Eloise / Olivia
Shortly after Olivia Goodspeed arrived on the Island, someone fired at her husband Horace and missed. His fellow scientists said they'd all gotten the welcome wagon shot. If they wanted you dead, they didn't miss.
Horace had sold this gig to her as a way to prop up their failing marriage with an all-expenses-paid tropical vacation. Instead, the Barracks felt more like a prison.
There were ways to get outside the sonic fence, though. As the Dharma Initiative's only teacher, Olivia snagged the passcode. She told the head of security that if the children couldn't explore the Island, she'd bring its natural features to them. Neither he nor Horace argued with her.
Anyway, Horace spent all his time now with fellow mathematicians Paul Kennedy and his wife Amy. Olivia wasn't sad about it, not really. Whenever she could, she wandered far from the Barracks, sometimes leaving right after dawn and not returning till sunset. No one ever shot at her, either. One day, by a small waterfall that danced over green rocks, Olivia saw the woman.
A Hostile, the first one Olivia had ever seen.
The woman crouched by the icy pool and washed her face with a rag, a rifle slung over her shoulder. Olivia stared, wonder-struck at the woman's beautiful, weathered face and her confident, almost brash air. As if she, the woods and the water were one.
The woman spoke first, crisp and British. "You're breaking the Truce, you know."
Olivia's baffled expression answered for her.
"Never mind. You should get out while you can. I certainly plan to."
Olivia found her tongue. "What do you mean by that? You don't know anything about me."
"Olivia Makepeace Goodspeed of Boston, Massachusetts. You hate teaching, and you're sad because your husband is in love with another woman."
You're wrong and How dare you? died on Olivia's lips when the woman added, "I also know about your girlfriend from Boston College."
Hot shame poured over Olivia, followed by anger. "You can't. No one does. Who the hell are you, anyway?"
"Ellie. And I have something for you, for the road."
She moved towards Olivia, waiting for her to either meet her, or dart away in the jungle forever.
Olivia stayed, and lifted her chin. The kiss landed soft and light as the Pala Bay breezes: a wise kiss, thorough and well-practiced. Above Olivia the trees whispered; water tripped over stone, and Ellie tasted like wet, salty heaven. Afterwards, Ellie ran her hand gently down Olivia's face, and not so much walked into the jungle as faded into it.
Over the next weeks, Olivia could never recover her steps to the waterfall, although she tried. So when the time came, she climbed into the submarine Galaga, took one last look at the Island, and never saw it or Ellie ever again.