Boone looked at him. "I don't feel like I should sit up," he said. "I feel kind of like I should never move again."
"I'm sure you do," Jack agreed. "But that's not really helping anyone. We need to try and get you mobile again, the longer you wait the harder it's going to get. Don't you wanna get out of this tent?"
"Well, yeah," Boone admitted.
"Okay, so, the leg's still bad and you're not gonna be walking on it for a while but I'm working on sorting out some crutches for you so you can..."
"Hop?" Boone finished, looking unimpressed. Jack gave him a rather doctor-like look. "Jack, I don't think I can hop."
"No, you can't," he agreed. "Not yet. That's why we're gonna start with sitting up."
Okay, Boone wasn't really into this plan. He wanted to get up, sure, but he had a feeling it was gonna hurt like hell. He was feeling better but that didn't mean he was feeling good yet.
"Look, Boone, you're gonna be okay, just co-operate with me, we'll get along just fine," Jack said.
Boone wanted to tell him how totally condescending that sounded but he really didn't have the energy right now. But Jack was a doctor and he knew about this stuff so Boone really knew that he should listen to him but he also knew that you should listen to your body and his body was asking him to never move again.
"You gonna talk to me or you just gonna lay there until I get bored and go away?" Jack asked him. "Which isn't happening by the way so I suggest we just get this over with."
"Okay, fine, whatever," Boone said.
Jack gave him a look. "I'm glad you're so enthusiastic about your recovery," he stated sarcastically.
"Can we just do this?" Boone asked.
Jack nodded. He leant down and checked Boone's chest wound. "It looks like it's holding together okay, we just have to be careful not to pop the stitches," he said.
"That sounds painful," Boone said.
Jack shook his head a little. "More inconvenient than anything," he assured him.
Boone looked at him. "Okay."
Jack gave him a smile. "Okay."
"I might fall down again," Boone warned.
"That's okay, I'll catch you," Jack told him. Boone gave him a smile. "Now, here's the plan. I'm gonna help you sit up and then we're gonna try and move back to over there so you have something to lean against."
"I have to move?" Boone asked. "You didn't say that, you just said sit up."
"You can do this Boone, okay?" Jack told him. "It's a couple of metres and I'm going to help you."
Boone glanced over. "That's like three metres," he said. "Maybe four."
"It's not four," Jack said. "Look, do you wanna lay there the rest of your life? Just get up."
"Okay, all right, you win," Boone said. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath which didn't hurt nearly as much as it used to so he guessed that was a good sign. He opened his eyes again and looked at Jack. "Let's do it then."
Jack gave him a smile and a nod and moved around, positioning himself behind Boone. "All right, on three, one, two, three."
Boone tried to sit up but he noted that Jack was really doing most of the work as he pulled him up and then supported him, resting Boone's back against his chest. The pain wasn't as bad as Boone was expecting but he figured that his pain threshold had really shot up a lot lately. A stubbed toe used to be agony but he doubted it would even register anymore. Which actually made Boone feel almost manly. But his head still wasn't entirely together and he was hit with another dizzy spell, causing him to close his eyes.
"Okay?" Jack asked.
"I'll let you know when everything stops spinning," Boone replied.
Jack shifted slightly behind him and then reached up an arm and gently stroked Boone's hair. "Just relax a minute, okay?" he told him. "Just breathe."
Boone nodded slightly. The dizzy spell passed but he didn't want to say anything, he didn't want Jack to move, didn't want him to stop playing with his hair. He could feel Jack's chest going up and down, feel his breath against his neck, and he wondered how long he could keep up the pretence of feeling out of it.
He felt Jack smile against him. "You ready?"
"Yeah, okay," Boone said reluctantly.
Jack moved away slightly but kept Boone's weight supported. Once again, Boone found Jack doing most of the hard work but he did manage to move himself along a little with his good leg. Jack stopped and slowly leaned him against a tree so that he could support himself. He leaned down to him.
"Dizzy?" he asked.
"I'm okay," Boone told him and then kind of wished that he'd lied so Jack would stroke his hair again.
Jack gave him a smile and sat down beside him. "Good," he said. "You did good there."
Boone gave him a look. "I didn't do anything."
"Don't cut yourself short, Boone," Jack told him. "You did good."
