The Day We Drop Down
I hate sand. I hate it. The fact that you can't keep a hold on it and that it slips through your fingers is enough of a reason. Shannon was furious, one hand clutching, or trying to clutch, the sand while the other hand scratched at her chest, creating long red marks along her previously unflawed, tan skin.
Her eyes screwed shut and teeth clenching to the point that she was quite sure would cause all of her teeth to shutter under the pressure, Shannon relentlessly kept on trying, trying, what she always tried to do. To get a grasp on something that was so no, yet so far out of reach. The brink of merely passing out from the lack of oxygen she so desperately needed to coarse through her lungs, the blood was rushing to her head and her body was starting to seize.
"Guh…" came a rather unattractive grunt. It'd been about six hours since she'd gotten control of her longs and there she was sitting along on the beach where she and Boone slept, out of sight from everyone as she struggled and struggled to gain control of something she wasn't quite sure if she ever had control of in the first place.
Breathe, Shannon. Breathe in…relax. That familiar, deep voice echoed in her thoughts as slowly as the sweat trickling down her nose. You need to relax and focus on your breathing.
Her hand forming a fist, she pounded it into the sand, over and over, ignoring the small sand particles clinging to her sweaty skin as she closed her eyes and, panic registering clearly across her face, breathed in through her nose, just like Jack had told her to do hours previous.
Even when she could feel the cool air coming in, the warm air coming out, she remained drowning in the anxiety and fear. It didn't help when she glanced towards the camp to see Boone coming towards her, apparently to bitch her out even more.
Shifting her position so that her back was facing Boone, Shannon, using her newfound oxygen to help strengthen her voice, yelled over her shoulder: "Leave me alone!"
She could hear Boone actually stop in his tracks, throw his hands up in the air only to have them come falling back down to hit the sides of his legs. With a "Whatever, Shan!" he was turned around and gone before she had to result to thinking up excuses of why she had scratch marks all over her chest.
Examining the area exposed because of the tank top she was wearing, Shannon thankfully determined she didn't break any skin and, while they remained there for a few hours, she could easily call it a slight rash, no matter how embarrassing the prospect of that was.
Glancing over her shoulder again, Shannon immediately caught sight of Boone, still walking away with her to go find someone else to talk to. He was definitely not going to get the pleasure of knowing she was still suffering.
As she glanced along the shoreline, finally managing to tear her eyes away from Boone, Shannon saw a pair of figures a distance away. A second or two and she figured out it was the Korean couple. Given another second and a light bulb went off above her head.
Pinching the bridge of his nose to pressure the headache, to possibly push it away, to the back of his mind where it'd stay until some other time when it would annoy him just as much, Jack counted the pills in his hand before stopping before Sawyer's sleeping figure.
The shelter used to be his, but Jack could hardly recognize it, considering Sawyer decorated it with his own things.
Not wasting another second in Sawyer's presence, the man annoying Jack greatly even when he's sleeping, Jack tossed the pills onto the man's bare stomach and turned to go.
Yet even as he turned to leave he could hear the cocky son of a bitch stirring awake. "Hey there, Mr. Hero. That fight earlier…boy, I'd swear you were takin' lessons behind my back."
"Is there something you need because I have other, more important, things to do?"
"Of course, bein' the hero an' all!" came the teasing response Jack knew he should have seen coming. "I just want you to know, what I said earlier wasn't just to piss you off, even though that's always a good enough of a reason."
Forgetting about biting back his frustration, Jack ran a hand across his face and turned around, pointing at Sawyer threateningly. "Look, when have I ever listened to you, huh? I'm not the leader of this camp so why do you think telling me how to survive is gonna change things?"
Smirking to himself, Sawyer merely shook his head and placed a pair of bright orange sunglasses over his eyes and let his head fall back so he could rest.
Later that night, as the fire crackled and danced magically, illuminating the area outside of the caves, Claire wrapped herself in a blanket and seated herself near the bonfire and looked down at her belly. "I hope you're alright in there…"
Wishing she could reach down and place a kiss atop her belly, Claire looked up to the flames, her eyes watching as the orange met the red and shared a dance, it was to the point that she couldn't event ell when the orange ended and the red began.
With Charlie inside fast asleep, Claire's only company was her baby, Jack and Hurley who were busy finishing up with lugging around some stuff to provide an organized perimeter, and Sun and Jin who were conversing, quite loudly, in Korean.
Knowing lack of sleep is never good for someone, Claire looked over her shoulder to the path that lead to the beach, thinking if it was a bad idea to go visit someone she hardly knew to ask for a place to sleep for just the night.
Next thing Claire knew she was knocking as softly as she could on the big metal door placed in front of the shelter, acting as the door. When there came no answer, Claire took it as a sign that she was the only person on the island having sleeping problems and turned to go.
