No one was seriously hurt. In fact the amount of blood covering their clothes nowhere near matched the ratio of small cuts and grazes covering them. So the blood wasn't theirs, Boone concluded. The blood probably belonged to the others.
Walt wasn't talking. Walt hadn't said a single word since he'd come back. He didn't look that bad, he had some blood on him but no injuries. He had sat down and not moved, not even looked around, just stared into space. Jack said he was in shock, he just needed some rest, needed to feel safe. Michael was sitting over him while he slept, watching his every unconscious twitch like he'd placed the boy under a microscope. Boone could hardly blame him.
"They seem okay, all things considered," Kate said as she walked up to Boone, wiping her hands on a rag.
"What's all things considered?" Boone asked. "We have no idea what happened."
"I don't know," Kate shrugged. "I think we won though."
"What does that even mean?" Boone asked. "If we killed other humans then I don't really think we're winners."
Kate looked at him, something resembling guilt passing over her features. "Sometimes it's a case of you or them. Sometimes you have to do things you don't like in an act of self-preservation."
She sounded like she was talking from experience but Boone figured she was trying to justify her fugitive roots more than what happened in the jungle. Whatever that was. He'd get it out of Shannon later.
"Anyway, I'm gonna get cleaned up properly," she said, giving Boone a little smile before walking past him.
When Jack had finally assured himself that everyone was doing okay he went to join Boone in the other room, sitting silently down next to him on the sofa and idly biting at his thumb nail. Boone turned to look at him.
"You okay?"
Jack looked at him but didn't answer straight away, he just stared at Boone. "Yeah," he said finally, and not at all convincingly.
"Everyone's all right," Boone pointed out, though he wasn't so sure of that fact himself.
"Physically," Jack agreed.
Boone nodded. "You know what happened yet?"
Jack shook his head. "I'll wait until tomorrow, then I'll try and get it out of them."
"Right," Boone said. "Cos communication's important."
"Please don't start with me right now," Jack requested.
"I wasn't starting," Boone said. "It was an observation."
"Sure it was," Jack muttered, turning away again.
Boone looked at him. "Why do you keep acting like this?"
"Because I'm stuck on the island from hell," Jack stated, turning back to look at him.
"I'm stuck there too," Boone pointed out. "I don't take it out on you." Jack sighed and closed his eyes. "And I offered to help you relax," Boone added.
Jack looked at him again. "You offered me sexual favours, Boone," he stated. "Yeah, that's great, that's just what I need."
"I don't have a whole lot else to offer you," Boone stated.
"If you really think that's true then why are you even bothering with me?" Jack asked. "I think it's pretty clear that I don't put out."
"What's your issue with sex?" Boone asked him.
"I don't have an issue with sex," Jack defended.
"You totally do," Boone stated. "You're having major issues with it." Jack just looked at him. "Just tell me."
"Why does everything has to be about sex?" Jack asked.
Boone shook his head. "It doesn't. But you're making a big deal out of stuff that isn't a big deal."
"No, Boone, that would be you," Jack retorted. "You brought it up."
"Do you know what? Never mind. It doesn't matter," Boone dismissed.
They sat in silence for a minute and Boone wondered if he was being foolish pursuing the issue. He knew that Jack was new to the whole same sex relationship thing but he had a feeling Jack's views on sex reached a lot further back. By the sounds of it he hadn't had many girlfriends and he hadn't been so interested in dating. That could have been because he was a repressed closet case his whole life but Boone didn't think that was likely. Jack wasn't acting like this was a liberating experience. In fact Jack seemed to be trying to hold onto his old life with everything he had. So either he was still in denial or he simply wasn't into guys. Boone sighed. He hoped Jack fell somewhere in-between those two categories.
"I meant what I told you last night," Jack said.
"I meant it too," Boone replied.
"I'm just making some adjustments," Jack continued. "The problem's with me, not you."
"That's what I just said, isn't it?" Boone pointed out.
