Walk Alone

**DISCLAIMER**
I do not own Lost or any of these characters. They belong to the brilliant minds that created them and whoever else does legally. I respectfully pay homage to them. I make no profit or monetary gain from this story in any way.

Author's Note:
This is a little experimental work in progress. I plan to have nothing but pure sex in future chapters :-)

June, 1991

Well, this is not what she thought would happen.
It started out innocent enough – a walk through the Orchid station to where the honeysuckle grew wild and heavy and sweet, lengthy talks about Huxley and Elliot and Hugo over tea on the dock late at night, treks through the jungle till they reached the highest point where they could see their lush and green island was just a speck in the vast and achingly blue ocean. But there had come a turning point and Olivia really was not sure when that had been. Before she knew it, there were more intimate encounters – lovemaking on the beach under the stars, in the secluded cove the island seemed to have made just for them, in the bed she shared with her husband when Horace was gone, in the back of one of the Volkswagon vans that were part of the Dharma fleet. She honestly couldn't recall how they shared their first touch, their first kiss, their first time.
Ben trailed his hand through Olivia's golden hair and down her ivory back. She turned and smiled down at where he was laying down beside her. They were on the beach and she was sitting with a blanket piled up in front of her. The setting sun bathed them both in a rosy and orange glow.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked her softly, stroking her lower back lazily. She gave a soft chuckle and just shook her head, her silken strands falling to shield her profile.
“I don't know,” she finally confessed. He sat up, too, giving a little grunt as he did. The sunset was reflected in his youthful, wistful blue eyes. Olivia looked at him thoughtfully. She was old enough to be his mother. She was his teacher when he was younger, for God's sake. She held him as an infant, after his mother died giving birth to him. If they were anywhere else and if anyone else knew, she'd be laughed at for sure. She never thought she could be so attracted to a man so much younger. She pressed a kiss to his cheek, then nestled her head on his shoulder. He slipped his arm around her.
“Do you know how big this world is, Ben?” she whispered.
“I have a pretty good idea,” he said with a wry smile.
“And isn't it crazy that we collided right here, on this very island?”
The question hung in the air for a moment. Was it so crazy? Now that Ben was older and had seen the things he had right there on the island, he wasn't so sure that things in the universe weren't propelled by some knowing force, some fate.
He turned his head to press a kiss into her hair. She gave a soft sigh.
“Would you leave...if you could?” she asked in barely a whisper. He could hear tears in her voice. She lifted her head to look at him, tears shining in her blue eyes. He cupped her cheek tenderly, his eyes searching hers, suddenly puzzled. He shook his head silently, his face solemn.
“No,” he replied in a whisper. “Not as long as you're here.”
She gave a sob and threw her arms around him. Her tears were hot, almost scalding against his shoulder.