Part Eight

If the beach dwellers had been able to troop back to their own shelters with a relative lack of fanfare that morning, then their return was met the exact opposite reaction. Jack, moving slowly at the back of the pack with Sawyer and Sayid, heard the shouts and questions beginning long before anyone had the chance to prevent pandemonium. He grit his teeth and said in a quiet tone to Sayid, "The cave that I've been using as an infirmary has a side entrance. Let's use that."

They carried Sawyer around and into the deserted cave where Jack had treated Sayid's leg wound weeks before. Jack settled Sawyer down on the bedding that he had moved in there since, quickly washed the blood from Sawyer's torso and wrapped his ribs, and then checked his pulse again. It was still steady and strong.

Sawyer muttered something liquid when Jack's fingers slid into the crook of his neck and tried to twist away yet again, but did not wake. Jack waited patiently for him to settle down. For being the first gunshot victim that Jack had performed surgery on while crouched on an open beach with only the most rudimentary of tools available, none of Sawyer's wounds had begun to bleed again and his vital signs were good. Jack straightened, not liking the idea of leaving a patient unsupervised so soon and liking even less the idea of doing so in favor of having to mediate the chaos that he could already hear echoing through the stone. He thought of the words that Sayid had spoken to him earlier that day, to the effect that he had two jobs now. On the day that he was able to decide which one was more important and how he was supposed to balance them both in the meantime, Jack decided, he would cut Sawyer out as the middleman and build that still himself.

Sayid had left him and returned to the main cave as soon as he had seen that Jack did not require his help, so when Jack slid out of the infirmary's alternate entrance he did it alone. A few frightened looks and questions came his way immediately, but for the most part the cave's occupants were saving them for Michael and Jin. Sun and-well. Sun and, to Jack's surprise, Shannon were doing everything that they could to keep the crowd at a distance, but increasingly they were being mobbed.

"Hey!" Jack yelled, jumping forward. "Easy, easy! Give them a break!" He put his body between the crowd and the quartet. Sun said something in Korean that Jack was willing to bet was not a glowing recommendation of their manners. She pushed her hair back from her forehead with one hand and grabbed for Jin with the other. He pulled her close to his side. "I know that you're all scared and confused, so this is everything that we know. The Others are real. The Others took Walt, and they destroyed the raft. We can and we are going to fight them-" Jack raised his voice towards a yell in order to be heard over the rising tide of noise. "But unless we want to lose more people we have to plan like rational adults first."

A thumping sound came from the back of the cave. Jack jerked around and peered over the top of the crowd. Locke and Kate stood just inside one of the far entrances, presumably having come in right in time to hear Jack's impromptu speech. They had been carrying a gutted and already skinned boar between them; Jack could see the skin spread out on the ground just beyond the entrance. The boar itself now lay on the cave floor with its opened belly smiling at them all like a great, grotesque mouth. The thumping had been Kate dropping her end of it in shock.

Jack looked her over automatically, searching for wounds. When she seemed to have incurred nothing more serious than a bruise high up on her cheek and a scrape on one of her shoulders, his relief was so great that it came close to buckling his knees.

"Looks like you've had an interesting day," Locke said mildly. He tapped at Kate's arm. She twitched and bent to pick up her end of the boar again. Together, they began to pull their prize over to the largest fire.

"Looks like you've had the same," Jack answered.

"So, what can we do to help?" Locke asked, setting the boar down and straightening. He had to have heard the wary tone in Jack's voice, but was for the moment choosing not to respond to it.

Jack noted the 'we' and felt himself bristling inwardly before he could quite halt the action, but he forced it down to a place where it would not show on his face. The time for petty squabbling, if there had ever been one, was surely far in the past now. "Got any ideas?" Locke stared at Jack, looking genuinely surprised to hear Jack asking. Jack shrugged and spread his hands, noticing that Kate had begun to glance swiftly between the two of them as if she was at a tennis match and had not quite decided which team she wanted to root for. Jack was not exactly comforted, not when he saw how white her face had gone. "Time to start focusing on ideas here, not personalities. We need to get Walt back, and we need to go home."

Something in Locke's face tightened at the mention of going home, but he nodded. "We need to bring Walt home," he agreed. Jack made note of the ambiguous wording before he placed it away in the rapidly expanding file that he was keeping on the subject of John Locke. "And we need to stop playing around and acting as if we're in a movie and a ship is going to come sailing over the horizon in the nick of time to stop anything terrible from happening." Locke paused and exhaled heavily, nudging at the boar's body with his toe. There was a dime-sized patch of blood on his neck, Jack noticed, and another slightly larger one splashed across the knuckles of his left hand. Beyond that, he and Kate seemed to have killed the boar with as little fuss or mess as picking up a package of steaks at the supermarket.

