Meg waited outside in the hallway for Henry Gale. The rest of the team filtered past her without a glance. Henry was the last to leave as she had hoped. Meg matched his short stride and fell in beside him. "Dr. Littleton," Henry said in greeting.
"I didn't want to bring this up in front of the team," Meg said, "But Sarah has missed her second check in."
Henry stopped abruptly. He glanced up and down the hall before turning to regard Meg silently. Meg had worked with him long enough to recognize his tactic, so she waited him out. It was an odd standoff and eventually Henry nodded and spoke. "That is concerning, I know the two of you were close. But I really can't spare the manpower at the moment. Let me know if she misses the next check in and I'll deal with it then." Henry turned and walked off in the opposite direction he had been heading. Meg frowned but let him go.
Kate woke suddenly. She remained still, listening, waiting for whatever had woken her to identify itself. She lay on her side against the cool cement floor. She cracked her eyes open to find Sawyer stretched out asleep beside her. There she thought, a soft noise a few feet behind her. She waited and a few minutes later heard it again. Quietly Kate rolled onto her back to look.
It was Jack. He sat with his arms around his knees. His head bent. He shifted slightly and rubbed one hand over his upper arm as if he were cold. Kate watched him silently. "Only Jack," Kate thought. She had plenty of experience to know that waking up to find some one watching her was disturbing at best. Her father was responsible for that. The vulnerable feeling of waking up and getting a handle on the day was bad enough when you were alone. But waking up to find yourself at an instant disadvantage, someone staring at you expecting who knows what, struggling to catch up let alone gain control of the situation.
With Sawyer it was annoying. He would gloat, but something in him reminded her of herself and it felt easier to catch up. With Jack it was different. He may have had other reasons to be awake but it was obvious he was watching over them. He had moved from his original alienated spot close to the door to be close. Waking up to Jack was comfortable. His eyes weren't glued on her like she was some sort of specimen. He had yet to notice she was even awake giving her the upperhand even though she had been the one asleep.
He rubbed his arm again making the soft sound that had woken Kate up. "Jack?" she whispered. His head came up. "Still fine?" Kate asked.
"Yeah," he answered. She looked at him doubtfully. Jack shrugged, "It's taking awhile for the jeans to dry out." He pointed at the cuffs on Kate's wrists. Kate nodded. "Yeah, found out the hard way that the big guys in white… some of them have stun guns."
Jack nodded, "Add cattle prods to that list." He paused then added, "I'm sorry I got you into this Kate."
Kate rolled to face Jack. "This is your fault?" Kate tried to make it sarcastic but the humor fell flat. Jack looked away uncomfortably. Come on Jack, she thought silently. She held her breath and waited. The silence stretched and her mind began to whisper doubts. Was he thinking about how she had tried to use him to get the marshal's case back from Sawyer? How she had drugged him to sleep allowing someone to take the keys to the guns? She grimaced, how she had kissed him then run like the devil was after her? Ok, I don't really deserve a second chance she admitted to stop her mind from continuing down the list of her transgressions. That didn't stop her from wanting a second chance. Instead she clung to the moment just before Michael had stumbled out of the jungle. Jack's voice had been hoarse from hours of yelling and for a moment he had let her back in. He had confided something real and for that moment Kate had felt capable of all the more noble human intentions. Something she wouldn't have even thought to look for in herself because she already knew she was a convict and a murderer. She wanted that feeling of being strong again, especially in this horrible mirrored room they kept them hostage in.
Jack sighed and shifted to lean his head on his arm. "Sayid warned me Michael was compromised. I just… I should have taken the threat more seriously. Called the whole thing off. Why can't I… People just don't…" Jack struggled, "I shouldn't be leading."
"Why Jack?" Kate tried hoping to get him to say what he had held back. But Jack shook his head "Still think I'm responsible for everyone surviving this long?" He asked referring to what she had said to him before following Locke into the hatch. Jack didn't wait for an answer, just lay down with his back to her.
