Title: Child in Bloom
Rated: PG
Characters/Couples: Mentions of Danielle, Desmond, Ethan, the Others, Walt, Sawyer, Charlie, Eko, Locke, and some others.
Summary: The children of the island have always been special.
Disclaimer: I don't own it.
A/N: Pretty much based on rumors/spoilers for 2.15. May have spoilers for future episodes!
The children of the island have always been special.
"Holy Mary, pretty Mary, full of sin." She found the plane a month before the other plane crashed. Pretty little statues were all full of tiny bags of 'bad'. She did not know what was in the bags, just that it was bad. Bad things happened-bad things lived-on the island.
Stopping, she sat herself on the ground and restated her thoughts: "Holy Mary, pretty Mary, full of sin." Pausing, he cocked her head to one side and listen carefully. "Fallen god finds the sin and takes it home to play." She shook her head lightly and stood up. "Little girls would like to go home, now."
She had been the first child born on the island. She was special. The children of the island had always been special. Her, little boy and girl, Walt…baby Aaron. All so special, all so pure. The island would protect them, because the island needed them.
Walking gracefully through the jungle, she allowed herself to be guided by the voices that were filling her head. Always, always, talking inside her head. It had gotten awfully crowded over the last fifty days. Too many people with too many secrets. Too many people that were all guilty.
All of us are guilty.
All of us are lost.
Lost. Missing. Gone. Vanished. Misplaced. All are lost.
She giggled hysterically to herself. "Lost little girls, all alone in the jungle. One, two, three, here comes the hungry wolves to eat her whole."
Come home, now.
She shook her head, trying so hard to clear it of the voices. "The sky's falling and no one has an umbrella." She gently held the sides of her head and took a moment to try and get some control-some sanity-back. No use, sanity had long disappeared.
She sometimes wondered if Danielle, Desmond, Ethan, everyone had gone insane because of her. Or because of the island. But, wasn't she connected to the island? A pretty little girl, who'd let the others hear the voices until they went as mad as she had.
The island protects, but it also makes you face the dark. Hadn't someone told her that once? Or maybe she had dreamed it all up. Maybe it was all a dream and she was really in a warm house with real parents and a real life. Maybe she didn't hear the whispers of everyone. Maybe they were all dreaming.
She had to smile to herself about that one. They were all just dreaming.
Wake up! It's time to wake up, now.
Desmond would say they were all dreaming or he'd hope they all were. Of course, being forced to push a button for three years was not a very good dream. Desmond was a nice one. She had met him once. He had let her read some of his books, even as he asked her so many questions about the island. Desmond had been unsure of her, but he had treated her well. Much better then Ethan.
Ethan Rom would say it was fate. He'd say he was waiting for her and the special baby, little Aaron. Ethan had been a strange one, he had. In the end, he had been a murder that was murdered in return. Good for the fallen god.
We're all guilty.
She had never met Danielle, but the Others had spoken of her. She was sure she was Danielle's. The Others never confirmed or denied that. She really wished they'd do more then speak in the trees.
"The little lost girl does not belong here." She sang-songed to the trees around her. Waiting a beat, she cocked her head to the side to see if they were going to answer her. No, no they were busy with something or someone else. With a shrug, she went on her way through the jungle, her work boots making crush noises on the ground under her feet.
The island was not her home. Her real home should have been a quite house on a beach in France or Canada. Not a bunker in the middle of a jungle that sat on an island that no one would ever find.
She hadn't wanted them to find her. She had wanted to stay away from them. Danielle had brought them to the Black Rock. Ethan had kidnapped and killed them. Desmond had given them the button to press. The Others had stolen them. She was sure she'd bring ruin to them, as well. Yet, they found her.
She had been walking the jungle, listening to their whispers when they had found her. Two men-the liar and the priest, who was a liar but no one knew it. Eko and Sawyer. One had asked who she was; the other had said she was an Other. She had replied the only way she knew: "You're talking out loud. No one has talked out loud to her for months. Do it again."
Sawyer had said she was crazy. Eko had said she needed help. She was to under feed, to dirty, to everything. Eko had said they should take her back. Sawyer had said words she had never heard before. In the end, they took her back.
Back to a bunker-Desmond's bunker-where the button was. She painted over the logos as the doctor and the hunter questioned her about the island and how she had gotten there.
"Bad." Was all she would reply. "It's bad and it should not be here." They asked her what she meant, but she refused to have a real conversation with anyone until all the logos were gone.
"I was born here, we all were. I stay here because I am special." She had stuck her chin out proudly. "Where's Desmond? Did you make him go away for good?"
No one really said anything about Desmond, they just moved the conversation in another direction-in an island direction. In a 'what's your story' direction. They started by asking her, her name.
Name. The thing people call you. The Others had never called her anything. Ethan had called her 'sweetheart' and 'honey' and a thousand other pet names. Desmond had called her 'my life' and 'love' and 'sweet angel'. Danielle had called her 'my baby' and 'Alex'. None of those names would do now.
So, she smiled and said: "Jessica."