Chapter 24 - Oceans, water, and Tears
"Boone," she whispered as she woke up the next morning. But there was no answer. She opened her eyes to see a void where Boone's body had been the night before. Now all that was there was his wrinkled t-shirt. Where the hell was he?
She stood up and put her hair into a quick ponytail, and walked down the beach to see if she could find him. She heard someone shrieking, which made her even more anxious. As she continued walking down the beach, she saw a group of frantic people standing in front of the water. "What's going on?" She asked Charlie breathlessly.
"I heard screaming, there's someone out there! Jack went to go rescue them!" He answered, anxiously tapping his chipped, black nails against his knee.
"Who is it?" She thought, her mind instantly jumping to Boone, the only person who would be stupid enough to go swimming in the ocean on Craphole Island. "Are they okay?"
"I don't know," said Charlie nervously, tapping his fingernails on his hand. She watched restlessly as the waves went in and out, and Jack swam further and further away. Finally, he swam closer, holding Boone to his side. Half of her mind wanted to chastise his for his stupidity, but the other half was just happy to see that he was alive. Kate and Sayid helped him walk, but Jack was swimming back. "There's someone else still out there," he gasped.
"Boone!" She called, approaching him, ignoring Kate and Sayid, who were holding him up. "What the hell were you – what's going on?"
"I…" he said, out of breath, "I woke up and… I saw this woman drowning… so, I thought I'd… try to…" Oh great, his stupid wannabe lifeguard complex.
"And then you ended up practically drowning?" She tried to sound spiteful, but her tone came out more as mildly worried.
"I don't think she's going to make it," he gestured towards the ocean. "It's all my fault." Shannon took Sayid's place and walked up the beach with him and Kate.
"No, you were just trying to save her. It's hard to swim in the ocean," Kate said.
"But I'm a –"
"Boone, would you quit with the lifeguard stuff, okay? You were a crappy lifeguard and it was like, for a three foot deep pool!" He gave her a dirty look.
"Someone's probably going to die, and all you can do is insult me!" He wheezed. Kate looked at Shannon somberly, agreeing.
They turned as they heard Jack's rasping, "She's gone. I'm sorry."
"Oh my god," Kate said, letting go of Boone and running towards Jack. Boone sat down in the sand.
"Look –" Shannon started.
"Just go away, Shannon, I don't feel like dealing with you right now."
"Dealing with me?" She repeated, incredulous.
"See, that's exactly what I mean. Just go away." She gave him one last look and then changed her clothes. They were soaked with ocean water from his little excursion, anyway. As she put on a clean shirt, she slapped off some bugs off of her arms, and thought of how much bugs adored Boone, and how he was always complaining about needed more bug spray, and the deal she had made with Sawyer the day before.
She traipsed through the sand towards him, sitting there, looking all smug as he read a magazine.
"Have you got it or what?"
"You're in my lightsticks." He smiled even more smugly. What the hell was he talking about?
"Lightsticks? What the hell is that?" She spat.
"Light, comma, sticks. As in those legs of yours," he smirked, ostentatiously looking up and down her legs, stopping to smile as his eyes hit mid-thigh. Oh god, the last thing she needed was some southern pervert checking her out. It was times like this she wished that half her wardrobe wasn't made up of tiny little flippy skirts.
"Look, while I really love my new nickname, and I think it's really sweet. . ." She started, rolling her eyes.
"Calm down. I got your damn stuff." He held up the bottle of bug spray, smiling cheekily like he was advertising it. She grabbed it, reading the label.
"It'll keep off sand fleas?" The sand fleas were the ones that especially liked Boone.
"You bet. It even has aloe," he finished sarcastically.
"How much?"
"Your money's no good here," he smiled suggestively. Oh god…
"Then what the hell do you want?" She asked unnecessarily. Like she would really have sex on an island! "If you really think I'm going to…" she said.
"Five grand." For bug spray? What the fuck?
"I thought you said my money's no good here."
"I was negotiating," He said, as if she had never head that word before. "But I could take an IOU. Something tells me you're good…" She contorted her face into a prizewinning scowl. "At it." He finished. You know what? Screw the bug spray, let Boone manhandle the friggin' insects himself. She threw the container at Sawyer's head. Pervert.
She found Boone sitting on the beach, staring at the ocean dejectedly, as he had been when she had left him about an hour before. "Still brooding?" She asked, sitting down next to him. He sighed.
"It's all my fucking fault." She put her arm around him in what she thought was a friendly gesture. But as usual, it turned out to be purely sensual. "Not right now, Shannon," he said between clenched teeth.
"I wasn't –"
"You –"
"Shut up, I was trying to make you feel better, okay? God!"
They sat there for a few minutes, staring at the tides. "I'm not mad at you," he said.
