I tried to make this chapter longer than the first one. Hopefully it can be entertaining to read without dragging on too much because that's what I'm aiming for. I'm still trying to get the hang of this haha :) Any feedback is good feedback, so please review! There were some changes to the original LOST story I had to decide in this chapter, but without giving away too much of the story, Henry Gale was set free just as normal except only one person was killed this time.
Sun arrived back at the Kwon shelter with two bottles of water. She handed one to Jin, who was laying down under the tarp, enjoying a view of the ocean. He quickly unscrewed the lid and took a big gulp. He then began ranting about something in Korean.
Sun looked displeased, looking him in the eye and slowly grasping his arm, "No. No Korean. Speak English." She instructed. She had been trying to teach him the English language as best she could, and so far it was going pretty good.
Jin made an annoyed look, before straightening up from his slouched position, "Uh..Sawyer...what was, he doing?" he carefully asked, trying to speak proper English as best he could.
Sun smiled, "He was building a sandcastle. I don't know why." She shook her head.
He pondered this to himself for a second before turning his attention back to the ocean view. "Sun. Do...you think that, we will, be home?"
She was hunched over folding a shirt, but quickly raised up to answer Jin. "I don't know...I sure hope so though." She continued folding clothes, looking back in his direction, "Why?" She asked.
Jin paused before answering, "I, can't wait to start..uh..new life."
She raised up again, this time surprised to realize that Jin was actually referring to America as their home. She smiled, before leaning over and planting a firm kiss on his cheek. "We will get home." She assured him.
Just as they were sharing a intimate moment, the loud voice of Hurley busted into the camp. They quickly rose up and peeked out of their shelter to check out all the commotion.
"Dudes!" Hurley yelled before bending over and taking deep breaths. He was all sweaty from his run back to the beach from the Jungle. "You'll never guess what I found in the jungle..."
Everyone gathered around, including Kate, Jin and Sun, Rose and Bernard, and Sayid. Claire and Charlie were off having a picnic, which explained why Rose was holding baby Aaron. Jack and Locke had been gone all day on hatch duty, along with Ana Lucia and Mr. Eko. Desmond was far down the beach drinking a bottle of MacCutcheon whiskey.
Sawyer, who had just taken a break from building his sand castle, was quick to comment, "Lemme' guess. Solar powered phone?"
"Dude. No." He quickly dismissed Sawyer's joke, "I found some checker boards!" He announced before reaching into his backpack and pulling out a box of checkers.
Sawyer's mouth dropped, "Son of a bitch. Where the hell you find these?"
"I found 'em in the hatch. I was looking for cool stuff to mess with in the storage room and these fell off of a shelf onto my head. It's like, destiny or something. Checkers are awesome dude!" He explained before dumping out the rest of the goods.
There were about seven checker boards in all, five of which were new, and the other with minimal wear-and-tear. Almost everyone quickly returned to whatever they were doing, unamused, while Sawyer snatched one of the newer checker boards for himself. "And just when I thought ping-pong was getting borin'..." He mumbled under his breath before walking away.
A couple hours passed and it was getting close to night time. Many people from the camp had gotten interested in a highly competitive checker game. Sawyer and Hurley had been playing for almost an hour now, carefully calculating each others moves and trying to outsmart the other. They had bet on themselves winning, each putting up a prize. Sawyer had offered Hurley some cooking magazines from his stash, while Hurley had opted to offer Sawyer a pack of cigarettes if he could win. The game was narrowing down to the last moves as Sawyer gained the upper hand.
"Might as well just give up now Porky, game over." Sawyer arrogantly claimed while easing away from the checker board after making a move. Sawyer had four checker pieces left and Hurley had only two. The game was fully in Sawyer's favor, as Hurley was trapped into losing with seemingly every possible move he could make.
"Dude. No. I've seen this happen before. You're never beaten until you are beaten. I can find a way out of this." Hurley explained, fully concentrated and unable to accept defeat. It was rare to see him like this—serious, that is. Usually you could always count on Hurley at least attempting to crack jokes at the most inopportune times. It was just in his nature, unlike Sawyer who often did it out of pure spite.
Sawyer crooked his head and chuckled, "Whatever you say Kongo, all I know is, I'm walkin' away with the goods tonight." He said with a huge, exaggerated smile.
Hurley never took his eyes from the checker board. He was still staring at the red and black pieces, trying to decide on which move to take. The crowd had grown a bit bigger now, attracting Kate and Charlie, who were discussing the game from the sidelines.
"Hurley doesn't have this. That bloody conman has scored once again." Charlie complained, referencing to earlier before the game started when Sawyer had claimed he wasn't ever good at checkers.
"I wouldn't count Hurley out yet. He's concentrating awfully hard." Kate said in response.
Sawyer stood up now, slowly walking around the circle, "So, who's up next? This game should be endin' soon. Any one else have something they want, something they need? I got it all, all you gotta' do is bet somethin' nice in return." He had announced, sounding somewhat like someone advertising booths at a festival of sorts. It was as if he was a professional at this.
Desmond had just walked up to the group, taking a swig of his whiskey before observing what was going on.
"Aye, what seems to be the commotion about here?" He asked, looking and sounding a little bit tipsy.
Sawyer walked over to Desmond, "What's it look like? A friendly game of checkers with my ol' pal Hugo." He grinned.
Desmond contemplated that in his head, before taking another drink of whiskey and responding, "Now Brotha, it sure doesn't seem that way. Ya don't play a friendly game to win something. And I know you don't play anything without aiming to gain something for yourself. So, what is this, really?"
