EPILOGUE

Three Months Later

"When I met Charlie, I didn't recognize him," Hurley was telling the crowd. "But then, he didn't recognize me either, so I guess we started off even."

There was some laughter at this. It was remarkable, considering everything that they knew about his past, how comfortable Hurley was in front of crowds these days.

"He was the closest friend I had on the island. I didn't know him as long as some of the other people here, but I knew him well. And despite everything people said about Charlie Pace, the last 90 days of his life, he was clean."

The barest of exaggerations, but for a fairly noble purpose. If he could speak to Charlie one more time, Jack thought he would approve.

"The Charlie I knew was a good man, who was brought low by a problem that has taken the lives of so many of our brightest lights. Which is one of the reasons that me and my friends have established the Charlie Pace Drug Rehabilitation and Needle Exchange Center. " Hurley waited for applause. "There have been many places my foundation has been responsible for establishing since I returned, but for me, this is the most personal, as well as the most important."

This was the first time the Oceanics had been together in public since Kate had accepted her plea bargain. Hurley had been working towards this for the past several months, and had actually been willing to try and go door to door to solicit the funds. He could've funded it himself, or gotten the majority of the money from the rest of the survivors, but he wanted to make sure that this place wasn't just another thing that was solely known just because of their celebrity.

It had taken Hurley nearly four years and a stint on a deserted island to realize that being a millionaire wasn't a curse. Now, however, he had a direction for what he wanted to do with his money, and that was to do the one thing he had always been good at: helping people. Inspired by the successful surgery on Carole Littleton, and after helping fund Kate's defense, he decided he would use his resources to help other people. So, after asking the rest of the Oceanics for donations, along with more than twenty million dollars of his own, he formed the Hugo Reyes Foundation.

The foundation was designed to help people in all walks of life. He had started by investing in the Santa Rosa Mental Institution and making what was a fairly low-level facility into a premier mental diagnostic center. With Sayid's help, he began opening a small institute to help people with Gulf War Syndrome. He had established a legal defense fund, and was working in concert with Jack at Seattle Grace to upgrade the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic.

But more than that, he had wanted to do something for Charlie, the man who had done the most to save them from their island. So, with the help of Jack, talking in coordination mainly with Miranda Bailey, they had arranged fundraising for a heroin treatment clinic. Hurley knew from experience that going cold turkey wasn't the easiest way to get clean, so he had taken advice from people on the best method of treatment.

That part had been the most involved work of any Hugo's foundation, but the high school dropout was more than willing to get his hands dirty when it came to helping people. The groundbreaking was just a symbolic start, but Hurley knew enough about living in Los Angeles to know that having a lot of celebrities present was more than enough to guarantee publicity.

It hadn't taken much work to get Liam Pace to come up from Sydney. Considering that he had been feeling a fair amount of guilt knowing that his brother had only been on the plane in order to come and see him. Claire had been in correspondence with him, ever since she had returned to Australia, and now that she and her mother had relocated to Seattle to be with the rest of her family, she had remained in contact. It had been difficult to tell him what had happened without going into details about the island, but by telling just enough of the truth - Jack and the rest had agreed that he was covered because he was related to someone very vital to the crash - Liam had managed to get through the loss of his brother.

Now, while Hurley was concluding his speech to the crowd, Claire had decided to do something she hadn't been able to do since they had met.

"Charlie always wore this." She handed Liam the square ring with the letters 'DS' on it. "I always assumed that it had something to do with Driveshaft. But the day before he died, before he helped us get rescued, I found this in Aaron's bed."

It took a long time for Liam to recover his ability to speak. "Dad gave me this ring when I turned eighteen. It's named for my paternal grandfather, Dexter Stratton. It was supposed to be handed down from eldest son when they became a husband and a father. When we were on our first tour of Sweden, I... I was in even worse shape than Charlie was back than. I didn't think I was going to live to be a husband. And Charlie had always been the good Catholic in the family. So I gave it to him." He swallowed. "Now I'm the husband and father, and somehow, this ring ended up back here."

