Summary: What if the raft hadn't drifted back to the tailies beach? What if it had instead drifted back home?
Disclaimer: I dont own LOST, Bad Robot, ABC, and I'm not affiliated with them in any way. nods

Chapter two

Jack ran as fast as he could through the jungle, not bothering to pace himself, just sprinting the entire way. He reached his cave and nearly fell over as ten minutes of sprinting finally caught up with him, his chest heaving, stitches stabbing his sides and chest painfully. He hurried to the spring and filled a half-water bottle and gulped it down. The first person he laid his eyes on was Charlie, and Charlie noticed him at the same time.

"Jack! Why are you wet? What's wrong, mate!" Charlie asked in alarm, hurrying over to him.

"Charlie… get.. A few guys… we need your help." Jack panted, his breath not caught yet.

"Why! What's happened? What--"

"Just GO!" Jack said loudly, trying to calm himself.

"Okay! Okay, Okay… I'm going!" said Charlie, alarmed, and hurried off to find people. Jack stumbled back to his cave, feeling a hot layer of sweat develop over his body, and started shoving things into his backpack. Some cloth, a towel, peroxide, water, pain killers. He stood, his legs feeling a bit less shaky. Charlie rushed back just then, being trailed by three confused looking people; Sayid, Locke and Steve.

"Okay.. Let's go.." said Jack, jogging off towards the beach again, his body not letting him run. After a moment Sayid jogged ahead of the others, catching up with Jack.

"What is this all about, Jack?" he asked, jogging alongside the doctor. Jack glanced at him distractedly, breathing heavily already, his body having not recovered from the sprinting yet.

"The raft came back… destroyed. Michael and Jin are severely dehydrated and have heat stroke and Sawyer somehow has been shot and is not doing well." he summarized it as best he could, trying to concentrate on getting to the beach fast. Sayid stared at Jack.

"And what of Walt? Is he alright?" he asked. A muscle in Jack's cheek twitched slightly, indicating his stress.

"He isn't there. Michael was saying that… that the Others took him." he gave Sayid a look that said "I don't know anything more than you now" and quickened his pace a bit. Sayid, getting the point, fell back behind him and followed, wondering why on earth this was happening.

Back on the beach, Kate was still trying to keep Sawyer awake as she watched Michael and Jin start to wake up. Michael stumbled over to them and Kate gave him an awkward one-armed hug as he sat down beside them and looked gravely down at Sawyer.

"He gonna be alright?" he asked her hoarsely. Kate's heart pounded painfully as she wondered herself that very question, desperately hoping that it wasn't a "no".

"I don't know." she whispered, so that Sawyer couldn't hear. She pulled him a bit closer against her, scared, hating the fact that she had no idea what was going to happen. She looked up at Michael, who looked exhausted and sick. "What happened out there?" she asked fearfully. She knew he probably didn't want to talk about it, but she had to know. Her eyes pleaded with him as he looked extremely hesitant to talk.

"Well.. We saw a thing, the very first night, on the radar, a blip… so we sent up a flare and a boat approached… but they weren't rescuers, they were…" he swallowed thickly, torn between rage and fear. Kate looked at him, her heart pounding. "the others. And they took Walt…and they shot Sawyer and blew up the raft…." his voice was shaking now and it was plain he wanted to stop speaking. Kate nodded and gave him a tiny, grim smile, reaching out and squeezing his arm for a moment before wrapping her arm around Sawyer again.

Sawyer shifted a bit under her arms, making a pained noise as his shoulder moved as well. Kate tried to make him more comfortable, and brushed some of his long hair out of his eyes.

"Where did.. Jack go?" he asked, his voice wavering as the pain stabbed him over and over.

"Shh, its okay, he'll be back…" she told him softly, leaning over so her cheek was leaning against his hair, speaking quietly into his ear. "You're going to be okay, Sawyer." She suddenly felt as though his body was heavier, and was alarmed. "Sawyer!" she asked, shaking him ever so gently. No response. Alarmed, she unwrapped on of her arms from around his chest and put a hand under his chin, lifting his head so she could see his face; his eyes were closed and his expression blank. He'd blacked out. "No, no no no…. Sawyer, come on, wake up!" she pleaded, stroking his cheek and trying to bring him back to consciousness. It didn't work, and she buried her face into his hair, her tears wetting some of the strands as she prayed Jack would be back soon.

Michael stumbled over to where Jin was sitting, looking at the man. He seemed alright aside from exhausted and over heated and water deprived, like Michael himself, but he looked okay otherwise.

"You okay, man?" he asked him hoarsely, as Jin looked up at him. He nodded.

"Okay." he said, nodding his head again. Michael gave him a grim smile before sitting down beside him and putting his head in his hands, his thoughts on Walt. How was he going to find him? Where on earth had the Others gone? Michael didn't know which direction the boat had gone, he'd been too busy trying not to drown. But Michael knew as soon as he would well he was going to try and find Walt. He had to. What would he do without him? The fact that Walt had only come to him a couple of months before didn't even occur to him. Michael knew he would be lost without his son.

