Chapter Sixteen

Sayid did not hold onto his paisley shirt for long. Number 13 was Desmond, and he chose to take the gift from the Iraqi. "My shirts are growing a bit thin, brother. Who knows, I may actually look fetching in it." Sayid ended up with an eye patch.

The most popular gift, however, was the one Sayid had added to the bag. Not realizing what a white elephant was, he had attempted to contribute something thoughtful, and he had made a small wooden jewelry box. Sun secured that one after stealing it from Locke, and she sat down with her daughter in her lap to open it. The infant grabbed at the hinged top and attempted to drag it to her mouth. "No, no, no," murmured Jin, removing the tiny chest to a safe distance. The baby lunged for the box and nearly fell from her mother's lap. Jin took her and rested her against his chest. Sayid smiled at the couple and thought that Jin, who had laughed at Aaron's antics on the raft, would not be laughing in another year.

When the white elephant game had concluded, Claire set to work dispersing the real gifts. She called out names and delivered the gifts to the recipients, and people began immediately to unwrap their presents. Hurley mustered the courage to sit next to Rebekah when she received her gift, and he admitted to having been assigned as her secret Santa.

"Assigned?" she asked. "But weren't you in charge of the assignments yourself? And the banquet?"

"Uh…well….yeah."

She smiled at his discomfort and unwrapped the present. She took out a small, wooden dreidel.

"Do you like it?" Hurley asked anxiously.

She looked at him with lips that formed an irritated line. "You do realize that I'm eighteen and not eight, don't you?"

His mouth remained agape for a short time before he could manage, "Yeah, I just thought you might like something to remind you of home. I mean, I thought…"

"Hey, Einstien," called Sawyer from across the table. The southerner was apparently all ears today. "You know why she's mad, don't ya? She doesn't like the idea that you might think of her has a kid instead of a woman."

Rebekah looked down at the table, and for once Hurley appeared semi-grateful for Sawyer's crude intervention. He made his apologies and explained that he was well aware she was not a child. She shrugged and spun the dreidel and smiled softly. "It's okay," she said. "It's the thought that counts. I just didn't know what you were thinking. How did you make it?"

"I had help," he admitted. "Frogurt painted the letters for me." He looked a little sheepish. "I don't even know what they mean."

"It stands for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham. A great miracle happened there." She picked up the dreidel, which had fallen on its side. "A miracle kind of happened here, too, didn't it? I mean, that we survived the crash and the battles with the Others. That we're still surviving. More than surviving now. Living." She spun the dreidel and began to sing softly, "Who can retell the things that befell us, who can count them?"

As Hurley watched her sing, Aaron tore into his present from his mother. Claire had knitted him a pair of socks, to which he reacted with the great excitement that only a toddler could possibly feel for such a gift. He immediately put them on his hands and laughed.

Claire grabbed hold of the next present and seemed puzzled. "Another one for Aaron." Sayid felt her glancing at him and saw a curious expression on her face he could not quite read. "From Sayid."

Claire handed Aaron the gift, which turned out to be a wooden top. In shape, it looked suspiciously like the dreidel that had been carved for Rebekah, except that the sides were painted not with Hebrew letters but with English ones. This gift delighted the boy even more than the socks. Claire then grabbed the last present on the table, the one Sayid had labeled for her, and sat beside him. He leaned close to her and whispered, "Was I not supposed to give a gift to Aaron?"

"Oh…I don't know…Sawyer said to give only to girlfriends and boyfriends and family, but I'm very glad you did. I'm glad you think of Aaron that way. Look, he loves it."

Aaron was attempting to spin the top, but he hadn't quite caught the hang of it, and instead he was rolling it across the table and laughing every time he managed to make it move.

"Sawyer!" came Kate's cry from the other end of the table, and her outburst caught the attention of every survivor because she had said the name neither in admonishment nor in annoyance. She had actually said his name in delight. Everyone waited to see what Sawyer could possibly have done right, especially Sayid, whose gift to Claire remained unopened on the table.

The survivors watched as Sawyer slipped a studded band on Kate's ring finger. The southerner glanced victoriously at Sayid before explaining to the group at large, "I had Donovan weld it together for me. Now the wedding ring's made from the jewels in my own cuff links and a silver baby spoon, so it didn't come off of no dead woman!"

Desmond appeared slightly puzzled. "But it came off a dead baby, then?"

Sawyer glared at the Scott. "Hell, no, you sick, little, haggis-eating mood killer. There weren't any babies on the plane. Someone must have been traveling with the spoon to visit a new nephew or something."

"So, does this mean you desire to have a ceremony?" Eko asked.

"No religious hocus pocus," Sawyer insisted. "But…" he nodded "…yeah, we'll do something public." He waved a hand casually. "Write it down in the community record book. Date it and everything."

Claire abandoned Sayid's unopened present to go admire the ring and congratulate Kate. By the time she returned, Sayid was beginning to admit to himself that he was just a little bit nervous. She smiled at him and began to open her gift. He had made her a wooden locket necklace. The string was simple; the locket portion, however, he had carved by hand, and it had required several attempts to perfect the delicate design in the wood. That kind of precise whittling was a new skill for him, but, with much frustration and persistence, he had eventually succeeded in carving the near-perfect image of a blossoming rose, which she had once said was her favorite flower.

She looked up at him, and to his relief, smiled brightly. "It's beautiful. Did you make it yourself?"

"Yes."

"I love it, but…"

Uh, oh. There was a "but"?

"…what am I supposed to put in it? I don't have any pictures. And we can't take any."

Sayid's face grew suddenly concerned. "Oh. I had not even thought of that."

"I know," she said excitedly. "I'll put a lock of Aaron's hair in it."

Sayid smiled and accepted her quick thank you kiss. He then found himself glancing at the empty gift table. It appeared that all the presents had been distributed, yet there was nothing resting before him. Was there a reason Claire had failed to offer him a gift? He looked at her, but she seemed wholly unaware of her omission.

Sawyer had said that women read a great deal into gifts, but Sayid was a man, and he needn't concern himself with this single, insignificant oversight. Truly, he assured himself, it was nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.