Decided to post a slightly improved Jack version as well (it was actually the first I wrote) – for those of you who preferred it that way. It was already written, so here ya go : )

If you read the Sawyer part already, there are only small details changed for the next three chapters. Then it goes on full change.

The newcomers eventually agreed to take some of the survivors to their boat, but first they wanted Charlotte – the woman Locke apparently had – back. Sayid and Miles volunteered to go, but the Iraqi came back with Charlotte alone. His ploy worked since Locke wouldn't just release one of his prisoners, but he kindly agreed to trading Charlotte for Miles. Sayid next volunteered to take a trip to the boat (he told Jack and Alice on the side that he would make sure those people didn't have hostile intentions) and then he flew away with Desmond and the pilot.

With nothing better to do, Jack, Alice and the rest came back to the beach camp. Seeing two entirely new faces was novelty to the survivors, so Daniel and Charlotte were in the centre of attention while the couple could only wait until they heard back from Sayid or Desmond. ...which they did a whole day late since, as Faraday explained, the time perception was slightly different on the island and off the island. Once the men finally called from the boat, the survivors found out that Desmond got somehow lost in time. Daniel was the only one who knew what to do and he seemed the craziest one, too, Alice decided. He explained how Desmond should find him

in the past and then find his constant whom apparently was the Scottish's girlfriend, Penelope. In the end, they decided that Daniel was the most trustworthy person of all the newcomers. Still, he was off somehow as though something terrible had happened to him. At least Alice thought so. She didn't want to ask any details, but she was pretty sure the guy's story wasn't entirely happy, if all.

The day after, Alice noticed Jack's absence. He wasn't in their tent when she woke up and then she couldn't find him anywhere on the beach. What seemed more disturbing to her was that she also couldn't spot Daniel and Charlotte. Could she be wrong about them? She started wondering. But no, she didn't think so. She might still be overwhelmed with that gift of hers and all, but she'd actually grown to trust it like she trusted her guts. Maybe pretending it was just her guts warning her about danger was an easier way to accept it?

Eventually, it was Sun who informed Alice that Jack and Juliet had gone after the newbies once they'd noticed them gone. Naturally, Alice started to worry and she imagined about a thousand scenarios in which Jack got hurt or died just before they managed to get out of the island. She almost went after him herself even though she had no tracking skills. It was Sun who calmed her down, telling her that Jack could take care of himself.

Well, of course he could, Alice thought, going to the kitchen to eat some breakfast. Besides, she didn't feel like anything bad was going to happen, so she should calm herself down. Then another thought struck her. Maybe she'd been glued to Jack a little bit too much ever since they'd been reunited in the others' village. Maybe it was time she should loosen up a bit? If she went on like this, then what could happen once they actually came back home? She would be the clingy girlfriend and she should know better than that. In the real world they wouldn't have so much time at their hands. In the real world he would go to work and she would, too. They wouldn't be inseparable and maybe it would actually be healthier for them. She knew that if she didn't let go a little, she could lose him.

In the end, Alice was right to trust her inner compass and wait, because Jack came back a few hours later in the company of not only Juliet and the two people he'd set off to find, but also Kate. where there was no hospital. Well, except the medical hatch, Alice realized, but she didn't have to be a trained doctor to understand that moving Jack was simply impossible. The appendix could rupture any moment.

Alice stayed with Jack whereas Juliet was already out, talking to Sun and Bernard. The pregnant woman knew where the medical station was and Bernard was the third person among them who had some kind of a medical experience as a dentist.

"Do you really think it'll work?" Jack asked Alice as she was just sitting with him, holding his hand.

"Yeah, I really do, Jack," she assured him when looking him in the eye. "We didn't come all this way for nothing. Besides, the bad feeling I had when I saw you being sick is gone now."

"Well, I'm still sick," he pointed out with a small smile, probably trying to be funny.

"You're going to be just fine," she assured him.

"What will be the first thing you'll do once we get back home?" Jack then asked an unexpected question.

"Take a shower," Alice started counting out, "wash my hair with real shampoo and apply some smoothing conditioner... oh, apply some notion and drink lots of coffee. And then fall asleep in a real bed by your side."

"Coffee and bed don't exactly match up," he noticed with a chuckle. "And why the hell does shower tramp me?"

"Well, I'll be so exhausted that it won't matter if I drink some coffee," she only answered his first question.

"I have something else in mind which also involves a real and comfy bed instead of a hard ground," he then hinted.

