Happy Medium

Chapter Five

Alex let out a gasp of air as she woke up, and then shortly after, she sighed in relief, realizing she was still on the beach. A few campfire crackled near the camp, and Alex winced as she tried to move her head to get a better look at who was still up. Her neck throbbed for the first time that day, and she carefully reached up to touch where the rope burns were, and instead, found herself touching blistering skin. Figuring Jack probably had some kind of medicine for the burns, and maybe something to help her get an actually night's worth of sleep, she stood, brushing the sand from her pants, and headed for the caves.

When she arrived, Alex made sure everyone was asleep before sneaking into Jack's infirmary cave. She then tiptoed over towards the makeshift table of chest and suitcases, and began searching through the massive pile of medicine Jack usually kept guarded 24/7. At last, her hand fell on a half-empty bottle of sleeping pills, one that someone else had obviously been taking. But alex didn't care. She just wanted the dreams to stop, correct that, needed the dreams to stop. Every night she saw the raft crash, and as if watching a slide show, watched transfixed as Sawyer died repeatedly, with Michael near him. It drove her insane, and every morning she wanted to tell someone, but every morning, some inner voice stopped her.

"What the hell do you think your doing?"

Alex spun around, and Jack's hand caught her arm in a tight grip as she did.

"Let go of me," Alex said through gritted teeth, and unlike Sawyer, Jack did, but not before prying open her fist to reveal the medicine.

"Sleeping pills?" Jack said, staring at her in awe as he dropped her arm.

"It's not what you think," Alex said quickly, praying that he wouldn't jump to the wrong conclusion.

"Then what is it?" Jack said, with a trace of disappointment in his voice.

"I..I-" Alex stumbled over her words, trying to think of an excuse, "wait- why are you here?"

"I sleep here," Jack pointed out, "Michael got his lip split in a fight with Jin, and I had to go deal with that."

"Right," Alex said, "so you sleep here, right next to your mountain of drugs."

"Are you suggesting something?" Jack said, his voice rising slightly.

Alex didn't answer. She was too busy staring at the pill capsule in Jack's hand. Without thinking, she made a grab for it, but only to have her arm caught by Jack again..

Flash

Like a movie, Alex watched as Jack walked into some type of hotel room(or maybe an apartment) nursing a bottle of liquor that he took a gigantic swig of. Sitting it down on a dresser, which she supposed was his, since it was lined with pictures of Jack and some blonde woman, Jack reached into his pocket, pulling out a capsule of unprescribed medicine. Sitting down on the bed, he stared at it long and hard before sighing, opening it, and popping a few into his mouth, before collapsing back onto the mattress.

When the vision ended, it took a moment for Alex to realize that she was staring at Jack.

"This suicidal thing," Alex said, "it comes back around, huh?"

Jack drew in a quick breath, and his eyes widened.

"How did you know about that?" He said dryly, and almost..frightened?

Then again, who wouldn't be? Alex was a little freaked out herself. Why did she see these things about people? What did they mean? Why her? Overwhelmed by all these questions, and afraid to face Jack again, Alex met eyes with him a final time, sharing his fear and confusion, before breaking away from the dusty cave atmosphere, and tearing off into the jungle.

Once deep into the jungle, Alex cursed herself for running: it now being nearly twelve in the morning and she had no clue where she was. The trees around her all looked the same, and no further path could be seen, and just when Alex was considering forcing herself to pass out, praying that someone would find her the next morning, something hard clubbed against the back of her head the second time that day. A fist punched her in the jaw, knocking her head to the side, and then to the other, and Alex felt herself being thrown back against the tree where she sank down to the ground, giving up the fight she had never started.

(Space)

"Has anyone seen Alex?" Charlie asked casually at the caves the next morning.

Jack had just woken up and was getting things going, while Claire was sitting in pain, holding her body where her unborn baby slept. Something told her that this one was going to be a screamer.

"Dude, sorry," Hurley said, "haven't seen her at all in the past few days."

"Why?" Jack said, looking up from where he was packing some water bottles into his pack. "Is she in trouble?"

