"Okay, so what are doing?"
"We need to make a portfolio," Boone explained.
"We don't even have a name yet," Shannon pointed out.
"I'm aware of that," Boone said. "I think a little product would help too though."
"I think we should call it 'Shannon's cards'," she announced.
"I don't think so, Shan."
"We could make it a combination of our names," she offered. "Like Shanboone or Booshan." Boone gave her a weary look. "Ooh, Shoone."
"You suck at this, you're not deciding the name," Boone told her.
"Shoone was totally smart," she argued.
"Can we just make some cards, please?" Boone requested. "Once we've got something to sell, then we can worry about selling it."
"Fine," Shannon sighed, picking up some bits of card. "So what am I supposed to make?"
"Cards," Boone pointed out, giving her a despairing look.
"Well I know that, doofus," she replied. "What am I supposed to put on them?"
"I don't know, anything you want," Boone told her. "Use your imagination."
Shannon sighed again, before rooting through the supplies on the table. She laid a few things out in front of her before stopping and looking at them. "I hate having a job."
Boone gave her a look. "You keep this up, you won't be having one much longer."
"Whatever," Shannon said, sounding bored. "And I think Shoone's a totally smart name."
"Do you practice being annoying?" Boone asked. "Seriously, Sayid must be a saint." He shook his head. "And Shoone sounds too much like 'shroom, makes us sound like psychedelic hippies or something."
"You're such a loser," Shannon told him, focusing on the things in front of her again. "And I bet I can make better cards than you?"
Boone looked at Shannon and remembered just how competitive she could be. "I'm more creative than you, I decorated my whole house."
"Ooh, you can work out a colour scheme, that just makes you gay," Shannon dismissed. "And Sabrina's son of course."
"Please, she got interior designers to do everything for her, she never once engaged her brain," Boone stated.
"You got a point there," Shannon agreed, her attention now firmly on what she was doing. "Did you get the invitation to Sawyer's party?"
Boone nodded. "Yeah."
"Can you believe they're getting married?" Shannon said, shaking her head a little.
"I just can't believe it took them so long," Boone replied.
"I wonder who's gonna be there," Shannon mused. "You think Claire and Charlie will come over?"
"I don't know, maybe. Didn't Charlie just finish his tour?"
"Yeah, I think so," Shannon agreed. "Locke lives out there now, too, doesn't he?"
Boone nodded. "Got a letter from him a couple of weeks back."
Shannon looked up at him. "You did?" Boone nodded again. "Did Jack go psycho?"
Boone gave her a look. "No."
"He still hates him," Shannon stated, more than a little teasing hidden in her tone.
"He's over that," Boone dismissed.
"Right," Shannon said, rolling her eyes. "And Ana-Lucia's my bestest friend."
Boone gave her a look and concentrated on what he was doing.
"She actually is Jack's bestest friend though, isn't she?" Shannon continued.
"They haven't spoken in years," Boone said. "And quit trying to get a rise out of me."
"You think if he wasn't with you..."
"I don't think about that at all, thanks, Shannon," Boone cut in.
"I'm just saying, he met her first," Shannon pointed out.
"Do you wanna get fired on your first day?" Boone asked, giving her a warning look.
"How come you get to be the boss, anyway?" Shannon asked.
"Because you have no experience, no work ethic, and the maturity of a kiwi fruit," Boone told her.
Shannon rolled her eyes. "Mommy's boy," she muttered.
"Daddy's girl," Boone shot back.
They continued in silence for a beat, working on their cards, before Shannon looked up at him.
"Do you ever think about what would have happened to us if we didn't crash?"
Boone looked at her. "I try not to," he admitted. "I don't think we were heading for happy endings."
Shannon nodded. "We were both pretty self-destructive," she said. "Well, I was self-destructive and I was taking you down with me."
Boone smiled at her. "I think I was pretty self-destructive too, Shan."
"I don't think you had a self to destruct," Shannon commented.
"Maybe you're right," Boone agreed.
"I bet you'd be married by now though," Shannon said. "I bet you'd have settled down with someone. What do you think she'd be like?"
Boone thought about it. "It'd be someone Sabrina loved," he began. "She'd be from the country club or something. She wouldn't work but she'd organise charity events, mainly as an excuse to have Martinis with her friends. She'd look great on my arm but the sex would be boring."
Shannon laughed. "Why would the sex be boring?"
"Because I don't love her," Boone explained simply. "That and she'd be repressed and refuse to do anything that might be considered slightly risqué."
"Jack's not repressed?" Shannon asked.
Boone smiled to himself. "Not anymore." He looked at Shannon. "What do you think you'd be up to now?"
"Oh, I'd probably still be running around the globe somewhere, making men fall in love with me," Shannon replied.
"Sounds about right," Boone nodded. "You don't think you'd ever settle down?"
Shannon shrugged. "Not for real," she replied. "I never had a relationship where there wasn't something in it for me."
"Shannon, no one has a relationship where there's nothing in it for them," Boone pointed out.
"What about you and your trophy wife?" Shannon countered.
"Yeah but I'm an idiot," Boone replied.
"Seconded," Shannon agreed. "And anyway, you know what I mean. I was only out for what I could get, I don't see how that would have changed without the island."
"You had a lot of potential, I think you would have discovered that," Boone told her.
"Please, you were just in love with me," Shannon responded.
"That too," Boone agreed.
"Okay, let's do Jack, what do you think he'd be doing?" Shannon asked.
Boone smiled. "I think he'd be chief of surgery."
"He is chief of surgery," Shannon pointed out.
"Exactly," Boone replied. "Some people just have a path."
"You think he'd have a trophy wife?" Shannon asked.
"I don't see Jack taking a trophy wife somehow," Boone replied.
"You think he'd be with someone?" Shannon rephrased.
"I don't know, he's kind of a loner," Boone considered. "If something happened then I bet he'd fall hard but he'd have to stop working for five minutes first."
"Unless it was another patient," Shannon offered.
"Unless it was another patient," Boone agreed, noting that thinking about Sarah didn't make him quite so inadequate and insecure anymore, like he was second. "So what about Sayid?" he asked.
Shannon looked down. "He told me once why he was going to LA."
"Yeah?" Boone asked. Shannon nodded. "So why was he going?"
"He was looking for his childhood sweetheart, they'd been separated for years," Shannon replied. "Someone had told him where to find her." She looked up at Boone. "So I guess we can figure out what he'd be up to."
Boone gave a little smile but found himself surprised by how sad Shannon looked at the story, he'd never thought she'd be worried about competing with another woman.
"You know, those childhood sweetheart relationships rarely work out in the long run," Boone told her. "I bet they'd be divorced by now."
Shannon smiled. "You think?"
"Absolutely," Boone replied. "And I bet she'd take him for any penny he had."
Shannon nodded. "Good."
Boone laughed a little and shook his head.
"Okay, so, I'm done," she announced, holding up her card. There was a dragonfly made with bits of coloured card and sequins along with a dotted trail of glitter behind it.
"That's really nice, Shan," Boone told her.
"Thank you," Shannon said proudly as she put the card back down. "Let's see yours then."
Boone held up his card, a set of balloons mounted on layered bits of paper with tissue paper streamers in the background. Shannon smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, we'll be millionaires by the end of the year," she said.
Boone laughed. "I don't know about that."
"We're good at this," Shannon insisted.
"Well if we want to be millionaires I think we need a few more than two cards," Boone told her.
"And a name," Shannon reminded him.
"Yeah, and a name," Boone agreed.
Shannon smiled at him and picked up another piece of card.