A/N:12/18- I edited the dates on this to go with the timeline on the show.

Chapter 33 – A Scare

Shannon sat on the log for a while, trying to compose herself, when Kate sat down next to her. "You okay?"

"Yup," Shannon put on a faux bright face, hoping her eyes weren't noticeably bloodshot.

"Okay," Kate looked pensively into the distance. Shannon wanted to slap her for always being so damn pensive. But instead, she changed the subject.

"So what's up with you and Jack?" She asked, as if she was interested.

"Oh," Kate blushed. "Nothing…"

"You and Sawyer, then?"

"Sawyer's disgusting. Actually, I came here to ask you something," Kate said, changing her unconvinced tone.

"Oh really? What?" She hoped it didn't have to do with Boone.

"Well… this is actually a bit funny… someone stole my," she lowered her voice, "Someone stole my tampons, and I was just wondering if I could borrow a couple from you. It's that time of the month and all…"

"Someone stole your tampons?" Shannon asked.

"Yeah, wasn't you, was it?" Kate asked jokingly, but Shannon knew that Kate really suspected her. God, Kate was so mistrusting. Why would she want to steal her tampons? It's not like she had needed…

"No, I didn't take them. I have a few, though, at the beach, I'll go…" Oh shit…she thought...

"Great!"

"What's today's date?" Shannon asked abruptly.

"It's November 10." Kate sighed. "We've been here for such a long time."

"Oh shit." Shannon gulped. "I gotta go."

"What's the matter? Wait, you didn't – Shannon!" Shannon ran to the beach as fast as she could, haphazardly throwing things out of her bag when she got there. Finally, she reached Boone's day planner. She flipped through the pages. Her last period had been somewhere around the end of September… she flipped through the calendar… September 30th, October 5th, October 10th, October 20th… that was twenty days… October 31st, that was thirty-one days, November 10th, forty-two days. She threw the calendar on the sandy beach, crossing her arms over her chest, and this time she didn't even try to stop the tears from coming to her face.

"Shannon?" she heard a voice say. But it wasn't Kate. It was Sun, the Korean woman.

"Look," she stumbled, "I don't know what you want, but I am really not in the mood to try to talk to someone who doesn't – "

"I speak English," Sun whispered.

"Wait, what?" Shannon momentarily forgot about the horrendous situation at hand. "Like, why didn't you say?"

"I don't want my husband to know."

"Why?"

"It's… complicated." Sun said. "I saw you coming here… the calendar, what's wrong?" Sun looked genuinely concerned, and before Shannon knew it, she was hugging her, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I think I might be pregnant," she cried, wiping her face with the side of her hand. "I'm like, over a week late, I just realized, and… I don't know what to do!"

"You don't want a… baby?"

"No, of course not! I'm only twenty, and I'm completely useless, everybody knows that!" She whimpered.

"Who is the father?" Shannon's chest racked with louder, more dramatic sobs. "You don't know?"

"No… no, it's worse!" Now her mascara was all over her face, and the remainder of her lip gloss had moved over her upper lip, and her face was blotchy and red. But for once, she wasn't all that concerned about how she looked. "Boone…" she muttered.

"Do you want me to get him for you?" Sun asked, her intentions completely innocent, but Shannon still snapped at her.

"No, you idiot, you don't get it!" Sun looked taken aback. "He's not really my brother, he's like… my dad married his bitch, evil mother when I was eight, and…" she lowered her voice, mumbling, "we've been fucking since I was seventeen! He's the fucking father!" Sun wrapped her arm tighter around Shannon, stunned and speechless.

"Boone is the father?" she asked, hoping she had misunderstood.

"He was in love with me." She explained, wiping her eyes and pulling back a little bit. "Until like yesterday, and he starts going off with fucking Locke everyday and he doesn't…" the tears started falling again. "He doesn't love me anymore," she finished.

"Do… do you?" Sun regained the ability to speak.

"Yes," she blubbered. "More than you know." She breathed. "But I've been such a bitch… and even if I hadn't, he doesn't love me anymore, and these things never work out, I mean, we… don't you understand that we can't be together? And even if we could, you've seen where relationships go. I mean, you're married and you and your husband are in the shit."

Sun did not speak for a long time, but when she did, she ignored what Shannon had said about her marriage and said calmly, "Well, you're only a few days late…"

"Twelve," Shannon bewailed.

"You may not be pregnant."

