Upon returning to the beach, Lina found that hanging around Sawyer actually helped in her efforts to keep people away from her. Those stubborn few who persisted in trying to socialize with her were easily discouraged. She simply kept an eye out for them coming towards her, and then headed in the direction of his tent.

He wasn't exactly pleased by the situation. After all, you can't be an outcast if people are always hanging around you. He grudgingly tolerated it, though, since she brought him more of the tasty boar "jerky" she kept a stash of. They didn't talk much, if at all when near each other. She would just stare at the ocean and think. She was a great thinker. She could sit for hours and just drift off in her own mind, while he read whatever book he was reading today, or napped. Or pretended to nap. She was sure sometimes that he was faking it. Men are the laziest creatures on the planet, she would think. Men, and rocks.

They hadn't spoken for a few days. Lina was spending a lot of time with Claire and Charlie, who it seems was not at all fond of the nickname "Flippy"; that Claire had called him a couple times for no particular reason. It had taken Lina a good five minutes to stop laughing.

Claire did not remember anything, though occasionally, bits could come back to her. Every time she remembered something, Lina could see the hope glimmer in Charlie's eyes. It was sweet. Now that Claire was back, safe and sound, Lina didn't didn't have to hope for that; so she mostly hoped for Claire to remember how much Charlie had meant to her before she'd been snatched. They made a cute couple. Odd, but cute.

Spending more time hanging about the caves, Lina also got the chance to get to know Sun. She was a nice woman; quiet. Thoughtful. She felt bad for her and her husband, though she didn't know the whole story behind them. She, Lina, hated gardening, but was much interested in the herbology Sun knew so much about. Back in the real world, she'd done most of her studying on such topics via the internet. She found it was a much better experience with an actual person. Even if that person spoke no English.

Someone she found she had much in common with was Walt. The boy was something else once you got to know him. Too many people on the island treated him like a child, a five-year-old. Walt took to her right away. Back in the real world, Lina had learned the secret to kids from caring for her own young cousins. Pay attention.

If someone would explain that to the boy's father, his life would get much easier. Walt definitely had a gift, even if he wasn't aware of it, yet.

He told her that he'd decided he liked her after they'd had a two hour discussion on the various super-ness of super heros. Walt had some crazy notions when it came to what made a super hero super, and Lina was seriously going to have to re-educate the boy. Aquaman and The Flash. Ha!

She was seriously thinking of relocating to the caves permanently. Sawyer had scoffed at the notion, asking why she wanted to give up all the personal freedom of the beach. She wasn't sure if it was an encouragement or a discouragement when he told her, in an indefinable tone, "Then, I won't have anyone to bother me."

So, everyday she made the trek to the caves, like she was making a morning commute to work, and then back to the beach. Occasionally, Michael allowed Walt to head back and forth with her. She thought it was mostly because she agreed with him that she didn't totally trust Locke. Men are simple like that. So are rocks.

She'd returned to the beach just in time to see Sawyer head off into the woods with the woman, Kate. She shook her head. Sometimes rocks are smarter than men.

---

"You're going to ruin your eyes."

Sawyer looked up from the book he was reading. "Need something?"

Lina gave him an amused half-smile. "No, your prices are too steep. I brought you a house re-warming gift." She dropped a bottle of water at his feet. "Matzeltov!"

"Darn, I was hoping for some more of that boar meat you cook so well, Emeril," he quipped, going back to his book.

"Emeril is a man, Peaches."

"Peaches are a fruit, Specs."

"So are you," she countered. True, it was rather infantile, but she wasn't in the mood to trade witticisms with this man. "If you want boar meat, maybe you should go on another boar hunt. Oh, wait. No, that won't work; you don't bring back any boar."

"Are you… mad at me? For not bringing home the bacon?" he actually laughed. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm annoyed that you expect everything to just drop at your feet," she told him. Sawyer glanced purposely down at his feet, where she had dropped the bottle of water just a moment before. She made a disgusted sound. "You know what I mean. Ass."

He threw his head back and laughed this time. "Wow, you were really looking forward to that boar, weren't you, Specs?"

"No, I just feel that, if you really wanted boar, you should have actually gone and hunted one," she said. She should leave. She sounded way too angry about the whole thing. Unreasonably angry, for her argument. She started off down the beach, away from the camp. She heard him slap his hand on his thigh and knew he was watching her go, with that shit-eating grin on his lips. Laughing at her back.

She was so shocked when a hand grabbed her arm that she almost lost her balance on the soft beach sand.

"Are you jealous?" His tone, face, and eyes conveyed nothing short of genuine astonishment. She gave him an oh please! look.

"I'm not jealous, you egomaniac. Just annoyed."

"That I went off in the jungle with Kate. Alone. Annoyed, but not jealous? Come on, Specs."

"Get over yourself, Peaches. I'm not annoyed because you went off in the woods with a woman, and you expect everyone to think you were hunting boar."

"I was hunting a boar," he insisted.

She shook her head, trying in vain to pull her arm from his grasp. "Whatever, that's not the point. I'm not annoyed on a personal level, I'm annoyed on a sociological level."

"Come again?"

"I find it annoying that people like you don't have the good sense to not drive the wrong way down a one way street."

"Meaning, what, Dr. Phil?"

She set her stance and looked him right in the eye. "You spend all your time, chasing the one person on this island whose actually more fucked up than you are. Shit, the plane crash is a metaphor for your entire adult life! The only difference is, the plane doesn't set out to crash on purpose."

"You don't know shit about me-"

"I know more about you than either of us is happy about, Mr. Sawyer."

His eyes lit with realization and grew dark with rage," You read my letter."

It wasn't a question, but she answered anyway. "And, occasionally, you talk in your sleep. Or didn't Kate mention that to you?"

He released her arm with a flinging motion, and she lost her balance. She ended up sitting down in the sand, looking up at his eyes; dark, cold steel. He really looked like he wanted to hit her.

"Keep away," was all he said, before storming off back toward his tent.