"Fooled me," she said stubbornly.
"I'm going to tell Jack he shouldn't have saved me."
"Why the hell would you do that?" She asked.
"Because he shouldn't have."
"What else would you have done?"
"I can swim."
"Put your clothes on," she said, like she had said that morning in the hotel. She instantly regretted her word choice. "Like, a shirt. You're really pale, you're going to get all –" She scrunched up her nose, "Pink."
"Why don't you put some clothes on?"
"I am wearing clothes." She answered, thinking that she knew where this conversation was going to go
"If you don't want Sawyer making offers to you, why don't you stop dressing like a total slut?"
"I thought you said there were more important things to do than insult each other!" He sighed. "I'm not really mad at you," she said, like he had minutes before.
"I know."
"Good," she said, leaning over to kiss his neck (as subtly as possible). She let her lips linger a little longer, even daring to let her tongue skim over his ear.
"Don't give me a hickey, Shannon, please." She thought it was funny that he just let her do whatever she wanted to his body whenever she wanted.
"Why?" She whined, her lips hovering over his ear.
"Um, because." He said obviously. She ignored him, skimming her tongue along his earlobe slowly.
"Well then put on a fucking shirt, okay?" She mumbled in between kisses. Damnit, damnit, damnit, she just blew her cover!
He smiled. "That's why? You want me to put on a shirt so that you can resist me better?"
"Don't flatter yourself," she said as flatly as possible. But that would have been easier if she hadn't been licking his ear.
"Sawyer behind you," he said suddenly. "Stop." She pulled back.
Sawyer looked at them in confusion, holding out the bottle of bug spray. "Still want this?" He asked.
"Yeah, but I'm not –" she turned around.
"Don't worry, Sticks, free of charge." He smiled.
"Don't take it," Boone said to her, still looking at the ocean, as if someone was going to pop out of it. "You don't want to have to owe anything to him."
"What, you're her lawyer too?" There was something disturbing about the way he said too.
"I'll take it," she said, just to piss him off. "Thanks." He handed her the spray and walked away, still smirking. "So guess what, Boonie?"
"What?" He said tiredly, annoyed by her stupid nickname.
"No more sand fleas for you," She dropped the bug spray in his lap.
"You got that for me?"
"I know, I shouldn't have," She said flirtatiously. "But then again, you shouldn't have made yourself look like a total idiot in front of everyone on this island."
"That woman died, Shannon."
"I know, no thanks to you!"
"Isn't it interesting," he mused, "That by trying to save someone, I was just making everything worse."
"I guess." She said skeptically. "Here's your shirt," she hinted, handing a shirt to him, wrinkled up in a ball. He put it on.
"I can't believe that Jack saved me instead of her! I mean, I can swim! I could have made it back!" He cried, his voice getting more and more passionate.
"Sure," Shannon said, "Whatever."
"I'm going to – " He stood up. "I'll be back." Great, now what idiotic thing was he going to do to make everyone think he was even more stupid than he already was?
"You will not believe this," he told her, arriving back to their place on the beach a few hours later. She had been on another crossword, writing in Titanic as the winner of the 1999 Best Picture at the Oscars.
"What?" She looked up and pursed her lips, posing for him.
"So I went over there, and I told Jack that he shouldn't have saved me. He was trying to be all noble and heroic, and he should have saved her, right?"
"I guess," She squinted into the sun.
"And then he said to me, guess what he said?"
"I don't know!" She squealed sarcastically.
"He said, 'Yeah, well neither did you'. And then he ran off. I'm not kidding, he just disappeared off into the jungle. Weird, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's pretty weird," She said distractedly, trying to think of a green vegetable that had four letters.
"And that's not all. On my way there, I heard Hurley and Charlie and Jack saying that there were only eighteen water bottles left."
"What?" She exploded, dropping her pencil to the ground. How were they supposed to live? "What are they going to do?"
"I took it."
"You what?" She closed her eyes in frustration. "Please tell me you're kidding."
"It was just sitting there when I was coming back! And Jack was in the jungle! Someone could have taken it!"
"Like you for example?"
"No, I mean, someone bad, like Sawyer."
"Someone bad like Sawyer?" She echoed. "Do you have any idea how dumb that sounds?"
"I gave some to the Korean people, because they don't understand what is going on."
"What about everybody else?" He handed her a bottle of water.
"Got you one," he said.
"Gee," she looked at it. "Thanks. I can't believe how stupid you're being! I mean, what the hell are you thinking?"
"What do you want me to do about it now? Haul it back?"
"I don't know." She sighed. "What's a vegetable that's four letters?"
"Um," he thought, "Peas?"
"Oh, that's right. Good!" She wrote in p-e-a-s in 14 down. "Why don't you just tell Sayid or something what you think?"
