The Message In the Bottle
Chapter Three
Disclaimer: "Don't Mess Around with Jim" was written(or at least sung) by Josh Turner. I sadly don't own it.
Note: No offense meant to blondes in Jack's flashback, it's just her character.
"Jack! Jack!" A desperate voice said. "Jack, wake up!"
Jack felt a cool hand bring him back into the world, and right away he knew something was wrong. For one, he was cold, and he was sure he had been shaking. For another thing, as Jack's eyes forced themselves to blink open, he noticed it was light out. He was in the caves, his cave, he realized after a short moment, and the sun was shining through. But that didn't make sense, he hadn't even remembered walking back to the caves, let alone falling asleep. It took a moment for his vision to focus, but when it did, he saw that Kate, Charlie(with Claire behind him), Hurley, and Michael(no Walt) were all staring at him, in all of concern, confusion, and fear. Kate was closest, nearly on top of him, and had obviously been trying to wake him up for a while.
"Thank God," Kate sighed as she stepped back, giving Jack room to sit up.
Rubbing his head, Jack looked around at the people still staring at him, and a feeling of paranoia begin to sink in.
"Is something wrong?" He asked immediately. "Someone hurt?"
The castaways glanced at each other, as if sharing a secret only they knew.
"What?" He asked, looking at each one.
"We were just about to ask you that," Charlie said finally.
Jack looked at them, trying to figure out what they were saying. When he never said a thing, Kate answered for him.
"You were screaming," she said, looking helplessly at Jack.
"I was- what?" Jack said, not sure if he should believe them.
"Yeah man," Michael said, "we were just outside talking, and we heard these screams. Took a while for us to realized it was coming from you."
Kate gave Michael a skeptical look.
"Well, it took some of us a while," he corrected.
"Yeah dude," Hurley said, "you were yelling really loud."
Jack suddenly felt a mixture of embarrassment and horror take over him. He couldn't even remember going to bed or dreaming, how could he have been screaming?
"Could you understand what I was saying?" Jack said, though part of him didn't want the answer.
"Something about a plane," Kate said, the same helpless look on her face, like she was sorry she wasn't there to help him, or that she didn't understand, "something about a bar, and helping someone."
She stopped before continuing. Kate really did hate it that she didn't understand what Jack was going through, or why it was suddenly hitting him so hard. She just wished that he would let her in a little on his emotions, like he wanted her to do for him.
"And your father," she finished in a breath.
"My father?" Jack repeated to himself, feeling his breath leave him as he did. "But what could I of-"
"I don't know," Kate said shaking her head.
The cave was quite as the awkward presence of the other castaways filled the room.
"What time is it?" Jack asked suddenly, realizing that no one else seemed tired, or restless.
In fact, they looked a day ahead of themselves.
The survivors looked around to see who had a watch on. Charlie had seem to have forgotten about his, because it was Claire who grabbed his wrist, turning it over.
"Ten thirty," she read, then let his arm back down.
The caves turned back to silence as the survivors stood, wondering what they should do, or who should talk next. Right on time, Sayid and Shannon walked into the scene.
"We couldn't find Locke or Boone anywhere," Sayid announced as Shannon settled against a cave wall.
"It was like they disappeared," Shannon said with a shiver.
They both noticed the looks they were getting from the castaways, including Jack, who had no clue what was going on. Kate looked at Jack to explain.
"Lock and Boone haven't come back yet," she said.
"It's been two days," Jack said, remembering all to well the end of the search for Ethan, "and they're still not back?"
There were various nods from the castaways, and Jack quickly made up his minds.
"We've got to go look for them," he said, looking up at the castaways.
"We searched five miles out, and seven around," Sayid said, "if they're anywhere, it's very far out there, and we don't know what's out there-"
"Then maybe it's time we find out," Jack said, cutting him off.
The castaways, Kate most of all, were taken aback back the outburst. They stood, silent, not knowing what they should do. Jack seemed very out of character, almost as if something else was controlling him. Kate looked back at the others, and it took awhile, but they eventually got the picture.
