A/N: Thank y'all for your comments! For those of you who asked whether they were going to be lost forever, let's just say without giving too much away that there will be a post-island time although some things need to happen first :)
Again, this fic will not follow the same time frame as LOST.
And for those of you that asked for more romance... yes, it's coming SOON. So hang in there, cause it will be GOOD!
While speaking in soft spoken Korean and sitting beside her on the blanket, Sun showed her a few leaves she had found. Then holding onto a leaf, she mimicked the motion of teeth brushing.
"It's like toothpaste, " Ten year old Walt commented, his eyes bright with wonder.
"I bet it's even healthier for our teeth..." Olivia chimed in. "No artificial flavors, all natural like nature intended."
Later that day, Olivia was sitting on the beach with both legs folded pointing towards her torso and with the soles of her feet facing upwards and toes pointing backwards when a man in his early sixties approached her and asked if he could sit in the sand beside her. She had seen him before, he stood out as being one of the few who qualified as being close to retirement age.
"Sure." she nodded. She could use some company.
The man introduced himself as John Locke. He was white, bald, rugged features. Although his most distinctive feature (in Olivia's opinion) was the a rather large scar across his right eye which started above the eyebrow and went straight down his cheek. The scar looked red and fairly new so Olivia assumed it was due to the crash.
"Did you ever hear about Norman Croucher?"
Olivia raised a brow.
"Double amputee, no legs...climbed to the top of Mount Everest?"
"Hmm...yeah, "Olivia nodded. "Quite remarkable."
"Why did he do it, you may wonder..." John Locke pondered. "You would think he had the perfect excuse NOT to try."
Olivia shrugged.
Locke studied her with the cunning eyes of a hawk. "So, Olivia...you have recovered quite remarkably, I would say..."
"I can't walk yet, " she reminded him.
"Hmm... yeah. " He cleared his throat. "About that... "You know, most people paralyzed from the waist down are not able to do what you can do," he observed, giving her a sly look.
Olivia cocked her head. "What do you mean?" she asked already suspecting where he was heading.
"Well, since I have been sitting here with you, I've seen you cross and uncross your legs a few times and... honestly, If I was just meeting you today, I would have never suspected you had any type of handicap."
Olivia pursed her lips. "Are you actually suggesting...? she was so outraged she couldn't even finish her sentence.
A slow mischievous smile played across his lips. "What are you afraid of, Olivia?"
She felt like telling this man a thing or two. Who did he think he was? They barely knew each other.
"No, really...what are you the most afraid of?" He persisted. "There's gotta be something. We're all afraid of something...It's just part of being human.
Olivia sighed. This man certainly had a way of talking that somehow drew you in.
The truth was that ever since the crash, Olivia had felt completely out of her element. Back in the real world, she knew exactly which way the wind was blowing and could have sailed through every trial and every situation with ease.
But on the island, everything was different. She didn't know what to expect; she didn't know how to navigate in this new environment. She was terrified yet she wasn't about to admit this to anyone.
"what do you think is man's greatest fear?" Locke decided to try something different. "Come on, take a guess," he prompted.
"Spiders... snakes?" she ventured with a smile. "Wild boars?" Olivia shuddered a little remembering that a couple of nights ago wild boards had scared the living daylights out of everyone. Thinking of the best way to keep the creatures at bay, Jack had decided that the thing to do was to burn the dead bodies in the fuselage.
"That's three guesses," he returned her smile. "Believe it or not, it's the unknown that we fear the most" he went on with ease. We all have that in common...although we don't all fear it to the same degree," he paused to let the idea sink in. "Crashing on this island has exacerbated this fear in all of us. In truth, we don't know what dangers lie ahead. We didn't come to this island prepared, " he looked out into the ocean and shook his head. " This is a big island...a deserted island, it seems...cut off from civilization...and we haven't even explored a third of it yet."
"There's still the chance that we'll find other people here..." Olivia's eyes brightened.
"Possibly. Nothing can be completely ruled out...this place is just one big question mark."
They were silent for a few minutes, gazing at the ocean. Olivia shifted positions again, her legs responding to a full range of movement.
"I'll be hunting for boars later today." he proudly informed her. "I bet they taste like pork."
"So I heard... you got yourself a good stash of knifes, Mr. Locke. " She commented, clearly impressed by this fact. "How did you get those on the plane?"
Locke shrugged. "Let's just say I'm a seasoned traveler."
Olivia smiled. She decided she liked Locke after all.
