Life Interrupted
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Genetics
"Where do you think it is?"
Claire was bursting with questions- none of which trailed into his family. He felt relieved, the tension between them stuck out like an air of smoke between them, and he could see the attempts to freeze her emotions as her eyes sat determined on the ground.
Nevertheless, Jack sighed. All the questions, however, did have to do with his captivity and what he knew of the others.
"I don't know." She was beginning to restate the questions in dozens of different ways, trying to catch his lie. This time he honestly wasn't lying. "I'll just have to get there and see what I can make of all of it."
"You've been acting like all of these...experiments are top secret. Do you think all of them even know about it?"
"I don't think so."
That was a lie. Not everyone knew that was going on, that was obvious from his first memories of captivity. They would all act authoritatively, but the usual anger and vengeance in their eyes was absent. They were acting on orders without explanation.
There was a pause, so abrupt that he turned and looked at her. Her forehead creased into lines of uncertainty as her eyes danced back and forth, debating her next question. She refused to look at him; even before with her questions she wouldn't dare take her eyes off the ground. Now she swallowed, looking afraid.
"Was he really an alcoholic?"
The question pierced him, and his eyes flashed to her. She looked as though she wanted nothing more than to be able to sink in the ground, to cower away from his gaze. Her hands gripped the straps of her backpack; she swallowed again.
So did he. The question meant so much. She had been thinking about him. As much as she wanted to deny the idea of them being related, she had been thinking about their father. She was curious, and who could blame her? But she also hadn't liked what she had been told, and who could blame her for that either? He quickly realized that he had the cursed role in this relationship. He was the one with the father who abandoned her, who even with the family he stayed with wasn't always the most respectable man.
"Yes," he admitted quietly, feeling sick.
"Are you?"
A grin escaped him. Of course. He was also the son of the man who abandoned her, and she would assume that he looked up to him, worshipped him, wanted to become him. She really didn't know anything.
"No."
An air of amusement brushed against his words and she smiled, just slightly, when she realized how insane the idea was to him.
"Are you?" He challenged, more casually than intensely.
"No," Claire replied, her voice much lighter than before, "I went through my rebellious phase a few years ago."
"Really?"
He realized he was still grinning, and her smile grew wider too.
"Yeah," she said, "I had black hair and everything."
Jack was honestly surprised; Claire was grinning like mad. It obviously wasn't something she told to just everybody. He just couldn't picture her blonde, lighthearted and accepting(to most) as someone determined to act out against the crowd. She was always so quiet, so drawn away from everything. A hand reached up, replacing a loose blonde strand back behind her ear.
"Really?" He said, laughing.
"Yeah," she said, stressing her confession, "I worked at a tattoo shop." She glanced at his arm, and the irony hit them both. "I never understood the Chinese ones, though."
"So you never knew what you were writing on people's skin?"
"Oh, I just did the piercings."
Jack laughed again, feeling a little more comfortable as Claire's face lit up, both embarrassed and excited at finally letting go of the secret. Then she shook her head.
"I don't work there anymore though," she said, her enthusiasm quickly dying, "now I'm stuck-"
"Shh!"
He closed his eyes and he could see him and Juliet running, fleeing away from the bank of trees before him.
His eyes snapped open. He was breathing hard.
"Jack?" She asked, concerned.
"This is it."
He stepped forward, wincing at every sound his feet made, scrapping against the ground. Carefully, so carefully he was surprised anything came of it, he pulled back the twigs and branches of the trees ahed.
The production part of their village was straight ahead. There were the old buildings, rotting and sinking with age. The ground was made of dying grass and mulch from construction. There were a couple of outside cages that he couldn't remember. In fact, as he searched around, he couldn't remember any of it. The three main buildings stared back at him: one that looked like it could have been made of steel that was narrow and raced backwards into the woods behind it, a taller one, slightly newer looking, with a couple of spaces for dirty windows, like an old hotel, and a short, almost claustrophobic one standing in the distance, white on the outside. The newest one. His mind kept him locked on that one; his heart continued racing, anxiety sweeping through him, pulling him away even as his mind said no.
But still he didn't know what was so special about the place.
"I don't remember this," Claire said, frustrated, "what I remember was more open...like being in the middle of a field."
Jack shook his head.
"I hardly remember being outside at all."
