(no subject)
Author: Toni
Title: Family Portrait
Summary: I knew writing Reborn was going to just spawn a dozen or so mini fics that fit into the universe. So consider this the first of many. This one deals with Shannon and Sayid, but I do expect to revisit Jack/Kate and Charlie/Claire.
A/N: This takes place almost three years after rescue, a total of twelve years since the crash.
Family Portrait
Shannon stretched slowly as she woke, eyes fixing on the white stucco ceiling above her. She thought angrily to herself that obviously someone had changed the ceiling of her bedroom without asking her, before she realized she wasn’t in her room, or her house, at all. She turned her head slowly and took in the small private hospital room. The colors were bland, as was the norm with all hospital rooms, but there were balloons and gifts lined along the window ledge and stacked next to the lone visitor’s chair.
Her hands drifted almost automatically to her abdomen and she pressed carefully at the tender muscles. She had a stomach again, who’d a thunk?
“Hello there,” her husband stood in the doorway to her room, smiling down at her.
“Hi,” she whispered, giving another soft careful stretch before rolling to her back. She extended a hand towards Sayid in request.
He entered the room and dragged the chair to beside her bed, twining his fingers with hers as he sat down. “How do you feel?” he asked. His free hand brushed strands of blonde hair from her face.
“Tired,” she groaned. “I thought I was prepared, but I guess not.”
“You slept for a while,” Sayid admitted. “But the doctors said you just needed rest.”
Shannon took a deep breath before locking her gaze with her husbands. “Can…can I see her?” She barely got a chance to take the sight her daughter in before the baby was taken by the nurses to get cleaned up and go through a routine check up. Shannon had fallen asleep soon after that, for god knows how long.
“I’ll ask one of the nurses outside,” he offered, nodding. “I’m sure its okay now that you’re awake.” He stood up and kissed her gently on the forehead before walking out of the room.
Shannon sighed and set about shifting the pillows on her bed so she could sit up. She winced, taking it as slow as she could until she was nearly upright. Those drugs had been fantastic during the birth, she didn’t feel a thing. Now, however, every muscle she had below her waist was sore and strained. Sayid had actually asked while Shannon was pregnant if she wanted a natural child birth. The look of absolute horror and disgust was more then enough to banish the subject from any future conversations.
“What are you doing?” Sayid was back and by her side in an instant. “You shouldn’t exert yourself, I could have helped…”
“I think I can handle sitting up,” she snapped.
“Stubborn,” he laughed and shook his head lovingly before helping her the last few inches along the pillows.
“You knew the deal before you signed the contract,” she retorted.
He grew still and Shannon knew she’d gone too far. “I wish you wouldn’t do that,” he murmured, sitting back down in his seat.
“Do what?”
“Talk about our marriage as if I got the bad end of the deal,” he admonished. “You should know by now how I feel about you.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” she whispered, her gaze fell down to where she nervously played with the tag on her blanket, tearing it a bit from its place. “Old habits die hard.”
“But they do die. You of all people should know that.” He took her hand again to avoid further damage to the blanket. “Look where you are now, how much that says about how far you’ve come.”
“I know,” she sighed before flashing him a genuine smile. “Thank you.”
He simply smiled in return and went back to tucking rebellious strands of her hair behind her ear. She let him, wondering for the millionth time since they met what she did to deserve him.
A knock on the doorway brought them out of their momentary trance. A nurse in dark blue scrubs walked inside, smiling at them both.
“Hey Mom’s awake, good to see it,” her gaze flashed from Shannon to Sayid, smile never faltering. “Well I brought your little girl in…”
The nurse continued to babble on about what a beautiful baby Ara was but Shannon tuned it out. Everything else faded to the background as her baby was placed in her arms. She cautiously balanced the pink bundle in the crook of her arm, heart beating a mile a minute.
