Lena was getting seriously tired of waking up to the sound of screams and shouts. And yet there she was, waking up for that very reason, again.
"Hey!" She shouted to the nearest person, which happened to be Kate. "What's happening?"
"I think someone's drowning." Kate replied breathlessly. Lena gasped quietly and ran towards the water where Jack was already swimming towards the drowning woman.
Of course it's Jack, Lena thought. Who else would be so incredibly selfless, like a cliche movie protagonist. Honestly, sometimes it seemed like he was some sort of heroic robot.
Then, to Lena's surprise, Jack stopped in the middle of the water, still a ways away from the drowning woman. He dove under the water, and ended up coming up to the surface with someone else.
As he swam back, Lena saw that the other person was Boone. He must have gone in to save the woman, but ended up getting caught by the current as well. I guess we have two selfless robots, Lena mentally added.
As soon as Boone was safely on the beach, Jack went back for the woman. But her screams had stopped, and it was already too late.
…
"Lena! Hey, Lena!"
She turned around to see Kate walking towards her.
"Hey Kate." Lena said. "What's going on?"
"We have a problem." Kate replied, sounding slightly panicked. "Well, multiple problems, actually. Someone stole the water, and Claire is sick, and I can't find Jack, and-"
"Okay, Kate, calm down." Lena said gently. "We'll figure this out, one problem at a time." Kate quickly took a minute to compose herself before speaking again.
"That's what we're trying to do." She said. "I figured you should be part of the discussion." Lena was both surprised and a little flattered that she was included in the little group of 'leaders.' But she supposed that's what happens when you trek through the jungle to try and pick up a radio signal.
She and Kate walked over to where Sayid and Locke were standing, both of them looking slightly impatient.
"Alright." Sayid said. "What first?"
"Where is the doctor?" Locke asked.
"I don't know." Kate sighed. "No one can find him."
"Is this the last of our water supply?" Lena asked, dreading the inevitable answer. Kate nodded uncomfortably.
"It was foolish, keeping it all in one place." Sayid added.
"I can go into the jungle." Kate offered. "I'll try to find some fresh water." The other three were skeptical at that idea, however. It didn't seem like the best idea to split up now.
"You can't go in alone." Lena said. "When the others figure out the water is gone, things are going to get ugly, and that's putting it nicely. And when they find out someone stole it, it's going to get even uglier."
"Which is why they need you three here, especially with the doctor gone." Locke chimed in. "Besides, I know where to look." Lena was slightly skeptical, but she just shrugged, knowing that was the best decision.
"Sounds like a plan." Kate said. Locke nodded and ran off, probably to get a few of his precious knives and then to go look for Jack.
Barely a few minutes had passed before Hurley came running up to the remaining three of them, looking tired and out of breath.
"Uh, the Chinese people have water." He said breathlessly. Lena didn't bother to correct him that they were Korean, and she ran towards them, along with Sayid and Kate.
The Korean couple did, indeed have water. Their names were Jin and Sun, or at least, that's what Lena thought, since they didn't speak English.
"Where did you get this?" Sayid asked Sun forcefully. "Where did you-"
"She can't understand you." Kate interrupted. Sun just looked at them fearfully.
"She understands me." Sayid replied. "Did you steal this water?" Sun said something in Korean, which Lena didn't understand. As she was in the middle of her sentence, her husband stormed over furiously and launched into a whole rant.
"Whoa, take it easy." Lena said, putting her hands up in mock surrender. "We just want to talk. You had water. Who gave it to you?" She made a water motion with her hands that she hoped got her point across
Jin seemed to understand a little of what Lena was saying, because he stopped shouting and pointed at Sawyer.
You have got to be kidding me, Lena thought. But, then again, he was the most obvious suspect.
Kate, with a very annoyed expression on her face, started to walk over to him, but Sayid immediately stopped her, saying that Sawyer wouldn't give up the water if she confronted him. Instead, they should wait and follow Sawyer to wherever his stash was.
…
Well, Sawyer didn't have the water, putting them back at square one. Again.
"I don't understand." Kate was saying. "If Sawyer doesn't have it, then who-"
"Aha!" Came a voice from the tent. Kate and Lena glanced at each other quickly before running to the tent, where Charlie and Michael were standing over Boone.
