"What kind of questions are we talking about here?" Jin asked slightly mispronouncing words as English was his second language.
"It could be anything. Where we were, what we're doing on the island, why people on the roster are missing, even our lives before we arrived on the island."
"So what do we tell them when they ask?" Libby chimed in, raising her hand timidly as she sat there on the bench.
"It's hard to know what to say. We all have different opinions on what happened on the island. Most, if not all of us, killed someone to protect ourselves or others. Some of us have pasts we're not too proud of. That's why I wanted to have a discussion while we're all together. See if we can figure out a plan best for all of us."
"How much time do we have until we reach land?" James questioned, settling down beside me as if we were listening to some compelling story. He had appeared from wherever he had gone off to, although I never remembered him getting up in the first place.
"Less than an hour."
"How are we supposed to come up with something in less than an hour?" Hurley posed his question quietly, his eyes widening, more questions filling and unanswered. It was possible that none of us would receive answers to everything we wanted to know about the island.
"Look, I'm not saying an hour will solve all our problems. What I'm saying is that when we step off this submarine, there are going to be questions-from friends, from family, from strangers. Heck, maybe even the media is going to want answers. The thing they'll all have in common is wanting to know where we've been for the past three years." Jack quelled the confused chatter for a brief moment.
"Where is here?" James feigned innocence with a small smile as he sat back against the metal wall. He had already caught on to what Jack was saying with lightning speed "We have no idea where we've been other than we've been on some magical island. People are going to think we're crazy."
"Exactly. So we say nothing other than we don't know where we've been. As far as people know, three years ago we boarded Oceanic Flight 815 and we never came back."
"So basically we leave the magical island out of it." James countered back, his eyes flickering deviously.
"Exactly."
"Trust me, I have already tried telling people about the magical island. Doesn't work." Hurley muttered as Libby wrapped her arm around his in comfort.
"And if they do ask for details?" Sun questioned, slowly considering each word of the conversation. "What do we tell them?"
"We don't. Other than we landed on an island. Technically we're not lying when we don't know which island because we were never told the name of it. We hunted fish and climbed trees for food. We built tents for shelter. The basics are all the outside world needs to know." After the conversation died out, the submarine was silent until Desmond poked his head out the door.
"If I could have your attention, please. We're working on bringing the submarine up slowly to avoid decompression sickness. So if you could stay in your seats, we'll surface soon." He stepped over to where Jack was sitting near the edge. "I just talked to the United Coast Guard. He wants to talk with us when we get up there."
"Thanks for letting me know."
"Hey," He greeted Kate who was sitting beside me again, then looked over at me. "I have to talk to the coast guard in just a few minutes when we dock, but I wanted to come to see how you were doing."
"Feeling a little bit better, thanks."
"Glad to hear it. Even though you're feeling better, I still want you to take it easy for a while—follow up with a physician when we get there. Excuse me."
"So, this is it." Miles stated from the other side of the bench, to no one in particular. I never remembered him sitting there. I guess I had been kind of out of it earlier.
"Where are you going after this?" I offered curiously as I leaned forward so I could talk around Kate.
"I'm not sure, actually. Considering my mother passed away a while ago, and my father is a scientist who was living on a magical island that we're not supposed to talk about. I'm sure I'll figure something out. What about you?"
"I'm going to find my sister and my nephew. I may have to jump through some hurdles after being gone for three years, but I'll likely find a job at a hospital again when I feel up to it." The submarine shifted to a stop. Jack climbed up the ladder to unlock the hatch, sunlight filtering in from the opening.
"Let's go." Jack climbed up the ladder. Sun and Jin followed behind him, disappearing outside. Nobody else seemed to move, everyone debating what to do next even though we all knew our next step would be to get out of this submarine. It wasn't like we could all just live here.
"Hey, you promise you'll keep in touch." Kate mentioned as we continued to sit next to each other.
"I will. I'm also not very good at finding people."
"Lucky for you, I am. So I will find you."
"Where are you going?"
Jack and I talked about going back to California. I guess it all depends on where he lands a job. "Then again, I didn't have the best luck there, so who knows, maybe we'll come to Florida. You said you were going to stay here anyway, right?"
"My sister and nephew live here," I nodded, taking one last look at everyone left on the submarine."So that makes Florida my home."
"Then I guess you'll get home before the rest of us do." Kate stood up as she went to give Sawyer one last hug before climbing up the ladder. "Take care, Juliet."
"You too, Kate."