Disclaimer: dont. own. lost. pooperz.

Chapter 2 The Airport

"Hurry up, Chloe!" cried Halie. "We're going to be late!" Halie dragged her bags and luggage out of the taxi and waited for Chloe to take to her own bags and luggage. I'd really love to leave Australia ASAP!, thought Halie, I really just sort of need to…

"I'm coming, jeez," said Chloe who was clearly annoyed, "I mean come on we're at the airport nearly five hours early and you're saying we're late? Are you feeling alright, really, it's not like all of Australia is out to get you."

Ha, you don't even know the half of it, thought Halie, but stopped there because she didn't even want to think about it. "You now what I mean. We're going to have to wait on really long lines."

"Hey. Don't even start with me… it's like four in the morning and I haven't had my morning cup of coffee. We also could have been home like a WEEK ago, but as I recall, somebody wanted to go to Australia for no apparent reason even though we had planned to just go to the Lord of the Ring Convention, which was in Wellington, New Zealand…"

"Well, I just had to see Australia," said Halie, it was only a half-lie, "And come on, you have to admit that that was a pretty cool experience…crap…" Her luggage was stuck in the rotating door. "Stupid. Rotating. Door."

"Don't take your anger out on a poor innocent door." And you know as well as I do that I spent half this past week at the hotel eating bonbons and other assorted goods because you were out somewhere important that excluded me and my knowledge of even your whereabouts…the other half of the week was spent at safaris and being brought nearly to the brink of insanity by that annoying DriveShaft song!...oh, the Sydney Opera House was pretty cool…I guess. Chloe smirked at her friend's troubles. She looks like she may have a stroke…poor door…heh…hmmm, now, should I be rooting for her…or for the door…hehe

Halie let out an aggravated sigh and continued to tug. Finally, after a good long struggle, the Bag-On-Wheels gave up and popped out of the space between the door and wall. They came out of their little escapade at the rotating door nearly twenty minutes later.

"Finally! We're so late! And you're no help!" cried Halie as she ran down the hall to the economic class luggage check in for Oceanic Airlines heading for LAX.

"Hey! I need some source of amusement at this hour of the morning. Anyway, slow down! Some of us aren't as athletic as you are!" I mean sheesh, I know you want to leave, but give me a break, I'm running on a Splenda sugar high here…and it's depleting pretty quickly. In their rush to leave the hotel, Chloe had grabbed a packet of Splenda sugar and had eaten it on the way there. Halie was running on her own high-not drugs or anything like that-she was just happy to be finally leaving Australia and it was making her slightly perky. And she had grabbed a sugar packet too…

"Excuse me? Me? Athletic? That was a joke, right? 'Cause the only way and form that I can ever be athletic is lifting seven pounds of chocolate into my mouth!" Halie laughed as she said this matter-of-factly.

"Hey!" said Chloe with annoyance, "That's my job!" She then said the luggage check in lines for economic class and saw that they were pretty okay and short. "See, it's not that bad… I could have had at least another hour of sleep. I mean the plane leaves at 11:15! Could you possibly explain why we're here at 6:15!"

"Er… Chloe, that's the handicapped section. Our line is," Halie pointed over to line double the length, "that away. And for information, with security measures all perked up and everything it's highly suggested to come as early as possible because the lines are long and take forever."

"Oh." Chloe's face scrunched up in disappointment. "Halie this is your fault," she continued as they walked over to the end of the line.

"My fault? How this my fault?" Okay, so I never did tell you why we really had to go to Australia, but I had some business to take care… which sort of took care of itself… but, yeah… we could have been home a week ago, but… oh, I really can't put up much of an argument, I suppose.

"Yeah! You're so slow in the morning! Actually, you're slow, period." That's why?, thought Halie, Well, that's just not fair! And anyways, I'm not that slow.

"Me, slow? What about you? '…ten more minutes…,'" Halie mimicked Chloe.

"Hey, that's mean."

A tall thirty-something year-old man, with sandy blonde hair, wearing a casual outfit walked over to the two friends on the line. He was being escorted by police. "Excuse me, fine ladies," he asked them, "but is this yours?" Fine ladies, thought Halie, what a LOSER. He held up a small bag that seemed to have been ripped off a larger piece of luggage. They looked at the man, the little bag, then their luggage, and then each other. They were clearly confused, which was normal, considering the time of day. Even though, as always, Chloe's brain was functioning just a touch faster than Halie's; this was apparent due to Chloe's sudden laughter. The man became amused and Halie was even more puzzled by her friend's behavior.

In between laughs, Chloe explained to Halie what was going on. Oh man, this is good stuff… hehe… "You know that rotating door we just passed? Well, due to your complete and utter impatience, I think when you finally tugged your Bag-On-Wheels loose from the door, you ripped off the front pouch." She laughed once again.

"Oh…thanks…," Halie flushed and tried to retrieve her pouch back, but the man grinned, showing his set of dimples and pulled it out of her reach. The police officers were becoming slightly irritated at this unscheduled stop because they had places to go. Are you SERIOUS?, thought Halie. She didn't know what the guy wanted, "Dude, can I just have my bag back? I mean seriously, didn't your parents ever teach you any manners?" It's too early in the morning for this kind of crap. Must have coffee…I'm not functioning properly. Chloe shared the same thoughts.

Something about what Halie said ticked the man off because he went berserk. He shoved the bag at her and continued with, "You don't know anything about me or my life or my parents. So do not go around assuming things that you don't know!" The officers realizing he might readily kill her, pulled-more like dragged-him away, saying, "That's enough, Sawyer, the girl has her bag…you're coming with us."

