Chapter four

Jack was avoiding the inevitable. That's the only way he could rationalize what he was doing – wading in a lagoon, watching Ana-Lucia swim laps and do flips, after making love to her three times within the past 24 hours. He laughed to himself. Not in his wildest dreams would he have ever pictured himself in this scene, and enjoying himself nonetheless. And Ana seemed to be too. She smiled brightly and seemed to be as full of life and mystery as she was when he had first met her at the airport bar. He was happy to chip away at her exterior and reveal a different Ana than the other islanders had yet to see, and he figured she was never likely to show them. Yes, tucked away in this little piece of paradise, it was all too easy to ignore the chaos that flourished around them.

"Oops time to get serious again." Ana stopped treading water long enough to notice that Jack had sobered his playful demeanor. These things were not meant to last, as she well knew. They were not on some kind of vacation. They were not lovers, and it was best for her to expect nothing more than what she had already gotten – a nice diversion, nothing more.

"Come here," Jack said barely above a whisper. She placed her hand above her eyes and squinted to see him through the sunrays. He beckoned her with an arm gesture. She swam over to him and in one fluid motion she was in his arms. The water in this part of the lagoon was nearly up to her chin, and completely over her head when she tried to plant her feet on level surface.

"I got ya," he laughed as she started to slip underwater. She locked her legs around his waist to anchor herself, and dangled her arms over his shoulders. She giggled like a teenager at sleep-away camp who snuck away with some boy she barely knew, not thinking that she would never see said boy again even if they had promised to write. The whole thing was insane.

She relaxed, sinking into the cushion of his embrace and exhaled a long sigh of contentment. She felt weightless in his arms and totally carefree. At that moment, everything was so crystal clear -- the crisp blue sky, the falls cascading down mile high cliffs, the pool of water rippling around them reflecting golden rays, Jack's hazel eyes staring down at her with every fleck of green and brown illuminated—so pure, and so deceptive.

"How the hell did we end up here?" Her deep voice echoed throughout their cavernous surroundings.

Jack didn't know if her question was rhetorical or not. "You wanted a shower."

"You know what I mean," she said while stroking the back of his wet silky buzz
cut, enjoying the texture of his chest against her bare breasts, enjoying being so close to him.

Jack sighed, he wasn't completely sure what she meant, but he decided to just go with it. "Here on this island?"

"Yea together, like this, in this place."

"I don't know Ana, things just happened." He figured she probably wanted a more lengthy explanation than that, but certain things just spoke for themselves.

"Things just happened. Fair answer I guess," she responded with a skeptical look, not sure if she should let him shrug her off that easily. She had to admit, it was the kind of answer she would give if asked that question. And she wasn't certain what type of answer she was after anyway. Everything seemed so comfortable now, too comfortable for her liking. "We've had sex several times."

"Uh huh," he responded. She was now bobbing up and down like a wave in his embrace, and the friction of her slick body against his made him want to have sex with her several more times.

She felt his lips lightly brushing against her brow, as if he was warming to kiss her, and that insinuation caused the swirl in the pit of her stomach to return with a vengeance. She shut her eyes tight. This was not happening. She was not falling for this guy -- not here, not now. It was time for a sobering thought of her own.

"Well we better be careful or we may start to have real feelings for each other."

Jack pulled back a bit, and gave her a curious look. He didn't know quite how to take that statement or where she was coming from. He felt like he was being tested, but he already knew Ana was not one to beat around the bush. So no feelings allowed, or at least it wasn't part of her plan.

She could have been a decade younger than him, but had wisdom beyond her years. She was beautiful, strong willed and quite frankly unlike anyone he ever met, let alone date under normal circumstances. All he knew was that he was drawn to her, and the attraction was undeniable. Going any deeper than his own primal need to be close to her, meant maybe discovering for
himself that it was way too late – that he already had feelings for her – real feelings. He wasn't ready for that risk.

"Regardless of how we feel Ana, this is pretty damn real."

"As real as it gets," she said into his lips.

He pulled and played at the bottom of her lip before fully kissing her. Cradling the back of her head to brace her, he dove in and savored every bit of her, not knowing when or if he would have this opportunity again.

The intense possessiveness of his kiss shocked her, and she thought her heart would swell out of her chest. She abruptly pulled away.

'What?' he said short-breathed as his lips broke from her like a suction cup.

"Nothing, just feeling a little lightheaded is all. Can we get out of here now" I mean out of the water at least."

"Sure. It's probably the sun. It's high noon. It's more intense than you think."

"Thanks doctor Jack," she bellowed over her shoulder while swimming way ahead of him – away from him.

Jack had to stay back for a bit to calm himself down. Yes, it was as real as it could get.