A little while later Locke left on his hunting expedition.
Olivia spent the rest of the afternoon trying to communicate with Sun and was surprised to learn how the more she tried to communicate with her, the better they seemed to understand each other.
By sundown, she started to feel worried. Fitz and his group were still gone. There was no telling when they'd be back...but surely spending the night in the jungle had not been part of their plan. Before long, a tape recording started playing in her head over and over: What if Fitz doesn't ever come back? What if something happened? along with Locke's words: it's the unknown that we fear the most...
xxx
Fitz and Kate walked for hours on end, mostly in silence. Fitz had decided that it would be best that the four of them split into groups of two...and that one group (the other group) stay closer to the beach just in case.
"I'm worried about Jack. It's not like him to be gone like this. It's been 24 hours since we saw him last," Kate spoke as their feet carried them deeper and deeper into the jungle. "Maybe we'll run into him at one point?"
"He shouldn't have gone off on his own like that. " Fitz shook his head to punctuate his disapproval. "Any expeditions should be done in pairs...So if something happens...at least one person would be able to tell the story."
"Maybe it was a boar... or a different wild beast altogether..." Kate mused. "He's out somewhere bleeding... or he fell down a cliff and..."
"Save your overly active imagination for fictional writing," Fitz interrupted. "Right here in the jungle, we have no use for that type of imagination." He brusquely retorted. He still didn't trust her one hundred percent.
At dusk, they stopped to assess the situation. They had nothing to defend themselves except for a couple of knives that Locke had lent them.
"We can't head back, we need to keep going." Fitz said thinking they couldn't go back to the camp empty handed. In their backpacks, they both carried 10 empty bottles in the hopes of bringing them back filled with water.
"It'll be dark in an hour..."
"Exactly. We don't have time to get back so we'll have to camp somewhere anyway."
As in on cue they came upon an area that looked like the mouth of a cave.
Right then, they heard the beautiful sound of water falling.
Just a few steps away was the most beautiful sight: a tall waterfall cascading down into a shallow pool.
Fitz exhaled a huge sigh of relief. All along, his greatest fear had been not being able to find a natural supply of fresh water in time to quench the thirst of thirty plus survivors.
The discovery of the waterfall meant salvation for everyone. As for sources of food, they could always rely on mangoes and fish until they were rescued.
Fitz looked around the cave in awe. It was wide around the waterfall, yet the mouth of the cave was narrow enough to ensure good protection against predators.
Filled with unparalleled joy and excitement, Kate dashed into the pool and stood underneath the waterfall.
With a smile, Fitz watched her get soaked for the longest time as her tank top flaunted her cleavage, until he finally decided to get the bottles from their backpacks so she could fill them one by one.
Kate stepped out of the pool shortly after that and sat on a large rock, dripping wet from head to toe. "Oh, gee...I didn't bring any change of clothing..." she said as an afterthought. "I didn't think we'd be gone this long...plus I wanted to fit in as many water bottles as possible...
It seemed to Fitz that Kate quite an adventurer, not much into planning ahead.
"Why is it that whenever there is an excursion somewhere you're the first one to sign up? Fitz wondered, as he watched her take off her socks and shoes and set them aside to dry.
"I guess for me it would be worse to sit around and do nothing."
"You seem to know your way around in the wilderness... where did you learn how to track? Did you go camping a lot as a child or something?" He asked, finding a nearby rock where to take a rest.
"Hmm...yeah, my family was sort of out-outdoorsy... " she smiled. "My dad was into hunting," she added while wringing her hair dry.
Fitz raised a brow.
"Deer hunting." Kate clarified. "I'm from Kentucky."
"Oh," he murmured absentmindedly while trying to get a fire started.
Shortly after that, they settled for the night using their backpacks to rest their heads and at arms length from one another.
"You may want to take those clothes off," he suggested, seeing that she was shivering and having trouble going to sleep.
Kate hesitated for a moment.
"I promise not to look..." he said, ready to turn his body the other way.
"Not necessary," she replied with a hint of a smile. "You see...you and I can just pretend that I'm wearing my swimsuit, " she said while taking off her tank top and sliding her jeans down her legs.
Fitz's eyes widened.
Kate, now clad in her bra and underwear, turned towards the fire to warm up. He was utterly impressed with her apparent lack of hang-ups.
Sensing his eyes on her, Kate turned and held his gaze for the longest time before lying back down on her makeshift bed.
A/N: Comments?
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