A/n: This one… is pretty random. I'm not sure I like it, but I'd like to know what you guys think. It's a bit AU, as it stars Shannon and Desmond, and Shannon was dead before Des came to live on the beach.


Biting Nails

(Desmond, Shannon. Mention of Penny.)

He supposed it had started around the time his uncle had died. He was about nine years old at the time and his uncle was killed in a motorcycle accident on a lonely stretch of highway, two hours outside of Dublin. He was struck by a car and died because medical services could not get there fast enough.

He got nervous when they were in the vehicle, afraid they too would get in an accident. Afraid they would run into a motorcyclist and he would die just like his uncle. He started chewing on his left pinky nail.

His mother would see this and turn a little in her seat and snap, "Desmond, don't do that. There's no need to worry. Everything will be fine."

When he started grade six and he started getting bullied by two boys who weighed way too much for their age and acted like they owned the world, the habit increased to include most of his right digits. Usually he would hide in the bathrooms during breaks, chewing the nails on his right hand in fear, hoping they wouldn't find him.

Come high school, those two boys were gone somewhere else and the habit probably should have stopped there. By then, he'd learned to trust cars and cyclists, and the bullies were no longer forcing him to hide out. Like most habits however, it had gone on long enough that it happened without conscious thought. Also like most habits, he periodically tried to break it without success.

He started knawing on his other left fingers during final exams. Not entirely out of stress or worry, but more because he tended to start chewing when he was studying or thinking, and that carried over to his exams. He had a small, very silly hope that since he chewed certain fingers while he studied, that maybe if he chewed those same fingers while he wrote his exams, then he would remember what he'd been studying.

His mother got on his case often about how short and jagged his nails looked. She told him he was absolutely mad for thinking that chewing his nails would help him in his exams, because that just wasn't how it worked. "Do ya have any idea what kind o' bacteria and garbage collects unda your nails ev'ry day?"

At first, he would answer that question with a variety of different answers depending on his mood ("Of course I do", "How would I?", "Yes, it tastes good", "I'm just joking, ma", "Not really", "Don't care"). After a while, he just ignored her comments.

After high school, his thumbs were the last to fall victim to the vicious habit. He often noted how positively strange it was that he'd started biting his nails in stages, as he had only ever heard of people biting all of their nails at once, and stopping before they became adults.

The habit had turned into an absent-minded action that happened when he was thinking, day dreaming or concentrating. He soon quit his job, as it caused him to day dream far too often. It was painfully boring and as a result it had worsened his habit significantly.

It bothered him greatly that he did it, though for some reason he hardly ever made any real effort to try and stop.

Until Penny.

She helped him destroy that habit. It was only one of the millions of reasons why he loved her.

Since being stuck on the island, he had almost managed not to fall back into that old, terrible habit of his. More recently, since the hatch had been destroyed and he had no more exercise machines, records, button-pushing and such to keep him occupied, he'd started again. So far it'd only progressed to solely his left hand and not his right.

One day, Desmond was out on the beach, watching the waves crash against the shore, staring into space as he absently started biting his fingernail. He heard a sharp female voice that snapped him from his thoughts and he realized he hadn't seen her approach.

"Sorry?" he said and regarded her. She was of average height but her long, slender legs made her look taller. She was wearing a very short pink skirt and her golden blonde hair just touched her shoulders. Desmond thought she seemed quite pretty, though she looked thoroughly disgusted and annoyed for some reason.

"I said stop doing that."

He glanced around himself at the sand, his clothes and such before looking back up at her. "Doing what?"

The blonde shuddered as though she couldn't believe he was asking. "Eating your finger."

Desmond embarrassedly buried his hands under his legs stretched out before him. "Old habit." He said with an apologetic smile.

"Apparently." The girl said dryly. She abruptly held out a small bottle of clear liquid to him. "I keep seeing you do it and it's driving me crazy."

"What's this?" asked Desmond as he took the bottle from her outstretched hand. He noticed she had long, painted nails that looked like she got regular manicures but (obviously) hadn't had one in a while. He figured that was why his nail-destroying bothered her so much.

"It's called Nail Biter Solution. Paint it on your nails like nail polish and next time you go to chew your nails, you're going to be sorry you did." She smirked, but in more of an amused way, not a mean way.

Desmond smiled. "Thanks."

"Whatever." The blonde shrugged and started to walk away.

"Excuse me, wait." Desmond jumped up from the sand and brushed himself off. "What's you're name?"

The blonde lifted her chin a little and answered haughtily, "Shannon Rutherford."

Desmond bowed his head in proper greeting. "Pleased to meet you, Shannon Rutherford. I'm Desmond."

Shannon flipped her hair with the back of her hand. "You're Scottish, right?" she said.

Desmond nodded.

"Thought so. The accent, you know."

"American, right?" said Desmond.

Shannon snorted. "How could you tell?"

"Ah, that funny accent gives you away."

She rolled her eyes but smiled and immediately seemed much less cold than she had a few seconds ago. "Well, good luck with the polish. I need it back when you're done."

"Right." Said Desmond and Shannon began to leave again.

She was only a few steps away when she turned around to add, "Oh, and Desmond? Just so you know. Girls like guys with nice nails – not too long, not too short. Well, I do, anyways."

"I'll keep that in mind."

She smiled and Desmond thought it was a pretty and flirty type of smile. He smiled back widely and found himself a little interested in finding more out about Shannon Rutherford.

After all, it looked like she was about to break his habit too. Just like Penny.


A/n: Erm, ok, so maybe don't ask, lol. It was one in the morning when I originally wrote this and I was blowing off a bunch of random creative steam. Apologies. I considered not posting it, but I thought someone might like it, so here it is anyways. Leave me a review and tell me what you thought - good, bad or ugly! (Btw, if Desmond and Shannon were a couple, you could call them Shmesmond. Technically Shesmond, but Shmesmond sounds funnier. It was Jedi Knight Bus's idea, lol.)