Haley woke up to see Kate kneeling beside her bed.

"Kate?" She whispered.

"Shh." Kate brought her index finger up to her lips. "Come on, I want to show you something."

"I can't, my foot…"

"It'll be fine, trust me."

Haley swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. Sure enough, there was no pain in her foot or in her knee.

"See?" Kate started walking towards the storage room, but stopped when she realized Haley wasn't following her.

"Where are we going?" Haley asked.

"I want to show you something in the tunnel. Come on."

Haley shrugged and followed her.

They lowered themselves into the hole, and Haley just looked around her in awe. She picked up a glowing yellow vial.

"Is this what Jack gave me?"

"Come on."

They had been walking for a while and didn't seem to be getting anywhere.

"How far is it?" Haley asked. But her question was soon answered when she saw the light up ahead, flooding into the tunnel, making it bright enough to turn off the flashlight.

"Come on, Haley!" Jack screamed, giving her CPR. "Come on!" He gave her mouth to mouth and went back to the compressions on her chest. He couldn't let another person die on this island. Not on his watch. He heard the beeping from the computer start up and there was no one else around to press the button. But he didn't care; he needed to save her. The button could wait.

"Are you coming?" Kate asked.

"Well, I dunno. What is it?"

"What do you mean, what is it?"

That's when Haley heard the beeping coming from the hatch. Jack was asleep and he wouldn't hear it.

"I have to go. I have to press the button for Jack."

"But we're almost there!"

"I can't! I have to go!" Haley turned around, but Kate grabbed onto her arm.

"You have to do this, Haley. You have to come with me. Trust me."

"I can't. I have to go."

Jack felt Haley's rib crack, but he kept the compressions going. He continued to the press hard on her chest, letting her ribs crunch under his palms. He was about to lean in and do mouth to mouth again, when she opened her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Good girl, good girl." Jack sat her up and held onto her. "Deep breaths. Just take deep breaths."

Haley tried to, but it hurt every time she sucked in. She looked around, wondering what was going on. Wasn't she just in the tunnel?

"One of your ribs cracked while I was giving you CPR. Sorry."

"Did I… Did I die?"

"You stopped breathing. You're heart stopped. Ya. For a minute there, you were dead."

"So I… But I was in the tunnel."

"In the tunnel?"

"Ya, Kate woke me up and told me to follow her to the tunnel." She stopped and coughed a few times, then continued. "And there was light at the end, and she kept telling me to follow her, and to trust her. But then I heard the computer beeping, so I had to come back and press the button."

"You heard the beeping?" And that's when Jack realized that the whole hatch was silent. The beeping had stopped. "Hang on." He got up and made his way to the computer. The numbers had just changed from 106 to 105, as he arrived. The numbers recounted on their own. This button did absolutely nothing.

Jack walked back in the room to see Haley sitting up, looking sort of shocked. She was staring ahead at nothing.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"I can't believe I was dead. How was that dead? That was not dead. Dead is supposed to be better than that."

"Well it's just a good thing you heard the beeping. Or you might not have come back."

"That's weird. Isn't that weird?"

John came down to the hatch for his shift, and saw Jack just looking at him with an almost emotionless expression.

"Your button," Jack began, "is pointless."

John didn't know what to say.

"It does absolutely nothing. We've been wasting our time with this thing. Just go back to the beach."

"Jack, we haven't been wasting anything."

"Well I have. It doesn't – do – anything."

"How do you know?"

"How do I know? Because I didn't press the damn thing! Haley was dying when the alarm went off!"

"So you decided to risk the lives of everyone on this island, just to save Haley's."

"No. I simply chose to save Haley. She was dying, I needed to stop it. It had nothing to do with everyone else. And because of the choice I made, no one is dead."

"I'm disappointed in you, Jack." John turned around and started to walk away, but Jack wasn't going to let him.

"Locke."

John stopped and looked at him.

"I just saved a girl's life. Her heart stopped beating! She wasn't breathing! And I saved her life!"

