It was another sunny Monday afternoon and Ben was still in the Dharma classroom. Since the incident where he ran away from the barracks, a policy had been put into effect that kids under 12 years old would have to be supervised until their parents got off work. There were only four other kids besides Ben whose parents worked until 5:00.

School had just gotten out fifteen minutes ago at 3:30. That meant that there was still an additional hour and fifteen minutes until they were sighed, his pencil still scribbling on the notebook paper, a picture of the jungle he had been drawing to depict his own adventures as a great explorer. He had drawn several scenes of different various settings where he could escape to in his imagination. These places belonged to him alone.

Ben looked up from his drawing, putting his pencil down and stretching his cramping hand as he looked out the classroom window. The mid-afternoon sun streamed through the windows and made a yellow glow into the room. The other kids were giggling together in a corner away from Ben, playing ball and jax. They seemed so care-free, so uninhibited… Ben felt so much older for some reason, even though he was the youngest in his class.

He just couldn't relate to the jubilance that came to the other children so easily. Since Ben had run away, his father's cold attitude toward him had reached a new level. He just simply ignored him, unless of course, Ben did something that his father didn't like, then he'd get unnecessarily punished for things that weren't really all that bad. Sadness filled Ben, and he felt as if he might break into tears… But he couldn't… not here in the classroom. He mustn't think about it.

Trying to move his thoughts elsewhere, Ben looked over at Olivia, the teacher. She was looking rather anxiously at her watch as if she was waiting for something. Ben glanced back at the other kids who at once broke into loud fits of giggles. Sighing at the noise, Ben turned back to his paper. He had started a picture of a mountain, overlooking the landscape below. He was trying to draw the details as carefully as possible, which is why his hand was so tired.

The classroom door opened, which pulled Ben to the present. A tall, blond woman entered the room, and Olivia leapt up quickly with a smile, going around her desk to the new guest. Ben looked around at the other boys and girls, but they were too immersed in their game to notice that someone had entered the room.

The tall, light haired woman was twisting her hands as she talked to Ms. Olivia. "I'm sorry I'm late." Ben heard her say.

"Oh, no, no, that's fine. I'm just glad you could fill in for me-- I couldn't find anyone who was willing to do this…" Olivia replied. Ben held his breath so he could hear better, they were talking in hushed voices. "-They're really quite good kids. I never have much problem with any of them." Olivia finished.

The other woman asked if there was anything she had to do, and Ms. Olivia handed her a clipboard that was used to sign the kids out when the parent collected them. She explained this procedure, and the blonde woman nodded that she understood.

"Children?" Olivia spoke loudly to get their attention. The kids playing jax had become silent, and Ben was already aptly attentive to hear what came next.

"Unfortunately, I have to leave early today." Their teacher announced.

A whiny girl in pigtails spoke up, "Where are you going Ms. Olivia? Are you leaving?"

Ben glanced back at her, her pale sunburned face looked somehow more red, anxiety entering her face at the prospect of her teacher leaving.

"No, no, Mary, I'll be back tomorrow, don't worry!" She smiled encouragingly, and the girl's furrowed brows of worry somewhat lessoned. Ben turned back to look at the teacher.

"This is Ms. Juliet, and she's going to be watching you for the remainder of this time. So, I want you all to listen and be on your best behavior, Alright?" Olivia said in an upbeat tone.

"Yes, Ms. Olivia." The small class chimed in together.

Olivia grabbed up her bag, "Good bye class, see you tomorrow." She said.

"Goodbye Juliet, thanks. I really appreciate that you're doing this."

Juliet nodded, "It's no problem, really. Goodbye, have a nice time."

Ben watched as the teacher left- he wondered where she was going to have 'a nice time'.

When she was gone, he immediately pretended to go back to his paper drawing, moving his pencil above the paper, but really, he was watching this new woman out of the corner of his eye.

She was biting her lip, looking a little apprehensive, as her eyes wandered over the kids in the corner who were making a rather noisy scene of their game. Her eyes were scanning toward Ben's direction, and he hurriedly buried himself in the paper in front of him, so that she wouldn't know he had been looking at her.

Juliet smiled and began heading toward him.

Ben put his head down further in his paper, hoping she wouldn't notice him.

Juliet knelt down beside the small boy, a grin on her face.

"Hi!" She greeted cheerfully, watching him. Ben looked up shyly, his hand covered his unfinished drawing. "Hello." He replied quietly.

"What are you drawing?" The teacher assistant asked.

Ben didn't particularly want to show her his half-drawn picture, but since she was waiting to see it, he grudgingly removed his hand so she could see.

Juliet looked at it, "Wow!! That's very, very good! How old are you?" she exclaimed with an impressed tone to her voice. Ben's reluctance vanished at her approval of his art, and despite himself, Ben felt glorified at her attention and began to unknowingly ham it up.

