I'm so so so so so sorry it took me so long to get this up, life, work, class, and writers block really got to me while I was working on this chapter. Hopefully I'll work out a schedule soon.

Anyways, I hope you like it, thank you so much for reading 3

DISCLAIMER: I do not own LOST or any of it's characters, they belong to the writers and producers of the show.


White Rabbit

The camp was unusually silent that morning, which wasn't too strange, considering most of the survivors -Amara included- had woken up to the news that they had lost another one of their own. Amara sat alone on the far end of the beach, staring out at the ocean and picking at her breakfast. It was so strange, staring out at those beautiful blue waters and knowing that they were responsible for a woman's death. One of the survivors close to Joanna had said that she was a great swimmer and had gone out every morning, but this time she didn't come back.

Apparently Boone had run out to save her and ended up nearly drowning himself; Jack dove in, but he was only able to save one of them. Boone was weirdly angry that he had been the one to live, Amara had seen him spouting off at him about how "'He was fine' and that 'he runs a business.'" Before Jack took off into the jungle. Evidently running your own business makes you impervious to drowning. The more Amara heard him talk the more she understood why Shannon was always arguing with him.

She let out a sigh and finished what seemed to be her millionth mango, she had actually only had about six in the past two days, but being that they made up almost all of her diet they had turned from an interesting and tasty snack to incredibly tiring. Placing the rinds at her side, she grabbed her journal and wrote, aside from little tasks around camp and the search for her remaining suitcases, she'd been doing an awful lot of writing; detailing as much of their lifestyle as she could, how many day to day accounts of people living on deserted islands with mysterious tree smashing creatures could possibly be out there? If anything, she could publish what she had written once they were rescued, not that she needed the money.

Yawning, Amara doodled piles of mangos in the margins around her entry, little awkwardly shaped ovals drawn in blue ballpoint pen surrounded the news of Joanna's passing. Frowning, she tapped the pen on the page, it was morning, nothing else had happened yet. There wasn't anything she needed to help with (she'd already asked) and napping so soon after she'd woken up would just be ridiculous.

Sighing, she stood up, brushed the sand off her legs and headed back to camp to see what Sayid was up to. He was standing off to the side, talking quietly to Locke and Kate. She jogged over and stood aside, waiting for an opportunity to join in.

"Where is the doctor?" Locke asked

"I don't know," Kate replied, distressed. "No one can find him."

Shit bro, he hadn't come back yet? He had run off at least an hour and a half ago…

"Is this the last of the camp's water supply?" Sayid asked, concerned.

Wait what?

"Yeah." Kate replied plainly. Sayid shook his head,

"Keeping it all in one place, foolish."

"I can go into the jungle, try to find some fresh water." Kate volunteered.

"You're not going alone."

Locke held up his hand, "When the others find out the water's gone it's going to get ugly. And when they find out that someone pinched it, it's going to get uglier. I'll go. Camp needs you two here, especially with the doctor gone. And besides, I know where to look." His tone was amicable yet authoritative. There was a pause after he spoke, and Amara seized the opportunity to join the conversation.

"I'm sorry, what was that about the water being gone?"

Sayid frowned,

"It appears that someone has stolen it."

"Why on earth would anyone do that? It'd be pretty suspicious if everyone was walking around dehydrated and one person was fine." Amara reasoned.

"Who knows, it could be some sort of power move, all we know is that it's missing, and so is Jack." Kate explained, shifting her feet.

"While I can't help much in regards to the water problem, I may be able to help with the latter situation." Amara offered. Locke looked at her curiously;

"Enlighten us, Amara is it?" Amara nodded,

"That's me. In regards to Jack, I saw him take off into the jungle an hour or so ago, Boone was pestering him about what happened this morning, I figured he just had to be alone for a bit so I didn't think too much of it." Kate stiffened,

"We have to go get him." Her eyes were wide, fear evident in her expression. Locke held up a hand again,

"I will go find him, I'm going out there anyways, he shouldn't be too hard to find." Kate opened her mouth to respond but Sayid put his hand on her shoulder,

"Locke is right, we need to stay here. I'm sure the doctor is fine."

Kate clearly didn't agree with either of them, but she nodded anyway. The foursome stood there for a moment, grim expressions on their faces, before Locke headed off without a word. As soon as he was gone, Hurley sprinted up.

"Umm dudes, the Chinese people have water."

They looked over to the Asian woman down the beach aways, sure enough, she was holding a bottle of water in her hands. Without a word Sayid beelined straight towards her. Kate and Amara exchanged alarmed looks before quickly following.

"Where did you get this?" Sayid asked loudly, pointing at the bottle in her hands. She shook her head and started to say something, but Sayid interrupted her, "Where. Did. You. Get. This?" He enunciated each word clearly. The woman started responding, shaking her head.