A moment later Jack and the rest of the guys burst through the foliage at the edge of the beach. Charlie, Sayid, Locke and Steve stared at the scene before them; the charred hunk of wood upon which Kate and an unconscious Sawyer were, Jin and Michael looking worse for wear on the beach. Jack hurried down the beach, and went straight to Kate, who looked completely distraught. Kate looked up when she felt him approaching, tears streaking her cheeks.

"He blacked out again…. I tried to keep him awake, I tried… he just…" she trailed off, too upset to try and relay what she was thinking. Jack nodded, seeing the panic welling inside of her.

"Kate, its okay, I know you did your best. I've got medicine now, he's going to be okay. Okay? Kate, look at me. He'll be okay." He told her firmly as she raised her wet eyes to look at him. She nodded shakily as he got up and ran back to where the four guys had grouped, staring at everything in shock.

"Steve and John, help Jin back to camp… here a bottle of water, make him drink it in small portions. Sayid, help Michael and do the same with the water." The others nodded and set about doing what they told him to, Locke and Sayid taking the bottle of water Jack handed to them.

"What about me?" asked Charlie nervously, shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Jack looked at him.

"Come with me." he said, and headed back to the raft, Charlie at his heels. Jack knelt beside Kate and Sawyer on the raft, and opened the bag he'd brought, pulling out some tools and stuff that'd he'd need. He glanced at Kate who was watching him wearily, her hands on Sawyer's shoulders.

"Kate, since you're already there, wrap your arms around his chest and hold him down. When I do this its going to hurt and he'll probably struggle." He watched as Kate shakily did what she was told, wrapping her arms around his chest and joining her fingers together. Jack sighed and looked down at the unconscious man. "Its better he's out for this…" he said grimly. He removed a small bottle of alcohol from his pocket and rubbed a little onto his hands so he could examine the wound without infecting it. He could see the bullet, it wasn't too far in, but it wasn't going to be pretty to pull it out. He sighed again and looked at Charlie, who was hovering shin deep in the water behind him. "Okay, Charlie, I need you to hold his arm down. He'll definitely be trying to move it, and it could make me slip if it moves too much. So make sure you have a good grip on it."

"Okay." said Charlie nervously, kneeling up to his stomach in the water at the side of the raft and holding Sawyer's arm down to the charred wood. Jack nodded at him and looked at Kate.

"Are you ready?" he asked gently. Kate nodded, tightening her grip on Sawyer. "Charlie, see those cloths?" Jack pointed at a stack of white cloths he'd just set down in front of the man. Charlie nodded. "If it hit a vein, and starts bleeding, I need you to apply pressure with them, okay?" Charlie nodded again. "ALright… here goes…" Jack quickly tied a tourniquet on Sawyer's upper arm and pulled a pair of clamp like tweezers from his bag and positioned them around the top of the bullet. He pulled slowly, and Kate jumped as Sawyer suddenly moved, his body stiffening from the pain. She held him tight as Jack's face looked more grim by the second, and Charlie held down Sawyer's arm as the man twitched and groaned.

"Shit…" Jack said softly. Kate looked alarmed.

"What! What is it!"

"I was hoping he wasn't going to wake up, just hold him…" he said hurriedly, trying to get this over with as fast as possible. Kate held him tightly, trying not to watch as Jack pulled out the bullet, Sawyer still propped on her legs. Jack's face was one of upmost concentration and finally he managed to pull the bullet out, as Sawyer thrashed suddenly, prompting a small yelp of surprise and fear from Kate and Charlie was working hard to keep his arm pinned.

"CHARLIE, the cloths!" Jack said urgently as blood spilled freely from the wound, over his shoulder and under his arm, pooling on Kate's jeans. She shuddered at the feeling of the hot liquid dripping onto her and was relieved when Charlie finally managed to stop panicking and press the cloths to Sawyer's shoulder as Jack frantically prepared a dressing for him. Kate helped him sit Sawyer up a bit, the semi-conscious man still leaning heavily on Kate and moaning softly, as Jack ripped Sawyer's shirt from him and taped the wound with gauze. Sawyer slumped suddenly again, and Kate's eyes radiated panic when she felt it. Jack saw this and hurriedly spoke. "Its just from the pain, he'll be okay. We've got to get him back to the caves." he told them both seriously. They both nodded, and Jack helped Kate slip Sawyer off of her. She stood shakily, her muscles aching from Sawyer's weight cutting off her circulation, a long streak of blood coating her right thigh.

Charlie looked up at her and wrinkled his nose at the sight. He stood up, his soaked jeans and the lower half of his tshirt sticking to him and held out his hand to help her. She took it and gingerly stepped off the raft up to her knees in water, wavering slightly as she stood there. Jack hopped onto the raft and after swinging his bag onto his back, pulled Sawyer up, slinging the man's good arm around his shoulder and standing. Kate and Charlie hurried forward and supported his other side, careful not to move his shoulder.

They stumbled off the raft and began the arduous journey or getting him back to the caves, trying their best not to upset his shoulder.

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