"Umm.. anyone for a game of golf?" Hurley said, speaking up quickly.
"I'm up for that," Charlie said.
Then he glanced to the side, remembering Claire.
"I mean.. if you," he shook his head, "never mind."
"No, I think I want to come," Claire said.
With help from Charlie and Hurley, the three were out the entrance, leaving the others to spontaneously come up with something to do.
"I'm going to go start interrogation again," Michael said, stepping out.
Shannon looked at Sayid, and the two made a mutual agreement.
"We were going to go back to studying the French notes," she said.
She turned, and headed out. Sayid followed her, but stopped before exiting completely.
"But if you do decide to do anything serious," he said, "come find me."
Jack nodded and Sayid left, leaving Jack and Kate alone. She stared at Jack a minute as he stared at the ground, neither wanting to say anything yet. Finally, Kate swallowed, and began.
"Is there something you want to tell me, Jack?" She started off nervously, afraid of how he would react.
"Not unless there's something you want to tell me," he replied.
His gazed switched from the ground to her eyes at that line, staring into them deeply. If Jack meant for the line to be romantic, he had failed miserably.
"Fine," Kate said, standing up, shaking her head, "if you want to act like that, go ahead, but you had your chance to get help."
She left, leaving Jack, no longer smiling, and staring into the floor of the cave.
"Meet Alana," Mark was saying, "blonde, and acts like it."
The two were sitting now in a pizza palor. Mark had half a slice of pepperoni left on his plate, along with a beer, but instead of eating now, Jack got the joys of waiting for a blind date his friend had decide to set up for him- without Jack;s approval. Of course, Mark complained that Jack would've left town(which was true), and he couldn't keep the secret girl secret any longer, and Jack was now looking at a picture of a blonde girl who was at least three year younger than him.
"No," Jack said, setting the picture down on the table.
"Oh come on!" Mark sighed. "Look at her, she's gorgeous!"
"And you're married," Jack reminded him, "and I'm not getting in the middle of a triangle."
"Which is why you have to go with her!" Mark joked.
Mark leaned back in his seat, pocketing the picture.
"And it's never to late to jump back on the horse," he said cooly, crossing his arms.
"Just tell me where I can get one," Jack muttered.
"Here she comes now," Mark said, glancing towards the door.
He stood up, picking up his leftovers.
"Good luck," he said, adding a wink.
Jack just sighed, and after a moment, forced himself to look for the woman he'd be spending the rest of the evening with. His eyes searched the restaurant, lingering by the door, catching glimpse of a blonde, five four, maybe one hundred and ten, in tight blue jeans and a shirt that showed skin Jack wasn't used to seeing. She was beautiful, Jack admitted, but he knew she was kind of the girl that if she brought home to mom, his mother would smile sweetly and ask her if she knew what a church was. He shook his head, pulling himself together as the girl finished talking to the waiter up front, who pointed towards Jack's table. Jack held up a hand, guiding her, and gazed as she strode over with grace he found impossible.
"Sorry I'm late," the girl apologized, rolling her eyes, "traffic."
"No problem," Jack said, feeling embarrassed as he had to obviously force himself not to stare at her.
But it was clear that by her appearance and the nerves that seemed to be flowing within her perfect figure, that she had probably just gotten cut short of another date, and Jack wouldn't of been surprised at all if that were true.
"Jack, right?" She asked, gracefully slinging her purse over the back of the chair, flipping her hair back before picking up the parlor's mini menu. "Sorry, I'm an accountant, a lot of names."
"I'm a doctor," Jack said before realizing he had no reason too, "I'm used to it too. Alana, right?"
Alana nodded.
"I think I'm just going to get a salad," Alana said, standing up, preparing to head towards the salad bar.
"No pizza?" Jack asked, giving a little smile of amusement.
"I'm on a diet," Alana said in an obvious way that would make on feel like an idiot.
