ten
lola-write-hand
10
A call arouse Charles Widmore from his sound slumber. Reaching up his hand, the thirty-year old answered with an abrupt-"Eh?"
"Mr. Widmore?"
"Yes." Widmore grunted.
"This is Horace Goodspeed, from the Dharma Initiative."
"Oh?" Charles Widmore was now awake. "Mr. Goodspeed, glad to speak to you."
"I hope this isn't a bad time."
Widmore looked out his window at Big Ben's musty hands. The clock chimed four in the morning. Dawn was approaching at the east.
"It's not, Mr. Goodspeed. Now- my proposition."
"Yes." Horace twirled the phone cord and fidgeted with the buttons on his white lab coat. "The Dharma Initiative would be more than happy to assist with your medicinal research project."
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Ben and Annie were waiting patiently, both sitting on the plastic covered couch of Ben's cookie cutter Dharma abode. Ben's warm hand rested on Annie's cold fingers, and her wrinkled blue linen dress neatly covered their clasped hands.
Annie looked over to Ben. "It is done." She said breathlessly. Ben nodded, still trying to calm the tribal drum pounding in his chest. The door opened in perfect timing and Rousseau appeared, her face flushed with running and her smile inerasable.
"Ahnnee, Ben- Zey have done it!"
Annie stood up slowly and went to hug her friend. After they embraced, she looked her in the eyes. "You're now a- "
"Researcher? Yes! They vant me to help vith the developing!" Danielle finished. "And Danny gave me this!" She held up a small ivory music box. Annie beamed, looking back at Ben for excitement. Ben was obviously deep in thought, his eyes vacant, still unaware that Annie's hand was no longer in his own. Gazing up at them, he caught up with reality and pasted a smile on his face. "Wonderful, Danielle." He praised.
"Zey told me I vas saving the Dharma Initiative!" Rousseau said. "I vill be vorking on neighboring island a few miles away- but ve'll be back very soon!" And with that, Rousseau headed to her barracks to pack. Annie closed the door behind her.
"What happened with Horace?" Annie asked as soon as they were alone again.
"I heard he convinced a related company to pay the Dharma for research on a certain pathogen. Dharma has been very financially burdened recently." Ben said. Annie smiled, and sat down, concern on her face.
"That's not what I meant."
Ben turned to her, his blue eyes sparkling. He brushed a sweaty strand of her auburn hair behind her ears. Annie bit her lip. "What did my father say, Ben?"
"He agreed."
A look of relieved delight flushed Annie's face as she pulled Ben close to her, bestowing on him a second of bliss. Ben smiled at her lovingly, and then stoically stood up and walked to the door. "He will meet us a month from tonight, at the clearing."
"Perfect." Annie said. "And your father?"
"My father will be too drunk to know anything." Ben said grimly.
"Oh."
Ben changed the subject. "Does Danielle know?"
"I told her today." Annie said softly. "You don't mind?"
"No. No I don't." Ben replied. He reacted with a grin after Annie smiled at him playfully. Closing the door, she sulked against the sofa, perfectly happy. She played with the blue linen of her dress, reminiscing the moment she hoped would come soon, when it would be so swiftly, so easily, so lovingly, pulled off by the man who had just departed.
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Ben sat on the hill overlooking the Dharma suburbs. He sighed.
A month.
A month was all that remained of the people's time here. The guilt had not caught him until now, and he felt it slowly eat at him. Why did it have to be now that he was happy with his situation? Why did it have to come so soon? He was fine with everything, excluding his father, who still found time to drunkenly slouch in at 4 in the morning after a solo beer blast on the beach. Ben was even content with his position in Dharma: workman. It was humble. Not nearly as good as what he could provide for Annie, but fine for now.
He could see it work: he could see Dharma and the Hostiles coexisting. Maybe even learning to like each other. It was a fruitless delusion, but a blissful moment in this brief time of happiness.
Ben needed to talk to Robert.
The Others were setting up camp near a stream in the jungle. Driving in stakes, they hoisted up the tents and tumbled logs into a pile in the middle of it all. Robert was busy fidgeting with the transmitter, pushing various buttons and glitches- trying to get some sort of response.
