A particularly bad turbulence shook her awake and she looked around, feeling a little disoriented. It wasn't often that she could actually fall asleep on a plane, she was usually too scared, but after everything that had happened back in Australia, she ordered a glass of something stronger and she could never handle her liquor.

There was an empty seat next to her as the plane wasn't full and she actually welcomed that with relief. She didn't feel like making any small-talk. Not now. Not after what she'd had to go through. Not after what she'd had to go through ever since instead of leaving for Australia with her family, she stayed for love. Love, she thought, such a foolish notion. Maybe it was always meant to crumble into ashes, maybe humans were just an imperfect species and weren't able to hold on to it. And it wasn't even as she hadn't been, oh no, she'd been so devoted to her husband. He destroyed them and he alone. And of course she had to be the one to suffer because of it.

Alice felt a desperate need to talk to her best friend, but unfortunately she couldn't seem to reach Shannon. She'd tried many times just before going to Australia, but failed. It wasn't exactly newsflash that her friend tended to disappear only to reappear a few weeks or even months later, so she wasn't worried.

"Alice?" she suddenly heard a familiar voice, but in the same time she couldn't really believe he was there.

She looked up and it was confirmed – he truly was!

"Boone!" she called out his name. She's just been thinking about his sister, so it was a shock that he suddenly materialized right before her eyes. "What are you even doing here?"

"May I?" He pointed the free seat right next to her and she nodded, telling him it was empty anyway.

"What were you doing in Australia?" Alice asked, still stunned because really, of all the planes and all the places to be…

"I could ask you the same thing!"

"Honestly, I don't really want to talk about this right now or else I just break down," she said.

"Are you sure? You know that if you need any help…"

"It's fine, Boone, really. I can handle it," she assured him, forcing herself to take her mind off everything that she'd had to go through when in Australia, because she didn't want to start crying all over again. "Why don't you tell me what you were doing there?"

He sighed before he answered and that could only mean one thing – trouble with his sister.

"Shannon met some guy there. You know, same old story. She loves him and she won't come back home with me."

"That explains why I couldn't reach her when I wanted to talk to her," Alice murmured under her breath.

"Yeah, that's just typical Shannon. All she does is disappear. But she's not that bad, you know. If only she knew you needed her…"

"She'd already be by my side, I know," Alice admitted, knowing that Shannon was many things and as much as she didn't exactly agree with the girl's lifestyle, she was her best friend and was always then when Alice needed her.

"Listen, here's Shannon's Australian number, so you could reach her."

"That's great. Thank you."

At first she was confused to what happened and to where she was. Then it all came running back to her and she sat up straight, seeing the trees all around her as she placed her hands to her face, taking a deep breath and looking for memories she shouldn't have. If she was alive, she should be on LA Lax right now, shouldn't she? And if she didn't, and if she wasn't dead… What if…? She started thinking intensely.

Jack was right, the fact that she hadn't felt any danger coming once he'd set off to detonate the bomb had to mean something. Maybe they were, indeed, meant to detonate it, but the outcome could be totally different. What if… they were simply back. Back to their timeline.

James, she remembered, scared for the state the man had been in before they were hit with that strange light.

She looked around and there he was, just lying on the grass right next to her, not moving.

"James!" she called out his name. "James, can you hear me?" She put her hands on him and gently stirred him awake.

To her relief, he was alive which she could easily deduce by the moan escaping his lips and then he turned on his back and looked up at the sky above.

"Alice?" he said her name immediately when shifting his gaze to her. "What happened?"

"I think we're back."

"What do you mean?" he was still confused as he sat up slowly and pressed his hands to his head. "God, my head is killing me," he complained.

"I think we're back to our own timeline," she finally said it aloud, having trouble wrapping her mind around it all. "Jack was wrong. We were all wrong!"

James's eyes opened widely and they both got to their feet.

"Where's the rest?" he asked, still a little out of it.

"Are you all right? I hope you don't have a concussion or anything," she made sure, pretty concerned about him at the moment and she almost winced at the memory of Jack assaulting him earlier.

