Forget Me Not
Chapter Five
Author's Note: Jack references back to a time being at the Black Rock. Not many of you(the few left..sniffle..just kidding, thanks for sticking around guys!) read my version of "Whatever the Case May Be", but in it, Jack and Kate were kidnapped, and found at what would become the Black Rock. It's an underground setting that I've used numerous times that has no connection to the hatch..I think.
The early morning's sun shone in Shannon's eyes as she opened the door to the mansion she lived in with her mother. On the porch stood Boone, along with a duffel bag that sat on the ground beside him.
"Took you long enough," Boone complained.
"Sorry," Shannon said, rolling her eyes, "I was in the shower. You weren't supposed to be here until ten."
"I got out of the airport earlier than I expected," Boone explained.
Shannon stared at him, as if trying to figure out the truth.
"Will you just let me in?" Boone said, impatient.
"Sure," Shannon said, opening the door to let him through, "you're lucky mom's out. She'd probably ask a million questions."
"And how do I know you don't?" Boone said, taking off a pair of expensive sunglasses and setting them on a glass table piece, revealing his wild eyes that had a tendency to change color with the light.
"See the thing is," Shannon said, flopping down and making herself comfortable on the main room's leather couch, "when I ask, I get rewarded."
"Rewarded?"
"I'm getting that car," Shannon said, eyes narrowed, "that's the deal, got it? And if you break it-"
Shannon stood up to face her step brother, who stood only centimeters taller than her, and finished.
"Then I'll tell mom why you're really here."
Boone stared at her long and hard, and forced himself to not be intimidated by a girl four years young than him.
"How do you know about that?" He forced himself to say a few moments later.
All Boone remembered telling Shannon was a lie saying that there was a leak in his apartment. A number of things could make this an obvious lie, one being that his apartment was across state, and if he had money to ride on a plane for not even two hours, then he had money to rent a hotel for a few days.
"You're a horrible liar," Shannon said to his face, "someone's after you."
Boone stared at her, his eyes boring into Shannon's in a death stare, fire burning in his pupils as he searched for a flaw in his secret. He had been careful. He had only come home on certain holidays and spoke of only school, lying about how well he was doing whenever his mom called. So how had Shannon found out? If Boone was lucky, it was just a wild guess. Seeing that Boone wasn't going to neither confirm nor deny this, Shannon smiled sweetly, and said with added charm:
"Want some coffee?"
Later that evening, Boone was walking the second floor hall to his old bedroom when he noticed that the door to Shannon's room, twice the size as his on a mutual choice, was open. Pink blossomed into the hallway with the light, as well as the sound of Shannon's excited boyfriend. Boone crept closer to peek into the room, and saw that his sisters was laying down her queen sized bed, not a care in the world, twirling the cord of a phone that connected to her own private line with one leg rested in the air over the other.
"Yeah Brad," Shannon was saying cheerfully into the phone, "it's going to be awesome. It's this tiny red convertible. Yeah, I'm getting my brother to make a deal with my mom. Yeah, I know he's an idiot but who cares, what else as he good for?"
Any other sibling out there might've been insulted and even hurt by the line, but Boone knew it could be worse. Shaking his head, he smiled at his sister's overexcitement as he continued the path down the hall.
Six years later, Boone was only four feet in front of that little girl, who was now twenty-two, which allowed him plenty of opportunities to listen into her conversations, which were full of distrust for her brother.
"I don't see how you can trust him," Shannon said to Sayid in her definition of a whisper, "why can't you lead us?"
"Because I didn't come from this direction," Sayid replied in a hushed voice, "you can always turn back."
"No," Shannon said, more quickly than she intended.
Sayid side glanced her.
"Hold on," he whispered.
And Shannon nodded, walking on as Sayid held back, waiting for Jack and Kate to catch up.
"What's up?" Jack said when they finally reached him.
Kate shifted her weight to one leg, taking the opportunity to rest on Jack's shoulder.
"Boone doesn't know what he's doing," Sayid said, just loud enough for Jack to here him.
"What?" Kate said, looking at Sayid.
