Disclaimer: I do not own Lost or its characters. I only own the story in my head.
Summary: They changed everything. Flight 815 never crashed, the island is underwater, and the same people are living different lives. So they think, because fate as other plans.
Sideways Stories from the Castaways
Ben
Ben Linus lay in the hospital bed pushing the button to call the nurse in, but it seemed to be broken because no one was coming in to see what he needed. He sees a doctor walk past his room and he calls out to her. She stops and peeks inside.
"Is there something wrong?" She asks.
"Yes, I'm in pain. I had a tumor removed from spine and this damn button isn't working. So I'd like something to ease the pain" He tells her raising his voice because he was pissed now.
She sighs and goes over to the edge of his bed to pull out his charts. She looks through them and walks over to the side of his bed. "Your attending, Dr. Shephard" She says. "He doesn't like to give patients too much medication, he likes write down a smaller dose first then a higher dosage if requested. " She tells him as she slides the button up.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Carlson" he says to her looking at her nameplate on her lab coat.
"For what?" She asks.
"For yelling, I was rude so I'm sorry." He says to her. He felt bad, he usually wasn't like that, but the pain was getting to him.
"It's ok." She tells him marking down that she raised his dosage. "I'll let Dr. Shephard know that you need a new call button."
"Thank you" He says as she leaves his room. He lays back down feeling much better than he did earlier. He still felt guilty for yelling at the female doctor, she wasn't even his doctor and she seemed like a nice woman that was probably was on the way to see her own patients. She took the time to help him and he appreciated that.
"Dr. Linus" She says entering the room.
"Alex!" he says surprised to see her, he didn't tell anyone what he'd be doing, he just told the school that he needed to take a leave of absence for a few weeks.
"Are you ok, Dr. Linus?" Alex asks worriedly. "You're not like dying or anything or are you?"
"No, I'm not dying; I just needed some minor surgery" he replies not wanting to tell her he could've died had they not found the tumor sooner but there was no need to worry her. He was fine now, the tumor was gone and he'd be going back to work in a few weeks.
"Ok, that's good" She replies taking a deep breath. "I kind of wanted you at my gradation and if you were dying that'd suck."
"That would suck" he replies with a smile. "I'm not dying and I wouldn't miss your gradation for anything Alex." He tells her. When she told him she'd been accepted into Yale he was as proud of her as if she was his own daughter. "What are you doing here?" he asks he was curious as to how she got her and how she knew he was here.
"Well, the woman that my mom let move in upstairs is having a baby and she asked if I could bring her stuff for the kid to the hospital." Alex tells him. "Then when I got here I heard one of the doctors mention your name and the room number. So I had to come here to make sure you were ok."
"That was nice of you Alex, thank you." Ben replies. He was happy to see her, because he didn't tell anyone he was here, the only visitor he had was his father who was here for his own treatments. Alex was one of his best students and loved history almost as much as he did. She wanted to be an archaeologist; he knew she would do great in that field so he encouraged her as much as he could. Her mother owned a small flower shop so she wasn't able do much traveling outside of LA. So she deserved to go see the world and discover whatever it had to offer.
"I have to go drop this stuff off" she says holding up the bag she was holding. "I'll stop by after."
"You don't have to, I'm sure you have other things you'd rather be doing then visiting me" Ben tells her.
"No, I want to Dr. Linus, I like talking to you." She says and pulls out her phone. "It's Karl" she says with her face lighting up. She answers it. "I'll see you later, Dr. Linus" she tells him and leaves.
Karl, her boyfriend he still wasn't so sure about that kid. He was in one of his classes and seemed to like being the center of attention rather than study. He was smart and did get good grades he just didn't think he was right for someone like Alex. He wasn't her father so he really couldn't tell her who to date. He sighs and lays back against the pillow and does off. Dr. Shephard had came in and fixed his call button and checked up on him but with the painkiller working he just wanted to sleep. He opens his eyes when a man in a wheel chair comes into his room.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but I was told Dr. Shephard was in this room." The man says.
"He was, you just missed him." He tells the man.
"Ok, thanks" The man says and starts to wheel away but turns around. "I'm sorry again but is Dr. Shephard your doctor?"
"Yes" Ben replies.
"I was just wondering because I'm having him do my surgery in a few days I just wanted to know if he was any good. You know what, never mind it's none of my business" He says and starts to wheel away again.
"He is very good" He tells him. "He removed a tumor that I was told by other doctors was inoperable and now I'm a tumor free. So you are in good hands with Dr. Shephard."
"Ok, thank you that's good to hear." The man says smiling.
"I'm Ben by the way" He says feeling that for some strange reason he should introduce himself to him.
"John Locke" the man replies back wheeling towards his bed to shake his hand.
"Locke" he says as he was getting ready to leave. "Good luck with your surgery"
"Thank you" John replies.