"I'm ten. I just had my birthday...on...on December 20th... Two months ago." He explained quickly.

She grinned broadly, "Well, Happy late birthday!! That's quite a talent you have! How long did it take you to draw that?"

"Well, it isn't finished yet...I just started it, about... Thirty minutes ago." Ben replied, double checking on the clock on the wall for the time in which he began.

"You should sign your name on it." Juliet said, "Every artist always signs their pictures." She explained.

"They do?" Ben asked.

"Yes, usually it's in the bottom right corner." Juliet said.

Ben lowered his pencil to the paper, writing his name:

Benjamin Linus.

He looked up to see her staring at his name he had just scribbled. "Like that?" Ben asked.

Juliet visibly swallowed, looking up at him, her smile somewhat diminished. "Yes, just like that." She patted him on the back lightly before standing up and returning to her desk.

- - - - -

The four white walls bored Ben to no end. He had been sitting and staring at the white wall in front of him for what seemed like forever- of course it might as well had been for eternity, as it was timeless inside this room. Ben wondered if this was how fish felt inside a small bowl. Spots of various colors were dancing before his eyes on the walls created as an optical allusion from the bright light above. The buzzing sound from the bright fluorescent lights continued in a monotonous hum and nagging worries of the previous day's talk with the doctor made Ben anxiously wonder what had become of the results.

He had been given an odd sort of test where ink was splattered on a piece of paper. Ben was asked what the pattern most resembled to him. The doctor didn't remark much, as he wrote words on his pad stony-faced and serious. Ben was double thinking all the answers he had given to the doctor and hoping that nothing he said got him into trouble. He felt lonely and wished he could be anywhere beside where he was.

Ben stood up, wandering around the room as he had been doing all day yesterday.

When he tired of pacing, he sat back down. He was tired of the monotony and felt a lingering hunger, and he wished that he could go home.

Ben thought of his home… it was once a place he hated, his father had been neglectful and Ben had been sure that his father loathed him deeply. Ben wanted only to leave. He often dreamed of someone coming to collect him and take him away. But now, even going back to his father sounded like a dream come true compared to this. If only he could go back . . . Ben's eyes closed, and he curled up around himself, falling asleep.

- - - - -

"What did you do?" Richard rarely showed visible signs of anger, but this was one of the rare times that he did, and it was directed at the man who had just come into the camp.

"Only what I felt I had to!" Charles spat back, trying to pass Richard to go to his tent.

Richard pushed him back surprisingly aggressively and Charles didn't take to this kindly.

"Get your hands off of me, Richard!" Charles angrily demanded, pushing Richard off of him. "And get out of my way!"

"No, Not until you talk to me and explain to me what happened!" Richard moved to block his path as Charles tried to walk around him.

"I don't have to explain anything to you, Richard, you're not the leader here, need I remind you!"

This hit a nerve. Richard's voice dropped to a dangerous tone, "Neither are you Charles and need I remind you, that I don't answer to you or anyone else here."

"Well, you will someday."

Eloise came out of her tent, looking harassed as if she had just been woken up. She pushed through the group of people who were watching the conflict and came in-between the two men, forcing them apart. At her appearance, both of the men slackened their aggressive stances, and instead glared angrily at one-another from over her shoulder.

"What is going on here?" Eloise shouted, looking at the two of them. "My god, the two of you… You're always arguing. What in the world is it this time?"

Richard's eyes dropped to the ground, he had no intention of getting into such a heated argument, as usually he prided himself on being cool and collected, but Charles had just gone too far.

After Richard had assured that the rest of the camp had moved safely to the new campsite that was concealed more thoroughly; Richard had gone on horseback to watch what the Dharma Initiative was planning to do--they had been spotted surrounding the area where they had previously been located--in secret.

Richard had rode to the outskirts of the original campsite they had just evacuated, and crept closer on foot to watch as the Dharma Initiative poked around the empty site in dismay at its abandonment. After several minutes, a Dharma man walked into the camp, carrying Ben. He was laying, limp and passed out in his arms.

"What happened to him?" The Dharma scout asked, rushing over to the other man who carried Ben.

"I don't know. I found him out there… He appeared to be wandering around in the jungle. He fell when I drove up. I only just stopped the van in time- I didn't see him until he was right in front of my headlights."

Richard strained his ears, edging forward in his hiding spot to hear more.

"Why does he have bruises all over him?" The first asked, examining the child. "Are those fingerprints on his neck?!"

Richard didn't need to hear anymore. He knew exactly what must have happened, and the rage building inside him, exploded when Charles Widmore finally returned from his exodus, claiming he delivered the boy back to the Dharma Initiative.

"Well?" Eloise demanded, her hands on her hips impatiently.