Jack looked at him and almost smiled. "I guess in a way you did," he admitted. "But don't try and generalise stuff, it's complicated."
Boone nodded. "Okay," he agreed. "I'm not trying to rush you, I don't care how long it takes. I guess I just figured you were more into it, that's all."
"I'm into it," Jack told him. "And I'm open to it. But the timing's totally off right now. There's too much going on, I can't even think straight, I can't..." He shook his head in frustration.
"Jack, it's okay, I said it's okay," Boone reminded him. "You're gonna give yourself an aneurysm, you know that?"
Jack smiled a little but it was a tired smile. "I just need things to calm down around here. Everything seemed to be going okay and then there was the Beechcraft thing, the hatch, Desmond and his stupid execute button, the raft people came back, Shannon got shot, the tail end survivors, Walt being taken, some battle with the others that I'm not privy to..."
"Yeah, it's been quite eventful," Boone agreed. "I guess we just have to see what's round the corner."
"That's the part I'm dreading," Jack admitted.
"At least you can do stuff and be useful," Boone commented. "I'm stuck hobbling around this stupid hatch."
"I'm starting to wish I was a little less useful," Jack said. "Then maybe I could get some peace." He smiled a little to himself. "Do you know how excited I was when I thought Libby was a doctor?" He shook his head. "She's got some medical knowledge, she can assist, but it's always going to come down to me. And I'm a spinal surgeon. It's been years since I've done general medicine."
"You seem to be doing okay," Boone told him.
"I guess it comes back to you," Jack admitted. "I guess it never really leaves you."
"I can't imagine having a job like that," Boone said. "Your profession is like 'hero'."
"Boone, how many times? I'm not a hero," Jack insisted.
"You know what I mean," Boone replied.
"If my father wasn't a doctor I don't think it would ever have occurred to me," Jack admitted. "It wasn't like it was my life dream, it was just expected of me."
"Do you ever regret it?" Boone asked. "Do you ever wish you did something else?"
Jack looked thoughtful. "I don't know what else I would do."
Boone nodded. He understood that all too well. He didn't have a clue what he'd be doing if his mother hadn't offered him the position in her company. He never really had a choice in the matter, or at least he never felt like he had one. And even though part of him wanted to stay in New York, not just for himself but for Shannon, he never seriously entertained the notion for a minute. You didn't refuse Sabrina Carlyle. Boone knew better than that.
"I have really bad bedside manner," Jack said. "And I don't like talking to patients. I don't like talking to people all that much at all. I used to concentrate on the treatment, I used to block the patient out, I didn't like thinking of them as real people. Sarah was the first one I really saw as a person. That was my dad's fault."
Boone nodded. He never knew what to say when Jack brought Sarah up. When Boone asked about her he tended to get mad but he still kept bringing her up on his own.
"I don't like weddings," Boone said. "I especially don't like rich people's weddings. It's amazing how someone with so much money can make such a special occasion so tacky."
Jack smiled and nodded his head. "I got married in Hawaii," he said. "I don't think it was tacky. I didn't really have anything to do with it quite honestly. I just showed up."
"At least you showed up," Boone commented, hoping he wasn't pushing his luck.
Jack nodded again. "Yeah, I showed up," he agreed. "I sometimes think she wished I didn't though."
Boone looked at him. "Do you ever wish you didn't?"
"I guess you regret everything at least once, right?" Jack shrugged.
"I guess," Boone admitted.
Jack turned to face him. "Who was the love of your life? The one that everyone's always gonna be compared to."
"Her name was Sapphire," Boone said, his head suddenly swimming with long dormant memories.
"You break up with her or did she break up with you?" Jack asked.
"She broke up with me," Boone replied.
"You ever regret it?" Jack asked.
"Her breaking up with me?" Boone asked. "I didn't really get a whole lot of say in the matter."
Jack gave him a look. "The relationship," he stated. "Do you ever regret the relationship? Do you regret getting that close to someone?"
"You regret everything at least once, right?"