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-Chapter 37-
Take the Call
The Hydra
1977
"They're coming, Sayid."
Sayid raises an eyebrow, hesitating to ask Locke for clarification of his typical Island-saving semantics. Given their shared memory of an alternate airliner in an alternate universe, he concludes the logical and ridiculous; they're coming to rescue themselves. He checks the contents of the toolbox and locates the tools he needs. "Nobody will be coming unless I fix the phone."
Kate glances back from an emergency exit door before leaving on her mission to track Claire. Jack locks eyes with her momentarily before she closes the door. Suddenly, he feels a tingling sensation running down the front of his neck. "Cut yourself shaving, Doc?" asks Sawyer, noticing a sliver of blood forming along the skin of Jack's Adam's apple.
Jack feels the tiny abrasion with his fingertips then uses a fresh towel to dab the blood away. "I haven't shaved in weeks," he replies with a confused look.
Theresa sees what's happening and grabs Sayid's arm as he leaves to repair the phone. "Hurry, Sayid; we don't have much time."
On board Oceanic 815
2004
Jack gently maneuvers his hand around Claire's pregnant belly to feel her baby's movement.
Kate presses on a protruding bump along the skin. "Over here," she says.
He moves his hand next to hers; they look into each others eyes as they scan for movement. Kate's eyes shift between Jack's eyes and lips, but Jack maintains his strict physician composure.
"Do you feel anything?" he asks.
"Yes," she answers softly, her stare now fixated at his lips. "I mean," she turns with a blush. "No. He stopped kicking, I think." She moves her hand about, feeling again for another area of tightened skin. She brushes by Jack's hand; he keeps scanning and ignores the touch as accidental. He shakes his head and gives his final diagnosis. "I don't feel anything."
She fixates again on Jack's face. "I do," she responds softly again.
He moves his hand underneath hers. "Here?"
"Yes," she responds with her eyes locked to his lips, gently tightening her hand over his.
Jack is suddenly entranced by a blinding yellow vision, but awakens after a swift prenatal kick to the hand. He stands quickly and backs away. "What just happened?"
Kate tilts her head to the side with a subtle look of disappointment. "You don't remember, do you?" she asks.
Locke straightens his wheelchair and interrupts their reintroduction before Jack ruins the moment any further. "Jack's problem is not his memory, Kate; it's his willingness to believe." He rolls closer and locks the brakes on his wheels. "Tell me, Jack; what do you remember?"
"Remember?" Jack's expression turns clueless. "About what?"
"About the Island our plane is heading toward."
Jack feels the tingle of bleeding along the crevassed skin of his neck. He wipes with the back of his sleeve, excusing the blood as a botched job of morning shaving. "I don't remember anything, except for the familiar face of my patient."
"Your patient?"
Jack nods. "Theresa Spencer; she told me all about an Island in 1977. She was a patient of my father's for thirty years."
"Your father?" Locke bites down on his top lip while gathering his thoughts. "Yes. This is all making sense."
Jack scratches his head, curious of what Locke's thinking. "What do you remember?"
Locke's lip biting expression gives way to a grin. "I remember waking from a plane crash and being able to move my legs. I remember our fearless leader, Dr. Jack Shepherd, giving a grand speech on the beach to all of the survivors about the need for us to live together or else we would all die alone. But before you gave that speech, you chased a white rabbit through the jungle."
"White rabbit?"
Locke leans forward while using his paralyzed thighs as padded rests for his elbows. "That's right. A white rabbit. You were looking for your father, Jack."
The pain of losing his father resurfaces to the forefront of Jack's mind. "I lost my father in Sydney. He's in a coffin on the plane."
Locke unsympathetically shrugs his shoulders and grins. "And so was I, Jack."
Jack's forehead tightens, narrowing the gap between his eyebrows; the man in the wheelchair is either callous or crazy. "Excuse me?" asks Jack, becoming irritated.
Locke massages the shaven hairs at the tip of his chin. "The Island has something it wants to reveal to you; something concerning your Father."
Shands Hospital
Gainesville, Fl
1977
A young girl is wheeled through the emergency room entrance; her frantic mother following closely behind. She's unconscious and strapped securely to the stretcher. A paramedic keeps pressure on her wrist to make sure she maintains a pulse.
A young and ambitious resident surgeon, Dr. Christian Shepherd, happens to be walking through the emergency room corridor at the time. He places his stethoscope on and calmly takes initiative.
"She'll be fine. We'll take good care of her," he assures the mother while placing a hand on her shoulder.
She catches her breathe between tears. "Thank you, Doctor."
The medic takes his hand off her wrist and steps back from the stretcher. "Pulse 85 and steady; blood pressure is normal."
"How did this happen?" he asks as he moves the stethoscope about her chest.
The mother looks over and nods for the medic to speak first. "Not sure exactly, Doc. When I came on the scene; she was unconscious. No trauma. I think she fainted from the heat."
"No, no, no." The mother shakes her head in disagreement. "I told you, she didn't faint. It's something very different," the mother explains in a tone of frustration.
The medic stares at Christian with a look of annoyance. He's run out of patience with the mother's nagging. "You can take it from here, Doc," he says, as he leaves the room.
Christian shines his penlight into the girl's right eye; both eyes react by blinking rapidly. He clicks the penlight off. "She's awake."
"That's because you woke her," the mother responds in a thick British accent. Theresa's eyes stop blinking and close once again. "There, you see; she's left us again."
Christian places a hand on her forehead, and gently pulls her eyelid open. Her pupil remains dilated, and her stare remains straight. "You're right. This is very peculiar."
He gently pulls her hair back and checks the other eye.
"What's her name?"
