What if Kate got sick on the island…really sick? Season 2ish
Kate was a fugitive. She was also the daughter of an abusive father and a mother who loved her abusive father more than her daughter. Needless to say, Kate didn't have a lot of experience with someone being there to take care of her. Since landing on the island, Jack had taken better care of her in the few weeks she had known him than anyone else in her life. But after their recent falling out over the stupid kiss and run incident, Kate no longer felt like she could count on Jack to be there for her the same as he was before. That's why when Kate awoke one morning shortly after her hike with Claire feeling slightly under the weather, she didn't immediately go to Jack for help. In fact, she never even mentioned the hike to Jack at all.
Kate awoke early in the morning to a slight ache behind her eyes. After the excitement of the hike combined with the mounting tension between her and Jack, the headache wasn't all that surprising. Kate gathered all the water bottles she could find and set out for the caves to retrieve fresh water for the group.
"Hey ya Freckles!" Kate heard the Southern twang as she was walking along the path
"Hey Sawyer"
"Where ya heading? Off for some fun times with the Doc?"
"No" Kate snapped, "I'm on my way to get water"
"Oh that's right, I forgot, you and the Doc are on the outs."
"What do you want Sawyer?" Kate was definitely not in the mood for Sawyer's pestering this morning.
"Well I was just minding my business over here, just wanted to make friendly conversation with a pretty lady." Sawyer winked at her as he said this.
"I'll see you around Sawyer." Kate said as she left Sawyer and continued down the path.
As she was walking, her headache was getting continuously worse. She made it to the caves and began filling up the water bottles, hoping that a little water would help cure her headache. Once she finished filling the bottles she turned and headed back to the beach. Along the path she ran into the one person she had been making a conscious effort to avoid the last few days, Jack.
Jack wasn't any more excited to see Kate than she was to see him. But he knew he couldn't completely ignore her either.
"Hey Jack" she said, not really meeting his eyes. Jack notices almost immediately that Kate was looking more tired than normal.
"Hey Kate, you look you had a long night?"
"Yeah, the sand only makes for a good bed for so long."
Jack laughed at that. It felt good to laugh with her again, it had been a while.
"Well, I gotta get back to the beach with this water now. Don't work too hard Jack."
"I can't make any promises there, you should get some more sleep, you could use it."
By the time Kate made it back to the beach, her headache was getting unbearable. She dropped the water off with Hurley and decided to take Jack's advice and get some extra sleep. She lay down on her makeshift bed and was asleep within minutes.
After his brief encounter with Kate, Jack made his way from the hatch back to the beach, stopping to grab some mangoes on the way. He hadn't spent much time at the beach lately, partly because of the tension between himself and Kate and partly because of the situation in the hatch with Henry Gale. He decided that he needed to make a brief appearance at the beach to check on everyone and to make sure that no one became suspicious. And though he wouldn't admit it, after seeing Kate looking so exhausted, he was worried about her. After he arrived at the beach, he first sought out Claire and Aaron. Aaron had been sick recently and though Jack knew it was nothing to worry about, Claire, like any new mother, had been panicked.
"Hey Claire, how is Aaron this morning?"
"Oh Jack, good morning! Aaron is much better today, thank you."
"Can I just have a quick look at him to make sure his fever is gone and that everything is ok?"
"Sure but he hasn't been as fussy since Kate and I came back from hiking into the jungle 2 days ago."
"What are you talking about Claire? Why did you and Kate go into the jungle and why did no one feel the need to keep me in the loop?"
"I needed to find the place where I was taken when they took me. I was so scared they had done something to hurt Aaron and Kate agreed to go with me, but don't be angry at her, she only went along so I didn't have to go alone."
Jack didn't know what to make of this information. Claire and Kate had gone wondering into the jungle of doom alone? Didn't they realize they could have been hurt or worse killed? But he couldn't be mad at Kate for trying to protect Claire. That's just who she was. She wanted to protect everyone.
"And did you find what you were looking for Claire?"
"I found enough to remember what happened to me while I was out there. And I'd rather not talk about it right now if that's alright."
"That's ok Claire, but if you ever do need to talk about it, you can come to me. Aaron is looking good today, no fever, no rash, much better."
"Thank you Jack. Have you talked to Kate lately? She looked like she wasn't feeling well earlier this morning."
"Yeah, I saw her earlier and you're right, she didn't look too good but you know Kate, she won't say anything and I can't do anything for her unless she lets me."
Claire laughed, knowing the truth of Jack's statement. "Well, you should still keep an eye on her. You know she cares about you a lot."
"What are you, the island matchmaker?" Jack laughed at Claire's comment but deep down he was thrilled by it but also afraid to truly believe it because he had been witness to Kate's mixed emotions. He wasn't sure Kate even knew who she cared for right now. Jack left Claire and Aaron and went to join the rest of the group to have lunch, fish and mango, like always. He sat down with Hurley and Charlie.
"Hey, have you guys seen Kate?" Jack realized that he should push her a little and make sure she really was feeling ok. Jack had an incessant need to take care of everyone but with Kate it went over the top. He couldn't stand the idea of her in pain, even if things were tense between them right now.
"Yeah man, she brought the water by a while ago and then went back to her tent. She was looking kinda out of it man."
"Yeah, hopefully she is getting some sleep."
Kate woke up feeling utterly horrible. Her headache was excruciating and her entire body ached. Her throat was also beginning to hurt. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she realized that she needed Jack's help. She slowly made her way out of her tent, hoping that fate would smile on her and Jack would be at the beach right now.
Jack looked up from his lunch when he noticed the flap of Kate's tent move back. He immediately noticed that Kate was looking much worse than when he had seen her just a few hours earlier. He instantly got up to go to her when he noticed her stumble. She looked like she could barely hold herself up. Kate was struggling to take a step, her head was hurting so much she could barely see.
"Kate, what's wrong?" Jack asked as he approached her
"Jack…" Kate called weakly when she noticed him approaching. When he reached her, he took her arm to make sure she wouldn't fall over.
"Kate, tell me what's wrong." Jack was getting worried at this point. Kate looked weaker than he had ever seen her
"Jack, I don't feel so good."
Hearing her admit it, Jack knew that something was terribly wrong. He swiftly guided her back inside her tent and helped her lay down on her "bed."
"Kate can you tell me what hurts?"
"My head is killing me. It feels like its going to explode. And I ache all over." Jack placed his hand on Kate's forehead and felt in burning with fever. Jack was getting more concerned by the second. He felt underneath her jaw and realized that her glands were swollen. Jack knew that he needed to get her fever down and get some pain meds in her to help with the headache before he could do anything else. Being stranded on a desert island didn't make diagnosing a mysterious illness easy. All he could now was treat her symptoms. He also knew that the best way to help her was to take her back to the hatch and that was going to require revealing the secret about Henry Gale. Jack knew that Kate would not be pleased with him for keeping something so big a secret from her. But right now, his main priority was making sure she was ok.
"Ok Kate, you've got quite a fever going on and your glands are pretty swollen. It looks like we're dealing with some kind of Flu like bug. I'm going to take you back to the hatch so that we can we can get your fever down and get you something to help you feel better, ok?"
"I don't think I feel like walking that far right now Jack, I'm tired."
"You don't need to worry about that, I'll carry you. You can rest the whole way there." Jack then picked her up and they began to make the trek back to the hatch. Kate wrapped her arms around Jack's neck, feeling safer than she had since their argument started days ago even though she felt physically miserable.
"Thank you Jack," she whispered softly as they walked.
"It's what I'm here for. Even though things have been a little strained lately, I'll always be here to take care of you."
