Chapter Two

"You've got to be kidding me." Jack looked at Kate closely, as if there were actually a chance she might be pulling his leg.

"Nope. Said he wanted to help."

"What about Charlie? I thought he really wanted to go."

She shrugged her shoulders in answer. "Guess something must have come up."

He looked away, sighing in exasperation. "Perfect. That's just perfect."

He wandered over to the spring and began angrily dunking bottles of water under, filling them for the trip. Kate followed him, sympathetic but also not quite serious. "Come on, Jack. I'm sure I'll regret saying this, but he's really not that bad. Nothing you can't handle."

He glanced up with a slight laugh. "Look, I know you've got a thing for the guy, but I'm just not sure..."

She interrupted him, loudly. "What? I don't have a 'thing' for him! What's that supposed to mean?" Kate seemed unnaturally embarrassed, practically blushing.

"I just mean that you don't hate him as much as I do."

She rolled her eyes. "You don't hate him. You hardly even know him."

"And you do?" She looked away. "You know what, don't answer that," he said in an attempt at lightness.

She could see what even the faintest traces of jealousy did to him. After a few seconds of silence, she ventured, "Maybe it'd be better if I didn't go."

"Don't even think about it. You might be the only thing that'll keep us from killing each other." He seemed calmer now, as if he was accepting the change of plans.

She smiled. "I'm not sure I want that much responsibility."

"Not interruptin' anything, am I?" Sawyer came noisily into the clearing, tossing his bag down beside Jack.

"Would it matter?" Jack asked flatly.

Sawyer shook his head and smiled as if he had expected this answer. "I can see I bring out the best in you, Doc. Try not to act too excited, now." He filled up his own water bottles as he spoke. "Can't let you two have all the fun, can I? I been runnin' low on some things myself...figure it's about time for a little shopping trip."

"Sawyer, this isn't an opportunity for looting, okay? We're trying to salvage what's left before it's completely destroyed," Jack said in an irritated voice.

Standing up and replacing his bottles, Sawyer looked at him thoughtfully, with a gleam of mirth in his eyes. "Got a question for you. You mind explainin' to me how it is that when I take stuff from the plane, it's called looting, but when you do it, it's called salvage?"

Kate looked expectantly from one to the other as the pause drew out. Jack seemed honestly at a loss for words and extremely pissed off by the fact. Turning and hefting his pack, he walked off toward the jungle. "Let's go."

Sawyer smiled victoriously at Kate, who tried her best not to smile back. He raised his arm in the direction Jack had gone. "Ladies first." He followed after her, and the three of them headed single file down the path that led in the direction of the cockpit.


She was still sitting there, in the same position she'd been in for hours. It wasn't as if she was normally active - far from it. But she never just stared out at the ocean like that, especially not with that look in her eyes. He'd wanted to give her some space, but finally, he couldn't stand it anymore. He approached slowly and lowered himself down beside her on the sand. Waiting a few seconds until she turned her eyes toward him, he finally spoke.

"How are you feeling, Shannon?"

"I'm okay." She looked back out at the waves.

"Really? Because you have been sitting here for a long time. I don't want to intrude, but maybe...talking would help?"

"What is there to say?" There was an edge of anger in her voice that was much deeper than her habitual anger at sand fleas and accusations of laziness. It was something he hadn't heard there before.

"All right, then. Perhaps it would be best not to talk," he said softly. After a few seconds, she looked at him again.

"You know what I got him last year for his birthday?"

"What?"

"Nothing. You know what he got me?" She smiled spitefully. Sayid waited, unsure what to say. "This beautiful antique picture frame...it must have cost a fortune."

"That was a nice gift."

"I pawned it," she said bitterly. "I fucking pawned it."

"Shannon...you shouldn't do this to yourself."

"Why not?" she turned to him angrily, tears standing brightly in her eyes.

Sayid thought for a second. "He wouldn't want you to."

She laughed with hostility. "Yeah, well...I never gave a damn what he wanted. Why start now?"

They sat in silence for awhile as he tried to think of something else to say. What would make her feel better? Gingerly, he made a suggestion. "Maybe there is something you could do...in his memory. Can you think of something that he would appreciate?"

"No," she said quickly.

"Think about it," he said, not giving up.

She continued to glare out at the waves, but after a minute or so her face softened. She almost smiled, obviously lost in memory. "There is one thing."

He looked at her questioningly.