"Theresa," she says. "I'm Mrs. Spencer, her mother."
"I'm Dr. Shepherd," he says without stopping to shake hands. He feels behind her head for any signs of trauma, then moves downward to feel the lymph nodes on her neck.
Little Theresa mumbles beneath her breath. Her words are first incoherent, then recognizable as a series of numbers. "4 mumble mumble 23 mumble 42 mumble mumble 8 mumble mumble 15 16 23 mumble 4 8 15 16 23 42."
Theresa's mother recites the numbers along with her. "4-8-15-16-23-42. The numbers. She's spoken them before." She looks to Christian and shrugs her shoulders. "My daughter has a knack for numbers."
"Anything else you can tell me?" Christian asks with a perplexed look, hoping for clues which are less bizarre.
"She has quite an imagination," her Mother explains, hoping some symptoms can be attributed to her being a child. "She pretends sometimes to be in other places, at different times."
Little Theresa stops mumbling and suddenly awakens from her trance. Her mother comforts her by squeezing her hand. "Hey sweetie," she smiles. "Welcome back."
"I'm there now, Mommy," she says playfully, as if she's playing a game of hide-and-go-seek.
"Where, sweetie?"
"The Island, silly. The one with the sharks and polar bears."
The Hydra
1977
Theresa scans the surveillance monitors for any signs of activity. Jack flips two of the control panel switches to change camera views. The monitor above switches to a grainy image of the shark swimming in the aquarium; another switches to a polar bear in a cage. "Sharks and polar bears," says Theresa. "This Island is full of them."
Her scanning of the monitors prompts Jack's curiosity. "Looking for something?" he asks.
"Yes," she answers quietly, hoping not to alarm the rest of the group. "Someone else is here."
Sawyer interrupts their conversation. "Someone else alive? Who?" Jin and Hurley also step forward and pay close attention to the monitors.
"I don't know," she says, switching to another camera view. "The antidote I brought with me is gone. It was next to me when I fell unconscious. Somebody must have taken it."
Jack nods, remembering the box of syringes she was carrying when they first met. "The antidote? You mean the six syringes?"
"Yes. It's an antidote that helps balance the effects of the radiation; temporal displacement," she explains openly to the group.
"Uhh, what's tempo-rural displace-ment?" says Hurley, shifting eyes with Sawyer and Jin.
"Temporal displacement. Its first symptoms are headache and nosebleed. Then, memories will surface you've never had before; memories of experiences created because of the Incident."
"Woah, like alternate universes or something?" answers Hurley, still shifting eyes with the rest of the group. "I guess we're all OK. Right guys?"
Theresa watches Jack wipe the bloody cut on his neck again. "Not exactly," she says.
Sayid exchanges a look with Locke while splicing wires on the telephone. "Locke and I have memories of being on a different Oceanic 815 airliner. You are saying this memory is caused by the Incident?"
Theresa nods and explains further. "The different timelines are converging; the universe is course correcting itself." She looks to Jack and points out the cut on his neck. "Jack; the cut on your neck was something you experienced in another place, or another time."
A drop of blood suddenly dribbles from Theresa's nostril to her lip. "Oh no," she says while wiping her nose and checking for blood. "It's happening to me too." She faints forward into Jack's arms; he catches her and gradually lays her to the floor.
Shands Hospital
Gainesville, Fl
1977
Christian teases young Theresa by making a silly face. "Heehee," she laughs. "Are you really a doctor or just pretend?"
"Yes, I'm really a doctor. What are you?"
"I'm a scientist," she says with sincerity. "Guess what? There's a doctor on the Island with me right now."
"There is? What's his name?" Christian replies, his curiosity growing.
Before she can answer, her eyes close and her expression goes blank. "Theresa? Baby?" Her mother tightens her grip on her hand and tugs at her arm. "Theresa, stay with us baby."
Young Theresa's eyelids flutter and she awakens again. Her demeanor is more serious.
"Jack," she says, her voice slightly deeper.
Christian loses his playful smile; a chilling thought comes to mind. He's unable to hide his reaction from Theresa's mother.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
"Oh, it's nothing," says Christian. His thoughts drift to his young son, who he's been pushing to become a doctor ever since he was a toddler.
Young Theresa speaks again in a serious tone. "Dad, if you can hear me now, and I believe that you can; I love you, and I miss you."
The Hydra
1977
Theresa lays motionless on the floor of the surveillance room. Jack uses a towel to wipe the blood from her nose then folds it beneath her head for a pillow.
Sayid tapes one last wire together and checks the receiver for a clear connection. "I believe it's working," he says. "The phone connects to an internal relay device which carries the signal to the radio tower on the main island. From there, it transmits off the Island. The connection is already designated to a predetermined location, so there is no dialing out. Should I call now?"
Theresa suddenly awakens and grabs Jack's arm. "Take the call, Jack. It's an important call."
Sayid hands over the phone to Jack. "The connection should patch through any second."
Shands Hospital
Gainesville, Fl
1977
Young Theresa looks to Christian and gives him clear instruction. "Take the call, it's an important call."
Christian is startled as the emergency room phone mounted on the wall suddenly rings.
*ring ring* *ring ring* *ring ring* *ring ring*
(to be continued!)
Dear Readers, I hope you're enjoying! If you've made it this far, you have made it to a significant point in the story that I've been trying to build to...I hope this chapter wasn't too confusing... For clarification, the six syringes were mentioned in the very first chapter, and young Theresa being in the hospital was in Chapter 3.. I am soooo excited to bring it this far and to finally reveal more about the role of the mysterious Christian Shepherd... more to come! Please throw me a comment if you like! -bobt