The only times he could remember were when he was able to talk to Kate and his and Juliet's escape. Claire looked away, like she was feeling out of place, and he knew it was up to him. He was supposed to know what to do. He drew in a breath and began to step through the threes.
"Wait!" Claire cried, grabbing his arm. "You're just going to walk in there."
"Yeah."
He told himself not to be afraid.
Nothing's going to happen. Nothing's going to happen.
Yet with every footstep he felt like he might fall apart from shaking. He could barely keep his thoughts straight, and he wondered if that would affect his...abilities. He hated using that word.
Just leave us alone.
And no one came. There was no one in the windows, there was no one keeping guard. He followed his mind towards the white building; he could feel Claire's scared breaths hitting him. She was clutching his backpack, almost holding him back. Only a few feet away, he could see there was a single control panel to the building. No door-handle. It didn't even look like there was a door.
"Maybe there's a back entrance," Claire whispered.
Jack shook his head and began to approach the door quickly, anxious to get out of the center of the camp. Claire hurried behind him and lingered not an inch from him as he placed his hand over the panel.
7,5,3,5,9,...
He punched the numbers in quickly; his eyes grew wide, stunned as the information came to him. There was a click and the door creaked opened. Claire held onto his arm as they stepped inside.
He remembered the color. It was a blinding white, illuminating by the lights that lay in strips across the ceiling. The walls were bare, the floors were of the same never-ending brightness. The piano sat in the corner to the left of the wall. There was a chair in the middle of the room; wires fell around it, ready to bring to life various heart machines. Against the far wall awaited a station of computers, and surely this was was where the files would be. There was nothing else in the room...
He looked around. He caught Claire moving towards the piano, as though it were something extinct that was brought back to life in this room.
"There's a piano in here..."
Jack sighed, ignoring her.
Where was the camera? The videos from the CDs were from this room, but there was nothing. And he didn't remember there being a camera sitting in front of him.
"Let's just get the files and get out of here," he muttered.
Physically he moved toward the computers but mentally his mind was racing, trying to take it all in and shove it away at the same time. In here were all the answers he wanted. But being in here made it real; all of it. The memories, the files, the tapes...part of him was still convinced it was fake. But this was real.
Behind the computer desk were shelves stocked from the floor to the ceiling of the desk. There was a small security panel at the top of each set of filing cabinets, along with an organization system: A-K; L-S; T-Z. He placed his hands above the security panel for "L-S" and closed his eyes.
3,4,48,42...
"How do you know these codes?"
Jack jumped. Claire was standing above him.
"I just...remember them."
She raised an eyebrow but didn't question him as he quickly skimmed the last names. There weren't many, no more than half a dozen. But he couldn't help but to wonder who these other people were. Were they other survivors, like him? Or were they volunteers? Maybe they were even people from the outside world...
The door to the room opened and Jack jumped, planting his back against filing cabinets as Claire fell to the ground. Her eyes were wide as she stared straight ahead, not blinking. He closed his eyes tightly, wishing for them to reappear somewhere else...
Who knew, maybe he could teleport.
"Alright, Ms. Austen."
Jack's heart leapt so violently at the doctor's voice
that his mouth flew open, ready to let out a gasp of surprise. He quickly bit down on his lip, holding his face in his hands. Guilt washed over him. He could feel Claire's fear... There was a struggling and a gasp of pain from Kate. He winced.
"Did you ever talk to Jack about what he went through here?"
There was silence.
"Well don't worry. Right now we're only doing pre-experimental test."
Pre-experimental? Why did he tell her that? He didn't remember being told that...
"None of this will hurt, but there are a few questions I will have to ask you, which will require your full cooperation and honesty."
"Or what?" Kate's cold reply sent a chill up his spine. Don't fight back, he thought, please, it's not worth it... "You'll hit me if I don't tell you the truth about when I had the Chicken Pox?"
"No," the doctor snapped, "but we could put some drugs into a part of your system that does not need messing with and that, Ms. Austen, can result in some very bad consequences. So unless you want to risk having your arm cut off or half of your blood vessels frozen, I suggest that you tell the truth."
Jack wasn't listening. His eyes were closed; two of his fingers pressed against his forehead, forcing his mind into the strongest level of concentration.
"Oh..." the doctor's voice fell to surprise, "I'm afraid I'll have to postpone this interview. I'll be right back."