"I'll be fine. Let's go to the hatch. They should be there."

They slowly started off in that direction and then they were forced to speed up as they heard screams.

When they reached the place, they spotted Jack and Kate standing over what was left from the hatch, the implosion Desmond and Locke had caused obviously doing the damage.

"What's wrong?" Alice just asked when making her way to them and avoiding looking at Jack. He did seem a little perplexed when he spotted her.

"It's Juliet. She fell down there," Kate explained.

"Let me through!" James growled when getting to the hole in the ground and feeling lightheaded as he realized the woman couldn't have survived. "Juliet!" he still screamed her name and heard nothing in response. Then he faced Jack. "You were wrong!" Before Alice managed to warn Jack, Sawyer hit him and the doctor nearly lost his balance, his hand immediately going up to his by now bleeding lip. "She's dead because of you!" Still, it wasn't as though Alice would actually warn him. He deserved anything that was coming his way, she decided, still having the image of bloody and battered James in her mind. "She's dead because you were wrong!" Sawyer screamed and hit Jack one more time.

"Sawyer!" Kate yelled, trying to stop him and Alice could just stand there, feeling terribly confused about everything. They were back to their own timeline and they should be happy about it, but then again, they still had no idea what to do next.

"I'm sorry," Jack said to all of their surprise, his voice desperate, broken. His face was, too, Alice noticed. Maybe he was finally seeing what he'd done to them all, what kind of person he'd turned into. "I thought it would work. I really did," Jack added, his shoulders slumped. He looked defeated.

In that moment, a Dharma car pulled over and Jin stepped out of it, saying that Sayid was bleeding out in the back and they needed Jack. Alice was kind of curious to why the car traveled through time with them, but she figured that it happened with objects they were currently using like clothes.

Jack simply ran to take care of the Iraqi and he didn't look back at the people he was leaving behind even once. Kate followed anyway and Alice nearly scowled at that. Instead, she turned to Sawyer.

"James," she said in a soothing voice as she placed her hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry. I know you cared about her."

"It's not that. I just feel guilty," he explained when meeting Alice's eyes. "I was the one to ask her to stay behind, you know? I just…" He shook his head, tears flooding his eyes that he tried hard to stop. "I just couldn't bear the thought of being left alone in Dharma and I convinced them all to stay. With Jin it was easy as all he ever wanted was to find a way back home and to our timeline so he could be with Sun again, but Juliet… She wanted to leave even though she could never see her sister. But I asked her to stay. She started having feelings for me because of it and I…" He shook his head again. "Alice," he suddenly turned to her, "what happened between us, that was the best night of my life," he confessed in a broken voice, "and to think… to actually believe you could return those feelings I had for you… it meant everything to me, but we were fooling ourselves."

"James…" Something dropped in her stomach as she heard that.

"We were fooling ourselves because for every ounce of happiness I get, somebody always winds up getting hurt. Like Jack… like Juliet…"

"You know well what Jack has been doing…" she started and James just nodded.

"I do, but that doesn't make it all ok, Alice. You have to settle all those things between you. You need to know what you want, because I don't think you do now. There's just too much going on. We need to find a way out of this island first."

"James!" she still called after him when he walked towards the car.

Like on a cue, Jack chose that moment to get out of it and Alice could see clearly on his face that he couldn't do anything to help Sayid.

"I can help!" they suddenly heard Hugo calling out to them and they all looked at him. "A guy named Jacob told me how," he added.

"Jacob who?" Jack just asked with a frown, not having heard the name before.

"Jacob?" Alice, on the other hand, got interested, a recognition clear in her voice.

"You know him?" Jack turned to her in surprise.

"He's the guardian of the island, kind of a leader of the leader. Apparently, he's the one who's given us all those special abilities," she relayed what she knew.

"Well, he's kind of… dead," Hurley informed.

"So you can see him?" Alice's interest was piqued. Was this another gift Jacob had given?

"Yeah… I kind of… can talk to the dead, dude."

"Well, I still don't know what to think of Jacob. We just barely found out about him ourselves," Alice risked a glance at James, "but I guess we have no choice here but to listen to him."

