Author note: Let's play Spot the Sue. There are two characters in this fic, which one tickles your Sue-dar?

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When Laura fantasised about an exotic island getaway, there were several scenarios she'd like to see play out, usually involving a long cruise, Sean Connery and lots of sun lotion.

She preffered that over the whole plain-crash, death, gore, explosions, marooned, no-chance-of-rescue thing that was going on currently.

For the third time that week, she woke up with a bloody sore back and her make-shift tent blown off by the wind. As far as she was concerned, that was the last straw. The incessant sound of waves crashing, the sand in her eyes, hair, mouth and clothes, the long trips for water, she could take. But that was the last time-- THE LAST!-- she'd ever sleep on the beach.

She gathered her painfully few belonging, a few shirts she'd scavanged, half a comb, a photo of her children, the tattered and burned blanket she'd used as a bed and her water bottle and left for the caves.

Her mood gradually going from bad to worse, she swung the satchel-blanket over her sore shoulders and started walking, muttering to herself.

"Excuse me," a soft voice demanded.

Looking around, Laura noticed a teenaged girl sitting on a log, her huge blue-green eyes glittering with unshed tears. Laura blinked and stepped closer.

"Yes?" She really had to get going. She hadn't had breakfast and there was still a long way to go to the caves. Maybe the girl was lost?

"I... I..." The teenager's lip quivered, sure sign she was going to start crying any minute now.

Laura really, really didn't want to deal with this right now.

"Nobody understands meee!" The girl started bawling and stomping her foot, emphasising the injustice the world had committed against her.

Now, Laura wasn't a bad person. She had basic human empathy and children on top of that, so it was more of a reflex that she reached out and hugged the girl. Although her little Marie had never thrown fits like these since she was five, Laura couldn't help but be reminded of her.

The girl burried her face in Laura's shirt and continued to sob, though not as loudly.

"There, there," Laura tried, rather weakly, to console her. "What's your name, honey?"

"...Louisa," she replied at long last.

"Who doesn't understand, Louisa?"

She finally untangled herself from Laura's embrace. Tears were still streaming down her face, though her face wasn't puffy.

"Everybody!" she gestured widely. "They don't know what I've been through! I mean, my parents were mean and they... they..." she wiped her tears vigorously and continued, "When I get back, they'll be so angry..." Her voice was low and mournful. "Who knows what they'll do," she continued in a haunted whisper.

Laura nodded slightly. She realised suddenly that it was quite hard to deal with teen drama on an empty stomach. She was a somewhat-empathic person, not a shrink. When her sister had filed for divorce and appeared on her doorstep crying, all Laura could offer was a pat on the back and a cup of coffee. She wasn't ready to solve all the strange girl's problems. In fact, she had no obligation to stick around, now that she thought about it.

"Listen, I was heading off to the caves. Will you be alright?"

Louisa looked hurt for a moment or so, but she nodded, slightly put off.

"Alright, goodbye."

Laura picked up her satchel and continued her trek to the caves, putting the whole incident behind her.

It wouldn't be until two days later that she'd be reminded of Louise. She was visiting the doctor, Jack, because of some mighty suspicious bug bites she'd acquired.

"Your back still bothering you?" he asked, after establishing that, no, the bugs weren't of the venomous variety she'd seen in a documentary once. She'd asked how he could tell, if he was a surgeon, and he'd quickly changed the subject.

"My back feels fine, thank you. I think it was just fatigue. I've been sleeping better since I've moved here." She scratched her forearm miserably while Jack grinned widely. No doubt, he and Saiyd kept scores on how many were in their respective camps. 'Boys will be boys,' she thought, suddenly missing her son even more.

Laura was just steps away when Hurley came running-- or wobbling, more like it-- towards Jack. He started talking faster and faster until Jack had to stop him and make him repeat slowly everything he'd said.

She really didn't mean to eavesdrop, but everyone in the caves was listening in, too, so she didn't feel guilty.

"Uhh... It's...uh... that Louisa girl, she..." Hurley panted for the longest time before continuing, "She's, y'know, at it again."

"Not her!" Jack ran a hand over his face, looking utterly frustrated. "Where is she?"

"Down at the beach," Hurley muttered and sat down, exhausted, while Jack gathered a few things from his limited supplies and left.

"Excuse me," Laura passed him a water bottle and waited until he drank nearly half of it. "What did Louisa do?"

Hurley took a big breath.

"Oh... well, y'know, first ya gotta know she's crazy like that--" he paused, as if suddenly remembering something. "Uh. Yeah. Crazy. Anyway," he cleared his throat, "right after the crash, someone found her wailin' and screamin' she was gonna kill herself, 'cause, y'know, her parents were dead." Laura bit back a gasp. "I guess some people take these things better than other... Anyway, that guy that found her wrestled a piece of glass out'a her hand, but he said she really wasn't gonna do it, she just wanted the attention. So, two days later, she gets hold of this sharp piece of metal and starts cuttin' her wrists, only it was more like small scratches, if ya ask me. And now she's doin' it again, only with this knife she found."

Laura's eyebrows were raised and her mouth was agape. 'Oh, that poor girl,' she thought. It was clear she had plenty of problems.

"Wait a minute," she paused. "She said her parents are dead?"

"Uh... yeah. That's what she said."

Laura's mind swam in confusion for a moment. But hadn't Louisa said--

She didn't get to finish that line of thought, because Jack walked (or stomped, more like it) past her.

"What happened to--" The question was waved off, as the doctor answered healfheartedly.

"She was long gone before I got there. Ran off into the jungle. There's a search party already looking for her."

Jack glumly started putting his supplies back in place, Hurley wandered off eventually and Laura stood where she was, asking herself over and over again,

"What the hell was that all about?"

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Author Note: It was either this, or a rant. And I don't like ranting all that much.

Seriously, why must all (well, not all, just the freakin' VAST MAJORITY) the stories starring OC's must be about teenaged little girls with angsty pasts?

A story should have a plot, not be some gigantic "look at me, I changed the whole story so it's all about my laughable center-of-the-universe self-insert, so review and stroke my ego" sign.

If you must write about an original character, at least have the nerve to come up with your own plot, don't upstage the canon characters and dare call your blatant Sue "special" or "unique"!