His footsteps ran away and Jack's eyes snapped open. He was breathing heavily and he was surprised Kate hadn't said something right then. Claire was staring at him, terrified. She knew what he did. Slowly he approached the end of the files and stood; Kate didn't notice him until he was standing straight, his hands in his pockets, trying to hide how out of place he felt.
"Jack," she breathed and looked down. The handcuffs holding her to the chair fell. She looked at him, eyes spinning with awe and concern. The next moment her arms were around his neck, her face buried into his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
She looked up at him, tears surfacing.
"Yeah," he said quickly, "I'm fine. Are you?"
"Yeah," she nodded. Then she frowned. "Claire?"
"Hey," Claire whispered. She still sounded stunned.
"Did they do anything to you? Did they-"
"No," Kate shook her head quickly and offered him a smile. But it faded as soon as it appeared and she looked away, obviously uncomfortable with what she was dealing with. Claire was still acting just the same.
Kate couldn't be alone. She wouldn't have secretly gone to look for him, only to stir up more panic. He also realized that she hadn't asked him why he was here, which was both relieving and painful.
"Who else is with you?"
"Charlie and Sayid."
"Charlie?" Claire spoke up, startled and afraid.
"Yeah," Kate said, looking at her, "he was okay, the last time I saw them."
"Where are they?" He asked as Claire's eyes began to fill with tears.
"I don't know," her face fell in frustration as she tried to concentrate, "it was some small room, almost like a cell. But the walls and ceiling were white, not like this, though. And there was a door, like in a normal building, but you could barely tell it was there. And I think I saw a blinking red light in one of the corners of the ceiling. I think."
"You did," Jack confirmed, "I know where they are." He placed a hand on her shoulder, ready to run that way. "You two run into the jungle, get as far away as possible, but we need to have a place to meet."
"The caves," Kate said.
"That's too far away."
"No, Sayid will know what I'm talking about."
He stared at her, confused, but decided to trust her. Every time he used his...abilities...he was there. He didn't know if he could keep them safe when he wasn't.
"Jack!"
The fear was obvious in her voice be he ignored her, trusting she would do as he said. Better yet...his eyes closed only briefly, and when he reopened them he was already half-way across their camp, adrenaline pushing through him, pointing him towards the building his noticed earlier. Jack looked over head, eyeing the couple of stories above him. He didn't know where to go...
Nevertheless his feet chased the stairs, climbing until he reached the door and shoved it open. He stormed through a concrete hallway, his hands brushing against every door as he ran past. He didn't know what to do. Should he trust that instinct would tell him where to go?
Then his eyes fell on a staircase. The upstairs was roped-off but the downstairs continued darkly, wrapping through a basement floor. Jack ran down the flight of stairs, entering immediately an identical hallway.
He checked both corners of the hallway from the last door on the left and then stepped out. Juliet's hand was wrapped in his fingers as she allowed him to lead her down the hallway, running. Freedom breathed inside them. Confusing them, even. He didn't know where to go...
He stood in front of the last door on the left, breathing harshly. There was a security panel on this door as well.
4,8,26,9,33...
He burst through the door and Sayid and Charlie immediately stood up. They stared at him, confused, and he didn't have the answers.
"Let's go," he said, waving his hand towards the hallway.
Within seconds of entering the floor he was back on the ground. Sayid and Charlie were already ahead of him, rushing out of the building when Jack found himself being slammed against the wall. Breath slipped from him as he stared in shock into the doctor's eyes. There was a syringe in his hands, but this one was more like a plastic gun. There was a tiny square on the end, like a computer chip but solid in a dark, dirty brown color.
"Seriously?" Dr. Campbell hissed, smiling. "Don't you think we have security cameras in that room?" The chip inched closure to his arm. Jack dove to the side to escape, but the doctor's fingers slapped his arm, grabbing onto him. "Remember the last drug I put into you? Remember what it did? Well this one's worse. It takes away your abilities and unless you come to me, unless you get this taken out, you can't get them back. And honestly Jack, as much as you hate them, do you really want to get rid of them?"
Jack's eyes closed, sweat pouring down them in a panic.
"So I'm making you an offer," Dr. Campbell said, "you stay with me, and your friends will be kept out of danger."
"I don't believe you."
"You stay with me, and your friends get off the island."
Anxiety rushed through him. He wanted so badly to take the deal, to accept the doctor's trust. But he couldn't. His goal from day one hadn't changed: getting everyone off the island. But the circumstances around him...he couldn't trust the doctor. There were too many risks, too many possibilities.
