On Board the Valenzetti

At Sea

Annie had feigned seasickness but it didn't take much acting on her part. Watching Sawyer practically hand over their friends to the DI really had left her nauseated and dizzy. She got up from her chair and headed for the stairs, heard Dori Goodspeed's voice behind her.

"Are you okay, my dear?"

She only half turned around so she wouldn't have to face them.

"Just having some trouble dealing with the waves," she said, started down the steps.

"I hate to tell you but it will get worse before it gets better," Dori said, "I'll have the crew bring you some seasick meds. And maybe it's best if you take a brisk walk around the main deck – it helps.

"Thank you," she said, trying to keep her voice even, unemotional. "I'll try it."

And that's just what she did for nearly an hour until Dori and Sawyer took a break and she saw Sawyer walking her way, the computer bag over his shoulder. They were on the main deck near the rail but around the corner from the rest of the crew, just the two of them.

Annie saw him glowering but she was angrier. She charged up to him and slammed her fist into his bicep. She got a mildly pissed-off 'ow' out of him and she reflexively started pummeling him, not nearly done venting. Sawyer stopped her fast, latched onto one of her arms and pushed it hard enough behind her back to get a gasp and an 'ow' out of her, too.

"Don't you go all drama queen on me here," he stepped in, dropped her arm. "I have my reasons for what I've done, and if you don't keep your mouth shut you're going to be sorry. They'll lock you in your room if you're lucky, and toss you overboard if you're not. Calm down, or I can't promise I can protect you."

"How do you sleep knowing you're doing this to them?" She spit the words out under her breath, "The DI didn't find out about the Weather Vane being activated or about Jacob being dead from some mysterious hatch signals," she said. "They found out from you. You created Hurley's first real crisis as leader. Do you think that the only people on this planet who cared about you are going to forgive you for that?"

She knew her words had hit harder than her hands but Sawyer's face stayed impassive, one corner of his mouth twisting down just in the slightest.

"I don't give a damn about forgiveness, I want revenge," he said, "And I'm going to get them all away from that rock and make a ton of money in the process."

"Do you really believe they'll let you have any of that?" She asked. "What makes you think they won't just kill us both when they're done with us?"

"How stupid do you think I am?" he opened the flap of the computer bag and briefly lifted the corner of a familiar looking, wired brick out of it, slid it back down. "I brought insurance."

"Great," she shook her head. "If all else fails, blow everybody up. Suicidal much?"

"Listen Moonbeam," he stepped in closer, towering over her. "Enjoy your hippie ideals and your superiority complex, but understand that you have no idea what we've been through, how we've been used like pawns. You came in a little late to this game and maybe you should stop pretending you didn't."

They both stood there in silence for a second, neither giving an inch until they heard Dori's voice behind them.

"Is there a problem?" He asked it as if he knew the answer. Sawyer turned slowly, shaking his head.

"No, I was just advising her that she should take her medicine and maybe a nap."

"Good idea," Dori stepped forward, dropped two little white pills into Annie's hands. "Antivert," he said, "for the seasickness. Why don't you rest," he said. "And why don't you stay in your room for awhile? We'll put a guard at your door for your safety."

Annie started walking wordlessly toward the stairs to head a floor down, noticed Sawyer was following. She stopped him, shaking her head.

"I'll can go by myself," she said. "I don't need you. Nobody needs you."

Both sides of his mouth moved this time, curling up in a hard little smile. He squinted, tipped his head just the slightest in a non-verbal 'touche' and watched her walk away.

"There's news about the island," Dori barely waited for Annie to disappear down the steps before he told Sawyer. "We found where it is now using the information you gave us. It's moved substantially closer to Hawaii – unless it moves again soon, we'll be there in a day and a half. Maybe less."

"Fantastic," Sawyer said, walking back to head for the upper deck. "So what's the bad news, why don't you look happier?"

"Because," Dori said, "We also found The Searcher with the info you gave us, and I'm sorry," he trailed off and Sawyer stopped walking, looked back at him, was stunned to see a sincere, almost sorrowful expression on his face for once.

