A/N: So, here's chapter 2. Hope it gets a better response than chapter one. Come on, I know you guys are out there. Just let me know what you think. Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em. Fiona is the only thing that is a product of my imagination.

It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.

-Helen Keller

Chapter 2: Guardians of All Kinds

The morning's dawn served only to alleviate some of the survivors' unease, but proved to not bring the joy of rescue. Fiona awoke feeling slightly confused, till she smelled the ocean air and heard people moving near her. She sat up, automatically feeling next to her for her cane. It took her a moment before she remembered that her cane had been lost in the crash, much to her distress. It was hard enough being stranded with a bunch of strangers, but to not even be able to move around without assistance was simply humiliating.

Fortunately, the wind had shifted, blowing in from the sea, bringing with it a fresh, cool scent. It was a pleasant change from the smell of burnt flesh and charred metal. Fiona lifted her chin and inhaled deeply, allowing the gentle breeze to cleanse her olfactory sense of the offending odors that lingered with the plane crash. The blind woman undid her braid and ran her fingers through her dark hair, ruffling it free from its plait and allowing the wind to play with her long tresses.

Sensing someone approaching, she tilted her head to the left and smiled softly. "Mr. Locke," she said as the older man sat next to her. "I had hoped you were alright."

John Locke looked mildly surprised at her statement. "How did you know it was me?" he asked. The blind woman only smiled elusively.

The flight attendant looked at the young woman in front of her and smiled sympathetically, though she knew that the woman couldn't see it. "Hello Miss Harper," she said sweetly, placing her hand on the woman's arm. "My name is Jenna; I'll assist you to your seat." Jenna gently took the ticket from the woman's hand and began to lead her down the corridor where flight #815 was waiting.

"Thank you, Jenna," Fiona Harper replied, allowing the woman to guide her. Fiona's cane tapped out a steady tempo in front of her.

"Why are you traveling to the States?" Jenna asked, making pleasant conversation to fill the empty silence.

"Visiting family," Fiona replied automatically, as though the answer was preprogrammed. Finally, they arrived to her seat.

"Here we are, Miss Harper," Jenna said. "You're in the second seat. I hope you enjoy your flight. Please don't hesitate to ask a flight attendant if you need anything while you're on board."

"Thank you," Fiona answered as Jenna walked away. She slid her fingers over the seats to the right one before carefully sitting down. Folding up her cane and sitting it in her lap, she tilted her head to the side as she heard people coming down the aisle. They stopped awkwardly at her row.

"Here we go. Here's your seat," a strange male voice said. There were sounds of shuffling around as someone seemed to fall heavily into the aisle seat next to her.

"I'll get your bag sir. If you need anything, just push the call button."

"Thank you," answered whoever was now occupying the seat next to Fiona. The people in the aisle walked back towards the entrance of the plane, leaving the two in silence.

"And how are you, sir?" John Locke looked over at the young woman sitting beside him, her head tilted in his direction and eyes staring blankly past him.

"Been better," he admitted as he dropped the information card on the floor and bent over, realizing that he couldn't reach it. He sat back in his seat with a huff, when surprisingly, a white cane slid past his legs to feel for the packet on the floor. John looked up to see the blind woman clumsily pushing the packet back in his direction, before reclaiming her cane and folding it again in her lap. John reached down for the packet again, this time picking it up with ease. Just as he tried to find the appropriate thing to say to fill the awkward silence, the young woman saved him from further embarrassment by speaking first.

"Flying is always an adventure for me."

After a moment Fiona tilted her head toward the older man, slight confusion playing on her features. "You smell like oranges," she said in a playful accusatory tone. John smiled, and a moment later Fiona felt something drop into her lap. She picked it up, only to smile at the familiar texture under her fingers even as she lifted it to her nose. Inhaling deeply, the blind woman closed her eyes in the bliss of the fruit's tangy sweet smell.

"I found some fruit trees not far into the jungle," John said, answering Fiona's unspoken question. The woman played with the orange in her hands, his comment raising another thought to her mind.

"I know that we're on a beach," she started slowly. "But…what else is there?"

John looked over at the blind woman beside him as she cocked her head in his direction. He looked up and around them, taking in details of their surroundings in a sense that he hadn't before. "There's jungle several yards behind us. "A valley; some mountains further inland."

Fiona nodded. "I thought I smelled foliage. It was hard to tell with the smoke and everything." Silence fell again, and this time neither did anything to lift it.

The plane trembled as it hit the turbulence. Fiona gripped her armrest tighter and clutched her cane in her other hand. Suddenly, a great roar filled the air and there was a sickening ripping noise, as though a giant had grabbed the plane and was taking it apart.

"What's happening?" Fiona shouted over the roar and the screams. John Locke looked at her, bewildered, before realizing that the girl couldn't see the oxygen mask dangling in front of her. He grabbed her mask and put her left hand on it while he pulled the strap back behind her head. Then he scrambled to put on his own mask. He watched Fiona's head dart from side to side, her milky green eyes wide in confusion and fear. He wished that he could comfort her, but he couldn't talk. After a moment's hesitation, he did the only thing he could; he grabbed her hand just above the wrist in held on tight as he could as all hell broke loose around them.

"Fiona!" The girl stood and turned in the direction of the voice.

"Sayid," she answered. "How are you?"

The Middle-Eastern smiled at the girl's properness. "I have something for you," he said. Sayid gently took Fiona's right hand and wrapped it around something that was hard with a soft covering. Fiona picked it up and realized almost instantly that it was a long stick. It came up to her chest standing straight, and the end that Sayid had placed her hand on had cloth wrapped around it.