"Um… what's going on?" Lena asked.
"Someone had to take responsibility for it!" Boone shouted. "It never would have lasted." And then it clicked. Boone was the one who stole the water. Not such a selfless robot after all.
"Well, case solved." Lena muttered as Sayid pushed his way forward. Boone continued to state his case and explain himself, but no one was having it.
"Shut up, you bloody-" Charlie started to say, but a new voice interrupted.
"Leave him alone!" It was Jack, finally back from his mysterious disappearance. Lena could already tell from his expression and the way he carried himself that he was about to give some kind of speech.
"It's been six days, and we're still waiting!"
Yup. Speech.
"Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don't? We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out. A woman died this morning just going for a swim and he tried to save her, and now you're about to crucify him? We can't do this. Every man for himself is not going to work. It's time to start organizing. We need to figure out how we're going to survive here. Now, I found water. Fresh water, up in the valley. I'll take a group in at first light. If you don't wanna come then find another way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers, but we're all here now. And god knows how long we're going to be here. But if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."
Damn, Lena thought. That was a pretty good speech.
…
Lena's first thought was: Seriously?!
Her next thought, of course, was to pull Jin off of Michael. Because the Korean man, for no apparent reason, had attacked Michael while he was walking with Walt.
Lena pushed Jin away as he shoved Michael under the waves of the ocean. Jin stood up angrily, but before he could do anything, Sayid and Sawyer ran over, Sayid carrying the handcuffs from the plane.
Lena knew it was bad if Sayid and Sawyer were working together.
Sayid handcuffed Jin to the fuselage, using some kind of bar. Once he was sure Jin was secure, he turned to the shocked Sun.
"What happened?"
Sun said something in Korean, but soon realized that no one understood her. She made some wild hand gestures, but even that didn't convey her point.
"Okay, Michael, what happened." Sayid asked.
"I don't know, man!" Michael exclaimed. "I was just walking on the beach with my son, and all of a sudden, this dude attacked me! I didn't do anything." Jin muttered something in Korean.
"Surely there must be something you're not telling us." Sayid said.
"Surely?" Michael echoed. "Look he attacked me. Maybe you should talk to him!" He pointed at Jin, who just glared.
"That's a great idea, except for the fact that he doesn't speak English." Lena piped up, but no one seemed to be listening to her.
Sun shouted something, pointing to her watch. Probably something about the handcuffs.
"The cuffs stay on!" Sayid yelled.
"Maybe a little louder, then she'll understand you." Sawyer muttered.
"Dudes, he's going to get pretty crispy out here." Hurley said, looking from Jin to the scorching sun (the actual sun, not the person). "How long are you guys going to keep him tied up like that?"
"He tried to kill Michael." Said Sayid. "We all saw it. The cuffs stay on until we know why?" Once the large crowd had dispersed, Lena spoke again.
"How are we going to figure out why if we can't talk to them?" Lena asked. Sayid, for once, didn't seem to have a solution.
"I don't know." He sighed, clearly hating the idea of having no plan.
…
"Excuse me, Lena?"
It had been a few hours since the whole Jin incident, and there was still no explanation. So, Sayid approaching with water in hand was definitely a welcome sight.
"Oh my god!" Lena exclaimed, practically tearing the water bottle from Sayid's hand. She gulped it down gleefully, feeling the fresh stream of water trickle down her throat.
Sayid laughed slightly at her eagerness with the water, and Lena playfully glared at him.
"I'm sure you did the same thing when you got water." She said.
"Yes, well, that's not the only reason why I'm here." Sayid said, suddenly getting more serious. "Jack is taking some other people to go live in the caves, but some of us are staying here. Where will you go?"
"I… um… I don't know?" Lena said, taken aback by his sudden question. "Can't I have a little time to decide? You only just asked me."
"Jack and the others are leaving soon, and I don't doubt that he will ask you to come." Sayid replied. "I'm sorry, but you need to chose."
One one hand…. fresh water, a roof over her head. But if she left the beach, the small chance of rescue went even farther down. And, Sayid seemed kind of eager for her to stay. The fact that he specifically asked her, of all people, said a lot.
And so, she made her decision.
"I'm going to stay."