Boone settled into the seat, then reached down pulling the baby out, in spite of the fight putting their son's needs first. Andrew was hungry and in his books, that absolutely took precedence over Sabrina's little temper tantrum. He waited until Shannon was ready before handing him over.
Sabrina stared at the girl as she slid her arm out of her tee-shirt and opened her bra. She shuddered in horror as she realized that the girl actually intended on breast feeding the child in front of her. Shannon held her arms out for the boy then settled him in to feed.
Boone smiled softly as he watched the two of them, the love so evident in his expression, Sabrina just felt nauseous. He reached his hand out to touch them. She swore if he touched the girl's breast she was going to slap him, but he just trailed his finger down the baby's cheek, then pulled Shannon's hair back behind her ear, leaning forward and kissing her temple. The bile rose in her throat.
He glanced over, noticing the look of revulsion on her face. "Is there something you'd like to say?"
"No, nothing," she bit back her response.
"You can let us out at the next street corner if there's a problem, we can certainly catch a cab to my house." He offered.
"Your house?" she shook her head. "Boone, I'm sorry, but I sold the place."
He looked up concerned. "So, where are we headed?" he wondered.
"My house, your home." She explained.
'No, Boone, please, I don't want to go there.' Shannon protested silently, looking up from the baby in alarm.
'I know, I don't either, let me think,' he paused, weighing their options. Shannon waited, watching his face. He met her eyes, 'Just for a few days? Till I figure things out? Okay?' he narrowed his eyes, wincing slightly, understanding that what he was asking was going to be far more difficult for her, than for himself, not sure if it was really fair to her or not.
'A few days, just a few, no more?' she bit her lip, not looking happy at his request.
He nodded, studying her carefully.
She sighed, and nodded her head in resignation, "Okay." She said.
Sabrina had watched them, thinking to herself that it appeared as if they were speaking in some strange silent language that only they could hear. Nonsense, she dismissed her impression as simply the work of an overly active imagination.
"Alright, we'll come, but not for long, and not so you can insult us." He warned her.
"I offer my hospitality and the best you can come up with is a reluctant acceptance, with conditions attached? Perhaps I should turn you out at the next corner." She was still trying to come to terms with his new maturity, not that Boone had ever, ever been childish. Except for his fear of thunderstorms, even as a child he'd been far older than his years, but he certainly hadn't ever spoken back to her this way, standing up to her in this manner.
Boone shrugged, it wasn't a big deal if she did, he had his own money, they'd just go to a hotel, like they'd originally planned. "Whatever."
She wasn't prepared to accept his 'whatever' so tried to make an effort. "That the both of you survived the initial crash is miraculous, I can't possibly imagine what the last year had been like." She was more than just a little curious. A year for the two of them, so urban, so unsuited for living in the wild, it must have been like a year in hell. She had no idea how close to the truth she was, but for an entirely different reason. She was imagining the island as simply a location, a spot of brown colouring appearing in an expanse of blue in an Oxford School atlas, some place for them to fight against Mother Nature for survival. That the island itself had also been their nemesis; an active participant in trying to rid itself of inhabitants like a dog might want to get rid of a flea infestation, so far out of left field that it might have been the same as her trying to image her secretary wanting to poison her morning coffee. Something, unbeknownst to her, that the girl had contemplated more than once.
"No," he agreed, "You can't."
"So tell me," she urged.
He shook his head, the buried hurt she'd noticed in his eyes earlier suddenly front and centre. "Please, it's too soon. We just need time."
Shannon nodded her agreement, a haunted look in her eyes as well, as she took the baby away from her breast and handed him to Boone. She refastened her bra and slid her arm back into her shirt.
Sabrina's eyes narrowed in disgust. She managed to paste a smile on her face just before Boone raised his eyes from the baby.
"You want to hold him?" he knew she wasn't really a baby person. He'd often marvelled at the fact of his own existence, but thought that maybe she'd be more accepting if she actually cradled her grandson in her arms.
She looked at him, a little uncertain, then dared a glance at Shannon. The girl was watching her, her head tipped, waiting for Sabrina's response. She knew how bad it would look if she hesitated too long. She smiled and held out her arms, "Of course, I'd love to."
Boone placed the baby carefully in her arms, pulling her elbow up to properly support Andrew's head. She felt herself unexpectedly melt a little as she gazed down into the tiny little face. His eyes looked into hers, almost as if he was aware of who she was, he smiled and reached out a hand to clutch at her necklace. She looked up at her children, "He's precious." She commented, shocked with herself when she realized that she actually meant it.
"Yes," Shannon concurred, "he is."
Sabrina, almost reluctantly, handed him back to Boone.
He laid the baby down across his thigh, rubbing Andrew's back gently. He glanced at Shannon briefly, saying "Sure" before reaching in his canvas bag, pulling out a bottle of water and handing it to her. She took a deep swallow while watching the street scenes go by out the window. After recapping the bottle she settled back against the seat, resting her head against the cushioning softness of the leather.
"I called you on the ship. Didn't you get my message?" his mother asked, still slightly bemused by the after effects of holding her grandson for the first time.
"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't call you back. There was just too much to say for a phone conversation." Boone looked at her apologetically. "How did you know to call?"
