Jack was terrified even though he didn't let it show. Artz had already blown himself up when handling the dynamite and ironically, he was supposed to be the one who knew what he was doing. Or maybe exactly that killed him. Maybe he was overconfident, too eager to do something for a change as Jack had overheard him earlier complaining to Hurley about feeling left out of the so-called clique. Were they really like that? Jack wondered. Had they formed a clique? Still, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered if he could blow up any second. He needed to be careful since he needed to come back to Alice. He didn't even want to think what losing him would do to her now when Sawyer was probably already gone.

He just wanted to see her again.

In the meantime, Alice was helping the survivors from the beach to relocate to the caves where they would be safer than out in the open. The others had already proven once that they could come for them from the water unexpectedly.

She was just about to go when she spotted Shannon struggling with her baggage and the dog Walt had left her. Alice decided to go over there and help her friend, but in that moment Sayid reached the blonde and Alice just smiled. Shannon hadn't been herself lately when not taking enough care of her appearance – in comparison to what lengths she'd gone before Boone's death, the difference was striking – and not speaking to anyone for longer than few seconds. She kept pushing people away and Alice didn't know how to help her. She hoped that if anyone could get through to the girl, it would be Sayid.

As they were finally in the jungle and heading straight to the caves, they suddenly heard Charlie's scream as he caught up with them and ran straight to Sayid, informing that Rousseau was on the beach, asking for him. Yet, when the Iraqi got there, it was already too late since the French woman had hit Claire in the head and taken her baby. Alice's heart went out to Claire. She couldn't even comprehend what the young mother must've been feeling and she remained by her side, taking her to the caves after Charlie and Sayid convinced her that it would be faster if they went for the baby alone. They promised to return Aaron to her – Alice thought it was a lovely name – and just asked her to wait. Claire couldn't do anything anyway and there was blood on her hair from where Rousseau had struck her. Needless to say, she was in no condition to make the trip.

"Charlie and Sayid will get the baby back. I'm sure of it," Alice tried to comfort the young mother when sitting next to her in the caves.

"Do you think we're being punished?" Sun, who was nearby, suddenly asked.

"By whom?" Alice frowned at that.

"Fate?"

"We're not being punished and there's no such thing as fate," Claire suddenly said in a harsh voice, but it sounded like she had trouble believing it herself. Alice understood because the blonde had been put on the plane by a psychic who'd apparently foreseen that it was the only way she'd stay with her baby. Still, it seemed he hadn't foreseen a crazy French woman trying to steal that baby.

"I agree that we're not being punished," Alice said when touching Claire's hand to give the woman some support. "If so, I am being punished all the time. My family dies, I lose everyone, the plane I'm on crashes, I fall in love with someone and now I may lose him, too," she counted it all out. "He went to get the dynamite and if that's not dangerous enough… We all know what else is on this island."

"Jack will be all right and so will the baby," Sun then said. "They'll come back to us."

Alice really wished it were so easy for her to believe.

"I don't believe in destiny," Jack said to Locke as they were talking by the hatch, preparing the dynamite.

"Yes, you do. You just don't know it yet," the older man argued and Jack ended the conversation right there.

Didn't he, really? He started thinking about it. He was so adamant on believing only in what he could do and not in what something else - fate, destiny or whatever - could throw at him. Maybe he did it because it made him feel more in control? Yet, he did think of the coincidence of meeting Alice and of what they had in common, of how she was in his life now and how important she was to him. He would've never known her if it hadn't been for the plane crash.

He stopped himself right there. He couldn't let Locke get to his head like that. There were more important things to do at the moment anyway. They needed to blow up the hatch so he could provide shelter for all the survivors, come back to Alice and never let her go.

It worked. The dynamite blew the hatch door right off, revealing a dark pit and a broken ladder. And just then, Jack got the strangest feeling that he should simply be done trying to get inside. He wouldn't hide forty people there without a proper ladder. Besides, even though he wanted to see the place, it was madness at the moment as it was still dark, so he just turned around and decided to come back to the camp. He hadn't been there since morning and he needed to make sure that everyone was safe before he would try something with the hatch again.

