Disclaimer: If I owned Lost, I certainly wouldn't be writing this. None of the characters are mine, except for Letty. Please review, it means so much to me!
Ana Lucia Cortez stood on the beach watching the ocean waves beat against the scattered rocks that lay along the sunny beach. A few feet to her left, a little girl was playing in the sand, her long dark curls falling across her face, with a look of deep concentration settled on it. Ana laughed to herself. Obviously, this sandcastle was the most important thing that Letty had ever accomplished in her life.
The waves crashed threateningly, and Letty gave a little shriek of excitement. "Hey!" Ana yelled, her voice almost lost in the noise of the Ocean. "Move back a bit! I'm not helping you if you drown." Letty gave an indignant groan, but quickly obeyed when Ana flashed her a menacing glare.
A year ago, Ana wouldn't have been able to even imagine a moment like this. Who would have guessed that her plane would crash, that she would be terrorized by a group of "Others", or that she would have a kid? Letty was an orphan. She was going to Los Angeles to meet her new adoptive parents, when that crash happened. Now she was Ana's responsibility.
It's not like Ana had wanted to take care of her, Letty adopted Ana. But the memory of Zach and Emma still haunted Ana, and she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. So she made a promise to herself: as long as Letty could deal with Ana, she could deal with Letty.
They had known each other for only 50 days, and Letty was already calling her "Mommy Ana". How could such a noisy, troublesome little girl be so sweet at times? And she most certainly was noisy. Letty's favorite hobby seemed to be running around their camp yelling loudly, pretending to be an Indian or a Pirate. This was much to the annoyance of Sawyer, whose headaches seemed to reemerge during the loudest of Letty's yelling bouts. Ana could have easily told Letty to be quiet, but anything that made Sawyer mad was fine by her.
Letty soon grew tired of her sandcastle, and after enthusiastically stomping on it, she came skipping over to Ana's side. "Whatcha doing, Mommy Ana?" she asked, her five-year old voice barely audible above the crashing waves. "Thinking." Ana replied, glancing down at the little person beside her.
"Thinking about what?" Letty inquired. "Stuff." Ana answered with a slight smile. Letty sniffled. "Yeah, well stuff is boring. Will you teach me to play cards?" "Cards? You're five years old, why would you want to…" Ana's voice trailed off. She had just seen Sawyer sitting in front of his tent with a pack of playing cards. "Letty," she said, turning back around to face her. "Do you just want to play cards because Sawyer does?"
"No!" Letty replied, in a thoroughly unconvincing tone. Ana gave her a sharp look, but Letty kept smiling happily. "So?" she asked eagerly. Ana sighed. "Tomorrow, Chica, tomorrow." Letty gave a delighted yell, and started jumping up and down. Ana rolled her eyes, and together they walked back to camp.