LIES LIKE LIONS
By: AliLamba
Rated: R
Notes: The title is taken from a John Vanderlice lyric (I know I use him all the time, but seriously, he should be less poetic), though technically it's "rise like lions / after a slumber" and I just remembered it wrong…but it unfortunately stuck. This story was actually conceived of while I couldn't fall asleep, though I was sharing the bed with the then-boyfriend/now-husband and everything, and all was nice. Anyway, TMI, sure, but…yes. So the insomnia bits are from my own miserable experience…though who's to say that translates. Anyway. This fic started with a real idea…and then just got silly. Like. Repeatedly.
Summary: A response to that line Kate says about wanting to sleep in her own tent after…you know…that thing we don't talk about in "The Brig." Not crackfic, but…well…
Dedicated to: Selina, because it was her birthday and I started this fic almost four of her birthdays ago :D

I took a shot at a retcon parody. Jack and Kate really like to sleep together. …No, they really like to sleep together.

Day 4

The world spun slowly, allowing for the great sweeps of migration across it—animals and people and ideas, moving and establishing life, inspiring great changes and creating, always creating in their infinite wisdom that which would make life worth the constant fluxes of living.

All this, Kate could appreciate…and yet she still couldn't sleep.

Suffering a small sigh, with the realization that she was putting effort into keeping her eyes closed, Kate rolled from her make-shift tarp-of-a-mattress and slipped out onto the beach.

It was another perfect night. The moon was round and full, with just stray wisps of clouds to mark its size. The ocean lolled against the sand, as if it too were tired, but just couldn't fight the impulse to move.

Kate wasn't sure what to do about her problem. She very much doubted that she could get anywhere near enough to the mysterious polar bear to milk it (did it even produce milk?) and she really didn't think that whatever "monster" was making those ominous synthetic noises from the jungle was in the practice of handing out warm cookies and lullabies. Kate could at least appreciate (with a wry smile) that her brain was tired enough to make these leaps, even if her body had yet to match the fatigue.

So, polar bears and monsters out of the question, Kate decided on the next best thing.

She went to see the doctor.

Jack was dreaming. It was something about brunettes with sharp, notice-me eyes…and discipline…but other than that, his mind was too fogged to see. Most of his nights thus far on the Island (when he started thinking of it as a proper noun?) had gone something like this—the bare pretense of sleep, while half his mind stayed awake for sounds of danger.

Like a shark, he noticed sardonically, the awake side of him wanting to laugh. But sleep is always in the practice of trying to seduce you, and it tugged at his consciousness, trying to tempt him into forgetting any sense of obligation.

There was a noise outside his tent.

Jack froze, every nerve ending in his body shocked into wakefulness. Very quickly, he took stock of everything that was in his make-shift hovel, trying to discern what could be best used as a weapon. Water bottle.

…Water bottle?

"Jack?"

It was Kate. That didn't mean he jumped any less anyway.

"Oh. Jack. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up…"

Kate had pushed aside the thin tarp sheet that made his door, and was already half-inside. She had paused when she noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"No," he stopped her, his voice perhaps a little louder than he meant it. "No, it's fine, I uh, I wasn't really sleeping anyway."

He saw her bite her lip, but then step fully past his door. There was something of an awkward pause as she looked for somewhere to sit.

"Um…" She tried to smile.

"Oh, yeah, you can sit, uh…" Jack had to laugh at his own sudden grogginess, and he dragged a hand down his face to wake himself up further. "Sorry, you can sit down here." Jack sat up straight, reaching for his shirt, indicating Kate should take the lower half of his bed. Somehow she didn't manage to get there until the undershirt he had been wearing for the last 32 hours had made it over his head.

Jack wanted to say something, after they had descended into a quick and sudden silence. He tried to recall small talk, some sort of sense of propriety from the life he had known barely half a week ago. His mind refused to comply.

"So you can't sleep either, huh?"

Jack woke a little more when he heard her speak, but his mind was still slow to process her words.

"Like a shark," he mumbled, with a chaste grin into empty space, and Kate raised an eyebrow. Jack realized the words had left his mouth a moment too late, and struggled to try to explain. "Oh, you know, um. Half…half awake, half…asleep…"

Kate smiled, almost laughing. "Yeah, I get it."

