A Bend In the Road

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: "Wish You Were Here" was written by Roger Waters and performed by Pink Floyd. I don't own it.

Sayid watched Jack as he carefully poured some alcohol onto one of Kate's wounds. Kate didn't even flinch at the burning sensation as someone awake would of, instead, just lay still, sleeping. Jack had long since given up on CPR, almost out of breath himself, and knowing no one would be able to save him if it went to far, Jack began working on cleaning Kate's wounds, praying that she'd wake sometime in the process. Now Sayid was leaning back against the cave wall, and decided that the time was now or never to speak up.

"Shannon's worried about Boone," Sayid said, a little loud, knowing that jack had probably completely forgotten that he was even there.

"Yeah?" Jack said, kicking his soaking wet shoes out of the way as he made his way around the makeshift cot in some new ones Sawyer had managed to find at the beach "Well so am I, but Boone can take care of himself-" Jack wiped some of the moister off his face with the sleeve of his shirt and motioned to Kate, "she can't."

"He went hunting with Locke," Sayid continued, feeling that Jack needed to know this.

"I thought I told him to stay off that knee," Jack said, frustrated that Boone wouldn't listen to him.

"I don't think they're going hunting," Sayid said.

"What makes you think that?" Jack said, really thinking 'why can't you just leave me alone?'

"They've been out there for a month and haven't caught a thing," Sayid explained.

"Then why don't you follow them?" Jack suggested. "See what their up to?"

"We've tried," Sayid sighed, "but each time there's obstacles. It's like the jungle doesn't want us to find out."

Jack looked at him.

"That's insane," he said, and truly believing it, and then shaking his head, "well Boone can make his decisions on his own, but right now-" he stared down helplessly at Kate, "I need to find out what happened."

He stood in silence for a moment, until realizing that Sayid was still there.

"Is Michael around?" Jack asked, for the first time remembering that there were others on the raft- others that might be in need of his help.

"He is," Sayid said, "but I don't think you'd want to talk to him right now."

"Why not?" Jack asked, confused.

"Let's just say he's not in the best of moods," Sayid said, and Jack got the point.

It was the second raft they had built, and after all the time and effort, with whatever happened to the raft, Jack wouldn't of been the happiest person on earth either.

"What about Sun?" Jack asked next.

"She's taking care of Jin," Sayid explained.

"Damn," Jack said under his breath, "well who's left?"

"What about Sawyer?" Sayid suggested.

Jack thought about it, and seeing that it was the last resort, nodded.

"Yeah," he said, "go get Sawyer."

(Space)

Fifteen minutes later Sawyer was leaning against the cave wall in the same spot Sayid had been in before. He let his head rest against the rock, exhausted and still feeling woozy.

"Here," Jack said, handing Sawyer a small hand towel.

Sawyer took it, and looked at Jack, wondering what it was for. Was Jack actually expecting him to help? A few cuts he might be able to tend, but this- there was no way. He couldn't even bring himself to look at Kate.

"It's for your head," Jack said, pointing above his own eye, where on Sawyer's own face, his wound was.

Cautiously, Sawyer touched the wound, and hissed in pain, cursing, when he saw that it had begun bleeding again. Jack left him alone for a few minutes, going back to Kate, until he finally remembered what Sawyer was there for.

"You ready to tell me what happened?" Jack asked, and Sawyer nodded, looking away as Jack cleaned a wound on Kate's leg.

"The raft started making these funny noises," Sawyer began weakly.

"Noises?"

"I can't explain it," Sawyer stated truthfully, "and then it started tossing on its own. Nobody knew what to do, and eventually- it just turned over. I tried to grab Kate but-" he shook his head slightly- "I couldn't make it. I slammed into one side and she went the other way, unfortuently for her the luggage went with her. Next thing I know I'm washed up on shore of the same damn island I was trying to escape from."

Jack stared at Kate, hating himself, knowing how scared she must've been and he wasn't there to comfort her, or that he wasn't there to tell them what to do. Where was he? Drowning himself in self-pity because life couldn't go the way he wanted it to. And Jack cursed himself for it.

"I'm going to..uh..go check the other caves for more antibiotics," Jack said, "can you watch over her?"

Not answering right away, Sawyer turned his head and glanced over at Kate, grimacing at the sight.