Oh just don’t drop her Shannon, she scolded herself. She shifted a bit until she was comfortable with how she was holding the baby and only then allowed herself a full inspection of her daughter. Shannon counted ten fingers and ten toes and marveled at the full head of dark brown hair that was so soft to the touch. She was asleep and Shannon found herself wishing selfishly the baby would wake for just a moment so she could look into those wide eyes once more and feel that jolt all the way to her heart she felt the moment the doctor placed the bloody screaming bundle into her arms the day before.
Upon coming out of her trance, Shannon saw that the nurse had left the tiny family to their privacy. Sayid had moved from his chair to a careful perch on the scant bit of bed available at the edge. He looked up and met Shannon’s gaze and the look of absolute wonderment in his eyes sent shivers through her body.
“Shannon?” he prompted carefully when she started crying a moment later.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered so not to wake the baby. “I just…she’s so beautiful I can’t believe it and…”
“Shh, its okay,” Sayid murmured soothingly, inching closer to her. Shannon shifted as quickly as she could so they could cram themselves side by side on the bed. He brought one arm up to rest around her shoulders and his free hand parted the pink fabric before gently caressing the baby’s small foot.
“Thank you,” he whispered into Shannon’s ear.
“For what?” she hiccupped, trying her best not to tear up again.
“For giving me family when I thought I’d never have one again,” he said so softly she barely heard it. He had never told her much about his family, and she had never asked. The past was agreed upon both parties as best left in the past. Now she wondered though, about the family he had or still has, in Iraq.
“You’re welcome,” she said, laughing as quietly as she could while brushing the last of the tears from her cheeks. She leaned forward to give him a lingering kiss. Upon separating, she slowly shifted their daughter to his arms. He looked at her, wide eyed, but she just smiled encouragingly.
She settled back and watched Sayid take in their daughter, mirroring Shannon’s actions from moments earlier. She would ask Sayid, maybe, one day, about his parents. His family back in his home country. Now wasn’t the time though. Now was the time for their family. She smiled and moved closer to her husband to join in the adoration of their baby.
***
Shannon stood in her hospital room holding her two day old daughter against her chest. Hospitals these days, she thought to herself in disdain. Mothers come in, pop out the babies and get kicked out ASAP. Real sensitive of them.
“Here’s the car seat Shannon,” Claire announced, rushing into the room with the seat in hand. Claire had come to California at Shannon’s request. Claire was the closest girl friend Shannon had, and had plenty of experience where babies were concerned. She’d arrived four days before the birth with daughter Isabelle and Sayid tried not to show his exasperation at a house full of cooing women.
“Thanks Claire,” Shannon smiled and once Claire place the seat upon the bed, Shannon set herself on fastening her sleeping daughter into it.
“She’s in the lovely infant phase where all she does is sleep and eat,” Claire gave a joyful, reminiscing sigh. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”
“I remember what Aaron was like, so I will thank you,” Shannon snorted. She gave a satisfied cry upon clicking Ara firmly into place. Slowly she picked up the seat by the large plastic handle. “Sayid getting the car?”
“With Isabelle bouncing behind him the poor thing,” Claire giggled. Together the two women left the room and started down the hall to the elevator. “He had a horrible time stuffing all the gifts in there too. Who bought you that six foot tall teddy bear?”
“Who do you think?” Shannon scoffed. “Hurley of course. I think your husband may have been an accomplice but so far no proof.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Claire muttered under her breath.
They took their time getting downstairs; Shannon didn’t want to jostle the car seat too much. Claire rolled her eyes affectionately at the overly cautious new mother who maneuvered the hallways, putting her body between passing people and her daughter.
Sayid was waiting outside the main entrance, stranding next to their car. Eight year old Isabelle was bouncing next to him, talking a mile a minute. Claire immediately led her daughter away from Sayid, allowing him a momentary reprieve. Sayid was grateful and his attention immediate turned to his wife and daughter.
“I’ll sit with the baby in the back and Claire can ride up front with you,” Shannon explained.
