In case anyone's wondering the bikini Emma wears is basically the Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Bandeau top and side-tie Tanga bottom in smoking grey. The web address is ridiculously long so I'm going to try putting it on my profile in case people are really dying to see it.

Claire and I woke up later than usual the next morning, the canopy shielded us from the rising sun but the close quarters made the sound of activity an alarm clock of its own. We shared the oranges and other fruits with the group, even the Asian couple who seemed a little confused as to the reason for the generosity. I got giddy for some reason as I filled up my water bottles and loaded up my bag.

"So you made it." I turned to see Jack leaned against the outside of a cave.

I grinned. "Yup. Charlie got Claire convinced, we moved in last night."

"You headed to the beach?" I nodded. "If you want to wait I can go with you. I need to check on some people down there."

I considered it. "Okay I guess. Whenever you're ready."

I relaxed on a log listening to Charlie play his guitar as I waited. "You're really good." I commented as he finished a song. "I played violin in school but I wasn't what you'd call talented. How long have you been playing?"

"Guitar? Since I was about seven. I started on the piano when I was five though. It's all pretty much the same when you get down to it though." I could see how much music was his element; he probably knew guitar like Jack knew scalpels.

"Do you take requests?" I asked smiling.

He looked excited. "Course. Consider me your island jukebox."

"Ready?" I turned to see Jack with a weighed down pack and an outstretched hand.

"Yeah." I replied, taking his hand and pulling myself up. "So Claire knows where we're going, wait like maybe ten minutes, and then head out okay?" Charlie nodded.

Jack and I walked through the more difficult terrain without a lot of talking, but when we passed the trio of trees Kate checked him out at I snorted at the memory.

He turned around. "What?" he asked smiling.

I shook my head. "Nothing, I was just thinking about how you broke Kate's heart when you told her you weren't checking her out."

He shook his head. "I wouldn't say that." He replied.

"Maybe not, but she looked pretty devastated."

"I think she's gotten over it." He sounded a little bitter so I tried changing the subject.

"I hear Shannon had a health scare. Is that who you're checking on?" I panted a little. Jack's taller than me, with longer legs. There's only so much I could keep up without getting out of breath.

He slowed down a little which I was insanely thankful for. "Sawyer got cut yesterday. I've got to change his bandages."

I nodded. "Oh. Well Boone wasn't going to let her come swimming with us if she didn't get a clean bill of health."

"I checked her out last night and she's fine. Sun has this slave, she made it from eucalyptus. It helped almost instantly. It's probably not an equal substitute for her medication but it's the best we're going to get on this island."

Getting to the beach Jack and I parted ways and I handed out a few of the bottles I brought, saving the rest for Claire, Shannon and I. When I found her Boone was nowhere to be seen and she suggested we make a break for it. We hurried down the beach before going into the forest to get to our swimming spot.

Shannon broke our silence. "What suit are you wearing?" she asked.

I felt myself blush. "I packed two. One I already had and the one of yours."

"Oh you should totally wear mine!" She borderline squealed. "I got it at this boutique in Sydney and I didn't even get to wear it yet."

We came to our swimming spot and I dropped my bag on a rock. "It's just a little more revealing then I'm used to." I explained.

She shrugged. "You can pull it off. I can tell. Boone says I'm useless but one thing I know is style."

I studied her for a minute. "Do you want to go picking with me one of these days? People keep harping on me to use the buddy system but Claire's a little delicate to be exploring new produce spots."

"I resent that!" I heard Claire call. Turning I saw her meandering through the last few feet of forest, Charlie at her side with her bag in his hand.

"Trust me; I'd love to see you scaling a tree. Just don't think it's going to be happening for a while." I laughed.

She giggled as well and even Shannon cracked a smile. "Charlie could you stand guard? We're going to change."

He nodded nervously. "Right. Stand guard. Course." He turned around and walked a few feet into the forest where he stood ramrod straight.

Shannon stripped naked, completely self-assured and Claire and I shared a look. We more timidly went down to our underwear, then quickly pulled on our suits. I caved and put on Shannon's suit, feeling ridiculously overexposed. "You look great!" Claire exclaimed, pulling on her bikini bottoms. I envied the coverage of her simple black two-piece.

"Told ya you could pull it off." Shannon said smugly in an orange cut out one-piece. It made sense now why she had to strip all the way down to put it on- I'd never have figured out how to get into it!

"It's all clear Charlie! You can come out now!" I called, stuffing my clothes back into my bag.

Poor Charlie seemed completely out of his element, which surprised me. You'd think being a rock star he'd be used to half naked women. Shannon immediately waded into the ocean and began twirling around, sending streams of water flying off her outstretched fingertips. Claire and I linked arms and waded out into deeper water, giving Charlie a semblance of privacy while he took off his shirt. He shyly followed us to the deeper water, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Charlie." Claire whined a little, kicking water at him. "Relax."

He shook his now wet hair out of his eyes smiling. "If anyone should be uncomfortable here it should be me." I joked, making him smile.

"God, are you guys just going to stand there?" Shannon sighed loudly. Although rude it did the trick, Charlie and Claire clomped into the deeper water after her.

I scooped up some sand to scrub my arms and upper body. The good thing about being next to naked was that I had much better access to the parts that hadn't been even halfway washed since leaving Australia. I faced the open ocean and stretched and squirmed to try reaching that evasive spot between my shoulder blades. I thought I saw movement in the trees but a gust of wind hit me and I chalked it up to that until I reached back into the water to grab more sand. I caught a glimpse of dark hair between leaves.