Alice was waiting for Jack and in the meantime she was watching Charlie and Sayid bringing Claire her baby back. Then Shannon shared a warm welcome with the Iraqi. Everything seemed to be fine, everything seemed to be back to normal except that Jack was still missing.

And then she nearly sensed him being close because once she turned, he just walked out of the jungle. She got up and ran to him without saying anything. She just threw herself into his arms and he hugged her tightly. Next, said straight into her ear, "It's good to be home."

"We're in the middle of the jungle," she pointed out, nearly laughing now that she had him back safe and sound. She pulled away and looked at him.

"So?" He shrugged. "You're my home now."

That sentence melted her heart and she was in a serious danger to get carried away by her emotions. They'd already said 'I love you' to each other and she really didn't want to break down now, so she just asked hoarsely, "How did it go?"

Jack relayed everything to her. How they'd opened up the hatch. How her theory might've been correct since there was a quarantine sign on the inside of it like it was really meant to shelter and to protect. Then Alice told him how Charlie thought that Rousseau made up that the others were coming that morning, how she'd taken Claire's baby, catching her unguarded while they'd been evacuating. How she'd tried to trade the baby for her Alex after setting the fire and creating the smoke, but to no avail. The others, if they were even real, hadn't showed up.

Once Jack spoke to the crowd, informing them of everything that had happened and of, unfortunately, Artz's death, Shannon came running from the jungle, claiming that she'd seen Walt there. She seeded panic among people, but Sayid quickly calmed them down, telling her that she was probably exhausted and just needed to rest, that Walt was surely safe on the raft.

Jack was bent on staying in the caves and waiting for the morning, but then Locke came back, took a rope and was gone again, taking Kate with him.

"This man will break his freaking neck," Jack cursed as he couldn't possibly stop John. "I'm going."

"What? No. It's dangerous!" Alice protested when holding on to him.

"I just can't let anyone else die. I'll be back. Don't worry."

Alice waited whole five minutes before she just shook her head. She was done worrying about Jack and she would just join him. She didn't want to be around Shannon right now anyway since the blonde was still rumbling about seeing Walt in the jungle and it was only giving her goose bumps.

"I am so going to regret this," Alice sighed when finally looking into the dark pit of the hatch. "Screw it!" She began her way down.

Alice stopped counting around the fifth time she cursed as she was lowering herself into the hatch. When she reached the bottom, she was actually surprised that she'd made it and hadn't broken her neck in the process. Then again, humans were capable of anything when the right pressure was put on them and she just wanted Jack to be safe. And judging by the fact that she was met with complete darkness and nothing and no one in particular, she was only assured in her decision to get down there. Suddenly, out of nowhere, music was turned up to a maximum volume, becoming nearly unbearable for her ears. Then it stooped as soon as it started and once she made a few steps forward, regretting she hadn't taken any gun with her even though she didn't know how to shoot, she finally heard some voices. She came to a stop, just listening and soon enough she could figure out what was going on. She felt sudden fear freezing her insides as she realized that the hatch wasn't empty, that there had been a man inside the whole time they'd been on the island and probably even longer. The man was threatening both Jack and Locke now.

"Damn it," Alice cursed under her nose, not really knowing what to do. Then she actually listened harder since she could swear she heard something else. Something coming from…

She came over to the nearest door as soundlessly as she possibly could and pressed her ear to it.

"Is someone in there?" she asked quietly.

"Alice?" It was Kate. "Alice, let me out."

If someone knew what to do in a situation like this, it was definitely Kate, Alice decided and unlocked the door which clearly only had a knob on the outside.

"You want a chocolate bar?" was the first thing Alice heard from Kate when she saw her and she was just standing there, looking at the ex convict incredulously.

"Maybe we should save Jack and Locke first?" Alice finally suggested and they both turned slowly in that direction, Kate leading.

