Chapter 2

It had been a few eventful days. Jacen had done his best to keep himself from the spotlight, avoiding any confrontation he could. Locke, some guy trying his best to be Daniel Boone on this island, was acting funny every time Jacen had found himself around him. He was good at boar hunting, but he tended to be abrasive with people. Even Michael, who had saved Jacen, was starting to get aggravated with Locke trying to be nice to his kid. Michael was nice, but he did need to lighten up some when it came to protecting his son. It's not like somebody's going to kidnap him, they're all stuck on the beach.

This morning there was a little commotion, a woman drowning a couple hundred feet off the shore. Jack had brought back the kid, Boone, but the woman was too far gone to be saved. As bad as Jacen felt for her, it was her decision to go that far out into the ocean. There was no mercy in nature, a lesson he knew too well.

He sat back on the beach near jungle's edge with his back to the great unknown behind him. Although the paranoia still remained in his heart about the old man and the strange creature, there wasn't much he could do about it. People in the camp were acting strange enough, and his adding to the chaos would only make things worse. So, here he sat at the edge of the jungle, as if daring this creature to come and take him.

He gazed around the make-shift village, his eyes finally landing on a pretty blonde. Her long, curvy frame was soaking up the sun's rays falling on the beach as she lay in her bikini, completely in the moment. While she was very pretty in appearance, he was jealous of her calmness to lay there and soak in the sun. While everyone else worried of their everyday affairs at home and how they're going to survive the night ahead of them alone, she enjoyed the moment and used it to its benefit.

"Her name's Shannon." A soft voice called from his right.

He jerked his head to the location of the voice, to find a pretty young girl with naturally brown skin and dark hair. She smiled at him, "You should talk to her."

He smirked, shaking his head, "It's not like that."

"Uh huh..." She replied, going back looking through the pile of clothes in front of her. He guessed her at maybe 19, and strangely enough, found her more alluring than the blonde in the bikini. Something about this one caught his eye.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Veronica. You?" She answered looking back up at him.

"Jacen. Nice to meet you."

"Do you talk to all the girls like this or just me?" She looked up with her eyes, not moving her head. One corner of her mouth slid up in a teasing gesture.

He smirked but answered dryly, "You're funny."

"Gotta keep my mind off the threat of being gored by a boar or Sawyer trying to swindle me out of something else. So, I use humor to make myself smile... and you apparently."

He suddenly realized the big grin on his face, and tried to force it down. He stood up, finding it extremely easy considering three days ago he was two steps from dead. He wiped the sand off the butt of his jeans and the back of his dark grey t-shirt. Reaching up and running a hand through his unruly brown hair, he turned to face her and caught a better view of her as she stood up.

She was very pretty, with her long dark hair and tanned skin. Her brown eyes had flecks of green in them when sun hit them, and her face was utterly adorable. She was a little below average height, and had soft curves to her body. Something about her attracted him, something beyond her natural good looks. As she stood up with a few shirts in her hands, one dropped onto the sand. Like a puppy in love, he quickly jogged over and snatched it up from the sand to give it back.

As he laid it atop the other shirts in her hands again, she smiled her white teeth that flashed in the sun, "My hero..." She winked and walked away, toward one of the huts near the edge of the camp. He caught himself staring, his heart urging him to follow after her but he remained where he stood.

As she disappeared, Hurley's voice drew his attention again. "Hey Dude," the large man said as he approached.

"Hey big guy. How's it going?" Jacen replied.

"Not good dude," He said as he handed Jacen a water bottle, "It's one of the last, so I thought you should have it since you're... you know, healing and stuff."

"What do you mean one of the last ones?" Jacen asked, taking it from Hurley and holding it tightly. The water bottle's value suddenly skyrocketed in his mind.

"It's the last, all of our other ones are gone and we can't find them."

"You mean somebody stole them?" Jacen asked.

"Either that or somebody was really thirsty." Hurley answered, taking the other two bottles in his hand and turning away from Jacen. He was scanning the beach for somebody, but Jacen didn't know who. He could guess one of them being the pregnant girl that was walking around, though.

"You should let Jack know." Jacen said.

"Yeah, we told him but he didn't seem to care at the moment. Looked like something else was bothering him," He said, "Alright dude, I've gotta find Claire. Take care."

