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Soon after they regained consciousness, Scully and Skinner heard someone coughing. It was Mulder. He had swallowed a mouthful of salty water in an attempt to shout at his partners. He was now crawling towards them like a snake. Scully and Doggett ran over to help him up.
'Thanks' he whispered before another coughing-fit deprived him of the ability to talk.
Doggett felt a wave of relief sweeping through his body. He wasn't alone anymore. Moreover, these were the people he knew, the ones he cared for. Nevertheless, he would not doubt for a second to rescue the life of a total stranger. In this kind of situation one cannot afford to be selfish. The only way to survive is to work together.
More survivors found their way to the island. It was almost as if this island was a beacon that beckoned them closer. Like a predator waiting for the prey. Something was wrong with the island. Unfortunately, its occupants did not know this, for they felt no need to explore the heart of the dense jungle that bordered the beach. For the time being, they would spend their days and nights out on the beach. During the day they would seek shelter in the shade of the palm trees and the bushes on the outskirts of the jungle. At night they'd sleep soundly beneath the starry sky.
For Doggett, the biggest surprise of that day had been the arrival of one particular survivor. He had never dared to believe that Fate would have put them on the same plane. Nor had he ever thought that she, like him, would survive the crash.
But there she was, wet and vulnerable, coughing like a chain-smoker (though it wasn't the foul whisps of cigarette smoke that came out of her mouth) and clawing the sand just like he had done so many hours ago.
Barbara looked up at him and smiled. She hadn't smiled like that at Doggett in years – not since the day Luke died, the day that marked a slow but steady decline, the day their marriage froze, only to burst apart into a thousand shards later on. Broken pieces that could never be glued together again. But that was then and this is now. Back then, the situation and the surroundings had been very, very different – quite the opposite of where she is at the moment. In fact, she can hardly believe that all this is true. For all she knows, this is heaven and they had all simultaneously died and their souls had wandered off to this Eden-like island.
'John' she said. 'Is this heaven?'
'No, I don't think so.' He paused and then added 'Hi Barbara. Good to see you.'
Doggett held out his hand and almost effortlessly helped her to her feet. Barbara couldn't suppress a smile of admiration as he held her tight in his strong, masculine arms. She was surprised to feel that she was getting aroused. After all these years she was still attracted to this man. And with these thoughts came the memories of passionate nights, the images of his naked body and more stuff that is not meant to heard or seen by small children.
To Barbara it was as if she fell in love again. Had she ever fallen out of love? Was it really over? She wasn't sure anymore. John was staring at her. He took in every detail, every wrinkle (and there were few, even though she was nearly forty), every twinkle in her eyes. He couldn't believe his luck, either. And he too felt the flame of passion, which had been lying dormant deep within him, grow higher and higher. If they had been all alone on the island, they would have thrown themselves on the sand and made love until they had no energy left.
'Come on, there are some people over there I'd like you to meet' John said. He took her hand and they walked over to where Scully, Mulder and Skinner were sitting.
The sun began to set, providing the island's new inhabitants with a sight they wouldn't easily forget. And then night covered the island in its dark cloak and soon thereafter the sky lit up as millions upon millions of stars came out of their hiding place.
'Does anybody here know what happened?' Mulder groaned, as he waved his hand furiously after having burned his finger. He knew he shouldn't have tried to pick a piece of coconut out of a fire but hunger had overpowered his sense of logic. To Scully, it seemed as if Mulder would never grow up.
'I do. The plane crashed and all of us were lucky enough not to have died when it exploded and crashed into the ocean. And then we also managed to reach this island, which seems to be the ultimate miracle of the day' Skinner's reply was dripping with sarcasm.
'Oh right. I'm sorry if that sounded like a stupid question' Mulder retorted.
'Actually, that was a stupid question' Skinner said.
'Well, in that case, I will ask someone else'
Mulder got up and walked over to Scully, who was standing nearby, looking up at the stars. She hadn't heard him approach and was startled by the sound of his voice.
'Fox! What are you doing?' she managed to say.
'I want to talk, Dana.' He tried the puppy-eyes-pout. It didn't work.
'Look, I'm busy here. I'm…' Scully tried, but Mulder wouldn't let her finish.
'Busy? How can you be busy? There's nothing we can do!'
Mulder made it sound as if this was Purgatory and the only possible thing you could do was wait for some kind of angel to descend from the skies to take you to Heaven. Scully did not appear to be amused by this remark.
'Listen, if that plane hadn't crashed and we'd be in Australia hunting UFO's, I'd probably have listened to your every word but right now I'm trying to find out where we are.' she said, emphasizing 'hadn't' and 'where'.
Mulder looked puzzled. He blinked, opened and closed his mouth like a fish and finally shouted 'But.. but… this place is probably not even on the map! Which is one thing neither of us has in their pockets!'
Scully sighed and moved away. Mulder simply stood there, gazing at her like a cat would when you let a dead mouse dangle in front of its eyes. The only difference was that Mulder's gaze did not convey a single hint of intelligence. He was dumb-struck by Scully's indifference. In his head, all sorts of wicked theories began to take form.
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A/N: I'll try to update every week though keep in mind that there might be weeks when I'm really busy - it might take a week and a half or even weeks. University can be hell, you know.
I wanted to re-tell the pilot episode of Lost, yet I felt the need to do things my way, so if somethings sound familiar whereas other don't, please don't blame for me being inaccurate, because I'm simply using the idea of Lost as inspiration for upcoming adventures. Err, you'll see what I mean…