They soon came to another stop when they heard Jack saying, "You," with clear recognition in his voice and both the women just looked at each other. Could Jack really know the guy in the hatch? If so, how?

In that moment, luckily for them, Kate spotted a gun and soon after that, the stranger was hit in the head, his own gun released from his hand and an accidental shot rang out.

Jack jumped and wanted to reach the man to immediately bound him, but then he noticed both Kate and Alice.

"What are you doing here?!" he asked sharply the latter and was by her side in no time. "Are you all right?"

Alice only managed to nod, relieved that they all seemed to be ok when they heard coming from the stranger, "What have you done?! We are all going to die!"

Alice froze when hearing that and felt Jack leaving her side to get to the man who was still lying on the floor and now looking at the computer with terrified expression.

"We need to fix it!"

There was smoke coming out of the hardware as the bullet had clearly hit it.

"No. We don't need to fix anything," Jack said when shaking his head and grabbing the stranger so he could help him up to his feet.

"Do I know you, brother?" the man asked when he took a good look at Jack's face.

Suddenly, Jack let him go and jerked back, turning to the computer as though he was trying to hide his face. Alice frowned when coming closer to him.

"How do you know him?" she whispered when standing right behind him and placing her hand on his shoulder. The others didn't hear them since they were currently listening to what the stranger had to say about the computer.

"Not now," Jack just said.

"No. I want to know."

Then Jack turned around and sent her a look that she could only read as he was sorry and would explain everything later. She seemed to have no choice but to settle for that.

In the meantime, the guy from the hatch was trying to assess the damage made to the hardware. "You killed us all!" he kept on screaming.

"Ok, would you care to explain?" Jack asked, clearly on the verge of his patience.

They all just stood there, completely taken aback when the man started telling them everything there was to know about a button that needed to be pushed every 108 minutes and how the counter on the wall was already down to 90 something, how they needed to fix the computer or else it would have disastrous consequences.

Kate volunteered to get Sayid who knew a lot about fixing electrical devices and Jack just sent her a look that clearly meant to express his surprise that she was even taking the stranger seriously.

"It sounds like a tale of a crazy person who's been locked down here for way too long," he eventually said as though it was his medical diagnosis of the man.

"You need to watch the video," he only received in answer.

"What video?" Locke's interest was immediately piqued.

"The Orientation video!"

As they finished watching the tape, they still didn't know what to think. Alice was shocked that so many experiments had taken place on the island. She sought Jack's hand, needing to know that he was there by her side and they were both safe, that whatever else was or had been happening outside the bunker, simply didn't matter at the moment.

Once the movie ended, Locke suggested watching it again, but Jack just shook his head and walked into another room, Alice following.

"Ok, talk," she said, folding her arms on her chest and waiting for him to tell her everything she didn't know.

"It's nothing, really," he assured her before he started. "I just think I met this guy once while I was running on the stadium and hurt my ankle. He said he was training for a regatta around the world and that could actually explain why he's here right now. He might've crashed on this island just like we did. Anyway, it was right after Sarah's surgery and I was sure she would be left paralyzed. He was the one who told me to believe in miracles and when I came back to the hospital… a miracle actually happened. Sarah could wiggle her toes."

"All right," Alice said when hearing all of that. "All right. And you know what? I don't care. I don't care about a fucking computer that's supposed to be saving the world. I don't care that apparently, there's been more going on, on this island and that we might've just found an explanation to why this place hasn't been discovered yet. Maybe it was a government's secret project that was abandoned and the guy didn't know about it because he was locked down here. Maybe he was left behind. Maybe they left in a hurry. I do not care!" she repeated, raising her voice and then glancing to the main room to see if the stranger was trying to listen in on their conversation. "This hatch may be creepy, but you were right, in worst case scenario we have shelter. And it's actually better because there's food stashed in here."

"I'm glad that we share the same opinion," Jack finally spoke when Alice finished her rant. He only hoped that she didn't just say all of that to calm her own mind.