"I don't even think we're anywhere near Black Rock," Sayid went on.
"But why would Boone-" Kate began, and then all three of them sighed at the same realization.
"Shannon," they said in unison.
"I don't get it," Sayid said after a short pause, "why go to so much trouble to impress a sibling that he doesn't even appear to care for."
"He cares for her," Jack said, watching Shannon and Boone- who had already managed to engage themselves in another argument- from a distance, "and maybe he's looking for something more."
Kate looked at Jack, studying him, trying to figure out what that statement was supposed to mean, coming from a man who had done nothing but impress, or had fought to impress, his family, in particular, his father.
What the three hadn't noticed was that they were, in fact, at the Black Rock, a site that stood just beyond the trees from where the trio stood. There, Shannon and Boone's argument had turned into a brawl, and it was obvious that Boone was fighting everything to not strike his sister. Sayid and Jack ran to break it up, followed by Kate.
"Hey!" Jack called as he ran to them. "Come on guys, we're not here to play pirates. Locke's depending on us."
"Trust me," Boone said, "when he finds out I told you, he's not going to be all that grateful."
"Yeah," Shannon chimed, "I'm surprised that he hasn't murdered you already. Strung up up like Ethan did-"
"Shannon!" Sayid said sharply.
Shannon looked down, and Boone looked away, embarrassed.
"Let's just go," Jack said, already exhausted from the trip.
As they walked closer to the hidden entrance of Black Rock, Jack lagged behind with Kate, who had been distancing herself from the group since they had started out.
"Brings back memories," Jack said quietly as he walked with her, "you sure you want to do this?"
Kate looked down at her shoes, counting her footsteps as she walked, trying to ignore Jack. Finally, she could bare his stare no longer.
"I'm fine," she whispered, and Jack sighed.
Half of Jack had really wanted her to say that she wanted to turn back, because in all truth, he wanted to turn back; but he knew that Locke's life depended on him, unless the man found a way out on his own.
"Okay," Jack said when they finally reached the hidden passageway, "this is how we're doing this. I'm going first, then Kate, then Shannon-" he looked at Boone and Sayid, "-and then you two. The last stairs are broken, so you'll have to jump."
None of the pack said anything as Jack nodded to himself and than bent, down, picking the handle of the wooden door up from its home in the sand.
"Wait," Sayid said, making them all turn, "maybe we should search the ship."
"The ship?" Jack repeated. "Why would we want to search the ship? We've never been in the ship, unless-"
He looked up at Boone to finish his statement.
"Sorry," Boone shrugged, "as many times as I've been out here, I've never see any ship, of any kind."
"And who's to say that Danielle has been where we have?" Sayid pointed out. "And most of us have been down there. We've searched the area, and never saw any dynamite."
Kate glanced at Jack.
"He has a point."
Jack looked down, and then nodded.
"All right," he agreed, and stood up.
A hole gave entrance to the ship, and Jack shone a flashlight from his pack inside before even thinking about entering. When he did, Kate held onto his arm until the very last second. Jack stood inside what seemed to be the lower deck of the boat, and waved his flashlight around slowly, examining the place.
Boxes took up most of the area. A shut closet was hidden in the shadows of one corner, and there was a staircase that was lit up by a tiny ray of sunlight. On the walls hung shackles, and dried blood decorated the rotten wood.
"It looks pretty stable," Jack said finally, loudly enough for those outside to hear, "we just need to be-"
Just as Jack was about to say 'careful' the roof beside him gave him, and Jack dove to the ground, dropping his flashlight, and something cracked underneath him once he hit the ground. The roof just barely missed him, but with all the dust that blew up with the fall, those outside couldn't tell.
"Jack!" Kate cried, her voice full of worry.
Jack was only able to cough as he tried to recover from hitting the ground hard, and he reached for his now dimmed flashlight to be able to see what he had fallen on. The site below him almost made Jack sick: a skeleton with a now cracked right arm.
"I'm fine," he called at last, and the remaining castaways outside sighed in relief, "the ceiling it just- gave in. The rest is fine."
"Are you all right?" Sayid called, either having not heard Jack, or not believing him, "we heard something crack."