Henry bolted upright in bed. He lunged at the bedside table in a panic to turn on a light and huddled in the round glow it cast. His heart raced. He was drenched with sweat. Henry kicked away the tangled bed sheets and waited for the effects of his nightmare to pass. Stiffly, he picked his wristwatch up off the floor to check the time. 4:48 am. Henry sighed and dropped his head to his chest. Six days since his escape and he had yet to sleep a full 7 hours without nightmares from his captivity interrupting.
Henry dragged himself off the bed and into the bathroom, flipping on all the lights in his wake. He stood at the sink basin and stared at his reflection in the mirror. The cuts were all healing remarkably well. Dr. Littleton assured him there would be minimal scarring even on his shoulder. Henry unbuttoned his nightshirt and let it drop to the floor. He leaned in closer to study the tiny perfect stitches Jack Shepherd had put there. The dark cloudy bruising beneath the skin held Henry's attention. Like a poison beneath the surface or the nightmares that marred his sleep, the bad blood pooled beneath the skin. Henry took a shaky breath and stepped back from his reflection. He discounted his feeling of unease, it would all heal and he had more pressing matters to worry about.
Tom and a large orderly named Philip dragged Jack into a large interrogation room and dropped him in a chair. Jack concentrated on evening out his breathing. He had just come from another forced marathon on a stair machine and his body quivered with exhaustion. His skin burned as blood rushed to the surface to off load heat. He was drenched in sweat. The only positive angle was that he had worked out all the stiffness from sleeping on a cement floor.
Henry studied Jack's slumped form through a one way mirror before turning to the group of people gathered behind him. His eyes settled on Kate. He had hoped to catch her watching Jack but found her hard eyes focused on him. She was shackled and Bea had a tight hold on her elbow. Henry nodded and the group filed into the room with Jack. Jack straightened warily as Kate was forced into a chair across from him.
Flashback
Christian Shepherd's pager buzzed angrily on the bar beside him. Swallowing the last of his drink he picked it up and squinted at the message. "Dr Shepherd to neonatal intensive care." Christian frowned. Not your everyday page for a spinal surgeon. He pulled a few bills out of his wallet and left them beside the empty glass.
Christian carefully scrubbed his hands and let a nurse drape a surgical smock around him while watching the carefully orchestrated chaos erupting on the other side of the glass. Christian pushed through the doors and hesitated at the battlefield he suddenly found himself in. Dr Monroe yelled orders. A sea of nurses and trainees surged back and forth to obey. A machine in the corner gave off a high keening wail. A heart monitor beeped at a hummingbird's pace. Christian wadded into the middle of it dodging nurses as they struggled to contain the spreading stain of red.
Suddenly the body on the operating table lurched into the air. Dr Monroe cursed. Giving Shepherd an angry glare she turned back to the cesarean she was in the middle of performing. "I've got blood pressure greater than 200/100, seizures, an erratic pulse. I've treated for preeclampsia without any effect. I need you to tell me if this is Autonomic Dysreflexia."
Christian leaned forward to get a look at the machine spewing out her vitals. "Ok, let's try 15 mg. of Hydralazine and see if that helps. Pull out some Nitropaste." He pushed back out of the crowd around the operating table to take a look at the woman's medical chart. Almost three years ago there had been a substantial spinal injury.
Henry leaned heavily on Kate's shoulder, but his attention was on Jack. "It's time for a little honesty Jack. You see, I can't help you until you give me something to work with. I wish I had the time to wait you out but neither of us have that luxury. So I've invited Kate here to help." Henry stood and motioned for Philip to cuff both of Jack's wrists to the metal chair. "I'm going to ask some questions and I expect fully detailed answers. If I feel you are holding back in any way Kate here," Henry moved to grab Kate's chin but she twisted away. Henry glared at her but continued as if nothing had happened. "Her pretty face will pay the difference. Understand?" Henry turned back to Jack with a pleasant smile. Jack's response was a deadly glare. Henry raised his eyebrows and cocked his head as if listening to the silence. He smacked his lips, "Ok Jack." Henry turned and savagely back handed Kate out of her chair. Jack surged up but was thrown back into his chair by Phillip's hand on his shoulder. Bea bent to help Kate back into her chair. "So, now that we all know how serious we are. How about you tell me about your wife Sarah? Fell for your own patient didn't you? That's sort of against hospital policy wouldn't you say?" Henry waited a moment then turned toward Kate when Jack didn't immediately respond.
