I'm sorry it has taken me a while to update! Just a quick recap: Sawyer and co have met with Jacob and are now on their way to Hydra island with Richard. Richard has offered to help them contact Eloise Hawking, so their plan is to get back to the Ajira plane. Both Desmond and John Locke, aka the Man in Black, have shown up at the beach. Desmond came to rescue everyone (and clear is own conscience) but Claire has ruined his boat. Since the Man in Black is set on getting off the island by using Desmond's ship (the ship where Penny is at), he is now threatening to kill Miles unless he gets his way...

Hope you enjoy it! And thanks for still reading.

"Hold on a minute." Miles put his hands up in the air. "I'm not doing anything here. Leave me out of your little… whatever this is!" He instinctively took a few steps away from Locke and his knife.

"Miles hasn't done anything to you. Why would you threaten him?" Juliet looked at John's face, as she was still trying to figure out who she really was talking to.

"Because he's the only one here that he can actually harm" Claire responded.

Miles head snapped towards Claire, his facial expression matching a non-verbal 'what the hell?'

"What do you mean?" Jin asked, but Claire kept silent while fixing her eyes on the ground again.

"It seems like you are all left out on some essential information." Locke spoke. He lowered his knife, causing Miles to exhale. "Jacob may have placed most of you under his wing, but not all of you." John continued. "I guess Claire forgot to mention that." He turned his attention back to Desmond. "Now, where were we? Desmond. How about that phone call?"

Desmond looked at Juliet, Jin and Kate, searching their faces for some kind of advice on what to do.

"If you don't make the call, none of us are going anywhere. Except for Miles, that is" John added. "Your trip will have been a total failure."

"Make the call Desmond." Juliet finally said.

Desmond stared down at the telephone device in his left hand, brought it upwards in front of his chest, and pressed the power switch.

Noise. A cracking noise. Desmond pressed some buttons and started walking around. "Damn it" he cursed inwardly.

John followed him with his eyes. "Don't tell me it's not working. I know it works, Desmond."

"Just give me a minute will you?" Desmond answered agitated as he walked away from the group, holding out the phone in different directions in search of a signal. John slowly followed him.

"Shouldn't we go with them?" Kate asked. She stared after Locke and Desmond.

"He won't hurt Desmond." Claire replied while moving closer to Kate and grabbing her hand.

Miles, a bit more at ease now that John was a few meters further away from him, let his anger escape. "What kind of creepy game are you playing?" he snapped at Claire.

"He wants us to help him leave the island." Claire answered.

"I don't care about what he wants. I'm talking about you and you're little secrets. You said we were all safe. And now this mad man here is pointing a knife at me while threatening to kill me!"

"Miles, back off. This isn't her fault." Kate interfered.

Miles was about to respond when Desmond suddenly started talking loudly. They all hurried towards where he and Locke were standing, Miles making sure he stayed behind Jin and Juliet.

"Pen, listen to me. You have to send another boat to the island. My boat got dama…." The cracking noise came back. "Damn it." Desmond cursed out loud this time, while moving the phone into different directions again away from his body.

"Desmond?" A woman's voice came through the phone. Desmond pulled the device back to his ear.

"Penny! Listen to me. Send another boat. But you can't come yourself. Send one of the guys. Promise me you won't come. Please!"

The distant female voice replied "Des. I can't reach you. I already tried to get another boat out there. But the coordinates don't work. They don't work!"

"What do you mean they don't work?"

"We tried several times. But the GPS fluctuates. I could see the island, but I couldn't get any closer! What's going on Des? You've been gone for days!"

"I'm all right. Just, please. Don't come to the island yourself. Send one of the guys. Keep trying."

A loud squeaking noise filled the air. Desmond dropped the phone as if it had burnt him and pressed his hands to his ears. After a few seconds the sound abruptly stopped. When it was gone, Locke reached for the phone lying in the sand. He handed it back to Desmond who tried to switch it back on. Nothing happened.

"Come on!" Desmond grumbled, hitting the phone with one hand against the other.

"Let me try." Juliet walked up to him and took the phone gently out of his hands. "It's dead" Desmond commented, stating the obvious.

After another minute of unsuccessfully trying to switch it on, Juliet gave up as well. "It's no use."

John shook his head and let out a chuckle. "Oh, Jacob."

On the way to Hydra island

There was a slight breeze along the coastline and it made their walk a bit more comfortable. Richard had been walking ahead of the rest. He hadn't spoken more than a few words to any of them. His attention was divided between the cliffs ahead of them and the ocean to their left. It wasn't unusual for Richard to be quiet and Sawyer thought nothing of it. Though it was weird they were taking such a detour to get to Hydra island. Cutting through the jungle would be a lot quicker. But Richard always had his reasons.

Sawyer kept re-running their meeting with Jacob in his head. 'I know you love Juliet, but I ask you to examine once more your reason for asking her to stay.' How could Jacob have known that? But then again, he seemed to know things about all of them. Private details, personal stuff, like Jack breaking down after he left the island. He looked over his left shoulder to Jack, who was walking a few meters behind him.

"You ok, Doc?"

Jack nodded in response, even though everything about the man told a different story. He looked pale, tired and depressed. Sawyer slowed his pace so that Jack could catch up with him.

"We'll get you off the island Jack. Kate too, no worries."

