"You look like a kid in a candy store," Kate said, coming up behind him.
He looked up and smiled at her. "Let's just hope I don't ever need to use any of this," he replied.
Kate nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think we've really had enough blood spilt around here for a while."
Jack stood up. "Yeah, we could do with a little bit of calm around here."
"I don't like calm," Kate said. "There's something very suspect about it."
"Maybe that's because you spend your life waiting for the storm," Jack suggested.
"Maybe that's because I have to," Kate replied.
"The secret life of Kate Austin, huh?" Jack said, walking towards the sofa.
"You had your chance to..."
"Never mind, Kate," he dismissed. "I don't even care. It doesn't matter." He sat down on the sofa and she hovered over him, looking almost awkward. "What?"
Kate shook her head but still didn't move. "So did you ever work out what that stuff was?" she asked. "The stuff in the bottles, the injections."
Jack shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "I don't recognise anything on the bottle and there's really no way for me to tell without doing some tests that I can't perform here."
"Right," Kate said, nodding a little. She sighed and sat down next to him. "Do you really think there's a sickness?"
"No," Jack replied simply.
"That's it?" she asked.
"No one's gotten sick, Kate," Jack stated. "Not one person. There are no grounds whatsoever to believe that there is some kind of disease on this island."
"Except that it said quarantine on the inside of the door," Kate pointed out.
"Yeah, so that people like us would sit in here like lab rats and press a stupid button every 108 minutes," Jack replied.
"And the French woman, she said that her crew got sick, that they had to be put down," Kate continued.
"The French woman's crazy," Jack said. "And that's probably the reason she killed them."
"But she wasn't crazy then," Kate argued. "She's crazy because she's been alone for sixteen years."
"All due respect, Kate, but how do we know that?" Jack asked. "She could have been as crazy as that the day she got here. We don't know anything about her and personally I'm not going to be putting a whole lot of faith in anything she says. I don't see any illness, I don't see any others, she says that monsters don't exist but there's something out there. So far the only thing she's been right about is the dynamite and you have to be pretty crazy to carry that stuff around without the proper precautions."
Kate looked at him for a beat. "I wouldn't have pegged you for someone who believed in monsters either," she said.
Jack sighed. "Security system?" he asked. "You buy that?"
Kate smiled suddenly. "You saw that black smoke like I did, Jack," she said. "What do you think it is?"
Jack shook his head. "That could have been anything."
"Like what?" Kate pressed.
Jack shrugged. "Bugs."
Kate laughed. "Bugs?" she asked. "Jack, not even you buy that one."
"I don't know what it was, Kate," Jack admitted. "But I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for all this."
"Right," Kate nodded. "You just can't think of one."
The timer started beeping. Kate stood up.
"Isn't Locke in there?" Jack asked.
Kate shook her head. "He went for a walk."
"Where to?" Jack asked.
"Why are you looking so suspicious?" Kate asked. "He just went for a walk."
She headed into the other room. Jack got up and followed her.
"Did he take anything with him?" Jack asked.
Kate looked at him. "I don't know," she replied. "Just his pack." She typed in the code.
"What was in it?" Jack continued.
Kate pressed 'execute' and the timer reset. She straightened up and looked at Jack. "What do you think he's going to do?"
"I don't know," Jack replied. "But I wish there was one person around here that I didn't have to ask that question over every time they were out of sight." He turned and headed back to the living quarters. He heard Kate follow him.
"I got a feeling that was a dig at me," she said.
Jack turned around to face her. "It wasn't a dig at anyone," he replied. "It's just a general observation."
"Yeah, well, no one asked you to take on everything," she stated.
"Yes they did, Kate," he insisted. "Everyone did. They gave me this stupid responsibility that I never asked for and now I have to worry about everyone all the time. I have to make sure everyone's safe and everyone's intentions are good and no one's screwing anyone over. I have to make sure that everyone gets along in one big happy family, I have to make sure that they're all safe and that they can all sleep at night and you know what, Kate? I'm sick of it." Kate just stared at him, clearly a little taken back by his outburst. "I don't want to be here right now. I don't want to sit in this stupid hatch and work out what pressing that button does. I don't want to understand everything that's going on on this island. I just want to go spend some time with my boyfriend because he's pretty pissed off with me right now because all I do is leave him on his own." Jack took a breath and sighed. He shook his head a little and sat down on the sofa again.
Kate looked at him and then walked over and joined him, her movements careful and gentle. "So why don't you go be with him?" she asked. "I can be button pusher for a while."
Jack shook his head. "There are things that need sorting out here and I'm going to sort them out," he replied. "I might not like my post all the time but I'm not going to abandon it."
"You could take the afternoon off," she suggested.
"The sooner I get it over with the sooner I can go back to the caves full time," Jack said. He looked around. "It's so ironic, him sitting in all that dirt and I'm in this nice clean environment."
"So bring him here," Kate suggested.