"Yeah," he said finally, still feeling guilty for not being able to save Kate on the raft.

He had just grabbed her hand when the raft took a final plunge, jerking Kate away from him, and Sawyer could still hear the screams that would haunt him for night onward as the raft went down, taking its castaways with it.

(Space)

As Jack entered a spare cave, which he hadn't really needed to go to, he just needed to clear his mind for a moment, knowing that mental issues would do no good to Kate, the soft tune of acoustic filled the air, and it took Jack a moment to recognize the song as the introduction to "Wish You Were Here", a song by Pink Floyd he remembered from being a kid.

"Hey Charlie?" Jack said, entering the caves. "Do you mind-"

He stopped when he realized that it wasn't Charlie playing the guitar, but Alex, playing with a natural grace, planting each finger into the strings, creating black marks on the calluses of her fingers from lack of practicing, or rather, being able to practice.

"Oh, sorry," Jack said quickly and Alex replied with a quick: 'It's all right.'

Jack began sorting through some extra medicine he had hidden in the cave for no particular reason at all.

"Does Charlie know you're using his guitar?" He asked while leafing through the tiny pill capsules, looking for any type of pain killers, his mind set on Kate waking up.

"I didn't know it was his," Alex said truthfully, and began pulling the guitar strap off of her shoulders.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you used it," Jack said, though he knew that was most likely a lie.

"I know how people are with their guitars," Alex said with a small chuckle, carefully placing the guitar back into its case "he'll mind."

When she made no effort towards moving, just standing there with her arms crossed, Jack spoke up.

"So do you play often?" Jack asked, thankful that for once he could have a conversation that wasn't about him, the island, or medical difficulties.

"You could say that," Alex nodded, "I live in New York with my uncle- my boyfriend moved out there with me. I guess you could say we're pretty serious-" Jack had to admit that he found himself amused, talking to a sixteen year old about a serious 'love life', "we had this record deal thing."

"Oh," Jack said, feeling guilty for laughing at her story, "that is serious."

"Yeah," Alex nodded, "he sung, I mostly play the piano- I couldn't match a pitch if my life depended on it-" she shook her head, "but none of that mattered now."

Even after finishing her story, alex still remained standing there, reminding Jack of the patients he used to see stopping by the front desk, embarrassed to admit whatever problem it was they had.

"Is- something wrong?" Jack asked, finding himself hoping that she was all right, and not only for her benefit, but for his.

Jack didn't think he could last another medical emergency. Hell, he didn't even know if he was going to be able to get through this one.

"That day, by the beach," Alex said quietly, "when we were going to look for whats-her-name-"

"Danielle?"

"Yeah," Alex said, and continued after a short pause, "did you- see anything?"

Jack tried to remember back to that day, and found that it came to him in a blur, with much bigger events following after, but knew that if something major had happened, he would've been able to recall it.

"No," Jack said finally, "I don't think so. Why?"

"No reason," Alex lied, and then watched Jack for a few more moments before speaking up again, "that was Kate's case, wasn't it?"

Jack spun around so fast he could feel the wind rip through his shirt as he did so, stinging his face.

"What?" He said nervously, telling himself not to give Kate away so easily.

"I know about her," Alex admitted quietly, and had to clear a lump out of her throat before continuing, "Kate. I've seen her before-"

He hadn't known what had come over him, but suddenly, Jack wasn't talking to a sixteen year old girl anymore. He was talking to Sawyer, and this was just another case of one-liners, but this one really stung. Jack grabbed Alex by her shoulders, gripping her tightly in fear that she would escape and he would never get the answers he thought he deserved. Alex looked up at him after a moment, in confusing and her own fear, wondering what was going on.

"Where did you see her?" Jack demanded, shaking Alex without realizing it. "What did she do?"

Alex didn't answer, trying to get over the shock of what was happening. She just looked down at the ground, biting her lip to keep from calling out, knowing whatever had come through Jack was just temporary, and she didn't want to cause a scene. Had it been Sawyer instead of Jack, however, she would've been screaming a long time ago.

"What did she do?" Jack said louder, his breath blowing hot against Alex's hair.

"She shot me," Alex said finally, in one breath, and kicked Jack lightly in the shins, just to get him off of her so she could regain control of herself. "Sorry," she added quietly after doing so.