And for the first time, Claire realized the significance of why Charlie had given it to Aaron. She had thought that she had managed to get over the loss of Charlie - the boyfriend she'd never even consummated her relationship with,. who had nevertheless considered himself Aaron's surrogate father. She was overwhelmed by fresh tears. So, for that matter, was Liam.

She tried to hand the ring back to his brother. "I think he would want you to have it now. After all, you lived up to the meaning of it."

"Did I?" Liam swallowed. "I was a shitty older brother. I got him addicted to that horrible shite, and then left him behind when he came screaming for help. I may be a better husband and father now, but Charlie's the better man. Now it seems he always was."

Claire managed a smile. "I don't think any of us realized it, until it was too late. That's something else we have in common."

Hurley was wrapping up his introduction of Liam to the crowd. As always, he tried to take the focus away from Charlie the 'rock god' and Charlie the human being. He wanted to make everybody see him as Liam's brother, not the lead guitarist. It was pretty amazing how sincere he sounded, considering they'd only met two weeks ago.

"And now, I'd like to welcome Charlie's brother to say a few words. "

In addition to his friends, Jack had invited George and Miranda to come as guests. Miranda had done a fair amount of the groundwork in helping get the clinic off the ground, and George had essentially become Jack's go to guy around Seattle Grace. Thanks to Jack advocating for him, George had retaken his intern final six months early. This time, he passed easily. He still wasn't leaning towards a specialty, but spinal surgery was starting to become a little more appealing.

Jack wasn't going to push him as hard, though. He learned enough from being in his position that sometimes you needed to wander in the wilderness a little.

George, however, wasn't just here because Jack had invited him. There had been some people that he'd been meaning to apologize to for the past six months, and this was probably the best opportunity he was going to have. Well, for some of them, anyway.

"Mr. Ford!" George wasn't that surprised to see him with Juliet Burke. Ever since Kate's arrest, Juliet had had several conversations with Dr. Montgomery about getting privileges at a couple of hospitals in LA, so that she could be closer to her friends. The engagement ring on her finger was also a good part of the reason why.

Ford, however, seemed more than a little surprised to see him. "Should I be looking for the blue and white?" he asked.

"That's actually why I'm here." He took a deep breath. "I know that I screwed up big time when you were trying to help Miss Austen. I just have this habit of doing the wrong thing over and over again."

"Seems like you were trying to help the cops catch a wanted murderer." It was almost painful listening to Ford say that. "Lot of people might even want to call you - 007."

George winced hearing the nickname that Meredith had given him. He was a little surprised that this Dr. Shephard knew what it was. "I didn't know what you and Dr. Burke were trying to do."

"Course you didn't. " The little smile that was perpetually curled around Ford's face was gone now. "Nobody bothered to tell you. We did a lot of that when we were stranded. Seems kinda weird, now that I think about it. Seem weird to you."

George was momentarily waylaid by the question. "Well, not really. I mean, at the hospital, none of us really talk about what's bothering us until it boils over."

"Yeah, but you're concentrating on saving people lives. The rat race of trying to be the best. We were on an island for three months, and it took us until we were almost rescued to start going over the basics with each other." Now he frowned. "Maybe that's what was special about the place."

Now George was lost.

"Point is, no one told you what was going on between Freckles and the Doc. My guess is the guy only spoke about the island when it came all over CNN, and then it was like pulling teeth."

"Actually, that's remarkably accurate." George shook his head. "I don't understand why you're not angrier. Kate Austen went to jail because of what I did. You and Dr. Burke could've ended up in prison."

"Whoa, whoa. Freckles went to jail because she was a fugitive and she came to a place she knew the Marshal's would be at. I don't know you that well, O'Malley, but I know Freckles pretty damn well. Second she showed up at the hospital, she was almost certainly going to walk out in handcuffs. The only thing you did was make sure it happened a little quicker than it would've." James said slowly. "And if she hadn't been arrested when and where she was, she'd probably be doing much harder time in a much worse place."

