"Looks like the island is giving us a parting rain." Desmond came out of the submarine to greet us, the falling rain soaking his white shirt. "Climb in before we all get soaked."

"How's everyone doing?" Sawyer came up beside me, giving a little shrug as we all got in line to get on board.

"Excited, but kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop," Kate stated behind me. "Not to jinx it, but does anyone else feel like this is too easy?"

"I can't believe the island is just letting us go," I said quietly, watching Charlie, Claire, and Aaron board the submarine.

"As far as I'm concerned, we still have to make it off this island before I'll believe that," James stated as we moved up We had somehow made it to the middle of the line when we arrived, so it wouldn't be long before we were able to get inside. "Ladies first." He moved back behind us a few minutes later as we were next. Suddenly I wasn't feeling so great.

"Juliet?" Kate blinked the rain from her eyes. It had begun pouring down on us, soaking anyone else still on the ground. Instead of responding to her request, I began climbing. The whole motion was agonizing but I took one last look across the ocean as I made it down to where Sayid was passing out blankets.

"Glad you made it. Have a seat." He pointed to where all the other survivors were beginning to fill up the benches. I took a seat on the other side not filled and leaned my head back against the wall, the folded blanket sitting on my lap.

"Pardon my French, but you don't look so hot." I was sure I shot Sawyer a tired smile, not bothering to open my eyes as he sat down beside me. I weaved in and out of sleep, at one point hearing the metal door grind close, and felt the gravitational pull of the submarine as we sunk deeper into the water.

"How long has she been out?" Jack stood by me to look me over. I was too tired to respond, even though I had one ready. I guess walking had taken a lot more out of me than I thought it would.

"For about twenty minutes."

"That's good. She needs sleep, especially after all that walking. She doesn't seem to be feverish, but let's keep an eye on her." I felt the submarine shift down as we made our way through the deep ocean. "And let's get this blanket on her." He opened it up and tucked it around me.

"Hey." Kate was sitting next to me as I stirred in my seat. "You were out for about an hour and a half."

"I must have been so tired."

"Looks like I wasn't the only one." As I looked around the room, it looked like half of the group had fallen asleep. "Have you slept?"

"No, I am way too wound up to sleep right now. From what I hear we were on an island close to Florida. If I hadn't changed my ways already, Ben would be a dead man."

"Where's Jack?" I groaned as I sat up from the position I had been sitting in.

"The last time I checked, up front." She tipped her chin up to the closed door to where Sayid and Desmond were steering the submarine. "Claire and Aaron fell asleep right after you. I can't help feeling like something is going on with her."

"It's a common thing. You helped deliver her baby. You care about her."

"I'm going to take that you know what's going on with her then."

"We've discussed a few things. I won't know how to help her until we get back."

"Back." Kate took in a sharp breath. "Sorry, no matter how many times I say it, it's not something

I ever imagined we'd get again."

"Me either."

"I'll go get Jack. Let him know you're awake."

"Thanks."

"I'm just going to grab your temperature." Jack moved the thermometer over my forehead and frowned as he turned to Kate. "100 degrees. Let's try to get that fever down. Would you mind grabbing some water?" Pulling out a white bottle, he placed one reddish pill into my hand.

"I think I saw some in the back room." Kate excused herself and disappeared behind the door located at the back of the room.

"Are we really close to Florida?" I lowered my voice, wanting answers but not letting everyone else overhear.

"That's what the map says. All this time the Others made us think we were further than we were." He shook his head in irritation as he looked around to make sure nobody else was listening in. "Kind of glad knowing we are though because I'm not sure we would have made it otherwise."

"Not like The Others would have cared if we were stuck at the bottom of the ocean." Kate chimed in, pressing a small bottle into my hands.

"Thanks." I took the water gratefully and set it in my lap."The other survivors deserve to know. If we go back and we all tell our stories about what happened, it's going to open up even more questions about the things we did while we were on the island. My ex-husband, the guy I worked behind his back to get my sister pregnant got hit by a bus so I could come to the island.

I'm not even a survivor of Oceanic Flight 815.

"She's got a point," Sawyer acknowledged, looking around the room. "I mean, we've kind of talked about this before but we never talked about whether we should do it. I was a con artist, among other things, before I met all of you. There's no telling what kind of questions people are going to throw at us when we arrive, especially in the months to come. If we're going to do this, we need to get our facts straight."

"If everybody could listen up." Jack opened the door to the front of the submarine, peeked his head in so they could hear him, and turned back to everyone stirring in their seats. "I have an announcement to make. As we prepare to go on land, it's important to know that while on this island we have all had to do some things we're not proud of. It's possible that when we arrive and in the months to come, we will be pressed with questions from a lot of different sources. It's important that we keep our stories straight and don't immediately respond to any questions from anyone outside our group."

"Where is here?" Hurley raised his hand, his expression full of confusion as he sat between Sun and Libby.

"Florida." Jack issued as the chatter picked up between those who didn't know this bit of information. "Yes, we were close this entire time. We were able to pick it up on the map when we were preparing the submarine."

"But why?" Sun issued in broken English, her face full of confusion. She wasn't the only one and it was starting to cast a sort of panic for those who were awake.

"I don't know why. I don't even know if we'll ever get all the answers we want or need to know" Jack put his hand on his hip, clearly trying to figure out how to calm everyone. "What I do know is we're going home, and there are a lot of people out there who are going to want to know where we've been."