Ok so this chapter was hell to write. I've been really busy with school and a pantomime, hence why this is being published at stupid-o'clock when I should be in bed asleep. BUT I just wanted to say thank you to those who have reviewed, cos it's really nice to know people are actually reading my story. Now I'm going to bed. Enjoy chaper 10! ..

"What you got there Driftwood?" Sawyer came up behind Ellie. She had been sat in an impossibly bent up position on the beach for almost three hours, absorbed in a book. She was wearing the glasses he had found, they made her look scarily intelligent, and a lot older than he knew she was.

"Emma."

"Nice to meet you I'm Sawyer." he said, holding his hand out to her, smirking.

"The book, stupid." Ellie waved it at him, her finger crooked between the pages to save her place. "Jane Austen? A classic?"

"You stick your tongue out when you're concentrating." Sawyer said, changing the subject. He sat down next to her on the sand and leaning over her shoulder. "It's in French. You understand this?" He asked, staring at the foreign language.

"Mais bien sur!" SeeingSawyer's confused expression she giggled. "Mostly. I lived in Paris for a few months; got pretty good. I found this in the hatch, Jack said it would be ok to take it." Sawyer looked across the beach, annoyed to hear Ellie speaking about Jack as if he was in charge of her

"Did you hear I'm moving down to the beach?" She asked him, noticing his face when she mentioned Jack.

"Bunking with Freckles, right?" Sawyer nodded his head in the direction of the Kate's tent. She, Jack and Sayid had been working for most of the day to make Kate's tent bigger; to accomodate the extra person. Ellie smiled as she saw Kate ordering Jack and Sayid around.

"Who else would I 'bunk with'? I barely know anyone here! I mean, Jack and Kate obviously, and you. But other than saying 'Hi' and 'Have you seen Jack or Kate or whoever,' I haven't exactly been Miss Sociable since I got here." Sawyer smirked again.

"You know you stick your tongue out when you're concentrating?" He had noticed this when she was reading; she had a habit of poking the tip of her tongue out whenever something in the book got interesting.

"I've been told." Ellie put her book down on the sand and unfolded herself, streching her legs out on the sand. "I'm bored."

"So go help." Sawyer answered, stretching out beside her.

"I'm not allowed. Something about my shoulder not being strong enough yet...I don't know I wasn't really concentrating when Jack was talking to me. I didn't want to help anyway, I'm not exactly great with the home renovating."

"That so Driftwood?"

"A couple years ago I decided to put some shelves up in my room. By myself. While my parents were working. By the time they got home I was ankle-deep in water from where I hit the water pipe, and it cost my dad nearly $400 to get someone to fix it. He was SO mad but my mom thought it was hysterical. Said it reminded her of when the bought their first house and she did the exact same thing" Ellie was giggling and Sawyer laughed. It had been a month since he had found her, and he had discovered that listening to her laugh made him smile. She was like a little kid in some ways; when she smiled, when she laughed, when he caught her turning cartwheels around the hatch living room at 3am, "cos I was bored!", but at other times it was like she was a grown-up way before her time. He guessed it was losing her parents that had made her that way, sometimes when she smiled it was obvious that on the inside she was crying. Thankfully those times were now few and far between, and here she was, actually volunteering a story about her parents.

"Sawyer? Are you even listening?" Sawyer snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her. With her glasses perched on her nose, and her eyebrows raised she looked like a stern librarian, about to shush him for rustling pages too loudly.

"What?"

"Excuse me." Ellie said. "Manners don't cost anything, Sawyer. I was saying...can we go for a walk?" Blinking, at her playful scolding of him, Sawyer grinned at her.

"And where exactly do you wanna go?" He asked her.

"Anywhere."

"Back up a bit there Driftwood, I told Kate I'd have you back in one piece." Sawyer held his hand out to Ellie, palm upwards to steady her.

"I don't need babysitting Sawyer, I wanted company. And I'm fine where I am." Ellie said obstinately, delicately placing one foot in front of the other as she tiptoed along.

"Where you are is dancing along a cliff-edge above deep water."

"I would hardly call this a cliff. We're what? 5, maybe 6 metres up? It's nothing!" Ellie sing-songed, stepping a half-foot closer to Sawyer. "Happy now?" She cast a glance at him, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"Delirious." Ellie stopped suddenly, and peered over the cliff edge. Sawyer automatically stepped towards her and grabbed her arm. She turned her head and looked up at him. "Fancy a swim?"

