Wow, thank you so much for all the kind reviews!
I'm so sorry that it took me so long to get this next part up and that it's so short, but my spring school semester just started up, so I've been really busy getting everything figured out, etc. Hopefully I'll have some time to write coming up, so I can give you a bigger post… hope you enjoy this one!
The next day:
Charlie was still sleeping.
It hadn't been easy getting Charlie to actually rest, to sleep. He was overly anxious and wanted to be up for any news of Claire, he wanted to help, to be useful. But he had been run ragged. He had gone through more trauma in a week than most people go through their whole lives. Heck, forget having survived a plane crash on an abandoned island with very little to no hope of rescue. That was the easy part to deal with.
Emotional trauma, like losing someone you love and care about, or kicking a drug addiction, or coming back from the dead… those were the real struggles.
So Jack had slipped him a sedative, ironically enough, the same one he had offered to Claire just a few nights ago. And now he watched him sleep.
He heard a noise behind him and turned around, startled out of his reverie.
"Kate," he said softly seeing her form standing behind him, "you scared me."
"Sorry," she replied, crouching down and offering Jack a full bottle of water, "Here, I thought you might be thirsty."
"Thanks," he said, taking a long gulp from the bottle, the water helping him feel more awake and refreshed.
"So," Kate began, "how's he doing?"
"Physically? He'll be fine. Sore, tired, and miserable for a couple days. But he'll be fine." Jack replied slowly and sadly. "But mentally? Spiritually? I don't know. I really don't. And you want to know something? " he laughed, miserably, "That scares me more than anything And this time, counting to five won't make that fear go away."