The Truth

Taylor and Sun were sitting chatting in the caves with Aaron like they did often. The three of them were actually good friends even if Sun was twenty years older than they were. And even though her English was bad Taylor and Aaron found she could carry on a very worthy conversation from time to time.

Jack looked over his shoulder at the three who were laughing and smiled to himself in response. Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly lately and that scared him in a way. The island wasn't known for being smooth so he figured this was a clam before the storm. Something bad was going to happen he could just feel it.

"So, what was it like?" Taylor asked intrigued.

"My wedding?" Sun asked making sure they wanted to hear the story. Their conversation had turned when Sun had complimented Aaron and Taylor on their wedding.

"Yeah. What was it like?" Aaron wanted to know too. Sun for some reason found that quite funny but she dared not laugh at it.

"My wedding was simple. Jin and I didn't really want a fuss. We were in love and just wanted to be together." Sun sounded so happy when she talked about it. Taylor held a grin from ear to ear.

"That's so romantic." She said dreamily. "I have to say thought…my wedding was pretty romantic too." She slid her hand over and set it on Aaron knee and winked at him. He leaned over to give her a kiss.

Jack saw the whole thing. He loved the way his daughter looked when she was with him. She was really happy. And although she had always been a very optimistic person she sure had her times of trouble.

Taylor sat on the row of airplane chairs that made as a makeshift hospital bed. Her arm was held close to her. Her hand covered her mangled elbow.

"Let me see." Jack ordered in a soft voice. She took her hand away with a wince. She was being incredibly adult for a nine-year-old.

Jack took her arm gently so as not to hurt her further. He'd have to set both of the breaks in her elbow then ban her from climbing a tree ever again. He hated it when she did that especially when he was around.

He had been chopping wood for the fire back at the cave and seeing as how Taylor was nine and his number one fan she had gone with him. One of her favorite passed times was hanging from trees by her knees and Jack knew someday she was going to get hurt doing that…he just didn't know that today was that day.

She had begun swing by her knees yelling for dad to look at her and when he turned around to watch her he saw her fall.

He lunged for her and tired in vain to catch her but her heard the crunch of breaking bone when she hit the ground. The split second of panic that had hit him as hard as Taylor hit the ground was overwhelming. He knew there was nothing he could do to catch her and he screamed in his head.

Now they were sitting in the caves while Jack tried to splint her arm. She had held out her hands to catch herself and ended up jamming her ulna into her elbow. Not fun. Now she just sniffled at the pain and listened to her father's lecture.

God how he hated telling her not to do something. He hated telling her no. But he knew, as a father, that it was necessary and she would listen to him if he made a point of it.

"JACK!" Sayid's voice broke his thoughts. "JACK! WE NEED SOME HELP!" Jack turned around completely and saw Sayid holding a very battered someone. Taylor was already directing the Middle Eastern mad to lay him down gently. She ran to get cloths to stop the profuse bleeding.

Jack rushed over to them and asked what happened.

"The monster got him. We were out hunting and…" he trailed off. "That thing just scooped him up and I don't know what it did but when I found him he was like this." Sayid pushed a hand through his think, graying, curly hair.

"Sayid, how far did you carry him?" Taylor asked applying pressure to his chest (where most of the bleeding was occurring).

"About a mile, I want to say." Sayid apologized for not being more accurate and Taylor assured him it was all right. He did the best he could.

"Dad…I need something…he's not breathing." Taylor said calmly. She ripped open his shirt to process the damage. On his chest and back were what looked like teeth marks, bites you could say. She'd never seen anything like it. Sayid said the monster did this. What monster?

"Taylor it looks like his collar bone is cracked by the bruising." Jack commented.

"Thanks for the heads up but that's the least of our worries at the moment." Taylor retorted by showing her father the damage to the man's chest. Jack immediately went over to his drawers and pulled out more cloths and a sewing kit. They were going to have to stitch him up.

Taylor scooted out of the way and let her father in to assess the injuries for himself. She sighed and pulled up her sleeves – this was going to take awhile.

000

Jack sewed quietly, with concentration. Taylor and Sun stood back and watched because there was nothing more that they could do. Jack just sat and weaved the black thread in and out of the man's skin. These were fairly mild injuries compared to what he had seen. Like Angie's little sister Mary…the day he met Casey was the worst he'd ever seen anyone. He figured the man would be all right if infection didn't set in and he would personally watch over him to make sure that didn't happen.

The doctor quickly finished his job and stood up. His back hurt and knew he had been sitting for quite some time. He brought the towel that had been hooked to his belt up and wiped off his face then his blood soaked hands.

"Is he going to be okay?" Sun asked before Taylor could.

"I think so. As long as we keep an eye on him and we give him something to fight off any infection." Jack replied with a sigh.

"There's some amoaxacilin in the drawers." Taylor said blankly. She was fixated on the man's face. She'd seen him before but she didn't know his name. She felt guilty for that for some strange reason but she pushed it aside and went on to ask her father some questions.

She made sure Sun had left and the sun had set long ago so people were starting to wind down for the night. She figured now was as good a time as ever.

"Dad?"

"What monkey?" He said seemingly distracted by looking for the amoaxacilin that she claimed they had.

"Dad look at me." Jack looked up at his daughter, realizing that she was serious.

"What is it?" He sounded concerned.

"I want some answers." She said flat out. "I want real ones…I want the truth."

"The truth about what Taylor?" Jack tried to make it sound like he didn't know what she was going to ask.

"I want to know what the monster is. I want to know what a polar bear is. I want to know what significance Danielle had to you and what were the weird voices I heard in the jungle?" Jack just looked at his daughter. The time had come to tell her the truth.