One Julie came to, the first thing her brain registered was screaming. Someone was screaming and there was a hint of despair in his voice. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times, then rolled onto her back and groaned loudly. Where was she? When had she fallen to the ground exactly? For a moment she just lay there, confused. The last thing she remembered was the flash of light and… She sat up straight, really exasperated by waking up sore on the ground. Jack had thrown the bomb into the well, she reminded herself, and then it hadn't gone off. Instead, the magnet had started pulling everything that was metallic into the well and Juliet had been pulled into it as well when a metallic chain had wrapped itself around her.

And now Sawyer was screaming for his girlfriend, Julie realized and finally managed to heave herself up from the ground and stand straight. Something didn't add up though, she realized. When the bomb had gone off, it was barely morning and now it was dark. Had they travelled in time again? Why did she still remember everything? And most importantly, why wasn't she on the plane which would land in LA?

She stopped thinking about it for a moment as she spotted a figure lying in the grass not so far away from her.

"Jack!" she called his name as she ran to him, forgetting about his betrayal completely. He was her friend and even though she'd told him she hated him, they'd still been through way too much together for her to just switch from friendship to hate so fast. She was angry with him, yes, she was disappointed that he was willing to take everything she held dear away from her, but in the same time she knew there was really no other choice to be made. And then again, Jack was so sure it would work and it just didn't. If so, the explosion probably brought them back and Julie realized that once she knelt right next to Jack's immobile form. She could find Claire now and get back home, couldn't she?

"Jack?" she said his name again when cupping his face and wincing at the blood she spotted there. "Jack, wake up!" She checked his pulse and was relieved to find it there. It meant he was alive, but he was still unconscious.

And then finally, after a few frantic seconds of her calling his name and holding his face, his eyes finally fluttered open and he met her gaze, not really knowing what was happening or where he was.

"Jack, are you ok?" Julie made sure. "Do you know who I am?"

"Of course I do," he finally replied and she let go of him, sitting on the ground right next to him. It was a relief to have him back ok. "But wait… Why do I remember you? Didn't it work?!" He sat up straight, mimicking her from just a moment ago, and then he looked around. He hissed when doing that. The headache accompaning time travel was truly a bitch, Julie decided right then and there, but once making sure Jack would live, she didn't feel sorry for him at all. It was all his fault, after all.

"No, it didn't, thank God," she found herself saying bitterly and then nearly frowned. There was something bugging her, nagging at her brain, something she knew she should've realized by now, something she should've figured out. Her head was still pulsing with pain and she was sure that was exactly what was stopping her from reaching the right conclusion.

And then it came to Jack's attention that Sawyer was still screaming for Juliet, apparently trying to get to her.

The hatch, Julie suddenly caught that one word and stood up, looking at the crater. There was no well, there was only the hatch or rather what was left from it after the implosion Desmond had caused!

While Jack slowly walked towards it and met with Kate, Julie followed them, seeing Sawyer holding Juliet in his arms. She was either dead or unconscious, but judging by the look on the blonde's face it was the first option and Julie felt so sorry for the guy.

"It's all your fault!" Sawyer pointed his finger at Jack. "You did this to her! We were happy and you needed to plant that stupid idea in her head!"

"Sawyer, let's just calm…" Kate started when reaching her hands to him, but then he stopped her by screaming at her, too.

"I just… I don't understand…" Jack finally admitted when shaking his head. "I don't know what happened. I was so sure it would work."

"It did!" Julie suddenly exclaimed. With her headache gone, everything seemed clearer to her.

They all turned to look at her.

"Can't you see?" she asked them. "The Dharma Initiative video! They all talked about some incident and they never gave us any details! Guess what! We created that incident! We made it happen! It was the bomb and the magnet! Jack, you thought you would destroy the magnet and therefore the hatch would never have to be built, but in fact, you unleashed its power! I bet the hatch was built because of that! They built it, so they could contain the energy you set free with your damned bomb! And…" she came to a sudden stop while the rest of them was just looking at her, stunned as it dawned on them that she was telling the truth. "It's your fault that Desmond was trapped here for three years!" Julie directed herself to Jack, not really knowing whether she should be grateful that they were back or mad at him now for doing this to the man she loved. But then again, no, she couldn't be mad because this was exactly what she wanted. She didn't want her or Desmond's pasts to be changed. Otherwise they wouldn't have been so happy together now. Those experiences had shaped them into the people they were today. "Whatever happened, happened," she finally said in a much calmer voice. "I guess it's true that even when traveling into the past, you can't change something you've already lived through. You can't change the past even if you are in the past." When it all became clean to her, a feeling of peace and understanding washed over her. And it was amazing. She finally knew some of the answers to the questions which had been bugging her ever since the moment she'd found herself on the island in the first place. She knew now that she'd gotten another chance and she could finally go home. She'd already gone so far, she'd already conquered the worst - she came back to her timeline. Now she just needed to come back to Desmond and never ever think of the island again.

