"That woman," Jack asks Juliet a few miles later, after the sun has already risen. "What was her name?"
"Harper," Juliet answers.
"The two of you friends?"
"Not exactly. She was my therapist."
"You had therapists?" I ask her.
"It's very stressful being an Other, Tia."
"Seemed kinda hostile, even for a therapist," Jack says.
"I'm sure there are things from your past that you'd rather not talk about."
"Yeah. You read them all in my file."
"Trust me, Jack. You don't want to see my file," she says, picking up the pace.
A few miles later and we've managed to pick up their trail and, according to Juliet, we are headed towards the Tempest. But after a while, Jack starts to get impatient. "Something's wrong. We should've caught up with 'em by now.
"These people base jumped out of a helicopter, Jack. Let's give 'em the benefit of the doubt," Juliet says.
To my right I hear a groan, and I point my gun toward it, instinctively. Jack leads the way through the bushes and Kate lays on the ground, her head bleeding. I point my gun down and grab my pack off my back, pulling out a cloth and some peroxide.
"Hey. Hey, it's okay. It's okay. Hey," Jack says to her, getting her to come too. "It's all right. Take it easy."
"I'll go get her some water," Juliet says.
"Thanks," I call to her, dribbling peroxide onto the cloth.
Kate's eyes open and she sits up, gasping in pain. "What happened?" Jack asks her.
"I was going back to the beach, and... I ran into Faraday and that woman... um... Charlotte. I think she hit me."
"They disappeared out of camp last night. We've been trying to catch up with them," Jack tells her, taking the cloth from me and putting it on her head.
"Do you know where they were headed?" she asks.
"Some sort of power station," I answer.
"You guys," Kate says, looking between the two of us. "They had gas masks."
Jack stands up and walks to the creek, calling Juliet's name, but there's no response. Juliet's gone.
"She came through here," Kate says, bending down at the ground, looking at the trail. "So did they, about half an hour ahead of her." She starts walking in that direction and we follow.
"What happened?" Jack asks.
"Sorry?" Kate says, confused.
"At Locke's. Why did you stay?"
"I stayed because I had to find something out."
"Are you gonna tell us, or are we gonna keep walking through the jungle like it doesn't matter?"
Kate stops and turns back to us. "I stayed to find out if the people on the freighter know who I am. If they knew that I'm a fugitive. That I'm wanted for murder."
"Do they?" Jack asks.
"Yeah, they know," Kate says. "We should keep moving. God knows where Juliet is."
She leads the way and there's not much talking. We reach a large DHARMA building in about an hour. Juliet is standing outside with Charlotte, the latter wearing some kind of hazmat suit. Kate angrily starts to advance on Charlotte, her gun raised.
"Whoa, Kate, it's all right," Juliet says, raising her hands. "They're on our side."
"Our side, Juliet?" Kate asks. "She just knocked me unconscious."
"Yeah. I'm very sorry about that, but I had no choice," Charlotte yells. "Look, Daniel's inside securing the facility. If you come with me, I will be more than happy to explain exactly how we just saved your life."
"All right. Let's go," Kate says, motioning with her gun. Mine is in my hand, but I'm not pointing it at anyone. Kate turns to Jack, waiting for him to follow us.
"I'll take their word for it," he says.
I follow Charlotte and Kate into the Tempest. It's a large open room with multiple higher levels make out of metal risers. In the center of the room, there are multiple computers, one of which Daniel Faraday stands in front of, typing on its keyboard. All around the walls of the room are large tanks, holding God knows what.
"You wanna explain how you've saved our lives, exactly?" I ask Charlotte.
"Gladly. Before Juliet shoed up and interrupted us, Daniel was trying to stop the gas."
"What gas?" Kate asks.
"Large amounts of poisonous gas that Benjamin Linus could use at any point, killing every person on this Island."
"And how did you stop it?"
"I rendered it inert," Daniel calls from the computer, not looking away. "Sent it under ground where it will turn into a harmless fossil fuel."
"Fossil fuels aren't harmless," I say.
"Well, less harmless than if Linus were to release it," Charlotte counters. "So you believe me now?"
Kate still has her gun pointed at Charlotte. "Kate, I think they're telling the truth."
"Then why did she knock me out?"
"Would you have really let us go on our merry way if I hadn't?" Charlotte asks. "You were taking up our time, I need to get us moving."
"Kate, maybe you should put the gun down," I say, eying the tanks. Dan might have rendered the gasses inert, but I don't trust a bullet going off in here. Kate reluctantly lowers the gun and we walk back outside.
Jack and Juliet are separating from a hug as we exit the building. Jack looks sheepish as they separate and Kate tries to act like she hadn't seen anything. Charlotte and Daniel come out a few minutes later, their hazmat suits back in their bags and we head back to the beach.