"I don't know," Charlie said, sitting down beside Claire and handing her a piece of fruit, which she took gratefully, "I just told her that she could borrow my guitar this morning, and she never showed up. She's not at the beach either. I asked around, and Sawyer said he talked to her yesterday, but he hadn't seen her after that."

"Oh no-" Jack said, jumping to the worst conclusions, horrified.

"What?" Sayid said, entering the caves with Shannon. Did Sawyer do something again?"

"No," said Jack, heading out of the caves, "it's what he didn't do."

As Sayid gave Shannon a small kiss goodbye, Jack couldn't help but to feel a pang of jealousy. He and Kate had yet to 'make up' and part of the reason was that he wasn't even sure if this really counted as a fight. Part of him actually wished he could talk to someone about his troubles in 'paradise', but who? Sure, Locke knew he had been married before(something that he just remembered Kate didn't know) but though he had to give the guy credit for being smart, Jack sometimes looked at Locke as an over obsessed Lord of the Rings fan, who had just found one of their own. Sayid? Lord no. He was just a step under Locke, and for some reason, maybe it was because of being driven crazy by the constant rift between Danielle and Alex, and off and on Michael and Jin, Sayid had developed this annoying habit of switching between the English and Arabic dialect throughout his sentences. And God forbid Sawyer, who in reality probably had less luck in the romance area than he had.

And then there was Alex, who had been madly in love with some guy two years older then her, and at such a young age, had managed to keep things in tact. Better yet, like he had told Sayid, Alex seemed to understand him, and she reminded him so much of Kate that Jack figured once he was able to talk to Alex, getting through with Kate should be a breeze. Now the only problem was finding the girl.

"Sawyer," he said as he walked up to Sawyer, who was just pulling on a shirt, having obviously only just woken up, "have you seen Alex?"

"Oh, right," Sawyer said, buttoning up a black shirt, "I get it. I help the girl, calm her down, and now I get pinned for hurting her."

"We're not blaming you for anything," Jack said, "I just need to know: have you seen her?"

"Like I already said, no," Sawyer said, aggravated, "are we finished here?"

"Jack!" Sayid called, running up to where Jack was standing with Sawyer.

He had completely forgot about Sayid being anywhere behind him. Jack promised himself he'd resolve his issues with Kate soon, before his selfishness caused someone to get hurt, or worse.

"I found something," Sayid said, panting for air as he tried to calm his breathing, "in the jungle, a path."

"Great," Jack said, heading that way, "show me."

"Jack!" Sayid called again, and Jack turned around, wondering why he was keeping him from doing his job- trying to save a life. "The path- it was of blood."

Sawyer bit down hard, looking away, as Jack looked down, but soon looked up again, infuriated with himself.

"Dammit!" He shouted to no one in particular. "Why didn't I believe her?"

"Believe who?" Sayid asked, now completely calm.

But it was too late. Jack had already run into the jungle, and out of sight.

Author's Notes: Okay, I know that it's so unfair about these short chapters and not updating, but I seriously have hardly been able to get on. But tomorrow's a half day due to exams, so I should have lots of time to write. Who knows, I may even finish this story this weekend! Sadly, I can't give out the summary of the next fic- "Forget Me Not" (working title) until the cliffhanger- yes, cliffhanger! is revealed for the ending of this fic. I can, however, say that one of the plots have to do with Jack and Alex, and they journey off to find something(that's not the solution to Jack's love life- though no way I'll have a J/K fight last longer than a few chapters! It shall be resolved!) and LOTS of new characters are coming in, but they're not necessarily from the flight, nor are they necessarily alive..muhaha! Oh, and I'll probably finally have Claire have her baby in the next fic. Thanks so much for all of the reviews! You guys rock!

Oh, and for those who didn't catch on, the Jack/vision thing was the secret she learns about him, but don't worry, Jack has good reasons for being depressed! You'll see!

Coming up next, on "Happy Medium":

Jack saves Alex(given, huh?) but the favor isn't easily returned, when Alex does something that could lose his trust forever, around the same time the new raft and, quite possibly, it's shipmates, find themselves all in danger and well, doomed. Let's just say they're not getting anywhere!

Thanks again!

October Sky