Locke looked back up, and Jack got the eerie feeling that he knew everything that Jack had been preparing to say. He blinked and saw the fire crackling in anticipation of the meat, saw the people looking back and forth with concerned expressions as they felt the tension that Locke and Jack seemed able to conjure up with nothing more than a glance now, and felt the sensation dissipate. "We need to organize," Locke said in a calm tone, leaning back over so that he could hoist the boar. Kate rose back to her feet to help, but Locke waved her off, saying, "You've already paid your pound of flesh."

Steve and a man named Bill, a quieter friend of Arzt's, came to help in her place. Jack felt suddenly, curiously, cold, in spite of the fact that he was standing close to one of the fires. A second later, and he was already dismissing the sensation as nothing more than sleep deprivation and too much strain presenting bills that he couldn't put off paying any longer. There was a feeling of fingertips being walked down his spine for another moment before they suddenly flitted away.

"Sentries," Jack heard himself say, his own voice sounding to him as if it were coming from down a long well. "Permanent shelters."

Locke nodded and did not speak for several more moments. With hardly a word being spoken between the three of them, he and the other two men soon had the boar spitted upon the pole that had been lying unused during all those weeks when the boar had been mysteriously missing. Though he had not yet been given a reason to be defensive, Jack took note of the familiarity between them and wondered how many other signs he had missed by limiting his counsel to such a small group.

"That, too," Locke said finally, wiping a few final traces of blood from his hands. He missed some, Jack noticed, beneath his nails. "But in order to get Michael's boy back, what you people are talking about it open warfare against an enemy that you know almost nothing about. That's going to take something a little stronger than informal leadership that can be second-guessed every time one of us gets frustrated." Jack felt cold again, and this time the feeling did not go away. "We need to hold some kind of group election, decide in a civilized way once and for all who will lead and far we're going to let them go. Even if most of you decide that Jack is the one to do so-" Jack heard rumblings both in his favor and against him rising from the people behind him. He did not turn his head to make note of who was saying what. "Then it's long past time that everyone gets the chance to say it, rather than just floating along because we don't want to disagree with anyone else."

Hurley startled, his mouth opening and his face reddening with a depth of emotion that Jack had never seen there before. "He's right," Jack said before Hurley could act. Hurley stared at him, confused. The mutterings that had been rising behind Jack cut off as suddenly as if they had been playing from a tape and the cord leading to the stereo had just been pulled from the wall.

Jack spread his hand again, aware that every eye in the cave was on him and wondering if he could ever get used to that kind of scrutiny. Patients tended to be fixated more on their own problems than they were on the people making those problems better, leaving the doctor in the rare position of standing both in front of the camera and behind it. "I was going to suggest the same thing once we had gotten everything settled down again, but that day doesn't look like it's going to be coming any time soon." The rumblings picked up again behind him even though they were more muted now, making Jack acutely aware of the upper hand that Locke had managed to gain by being the first to make the suggestion. 'Not meant to be a politician,' Jack thought again, in the same mental tones with which he had once thought, 'Not meant to be a leader.' Compared to this, though, his first attempts at taking charge had been successes comparable to the final penning of the Constitution.

Locke nodded in a manner than seemed friendly enough. He went on again, "Even if it is Jack when it is all said and done-"

"Or you," Tracy interrupted, coming forward to inspect the meat and squeeze at Steve's shoulder. Jack realized that his jaw had dropped open and that, interestingly, a similar look of surprise had also moved across Locke's face. Tracy looked up, realized that every pair of eyes in the caves was now fixed on her, and flushed a deep scarlet. "Well, he's the one bringing in the food, right? If we made Jack the leader at first because he's the doctor, then it only makes sense that Locke should have a fair shot for the same reason."

Sayid, standing a few yards off, made an abrupt movement. When Jack looked towards him again his face was a blank and careful mask, and he would not catch Jack's eye.

"I'm flattered, Tracy," Locke said slowly. 'He wasn't expecting this,' Jack thought. 'And he's not sure that he wants it…but I'm not sure that he'll turn it down, either.' It was similar enough to Jack's own thoughts in the first few days after the crash to make all of the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. "But I'm not certain that that is a good idea."

"Neither am I," Jack said. The whisperings started up again behind him, reminding him of how petty and threatened those words could appear to people already in a certain mindset. Too bad. Jack wasn't so sure that he still wanted the leadership job, either, and he knew damned well that he had not signed up for spy-novel intrigue. He set his jaw. "Accident or not, Boone did die as a result of your actions."

