Adrienne pushed her way into the small room with her hands full of food. Jin had caught some large, fat fish and fried them up in lemon juice. Adrienne took a couple of the succulent fish, one for her and one for the prisoner, and put them on a couple dishes taken from the hatch. Two bottles of fresh water were wedged underneath one arm and two oranges were wedged under the other. She struggled inside the room and set the food down on the floor as Jack pushed the heavy door closed behind her.
Adrienne settled down cross legged on the floor next to the food. She looked up at the prisoner who sat on a metal bench attached to the wall. "Hi," she said lamely, tilting her chin up to smile quietly at the prisoner. He squinted his wide, round eyes at her.
"Hello," he responded suspiciously, glancing from the young woman in front of him to the pair of fish platters on the floor.
"My name's Adrienne," she offered shortly, handing one of the fish platters to the prisoner. He took it cautiously and slowly, his hands still bound together with rope. He stared silently for a while at Adrienne who ate her fish almost mechanically, robotically lifting forkful of fish to her mouth and lowering it back to her plate in the same motion. She reached up and placed his bottle of water next to him on the metal bench, bumping his knee in the process. "Sorry," she said shortly, although it hadn't been an accident. She had bumped him to see what he would do.
Henry gave a noncommittal nod before hesitantly lifting a forkful to his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "This is good. Did you make this?" he asked in a way that suggested he didn't particularly care about learning the answer but was asking it purely for the sake of polite conversation.
"No, I didn't. I can't cook worth a damn. Or catch fish," Adrienne replied with a smile, opening her gray eyes wide to portray a look of innocence. This whole thing was just a game, but it was important that she play it right. The corner of Henry's cut up mouthed twitched, but he fell back into silence, picking away at his fish and watching Adrienne pick away at hers.
After several minutes, Henry broke the silence. He tilted his head and shot Adrienne an intense look. "Is there any particular reason that you are here?" he asked, a touch of venom in his voice. Adrienne glanced up, her face pulled into a look of hurt.
"I guess not," she replied, pushing her empty plate away from her. "I just thought you'd like some company. Somebody to eat with. I don't know." Furiously, she began to peel the skin off her orange. Henry scoffed, pulling his swollen mouth into a smirk.
"Right, right. I'm sure that you just wanted to keep me company. Pardon my reluctance to believe you, but so far none of your people have given me the impression of civility." The prisoner continued to drill Adrienne with a piercing look. "Do you really expect me to believe that those barbarians out there aren't using you to try to get at me? Why else would a strange girl have dinner with someone her people have locked up?" he asked poisonously. To his surprise, Adrienne grinned and rolled her eyes.
"Well, yeah, of course they put me up to it," she said, nodding towards the door behind her. "I thought that was obvious." The prisoner narrowed his eyes into a confused look. "That's why they let me come in here, at least. I really just felt sorry for you, so that's why I wanted to have dinner with you, and just talk."
"Felt sorry for me?" he asked suspiciously. "Why?"
"Well, you crashed on this island in a hot air balloon then you lost your wife and now you're locked up in a strange place. Yeah, I feel sorry for you." Adrienne reached over to put Henry's orange into his bound hands, gently brushing against his skin with her fingers. Goosebumps flitted across her arms and she thought she saw Henry's face twitch just very slightly. She smiled in what she hoped was a flirtatious way, trying to find as many buttons to push as possible. "Jack and Locke and Sayid are just being cautious by putting you in here. They don't really mean to hurt you."
Henry laughed mirthlessly. "I don't know about that. That Iraqi seems to really have it in for me."
A ha. Adrienne cocked her head and furrowed her brow, catching him in his elaborate lie. From what Sayid had said, he hadn't as of yet told the prisoner any details about himself. "Oh? Sayid told you that he was from Iraq?" Adrienne said in an innocent tone, but with a slight grin creeping out to spread across her soft face. Henry blinked as if realizing his slip up.
With a shrug, he said nonchalantly, "I guess I just assumed." He quickly glanced down and began to peel the orange that the girl had placed in his hands.