Brotherly Love: Part II

"Why are you avoiding me?" he asked, his voiced touched with impatience.

"Because you're my brother."

Jack stared at me. Clearly, he thought I was crazy, but I couldn't blame him. I would have, too.

"What?" he finally asked.

I paused. I realized that now probably wasn't the best time to tell him; except, I already had.

"Just kidding!" I said, and made some weird gesture where my right hand was in a fist, smacking my left one. It only made the situation more awkward. He just stood there, staring at me.

"I'm going to go," I said.

The airplane landed smoothly, and I looked out my window for my first glimpse of Sydney, Australia: An all expense paid for trip, courtesy of my mom and her never-ending credit card. This would've been more enjoyable had the circumstances been better. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a worn piece of paper. It merely said that a Dr. Christian Shepherd was lying in a morgue unclaimed. This was the morgue I was going to before anyone could take the one chance I had at ever seeing my biological dad. In a way, I was kind of relieved he was dead. This way, there wouldn't be any awkward moments.

Sighing, I placed the piece of paper back in my pocket and stood up, reaching for my duffel bag in the overhead storage. I took another glance outside the window before I made my way off the plane.

The seawater hadn't done it justice, I thought, staring at a packet of papers. It was now a packet of yellowing paper with smudged ink in random places. I tried to read it as I had many times before, but I didn't feel the need to read about him again.

Jack came out of his tent and looked at me, probably debating whether or not he should talk to me, but he never got the chance. Kate found him and whisked him away somewhere. I looked at my papers again and put them away.

Everything felt cold and still as I walked in. The tile floor mocked my footsteps as I walked toward the front desk.

"Hi," I whispered.

A lady looked up and seemed surprised to see me. "May I help you?" she asked in a quite a loud voice, which made me jump. "No need to be quiet, dear. The dead can't hear us."

I nodded, slightly taken aback.

"Well?" she asked.

"Oh. Um. I'm here for a Dr. Christian Shepherd," I said meekly.

"Dr. Christian Shepherd…" She muttered to herself while looking through her files. "Are you related to him?" she asked once she found what she was searching for.

"Yes," I replied solemnly.

"May I see some ID, please?"

"Yeah," I replied, reaching into my black purse and slid the card across the counter.

She took a moment to look at it before saying, "You two don't have the same last name."

"My parents divorced, and I took my new father's last name," I said, which was partially true.

"Okay," she said and pointed at the direction the room was in.

I looked down the long, empty hallway and gulped. It was a long way down.

"I wish he would just die already," said the blonde. Well, Shannon, actually.

I turned around to see who she was speaking to, which was Boone, a tall guy with brown hair that nearly drowned a while ago.

"Real humane, Shan," he replied.

Another shriek sounded from Jack's area, and I flinched. I don't think I was the only one either.

When another scream came, I grabbed my duffel bag and walked the opposite direction.

Ten yards down, I ran into Sayid. He looked at my duffel, and then at me. "Where are you going? He asked.

"Somewhere where I can't hear him screaming," I replied.

And, right on cue, the dying man screamed again.

"Going out there may not be such a good idea."

"I'm not going too far away," I said… Why was I explaining myself to him?

"We don't know what's out there," he continued.

I froze for a moment as scenes from a few nights before played in my head. There was something lurking in the jungle that was tall enough to push back the top of the trees… And something creaked as if it were metal. But, we didn't see it. It could be invisible for all we knew.

"I'll be fine," I said, and I knew that probably sounded like I wasn't sure that I would be. I'm starting to realize why I never made the school play in ninth grade…

I turned around and walked a few steps before he said, "I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not," I said, spinning around to look him in the eye.

"You're not safe alone."

Suddenly, a thought dawned on me. I'm eighteen and female. He's at least twice my age and male. I gave him a suspicious look and began walking back to camp.

He seemed a bit confused but happy he had gotten his way.

I planned to sit at the edge of camp and try to leave again if the screams got any worse, but they never got the chance to as a gunshot sounded through the air. Immediately, everyone rushed over to Jack's tent to see what happened. I was the only one that didn't. I didn't need confirmation that the guy shot himself.

A tall man in a dark suit escorted me to see my new dead father. Apparently, this was regulation.

As we came to the door, the man took out a key, unlocked it, and opened it for me.

I hesitated. Once I go in, I can't turn back. Everything about my dad not being my real dad would be true. This man lying inside this room would really be my biological father. It'd be like admitting the truth.

"Are you going in?" he asked.

"It's just a little hard," I croaked.

Once I put my right foot inside, a shiver went up my spine, and I began rubbing my arms. Then, I took a deep breath, and fully walked inside.

Unzipping the bag-like thing made a horrible sound that echoed throughout the room, and my stomach burned. That guy had to watch my awkward situation, even though he had no idea just how awkward it was.

I stopped unzipping when it reached his chest, and finally, spared a glance at his face and quickly looked away while taking a few deep breaths.

After a few minutes, I composed myself and looked at his face again.

He was old compared to my mom, which wasn't surprising since she was young when she had me. He had a pale, bloated face, which may be the fault of his death. Truth be told, he wasn't a bad-looking old man.

Smiling sadly, I zipped him back up.

"Ready to go?" asked the guy in the dark suit.

I nodded in reply and slowly walked out the door. As I came towards the end of the hallway leading to the front office, a man quickly rushed from behind the corner and bumped into me. He turned around to say sorry while he ran down the hall into the room I had just left. I stared in disbelief.

Once again, I reached into my purse and took out the packet of information regarding my biological father. I flipped a few pages until I found what I was looking for.

Quickly, I went to the front desk. "That man that just ran down there… Is he Jack Shepherd?"

"Yes, dear."

My head started spinning, so I found a chair and sat on it. What's weird is that I knew I had a half brother the day I got this packet, but it never really registered in my brain until now.

When I felt better, I left for my hotel room. Since Jack lived in LA, I assumed the funeral would be held there. So, I booked a one-way flight to LA for tomorrow morning.

"Hi."

"Hi," I repeated back. Then, he sat beside me. I didn't need to look at him to know it was Jack, but I did, anyway.

"I see your hand's getting better."

"Yeah," I said absentmindedly.

He paused, obviously trying to find something to say.

"You don't have to believe me," I told him.

He started twiddling his thumbs and looking back from me to the ocean until he got the nerve to say what he wanted all along. "What proof do you have that we're related?" he asked.

A few moments passed before I reached into my duffel bag and pulled out those infamous papers. Reluctantly, I gave them to him.