Here it goes... hope you like it!

Chapter One: Sure Thing Falling

"Shit," he muttered, already frustrated with himself. Jack Shephard was struggling, a trait he just wasn't used to.

Only fifteen minutes had passed since he sat down to study for his biochemistry class. Now in his senior year at Columbia, his pre med classes up to this point had generally been easy for him. The high level classes had always come naturally to him, until now, during the first semester of his last year of pre med.

Of course, Jack's definition of struggling was what some others could only hope for. He was passing the class, albeit with a C-, the lowest grade he'd ever had during his four years of college. It wasn't so much the grade he was worried about- it was his upcoming MCATs. In order to get accepted into a top medical school, he had to do better in biochemistry.

Jack put his pen down and stared blankly at the textbook in front of him. He'd tried every technique that had ever worked for him, but nothing seemed to help with this particular subject.

He heard a rap on his bedroom door, and one of his roommates, Marc walked through.

"Hey man, we're going to grab some dinner, want to come?" he asked happily, unaware of Jack's current mood.

"No," he glared.

"What's your problem? Saint Jack still not getting an A+?" he joked. "You don't have to be perfect at everything," Marc said as he leaned against the doorway.

Jack knew he was right. He knew it was likely that he would do fairly well on the MCATs, but that just wasn't good enough. But that wasn't how he was brought up, how he was taught. Jack was expected to do phenomenally, was expected to get into a great medical school. Even more, he was expected to be a great doctor. It was the family business, after all.

"You don't understand, Marc. I have to do better in biochemistry, I just have to. It's definitely on the MCATs, and I can't afford to fuck those up. I can't," he emphasized.

"Man, you've been studying non stop for a few weeks. It's still not coming any easier to you?" he questioned.

Jack shook his head. He was past the point of knowing what to do. "I have a meeting with my advisor in the morning, maybe she can tell me what to do," he explained, rubbing his hands across his tired and bleary eyes.

"Maybe I'll come to dinner, I need to eat anyway." He rose from his desk chair, stretching his arms above his head. Jack lived with two of his friends, Marc and Luke, and Marc's girlfriend Sammie in a house close to campus. They went to dinner, and Jack found himself actually relaxing for the first time in a while.

When they returned back to the house, he wasn't ready to return to the miserable forecast of biochemistry, so when the guys wanted to watch the game, he accepted. Soon one beer became two, and two became eight. He stumbled to his bed, and noticed that he had left his cell phone in his room the whole night. Listening to his voicemails, he sighed at how predictable his life had become. One from his advisor, confirming their meeting in the morning, one from his boss at the hospital he volunteered at, and unfortunately, one from his father.

"Jack, it's your father," the voice boomed. "I was just checking up on you, I hope you're not answering your phone because you're busy studying. Please call me; I have something I need to discuss with you." The voicemail clicked off and he snapped his phone shut.

There was no need to talk to his father tonight. It was late, but more importantly, he was drunk. That surely wouldn't go over well with the old man, although it wouldn't surprise him is his father was drunk as well. Setting his alarm, he crawled into bed, cursing himself for indulging since he had to get up early in the morning for the meeting, then had a full day of classes and volunteering after those.

After downing several cups of coffee, Jack had managed to make it to his advisor's office just in time, signing in and eventually being called into the small room.

"Jack," Ms. Crawford greeted him cheerily. "How's everything going?" Like she didn't know how everything was going, he sarcastically said to himself. The scowl on his face must have said it all.

"Listen Jack, I know things haven't been going as well as they have previously," she said, motioning for him to sit down across from her. "But frankly, I was starting to wonder if you were anything less than perfect! A lot of students struggle with this class, so you're not the only one," she finished, lacing her hands together in front of her on her desktop.

"Ms. Crawford, I got an A+ in Organic Chemistry, but I'm barely pulling a C in biochemistry?" he questioned.

"I know, I know," she soothed. "But this doesn't mean that you can't pull that grade up. We're four weeks into the semester, and you still have quite a bit of time to fix that."

He shifted in his seat. What idea could Ms. Crawford have that he hadn't thought of? "And how do you propose I do that? I've tried everything I can think of."

"That's why you're here, Jack. Because I'm your advisor, and I'm supposed to, well, advise you when you're having problems…" she trailed off.

"And," he said impatiently.

Her eyes darted back and forth as they looked into his. He wasn't going to like this. "Well, there's always tutoring, Jack. I really think it's worth trying, since working more with your professor hasn't."

"No," he said automatically. "I can get through this, I know I can. I just have to have some more time to think about it."

"Jack, frankly, you can't waste time here. Sure, it's a long semester, but I know that your main concern is the MCATs. And yes, you can take it more than once, but everyone knows that doesn't necessarily look good on your records. So I just want you to try this for me. If it doesn't work, by all means, try your own methods once again."

He sighed audibly. "I really don't want to do this," he stressed.

"Please just try, Jack. You never know what could come of this. And like I said, if you don't like it, or don't feel like it's helping you, you can stop. I'm not forcing you to do this."

The way she was explaining it, there was practically no way he could say no. "I don't like getting help from other people," he tried. Any way he could get out of this.