The dawn was slowly coming, shedding some light on the darkness Desmond found himself in. He was losing his hope. No one would ever find him there. He would die from dehydration when thrown into this old and dry well somewhere on the island. Was this really how it would all end? He wondered. He'd spent a few weeks trying to get to the island on the submarine that belonged to Widmore and now when they were already at their destination, he'd been thrown into a pit. In the end, Widmore had just experimented on him, exposing him to so much of radiation that Desmond should've been dead by now. Yet somehow, he wasn't. He still didn't know what he was supposed to prove to the old man. He only knew that he'd seen something again, just like the first time around when he'd been in the hatch implosion. He'd seen some weird flashbacks of a life he'd never really known. Maybe it was the future, maybe it was something else. Maybe he'd been given an access to a parallel universe. He didn't care at the moment. The only thing he cared about was finding his wife. And now he would probably never do that. He'd just wanted to help her, to save her, get her out of the island and bring her home. But now he started to think that maybe he shouldn't have come here at all. Maybe he should've stayed home and just waited for her. What if she got out of the island on her own and never found out what had happened to him? That thought was unbearable to him. He would simply die and rot in this well and no one would ever find him. At first, he'd tried to make his way up to the surface, but his fingers had bled and he hadn't even managed to climb up high enough. Now he didn't even feel his hands. He was so exhausted. He was about ready to give up. He didn't even have the strength to cry. He just could sit there, propped against the well's wall and wait for death to come…

And that was when a shadow covered the pit and Desmond looked up, surprised to see Sayid up there. At first he nearly smiled, happy that someone found him. Happy that the Iraqi would help him. Only then he spotted the gun in the man's hand and Desmond just turned his head away, giving up. Let the death come, he thought. At least it would be better than to die from the lack of water…

"Come on, we need to keep moving!" Kate rushed them as they were making their way through the jungle. "We need to reach that Temple!"

Julie really wanted to move faster, but she just couldn't. Now that she was pregnant, she felt tired all the time and it pretty much annoyed her. If she felt like that now, she was scared to think what would happen once her belly actually started to grow. It only worsened her mood because her condition should rush her. The clock was ticking and if she didn't make it home in time… She didn't want to think about that, too. She needed to get back to Desmond and there really was no other option. She would never leave him in the uncertainty of what had really happened to her. She just had to make it.

"Kate, maybe you should slow down," Jack said in a careful voice. He apparently didn't want to agitate her more, but as a doctor he noticed how exhausted Julie seemed to be.

"Jacob said we needed to get to the Temple now," Hurley pointed out and Julie felt bad that in her condition she was even slower than he usually was.

"Well, excuse me if I have trouble believing a guy only you can see, Hugo," Jack told him.

"He's dead!" Hugo said to his defense.

"My point exactly," Jack sighed and came to a stop. "Listen, guys, Julie can't exert herself like this. She'd been through way too much recently and we really need to stop so she can rest."

Julie's feelings for Jack were still very much conflicted, but at the moment she was grateful to him. And she couldn't say he was wrong. She was quite scared. She'd travelled in time twice when being pregnant and the stress she'd undergone back in Dharma village alone was enough for her to start worrying about her baby. She knew that women in such conditions and in such an early stage of pregnancy were losing their babies pretty often and it was the last thing she wanted. She wasn't even sure if a miscarriage wouldn't endanger her life in this place.

"Ok, what's up with that?" Sawyer asked in a pissed voice. "The lady's been through as much as we've all been! She can keep up!"

"She's pregnant," Jack finally revealed, knowing that nothing else would convince the rest to take it easy.

There was silence as they all looked at Julie. She hadn't exactly told them about her condition, so she understood that they were all surprised.

And then she joined them in that state as she suddenly heard a voice she'd thought she would never hear on the island again. A voice that belonged to a man who wasn't even supposed to be there.