Eventually, they went back to the stranger who was still trying to fix the computer. Jack did his best to speak to his mind, to convince him it was all just a mind game, yet the guy refused to listen.

And then he turned the computer on and all the fuses were blown. The next thing Jack and Alice knew, the man was running away, leaving them.

"Well, at least now we have the place all to ourselves," Jack just said and Alice nearly laughed, but she stopped herself when she saw the expression on Locke's face. He was a believer and a tough guy, she decided. A tough guy to convince that it hadn't all happened for a reason. To be honest, Locke's determinism terrified Alice and she'd rather just leave this place so she could assure herself in the fact that it was all, indeed, a mind game and they wouldn't blow up or something if they didn't push that damn button every hundred something minutes.

Once Jack and Alice used the back door to leave and found themselves back in the jungle and in the light of the day, she felt much better.

"Locke is crazy," her boyfriend just said in anger. "I can't listen to him any longer."

"Jack, calm down," Alice advised when touching his arm. She could see how thrown off-balance he actually was. "It's just a hatch and a number of experiments performed many years ago. And hey, maybe there's a shower down there!" she pointed out since the stranger looked clean to her.

"You and your dirty mind," Jack teased her.

"My dirty mind?! I was thinking about a real shower, mind you, and not about sex in the shower! It's your mind that goes south, mister!" She poked him with her finger.

"Oh, really?" Jack just asked when smiling to her and getting closer.

"Really." She smiled back before she kissed him. "This whole place is crazy, but we are steady. We'll just keep holding on to each other," she decided.

"Agreed."

They suddenly heard some rustle in the trees and they jumped away from each other only to see the stranger coming back.

"I remember you," he said when pointing Jack. "You twisted your ankle… you were running… What happened to that gal?" he suddenly asked, clearly meaning Sarah.

"It doesn't matter," Jack dismissed the question, not feeling comfortable with it.

"Did you help her?" the stranger wasn't giving up.

"It doesn't matter!" Jack raised his voice and Alice nearly jumped, surprised by how sore a point Sarah truly was for his.

"Come on. What…"

"I married her!" Jack yelled, tears welling up in his eyes. "Ok?! I fucking married her!"

The stranger looked at Jack, then he shifted his eyes to Alice and she didn't like the way he looked at her. Like she was a puzzle to be solved.

"But you're not married to her anymore," he guessed.

"It was a mistake," Jack explained, his voice coming back to normal. "Just like yours was to push that damned button for so long. It's not real…" Jack thought for a second before he remembered the stranger's name, "Desmond."

"And you're Jack, right? Anyway, in about fourteen minutes you'll be very right or very wrong, brother. Remember the numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. See you in another life, brother." After that, he disappeared in the jungle for good.

Jack quickly realized that he was alone. Alice was gone as well. She must've come back to the hatch, he decided and sighed heavily.

"It's not 48, it's 42," Alice corrected Locke who was just entering the code into the clearly fixed computer.

"Alice," she then heard Jack's voice right behind her.

"What if it's real, Jack?" she asked him. "What if? It's better to be safe than sorry, right?"

"You have to do it, Jack," Locke then said, standing up and refusing to push the execute button himself. "It has to be you."

"Why, John? Why?" Jack just asked and they all heard the alarm. The counting was dangerously close to zero.

"Because you need to believe."

"Don't tell me what…"

The alarm suddenly stopped, the counter back to 108.

They all looked back at the computer and at Alice who was standing there, having just pushed the button.

Jack only turned around and left, so she followed him.

"Jack!" she called after him.

"Did you just do it because you were mad at me for mentioning Sarah? For marrying her?" he asked, turning to her.

"What?" Alice asked in surprise and frowned. "Jack, it doesn't matter. It's in the past. You don't love her. You said you loved me."

"And I do," he confirmed.

