Chapter 18

"That was without a doubt the best meal I've had on the island," Evie said, sitting back and patting her stomach like she was stuffed. "Maybe ever."

"Well, now you're just exaggerating," Amelia laughed.

None of them were actually stuffed, but the fish had been a welcome injection of nutrients, and just the fact that it tasted different from the canned goods and coconut and papaya they'd been surviving on was enough to give Robin a food-gasm.

Plus, the accolades for delivering such a bounty were nice. Robin made sure that everyone knew Scarlet was the mastermind behind their meal.

"No, I think it was the best meal ever," Evie insisted. "I know it's like how a simple PB and J can taste heavenly when you've been working your ass off all day, but…"

She made the ‘chef's kiss' gesture to Amelia for cooking, and then to Robin and Scarlet for providing the fish. They still weren't quite sure what kind it was –just ‘delicious' was a good enough label for Robin.

"All right, can I do my set now?" Lex asked, getting to her feet. "I've been working on jokes all afternoon."

"Ooh, wait." Marnie popped up from her new cushioned mat. "Let me introduce you."

"I think they know me," Lex laughed.

"Pretend!" Marnie insisted.

People settled in. It was after dark, the fire was crackling, and the mats Nat and Christy had spent the day making were a big improvement over sitting in the sand, which got cool as the night progressed and which tended to infiltrate… crevices.

Robin had pulled her and Scarlet's mats up against one of the driftwood logs around the fire, and she wrapped her arm around her as they leaned back to enjoy the show.

"Ladies and ladies!" Marnie announced. "We have a special show for you tonight. All the way from the civilized world, please put your hands together for Lex Madden!"

They all cheered and Lex jogged out, waving her hands and cheesing big. She held one fist in front of her like an invisible mic, saying, "Thank you, Gillian's Island! I just swam in and I'm pretty sure a coupla great whites were tailing me the whole way… I'm not sure what they wanted, but it gives a new meaning to the phrase ‘shark week.'"

The group erupted in cheers and Robin felt Scarlet's body quivering against hers as she laughed.

"You know one great thing about being stranded in the Galapagos with a bunch of queer women?" Lex went on. "All the boobies. Hey, I'm talking about the blue-footed kind, get your minds outta the gutter."

Robin started to let loose too as Lex's set continued. Pretty soon she was laughing so hard she was crying, her body racked with it. Whether Lex really was that funny or it just felt good to release the tension and smile for a little while, Robin could feel all the anxiety leeching out of her with every joke.

Yes, this was exactly what they all needed.

"Another thing I'm glad about while we're stuck here, zero risk of unwanted pregnancies," Lex pointed out. "Can you imagine giving birth out here? Nightmare! Although… if our patron saint Gillian Anderson were to appear out of the ocean and said she wanted to have my baby, you can bet your ass I'd try like hell."

She went around the group, choosing good-natured people to roast –Amelia for cooking the same damn thing every night. Evie for literally sinking her career. Even Zoe for giving new meaning to the term pillow princess by loafing about all day.

They were all in tears by the end of the set, and Marnie popped up to outro Lex. "Is our resident band up next?"

"Yeah, let's do it," Scarlet said, giving Robin a kiss then getting to her feet.

"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for… Currently doing a tour of the Pacific, whether they like it or not, the Scarlet Begonias!"

Robin watched Scarlet gather her bandmates and arrange themselves in the area designated as the stage. Even without a mic, without good acoustics, without anything more than a guitar, some backup vocals, and an improvised drum made out of ship debris, she was stunning.

Her lavender hair flowing in the breeze.

Her eyes fiery with the passion she brought to her music.

Her voice carrying across the water like a siren song.

I love her, Robin thought. She'd been thinking it the whole time she made that necklace that now hung around Scarlet's neck, and she'd had to bite her tongue not to say it when she gave it to her. She didn't want to scare Scarlet off, but damn if it wasn't the truest thing she knew in the world.

Lex started to pass around her aptly named jungle juice, and pretty soon everyone was getting to their feet and dancing. Scarlet came over and held out her hand to Robin, never missing a note as she twirled her around the camp and sang. Even Zoe found a group of crew members to dance with, and soon they were all singing along and lost in the moment.

The night wore on, Robin got a nice buzz from the vodka, and the breeze didn't feel as cool anymore. Nat took over singing, and Robin and Scarlet cuddled up together to watch everyone's reverie.

