Sawyer punched in the security code and walked into Kate's house, headed straight for the refrigerator and grabbed a six-pack. He found Miles by the pool.

"There you are," Miles said, kept typing on his laptop. "Six hours in "Others School" with Ms. Hawking, huh? Do you think you really need a beer less than a day after you woke up from being just about dead?"

"Miles, after what I heard I need a bottle of vodka but I'll stick with a beer." Sawyer took one, handed Miles another. "You would not believe…." He stopped, looked around. "Where's Chipper?"

"Evan has taken over Claire's room," Miles said, set the computer on the ground. "He's retired for the night, probably in striped flannel pajamas. He has an app that can watch all the security cameras in entire house and receive text messages from us, isn't that super?"

Sawyer drank half of a beer while Miles was talking, sat back looking dazed.

"What the hell did she tell you?" Miles asked. "Let me rephrase that: What can you tell me about whatever the hell she told you?"

"You have no idea how big this group is, how much money is involved. They're all over the world." He saw the doubt on Miles face. "You yourself know half a dozen famous Others by name," Sawyer said. "It's the biggest cult no one has heard of."

"Seriously?"

"A US senator, one former presidential candidate, a star MLB pitcher who is maybe headed for New York, and horror novelist to be named later." Sawyer said, "Just for starters," and he finished his beer and picked up another. "Get this: Most of them are descended from Jacob."

"No way," Miles said, paused. "Ilana said he was like a father to her."

"She added some words to that sentence," Sawyer said. "He wasn't like a father to her, he was her father. Yeah," he went on at the shocked reaction that got. "So why did daddy let her blow up that way? Maybe he couldn't protect her anymore, being dead himself. Or maybe he was done with her. Who knows with these brutal freaking people? They make me look like the Dali Lama."

"We are in over our heads," Miles said, picking the laptop back up.

"Yes, we are. But we're going to hang in there as long as we have to in order to figure things out," Sawyer said. "What happened to Claire, and how to get Hurley and Kate past this threat they're facing. Then we are out of here. We're done, if it kills me."

"Not something I'd say lightly," Miles said. "And I wouldn't finish that beer, either, we have to go. I just got an email from Hurley. He's at the Flame. He says there's a woman named Annie DeGroot on the way to L.A. and we have to meet her and Ben at the airport and fly with her to Ann Arbor, Michigan."

"And that would be because?" Sawyer asked.

"She has substantial information that might help us figure out all of the above. Her parents: They weren't just Dharma, they started the DI. Her mom's still alive- and Annie is apparently ready to do whatever's necessary to get the information we need."

"Sounds like a lady we need to meet," Sawyer said, "Go get Chipper, I'll be waiting in the car."

"Annie, head up there with Ben," Richard said, pointing back while he poured over the computer console at the Weather Vane, working the operating system, making adjustments.

Ben was standing on the platform behind him, a knapsack with a couple of days' changes of clothes in it. Annie didn't hesitate, walked up to where he was standing with her own backpack on her shoulders.

"I'll drop you off at the Lamp Post, and I'm aiming for the far side of the parking lot. It's the most open, the least likely to be a problem. You should land in a field that's between the church and the next property, basically. But brace yourself, be ready to land at whatever angle you land at," Richard warned, turned back and saw it: Ben stone-faced, Annie a half a step from his left shoulder, facing him, looking at him with her heart in her eyes.

"I um…" Richard said. "I'll have you on the way in a second. Hold on."

Annie took it literally; wound the fingers of her right hand around Ben's left.

"I'm not going there to prove anything to you," Annie said quietly enough that Richard wouldn't have made it out. "I'm going for the island, and to help Hurley. But I hope, when it's done, you'll trust me again. Really… how much more should it take, Ben? I'm going home to kick my mom's ass for us all."

Ben looked at her, shook his head impatiently but didn't shake her hand off. Next thing they knew Richard was fading out of their sight, then the hatch, then the island, and then they were back in L.A.

"There they are," Sawyer stepped forward as Ben's SUV pulled up to the drop-off area near the LAX Delta terminal. Annie stepped out of the vehicle, reached her hand out to shake Sawyer's as Ben drove away.

"Hi, Mr. LeFleur, Annie DeGroot," she said. Sawyer gave off something between a humorless laugh and an exhale.

"Sawyer, please. You remember me? You were on the island in the seventies?" He asked.

"Yes, I remember you. You worked for Horace, you ran security," she said, smiling up at him, "I was twelve. I had a tiny crush on you."

"I'm sorry," he said, taking her backpack. "I don't remember you."

"I was just a kid. And I hung out a lot with Ben Linus," she said.

"Well, that would explain that, I avoided little Ben like the plague, it was too weird, knowing what was coming," Sawyer said, and then, as if out of the back of his mind it hit him he was being rude. "Meet Miles Straume, and Evan - your other new partners in crime."

"Hi, Miles," Annie shook his hand, reached back, "Hi Evan," and the four of them started walking toward the departures board to check out their flight.

"I'm assuming that they've already got us some hotel rooms lined up in Ann Arbor?" She asked, got a nod in return from Miles. "I'm thinking that won't be enough. Too public. We need an apartment, at least, maybe a house," she said. "In a quiet neighborhood. Let's try to get on that before we board the plane, please."

"Why?" Miles asked simply, but pulled out his cell phone.

"Just in case my mom won't buckle when I confront her," Annie said. "If that happens, we're going to be adding a fifth to the party. One that would draw some serious stares at a hotel."

"Why?" Sawyer asked as Miles dialed Eloise.

"Because… he'd be a hostage, and a hard one to hide."

Half an hour later, they were through security and boarding their plane. A few miles away from them, Ben and Eloise were sitting together in a pew in the church above the Lamp Post, staring forward at the alter with the candles blazing to their right, not saying much.

"You do know," Eloise broke the silence, "That once this crisis is over, you have to make damn sure those other worlds are shut off from ours?"

"You think?" Ben said simply, ironically, and Eloise smiled.

"We've all been running in so many direction lately, Ben, I don't know what anyone thinks. But I know that as much as those other worlds might offer some protection, redundancy, a place to hide, they also pose a threat. Who knows if your Oceanic 815 friends aren't already contemplating a way to use them to right some wrongs."

"Hell, I'm contemplating it," Ben said. "Imagine, if one of those worlds is entirely empty – no history, no Mother, no Jacob, just the island itself, ready for someone to lead. That would be the place you'd want to step in and run. Clean slate."

"Exactly," Eloise said. "If it's tempting you, it's tempting everyone. Let Richard do his little inventory with Walt, use those other worlds to all of our advantages until this crisis is over- then shut it down, no matter what that takes."

"Eloise, as always," Ben said, "We are on exactly the same page."