Disclaimer: I make no profit from this. Ben and all of the other Lost characters do not belong to me. Helena, however, is mine.
A/N-This is set in season 3 after "The Man Behind the Curtain"
Chapter 25-Epilogue
7 years later…
Helena stood in front of the kitchen sink and reached into the soapy water to pull out another dish. Once it was clean she placed it on the drying rack with the others. She sighed as she looked out of the window in front of her. It was a beautiful sunny day.
She found it relaxing to be able to focus on something as simple as the daily chores. A few years ago she never would have been able to concentrate on something so mundane.
As she finished the dishes she glanced around her house. It was bright, open, and welcoming; something she had insisted on before moving in.
Helena moved through the house; adjusting things here and there. She stopped at the mantle above the fireplace. It held an array of pictures that were very dear to her heart. She had been lucky to come into possession of some of them a good while back and she treasured them.
She took her favorite down and studied it closely. A man with glasses and an impatient expression looked back at her. She wasn't there when the picture was taken but she loved it anyway.
The corners of Helena's lips tugged upward into a small smile as she remembered him. It was so long ago.
Helena remembered the day clearly. It was the day he died.
She never could have imagined Mikhail could be so cruel. Yes, Ben had shot Mikhail first, but she expected things like that from Ben. He could be cold, he was calculating and he did what needed to be done. But one look at Mikhail's face told Helena he was serious.
She was serious too, when she stepped in front of Ben. In those brief seconds she knew she was willing to die for him. She loved him.
Then, Ben died in her arms.
It had been all Helena could do not to break down and become hysterical. It was Ben's parting words to her that held her together. He had released the bind that held her to the cabin. She knew she had to get away.
It all happened so quickly. She was certain Mikhail would not let her run off into the jungle, so she shot him. Oddly enough she didn't feel any guilt.
Back in her home, still clutching the picture frame, Helena saw herself running frantically through the dense jungle. Her memory was so vivid she felt like she was really there again; running for her life.
She pushed open the door and ran inside, noticing that nothing had changed. The cabin was empty.
"Jacob!" she screamed, "Jacob, please! I need your help!"
He must have sensed the panic in her voice because he appeared right away.
"What is the matter child?" he asked her.
Helena threw herself at his feet as she choked back tears.
"He's dead!"
"Who is dead?" he asked puzzled.
It physically hurt Helena to say his name, "Ben. Mikhail killed him."
"But that was not Mikhail's path."
"Who cares about whether he followed the path you set for him? He shot Ben. I need you to help me!" Helena pleaded gripping the chair Jacob sat on.
"Of course child, what do you need?"
"He is going to come after me I know it. I shot him in the head but I'm sure he's not dead. Tell me what I should do. How can I get away from him?"
"Helena, I need you to calm down. Do you remember when you first came to the cabin and I told you that one day you would have to choose between Benjamin and Mikhail?"
"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything? I never got a chance to choose. The one I would have chosen is lying dead in front of our cabin!" Helena yelled. She couldn't get Ben's face out of her mind. It only made her cry more.
"If they had both been alive, you would have chosen Benjamin?" Jacob pushed, ignoring her outburst.
"Yes."
"And now, that Benjamin is gone, would you be with Mikhail?"
"Never!" Helena spat, "After what he has done; what he has become? I would rather die."
Jacob nodded his head and was quiet for a moment while he studied her, "I see."
"Yours is an unfortunate fate sweet Helena. I must go and see to some things on the island."
With those words Jacob had vanished. Helena felt even more abandoned than ever. She stopped trying to hold her tears back. She leaned against Jacob's empty chair and cried.
Helena stood and wiped a lone tear from her cheek. As she was replacing the picture on the mantle she heard the front door open.
"Hello dear." A man's voice called to her.
She turned with a smile, "You're home early."
"I thought I would surprise you. Are you alright? You look like you've been crying."