"You're not actually going to try and convince me that I did her a favor?" George wasn't going to buy that no matter what James Ford tried to sell him."

"Fuck, no. Prison is a shit place to be in, and Kate had been trying to dodge it for longer than she probably cares to remember." James hesitated for a bit longer. "But she needed to face what she did. Really deal with it. I thought that she had while we were on the island. But I guess it took her until now to get it. So no, O'Malley, you didn't make her life much easier. But that wasn't what she needed."'

George had never thought that he would hear this level of understanding, given the magnitude of what he had done. Jack had managed to forgive him of what he had done very quickly, but he had honestly thought that Jack was just saying what he needed to say to make him feel better. Now, hearing this coming from James Ford, a man who according to Claire had cared for Kate more than anyone other than Jack, he began to feel a fair amount of relief for the guilt he'd been carrying ever since he had gone to the police.

"How is she doing?"

"Better than you'd think." James told him. "Better than I thought that she'd do, actually. However, I wouldn't send her any mail trying to clear your conscience to her." He hesitated. "Yet."

Suddenly, George was beginning to think that, after months of wandering in the wilderness - the collapse of his marriage, his ridiculous affair with Izzie - he might finally be turning everything around. Maybe now, things would finally be better.

Sayid was more contemplative than usual. He knew that Charlie was a hero, and deserved to be honored, especially by Hurley and Claire. But at the same time, he was thinking of all the people that had died on the island, whose names would never grace any public building, or even be acknowledged the same way that they had been.

More often, it was the first two people that they had lost that kept coming back to him, the ones he had delivered their eulogies within a week of each other.

Boone and Shannon. When they had returned to Los Angeles, and he had begun to settle in with Nadia, he had gone to see Shannon's stepmother and Boone's actual mother, who he had eventually learned was their only remaining living relative. Shannon had told Sayid in no uncertain terms that her stepmother had hated her because of the relationship she had with her father, and that was why she had been in Australia in the first place. Nevertheless, he had felt that she deserved to know what had happened to her family.

Sabrina Carlyle had barely been able to speak when Sayid had come to her. He had introduced himself, even though it was obvious to anyone in half the world who he was, and had told him that he had briefly known her family. But before he could get another sentence out, Sabrina had held up a hand.

"I don't want to hear it. My son is dead. And the woman who got him killed is dead, too. What more do I need to know?"

Sayid had known that several of the parents of the Oceanic survivors - his father included - were horrible people. But he hadn't expected this level of detachment from a woman who'd lost two children. "Don't you want to know how they died?

"I know exactly how they died. My husband's arrogant daughter got herself in trouble one more time. Her feckless stepbrother defied his bitchy mom, and literally went to the ends of the earth to bring her back. And they never came back. " Sabrina looked at him. "I've already buried my son, Mr. Jarrah. Why do I need to bury them again?

It took all of the restraint and the memory of the woman who, however briefly, he had loved to not reach out and demonstrate some of the moves that he had used on Henry Gale on this woman. But she had lost her son, and considering how much pain Shannon had been in when Boone died, he decided that adding to this woman's grief would do nothing. He had said his goodbyes, and left.

There wasn't going to be much closure for the other thirty-one people who had survived the initial crash, but hadn't come back to civilization. He wondered if there was anyone else who missed Rose and Bernard - it wasn't until he'd come back that he'd even learned their last names. Though she hadn't died in the line of duty, Ana Lucia's name had gone on the wall of slain police officers at the LAPD - Sayid had little doubt that her mother had had something to do with that. And would anyone miss John Locke? No one had come to the memorial for him. Had he had even fewer friends off the island than on it?

There was someone he was leaving out, and somehow he had a feeling that it was crossing Hurley's mind as well. When Liam had finished speaking, he hesitated even longer than usual.

