Island 2007

Squatting next to a badly wounded Sayid, Hurley was trying his hardest not to vomit; even worse, pass out. Repeating a mantra in his head, he vowed he wouldn't faint.

"Not gonna happen, dude, not gonna happen," Hurley murmured and Sayid looked on conspicuously.

"In time, Hurley, it will," Sayid coughed violently and blood spattered from his mouth onto Hurley's clothes.

"Ugh, Dude," Hurley knitted his caterpillar like eyebrows into a deep V and swallowed bile. He wondered how long it would take Jin to hurry back with Jack. After another flash and what Jin surmised by the headache and muffled ears, was another trip through time, he could hear Sawyer shouting about how Jack said the plane would never crash on the Island.

"That didn't just happen," Hurley pressed some bandages Jack had torn onto Sayid's blood soaked wound and muttered,

"Oh, God, oh God, this is gross."

Sayid continued to cough and gag on his own blood and Hurley was doing his best to remain calm, cool, and collected. It was proving unsettling, however.

"Why did Jin leave me here?" He looked around him and could still hear his friend, Sawyer, shouting profanities from somewhere down the ridge.

Weakly, Sayid looks up at Hugo with concerned eyes and asks, "What do you think will happen to me, when I die?"

You'll probably come back to yell at me like the others, Hurley wanted to say, but didn't. Instead, he tried to get Sayid to focus on the positive.

"Dude, just try not to talk, okay?"

"I've tortured many people," Sayid inhaled sharply, his eyes becoming like pinpricks in the dusk, "I murdered, Hugo, wherever I'm going," he closed his eyes and whispered, "it can't be very pleasant."

"Sayid," Hurley looked down at his blood tinged hands and forced himself not to regurgitate, "come on."

"I deserve it," Sayid replied with contempt and finality.

Behind him, Hurley could hear leaves rustling and as quickly as he could get to his feet, he turned to face Jin, but saw nobody. Again, from the rear of the van, he could hear more rustling as if someone was approaching. He looked down at Sayid who had closed his eyes and continued to wheeze as the blood pooled into his chest. He leaned over into the van and grabbed a gun, dropped it, checked the magazine, and wobbled it between his hands.

"Jin!"

Hurley walked around the van and held the gun out away from him, and cursed himself for having such shaky hands.

"I've got a gun," he shouted and held it tighter, trying to steady it and cock it, "and I know how to shoot it!"

The air around him stilled and a voice called out to him. Hurley spun around and stood face to face with a man, with short, light hair, and a familiar smile. He recognized the man from his cab ride after he was freed from jail.

"Hello, Hugo," the man smiled, "you got a minute?"

Hurley watched as the familiar stranger, another contradiction, walked away from him, not even having the courtesy to wait for Hurley's response. Hurley shuffled after the man and questioned from behind him,

"Where you goin' dude," Hurley exclaimed in frustration, "and not for nothin' but what are you doin' here?" The man continued to walk back to Sayid and the van, ignoring Hurley's persistent questioning.

"I mean, come on, I meet you in a taxi and you know everything about me, you give me a plane ticket which just so happens to get me back to this Island."

"How'd you know that was going to happen?"

He watched as the man knelt next to a somber Sayid and still ignored Hurley's incessant chatter.

"Look, dude," Hurley put his hands to his hips and stood defensively, "my friend Jin is going to be here any second so you better stop ignoring," but the stranger sighed and interrupted him,

"Your friend Jin won't be able to see me, Hugo."

"Why not?" Hurley asked perplexed.

"Because I died an hour ago." Jacob stood and faced Hurley and he felt sorry for the man.

"Sorry, dude, that sucks."

"Thanks." Jacob smiled and walked nearer to Hurley who took a step backward, wary of Jacob's presence.

"You want me to do something crazy again, right?"

"No, Hugo," Jacob looked to Sayid and then back beyond Hurley's shoulders, where the others were racing to save Elle.

"I need you to save Sayid," he paused, "and your friend Elizabeth."

"Well, that's why Jin went to get Jack," it was now Hurley's time to pause, "wait, what's wrong with Elle?"

"Hugo, there isn't much time," Jacob pressured him, "Jack won't be able to save them, you have to take them to the Temple."

"That's their only chance at survival and the others, your friends, will be safe there."

"What Temple?" Hurley raised his eyebrows, "Dude, is that supposed to mean something to me?"

"Jin will know, tell him to take you to the hole in the wall where he found the French team," Jacob watched as Hurley's face blanched and his pupils dilated with worry.

