"Hey," he said with a smile. "You okay?"
Boone nodded. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Jack replied in a tone that meant 'Why wouldn't I be?' "You shouldn't be walking around," he said.
Boone gave him a look. "Don't start that again."
"I missed you," Jack said suddenly.
Boone looked at him. "When?"
Jack moved down the hall to Boone and placed a hand on his hip, looking at him sleepily. "When I was gone," he said. "I missed you."
"Okay," Boone said. Jack hadn't been gone that long. "Where'd you go?" he asked.
Jack shrugged. "I went for a walk."
Jack moved his arm around Boone's back and rested his head on his shoulder. Boone looked down at him and got a whiff of his breath.
"Have you been drinking?" Boone asked.
"No," Jack replied, closing his eyes.
"Jack, I can smell it on your breath," Boone said.
Jack opened his eyes and moved back to stand up, looking at Boone. "I might have had a little."
Boone rolled his eyes. Jack wasn't sleepy, he was drunk. Or well on his way. "Real responsible, Jack," he said. "Where'd you get alcohol from?"
"I had some at the caves. Sawyer gave Kate the last of his alcohol when you were injured but I never used it so I still had it and today I figured, what the hell?" Jack explained.
"Did you drink it all?" Boone asked.
"No," Jack replied.
"Good, you saved some, we might need it for..." Boone trailed off at the guilty look on Jack's face. "What?"
"I didn't drink it all," Jack began. "But it's all gone."
"So what happened to it?" Boone asked.
"I shared it with someone," Jack admitted.
"Who?" Boone asked. He couldn't think of anyone on the island that Jack would consider a drinking buddy. Except Kate of course but she was here. Charlie maybe? Boone bet he liked a drink.
"Ana-Lucia," Jack replied. Boone just glared at him. Jack shrugged a little helplessly. "She's having a bit of a hard time, I figured she could use a drink. And I did kind of owe her one from the plane."
"She's having hard time?" Boone asked, looking at him incredulously. "Well, I'm sorry that her nearly killing my sister upset her so much."
"She feels bad about it," Jack offered. "I think. She didn't really mention it."
"So what did you talk about on your little date?" Boone asked.
Jack gave him a look. "Boone, it wasn't a date."
"What did you talk about?" Boone asked again.
Jack sighed. "I don't know. I asked how she was settling in."
"And?"
"She's not really," Jack replied.
"Good," Boone said.
Jack smiled at him. "I missed you."
"Shut up," Boone said even though his mind was going slightly mushy at the thought.
"I like you," Jack said. "I don't really like her. Well, I guess I do, as a friend. I don't really have a problem with her. Except that she might be a psychopath. But I don't know. She's all stalking around the jungle. What's with that?"
Boone just looked at him. Jack was a talkative drunk, total stream of consciousness. Which was actually kind of cute. "How much did you have to drink?" he asked.
Jack shook his head. "Not much," he replied. "Not enough to get drunk."
"That's debatable," Boone muttered.
"What did Shannon and Sawyer do while I was gone?" Jack asked.
"Not a lot," Boone replied. "They didn't go anywhere, they're both still here. I think they felt kind of bad that they made the only doctor have a breakdown."
"I didn't have a breakdown," Jack protested. "I should go check on them."
"Jack, I don't think that's such a good idea," Boone said.
"Why not?" Jack asked.
"Well, cos, I think you're a little tipsy," Boone replied.
"No I'm not," Jack said.
"You are a little," Boone stated. "And they really don't need to see that. They're fine, don't worry about them."
"I'm not drunk," Jack said.
"I said tipsy," Boone pointed out.
"I'm not that either," Jack insisted.
"Okay," Boone replied. "Why don't we just go sit down?"
"I'm tired, let's go to bed," Jack said.
"Okay," Boone replied.
They got to the pantry, which now seemed to have taken on the role of their bedroom, and Jack collapsed onto the cushions, staring up at the ceiling. He then turned his attention to Boone.
"I like you," Jack smiled.
"Yeah, you told me," Boone replied, easing himself onto the cushions and sitting next to Jack.
"I do though," Jack said.
"I like you too," Boone told him, trying his best not to look like he was humouring him.
"I like you the best," Jack said. "I don't like Ana-Lucia."
"For someone you don't like, you sure talk about her a lot," Boone pointed out.
"I can't help that she started flirting with me," Jack said.
Boone looked at him. "She flirted with you?"
"At the airport," Jack said. "In the bar. She was flirting with me. And I kind of figured 'what the hell' at the time. She seemed nice enough. And I hadn't had sex in a really long time. Like eight months. No, more that eight months. Maybe a year."
Boone raised his eyebrows. "You haven't had sex in a year?"
"Well I've been divorced for eight months," Jack pointed out. "And when I was married we weren't really together so it was a while before that." His face changed slightly as he remembered something. "I know when it was. The last time with me and Sarah. It's more than a year."
"You remember the last time?" Boone asked.
"Well something happened and then we didn't have sex anymore," Jack said.
Boone looked at him. "What happened?"
"I'm not drunk enough to tell you," Jack replied, closing his eyes.
"Why do you have to be drunk to tell me?" Boone asked.
"I don't," Jack replied. "But I'm still not gonna." His breathing started to become rhythmic and Boone thought he'd fallen asleep when he suddenly opened his eyes. "When was the last time you had sex?" Boone just gave him a pointed look. "Oh, right, you had sex with your sister in Sydney," Jack said.
Boone gave him a look. "Thanks for repeating that so bluntly at every opportunity you get."
"When was the last time before that?" Jack asked.
"I was kind of seeing this girl back in LA," Boone replied.
Jack looked at him. "You have a girlfriend?"
Boone shook his head. "She's not my girlfriend," he said. "She's just, y'know, someone I hung out with and stuff. We weren't dating or anything."
"You get around a bit," Jack observed. Boone gave him an amused smile. "Do you think she's sat in LA pining after you right now?"
"I really doubt it," Boone replied. "She's probably moved on to the next guy at the tennis club by now."
"I'd pine after you if you left me to go fetch your sister and then wound up having sex with her and then your plane crashed and you ended up on an island in the South Pacific with polar bears and stuff," Jack said. "South Pacific was a musical, wasn't it?" Boone just looked at him, not sure what to say. "Aren't you gonna lay down?" Jack asked.
"Jack, it's half past five in the afternoon," Boone pointed out.
"Is it?" Jack asked.
"Yeah," Boone nodded.
"Then how come I'm so sleepy?" Jack asked.
"I think the alcohol might have something to do with that," Boone suggested.
"I'm not drunk," Jack repeated, closing his eyes.
"Okay then," Boone said.
"I'm not," Jack insisted. "I'm just gonna have a quick nap. Wake me up in an hour."
"Okay," Boone agreed.
"Then I'll check on Shannon and Sawyer," Jack continued. "Just one hour."
Boone smiled and watched as Jack muttered something under his breath and fell into sleep. He did make a cute drunk. And maybe Jack kind of needed this, just cut loose and relax for a while. There was no way Boone was waking him up unless there was some kind of emergency though. The guy didn't tend to rest as much as he should and Boone guessed it was sensible for him to get his sleep in when it was quiet like this. They seemed to be in-between catastrophes right now so Jack at least had good timing. And Boone actually felt surprisingly all right about the whole Ana-Lucia thing. Okay, so he kind of hated her, but Jack wasn't interested, Jack liked him as he kept pointing out, so Boone was just going to concentrate on liking Jack back and forget about everybody else. Jack had told him before that there were only two people in their relationship and right now Boone felt inclined to believe him.