Thank you! To be honest, writing from Ben's POV (I'm still finding my way with Locke, so I don't think I could manage his just yet) felt like a bit of a gamble here, because it's always hard not to write Ben as more fragile than he is, and writing him from his own perspective made that even riskier. So I'm really happy you think I pulled it off! *beams* As for Hurley, I love how he never gets rational concerns get in the way of saying exactly what he's thinking, which is a trait Ben is hardly accustomed to. Oh, and that last bit was my own attempt at in-character h/c - be it involving a gun, not a piano as in yours. *g*

By the way, re-watching Jeremy Bentham last night, I realized only now how masterfully the writers pulled that off: showing us a supposedly resurrected Locke before they proceed to have Ben strangle him (ohh, that scene!) so that, even if we register the tragedy of it, it doesn't quite affect us as it would have otherwise - because hey, Locke's fine, isn't he? And then upon re-watch, it's only those glimpses of the Sideways 'verse that keep it from being unbearable; without those, that scene would have killed me, rather than almost killed me. And now I wonder if I'll keep having that "Boo! Get lost, impostor!" reaction everytime I see Fake Locke being treated as the real one for the rest of this season. Probably so. :)