"Pregnant?" he said from somewhere in the jungle and Julie stilled as she recognized the familiar Scottish accent.

It happened like in a slow motion. One moment they were all talking, nearly arguing and in the next they were all quiet. Then they all turned towards the source of the voice and Julie opened her eyes widely, feeling them tearing up immediately as she spotted Desmond. Desmond who stood just a few feet away from them, clearly coming from the opposite side of the jungle. Desmond in dirty clothes and stains of blood on his shirt. But Desmond all the same.

Julie covered her mouth with her hands as she took in the sight of him and then she realized that the blood had come from the scratches on his hands. Her heart ached at the pain he must've been through and even though she didn't know what exactly had happened to him, she wanted to make it stop. She just wanted to make it all stop. She wanted to just be with him and leave the island, the rest be damned.

Desmond was just as equally stunned as she was when he saw her, maybe even more so as he'd just heard the news. And then he seemed to be finally waking up from that state and his face suddenly brightened up in a smile. He made a step forward, looking at his wife with such love and devotion on his face and in his eyes that she felt like she would die if she didn't sink into his arms right away. So she ran. She finally felt her legs working again and they ran towards each other and he reached his arms to her and she put her own around his neck, jumping to him and then feeling him embracing her tightly.

And all was right in the world again. It didn't matter to them that they were on the island. It didn't matter that there was still danger out there, maybe even bigger this time around. All that mattered was that they were together, reunited, and that they would never have to let go of each other ever again.

"Oh, my God," Julie finally gasped into Desmond's ear, feeling his body pressed against her own, his arms still holding her, never wanting to let her go. "Oh, my God. What are you doing here? Did you come for me? How did you even know?" she kept on asking one question after the other.

When he finally pulled away, he did it only so he could cup her face and look her deep in the eye. "It's a long story," he admitted. "But I'm here now. And yes, I came for you. Are you all right?" he asked with tears in his eyes.

She just nodded, unable to say another word, feeling herself begin to cry as well. Her heart was too full at the moment and it threatened to burst in affection.

"You really are pregnant?" Desmond then asked and she just nodded and finally burst out crying, letting go of all the stress and anxiety she'd been feeling ever since Ben had forced her to board the plane. Desmond only groaned in response and pulled her into his arms again, holding her and soothing her, stroking her hair and telling her how much he loved her and how happy he was that they were pregnant.

"I love you. I love you so much," Julie sobbed when clinging to him. She thought that after everything they'd been through, she would truly never let him out of her sight ever again.

"Sorry to spoil the party, but we have a place to go," Sawyer spoke in a nasty voice, but this time Julie couldn't really hold it against him as she'd used to in the past. This time she got to know him better and she actually realized that he was a better man when with Juliet. And now Juliet was dead. In fact, she'd just died a couple of hours ago and then Sawyer was forced to watch the heartwarming reunion between another pair of lovers.

"Didn't we just say that Julie needed to rest?" Kate actually backed her friend up, still surprised by everything that had happened ever since Jack had spilled the big secret.

"Where were you going?" Desmond asked them when Julie finally calmed down and pulled away just a little, now snuggling up to his side.

"To the Temple," Hugo gave him an answer. "It's a place Jacob is sending us so we can be safe. There's a bad guy somewhere out there."

"I'm not following," Desmond admitted. "What happened?"

Once Julie heard him asking, she actually tightened her hold on him and that simple gesture was enough to rouse his suspicions. He could already feel a knot tying in his stomach. He knew he would hear things that would be hard to take.

"We really need to take a little break," Jack said and took his backpack off.

"All right, you know what?! I don't even fucking care if something eats us here!" Sawyer huffed and walked away to sit somewhere further away.

"I'll check up on him," Kate offered. "Nice to see you again, Desmond."

"You, too."

When Julie settled herself on the ground right next to her husband, she held his hand and nearly groaned at the peeled-off skin she found there.

"Des, what happened to you?" she asked.

"Why don't you start by telling me what made you board the plane, Julie?" he answered with a question. "I just want to understand."

She sighed and eventually told him about Linus blackmailing her. With her every word, Desmond's hold on her tightened and he finally told her in a strained voice how the father of his long dead girlfriend had forced him to come back as well.

"So you don't have any idea what that device did to you?" Jack asked, curious about Desmond's explanation of the magnet. The Scotsman only shook his head in denial. "I wish we had Faraday here with us."