Boone smiled. "Thanks," he said. "I guess."
Jack sat in silence for a minute, staring ahead. "Something was pointed out to me," he said, not looking at Boone.
"What?" Boone asked.
"Well, it wasn't really pointed out to me but someone said something to me that made me realise something," Jack corrected.
Boone looked at him. "What?" he asked again, getting a little impatient.
Jack turned to face him. "I don't know anything about you."
Boone looked at him like he was an idiot. "What are you talking about, Jack? You know me."
Jack shook his head. "No, I don't," he said. "Not really. I know that in college you were a lifeguard and now you run a bridal company. I know that you have a stepsister called Shannon who you had sex with in Sydney." Boone cringed a little at that one, not very delicately put, Jack. "How old were you? When your parents got married?"
"Erm, I was ten and Shannon was eight," Boone said. "My mom married her dad twelve years ago."
"Twelve years?" Jack asked. Boone nodded. "So you've been siblings longer than you haven't been siblings," he stated.
Oh God, Boone thought. When you put it like that it sounded really, really wrong. And, okay, it was really, really wrong but he didn't want Jack to realise that. Boone glanced at Jack though and Jack clearly realised.
"You know, it's not as bad as it sounds, it's really, it's just, erm..." Boone attempted but really there was nothing he could say to defend it. He sighed. "Okay, you think I'm disgusting."
Jack looked at him. "No I don't."
"You do. You think I'm disgusting. You're disgusted," Boone insisted.
"Boone, I'm not, just shut up a second," Jack told him.
"Oh God, you so are," Boone said.
"I'm not," Jack repeated. "I guess I just figured you guys were older when your parents got married, I didn't realise you were still kids."
"You have to tell me an embarrassing story," Boone found himself saying suddenly.
Jack looked at him. "What?"
"You have to tell me a story that makes you cringe then we'll be even," Boone said.
Jack laughed a little. "Boone, I don't think that's how it works," he said.
Boone looked down. He was such an idiot, he always screwed stuff up. He should have just been honest from the beginning, he should have told Jack the whole story. If anyone knew that secrets got you nowhere it was Boone.
"I'm responsible for my father's death," Jack offered.
Boone looked at him, not sure where he was going with that. "What?"
"My father," Jack said. "He was a surgeon too, we worked together. He liked to drink, he had a problem. Anyway, one day, they paged him after he'd been drinking and he went into surgery regardless. His hands were shaking and he made a mistake. I went in there to try and fix it but it was too late, the patient died. And he tried to sweep it under the carpet, tried to make it go away like he always did. But I called him on it. And he got fired. And then he went to Australia and he drank himself to death because I took away the only thing he ever loved, I took away the thing that made him him." Jack looked at Boone. "I don't think that story was embarrassing so much as..." he trailed off.
"I think you did the right thing, Jack," Boone told him. "For what it's worth."
Jack gave him a little smile. "Thanks," he said.
"Is that why you were in Sydney?" Boone asked.
Jack nodded his head. "My mother asked me to bring my father home," he said. "And I couldn't even get that right."
"Jack, it's hardly your fault that we crashed here," Boone told him.
"No," Jack agreed. "But now I never get to lay everything between us to rest and I just, I really needed to do that. I needed it all to be over between us and now I'm stuck in this limbo between hating and acceptance." He looked at Boone. "I found the coffin but it was empty. I don't know what that means."
"It doesn't have to mean anything," Boone told him.
Jack nodded. "Maybe not," he agreed. "I just wish I could bury him so he'd be gone and I didn't have to wonder."
Boone kind of wished the same thing with his father. Not that his father was dead. Well, he could be for all Boone knew. But he knew about that longing for closure. Having an open ending was hell. If he knew where his father was and what he was doing then he could put the whole thing to rest and he wouldn't ever have to think about it again. But in reality he knew things weren't that easy. Any little bit of information that he'd find out about his father would just open up a whole other set of questions and he didn't want to start wanting anything from that man, even if it was just information. Sometimes it's better to be in the dark about things.
"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean," Boone said.
Jack looked at him. "You do?"
Boone nodded but didn't elaborate. He wasn't going to waste anymore time thinking about someone that didn't want him.
"So, tell me about your first kiss," Boone requested.
Jack smiled at him.