“You can handle Isabelle?” Sayid asked, raising a cautious eyebrow.
“I’ll do my best,” Shannon said but added before getting into the car, “feel free to step on the gas a bit though.”
Sayid laughed and rounded the car to get into the front seat. He would be as far off the gas a possible with the infant in the car and Shannon knew it.
***
When they arrived back at the house, Sayid and Shannon went together up to the nursery to place Ara in her crib. The infant was still sound asleep, despite the constant chatter of the adults in the car on the way home.
Shannon handed her daughter over to Sayid who carefully placed the baby down inside the crib. The room was painted a soft yellow since Shannon was strongly against the clichéd blue for boys and pink for girls. The crib was white with yellow roses carefully painted along the sides.
The new parents found themselves hovering over the crib for longer then necessary. Finally they pried themselves away and into the hall. Shannon held a baby monitor in her hand and Sayid closed the nursery door only three quarters of the way.
“I can’t believe she’s here,” Shannon said with a tone of absolute awe. “I mean, you’d think I didn’t have nine months to prep but…”
“I know,” Sayid interrupted, matching her silly grin with his own.
“I was nervous before and I still am,” she admitted softly. “But…I feel a little better now that she’s here, with us.”
“I have no doubt we can do this,” he insisted, taking her hand in his. He pulled her gently and she automatically fell into his arms.
“When you say it, I believe it too,” she whispered against his chest. She clung tighter to him and smiled when she felt his arms tighten around her in kind.
***
The first month went as smoothly as the new parents could expect. Claire and Isabelle stayed on a full two weeks after Ara was born to lend a hand. Before leaving for Sydney, Claire left Shannon several pages of notes and suggestions more helpful then anything Shannon had found in any book. Slowly life returned to normal, Sayid and Shannon returned to their respective work in between taking care of Ara.
Two days into the second month home with Ara, Shannon walked into the house with a newly bought bag of diapers and the mail she extracted from the box outside. “I’m back,” she announced, sifting through the mail on her way to the kitchen. Ara was in her high chair and Sayid was distracting her with one of her favorite rattles. The baby cooed and smiled at her father, waving tiny fists at the rattle.
“Hey you got a letter,” Shannon said, trying to suppress her surprise. She handed it to Sayid who looked as surprised as she was. Shannon took a seat at the table on the other side of their daughter and watched as Sayid tore into the envelope.
Sayid unfolded the letter carefully, trying to ignore the pounding of his own heart that threatened to overwhelm him. There wasn’t much to the letter, he wasn’t even sure that three hastily scrawled sentences could be called a letter.
“What is it?” Shannon asked cautiously.
“Nothing,” he frowned and handed her the paper for her to see.
Shannon looked it over up and down, back to back. “I can’t read Arabic, I can only speak it. You know that.”
“It says, ‘Hello, glad you’re still living, Allah’s blessing to you.” Sayid spoke the words with an under current of such sadness Shannon wanted to stuff the question back into her mouth.
“That’s…nice I guess,” she stammered, unsure what else to say. “Who…I mean, who sent it?”
Sayid stood from the table and grabbed the bag of diapers Shannon had brought in with her. “My parents. I’ll put these away.” With that he walked from the kitchen upstairs, most likely, to the nursery.
Shannon’s attention turned to the paper she held in her hand. Sayid hadn’t seen his family in years, she could only imagine the amount of courage if had taken for him to write them a letter. To even try to explain to them why he left Iraq, the aftermath of the crash, their marriage and their daughter. It took more bravery then Shannon knew she certainly had. And they returned his bravery and honesty with three sentences scribbled diagonally across a folded up piece of paper.
She sighed and put the note back in its envelope. Slowly she stood and plucked Ara from her high chair.
“Come on baby, help Mommy think of how to talk to Daddy about this without it all ending in divorce,” Shannon said in a cheery voice Ara giggled in response to. Shannon shifted the baby against her hip and headed off towards the nursery.