"And what are you? Fifty?" Alice joked. "But yeah. I miss that, too," she admitted, trying not to think when was the last time they'd had sex. Well, actually it wasn't that long ago, but it seemed that way for her. Their relationship was still too fresh.

At that moment, Juliet came in and started preparing Jack for his surgery. He actually wanted to be awake during the operation and talk Juliet through it, but she was having none of it and eventually told Bernard to chloroform her stubborn patient. The dentist agreed with the blonde doctor, saying that not even Jack could go through with this without being knocked out, but it was still hard on him as he was fighting hard to be awake. Alice left before Juliet made the first incision, not wanting to see any of what would soon happen and she kind of felt her eyes growing watery.

Seeing Jack being the patient, seeing how ashamed he was of his own powerlessness, got to her. It wasn't that she expected him to be a superhero, it was how much he wanted to be conscious during the operation. Sewing a wound on his back was one thing, she thought when coming back to that particular memory, but getting through a procedure like this, when someone was just cutting into his body and taking something out of it, it was too much. It was too much even for Jack.

She came back to the tent once Bernard told her it was safe to. Juliet was just finishing sewing Jack.

Alice sat by his side like she'd done before the operation and asked while stroking his face, "Why do you have to be so stubborn, Jack?"

She thought he was still out, but then to her surprise, he opened his eyes and asked, "What? You've got enough of me already?"

"Never," she told him. "And I can't believe you can joke right now. How are you feeling?"

"Like I've just had an operation," he answered accurately.

"He'll be fine. It went well," Juliet then informed and eventually left.

Jack managed to stay put only for a few days. Then Alice caught him looking through the food.

"I could've brought you something!" she scolded him. "You've just had surgery!"

"Well, I'm sick of lying down and I was hungry," he told her and put a handful of cornflakes into his mouth. She actually laughed at the comical picture.

"Come on," she said then, "let's get you back to bed."

Only in that moment they heard the characteristic sound indicating that the chopper was on its way back. It flew right over them, but something was thrown out of it and Jack got to it and picked it up before Alice managed to tell him off again.

"Seriously?!" she asked when she reached him.

"I'm fine. Really."

"Jack, she's right. If you pull your stitches..." Juliet warned him when getting to him.

"It's fine. Look, I think they want us to follow," he said, showing them the GPS device he had in his hand now.

"Are you crazy?!" Alice raised her voice again and then she heard a few muffled laughs in the distance. Maybe the way she kept on chiding him was funny on the outside, but she was actually really worried.

"Alice, we need to get off this island and I can't just sit down and wait for things to happen," Jack told her.

"So there's no way I can talk you out of going?" she made sure when folding her arms on her chest.

"No. I'm sorry."

"Fine. But I'm coming with!"

"Suit yourself."

"I'm coming, too!" Kate joined them and soon enough they were in the jungle.

Only they barely walked for twenty minutes when Alice noticed Jack was bleeding and told him about it.

"I'm fine," he repeated the same old.

"Jack, seriously, you're the worst patient that has ever walked this earth!" Alice snapped at him, switching from a normal voice to yelling almost immediately. She was so close to losing her patience with that man. Oh, wait. She already did! She was sick of telling him to stay put and to watch his health. For now all that mattered for him was to get all the people, especially her, out of the island, but he didn't think of his own well-being. "Jack," she said once again when he actually came to a stop and looked at her in surprise. She couldn't really blame him. She never was the snappy kind of a person. She very rarely lost her patience with people and even if she did sometimes, she couldn't just start yelling at them. Well, this was different. This was serious. And she was done telling him. They were going back and they were going to do that now. At least he was going back and she and Kate would go to the chopper.

Only in that moment they heard some noises and froze only to see Miles and Sawyer with Aaron in the arms of the latter.

Alice's first impulse was to say James's name and get to him to hug him, even if she had to watch out for the baby. Then Kate just asked, "Where's Claire?"

Sawyer shifted her eyes from Alice and the smile that was on his fade faded immediately. "We lost her."

"What?!" Kate raised her voice, not understanding. "How could you lose her?!"

If it wasn't for the missing mother, Alice would've laughed. Trouble in paradise apparently affected more than the couple that was her and Jack.

"She just walked off in the middle of the night!" Sawyer explained impatiently. "We couldn't find her... The village... it was attacked by the people from the freighter. It was a slaughter! We barely got away," he informed next.

Kate finally walked over to him, but it was only to take Aaron and hug the little boy.

"So, you were going back to the camp?" Alice asked Sawyer.

