Chapter 29

Sayid made to follow her but Jack held him back, grasping him firmly by the arm. "We need you here." He insisted, before making his way over to Locke – who was evidently exhausted.

"I'm sorry Jack." Locke strained to speak as the doctor knelt down beside him. His relief was evident although hard to read beyond his pain, even as the receding light of the day gave over to evening, and cast a heavy shadow over his shivering form.

"It's alright." Jack tried to reassure him. "Just lay still a moment." He said as he raided his rucksack for one of a selection of pill bottles he had seen appropriate to bring with him. Finding what he was looking for he quickly withdrew a small brown pill bottle which contained a limited number of dark blue capsules rattling around in the bottom.

"Here take this." He said as he offered Locke one of the pills. "It's a much stronger painkiller than I have given you before and contains a mild sedative." He explained as he helped the other man to sit up. "Its times like this that I wish we had a fully equipped hospital here on this island, under normal circumstances I would want to get you hooked up to an IV straight away, and start running some fluids into you. You're severely dehydrated Locke." He said as he pinched a small amount of skin on the back of the other man's hand and watched it as it took far too long to return to normal.

Locke choked weakly on the small trickle of water Jack offered him as he swallowed the pill down with evident difficulty – the coughing fit sent his already raw abdomen into another spasm and he gasped for breath, reaching out in panic and grasping Jack tightly by the hand.

"Jack…" He whispered.

"Just lay still Locke." Jack coaxed as he fought to restrain him, as in his panic he began to flail around aimlessly – he seem to be too aware of his environment. "Your symptoms seem to be progressing in the same way as Sawyer's. If you don't try and calm down and continue to keep throwing yourself around like this you could end up doing yourself some serious internal damage." He told him. "The pills should help to take the edge off soon."

Locke did his best to try and calm down – although it wasn't easy. Eventually silence elapsed between them, but it was broken by his frequent gasps of pain, as he tossed and turned on the jungle floor, trying to get comfortable. It took longer than Jack had anticipated for him to finally relax enough for him to be able to take a closer look at him.

"So what's the verdict?" Michael asked him after he had completed his preliminary examination, observing the semi-conscious form of John Locke at his feet.

"He's resting now." Jack nodded. "The pills I have given him have helped a little but they are not strong enough to completely relieve his pain. I don't think he's in any immediate danger though and the medication should keep him relatively sedate for the next few hours, but we really need to get him back to the caves as soon as possible."

"That won't be possible this evening I'm afraid Jack." Sayid sighed as he approached.

Jack frowned.

"What do you mean?" He asked him.

"It's already quite late." Sayid explained. "And as the night draws on it's only going to get colder. We've already lost the light and we have no idea how long it's going to take us to get back to camp with Locke…"

"He's very sick!" Jack exclaimed, his frustration conveyed within his voice. "If he has to spend the night out here I cannot vouch for what his condition will be in the morning. I am already working to the absolute limit of my resources. There's only so much I can do for him out here!"

"Even so…" Sayid sighed. "Do you honestly believe that John is going to be able to keep up with us in the condition he's in?" He asked. "It's going to be a whole lot worse for him if we get ourselves lost! It's much better and safer for everyone involved, especially Locke, if we set up camp here for the night. You go and see to John Jack, I'll take Michael and we can start setting up a campfire… It's the best chance we have, believe me." He told him, eyebrows raised.

Jack silently contemplated their options – it was indeed true that an evening spent out in the open was certainly not going to be good for Locke in his current condition, and that he had a fight on his hands if he was going to have to try and keep his condition stable out here. His priority, besides managing his pain, was going to be trying to bring his temperature down without allowing him to become too cold – which could very easily lead to him developing hypothermia.

Eventually he conceded that overall Sayid was probably right, although it wasn't without reluctance that he agreed to do things his way.

He nodded, before turning around to look for Kate, realising that he hadn't seen her for a while, but with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach he could see no sign of her as he looked about him – Kate, it seemed, had gone.