A/N: See … two chapters … two weeks … WHO'S GETTING BETTER? Come on, on the count of one … two … three …
You stopped reading, didn't you. I know you did.
Whatever … nevrmind …

One More Night in Hollywood

Late Night
In the Jungle
Kate's POV

"Oh, god, are you serious?" Jack's deep laugh seemed to resonate through the nightly quiet. "Poor Charlie."

I laughed from beside him. "He's sleeping in his own tent tonight."

"Doesn't he always?"

"Figure of speech, Jack."

Jack smiled at me, and though it was dark, I could make out a distinct light in his eyes. Since our admittedly awkward conversation in the caves that evening, we'd eaten dinner together, and kind of … hung out. I shook my head as the phrase sent me hurtling back to my teenage years. But we were on an island. On an island, you quickly find you have a lot of time on your hands, and you spend most of it just hanging around and talking.

Jack didn't though. Jack was always busy. Whether it was his personality of his profession, it never ceased to rob him of a personal life. Which was a shame, I thought as I looked at him, his hair wind-whipped and messy. Because out of all the people I ever knew, Jack could have had the best social life. He was kind and he was funny and was generally personable. But the sight of Jack was rare outside of his cave.

"Soooo," Jack trailed as we walked up to his cave. His hands were jammed into his jean pockets, and he looked at me with a kind of awkwardness that one wouldn't have expected from Jack. "You'll come get me if … you know …"

"Yeah."

"No, really, Kate. I mean it. Come get me." His voice was pure but earnest.

"I will," I said. I looked at him as a sudden gust of wind sent my hair spinning around my neck. "Good night, Jack."

"Night," he said warmly and I could feel his eyes on me as I walked back out of the caves and to my tent. The air was warm, as it had been last night, and I stripped down to a t-shirt and my underwear.

I flipped myself up onto the mattress, and spread out catlike as I pulled the sheets on. I leaned back comfortably against the mattress. There was a very faint background sound of the waves hitting the shore, and I found it strangely comforting. I'd lived on the island for scarcely more than a month, yet it was more a home to me than anything else had been. I had friends here. I had a life here. And as much technologically deprived we were, I was just as happy to be here. Because this life was better than I'd ever had before, and I knew it.

I felt my eyelids begin to slip to a close. The sound of the water was so soft, and the wind whipping gently against my tent was a relaxing sound. My heart thudded rhythmically in my chest and I rolled over in my makeshift bed. The sheets were smooth against my skin. I could feel myself slipping into a slumberous state. The world began to blur. My breathing slowed. And then …

Thud.

My eyelids snapped open. The grogginess faded. I sat up. What was that? Goosebumps ran down my arms as I crawled out of bed. I sucked a deep breath in, then calmly exhaled. Despite my many flaws, none of them were cracking under pressure. I crawled closer to the tent flaps, calmly inhaled, and then charged through it.

"Ow!"

"Dammit!"

Clunk.

I felt my legs trip over something hard, bellow my knees. I rolled. My arms flew out. My limbs entangled, and I struggled to clamor off the body I'd seemingly collided with. I looked up in surprise as my vision focused. "Jack?"

"Hey, Kate."

"What are you …" Disorientation seeped into my brain. The world was spinning. "What are you doing here?"

Jack smiled kind of shyly and didn't respond. I looked around. He was wearing a heavy sweatshirt, and had balled up two of his other shirts into a makeshift pillow. Scattered on the ground was a thin airplane blanket. The only scenario this could all add up to was …

I looked at him in surprise. "You were SLEEPING outside my tent?"

"Well … no …" Jack said slowly. I raised an eyebrow at him. He grinned at me. "I'd only just settled down when you … tackled me."

"I didn't tackle you."

"You tackled me, Kate."

"I didn't ta– "

"Yes, you tackled–"

"Okay fine! I tackled you!" I exclaimed in exasperation. Jack's eyes seemed to twinkle in the starlight as he grinned. "God, Jack, why are you sleeping outside my tent?"

Jack grew quiet.

I looked at him, my eyes narrowing. "To protect me?"

"No," he said kind of stubbornly. I stared at him. Hard. "Just … in case anything went wrong … I'd be here …"

"Oh god, get in," I said rolling my eyes.

"What?"

I held open a flap. "Get in the tent."

I pushed him in with me. "You know what, Jack? I think you have a hero complex. I seriously do. I mean, I know you're a doctor and everything, and your job is too look after people and medicate them and make sure they're healthy and etcetera, but you take your job to the extreme. Sleeping outside my tent?"

"Well … sue me for caring," Jack said. His eyebrows had furrowed into an annoyed frown.

I smiled and watched as the frown slowly disappeared. "Out of all the things I'd sue you for, that would never be one of them."

Jack opened his mouth in fake shock. "You'd sue me?"

"Doctors are worth a lot, babe."

I laid down on the mattress and Jack followed suit. "You can't sue me for anything. I've been the perfect doctor. I even stayed outside your tent."

"You slept with a patient."

"I did not sleep with y–" Jack cut off, shaking his head at me, a smile brightening his face. "Remind me, when we get back to the real world, never to be your doctor."

"When we get back to the real world, that wouldn't be an issue," I said and I watched as the smile seemed to instantly disappear from his face. A steady quiet grew between the both of us. "In the real world, I'd be in jail. And you'd be in the States, saving lives. In the real world, we'd be polar opposites."

Jack didn't speak for a second, rather watched me. "I don't know, Kate," he said softly. His eyes were beautifully dark. "I don't think we're that different at all. I think we're the same people under different circumstances."