"You guys," Zoe said, her words happily slurred, "thank you so much for forgiving me. I love you so much, and I don't want to be alone out there."

A small number were quick to accept the apology. Robin nodded at Zoe from across the bonfire. But everyone was surprised when Lex shuffled across the sand and held her hand out.

"Bygones," she said.

Zoe took her hand. "Bygones. Thank you."

She went back to dancing, Lex went back to searching for the bottom of that bottle, and Robin held Scarlet a little tighter against her chest, kissing her temple. "Did you ever think it'd be possible to be happy out here?"

"Yes… as soon as I knew you made it to shore okay."

Robin's heart fluttered in her chest. She opened her mouth, then hesitated. "Scarlet, I l–"

"Help!"

Someone screamed from the tree line and the two of them were on their feet in a heartbeat. Robin's mind went instantly to predators –some kind of attack.

Amelia and Simone burst out of the underbrush, wild looks in both their eyes. "We found something."

"Something good?" Zoe slurred.

But Robin felt something cold trickling down her spine and she was sure whatever it was, nothing good would make Amelia and Simone come running like that.

"A grave," Amelia said, and the cold trickle turned into an icicle of fear.

"What?" Scarlet breathed.

"You better show us," Evie suggested.

"Don't everybody go," Robin interrupted. "It's dark and at the very least, we don't want people twisting their ankles out there. Simone, Amelia, take me and Scarlet and Evie to see. The rest of you… go back to the party."

She knew it was a pointless instruction –nobody felt like partying anymore. But they stayed put and it wasn't a free-for-all in the dark jungle, so she counted that as a win.

Robin and Evie plucked a couple of the torches that Zoe had made out of the sand, then they followed Amelia and Simone into the interior. Robin's heart was pounding in her throat and she gripped Scarlet's hand in hers the whole time.

"We came out here to… you know," Simone was saying.

"Get a little privacy," Amelia added more tactfully, shooting Simone an admonishing look.

"We found a nice little clearing," Simone went on. "We sat down and I felt something sharp. I figured at first it was just a broken stick or a rock, but…"

She took Evie's torch, pointing it to the ground.

There, half-hidden beneath the undergrowth, was a bleached long bone, big enough to be a femur. It was cracked, not quite split in two, and a little shard stuck up that must have been what Simone found.

Amelia brushed the leaves aside, and the whole group gasped at the unmistakable shape of a human skeleton. The bones were scattered a bit, probably due to animal activity, but there was no denying that a human skull sat half buried in the sandy soil, and a crude wooden marker stood just above it.

"My God," Evie breathed, her face pale in the torchlight. "How long has this been here?"

"It's fully skeletonized and the sun has bleached the bones," Amelia said, reminding Robin that back in the real world, she was a medical examiner. "I'd say six months at a minimum, in these conditions."

"And at maximum?" Scarlet asked.

Amelia shook her head. "I have no way of knowing… not without any equipment."

Robin shivered and Scarlet stepped closer into her side. Six months, a year, a decade – no matter what the answer was, the implication was that they were not the first people to set foot on this island. And the last one didn't make it off alive.

"We should head back to camp," Evie said. "The others will want to know what you found."

"Wait," Robin said, frowning at the scene.

"What?" Scarlet asked.

"Who built the grave marker?" She got a couple confused looks and she pointed to it. "Are we supposed to believe whoever this is knew they were dying and made a grave marker for themselves, then just lay down and died in front of it?"

Amelia took the torch from Simone and bent down to inspect the remains. "I don't see any remodeling in this break, but it's not jagged like it would be if this occurred long after death. Maybe they sustained this break and knew it would be fatal, and fashioned the grave marker to make sure someone could find their remains later."

"Us," Scarlet said softly.

Amelia shined the light on the marker, a simple cross out of driftwood, but there were no carvings or other details in it to give any more information. Or if there once had been, the elements had erased them.

"They could have been placed here after they died," Robin said.

"But not buried?" Simone asked. "It seems unlikely."

"Maybe the ground is too rocky to dig," Robin suggested.

"You think there's someone else out there?" Evie asked, looking into the jungle, which suddenly felt sinister.

Robin shook her head. "I don't know."

"We've never seen anyone," Scarlet pointed out.

"We never saw Zoe before she came back either," Robin answered.