Once they were a distance away, Chloe and Halie looked at each other wide-eyed and said, "Whoa, freak." They then laughed and moved over to where the line had moved up…one person. That guy, Sawyer or whatever, has some major issues to be solved, thought Halie, not that I don't, but seriously…I mean either that or he's a little loco in the head. She grinned to herself and began to look around the airport to see who was there and who was on line. Halie gasped and screeched, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" very happily. Chloe, who had been attempting to sleep on her feet, was jolted awake. "Are you mad? Could you at least be kind enough to next time give some sort of warning before you decide to ever do that again…which I sincerely hope you do not." People who had been watching the previous commotion, turned back to see what the current one was about. Unbeknownst to the two friends, the man standing in line in front of them talking softly on his cell phone, jumped slightly at Halie's happy screech.

"Yeah…sorry 'bout that," said Halie distractedly with a big goofy grin on her face, "Guess who that guy is…ohhhveeeerrrrr…there!...with the sun glasses…black nails…"

"Yeah, I see him… so what's your point? You woke up for that? Wait… how can you see the color of his fingernails from here? Sheesh, you've got good eyesight!"

"Heh…that's Charlie Pace," stated Halie matter-of-factly and excitedly, "the bass guitarist from Drive Shaft."

"And…your point…I was having a good dream…" Okay, big lie, wasn't sleeping, just resting my eyes, but I'm tired…and I'm saving my MP3 player for the flight… no use in using all my batteries right now…

"And, don't you remember the song 'You All Everybody' that we heard on our tour of Australia?

"What tour?" said Chloe, "Are you talking about that mini tour of the Outback? In which 'You All Everybody' was continuously playing on the radio? Very annoying song… first time was bad enough, but 42 times!"

"You're exaggerating," said Halie with a laugh. Heh, I really should apologize to her about the crappy visit to Australia… but I had something to take care of. I really should confide in her… or else she's going be pissed that I didn't…ugh…

"OK, sorry," said Chloe, giving up, but only slightly, "Maybe it was 23 times! But that's not my point! There's only so much a person can handle! Especially the crap visit to Australia, which I think I deserve an explanation for… random disappearances and all!"

"Heh," said Halie with a nervous laughter, "I've been to apologize 'bout that… but now's not the exact time and place for 'explanations'." It's going to be really difficult explaining…everything.

"Yeah, well take your time," said Chloe sarcastically, "Don't wanna force anything out of you…" When has it ever been a good time?

"Argh."

"What now?" asked Chloe. She didn't understand why Halie had to keep talking. She needed sleep… either that or an iced mocha frappacino from Starbuck's… two would have been even better.

"I have to pee and there's like four people on this line."

"Er… I can save your place in line and anyway it's only four people. So you can go along to the bathroom and pee." Chloe laughed at Halie. Heh, she always has to pee…

"One person on this line can take from a range of thirty minutes to an hour! And I really would like not to go alone because that creep-o could come back… and I had a strong vibe from him that he possibly wanted to kill me."

"First off, I highly doubt that guy is going to kill you… and anyway you're a big girl, if someone's trying to hurt you, hit 'em where it hurts!" Heh heh, that's a funny thought…

"Yeah…," Halie sighed sadly-she really did have to go-but quickly perked up, "You know what I need… Charlie's autograph… I've got their CD and all… it would be so cool."

"You… know you're so random."

"Yeah, sorry, I'm just a touch hyper."

"Just a touch, I think not." Coffee…me want…no need…coffee…

"Sorry, I'll let you sleep." Halie laughed. Poor Chloe…she has dark circles underneath her eyes… she needs sleep and coffee… or chocolate… or quite possibly all three…

"Do you mind!" The two friends literally jumped in surprise-their hearts racing nearly a mile a minute-as the man in front of them wearing a black suit spoke up. . The man seemed very distraught and agitated; the look on his face appeared very heart-wrenched. He pointed at his cellphone where was apparently trying to have a conversation with somebody. His eyes were red and gave away how many sleepless nights he had spent; he looked like he had previously been crying for some time. They were filled with so much guilt and grief.

Chloe, who hadn't, at first, seen the turmoil of the thirty-something year old man because her eyes were shut, shouted, "Hey, I'm trying to catch up on some lost hours of sleep here… I don't need a heart attack as well…" Her eyes opened, "Whoa, are you ok?"

"I'm fine," snapped the man, but then instantly appeared apologetic for snapping, "Look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted, I'm just not having a very good month."

Oh, man… I so hope he isn't planning on pouring out his life story and start weeping in the middle of the airport...that would be odd…I just need some 'well-deserved' shut-eye… was Chloe's main thought. "Maybe you should take a time out and chill. Like de-stress."

"That sounds great…but I'm a doctor… I don't have that kind of luxury," chuckled the man.

"That's sucks," Chloe stated bluntly.

"Chloe," Halie said in a tone that said leave the man in peace.

"What?" Chloe said, semi-attempting to stifle a yawn.

"Go back to sleep."

"Yay!" With that, Chloe again shut her eyes.

The man turned to Halie. He had hung up the cell-phone, promising to call the person later when he was on the flight. Offering his hand, he said "I'm Jack by the way."

Halie shook it as she said, "Halie."

"Halie, you know, you look like my mother. Are you sure your name is Halie?" He had a hopeful glint in his eye.

Er… okay then. If Halie hadn't already known who Jack was, she would have been weirded out by that unusual statement. She still was, but to a much less degree. It was too bad that Jack couldn't make the correct connections or really remember and recognize her, but that would come in its own time, when she was ready… if ever… "As sure as the sun'll rise tomorrow and this plane's going to L.A." Halie had so much practice that lying was becoming second nature. The validity of the latter part of her statement would probably haunt her for the rest of her life.