"Uh…" he said. "Because I'm sick of everyone thinking they're more powerful. I'm not going to ask anyone's permission."
"So you're just going to let everyone get all worked up about their impending starvation?"
"You know what, Shannon? I just can't win with you, can I?"
"Maybe it's because you're being a fucking idiot," she spat.
"Maybe it's because you're being fucking selfish!" He cried.
"Selfish? I'm being selfish? You're the one who whored all the water for yourself!"
"It's not for me, god damnit!" He shouted. "Whatever, Shannon!" And with that, he walked away from her, glowering.
Later that night, Shannon heard Charlie yelling. Then she heard Boone's voice yelling back at him, "Someone had to take responsibility! It never would have lasted!"
Everyone began milling about, following the noise over to where she saw everyone glaring at Boone, Charlie and Sayid trying to beat him up. She watched in horror, but she had no idea what to do – she didn't want people to think that she was on his side, because she wasn't, by any means.
Then they heard Jack's voice. "Leave him alone." Everyone stopped in surprise, staring at the tired man who had just appeared. "It's been 6 days and we're all still waiting. Waiting for someone to come." His voice faltered. "But what if they don't? We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out. A woman died this morning just going for a swim and he tried to save her," he looked at Boone, who looked down ashamedly, "And now you're about to crucify him? We can't do this. Every man for himself is not going to work. It's time to start organizing. We need to figure out how we're going to survive here." She realized that he was right, and that no matter how hard she tried to deny it, rescue was not going to come soon. She felt a sinking feeling in her heart as she thought this. Would they ever be rescued? "Now, I found water. Fresh water, up in the valley. I'll take a group in at first light." Well, at least they didn't have to worry about water, now. The knot in her stomach loosened slightly, but not enough. They weren't going to get rescued… "If you don't want to go come, then find another way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers, but we're all here now. And god knows how long we're going to be here. But if we can't live together, we're going to die alone." Everyone stared at him in awe and shame. And it was in that moment, when mostly everybody declared Dr. Jack Shepard the leader of their impending civilization.
She found him sitting on a log, staring at the ground looking depressed. She sat down next to him, leaning towards him. She turned his chin towards her, and took his face in her hands and kissed him. It was a full-on, no questions asked kiss, her lips took his soft but slightly chapped lips in her own and pressed her tongue into his waiting mouth. She moved her hands from his face to around his lower back, pulling back as he produced a tiny groan. "You're such an idiot," she said, and tickled his lips with her tongue. "I told you that you shouldn't have – " She kissed him softly on the lips. "You shouldn't have taken that water," He opened his mouth again, smiling slightly, slipping his tongue into her mouth. "Boone," she moaned. "Let's –"
"You wanna go…" he started, seeming to read her mind. But he had to pull back before he had enough brain power to construct a sentence. "Someone's going to see us, do you want to go… where we went?" He whispered.
She looked at the crackling fire ahead of her. "Yeah…" she smiled. They snuck quietly down the beach, and as she left the site, she thought she saw the shadow of Sawyer eyeing them. Or maybe that was just her imagination.
When he pushed her against that same tree, they were out of breath, and she sighed in delight as he pressed butterfly kisses down her neck and chest. She removed her shirt and her bra (making sure to retrieve the condom she had stuffed down her bra earlier) in one quick motion, impatient for what was going to happen next. "You're such an idiot, Boone," she moaned, wrapping her legs around his back.
"At least I'm not a selfish little bitch who doesn't – " He took off his boxers. "Do anything but tan and read magazines!" He brought his hands up her stomach, caressing her breasts softly but with purpose. For a moment, she couldn't insult him back, but when she did, it was cruel and stinging.
"You'd read a magazine if you had the brains to fucking do it!" She retorted.
"I have the brains to fucking do it, Shannon," he said hungrily.
"Not sure you do," she said, taking the condom wrapper between her teeth. He took it from her mouth, looking extremely turned on, and tore it open. After he had put it on, he skimmed his hands over the curve of her ass, and she desperately removed the last band of clothing between them.
Seconds later, familiar tears stung her eyes as she cried out his name in agony, letting his name ring out through the darkness like he was god. She swore dirty little words into his shoulder, her guard completely down again, as he entered her again. She felt the pressure between her legs shoot through her body, and as she pressed into him, arching her spine as much as she could, her stomach jumped and she sobbed into his ear.
When she asked him to go again, he just put her down, despite her begs of "please" and "again", and wrapped his arms around her as her tears morphed into tears of frustration, and cursed the island for all it was worth. He was quiet, letting her cry for as long as she wanted as he started putting on his clothes again. "You could have died!" she cried. She let him put her bra and her underwear back on, and the last thing that she recalled was him scooping her up and carrying her back to camp, as her tears subsided into mere sniffles of indignation.