"No," Jack said, shaking his head, recovering from his own shock of what he had just done.

He had attacked a girl. Well, not really attacked, but the only thing he hadn't done was strike her. He had held her against her will, and shook her. Didn't that count as abuse? Wasn't one of the first medical commitments 'do no harm'? Jack had wanted to apologize, say 'I'm sorry' and pray that she would be mature enough to forgive and forget, but who could blame her? Instead, he hadn't been able to say a single one of those things.

"She shot you?" Jack repeated, a little hurt.

Even though Kate had told him all she did concerning her faith, Jack knew that was only an accident. He had been able to eventually forgive her, thinking that the marshall was only after her for the sake of revenge, but now, Jack wasn't sure what to think.

"That night when I waited your table at the bar," Alex said quietly, "these men came in dressed in black after you left, and they began robbing the place. One man attacked the bar tender, and somebody yelled for them to stop. I moved out of the way but the next thing I remembered was waking up with my shoulder all numb and somebody asking me if I was okay."

Alex stopped and looked up, making sure she had Jack's attention, and after staring at him for a few moments, she did.

"That was Kate," she added softly.

Jack was paralyzed, unable to move, and catching his balance just as he feel against the wall. Alex looked at him in concern, momentarily forgetting what he had just done.

"Don't worry about what happened," she said, figuring that could be one less thing for Jack to worry about, "I understand..it wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have said anything."

"No," Jack said shaking his head, "you knew, you had every right to."

For some reason, just the thought that she knew made Jack even madder, and he slammed his fist against the cave wall, cursing as he stormed out of that cave, and back into the other, where he found Sawyer sitting on an extra airplane chair, staring at Kate, though the sound of Jack entering drove him quickly away from his thoughts.

"Has she moved?" Jack asked, and was about to repeat the question when Sawyer finally answered.

"No," Sawyer replied just as quietly as Alex had been.

Sawyer began to stand up to give Jack back the seat, but Jack waved for him to sit back down.

"Stay there, "Jack ordered, knowing Sawyer moving around would just confused him.

Bending down, Jack checked Kate's neck and found a small pulse, but as he traced his finger back down her arm, she found a small wound where blood had just recently begun flowing. He grabbed a piece of cloth from nearby, and reached down to clean Kate's new wound when he found that- he couldn't.

He was frozen. He couldn't move, couldn't think. He had fallen under pressure when he needed his mind the most. And if he didn't watch out, Jack would fail. Again.

"Dammit!" Jack yelled, throwing the cloth down, causing Sawyer's head to shoot back up from where it was rested in his hands.

Collapsing against the cave wall, Jack held his own head in his heads.

"Dammit," Jack repeated, and turned back to Kate, "I can't do it."

"What do you mean you can't do it?" Sawyer said in disbelief.

"I can't save her," Jack said, feeling himself fall under the walls he had recently rebuilt in the past day.

"What do you mean you can't save her?" Sawyer said, standing up.

"I can't do it," Jack said, throwing his arms down, "I give up. It's up to her now."

"We don't even know if she's alive!" Sawyer yelled. "How can it be up to her?"

"She's going to have to pull through," Jack said, and seated himself down, sinking against the walls of the caves until he hit the cracks in the floor below, "I can't do it. I can't take it anymore."

"You can't take it anymore?" Sawyer repeated, feeling anger come on. "You're the doctor, you have to take it! People come to you with the least important problems, and sometimes you get a death thrown in your face, but you have to take it! It's what you do!"

"I'll fail," Jack muttered, "I'll fail and I won't be able to handle it."

"You won't fail, an even if you did, you've got enough people that care about you here to carry on a weekly therapy group," Sawyer said, fading at the memory of Kate joking about just that.

What if he was never able to hear her laugh again? Never see her smile? Sawyer realized that he'd be left just as much as Jack, and he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to stand it. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to be out of there, out of that caves, and just run until there was no where else to go. But he couldn't do that now. Not until he was certain that Kate at least had a chance.

"No," Jack mumbled, massaging the skin above his eyes, "my father was right- I'm a failure. I'm not meant to be a leader."

Sawyer sighed drastically.

"He doesn't think that you're a failure," he said.