Charlie walked up to Claire's campsite area, delicately balancing more fruit than it was possible to carry easily. He peeked over the top of the pile playfully. "Anybody hungry?"

Claire didn't glance up from the baby. She was kneeling over him as he slept on a towel in the shade, protected from the rays of the sinking sun. "You have good eyes, don't you, Charlie?"

"Uh.." he set the fruit down. "I suppose so, yeah. You want me to thread a needle or something?"

"Come and look at this." Her voice was tight with carefully restrained worry. Glancing up at him as he kneeled down beside her, she

tried hard to sound light and casual. "I'm sure I'm just being a paranoid mother. It's probably nothing, don't you think?"

He looked perplexed. "You haven't shown me yet, Claire."

"Oh." She seemed distracted. "Then you can't see it? That's...that's good." She bobbed her head up and down. "It's probably just in my head." She looked back down at the sleeping baby, and Charlie followed her gaze. Searching closely, he saw with growing alarm that the infant's skin was covered in a faint tracery of red patterned like a spider's web. With a shaking finger, he delicately traced one of the lines.

"You see it?" Claire seemed both relieved and terrified at this.

"Yeah..." he said softly, trying not to worry her. "Looks like some kind of rash or something."

"Do you think it's serious?"

He kept looking at the baby, recalling with a sinking feeling that Jack wouldn't be back till tomorrow.

"Charlie?"

He looked at her, feeling completely useless.

"I don't know, Claire. I don't know anything about babies."

On the verge of tears, she looked back down at the sleeping boy. "Neither do I."


"How much farther?" Sawyer called out testily.

"Almost there. Another twenty minutes or so. Why, you need a rest?" Jack asked.

"I'm fine," he said, breathing heavily. "Just worried about the lady, is all."

"Yeah, you're a real gentleman," Jack muttered.

"What's that? Listen cowboy, I don't know what the hell your problem is...Ow, son-of-a-bitch!" Sawyer suddenly collapsed onto the ground, holding his foot.

Kate put her bag down, concerned. "What happened?"

She looked at the bottom of his shoe, then up at Jack. "It's a thorn. Went all the way through his shoe."

"Hey, I'm right here, you know!" Pissed off, he stretched his leg out painfully.

"So pull it out. We need to keep moving if we want to have some daylight left to look around." Jack seemed unimpressed.

"Pull it out? Easy for you to say! I don't see anything sharp stickin' out of your boots!"

Kate sighed, exasperated. "I'll do it." Before he could protest, she yanked the thorn out quickly and held it up in front of him. "See? It's not even that big."

"Like hell it's not."

"I've seen bigger."

At this, Jack burst out laughing. Sawyer glared at him. Standing up, Kate tossed the thorn aside. "Come on, let's keep going."

Muttering to himself, Sawyer limped after them. "Don't it just figure. Out of all the places to step on this god-forsaken island, I gotta step on the one thorn that goes through my shoe. Yeah, what else is new? Guess I shoulda expected it."

Jack called back, "Maybe you should stop whining...you might conserve some energy."

"Yeah, maybe you should shut the hell up!"

Jack shook his head. "Just like my father."

Sawyer, startled a little, remembered the man he'd met in Sydney. "Not quite," he replied sarcastically.

Jack turned, questioning. "And how would you know that?"

Kate stopped too, looking at him closely, as if she sensed something.

"Because," he said, trying to back away from the secret he'd almost let slip. "If I'd 'a had a kid with his head up his own ass as far as yours is, I'd have drowned him in the bathtub."

Jack nodded, as if he'd expected his. "I'm sure you'll make a great dad." He glanced at Kate before walking on, and was happy to see that she looked disgusted. Sawyer started to say something to her, but there was no way to explain with Jack around. She finally turned and walked off.

As they approached the top of the hill a few moments later, Kate broke away and stood at the edge of a ravine, looking out over the green, verdant hills of the island spread out below with a faraway gaze in her eyes. Jack, noticing she wasn't following anymore, turned to watch her. Sawyer did the same.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? I mean, if we weren't stuck here...if it wasn't like a prison, wouldn't you think it was the most beautiful place you'd ever seen?" The breeze lifted her hair gently, blowing strands of it across her face.

They watched her without speaking, barely breathing. Both looked as if they thought something was beautiful, but it certainly wasn't the view.

Finally breaking her gaze, she turned to them, smiling a little self-consciously. "Guess we should keep moving."

The three of them trudged on, nearly there.