I sighed. "Ollie Ollie oxen free!" I yelled, cupping my hands around my mouth. To my complete lack of surprise Boone stepped out of the trees followed by the much more unexpected Jack.

Shannon stomped towards them, the water splashing around her feet like mini tidal waves. "I said I didn't need a babysitter." She shrieked.

"You could have an attack." He fired back. "You should get checked out."

Jack looked worn out. "How about you guys join us?" I suggested. "You look like you could use a break."

The guys each thought about it. "Okay." Boone agreed, pulling off his shirt and kicking off his shoes. He waded into the water and immediately splashed Shannon, starting a water fight.

I turned back to Jack. "The caves can survive an hour without you." I wheedled.

He smiled. "Alright."

Welcome to Hot Guy Island. I thought with satisfaction, as Jack peeled off his shirt as well. Charlie was the leanest of the three of them, but I didn't really judge; I'd be a total marshmallow if I were a guy. Jack was built, but a little hairy for my tastes. I liked them like Boone- sleek lines on a solidly muscled body, the less hair the better. Not that I'd turn any of them down if they offered to buy me a drink. I did of course feel exponentially more exposed then when it was just us girls, but checking out the guys somehow made me feel more secure.

That is until I noticed Jack looking me over in a very Sawyer-esque way. I remembered what Kate said the other day. "You checking me out?" I tilted my head to the side and cocked my hip. "No harm in it." I lost my composure and busted out laughing.

He grinned widely and ran into the ocean apparently determined to displace as much water onto me as possible. I ran after him towards the mêlée. Charlie seemed to be trying to protect Claire from the more violent sprays, but she looked like she was the one setting off the biggest waves. Shannon had pulled her arms in defensively but kicked water at Boone and Charlie fiercely. I cupped water carefully in my hands and soaked Charlie's whole upper body, although I was aiming for Claire. He in turn splashed me back, which hit Jack as well and put me in the middle of two hostile splashers. I covered my face and dashed out of the way as best I could with salt water and wet hair in my eyes, and ended up running smack dap into Boone, who caught me around the waist, spun me around and dunked me below the water entirely.

I came back up coughing and sputtering. "Jerk!" I cried, trying to regain my footing. I got myself balanced again and wrung out my hair, but a particularly rough wave threw me backwards into Jack.

"Whoa there." He said, one hand on my shoulder the other on my hip. I suddenly noticed the wind picking up and dark rainclouds started rolling in and I shivered. I saw that Shannon and Boone were making their way back to shore, gripping each others' hands tightly. Charlie and I each put a hand on Claire's shoulder to keep her steady but after another swell sent me stumbling forward Jack grabbed my upper arm firmly.

The four of us said goodbye to Shannon and Boone after redressing, and Charlie led us back to the caves carefully, Claire and I behind him, Jack bringing up the rear. I held us up a little, picking some produce as I passed it, but avoided going on an all-out picking spree by promising myself to come back this way again soon. Claire and I were munching on bananas as we entered the cave arch, and Jack was immediately mobbed by a couple who were convinced they had a tropical flesh eating disease. After setting our stuff out of the way Charlie brought out his guitar and began playing and humming quietly. The Asian man, whose name I learned was Jin, brought me a fish that had already been cleaned and gutted. I assumed he thought he owed me for this morning so I tried refusing but he was just as insistent as that day on the beach so after a serious look from Charlie I thanked him slowly and loudly, feeling like a complete idiot the whole time. Locke had set up a makeshift grill with an air vent from the plane and I figured I'd grill it until it looked 'right' and then a few minutes longer just to make sure it was safe for Claire to eat. We split the fish with Charlie; while it was a little dry it was a change of pace from pork which was great in and of itself. I was pointed in the direction of our trash fire, where all the 'compostables' were disposed of and ran into Jack on my way back.

"Will they live?" I asked jokingly.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's just hives. Heat and stress; not a lot I can do."

I nodded. "Maybe a swimming day like today would help." I offered.

"Maybe." He shrugged and massaged his shoulder.

I weighed my next words before finally asking, "Would you like a back rub?" He looked surprised so I explained. "You look like you need one and I give pretty good ones. If not that's totally fine, I just thought I'd offer."

He seemed to think a bit too before responding in the affirmative. He returned all his medical equipment to where it belonged so we ended up secluding ourselves in the infirmary. He sat on the makeshift cot and looked at me for direction. "Shirt on or off?" he asked quietly.

Well that's a hell of a question I thought. "Whatever's most comfortable." I responded in a surprisingly professional voice. He took his shirt off and I began to regret giving him the option. The golden light from the fire struck his skin in a way that was making me seriously rethink my stance on who had the better body. I started with gentle strokes on his shoulders, thinking the more tense he was the more sensitive the muscles but soon I was digging my fingers into the tendons and contemplating using my elbow to get the more stubborn kinks out. "Jeeze!" I exclaimed, "And I thought construction workers had tight muscles. You really need to learn to relax."

He laughed. "I can relax when I'm dead."

"Which will be sooner than you'd like if you keep this up." I scolded. "I thought doctors took at least halfway decent care of themselves."

He turned his head and groaned a little as I hit a sensitive spot. "Not true."

"Clearly."

So I apologize for the abrupt ending here but I kinda backed myself into a corner writing-wise. Hope you found it interesting, and as always review to tell me either way!