Jack looked up to see Kate standing over him. "I was wondering when you were gonna stop avoiding me."
"I wasn't avoiding you," Kate told him, but Jack noticed she wasn't meeting his eyes.
"You were avoiding me," Jack teased.
Kate looked at him. "Maybe a little," she admitted with a smile. She sat down next to him. "I just, I didn't know you were gay or anything."
"I'm not gay," Jack told her.
"Okay, bi, whatever," Kate said.
"I'm not bi," Jack said.
Kate raised her eyebrows at him. "But you're making out with, Boone right?" she asked.
"It's more than making out, Kate," Jack replied.
"Okay, don't want details," Kate told him.
"I mean that there's something behind the making out, Kate," Jack stated.
"Right, yeah," Kate said, seeming a little flustered. "Well, that's, that's cool for you guys."
Jack smiled at her. "Thanks," he said. "It is."
Kate nodded. "It must be nice to not be alone."
"Kate, none of us are alone, we're all in this together," Jack told her.
"Yeah but it's not quite the same thing, is it?" she stated. "Having someone, really having them, that's something else."
Jack nodded. And then he heard someone calling his name. Locke. He looked over and saw Locke coming towards him, blood staining his T-shirt. And he was carrying someone. He was carrying Boone. Jack tried not to fall apart.
Locke put Boone down and Jack got a proper look. It was bad. It was really bad. He didn't know where to start. Everyone was crowding around him and asking him things. This was worse than the crash, worse than trying to work triage, worse than trying to stop Boone from performing bad CPR. Jack willed himself not to cry, he couldn't afford to get teary now. He had to be able to see straight, he had to be able to think straight. He had to be a doctor.
So he switched it off, he shut it out, he let the medical knowledge take over. What he wouldn't give for a qualified ER assistant right now. He started giving orders to the people around him, handing out jobs, assigning roles. He prioritised, he dealt with things as they came. Punctured lung? Put in a chest tube. Check. Now he needed to stop the bleeding. There was a lot of bleeding. And Boone was looking pale underneath it all, he'd lost a lot of blood, he'd probably need a transfusion.
Jack wanted to count to five but he didn't dare, there wasn't time. This was Boone and there was no way he was taking so much as five seconds out from trying to save him, those five seconds could be crucial. He just had to do this, he had to deal with the fear and do it because there was no other option. Boone was not going to die.
He worked on stitching up Boone's chest and he could hear Boone muttering 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry' over and over. Jack leaned in to him.
"Why are you sorry, Boone?" he asked.
Boone didn't even acknowledge him, just kept repeating his apology under his breath. What little breath he had, the breathing didn't sound good. Jack looked into his eyes and he could tell he wasn't really there, he was barely conscious and Jack wasn't even sure if he knew he was there with him, talking to him, fixing him.
"Boone, don't be sorry," Jack said, fighting back his emotions more every second. "Boone, can you hear me? You have nothing to be sorry about."
There was no response from Boone. Jack reached out and held onto his hand, giving it a squeeze, hoping that Boone could feel it.
"I mean it," Jack told him. "I mean what I said. I'm not letting you die. I am going to save you. Can you hear me, Boone? You're going to be all right. You're not leaving me. You are not going to leave me, Boone."
Jack felt the tears coming and he fought to push them back. He couldn't do this right now, he couldn't afford to break down, he needed to stay strong, he needed to get Boone stabilised. He took deep breaths and focused his mind. He had to finish the stitches. He had to let go of Boone's hand and close up that chest wound.
"Hang in there, Boone. Everything's gonna be all right."
He gave Boone's hand one last squeeze and went back to sewing him up.
That was the easy part. Next on the list was Boone's leg. It was broken and it needed to be set. And it was going to hurt like hell. Jack had to do it quick and he had to do it right, he wasn't putting Boone through more than he had to. Sun gave Boone something to bite down on which seemed like such a futile thing to do in light of what Jack was about to do. But it was the best either one of them had to offer so it was going to have to do. Jack just hoped Boone could take it.
He did it fast but that didn't make it any easier for anyone. 'Hurt like hell' was an understatement and Jack could barely stand to watch. This was wrong, it was all wrong. Boone needed to be in a hospital, he needed to be anaesthetised, he deserved better than this. Jack tried to ignore Boone's agonised cries and concentrate on setting the leg which wasn't an easy task. But he did it, he did it because he had to, because there was no other option, he wasn't going to lose Boone.
Now it was time for the big one. Blood transfusion. Time to put those problem solving skills to work. How do you give someone a blood transfusion when you're stuck on and island in the middle of nowhere and you don't even have a needle? Jack was starting to think that he couldn't do this. But he also knew that he didn't have a choice so that made it slightly easier. He just needed a needle. And a blood donor. A blood donor would help too.
