Forget Me Not
Chapter Three
Spoiler alert: Oh yeah, spoilers may pop up in this, and if you're reading Stephen King's The Dead Zone, Alex spoils the ending in here for ya, so be prepared.
Jack stirred awake only an hour or two after he had slept. He had had the weirdest dream ever, and the craziest part was, it had all seemed so real. It was four months earlier, and Jack had actually gone through with getting his flying licensee. He was flying over the south pacific, when he spotted an odd shaped island that stood out in the middle of the ocean. Somehow, he was able to see right through it, and there, in the middle of the island's jungle stood Locke, staring straight up at Jack. In one of the creepiest voices Jack had ever heard, Locke said to him "Turn around Jack- go back" and then..that was it. What the hell was that dream supposed to mean? Dancing flames replied as the fire crackled in front of him, and just as Jack wondered if Alex had fallen asleep without putting it out, he noticed that she was still awake, leaning back against a tree and reading the Stephen King book that Sayid had found in her bag.
"I thought we stopped so that you could rest," Jack said, his voice dry and raspy.
"Yeah," Alex said, "and I agreed so that you could rest."
She turned a page with a loud flip that echoed through the night, leaving Jack to wonder how he was set up by a teenager.
"Here," Alex said, taking something out of her bag, "I found this out in the jungle."
Alex threw the item to Jack, and he saw that it was some kind of green fruit that he had never noticed was out there before.
"I'm not sure what it is," Alex admitted, "but I tried one. It seemed fine."
"What were you doing out in the jungle in the middle of the night?
Over the rim of her novel, Alex raised an eyebrow.
"Right," Jack sighed, reddening in embarrassment, "here, you take it.
He threw the fruit back to her, remembering his earlier concerns about her health and also Jack wasn't too hyped about eating some unknown fruit in the middle of the night.
"So what woke you up?" Alex wondered out loud, not looking up from her book. "Am I reading too loud?"
"Just a dream," Jack said, offering nothing more, "what about you? Why aren't you asleep?"
Setting the fruit on her flattened out bag beside her, Alex side, running a hand threw her hair.
"I'm afraid to," she said quietly.
"Afraid to sleep?" Jack said as if that was the most ridiculous things he ever heard.
"Afraid to dreams," Alex said, her voice no louder than before.
She concentrated on her book as if it were a needle she was trying to thread.
"I'm sick of it," she continued, her voice becoming a little shaking, "the dreams. The deaths. The visions. I hate what I am and yet I don't even know what I am."
"You can't keep doing this to yourself," was all that Jack could think of to say, "your body needs rest."
"Thank you, Bill Nye," Alex said grumpily.
"Oh man," Jack said, smiling as he looked down, "I had forgotten all about that show. I used to hate that guy."
"You hated a science show?" Alex said, looking up for the first time.
"I wasn't that much of a geek," Jack said, shaking his head.
"How many times did you see Star Wars when it first came out?" Alex tested.
"Only six," Jack said, and sighed, "okay fine, I'm a geek, but at least I'm not obsessed with Stephen King."
"What's wrong with King?" Alex said angrily, putting the book down.
"He never finishes his stories," Jack explained, "for example, how does that one end?"
"The guy dies," Alex said, frowning at the man on the cover of the novel.
"See?"
"After he saves the world," Alex added, "well..sort of. Anyway, fine then. So we're both geeks. What's your favorite tv show?"
"My favorite show was Part of Five," Jack said, "until it went off the air."
"You know," Alex said, studying Jack closely through the fire, "has anyone ever told you that you look like that one guy, Charlie?"
"Actually," Jack said, thinking, "that's a first. What about you, what's your favorite show?"
"When I get the chance to watch tv?" Alex said. "Cheers. Seriously, I'm in love with that show. I don't know why, I guess I'm just stuck in the past. "While I was working in this studio in New York, one of the producer's names was Norman, and every time he'd come in the room we all would shout-"
"Norm!" Alex and Jack said together, and laughed at their own joke quietly in the night.
"So what about music?" Alex said after the laughter drew out. "Tell me you're not a classical guy."
"Not really," Jack said, thinking back.
Talking about the previous life felt odd to Jack, especially when it didn't concern his emotions or well-being.
"The golden oldies I guess," Jack said, shrugging, "and a little reggae. Tell me you're not into that pop or rap that they pass off as 'music'."
"I write songs on acoustic guitar," Alex informed him, "pop's not really my thing. Me? The sixties and seventies. My dad was absolutely obsessed with The Who. I never knew why. But anyway, I mostly listen to solo artist: Van Morisson, Billy Joel, that sort."
"Sounds good," Jack said, and asked the next question without thinking, "what about Adam? What did he listen to?"
Alex looked down, smiling sadly.
"Led Zeplin," she replied, "he had this place in this apartment building in Manhattan. It was a two bedroom apartment, and you should've seen what he did with the second room. It was amazing. The walls were covered with posters of Jimmy Page and Robert plant and he had painted the words "and she's buying a stairway to heaven" on the walls with this creepy paint stuff that looked like water colors. He filled the place with electric and double string guitars, and had a few different kinds of electric keyboards, and he even had a baby grand in the main living room."
"He sounds rich," Jack said, thankful that Alex had actually responded when he had asked, and he also noted that this was really the happiest she had sounded in a while. Like she was at peace with herself, and Jack couldn't help but to feel a sense of pride when it struck him that he had done that.
"Nah," Alex shook her head, "he inherited it all. He was just as poor as I was."
"He seems like he was a great guy," Jack said, knowing that he was repeating himself, but he just couldn't stop trying to get her to remember that.
"He was," Alex said, smiling to herself, looking down.
A few minutes past and the only noise was the fire crackling between them and crickets chirping in a bush somewhere in the distance.
"So when we get back to camp," Jack said finally, "I guess I'll ask Sayid to come out with me later on and search for bodies. You want to help? You know, maybe as sort of a- guidance."
Jack was about to apologize for the added comment when he noticed Alex's sudden distant look.
Alex was looking beyond Jack into a moonlit clearing full of people. A couple walked happily along a row of wildflowers, while an old man sang to himself as he shuffled a deck of cards and dealt them our for a game of solitaire. His voice was low, but smooth, and Alex's background in music recognized the song as the Eagle's "Desperado".
As the old man reached the ending verse, his "why don't you let somebody love you"s were in perfect tune, and a little blonde headed girl laughed as a black man who looked like the exact cross between Bill Cosby and B.B. King(a weird combination, she noted) picked her up when she jumped into his arms, and swung her around. It was clear that the two weren't related, or even hardly knew each other, but that didn't seem to matter to either. The little girl smiled widely at Alex, as the man gave her a kiss on the cheek, and Alex smiled back.
"Actually," Alex said thoughtfully, "I think they're right where they want to be."
Author's Note: Once again, sorry for the short chapter, but I'm not exactly sure what I want to do with the hatch yet, so I decided to post what I have. In this chapter, it was not my direct intent to recruit people to my taste in music, though Alex and I do share similar liking. And just in case, I don't own "Desperado" and I just heard that song for the first time in forever on an Seinfeld episode. Thanks for the reviews!
Crazyhorsegirl88: I hope I didn't dissapoint you. You're getting a little ahead of yourself there! And yes, the bunny should make a reaperance in Jack's fic, but I'm not sure what I want to do with that yet. Any suggestions?
Orlando-Crazy: Thanks for coming back!
Coming up next, in "Forget Me Not":
When it appears that Locke is stuck in the hatch, Boone, Sayid and Shannon must go to drastic measures to save them. Too bad they didn't take a look around before they acted.
Thanks again for the reviews!
October Sky