Chapter 1

"Vincent," Boone whispered. He could see someone or something moving in the jungle. His heart was pounding. Was it Vincent, Walt's dog? He doubted it. Boone tried to distinguish what was moving, but he couldn't. Suddenly he could hear the sound of panting. A woman.

Claire?

He could see her now. Her hair was disheveled, her face muddy but still…she made his heart skip a beat.

Then he noticed her expression. She was terrified.

Boone twisted and turned in his sleep. His body was trying to fight away the nightmare, but it continued. Several memories from the Island flew by in his sub consciousness. He could hear himself speaking with Locke. Asking him questions about Claire.

"But where'd she come from?"

"The guy pretends to be one of us, he drags her into the jungle for almost two weeks. She doesn't remember him?"

Boone had a thousand questions.

"Apparently," Locke answered, like he didn't care about Claire. Boone wanted to hit him, shake him! He cared. They had to find the bastard who had done this to her! They had to find Ethan.

The sound of Claire's scream when she didn't remember anyone of the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 somehow forced him to surface from the dream. He was glad that the nightmare was over; it wasn't like he wanted to get back into it.

Boone slowly opened his eyes. His heart was pounding so fast that he thought that it would pop out of his chest any second now. After a while his eyes began to get used to the darkness in the room and after a couple of seconds more he could see the outlines of the furniture in the room. He tried to calm himself down.

Boone got out of his bed, there was no use to try to get back to sleep now. He knew for a fact that when he had a nightmare it always returned. When he was a little boy he used to have nightmares after his nanny Theresa fell down the stairs and every single night he had heard himself saying "Teresa falls up the stairs, Teresa falls down the stairs." It still scared the crap out of him.

He had thought that the first night in a comfy bed for the first time in weeks would be relaxing.

"Guess I was wrong," Boone mumbled. He went in to the living room and sat down in his brown leather sofa. He was thankful for his wonderful apartment and he knew that his job at his mother's- The Martha Stewart of all things wedding - company was the reason why he could afford this place and the place in New York. The apartment looked a little bit like no one was living there though, but that was no surprise. He hadn't been in the apartment even before the plane crashed. He had been to busy coming to Shannon's rescue in Sydney.

Sydney. Boone wondered if Claire was there now. Or had she gone to L.A. like she had planned to do before the plane crashed?

Boone was beginning to fall asleep again when he heard a buzzing sound. He looked at his watch. 1:00 AM. Who would call his intercom now? A little bit irritated he pushed the call button.

"Yeah!"

Boone could hear the crackling that the intercom caused but nothing else.

"Shannon. Is it you? Are you drunk again?" Boone remembered Shannon showing up at his place in N.Y. drunk a couple of times and he was pretty sure that she had been drinking cosmos tonight.

"Boone?" That wasn't Shannon's voice.

"Yes. Who are you?" Boone asked the unknown yet strangely familiar voice.

"Claire" Boone was stunned. Did the girl say that she was Claire?

I seriously must go to a shrink tomorrow. Boone thought. I'm going crazy.

"I don't know if you remember me." Claire's voice brought him back to the reality.

"I was on flight 815, when it..." her voice faded away.

It must be too painful for her to talk about, Boone thought. After all she had been through hell on that Island. Being kidnapped and all.

"Of course I remember you," Boone said. " "The pregnant girl, right?" Why did he say that?

"Umm... Yes." her voice sounded nervous.

They were both silent. Neither of them knew what to say. Then she finally took the initiative.

"I'm not drunk" The joke broke the uncomfortable silence.

Boone laughed.

"You wanna come up? It's quite chilly for being L.A." In his mind he added:"and there are a lot of creeps out there"

"Okay, thanks"

Boone pressed the button to unlock the street door. In a couple of seconds Claire would be in his apartment. Boone hadn't been this nervous since he was a little kid... Why did she have this impact on him?