Not that I'm not grateful but I'd really like more then one review on this chapter- it's by far my longest yet and I'd love some feedback! So if you review I'll give you a preview of the next chapter. Sound fair?

Morning came with arguments over how to get rid of the bodies the boars were demolishing. It seemed the only clear opinion of what to do was to burn them, although not everyone seemed to agree. The way I heard it plenty of cultures burned their dead- if it were me in the plane I wouldn't have minded. I did hope that everything we could salvage from the wreckage was removed before we started the fire.

After eating my last granola bar I headed to the medical tent to see if Jack had any suggestions for what could be taken from the plane that hadn't already.

"Hey Jack?" He turned and looked at me carefully as if trying to remember my name. "Emma." I smiled as the light of recognition went on. "Do you know if they've gotten everything out of the plane?"

He shaded his eyes with his hand. "I think so. You know it might be a good idea to get some of those oxygen masks, for the string and tubing. The bodies are pretty decomposed though, not sure if you want to go in there." His eyes slid back to me, studying me.

I nodded and tried to speak with more confidence then I felt. "I'll figure it out."

"I'll come with you." He offered, grabbing a mask for himself and offering me one.

I already had my headscarf over my shoulders but I put the mask on, covering it with my scarf when I was hit with the full effect of the smell. The lower rows had been picked clean, although Jack pulled what oxygen masks and seat trays he could reach from the places people hadn't already gotten too. I climbed up an empty row, kicking off trays as I went.

"You spend some time in a circus?" Jack's voice floated up through the acrid stench of bodies. "You're pretty nimble up there."

I smiled though he couldn't see it. "Nope, just climbed a lot of trees as a kid. What kind of doctor are you?"

I heard the trays being shoved together. "A spinal surgeon." He replied.

"Sounds like tricky work."

He chuckled. "It is. Didn't exactly prepare me for this though."

I had pulled down as many of the masks as I could get to, and climbed down the seats nearest the entrance. "Well I don't think you can exactly prepare for this. You seem to be doing pretty good so far."

He smiled. "Thanks."

We made our way back to the tent where we places the masks inside next to the makeshift bed and the trays outside in case we needed them for building materials. I heard Sawyer's telltale accent rising in volume as Jack and I headed in that direction knowing there was probably some kind of skirmish.

" Oh that's bull and you know it." I heard Hurley complain. "You're not happy unless you're screwing over everybody"

Sawyer sneered. "Hey I'm peachy, pork pie."

"Guys, knock it off." Jack entered the small crowd that had decided to watch.

Sawyer wiped his mouth. "Stay outta this, Metro."

With Sayid's help, Jack separated the two men. "What's going on?"

Hurley pointing an accusing finger. "Jethro here's hoarding the last of the peanuts."

"My own stash. I found it in there. "

Jack looked between the two of them. "What about the rest of the food?"

"There is no rest of the food, dude. We kind of—ate it all." Hurley looked dejected.

Shannon looked shocked "What?" she exclaimed.

People started murmuring about starving to death. Jack tried to restore calm, "Okay everybody, just calm down." It didn't have much of an effect.

Sayid tried too. "We can find food. There are plenty of things on this island we can use for sustenance."

Sawyer plopped himself into an airplane seat. "And exactly how are we going to find this sustenance?" he drawled.

Suddenly a knife landed in the seat next to Sawyer. Following the direction of where it came from I saw Locke, standing there calmly.

"We hunt." He said simply.

I had heard rustling behind me for the last few minutes as I went hunting for more sweet peas. I was pretty sure whatever it was would have attacked me by now, so instead of feeling scared I was actually annoyed. I spotted some cool fuchsia bulbs that reminded me of pine cones hanging off a vine that crept over branches of a tree and saw my chance to see who my shadow really was. I slid my hobo bag across my body and shimmied up the tree. I carefully scaled the branch with the most bulbs and gently pulled them off their vine. When I heard the rustle again I tried grabbing one just out of reach and lost my footing. I hung from the branch pathetically. "Help." I cried. "Somebody?"

"Hang on- I've gotcha." It was Boone. He looked panicked and held his arms above his head as if to catch me.

I smiled. "I'm okay," I said, swinging my legs over the branch to sit on it. "I just wanted to know who my stalker was." I slid down the branch, then jumped off the tree, landing a little unevenly. "Keeping tabs on me?"

He grabbed my arm to steady me. "It's dangerous in the jungle. Nobody should be out here alone." He said seriously.