TBC…
Title: Family Portrait
Summary: I knew writing Reborn was going to just spawn a dozen or so mini fics that fit into the universe. So consider this the first of many. This one deals with Shannon and Sayid, but I do expect to revisit Jack/Kate and Charlie/Claire.
A/N: This takes place almost three years after rescue, a total of twelve years since the crash.
Family Portrait
Shannon stretched slowly as she woke, eyes fixing on the white stucco ceiling above her. She thought angrily to herself that obviously someone had changed the ceiling of her bedroom without asking her, before she realized she wasn’t in her room, or her house, at all. She turned her head slowly and took in the small private hospital room. The colors were bland, as was the norm with all hospital rooms, but there were balloons and gifts lined along the window ledge and stacked next to the lone visitor’s chair.
Her hands drifted almost automatically to her abdomen and she pressed carefully at the tender muscles. She had a stomach again, who’d a thunk?
“Hello there,” her husband stood in the doorway to her room, smiling down at her.
“Hi,” she whispered, giving another soft careful stretch before rolling to her back. She extended a hand towards Sayid in request.
He entered the room and dragged the chair to beside her bed, twining his fingers with hers as he sat down. “How do you feel?” he asked. His free hand brushed strands of blonde hair from her face.
“Tired,” she groaned. “I thought I was prepared, but I guess not.”
“You slept for a while,” Sayid admitted. “But the doctors said you just needed rest.”
Shannon took a deep breath before locking her gaze with her husbands. “Can…can I see her?” She barely got a chance to take the sight her daughter in before the baby was taken by the nurses to get cleaned up and go through a routine check up. Shannon had fallen asleep soon after that, for god knows how long.
“I’ll ask one of the nurses outside,” he offered, nodding. “I’m sure its okay now that you’re awake.” He stood up and kissed her gently on the forehead before walking out of the room.
Shannon sighed and set about shifting the pillows on her bed so she could sit up. She winced, taking it as slow as she could until she was nearly upright. Those drugs had been fantastic during the birth, she didn’t feel a thing. Now, however, every muscle she had below her waist was sore and strained. Sayid had actually asked while Shannon was pregnant if she wanted a natural child birth. The look of absolute horror and disgust was more then enough to banish the subject from any future conversations.
“What are you doing?” Sayid was back and by her side in an instant. “You shouldn’t exert yourself, I could have helped…”
“I think I can handle sitting up,” she snapped.
“Stubborn,” he laughed and shook his head lovingly before helping her the last few inches along the pillows.
“You knew the deal before you signed the contract,” she retorted.
He grew still and Shannon knew she’d gone too far. “I wish you wouldn’t do that,” he murmured, sitting back down in his seat.
“Do what?”
“Talk about our marriage as if I got the bad end of the deal,” he admonished. “You should know by now how I feel about you.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” she whispered, her gaze fell down to where she nervously played with the tag on her blanket, tearing it a bit from its place. “Old habits die hard.”
“But they do die. You of all people should know that.” He took her hand again to avoid further damage to the blanket. “Look where you are now, how much that says about how far you’ve come.”
“I know,” she sighed before flashing him a genuine smile. “Thank you.”
He simply smiled in return and went back to tucking rebellious strands of her hair behind her ear. She let him, wondering for the millionth time since they met what she did to deserve him.
A knock on the doorway brought them out of their momentary trance. A nurse in dark blue scrubs walked inside, smiling at them both.
“Hey Mom’s awake, good to see it,” her gaze flashed from Shannon to Sayid, smile never faltering. “Well I brought your little girl in…”
The nurse continued to babble on about what a beautiful baby Ara was but Shannon tuned it out. Everything else faded to the background as her baby was placed in her arms. She cautiously balanced the pink bundle in the crook of her arm, heart beating a mile a minute.