"Here's the thing, Jack," the doctor continued, annoyed now, "I never wanted anything to do with your friends. It's all you. You're the one I'm interested in."
"Why me?" Jack snapped. "What's interesting about me?"
When he crashed onto the island he considered his life so vacant that every wild turn the island drove him towards afterwards had him convinced he had fallen into some fantasy story. This couldn't be happening. He wasn't that important.
"Everything," the doctor grinned, "you see, we found a body that must have rolled out of your plane. A body that was dead before the crash, before he even got on a plane. He was in a body bag." Tears were appearing in his eyes, he could feel it as he burst with anger as the doctor talked about his father in such a casual way. "So we took him out, did an autopsy, and we found something. Something fantastic, something so scientifically impossible. It went along with every theory we ever had, of course, but this proof, this evidence, was priceless. We might as well have found an island of gold.
"Our only problem was the guy was dead. We could only study what had happened to him. We had know way of knowing if he was even aware of who he really was. And then...that's when Ethan came back with the names. Can you believe that the guy had a son and a daughter on the plane? And a soon-to-be grandson! I couldn't believe our luck. Our research had paid off. Everything we had ever hoped for...so we kidnapped the girl and her unborn baby, and we searched. We ran test, we did everything we could to look for the similarities, the genes. But we found nothing. So then we went back for his son." The doctor's smile grew, and Jack felt sick. He felt like the world was crashing around him...he was about to hear something that would make him more insane, more different, more disjointed from the world he longed to be apart of than ever. "You see, Jack, we ran many to match this guy's abilities."
"My father didn't-"
"Did you ever wonder why he was so good at saving people?" Jack froze. No...it was impossible. His father did a have a record of a saint when it came to surgeries- except, of course, the patients he killed. It couldn't be true. "Or why he was so dissatisfied with everyone else? Why you were never good enough for him? He must have thought of himself as a hero and he had every right too. Little did he know, his son was exactly the same. Little did his son know...
"What are you saying?"
He felt like he couldn't breathe. The world was becoming numb. The air was stiff, the doctor's words traveled to him in sharp, piercing tones. He didn't want to hear any of it. He wanted to get away. Why couldn't he escape?
"I'm saying that your father had an extraordinary power to do good in the world and this mass was so great that we discovered it to be genetic. We tested all three of his relatives and only one of them came back positive, naturally possessing this gift. The others we tried to do experiments on, tried to recreate what we needed, but this one...it was just perfect."
"But you never came back for Aaron or Claire."
"I know. We didn't need to."
The doctor smiled.
It was all the answers he needed.
It denied everything he thought about his captivity, about who he was. About his father, about his family. His heart was racing, his eyes were crazed with such a fear that it punctured the doctor's smile, increasing his grin even more...
This was because of the Others, because of what they did to him.
It was all him...
He really was crazy...
"Now Jack, back to what I was saying. You see, if you don't get this taken out all these powers are gone. Which I really don't want. And think of it, think of all you've been able to do. But I can let you go, and you can fight this island on your own, if you'd like."
"I'm not staying with you."
He shook his head and immediately pain shot through him. He closed his eyes, wishing for the millionth time to be able to leave, to escape. But nothing happened...
"Okay, then. You might be hearing from us soon, though."
His eyes opened and the doctor was gone. Jack looked down at his left arm. It was bursting in purple and red, with a messy, black stain from the chip. He couldn't see it inside him but he knew it was there. His arm even felt heavier...
Footsteps rushed into the hallway and he looked up. Sayid and Charlie were staring at him.
"Jack?" Sayid asked slowly. "We need to go, are you alright?"
He felt faint; sweat rushed over him, swimming over the bruises over his arm. He quickly hid them with his hand.
"Yeah."
His voice was small. He felt hollow as he followed Sayid and Charlie into the jungle, like the would had slipped beneath his feet. Everything was silent. He felt their eyes but ignored them. He only paid attention to how weak he felt with every step...
"Hey," he suddenly remembered something. They all stopped. "Kate said to meet us at the caves. She said you'd know what she was talking about."
Sayid looked at him curiously, as if wondering if he could handle the information, and then nodded. They kept walking and he kept pushing himself further, wanting to get as far away from their camp as possible.
--
"Are you alright?" Sayid repeated once the Others' camp disappeared far from view.