"Who's Faraday?"

And here we go with the worst part of the story, Julie thought bitterly as she finally opened her mouth and relayed it all to Desmond. She did not miss a thing since she didn't think Jack deserved any leniency.

The doctor in question actually chickened out when she started talking. He said he was going to check on Sawyer, but Julie knew it was only an excuse. He just didn't want to see his friend's face when Julie told him about his bomb idea.

And Jack was right because a few minutes later Desmond came after him and he hit him so hard that the doctor collapsed to the ground, his lip bleeding.

It hurt Desmond just as badly as he used his injured hand to throw the punch, but he didn't regret it.

"Hey! Hey! Calm down, dude!" Hurley was the one to actually approach the angry Scotsman. "I know it's hard to hear what we all wanted to do with the bomb, but the important part is that we're back here and it didn't work the way we expected it to!"

"That's not what this is about!" Desmond screamed when approaching Jack again. "Get up!" he told him and then Sawyer had to actually hold him back.

"Seriously, man, calm down!"

"Don't tell me to calm the fuck down!" Des roared when trying to get away.

"Desmond, don't!" Julie ran to them in that moment. "He's not worth it."

"He kissed you!" Desmond finally exclaimed. "You kissed my wife! And you did it right after she told you she was pregnant with me! What on earth made you think it would be a good idea?!"

There was silence as everyone was processing those words. They didn't know that part.

"I'm sorry, I really am," Jack said when finally raising to his feet and holding a hand in front of him as though he tried to stop Desmond from charging him again. "I'm sorry! I don't know what I was thinking! You know me! I'm messy! I just wanted to fix something…"

"Oh, so you thought that you would stay with Julie in the Dharma fucking village and be the father to my child?!" Desmond hollered. "And then you actually came up with an idea to kill that child and make sure that I and Julie never meet?!"

"Ok, ok, I don't think we have time for this," Hugo cut in again. "We really need to get to the Temple before sundown."

"Fuck your temple!" Desmond pointed a finger at Hurley. "We're not going anywhere with you! I am done listening to anything the island tells you!" He then turned back to Julie who looked shaken. "Honey, I'm so…"

"Don't," Julie just said. "Don't apologize. He deserved it." She cast Jack a brief look. "But Desmond, there's one more thing you need to understand," she added.

"What is it?"

"All the pregnant women on the island die, remember?" she reminded him and if he was hurt by what she'd told him a moment ago, this only made it worse.

"No," he denied when shaking his head frantically. "No, you will not die, Julie, do you understand me?"

"I don't think it's up to you, Des."

"No!" he yelled when placing his hands on his head in a powerless gesture. "No, I am not losing you!"

"Then get me out of this island," she simply said. "This is the only way. We need to leave."

Desmond was thinking for a moment and then he just nodded. "Ok. Then we'll leave."

"How?" Jack just asked. "Maybe going to the Temple would be the best…"

"Just shut up, will you?" Desmond turned back to him with a warning in his eyes. "Going to the Temple doesn't bring us any closer to leaving this hellhole. Widmore has a submarine, so maybe we could use it."

"You can't possibly come back to this man, Des," Julie protested. "He's dangerous."

"Then my boat has to still be somewhere here, right? Let's find it and get the hell out."

"Dude, the island…" Hugo started.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I don't care about the island?!" Desmond raised his voice at the big guy, too. "This place took three years out of my life and it almost caused me my own sanity! And now? Now it wants to take my family away as well, Hugo. So, no, I do not care what it wants from us. It's just a place. I choose to go home. Are you with me?" He turned to his wife and her heart melted once again. Even in such a situation, even when so angry that he might lose her once he finally found her, he still left that decision to her. And she loved him so much for it.

"I want to leave. Let's go," she simply said and took his hand.

It was actually hard for her to say goodbye to her friends once she was finally able to leave them. It was especially hard to say goodbye to Jack, she realized. Jack and Kate. She met the doctor's eyes and she saw the pain in there. For a moment she even felt sorry for him. She was so tired of her own conflicted emotions. She loved Jack as a brother, but then again, he'd hurt her so much recently and even if she could eventually believe that he hadn't had any other choice in the seventies, she still felt that newly developed hate towards him and it was killing her. Eventually, she just blinked at him, keeping her eyes closed for a little longer than usual, indicating she was saying goodbye and then she just turned around and let Desmond lead her further into the jungle and in the direction of the beach. Her heart broke once more that day and she truly lost the count of which time it was already. She needed to think of her baby and her husband, nothing else mattered to her as much in the moment. She simply needed to stay alive for Desmond and this little being growing inside of her. And she couldn't lose any of them. That was why she made the decision to leave. She'd never wanted to come back in the first place anyway. Then she thought of Claire, but decided that Kate would make sure to find the blonde. Julie had her own family to worry about now.