"We're here to honor Charlie, and that's right. But before I let our final guest come on stage, there's someone who I have to mention. Someone who I didn't know for nearly as well or as long as him, but who was as important. " Hurley took a deep breath. "Libby, I knew her for a while. I knew that she was a therapist, and I knew that she wanted to help people. But I didn't even know her last name until I saw the passenger manifest for our plane. I didn't know how much she'd suffered before she got onboard, and I really wish that she'd have been willing to tell me. But somehow, even though she barely knew Charlie, I think she'd be behind this even more than I would. So I'd like to have a moment for Libby Smith."

There was a moment of silence. Sayid was pretty certain that he could see Hurley trying in vain to hold back tears - he'd had more personal losses than anyone else, with the possible exception of Sayid.

"And now, I would like to welcome a special guest to the stage. I'll admit, I hadn't heard of him until a week, but I have it on the authority of a very close friend that he's very good at what he does. Please welcome to the stage: Daniel Faraday."

There was a moment of hesitation, as this was not an audience very knowledgeable about classical musicians. But this was Los Angeles, so they at least were able to fake it for a few moments.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I realize that I'm not who you were expecting, but that's all right, because you're not might typical audience either." There was a bit of nervous laughter. "So we're on even footing. Let me answer the question that's probably on all of your minds: why is a classically trained musician here to pay tribute to a man he never even met?"

Daniel looked around. "The answer is twofold. First, yes primarily, I specialize in music from many centuries ago. But I have always been a fan of Driveshaft. My final year at Oxford 'You All Everybody' was playing in every one of my dorm rooms. And maybe it was nothing more than synchronicity of time and place, but I always associated Driveshaft with youthful innocence. I've never been fully able to escape it, even as I studied Mozart and Beethoven. Even after the band broke up, there always some fantasy playing in the back of my head wanting to someday play their music. That dream died when I heard about the crash of Oceanic 815. I know how trivial that may sound given the immense loss of life, but sadly that is how we always tend to think about these things."

He paused. "The second bit of synchronicity came about eight months, when I touring in Italy. There I met two very special people. One of them was the woman to whom I am now engaged." There was a brief moment of applause. "Sorry to embarrass you, Charlotte, but you had to know this was coming."

Sayid looked around, and sure enough, the attractive redhead that he had met in Rome was there too.

"I had the good fortune to meet with another survivor of the crash, Sayid Jarrah, and his lovely wife, Nadia. We had a very pleasant dinner, in which I spent most of the time trying to avoid the fact that I recognized him. Eventually, I admitted as much to him, and he was nice enough to be understanding when I told him. Among the many things we discussed was the fact that I would be touring America as of a month ago, and he told me he would be glad to attend one of my concerts."

"It was then I had the great fortune to meet Hugo, and the rest as my girlfriend would say, is history." By now, they had wheeled his piano on stage. "I realize that many of you still may wonder how a classical musician can play perfect tribute to Charlie Pace. It is now that I will share a personal secret. Despite the fact that 'You All Everybody' got them to the top of the charts, my favorite song on their first album was a love ballad on the B Side. I think it comes a lot closer to approaching the musical genius that was Charlie Pace, and more importantly, I think that it does a much better job of describing the man that Hugo and the rest of the people on this stage knew and loved. So, I hope that you will indulge me in my rendition of "Love is Easy."

As Jack listened to Faraday begin his recital, he began to realize that for the first time in a long time, he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. He was beginning to feel more at peace then he'd been in years.

He felt a little guilty about that, but it seemed to be more residual from everything he had been through, rather than anything in particular. The island had taken a lot from him, but it also managed to give back a lot. He had finally found that he had a bigger family than he had thought. He had more friends than he ever had in his entire life. And after all of the angst that had been going on with Kate, he thought that there might actually be a chance that things would work out.

