Once she turned the corner into the elevator bay, Shannon dropped the suitcase and sank to the floor beside it. Angrily she wiped the tears away. She didn't know which was worse; that he had a daughter, for god's sake, or that he had lied to her about Nadia because he thought she couldn't handle it. Why did all the men in her life insist upon treating her like a child?
On the island, after a certain point, everyone stopped using the words "when we're rescued". It seemed like their lives would be lived out in that place. The relationship she built with Sayid was the healthiest she ever had. He was patient and taught her to trust her own instincts. Learning that he hadn't trusted her with the truth about Nadia felt like a betrayal. Of course, Sayid was right when he questioned her just now. She hadn't told him the complete truth about Boone, either. But that was different. Boone was dead. He wasn't going to come back and ruin everything And, Sayid had never asked directly. But she had asked him point blank about Nadia, and he had lied to her.
She stood up and pushed the elevator button. Time to get out of here. There was no one to call to rescue her this time. She would have to do that herself. The thought of that was scary, but no scarier than her life for the past year. She had survived the island and she would survive this, too.
Nadia sat down at the table. She had called both Yasmin and herself in sick earlier. It seemed strange to be sitting in her kitchen on a weekday morning drinking a second cup of coffee and reading the paper while her daughter slept upstairs. The news wasn't capturing her interest today, so she put the paper down. Picking up her cup she walked out and sat on the front step.
It was hard to absorb everything Sayid had told her. A plane crash, on a strange island...just when he was on his way to see her? It sounded like something out of a bad movie, or one of those awful romance novels the girls at work were always reading. Nadia had seen too much of real life to be captivated by simplistic love stories. Life was never that easy in her experience.
Sayid's kiss had unnerved her. She had struggled all night to sort out her feelings. Watching Yasmin sleep, she realized that the only love she was sure about was the love she had for her daughter. That was unconditional and absolute. But did she love Sayid and did he love her? Even if they did love each other could they really forge a relationship now? Or had the years apart led them both to idealize the other so that reality could only be a disappointment?
She didn't know if Sayid wanted a storybook family, the three of them all living together, or if she wanted that herself. Could she even picture it? The worst thing Nadia could think of would be to give Yasmin the hope of all that and then have it fall apart. But how could she ever be sure?
And then there was the girl he had told her about, Shannon. Sayid had seemed sad, resigned to something, when he talked about her. Nadia was not surprised that he had feelings for someone else, especially someone who was on the island. It would be hard to survive that situation without another person to share it with. What Shannon meant to him now though, wasn't clear in what he said. He probably didn't know himself. Was he with her now? Nadia pushed the thought away. She had no right to be jealous or possessive.
She wasn't used to being uncertain. She'd always had a mind of her own, always known what she wanted, from the time she was a child. Now when she wanted to be strong for her daughter, instead she felt fragile, as if the next unexpected thing would send her flying into a million pieces. She didn't like the feeling.
The coffee was cold. She got up and went inside to wake her daughter.