And as she walked towards the bar, Jack found himself gazing after her once more, though this time, wondering what it was he got himself into.
Kate whistled an old tune that she had once heard on the radio, on of those that get stuck in her heads for weeks on out, walking down the path that led to Sawyer's old home on the beach. She wanted to pick around, just curious, to what the boar and Sawyer might've left behind. Turning the last fork behind a bush, Kate caught the first glimpse of Sawyer's previous home, but as she caught the full look of it, her heart stopped short, because wreckage wasn't the only thing the boar left behind.
Sawyer was slouched, unconscious against what used to be the airline recliner he slept on. His hand was hanging limply on the ground, his now scratched fingers clinging to a gun which was pointed down. His face now bore a long frightening scratch running across the left side of his face, and his forehead was bruised to, from what looked like hitting something.
"Oh my God," Kate whispered under her breath before running to Sawyer, and checking for a pulse as a strange sense of dejavu came over her.
She sighed in relief when she found one, and began to work his fingers out of the gun's wrath, knowing Sawyer had sunk so far into unconsciousness that even a punch to the face would not only not wake him up, but could possibly kill him. Once the gun was free, she placed it carefully in her back pocket, disarming it, and slung Sawyer's arm around her shoulder as she lifted him up.
-
"I need some help over here!"
The cavers turned at the familiar call for help, which they were all too used to by now. Jack was amongst them, having been sorted out some newly found medication in the main caves, not being able to stand his own at the moment.
"Jack!"
He recognized the desperate voice immediately as Kate, and he stood as she limped into the cave as quickly as she could, exhausted from hoisting someone from what looked like a long walk from the beach, and that person, Jack was soon to realize, was Sawyer. Sayid, who had been sitting with Shannon, whispered for her to hold on a minute, and ran to help Kate, and the two of them laid the unmoving form of Sawyer down on the floor. Many people who had been simply staring off into space, or counting the rocks around the waterfall, now seemed very interested in their surroundings, and listened intensively to what the three were saying.
"What happened?" Jack asked as the three crouched beside the body.
"I don't know," Kate said, pulling her head back as she fought to hold herself together, "I just found him like this, you know, back at his dwelling."
Jack glanced at her, wanting to know what she was doing down there, but knew there wasn't time. He looked down at Sawyer, thinking about what to do, aware that Sayid and Kate were watching him. He didn't really want to waste his time, after all that Sawyer had done to him, but at the desperate look on Kate's face, and the pressure from the stares of the other castaways, he knew he had no choice. Reaching down, he felt Sawyer's forehead: ice cold.
"He's been out for at least an half an hour," Jack informed.
"Those look like the same scratches that were on his tent before," Sayid observed, recovering from the shock of the site.
"Are you saying the boar did this?" Kate said, incredulous.
"Boar?" Sayid said in confusion.
"Never mind," Kate said, shaking her head, and turning to Jack, "he'll be okay, want he?"
Looking back down at Sawyer, he was reluctant to answer, and, in his embarrassment, didn't know how to act. Part of him, naturally, would want to help anyone hurt, it was just learned, and practiced, but this was Sawyer, and she was Kate. The other part of him was guilt at not helping but to feel a sting of hurt at seeing how worried Kate was capable of getting about the man. But the others were watching, he knew, and he was also smart enough to know how it would reflect back on him if they witnessed Jack doing just what he wanted to do at the moment- or did he? Could he really just sit by and watch a man die?
"Yeah," Jack nodded finally, "he'll be fine," just give him a while."
Kate sat back against some rocks, biting her lip, making herself believe Jack.
