While waiting for Jack's return, Alice was helping the survivors from the beach to relocate to the caves where they would be safer than out in the open as the others had already proven once that they could come for them unexpectedly from the water.

She came to a stop when she spotted Shannon struggling with her baggage and the dog Walt had left her. In the end though, it turned out she didn't need to help her friend because Sayid beat her to it and Alice smiled on seeing that. 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 anymore 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 screaming. 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 after 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 head 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 would 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 followed with 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… now I may Jack as well," 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 assured them. "They'll come back to us."

Alice really wished it had been so easy for her to believe that…

"I don't believe in destiny," Jack informed Locke while 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 their own personal stories intertwined together.

He stopped himself right there. He couldn't let Locke get to his head like that. There were far more important things to do at the moment anyway. They needed to blow the hatch up, so he could provide shelter for all the survivors.

It worked. The dynamite blew the hatch door right off, revealing a dark pit and a broken ladder underneath. And just then, Jack got the strangest feeling that he should simply be done trying to get inside. He wouldn't hide forty people in there without a proper ladder anyway. 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 kept on waiting 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.

Just then, she nearly sensed him being close, because once she turned, he walked out of the jungle. She got up and ran to him without saying anything, throwing 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. "How did it go?" she decided to ask instead.

Jack relayed everything to her. How they'd opened up the hatch. How her theory might've been correct since there had been a quarantine sign on the inside of it as though it was really meant to shelter and to protect. Then Alice told him how Charlie had suggested that Rousseau had made up the others coming, 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 causing the smoke, but to no avail. The others 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 in 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 disappeared, this time taking Kate with him.

"This man will break his freaking neck," the doctor cursed. "I'm going, too."

"What? No. It's dangerous!" Alice protested, trying to stop him.

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

Alice waited whole five minutes before she 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 goosebumps.

"I am so going to regret this," she 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 down 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 here herself.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, music was turned up to a maximum volume, becoming nearly unbearable for her ears. It stooped then as abruptly as it started and once she made a few steps forward, regretting she hadn't taken a gun with her even though she didn't know how to shoot, she finally heard some voices. She began listening and soon enough, she could figure out what was going on. Sudden fear froze her insides when 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 again, not really knowing what to do. Then she actually listened harder since she could swear she heard something else. Something coming from…

She approached 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 doorknob on the outside.

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

"Maybe we should save Jack and Locke first?" she 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 falling from his hand and an accidental shot running out.

Jack jumped and wanted to reach the man to immediately tie him up, 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!"

On hearing that, she froze 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 on his face.

"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," she insisted.

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 proceeded to 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!"

When 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

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

"Ok, talk," she encouraged, 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 jogging and I 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 hadn't just said 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 at instant. The next thing Jack and Alice knew, the man was quickly running away, leaving them behind.

"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 she and Jack used the back door to leave and they 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 smiled at her.

"Really. This whole place is crazy, so we just need to keep holding on to each other."

"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!" The doctor raised his voice and Alice nearly jumped, surprised by how sore a point Sarah still was for him.

"Come on. What…"

"I married her!" Jack finally 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…" he thought for a second before he remembered the stranger's name, "Desmond, isn't it?"

"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 sighed heavily before following suit.

"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, isn't it?"

"You have to do it, Jack," Locke then said when 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 counter was dangerously close to zero.

"Because you need to believe."

"Don't tell me what…"

The alarm suddenly stopped, the counter pushed back to 108.

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

Jack, on seeing that, turned around and left.

"Jack!" she called after him and then followed.

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

"What?" Alice seemed surprised to hear that. "Jack, it doesn't matter. It's in the past. You don't love her. You said so yourself."

"Yes," 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 anymore! It's too many! 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 one big experiment," he reminded her.

"I only told you that to think clearly and to try to 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.

Alice and Jack didn't remember the last time they'd been so easy-going 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.

She loved how relaxed and happy he seemed to be that night. She even let her mind wander, found herself dreaming of them being rescued, of Sawyer and Michael and Jim bringing help. She was dreaming of the life they could 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. Because they might never get out of the island. The discovery 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 at square one, back to eating fruit and meat.

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.