--
"Thanks for the shower." Ana used random politeness to break the silence between them as they dried off and got dressed.

"No problem. You know the way now if you ever want to come back. There is not much action up here, but people take shifts gathering fresh water, so you could follow along." Jack stole a peak her as she pulled on her tank. In the noon sun, he confirmed his suspicion about her curious scars without a doubt.

"You were shot before, Ana?"

"What makes you want to ask that now?" she fired back defensively.

"I just noticed it -- in the shower earlier. Sorry if you don't want to talk about it." Jack waited for her response. He was curious to know more if she was willing to offer.

She nodded slowly as her heart began to pound out of her chest as if someone had caught her in the act of covering up a deep dark secret.

"Yup. I was shot," she said flatly. "It happens."

Her scars were just small lesions now and virtually undetectable, but she should have known their origins wouldn't escape the keen eye of a doctor. Those battle wounds would never let her forget the tragic mistakes of her past. If she forgot even for a moment, someone or something would remind her. The fact that Jack had noticed them before now and didn't say anything immediately made her feel a bit uneasy. He had sized her up, made his assessment and waited until now to drop the bombshell.

"They've healed nicely Ana," he offered hoping she wasn't uncomfortable. They were barely noticeable, more like four small pock marks in her skin, the size of peas. "Must have had a good surgeon take care of you. Did it happen in the line of duty?"

"No when I was robbing a convenient store one night." Jack sounded too much like a family doctor giving her a routine check-up and she didn't need that from him. Still she had used that convenient store line on others in the past, and always thought they half believed her. Like she was as capable of arm robbery as anything. "Jokes Jack. Yes it was in the line of duty."

Jack was initially taken aback by her sullen reaction, and her sudden vulnerability. With her tough façade and renegade spirit, he had assumed that bullet wounds would be a badge of honor for her, so obviously there was more to this story. "Lucky you survived, considering the placement. Looks like the gunfire was at close range."

Ana threw her head back and exhaled. He was just not going to let up, and she was losing patience with him. "Is this a forensic report you're working on here? Yes I survived. If that was lucky or not, I am not so sure." She mumbled the last bit, abruptly brushing by him to shove random items in her backpack.

"Others didn't survive?"

Ana winced. She was not used to having her own bluntness thrown back her. No others didn't survive -- her baby in particular. "Ancient history Jack." She gave him a stern look that she had hoped would tell him to back the hell off.

By now Jack ould tell when she was hiding or avoiding something by her inability to communicate directly. "Fine." Relenting, Jack searched in his backpack for a clean shirt.

"You have lousy bedside manner Dr. Jack."

"So I've been told."

Buttoning his cutoff shirt, he finally sensed her brash attitude taking on a tinge of sadness as she sat on the edge of a rock staring at the ground. He kicked himself for being so clinical with her. It was a bad habit.

"Hey Ana, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

"Yes you did," she said, giving him a sidelong look with a smirk. "Can't help yourself."

"I'm a surgeon, so I've seen this stuff. And yes, bedside manner was never my strong point. I didn't realize this was so personal for you I guess."

"Getting shot four times in the chest is pretty damn personal."

"Yes, yes it is Ana. Sorry." He walked over to sit next to her, not knowing how to comfort her or if he should dare to try at this point.

"No apology needed." She noticed that he changed his t-shirt, switching it for a button shirt with frayed, cut-off sleeves. She followed the flexing of his shoulder muscles as he dug in his sack for water. It was the first time she had seen his tattoo this close -- perfect time to turn the tables.

"Tell me about your tattoo."

"What do you want to know?"

"Well there must be a good story behind it all. Some drunken night on the
town. What do they mean, where did you get them?"

"There was alcohol involved." Jack laughed, partly at the recollection, partly at how quickly she switched gears with the interrogation "Other than that, I don't really have any answers."

"Why?" she asked bluntly.

He shrugged. "Not much to tell."

"You're lying."

"What!"

"Jack come on. You have clear cut Chinese characters, the number five, and you want me to believe there isn't a story or rationale for any of it."

Jack sighed hard and long while standing up and preparing himself to leave the scene. If his bedside manner was bad, her interrogation tactics were even worse. "If this is show and tell time, you didn't tell much either."

"Why are you avoiding the question Jack? I just told you I was shot in the line of duty. Not much more to tell there that you haven't seen on any given cop show, or in your operating room." She kept her voice cool as a cucumber. Interrogation was her strong point.

Ana had proven to be relentless in the past so he knew he wasn't getting away this time. "It's sort of embarrassing that I don't know. But I don't. Sorry."

Ana gave him a confused look of slight disbelief. "Where you that drunk?"

