Jack wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead and squinted. The bright sun was peircing through the foilage and the leaves weren't providing much shade. Glancing back at Sayid he noticed the former soldier didn't appear to be fazed by either the heat or the brightness. If Jack had been thinking rationally he would have realized that, having lived in the Middle East, Sayid was probably used to extreme degrees of heat. As he was however, he simply thought it very unfair and refocused his attention on the task at hand; finding Charlie and Sawyer. Preferably Charlie, since if they found Sawyer, Jack might not be able to control himself and start a fight. Which could be either a good or bad thing, depending on how one looked at it.
Jack looked at it as a bad thing. Fighting was not something he liked to do and since he had had his share of suggestive dreams involving him beating the crap out of Sawyer he would rather have found Charlie. And then beat the crap out of him instead.
But not in a suggestive manner. Just a 'I told you not to do something and then you went ahead and did it anyway!' manner.
Sayid stopped walking for a moment and motioned for Jack to do the same. They both listened for a moment and Jack's eyes widened and he cursed as the yelling reached his ears.
"They've found eachother!" Jack took off running in the direction of the shouting, Sayid following close behind.
It didn't take long to find Sawyer and Charlie, who were once again fighting. Sayid looked rather amused.
"I thought you said you didn't think Charlie would find him." Jack grumbled.
"I don't think he found him so much as he probably ran into him." Sayid explained. Jack grumbled again before stepping in to break up the fight.
It wasn't much of a fight. In fact, it was mostly Sawyer and Charlie rolling around in the mud trying to hurt eachother while swearing. When Jack stepped in to stop it, he tripped and landed on top of them.
Sayid considered helping the good doctor stop the fight but wisely decided against it.
Jack and Sawyer pushed Charlie out of the way and started beating up on one another. Charlie said a word one wouldn't have thought was in his vocabulary and rejoined the fight.
Sayid leaned against a tree and watched.
Charlie started yelling at Jack for interrupting his fight with Sawyer. Jack started yelling at Charlie for leaving the caves when he had told him not to. Sawyer started yelling at both of them for attacking him.
Sayid inspected his fingernails and thought about what he would have for dinner that night.
Charlie threw a wild punch at Sawyer, who deflected it in a really cool, martial artsty way. Jack then tackled Charlie and pushed him down, telling him to stay out of the fight. Charlie responded with it was his fight to begin with and Jack shouldn't have interrupted. Sawyer said that if both of them wanted to fight he could take them both on.
Sayid checked the sun for the time and wondered when all this was going to be over.
Jack and Sawyer started slugging it out, with Jack trying to hold Charlie back at the same time. Sayid sighed and shook his head. Giving a prayer to Allah for patience, he grabbed Charlie by the younger man's upper arm and dragged him away from the fight.
"What are you doing?"
"Dragging you away from the fight. I would think that was obvious." Sayid blocked a punch thrown at him by the struggling rocker. "You really don't know how to fight, do you?"
Aware that Charlie was finally out of the way Jack started to focus all his efforts on fighting Sawyer. Sawyer was all too happy to oblige and before long they were both sweaty, muddy and cursing.
"Tell me Doc," Sawyer panted. "do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Jack didn't say anything. If he did he'd get mad. If he got mad he'd loose his temper. Visions of Sawyer over his knee made him shudder and he mentally resolved not to loose his temper. He would not get upset. He would not give in to his basic human desire to beat the crap out of Sawyer.
All that idealism went out the door when Sawyer said something about his mother. Jack reared back and delivered a punch to the southerner's nose.
"You sonofa..." Before Sawyer could finish the sentence Jack grabbed his shirt and shoved him to the ground.
"Listen, I don't care what you think of me. I don't care what you think of everyone else. I don't care what you think of yourself. But I won't let you go around goading people in beating you up. Got it?" Jack growled.
"What's it to you if I get into a fight?" Sawyer asked. "You just said you don't care."
"I don't care what you think of yourself." Jack corrected. "I do care about having to fix up you and everyone you choose to get in a fight with."
Sawyer stopped struggling and shook his head. "Right. You care I might beat up the runt over there."
"Or that he might beat up you." Jack responded. Sawyer arched an eyebrow and Jack rolled his eyes. "Ok, you're right. If someone else beat you up."
Sawyer sighed and leaned his head back. "I'll make you a deal, Doc."
"Yeah?"
"You let me up and I won't start anymore fights."
Jack nodded. "Deal."
"I ain't sayin' I'll go around apologizing." Sawyer clarified as he struggled to his feet. "And if anybody starts a fight with me then..."
Jack nodded. "I know." Both men stood there for a moment. "Um..."
"Later Doc." Sawyer turned and headed off in the direction of the beach. "Promise I won'tbeat the hobbit anymore."
Jack blinked. "Hobbit?"
"He's short. Like a hobbit." Having said that Sawyer disappeared into the jungle leaving a very confused doctor.
Jack shook his head before turning to where Sayid still had a good grip on Charlie.
Author's notes- 'Kay, so did everybody like the lame li'l hobbit joke? Yeah, me neither. I did however, like Sayid's reaction to the fight. I'm so clever...in a not really sort of way. Again, I apologize for any errors and for poor fight descriptions. I'm not much of an expert on fights being of wimpy nature.
Right so, Jack beat up Sawyer. I think it was beneficial for both. I think Jack might also ended up beating Charlie, but more in a 'older brother/younger brother' way. Seriously, that's how I see their relationship.
Sayid rox mai sox.He will rock in the next chapter too.
Reviews are much appreciated and I thank those of you who have reviewed already. It makes me feel all warm and snuggly inside.
