Chapter 4

"Where'd you find these?" Wood asked quietly, taking the cuffs from Michael.

"I found them." Walt said. "I was looking for Vincent and-"

"They were by a seat from the plane." Michael cut in. "I think-"

"These could have come from anything." Wood said. "Could have been in someone's bag that burst or something."

"You really think that?" Michael asked.

"You think someone was wearing them?" Walt asked. "Like they were under arrest or something?"

"Son of a bitch, I knew it." Wood spun, not used to, and not liking being taken by surprise. The scruffy looking guy was looking at the cuffs with equal parts shock and anger. "I knew it!" he said again. With a quick look at the others he said; "I know who was wearin' em."

With that he stalked away, back towards the crash site.

Wood hurried to catch up to him, seeing him make a beeline for the Arabian man.

"Hey! Osama!"

The man he was addressing stopped his task of maintaining the signal fire and gaped. "What did you call me?"

"How'd you do it?" Scruffy demanded. "Huh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The target of Scruffy's ire said coldly.

"The hell you don't."

"Hey calm down." Wood said, grabbing Scruffy's arm. He tried to wrench it out of his grasp, but Robin merely held on tighter. "You don't know those cuffs were on him."

"The hell I don't." came the acid reply. "You wanna get your hands off me Kojak?"

"The name is Wood and that depends. Are you going to calm down?"

"Calm down? This son of a bitch crashed the plane!"

The Arabian man's face darkened even more and he decked Scruffy. The blow knocked both Scruffy and Wood off balance, allowing the former to pull his arm from Robin's grasp and shove him away.

Wood had been in many fights, had fought Vampires, Demons, even a few humans. But he'd never done so in sand before. He lost his balance and felt his head collide with something hard. Michael helped him rise just as Jack, Kate and Charlie arrived back on the scene.

"Tell everyone what you told me. Tell them that I crashed the plane. Go on, tell them!"

"The shoe fits, buddy."

"What is going on?" Jack asked. He glared briefly at Wood.

Wood shrugged. Hell he couldn't be everywhere at once. Besides, he brought his hand up to the back of his head and felt the point of impact. No blood. Good. Jack seemed to understand though, and nodded.

"My kid found these in the jungle." Michael said, handing the cuffs to Jack.

"This guy was sitting in the back row of business class the whole flight, never got up." Scruffy ranted. "Hands folded underneath a blanket. And for some reason, just pointing this out, the guy I saw next to him didn't make it."

"Thank you so much for observing my behavior."

"You don't think I saw them pull you out of line before we boarded?"

"They did what?" Reed asked, looking at the Arabian guy. Wood shot him a look.

"Don't you start jumping to conclusions."

"Right," Reed backed off, "Sorry."

"We found the transceiver but it's not working." Kate broke in. "Can anybody help?"

"Yes." The accused said. "I might be able to."

"Oh great, let's trust this guy." Scruffy said, exasperated.

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

"Shut up, lardo."

Wood stepped forward, glowering, but Jack was already there. "Hey. Give it a break."

"Whatever you say, Doc. You're the hero."

Scruffy stalked off, and Jack turned to Wood. "Turn around." He examined the back of Wood's head. "Doesn't look bad. Just a bruise."

Wood nodded. "No concussion?"

"Your pupils aren't dilated. What happened?"

"I'm not used to sand." Wood said simply.

"You guys found the cockpit?" Boone asked.

Jack nodded, looking around at the activity that had been going on since he'd left. Maybe Wood hadn't been able to break up the fight, but he'd apparently done quite well in other areas.

"Any survivors?" Boone pressed.

Jack hesitated. "No."

Wood looked at him carefully. There was something he wasn't telling them.

To be continued…