"I'll gladly leave," Shannon volunteered.
"Okay, you're out," Jack told her. "Take Sayid with you."
Shannon looked at him. "What? But what about my stitches?"
"They're fine," Jack assured her. "I go down to the beach everyday to give Sawyer his meds, I'll just call in on you while I'm down there."
"So I can really leave?" she asked, sounding excited.
"You can really leave," Jack told her. He scanned the room. "Next on my list is those two," he said, gesturing towards Locke and Eko.
"Play nice, Jack," Boone warned him.
"I don't trust either of them and I don't want them here," Jack said.
"You gonna go over there and tell them that?" Boone asked. "Cos they look kind of like they'd kill you in your sleep if you did."
"Don't worry, you'll protect him won't you, Boone?" Shannon asked.
"Boone?" Jack asked, giving her a look. "Sleeps like a log, he wouldn't know I was gone 'til morning. Mid morning."
"I'm not that bad," Boone protested.
"You are and you know it," Jack told him, turning back to the room. "Okay, I think Walt should stay around for a while, he still hasn't said a single word. He nods, he shakes his head, he shrugs, he gets the point across, he's just not willing to talk."
"Kid seems like he's had a bit of a rough time," Shannon commented.
Jack nodded. "I don't envy him, that's for sure." He sighed. "So that's Michael and Walt that can stay."
"What about Kate?" Shannon asked. "She keeps skulking around here."
"She's hiding from Sawyer," Jack replied. "Can't say I blame her."
"What did he do?" Shannon asked.
"I don't know," Jack said, shaking his head. "I bet it wasn't very gentlemanly."
"That's for damn sure," Shannon agreed. "So, you gonna throw her out?"
"I'll have a word with her, see if I can drop some hints," Jack replied.
"You're so spineless, aren't you supposed to be leader hero guy?" Shannon commented. "Go lead, kick their asses out."
"Shannon, he's not spineless," Boone defended.
"Oh shut up you stupid love struck puppy, what the hell do you know? You're hardly impartial," Shannon bit back.
"All right, calm down everyone," Jack said. "This isn't my place, I can't just throw people out, Shannon. I also can't leave so I'd just appreciate a little bit of privacy."
Shannon smirked at him. "Why? What do you wanna do?"
"I just don't want to feel like I'm running the island version of the Hilton down here," Jack replied. "And why the hell are there four people in the lab? Shifts are for two people only, I don't see where it says 'bring all your friends.'"
"Yeah, but what do you specifically want to do?" Shannon pressed, looking very proud of herself behind that suggestive look.
"Okay, Shannon, you're officially the first person I'm throwing out, pack your bags," Jack told her. "And tell Sayid."
"Okay, doctor, whatever you say," Shannon replied, still giving him that look. "I hope you and Boone have fun tonight when you're done with your hissy fit."
"I'm not having a hissy fit, Shannon," Jack informed her.
"Stop saying stuff back, she shuts up," Boone advised him.
"Yeah, you keep looking out for him, Boone," Shannon smiled. "It's so sweet," she added in a baby voice, turning and making her way towards her things.
Jack turned to face Boone. "Seriously, twelve years and you've never killed her?"
Boone shrugged. "She wasn't always like that."
"She was worse?" Jack ventured.
Boone smiled and shook his head. "She could be the worst kind of spoilt brat when we were growing up, don't get me wrong. What Shannon wanted, Shannon got, one way or another. But she had a gentle side too. She could actually be pretty sweet. Not to me or anything, not really. She made it her mission in life to make me suffer I think. She switched constantly between making my life a misery and trying to make me blush. She was very good at doing both."
"She still is," Jack commented.
"She's losing her touch," Boone said, giving him a little smile that made Jack melt a bit inside. "Seriously though, why are you having what is not a hissy fit?"
Jack shook his head. "It's not a hissy fit."
"That's what I said," Boone pointed out.
Jack took a step closer to him. "Maybe I just want you to myself."
Boone smiled again but it was almost a shy smile, like when you pay someone a compliment they're not expecting. "So you're just gonna throw everyone out and have your way with me?"
Jack found himself smiling then. "I was gonna make it sound more romantic than that but sure."
"So you were gonna sweet talk me?" Boone asked.
"Something like that," Jack agreed.
"How would that go?"
Jack was about to tell him that now really wasn't the time but Boone gave him big puppy dog eyes and pressed his oh-so-kissable lips into a very hard to resist pout and Jack was powerless to argue. He took another step towards Boone so that they were both out of the doorway.
"Okay, let's see," he began, looking thoughtful. "Well, you're very good-looking."
