Chapter two.

A/N: I decided to make it raining as hard on the island as it is in my backyard at the moment for this chapter. (Disclaimer on chapter one applies throughout)

I was soaked. There was no denying it. Every piece if fabric I was wearing was drenched as if I had jumped in the ocean. The rain was coming down in torrents, like everyone in heaven had simultaneously pulled the bathtub plug. There was no escaping it on the beach either. It found its way through the jungle leaves and ran in little streams through the sand to the ocean like it was low tide. Beads of water collected and dripped off my eyelashes.

I had come from the beach to the caves for shelter, and found little. The rain was pounding at a slant and driving into the caves where it created mud when it mixed inevitably with the dirt.

"What a mess." I mumbled.

"Gorgeous." She answered me. I had almost forgotten she was in the cave behind me.

"What do you mean, gorgeous? Look at this mud, Kate!" I say, lifting my shoe. It makes a sucking noise and the mud reluctantly snaps away from the sole of my boot. She smiles at me.

"That's you though isn't it?" She replies carelessly, shifting her gaze from me to the bruised sky.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask her quietly, drawn in.

"Always seeing the worst of something. You look at the mud on the ground, not the breathtaking sight in the sky. Look at the color of it. You can hear thunder. Feel the rain on your face. It feels good. Makes me laugh."

I look at her like she's crazy, but then I think of what she said. I always see the worst of something? By that she meant her. That I saw the worst in her and wrote her off. But I didn't.

"Kate." I said. " We all have a past. None of them are spotless." She glares at me.

"No, no they aren't." She replies before I can say what I mean to, and she gets up and walks away.

I follow her.

She slips through the brush without direction, but soon I realize she's leading us to the golf course. When she gets there she climbs the little slope and looks over the grassy expanses. Then she holds out her arms to the sky and spins several times, her face up to meet the rain. I wish I shared her spiritual enthusiasm. Instead I worry about lighting.

Suddenly her arms drop, and her face falls. She sinks to the ground on her knees and looks up at me as if seeing me for the first time. I almost expect her to say.. "Who are you?"

But instead she says, "You were there. You saw it. Im not crazy."

"His glasses are a bit funny looking, but a work of craftsmanship, I have to admit." Shannon tells Sayid. They sit around their small fire talking about nothing in particular, hoping the tarp above them doesn't spring a leak. Sayid had fastened it tightly to the sticks that held it up when he saw the ominous clouds rolling in that morning. Shannon was glad. Now they were dry and warm. She smiled to herself, thinking she was the luckiest (and driest) one on the island, resting in Sayid's arms.

"Well I did the best I could, but what Jack gave me to work with were rather lopsided and awkward when put together." Sayid replied. Shannon laughed softly at the memory of seeing Sawyer look up at her passing from his reading with one half-moon side and one much larger, rounder lens. She snuggled down comfortably, becoming drowsy in the warmth of his embrace.

The makeshift shelter's door flap whipped open, and Boone strode in, looking upset.

"I thought I told you to stay away from my sister."

"Boone!" Shannon said angrily, jumping up.

"You stay out of this, Shannon." Boone warned her.

"No! This is my... tent... and you have no right to just come bursting- "

A rough shove sent Shannon tumbling backwards into the ground. Sayid let out an angry yell and stepped up to Boone.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Taking my sister with me, away from you." Boone spat, reaching for Shannon's hand which she did not extend out to him.

"Leave, Boone." She said shakily.

"You heard her." Sayid said cooly. "Leave."

"No. Shannon, come on!" Boone reached down to take her by the arm but Sayid quickly intercepted him. He pulled him back to face him and indicated for him to leave. Rain pounded on the little shelter. Boone and Sayid's heads grazed the top.

"Sayid. I'm warning you. My sister is coming with me to the caves. She is not staying with you and I–" He stopped short, and then drew back his fist quickly.

Shannon gasped as Boone punched Sayid. He took a step or two back, grasping at his jaw with one hand. Looking back up at Boone, Sayid brought his fist into sharp contact just under Boone's left eye. Shannon whimpered and yelled for Boone to go. He did, but not without an angry glance at her, leaving the tarp door flapping in the wind and rain in his wake. Sayid finally reached forward, fastening it back into place.

"I'm sorry about that, Shannon." He said, pulling her to her feet. She nods. He ran his fingers through her hair, pushing it back behind her ears and tracing her lips softly. When they kissed, they dropped slowly back onto the ground in a heap of entwined limbs.

Kate tells me a very elaborate, emotional story. She tells me of Boone dying, and of the things I did to try and prevent it. But it had been inevitable. What I found most disturbing was how accurate her description of the medical process I went through trying to save him was. How did her non-medical-school-graduate mind conjure this? And she was so upset. So sure it had happened. I don't know wether it was the look in her eyes, pleading with me to tell her I remember this too, (which I don't) or if it was the cooling temperature of the rain, but it gave me the chills.

I had seen Boone this morning. So had she. She thought for sure she was going crazy.

And I thought maybe she was.

TBC