"She doesn't understand." Kate defended. Sayid shook his head,

"She understands me, Did you steal this water?" The woman's husband ran up and started yelling at Sayid, Amara couldn't understand what he was saying, but she had traveled enough to know Korean when she heard it.

"Just take it easy, alright. We just want to talk, alright? This had water in it. Is it yours? Who gave you this?" Kate explained, trying to mediate the situation. The Korean guy glared and pointed down the beach at Sawyer, who was lazing about, smoking. Kate lurched to go and confront him, but Amara stopped her and shook her head,

"He doesn't have the water with him."

"And?"

Sayid leaned in,

"You go after him now, he'll give you nothing. But if you wait, a rat will always lead you to its hole."

Following the rather tense situation with the Korean couple, Amara, Kate and Sayid separated, Kate and Sayid to follow Sawyer to his "hole" and Amara to go and assist with taking care of Claire, who had evidently fainted earlier that day.

Poking her head in the makeshift infirmary Amara saw Claire sitting by herself.

"Can I come in?" She asked, holding out her last granola bar and her own nearly empty water bottle, "I have snacks." Claire laughed and beckoned her inside.

"Oh thank you so much, Charlie went out to try and find more water awhile ago, something tells me it's not going as planned."

"Well Locke headed out to find some a bit ago, hopefully he'll find a creek or something and save the day." Amara mused, twisting the cap off the bottle and handing it to Claire, who drank gratefully.

"Hopefully." She murmured, passing back the empty bottle. They sat quietly for a moment before Amara spoke again.

"So, how're you doing? I mean, with the whole, pregnancy situation?" Claire smiled,

"Pretty well I guess, you know, considering everything that's happened, but I have to pee constantly, my back hurts and I can't walk like a regular human being. Also, he seems to love kicking my ribs the past couple of days which isn't very fun, but I guess I'm used to it by now." How she managed to say all of those things good naturedly was stunning, if their places had been switched there was no way Amara would be nearly as cheerful.

"Oooh it's a boy? Do you have any names picked out?" Amara asked as she sat down.

"Well I'm not quite sure it's a boy, but I think it is." She paused for a moment, "I haven't really thought of names yet."

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it too much, it took my parents a week to name me, the nurses just called me "Baby Girl" until they managed to agree on something." Claire chuckled a little,

"That's one thing I don't have to worry about, Thomas booked it a few months in, didn't want all the responsibility."

"Are you serious? What an asshole." Amara's nose wrinkled,

It would take a horrible person to leave this cutie alone with a baby, she can't be older than 24…

"Oh yeah, it was ridiculous, he accused me of trying to "trap him" and stormed out."

Amara snorted, "Are you serious?"

Claire nodded, laughing.

"No joke, he barely made minimum wage, there was nothing TO trap." The two dissolved into giggles.

"What's so funny ladies?" Amara looked up to see Charlie standing in the door, a small container in his hands. They laughed for another moment,

"Nothing, nothing." Claire dismissed. He rolled his eyes before handing Claire the cup in his hands,

"It's not much, but it's better than nothing. Oh, Amara, Sayid, he was asking for you."

Surprised, Amara stood up, "Did he say what about?" She asked, brows furrowing.

"Not really, just that he needed to see you." Not wanting to leave Sayid waiting, she said a quick goodbye and headed out, leaving Charlie to look after Claire. Glancing up and down the beach, she located Sayid and jogged over to him.

Amara let out a small excited peeping sound when she saw what he was holding.

"Oh my god where did you find it?" Amara asked, incredulous.

"The redneck had it hidden away, Kate and I found it when we followed him." Sayid said as he handed her one of her remaining suitcases. Amara hugged it briefly before setting it down at her feet.

"Did he have the water?" She inquired as she dug into her pockets for her key.

Bras and soap, please let this be the one with bras and soap

"No, he did not." He sounded almost disappointed.

Amara sat in front of her suitcase,

"Then who has it? Has anyone asked Michael? He's got a kid, maybe he's trying to make sure his son is okay?" Sayid shook his head,

"I don't believe it's him."

Amara frowned, who would take the groups water supply? It had been six days, it's not like they knew each other well enough to be able to figure it out. Dissatisfied with the lack of development, she sighed,

"Well, I guess we'll find out when all but one of us are dying of dehydration." Amara placed the tiny silver key into the lock and turned it, and the top of the case popped open,

"Oh my god I could kiss you right now."

Lying neatly inside was neat row of bras and matching underwear, bath towel and robe, shampoo, and three small wax paper packages sealed with stickers, A.K.A the cute little bars of organic soap she had bought from a vendor at a farmers market a few days before her flight.