My throat seemed to close under the gravity of his words. "I took a life and you save them," I whispered brokenly.

"And who knows what I would have done if I'd been faced with your situation," Jack whispered. "I don't."

"But I do." I looked at him and smiled almost sadly. "You wouldn't kill Jack. You couldn't."

Jack exhaled softly, and I could tell he was thinking. Really, deeply, thinking. "I could, Kate … and I would … if I could save someone I loved."

I opened my mouth but no words came out. He looked at me. I looked at him. The silence was deafening. My voice seemed to tremble as it left my throat. My words shook. "Like who, Jack? Who would you kill for?"

Jack smiled at me. His eyes seemed endless, just eternal pools of black. He leaned in towards me. His scent filled my senses, smelling familiar yet distinct at the same time. "We're not so different, Kate," he whispered softly in my ear. His chin brushed softly against my cheek. "Despite what you may think."

He drew away, pulling his scent with him. I laid there, eyes cast up to the top of the tent. I exhaled softly. "I wish I'd known you … back then … before this. I wish I'd known you."

"Why?"

"Because … I think out of everyone on this planet, Jack," I said so gently, eyes still cast skyward, "I think you're the only one who could have talked me out of killing him. The only one. And my life wouldn't have been … and then I could have … then I wouldn't be here. Maybe, if I'd just known you before, we wouldn't be here. On this island. Stranded."

"And maybe that's not such a good thing." My eyes jumped to his and his gaze fought mine fiercely. "You think my life was great in Chicago. That I had everything." His voice was soft and terribly aching. "I didn't, Kate. I went to work and I came back. And that was it. That's all. I was lonely as hell. I saw fifty people a day, and not one of them I could call a friend. And then, a plane crash. I'm stranded on an island with fifty other people, any of which I could have seen passing by in one of my days. And … I don't know. Tragedy bonds people together, I guess. I've made friends, companions. I met you. I'd give my Chicago life up for this, Kate," he whispered. "Back in Chicago … I didn't even have one."

I looked at him. Our eyes refused to break gaze. I shook my head. "Neither did I."

"You think maybe John's right?" Jack's voice had a sudden pressing sense of urgency to it. "That we were all brought here for a reason?"

"Fate?"

"Yeah. Fate. Do you believe in fate?"

I considered the question, and smiled desolately. "I'd love to believe in fate, but I've never been much good at believing in anything."

"People like us usually aren't," Jack said. His eyes were boring holes in me. "People like us need others to show them how to."

"I'm past that point," I whispered.

"No," Jack said. His voice was soft. He smiled. "No, you aren't. If you were, you wouldn't be with me now. Talking about could haves, should haves. You'd have given up on possibility." His smile was heart-melting. "In fact, Kate, I'd have to say you're the most unpredictable person I know."

His hand touched my arm and I felt my arms freeze into goosebumps. "A month and a half on this island … and a half a dozen soul-bearing talks. You're like my own personal therapist."

"Hey, it's a two way street here, buddy."

Jack laughed and I did too. When did things get so easy between the two of us? So uncomplicated, so … free. "So Kate, out in the real world … what kind of music did you like?"

"Music?" I asked. I shook my head, smiling. "That's a random question."

"Not really. Music says a lot about a person. And I'm getting to know you."

Jack smiled. I surveyed him shrewdly and then gave in, grinning. Jack's smile was contagious. "I liked rock. The old stuff. Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. My favorite song was Baba O'Reilley by The Who."

Jack paused in thought and then nodded. "I can see you as a Baba O'Reilley fan. Teenage Wastelands."

"That's right," I said and he laughed. I looked at him. "What about you?" He stared at me. "Please, god, don't say you're a classical music fan …"

"I'm not."

"Thank the lord."

Jack grinned and nudged me. "I liked easy rock. Mostly the new kind, but some old."

"Favorite band?"

"U2."

"They're pretty old."

"They're pretty good."

I looked at him and couldn't help but move a little closer. This personal investigation we were conducting, it was bringing us closer in more ways than one. "Favorite song?"

He paused in thought, eyes calm and evaluating. "A Long December by the Counting Crows."

"That's different."

"Yeah, I guess. I don't know. I always liked it. It's sad … it's happy … it's just refreshing. Hopeful. You know? Mourning the loss of another year, praying for the beginning of a new one." I was seeing an all new side of Jack. A deeper one. A softer one. And I liked it.

I smiled and then, out of the crack between the two tent flaps, I could see a few small beams of light traveling through. Already the sun was starting to rise. I grinned amusedly at him. "I think we should go to sleep," I said. "It's been a long December."

"And it's one more day up in the canyon," he said, and as he laid back down in the mattress, his arm seemed to brush mine, once again chilling me.

I smiled and closed my eyes. The sound of the ocean returned. The soft breeze. The heat from Jack's body. The rhythm of his heartbeat. They seemed to serenade me into the world of slumber. My breathing regulated. My vision disappeared, and I was left with nothing but me and the world. I sighed. "And it's one more night in Hollywood."


A/N: Reviews! I love them. I swear I do. Guys, you are a-ma-zing. Seriously. You brighten my day. And considering the fact I have a helluva lot of homework to do, a little light would be appreciated. WHO SAW LOST ON WEDNESDAY??? Freaking amazing, if you ask me. Which you didn't.

Whatever.

Your Homework: Listen to A Long December by the Counting Crows. No, it's not my favorite song, but ... I don't know ... I was really in the mood to listen to it tonight, so I wrote it in. Anyways, listen to it. Maybe you'll like it. Jack's right. It's different.