-
There was an errie tension in the dark room that you could cut with a knife, even a butcher knife, which, Boone feared, Locke was sure to have hidden in a back pocket somewhere. With no knowledge of a way out, Locke and Boone chose to confront the situation, and the silence turned into boredom, or at least to Locke, who had left Boone alone to cope with what he had just been told, uncharacteristically showing no sympathy towards the boy. Of course, he had killed his wife and daughter, so Boone supposed he was lucky to still be alive. He glanced over at Locke, who was in his own thoughts, hitting the blunt blade of a knife against the ground. Figuring even if he tried saying anything to the man, he wouldn't look up, Boone began to whistle a tune that came to his head, and after a few lines, began singing it.
"And they say you don't tug on superman's cape," Boone sang under his breath, "you don't spit in the wind. You don't pull the mask of a 'ol lone ranger-"
"And you don't mess around with Jim," Locke sang, joining in on the last line.
Boone looked up at him in surprised.
"I might be crazy but I haven't lost my mind," Locke joked, "I remember that song, but it's an old one. Where did you hear it?"
"Dad used to sing it," Boone answered, looking down, "when I was five.. he had this band thing. Played in clubs and stuff.. I think. He tried to teach me how to play the guitar once-" Boone sniggered in memory- "but I never caught on."
"How'd your daddy die?" Locke asked, watching Boone.
"Lung cancer," Boone said, looking down, "when I was eight."
"So I'm guessing you don't smoke?" Locke said.
"I'm no Sawyer," Boone said with a laugh.
"Some people don't know what to do with their problems," Locke said wisely.
"Some people like me," Boone muttered.
"Don't doubt yourself Boone," Locke said to him, "you didn't solve your problems, no, but you did what you thought was right, and it's not as though you've made yourself useless."
"Useless?" Boone snorted. "I'm a pool lifeguard who works for his mother's wedding business, who's incapable of saving someone."
"That's not true," Locke said.
Boone looked at him questionably.
"You saved Shannon."
"I don't get it," Boone said, "I killed your family, how come you haven't taken your revenge yet?"
Locke stared up towards the ceiling, as if imagining the sky there.
"I've never been a killing type of guy, if that's what you mean," Locke started, "I never understood how you could just want someone dead. They'd probably get more out of it than you would. No, I'd rather make a deal, compromise."
"Compromise?" Boone repeated, not sure if Locke was serious or not.
"We may get off this island tomorrow, or we may get off in ten years," Locke said, "either way, we're still going to have to be able to cope with what we've been through, though some of us different from others."
"Me," Boone realized, while still thinking about what Locke said.
What would happen post-island, if they made it? Would they be able to face the world again? Boone had always wanted to be someone, but never by something like this, and what about the others? Charlie and Claire? Boone shivered. He didn't like thinking about it.
"Things will be different," Locke continued, "especially for you, because up until now, you've been able to keep this part of your life secret for years, yet in a matter of days, your covers ruined."
"Weeks," Boone corrected.
"What?"
"Jack knows," Boone said, "I was kind of.. forced.. to tell him. A few weeks back."
"All those times you almost got yourself killed?" Locke guessed.
Boone nodded. Locke stared up at the ceiling again, thinking.
"Good," he said finally.
"What do you mean, good?"
"Jack's a smart man," Locke said, "he'll know not to tell, which is good, because no one else needs to know. No one else, but you."
"But you-"
"I know, yes," Locke said, "but what matters is that you know, and you'll remember. That hallucination your chasing? Every time you see it, I want you to remember who it was."
Locke's voice changed drastically, in a deep, frightening, matter.
"And every time you get in a car," Locke continued, making sure he had eye contact with Boone, "every time you open the door, and turn the key, and every time you begin to drive, I want you to remember what you did, and who you did it to, because all that matters, Boone, is that you know."
Cold blood rushed through Boone as he suddenly felt like he had been hit with a wall of bricks. Locke's words stung him, and he couldn't even move to say anything back. He didn't have the energy, or will, and he wondered if he ever would again.