Behind them the land was engulfed with trees and a looming mixture of green; the pattern followed them as they walked, and Jack was forced to come to terms with not knowing where they were going.
"Yeah."
He hid his arm from view; his skin was covered from the bruises of an injection, of something puncturing his skin, living in his arm...
"These caves," he said, shaking away the thought, "how far from here are they?"
"Not far," Sayid replied.
"How do you know about them?"
He knew he wasn't the only one who had nine months worth of secrets, but he still couldn't get used to having secrets kept from him. He also knew what an unfair accusation that was.
"We quickly realized how long our journeys across the island and back were going to take," Sayid explained, "and we knew we'd need a place to stay. Or hide. One day we found the caves. It's hidden from view, sturdy."
"You mean it hasn't fallen on anyone's head?"
They both laughed, but the memory was more surreal than expected to him. The cave's collapse was just weeks from the plane crash. Now they were heading into years from then.
"We have some supplies there, but we didn't want to keep many in case They knew about it."
"Do They?"
"Not that we know of. They aren't as big as our camp but they're narrow, it's an excellent hiding space."
"Good."
They fell silent for the rest of the trip. Jack kept himself from repeating his questions, and no one offered him clues as to where they were going. He felt like someone threw him out in the open, exposed to the rest of the world. He might have recognized where Their camp was but he couldn't recognize the way back.
It felt like hours passed before Sayid came to a stop. He stood before what appeared to be just another spot of the jungle beside them, but when he stepped forward and looked more closely, he could just barely make out the mouth of the cave hidden between thick arms of trees. Drawing in a breath, Sayid knocked on the pale rock twice, paused, and then knocked three more times.
"A secret code?" Jack guessed.
"We were very cautious," Sayid replied.
Reaching up, he dove his hand into the mass of leaves and pulled them away, holding the branch aside as he and Charlie entered. Sayid was right, these caves weren't as large as their own branch. But narrow was spot on; the path towards the back of the caves was hardly three feet wide. Jack had to lower his head, though Charlie walked on with ease.
"Please tell me this gets taller," he said as Sayid appeared beside him.
Sayid grinned, but in the next second they had found the back of the caves. It was basically an oval, hidden in the jungle. Dark, damp, and then ceiling in the back was only a few feet over his head.
Kate and Claire were in there, resting uneasily by a waterfall that fell into a shallow pool and overflowed into cracks breaking the surface nearby. They didn't notice them at first, until Charlie said Claire's name, immediately grabbing her attention. They ran and met in a hug; he watched as Claire's eyes faded to a close over a tear.
"Jack?"
Kate stood, slowly, and they both approached each other cautiously. She looked relieved to see him but deeper there was a confusion, an awareness. She knew they did, the danger he put them in. Nevertheless she threw her arms around him, laughing silently.
"Are you okay?" She asked, breaking apart.
"Yeah. You?"
"Yeah," she nodded, and glanced at Sayid, who stood admiring the reunion, "do you want a hug too?"
Sayid laughed.
"I'm okay."
By now Charlie and Claire had broken apart, and Charlie was suddenly glaring at him, furious. Kate was even close to mirroring him, staring at him as though she expected him to explain. He couldn't find the words...
"Where were you two even there?" She demanded. "You just left, in the middle of the night?"
"We didn't-"
"There was no sign of a struggle!" She exclaimed, cutting him off. "Your bags were missing. We found footsteps leading from your tent to where we found you ran away from them!"
Lying to her again was impossible. He tried to answer her, but fell silent each time. Everyone was staring at him, accusing him. He looked to Claire for help, though he couldn't bring himself to fully put the blame on her.
"It was me," she spoke up; she swallowed. Her eyes locked into his, her gaze never shifting even as everyone turned to her. "I asked him to go."
"Why?" Charlie said; his voice wavered. He didn't believe her.
"I heard about some of the things that happened to him," Claire admitted, her voice full of fright, "he told me they had a file on him, so I thought maybe they'd have one on me too. I was worried that some of the same things that happened to him happened to me and maybe that they were affected Aaron. I mean, how am I even supposed to know if something's wrong with him?"
"But you remember everything from your captivity," Sayid pointed out.
Claire shook her head.
"Not everything," she confessed and trailed off.
