Title: The Moment
Rating: PG
Pairing: Hurley/Libby
Warning: I suppose there is a tiny spoiler for “Maternity Leave”. But only if you squint at it.



He looks at her. He can’t help it. He tries not to be obvious about it, ‘cause she’d probably think he was some kind of island stalker or something.

But there she is, standing up the beach, giving Vincent a bath, and he…just can’t help himself.

She turns her head, even slightly, and he looks away. She turns attention back to the dog, and Hurley turns back. Yep, he thinks. Island stalker. That’s just what I am.

So he has a choice to make. He can sit here on the beach, under a tree, and wait for the perfect moment that he’ll never take because he’s too afraid. He can watch perfect moment after perfect moment pass him buy, or he can get up and just talk to her.

Easier said than done dude, he tells himself.

He looks at her again, and he feels that familiar sensation…the one he can’t figure out, the one he gets every time he looks at her and she doesn’t know it. Island stalker.

He has no choice, and before he knows it, he’s pulling himself up out of the sand and walking toward her. She looks up. She smiles. Vincent barks and Hurley pats him on the head.

“Hey Libby.” He says personably, in a way that wouldn’t make her think he’d been sitting across the beach for ten minutes, watching her.

“Hey Hurley.” She replies. The dog barks again, and she laughs and brushes her hand over his fur. He really seems to like it. Hurley can’t quite blame him.

“He really likes you.” Hurley ventures. “You have pets? You know…back home.”

She nods. “Sure.” She says. “Who doesn’t?”

They joke harmlessly for a few minutes. She laughs. He laughs. And because it’s her, because it’s Libby, it doesn’t feel quite like any conversation he’s ever had before. He could make jokes from sun up until sun down –it was kind of his thing—but with her…things felt different. They felt more…meaningful.

This was it. He could feel it. The perfect moment he’d been waiting for. The moment he could tell her…something.

“Hey.”

Hurley is jerked out of his thoughts. Claire and Kate are coming down the beach. Claire is carrying Aaron with him and neither woman looks very happy at all. Damn it.

“Hey you guys.” He manages to say, even though he wishes the two of them were anywhere but here. No offense to Claire or Kate, but…there was just a moment there. He had a feeling they were going to rain on his parade.

“So, you’re a shrink right?” Claire says it like it’s an accusation. Yep, parade officially rained on.

Double damn it.