"Yeah, I figured there was no other place for me to go to, especially with the little one here," he gestured to Aaron. "You?"

"We're going to the chopper," Jack explained and started off again.

"Jack," Alice stopped him when putting her hand on his arm. "Are you sure? You're still bleeding."

"We have to, Alice," he said in a calm voice, looking her in the eye. "This is our only chance of getting out of this island. I can't just take a sick day. Not now. Besides, do you really think that something bad is going to happen to me?" he asked then, looking at her in that special way when he meant her ability.

"No," she was forced to say because even though she could do many things, she would never be able to lie to Jack. She valued trust in a relationship nearly above all.

"Then let's go," he just said.

"And why are you bleeding, exactly?" Sawyer asked Jack.

"I've kind of had a surgery."

For a moment there James just stood still, looking at his friend incredulously and then he just shook his head, "You know what? I'm not even gonna ask! Hey! Wait! I'm comin with! That sun of a bitch is stubborn!"

Alice had never thought she'd think that, but she actually missed Sawyer's dry humor.

When they finally reached the chopper, it turned out that it wasn't Sayid nor Desmond who'd thrown the tracking device to the beach. It was Lapidus. He informed them that once the people he'd brought to the island came back, they'd all be dead, so they'd better hurry taking off.

"Wait..." James then said, "we can't just fly off. Hugo is with Locke."

"Damn it!" Jack cursed, clearly tired as he hadn't recovered completely. "We need to go and get him!"

"No, Jack," Kate stopped him when putting her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, but you're not well enough for another trip. You need to rest. I'll go and get Hurley." She handed the baby to Alice and then turned to James, "Can you tell me when they went?"

"Sure, freckles!" Sawyer agreed, but it was clear to Alice that he still wasn't happy about the cold welcome Kate had served him. Maybe if he went along, the trip would be good for them.

"Do you think they'll make it on time?" Alice asked Jack when they watched the couple disappear.

"I really hope so, because if they're not, we're all dead," he said.

Only Kate and Sawyer didn't make it on time. Before they managed to come back, Frank's 'friends' did, dragging Ben with them and then they started screaming at the pilot and pointing their guns at both Alice and Jack. And while Jack desperately tried to cover Alice with his body, she clang to the baby in her arms, wanting to do the same for the little guy. His mother disappeared, he didn't have a father and he was on a deserted island - he did not deserve to die. Actually, none of them did.

Then something changed. In the same moment as Alice whispered to Jack that everything was all right because she could feel it, Kate ran out of the jungle and the whole attention was focused on her.

"Who are you?!" the gunmen asked her.

She raised her hands up into the air. "I'm Kate Austen and I'm being chased."

"By who?"

"Them," Kate said and as on a cue, gunshots came from the jungle, hitting the freighter people.

"Down!" Kate screamed to Jack, Alice and Ben.

Once the gunfire ceased, Alice was finally brave enough to look and to get up on her feet, still carrying Aaron who was by now crying.

"Are you all right?!" Kate asked when she got to them and then 'the others' with Hugo, Sawyer and Sayid came out of the jungle, making sure the enemy was dead.

"What did you do?" Jack asked her.

"We made a deal with them," Kate explained. "In exchange for freeing Ben, they'll let us leave."

"Just like that?" Jack asked, not believing.

"Yes, Jack, just like that," Ben answered him when one of his people cut the ties on his wrists.

"You're free to go, but remember, once you get out, you can never come back."

"Why would we want to go back?" Alice just asked incredulously when handing Aaron over to Kate.

"Just don't say I didn't warn you," Ben told her and left with his people.

"Are we ready for takeoff?" Sayid asked Frank and the older man nodded.

"I nearly can't believe it's that easy," Alice said when Jack gave her a hand to help her inside the chopper.

"It wasn't. We've been here over a hundred days."

"Right. I just... It's hard to imagine that soon we might actually be home."

Jack just smiled to her and helped Kate and the baby in. Once Sayid and Sawyer got in as well, they took off.

It was truly surreal for them all to see the island from above, to realize how big it really was and how much uneven ground there was. Alice remembered all those times she'd traveled somewhere.

She remembered her first day, waking up in the water, ready to give up, but somehow still fighting for her survival. Maybe she always was a fighter, she just never realized it. And now she wasn't alone. She had Jack and they were all right and getting out and that was really all she could ask

for. She searched for his hand and when their fingers entwined, she looked at him.