He understood...he understood her better than ever then. They went through almost the same thing, they were connected by it. And they were related...she was right, it all had to mean something. It made since, even though he didn't like. He still didn't want it to be true. But he understood her, and he felt closer to her then; he also knew that she was one of the only people he knew who could truly understood him and what he went through.
She swallowed again but didn't continued, her mouth shut in fear of revealing more. But Kate stepped forwards; her eyes shot towards him.
"But why did you go?" She demanded. "Juliet said that you would never go back there- I know you'd never go back there for anything."
"Obviously not."
Kate ignored Charlie's interruption.
"So why'd you do it? Why did you put your lives in danger? Our lives?" He continued to ignored her, hoping that this time, like all others, she'd simply storm away and leave it alone. But he could see the anger, the frustration burning within her. She was trying to put a stop to the lies, here and now. "They held us captive Jack and I don't even want to know what they were going to do to us. We deserve to know why!"
"Because they're related."
Their eyes snapped to Charlie. Jack knew Claire's face must have mirrored his; horror washed over him. Sickness, dread. There was no turning back, and he hadn't even chosen to be here. Charlie's eyes were dark, serious, enough to make Sayid and Kate believe him.
"What?" Kate asked, turning back to him.
Jack looked away. He didn't want Charlie to be the one to say it. Eyes closed, his hands fist, he prepared himself, knowing it was his responsibility to admit to it all. He snapped back towards them, his eyes locked on the floor.
"Claire's my sister."
He could feel the shock rip through them, and Jack looked up, slightly hopeful that they'd understand...but of course with answers came more questions. Kate's eyes were spinning, like she was watching a dramatic cliffhanger come to life.
"What?"
Kate's mouth was hanging open, but Sayid beat her to it.
"Is this true?" Sayid said, stepping slightly in front of him, as though searching for the truth in his eyes.
"Yeah," he muttered.
"You knew all this time?" Kate said. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because we just found out," Jack explained, his eyes still trailing the ground. He wanted to run away, to leave it alone and act like the confession never happened. "It was in my file. She's my half-sister, technically. Same father."
"And your just going to trust their word?" Sayid inquired incredulously.
"Don't you think we thought through it?" Jack shot, glaring at him. His eyes flashed around the room, looking at them each in turn. He felt like he was looking at completely different people. Claire was simply frozen, horrified, hoping that no one would ask her to speak. Kate just looked shocked. But not betrayed... "It's true. She's my sister."
He spun around, heading back towards the entrance of the caves. He heard Kate following him, and he wasn't surprised to see her stunned eyes peering out of the mouth of the cave as he rested against a tree nearby. He closed his eyes, bringing a hand to his head. Suddenly his head was pounding, and he could feel sweat swimming over his face. And he felt cold...
"It's true?"
He sighed.
"Yes."
His eyes opened, meeting hers reluctantly. Now she looked less afraid and more in awe, like she had just discovered something priceless. He glared at her coldly, immune to her happiness.
"Then this is good, right?" She said. "You have family here."
"Yeah, except for the part where after my father has an affair with her mother she throws him out and then my mom leaves."
"Oh." She paused and he looked away; he wasn't asking for her sympathy. "You blame yourselves?"
"No," he replied coldly, "she blames me and I blame her."
"That's not fair," Kate insisted, "it's not your fault, either of you."
"Actually, it is."
"Jack-"
He turned and considered taking the path back to the camp. He could find his own way back, he didn't need their protection- only he knew that was wishful thinking. It would be suicidal to leave. He was stuck here, and it was all becoming symbolic. They were going to force him to deal with this.
"I need to talk to Claire," he said.
Pushing Kate inside he headed back into the caves, but when he reached the back he saw that Charlie was already in a conversation with Claire- or at least trying to get him to talk. Her eyes were pinned to the ground and his looked up as Jack entered, cold, warning him to stay away. Sighing, Jack instead walked to one of the cave walls and sat down, leaning his head against the cave wall. Exhaustion was draining every ounce of energy he had left and soon it was dark...
Too dark. He tried to open his eyes but he couldn't. Voices were floating nearby.
"Ja-"
"Should...wake...now..."
"Fever."
"Ja-"
"Jack?"
Suddenly the voices made since as he heard Kate; it felt like she was right next to him, speaking into his ear with the deepest concern, trying not to reveal how afraid she was. He felt her hand on his arm and he tried to reach up to her but he couldn't. He tried to open his mouth, but he couldn't. He couldn't answer them. He was trapped.