Hell yeah

Her smudge kit, candles and jewelry were also in there somewhere, but for now, all she cared about was the soap. Grabbing one of the little bars she tossed it to a smirking Sayid, who immediately started examining it.

"It's rosemary soap I got in Australia, it smells awesome. Not the most masculine thing ever, but soap is soap I guess. Thanks for getting my case back." She closed the case and stood up, grinning. Sayid returned her smile,

"You're welcome." He chuckled and brought the soap to his nose, "This does smell good, thank you."

Amara waved him off, "It's nothing really, Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wash my hair." Amara waved a goodbye and headed to her tent. She changed into her purple two piece bathing suit and went to find a somewhat secluded area of the beach to bathe at. Arms full of various bathing supplies, she eventually found a spot somewhat obscured by dark, jagged rocks and went in, setting her shampoo and soap on a flat section of stone before submerging her body in the waves.

Her injured arm ached a little as she worked the shampoo into her hair but she paid it no mind. Jack had stitched it up well and it was healing somewhat disturbingly fast. Standing tummy-deep in the water, Amara temporarily forgot everything. She forgot about the water crisis, forgot about the mangos, forgot about Joanna, and even forgot about the crash. She ran the bar of soap across her lightly tanned skin and washed away the sweat and dirt that covered her body. For the first time in six days she was clean clean, not just-rinsed-off-in-the-ocean-real-quick clean.

Heading back to her towel she dropped her shampoo and grabbed her razor. Sitting down in the shallows she shaved her legs. It certainly wasn't something that had to be done, but it felt awesome regardless. For a while she just sat there, feeling the water swirl around her smooth legs, and the now setting sun's heat on her fragrant skin. This place wasn't too bad, apart from the monster and angry boars, they could have crashed in worse places.

Amara stayed in the water until the sun started to dip low on the horizon, letting out a content sigh, she gathered up her things and made her way to her tent, wanting to get some writing time in before the sun set completely. After changing into entirely fresh clothing, she headed back out to camp, snagging herself a guava and settling in near one of the fires. Nestled against a bit if wreckage, she wrote, filling two pages talking about the water shortage, Claire fainting, and how soap was much too underappreciated in regular society. She was finishing up her entry when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Boone hit the sand about fifteen feet to her right.

"Here's your thief." Charlie proclaimed, standing above him, disgusted expression on his face.

Oh shit

Amara closed her journal and stood up quickly, running over to them.

Michael jogged over from the side

"Where'd he hide it?"

"I don't know. This wanker had three bottles on him. Why'd you do it, pretty boy, eh?" Charlie paced in circles around Boone, who stood up.

"It was just sitting in—it was just sitting in the tent, and Jack just took off." Boone said, out of breath.

"Claire could've died!" Charlie exclaimed. Amara nodded,

"I tried to give her some sooner, but it just got out of hand. No one would have understood."

No one understands now you dipshit

Kate ran up, "What is going on?

"Someone had to take responsibility for it. It would have never lasted!" Boone yelled.

Charlie lunged at him,

"Oh shut up!" Sayid grabbed him and took him to the side.

"Leave him alone!" Everyone froze and turned to see Jack standing there, looking a little less worn out than he had before he left.

Perfect timing

It was silent for a moment, everyone stared at Jack, waiting to see what he had to say. He took a breath;

"It's been six days and we're all still waiting. Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don't?" No one made eye contact. That wasn't something anyone wanted to even think about. Jack stepped down into the group and continued,

"We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out. A woman died this morning just going for a swim and he tried to save her, and now you're about to crucify him?" Charlie glared back at him.

He DID steal the camps water supply…

"We can't do this. Every man for himself is not going to work. It's time to start organizing. We need to figure out how we're going to survive here. Now, I found water. Fresh water, up in the valley."

Oh thank god

"I'll take a group in at first light. If you don't wanna come then find another way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers, but we're all here now. And god knows how long we're going to be here. But if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."

Everyone stood there, silent. He was right, they had to start working together. Amara looked at the people surrounding her, realizing for the first time in six days that they might be living out the rest of their lives together on this island. Everyone stood there for a moment before slowly dispersing. Amara headed back to where she had been sitting a few minutes before, leaning her head against the cool metal of the plane. Moments later, she was surprised to see Shannon standing before her, holding out a cup of water.

"Hey, Charlie asked me to get this to you." Amara grabbed it and drank, nearly draining it all.

"Thanks." She smiled. Shannon nodded and sat down near her. They sat silently together, sipping at their water and staring into the flames. Finishing her drink, Amara watched the fire slowly consume the branches, not even realizing it when she fell asleep.