Xanadu (Lost)

Chapter 6: Acceptable Risk

A few days later, Hugo juggled Aaron across his hip as he let himself into the Barracks house which he and Sawyer shared. He tried to be as quiet as possible, so as not to wake Sawyer. In this house, though, that wasn't much of an option. As he crossed the living room, he bumped some kind of little figurine that had been set too close to the edge of a table, and it clattered to the floor.

The house was full of stuff like that: plates that you couldn't eat off of, little glass animal statues, strings of beads roped around the corner of mirrors. A woman had lived there before Hugo and Sawyer had taken up residence, and although Hugo had only been staying in the house a short time, he'd managed to knock over most of it.

Sawyer charged out of his bedroom, pistol in hand, his morning beard bristling in the bright gold of the new daylight. When Sawyer saw Hugo and the baby, he lowered the gun and sighed in exasperation. "Daddy-O, what're you doing here? I thought you were over at Claire's."

"I was," Hugo said. "She's sleeping in."

"So how come you got Aaron?"

Hugo ignored Sawyer's piercing expression. "It was, uh, my idea. Kind of a Christmas present. That I'd watch Aaron for the day."

"You gonna feed him too? Haven't seen any Dharma baby formula around here."

"She already fed him. I'll take him back around lunchtime."

"So Claire's tired, huh?"

"She's been busy. You see that big chicken run she put together? And now with Kate gone--"

Sawyer's look of concern turned to a sly grin. "Or maybe there's another reason she's tired, hey?"

Hugo motioned to the baby in his arms, his expression indicating, Watch your mouth. "It wasn't like that," he said in a soft voice. His thick eyebrows formed a straight line of thunder across the horizon of his face, but Sawyer didn't pick up on the warning.

"Oh, baby here can't understand me none," Sawyer said, still grinning. "What was it like, then? You two been steppin' on each other's shadows ever since we got here. Then I saw you making eyes at each other at that meeting last night. And while I ain't doin' any bed checks, I haven't seen your covers messed up none."

When Hugo glared, Sawyer hesitated. "What's the big deal? We're all grownups here. Well, most of us, I guess," he said, thinking of Alex and Karl snug in a little house of their own across the common, at least until they'd high-tailed it out for the Temple, whatever that was. It had been fun to watch Ben's eyes bug out when Karl and Alex walked home to the same cottage together, and there wasn't a damn thing the owl-eyed little bastard could do about it. But kids grew up fast here on Mystery Island.

"She didn't want to be alone."

"Well, Hugo, I got news for you. She wouldn't be the first woman in the world to ask a man to stay the night because she got a bit lonely."

"Sawyer—"

"And you tired her out. That's a good sign. Nothing wrong with a gal riding the pony when she's free, legal, and over 21. Or in your case, riding the Clydesdale."

Hugo didn't say anything, but the silence around him ticked like a bomb. He turned and shoved open the swinging kitchen door so hard that it smacked against the wall.

"What the hell?" Sawyer muttered.

After setting Aaron in a nest on the couch, Hugo strode back into the kitchen like a bear pushing through the forest in slow motion. He stood next to Sawyer, quite close, and Sawyer backed up a few inches.