Birds chirped overhead as Aveena came to. The young woman cracked her eyelids open, then quickly squeezed them shut as bright sunlight flooded her vision. She blinked a few times, letting her eyes become used to the light. A cluster of trees towered overhead, dappling the ground with patterns of shadow and sun. Aveena lay on the smooth earth, her body resting on a pile of stiff blankets.
The sound of crashing waves reached her ears. She raised herself up on her elbows, bewildered, and it was then that Aveena noticed the fat man propped against a tree. He wasn't much older than herself, but his sheer size seemed to age him a bit.
Aveena peered at him in confusion. She was considering an attempt to wake him when he jolted out of sleep. He rubbed his eyes, smacked his lips, and yelped. "OH MY GOD, you're awake!"
Aveena gazed at the large man, puzzled. "And who might you be?"
He stared back at her with wide and fearful eyes. "I-I-I'm going to get Jack. J-just stay... stay there, okay?"
Aveena watched as he lumbered away, even more confused than before. A thousand thoughts spun through her head, which ached painfully. An emptiness seemed to echo inside her body, but she couldn't locate the source of it. All the young woman wanted to do was go back to sleep, but first she needed to figure out where exactly she was- and why.
The big man came trotting back, followed closely by a good-looking, well-muscled man carrying a duffel bag. The new man grinned when he caught sight of Aveena, and squatted down at her side.
"How are you feeling, Aveena? You had us all pretty worried for a while there."
She just looked at him, unsure of what to say or why he knew her name. When she didn't respond, the grin slowly melted into a tight frown. "You're probably not feeling too hot, huh? I know you'll want to see Sayid as soon as possible, but I wanted to assess your condition first."
"I'm sorry," Aveena began tentatively. "You must be mistaking me for someone else. Who are you?"
The man's head jerked up in surprise. He exchanged a look with the fat man, who moved forward to kneel beside Aveena. "Hey, man... it's us. Jack and Hurley. You remember your pal Hurley, right? Remember a few weeks ago, when we pranked Sawyer real good?"
Aveena shook her head silently. Her small frame seemed to shrink into itself as she drew back ever so slightly from the men. The man who had been called Jack stood abruptly, uttering a few choice words. Hurley also heaved to his feet, gazing helplessly at Jack. "So... what, dude? Does she have like, amnesia or something?"
Jack shook his head, taking a moment to think. Sinking back down to Aveena's level, he gently touched her arm. "Aveena, I can tell you're a bit frightened right now, but I need you to tell me the last thing you can remember before waking up."
The young woman blinked a few times. "I... I don't know. I can't- wait!" Her storm-gray eyes widened. "I was on a plane. Sydney to Los Angeles. We hit a patch of turbulance and... that's all I can remember. Then I woke up here."
Hurley backed away, nearly tripping over a fallen trunk. "This is bad, dude. Real bad. Sayid's gonna flip."
Jack groaned. "Sayid. Crap." He ran a hand through his short hair, then gave Aveena a weak smile. "We're going to figure out what happened to your memory, Aveena, and we're going to get it back. Okay? Try not to panic- and that goes for both of you." He shot a sharp look over to Hurley.
Footsteps sounded from behind a clump of brambles. Jack shot up and darted around the thick undergrowth, intercepting whoever had begun to approach. Aveena heard low voices, followed by an abrupt smack as if someone had been hit. She sat up quickly just as another man appeared.
His appearance immediately screamed "middle east" to the young woman, based on his coloring and facial features. Despite being slightly short for a man, he was very muscular. He was perhaps even a bit handsome, Aveena admitted to herself. His dark eyes seemed to light up when he spotted her, and a large smile formed on his face. "Aveena." The way he said her name, with so much tenderness, struck her.
Jack hurried after the Middle Eastern man and grabbed his arm before he could come any closer. A bruise was already forming on his right cheekbone, but he didn't seem to care. "Sayid, you need to wait a moment, okay?"
Sayid's thick eyebrows narrowed together. "Why?"
Jack let out a puff of air. "Something happened to Aveena while the Others had her. I don't know if it's their fault or not, but..."
"Aveena?" Sayid questioned, his heart plummeting at her fearful expression. "Ave? What-" He spun around to glare at Jack, fury already coursing through his veins. "What did they do to her?"
"She doesn't remember anything after the plane crash. Her memory has wiped itself clean of the past few months."
Sayid turned, sliding to his knees beside Aveena. The young woman crossed her arms, trying not to show how terrified she was. The look in this man's dark eyes, the pain that flooded them, was something she had never seen before.
Her fingers suddenly shot up to her temples as a blinding pain seared her mind. Jack, seeing her wince, opened his duffel bag. "Oh, I'm sorry. Some doctor I've been. You probably have one heck of a headache, huh?" He rummaged through the bag and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. Aveena took the pills and water bottle he handed to her, swallowing the aspirin and washing it down. After she had handed the water back to Jack, he sat down on a large rock beside her and leaned forward.
"I'm sure you're extremely confused, but I need you to answer some of my questions before I can answer yours." Aveena nodded, her lips down-turned slightly.
Jack paused to think for a moment, as if remembering his medical training. "State your name, please."
"Aveena Nicole Stein," she answered quietly. Sayid, on her other side, seemed to flinch; this was the first time he had heard her voice since she awoke.
"Age, date and location of birth?" Jack prompted.
"Twenty four years old. My birthday is October seventeenth, and I was born in Seattle, Washington."
Jack glanced at Sayid and raised his eyebrows. "As far as I know, that's right."
Sayid nodded silently, his expression dark. Jack turned back to Aveena. "What do you remember about your location? Can you remember anything or anyone around you?"
Aveena gazed around at the trees, the rocks, the dirt. There was some sort of cave formation of to her left, but she didn't recognize any of it. Then she turned her eyes on the three men. Hurley, the fat one, looked kind, but unfamiliar. Jack, whom she could now label a doctor, had been very nice to her so far- but equally new to her eyes. Sayid, whose dark eyes still latched onto her face, waiting for her to know who he was... he was likewise foreign to her memory.
Aveena returned her gaze to Jack. "Nothing. It's like I fell asleep on the plane and woke up here." Her gray eyes narrowed. "So, where exactly is here? I can tell this isn't Sydney or LA. Those trees are only found in tropical jungles; same with those flowering shrubs over there."
When Hurley and Jack exchanged glances, Sayid spoke up. "Aveena minored in Biology in college. I'm sure she could tell you the names and functions of all these plants if she wanted to."
Aveena whipped her head around to look at Sayid. "How do you know that?"
He returned her gaze with sad eyes. "You told me."