They started looking for the store exactly one week after getting back. They weren't looking specifically for a store; they were just looking for a place to call home. They'd learned in the car on the way back from the dock that Sabrina had sold Boone's house on Blue Reef Lane in Malibu. He didn't really care, he had no affinity for the place, it was just somewhere to live. What did concern him somewhat, was that when she said she was taking them home, she meant her home. He didn't really see any good coming from staying there, but he supposed that it was better than staying in some hotel.
The push to get out of her house came after yet another incident had caused Shannon to break down into tears. "Take me home Boone. Please, take me home," she'd pleaded with him, expecting, as always, that he'd make everything right.
"I will, Shan, I promise. I just have to figure out where that is." He'd answered.
They were having a difficult time adjusting to being back. All that time on the island, when all they'd thought about was rescue, they hadn't considered that they'd have any difficulty fitting back into society. They hadn't realized that they'd picked up habits and skills that people who hadn't been through what they had, would find outlandish and, in at least one case, truly frightening.
They'd scared Sabrina's cook half to death one day without meaning to at all. To them, what they were doing was just a natural activity. They were just out in the back yard, with Andrew, throwing Boone's hunting knife back and forth, into the grass at each other's feet. It was something they'd done countless times before, simply a way to hone their skill, and pass the time, while they talked. The cook, however, didn't view it that way, and was ready to call the police, convinced that they were going to kill one another, or the baby. Thankfully, the house keeper had intervened before she'd actually made the call, and had come out to tell them to stop, after sending the cook home for the rest of the day to calm down.
They also had a hard time sleeping inside. They were so used to sleeping on the ground with the stars overhead, and the sounds of the jungle surrounding them, that the comfortable king sized bed in Boone's old room actually seemed uncomfortable, and the ceiling overhead appeared to press down on them like the lid on a coffin. So they'd taken to slipping out to the back yard after everyone had fallen asleep, hauling pillows and a blanket with them, so they could sleep where they'd become the most accustomed, outside. Though they'd promise themselves that they'd wake up early and go back inside, a member of the grounds crew, or household staff, had found them, still there the following morning, more than once.
What they didn't know was that Sabrina had also seen them, from her bedroom window, on several occasions. One night she paused to watch them as they made love on the grass, in the moonlight, their tanned, naked bodies sliding over each other. She felt a surge of jealously for what they had, and, that in their struggle over which one of them would possess Boone, Shannon had come out victorious.
Even the way they ate caused problems. Jack had warned all of them about their diet, that they hadn't had processed foods, and food additives in a year, so he'd told them all to stick as close as possible, at least at first, to what they'd gotten used to. So when the cook thought she was doing something nice by planning a huge lavish mean for their first dinner back, she'd been highly disappointed when they'd said all they wanted was grilled fish and steamed vegetables.
When Boone woke up on that Monday morning, one week after getting back, he'd known since the scene the night before that it was well past time to move on.
After breakfast, they loaded Andrew and some overnight stuff into Boone's car and drove off to try and find a place to call home. They didn't know where they were going, they just wanted to find a quiet town where they could settle, start their lives over again, and raise their son.
About two hours into the drive Boone turned right onto a secondary road.
"Why'd you turn here?" Shannon asked.
"I don't know exactly, it just seemed like the thing to do." Boone replied.
"What? Did you suddenly develop the psychic ability to know the right thing to do, like Jack?" she questioned.
"You know I didn't. I just suddenly felt that this was as good a place as any to get off the highway. If we're going to find a place to live it won't be right next to the interstate," he answered.
About half an hour later they came to a town and parked in front of what appeared to be a general store, with living quarters at the rear, situated directly across the road from a lake fronted by a small beach.
"Let's take a break here." Boone said.
They entered the store, and immediately turned to look at one another with a smile. It had hit them both at once, like a love at first sight kind of thing, this is it, they both thought, a solution as to where to live, and where to work.