"I know we said we wouldn't hurt your friends if they surrendered but they're doing just the opposite. They've spotted us and they're coming for us. They have armed reinforcements on board. We have to destroy them, Sawyer. Now."

The Island

At the barracks

Kate's bungalow

"Claire, can you hear me sweetie?" Kate sat next to Claire, who was lying very still on her side in in the bed in her spare room at the barracks. Kate was holding her hand, squeezing it, talking in her ear but nothing was registering.

Bernard and Rose and Hurley were with her, Bernard and Rose sitting across the room and Hurley pacing. Kate had been so surprised to see them all there when she got back from the other side. Her heart had literally jumped with joy to hear Claire had shown up at her doorstep in L.A., that she'd made the trip back to the island with Miles and Ben. Now, though, Kate's face was a little more solemn as she turned from the bed and looked at Hurley.

"Semi-comatose?" She said. "I've heard the term, but what does it mean for her?"

"She kind of dips in and out of consciousness," Hurley said. "If we bring food, she'll eat it. She's said a few words, but nothing that's made any sense. A few hours ago she got up, walked to the bathroom and took a shower," he chuckled, "Then she came right back here and crawled into bed, pulled the covers over her head and she's been like this ever since. It's all over the place."

"What did they do to you?" Kate asked quietly, looking at Claire. Rose had told her how it appeared to be the DI that had taken her, how they might have used mind control and drugs to try to 'cure' her.

"This was in the pocket of her sweat suit," Bernard picked a folded piece of paper up off of the table near his left arm, stood up and handed it to Kate. She unfolded it, shook her head as she read.

"We did the best we could for her," Kate read. "When she wakes up, you'll find that where she is, that's where she will stay," Kate folded the note again, set it down on the stand near the bed. "What does that mean?"

No one seemed to have any ideas and they stood there in silence for a while, until the 'bloop' of a text message hitting Hurley's cell phone caught their ears and they watched him read it.

"Kate," he started walking to the door, gestured. "Richard and Ben are on their way here with an update," she nodded and followed, Rose taking her spot next to Claire.

Hurley looked very pre-occupied as they walked out into the main yard, sat across from each other at the picnic table waiting for Richard and Ben.

"What's wrong?" she asked when it became clear he really didn't want to say.

"It's all happening soon," Hurley said, "The DI boat – it's close, I know it. We'll hear it from Richard in a minute but I know it." She knew he was both braced for this first challenge to his leadership, and afraid for his friends. And she knew that wasn't why he was still staring down at the picnic table.

"Hurley," she said, needling a little. "What else?"

"Okay, fine," he said, looked up at her and down again fast and it hit her where he was going to go next. "In a little while I'm going to tell you what I need you to do, where I need you to go. And you're not going to like it at all. You're going to hate it because you'll be out of the action and also because I'm going to ask you to go to the one place and time you've sworn you won't go again. But you have to Kate," he said. "You have to."

Kate just sat looking at him, shaking her head, tears springing to her tired eyes. She didn't say anything back, though, because at that minute Ben and Richard were walking up from behind the dining hall.

They were talking with each other, didn't notice the mood until they were nearly next to them and then they stopped dead.

"What's going on?" Richard asked. Hurley gave a little 'it's okay' wave, gestured for them to join them at the table. The both walked around, were just about to sit down when they heard yelling from the door of Kate's bungalow.

"She's awake," Bernard shouted it, waved for them. "Claire's awake again."

Kate was off like a shot, Hurley right behind her and Ben and Richard following behind. She practically flew into the spare room, saw Claire standing near the full-length mirror next to the dresser, brushing her hair. Claire turned when she heard the commotion, smiled like she'd just seen Kate yesterday.

"Claire, you're up," Kate said, feeling out how else to approach this. "How are you?"

"I'm good," she said, shrugging a little, smiling. Something was off: She didn't seem to notice the number of people standing in her room observing her a little breathlessly, and she didn't notice Kate was visibly pregnant. Still, though, her eyes were bright and her voice had a lot of its old lilt back.

