Chapter 2

Evelyn did not make it back to her bed until late; she was not able to pursue the book snatcher until the next day. Her sleep was uneasy filled with dreams of her books being stolen and either burned to ashes or ripped to pieces. She awoke with a start. The sun was well past the point in the sky that usually marked her wakening time. She quickly snatched her messenger bag filled with her precious books and headed to the beach to meet Rose.

"I saw you last night, sittin' around the fire," Rose looked up at the young woman with a smile, "Seemed like everyone was enjoying your stories. I'm proud of you."

Evelyn returned her smile, "I can't talk today Rose," she hoped she didn't sound rude. There were other things on her mind.

"That's all right, honey. But don't let him get the best of you." Rose said with a knowing look. Evelyn gave Rose a second glance before she went in search of her book. Did she know Sawyer had stolen her book?

She headed towards the raft where Sawyer had been spending most of his time the last few days. When she arrived she saw Jin and Michael working diligently on the finishing touches. It wouldn't be long until the raft was sea worthy. They had already experienced one setback when the vessel was mysteriously burned. She stood and watched them for awhile; both men were working hard to accomplish the same goal. Michael wanted to get his son off of the island, and Jin wanted to bring help for his wife. Both of them were doing more than that though, they were giving the rest of the survivors hope. However, Sawyer was no where to be found.

"Excuse me, Michael?" Evelyn asked timidly. The artist and shipwright raised his head. "Have you seen Sawyer?"

"He hasn't shown up today, and if you see him, tell him to get over here or his ass is off the raft." Evelyn took Michael's words as dismissal and turned toward the other end of the beach.

She wandered around the beach asking everyone she met of they had seen the conman. Most of them said no, but a few said they saw him go towards the caves earlier in the morning. Evelyn turned off into jungle and followed the now-well-worn path to the caves. A few people were there but they had not seen Sawyer all day. Where could he have gone to? He didn't just disappear. She did not want to wander through the jungle looking for him, she might get lost. She didn't want to ask anyone to go with her because it was too dangerous of a mission for something as unimportant as a few pieces of paper bound together with glue. But it was important…it was important to Evelyn. Taking a deep breath to quell her frustration Evelyn headed back to the beach. If he wasn't there, she would go into the jungle by herself.

Evelyn walked back to the beach to continue her search. She asked the same people again if they had seen Sawyer. They all gave her the same answer; they had not seen him since the morning. Frustration mounting she rushed into the jungle. He was doing it on purpose, he was hiding. Branches snagged on her clothes as she walked through the thick foliage. It was a mean trick he was playing. Evelyn's mind wandered back to her school days and her schoolmates playing practical jokes on her. They weren't funny then and it wasn't funny now. Her anger started to surge causing her feet to carry her faster and farther away. A bare branch reached out and scratched her cheek. Ignoring the sharp pain, she put her head down and ran.

She did not know how long she had been running for but her chest was heaving when she ran smack into what felt like a wall. Evelyn realized it wasn't a wall when arms reached out and stopped her from falling down to the grown.

"What's the rush, Carrots? You're runnin' like the Others were after you." He looked at her with a smirk.

Evelyn took a step back and glared at him, hatred was seething from every pore.

"Whoa, Carrots what is that look for? What did I ever do to you?" She could hear the amusement in his voice.

"You stole my book, and stop calling me Carrots." Evelyn crossed her arms.

Sawyer still held the sardonic smile on his face. He reached down and picked up two books from the ground. One of them had a blue cover.

"I was just borrowing it…If you didn't already know there isn't much to do on this island." He held out her book to her. As she reached for it he quickly snatched it out of her reach. He chuckled at the look of irritation on her face. He held it out to her again. She just looked at him, not even acknowledging that he held the book.

"I'll give it to you this time. I promise." Evelyn slowly reached out for the book, but he snatched it away again. Evelyn clenched her jaw and crossed her arms again. It was all so juvenile. She remembered Rose's warning about letting Sawyer get the best of her and at the moment that was exactly what he was doing. He was playing with her for his own pleasure. She turned around and started to walk away. She had plenty of other books to read; besides if he was really borrowing the book he'd return it eventually.

"Hey, Carrots." Sawyer called after her, but she didn't take the bait. She kept walking, back straight and head held high. Evelyn heard the conman start to follow her.

"You are forgetting something." He said, "Stop walking. I'll give you your precious book back." She stopped and slowly turned. He stood with the book in his out stretched hand. She reached out and touched the book. They stood still and silent for a few moments, each holding on to the book. Evelyn could feel heat rising up her neck as she felt herself being examined under Sawyer's intense gaze. His blue eyes seemed to be reading every thought she had. He finally dropped his hand.

