Chapter 27 to a LOST Love

Alex opened her eyes slightly against the sun the next morning, blissfully happy. Closing her eyes again, she breathed in the smell of Sayid, the intoxicating smell that made her nerves spiral. She looked up at Sayid's still sleeping face and smiled. She languidly stretched like a cat and sighed again peacefully.

Swiveling her head to search for her clothes, she gently removed Sayid's arm once she found them. Crawling over to grab her clothes, Alex put her underwear and bra on before realizing that she was completely covered in sand. She reached up to finger comb her hair away from her face and found that that was coated with sand as well. Her skin was starting to itch, too.

The crashing of the ocean to her right made her turn her head to look at it. The morning had dawned beautifully and the ocean was a sparkling aquamarine. Walking slowly to the surf, enjoying the soft sand on her feet, Alex stepped lightly in the water and found, much to her surprise, that the ocean was quite warm. And so, wading farther into the sea, Alex dove into an oncoming wave and swam underwater for a bit, sand billowing out behind her as it fell from her body.

Sayid woke up without opening his eyes at first. He filled his lungs with the clean salty air and breathed out through an open mouth, sighing as he did. Every muscle in his body felt used to the max and that felt wonderful. Without opening his eyes still, Sayid pulled his arm in to feel for Alex and pulled it farther than he meant to. He touched his own side without feeling her and that caused him to squint his eyes open against the glaring sun. He looked to his left where Alex had been the night before and only saw an empty groove in the sand where she had lain.

Sitting up on his hands as quickly as he could, still being slightly groggy from sleep, Sayid looked around and saw that her clothes were still there where he had tossed them last night. Looking around, he saw nobody, only trees, sand, sky and ocean. Looking down at the clothes again, Sayid noticed that there were footprints leading away from the clothes. His gaze followed the footprints and saw that they led straight to the water's edge.

His eyes followed the path of the footprints into the ocean and saw something pop up out of the water. It was Alex! Breathing a sigh of relief to still his rapidly beating heart, Sayid sank down to his elbows and watched her.

Alex, seeing Sayid awake, waved slightly and began to walk out of the water. Sayid was literally going to melt as one of his fantasies was unfolding right before him: Alex, walking smoothly out of the ocean, her beautiful body soaking wet…well, we get the idea.

Finally, Alex reached him and knelt down in the sand next to him, getting her knees and calves sandy yet again. Smiling, Alex said, "Hey."

"Hey," Sayid responded back. Nothing more needed to be said as Alex leaned in to kiss him again.

Alex was the first to break away as she sighed, "We'd better get dressed, huh?"

Sayid nodded, smiling sadly, and stood up to get dressed. Alex was already mostly dressed but she turned around anyways to give Sayid some privacy and to finish dressing. Sayid did the same, not that he needed to, but he was just being polite.

Suddenly, a crashing through the trees alarmed Alex and Sayid and they both whipped around. There was Locke, stumbling onto the sand and falling over onto his hands and knees. His shirt was coated in blood and he was limping quite badly. "Somebody help!" Locke managed to get out before falling completely flat on his stomach.

Racing toward Locke, Alex and Sayid knelt next to him and turned him over onto his back. Sayid picked up Locke's head and lifted him up onto Sayid's knees to support him. Locke was breathing hard and squinted his eyes to see them.

"Locke…" Alex said. "What happened?"

Locke turned his gaze toward Alex, still panting. He paused a moment to collect himself before saying, "They want you." Then he passed out against Sayid's stomach and didn't move.