Oh just don’t drop her Shannon, she scolded herself. She shifted a bit until she was comfortable with how she was holding the baby and only then allowed herself a full inspection of her daughter. Shannon counted ten fingers and ten toes and marveled at the full head of dark brown hair that was so soft to the touch. She was asleep and Shannon found herself wishing selfishly the baby would wake for just a moment so she could look into those wide eyes once more and feel that jolt all the way to her heart she felt the moment the doctor placed the bloody screaming bundle into her arms the day before.
Upon coming out of her trance, Shannon saw that the nurse had left the tiny family to their privacy. Sayid had moved from his chair to a careful perch on the scant bit of bed available at the edge. He looked up and met Shannon’s gaze and the look of absolute wonderment in his eyes sent shivers through her body.
“Shannon?” he prompted carefully when she started crying a moment later.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered so not to wake the baby. “I just…she’s so beautiful I can’t believe it and…”
“Shh, its okay,” Sayid murmured soothingly, inching closer to her. Shannon shifted as quickly as she could so they could cram themselves side by side on the bed. He brought one arm up to rest around her shoulders and his free hand parted the pink fabric before gently caressing the baby’s small foot.
“Thank you,” he whispered into Shannon’s ear.
“For what?” she hiccupped, trying her best not to tear up again.
“For giving me family when I thought I’d never have one again,” he said so softly she barely heard it. He had never told her much about his family, and she had never asked. The past was agreed upon both parties as best left in the past. Now she wondered though, about the family he had or still has, in Iraq.
“You’re welcome,” she said, laughing as quietly as she could while brushing the last of the tears from her cheeks. She leaned forward to give him a lingering kiss. Upon separating, she slowly shifted their daughter to his arms. He looked at her, wide eyed, but she just smiled encouragingly.
She settled back and watched Sayid take in their daughter, mirroring Shannon’s actions from moments earlier. She would ask Sayid, maybe, one day, about his parents. His family back in his home country. Now wasn’t the time though. Now was the time for their family. She smiled and moved closer to her husband to join in the adoration of their baby.
***
Shannon stood in her hospital room holding her two day old daughter against her chest. Hospitals these days, she thought to herself in disdain. Mothers come in, pop out the babies and get kicked out ASAP. Real sensitive of them.
“Here’s the car seat Shannon,” Claire announced, rushing into the room with the seat in hand. Claire had come to California at Shannon’s request. Claire was the closest girl friend Shannon had, and had plenty of experience where babies were concerned. She’d arrived four days before the birth with daughter Isabelle and Sayid tried not to show his exasperation at a house full of cooing women.
“Thanks Claire,” Shannon smiled and once Claire place the seat upon the bed, Shannon set herself on fastening her sleeping daughter into it.
“She’s in the lovely infant phase where all she does is sleep and eat,” Claire gave a joyful, reminiscing sigh. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”
“I remember what Aaron was like, so I will thank you,” Shannon snorted. She gave a satisfied cry upon clicking Ara firmly into place. Slowly she picked up the seat by the large plastic handle. “Sayid getting the car?”
“With Isabelle bouncing behind him the poor thing,” Claire giggled. Together the two women left the room and started down the hall to the elevator. “He had a horrible time stuffing all the gifts in there too. Who bought you that six foot tall teddy bear?”
“Who do you think?” Shannon scoffed. “Hurley of course. I think your husband may have been an accomplice but so far no proof.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Claire muttered under her breath.
They took their time getting downstairs; Shannon didn’t want to jostle the car seat too much. Claire rolled her eyes affectionately at the overly cautious new mother who maneuvered the hallways, putting her body between passing people and her daughter.
Sayid was waiting outside the main entrance, stranding next to their car. Eight year old Isabelle was bouncing next to him, talking a mile a minute. Claire immediately led her daughter away from Sayid, allowing him a momentary reprieve. Sayid was grateful and his attention immediate turned to his wife and daughter.
“I’ll sit with the baby in the back and Claire can ride up front with you,” Shannon explained.