Julie and Desmond were making their way through the jungle silently and it must've been about an hour when Julie finally decided to speak.

"I'm sorry," she simply said.

Desmond came to a stop and faced her. "For what? You didn't do anything wrong," he said softly, the anger completely evaporating from him by now. All his efforts were now focused on getting her out of the island and nothing else mattered to him.

"I'm sorry for letting Jack kiss me. I just didn't see it coming," she finally confessed when avoiding Desmond's brown eyes. "I told you about it just because we are always honest with each other and we don't keep secrets. I want you to know that it meant nothing and that I pulled away when it happened. I love you and all the time I'd spent in Dharma, the hope of seeing you again, of coming back to you, was the only thing that kept me going. I knew that one day I would have to come back. I just couldn't accept any other reality."

Desmond's expression softened even more as she spoke those words and eventually he said, "Julie, I would never think that you deliberately betrayed me. I know you love me and that you would never kiss Jack on your own. I trust you. I am angry with him, not with you. I'm just so angry that he would ever let something happen to you. I thought he was my friend and I always trusted him with you, but what he did…" Desmond just shook his head. "He violated that trust."

"Well, technically, it was either the bomb or the purge. One option would leave us starting over and the second would leave us dead," Julie tried to justify Jack's actions. "And maybe I'm not that mad at him for making that decision, but I am mad about the way he went about doing it. He really hurt me. In fact…" she hesitated for a moment and then looked at Desmond again. "The last think I said to him in the seventies was that I hated him and that I would never forgive him."

"I'm sorry you had to get through all of that. I'm sorry the island always finds a way to get to us. I really thought it was over once we got out of here the first time around."

"Yeah, me, too."

"But I promise you, I will do anything in my power to get you back home. No matter what the price," Desmond cupped her face when he said that to her. "I will not let you spend even a second longer here than it's necessary."

"As long as you'll come back home with me," Julie told him. "I-I'm just so scared, Des."

"I know. I know." He swept her into his arms again, giving her the only comfort he could at the moment through his embrace. He wished he could've given her more. He wished he'd had his own submarine nearby, but he didn't. And it was killing him. He just couldn't lose her. Not now. Not ever.

"And I'm afraid of this pregnancy," she confessed when pulling away from him.

"You don't have to be, Julie. You will not die."

"It's not that, Des. You know I had issues about having children and I know that I finally said yes. I really wanted this. I still do," she assured him quickly. "I'm just scared. I know this is silly considering the place we're in, but… No, that's not right. The island only makes everything worse!" Julie decided when raising her voice slightly. "I was always afraid of the changes in my body when pregnant and of giving birth and now… We're here and if we don't get out of here, if by some miracle nothing happens to me and I will deliver this baby… When I think of doing it here, when even back in America I was seriously considering a c section in fear of pain… I just can't do this. I feel this panic welling up inside me and it just swallows me whole," Julie confessed.

Desmond listened to her carefully, feeling even more powerless now. He would give everything just to get her home right then and there. More even, he would give everything to get her to a hospital right now to make sure that everything was all right with the baby and he couldn't. He just couldn't help her and it was killing him.

"Don't," she said when reading the expression on his face perfectly. "Desmond, you're already here and your presence helps me more than you can ever imagine. I never thought you'd come here for me. I thought I would have to do it all by myself. I thought I would have to come back home by myself and then there you were and I'm so happy you're here. I haven't even said thank you yet, so thank you. Thank you for saying yes to Charles Widmore. I know how hard it must've been for you."

"It wasn't," he admitted." I would do anything for you and you should know it by now."

"And I would do anything for you," she said when smiling to him. "And we've both already done it, haven't we? I came back here, so you could live and you came back here to get me."

Desmond smiled at her sadly and then he brought his lips to hers, kissing her with all the love he had for her.

Then they suddenly heard barking.

"Vincent, boy! What d'ya got there?" a voice followed.

Julie and Desmond, both stunned, pulled away from each other and faced… Bernard.