The Shipwreck

"Well you better. Cuz I'd have to..." Shand paused. "I don't actually know what I'd be technically allowed to do in that situation, but I'd figure something out... Maybe I could get kicked out or something..."

"And what would you do if you were kicked out?" She eyed him.

"I don't know exactly how that would work, so I'm not sure," Shand thought for a moment. "I'd probably do weird things to Locke, first, just for payback...I'd start hiding his stuff from him...then maybe talking to him...yeah..."

She shook her head, "Haunting him, pretty much, that's what you would do."

"Yeah...and try not to laugh while I'm doing it... and you can't say anything, ok?"

"Why cant I laugh? It would be better than me watching extremely depressed, right?"

"Oh no, you can laugh...just dont let Locke hear you...he needs to be extremely distressed."

"So, go lock myself in my room to laugh then?" She smiled

"Self imprisonment? If that's what you want," Shand shrugged.
"We've got maybe fifteen minutes before he docks," Geragh called from outside. Shand swore under his breath.
"He's gotten much better at docking, what can I say..."

She frowned and looked up at the ceiling, "Fifteen..."

Shand shrugged "Maybe he'll walk slow....or something..." He sighed. "Either way, to be on the safe side, I guess that means in about five minutes is when you'll need to get out of here..."

She sighed, "I take it that's the order I promised I'd follow..."

"Here's the plan," Shand said solemnly. "You need to hide in the forest near the beach...and wait til you see them get back on the boat and leave... then you wait on the beach for Keefe where he can see you. He's on his way, I'm sure of it, he wouldn't not be..."

"Right...when I leave to hide is also when I just leave you here despite what I really want to do, right?"

Shand looked up at the ceiling for a second. "Listen. This isn't going to go down all pretty and happy, alright? He'd know you're not my sister. He'd know. And this isn't some fairytale where women and children get mercy, if you stayed here, you'd get your brains blown out, and I'd have to watch that....because that's the kind of guy Hadrian is, if he didn't do worse... if you died too, I couldn't come back and haunt Locke with a clear conscience." Shand attempted a grin. "At least give me that."

She frowned, "Give you a clear conscious about haunting Locke?" She sighed, "That's all I can give you, sadly..."

"It's enough..." Shand shrugged and smiled again. "Though a short and appropriate kiss might also help."

She smiled and shook her head,"now wait a minute, I'm giving you a clear conscious to haunt Locke and now your adding to it? Never knew you to be that demanding."

"Eh, well, I've only got about fifteen more minutes to go... how demading can one get on a half-way forsaken island like this?" Shand said with a smile. "And I did specify 'appropriate', nothing too difficult..."

She rolled her eyes "don't tell me you're trying to follow Locke's rules and orders now... You know, now that he will never see you actually listening."

"Don't worry about me ever trying to do that," Shand said, laughing weakly. "I said that because I honestly don't know if I could take anything less than extremely gentle right now..."

She nodded,"just had to make sure you weren't listening to him last second... It would've been extremely out of character, I was worried."

"Ha, I'm disappointed that you think I would go out like that," Shand smiled.

"people do crazy things when they feel death coming and I wasn't sure if that was your version of something crazy at this time."

"No worries...if I wan't incapacitated, my request would have been much different," Shand winked.