"Then we're going to the temple," Hugo informed and they all looked at him incredulously.

"Lead the way," Jack just said.

Alice could finally let out a breath of relief when the plane landed and she was safely back on the ground. She never liked flying and there was just something about this flight that caused her to feel ill at ease. She said her goodbye to Boone, having received Shannon's phone number and she proceeded to get her luggage.

There was a lot of people and all the bags were showing up very slowly, so by the time she got hers, she was already angry and tired. She grabbed it and immediately moved to the exit, choosing stairs instead of the crowded elevator.

Maybe that was a mistake because once she reached level one and directed herself to the doors leading outside, the closest elevator door slid open and a woman ran out of it, bumping into her and knocking her off her feet.

Alice felt like crying when lying on the floor and already feeling a major bruise forming on her thigh. This day truly couldn't get any worse. The woman who'd run into her didn't even stop to say she was sorry or to see if she was all right.

"Hey, you ok?" she suddenly heard a male voice and then felt him place his hand on her shoulder. "Do you need any help?" He held out his hand to her then and she took it without even thinking about it.

He helped her to her feet and she saw that he was a tall and handsome blond with longish hair. He smiled to her when his blue eyes met hers.

"Thank you," she said, smiling right back and feeling her bad mood disappearing, evaporating into thin air. She wanted to reach for her bag, but he was there first, taking it and carrying it for her.

"Let me," he offered, "it's the least I can do. Are you all right?" he asked one more time.

"Yeah, yes," she said quickly, bringing her hand to her hair nervously. Did she look good? She stared wondering. Definitely not, she decided when remembering that she'd spent the last few hours on a plane. "It's very nice of you."

"I think I've seen you before," he noticed when they moved together to the exit. "On the plane. Flight 815?"

"What a small world!" she was truly surprised. She also regretted that he hadn't come over on the plane. They would've had more time to talk if he had. Only she'd slept almost through the whole thing so maybe he hadn't had a chance, after all.

"Listen, there's a nice bar not so far away from here if you wanted to maybe get a drink. My treat," he offered when they found themselves outside.

"Sounds good to me," she accepted without even thinking about it. "Lead the way… um…" she realized she didn't even know his name.

"James. James Ford."

"Nice to meet you, James. I'm Alice Stevens."

Alice was just sitting alone outside the temple. All that followed their arrival there was still a shock to her. They focused on saving Sayid and then they saw him die and come back to life. She didn't even have the strength to be surprised, so many impossible things always seemed to be taking place on this island. She actually wished for the normality back home, for the safety of her apartment, of the modern world, even though nowhere was truly safe. Then she reminded herself that technically she lived in Jack's place as they'd never gotten a house together.

If by some miracle, they'd manage to get back home, they would face even more problems. Was he even well enough? She wondered. Did he still need rehab? Did she still love him after everything? Could they rebuild what they'd once had? And what about James? She couldn't just disregard him as she had feelings for him and she couldn't deny that any longer, him confessing his love to her still fresh in her mind even though he did the noble thing in letting her go. Because that was exactly what it was, him being noble. She cared about him more than she was willing to admit and maybe she'd always had. Maybe she'd been lying to herself this whole time because she'd thought it would never work between them. And maybe it wouldn't, only now he was such a different person as he'd grown so much and he'd done it all for himself, she knew that much as she hadn't even been there to witness it.

She was a bad party there, too, she decided. She wasn't the model wife for Jack just like he wasn't the model husband. They'd both hurt each other and both made mistakes. Or were they really mistakes? Yes, she was angry at him for not even trying to discuss the problem they'd had with her in the first place and then just leaving. She'd tried to help him, hadn't she? She'd tried to reach out to him. Hadn't she been trying enough? Then again, how could she help a person who didn't want to accept her help?

"Hi," she suddenly heard his voice and looked up from her sitting position to see him standing there. "I come in peace, I promise," he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Can we talk?"

"I think maybe we should," she finally agreed, letting him join her.

"Alice, I…" he sighed when looking down at his hands. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you and I hope you know that."

