"What are you talking about?" Boone asked defensively, not really wanting to get into this conversation.
"Just something I heard," Locke shrugged.
"So, maybe I am," Boone replied. "What's the problem?"
"No problem," Locke insisted, shaking his a little. "I just want you to know that it doesn't change anything."
Boone looked at him. "What do you mean 'it doesn't change anything'?" he asked, wondering exactly where Locke was going with this.
"About what we're doing out here," Locke explained, finally looking up at him. "You can't tell Jack just like you can't tell Shannon."
Boone gave him a wary look. "You're not gonna start making up some of that crazy paste again are you?"
Locke smiled a little. "No, nothing like that," he replied in a friendly tone.
"You know, Jack's the leader, kind of, maybe he'd be able to help if we..."
"No," Locke said firmly, cutting him off.
"Look, John, I'm not gonna argue with a guy who, well, pretty much everything you do is terrifying, but telling Jack isn't the same as telling Shannon," Boone explained.
"No, it's not," Locke agreed. "Telling Jack has it's own set of dangers."
"Like what?" Boone asked.
Locke looked at him levelly. "What would you tell Jack, Boone?" he asked. "What would you say to him?"
"I'd tell him we found a hatch," Boone replied.
"Huh," Locke said, nodding. "And what do you think he'd do with that bit of information?"
Boone shrugged. "I don't know."
"He'd tell us this was a fruitless exercise and that we should be out hunting," Boone explained.
"Well, you know, maybe we should..."
"This is important, Boone," Locke cut him off. "The people back at the camps have enough to eat. We need to put our energy into opening this hatch and we can't let anybody put us off our focus here." He looked squarely at Boone. "Not anything."
"What do you think's down there?" Boone asked, looking over at the hatch.
"Something that needs to be found," Locke replied, his gaze also going over to the metal structure they'd uncovered.
Boone nodded a little, even though he knew Locke wasn't looking at him anymore. "Hey, John. Do you think that everything happens for a reason?" he asked.
Locke looked back over at him. "Yes I do, Boone."
The two of them had the timing pretty much perfect by now and always reached the caves just as it was getting dark. Boone headed over to get some water and Jack came over to meet him which was just the best thing to be greeted with.
"Hey," Jack smiled at him. "Good day?"
Boone finished his drink and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. You?"
"As far as island days go, can't really complain," Jack replied.
Boone nodded again and sat down. "I'm so beat," he said. "You might have to give me a minute before we go on our walk."
"We don't have to go anywhere," Jack stated.
"Well, no, we don't have to," Boone agreed. "I mean, if you're not in the mood it's totally not a problem."
Jack looked amused. "Do you always expect the worst?"
Boone shrugged. "Bad stuff happens to me."
"Okay, well, read between the lines," Jack told him. He then motioned over to the opening. "I have a cave."
Boone looked towards the cave and then back at Jack. "Yeah, you do," he agreed. "But if we go in there I think everyone's gonna know what we're doing, especially after Shannon's little outburst last night."
"So?" Jack asked. "You think they're not gonna know what we're doing if we go out to the jungle."
"That's not the same," Boone said. "We're not a couple of metres away from them then."
Jack nodded. "It's no one's business," he said. "We can do what we want wherever we want."
"Yeah, we can," Boone agreed. "Doesn't mean we have to. I mean, seriously, what's with you?"
Jack looked at him. "What's with me?"
"Well, it's just, yesterday you were straight and today you're all 'come back to my cave'," Boone stated.
Jack smiled. "Boone, I don't really think I was all that straight yesterday. I don't think I've been all that straight for a while."
"Okay, so, you're adjusting. And that's cool. And I'm also very happy about it by the way. But what happened to all that stuff about pacing yourself?" Boone asked.
"I'm still pacing myself," Jack told him. "It's not like I'm gonna jump you when we get in there."
"Well, no, I know," Boone replied. "But you skipped a bunch of steps. You just totally came out."
"Actually, I think Shannon outted me, I didn't really get a whole lot of say in the matter," Jack pointed out.
"But you don't have to be so okay with it," Boone told him.
