You Don't Know Jack II
By Elektra
Rating: T
Summary: What if the Jack that boarded Oceanic Airline Flight 815
wasn't Jack Sheppard? A familiar scene with a different face…
For once, she is the pursuer and not the quarry. He moves like a shadow constantly darting out of her sight.
'For an old guy he's in really good shape.' Kate thinks as she spots the back of his gray head.
Kate breaks through the thicket and sees him standing still. He holds out something for her to see, a piece of white tape with the letter "T" marked on it.
"Charlie might not be the one leaving them." Kate remarks. "If Ethan knows that we're behind him, he could be setting up a dummy trail. Take off in one direction, double-back on his own footprints."
Jack nods with approval at her assessment. The same thought occurs to him but he's committed to this direction. Besides, Locke is checking out the other trail. Not that Jack believes that wannabe Walter Mitty will find anything, but you won't hear him saying anything about it.
Instead, he focuses on his favorite little outlaw and says, "You're just full of surprises. So where did you pick up the tracking skills, Kate? Was that before or after you were on the run?"
"I'm trying to help Jack," she answers, some what annoyed.
"You know what might help?" He continues, "A little honesty. Just give me something real, anything."
"You remind me of my dad sometimes." She begins.
'What everyman wants to hear from a woman,' Jack thinks sourly.
"He was in the army. Ranger Battalion. We were stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington State. We'd go hiking together. One day we spent eight hours tracking deer. Being in the woods, it was like, it was like his religion."
"That was real." She adds. Leaning in a bit she asks, "Anything you want to share…soldier?"
'Oh, she's good,' he thinks.
Suddenly, he jerks his head in one direction. Something catches his attention, a noise that he alone can hear perhaps. Only her years of being on the run gives Kate the skills she needs to keep up with him. Rain begins to pour, making things worse.
"Jack, where are you going? Jack?" He disappears again.
Kate frantically searches for clues to where he went but she may have lost him for good this time. Time passes slowly as the rain makes it nearly impossible to find her way. She trips on something hard and turns her head around to get a good look at it. Kate barely manages to stifle a scream as she looks into a pair of dead eyes.
"OH MY GOD! OHMYGOD!" she screams.
She pushes down panic that threatens to overwhelm her and forces herself to crawl over to the body. Tentatively, she checks for a neck pulse. There is a sickening looseness and she realizes his neck has been broken.
'He's dead. Jack killed him. Jack killed Ethan. Why did Jack kill Ethan?' She wonders.
She knows though. Kate is no stranger to violence or death and the one thing she's sure of when she looks into Ethan's surprised dead eyes is that he has underestimated Jack.
Kate gets up on shaky legs and begins again to look for Jack. The rain stops suddenly and she hears him cry out, "CHARLIE!"
She runs towards the voice and finds him standing almost on his toes. In his arms is what is surely the dead body of Charlie. A rope holds the younger man up, tautly by the neck.
"You've got to cut him down!" He shouts.
Without a word Kate starts climbing a tree.
"Hold on Charlie, hold on there," he pleads.
Kate pulls a knife out and tries sawing at the rope. "I can't reach," she shouts. "Pull him over to me!"
Finally she cuts him down. Jack immediately begins CPR.
"He's not breathing. C'mon breathe, Charlie. C'mon, breathe. C'mon," He chants.
Kate starts crying, call out Jack's name over and over, as if to halt the madness that is starting to take over.
"C'mon. C'mon."
"Jack, Jack stop, he's not..."
Jack stops, stricken with anguish. Kate comes over to console him.
"It's okay, it's okay."
Jack pushes her away. "No, no! Not this time! I'm not going to lose Charlie again!"
"Jack, Jack," she plead, once more trying to stop him.
Jack starts thumping Charlie's chest again. "C'mon. C'mon."
Suddenly, Charlie gasps and begins to breathe.
"Breathe deep, breathe deep. You're okay," Jack murmurs.
Darkness has fallen and everyone sits at the campfire quietly going over the calamitous events of the day. All except Boone and Locke who are probably still searching for Claire and Charlie who has fallen completely silent.
Kate watches Jack's frustrated attempts to get Charlie to open up. The broken man stares into the fire either unaware or deliberately ignoring the other man. Finally, Charlie mutters something, but the disturbed look on Jack's face tells Kate that it wasn't what he was hoping to hear.
Jack stands up to leave. Kate sees that his knee is bothering him from all the stress he's put on it. She also sees something in his eyes that she's never seen before. There's an undeserved hurt there, a defeat she sees that tears into her heart.
He limps away, shoulders stooped in dejection and she darts her way up the path to catch him. Gently, she grasps his arm to get his attention. Jack whips around to face her, challenging her with those hard, dark eyes of his.
As fearsome as that gaze is, she doesn't back down. Instead she explains in a steady voice, "let him be, Jack. He needs time."
She watches the change in his eyes and sees the pain ebb away leaving only heavy longing. Her hand trails down his arm and grasps his hand. She gives it a tiny squeeze and pleads, "Just give him a little time. He'll come back to us."
She doesn't so much hear his sigh as feel it. He squeezes her hand; a gesture of concession, then lets it go. The corner of his mouth forms something less than a smile and he replies, "Yeah, sure. You betcha."
The End
Disclaimer: I write for fun, not profit and ABC, Disney and Bad Robot, own 'Lost', not me. The SciFi Channel, ShowTime and Gekko Film Corp own Stargate: SG1.
A/N: Finally, an update! Sorry it took so long. These stories are harder to write than I first imagined. As for this chapter, I've rewritten it many times and finally decided that if I didn't post it now, I would never post it.
Imzadi: I've been trying to write one with Jack Bauer but it's coming along slowly. The next chapter is a bit on the silly side, I hope no one minds…
Lady: I'm not familiar with Profiler's Jack, but I will check him out. Thanks for the kind review and as you can see I'm definitely continuing.
Jack the Ripperologist: So, Tumblety? Or Barnett? Your guess is probably better than mine…
Do I think Oceanic Flight 815 is a time machine? After watching the 1st and 2nd episodes of the new season, I've decided 815 is more a great big coincidence machine, but we'll see soon enough I hope!
Thank you all for the reviews and please come back for more.