Reviews are still welcome, but I will not beg for them. At least I am still entertained by this story.
The raft survivors are found.
After the rescue of Aaron, Sayid and Charlie were convinced that the Others were a figment of the deluded Danielle's imagination. She had probably set up that black smoke signal just to create alarm and confuse the castaways. In the middle of the morning of second day after the departure of the raft, Sayid announced to those in the caves that he was going back to the beach to restart the signal fire. He never felt that moving everyone to the caves or the hatch was a good idea, and wanted to re-establish the beach settlement. He asked if anyone would like to accompany him.
Shannon had mixed feelings about Sayid. A part of her wanted to be with him as much as possible, but she didn't want to make it look too obvious. An idea struck her: "It will be good for Vincent to have a nice walk; we'll come along with you." Okay, maybe it still was pretty obvious. Jack, Kate, Locke, and Hurley had made another trip to the hatch, leaving Claire, Charlie, and Sun to look after Aaron. The pair walked briskly along the well-worn path, when suddenly Vincent's ears perked up, and he strained hard on the leash.
"What do you suppose he hears now?" finally asked Shannon, breaking the silence.
"Could be almost anything," replied Sayid. "Just keep a firm grip on …".
Just then Vincent yanked hard, and the leash broke free from Shannon's grasp. "Vincent!" Shannon yelled. She would have a difficult time living with herself if she lost Vincent after Walt had picked her to look after the white Labrador.
"Hush!" warned Sayid, we can't be sure who or what is out there. They slowed down their pace, and deviated from the main path as they neared the beach so they could arrive unseen. All this precaution turned out to be unnecessary.
Vincent had heard a familiar voice calling for help. The voice was weaker than normal, and not quite the same, but he was sure whom it belonged to. As he raced ahead of Shannon and Sayid to the beach, he spotted the person he expected to find – Michael. Looking around, there were those two other men who had left on the raft two days before, but Vincent was overwhelmingly disappointed not to find his true master. Vincent trotted over to Michael, who was sitting on the beach, and gave him a questioning look.
"Oh, Vincent, I'm so sorry, they took Walt!" cried Michael, who was not in full possession of his senses, and gave Vincent a big hug. Looking Vincent straight in the eyes, Michael continued, "But we'll find him and get him back, you and me." Vincent seemed to understand the despondent man. If Walt had been anywhere in the area Vincent would have detected his scent. Michael appeared to be waking up from a nightmare. "Hey buddy, what are you doing here by yourself? Isn't someone supposed to be watching you?"
At that moment Sayid and Shannon emerged onto the beach, and gasped at the sight. Vincent had run up to Michael, who was sitting up and talking to his son's pet, while Sawyer and Jin lay unconscious nearby. Sayid went into action immediately, rousing Jin and getting him to drink from a water bottle Sayid was carrying in his backpack. Shannon went over to Michael and Vincent, and offered another bottle to Michael, which he gratefully accepted. Then Michael started describing in an incoherent fashion about the misadventure they had on the raft. Sayid next went over to Sawyer, but couldn't produce more than a groan. Sayid saw the gunshot wound and the makeshift bandages.
"We need to get them to the caves so Jack can attend to them," announced Sayid. "Do you think you can make it?" he asked of Michael and Jin. Michael nodded, and translated Sayid's question for Jin using a combination of simple words and hand gestures. Jin also said yes, but there was the problem of how to transport Sawyer. It could take a long time to find Jack at the hatch and bring him back to here, so the resourceful Sayid constructed a stretcher out of two logs, some vines, and a tarp he had been carrying in his backpack. Michael and Jin took turns carrying the front end of the stretcher, while Sayid carried the back end the whole time. It was slow going due to the need of the first two to rest and rehydrate frequently.
It was late afternoon as they approached the caves. Shannon went ahead to find Sun, and told her, "There's someone here you have to see." Within a minute Sun was positively shocked to find see her husband struggling the final few steps to the cave. They engaged in a long, passionate embrace, but then that was tempered when Jin explained to his wife in Korean what had transpired on the raft. Sun was overjoyed to see Jin again; she had been quite afraid that might never be the case, but they couldn't be too happy being so close to Michael who had just suffered such a horrible loss under incredible circumstances. They would join a search party at the first opportunity.
The indefatigable Sayid then set off for the caves to retrieve Jack. Meanwhile Sun started attending to Sawyer, who looked to be in bad shape. She removed the bandages, which reminded her of Jin's shirt, on Sawyer's shoulder, and cleaned the wound the best she could with some of the few remaining antiseptics. She then applied a clean bandage. Throughout the process Sawyer was intermittently moaning, and Sun did manage to get him to drink some water.
Satisfied that she had done all she could for Sawyer, Sun turned her attention to the other two men from the raft. With all that had been going on, they may have forgotten that they had been out in the sun far too long. Sun found a bottle of lotion she had made from some of the plants. It wouldn't serve as a sunscreen, but would alleviate sunburn. The lotion had not been in too much use recently as people had quickly learned to stay out of the equatorial sun for long periods of time, but this was a truly exceptional circumstance. She gently applied the lotion to Jin's back and shoulders, and poured some into his hands so he could attend to the rest of his body. Then she did the same for Michael. There was a time when Jin would have flown off the handle to see his wife rub another man's back like that, but things were different now. Still, if Michael had lost all his shirts on the raft, Jin would graciously lend him one. Sun then rubbed what was left on Sawyer's upper body, but thanks to the bandages he had less exposed skin and didn't need as much.
Sayid had not gotten halfway to the hatch when he encountered that group returning for the day. He told them the incredible tale as they hurried back. Kate had to restrain herself in order to let Jack attend to Sawyer. As a matter of fact, Jack did not have a lot to do, and congratulated Sun on a fine effort. As Jack stepped away to look at Michael and Jin, Kate looked at the man who had aroused such a mixture of strong feelings in her. Now he tried to be a hero, and took a bullet in an effort to protect Walt. Kate felt that action deserved a little kiss, and she planted one on Sawyer's forehead. Sawyer appeared to moan slightly and make a small smile.