Thanks a lot guys!

Chapter 3:
War Wounds
Later that morning Kim was sitting on the beach looking through all the unclaimed suitcases for clothes. A tall, blond woman came and sat down next to her.

“You're Kim, right?” Kim didn't look up, “I'm Shannon.”

“Nice to meet you Shannon,” she said slightly because of habit. She finally looked up from sorting through clothes to look at the girl next to her. The blond girl was very obviously waiting for a real response. Kim could immediately tell she was rich. She was pretty, but she seemed sad, like she was all alone in the world. Kim suddenly felt sorry for her. “You know, you're one of the first people to come to me. I guess I'm scary or something.” Shannon laughed a little. Kim was anything but scary.

“No. Everybody is just a little on edge, after what happened to Locke. You do know about Locke, don't you?”

“Yeah. Kate told me everything. I'm sorry about your brother.” Shannon's bottom lip quivered slightly.

“Yeah. Me too.” Kim considered for a split second telling Shannon she knew her brother, but thought better of it at the last minute.

“So, have you found anything that fits?” she inquired.

“Not yet. Most of these clothes would fit super models and a fat old lady.” Shannon laughed again.

“You're the only person on this island who can make me laugh.”

“Glad I could help. They say laughing makes you live longer, so this is my good deed. I just saved your life.” The blond started laughing again. “Hey! I did it again.” By this time she was bent over from laughing so hard. The Arab man Kim remembered from yesterday ran over and knelt by Shannon.

“Shannon, are you alright?” She looked up quickly. She was still laughing.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” she managed to get out between laughs. He glared at Kim. Shannon came quickly to her defense.

“We were just laughing, Sayid.” He still looked at Kim accusingly.

“I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions.”

“Damn right you're sorry.” Kim said to herself. “Don't worry about it,” she smiled softly at him, “I can't say that I don't get that kind of stuff a lot.” It was Shannon's turn to feel sorry for her.

“Kim, this is Sayid. I'm gonna assume Kate told you about him to.” Kim grinned at her.

“She told me everything.” Kim winked at Shannon. The girl blushed and looked down at the ground. Sayid stood up.

“Have you been to the caves yet?” he asked slowly.

“Uh, no. Not yet anyway. I was looking for clothes that fit me. These aren't exactly intact anymore.” That was the truth. They were in rags.

“There are more suitcases up at the caves,” Shannon volunteered, “You may be able to find something there.”

“Alright. So, where are these caves?”

“I'll show you. I need to bring back some more water anyway.” The girls looked at him questioningly.

“We'll all come,” Shannon suggested. “Then we can get to know each other.” Sayid sighed slightly. They all stood up and headed towards the jungle.


“I see you found some clothes.” Jack was helping Kim change her bandage later that day.

“Yeah. For a while there I thought I would be in rags forever.” She glanced down at her wound and grimaced. “That's really gross.” Jack smiled at her.

“I've seen worse.”

“Me too. But that was other people. This time it's me.”

“When have you seen worse?” A shadow passed over her face. Damn you, Kim. She wished Kate was there to cover for her.

“Please don't,” she pleaded with him.

“I guess I'm never gonna find out what she did.” He seemed resigned to the fact that what he had said was true.

“Probably not. Unless we get out of here. Then she'll probably be arrested.” It was the first time he realized how bad Kate's situation was.

“If she does go to jail, how long will she be there?” Kim stared at the ground.

“Life without parole. If she gets lucky and they don't give her the death penalty.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Yeah. That bad,” she stated flatly. Jack quickly tried to change the subject.

“This wound's healing quickly. You're lucky. It could have been worse.”

“I've always been a quick healer. Besides, its just another war wound.” She got up to leave.

“I meant to ask you, where did you get that gunshot wound?” Kim turned around slowly.

“Have you always been a nosy son of a *****?” she asked, the anger brewing behind her eyes.

“I was just concerned. It looks like it happened recently.” He was right. She had gotten that the day Kieren had arrested her.

“My brother. He shot me three weeks ago.”

“So you guys have this huge family war going on?” he asked sarcastically.

“You could call it that,” she turned to leave again but turned back so she could see his face, “Kate fired the first shot.”

“What? Kate's one of the best people I know.” Kim realized Jack would defend Kate no matter what she did.

“Me too.” Jack took a step forward.

“Without Kate we would all be dead.” He grabbed her arm so she wouldn't be able to leave.

“Every hero has a secret, Jack.” She stared directly into his eyes, hoping he would take the hint. He let go of her arm. “Like those tattoos.” She shoved her hands into her pockets and smiled at him. “I wonder what the secret behind those is.” He looked down at the ground and smiled. If there was one thing she was good for it was breaking up a fight.

“Its getting late. If you want to make it back to the beach before dark you should get going.”

“Yeah.” She turned to leave. “Jack, don't tell Kate that I told you anything. She's always wringing me out for letting things slip.”

“No problem.” Kim smiled at him. She went over to another corner of the caves and picked up the suitcase she'd gotten her clothes from. She had nearly made it all the way to the beach when she heard them. Whispers. All around her.
She put her hand behind her back and brought out the gun. She held it out in front of her body.

“Put it away, Kim.” She whipped around, hoping to see the speaker. The voices drew in around her.

“Kim.” She turned around, pointing the gun at the speaker. She quickly hid the gun behind her body.

“Sayid.” The scared look quickly disappeared from her face, but it did not escape his notice.

“Where did you get the gun?”

“I found it. In a suitcase. And yeah, I'm fine.” He quickly forgot about the gun.

“Are you sure? You looked scared.” He surprisingly seemed really concerned.

“Yeah. I just thought I heard something. Its nothing.” Even though lying was a second nature to her, she still felt like he could see right through it.

__________________
"I never said goodbye."