"How do you know she wasn't meant to die? What if she was all part of the plan and you ruined it?"

"Ok, you know what? If she wasn't meant to live, then she wouldn't have lived. OK? And as for this plan... This whole 'sacrifice the island was willing to make' crap, I've had enough. Obviously we don't see eye to eye. But I'm done pressing the button. There are more important things that need to be done."

"This is important. This is a job that you agreed to take on!"

"Ya, well I quit. I have a better job. It's being the doctor when no one else can."

Kate had no idea how she did it. She had no idea what came over her, but for a split second, it was like she went straight back to the old Kate. The Kate she had left behind when that plane crashed. She had changed. She didn't want to change back, she liked who she turned into. She liked who she had become. But she had to go and wreck it. But no, it was ok. It was either her, or him. What she did was right. She went purely on human instinct; there was nothing she could have done. She was back in the tunnel now, running back to the hatch as fast as she could. But she heard footsteps behind her. The others were going to catch her. But there was no one else around! The place was completely empty! Who else could have possibly been there? And where would they have been hiding? But that's when the person running behind her, called out her name, in a frighteningly familiar voice.

Jack sat down on the bed with small scissors and tweezers. Haley was reading The DaVinci code, and didn't acknowledge Jack.

"I need to take your stitches out of your forehead," He said.

Haley didn't take her eyes away from the book. "I'm almost done, hang on."

"Haley…"

"Hang on. This is my favourite part."

"You've already read it?"

"6 times. I bought it in Australia for the plane ride to LA. But you know, then we crashed. Good thing it's really good."

"Haley, I need to take out your stitches. Just set the book down for now."

"Fine." She closed her book and put it on her lap.

"Thank you." Jack started cutting the stitches and pulling them out of her skin.

"Ow."

Jack didn't say anything, he just did his job. Haley put her hand up to her face so Jack couldn't continue.

"Haley…"

"I don't want you to do this right now."

"If I wait any longer, your skin is going to grow over the thread."

"So?"

"So?"

"So, I don't want you to hurt me right now. I've been through so much the past few days. I've just had enough." Jack moved her hand away from her face, but she moved it back. "Stop."

"Let me do this." Jack moved Haley's hand out of the way again, but again, she moved it back. "Fine." He stood up and put his hand on his hips. "I'm trying to help you. What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know. But I can't take any more of this."

"It doesn't hurt to get stitches taken out. Especially compared to what you've had happen to you."

"Maybe after what I've had happen to me, something so small can seem so big."

"Just let me take the stitches out."

"You know, sometimes you're good at the sensitive doctor thing, but other times… You just suck at it."

"Ya. I know. Ok? I'm trying, here."

"Are you rude to waiters?"

"Huh?"

"Are you rude to waiters."

"I don't know."

"'Cause you know what they say. Someone who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question."

"No. I'm not rude to waiters."

"Then why aren't you good at the sensitive doctor thing? Any real human being would have no problem with it."

Jack started to breathe a little quicker. He wiped his face with his hands and looked back at Haley. "I was never good at bedside manner. And I know it's an important quality to have in a doctor. But I tried. I tried being sympathetic about –"

"That's the problem," Haley interrupted. "You're not supposed to sympathize. You're supposed to care."

Jack sighed at looked into Haley's eyes. They were starting to tear, and he realized just how hard it must be for someone her age to go through all of this alone. But he never showed it. He never showed anything about his feelings. It would take so much for him to do that, and he certainly didn't show it to patients. Even when it was about them, and not him. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he be a good person? But he was. He was a good person. Wasn't he?

"Jack!" It was Kate, calling from the storage room. Both Jack and Haley looked when they heard her shout. Jack ran over and met her halfway.

"What is it?" Jack asked. Kate turned her head to the storage room, to make Jack look past her. Someone came out of the hole in the floor and walked into the rest of the hatch. Jack's heart skipped a beat as he watched this person come into full view, making it clear who it was. "Walt?"

-- Insert suspenseful Lost sound here --