"I'm not sure that's the answer."

Sawyer kept quiet, waiting for Jack to explain what he meant by that. When it was obvious he wasn't going to elaborate, Sawyer asked the question he'd been wanting to ask for a while.

"What happened off island that was so terrible?"

He knew Jack and Kate had been engaged, and he knew that they'd separated. But there had to be more to the story than a broken-off relationship.

"I went back to drinking. That's what happened."

"Mind tellin' me why?"

Jack grimaced. "You know what's so funny, Sawyer? All I tried to do was get as many people off this island as possible. I tried to get us all rescued. And you? You never really tried to save anyone. And you somehow ended up with the better deal." A painful expression took over Jack's face. He brought his right hand to his forehead and pressed his fingers on his eyebrows. "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair."

"I'm well past what's fair or unfair Doc. And you're probably right. But you ain't answering my question. What made you turn back to the bottle?"

Jack sighed loudly. "I don't know. I just felt… I had let so many people down. Kate, Juliet… Claire…"

"I wouldn't worry too much about little Miss Claire. She became weird before y'all left. Who in their right mind leaves their baby in the middle of the jungle?"

"She's my sister."

James stopped dead in his tracks. That was the absolute last thing he'd expected to hear. Jack stopped walking as well and looked Sawyer in the eye. "I know it's insane, but it's true. I found out not too long ago. She is…. We have the same father."

"Shit Doc. That's…."

"Crazy, I know. Must run in the family." Jack displayed a cynical smile.

Sawyer nodded uncomfortably, not knowing how to react. His mind drifted off to that night in the jungle, the night Claire had been with him. To his own surprise he had felt protective of her. He remembered that in all the craziness back then he wanted to keep Claire safe. But he failed. And look at her now.

"Guys! Keep moving!" Hurley shouted from up front.

"Let's go." Jack said, waking James from his thoughts. "Hurley is well ahead of us. I guess the tables have turned. We've become the slow guys."

Sawyer grinned at that while mumbling "Nothing ever stays the same."

"Maybe that's the point, Sawyer."

Maybe.

As he started walking again, he put his right hand into the pocket of his jeans to touch the little black sachet holding the ring.

Back at the beach

Lockewas standing by the water. He had been staring out at the ocean for more than half an hour in some sort of a trance. But even though he was looking the other way, they all could sense that he was aware of every move behind him. Claire could still feel him breathing down her neck. His physical appearance might have changed from the first time she met him, his approach was still the same. She could feel him even when he wasn't around. She leaned over to Kate and whispered something in her ear.

"You don't have to do that Claire." Kate answered.

"Yes I do."

"Do what?" Miles was leaning forward to make out what Claire was saying to Kate.

"Leave you. He always knows exactly where I am. It's like he has marked me. As long as you're with me, you cannot get away from him. I'm so sorry." She started stammering. "All I wanted was to get back to Aaron. Now I've ruined your chances of going home."

"What's done is done Claire" Juliet said, while placing a hand on Miles' shoulder.

John came walking back from the water. "Everyone ready to go?"

"What do you mean 'everyone'?" Jin asked.

"I thought your English had improved? I need to talk to Jacob and then we're getting our own boat, since Desmond's wife probably won't come through." John turned around and started walking North. He briefly stopped and turned around. "Oh, and Claire? In case you are thinking of sneaking off, go right ahead. I don't need you anymore. I've got all these new friends now." He smiled and turned his back on them. "Let's go!"

"This is messed up." Miles said.

Jin walked over to Juliet. "We can't go anywhere. We have to wait for Sun. And for Sawyer, Jack… If we leave they won't know where we are."

Juliet looked at him, knowing that he was probably right. "We can't Jin. If his knife skills are anything like John's, he's very capable of killing Miles. We can't risk that." She sighed lightly and tried to smile at him. "Sun and James will find us. Things will be ok." Then she bent down and wrote a message in the sand.

We are on our way to Jacob. Jacob's brother = Locke.

On the way to Hydra

"So tell me Richard. How is this gonna work? Say we fix the phone. We connect with this Eloise woman. She sends someone over. And then what?"

"Then we let you go."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"What about the dark side to this story?" Sawyer looked over at Richard. How come this man hardly seemed to sweat?

"The dark side is your own business. But if you're referring to the Black Smoke, we just have to outsmart him." Richard laughed out loud. "He's not a magical creature, James. There's logic to his actions. And where's logic, there's predictability."

"And I'm guessing the Oracle gave you his prognosis."

"He doesn't need to. I've been around both of them long enough to know their ways quite well."

Richard stopped, pulled a water bottle out of his backpack and took a sip. They were well ahead of the rest. He wiped his mouth and offered the bottle to James.

"When the time and the coordinates are set, anyone wishing to leave will need to be out in the open water. You may be there for a couple of days. But before that, we need to create a constant diversion. Make him look the other way at all times."

"You mean bait?"

"Exactly."

"How about we just kill him?" He handed the bottle back to Richard.

"He's already dead. You find a way to eliminate the dead, let me know."

Sawyer let the words sink in for a minute. It wasn't a great surprise that both Jacob and his brother were not really part of the human race. But what were they? And did he even want to know?

"Allright, how do we create the bait?"

"It's already been done."

"What do you mean?"

"He's probably with your friends as we speak."

Juliet!