"Yes," Jack's answer was clipped and low. "It went against hospital policy."
Henry smiled, "Good, so you do know how to break the rules, occasionally do the wrong thing even when you know better. Tell me about the divorce, you gave her more than she even asked for. That's the act of a guilty conscious Jack. Did you cheat?"
Flashback
Christian stepped out of the way as a group of surgical trainees rushed the tiny underdeveloped preemie into acrib. He noted that his son had been the head surgeon for her previous spinal ingury and that there had been a full recovery despite the amount of damage. Suddenly the mother's heart monitor stuttered and the warning alarm demanded his attention. Taking charge so Dr. Monroe could see to the infant, Christian administered CPR while the nurse prepped the shock cart.
The nurse handed him the paddles and he positioned them on her chest. "Clear," he called watching to be sure everyone stepped back. The body twisted beneath the electrical current then sagged as it was released. Everyone turned to watch the heart monitor. Christian found himself counting. "Ok, round two he called," nodding to a nurse to bump up the electrical current. He turned to place the paddles back on the chest when the heart monitor hiccupped. There was another long pause and then it beeped again. "Ok, we've got a pulse so let's close her up. We need to get some pictures of her spine." Christian handed the suturing to an intern and stood back to supervise. Her heartbeat was coming steadier now and Christian glanced over to the far side of the room were Dr. Monroe was scrambling to stabalize the baby. Odds for a child this early weren't good.
He turned back to the bank of monitoring equipment. It looked like the Hydralazine was beginning to bring the blood pressure down. Christian frowned at the ekg readout. He leaned forward to double check the settings on the machine but everything looked right. He pushed his way back to the operating table to check if the sensors had come loose. Stepping behind the tented sheet to stand beside the patient's head he fingered the round sticky pads holding the sensors in place over her temples, watching the machine to see a change. Little to no brain activity, possible cerebral haemorrhaging that hadn't been caught in the midst of complications during the c –section and cardiac arrest. He should find the husband and get him started on paperwork to allow them to harvest the organs.
By chance Christian's fingers caught on the sweat matted hair just past her temple causing him to glance down. Her blond locks hung limply over the edge of the operating table. Her eyes were sunken and bruised. With a sense of dread Christian pulled back an eyelid to verify that the color blue surrounded the unresponsive pupil. Christ! It was her. His body flushed cold with the shock of recognition. Sarah with a new last name. What was he going to do?
He looked up to find the head nurse holding out a medical chart waiting for him to pronounce her clinically brain dead. Christian scratched a mark for his signature and stumbled back from the body. The loud crack of the door getting slammed open penetrated the fog that had rooted him in place. Dr. Monroe exited in a fury, cursing her way out the scrub room. Her team stood listless around an infant that should be demanding their full attention. Christian took a hesitant step towards the tiny body lying still in the intensive care crib.
He couldn't quite tell how old the dead infant was. But obviously it had taken Sarah less than four months to remarry. It was that space of four months that left Christian numb. Because there was no easy way to get four to equal nine even when you could take time off for the premature angle. From a distance he could make out perfectly formed fingers and toes. The little body was too well developed to be less than 8 months. Christian suddenly felt dizzy. He had to find a way to make four equal eight.
He checked his watch. Damn, Jack's shift had already started. He motioned a surgical intern over and shoved Sarah's medical chart into their hands. "Go talk the husband into signing the papers to donate the organs. You can scrub in if you succeed." The intern gave Christian an excited smile and hurried out of the operating room. He checked his watch again. He desperately needed a drink but he buried the urge knowing the bar would be the first place Jack or anyone would coming looking for him.