married put him in a relatively bad mood. Once Kate left, Jack left too.
He sat on the beach. Usually he passed his time helping people who seemed to have
problems, but today he felt useless. He was having his own troubles.
He stared at the waves and drowned in his thoughts. He would have stayed there,
undisturbed, all day if no one had come up behind him.
"Jack?"
He turned around. It was Shannon.
"Hi." said Jack. He turned back to face the waves.
Shannon sat down beside him. "Thank you, for trying to help my brother."
Jack said, "I could have saved him."
"No, you couldn't. He was destined to die, and that's the end of it. Don't blame yourself."
Shannon played with the hem of her skirt. "Thank you for trying. There's nothing anyone
could have done to save him., but you still tried."
Shannon left.
Jack knew how Shannon was, and he knew that she was very stubborn and it
probably took a lot for her to just say thank you. So it was pretty nice.
He still wished that he could have saved Boone. It wasn't right. Something wasn't
right. Somehow, someway, Jack thought that maybe Locke had wanted Boone dead. Why else
would he have told him this lie about Boone falling?
Disgruntled, Jack picked up a rock from the sand in front of him. How he wished
life weren't so complicated. He screwed this all up. He just had to marry Sarah, didn't he?
And he was almost sure Boone would have lived if it weren't for him...
Sarah. That's what made Jack most angry. He'd only married her because he
saved her life. At first he tried to play along and make himself agree.
It seemed like somehow Jack knew that Kate was going to come into his life...
otherwise, he might not have felt like leaving Sarah.
Jack stood up and tossed the rock into the sea. It was almost dinnertime, and
someone probably needed help doing something.
Jack went into the site and sat down against a tree. Hurley sat opposite him,
boiling water on the campfire.
"What's up, Jack?" he asked. "You're looking kinda ticked."
Jack shook his head. "It's nothing, Hurley."
Hurley didn't fall for it. "Boone would have died anyway," said Hurley. "We all know it.
Locke told me the whole story. It's not your fault."
"It's not Boone," said Jack.
"Oh." Hurley said. "So, then what is it?"
"Hurley," said Jack. "What do you do if there's only one person you can go to when you have
a problem, and that person's the problem?"
"It's Kate, isn't it?" said Hurley.
"How'd you know?"
"Dude, you're all over her."
"I am not."
"Not like that, I mean," said Hurley hastily. "You're falling, man."
"That bad, huh?"
"I don't know..." Hurley said. "You're asking the wrong person." he shook his head a bit.
"Maybe you should just tell her what you think."
"Yeah." Jack stood up. "Thanks, Hurley."
Jack didn't know what to do. He had so much on his plate, he just needed to vent.
Jack headed for the ocean. It was dark. He took off his shoes and socks, then his shirt and
pants. He went into the water.
"Mind if I join you?"
It was Kate.
"No," said Jack.
Kate waded in and stood beside Jack.
"You sure you're okay?"
"Yes." said Jack. He wanted to follow Hurley's words of wisdom and tell her what he
thought. But he had no guts.
That was the story of Jack Shepard's life. He had no guts. He could cut open
someone's skull and take out their brain and know they might die and not be scared. But
when it came to him, his life, and his emotions, he didn't have any guts at all.