"Jack..." she started, feeling the need to say it. "I... I'm sorry... I'm sorry for screaming at you and..."

"Don't," he interrupted her. "You don't have to apologize. I know you were just worried. We're

fine now." He squeezed her hand gently. "Our lives together start now."

She smiled to him brightly and then the chopper shook and Frank cursed.

"What is it?" Sayid asked the pilot.

"We're hit! We're losing fuel!" they received in answer. "We need to get back!"

"No!" Jack protested loudly. "We can't go back! There's no fuel on the island. Our only hope is to reach that boat!"

Frank sighed heavily. "Then we need to be lighter! Throw everything you see out!"

Once they did that, they still didn't seem to have enough fuel to get to the boat. Alice also noticed the scared and ashamed look on Hurley's face and she felt really sorry for the guy who clearly thought that without him they would surely get to their destination with no problems.

She noticed James shifting and whispering something into Kate's ear. Then he kissed her.

And then he looked at Alice, locking his eyes with hers for a moment. And she knew what he was going to do.

"James, no!" she yelled, but it was too late. He jumped off the chopper and was just gone.

"He'll swim safely to the shore, I'm sure of it," Jack tried to comfort Alice when taking her into his arms. "And we'll come back for him."

"What if..."

"Alice, do you feel anything?" Jack then asked her when cupping her face and she shook her head because she didn't. "He'll be fine," he repeated then.

They could already see the boat and once they got closer, they saw Desmond running on the main deck and waving at them.

"What is he screaming about?" Frank asked, preparing himself for the landing. "He needs to get out of there!"

"Did he just say bomb?" Miles asked and in the same moment Alice bent in a half, literally screaming in pain.

"Alice!" She heard Jack calling her name like through a very bad connection. His hands were on her shoulders, but she barely noticed. There was too much pain in her stomach and too much nausea and for some reason she couldn't even relieve herself. She could just feel it and suffer through it. "Are you all right?! Alice!" Jack was getting more scared with every second.

"There's a bomb on the boat!" Kate yelled to the pilot, realizing what it all meant.

"I don't care! If I don't put the chopper down, we'll crash!" Frank screamed and finally landed.

Desmond ran to them immediately. "You need to get out of here! There's a bomb! We may only have a few minutes!"

"How much exactly?!" Jack asked.

"Maybe five?"

"Quick! Refill the tank! Meet me back here in four!" Frank was giving orders.

"Are you feeling better?" Jack asked Alice who didn't even leave the chopper, feeling too shaken up to walk.

She nodded and then she winced slightly. "If we get out in time... we should be fine," she said.

"Just stay close to me."

"I will, don't worry."

Kate came back with Sun and the Korean asked her to find Jim.

"Kate, there's no time!" Jack stopped her once she wanted to run into the boat again. "We need to take off now. Jim needs to make it."

"Go! Go! Go!" Frank gestured to them all as on cue and Kate started panicking, not knowing what to do which made it easier for Jack to get her on the helicopter. He owed it to Sawyer to keep her alive since the guy had jumped for her.

Alice's nausea didn't want to pass completely. They were taking off and she still had her hands pressed against her stomach, trying to breathe normally, just focusing on breathing. She told herself that it would all be over soon and they would be far away from the freighter when the bomb exploded.

And then Jim ran onto the deck, waving at the chopper and Sayid needed to hold Sun who desperately wanted to get to her husband.

Of course Jim didn't make it and suddenly, the boat burst into flames, followed by Sun's desperate scream. Alice actually felt like screaming, too because she was once again overcame with feeling more powerful than all those she'd ever felt before. Everything Jack seemed to be able to do for her right now was to hold her tightly in his arms and she was so grateful for that. She was so grateful that he was there and that he was alive.

She thought that the terrible ache was slowly leaving her and then she heard Frank saying they were almost back on the island. Back on the island... Alice thought. Back to where they started.

And there was no boat. What were they going to do now? Was the hope lost completely?

In the next second she couldn't even form a coherent thought as she was once again hit with double pain and everything went white. She had the impression that it was all happening inside

her head, but then she could hear the screams of the rest, asking where the island was and where they were going. Then, there was simply nothing. Only darkness.

"Alice! Oh my God! Alice!" Jack was screaming as he was shaking her gently. "Alice!" Only she wasn't responding. She clearly passed out.

"Hold on!" was the last thing Jack heard coming from Frank before they ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. He focused all his might on holding on to Alice, on not letting her go down. She could very easily drown when not being conscious and he couldn't let that happen.