As Hurley bounded off, Jacen looked down at the bottle. Water was the most important thing to them right now. Food they could find and ration, but those water bottles were a necessity. It didn't rain enough for the tarp to gather enough water for everybody, so the water bottles helped to keep the water supply up. Now, they faced a calamity.

Jacen stuck his bottle in the back of his jeans, and took off walking after the girl. Scanning through the throngs of people, he couldn't find her. Checking each hut didn't reveal her either, until he reached the very last one near the edge of the camp. Inside, through one of the cracks in the hut, he could see her and she was currently switching shirts. He turned around, looking out over the ocean's horizon and waited. He didn't want her to think he was spying but he wanted to talk. Finally, he called out to her, "Hey, you in there?"

She quickly pulled her shirt on, and pushed the tarp over the edge of her hut's roof to keep it up. She stepped out, pulling her dark strands of hair from under the back of her t-shirt. At one point, the front had a picture of something but now it was faded to just a half a palm tree and a little orange mess of color up near her shoulder. It fit her body nicely though.

"Isn't there like a three day rule before you come looking for a date?" She asked slyly.

"Do you treat all the guys like this or just me?" He asked, mocking her tone from earlier.

"Just you, my dear little stalker." She smiled at him, "What's up?"

He handed her the water bottle and said, "It's one of the last ones."

"What?"

"The big guy just came up to me saying all the other bottles are missing now, and nobody knows where they are. So, I figured you should have this one." He said.

She took it and smiled at him, "See? This is why you get special treatment."

He smiled back at her, "Try to ration it, hard to say when we'll get another batch of them."

"What's everybody's plan?"

"Not sure, Hurley said Jack was distracted or something. Maybe ole' John Locke will MacGyver something with his knives, but he's not around at the moment. I...."

She tilted her head slightly, "What?"

"I think I'm going to go see if there's a freshwater source around here, maybe a little stream or pond even. It's a big island." He said, looking out toward the jungle and all the paranoia in his heart swirled. He didn't consider himself a man given to this much fear, but something on this island scared him.

"No! That's crazy, let Locke or Jack worry about that." She said, grabbing his hand. She held it, "I finally find a friend, and he's not going running off into the jungle to die."

"I'm not going to die; I'm just going to look around." He answered, admittedly not desiring to let go of her hand.

"Don't, please."

As much as her pleas were getting to him, the thought of dying of dehydration was worse. They needed water; they're going to need water even if they find the water bottles. Eventually they're going to run out, and then they're going to have to go looking for water anyway.

"I have to, we need water. I'll be careful." He said and pulled away from her hand.

"Jacen...." She said, "Be careful."

"I will, I promise."

Three years prior to the crash....

Jacen strolled casually through the large glass doors of the bank. His roughed-up leather jacket was frayed and his jeans had a well-placed hole right over the knee cap that flashed his white skin with each stride. Standing at the end of the long line for the teller, he made it just in time as the security guard behind him stood up to lock the doors. As the second hand clicked to its tallest position on the bank's clock, time slowly came to and passed the five o'clock mark. The security guard turned the key in the glass door just as a pretty, young woman stepped up to it. Pushing on it in futility, she gave the saddest expression her beautiful face could make when it didn't budge, and the elderly security guard took pity. Unlocking and opening the door just enough for her to slide through, she patted him on the shoulder and thanked him. Swaying her curvy frame past him, he shut and locked the door for good for the night.

Jacen turned back around and looked at the line which moved much slower than even bank lines were expected to move. He sighed, his right hand patting his jeans pocket where his envelope of money rested. This was his last payment received, and his last deposit. Tonight, he was going to finish packing and tomorrow, he'd leave town with his middle finger out the window to everybody and everything he was leaving behind.

As the elderly woman at the front of the line turned to leave, the beautiful young woman behind Jacen opened her large handbag and pulled from it a pristine, silver handgun. Unknowing, Jacen turned to look back as a young girl in front of him gasped, and from the corner of his eye was a flash of light and the explosion of sound in his right ear as the young woman pulled the trigger. Jacen flinched, the sound still echoing in his ear and his peripheral vision searing with white light. The elderly woman in the front of the line fell forward and lay still on the floor of the bank.