I noticed he had a backpack on. "Anything in there?" I asked, motioning to it.

He shook his head. "Just some water."

"Well I guess you can be my pack mule. First Kate, now you- I can take care of myself you know."

"It's just not safe out here. Those weird noises, and the boars. We even saw a polar bear the other day on the hike." He nearly bowled me over as I stopped in my tracks.

"A polar bear?" I was momentarily distracted by his ridiculously blue eyes. "Isn't it a little far south for them?"

He smirked. "Global warming."

I nodded and started moving again. "Ah, the root of all evil." Boone was actually a wonderful foraging companion. He was great at giving me a boost to trees I wouldn't normally be able to climb. I looked low and he looked high, between us I brought back the widest variety of produce yet. He was also a decent guy to talk to. I found out he was headed home to Malibu, although he was born on the east coast; that his mother owned a wedding empire and he was the Chief Operating Officer- Impressive for a guy of his age. I told him some stories about my work, which were funnier than his stories about his work, mostly I thought because the personalities attracted to the restaurant industry were a little more rough-edged then those in the wedding business. He also explained that Shannon had a problem with using men & generally being a bitch and suggested giving her a wide berth. "That's a nice thing to say about your sister."

"She's my stepsister. Our parents got married 12 years ago. I was ten and she was eight." He was whacking the tall grass violently with a stick he'd picked up.

I sensed some issues. "I was just kidding. People say things about their family no one else could get away with."

He sighed. "You got that right."

When we returned Shannon immediately pounced on her brother. Rather than listen to them argue I dropped my bag at the tube and went off in search of Claire. I found her sorting through personal belongings, looking through papers with any kind of clue to our deceased passengers.

"This guy had overdue video rentals. Willy Wonka and A Little Princess." She remarked quietly.

I took a quick look at the crumpled receipt. "Maybe he had kids." I suggested. "It's weird what you can learn about someone based on their pocket contents."

She nodded sadly. "We're all so very lucky."

I squeezed her arm gently. "We are." I gave her a moment to reflect. "Now how are we going to organize this stuff? There's an awful lot of it."

"Well," she said slowly, "I guess we should make sure we just have things from people in there." She motioned towards the fuselage. "Wouldn't want to say a few words about someone standing on the beach."

"Yeah, that'd be awkward. Maybe start with IDs? That way we can rule out people here without having to ask everyone." I turned towards the pile of wallets Claire had separated out.

"And then put their pocket bits with them, so there's more to say."

It amazed me how much Claire cared about making sure these people were remembered. If it were up to me I might save their IDs or boarding passes, but not make a speech or have a real memorial. I knew she had major doubts about being a mom but I couldn't imagine her being anything but a great one based on how much she cared about people she didn't even know.

We laid out the various passports and drivers licenses around us in the sand. It was an eerie picture, people reduced to information on a piece of plastic. The wind blew and dusted some of them, and it hit me how close I could have been to being one of those people in the fuselage. I felt hot tears well up behind my lids and struggled to force them back. Crying's just going to dehydrate me, and then I really will be dead. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes to find Claire looking at me with concern.

I managed a smile. "I'm fine now." I said, clearing my throat.

She smiled and we went back to sorting. "Excuse me," I looked up but she wasn't talking to me. "Your name's Sayid, right?"

I turned to him, more than a little impressed that he was making something out of the tangle of wires in his hand. "Yes." He said warily.

She held a letter in her outstretched hand. "I just found this. It's got your name on it." She said simply.

He scrambled over the small sand dune separating us to have a closer look. "I thought I'd lost this." He said gratefully. "Thank you."

"Sure." She shrugged and shot him a smile.

A shadow fell over me. "How's it going?" Boone crouched down to survey our progress.

"We have a very sophisticated sorting system," I grinned. "Wanna help?"

"Sure!" He sat cross-legged in the sand beside me. "What can I do?"

I considered the pile. "How about you grab something and read it to me and I'll tell me if it's someone that we've already got a pile for."

"Okay. Andrew Browning."

"Yes." I reached for the credit card slip.

"Marisa Tus."

"Um… yes."

We went like that for a while- Claire jumped in when he had something of someone's on her side of the pile. Apparently Shannon had gone off to fish and when the sun started making its way downward Boone got anxious to know she was all right and left in search of her.

Sawyer approached us hesitantly. "Hey, uh..."

"Hey." She replied coolly.

