The man called Tom sat by himself, whittling a block of wood with a small army knife. He didn't look up when his prisoner started shouting and banging on his cell door. After about two minutes, however, he lost his patience. "Hey! HEY! You wanna knock it off?"
"You wanna let me outta here, Zeke?"
Tom snorted. "Yeah, sure."
More banging, but this time from another cell. Jack's voice resounded down the hallway where Tom sat facing Sawyer's cell. "Gale! GALE!" The pain and desperation in Jack's voice would have made almost anyone else's heart heavy, but not Tom. He was used to seeing men in agony, men being tortured in both body and soul. It fueled him somehow, made him feel alive. He spoke to Sawyer again, who was now pacing, with a slight limp, angrily behind the bars. "You know, you and the good ol' doctor better learn to accept your situation here. Ain't gonna get easier if you keep resisting." He finally put down his half whittled block of wood and walked right up to Sawyer's door, his face close to the bars. He still held the knife. "Believe me." Sawyer stopped pacing, eyeing the knife. "Yeah? And what're you gonna do? 'Cuz I get the feeling ya'll don't know what the hell you're doing."
Tom put his face inches from Sawyer's. "Then why are you so afraid?"
Sawyer held his gaze but said nothing. Tom sneered and went back to his whittling. The sound slowly began to drive Sawyer crazy.
Jack's eyes were beginning to close. His head ached so terribly, but it was nothing compared to the anger and guilt he felt pulsing within him. Unlike Sawyer, Jack was chained to a pole in the center of his cell. How long had he been here? Jack wasn't even sure how long he'd been conscious for.
"Jack Shepard."
He heard the woman's voice, but it sounded so far away.
"Jack." The voice again, closer this time. Jack snapped his eyes open. A woman with blonde hair knelt before him, a look of concern across her delicate but weary features. She smiled as he registered her face. "Jack, you can trust me. My name is Juliet." Something in the way she said that didn't sit right with Jack. He laughed softly, disbelieving. "Trust you. Your guys ambush us, gag us, and drag us here to be locked up and drugged, apparently. So tell me again that I should trust you."
Juliet sighed and looked away, the pain now more apparent in her face. "Look, I know what they did. What they're doing... "
"What the hell are you doing? What are they planning?"
Juliet sighed again. "I can't tell you,"
"How did I know?"
" - because I don't know. I don't know exactly what their plans are this time - you must believe me. I - I'm not supposed to be speaking this much to you, and you're certainly not supposed to trust me. That's the last thing they want, especially after last time…" She said the last part more to herself than to Jack, and now wished she hadn't spoken at all. "Last time? You - you've done this before--" he stopped short, coming to a shocking realization. "You mean with Claire! When Claire was taken - it was them wasn't it"
Juliet looked at him closely. She spoke in a hushed, more hurried tone now. "I was here when they brought her - the young pregnant girl-- "
"Claire."
"--she seemed so innocent, I couldn't figure out why they put her through so much,"
Jack's voice shook with barely suppressed anger. "What did they do to her?"
Juliet shook her head sadly. "I honestly don't know - though I do think it was more to do with her baby than with --"
Footsteps now sounded loudly and ominously from outside the hall. Jack looked at Juliet's terrified expression. "What are you so afraid of?" He caught himself whispering as well, though he didn't have anything to hide. Juliet met his eyes and then looked away quickly, almost shamefully. "I can't say," she whispered. She rose to leave. "Tell me where Kate is. Where Kate and Sawyer are being held. Tell me what happened to Claire. Please..."
Juliet, with her hand on the door handle, looked as though she might cry. "I don't know - but I - we couldn't let that poor girl --"
The footsteps were almost to Jack's cell. Juliet gave the hallway a desperate glance, and then turned and kneeled quickly in front of Jack again. "I'll come back when I can."
Jack watched her go, his heart aching to trust her, to trust in some form of hope. But Jack Shepard had never had much luck with hope.