"It's not just that… it's him and it's me and it's this fucking island!" She yelled. "I want him back so much… you know, we were having sex the other night and I told him I loved him… I just broke! I mean, I'm supposed to be the strong one, I'm not supposed to fall for my idiot brother. I mean, he's my brother," Shannon stressed. "But I just want to – " Sun looked terrified at hearing all of these details. "I just want to – look." Shannon held out her hands, where there were tiny scrapes all over her palms. "That's from trying to keep my hands off of him in public. We just… can't resist each other, you know? Except I guess, now he can. And he's going to be so pissed off at me about this. This." she pointed to her stomach. "He's so responsible, and we forgot to use protection, and he's going to like… be so pissed." Shannon started crying again. Sun looked at the sky, looking very much like she just wanted to leave.

"It's fine, you can go," she told Sun. "I'll keep your secret if you keep mine?" She tried to smile, but it didn't work. Sun looked at Shannon sadly.

"It's a deal," she smiled forlornly. Shannon sniffled and cried into the night, curling up into a ball when she went to sleep, wrapping Boone's sweater around her shoulders and pretending it was him. Things were already bad enough, what with being in love with her brother… she was probably being punished, but a kid? How the hell was she supposed to have a fucking kid? It's not as if there were island abortions or anything. And what was she going to say to Boone?

"Boone," she said severely, catching up with him before he left the next morning. She had gotten up extremely early that morning in order to do so.

"Oh," he turned around. "Did you hear? We found Claire, she's alive, but she might have amnesia."

"Oh… look, Boone, I really need to talk to you." Shannon didn't have time to hear about Claire right now. She would think about it later, she decided.

"I'm kind of busy," he pointed to Locke, who was looking at them suspiciously and motioning for Boone to come with him.

"But Boone – "

"I need to go, okay?"

"No!" she screamed. A few people turned and looked at her. "I really need to talk to you!" Sun walked by, biting her lip.

"Okay, whatever," Boone looked annoyed. "If it's so important, then what?"

"Alone." She looked over at Locke.

Boone lowered his voice. "Look, Shannon, if this is what I think it is, you can just forget about it, because –"

So he thought she was trying to seduce him? Oh my god, how shallow was she? "Is that what you think of me?" She hissed. "Is that really, really what you think of me?"

"Well, it seems that way, doesn't it," he shrugged. "What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you alone," she felt tears begin to cloud her vision.

"Why can't John hear?" Locke looked over at them curiously.

"Quit being such an asshole, just let me talk to you!" She screeched. "I'm serious, Boone!"

"Okay," he looked taken aback. She pulled him over to a secluded corner of the caves. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked once they had arrived.

"I'm thirteen days late." She blurted out. "I might be pregnant," she inhaled, "with your child. Boone." She grabbed his arm, but he flinched away.

"Oh my god," he sat down, putting his head in his hands.

"I –"

"Be quiet, I need to think." He cut her off.

"This isn't my fault, I didn't do this on purpose, okay?" She continued. "It's from Sydney."

"How many days?"

"Thirteen," she repeated.

"That's not that late… I mean, you might not be."

"And what if I was?"

"I don't know. But what I've been trying to tell you… show you, these last few days… is that, you see, John's taught me to, you know, be stronger… and I think that I need to stop giving in to you."

"John hasn't taught you to stronger, he's taught you how to be an asshole." She clenched her teeth.

"I gotta go," Boone told her suddenly, and he started to walk very quickly away. But he looked back. Which was a sign, Shannon convinced herself.

At some point that day, Shannon decided to get a hold on herself and stop crying like she had just discovered her entire family dead. No one had died, she thought, and she probably wasn't even pregnant anyway. She hadn't been throwing up or anything. Standing up, Shannon walked back down to the beach, and reapplied her makeup, putting on a swimsuit and basking in the sun, trying to appear as emotionless as possible.

Sun approached her, looking around before speaking in English. "I heard you and Boone yelling earlier."

"Yeah, well," Shannon responded. "My life sucks. Sun looked at Shannon, unfamiliar with American slang. "I figured I should take advantage of having a figure while I can." She laughed ruefully.

"Nine days isn't that many, Shannon."

"You know, it wouldn't be that horrible if I was, maybe Boone will realize that he loves me again. And then we'll get back, and I'll call good old Doctor Whatever, give him some money, and everything will go back to normal."

Sun sighed, probably thinking that Shannon was a hideous person. "Have you ever heard of something called being psychologically pregnant?"

"No." Shannon said. "Like, you think you're pregnant but you're not?"

"Yes. If you're in love with Boone," Shannon looked around, motioning for Sun to lower her voice. "If you're in love with Boone, you might be psychologically pregnant with his child."

"But I'm almost a month late!"

"Thirteen days, Shannon. There is a difference."

"Oh."

"Yes, that's what I mean. You don't want to be pregnant, yet you're convinced you are."

"But I might be."

"Maybe. What did Boone say?"

"He said…" Shannon sighed, trying not to cry. "He said he had to go. He's turned into such an asshole, you know?" She said earnestly. "It's all stupid John Locke's fault."

