Wish You Were Here
Chapter Six
Jack and Sayid laid Alex down by the waterfall, arousing suspicion amongst curious survivors and onlookers, including Kate.
"What happened?" Kate said, concerned.
"She fainted," Jack informed, "but she'll be all right."
While Jack dabbed a wet cloth over Alex's sweating forehead, Sayid worked on getting her sneakers off. Bending down, Kate leaned closer to Jack.
"What about the guy with the arm?" Kate whispered. "The one from the plane crash?"
Looking around, Jack made sure that no one except for Kate and Sayid were in earshot, though Sayid acted as though he wasn't listening anyway.
"He shouldn't wake up for another few hours," Jack whispered, "but do you think you can-"
"Yeah," Kate nodded, standing up as she planned to head to the beach.
At that moment, Alex let out another rasp of coughs, and Sayid and Jack sighs of relief. On instinct Alex tried to move, but failed.
"Sit still for a moment," Jack instructed as he and Sayid tried to hold her down as she fought against their grip, until finally giving away, breathing heavily as she lay back down.
"What happened? "Alex muttered weakly.
"You fainted," Jack said, reaching for a bottle of water near him, "here, drink this."
Taking a swallow, the feel of cold liquid startled her, causing haggard coughs to escape her throat as the water seeped out of her mouth. She lay her head back, groaning.
"How do you feel?" Jack asked.
"Like I just tried to run a marathon in my sleep," Alex said, closing her eyes.
"You might feel that way for a while," Jack admitted, "but for now, just rest."
Jack turned to Sayid, who admired the way Jack seemed to be able to take sudden control over situations, never panicking.
"Can you watch her while I go check on-" Jack almost said Kate, but caught himself, "the plane survivor?"
"Yes," Sayid nodded as Jack was already halfway out the exit.
(Space)
Carefully, Kate approached the medical tent, as if afraid something(or someone) might jump out, but as she pulled back the tarp, she realized she had nothing to be afraid of: there was no one there.
(Space)
Jack nearly ran into Kate on the way to the beach, and caught a hold of her before she lost her balance.
"Woah," Jack said, catching her, "in such a hurry to see me?
"We got a problem," Kate said, ignoring that that was the closest Jack had sounded to amused all day.
Back in the tent, Jack looked around in disbelief.
"This isn't possible," he said, shaking his head after checking some footprints on the ground, "he was out could- his arm- there's no way he just could've gotten up and walked out.
"Better question," Kate said, "why would he?"
(Space)
Boone was laying with his back against the tree a path off from the trail to the hatch, twirling a knife in his fingers. Locke had begun asking him to keep guard while he tried different ways of figuring out how to open the hatch, just a precaution to make sure no one accidentally stumbled over their path. That was when he heard the first snap of twigs. Looking around, Boone called out:
"Who's there?"
No answer, which told Boone that this couldn't be good. Tucking the knife into his back belt loop, Boone prepared himself for the attack when he saw a sudden flash of skin and was pinned back against the tree. After blinking, clearing his vision, Boone recognize his attacker as the plane crash survivor.
"Nice to finally get to talk," the man snarled, "name's Marcell. Marcell Travers."
"Nice to meet you," Boone muttered sarcastically, struggling to breathe.
"Now that we've gotten that out of the way," Marcell said, "what did you see?"
Boone stared at him.
"What?" He repeated, truly confused.
"When you found the plane," began Marcell, "what did you see. What did you find?"
"I-" Boone struggled as he tried to gasp for air, "I don't know what your talking about."
"You're lying!" Marcell said, eyes flaring, and pushed Boone further against the tree, causing Boone to feel the thick bark cut into his shirt, scratching his back.
"Boone?"
Locke. Boone wanted to drop to his knees and thank God for small favors. As if able to read his thoughts, Marcell dropped him, but Boone had to concentrate more on breathing then praying, and found it hard to do at the same time.
"Are you all right?" Locke's concerned voice said as he heard it near.
It took a moment for Boone to pull himself together, and to tell his mind that he was back on the ground, safe and okay? Or was he? Quickly, he looked around. Marcell had disappeared.
"Yeah," Boone lied, "I'm fine."
"Who were you talking to?" Locke asked, helping Boone up.
"No one," Boone lied again, "just- no one."
Locke nodded, handing Boone some water, Boone took it, and remembered he had some questions of his own.
"So where were you earlier?" Boone asked. "You were right behind you and then you just- weren't."
"I was-" there was an unreadable flash in Locke's eyes, "delayed."
"Yeah?" Boone said. "Well did you know you were delayed while I was out trapped in the crashed plane, sending out false stress calls?"
"False huh?" Locke said.
"At least according to Sayid," Boone sighed as he followed Locke towards the hatch to see what he had done.
"Well, Sayid doesn't understand some things," Locke said.
"Seems to have a pretty good understanding to me," Boone shrugged truthfully.
"But," Locke said, stopping and looking at Boone seriously, "he doesn't have as good as an understanding as we do, and that's the important thing."
Boone just looked at him, trying to figure out what he meant..
(Space)
Back in the caves, Jack made his way back over to where Sayid had been sitting with Alex. She looked to be asleep, and Sayid looked pretty drawn out himself.
"I got it," Jack told him.