"Or as a result of yours." Locke was staring straight at him as he said it, face bland and kind, and Jack felt as if a fist had just been driven straight into his gut. Locke shook his head, saying, "We can't blame each other every time that we're beset by misfortune. Not unless you want to blame Michael, Jin, and Sawyer for Walt's abduction, or the island itself every time that it rains. We'll only shatter if we go down that road."

Jack had the feeling that he was a hatchet trying to go up against the finesse of a scalpel, a feeling that he had not experienced in any kind of professional capacity for years. "All right, John," he said. "So what do you suggest?"

Locke blinked before he answered. Jack knew in that half-second lull that he had caught Locke off balance, that Locke had been expecting more bluster, and that was one of the sweetest victories that Jack had had all day. Locke turned to Tracy first rather than addressing Jack immediately. This, too, Jack took as a sign that in some small way he might not be hopelessly out of his depth yet. "We should wait a few days before we vote for anything," Locke said. "Let everyone rest and get their emotions back under control." Locke nodded towards both Jin and Michael, and by implication the absent Sawyer. "Then we the camp can decide whatever it will decide."

"In the meantime, we post sentries," Jack said. He decided that this was not the time to point out that, while Locke did not seem wildly enthusiastic about the idea of leadership, neither was he turning it down. "Everyone here knows everyone else by sight, at least. No one comes near these caves unless they can pass that test. Any volunteers for the first shift?" Steve and Charlie immediately stepped forward, as did Arzt's friend and a woman whose name Jack could not remember, except that she had always been very kind to Walt and had once said that she was a social worker back in the real world. "Good. Meanwhile, we'll need another group to start searching the jungle. A group large enough and sophisticated enough to have a gasoline-powered boat is also going to have to leave some signs of their existence. We've been hugging close to our own territory since we crashed here, and maybe it's our own fault that we haven't noticed other people on the island before now."

"I'll lead that group," Sayid said in a quiet voice. His face was calm, but there was a wary tension strung through his shoulders. He looked around the camp. "Four volunteers should be sufficient. More and we'll be in danger of attracting attention."

"I want to go," Shannon said quickly. Of all the people in the camp, Sayid was the only one who did not appear surprised to hear it. Shannon peered around at the assortment of astonished faces. "What?" She folded her arms over her chest. "He gave me his dog, okay? And none of us are exactly on home turf in that jungle."

"You will be very helpful," Sayid said, stunning everyone perhaps even more than Shannon had with her initial offer. He raised his eyebrows at the rest of the camp. "Anyone else? If you have a military history or any experience with firearms, then your aid will be greatly appreciated."

A young man whom Jack would buy his first drink if he was even of age with floppy dark hair and eyes that would be devastating when he learned how to use them stepped forward. "I used to hunt deer in Wyoming," he said in a soft voice that didn't sound as if he was used to being the center of attention, flushing and speaking a little louder when he realized that everyone was straining in order to hear him. "I'm more used to a rifle than I am a handgun, but I've fired one before."

"That is fine," Sayid told him. The kid nodded and fidgeted for a moment before going to stand beside Shannon. Jack was not certain whether his nervousness was arising from Sayid's easy acceptance, from being in such close proximity to Shannon, or the situation at large. His previous impressions of the youth had all been of a particularly unruffled young man.

Two other men, each appearing to be in the middle of their forties, stepped forward. "I was in the Army," one of them said.

"Ah." Sayid looked him over. Jack could all but see Sayid's mind working as he did the math and realized which war this man had very likely fought in. "And you?" he asked the other.

The second man shrugged and shook his head. "I just want to help."

"That's good enough. We'll leave in ten minutes." Sayid exhaled a long stream of air as the four scattered to gather up what they would need.

"Try to be back before dark," Jack told Sayid as he walked over. He was aware that he had lowered his voice to a level scarcely crawling over a whisper, and it felt unnatural. "There are worse things than the monster out there now."

"I doubt that any of us will be allowed to forget that soon," Sayid said, "but I will take care." He stared in the direction of Steve and Charlie, who were exiting the caves to begin their duties as sentries. "I will leave two of the guns here, should you have need of them." He made a face and began pulling his hair back into the knot he kept it in when he wanted it out of his way. "Though I worry that it may not make it to a vote."

Jack shook his head. "It's not that bad," he said, and wondered if he should take it as a good sign or a bad one that he whole-heartedly believed it. "This is only tension. Believe it or not, I think it's been inevitable since the beginning. It's just obvious now because we're stopping and facing it. Wish I could say that I've seen anything like it before, though."

Sayid's face was dark. "I have. People are willing to trade much for a leader who can alleviate their material troubles, and then only later realize how much they have paid. Be careful." He turned to go over to where his chosen group was waiting.