Sun helped with the needle situation, sea urchin being Jack's new favourite thing in the world. Now all he needed was some blood. Jack had blood and it was a likely match so really it was the least he could do. He set it all up and got it flowing. He held onto Boone's hand and watched as his blood became Boone's blood, his life became Boone's life. And it seemed to be working. Almost. The colour started to return a little but something wasn't right. The leg. Something wasn't right with the leg. Jack stood and stared at it, trying to work it out. He put out a hand to touch it but before he made contact he heard a voice.
"Messed myself up pretty bad, huh?"
Jack looked up to see Boone looking down at him. He smiled. "Hey."
"My leg hurts," Boone stated.
Jack nodded, moving up to Boone's head. "I know," he said. "I'm sorry."
"It fell on me," Boone mumbled, gazing at Jack, seemingly unable to fully focus.
Jack looked at him, confused. "What fell on you?"
"The plane," Boone stated. "The plane fell on me."
Jack closed his eyes and shook his head. "That was weeks ago, Boone," he stated, trying not to get upset. Boone didn't even know what was happening to him, his brain wasn't linking up right. That was a bad sign.
"The Beechcraft," Boone managed, sounding irritated.
Jack opened his eyes and looked at him. "What?"
"The Beechcraft fell on me," Boone told him.
"Boone, what are you talking about?" Jack asked, getting desperate. "What Beechcraft?"
"John wanted to open the hatch," Boone said, closing his eyes a little. Jack could tell that he was starting to fade again already.
"Hatch?" Jack asked. "What about the Beechcraft? What happened with the Beechcraft?"
"I was using the radio," Boone replied.
"Boone, listen to me, you need to tell me what happened," Jack stated. "I can't help you unless I know what I'm dealing with. What happened to your leg?"
"It all fell," Boone stated, staring blankly. "It all fell on me. My leg."
"It crushed your leg," Jack realised, looking down Boone's body. "It's broken because it's crushed."
This was not good. This was very, very bad. Jack had to do something fast. He had to stop the transfusion, if he kept pumping blood into Boone it was all just going to pool in his leg. He needed to fix the leg, then he could continue the transfusion. He just hoped Boone's body could last that long. He pulled the needle out of his arm and turned his attention back to Boone.
"Boone, can you still hear me?"
"Everything hurts," Boone mumbled.
"I know, I know it does, I'm going to make it better," Jack promised. "You have to hang in there, it's going to get better, okay?"
"I'm lucky my boyfriend's a doctor," Boone said wistfully, his eyes closing.
Jack couldn't help but smile. He nodded at Boone. "I'm going to have to work on your leg, I need to perform surgery."
Boone opened his eyes a little and looked at him. "You can't do that here," he slurred.
"I can, I can do it. I'm a doctor, I can do it," Jack insisted. "I'll get Sun back in here, she'll give me a hand, we're going to sort you out."
Boone's eyes opened and closed and his mouth moved as he tried to speak but nothing came out.
"Boone. Boone, come on, stay with, please, you have to stay with me, don't do this to me," Jack pleaded. Boone looked at him but it was unfocused and Jack doubted he could really see or hear him. "This is gonna be bad, okay? You're gonna have to stay still while I work though, okay? Boone, can you hear me? Tell me it's okay."
"Okay," Boone mumbled, but Jack doubted that he knew what he was saying.
"There's nothing I can give you, I don't have anything strong enough so you have to be tough," Jack told him. "You're gonna have to be really brave but I know that you can do it."
"I want to see Shannon before I die," Boone said.
Jack closed his eyes and fought back the tears again. None of it was going in, he didn't even know if Boone knew he was talking to him. He opened his eyes and refocused on Boone, blinking away the threat of tears. "You are not going to die," he told him. "You're not dying here. I'm not letting you. Just please try to be brave for me. You're doing really, really good but it's going to get worse before I can make it better and you have to be brave."
"I'm not brave," Boone said.
"Yes you are," Jack told him. "You're my hero."
Boone looked at him and Jack thought that he felt a connection for a second, he felt like he'd gotten through. But it was only for a second and then Boone closed his eyes and Jack knew he was going to be out for a while. He just pleaded with a god that he didn't believe in that Boone would stay out for the worst part of the surgery, but he knew that if anything brought people round fast it was pain, and Boone was about to have a whole lot of that. He squeezed Boone's hand and placed a kiss on his forehead. He allowed himself one more second to look at him but no longer. Time was precious. He needed to round up supplies. He needed to find Sun.
He turned off the emotions and got back to work.