"I found it on the outskirts of the jungle. It looked long enough to serve its purpose," he said. Fiona felt tears well up in her eyes.

"Sayid, I…thank you," she said, hardly trusting herself to speak. "You have no idea what this means to me."

He smiled, and placed a hand on Fiona's shoulder. "Well, at least now you can get around the beach without hurting yourself." With that, Sayid patted her shoulder and turned to leave.

Fiona simply smiled, tears beginning to break free from their glistening prison as she ran her fingers over the gift, her fingers telling her what her eyes could not. The smooth wood was bumpy under her hands, the branch not being stick-straight. She guessed that it was some sort of bamboo, though she couldn't know for sure.

Fiona held on to the end wrapped in cloth, and placed the other end on the ground, experimentally taping it around her. It was a bit of a struggle to tap it on the sand, but she managed to get by gliding it just over the sand's surface. Fiona sighed happily, feeling as though her freedom had been restored. Without her cane, it had felt as though she had lost her legs. She took off down the beach to explore the surrounding area. Fiona Harper was sick of staying put.

The sounds of a fight caught Fiona's attention in a way that few things could. Flesh meeting flesh and the carnal sounds of men beating each other were not things that one easily forgot. Using her newly acquired cane, she hurried towards the sound, recognizing the voice of the southern man she'd heard earlier and…was that Sayid?

It sounded as though someone had been unsuccessfully trying to break up the fight, and clearly shouting at the men was not working. Fiona pushed her way through the crowd, until she was within the circle that had formed around the fight. Pausing briefly to figure out where the fighting men were, she took a deep breath, before jumping into the fray herself.

Using her cane, she swept the feet out from under one of the men (she couldn't be sure, but she thought it was the Southerner) and hit him in the chest to keep him down. Turning she pushed the other man back with the end of her cane as he tried to pounce on the one on the ground. 'Definitely Sayid,' she realized. Behind her, she heard the other man rise and charge at them. The blind woman swirled round and blocked his wide punch, before dropping to the ground to kick his feet out from under him again. As she did she heard others run up to restrain the men.

"That's enough!" she growled, as more bodies were added to the shuffle. The fighters were gradually restrained and separated from each other, though various insults were still being traded back and forth. Fiona took a step back to let the others handle the men as a new male voice demanded to know what was going on.

"My kid found these in the jungle," answered another man. There was a tinkling of metal as some item exchanged hands. Fiona cocked her head as she listened to the conversation, trying to figure out what was going on.

"And this guy was sitting in the back row of business class the whole flight. Never got up," the Southerner interjected. "And for some reason—I'm just pointing this out—the guy I saw next to him didn't make it."

"Thank you so much for observing my behavior," Sayid retorted.

"You don't think I saw them pull you out of line before we boarded?" Fiona's brow crinkled at this, but she tensed as it sounded as though another fight was about to break out. Fortunately, another strong female voice halted any further action, asking for help with the transceiver they had found. With a sigh, Sayid offered his assistance.

"Oh, great! Let's trust this guy!" The Southerner shouted.

"Hey, we're all in this together, man. Let's treat each other with a

little respect," Hurley protested. Fiona smiled at his sentiment; things certainly would go smoother if everyone could just try and get along.

"Shut up, lardo!" was the sarcastic reply. Fiona rolled her eyes, and before anyone could do much else, she strode forward and whipped her cane across the southerner's face, knocking him to the ground. The crowd fell silent as he reached up to touch the spot where she'd struck him in shock and looked up to see his attacker was the petite blind girl he'd seen earlier.

"Sir," she said in a low, calm voice. "I highly suggest that you calm down." With that, she walked away from the others, heading back down the beach. She'd had enough of their dramatics for now.

As she walked away, the other survivors stared at her in surprised silence. Most of them had noticed the blind girl wandering the beach, but few had spoken with her. Certainly no one had expected her to be capable of what she'd just done. "Dude," Hurley said, breaking the silence. "Someone remind me to never piss that chick off." A few nodded in agreement, and several paces up the beach, Fiona smiled.

Excited shrieks drew Fiona's attention as she neared the end of her stretch of beach. She headed towards the sound—the person sounded happy, and she was in the mood for some good news. "Everything alright?" she asked as she came up beside them.

"It's great!" answered a young Australian woman. Fiona thought that she sounded to be about the same age as herself. "My baby moved! He started kicking again!"

Fiona smiled as she stepped closer, her cane hitting something in her path. Holding out her hand, she touched what felt to be a chair from the plane. In an odd way, that made sense—the woman had sounded as though she were on the ground. Feeling around carefully, she ran her fingers over the seat before lowering herself into it. The woman looked up from her stomach and over at the newcomer next to her, only then realizing that the girl next to her was blind, and someone who she had not met.

"I'm Claire," she greeted, rubbing her stomach.

"Fiona." The young woman smiled and tilted her head in Claire's direction. "So, you're…pregnant?" she guessed. Claire smiled and nodded happily.

"Yeah. I was a little worried, cause I'd hadn't felt him move since the crash. But he's started kicking again, so…I guess he's okay!" Claire radiated happiness. "Do you want to feel?"

Fiona smiled and extended her hand, allowing Claire to position it on her stomach. After a moment, the blind woman smiled. She could definitely feel powerful little kicks coming from inside.

"He's certainly energetic," she said with a laugh. Claire nodded, and they broke into giggles.