He'd gone to see her every week since she'd accepted her plea bargain, and he wrote a letter for her twice a week. Weber had been very understanding, given everything that he'd been through, and he was determined, now that they had a second chance, he would be damned if he would do anything to lose her again. Two and a half years sounded like an eternity, until you considered all the time they had spent getting there.

Though Sayid and Hurley didn't know it - though neither would've been that surprised to know - Jack thought about the ones they'd left behind a fair amount to. Boone and Ana Lucia filled his thoughts every so often. But he had gotten to the point that he was able to think less about the ones they'd lost, and more about the ones that had come back. He thought they'd want that, too. What was that line? 'Death is for the living, and for the dead not so much. He almost smiled at that. You'd think that all his years as a surgeon, he'd have learned that lesson by now.

"Jack!"

Now there was a sound that was the cause for good news. "I was wondering where you were, Walt." he said cheerfully.

Considering everything that he had been through over the last couple of years, Walt was doing a lot better. The therapy that he was undergoing with Dr. Skoda was very helpful, but the big relief had come from his father's trial. By finally putting everything on the table on all sides, a lot of the burden that Walt had been carrying since he had gotten back to the mainland was finally off his shoulders. He had managed to forgive his father, and more importantly, being around his friends was doing as much good as talking with a reputable shrink. A month ago, Skoda had said Walt could be released back into the care of his grandmother, who had been more than willing to allow Hurley to act as a co-guardian of the boy until Michael got back in the picture.

It had been a bit easier to establish a story for Walt that hadn't risked a lot of exposure. He and Michael had been in the tail section of the plane, which had crashed in the ocean on a smaller island just offshore of the ones the Oceanics had crashed on. Most of the passengers had died or succumbed after several days, with only Michael, Walt and a few others surviving had survived.. They had spent the next few weeks, doing everything they could to survive. After three weeks, using some of the recovered parts from the plane, they had managed to build a raft, which they had launched in November. After a week at sea, they had managed to encounter a fishing vessel, which they had managed to get them back to Tahiti, which was where Michael and Walt had managed to actually end up after sailing on the boat that the Others had given them. They had eventually gotten back to New York, but things had not gotten much easier. Suffering from post-traumatic stress, Walt had to be institutionalized, and Hurley had heard about the boys case, through his foundation. It had taken some work, and a fair amount of money, but the survivors had both, and considering that Oceanic was at fault here as well, the same attorneys had ended up settling with the Dawson family as well. With the exception of Skoda, no one else knew what had really happened.

"How are you doing, Walt?"

"Better." The young boy took one of his pauses. "I still miss Dad."

"Its just going to be another year."

"You have any idea how he's doing?"

Jack considered lying, but knew about Walt's ability to see through deception. "Hurley still has his PI keeping an eye on him. He gets reports back every week or so. I don't know the specifics, but he hasn't tried to hurt himself since we passed sentence on him."

Walt actually smiled a little at this. "Maybe when he gets back, we can finally be a father and son. I think I'm ready for that now."

For a few moments they listened to the music. "Do you miss it?" Walt asked suddenly.

Jack didn't have to ask what it was. "Do you?"

"I used, too. There was a time I didn't want to ever leave. I missed a lot when I was in Bellevue. But now, the more time goes by, I miss it less and less." He paused. "Do you?"

Jack thought a long time before answering. "You know, before we blew the hatch, John told me that he thought all this was happening for a reason. I thought he was crazy then, and most of the time I still do. But now, maybe there was a reason. Maybe the reason was so that I could meet all of you. Meet my friends. Meet the woman I love. I know how selfish that sounds considering everything that happened, but maybe that's what the island was really for."

Walt thought for a second. "You know what, Jack? I think I want to adopt another dog." Vincent, like quite a few of them, had stayed behind on the island.

Jack laughed. "Good. Just be careful who you let him play with."

They listened to the last concert Charlie Pace would ever be a part of, as the people of Oceanic were able to do the one thing they'd never really been able to do before they came to the island.

Let go.

THE END