"Okay, we're going to table this until morning," Amelia decided. "We can't figure anything out in the dark, and it's not smart to stay out here away from the group."

The unspoken implication was because there could be a stranger out here staring at us.

They all walked back to the camp, and then ran when they got close enough that they could see their footing and knew they wouldn't trip.

Had they gotten spooked? Yes.

Was finding a skeleton in the jungle the very last thing Robin wanted to check off her desert island bingo card? Also yes.

"What did you see?" Lex demanded as soon as they got back, suddenly stone-sober.

The rest of the group had stopped their merry-making and they were all standing around, worried looks on their faces.

Amelia stepped forward and explained. Robin watched their faces while she did, and not a single one looked happy to have the information.

"So, there was someone else here before us," Nat said. "But what, they died waiting for rescue?"

"We don"t know that," Scarlet said. "The only thing we know for sure is that someone died on this island. It could have been decades ago, and the person who made the grave marker could have gotten rescued shortly afterward."

"Wouldn't they have told someone about the body?" Zoe asked.

"Look, we can conjecture all night," Evie said. "We still won't know the truth. We're drunk and tired. I think we should all get some sleep and come at this fresh in the morning."

Cooler heads did not prevail the next morning.

Lena was a homicide detective back in the real world, and of course the first thing she wanted to do was investigate the grave site, and work with Amelia to see if the bones could tell them anything more.

"There might be clues about their identity, or how long they were stuck out here, or how they survived–"

"They didn't," Missy pointed out.

"We should leave it be," Nat said, aggressively scooping the morning's canned pudding. "It's bad luck to disturb a grave."

"I'm not talking about desecrating it," Lena said. "I want to investigate it. This is no different from exhuming a body–"

"But exhumations involve court orders," Nat pointed out. "Not just poking around in the dirt because you feel like it."

"What if that skeleton could tell us something about how to get out of here?" Lena argued. "Wouldn't you think it was worth it then?"

"Somebody lived and died out here," Nat said. "An indeterminate amount of time ago, by unknown means. It doesn't change our situation in the slightest."

"It changes everything!" Reese argued.

"How?" Nat demanded.

"We're not the only ones who've had to survive out here," she said. "We could find their camp, see if they left supplies…"

"Hey." Scarlet popped up next to Robin while the others argued, nudging her shoulder. "How are you?"

"Okay. I wish we could go one day without fighting amongst ourselves."

"I'm pretty sure they were all bickering constantly on Gilligan's Island too," she pointed out. "C'est la vie. You wanna fish?"

An opportunity to slip away for a while, and do something productive at the same time? "Yes, please."

So they left the rest of the group to debate the risks and merits of disturbing the grave. They skipped breakfast and headed to the inlet with the net.

They walked through the sand right at the edge of the water, letting the tide lap over their toes, and as they went, Scarlet seemed quieter than usual. Robin brushed her hair over her shoulder, seeing the necklace around Scarlet's delicate neck, and asked, "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Let me see the penny."

Robin laughed. "Rain check."

Scarlet walked quietly for a while longer, clearly caught in her thoughts. Then she asked softly, "What if this is the only life we ever have together?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if we never get off this island? Never get to introduce each other to our friends, our families. Share a holiday together. Go on a trip. Buy a house, start a family. Hell, even go see a movie like a normal couple."

Her shoulders looked heavy with the burden, and Robin looped her arm around Scarlet's waist. She knew exactly what she was thinking, because the fears had been running through the back of Robin's head too. She hated seeing Scarlet so hopeless. It was the first time she looked truly broken since all this happened, a stark contrast to the vibrant, optimistic woman who constantly inspired her.

Robin stopped walking, turning Scarlet to face her. "Listen to me, Scar. I"m terrified too. I won"t pretend that I"m not. But this is not the sum total of our story. Before I got on that cruise ship, I didn't even think it was worth pursuing a relationship because all I was thinking about was my career. Since I met you, though, I can't imagine my life without you. We're getting off this fucking island."

"But how? We"ve been here for weeks, and we haven't seen so much as a plane. They're probably not even looking for us anymore. What if–"

Robin silenced her with a gentle kiss. "No more "what ifs,'" she said softly. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"I love you, Scarlet."

She fell into Robin's arms, kissing her fiercely. "I love you too, Robin. And I want our life outside the island."

"We'll have it. I promise."