Chapter 3

Locke spoke to her, his presence snapped her back to reality.

"I saw you on the plane. My name is Locke. I hope that you don't mind some company. You look a bit lonely.

"I don't mind." Abigail replied.

"Remember me, we talked on the plane. This island is wonderful, isn't it?" Locke asked.

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I think this island is pretty awful and I want to go home." Abigail answered.

"It has been a long, hard road for you. I will leave you, but remember one thing." Locke answered softly.

"Just a word of advice that I heard from some young people."

""What is that?" Abigail was curious.

"Just that you can't fight the tears that aren't coming or the moment of truth in your lies." He said to her softly, almost in a whisper.

Abigail understood what he was trying to tell her. It was that you can't force yourself to morn and that in time people will know the truth about you.

"I don't want the world to see me 'cause I don't think that they'd understand. Everything is made to be broken, I just want them to know who I am. I just want to know who I am now. Who are you, really, Mr. Locke? Why do you think that you know the truth about me? I'm not even sure I know the truth about myself anymore."

"I'm just a fellow traveler who is also lost in this time and place with you and all the others." Locke answered mysteriously as he left.

"That guy's weird." Abigail said out loud, but deep down inside herself she knew that he was right. Locke was the least of her worries. She had to try to figure out how she could best survive on this island of no return until somebody found them, if someone ever found them.

Sayid watched Locke leave Abigail to sit there alone, by the fire. He could see much pain in her eyes. Her eyes cried out for comfort and a tender touch. Sayid knew all of the signs too well, the signs of depression. He knew that she was searching for something or someone. She was different from all of the other women that he had ever known. It was this difference that attracted him to her. In subtle ways, she seemed a lot like Nadia.

It started to rain.

Abigail sensed someone walk up beside her, maybe Locke had returned.

"Are you okay? I was just walking by and I saw you sitting alone in the rain. Can I help with anything?" Sayid tried to comfort her.

Abigail turned around quickly and gawked at him. He was the one who had the audacity to talk to her on the plane before the crash. She saw that he was the one that she had heard Sawyer talk about, the dark skinned one. The one that Sawyer thought might be responsible for bringing down the plane. She agreed with Sawyer, was he a terrorist? That was a very real possibility. His name was Sayid, and he was from Iraq. She didn't know why he was on the plane, and didn't want to care.

"Get the hell away from me, you raghead. I don't asscoiate with people like you. You did enough to ruin my life when you shot down Ted and killed him for information that he didn't have. I hate you and your kind." Abigail hissed.

"My kind? Now what exactly is that? Have it your way." Sayid dropped a warm, dry blanket beside her. "You and your unholy invasion made shambles out of my country. You invaded us. We did not invade you. Ma Teegy A'Hutten Hoolick?" He insulted her. Sayid didn't tell Abigail that he also lost someone special in the war.

"We only did what our government told us to do."

"As did we all." Sayid mumbled as he left her alone.

"I don't need or want your old camel blanket." Abigail yelled to him as she threw the blanket Sayid gave her.

Again Abigail was alone.

She walked to her spot on the beach where she slept. She knew that she needed to get out of the rain. Her makeshift shelter would provide her with some cover.

At the same time Sayid walked alone and sat at a quiet spot in the sand. He knew that he wasn't very good at hiding his feelings, especially toward this young, beautiful Air Force officer. Feelings that started while they were on the plane.

The rain began to stop. Other people were settled in for the night.

The next morning Sayid decided that he wanted to try to talk to the Air Force officer that hated him so much. Part of him understood her, part of him did not. After all, Sawyer and him were reconciled and talking. He hoped that this woman and he could at least talk.

Walking up to Abigail, Sayid finally put down the transceiver. "Why do you hate me so much? You and I just met on the plane."

"You want to know why I dislike you, I'll tell you. It was bad enough that my boyfriend Ted was shot down over Baghdad and was captured. Then he was finally killed for information that he didn't have. Later, Baghdad was safe enough for my hospital unit to go into the city. We housed ourselves in old bombed out buildings. We gave aid to any injured person that we could find or who came to us, American or Iraqi, it didn't matter. We treated everybody. Then one day he were over ran by insurgents pretending to be injured. They captured all of us."

"Were they the ones who injured you?" Sayid wanted to comfort Abigail, but thought better of it.

"Yes. As I look back I don't think that they were Republican Guard." Abigail said.

"Maybe Republican Guard trained insurgents." Sayid added.

"Could have been. I don't know. They were certainly flawless and did their job well." We were all separated. They tied my arms and legs. They asked me something. I didn't know what they were talking about. Another guard whacked my knee with the butt of his rifle."

Sayid could see tears swelling up in Abigail's eyes.

"Abigail. Your name is Abigail, isn't it? I heard someone mention it. There's no need to continue. It still causes you too much pain."

"I need to get it out, Sayid. It will help." Abigail heard Sawyer mention this dark skinned mans' name.

Abigail continued with the story. "The guard continued to whack at my knee until it was so swollen that I couldn't feel anything. The head guard saw that the torment wasn't affective so he ordered the guard to start whacking my ankle, not even on the same leg. The guard wanted to be sure that I never walked again."

Sayid understood her hatred. He was ashamed of what his fellow countrymen did.

"Abby, I'm so sorry that some of my people hurt you. Know wonder you hated me so much. Please believe we are not all that bad."

Abby put her fingers up to Sayid's lips. "Shhhh. I know it wasn't you. I was rescued shortly after. Then after routine medical care I was flown to Australia. My knee was smashed beyond repair and the Talus bone in my ankle was shattered. That's why I had braces and crutches on the plane. We were coming home for rehab."

I never expected you to talk to me on the plane and then I heard your accent I couldn't get away from you fast enough.

"Somehow since we crashed on the island I've been able to walk without my braces or crutches. Locke says that the island has a soul and is watching out for us."