Jack took a swig of water and slung on his backpack. He would just tell her the whole sordid deal and get it over with. "I was in Africa. Zanzibar to be exact."

Zanzibar? "What were you doing there?"

"I had finalized my divorce. And I wanted to get away. So a colleague was going there to help with an outbreak of meningitis. I came along to help out. I stayed there, in Africa, traveled a bit after the epidemic had died down. We had a bit too much to drink one night in town. There was a tattoo parlor in the bar where we were.

"In Zanzibar?"

"Yes Zanzibar. Anyway I got brave, probably reckless too, and went back there on a dare. I just pointed to some random designs he had up on his wall. I told the guy to have at it, do whatever he thought would look good."

"So you just let him."

"It was my year of living dangerously. I didn't care about much then. What can I say? It was one year in my life that I just as soon forget. I just don't want to go back there. So this actually reminds me not to let myself."

The wheels of memory began to turn. "That epidemic in Zanzibar. It was pretty bad. The devastation. The string of meningitis there was rare, in fact never seen before."

Jack lowered his brow. How would she know that? It was not highly publicized. In fact the government covered up most of the realities. "You know about it?"

"Uh yea. I watch CNN."

"Couldn't have been CNN. They weren't letting cameras in that area after awhile. Especially the Western media."

Ana shrugged. "I heard about it somehow. If it wasn't CNN, who knows."

She couldn't reveal everything she knew, just enough to get him engaged. If Jack was in Zanzibar during that particular outbreak of meningitis, the CIA certainly knew about it. She searched her memory. There were so many names, so many faces that she came across over the years that she couldn't say for certain if she had come across a Dr. Jack Shepard while investigating Hanso Foundation's activities. Damn stupid island, she cursed to herself. She needed access to intelligence and had nothing but her own memory.

"You think those symbols are random."

"You tell me Ana, what does it mean," he said with heavy sarcasm.

"You've never wondered, not once."

"No Ana. They're apart of me. That's all I need to know."

"Hey Jack. Yo Jack, are you here."

"Jack!"

Ana jumped up at the sound of voices bellowing for Jack just a few feet away.

"That's Hurley and Charlie," Jack sighed wearily while rubbing his temples. It was back to reality.

"I don't want them to see me Jack." Ana quickly scooped up her belongings.

"Jack! Are you here?"

"What? Ana come on," he whined.

"Jack, we have an agreement. You don't have a better plan, so follow mine." Ana skirted around the rock and hid, not giving him a chance to answer.

"Hey Dude. There you are," said Hurley, huffing and puffing for dear life.

"For Cripes sake Jack. Where the bloody hell have you been," said Charlie with his usual strained look of utter confusion.

"Hey guys you found me," he said in mock surrender.

"Well you sure didn't make it easy. This is bloody craziness Jack."

""What's up guys?" He tried to be casual in the face of their unnecessary concern. "I was just heading back to the beach so let's go."

"Dude. Like, what's going on with you?. Should we be worried."

"No Hurley."

"Well cuz, uh you like really unleashed the fury on Sawyer last night. Kind of has folks wondering ya know."

"Is he alright? Sawyer."

"Yea, well. . .depends "

"Hurley," Jack said curtly. "Does he need stitches? Is there any swelling?"

"Yea, probably. Kate's been with him with ice and stuff. She said to go find you."

"Okay let's go then." He looked over his shoulders for any signs of Ana. He didn't really want to leave her.

"But Sawyer said he'd see you dead first."

"Yes. Now there's a shock. Let's go guys."

"Good. This place gives me the bloody creeps now anyway," declared Charlie as he quickly headed down to the foot of the cliffs.

"Uh dude?"

"Hurley, what?" His irritation with Hurley took but a second to flair-up. He rarely had the patience for his roundabout way to getting to the point. And Charlie was already halfway down the trail. "Let's go."

"Like no one's like seen Ana-Lucia either," he said with trepidation. "You wouldn't happen to uh, know where she is."

Jack moved a few steps towards Hurley. He could have sworn he felt Hurley flinch at his approach, and that notion was beyond absurd. "What do you think I did Hurley -- dragged Ana-Lucia out here and killed her?"

"Well no – not usually."

Jack shook his head. It was no use. "I'm going. You can follow if you want."

"Right behind ya."

Ana stayed hidden until she no longer heard their bickering voices. They were like the Three Stooges that bunch. She was pleased that Jack was following her plan for now. With her mind still focused on Jack's tattoos and his revelation that he was in Zanzibar during one of the strangest breakouts of meningitis in world history, she searched her memory for answers.

Chinese symbols, the number five. Ana rubbed her chin. There were no coincidences. None. And somehow she had an eerie sense that the island would provide all the answers.