Alex came home at 9 o'clock and saw with glee that Dr. Linus' car was still there. She went in the back door into the kitchen, hoping there was some posole left. That stuff was good, if a bit spicy.

The moment she stepped inside, though, she heard raised voices.

"—stole my child!"

"Saved your life, Rousseau. And hers. Charles wanted me to kill her! Instead I raised her! I got rid of Charles. I protected her!"

She might have thought the TV was on, but it was definitely their voices, her mother's more strongly accented than usual.

"Do you tell yourself that so you can feel better about being a monster?"

There was silence as Alex stood frozen in the kitchen.

"Yes," Dr. Linus said quietly. "I did tell myself that for that very reason. I loved her, Rousseau, as well as I knew how, but it wasn't enough. She would have been better off with you off in that jungle. You wouldn't have gotten her killed. But I loved her. It was wrong and unjust how it happened, but she was my daughter."

"I should kill you for saying that." She had never heard her mom sound like that before.

"You've already tried, if you remember. But you can't kill me, Rousseau. I'm already dead. I died on the Island, like you did. Like she did. Don't you remember? The men Charles sent after me killed you. They killed her too. It was all my fault. I have lived with that every moment of my life. Dying would have been better than living with it, but I lived with it. And now I have a chance to make it better, Rousseau! What do you think all this is about? Do you think it's a coincidence that I woke up to find myself the teacher of the subject Alex is best at?"

Her mom's voice was low and angry. "What do you want, Linus?"

"I want to be in her life! I want a chance to give to her! Don't you understand? This is my chance the same way it is yours!"

"Why should I let you have any kind of chance with my daughter?"

Dr. Linus' voice broke. "Because I don't deserve it, Rousseau. I don't deserve it, but she does. She deserves me to do better. And she needs a father, Rousseau."

"You are not her father."

"You once said I was the closest thing she had to a father. I'm the only father she's ever had. I just want a chance."

"Get out of my house. Get out! Or I will kill you, the way I should have done when I found you in my trap."

Dr. Linus turned slowly from where he was standing by the fireplace. "Rousseau, this is your chance as well as mine to have the life you should have had. And it's Alex's chance, too. Why not let her choose?"

He walked out into the dining room to get the jacket slung over a chair, and then he saw Alex standing in the kitchen doorway, trembling. He sighed, came up to her, put his hands on either side of her face and said, "I'm sorry, Alex. I'm so, so sorry." He kissed her forehead, tears in his eyes, and was gone while she stood reeling in the doorway.