The smile he managed to return was sort of self-effacing, in the way you smile when you're drunk and willing to accept a friend driving you home. He tried to get his doctor-side to kick in a little.

"So, uh, did you want to look through the rest of the medical supplies? Sleep problems are common enough, could've been someone who had something."

Kate bit her lip again, like she was still trying not to smile. "Sure."

Jack didn't question her response, but instead pulled the suitcase over to them, switching on the flashlight he had strung from the roof of the tent.

"You want to be looking for anything that ends in 'olones' or 'pams," he told her, "So…eszopiclone, zopiclone…or bromazepam, clorazepate, chlordiazepoxide, flurazepam, lorazepam…"

Kate held something to the light. "How about…diazepam?"

"Hey now." He slipped the yellow vial from her hands and twisted it open, "Kate, you just found us some Valium."

The grin she gave him was a little hard to read, but she held out her palm, and he tipped her a tiny white pill. "Wouldn't this be under the guise of substance abuse, doc?"

Jack had to smile wryly, chuckling a little to himself, "You know, I think there are extra-mediating forces at work here." Kate remembered the polar bears and monsters, and she had to laugh softly as well. "Have you ever taken this before?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully, looking for a water bottle. "Why do you ask?"

Jack had already found his would-be weapon, and was screwing off the bottle cap automatically and handing it to her. "Oh," he shrugged, "some people are allergic. Mostly hives, and…closed…throat…" Jack stopped to blink, waking himself. "Sorry, uh, doctor mode." He looked at her, and tried to smile in a way that could be reassuring. "I think you'll be fine."

Kate didn't feel like being cautious, so she threw the pill in her mouth and swallowed it with a swig of water. "Aren't you going to take yours?" she asked, seeing him staring at his silently.

There was a small pause, where it looked like Jack was contemplating something, but he merely tried to smile again, shook his head, and then swallowed his own dry.

"To crash landings," he toasted on a sigh, reclining over the edge of his mattress of spare airplane blankets. There was another pause, as Kate looked around Jack's tent, waiting for something to happen to her. "Actually, you should probably stay somewhere I can see you tonight."

"What? Why?"

Jack sat back up, massaging his eyelids. "Well, I usually tell my patients to call 9-1-1 if they have problems, but somehow I don't think we could reach a phone in time."

Kate nodded, looking behind her at the tiny mattress. A grin threatened, and she tried her best to stifle the immature thoughts that had sprung in her mind. "I think you might have to take me to dinner first."

This made him sit up straighter, and then he too was eyeing the narrow strip of bedding, and then laughing. "Don't worry," he said, his voice rich with slumber and amusement, "I'll take the floo…uh, the uh…sand."

She protested, a little weakly, but Jack changed the subject, and then their conversation somehow matured. After a moment they were playing name games as to the other people on the Island, trying to match faces and occupations. It was funny after awhile.

"No, wait, I think Ethan lived with the gorillas. He's been a fruit-gathering machine."

Jack laughed, making Kate laugh, and she collapsed against him. And for some reason she didn't care to think about, she didn't move away. They both lapsed into silence…until the steady ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump of their combined heartbeats were the only sounds echoing in their ears.

"Jack," Kate whispered, her voice a little coarse but somehow caressing. "I think I like Valium."

He smiled at that. "Yeah, but are you sleepy at all?"

Kate had to shake her head. "Well, no, but I certainly feel pretty good."

She could feel his chin move against the top of her head, as he turned to look down at her.

"Well, come on then."

Before she could contemplate what that meant, Jack was tugging them both into a lying position, stretching their combined limbs to the end of the small make-shift mattress.

Kate's limbs were frozen. They were too close, close enough to feel each other's breathing, Kate tucked underneath Jack's chin with his arms wrapped around her torso. He adjusted a bit, making himself as comfortable as he could, but then it seemed like he could feel Kate's stiffness.

"Hey, just relax, okay? I'm not going to hurt you." When she didn't slacken any, but she didn't move away either, Jack chuckled. "Just think of it as a sleep lab. I'm trying to observe."