"Are things all right?" Sayid asked.
Jack assumed he was asking about the survivor.
"Yeah," Jack lied, "things are fine. I can take over from here."
Nodding, Sayid stood up, and left as Jack sat sound, unsure of exactly what he was going to do. In an answer to his thoughts, Alex's eyes fluttered open, and she smiled slightly at the sight of him.
"Just can't help yourself, can you?" Alex muttered weakly. "Who are you, Superman?"
It was said sarcastic, but Jack was still taken by it.
"Yep," he said, chuckling to himself, "just give me a funny little cape and powers to fly, and I'll have us out of here in no time."
Alex laughed a little, which soothed Jack, who had grown more and more worried about the girl. He was concerned not only for her health, but her well-being. She had been thrown into a place she didn't know, with people she didn't know, who didn't know each other, but well enough. But that was when Jack realized..he had seen her before. Now remembering, it replayed in his mind quickly.
"What?" Alex said, noting the sudden change in her behavior.
"That's what's wrong with the world today," Jack quoted, grinning, "everyone's a few beers behind."
"Excuse me?" Alex said, staring at Jack like he were mad.
"I've seen you before," Jack said, "at a bar and grill in LA, you worked there."
"Yeah, but how did you know-"
"You waited my table," Jack said, feeling the tadist bit of excitement at this realization, "a few months a go. Some guy was singing-"
"Guys sing there all the time," Alex said, unconvinced, "It's a karaoke bar."
"I know, but-"
Alex hadn't known what Jack had said next. Kate was walking in on the conversation, and after a few moments of searching and recalling no memory of the event, it all came rushing back to her..
"Alex?" She heard Jack ask as she became lost in her thoughts..
She hated Fridays. It was the busiest night, full of horrible American Idol wannabes and drunken losers. And as some guy who, surprisingly, was actually good, began singing "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" Alex noticed one particular loser sitting alone at a table in the midst of dates and friends.
"You're order, Sir?" She asked, approaching him.
The man just shook his head, pulling himself away from his thoughts.
"Just a beer," he said, looking down.
Yep, this guy had no life- or had lost one.
"You sure?" She joked, checking her watch. "It's not even sixteen passed six."
The man glared up at her, silencing the waitress, and she was thrown for a loop at his glare that told everything his was feeling- exhaustion, pain, and hurt, something she rarely saw in costumers, and when she did, it was due to the achohol.
"All right, all right," Alex muttered, and Jack turned his chair down as she wrote that down. "Anything else?"
The man simply shook his head as the waitress sighed.
"That's what's wrong with the world today," she said, tearing the page of her tablet and throwing it onto Jack's table, "everyone's a few beers behind."
"So I'm guessing you don't drink?" He said, picking up the ball of paper as he began fingering it.
She laughed.
"Are you serious?" Alex said. "You're lucky I even got your table, no one else even noticed you were here. Truthfully, I'm supposed to be managing of the karaoke, but-" she glanced over towards the man still singing, "-it looks like they've got that under control."
Alex was giving the man's order to a bartender when she heard a door slam, and turning, she realized her costumers table was empty. She had no time to ponder this, as the door flew opened just moments later, and three men in black suites and mask stormed in.
"Everyone down!" One man shouted, and the costumers obeyed, quiet. "Down, on the ground!"
Wasting no time, the main guy marched up to the cash register, knocking Alex to the side, and grabbing the bartender's collar. She felt her head knock softly against the bar as she heard the man scream:
"The money! All of it, now!" Turning, the man gave an order to one of his fellow robbers. "Hey, Chrissy, over here!"
It took a moment for Chrissy to register what she was ordered, but quickly obeyed as the man in charge glared. Shoving a gun from his back pocket, the man said: "Keep an eye on her." The moment Alex realized he meant her, she felt her insides squeeze together, frozen, as the woman took the gun, shaking, and held it on her. Alex could see in her eyes that Chrissy didn't like what she was doing, and had no intention of shooting, until she heard a punch being delivered to the bartender, who was flung back against a row of glasses. She covered herself as glass flew everywhere, but Chrissy didn't even flinch.
She wasn't sure what happened next, but knew it came in a wave of mishaps. The man must've been threatening the bartender, because Chrissy shook as the third guy remained calm, observing the scene, guarding the door. Hearing nothing except jumbled yelling and cursing, and the occasional scream, the only sound she could make out clearly was a gunshot. But it wasn't right, she thought, because it felt like it was Alex herself who had received it. She felt cold and solid, though at the same time like she was melting away. It wasn't until she looked down and horror and saw her blood-covered shoulder that she had realized what had happened, and tried to bring herself to her senses as Chrissy was bent down in front of her, panicking, asking her if she was all right and yelling for someone to call 911. But that wasn't what Alex was concentrating on. She was concentrating on who the woman was that hurt her- the brown hair, brown eyes, that looked in both concern in horror-
And Alex recognized that same look now. In Kate.
Author's Note: The site was down last night, so I couldn't update. I'm so sorry, and I was so mad- stayed up until midnight writing this! I have a question for you, in next fic, which should it be, Shannon and Sayid searching for the missing Boone, or Boone and Sayid searching for the missing Shannon? Thanks for all the reviews, and hope you liked it!
October Sky