When she was about five feet away the door started to move, she heard a small grunt just as the door finally managed to slip out of the little hole it was stuck in and Jessica, her eyes heavy with exhaustion, looked at Claire, a little surprised. "Is something wrong?"
"No," Claire immediately told her, assuring her with a small smile. "I just…I'm an insomniac sometimes and…some nights around the camps it gets a little noisy and-"
"I get it, another reason I'm not becoming a member of the Camp Association," Jessica took a step aside and motioned for Claire to come in. "I wasn't asleep anyways, just listening to some Brand New."
"You have music here?" Claire asked, surprised, as she walked inside to see that it was a nice little shelter, exactly as it looked from the outside. It could fit about three people with the suitcases lined along the walls. A nice place for someone to sleep in.
"Yeah. I'm a freak when it comes to the music I listen to so I have all my CD's and my player wrapped up and protected in my bag. I know, I'm a dork." Jessica pointed to her duffel bag where her CD player was perched against. "I had my MP3 with me when the plane…um, you know. That was trashed."
Biting her bottom lip, Claire pointed to a spot. Jessica nodded and Claire sat down. "How many batteries do you even have?"
"A few," she walked over to her bag. "I have two in my player…two extras for that. Then there's…four more. But those are being saved."
"For what?"
"You're as curious as Charlie," Jessica looked over her shoulder at Claire, offering her a small smirk. "Well, those are for some amazing device I'll probably never invent to get us off this island."
Adjusting herself so her back was pressed against the flat wall, which would assure that her back wouldn't ache for a while, Claire nodded. "There's actually a man, a survivor, who works with transceivers and such. But he…well, he hasn't been around all day and I don't think he'll be around for a while."
"That sucks," Jessica sat herself down, fidgeting with the hem of her ripped pants. "You'll have to come by and tell me when he comes back, then I could give him the batteries myself."
"Sounds like a plan," Claire rubbed her belly, letting out a soft sight, hoping that if she could keep a soothing breathing pattern, her baby would respond positively. Then the question that itched her when she first met Jessica floated back to the front of her mind, urging her to speak up. "So…were you on the plane alone? I mean, where are your mum and dad?"
"I was flying back home," Jessica assured her, speaking in an oddly lighthearted tone, as if she expected her to ask the question. "So don't worry, I won't bore you with a sob-story of my parents being on that plane and not making it."
Claire ran a hand along the side of her face, finding a stray hair and tucking it behind her ear before she opened her mouth to push the subject further.
Jessica stopped her before she could even start, a touch of concern creeping into her voice. "You should get some rest…"
As the full moon illuminated the path before them, Kate and Michael pushed through another set of bushes, ignoring the branches scraping their skin.
Kate grabbed Michael's arm, stopping him as she seated herself. "We need to take a break. Passing out from exhaustion isn't gonna help in finding your son."
Reluctantly, Michael nodded his head and sat himself down on the spot, taking in a deep breath and catching the water bottle Kate tossed him. After taking a big gulp, he shook his head and growled a few curse words directed at himself. "I am a bad father. And a stupid person. Shouldn't have let him run off like that."
"Hey, it wasn't your fault," Kate assured him, offering him a smile, albeit an exhausted, lackluster one. "Remember what it was like being a kid."
Laughing, a bit of bitterness creeping into his voice as he spoke, Michael looked at Kate for a long hard moment before informing her. "I never really knew my dad."
"Did he die when you were young?"
"No, he was just…a traveling salesman. Doing his thing 10 months out of the year. Up until I was about fourteen he did that."
"What happened after you were fourteen?"
His head falling, Michael looked at the ground before letting out a long, shaky sigh. A second later he was on his feet, "We should get going."
As Jin walked ahead of her, not even bothering to glance over his shoulder to make sure she was close behind, Sun begrudgingly dragged her feet along the ground, following at her own pace.
Suddenly, however, a hand grabbed out of the bushes, along with a long and thin arm with a surprising grip, and yanked her out of the pathway.
Even when Sun discovered it was that silly blonde American girl, she still didn't quite know if she should feel at ease quite yet.
Her teeth gritted and with a firm stare, Shannon firmly kept Shannon in one place with her hands practically cutting of the circulation in her arms. "I need your help."
Staring up at the uneven ceiling and through the small cracks to the dark blanket of night sprinkled with stars, Jessica crossed her arms over her chest and adjusted her head to get a little more comfortable. She lay at a slant so her feet weren't directly next to Claire's head, and for Claire's swollen feet not to be in her face, but surprisingly, even though feet normally grossed her out, Jessica merely pushed the thought to the back of her mind as she continued to stare up at the ceiling.