"I do," she admitted with a nod. "I never wanted to hurt you either. I… I didn't even think, to be honest." No, she just felt and somehow that seemed to be even worse when it came to doing right by him.

"Yeah," he agreed, also with a nod. "We do that a lot, don't we?"

"There's just one thing I can't understand, Jack," she admitted, "and I think you owe me an explanation."

"Shoot," he encouraged.

"Why did you push me away? Didn't I try hard enough to help you? You just… you just shut me off and left."

They were sitting in silence for a moment before he finally managed to answer, "I think Sawyer was right."

"About what?"

"I know I told you that I trusted you, Alice and that the fact that you wanted to give up on our own life didn't haunt me, but it did," he confessed when looking at her from aside. "I'm sorry, but I think that deep down inside I was always trying to protect you. I never wanted to burden you with my problems because I was afraid I would drag you down with me."

"You never gave me enough credit, did you?" She met his eyes.

"Maybe I didn't," he agreed calmly.

"So I was just another Sara to you," she then said.

"I…" he started and stopped. "No. You were different, but… ah, maybe you're right. Maybe you were. But I loved you. I really did."

She tried not to wince at the past tense of it all.

"I really loved you, too," she eventually said.

"Maybe in the end, we're just different people?" he asked after another short moment of silence.

"Maybe." She shivered, suddenly feeling cold and hugging herself. "But we were happy once. We belonged once."

"Yes, we did," he agreed. "I'm really sorry for everything, Alice," he apologized again. "I'm sorry for hurting you, for hurting Sawyer… I'm sorry for being the stubborn old me, for not letting go."

"Do you think that maybe if you did let go at some point, we'd be in an entirely different place now?" she suddenly asked, watching James from a distance and feeling a pang in her chest.

"Maybe, but you know me, I'm not much of a man of faith, Alice. What happened, happened."

"Says a man who tried to change it all."

"I was wrong and I am sorry for that, too. I'm sorry I tried to change your life without your assent. That wasn't right."

"It means a lot to me that you're willing to admit that," she assured him when meeting his eyes again and remembering the times they were in love. They'd been happy, she reminded herself, feeling her heart ache. So happy. They'd managed to find happiness even amidst all the drama and tragedy going around the first time on the island.

"Do you think we could go back?" he asked then.

"Without the hydrogen bomb erasing everything?" she asked with a question, desperate to see some humor in this tragedy, but finding none.

"Yeah, I don't think so either," he agreed.

She touched his hand there for a moment, remembering the past they'd shared and maybe letting go.

Then she watched him leave.

In that moment, it hit her. She wasn't that lonely and scared girl she's used to be anymore. Somehow, being with Jack always made her feel that way, as though she was too fragile, too delicate. Now she knew it was because of his unspoken concern. She also knew that she was strong enough to overcome anything thrown her way. She might've been a weak person once, but ever since she'd only been building herself up. Yes, she would never again even think of trying to take her own life. As she now thought of the person she'd used to be, it seemed nearly incomprehensible to her that she's been that silly romantic who'd felt the need to live again just because Jack had kissed her and told her he wanted her to. He'd made her go on living, but maybe all this time she should've been strong enough to do it on her own. Maybe she'd always been, she suddenly realized with a gasp, remembering that she hadn't let herself drown when the plane crashed, that she hadn't let herself gone as far as to actually taking her own life; it was just when she saw her sister that she listened to that apparition, being manipulated by it. If it hadn't been for that, Alice wouldn't have tried to kill herself and that realization hit her full on and somehow it made her feel euphoric. Because in the end she never was that fragile girl Jack had taken her for.

She spotted Sawyer again, this time talking to Hugo and she thought that maybe he hadn't been that heartless bastard he'd painted himself to be either. He'd just built an impenetrable armor around himself that she'd somehow penetrated without even realizing it.

It was time for a brave, new her. It was time to meet the woman that she always was deep down in her heart. She'd just forgotten her.

Alice never found the time to figure out what it was that she truly wanted as all hell broke loose and they had to leave the temple, because Locke – but not really Locke, only the Black Smoke that looked like him – destroyed everything.

