There and Back, chapter 6
After packing a small bag with toiletries and extra clothes, Shannon raced back to the caves to meet Dave. She could hardly believe she'd volunteered to hike through the jungle to the other survivors' Base Camp. She also couldn't believe Dave agreed to let her tag along. He didn't even know her. It was a relief to have someone not know how useless she was.
"Shannon!" a man's voice called.
Shannon stopped running and looked around. "Dave?"
"No Shannon, it's not Dave." Sayid stepped out of the shadows towards her
Shannon's mind reeled, and she silently cursed herself. She'd hoped to leave without having to explain things to Sayid.
"Where are you going? To the caves?" Sayid asked, falling into step with her. "I will walk with you."
Trying to sound nonchalant, Shannon replied, "To the caves for now, then I'm going with Dave to the other camp."
Sayid stopped short, obviously surprised, and just looked at her.
Unable to contain her frustration any longer, Shannon found herself shouting, "Where have you been? Where?"
Sayid started, obviously surprised at her tone. "Shannon, I've been working on the transceiver, you know that."
"With her?" Shannon accused. Enough. Enough she thought, turning to leave she quietly said, "I'm going, Sayid."
"When will you be back?" Sayid's voice, thick with hurt, sounded defeated.
How dare he sound hurt, how dare he?
"I don't know" Shannon replied, coolly, then walked away.
Shannon made it to the caves without crying. Her head spun. Why did he give her that look, that one she knew so well: like she had ripped out his heart and stomped on it, kicking it into the dirt. He had hurt her, dammit. There was no question about it, and she sure as hell wasn't going to stick around for more. "Breathe Shannon, breathe", she muttered to herself. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine," became her mantra.
As Shannon rounded the corner of the caves, she ran right into Dave.
"Ready?" he asked.
Shannon didn't even need to think, "Yep, let's do this. Can't wait to see another piece of Craphole Island."
Dave laughed and off they started.
They hadn't even left the sight of the caves when Claire stumbled on them, baby Aaron fast asleep in the sling Charlie had fashioned. She had a hastily packed bag slung over her shoulder and looked at them with fierce eyes. "I'm coming with you", she said.
Shannon and Dave could both see no wasn't an option. Smiling, Shannon said, "The more the merrier, right?"
It took them several days to reach Base Camp. They went slowly so as not to aggravate Shannon's asthma, and because of frequent breaks for Claire and Aaron.
Dave smiled, "Hey, gives us all a chance to get to know each other, right?"
Shannon learned that Dave had been traveling with his partner, Chris. They had taken their dream vacation to New Zealand and Australia and were on their way home to Santa Barbara when their lives were changed forever. Chris' death had devastated Dave.
They had met in grad school at UC Santa Barbara five years earlier. Dave had dropped out after his first year, but Chris had gone on to get his masters in marine biology. Diving 101 Dave used to tease. Chris had a sailboat and they used it to take day trips to the Channel Islands, just off the coast. Occasionally they would head south to Catalina. One time they even went as far as Baja.
Chris loved the outdoors. Sailing, diving, hiking, you name it. A born leader, it wasn't surprising that when the plane had first crashed, Chris had been one of the first to gear into survival mode. While Dave did what he could for the injured, Chris organized the able bodied, sending some to get firewood, others to find fruit or shelter. That's how they met Ana. "Ana-Lucia Cortez, my friends just call me Ana" she had said.
It was Dave and Ana who had gone looking for Chris after he had failed to come back to Base Camp. It was late, Dave was worried, Ana had offered to come with him and look for Chris. They hadn't gone very far when they heard an awful racket…a horrible mechanical screeching. Ana and Dave started to run, to find some sort of shelter. That is when they found Chris. At least what was left of him. Dave hadn't even noticed the screeching had disappeared. He had no recollection of what happened afterwards, just eventually found himself back at Base Camp, sitting by the fire, Ana trying to get him to eat something.
As Dave grew quiet, Shannon told him a bit about Boone. Not too much: she didn't know if she would ever tell anyone what really happened between them. But she did talk about their life as brother and sister and, of his death. It helped a little to talk with someone who had lost someone on the island.
Shannon also learned why Claire had decided to come with them. Apparently Charlie had taken one of the statues filled with heroin from the plane. He had told Claire at some point about his addiction, and Sayid had told Shannon about the plane full of heroin madonnas, who in turn had told Claire about them. Charlie had sworn he was clean, but earlier that day Claire had been rearranging their things, cleaning out his bag and she found it. It didn't take much to put two and two together. She was so shocked, hurt beyond belief. Adrenaline took over and she packed up and left, hollering to Kate where she was going. Her baby had been through enough, hell, she had been through enough, and she wasn't going to add a junkie into the mix.
She sobbed as she told Shannon this. "I just never thought that Charlie would do this to us."