Okay, why hadn't Jack thought of that one before. Sure, Boone was still very much on crutches but he could actually move around on them without Jack's help now. He still liked Jack to help him but Jack had a feeling that was more to do with getting him to touch him than it was about keeping steady. Jack and Boone were just getting to the hot and heavy part of their relationship and then they had to cut off physical contact pretty much altogether. But Boone was getting better everyday and things might have been starting up again had Jack actually managed to be around more lately.
"I could try," Jack said. "It's kind of a long way to come on crutches but I could see how he feels about it. It does make sense to have him here, it would make a better infirmary than that makeshift tent."
Kate smiled at him. "See, feeling better already," she said.
Jack gave her a weary smile back. "Yeah, sorry about that."
Kate shook her head. "Everyone needs to vent, even the leader guy," she said. "In fact, especially the leader guy."
"Things haven't been easy lately," he admitted. "Things haven't really been easy since a plane fell on my boyfriend."
"I've never heard you call him that before," Kate told him. "And you said it twice in the last conversation."
"Well, maybe that means I'm ready to be a grown-up and have a relationship then," he smiled.
"You seem pretty grown-up to me, Jack," she told him.
Jack shrugged. "I don't think I ever really felt like a grown-up my whole life," he said. "And yet I kind of feel like I never really had a childhood either."
Kate smiled almost wistfully. "Tell me about it."
Jack looked at her and wanted to ask her what happened. He wanted to know what her childhood was like, how she ended up the way she was, whatever way it was that she had ended up, Jack wasn't even sure he knew. He had a feeling they had some things in common but he also had a feeling that he'd never know what they were.
"I should finish sorting the supplies so that I can get back," he said.
"Okay," she replied.
He stood up and walked back over to the supply cupboard.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
When he finally got back to camp that night he found Boone sat by a fire, concentrating on some book in his hands. He walked over and sat down next to him.
"Hi," he said, placing a kiss on Boone's cheek.
"Hey," Boone smiled back.
"What you got there?" Jack asked.
"Puzzle book," Boone replied, holding it up.
"Where'd you get that?" Jack questioned.
"John brought me it, said he found it in the hatch," Boone replied. "Said maybe it would help with the boredom which, by the way, it so is," he said. "I just wish I was smarter so I could do more of these clues."
Jack looked at him. "Locke was here?"
"Yeah," Boone shrugged, concentrating on the puzzle.
"And he brought you that?" Jack continued.
"Yeah," Boone replied, sounding distracted.
"That bastard," Jack blurted.
Boone looked at him. "What?"
Jack looked him in the eye. "Boone, I don't want you to trust him, okay?"
Boone looked confused. "Jack, what are you..."
"Boone, please," he said. "I don't want you to trust him."
"But I do trust him," Boone said. "He's not a bad guy, Jack. I don't know what everyone seems to have against him."
"You mean apart from the fact that he almost got you killed?" Jack questioned.
"How many times do I have to tell you that wasn't his fault?" Boone asked.
"Boone, just..." Jack closed his eyes and sighed. He looked at Boone again. "He's trying to use you because you're very easy to use," he explained.
Boone looked offended. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Boone..."
"Are you using me?" Boone asked.
Jack looked at him. "If I have to answer that then we don't have much a relationship going on here," he stated.
Boone looked away. "He's not a bad guy," he said quietly. "He does some things that are questionable, okay, but they're not bad things."
"Boone, I can't risk questionable right now," Jack told him. "And there is no way I am risking you with anyone or anything that's even slightly questionable."
Boone looked up at him with this hopeful look in his eyes and Jack couldn't help it, he leaned forward and kissed him. Boone put a hand up to Jack's face and pulled him closer and as they fell into a familiar kiss, Jack couldn't think of anything else he wanted but to be with Boone and explore every inch of him. But due to Boone's injuries that was kind of out right now so he'd have to settle for kisses and the feel of Boone's hand on the side of his face and then Boone's other hand landed on his thigh and he had to remember that they were still rather in public. He pulled away and gave Boone a smile that was mirrored right back at him.
"I want you to come to the hatch with me," Jack told him.
Boone looked at him. "Now?"
"In the morning," Jack replied.
"But I can't walk," Boone pointed out.
"No but I think you got the hopping down now," Jack said with a smile.
Boone smiled back but he was looking dubious. "I don't know that I can go that far. I haven't even left camp on them yet. All I do is sit here all day and move from the tent to here and stare into the fire. Which might be a little easier to bear if I had marshmallows to roast. I mean, really, what's a campfire without marshmallows?"
Jack smiled at him. "You can do it." Boone looked as if he was about to argue. "I'm your doctor and I'm telling you you can do it."
Boone rolled his eyes a little. "I'll try."
"Thank you," Jack said. He looked at the puzzle book in Boone's hand. "So, you need any help with that?" he asked.
Boone smiled and looked down. "Okay, let's see," he said, scanning the clues. "Five across, move without attracting notice, four letters."