"I pulled some strings, got your credit cards flagged for activity. I always had this strange feeling you'd survived the unexplained loss of the flight. During the initial days, after it was reported missing, Oceanic was frantic, the calls I got from them, even in the state I was in, were almost amusing. Their attempts at damage control were so ineffective. You'll both be due a nice settlement. But even so, even after all the months with nothing, no word of you, the search attempts coming up fruitless, I still felt like you were out there somewhere. Maybe your grandmother was right; maybe I am a bit sensitive thatway after all." Sabrina mused.
Boone wondered if that's where he got the spark that the island had built on in its' endeavour to magnifying his latent psychic talent. And a settlement, boy howdy, as Sawyer would say, that would certainly make up for dying, he thought sarcastically. He shrugged, non-committedly, it was only money.
Shannon listened to them with half an ear. Her eyes closed after a few minutes, lulled to sleep by the gentle movement of the car, she slumped against his shoulder, her head falling to rest against it. He smiled at her in amusement, and pulled his arm out from between them, lifting it to curl around her shoulder, nestling her against him. Her hand fell to his thigh, stroking it briefly as she sighed. He rested his own head back against the seat and followed her into the limbo of slumber, neither one of them had gotten much sleep in the last two days.
Sabrina studied them. They made a handsome couple, they always had. The number of times she'd coerced them into appearing in a magazine layout for her company, the results had always been spectacular. They were just naturally photogenic, the heat between them always intensified by the presence of the camera. She couldn't believe that they were so blind to it, so completely in denial that they could just flick past the pictures of themselves together in yet another ad campaign, without realizing it themselves. That was the point where she'd felt falsely secure that nothing would ever spark between them, the baby stretched across his leg certainly proving her wrong.
After about half an hour, the girl started moaning. Sabrina's attention was redirected from the memo that she'd been scanning.
"No, no, please," Shannon spoke, whimpering.
Boone's face twitched in response. Sabrina frowned, puzzled, it was like they were sharing the same nightmare.
"Kate, no, it can't be, no," she was twisting against him, making sad mewling sounds.
Boone's eyes flickered a few times, then opened slowly. He blinked and frowned, trying to get his bearings.
"No," Shannon cried, still caught up in the reality of her nightmare.
"Shan?" he looked down. She'd had this same nightmare the last two nights in a row, rousing him from sleep, frantic, each time.
"Shannon, wake up." He shook her.
In the middle of a moan, her eyes snapped open; she continued to cry, clutching at him. "Boone, no, please, no. It's not true, please, no." she dissolved into sobs.
He held her, rocking back and forth, "I know, Shan, I know, it's not fair. I loved her too, Shan, please, don't do this again, Kate's gone. She's gone, and Jack's alone, it's not right, we can't fix it. Please, Shan." He babbled meaningless platitudes, trying to calm them both.
"But we were so close, so close to coming home, Boone she deserved to come home. God, it's not fair, Boone, it's not fair, two weeks and we would have been home." She sobbed into his shoulder.
"Shan, I can't change that, I'm sorry. At least John stayed behind; he'll be there for all of those who didn't make it. I know he'll say words over Kate's grave, everyone's grave who didn't come home. It didn't surprise me when he chose to stay behind, disappearing into the jungle like he did, instead of being rescued. I got the sense that he'd bonded more with the ones of us who stayed, than those who got to go, even if all the ones who stayed behind, except him, were buried on the hill side by the ocean, belonging to the island as much as he did. Kate won't be forgotten, Shan, not by us and not by Locke." He hoped it helped to satisfy her, sadly knowing full well that it wouldn't. It hadn't on either of the two preceding nights, and nothing had changed in the interim for his words to give her comfort now. Kate had been a symbol for all the women, tough and independent, a member of the leadership cadre, Jack's second and more, until the day her body had been carried in to camp. Boone had become aware that any shred of self assurance had eluded Shannon after Kate's loss, as it had for most the remaining female survivors. He wasn't sure how they would have existed much longer, if rescue hadn't come quite so soon after.
Sabrina listened carefully to their exchange, thinking that this might be the only way she was going to glean any information from them, given Boone's refusal earlier to discuss their experiences.
The girl cried quietly for a while, before composing herself and pulling back from him. Boone wiped her tears away with his thumbs, as they smiled sadly at each other.
Shannon leaned in to kiss him, Sabrina unable to suppress a shiver of disgust at the sight. This was definitely going to take a considerable period of adjustment on her part, the memory of the feel of the small infant in her arms making major inroads in convincing her that it was worth the effort. One of Boone's hands slid up from the girl's shoulders to bury itself in her hair, pulling her in tighter, as her own hand moved up his thigh. Shannon started moaning, her kiss becoming more passionate, the hand on his leg moving ever higher.
"Shannon," Sabrina spoke sharply certain if she didn't stop this that the girl's hand would actually snake down the front of his pants.
She pulled away slowly and gave him a satisfied smile, having gotten the exact response from Sabrina that she'd been after. He smirked at her and shook his head, rolling his eyes.
The chauffeur pulled the car into the driveway of Sabrina's estate and glided to a stop in front of the door.
"Here we are," she said brightly. The two of them just hunched to look out the window and winced.
She led the way up the steps and into house, unlocking the door and stepping to one side so they could enter. She followed them into the foyer, pushing the door closed behind her.
They jumped at the sound as the front door, quite literally, closed on a chapter of their lives.