There was something in that—something maybe a bit funny about how he was trying to make a joke in his doctor-way, that actually did calm Kate down a little. So maybe he wasn't someone she had known a lifetime, but there was something familiar about him, something almost soothing. She usually hated to be held. For barely a second, she thought of Tom.

And despite her best intentions, Kate slept like a baby that night. She didn't know why, refused to question it, but it came as something of a definite shock to feel sunlight bright against her eyelids, Jack's sharp jerk as he too seemed to awaken unexpectedly.

Through the walls of the tent, they could hear others rising, already stirring in the distance. Hurley was singing softly to himself, looking for something to eat, Charlie moaning at him to please shut up. The hushed mutterings in Korean that could only be Jin and Sun passed their tent, but quickly.

All this, Kate heard, and she knew Jack heard, but neither of them moved. The effort of decisively not moving heated her, to the point where she could feel the sweat form pockets against her skin. Should she say something first? Or just wait for him to leave? Oh God, she thought suddenly, what a pathetic excuse for a one-night stand.

Ethan's tap at the tent flap, then, the quiet "Doctor?", came as almost welcome.

Jack sucked in a deep breath, and carefully, slowly, he tried to inch his arm from beneath Kate's neck. The situation was now almost more than uncomfortable, and Kate still wasn't sure what to do. If she moved suddenly, it would mean an awkward "good morning, I slept like an infant while pressed against you all night" and if she tried to pretend she was still asleep, she ran the risk of more people seeing her leave Jack's tent later in the morning, and coming to their own conclusions.

She decided she would rather face the others.

"Jack, are you awa…?"

Ethan had decided to push the tent flap aside, but he lost his train of thought when he saw Jack and Kate staring back at him: round-eyed, limbs tangled and clothing askew. It might have looked clearly innocent (there was a distinctive red mark across Kate's cheek from where the tarp had imprinted its texture) but it was still…well…a development.

"Oh, hey…Ethan," Jack looked quickly down at Kate, and, seeing her awake, something in him seemed to settle. "Uh…can you give us a minute?" When he realized what that must sound like, Jack tried to flash a small smile at the other male. "Doctor-patient confidentiality, and all."

Ethan's surprised grin quirked a little, but with a last glance to Kate (who was biting her lower lip as if she was trying hard not to grin as well), Ethan slipped back out to the beach.

Silence settled quickly and painfully between them, as both tried to look anywhere else in the tent, letting out embarrassed chuckles when they made eye contact.

"Well, uh…" Jack broke the cycle. "Good morning."

Kate really did almost giggle at this, so inclined she was to be amused. "I'll get my things."

Not in any position to protest, Jack rolled away, swinging his legs half onto the sand. He watched a little while Kate picked herself up and readjusted her tank top, pulling it down from where it had ridden up the night before. "Uh," Jack started, and then had to clear his throat, "Did you, uh…did you sleep well?"

Kate paused while slipping on her shoes, using a free hand to push back some stray curls and exposing her grin. "Yeah, I actually slept pretty well." For some reason, this made Jack pleased. "You?"

Jack rubbed a hand over his scalp, shifting the short strands to wake himself up more. If he was honest…well… A grin forced itself across his face, as he stared into empty space.

"Any less shark-like?"

Jack laughed. "Yes. Definitely less shark-like."

Kate was now ready, but she paused after standing, bent at an odd angle so as not to up-end the tarp ceiling.

"Well…"

Jack smiled obligingly. "I'll see you around the beach, Kate."

Days 6-7

It should have stopped there, but for some reason…it didn't.

Kate spent the next night tossing in her own tent, adamant that she wouldn't trespass on Jack's personal space again. The delicate experience had charged their every-day interactions, to the extent that him offering Rose a mango led Kate to remember the feel of his thick, muscled arms around her midriff. A stretch, to be sure, but Kate wasn't sleeping very well, and logical thought was an unhappy casualty.

And then Jack found the caves.

She almost called out to him once: 'But how are we supposed to sleep!' but the very thought sounded ridiculous. Kate was determined to kick the habit, to calm all thoughts of waking up warm and covered in sunshine from her mind, and get a decent six to eight hours of honest slumber.

It was with a certain level of impatience with her own traitorous body, that Kate slipped from her own tent and snuck across the beach the very next night, while the moon hung high in the sky.