Luckily for them, they were mostly all right and back on the beach, actually reuniting with the rest of the survivors of the Ajira flight. It was a relief to see most of them alive and fine, especially Sun.

"He knows what we should do next. Jacob instructed him," Ilana, a survivor of the crash, informed when pointing Richard and there was silence. Alice was just surprised to see him there.

Only to her and the rest's astonishment, Richard laughed.

"You're waiting for me to tell you what to do? Seriously? I have no idea!" He spread his hands. "But it doesn't matter. Nothing you do will matter."

"And why is that?" Jack asked, turning to Richard.

"Because we're all dead," the man answered. "And we're all in hell."

"Ok, this is just crazy…" Jack started, but Richard wasn't listening. He walked away instead.

"Let me handle this, guys," Hugo suddenly asked and followed Alpert. The rest decided to listen to him since he was the one who could see Jacob, however crazy it seemed.

"Same old, same old, hah?" James asked when coming over to Alice.

She decided to use the time they had now to rest, so she sat down on the sand near the shore, just looking at the ocean as she'd used to. It soothed her.

"Tell me about it," she chuckled when hugging her knees to her chest. Then she got serious, "I talked to Jack."

"I saw."

"I don't think we can…"

"Don't," James suddenly interrupted her and she just needed to look at him. "Don't say anything. Let's just sit here. Let's just be friends like we used to."

"I don't think you understand what I'm trying to tell you," Alice dared point out. She couldn't just let it go like this. James seemed too… defeated to her, as though he'd already given up and lost hope. As though he'd lost her.

She did feel sorry for what happened to her relationship with Jack, she did feel ache in her chest when she remembered how there'd used to be and what was now, but it belonged to the past and she just couldn't stifle the feelings she had now once she finally admitted them.

Then she remembered the first kiss she'd shared with James and it was like a new beginning. The one night they'd had, however hard it was for her to admit, was the best in her life just like it was for him. She remembered how she cradled him all beaten bloody in her arms, as she tried to protect him from Jack. She remembered how Sawyer had first opened up to her, how their bizarre relationship started. How he'd come back for her, risking his life when sneaking into the others' camp, how he said goodbye to her when he chose to go with Locke just by taking her into his arms and whispering into her ear for her to get everything she wanted from life and then kissing her cheek so softly. What if what she wanted was actually him?

"Maybe I don't," he finally said, "but it doesn't matter."

"So you're just giving up?" she asked, taken aback. "I heard you, you know, I was there. You still don't think you're worthy of any kind of affection, James, but you're wrong. I don't believe you ever wanted to be this cold bastard you were when I met you. I think it was just defense mechanism to protect you from getting hurt again, to keep people away from you when you already lost your family. Don't you see that we're the same?"

"Yours wasn't exactly killed by your father," he pointed out bitterly.

"Maybe not, but I lost them all the same and all too soon. Look at me," she told him when turning to him and placing her hands on his face. "I care about you. I always have. I care about you so much that I can't salvage my marriage. Me and Jack… we just don't see any way we could do it now."

James closed his eyes for a moment and then turned his head back to the ocean, so she lost her hold on him.

"You stood by me no matter what," he started when staring into the horizon and not looking at her, "even when I hit the darkest period of my life, even when I took the real Sawyer's life…" he stopped as the memory was too much for him. "I want you to know that I regret it, Alice. I regret losing my cool. I regret… killing him, because in the end it only made me feel worse like I was truly… becoming him," he confessed and she wanted nothing more than to hold him in that moment, but in the same time she knew she couldn't just yet. He wouldn't want her to. "I'm just not sure I would ever be able to go on after that if it wasn't for you. You saved me," he confessed when finally meeting her eyes and she felt so much at that moment that she couldn't even process it. The realization hitting her full on. "Thanks to you I haven't succumbed to the darkness, thanks to you I didn't become the person I killed. You know, the thing that actually mattered the most to me was that despite it all, despite all the crap I pulled, you never tried to change me yourself. I changed because I wanted to, not because you did. And that made all the difference. That's why I love you. In fact, you're the only woman I've ever truly loved."