They still hadn't been able to fall asleep, even when Jessica suggested they should, considering that was why Claire had chosen to spend a night in her shelter.
With a crooked grin, Jessica pondered the question Claire had asked just minutes ago, biting down on her tongue in deep though. "Um…well, I wish I was at a Warped Tour concert. Wait, scratch that. I wish I was at a Brand New concert."
"They any good?" Claire asked, her curiosity undeniable even through her yawn. Asking each other questions was exhausting.
"Yeah, and you'd think mosh pits would be gross but…well, they are gross. It's just that when you're in one you're having so much fun that you kind of forget you're surrounded by a bunch of sweaty, gross strangers begging you to crowd surf."
Claire laughed at that, the image of herself drowning in a big crowd of big, fat and sweaty men enough of a reason. Looking down at her belly as her laughter died off, she swallowed hard, her eyes glazing over as the memories flashed before her eyes. "I remember when I'd be able to fit in a…well, in a size three is what you might consider them in America. I used to be tiny. You can't tell now but I swear!"
Through her own yawn, Jessica let out a small laugh. "At least you can go back to wearing size three. Soon I won't be able to listen to music anymore."
"You really like your music, don't you?"
"It's the only thing you can depend on," Jessica tilted her head to the side to glance up at Claire, a bit of forgotten melancholy subsisting in her dark brown eyes. "I mean, if one band sells out, you move on to another. When Snow Patrol started to play on all those WB shows I dropped them and started to listen to more of Postal Service. You listen to the lyrics, tap along to the beat of the music and…that's it. That's all there is to it. You know what I mean?"
"Not really. I was never a big music person." Lifting her head so she could look to Jessica for her response, Claire had to grin at the sight of the girl's eyes drifting to a close as slumber slowly took over.
A knock at the door sounded and Claire could feel Jessica jump. To their relief, it was Charlie's head that poked inside through the small opening, that curious sparkle in his blue eyes that made Claire react by waving at him like a dork.
"I woke and you weren't there. Not that I blame you, considering that it was all that ruckus Jack and Hurley were making that woke me up. Figured you'd go somewhere quiet and…voila!"
"Here she is," Jessica sniffed, turning on her side to face Charlie. Her eyes were still half-closed even as she, very slowly, tried to make conversation. "Come…in."
Crouching down so his knees and slipping through the small space provided, Charlie crawled inside, seating himself beside Claire. "Thanks for the fishing net, by the way."
"Anytime," she dismissed it with her hand, a small, pathetically lazy wave that made Charlie laugh under his breath. "So…what was a rock god doing on a plane to L.A.?"
Missing the sarcasm in her voice entirely, Charlie took on that modest guise and sheepishly looked down at his lap. "Well, I had a gig and…"
It was Claire's knee nudging his leg that alerted him to the joking manner in which Jessica had asked the question, causing Charlie to blush furiously. "Oops."
Glancing over at Jessica to see if she was laughing at his stupidity, Charlie was not so surprised to see that she had finally drifted off to sleep. Not to mention that Claire, who was barely awake herself, had decided to use his shoulder as a pillow, resting her head in the crook of his neck. It wasn't too long before all three of them were fast asleep, drowning in the restful sound of the small waves crashing onto the beach.
Sitting next to Hurley, Jack tried to keep the amusement out of his voice when he noticed the man was drawing in the dirt with his finger to pass time. Resting his head along the cave wall and glancing to the area outside of the caves where some people were resting, Jack closed his eyes and tried to get comfortable while waiting for Hurley to answer him.
"Drawing a map of the island, of the parts we know about," Hurley informed him, his voice not without irritation. "That's how bored I am."
"No, it's a good idea, Hurley," Jack assured him, turning on his side to get a better look at the small little scribbles, a tinge of confusion flashing across his face when the thought of why he didn't think of it appeared at the front of his mind.
"Also, I was thinking…" wiping his hands off on his cargo shorts, Hurley got up from his crouching position to stand over Jack, a surprisingly serious expression on his face accompanied with a tinge of his usual indifference. "We should really get a headcount one of these days. I mean, I'm not really saying we should secretly inject tracking devices into everybody but I think it'd be cool to keep track of everyone. That way if we find us some trouble, or the other way around considering our luck, we'd be able to-"
"I don't know about that," Jack cut Hurley off, politely. Yet as he continued to speak, the patronizing tone in his voice was hardly mistakable. "To be honest, I don't think anyone would be comfortable with that kind of suggestion. A complete stranger coming up to them and asking them for their information? Think about it, Hurley."
His tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth, Hurley nearly crossed his eyes doing just so. "I guess…I guess I'll let it go for now. But, dude?"
"Yeah?"
"I hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the ass."
TBC…