"Robert!" Called a hostile from his perch. "Mr. Linus is here."
"I hope you realize this sort of thing is normal." Robert said, walking with Ben next to the creek. "Second guessing, doubts; but just trust your gut, and get through it before you have to come up here again and raising their eyebrows." He motioned to the opening through the trees, which showed a clear cut way to the Dharma suburb. "I understand your concerns. But lay low or things are going to get suspicious. Now, go home, Ben. Get some rest. Get your head on straight."
"Do you know what procedures to take when evacuating Annie?" Ben asked, distracted.
Robert scratched his head. "We were planning on just taking her through the Tempest to the Looking Glass- isn't that what you planned?"
"Yes…But there's been a change." Ben said. Robert flashed him a look of impatience. Ben only stared into his dark eyes with a look of absolute urgency.
"I need you to take her into the clearing where your people have set up camp. There's a tree right next to the stream. If you look closely you'll see a Dharma insignia that leads to a hatch. The hatch will take you to an underground cavern which will lead you to an unoccupied region of the beach. Leave her there."
"Alright, Ben." Robert replied.
"You have to promise me." Ben said. "That she won't be harmed in any way."
"She won't. I offer my word as forfeit of the price." Robert said. "And your father?-"
"Leave that to me."
Robert nodded slowly, gathering up his intent. "Now…go."
Ben headed back, hesitantly stared back at Robert, and walked quickly down the hill to the Dharma Initiative.
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Juliet Bourke gazed at Harper curiously when the manila folder was slid out in front of her. With questioning eyes, she opened it, watching Harper's shifty eyes glaze over the page.
"What is it?" Juliet asked.
"You seemed really desperate. So, I did some searching through the databases- and I finally found it….The file of Annie Goodspeed."
Juliet quickly skimmed through all the pages, before scanning the front. A small, invasive picture of the girl was paper clipped to the page, when she was about four. Her glowing amber hair and freckles complimented her lonely face and white eyelet dress.
"Born March 3rd, 1959…..on the island." Juliet gasped. "She must have been one of the only babies to be born here and survive to adulthood…She was adopted, too…So that explains why she looked nothing like her parents..."
"Yeah." Harper replied. "Keep looking- it says she was killed in the Purge."
Juliet gazed up at her. "Who wrote that? One of the Others?"
"I don't know. It just had some end notes at the last page. It seems weird that we still kept these files- I thought Ben would have had them destroyed along with everything else.."
Juliet began thumbing through for the last page- finally finding it, she spotted a scribbled note, written in haste, under another picture of Annie as a 19 year old.
Annie Goodspeed was unfortunately killed by poison gas during the Purge of 1979. Her body was found next to her alleged lover, young Danny Neuko. Nothing more is known of her.
"Who's 'Danny Neuko'?" Juliet enquired. Harper shrugged. "Go see if there's a file on him."
Harper sighed. "Why would anyone bother with old Dharma files?" Her eyes traced back to Juliet. "What does this have to do with our work anyway? You still have 6 mothers that need thier neurological immunities scanned-"
"Because I have a theory, Harper. And if this theory is right, I may be on the brink to discovering why all the mothers are dying. I'll save them...And I'll understand what happened to Annie."
Harper smiled. "You never take anything lightly, do you? Well, Nancy Drew: try this one- we've hit another dead end." She displayed the page. "Nothing up on Danny Neuko- even in population statistics or anything. And we know he wasn't an Other. So, we're stuck." Harper sat back in thought. Juliet gazed at the computer screen, a smile spreading her face.
"Not for long….I think…" With true determination, Juliet typed in a single name in the database.
Danielle………Rousseau.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks all for the rush of comments! I'm happy I got to publish this chapter on schedule! Keep up the great work with reviewing- even if you've reviewed before I still want to know what you think of each chapter, so please review! Is it getting better- or worse?? Comments, critisism, etc, etc. This fic would be nothing without the great readers!
lola
p.s- Michael Emerson+ Amazing cast+ Amazing music + LOST hiatus (EQUALS) anticipation & Fanfics, fanfics, fanfics!
We have about 240 days until LOST. : : I'll keep everyone posted.