"Oh," Jack said, realizing they must've meant the skeleton, "that wasn't me."
Jack rolled over, and stared at the wood above him, praying that it wouldn't give in as well as he tried to catch his breath.
"You mean there's someone in there with you?" Shannon's voice exclaimed, horrified.
"There was," Jack said thoughtfully, "maybe a hundred years ago."
Finally calm, Jack got to his feet, and made his way carefully towards the entrance, only to find it blocked by piles of wood and fallen debris. Why did this incident remind him so much of the cave in?
"It's caved in," Jack yelled over the wall, "you guys are going to have to find another way in."
"And how the hell are we going to do that?" Shannon shouted back, silence by what sounded like a nudge to the stomach.
Jack thought about it.
"Walk around," he said finally, "try and find a way to the upper deck. There's a staircase coming down. Be careful, it might be rotted. I'll check out the place. Sayid's right, if there's any explosives, they're in here. Looks like there's some kind of closet down here to, and another passageway. I'm going to look around, see if there's anything useful besides dynamite."
Everyone but Kate seemed fine with the plan.
"Jack, you're not staying in there alone!" She said, sounding like she was still worried for his safety.
"I'm fine," Jack said, looking down, "just go with Sayid."
"I'm going with Sayid!" Shannon said, immediately afterwards.
Jack sighed. The situation was helpless.
"Fine," he said, "then go with Boone."
"But Jack-" Kate tried desperately.
"Locke doesn't have much time, Kate," he reminded her, "just- go- and be careful."
Jack knew that Kate was looking down at the ground, regretting her answer before even saying it.
"All right."
Back outside, Sayid formed a plan, and soon, he and Shannon were taking one pathway around the ship, and Kate followed Boone down the other, trying to swallow the pit in her stomach and block out the voices in her head that told her that nothing good could come from this.
Author's Note: Aren't you guys proud? I have yet to really hurt Jack in this fic. I had it planned. Ideas from this fic ranged everywhere from Jack falling down the hatch to Jack getting kidnapped by pirates, but then I decided that I wanted to actually, you know, accomplish something for once in a fic. Hm..sounds like a good title.."Once In A Fic" Lol. Anyway, sorry for the wait, I'm sorta fighting writers block with this story, but I'm trying. I'll try and finish this story by Friday because I have dance recitals all weekend, so I'll be worn out, and my second favorite tv show, The Dead Zone( a truly awesome so- I highly recommend it) starts back next Sunday, so that's where my mind will be. Lately I've had this weird obsession with Anthony Michael Hall movies and such and well..I just have to say that I love him, he's a great actor, and anything he's in is worth watching. And that has nothing to do with my fic. Lol. I'm pleased that I got three(four?) reviewers back- thanks guys, I really appreciate it! And I'd write for just one reviewer- and have actually done that before. So don't worry, this story is getting finished.
Coming up next in "Forget Me Not":
Jack's plan works well as he and Kate get back together. Sayid learns some things about Boone, and the relationship between Shannon and Boone is tested. Who gets to cary the dynamite? Whoever guesses right gets to name a certain couple's child in my next post-island fic. Of course, I have to like it and agree and all which, most likely I will, unless it's an old fashion name.
speaking of which..
In my next post island fic, currently untitled(you know, I should just have a fic called 'Currently Untitled' give it some metaphorical meaning, and leave it at that- lol):
Sawyer deals with a personal stalker as Jack deals with problems with a former spouse.
I don't know when I will write this, but probably soon, because I'm really looking forward to doing it. I'm planning lots of stuff for it- and yes, Crazyhorsegirl88, the bunny is returning! In fact, I have lots of cute things planned with the bunny, especially Sawyer in the bunny. Hehe.. Sayid and Shannon will have cameos, and maybe even Alex as well. I think we'll be visiting Tennessee again in the fic, but I'm not sure. And yes, it will be J/K- or at least start out as such..muhaha. Nah, nothing that serious will happen..maybe not..aren't I evil?
Anyway, thanks so much for the reviews! You guys rock!
October Sky