Helena shook her head, "I'm fine. I was just looking at some old pictures."
He nodded, "I see."
"I think I'd like to go back one day. Just to look around, you know?"
"Darling, we've talked about this."
"I know, I know. But it still feels like such a huge part of me. I'd hate to turn my back on it."
"I'll see what I can do alright? But there is no guarantee it can be found, you know that?"
Helena nodded, "Thank you." As she wrapped her arms around her husband.
A week later Helena was still thinking of her time spent in her cozy little cabin. She may not have thought it was cozy then. In fact, it had felt like a prison, but she yearned to see it again nonetheless.
She did her best to remember the goods times she had seen in the cabin and not the horrors that followed, but every so often she would see Ben's face. She would hear his voice whisper, "I release you."
He had saved her life with those precious words. She knew if he hadn't said them she would be dead.
"Helena, could you come here please?" her husband called.
She found him standing at the front door, "What is it?"
He smiled at her, "Take a walk with me?"
"Alright." She nodded and slipped some shoes on.
They talked as they walked. The reminisced of the time they first met. The first time they had argued with each other. The first time they made love. Their conversation helped steer Helena's thought away from her past. She knew it was better to focus on her present, and their future.
They walked for so long that Helena stopped paying attention to where they were going. It had been a while since they had passed anyone else but the scenery was so beautiful that Helena didn't think too much on it.
Finally they stopped and as Helena was about to ask why she was hushed by her husband, "Look." He said and pointed in front of them.
Helena took a step forward and then another. What she saw could have stopped her heart beating.
"You found it?" she whispered.
As she moved closer she began to remember every detail. The wild had taken control once more but she could still make out the shape of the small cabin. The clearing was overgrown with brush but she still knew exactly where the barrier had been. She saw herself running at it over and over again just to spite the man who put it there.
She saw the spot where she had sat with Mikhail and watched the stars. She looked to the porch and remembered when she had punched Ben and told him to leave. She saw what used to be a small rise in the earth where Ben had buried Isabel.
Helena walked to a spot in the clearing and stopped. She would never forget this spot.
"This is where you died." She said quietly.
She turned to face her husband and tears rushed her eyes, "This is where you died Ben! Right here!" she choked. "I held you in my arms as you stopped breathing. I wanted to join you so badly."
Ben came to Helena's side and enclosed her in his arms. "Darling, don't say that. If you had died then I wouldn't be here today."
And he was right, Helena knew as she buried her head into his shoulder. It was a miracle. And it was all thanks to Jacob.
Jacob, who had tested her from the start. Who told her that she would have to choose between the two men she was growing to love. Jacob, who abandoned her in the dark cabin, once he found he could finally leave it.
Once Helena had cried all the tears she could cry she had picked herself up and wandered outside. She didn't care if Mikhail found her anymore. With Ben gone, she had lost her will to survive.
She walked for hours that turned into days. She didn't care where she went, she just couldn't sit still.
After two weeks she ended up back at Jacob's cabin. She stood looking at it as if it were some kind of joke.
"Why?" she had screamed to the sky. "Why was I even brought here? Why didn't you leave me dead?"
Helena fell to her knees in defeat, "I'm done." She said to herself.
"Helena?" called a voice from the cabin door.
She looked up and saw him, "Ben?"
"Helena?" Ben asked again pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Hmm?" she mumbled.
Ben watched her closely, "Do you want to see him?"
Helena knew who Ben was talking of but didn't know how it could be true. She hadn't seen him since he left her in the cabin. She nodded, yes.
"Come." He said and gently led her forward to the front door of the run down cabin.
He slowly pushed the door open and motioned for her to step inside before him.
As Helena's eyes adjusted she saw that her beloved cabin was just as it had been left.
Then she saw him. He was standing at the fireplace looking down into flames that didn't exist.
Her breath caught, "Jacob?"
He turned to her and sent her a kind and knowing smile, "See sweet Helena, you made the right choice."