She could only stare into his eyes, feeling at loss for words. Then, when she was finally opening her mouth to answer him, they heard a commotion in the distance and saw that both Hugo and Richard were back.

"Pack up your bags. We're leaving. We need to stop Locke from leaving the island by destroying the plane," they heard.

Before Alice managed to ask why the hell they had to destroy the only means of transport that could actually get them off the island for good, they saw Ilana coming out of the jungle. She reached them quickly and showed them what she had in her backpack – it was dynamite.

"I went to the Black Rock to get it. We'll just get to the Hydra island and use it on the plane," she informed.

"It's not what Jacob wants!" they all heard Hugo protesting as he made his way to the woman.

"You don't know what Jacob wants! How can you?!" Ilana got angry with him. "The only thing that matters right now is stopping Locke from leaving. This way we'll be safe."

"We all heard how you're here to protect the so-called candidates, meaning us," Hurley wasn't giving up, "but I'm telling you, this is not the way!"

"Oh, no, we are going there! We are going to the Hydra island right now," Ilana was saying as she went further away to get the water bottles, "and we're going to blow up this damned plane because we're supposed to do that!" she kept on yelling and then she put the backpack on the ground and… it blew up.

Luckily for them, they weren't standing close enough to get hurt as well.

"We need to go and get more dynamite!" they heard Richard saying immediately as though nothing happened.

Alice frowned, thinking that something must've happened to her hearing, because what he was implying was simply crazy.

"Richard, what are you saying?" she turned to him.

"We need to get more dynamite and blow up that plane, so Ilana didn't die in vain," he rephrased.

"Haven't it crossed your mind that her blowing up was a sign that we really shouldn't?" Jack simply asked and Alice was definitely with him on that.

"No, I'm right. You'll just have to trust me."

"All right," Hugo said to their surprise. "We should do it."

"What?" Alice still argued. "What are you even talking about? Just a minute ago you were saying…"

"Well, I changed my mind. Just trust me on this." He turned to her and she could've sworn that she saw him winking at her imperceptibly. And he must've really done it since Jack just took off right after Richard and Hurley. Alice didn't know what the big guy's plan was, but she felt like she could trust him.

Once they reached the Black Rock and stopped for a minute so Richard could prepare a bag for the dynamite he was going to get, Alice was only more and more confused. If they got this far, what Hugo's plan even was?

She received her answer just a second later as they all heard him scream, "Get back! Get back!" when he was running towards them from the ship.

They didn't know how he'd gotten there before them all, but then again, no one actually paid much attention to him and no one truly believed he could do anything heroic or be faster in rescuing someone. Right now that worked to his advantage.

Jack grabbed Alice's arm, yanking her backwards and she ran with him as they heard the ship blowing up. When they finally looked at it, it was a burning mess.

"Why did you do that?!" Richard got angry with Hurley.

"It's what Jacob wants," Hugo answered him bravely. "He also told me to go talk to Locke."

"No! I don't believe you!"

"Dude, he's standing right next to me right now!"

"Really? Then ask him what the island is," Richard demanded. "He told me once. I want to hear it coming from you right now."

"I don't have to prove anything to you, Richard. You can either come with me or blow things up. Your choice, dude," Hugo said as though the first part of it was really a message relayed from Jacob.

"Jacob isn't here," Richard said with confidence, "I'm sure of it. We need to protect this place. Alice, James," he suddenly turned to look at them one at the time, "I told you what the island is. You know how important it is to keep it safe."

Alice knew that. She knew the story about the cork and she'd seen enough so far to actually believe it. Although she didn't believe that Jacob would condone blowing the plane to keep them all… On second thoughts, she did believe it. Jacob seemed like a good guy, but his interest lay only in protecting the place they were in right now. It didn't really extend to anything else or even to their lives.

"I'm sorry, Richard," Alice found herself saying, "but I'm with Hugo on this."

"Damn right we are," James backed her up.

Richard just nodded, respecting their decisions and Alice appreciated that very much.

Eventually, they left Richard behind and followed Hugo to the place where Locke resided.