"Everybody down or you'll get a bullet too!" The young woman behind him yelled.

Jacen twisted quickly, his right elbow crashing into her clenched fist on the gun. Instinctively, he drove his shoulder back with the momentum of his attack, crashing into her chest and letting his weight do the work as they tumbled to the floor together. As soon as they landed, he felt her chest collapse in as the air was forced from her lungs and his left hand clenched down onto the gun in her hand, pinning it to the floor. Quickly, putting his weight into his right arm, he pressed his forearm against her throat cutting off all oxygen. He clearly had the weight and muscle advantage on her. Her free hand struck against his face, but he tucked his chin and left only his hair for her to grab.

"Stop!" A male's voice bellowed behind him and the cool metal ring of a gun barrel pressed against the back of Jacen's neck.

Jacen froze, his eyes scanning for the elderly guard who should have been armed, but found his body near the door and blood trickling from his forehead. Not a gunshot, but definitely struck by something. He had to be unconscious. Jacen was stuck now between a gun and violent woman.

A handful of his leather jacket was grabbed and Jacen was thrown back off the woman and onto his back. Looking up, he saw a tall man with white skin and dark hair. He didn't have any scars, and actually was wearing a nice, black suit. He certainly didn't fit Jacen's preconceived idea of a bank robber, but then again, neither did the beautiful woman Jacen was just choking.

"You got a lot of nerve man!" The tall crook yelled, and looked over at the girl, "You alright?"

Stuck in a coughing fit, trying to regain her breath, she muttered, "Shoot... him!"

"No! Why did you shoot the old lady?!" He yelled, looking back. The elderly woman was moving, another woman helping her but froze as the man looked at them, "If she dies, then we're in this for manslaughter!"

"If we get caught!" The woman yelled back.

Jacen kept still, trying to do his best not to anger either of them. At the moment, he was at their mercy. The man shook his head, "This is a white-collar crime in an easy prison, but manslaughter puts us in much deeper. You want a rape buddy in prison? Cause I don't!"

"If we get caught!! We're not getting caught though." She yelled back, getting to her feet and putting the sights of her gun on Jacen.

The male crook stood between her and Jacen, "Please. For me, baby. I don't want anybody to die today, let's just get what we came for and disappear."

She hesitated, anger brewing behind her eyes. His words worked on her though, she lowered her gun and turned away. "Alright, where's the teller?" She screamed.

A young woman stuck her head up from behind the counter, "H-here."

"Open the safe! Now!" The female crook yelled, putting her gun at the woman, "Did you hit the alarm yet?"

The woman shook her head, "N-no. I promise..."

"If cops show up at that front door, I promise you he won't stop me from putting a bullet in your head. So you better make sure they don't show up, understand?" She asked, pointing at the girl with her gun.

"Y-yes... I'll m-make sure...." The young girl asked.

She turned back around and looked at Jacen behind her partner, "And, you..... You just earned the spot of bag-filler for everything in the vault cause I'm not letting you out of my sights..."

Jacen nodded. As the woman walked toward the bank counter, the male crook turned to look at him, "Come on, stand up. You heard her."

Jacen jumped up to his feet, his hands held up at his shoulders to show he meant no harm. He stepped around the male crook, and started walking forward toward the woman. The man kept close behind him, gun aimed directly between his shoulders. There was no dodging it now.

"Come on girl! Open the safe and help this guy fill the bags." She yelled, her gun leveled at her.

The four of them walked back behind the counter and toward the large metal safe near the back of the bank. Along the way, Jacen looked at the people on the floor, the groups of faces of innocent people. Some were older, but some were still just young girls that were beginning their adult life, years still ahead of them. None of them had any idea they would be hostages in a bank hold-up, let alone be faced with possible death. They weren't prepared for this; he could see it in their faces. They weren't like him; most of them probably had never seen a gun even.

Jacen was now really in trouble. While the man clearly didn't want to have murder on his rap sheet, the woman had no problem with it. She showed that by firing a round into the elderly woman. While his death was looming in front of him, he also had the thought of the ten or so people that would still be in the lobby. If things went bad, they'd be used as hostages and some probably killed in the process. Jacen needed a plan, and at the moment, he didn't have one. This was not going to end well.....