"You do the same." Jack paused for a moment to watch Locke as he began preparing the boar over the fire, feeling that sensation of fingers tracing patterns over his spine one more time. Paranoia, almost certainly. He wondered how far away either of them were from turning into a bad Apocalypse Now cliché.

Sun took over the hydration duties with Shannon gone, alternating juice and water between the two men in her care. Both Jin and Michael had sunburns fit to make Jack wince just by looking at them, but Sun was already at work crushing several fistfuls of aloe into the makeshift bowls that they had begun to fashion out of gourds. Seeing that there was nothing that he could do except counsel Sun towards more of the same, Jack turned away. Denied his original job and with his adopted one in jeopardy, he found that he was edgy and off-center, unsure of where he should be or what he should be doing with his time. There were two people on the island that he knew of who could shake him out of such a mood, whether by cajoling or by pure, loud-mouthed force. While they warred equally in his mind, at the moment only one of them was conscious.

"Hey." Kate looked up at Jack as he took a seat next to her. Even at a glance Jack could see that she was exhausted. "I'm surprised that I didn't see you volunteering for anything."

Kate gave a faltering smile and rubbed at her shoulder. As she moved the fabric aside, Jack saw that there was another bruise there, bigger than the one on her cheek. "I'm, uh, working on that need I have to be a part of everything. Call it character improvement." She groaned and flinched as her fingers found a tender spot. "And I don't think I'd be good to anyone right now. I'll take a later shift."

This was not the Kate that he knew, not by a long shot. Jack was once again treated to the sensation of all of the hair on the back standing up at once. "Anything serious?" he asked.

Kate shook her head, her curls momentarily bouncing forward to hide her face before she swatted them back. "Just tired." She stared at the main fire as the first scent of cooking boar began to fill out the caves.

"You and Locke talk about anything interesting while you were out?"

The glance that Kate flicked over him became sharp. "Are you kidding me?" She sighed and rubbed at her eyes. "Jack. I'm exhausted, and this is ridiculous."

"You were gone for longer than a day. I was worried. Then you show up covered in bruises and not acting like yourself at all and, yes, I am concerned for you." Jack realized that he wasn't whispering any longer and that they were on the verge of an outright argument. He snapped his mouth shut with an abrupt clicking sound. Jack and Kate had been dancing from the moment that they had met, but, casting his mind back, Jack could still not remember the exact place where they had begun dancing around each other rather than together.

Kate lowered her hands from her eyes long enough to peek at him. "Jack," she said. She made a visible effort to turn her tone into something sweeter, possibly in response to the genuine worry that had been in Jack's own. "It poured all day yesterday. Locke and I got stranded in a valley. I slipped and banged myself up on some loose rocks. We made small talk until it stopped raining and I felt well enough to move on and, oh, by the way, he bashed my head in with a rock when I wasn't looking. You're talking to a clever zombie right now. Don't I preserve well?"

"Ha," Jack said, glaring at her. "That's not as funny as you think."

Kate reached out and squeezed at his arm. "Get some sleep, Jack. You look like the real zombie here." An uncomfortable moment went by in which Jack did not answer and Kate cast her eyes down towards the ground, her lips moving as if she were admonishing herself for words that she could not bring herself to say. After heaving the sigh of a knight readying herself for battle, she looked in the direction of Jin and Michael and said in a small voice, "You said that Sawyer was hurt."

"He was shot," Jack said, reaching out to grab Kate quickly as she lunged to her feet. "He'll heal. He's sleeping right now."

"But you left him alone?" Kate stared at him, her mouth slightly open. Though her words could have been taken as accusatory, the tone behind them was naked human fear. Jack surprised himself by feeling a quick flash of jealousy, not of Sawyer for being able to incite such a visceral reaction, but of… 'Oh, my God.' Jack realized that his mouth had fallen open.

"I'm going to check on him in a few minutes," Jack said finally. His voice sounded as if it were coming from another person, someone calm and collected and not at all in the middle of having a few previously unquestionable truths flipped upside down on him. He licked and his lips. "You can come with me, but then you should try to get some rest yourself."

Though she was clearly still shaken, Kate tried to smile. "Only if you sleep, too." She extended her littlest finger towards him. "Promise me."

Jack stared at the hand that she was offering him. "You're going to make me pinky swear?"

"Can't drug you again." Kate nudged insistently at his arm with her pinky until he gave in and took it.

"I promise that, barring emergency, I will try to get some sleep."

"All that I ask," Kate said. She pushed herself to her feet, heading for the infirmary cave, and left Jack alone for a few seconds to stare into the flames and wonder about this epiphany that had just run into the side of his head.

End Part Eight