Jack looked at him, clearly confused. "Boone, I don't really understand what you're saying."
Boone sighed. "I don't know," he admitted. "I feel like everyone's in our relationship all of a sudden."
Jack shook his head. "Just you and me, I promise."
Boone couldn't really explain how he was feeling to Jack. He couldn't really explain it to himself. He was just scared that Jack was getting ahead of himself and he was suddenly going to want to take it all back. Now that their relationship was somewhat public then Jack would start to see it through other people's eyes and it would all be too real for him.
"You want me to walk you back to the beach?" Jack offered. Boone looked up at him. "We don't have to do anything else, just walk."
Boone found himself smiling. "What if I wanna do something else?"
Jack smiled back at him. "Then I get to go to bed happy again," he replied. He stood up. "Come on."
Boone stood up and the two of them walked towards the path. Boone tried not to notice how many people watched them leave.
When he got back to the beach he headed towards Shannon. He thought she was asleep but as he got closer he saw that her eyes were open and she was staring up at the stars. His heart sank a little. He so didn't want to deal with her right now.
He went over without a word sat down a little away from her, placing a water bottle between them. Shannon looked at him, seeming almost sheepish, which he'd never seen on her before. She sat up and grabbed the bottle.
"Thanks," she said, before taking a swig. Boone shrugged and laid down, hoping to get some sleep. She looked over at him. "Did you catch anything today?" she asked.
"No," Boone replied.
She nodded a little. "You never told me about you and Jack," she suddenly said.
"It's none of your business, Shan," he replied. "I don't have to tell you everything."
She took another drink from the bottle. "I'm kind of sorry," she said, which was about the closest Shannon had ever come to an apology. "I shouldn't have told Jack."
"That was a really shitty thing to do, Shan," Boone told her.
"You were kind of shitty to Sayid yourself," Shannon replied.
Boone didn't bother to say anything. He wasn't going to sit there and justify things to her, he was protecting her, he was looking out for her. She was just being a bitch like she always was.
"Do you like him?" Shannon asked.
"Sayid?" Boone asked, confused.
Shannon rolled her eyes. "No, not Sayid," she said, sounding irritated. "I mean Jack, you idiot."
"Oh, Jack," Boone repeated. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."
"Okay, so, even though I might have been wrong, you still did a shitty thing to me," Shannon said.
Boone turned to face her, getting annoyed. "What, Shannon? What did I do?"
"You scared Sayid off," she told him. "You have to fix it."
Boone turned away again. "Fix it yourself."
"No, you broke it, you have to fix it," she insisted.
"You outted Jack," Boone stated. "You gonna fix that?"
"Jack doesn't care," Shannon dismissed. "Sayid cares. You have to fix it."
"You know what, Shannon?" Boone began. "Last night you proved me right. I don't think he really paid that much attention to what I said until you threw your little tantrum."
"I did not throw a tantrum," Shannon said with a wave of her hand.
"You threw a tantrum," Boone insisted. "And you just proved everything I said to him."
"What did you say?" Shannon asked.
"I said that you were a spoilt little brat and you liked to use people," Boone replied.
Shannon gave him a disgusted look. "No wonder he wouldn't talk to me," she frowned. "God, why would you do that?"
"I was looking out for you," Boone stated and kind of wished he hadn't.
"You looking out for me now?" she asked, seeming genuinely interested.
"I think you maybe need to look out for yourself for a while," Boone told her.
She was silent for a while and Boone thought that maybe she'd accepted his suggestion and moved on. "So is that it?" she asked. "You just don't love me anymore? You just stopped loving me?"
Boone looked at her. "Shan, I love you," he told her. "I'm just not in love with you."
"Are you in love with Jack?" she asked.
Boone laid back down and looked at the night sky. "No," he replied. "I don't think so. Why do you even care?"
Shannon shrugged. "You were kind of the constant in my life," she told him. "It's probably better this way though."
Boone nodded a little. He really couldn't agree more. Things were so much better this way.
Shannon looked out over the beach. "I think I'm gonna go talk to Sayid."
"I think that's a good idea," Boone told her.