"What?" Jack said, confused, looking up at Sawyer who sighed again, and sat on the edge of the cot that Kate wasn't laid on.

"I lied about what he said at the bar," Sawyer admitted.

"You did what?"

"He said that he was proud of you," Sawyer sighed, "he wished that he had the courage he said that you have. He said that you were at home, thinking that he hated you, when all he really wanted to do was apologize."

"Then why didn't he?" Jack said, trying to look for the wrong in this, and the fact that he was having this conversation with Sawyer, of all people.

"He said he was weak," Sawyer shrugged.

Jack sat in silence, thinking about it, and then almost laughed when he realized what was wrong with the story.

"He was drunk, wasn't he?"

"What?" Sawyer said, thinking for sure he had cleared things up.

"I knew it," Jack snorted, "that had always been his problem."

"Yeah, well he's dead now, isn't he?" Sawyer said, rather forcefully, even for him.

Jack looked down at being reminded this, and Sawyer quickly added "sorry".

"No," Jack said, realizing that it was time he'd face this truth, "you know what? You're right. He's dead and there's nothing I can do about him or the past except accept that, and I should just go ahead and do that because it's pretty much smacked me in the face, and I just have to deal with that-"

"If you say so-"

"So I guess that was my second chance, huh?" Jack said, the light bulb going off in his head. "I don't have to fail. Not if I don't want to."

He didn't care how cheesy it sounded, or even if he was saying it in front of Sawyer, because as big of a jerk as Sawyer was, he was just too plain lazy to go and spread something around.

"So are you ready to save her?" Sawyer said finally, nodding towards Kate.

"Yeah," Jack nodded, but as he tried to stand, his leg was numb in protest where Alex had kicked him, "but help me stand up first."

Sawyer smirked, and reached, down, grabbing Jack's hand when a voice startled them both.

"Well that's a site I never thought I'd live to see."

Jack and Sawyer let go abruptly, and looked away before both of them were immediately at Kate's side. Sawyer gazed at her and all Jack could do was smile as she tried her best to talk again.

"If I knew it would bring you two together like that," Kate continued weekly, "I might just knock myself out every day."

"How much did you hear?" Jack said, though finding himself not that worried about it.

"Not much," Kate admitted, "just something about someone falling or failing.."

"It was falling," Sawyer interrupted quickly.

Jack glanced towards him, wondering why Sawyer was sticking up for him, but figured to make the best of it, and went along with his story.

"It was nothing," Jack lied.

"How are the others?" Kate asked, making shifting her weight as Jack dabbed at the wound on her shoulder.

Kate winced at the touch of the liquid.

"Sorry," Jack said pulling the cloth away.

"No, go ahead," Kate said, and smiled the best she could, "you're the doctor."

"What do you want me to do?" Sawyer said from beside Jack.

Jack thought about it, determined to take it from here on his own.

"Go tell the others that she's okay," Jack said, and looked down at Kate, who had fallen asleep, her chest raising up and down in a normal pace, and he knew that this time, he was right. He did it. He had pulled through, and so had she.

"Tell them that she'll be all right."

Author's Note: Yay! Kate's up! I'm seriously not sure how much longer this fic will be, or rather, I'm not sure how much longer they'll be on the island. Could be off next chapter, could be a few chapters from now. I'll let it sneak up on you:) Sorry if it swerved in and out of character there, or was out of character completely, but, hey, somebody had to get Jack's thoughts straight! For those of you who didn't read my fic "Outlaws", in mine, Sawyer told Jack about the meeting with his father, but he told Jack that his father really talked about the son he couldn't stand, not the son he was proud of. I hope that clears things up. Thanks for all the reviews!

Crazyhorsegirl88: Yes, thus ends the tale(tail..hehe) of Jack, Sarah, and the bunny. But I'll give you a hint: in the sequel, a certain doctor's ex-wife drops in with a surprise- and this one doesn't have four legs.

Next Up, on "A Bend In the Road":

(beware, there's change that some, or all of this will change, I'm still planning it)

Just when things seem to be okay again, Sawyer goes missing, and Charlie thinks he's gone insane at the sight of the new survivor, of whom they all know. More questions and quest arise just as a loud roar from above threatens to tear them apart, but in a good way:)

Thanks again and hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time..

October Sky