"Boone." A voice was saying not-so-quietly in his ear. "Booone."
Boone frowned, attempting to slip back into the blissful world of sleep. It would have been easy, he was not yet truly awake, but the finger prodding in his shoulder didn't help.
"Mmmnn…" Boone murmured, squeezing his eyes tight shut. He hardly ever slept through the day, but the herbs Sun had given him for his wounds had made him drowsy.
"Booone…" The voice whispered again, and the prodding got a little harder. "Are you awake?"
"No." Boone replied sulkily. He opened one eye just enough to see the speaker through his lashes, although he already had a pretty good idea. And he wasn't disappointed. "What do you want, Shannon."
"I'm sooo bored." Shannon moaned. "Whaddya wanna do?"
"Sleep." Boone replied, rolling over. He couldn't see anything, but he could practically hear Shannon's face fall.
"Oh…" She mumbled in a little voice. She wasn't used to being rejected. "Um, are you sure you don't want to -"
"Tell you what, Shannon." Boone replied sleepily. "We can do each other's hair, and nails, and give each other facials, but not now."
"But when?" Shannon whined, not picking up the 'hint' of mockery seeping through in his voice.
"Just, later. Now, run along and play." His voice oozed sarcasm, and he shut his eyes, slipping back into the realms on the border of contented sleep. If it wasn't for the herbs, he never would have dreamed of going to sleep through the daytime, especially not while sharing an almost-deserted cave with the man who had attacked him only a few hours ago. True, Jack was knocked out, but how long would that last? Or, was he even knocked out? Three times, at least, Boone thought he saw Jack watching him with half-lidded, unmoving eyes, clouded, almost as if he was looking through a veil of fog.
But these worries didn't bother his mind at present. Perhaps they should have, and perhaps, if he had bothered to pay more attention to the crumpled man less than ten feet away from him, a lot of trouble and pain could have been avoided. But who are we to know what our actions may bring, especially when we are trying to rid our mind of such worries. So Boone slept. And Jack waited. And the plot got a whole lot thicker.
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"Locke?" Kate asked tentatively, taking a few more careful steps towards the sound coming from behind the bushes. "Is that you?"
"Back here." Locke's friendly voice returned. "What can I do for you?"
Kate and Sayid rounded the bush, standing off to the side of the clearing where Locke was skinning a large boar that was hanging by its feet from a tree.
"We need to -" Kate started, but stopped when her eyes settled on the animal. "Did you catch that just now?"
"Sure did." Locke replied with a mysterious smile, but said nothing more. Kate and Sayid were both thinking the same thing; how did he manage to catch the boar with the ground so soft, squelching every time you moved? He must be much better than any of them had thought.
"We have something you might be interested in." Sayid said, breaking the silence, to Kate's great relief.
"Oh?" Locke asked, sounding mildly interested, not looking up from the boar.
"This morning, Kate and I traveled down to the beach." Sayid continued.
"I suppose there wasn't much actual beach left, hmm?" Locke said with an amused smile.
"On the contrary," Sayid corrected him. "It was in perfect condition."
This got the older man's attention, and he abandoned the boar immediately.
"Really?" It was more of a statement than a question, and there was a glint in his eye that showed he understood far more than they did. "Have you told anyone else?"
"Well, we came back with the intention of telling Jack, but -" Sayid trailed off as he felt Kate grow tense beside him. "You, Kate and I are the only ones that know."
"And that's how it should stay." Kate added. "At least until we can realistically say that the beach has dried out in the sun."
"I disagree." Locke said. "We have all been stuck in the caves for far too long. I think if the opportunity to move back to the beach presented itself, there would be very few who would question it." He raised an eyebrow. "Plus, now that there appears to be some sort of danger in the jungle, there is no doubt the beach would be the safest option."
Kate frowned as she thought it over. He was right, in one way. And sure, Sawyer, Walt and the Korean couple would probably move back to the beach without a second thought, but what about those with more curious minds, like Boone, Charlie and the college professor who lived down the far end of the beach? They would see the problem immediately.
"This is not our secret to keep." Locke insisted. "The others have as much right to the beach as we do."
"How would we tell them?" Kate asked, and although she knew he was right, she wasn't ready to admit it yet.
"Word of mouth seems to do the trick." Locke replied cheerfully. Kate sighed.
"That's not what I mean." She said, but didn't bother to elaborate. She knew when she was beaten, and threw up her hands in defeat. "I'll go find Shannon, then."
Sayid smiled while Kate pushed through the bushes out of the clearing.
"I had a feeling we might be needing her." He chuckled.
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Kate found Shannon leaning against the cave wall, filing her toenails. Purposely avoiding looking at Jack, she made her way over to the blonde woman.
"Shannon." She said, squatting down next to her. "Can you do a favor for me?" Shannon looked at Kate reluctantly.
"Are you gonna ask me to sort through more suitcases and other junk?" She asked apprehensively. "Coz I'm pretty busy." She rubbed her file over a rough spot on her nail, just to illustrate her point.
"No," Kate laughed. "The beach is ready for everyone to move back there, I need you to spread it around."
"But won't it be like, Slush City?" Shannon asked, furrowing her brows.
"Actually, it's just like we left it.' Kate answered, waiting to see her reaction.
"Huh." Shannon said as she considered this, then she brushed it off and got to her feet, stowing her file away safely in her bag. "Well, great. I need something to do." She cast a dirty look over at her sleeping brother as she said this last phrase.
"Thanks a bunch, Shannon." Kate said, and Shannon filled with pride at the feeling of being needed. It wasn't something she felt often, and she whistled tunelessly as she set off to spread the news.
Kate smiled as she watched Shannon go, then turned around and walked over to Boone, kneeling down beside him. She didn't want to wake him; he looked so peaceful, but he would need to know about the beach too, and he wouldn't want to wake up and find everyone gone.
"Boone." She said as quietly as possible, shaking him gently. "Wake up."
She frowned when he didn't move, and she shook him a bit harder. Still no response.
"Boone, come on." She said, louder this time. "Rise and Shine."
No movement, so sound, nothing at all. The color drained from her face. This wasn't right. She rolled up her sleeve and pressed her wrist to Boone's forehead. He was burning up. Oh no, this wasn't good.
"Jack..!" She started to call for the doctor when she remembered his condition. Dammit. This really wasn't good.
She looked back at the sick man. Beads of sweat trickled down his neck and forehead, and his breath was coming out short and raspy, almost undetectable. She looked around the cave. Sawyer, still reading in the corner. He wouldn't help if Boone's life depended on it, and it might, if he wasn't given help immediately. A mother with two small children; she couldn't ask her to leave her kids alone. There were a few other people scattered around, doing nothing in particular. She had to act quickly.
"Someone get help!" She shouted. "This man is burning up!"
A few people dashed out of the cave, in search for someone that would know what to do, but the chances were slim that they'd find anyone. Jack was the only one that could really help, and he was, well, not himself, Kate thought as she sneaked a glance over at the unconscious man.
She looked back at Boone, as his breath grew more ragged. He needed help. And fast. And Kate didn't have a clue what to do. She had absolutely no idea.