Chapter 9- The Boundaries

"Well, ain't it just convenient?" Sam whistled through her teeth.

"What?" Chris asked, head perking up from the loose thread he was picking at.

"That we have our very own Tribal Council deciding our fates." She used the stick she was stoking the fire with to point at the group of adults in a heated discussion.

Aaron looked up from the hand game he was playing with Keely, "Reminds me of C-Span."

"C-Span can be good," Chris countered, "Informational, useful."

"Bores me, though." Sam finally got the fire to roar into life. Aaron shuffled Keely so that she was pestering Seth to play with her. He then moved closer to Sam.

"I wonder what they're talking about."

"Fifty bucks says the island we magically appeared on." Sam quirked an eyebrow at him, "But I guess this mystery vacation has one benefit."

"What's that?" Aaron laid on his side, his head close to her knee.

"An opportunity for you to get another tattoo back home."

He pushed a fistful of sand at her in playful retaliation.

"Yeah I saw that one on your stomach earlier…what does it say?" Marita edged closer to Aaron, ignoring Sam completely.

"I guess that's for me to know and you to find out."

She leaned forward as though she was going to go up his shirt and look but a shout and angry voices burst from the adult huddle. They didn't dismember but Jack had to rein Ana Lucia away from something. Maybe from strangling Kate. Or Sawyer. Either way she hadn't lunged toward the Pace's and Sam had to shake her head.

"Your mom got an anger problem, or something?"

"Yeah, like your dad has an asshole problem." Marita hissed.

"Cool it, you two. We shouldn't be fighting each other." Chris broke in, moving so that if he had to he could physically leap between them.

"Seems like a viable option when she attacks mi madre." Marita huffed, giving Sam an evil look.

"But not when we don't know if we'll have to fight what's out there." Aaron whispered and suddenly he looked quiet and complacent, "After all isn't that what happened last time? Wait until tension inside the group boils over and then attack while they're weak?"

"I thought they just came from the jungle and took people at night." The fire shadowed Chris' face in a demonic way, "That's what our mom said. Took her a while to let us alone in the dark, she was so afraid 'they'd' take us when she was asleep."

Marita smack him, as though his revelation was far too personal to be made to almost complete strangers. The teens were silent for a long stretch of time. They alternately watched the smaller children and the flickering flames, ignoring the adults completely. The silence didn't suit well and Chris kept watching Sam and wondering. Finally he found a way to sate his curiosity, "How about we get to know each other?"

The group turned to him as though he'd farted at church.

"How so?" Sam prompted.

"I dunno…I was hoping one of you girls would have a sleepover-savvy way of going about it."

Sam snorted, "I've never had a sleep over."

Crickets chirped before Aaron said, "That's a way to do it…'I Never'."

"The drinking game?" Marita rolled her eyes, "You find the tequila around here."

"What drinking game?" Chris turned to his sister, "And how the hell do you know about a drinking game?"

"It's easy to play. Just say 'I Never' and a phrase and I guess since we don't have booze we can just motion with our hands. You drink if you have you don't if you never have." The rules at least broke Chris' potential rant on Marita and Aaron checked the smaller kids to make sure they were occupied before saying, "Everyone game?"

"Sure…but I tell you right now your all going down." The sad smile on Sam's face said that in this instance, winning was not all its cracked up to be.

"I'm in." Marita eyed the others, particularly Sam, as though defining their weaknesses.

Christian merely nodded and Aaron swept his head to Sam and said, "Repeat that sleepover statement."

"I never been to a sleepover."

Marita and Aaron both motioned a drink, but Christian's hand stayed in his lap. Sam quirked an eyebrow, "No Poncho Villa, Don Quixote?"

"Sleeping with other men isn't my style." Christian eyed Aaron who held up his hands with a licentious, "Brother I never said I slept over with boys."

Sam rolled her eyes, "Reign in the wild stallion of hormones, oh King of Pop."

After the laughter died down they decided Marita was next, "I never go down on the first date."

Chris' eyes went wide and he was about to say something when Sam nudged him, "Hey she said 'I never'."

As Chris' eyes turned to Sam, Marita motioned a drink and snickered as Aaron nonchalantly did the same.

"You two prudes done with making cow eyes at each other?"

Sam rolled her eyes and fell on top of Aaron, "Does this count as going down?"

"No, but if you'd like a formal lesson…"

Christian cleared his throat and said, "I've never been caught with my pants down by my parents."

Marita made a drinking motion and as did Sam with the retort, "Bras count, right?"

All eyes fell to Aaron who wore a smug smile as he said, "I've never been caught… what? I'm just that good."

Realizing it was his turn Aaron sat up and eyed the contestants of the game, his gaze falling on Christian, "I've never been pantsed."

Blushing Christian made a drinking motion.

"Right on, mate." Aaron made the motion too, as did Marita but Sam shook her head.

