Chapter Text
“You’re hurt.”
It’s Shannon.
Her hair is neatly combed back from her gentle face and the earrings she wears are long and entirely impractical for a place like this. He had to respect her commitment to normalcy, even if it pained her. She was a refreshing reminder that this place wasn’t all there was.
Sayid follows her eyes to the wound on his arm. He hadn’t even noticed it. “I will be fine,” he assures her. The look of concern in her eyes makes his stomach twist. He doesn’t want to admit how good it feels to be the source of someone’s compassion – he doesn’t deserve it.
He returns to filling water bottles for the others back at the beach. With all the hurt he’s caused in his life, Sayid deserves to hurt alone. For all he knows, Shannon is not the least bit interested in his wound. Perhaps she just wants some water. She was just being nice… she’s always being nice.
He hears her footsteps approach on the dirt floor, her form hovering at his side while he fills another bottle. “Come on,” she coaxes, reaching out for his arm. “Let me see.”
There’s something about the gentle timbre of her voice that persuades him. It feels different to the soldier in him that follows orders; it’s like the boy in him – scared and alone – searching for someone to care about him when he’s gone. Sayid knows that, though he has come to care for the friends he’s made out here and they for him, he is nobody’s first choice.
There would always be somebody more important.
“This might get infected,” Shannon says, studying his wound in the weary firelight.
“I will wash and dress it once I fill these–“
“Don’t be stupid. Come, sit down. I’ll clean it up.” She’s practically barking orders now and maybe it is the soldier inside him, but Sayid finds himself doing exactly as she asks. She points to his water bottle. “Bring that.” So he brings that.
Shannon grabs a cloth and a bandage from Jack’s collection of medical gear and points Sayid to a patch of dirt near the fire. He sits down and Shannon crosses her legs beside him, gently tipping the water into the cloth and dabbing at his wound ever so carefully. She’s delicate with him, careful not to hurt him. She treats him with more kindness than he has ever treated himself, and she looks at him every so often, with those innocent eyes, like he deserves it.
She’s under the impression that he deserves every kindness she shows him, even after everything he's done.
“Any updates on the map?” She asks.
“If there is anything new, you will be the first person I tell.”
She’s busy wetting the cloth in her lap but in the brief firelight he can make out her smile. “Even before Jack?” She asks.
“Even before Jack.”
Perhaps Shannon would be his first choice.