Extra Charges May Apply, by Yahtzee
Title: Extra Charges May Apply
Author: Yahtzee
Characters and/or Pairings: Locke/Helen
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: Walkabout
Why do you like this story?
The longer I’m in fandom, the more intrigued I find myself by minor characters, and the stories we rarely, if every, get to see played out in full. Yahtzee takes Helen, the phone sex operator in “Walkabout,” and fleshes out her character, and her relationship with Locke.
- "If we were to meet," he begins, once in a while.
She always steps down on this, hard. It's against the rules, for one; she could get another job like this easily enough, but missing even one night's work could make the difference between being able to pay the electric bill or enduring 30 nights of candlelight.
More importantly, she doesn't want to meet John Locke. He's sweet to her, but he has managed to project all his emotional and sexual needs on a voice he pays to talk. She holds such men in a kind of contempt. This comes with the job.
And finally: She doesn't want John Locke to meet her. To him, she is beautiful and strong and dazzling and unique; to him, she is Helen of Troy. Reality is not so kind. Clutching at this false glamour is cheap, and she knows it, but that comes with the job too.