"I never…" her eyes fell directly on Marita, "had to stuff my bra."

Marita flipped her off, the drinking motion assumed. Christian and Aaron both laughed as Aaron observed, "No, I bet you never did have to stuff it, did you?"

"I've never been shot down on a date offer." Marita viciously pat at Sam.

Sam made the motion of getting up to fight but both boys pulled her down.

"I never got my face turned in for being a bitch." She returned.

"I've never had a mug shot instead of a prom picture."

Sam's face was solid red, her eyes raged and her voice terribly low as she said, "I never killed someone."

And then she slowly brought her hand to her face, and made like she was drinking. The quatrain fell silent as Christian looked at Sam with a mixture of awe and pity, Aaron with fear and confusion. No one spoke, both boys let go of Sam and neither she nor Marita made a move towards each other.

Slowly Sam nodded, "I thought not."

Trying to lighten the atmosphere was nearly useless and Sam turned away, her face flushed a brilliant shade of shame. Aaron sat up straight and made to put an arm around her but just then Ana Lucia stormed over with Claire and Kate. Claire and Kate picked up the younger kids as Ana barked, "Grab everything you can, we're heading to the caves."

The men stalked over to them, Jack and Kate were leading the way, Kate walking forward with Keely half-asleep in her arms, and Jack walking backwards carefully doling out instructions, "You guys don't know much about this place, and God knows we haven't told you the half of it. So until we know how we got here, what's going on, etc. there are a few simple rules we're all going to follow.

"First off, no one strays from camp without a partner. Secondly, if you're not within screaming range you take an adult, and said adult is armed. Third, do not make gluttons of yourselves. There's not a lot of food and we don't know how long we're going to be here. Four, the boys and the girls won't use the sectioned off bathroom area at night without someone with them. Same goes for bathing except I want someone to always be with a bather, it's a very vulnerable position. Important note: NO cross gender body guards." He looked right at Christian and Aaron and nodded to the two girls emphatically.

"Lastly, we don't know what's going on. Until we do, the threat OUT THERE" he motioned to the jungle, "is MUCH greater then any threat IN HERE. So keep your petty squabbling to a minimum. We have to watch each other's backs…. No tricks." This glare he fixed on Sawyer.

"You tell 'em, Chief." Sawyer drawled, bored with the monologue.

Ana popped in, "Remember, we have no idea what's out there. Whether its like last time or whether its worse…so don't act like this is a vacation." Her tone became very stoic, "People die out here."

Of course by the time they got to the caves the youngest children were frightened, and practically glued to their parents, refusing to sleep, refusing to leave. The talk they'd heard rather terrified them. But no apologies were made. Sometimes you just had to scare people.

Aaron laid down a jacket next to his brothers' little nests and looked around. Sam was sitting by the water that was trickling in as her parents fussed over something that apparently had nothing to do with her sleeping arrangements, as they repeatedly stepped on the sweatshirt she'd thrown down to mark her territory.

Sitting next to her he said, "Some revelation you made."

"Yeah…" She looked away, embarrassed but then turned back to face him passionately saying, "It's not something I brag about! It's not like I go about wearing a tee-shirt that says that! I just…for some reason it just came out. I don't know why…I don't even know you people."

"Maybe that's the reason for being so open." Aaron swirled some water around distractedly making ripples before he met her eyes, "Take it from someone who knows it, its much easier to be naked in front of a crowd of strangers then in front of your kin."

Sam rolled her eyes at the connection he was trying to make, "It's not like you get naked at concerts…"

"No. But I rarely sing for my family."

Despite the complete randomness of his simile, Sam couldn't help but smile a little. He saw and cupped her chin. Rubbing a thumb over her cheek he whispered reassuringly, "I don't know why…but looking at you I get the feeling that you did what you had to do. You're no killer."

Her eyes closed off and she put her hand in his to push it away. Without a word she walked over to her trodden sweatshirt and curled up, even if she wasn't sleep it was obvious the discussion was over. Sighing and silently berating himself for the mishandled dialogue Aaron retreated to his family's corner of the caves. As he did he missed Christian walk over to Sam, whispering, "I never been to Disneyland."

When it didn't get a response he made an audible chugging noise, as though he was downing a whole bottle. From her position Sam gave half a laugh and motioned a drink.

"I never made an ass out of myself in front of people I was trying to impress."

Christian squeezed her shoulder, "Bottoms up, babe."

TBC

Author's Note:

Y'all REALLY owe Butterfly….cause obviously I was THIS close to forgetting that I owe you people a chapter a week.

I didn't really know where to take this, and I have no idea where I'm going to spring board into for the next chapter…. I'm hoping for some suggestions! Please!

Other than that…hope the hackers leave this chapter alone on LF (and for that matter leave the rest of them alone too!) and…I dunno…Happy President's Day?

REVIEW PLEASE!