Ben shot Valerie a plaintive look.
"He's not dead, Sun. And the freighter—Widmore had it rigged to blow if things started to go bad for him. Do you think he wanted anyone to escape the Island? I'd suggest Widmore if you're looking for someone to shoot in the head, but he's already dead."
"I tried to tell her," Ben explained. "She doesn't believe me. I thought you could explain how you know Jin is alive—just to Sun."
"Will you put the gun down if I promise to explain?"
Sun thought about it for a moment before relenting. She set the gun on the table. Ben grabbed it quickly and jumped up to Valerie's side.
Valerie lowered her weapon. "Are you sure you want me to tell her the truth?"
He nodded, then turned to their guest. "Sun, it's important that you keep this a secret—at least for now."
Sun nodded, confused.
"I really am Ben's wife," Valerie began. "I met him on the Island when my sailboat was wrecked—in twenty-fourteen."
She didn't seem to process what Valerie had said.
"The year two thousand and fourteen?" she clarified skeptically.
Valerie nodded. "In my time, Ben died—his tumor came back. For the same reasons that the Island can't be found, it has the ability to shift time. In my timeline, Ben's daughter was killed by the mercenaries on the freighter. I came back to stop that. I know Jin is still on the Island, alive, because for me, it's already happened."
She was careful not to give Sun too many details.
"Do you know us—in the future? Was he still on the Island when you arrived?"
"No," she said simply. "Ben was one of only a few people who chose to stay," she added obliquely.
"How do you know things happened the same way?" Sun asked shrewdly. "Didn't you save his daughter?"
She looked at Ben apologetically. "I don't know, Sun. Almost everything has happened very much the way it was told to me. I know that my presence has changed many things—but life and death seem almost constant."
"Almost," Sun repeated.
Valerie nodded. "I believe he's alive, but I can't promise it. We're all going to need to go back. I know you'll come with us, even if there's only a chance he's there."
Sun nodded slowly.
"Trust me, I understand how you feel. We'll find him."
Valerie ushered a shaken Sun out the door and gave her Kate's address. "She could use a familiar face," Valerie suggested.
"Thank you," Sun replied. She seemed lost in thought as she drove off.
Ben exhaled loudly when Valerie re-entered the kitchen. "Well, I suppose that could have been worse. We need to talk about John, I suppose.
"Are you alright?"
"I am now. What happened with Hugo and John?"
"They were in a car accident. Hugo ran from John—right into an intersection. It didn't look good. But I suspect I know what hospital they went to."
"Jack's?"
"That's my guess."
"So, what should we do?" He asked her.
She thought for a moment. "Should we stop in on Jack?"
"I don't think that would go very well," Ben mused, "he seems erratic these days. What about Desmond? Jack would have an easier time trusting him. So would Hugo."
Her eyes lit up. "Yes—of course. It has to be Desmond."
They went for a drive the next day and found Desmond's boat docked in Marina del Rey.
"Desmond, it's Valerie," she shouted from down the dock. Desmond poked his head out from the cabin of the boat.
They locked eyes for a moment. Desmond frowned intensely, then looked over at Ben. He seemed paralyzed by confusion.
"You remember this, don't you?" Valerie asked him, recognizing the distant, confused look on his face.
"I remember him shooting at me. Waving a gun at Charlie. You weren't here."
"That sounds about right," Ben agreed, holding his empty hands in the air. "No gun this time, Desmond. We come in peace."
Valerie rolled her eyes.
"We need to talk," Ben continued.
Penny emerged from the boat with a sleeping Charlie in her arms. Valerie grinned broadly at her. She frowned back, confused.
"Is everything okay?" she asked Desmond. "Who are these people?"
"They're friends, Pen, but I have a feeling I'm not going to like what they're about to say."
"We have to go back to the Island," Valerie said.
"Yeah, I don't like that at all," he replied.
"I know this sounds ridiculous, but the fate of the world depends on your presence."
Desmond zoned out again. "I do have to be there, don't I?"
She nodded. "Sorry," she added, glancing at Penny.
"I suppose I don't have a choice."
Ben shook his head.
"If I don't come with you—Charles would have taken me there." He turned to Penny, frowning deeply.
"He's gone, darling. He can't hurt us anymore."
Ben and Valerie shared a quick glance. They had decided not to discuss their involvement in his death in front of Penny.
"We can't force you to come with us, Des," Val pleaded, "but we need you."
"Well, we could force you—"
"Ben, for the love of fuck—"
"—but we're not going to."
"That's not helpful," she hissed.
"See, I knew you two were married," Desmond interrupted with a smirk.
Ben chuckled.
"It will all be fine, won't it?" Desmond implored earnestly. "Going back? It works out."
"I hope so," Val replied, biting her lip. "We kind of also need your help wrangling the rest of them."
"We're not sure they'll trust us," Ben explained.
"My god," Desmond quipped sarcastically, "I wonder why."
Penny was understanding, but not thrilled. She stared pensively at Ben and Valerie as they explained the situation to Desmond. Valerie wondered whether or not she had some fragment of a memory as well, or whether she was just curious about the strangers who seemed to know her husband.
As far as she could tell, only Desmond and Ben seemed to have any concrete memory of her version of events. It made some sense—Desmond had an unusual relationship with time, and she was connected to Ben more deeply than anyone else. Still, she wondered if Hurley would remember, or if the Hurley she knew had become a fundamentally different person when he assumed his position.
At Ben's request, the next day, Desmond went alone to visit Jack at the hospital.
He called Valerie from the car.
"I have Jack with me on speaker," he informed her. She took the phone into the living room and sat next Ben.
"Linus is on speaker too."
"John didn't make it—he succumbed to the injuries he suffered in the car accident," Jack told them.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Ben replied somberly.
"Before he died, he told me what he was trying to do. We need to go back—we need to bring everyone back."
"Yes, Jack—we know," Ben replied. "Did he say anything about how?"
"He told me I need to find a woman named Eloise Hawking."
"Alright," Ben agreed quickly. "Do we know where she is?"
"John had her address. Desmond will send it to Valerie. He didn't seem to think there was much time to spare. We're heading there now."
"We can pick up Hurley on the way," Desmond added. "Jack can get him out of the mental facility."
"The what?" Valerie asked.
"We'll also see if Kate and Sun will join us," Jack said, ignoring the question. "Meet us there in two hours."
"We'll be there," Ben answered, and hung up.