"These were, um." He held a thick stack of wallets in his hand, no doubt looted from the plane. "I found these the other day when I was..." He gestured to the plane awkwardly, not meeting her eyes. "Aw hell, just, just take it." He looked at once ashamed and embarrassed as he handed them to her. Privately I was a little glad to see an emotion that wasn't self-satisfaction on him.

She gave him a real smile as he walked away. "Thank you."

The wallets were really helpful- we added faces to stacks of tickets and credit card receipts, and the wallets kept everything from flying away as the wind picked up. We decided to gather everything up and read it in whatever order we collected it, Claire had the bulk of it but some people that lost their travelling companions decided to say some words specifically. As the sun inched towards the horizon we moved our piles towards the fuselage and helped put together the smaller piles of wood that would set the plane ablaze. Claire thought it'd be nice to have a smaller fire in front to read by, and to put what we'd found in a bag for when we were rescued. Boone made a torch and Hurley found a nice durable hard backed suitcase with wheels, and Claire began reading names. I noticed Charlie came late, and Jack was sitting far away from the group, mourning in his own way I guess.

After we finished reading all the names Claire and I carefully packed up the suitcase and placed it inside our tube. It made a far better wall then my much smaller suitcase and had the added bonus of making Claire feel like the people we'd burned hadn't been forgotten. Locke had caught a boar and we celebrated the return of 'sustenance' as we remembered those we'd lost. The preparation was nothing fancy, boar roasted right over the spit, but it was hot and juicy and tasted like heaven after days of raw fruits and vegetables. Jack was still sitting by himself as we dug in, and after my initial appetite had gotten under control I picked off a couple good sized hunks of boar and placed them on a seatback tray. I stopped at our tube and grabbed some produce as well, and gingerly joined him.

"I brought you something." I said hesitantly, offering him the tray. I wasn't sure he wanted the company but I knew he needed to eat.

He tore his eyes away from the water. "I'm okay."

I sighed and sat next to him. "I haven't seen you eat or drink anything since we got here. Just have some of the meat if you're one of those doctors that don't practice what you preach." He smiled and tore a piece of meat off my tray. "I didn't think to ask, were you traveling with someone?"

He stiffened. "No." he replied shortly.

"Sorry, I guess that's kind of a personal question."

"It's fine." He took a larger piece this time and I inwardly cheered. "Where'd you find the plants?"

I felt myself puff up a little. "In the forest. Locke gave me a book of his, its pretty amazing."

He chewed thoughtfully. "What do you think his story is?"

I shrugged. "Cubicle worker by day and ninja assassin by night, probably coming back from his latest kill."

He started to choke on his boar. "Did you just think of that?" he asked wide-eyed, still coughing.

"I thought about it for a minute." I admitted, smiling. He laughed quietly; making my insides less solid then I'd have liked to admit. "Try some veggies- they're better then you'd think."

"That's reassuring." He grabbed a small okra anyway and popped it in his mouth. "Not bad."

I studied him for a moment. "Where were you headed?"

"Los Angeles. I was the chief resident at St. Sebastian's."

I set the tray on the sand, careful not to disturb the food on it. "Wow. Impressive. I'm here with a big-time spinal surgeon, the COO of a multimillion dollar company, a rock star and a ninja assassin. I feel like a slouch." I giggled.

"Where were you going?" He swallowed a spoonful of dragon fruit. "Wow, that's really good."

"It's my new favorite." I nodded "Home to Seattle. I work in a restaurant. They say I could be the manager if I quit taking vacations, but I like traveling too much."

He started rolling the bok choy into little cylinders and gnawing on them. "Yeah? Where've you been?"

I leaned back on my elbows. "England and Ireland, mostly the cities though since I wasn't old enough to rent a car. France, Italy. I've seen a little of Greece, Egypt and Romania. And Australia obviously." I grinned.

Finished with the tray, he leaned back with me. "Nothing in Asia?" he asked, sounding interested.

"I'd love to go to India, just can't find a guy that'll go with me." He looked at me, confused. "I wear a fake wedding ring when I travel; pretend my husband's waiting for me somewhere. It works as a deterrent for trouble but in India I'd need something stronger."

He nodded. "I spent some time in Thailand. It's something else."

"I think it's always good to get beyond your experiences."

He laughed. "This is one hell of an experience."

"Think I'll go somewhere landlocked for my next vacation." I agreed.

He turned to look at me seriously. "Do you really think we're going to get off this island?"

I looked at the sky while I thought about it. "I think I have to. Hope's a terrible thing to lose."