Everyone was staring at the two now, waiting for Sawyer's response. They were all shocked by how cryptic and complex Desmond can sound even when drunk, and the Conman was taking more than a couple of seconds to respond. He opened his mouth, preparing something equally smart to say in return, but was interrupted by a loud thud of a piece being slammed against a checker board. Everyone looked to Hurley.
Sawyer, along with the others, stared in amazement. In one move, Hurley had somehow captured three of his opponents pieces and trapped Sawyer's last checker into a lose-lose situation. The reaction of the crowd was delighted. As they began to walk away, some people laughed, some patted Sawyer on the back,but almost everyone was smiling before leaving the crowded area.
"Son of a bitch...How in the hell..." Sawyer asked himself more than anyone else in particular, still stunned by the outcome of the game.
Hurley immediately jumped up in excitement, fist pumping and screaming passionately, "I won dude! I done it! I just beat you! Yeah! Dude this is awesome." He continued to parade around the circle, shaking hands of the audience before they walked away back to their regular routine. He was definitely rubbing in his win over Sawyer as best he could. He even picked Charlie up for a huge bearhug and carried him across the sand before sitting him down a couple of steps later. After celebrating, he calmed himself down before picking up his new magazines and a pack of cigarettes. He turned to see Sawyer standing in the same spot, almost frozen in shock.
Hurley walked up to him in sympathy, "Look, dude, it's no big d-"
Sawyer interrupted him in a gruff voice, "Rematch Hugo. Tomorrow. I won't lose this time." Then proceeded to walk forward into Hurley, almost knocking him down, returning to his shelter.
As the sun came down from the sky, Hurley himself had returned to his shelter and was now relaxing, leaning peacefully against a Dharma Initiative pillow. Today had been a pretty great one for him. He had experienced a highly informational conversation with Locke about hunting, caught a fish while with Jin, and beat Sawyer at checkers in front of everyone. Heck, he had even got in some exercise in the form of jogging back from the Hatch with checker boards in hand. If only he could have experienced all of that with Libby...He still missed her. But things were getting better now. He had finally gotten a grip on his emotions, and it had made him a stronger person.
Just as he was about to doze off, thinking about the wonderful day, he heard a knock on the wood holding up the tarp over top of his bed. He clumsily jolted up, knocking over a can of grapes into the sand and almost ruining his pants.
"Woah, dude, like, don't scare me like that!" He held his chest, catching his breath.
Kate laughed, "Sorry Hurley. I didn't think you would be asleep this early." she apologized.
He caught his breath, and slowly raised up from his back to meet Kate, who had now bent down to her knees, at eye level.
"No, dude. It's okay. I'm just wore out. Had a big day." He explained to her in his normal Hurley tone.
"Yeah. Beating Sawyer at checkers must have been hard work. I've never experienced it myself, but I could only assume..." She replied, trailing off while looking toward the ground.
"Kate? Is something wrong? What's up?" He questioned worriedly.
She looked up at him with a smile, "No. Nothing. I actually came here to tell you that I saw."
Hurley's face contorted into that of a confused puppy, "Uh...Saw what?"
"You know." She replied, giggling.
Hurley still looked on confused, but eventually gave up the act. "Did you really?" He frowned.
She let out a loud laugh, "Yeah. It's okay though. No one else saw. Pretty smart of you though—to move the pieces when everyone else was focused on Sawyer and Desmond. It was a risk, and you're lucky Sawyer was too surprised and frustrated to notice that you'd cheated.
Hurley began scratching the back of his head and let out a relieved laugh, "Yeah...haha...I got lucky on that one."
"But don't worry. I won't tell, as long as you promise me you'll fix me something good out of those cook books in the hatch tomorrow."
Hurley quickly glanced at the books laying beside his bed, then back up to Kate, "Yeah. Don't worry dude. Like, trust me. Now that I have those, Chef Hurley is on the job." He announced with enthusiasm.
"That reminds me. Where has Jack been? Hatch duty?"
"Yeah. I was talking to him earlier. He and Locke have been discussing what to do about...you know..."
She responded with a nod, signifying an oh, without really saying it.
"Yeah. Like, yeah, he won't let himself leave the hatch until he decides how to keep all of us safe. What, with that prisoner free now and stuff..." Hurley looked down in sadness, gripping the covers in his hands. "I still can't believe he did what he did..."
A frown instantly overcame Kate's face. She eased over next to Hurley and put a hand on his shoulder. "You're strong Hurley, really. Libby was a good woman. I could have never came as far as you have if such a thing ever happened to me..."
Hurley looked up with a slight smile, encouraged, "Thanks."
She eased away from Hurley, getting ready to exit the shelter. "I guess I'll visit the hatch tomorrow and put in my two cents on the situation."
Hurley once again fell back onto his pillow. "Yeah dude. You need to help them decide what needs to be done. Jack always makes his best decisions when he's with you anyway." He explained.
She paused, a meaningful look in her eyes, before giving Hurley a meaningful nod and exiting his shelter.
Hurley reached into his pocket, pulling out his CD player. Luckily, he had found some batteries in the hatch and could once again enjoy his relaxing tunes. The loveable guy closed his eyes one last time before falling asleep, resting for the day to come.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! As of right now, I'm going to try having the next chapter Jack and Locke heavy, probably taking place in the hatch and following their argument over what to do with the Henry Gale situation.