"I don't understand why you need to leave us in your home and take off so suddenly."

Carole Littleton started picking up the breakfast dishes. She and Kate were sitting in Kate's kitchen. Claire and Aaron were there minutes before, but were now headed for the pool. Claire found the water calmed her nerves, and since they'd gotten back to California she often swam laps until she exhausted herself. But with Aaron here now she stuck to the shallow end, teaching him to float and to open his eyes underwater. Aaron, they all felt, sensed Claire was his in some way but he still gravitated toward Kate. Each time that happened it clearly left Claire a tiny bit deflated even though it had only been a couple of days.

"I promise, I'm not just taking off," Kate stayed at the table, fiddling with a half empty cup of tea. "There's something I have to go deal with or else I won't be of any use to Claire or any of you much longer. Please don't make me explain," she said when she saw the confused look Carole shot her.

"Don't make you explain? I think I've been pretty patient on that front."

Kate knew she was right. Carole had brought Aaron back to California immediately when she called her in Australia. The reunion between mother and daughter was heart-wrenching to watch, especially when Kate thought about how close it had come to never happening. She'd only shared the barest details about how she'd brought Claire back and why she'd waited weeks to let her know they were safe.

"I'm taking it slow to protect us all," Kate said. "And I'm not leaving you alone: James will be back today, before I leave, and he'll stay. But I'm asking you to be patient, and not expect us to spill everything in five minutes flat. It's… very complicated."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not entirely sure why we should stick to your time table," Carole sat back down and looked Kate straight in the eyes. "So tell me why I shouldn't just take my daughter and grandson home today?"

Kate looked at her and shook her head. She was on the verge of losing control of the situation and debated how much to reveal to keep it.

"Because as much as you want to, you can never just go home again. You have to lie. We have to arrange new names and identities for you."

"Are you out of your mind? Why in the world would I …"

"Why?" Kate cut her off. "Because where we just came from, it's a place where miracles happen. It's a place with the power to heal someone who's sick, even save a life or decide someone is too evil to live anymore. And because it's so powerful, the people who know about it have been viciously fighting for control of it for … a very long time."

Kate had almost said the words 'thousands of years' but realized that might be enough to push Claire's mom past the point of rational discussion. She was sharing so much more than she wanted to, but the thought of an unstable Claire going God knows where and maybe sharing a little too much about her experiences with God knows who terrified her.

"When we left, all I could think about was being free of it. But now I know I need the people we left behind, or I may not live to see next week." She saw Carole's shocked face and kept going. "I've accepted that whatever happens the rest of my life I'm locked into this chess game we were dragged into, because I have to help and protect my friends on the island and hope they'll do the same for me. I really think someday you and Claire and Aaron can move on and just live your lives…. but not yet. If you take it too fast I can promise you it won't end well. That's not a threat, that's just experience speaking."

She could tell that Carole hadn't had nearly enough time to process what she'd said, let alone believe it. Whatever she decided to do would be based on how much she trusted that Kate's heart was in the right place.

"Okay," Carole nodded. "I'll stay, and I'll talk with James while you're gone. I just hope the two of us can convince Claire to do the same."

"What do you mean?"

"She isn't saying it in front of you," Carole confided. "But from nearly the moment I got here, she's been telling me we need to find someone named Richard Alpert, that he can help us locate a man she says was her friend on the island. She tells me he's the only one who can really help her, not you or Sawyer. I asked her why she couldn't just tell you," Carole said when she saw Kate's stricken expression. "She said you think this friend of hers is dead, but she doesn't believe it."

Kate literally felt sick. She knew without any doubt that the thing that had marched around in John Locke's body and nearly sank the island was, for sure, dead and gone. But she also realized for the first time how far Claire had not come in three months and what a mess she was leaving behind for Sawyer to manage. She hoped he was up for the job, or she feared for Claire and Aaron's lives.