"I'm a little tired, but…" Claire stopped brushing her hair, looked at Kate specifically. "Where's Aaron?"

They were all shocked, but she had been through too much to be thrown so easily.

"We thought you needed some rest," Kate said, let her voice trail off to see how Claire would respond.

"Oh, thanks," Claire went back to brushing her hair, pulling at a knotted strand with the brush, wrinkling her nose as she tugged at it. "I really did. Did Charlie take him for a walk?"

Rose gasped. That and the sound of Claire's brush moving through her hair were the only sounds for the next few seconds.

"Yes," Kate said, "They'll be back soon, I'm sure."

"I hope so," Claire said, "Aaron gets so cranky if he's late for a feeding."

She kept brushing and no one moved, but Hurley and Kate's eyes connected across the room.

On board the Valenzetti

Annie's room

Annie was surprised they left her phone with her, but she realized why pretty quickly: It got no connectivity in her tiny metal cage, she couldn't even try to get by the wifi password. It was a brick. She tossed it on the table near her mattress, sat staring at the walls for a few minutes racking her brain for a way out.

She stretched out, decided to close her eyes and think deeply about it – that was a strategy she's used many times in her life and it often helped. It was what sent her to the South Pacific after college, what led her, eventually to Penny and Desmond at a marina in the middle of nowhere, and then to the island.

To her shock she heard her door opening, a woman's voice bickering mildly with the guard at her door telling him to go, to hurry, and then Elian Lewis walked in, slammed it shut and ran straight for the tiny bathroom at the back of her room. Annie hadn't seen her since the meeting in the diner, remembered how Elian had asked her if she was good with her research on the island being used for profit someday.

The bathroom was nothing more than a toilet and a sink behind half a wall. Annie stood up as Elian jumped up on the sink without a word or even a look at her, pulled a screwdriver out of her pocket and undid the plate in the ceiling where the pipes came through. She reached up, started wailing on the pipe again and again, just barely jumped out of the way to the floor as water started gushing out.

"I told him a pipe burst above your room," she said. "And now it has. I probably only have about four minutes, please, can you tell me what these are all about?"

Elian handed her a piece of paper and Annie saw it was a print out of a series of photographs, close up pictures of labels on dozens of barrels, jars, bins.

"These are all in the lab downstairs. You're a doctor, do you know what any of them they're about, what they're used for?"

"Nothing good," Annie said, her face falling slowly with every label she read and then her hand went to her mouth. "Oh no,"

"What?" Elian said, looking toward the door. "Hurry…'

"Some of these… they could be used to make biological weapons."

"There are a lot of barrels that aren't labeled. We can't even know what's in them. What if it gets worse?" Elian started turning in circles, the room was too small for pacing. "I didn't get in for this," Annie could see her hands were shaking a little. "I wanted to make cures, make money on them…"

"Their way will probably make them a lot more," Annie said, shrugged sadly, sat down again. She saw Elian's eyes dart around the room and Elian picked up her cell phone from the table.

"Let me take this," She said. "I can connect upstairs, text your friends. I'll keep in touch with them. I'll do what I can."

Annie nodded, and Elian started back out the door.

"I have to be out there when he gets back," she said, "I can't have him thinking we've been talking." Annie nodded.

"Come tell me what's happening," she said, "If you can."

"I'll try," she said, started to shut the door, then paused. "I do know they're going after The Searcher now," she saw Annie's face fall. "I'm sorry…"

"No," Annie waved her on. "Go ahead. It's hard, but not as hard as not knowing."

"I'm not high up the security chain," Elian said. "But I do know that whatever they have planned for your friends on the island, whatever their method is to try to knock them off it – it's already there. It's all in place."

She closed the door, and Annie sat on the edge of her mattress, her hands folded in front of her and she shut her eyes.

She tried to clear her mind again, but all she could see behind her eyelids was the jungle, the barracks, her friends, the day she'd saved Bernard from his gunshot wounds, the way Hurley always thanked her for helping them. Ben.

She felt her eyes burning, reached up to press them, to try to block it all out, but she couldn't. She wanted to go home.