It was an old fashioned general store, with a wooden floor and painted white walls. The kind of place everyone would think only existed in some town like in that old Andy Griffith TV series. They could smell the odour of home baked goods in the air. There was a diverse array of merchandise on the shelves, from the kind of stuff you'd find in any store, like bread and milk, to beach towels, flip flops, hammers and nails. It was obviously prosperous, as there were quite a few customers browsing around with several items in their baskets. The elderly gentleman behind the counter smiled at them. "Anything I can help you with, folks?"
Boone smiled back at the man, "Hi, I'm Boone, and this is my sister Shannon, and our son Andrew." Fuck, he thought, cursing himself for the whole "this is my sister" thing, I've gotta stop doing that. He quickly amended it, "I mean my wife Shannon," even though, in the strictest sense of the word, she really wasn't. "Could you possibly tell me where I could find the owner of this place?" he asked politely, hoping the man wouldn't question the absurdity of his introduction.
No such luck, it turned out. The man looked at him appraisingly then turning to Shannon he asked "What are you, his sister or his wife? I only ask because there's a world of difference between the two, especially when the baby is your son."
Damn you Boone, she thought, looking over at him. At least he had the grace to look chagrinned. "I'm both," she answered. "I was, I mean, I guess I still am, his step-sister."
"Well, that must cause all sorts of confusion," the man responded with a smile. He turned to Boone, "As to your question, young fellow, you're looking at him, I'm Tom. Is there a problem, a reason you're looking for me?"
"Well, I know this is going to sound absurd, coming out of the blue like this, but are you interested in selling?" Boone asked.
"What are you, some kind of mind reader?" Tom asked. "Heather and I were just talking about that this morning. We were going to call the real estate agent tomorrow and put it on the market. We figure we've reached the age where we might just not want all this responsibility day in and day out. Maybe time to take a break. We'll miss it, of course. We've lived here since the day we got married, and worked here since even before then." With an answer that long it was obvious that the man was used to chatting with his customers.
"Well, sir, I don't think you're going to have to make that call," Boone responded. "Is there some place we could go to talk in private?"
"Of course there is, but it'll have to wait until 5. That's when I've got Shelly coming in after school to take over here at the front." Tom paused to think, "I tell you what, you go on through the back there, introduce yourselves to Heather, tell her what you just asked me, and she'll keep you occupied until Shelly comes in."
Shannon smiled at him, "Thanks, that's very kind of you."
They stayed till 5…then for dinner…then for the night, and eventually for good, moving their stuff in before the end of the week. The purchase was completed in record time, though Boone knew he'd paid far less for the place than he should have.
Boone and Shannon asked Tom and Heather to stay on. They felt bad having them move, even though they now owned the place instead of Tom and Heather, it was their family home, and besides they were so used to living with other people, it actually would have felt strange having the place all to themselves. Their staying served both couple's purposes, Tom and Heather got to continue living in their home, working in the business they'd grown, but without the 24/7 commitment of before. Boone and Shannon got the bonus of their knowledge, the ability to leave when they needed knowing that business was being taken care of by the most qualified people there could be, and, because they'd both fallen in love with Andrew, built in baby sitters.
Their roles in the business were set even before they started work, but those roles weren't at all what the Marshall's were expecting. While Heather did the books and prepared the limited selection of home baked goods that they offered for sale, Tom worked the front, and they'd just assumed that Boone and Shannon would follow the same pattern. Their expectations were corrected when Heather asked Shannon to join her in the kitchen to get things ready for the next day's baking. Shannon just looked at her totally incredulously.
Boone was quick to forestall any misunderstanding. "Uh, Heather, unless you want people for miles around to suddenly die from food poisoning, I don't think it's a really good idea to have Shannon involved in any way with any food preparation." He looked at Shannon, who rolled her eyes at him, but didn't contradict. "I'll be helping you with the baking and the books, Shan'll help Tom out front." He couldn't resist adding "She has a real way with people." What that way was, he wasn't saying, he only hoped she could keep a bit of a rein on her snark.