"How so?" Boone asked.
Jack gave him a look but Boone played it back with an all too angelic look of his own and Jack sighed. "Your eyes, your eyes are just gorgeous, they're so intense, I could just stare at your eyes all day," he stated. "And your cheekbones are to die for. And when you get all flushy like that, when your cheeks are all rosy, I love when that happens," he said, enjoying the way Boone was blushing more as he spoke. "And your lips..." Jack stared at Boone's lips, struggling to form some kind of coherent thoughts, let alone convert them to speech. "Your lips are just begging to be kissed all the time. Every time I look at you you're just taunting me, it's drives me crazy. They're just perfect kissing lips. They just make me wanna..."
"Okay, I'm outta here," Shannon announced, coming into the hall, Sayid in tow and carrying all the bags, Shannon having insisted that he bring all her stuff to the hatch in the first place.
Boone made an exasperated noise. "Oh my God, are you kidding me Shannon?" he exploded. "How do you do it? You've been doing it to me my whole life. Do you have a crystal ball? A sixth sense or something?"
Shannon just looked at him. "What the hell are you going on about, bonehead?"
Boone sighed. "Just get out of here."
"Hey, Jack, do you wanna check my wound again before I leave?" Shannon asked. "Just to make sure I'm not gonna die on the way back or anything."
"You're not gonna die, Shannon," Jack told her wearily.
"More's the pity," Boone muttered.
"Oh please, I bet you kept vigil at my bedside when I was unconscious," Shannon scoffed.
"Maybe I would have done if I could get anywhere near it," Boone replied, throwing a look in Sayid's direction and Jack could tell this wasn't going to end well but he so wasn't about to get involved.
"Yeah, well, ditto for when a plane fell on you," Shannon spat back, throwing a look at Jack.
"Just go back to your love tent, Shannon," Boone told her.
"Why? Do you wanna get in the pantry?" Shannon asked.
"Shannon, perhaps it is time we should go," Sayid suggested gently. Jack thought he was a very brave man.
"Shut up, Sayid, you don't get the game," Shannon told him. "One of us has to back down first. One of us meaning Boone."
"Oh grow up, Shannon," Boone complained.
"You give?" Shannon asked, giving him a knowing look.
"No," Boone shot back.
Jack and Sayid exchanged a tiresome look. This wasn't exactly the way Jack was planning on spending his day. Not that he really had any plans until this evening, not with this many people in the hatch. Last time it was different, there were only a couple of people there and they weren't about to bother them. Jack definitely didn't want any interruptions so if he couldn't get rid of the majority of people then he'd just have to wait until they at least settled down for the night. Judging by how long it was taking to get rid of just Shannon, who actually wanted to leave, he was thinking the second option was the most likely.
"Fine," Shannon said. "Did you ever tell Jack about that vacation we took in Florida when I was eleven and you were thirteen?"
"Shut up, Shannon," Boone said. "You can't win by threatening me with embarrassing stories, that's not how it works. You're losing your touch, just like I said."
Shannon turned her attention to Jack. "We were on the beach and there was all these scantily clad girls around, bikinis and to die for bodies everywhere."
"Shannon, shut up," Boone said again.
Shannon didn't take her eyes off Jack. "So Boone's lying on his stomach and I wanna go play in the water but he won't come. In fact he doesn't move all day, he just lays there. So it's time to go and he still won't get up, says he wants to stay just a few more minutes. So his mother..." Shannon trails off and starts laughing.
"Shannon, it's not even a good story, just shut up," Boone told her.
"So, Sabrina..." Shannon pauses to laugh again. "She gets really pissed with him and she drags him to his feet and, well, I think you can guess why he was on his stomach all that time. Plus, his back was all sunburnt, really bad, couldn't sleep on his back for weeks, could barely wear a shirt without being in agony."
She started to laugh again and Jack couldn't help but find it amusing too, if only because he could relate far too clearly. Blood went where it wanted to and that age and you were pretty much powerless to stop it. Luckily Jack had never been caught in such a predicament by his mother but he'd had his fair share of inconvenient arousal for sure.
"I hate you," Boone told her, but his tone was rather more casual than the words he was expressing.
"You give?" she asked again, smirking at him.
"Fine, whatever, just get out of here," he surrendered.
She gave him a triumphant look. "Catch you later, loser," she said, leading the way out, Sayid following after her whilst exchanging another look with Jack.
Jack turned his attention back to Boone. "Cute story."
Boone smiled a little. "Yeah," he said quietly. He sighed and then looked at Jack again, seeming more focused. "So, erm, what was it my lips made you wanna...?"