At the same time that Kate was packing a bag and headed for the airport, Hurley and his growing community were pulling together a barbeque on a little beach about a tenth of a mile from the Dharma barracks. They'd voted on it at lunch, and decided to stretch the afternoon's festivities into the evening and take tomorrow off entirely. There was so much to be done, but there had also been a fair amount of work and worry since Hurley had taken over and these weren't words he wanted to be signatures of his time as leader.

Bernard and Annie were leading Penny's team, moving tables and supplies down to the beach, starting a fire and setting up racks to roast chicken and hamburgers on. Penny and Rose were sitting a few yards away, talking and watching Charlie build a sand castle which mostly consisted of him running up and down the beach to get buckets full of water to pour in the moat they'd dug. A few yards behind them and to their left, Hurley and Desmond were catching up.

"Penny was determined we were going to find our way back here without having to look for help from the Lamp Post station," Desmond was explaining why it had taken them so long to return. "Between her on-board crew and her tracking station, we did it. I think we've figured out the trick to knowing where it'll be at any given point. We can come and go as we like now."

"That's great, Desmond, especially if you're going to be our recruiters."

Hurley was so grateful that they'd decided to return, but a little bit bummed their new role would keep them away as much as they were around. Desmond and Penny, it was decided, would use the Searcher and the Elizabeth to ferry the island team members around but more importantly to seek out and bring back people with key skill sets needed on the island. They weren't looking for large numbers of recruits, and that was a good thing since they mostly needed smart, committed people willing to leave the rest of their lives behind - and that, they knew, would be the challenge.

Hurley was just going to ask Desmond how they'd figured out something it'd taken the Dharma Initiative years to crack, when something caught his eye. Someone who was not part of their little party was walking toward them from the tree line to their left. Several of Penny's crew saw him as soon as Hurley did, and were headed that way in a flash armed with shotguns. Hurley stood up and yelled for them to stop.

"It's okay, it's okay, we know him," Hurley walked toward them, and they pointed the guns down. "It's Richard, he's okay."

Richard Alpert stopped a few yards from Hurley. He was wearing dark pants and a deep blue t-shirt with an insignia Hurley didn't recognize: A Dharma logo with a weather vane in the center. His right arm was in a makeshift sling fashioned out of his old shirt. He looked worn out, worried or both but didn't say anything. He just stood there looking at Hurley and nodding sharply to the others as if asking him to dismiss them for a moment.

"Can you give us a second?" Hurley asked, and the others started walking back. Hurley waited until they were out of earshot.

"Dude, you look rough. I don't recognize this Dharma logo, and I spent some time in the DI. He pointed to the logo on Richard's chest. "What is it?"

"It's the logo for the Weather Vane station," Richard said, as if that explained it and he said nothing more.

"I expected to see you again someday, Richard, but not so soon. I'm afraid to ask what's going on."

"Well, that's okay, Hurley, I'm a little afraid to tell you – at least as much as I can tell you right now. But I have to, because after we left I made a split second decision and the consequences of it could start coming back to both help us and haunt us soon."

"How soon?" Hurley asked in a matter of fact, almost nonchalant way and Richard threw him a quizzical look. "Think we have an hour or two to spare before any hell breaks loose?"

"Well, I couldn't give you the exact degree of probability," Richard said, "But yes, I think so."

"Then come sit. Visit with everyone, have something to eat and then we'll let them party and we'll go talk. You look like you haven't eaten since I saw you last," Hurley said as he started walking back toward the campfire.

"Actually, Hurley, I haven't." Hurley stopped suddenly but didn't turn around.

"Richard, how long has it been for you since you left the island?"

"About 18 hours, maybe a little more. How long has it been for you since we left?"

"About three months." Hurley turned, and Richard saw a look of disgust and frustration on his face at having to deal with this news. "Oh no… crap. This is not good. What did you do? Are you time traveling somehow?"

"No," Richard looked at the ground for a second and back up at him. "I'm sorry, Hurley, but I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that."