"Then be with me," she told him when reaching for his hand. "The button… it's not about us and I get that you're not a man of faith. That's why I'm here! I'm going to have faith for the both of us, ok? I just can't help thinking that the way we met… just everything… the plane crash… you helping me stay alive… us dealing with what your father did… I mean, Sawyer met him in Australia! And now you meet a guy you bumped into years ago in LA? Jack, those can't possibly be just coincidences! I don't know what it all means yet, but I know that it has to mean something! I don't expect you to start believing. I'm just asking you to believe in me."

"But you were the one who came up with the theory that it was all just one big experiment," he pointed out.

"I only told you that to think clearly and to try convince myself as well, but the truth is that I just don't know, Jack. What I know is that it's better to be safe than sorry, so please, let's just not risk it."

"All right," he finally agreed with a nod.

"Really?" she seemed surprised that it went so easily.

"We'll do what you just said," he assured her and then pulled her into his arms.

Life went on. The discovery of the hatch didn't change much, they just took shifts now in pushing the button and Hurley was doing inventory on the food that was there.

Alice, having discovered a bathroom, snatched a bottle of shampoo and some shower gel and enjoyed her very first, hot and aromatic shower she'd had since… she couldn't really remember. It felt like heaven, all her muscles relaxing under the stream of the hot water… which suddenly grew cold and she shook, but then it was hot again. Well, she couldn't complain much after all the entirely cold showers she'd had on the island before. And the lack of soap. And shampoo. She could actually feel her hair eating up the shampoo, smoothing out and she couldn't wait to see it when it would dry off.

Meanwhile, Jack and Sayid were trying to figure out a way to get to the magnet that seemed to be hidden in the hatch. Sayid claimed that it might actually be dangerous since the titanium wall was separating them from it and yet, the key on Jack's neck was still pulled forward by it. It didn't change the fact that they needed to find out as much as they could about the hatch and the button, though. So far, they guessed it all had something to do with that magnet.

Then they heard a very strange sound, so Jack offered to check it out only to get out of a trapdoor and enter a room that seemed to be a bathroom and walk in on… Alice wrapped up in a towel and just leaving the shower.

Jack's eyes grew bigger.

"Hey," he said stupidly, already feeling his body reacting to both naked Alice – who smelt very good, by the way – and the shower behind her.

"Hey," she answered, freezing in the middle of the bathroom. "I found a shower."

"I can see that," he just said and then walked straight towards her, cupping her face and kissing her, then pushing her back into the cabin.

"Jack, what are doing?" she asked against his lips when giggling.

"Remembering my fantasy about taking a shower with you," he said idly and snatched the towel away, leaving her completely naked.

"Oh, really? I thought it was sex in the shower," she teased him when taking the shirt off of him and then working on his belt.

"First shower and then sex in the shower," he decided when they walked into the cabin, both equally naked now.

Alice and Jack didn't remember the last time they'd been so relaxed and happy. Hugo came to a conclusion that the food in the hatch wouldn't last for long when there was forty people on the beach, so he decided to give it all away, making a feast.

Alice just finished eating her delicious serving and was now snuggling into Jack, enjoying the moment and the heat coming both from the fire and from his body. He put his arms around her and she leaned against his chest.

"Oh, you got some food here," he whispered and kissed and then licked gently on the skin of her neck and she laughed because she knew it was just an excuse. Like he needed one anyway. They were together. Although they were together in public now.

Alive loved how relaxed and happy Jack seemed to be that night. She even let her mind wander, found herself dreaming of them being rescued, of Sawyer and Michael and Jin bringing help. She was dreaming of the life they would have. She would work in her beloved bookshop and Jack would be a doctor in a real hospital again. They would spend their evenings and nights together and weekends. They would be happy, maybe even have kids one day… She saddened when she realized that she went too far. They might never get out of the island. Discovering of the hatch and some basic conveniences like a bathroom and shelter was clearly messing with their heads. They might have a feast now, but the next day they would be back to square one. They would be back to eating fruit and meat from game caught in the jungle.

Still, they had this moment now. She was in it and she would enjoy it while it lasted, so she relaxed against Jack's chest again and folded her arms over his that rested against her stomach. For now, she was happy.