Planning for the next few days

In the morning you found that Rose had turned in her sleep, facing towards you. Smiling at her, you kissed her forehead gently and just watched her sleep for a while. How lucky were you? Of course, there was the fact that she had fallen in love with you, but that the both of you had survived a plane crash and had been reunited afterwards. You knew that you needed to make her yours, forever. But not now. Not here, not on this Godforsaken island in the middle of nowhere. For what it was worth, you decided that you would ask her to marry you as soon as you were back home. Smiling at her as she woke up, you gently moved the hair out of her eyes.

"Hi" you whispered.

"Hey" Rose replied, looking you in the eyes before leaning closer to kiss your lips.

"Did you sleep well?" you asked.

"Yeah" Rose said. "For the first time since the crash, I've slept well and not from exhaustion."

"Good" you said, "because we have a lot of work to do today."

After breakfast you conferred with the women as to what you needed to do. Claire had already started some work on a cottage, but with Rose being too distraught and Cora not being particularly strong, it had been hard going. Claire was very happy to get your help on this, so the two of you got to work. As you cut logs to shape with your axe, Claire was busy showing Cora and Rose how they could make lashings out of fibres they could gather all across the island.

"So, what's the story?" Claire asked after she had sent your girlfriend and the older woman into the trees to find more fibres.

"Hm?" you asked, wiping your brow with the back of your hand.

"What made you just set out and paddle to this island on a raft you made yourself?" Claire asked.

"Hope" you said. "Hope that Rose would be here, if anywhere."

"Hell of a gamble" she told you.

"I guess. But what else could I have done? Just sit there, waiting to get picked up when I knew that somebody was on this island?" you replied.

"See, that's why I think you should be a marine. Or special ops or something" Claire said. You snorted and shook your head.

"The closest I'll ever be to being in the military will be like a Monuments Man. Have you heard of them?" you asked.

"Yeah, I saw that movie. That's what you'd be doing?" Claire asked.

"Assuming nobody drafts me" you replied. "Why are we even talking about this?" you asked.

"Just feels like you should be a soldier. Or a movie star" Claire told you. "Not a historian. Well, unless you're like Indiana Jones or something."

"Not as far as I know" you said. You gave the tree you'd been working on another few hits and down it went, allowing for you to cut the palm bunch off. "But what's your story? You're a marine yourself?"

"Yeah. I was in Iraq for a while before we pulled out. I was heading to my dad's place when we went down" Claire told you.

"That's pretty rough" you said.

"What about you?" Claire wanted to know. "Honeymoon?"

"Nah, just going on vacation together. We wanted to get away from home for a while and, well, that was a bad idea" you said.

"Yeah, it sure was. Though.." Claire replied, trailing off.

"What?" you asked.

"Hey, yu two are still together and you're probably going to be closer than ever after this" she said. You weren't sure if that was what she had been about to say, but you nodded anyway.

"True" you said, finishing up with this log and carrying it on your shoulder to the place where you'd build a little cottage for you and Rose. There, Rose sat braiding lashings together. She looked up and smiled.

"Here's my handsome savior" she said.

"Hey honey" you replied, setting down the log before sitting down next to her.

"If you keep this up we'll have a skyscraper in no time" she teased.

"I don't think we have enough trees for that" you pointed out.

"Then just take some from the other island" Rose said with a grin.

"I mean, I suppose I could go back" you said, thoughtfully.

"Maybe I could come with" Rose suggested.

"Oh? How come?" you wanted to know.

"I think you know" Rose said with a grin. "I know we've not got any protection here, but I still want to make you happy."

"Maybe there's condoms in the toiletry bags I found" you offered.

"I like that idea" Rose said. "I just think that we should get some time to ourselves, you know?"

"I like that a lot" you said, leaning in to kiss your girlfriend, then watching her work while talking about what else needed to be done.

"So tomorrow I'm taking Rose with me to the island I washed up on" you told the other women as you were making dinner together. "We're going to see about gathering up some more clothes and such."

"Think there'll be more?" Cora asked.

"It's worth checking out" you said. "Besides, I didn't bring everything over."

"No? How come?" Claire asked.

"Didn't know if anybody would be here, after all. Plus I think it'd take another pair of eyes and hands to sort everything" you said. "We'll leave in the morning and we'll see after that."

"How will we know you made it?" Cora said.

"We'll light a fire" Rose suggested. "Like we both did earlier?"

"That's a good idea" Claire said. "You should probably prioritize food and drink."

"There's a spring on my old island, so we can use that to refill our bottles" you offered.

"Is it bigger than this island?" Claire asked.

"I'll have to check it out" you said. "I'll take a walk around here after dinner."

"Sounds good. Want me to come?" Rose asked.

"Sure" you said, smiling at her.