"He tried to kill Ben." Richard replied quietly, he suddenly wished the people staring would go and mind their own business. "He tried to kill him, I know he did. He all but admitted it."

Eloise looked at Richard, scandalized. She turned around to look at Charles, he bit his cheek, putting up his chin proudly. "I did no such thing." Charles proclaimed.

"Yes, you did! You said that you took him back, but you didn't! I know you didn't because I saw him being brought in by them, he was bruised and passed out, and-and he had fingerprints around his neck!" Richard shouted in a frenzy.

"Why are you so concerned about that brat, Richard? He's a beast! A killer! He was sought out to murder Jacob at ten years old, and you want to defend him?! Why Richard, why?"

"Because," Richard said. "He doesn't know what he's destined for, and he deserves a chance." Just like I did. Richard turned and walked away.

- - - - -

The hour dragged by slowly, and a few times whenever Ben looked up, he saw Juliet's eyes quickly divert. He wondered why that was. It seemed the woman was watching him very closely while he wasn't looking and he didn't understand the reason for this.

Gradually, as the time went on, the children started filtering out of the classroom, embracing their parent that came to collect them happily, chatting in a joyful tone about the dinner they were going to have or celebrating the hard work that their kid had done in school. Ben watched intently at these scenes of happy families, knowing that this would never occur with his own... His father hated him, Ben was sure of this.

Soon, he was the only one left. At this point, Juliet's head was buried in some papers in front of her. Ben looked around longingly out the window, wishing he could be free.

Ben looked down at the story he had just written, re-reading it:

"Far into the future, On an alien planet far away there was a boy who lived there. His name was David and he was the only human there was. He was kept captive in a cage at a zoo. The Aliens came to see him and often commented on the fact that he only had two arms! The Aliens had six arms, and five eyes that all eyed him with curiosity at the oddness of him. Of course the cage also gave him oxygen, and he was trapped there because he wouldn't be able to breathe if he left. He was very sad and missed his family a lot.

When he would beg them to let him leave, but they didn't understand English. For many weeks, the boy sat in the same blue shirt and jeans everyday. He was very hungry because the Aliens didn't realize that he needed to eat more than just once a day.

What they fed him, the boy couldn't eat because the food wasn't even food that they were trying to feed him... It was a sort of space bug that looked like a snail. One day, as he sat alone in his cell, a young alien girl came to see him and felt sorry for him, because she could tell that he was very unhappy.

The alien girl's father happened to own the zoo. He was always very busy to make sure that no rockets or Astronauts ever found the planet, and he had been the one who had told his alien guards to put the boy in the zoo as a kindness because he was a human kid and had found the planet by mistake while out on a stolen spaceship.

The daughter came to her father and told him, "He is unhappy. Please, you should let him go!" She said to him. The father was doing something different with each hand he had- he was signing papers and cleaning off his desk at the same time, and was quite distracted. "Who? Who should I let go?" The father asked. "The human boy you have in the zoo, you should release him. He's very sad, I can tell." She replied. The father didn't know, because no one else had told him that the boy was unhappy. No one cared about how the human felt, or maybe they couldn't tell. "Alright. I will let him go." The father announced.

The boy was very grateful to the girl, and before he left on the space ship that would take him home, he gave her a penny he had in his pocket, the last possession he had that had reminded him of home."

Ben sighed, it was no good. He pulled the paper out of his notebook and wrinkled it up tightly into a little ball. Juliet looked up, watching him as he stood up and walked over to the waste basket by her desk. He turned and began back to his seat.

"Um…Ben?" Juliet started. Ben twisted back toward her, surprised she remembered his name. He wondered if he did something wrong. Ben had his hands clamped together in front of himself, looking at her shyly.

"Is your mommy going to pick you up soon?" Juliet inquired. Ben's gut twisted at the thought of his mother. Everything that had happened in the past few months, was because of him wanting her so badly, but it was evident to Ben that she hadn't wanted him, or maybe that she couldn't take him… In fact, if it wasn't for what the hostile had promised him, he wouldn't have had any hope at all; Ben might of just had curled up in bed one night and died. Probably no one would care either.

"Ben?" Juliet looked at him concernedly, he had been staring out into space for several moments too long.

"No." Ben replied softly.

"No?" Juliet blinked. "Well, is your dad coming then?" She asked.

Ben nodded his head, and Juliet's concerned face slackened into a more relaxed facial expression. "Alright then..." She turned around looking at the clock. Ben's eyes followed her gaze. It was forty minutes past the time he was supposed to be picked up.

"Do you think he's coming soon?" Juliet asked, turning back toward him. Ben's focus returned to her face and he shrugged, shaking his head. Juliet sighed.

"Well, What house do you live in?" She asked.

"Number 20." Ben replied.