"I didn't actually see Jacob there," Hurley confessed to Jack on their way and as Alice heard that, her heart reached out to the big guy because he felt so bad for lying. "I only said that so everyone would go with me."

"I know," Jack simply said to his surprise.

"Then why?" Hugo asked.

"Why what?" Jack asked him.

"Why did you trust me?"

"I was so sure once, Hugo," Jack explained. "And it got Juliet killed. Maybe I'm supposed to let go, so it's time that you lead us."

They finally reached Locke's camp and after Hugo spoke for them all and made sure they wouldn't be harmed in any way, Jack, Alice, James and the rest finally came out of hiding. The first person Alice saw was John – or the thing pretending to be him – and then she spotted someone she hadn't seen for a very long time. Someone she'd thought was lost - Claire.

Jack froze on seeing the woman. After all, Claire was his half-sister and none of them had known that when they'd been around each other.

Locke turned to Jack, still recognizing him and not Hurley for the leader and wished to talk to him.

"Dude, so you," Hugo just said.

Alice watched with worry as Jack and John retreated, but then she just walked over to Claire, James and Kate following.

"Claire, it's so good to see you," she turned to the woman since she had nothing better to say. She discovered that she only had a fleeting memory of the blonde and only thought about her more because she turned out to be Jack's half-sister and because she was Aaron's mother.

She'd changed so much, Alice decided when taking a good look at the woman. The hair was all tangled up and she was pretty sure there was no way Claire could ever comb it and would have to cut most of it anyway. She also seemed different somehow, changed and Alice wasn't sure if it was for the better.

"Hi, Alice. Good to see you, too," Claire said and gave her an awkward hug after which she shifted her eyes to Kate and… suddenly threw herself at her, a knife in her hand.

"Yeah, that happened," James just said when joining Alice as she was sitting on a fallen tree. "Chick had a trip to the cuckoo's nest." He clearly meant Claire. Luckily for Kate, Locke managed to stop the crazy blonde and actually convinced her to apologize.

"Yeah… it makes you think she's a completely different person," Alice agreed morosely.

"Alice, listen, we're gonna ditch Locke," he suddenly informed when making sure no one was around to eavesdrop.

"What?"

"I've met with Widmore in the woods and we had a brief chat. I made a deal with him."

"What… What are you even…?" Alice was too shocked to form a coherent sentence.

"I needed to… get away for a moment," James said, probably meaning he needed to pee, Alice guessed, "and he surprised me. He doesn't want us hurt, he just wants Locke. I did the only thing I could and promised him we'd sell Locke out."

"He could've killed you!" Alice got mad, but then again it wasn't as James expected to be approached by the man.

"He has a sub and he'll take us home," James ignored that remark and continued, "Locke's sending us to get a boat to sail to the other island, but once Kate and I go get it, you, Jack, Hurley, Sun and the pilot will sneak out and meet us here." James handed her the map and showed the marked spot. "Just make sure to be there."

"What about Claire?" Alice asked.

"You've seen her. You've heard me. She ain't invited. I just don't think we can trust her. She seems devoted to Locke."

"She's Jack's sister," Alice tried to argue, not really knowing what to think of it all just yet. She did see Claire's attachment to John, though and was afraid the woman wouldn't want to betray him. In the end, she just sighed and nodded, hiding the map in her pocket.

Soon enough, just as James told Alice, Locke sent him to get the boat and he wanted Kate to go with him since she had some sailing experience.

Sometime after they all left the camp and started their trek through the jungle, Alice, Jack and the people Sawyer named stayed behind, heading straight to the place James marked on the map.

They didn't foresee Claire following them, though and she caught them once they were about to leave on the boat. She actually aimed her gun at them. It was Kate who won her over by speaking to her about Aaron and about how she'd done what she had to do and come back to the island for one reason only – to get her back.

Finally, they were on their merry way, sailing to the other island safely. Barely had they made it out of the boat, Sun was reunited with Jin and everyone's spirit seemed to be lifted. Well, until they were actually captured by Widmore's people instead of being let go in the sub as James had it promised, that was.