"Driftwood..." Sawyer warned, and Ellie grinned at him, poking her tongue out.

"I thought you were supposed to be the cool one? Live dangerously!! Ellie stood upright. "I dare you."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I dare you. I dare you, Sawyer, to dive off and come swimming with me." Ellie bent down and pulled off her shoes and socks, balling the socks into the toes of the shoes and then throwing them as far as she could over the edge. They landed safely on the side of the lagoon beneath them. "Shot!" Ellie crowed, hands lifted above her head in victory. She glanced sideways at Sawyer. "Are you scared?"

"Get real. I just don't think Jack's gonna be too impressed when they find out I let you go cliff-jumping." He answered, shaking his head.

"Firstly...since when did you care about making Jack happy? Secondly...you are NOT my babysitter. I'm diving and if you don't want to join me fine. But I'm going to have some fun." Ellie stated determinedly, shaking her arm free of his grip.

"Fine," Sawyer grumbled, taking hold of her hand in his. "1...2..."

"3!" Ellie yelled, jumping high off the edge, Sawyer following; their hands still tangled. They hit the water easily, a splash erupting around them. Sawyer kicked for the surface, air bubbles floating around him. His head broke the water and he spit out a mouthful. Turning his head he saw Ellie, floating on the surface, facing the sky.

"That was cool, right?" She said, keeping her head straight and barely moving as she floated.

"That was damn crazy is what is was!" Sawyer half-yelled in her direction.

"I'm not crazy Sawyer." Ellie remarked, before dipping her head backwards and turning into a graceful back somersault, a few inches of her flat stomach skinning the surface of the water as her shirt rose up slightly. Sawyer felt her tug on his leg as she swam effortlessly past him, before popping up next to him.

"I'm done now, we can go back to camp." She said, before rolling into an elegant front crawl and heading for the side of the lagoon. Sawyer shook his head. She was truly exhausting.

"Favourite colour?"

"Red. Favourite ice-cream?"

"Rocky road. Favourite Disney character?

"The tiger from the Jungle Book."

"Sher Khan? He's the baddie!"

"Duh...that's why I liked him Driftwood."

"You are too weird." Ellie and Sawyer walked steadily through the jungle, wet clothes clinging to them. Ellie had been talking non-stop, it was like she was a wind-up doll turned permanently onto 'fast'. But oddly enough, Sawyer didn't mind. It was nice to talk to someone who didn't think he was an asshole. Yet, Ellie was unassuming, willing to go with the flow but she was spontaneous at the same time; hell, she'd proven that for sure. He enjoyed watching her as she plodded along in her wet jeans and one of Kate's t-shirts. She was carrying her dry shoes in her hand and didn't seem to notice the hard ground underfoot. Instead she was more interested in knowing stupid little things about him. This was what he liked most about her. In all their time on the island, no-one else had really bothered about talking to him; he rubbed them up the wrong way, and they him. And then here was Ellie, actually interested in finding out which was the first movie he had ever made out with someone during. It was refreshing, he thought, and he wondered how he looked in her eyes.

Ellie looked at Sawyer inquisitively, taking him in. She knew exactly why he liked the baddie, probably for the same reason that Jack, when she asked him the same question, had answered 'Arthur, Sword in the Stone.' Everyone seemed to fit into a box on this island, in this situation. Sawyer was the baddie, Jack the hero. Kate was the damsel in distress or the heroine, depending on the day. Everyone fitted in somewhere, and it was hard to know where her place was. At least, when she was in the main camp, surrounded by people; some of whom were still cautious of her, remembering the last person who claimed he had accidently landed on the island. Others, like Rose and Bernard had welcomed her with open arms and were willing to do anything to make her feel accepted. But Sawyer...it was like it didn't matter who the hell she was, because she made him laugh and she treated him like a person. 'Even though,' Ellie thought, 'I know way more about him that he thinks.' The difference was though, despite everything Ellie knew about Sawyer...or James...she didn't care. The past was in the past, what you did before didn't matter now because there was nothing you could do about it. Which was why she liked Sawyer so much. Jack and Kate were really great but she knew that every time they looked at her, all they saw were the scars on her wrists. Sawyer just saw her.

Ellie smiled, hearing raised voices coming from the camp. She grabbed Sawyer's arm.

"Race you?"