She stood outside his tent, biting her lower lip, casting quick, cautious glances to either side. She was being silly, yes, but Jack was planning on starting the move at daybreak, and Kate…well, she had to know.

"Kate," the heavily amused, whispered tone drifted to Kate's ears. "I know you're out there."

She had to bite back the bemused smile that threatened. With a glance to the sky (assuming that someone up there had given her up), Kate pulled aside the tarp-flap door and stepped inside.

"Hey," she teased, "If I had been a polar bear, you'd be feeling pretty stupid right now."

Jack laughed. He was sitting up on his mattress, one hand clutching the wrist of his other loosely over his knees. When their eyes touched, and his laughter abated into a warm smile, he reached out a hand. "Come on then, polar bear."

She didn't question the fact that he knew she wasn't there for the Valium. Maybe there wasn't any left. Regardless, for the second time on the Island, Kate allowed herself to be wrapped up in Jack's warm, solid hold, and she drifted off into a dreamless, un-puncture-able sleep.

Jack roused her the next morning with a conservative nudge at her shoulder.

"You know, Kate…" he whispered, "If you came to the caves, I could monitor you from there…"

Kate had to laugh at his persistence, but she merely shook her head, rolling away a little dizzily. "Don't wait up," she joked, as she located her shoes and grabbed them. Jack laughed, and the effect was disarming…so disarming, that it took Kate a moment to remember to breathe. But panic suddenly shot up her nerve endings, as she realized how precarious this sort of situation was. It was enough to motivate her quickly out of the tent after a small, dismissive smile in Jack's direction.

Thus far, it had all been playful—instigated by Valium, which made them both feel so good—and prolonged by the false attribution of innocence. So long as neither made any moves, using each other like this…well…it could work. But the fact of the matter was that she didn't trust any male and female in their situation to keep it as such, nevermind whatever complicated dynamic that existed between them already.

As was expected, Jack moved everyone who was willing to the caves later that day.

Though neither of them knew it, they stayed up later than anyone else that night, sitting by the fire as sleep eluded them. Randomly, the same song came into their head…

Just look around now. Take a good look. Just between you and me…Are you sure this is where you want to be?

No. Jack and Kate thought together, and Kate jabbed a stick angrily into the fire. I would prefer to be sleeping.

Though they continued to see each other during daylight hours, their nights were spent in a slow sort of torture, to the extent that Kate was usually surprised to find herself waking up from anything.

Jack, it turned out, was taking it harder than she was…

"Jack, when was the last time you slept?" she'd asked. "H-…have you been sleeping? …without…me?" was what followed in her head.

The cave-in infuriated her, and all she could think of when she pried rock after another away from where he and Charlie were, was a furious tirade: Jack, you better not be dead. I will sleep again, damnit! When he came out, when he and Charlie so triumphantly returned…she saw peace.

This is what happens in your stupid, stupid caves, Jack. You take a nap without me, and rocks fall on you.

Afterwards, when she had given him his sling and they descended into silence, watching the fire together…Kate felt the question on the tip of her tongue. How've you been sleeping without me? she wanted to ask. Wanted to suggest that…maybe…they try to spend another night together…sometime…? But Kate couldn't get her mouth to work, and awkwardly, as the fire started to crush into embers, Kate left to go back to the beach.

When they were playing golf a few days later, he couldn't help but rub it in. "I almost didn't recognize you. You're smiling," she'd said. "I've been going crazy trying to make everyone feel safe. I haven't been sleeping because I want everyone to feel safe," he'd responded, casually not looking at her.

A month passed. They both tried to forget. But still, it didn't work.

"I crushed up some sleeping pills and put 'em in your juice, Jack." She didn't have to say that it was the only alternative, amongst a beach full of people in broad daylight. As he drifted off, she watched his face… So I guess, this means…you're not sleeping either.

A week passed, maybe more, and Kate devolved into the practice of sitting by the fire at night, always being the last to retire and the first to rise. And as much as she didn't want to admit it…the lack of sleep was getting to her. Whether it was a snap at Sawyer, or a longing look at Jack's big muscled arms and chest, Kate Needed. To. Sleep.

This frustration inevitably came to a head.

TBC...