Chapter 13: Healing takes time

Locke had built a wooden cage, lined with soft pillows and blankets, for Shannon. No one wanted to be her next victim, so Kate suggested it be best if she were in solitary confinement. The men took turns guarding her to make certain that she couldn't escape, or hurt herself.

"I feel bad for her, you know, we are treating her like an animal," Sayid said.

"Sayid, she's acting like an animal," Jack told him. "If she doesn't stay locked up, she will attack someone else." Sayid knew that. He just wanted to be close to her, and with her in a cage, the closest he could get to her was one yard away. Unless she was up against the side of the bars.

"Shannon, you need to prove to them that this is not really you," Sayid tried to convince her that if she acted normal then she would be released. Shannon would babble some crazy word back at him.

"Sayid, I think she's like, gone dude," Hurley said sitting on the beach with five bottles of water. "I mean she's so brain dead."

"I can't believe that," Sayid said.

Alex and Boone were growing closer everyday, helping each other get around and just being together.

"Thanks for being my friend on this god forsaken piece of trash!" Alex said. She was trying to tell him she was falling in love, but she didn't know how.

"I really like you," Boone said, he didn't know how to express his feelings either. So he just kissed her. She kissed him back. "Well now I know."

"I know too," Alex said, kissing him again.

Charlie had been taking care of Charles a lot more, now that Claire had been attacked. Claire asked Danielle, since she already had a child and because she was a girl, to help her feed Charles. Other than those times, Charlie was with Charles all the time.

"Charlie thank you so much! I'm sorry I just dumped the responsibility on you," Claire apologized.

"It's okay, you need to heal, and that takes a long time," Charlie said as he washed Charles in the stream. Charles splashed the water in Charlie's face, then giggled. "Hey!" Charlie tickled him. Claire passed Charlie a towel to dry Charles off.

"I can dress him, if you want me too," Claire offered, she felt so helpless.

"Sure," Charlie laid Charles on the outfit that was spread across the ground. Claire dressed her son and gave him back to Charlie. "Time for bed, Chap," Charlie said putting Charles in his cradle. Charles cried for about ten minutes before he drifted off.

"It's getting late, I'm going to sleep too," Claire laid down next to Charles. Charlie kissed her goodnight and laid down with her. They cuddled until both of them were sleeping.

Alex laid on the soft sand. Boone got up and started to walk away. "You're not just going to leave me here?" Alex asked as Boone kept going. "Maybe I'm reconsidering who I fall in love with." she whispered to herself.

"Really?" Boone asked. Alex turned around and saw Boone with a pillow and two blankets.

"Never mind," she said. They kissed each other goodnight, and they too fell asleep.

Sawyer was telling Nadia about what happened to his chair. "This is very interesting," she lied.

"I can tell you don't want to talk about this and it was a test, you failed. You were supposed to tell me what you really thought, but you lied instead, we don't have a future together," Sawyer said, he turned away from her.

"You know what I think? I think that you fell in love with a chair and then me, so you care more about your stupid lawn chair than me!" Nadia yelled.

"That's better," Sawyer turned back around, kissed her goodnight and the also fell asleep.

It was Sayid's turn to watch Shannon, and he was the only one who actually stared at her all during his shift. "Shannon, Shannon, Shannon," he always tried to connect with her but he never could. "Shannon, please, you need to come back down to earth." Sayid eventually drifted off himself. Shannon saw this as an opportunity.

"Bye, bye bastard," Shannon whispered. She stole his knife and cut two of the bars down. She escaped into the forest, in the middle of the night, after she dropped the knife into Sayid's stomach. Sayid made not a sound, he just stayed asleep.

Shannon ran through the forest, following the path leading to the caves, before she disappeared, she figured she should take care of some unfinished business. She picked up another knife and slowly strolled towards Claire, Charlie and Charles.