Chapter Seventeen

"Never trust a husband too far, nor a bachelor too near."
- Helen Rowland

It was good that the throbbing in Sayid's temples had passed by the following morning, because one of the survivors, Tracey, had disappeared. She had been in a fight with Steve, and she had marched off witlessly into the jungle. After she did not return for twelve hours, Steve finally, bashfully, approached Jack, who was now in the process of organizing a search party. Sayid was the first man he turned to.

Once Sayid's aid was assured, Jack recruited Kate, whom he did not mind joining him for this less threatening task, after which Sawyer volunteered. "I'm well enough now," he said. Locke, Eko, Ana, and Marcus followed.

"We ought to see if Nadia will join us," said Locke.

Sawyer gave Locke a little sneer and rejoined, "Well, let's go talk to your Arabian princess then, shall we?" And then, turning to Sayid, he asked, "Want to tag along, Mohammed?"

Sayid contemplated Sawyer reticently, but he trailed behind the pair as they approached the tent Sayid had built for Nasser and his wife. Nasser still could not walk rapidly, let alone run if something required it, but Nadia expressed her desire to join them.

"No," said her husband from behind her, eyeing Sayid. "Please stay with me."

"Nasser, a woman is missing," she replied.

"And they will find her well enough without you."

Nadia turned from Nasser and looked at Locke. "I will join you."

"Nadia," said Nasser quietly but sternly. "I forbid you."

Nadia held Locke's eyes for a moment as she drew in a deep breath. She then turned slowly to her husband. "You forbid me?"

Locke and Sawyer glanced at each other and then at Sayid. Sawyer rolled his eyes upwards and bit his tongue as though he were trying not to laugh. Locke pressed his lips into a tight line and looked on.

"Nadia," said Nasser, "you have already once placed yourself in a great deal of danger--"

"To save you."

"Yes, fine, that I would expect. But then you went on to look for that boy, who is nothing to you. You were gone for days. I was plagued to distraction."

"Was it awful, Nasser, to think that you had lost me?" Nadia was looking at her husband coolly. Sayid thought they should all just walk away, but how to extract themselves subtly?

Nasser sighed and attempted to take her hand in a conciliatory gesture. She let him take it, but she did not seem to warm to his touch. "Nadia, if this is about what I did when I was in London…"

"Well!" cried Sawyer, much to everyone's relief. "Didn't we uh, didn't we uh…have to…you know…that thing?"

Locke nodded nonchalantly. "Yes. We'll be waiting for you, Nadia, over by the signal fire, if you decide to join us. We leave in just under an hour." And then he stepped backwards, turned, and began to walk away. Sawyer and Sayid followed.

"Whooooo," whistled Sawyer, when they were out of earshot. "Nothing like being in the middle of a marital dispute. I can't believe that guy was stepping out on her."

"I know," said Locke, shaking his head. "If I had a woman like that…"

"Stepping on her?" asked Sayid.

"No, stepping out on her," Sawyer clarified, giving him a wink. When Sayid still looked baffled, Sawyer continued, "You know, Ali. Banging someone else."

"I am certain he does not beat her."

Sawyer smirked and then chortled. He held his hand against his chest as if the growing laughter were painful. "No. I mean, going on a foreign bush patrol, dipping the chip in another bowl, putting the candle in the wrong pumpkin, taking the flesh boat to tuna town."

Locke was really clamping down on his lips now, and the repressed sounds of his laughter crept out the sides of his mouth. He was trying very hard to look aloof, but it wasn't working. The tears were coming to his eyes.

"What do you call it, Mohammed?" Sawyer asked.

"Do you mean adultery?"

"Ah…yeah…adultery," said Sawyer, "if you're of a moralistic bent and not quite the wordsmith that I am."

"How do you draw that conclusion based on what she said?" asked Sayid. "She said only something about what he did in London."

"Because of the way she looked at him when he said it," answered Locke quietly from beside him. He had now recovered his composure and was playing the wise father well.

"And," said Sawyer, "because of the way he looked at you when he first asked her to stay with him."

"At me?" Sayid asked.

"Yeah, at you," answered Sawyer. "Like he wasn't too keen on sending out his wife in your company."

Sayid swallowed and concentrated on his footfalls in the sand. He hadn't noticed the expressions of either Nadia or Nasser, because at the time, he had been studying the ground, much like he was now.

"Back in Iraq, did you two ever, uh..." Sawyer bent down in front of Sayid's face to catch his eye, "do the horizontal tango?" He smiled wryly. "Shake a skin coat? Play hide the hot dog? Park the pink--"

Sawyer's last metaphor was cut short by the fist that smacked him under the chin and sent him reeling to the sand. The fallen cowboy sneered. "As much fun as this was the first time we did it," he said, rubbing his jaw, "I think I'm not going to provoke you anymore." Sawyer drew himself up from the sand, brushed off his jeans, and walked on.

Locke turned to Sayid and raised his eyebrows in a contemplative expression, as if he thought he were a Sufi master asking Sayid to examine the depths of his heart.

"I do not wish to deal with you either," said Sayid, walking quickly toward the signal fire.

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Jack glanced at his watch, sighed, and placed a hand over his eyes as he looked to the outskirts of the camp. "Marcus is late," he said. "Should we just leave without him?"

"I wouldn't," said Locke. "He's an excellent tracker. If for some reason we need to split into two groups, he'd be good to have."

Sayid said he thought he knew what might be delaying the priest, and he promised to return with him quickly. Sure enough, he discovered Marcus just outside of Claire's tent. Aaron was murmuring softly from his cradle within, and Claire was standing at the tent's opening, holding the priest's hand. "It isn't that dangerous," Sayid heard him saying. "It isn't like when we went after the Others, and we all came back safe from that."

"I know," she said softly, squeezing his hand and then moving forward to lean against him.

Sayid cleared his throat from behind Marcus. "Everyone is waiting for you. Either stay or come, but do not delay us."

"Give me three minutes."

"You have had sixty," Sayid said, but he turned and walked a distance away. He did not turn back until he felt the priest draw up behind him, and then both men waved goodbye to Claire.