“You can handle Isabelle?” Sayid asked, raising a cautious eyebrow.
“I’ll do my best,” Shannon said but added before getting into the car, “feel free to step on the gas a bit though.”
Sayid laughed and rounded the car to get into the front seat. He would be as far off the gas a possible with the infant in the car and Shannon knew it.
***
When they arrived back at the house, Sayid and Shannon went together up to the nursery to place Ara in her crib. The infant was still sound asleep, despite the constant chatter of the adults in the car on the way home.
Shannon handed her daughter over to Sayid who carefully placed the baby down inside the crib. The room was painted a soft yellow since Shannon was strongly against the clichéd blue for boys and pink for girls. The crib was white with yellow roses carefully painted along the sides.
The new parents found themselves hovering over the crib for longer then necessary. Finally they pried themselves away and into the hall. Shannon held a baby monitor in her hand and Sayid closed the nursery door only three quarters of the way.
“I can’t believe she’s here,” Shannon said with a tone of absolute awe. “I mean, you’d think I didn’t have nine months to prep but…”
“I know,” Sayid interrupted, matching her silly grin with his own.
“I was nervous before and I still am,” she admitted softly. “But…I feel a little better now that she’s here, with us.”
“I have no doubt we can do this,” he insisted, taking her hand in his. He pulled her gently and she automatically fell into his arms.
“When you say it, I believe it too,” she whispered against his chest. She clung tighter to him and smiled when she felt his arms tighten around her in kind.
***
The first month went as smoothly as the new parents could expect. Claire and Isabelle stayed on a full two weeks after Ara was born to lend a hand. Before leaving for Sydney, Claire left Shannon several pages of notes and suggestions more helpful then anything Shannon had found in any book. Slowly life returned to normal, Sayid and Shannon returned to their respective work in between taking care of Ara.
Two days into the second month home with Ara, Shannon walked into the house with a newly bought bag of diapers and the mail she extracted from the box outside. “I’m back,” she announced, sifting through the mail on her way to the kitchen. Ara was in her high chair and Sayid was distracting her with one of her favorite rattles. The baby cooed and smiled at her father, waving tiny fists at the rattle.
“Hey you got a letter,” Shannon said, trying to suppress her surprise. She handed it to Sayid who looked as surprised as she was. Shannon took a seat at the table on the other side of their daughter and watched as Sayid tore into the envelope.
Sayid unfolded the letter carefully, trying to ignore the pounding of his own heart that threatened to overwhelm him. There wasn’t much to the letter, he wasn’t even sure that three hastily scrawled sentences could be called a letter.
“What is it?” Shannon asked cautiously.
“Nothing,” he frowned and handed her the paper for her to see.
Shannon looked it over up and down, back to back. “I can’t read Arabic, I can only speak it. You know that.”
“It says, ‘Hello, glad you’re still living, Allah’s blessing to you.” Sayid spoke the words with an under current of such sadness Shannon wanted to stuff the question back into her mouth.
“That’s…nice I guess,” she stammered, unsure what else to say. “Who…I mean, who sent it?”
Sayid stood from the table and grabbed the bag of diapers Shannon had brought in with her. “My parents. I’ll put these away.” With that he walked from the kitchen upstairs, most likely, to the nursery.
Shannon’s attention turned to the paper she held in her hand. Sayid hadn’t seen his family in years, she could only imagine the amount of courage if had taken for him to write them a letter. To even try to explain to them why he left Iraq, the aftermath of the crash, their marriage and their daughter. It took more bravery then Shannon knew she certainly had. And they returned his bravery and honesty with three sentences scribbled diagonally across a folded up piece of paper.
She sighed and put the note back in its envelope. Slowly she stood and plucked Ara from her high chair.
“Come on baby, help Mommy think of how to talk to Daddy about this without it all ending in divorce,” Shannon said in a cheery voice Ara giggled in response to. Shannon shifted the baby against her hip and headed off towards the nursery.
TBC…