That was when the door opened. Boone and Locke turned, Boone looking in a few different directions first, having forgotten about the door, figuring it would never open. Though the two leaped to their feet, both hands moving towards knives(though to Boone, it felt heavily as if someone was controlling him), as a figure of a man walked through the door. Boone couldn't see a thing, except a shadowing figure, and he could feel Locke's hand holding him back. The air was silent, and for a moment it seemed like the man, or whoever it was, left, and Locke seemed to think so as well, laying down his guard. Just to make sure, Boone reached into his back pocket, pulling out a mini flashlight. Locke couldn't see him to tell him not to do it, so Boone didn't realize what a stupid idea it was to shine the light until he did. He nearly leapt back at what he saw.
"Hello," slurred a man older than him who was pale from what looked like many years of underground work.
There was nothing for a beat or two, and so Boone didn't even see it coming when a fist shot out, cracking his jaw and snapping his head back. Boone spun, falling against the wall beside Locke, and her heard nor felt nothing except the flashlight falling out of his hands.
-
Sawyer's head spun as soon as he felt his head fall to the side. His eyes blinked open, and a heavy, blurry, world came into view.
"Where the hell-"
"You're awake," came a reply.
"Well Freckles," Sawyer said sarcastically, "taking the night shift now, aren't you?"
Kate stood up from where she had been sitting a few feet away. After adjusting to the light(it was still day), Sawyer saw that he was back in the med. caves, Jack's caves.
"So Doc gave up his hideaway for me, huh?" Sawyer snorted.
"Don't," Kate said, arms crossed, staring at him, "you just can't take things seriously, can you?"
Sawyer smirked a little, looking to the side, ignoring the pain that shot through his temples.
"You were gored by a boar!" Kate exclaimed.
"Has a nice rhyme to it, don't it?" Sawyer joked.
If he weren't sitting but standing, Kate would've slapped him then, but instead, all she could do was look at him in disgust.
"Your an animal Sawyer," Kate said, staring at him, "someone just saved your life- again- and all you can do is make jokes and insults. No wonder the boar wanted you. Your one of their own."
No longer feeling sympathy for Sawyer, Kate spun on her heals, storming out the exit, only to be stopped by Michael, who was rushing for her, out of breath. He as well showed no sympthathy for the injured Sawyer as he glanced towards him, then back at Kate, placing his hands on her shoulder for support.
"What is it?" Kate said, studying Michael's face as his worry grew off onto her.
"Jack," Michael said finally.
Both Kate and Sawyer, though no one noticed, looked up at him.
"What?" Kate said slowly. "What happened?"
Michael couldn't answer, still trying to catch his breath.
"What the hell happened?" She screamed, shaking him.
Reaching out again, Michael stopped her, which shut her up, and looked her in the eye with pity.
"What?" She said softer, now more worried.
His eyes were scaring her, and she knew Michael didn't want to tell her whatever he had to.
"Jack fell," he said finally.
Kate's heart stopped.
"What?"
"Kate-" Michael began.
"No really," Kate said, shaking her head.
"Kate, don't do anything-"
"Where is he?" Kate cut off before he could get to 'stupid'.
"No," MIchael said, "it's to dangerous out there, a storms coming in, and we've got men on it."
"Where is he?" Kate shouted louder.
"Down near the golf course," Michael said reluctantly, "storm looks rough, and Hurley said he saw some pretty deep land dunes down there and-"
He didn't get a chance to finish. Kate was already out the door, and was dashing down the path towards the valley, cursing and praying as she went.
Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the wait! Lack of computer time and slight writers block. So I made this one a tad bit longer. Thanks for the reviews! Glad your liking it!
Coming up next: Is Jack okay? And will Boone pay dearly for his idiocy? And how's the rift between him and Locke going to be the hike back- assuming they make it out? And to top it all off- all hell's about to pour out on the oceans, with tornatic winds and lightening. No sunny weather today.
By the way: The Locke/Boone thing is NOT slash! It's more, in a way, a father-son or brother-brother type thing. Or at least was, because God only knows what will happen now.
Thanks again for the reviews and sorry once more for the wait! Hope you enjoyed it!
Until next time..
October Sky