"I know this is a lot, Hugo," Jacob's tone was warm, "but you still have that guitar case I gave you?"

"Yeah…," Hurley was uncertain how that played into saving his friends.

"Bring it." Jacob ordered.

"Dude," Hurley exasperated, "who are you?"

"Jacob."

The man smiled, as he spoke his name, and disappeared right in front of Hurley's eyes, just as Jin came barreling over the ridge and yelled at Hurley to get Sayid into the van, because Elle needed their help. Hurley did a double take as the mention of Elle's name and helped Jin lift Sayid into the back of the van. Hurley sat with Sayid while Jin drove back to the Swan.

"Uh, Jin," Hurley spoke from the back of the van, "if I asked you to take me to like, a Temple, where there's a hole in the wall," he paused, watching Jin's reflection in the rearview mirror, "where you went with the French team, would you know what I was talkin' about?"

Jin's eyes were round with speculation in the mirror, he was quiet for a moment, and then he spoke,

"Yes."

Hurley watched as Jin nodded his head and smiled, grateful and cautious at the same time,

"Good." He watched as Sayid's troubled breath became labored and remembered something Jacob had said about Elle.

"Dude, what's wrong with Elle?"

Jin sped the van closer to the Swan and slammed on the breaks. Hurley could see his friends rallied over the debris and stopped short in his tracks,

"Uh, is that the hatch?"

Jin nodded and ran to the top of the clearing and called down to Jack. He turned to Hurley and began to explain Elle's situation.

"She's alive," Jin pointed to the rubble, "but trapped."

Hurley watched as Kate was trying to pull a headstrong Sawyer away from the metal slabs that had piled on top of the hatch. Sawyer was fighting Kate off, yelling Elle's name at the top of his lungs. Kate pushed him from the site of the Swan crater,

"Sawyer, stop it! Stop it, the van's here!" she pointed to the ridge.

"She's ain't makin' anymore noises!" he rounded Kate and fell to his knees, pulling at the metal slabs, but like Elle, he couldn't budge them either.

"No, no, she knows we're here, she's probably just resting," Kate willed with all her might that her words would ring true, but they fell on deaf ears.

"Elle!" he shoved his face into the crater, but couldn't adjust his eyes to see much of anything. His voice echoed down the shaft.

Jack rushed to the van to acquire the chains; he climbed the dirt wall of the crater and Jin tossed him the chains, while attaching the hook to the rear bumper of the van. As Jack sprinted back down, slipping and sliding most of the way, Sawyer looked up towards him from behind his disheveled hair, his eyes glowing with rage,

"If she dies," he looked back at Kate and swore, "I'll kill him."

Kate didn't respond with words, but her eyes, locked on Jack and they widened with concern. She knew Sawyer a little too well and was frightened for Jack's well-being. Knowing she couldn't do anything about that now, she handed Sawyer a flashlight while he shouted up to Jin to start the van's engine.

"Okay, Jin," he rechecked the chains, "we're good down here," Jin revs the engine in neutral before hitting the gas, "hit it!"

The power of the van was exactly what they needed to get the job done. They all took positions on either side of the metal slab and while using the strength in their limbs and lifting from their squatting stances, the slab had become looser and moved enough for Sawyer to lower himself down the shaft.

Sawyer jumped into the opening, the flashlight held between his teeth, and lowered himself down. Scanning his surroundings, he can't believe it's actually the Swan. Thoughts swarm his mind. Why did they build it after all they had done to stop it from being built? Where were they exactly, in time? More so, where the hell was Elle?

He called out to her and skimmed the light from the flashlight around the dark corridors. "Elle?" he barreled through the debris like a mad bull, tossing things from side to side. He stopped short, his breath taken from him; he saw her, on her side, barely breathing. Running towards her, as best he could, he squatted down next to her and pulled her into his lap.

"Elle, baby, come on," he stroked her face, "I'm here, I got you." He examined her, noticing the cuts and bruises and the way her left arm was curled towards her in a sling.

Elle stirred and looked up at him, curiosity in her eyes, "Sawyer," she coughed, "she said it worked."

"Who did," Sawyer hugged her close, grateful she had survived the fall.

"Jules," Elle coughed again, her breath rattling in her chest.

"Is she here," he scanned the area for Juliet but couldn't see her, "Juliet!" he shouted, but all was silent except for Elle's labored breathing.

Elle pointed towards the back of the Swan and wimpered, "She's gone."

She reached up and cupped his face in her hand and smiled, gazing into his bloodshot eyes,

"She hit the bomb," she told him and his eyes rounded in shock,

"She did what, now?"