Juliet stood up, taking his hand. "Come on, let's go there and see if your father is home yet or not."

Ben reluctantly walked with the teacher assistant out of the school room door and through the small village toward his house. Ben looked up at her as she walked, trying to read her expression. Her eyes were straight forward, focused on the path ahead- she seemed to mean pure business.

They arrived at House number 20, and Ben was pulled toward the door with her clamped hand around his wrist. She knocked at the door, and they waited. Nothing. Juliet pushed the doorbell, and they stood again, expectantly.

Inside, Roger Linus was taking another swig from his can of beer. He had gotten off work at about 4:30 and since then he had been drinking. Empty cans of beer littered the table and were falling onto the floor in front of the couch where he took up residence. By the time the doorbell rang, he was wasted.

He staggered to his feet, walking tipsily to the door. "Hold on a minute, hold on!" Roger said loudly in a slurred voice. He pulled open the door, trying to focus on the two people standing on his doorstep. He peered down at the small boy, his double vision finally becoming one. "Ben? What the hell did you do now?"

Ben looked down, feeling his cheeks redden in embarrassment at his father's language, Juliet clenched his hand a little tighter, almost protectively.

"Mr Linus?" Juliet said in a disapproving tone. "This is your son?" She asked.

"Well, yeah, duh!" Roger huffed a sniffing laugh as he leaned forward, grabbing Ben's arm and pulling him toward him, plopping his hand around his son's shoulder squishing Ben into him. The smell of alcohol was strong on his breath. "This is Ben. He's mine." Roger said hazily. "He's my kid."

Ben pried his father's fingers off of himself gently, ducking under his arm to escape from his father's clutches and get away from the humiliation of this woman seeing his dad like this.

"Well, Mr Linus, your son, Ben, has been waiting at school for you to pick him up for almost an hour." Juliet said, crossing her arms reproachfully. Ben chanced a glance up at her face, and her lips were very thin as she looked at his father surprisingly angrily. Ben looked up at his father; his face was in a drunken stupor, not quite registering her discontent with him.

"Why didn't you come and pick him up?" Juliet demanded.

Roger stared at her for a moment, as if he was trying to remember. "Oh…I…Forgot." Roger said finally. Juliet shook her head in utter astonishment at such a neglectful and irresponsible person raising a child, her eyes going up to the sky as if something had just dawned on her.

"Go on, and get inside Ben." Roger slurred out, forcing Ben into the house rather roughly by clumsily pushing him backward by his face. Roger turned back and squinted at Juliet, "What the hell are you still doing here?" He asked. "Get off my goddamn doorstep."

Juliet looked at him in surprise at his rudeness, "You're welcome." She said coldly. She gave Ben a sympathetic look, and turned to leave. That was the last view of her that Ben saw for several months as the door slammed shut.

- - - - -

Ben opened his eyes as the door swung open to his cell. Horace Goodspeed stood in the doorframe.

"Ben?" He said quietly. Ben sat up, feeling a little dazed, blinking and peering at Goodspeed.

Horace smiled and beckoned at him, "Come on, let's go." He said.

Ben hesitated, unsure if he had heard correctly-- was he going to be set free?

"Come on, Ben." Horace repeated.

Ben scrambled up from the flat white bed, walking over to Goodspeed cautiously.

"Am I going home, now?" Ben asked, looking up into the familiar bespectacled eyes.

"Yes, Ben." Horace replied softly. There was an odd sense of sadness about him as he put his arm around Ben's shoulders and led him out of the building and toward the boat that would take him back home.

A/N:

Sorry for taking so long to update!

I was on vacation the past two weeks and it finally gave me the opportunity to finally sit down and write this chapter.

Two new wily Chinese Crested puppies were taking a lot of energy from me (I named them Ben and Miles :D), and LOST season 6 was taking my remaining free time. Ab Aeterno has been my favorite episode thus far this season. I was glad to see the theory I was going off of to write this story was a true one, so I wasn't too far off- go me! Whew! I was trying to keep this story as cannon as possible and a lot of it is guess-work on my part.

LOL, The Alien story I included, I found on my computer a while ago. I don't really remember writing it, but I was making fun of childish writing, so I thought it would be funny to include, being that it sort of went with the theme of Ben's life.

The good news is, I've written the first part of the next chapter, and I'm liking it quite a bit myself so far, so hopefully I can post another update quite soon. The next chapter will begin with Ben being a tad bit older, but don't worry, there will still be flashbacks to his younger age. I'm just moving to another time in Ben's life that will be crucial to his becoming…well…"Ben" as we know him in the future. I'm going to explore some of the other characters in Ben's life, and bring them to a fore-front, since the show doesn't appear that it's going to. Haha, Guess who is going to appear?!

Thanks so much again for your support by reading and reviewing- it really does keep me motivated to continue updating this story.