"Is this your book too?" He held up a romance novel. A man with flowing hair and rippling muscles held a swooning woman in his arms. Evelyn swallowed, not wanting to admit that the book was hers.

"Two romance novels. If I didn't know better…" A smirk cracked Sawyer's face, as Evelyn started to object.

"Outlander is not a romance novel, it's a historical fiction novel centered on a love story. The other one is for research purposes only." She explained, willing the redness in her cheeks to go away.

"It makes me wonder what else ya got in that bag. You seem to carry it with you everywhere. It must be pretty important." His voice was low and deep. For some unknown reason she took her bag and handed it over to him. She wanted to justify her choice in reading material. Taking the bag from her hand he opened it up and took out her books: "The Chronicles of Narnia", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Crime and Punishment", "Sense and Sensibility", and "Heart of Darkness."

"Interesting…Why do you have all these books, Carrots?" Evelyn snatched the bag from his hand. She turned to leave for the second time, not wanting to suffer his scrutiny or teasing.

"Carrots?" Evelyn did everything in her power to not turn around, but something in him was stronger. As she turned back around, she remembered the look on his face when she called him James. She clamped her lips tightly together to hide a smile.

"James?" She could see his jaw working the second the first syllable was out of her mouth. He put his hands on his hips and started to stare her down. This time she wasn't intimidated.

"Why are you headed off so soon? We were getting along so well." His voice was laced with sarcasm.

"No we weren't James, and I'd love to stay and chat, but you are wanted at the raft." Evelyn flashed him a sickly sweet smile and left. She could stop smiling as she headed back to the beach. She learned something about Sawyer, she had something he wanted and he wanted it badly. She would have to keep an eye on her books. He also hated being called James, so if he continued to address her as Carrots, she would just have to keep calling him James.

Later that evening Evelyn joined Jack and Kate at one of the fires. They greeted her with warm smiles. They were soon joined by Michael and his son Walt.

"How's the raft comin' Michael?" Jack asked.

"Good, if we can get more help we should be done in a couple days." Michael said.

Jack nodded, "We'll see if we can get anyone else to help you."

"You need to give them a reason to help…just telling them that the raft could make it to a shipping lane isn't going to be enough." Evelyn spoke up.

"She's right." Kate agreed.

"What do you propose we do?" Jack turned his attention to the young woman. Michael also looked at her, but he didn't seem too pleased.

"If everyone were to write a letter or just a few sentences to a loved one or friend, and whom ever gets on the raft promises to deliver the letters. People would be more inclined to help." Evelyn kept her voice low, not to sure how they would take her idea.

"Yeah, that just might work." Michael seemed to agree. "But where are we going to get all that paper?" He seemed rather pleased with himself.

"I have enough." Evelyn said, "We'll need one of the water bottles to put all the letters in so they won't get wet."

Jack smiled, "Very good idea." He was pleasantly surprised at this young woman. She had spent the first couple of weeks on her own and now she was opening up to everyone. She had a lot of good ideas and seemed to have a level head on her shoulder. He had also been talking to Rose and she told him to give the young woman a chance. He was very glad he did. "I think you should be in charge of organizing that."

"Who's organizing what?" Sawyer asked as he sat on a rock, just opposite of Evelyn.

"Evelyn is going to organize, sort of a letter campaign. Everyone is going to write a letter to someone home, letting them know they are safe and will be home soon. The people on the raft will take the letters with them." Kate explained smiling at Sawyer.

"Is that so Carrots?" He smirked. Evelyn decided it would be best to ignore her tormentor.

Before calling it a night Evelyn enlisted the help of Hurley for the letter writing campaign. He still had the manifest so they could keep track of who had written a letter. A few of the survivors asked if Evelyn could tell them one of the stories she knew. She searched her mind for a more uplifting folk talk or short story.

Sawyer kept his eyes pinned on Evelyn the entire night. He watched and studied her movements and expressions as she told the story of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe. He couldn't figure out what intrigued him about the young graduate student. He wouldn't call her beautiful, she had interesting looks: rich red hair, dark brown eyes you could get lost in, lips that were neither too full nor to thin. She had spunk that went with her red hair but she tried to keep it suppressed. Evelyn was definitely innocent, he decided, she blushed every time he looked at her and when he suggested that the romance novels were for recreational purposes. Sawyer could tell that he was making her nervous. This is going to be fun.