"It's okay to ask for help, Jack. It's really in your best interest, anyway. Upholding your ego isn't what you should be thinking about right now. Your future is what's at stake," Ms. Crawford stated firmly.

"You're stubborn. I know that. And I can respect that. You're a good student Jack, but you're not perfect, because no one is. I'll actually think more of you if you seek the help you need."

Jack nodded in defeat, watching as Ms. Crawford scrawled a name and address on a small piece of paper. She slid it toward him across the desk. "I want you to go to this place. I've sent several of my students there and have heard nothing but good things from them. You'll have several tutors that can help you there, as there are several that specialize in the sciences," she explained.

"When am I supposed to do this?"

"I'll give them a call right now, how about it?" He nodded towards her as she looked up the phone number from her computer and dialed.

A short conversation later, Jack had his appointment. Tomorrow morning. He had to meet with a tutor named Brinton. Sounds like a prick, Jack thought to himself. He begrudgingly thanked Ms. Crawford and proceeded with the rest of his long day, which wasn't helped at all by the fact that he had a biochemistry lecture.

The next morning he headed to his scheduled tutor time, hesitantly pushing the doors open to the large brick building. He remembered that he'd had a physics lecture here his freshman year. He walked up a set of stairs to the room number that was scratched on the paper, and was met with a large room in front of him, with 4 rows of tables set up.

A short man with high-water khaki pants and his shoelaces dragging awkwardly beneath him approached Jack. "You must be Jack," he said, sticking his hand out to shake it. "I'm Brinton, by the way," he laughed awkwardly.

Jack followed him to a table in the back of the room, as Brinton motioned for him to take a seat. "So," he posed. "What do you need help with, exactly?"

"Biochemistry," Jack mumbled.

"Oh, this shouldn't be too hard then," he answered smugly. "Took that course two years ago. Piece of cake."

Jack looked quizzically at him. "Yeah, well not for me. And I don't want to be here, don't make this any harder than it needs to be."

"Fine. Let's get started then." Jack got his books out of the bag he'd brought with him, laying them out on the table.

Twenty minutes later, Jack's sanity had been challenged with Brinton and his arrogant ways. He had insulted Jack's intelligence countless times, and had even laughed in his face when he'd answered a question incorrectly.

Jack suddenly stood up from the table, gathering his books in a quick fashion. "I've had enough of this, Brinton," he emphasized. "Thanks for all of your help," he said sarcastically.

As he reached the staircase a voice rang out to him. "Wait," it said. He thought about ignoring it, to keep walking. But it definitely wasn't Brinton asking him to wait.

He turned around, and came face to face with a brunette, her green eyes fixed on his brown. "Yeah?" he asked hesitantly.

"You were working with Brinton?" she asked, rolling her eyes in the process.

Jack nodded in response, getting the sense he wasn't the only one who'd had problems with the guy.

"He's a bit of a jerk, don't you think?" she whispered.

He laughed in response. "Yeah, that's a safe assumption."

"I could help you… if you wanted," she stated. "I mean, I'm no Brinton, but I know my way around science," she joked.

This girl was stunningly beautiful, but in a natural kind of way. There was no way in hell he was going to make a fool out of himself in front of her. "Nah," he replied. "I think I'll figure it out on my own."

To his horror, the girl started laughing in his face, her expression scrunching up. "No offense, but I heard some of your answers. You need help."

"Yeah, well," he began, embarrassed that she had heard him. "It's this one class. I don't know why, but I just don't get it," he tried to explain.

She backed her hands up to her shoulders, as if to say no explanation necessary. "I'm not here to judge you, uhhh," she fumbled with her words.

"Jack," he helped her out.

"I'm not here to judge you, Jack," she smiled widely at him. "Come on," she pleaded in a sing song voice.

Jack looked her up and down. She had to be younger than him. What could she possibly know about biochemistry?

"Look, I'm not trying to cause problems, but have you actually taken this class?"

"Yeah, actually." He looked surprised.

"I know, I look younger, right?" she questioned. "I'm a junior, so you're partly right. But I've taken every possible science class that I could that will count towards my degree, now I'm just working on the math."

"And?" Jack posed.

"And what?"

Her body language was surprisingly forward and relaxed considering the fact that Jack was practically interrogating her and had found that he sometimes intimidated people. Oddly enough the situation seemed to be reversed.

"And what degree are we talking about here?"

"Oh, I'm pre vet." She noticed how skeptical he looked. "Jack, just give it a chance. I can't be any worse than Brinton, can I?"

"I'm just not into the tutoring thing," he tried once again. If anything, this girl was persistent. And beautiful. And seemed to be flirting him at an odd angle.

"Fine. Big man on campus, right? Don't want to be proven wrong?" she challenged, her hands braced on both handrails either side of the stairs. He was looking up at her, as she figuratively and literally had the upper hand on the situation.

Jack chuckled at her aggressiveness. "No, you're exactly right, actually," he said, surprising even himself.

"Well, you know where to find me," she smiled, and turned around to leave.

"Hey," he said, as she stopped in her tracks and turned around again. "I never caught your name."

She laughed lightly. "I never offered it, did I?" she said coyly, turning on her heel and heading back into the tutor room.

"See ya later, Jack," she called out from in front of him.

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