"She tried to save us, but," Elle swallowed, "it didn't work," she bit down on her lip to stifle the pain that was lurking inside her, "did it?"

"We're still here on this Island," he thought he heard her laugh, but it was clouded with phlegm.

"Not now, okay," he searched for the way he had entered, "I'm goin' to get you out'a here, okay, we're all goin' to go home together, you hear me?"

"You should have let me die," she mumbled and Sawyer's loving gaze turned cold.

"What?" he growled. It was the pain talking, he told himself, but the look in her own eyes, was familiar, something he had first noticed when they crashed; they were empty. Not wanting her to repeat herself, he kissed her forehead and whispered he'd never let her go. She ran her fingers through his hair and whispered, her tone lighter, as if she was not herself.

"You have to do something for me," Elle began to come around, ignoring the pain, she knew if it hadn't been for Juliet, she would not have made it this far.

"Name it," Sawyer smiled, noticing the change in her as well.

"Bury her," she made him swear, "I don't want her to be alone."

"Yeah, sure thing," he helped her to sit up, "you think you can walk out of here, while I get her?"

"I'll manage," she nodded and sat back on her heels as she inhaled. She watched as he crawled back towards the spot where she had left Juliet, trying to find her own way out. She hadn't gotten far, the air supply was becoming thin, and she must have lost consciousness. That's how he had found her. She watched as he struggled to pry Juliet free of the fallen countertop. She saw his face sink as he absorbed the tragedy of it all. He hefted Juliet's broken body into his arms and stood, his head, positioned uncomfortably due to the low ceilings. He called out to Elle, telling her that he left the flashlight near her. She was going to have to light the way. She felt around, gripped her fingers tightly around the cool metal cylinder, and twisted it until it shown brightly.

Sawyer found his way back to Elle who was waving the flashlight from left to right, trying to find the easiest way out. Then she saw it; a clear cut path to the exit. She rubbed at her eyes and felt the urge to punch the wall, but held back. Instead, she sighed heavily and shook her head.

"What it is?" Sawyer asked, as he shifted the weight of Juliet's body in sync with his own.

"This path," the incandescent blue light of the flashlight shone brightly, "you cleared it?"

"No, was like that when I made my way down," he looked towards her and noticed the absent look on her face, "why?"

"It was this close and I couldn't find an out," she placed one foot in front of the other, testing the ground she walked on, afraid it would just fall out from beneath her.

"Maybe you couldn't find the way out," Sawyer brushed alongside her, "'cause you gave up."

"Sawyer," Elle said his name, but it was as empty as her eyes, there was no use in arguing, he was right.

He turned and looked at her, wanting to shake her, wake her from this stupor she was in, but his heart ached for her. He thought he had lost her and here she was; a bit banged up but alive. That was all that mattered. Knowing she had taken the easy way out, once, frightened him.

"Listen," he turned toward her and stood face to face, Juliet's body hung limply in his arms, "I swear to you, you ever, ever, do that to me again, you better hope I don't find you."

"James," she raised her chin and her lip trembled, "they're gone."

"Damn it, Elle," he fought back the urge to holler what he was thinking, that she was a goddamned broken record, his spit warming in his mouth, "don't you think I know that?"

"Did it ever cross your mind that I lost ma' babies too," he sighed, "but you didn't see me give up, did you?"

Elle felt a stab of guilt hit her chest. "No."

"But I'd be damned if I didn't think about it, but I knew I had one thing keepin' me goin'," his eyes softened and Elle knew it was her.

"Then she let go." There was bitterness in his voice.

"You let go, and I'm still here." He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer, squeezing her. She flinched and he apologized.

"But they're," she couldn't finish it, but her insides felt hollow, her womb, barren. The cold look in his eyes stopped her from continuing.

"They may be, but we ain't." He pushed at her gently and told her to get a move on. She managed to follow the path quiet easily and crawled upward towards the natural light that beckoned her.

"Sawyer?" Kate hollered down, "Is she okay?"

Elle wanted to shout, to scream her lungs out, No, no I'm not okay, I should be dead! Instead, she feigned the courage to answer Kate,

"We're comin'!"

Using her good arm to balance and lift herself up, she made her way out of the hatch and saw her friends standing idly by; Kate ran towards her, but stopped short, Elle didn't return her smile, nor embrace her. Rather, she shifted to the side, waited for Sawyer to emerge with Juliet, and her coldness spread towards Jack. She eyed him with malice and grit in her teeth,

"You did this."