Sun didn't say anything, and neither did Shannon. Eventually, it got cold, so Shannon stood up and put on some clothes, walking towards the caves because she had nothing better to do. "Shannon!" Sayid called after her. She rolled her eyes, but then turned around and smiled at him.

"Yes?" She said calmly, said smile still pasted on her face.

"I was just wondering if you knew what this word meant," he held up one of the maps, pointing with one greasy fingernail to the French word baiser.

"It means kiss," she told him, wondering if this was some sort of intellectual foreplay.

"What about this one?" He pointed to volonté vous sortez avec moi.

It meant 'will you go out with me', but instead she said, "It means, 'will you get my car a smog check,'" and turned on her heel, walking away. Sayid stared at the paper, looking disappointed.

When Shannon arrived at the caves, she went behind a bush to change her clothes, and came out, putting her swimsuit into her bag on a table. Suddenly, Claire, looking alienated, walking across the clearing to Shannon. Shannon took special notice in how large her stomach was, and how much trouble Claire was having just to walk. She hoped to god she wouldn't have to put up with that.

"Hi," Claire said. "Why is everyone staring at me?"

"I'm not staring at you," Shannon argued, not wanting to say the reason.

"What's your name?" Claire asked. Shannon had never been around someone who truly had amnesia. So on top of being pregnant, she didn't know Shannon's name? They had spoken so many times before, basically lived in the same place for weeks, and she didn't know her name?

"Shannon," she said in as normal a tone as she could muster.

"Shannon? You're staring," Claire said. Shannon could only think of a few reasons why they would be staring – um, she had been abducted by some guy they thought was one of them, her memory had been erased, and she was like, nine months pregnant, but besides that, there wasn't much of a reason.

"You mean nobody's told you?"

"Told me what?" Claire asked, completely clueless.

"Maybe we should sit down somewhere." Shannon started, sitting on a log. Claire followed suit, looking curious and maybe a little suspicious. "Do you remember Ethan?"

"No," Claire looked into the distance, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "He's the bad guy, right?"

"Yeah, but you see, we didn't know that. We thought he was part of the flight, the crash. You remember that, right?"

"Yes," Claire said defensively.

"Okay, well, you started having these nightmares a few nights before you got taken, and you said that someone was trying to… hurt your baby." Claire's eyes widened. "But Jack, you know, the doctor, he didn't believe you. But Charlie did, and then you guys disappeared."

"Oh," Claire said. "Is that all?"

"No," Shannon said, and Claire looked disappointed. "Jack and Kate, you know, the pretty brunette, went to look for you, and they found Charlie… and Ethan, who said that he was going to kill Jack. But then he got away when Jack was trying to hurt him. Locke, the bald guy, and Boone, my… Boone, they went looking for you as well. But then they said that the trails were gone because it had rained, and now they're doing something else."

"Is Boone the young, good looking one? Big blue eyes?"

"Gray," Shannon corrected. Claire cocked her head, not really caring. "But yeah, that's him. Locke said that they were looking for Vincent, but they found you instead."

"Who's Vincent?"

"Walt's dog."

Claire gave Shannon a look. "And who is Walt?"

"He's the kid. He's like, ten, and his father is Michael, who is tall and black."

"Oh," Claire looked dazed and confused. "So Ethan didn't hurt my baby?"

"I don't think so. I mean, didn't Jack give you like a check up?"

"Something like that." Claire said. "So… Ethan's just out in the open now? He could come and snatch me any day?"

"I really don't know," said Shannon honestly. "I'm not high on the list of people who they tell things to."

"Huh." Claire leaned back. "And I'm having a baby soon, obviously. I'm going to be so relieved when I get my period again," Claire smiled. "Funny, it's like 'the curse', your period, but I'm still going to be relieved."

"I know!" Shannon said earnestly. "Me too!"

Claire looked at Shannon. Shannon looked at Claire. Oh shit, she had really made quite the slip, hadn't she? "Why?" Claire asked. "Are you – "

"I don't want to talk about it," Shannon said, standing up suddenly and walking back down to the beach.

Aw, poor Shannon. Actually, at the end of Homecoming, there was this tiny part where she was tending to a wound on Sayid's arm, but I just… couldn't do it. Hope nobody minds, keep reviewing! Also, tell me what you liked and didn't like, that is always very helpful and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I've been updating a lot lately, but that's because I really am on the final stretch and I just want to finish, really. But after this I'm writing an 8-10 chapter thing about their high school years. It'll be a lot more low-key. And snaps/ jealousy to Faran1078, who is seeing Ian Somerhalder's play, and is thus going to see him half-naked! Soooooo jealous!