"Dr. Shepherd."
He looked up to see one of the medical students from the other night, the girl who was acting like some kind of Oceanic groupie. He looked down again. "Yeah?"
"Hi. My name's Lisa, I'm a student, I met you the other night," she began.
"Yeah, I remember you," Jack said, concentrating on his work.
"You do?" she asked.
Jack looked up at her. "You left an impression."
She gave him a shy smile and Jack looked back down again.
"Yeah, I just kind of wanted to explain that," she said.
"Please don't," Jack requested.
"See when flight 815 went down I was like 15 years old. I'd never been on a plane, never been outside of Iowa in my life. But my mom wanted to take us on a vacation to Anaheim, go to Disney Land, do all that stuff. She booked the tickets and everything even though I said I didn't want to go. I didn't trust planes, I really didn't want to fly. It just doesn't seem natural, you know what I mean?"
Jack gave her an irritated look. "Don't you have some work to do?"
"This'll just take a minute, I swear," she replied.
Jack sighed and tried to get on with his work.
"So anyway, the day before we were due to fly, that's the day the Oceanic flight 815 crashed. Or, disappeared more accurately, I guess. No one knew what had happened to it. Regardless, I so wasn't getting on that plane, I kicked up a huge fuss, my little brother got totally upset over it all and by the end of the day there was no way our parents were gonna even attempt to get us to the airport."
"Is this story going somewhere?" Jack asked.
"So obviously, for two and a half years, no one knew what had happened to flight 815. A couple of months down the line I don't think anyone was even thinking about it anymore. Except that I was, I thought about it all the time. I'm not like one of those conspiracy nuts or anything but I thought it was really strange that they hadn't recovered a single bit of wreckage from the flight. I mean, even if you guys had gone down in the middle of the ocean, you would have expected to get a little wreckage washed up somewhere but they never found anything. And I just, I always wondered, I was always fascinated by the whole thing. And then they found you guys. And you'd been on this island for two and a half years and it was just, it kind of blew my mind. And you, you were in all the newspapers, you were like Super Doc or something. And whenever someone interviewed any of the survivors you were always mentioned. Those guys, it was like they owed it all to you."
"It wasn't like that," Jack dismissed, old memories coming back to him, memories he thought he'd left far behind.
"I was 18 by the time you guys got off the island, when there was all that buzz about everything that had happened there," she explained. "I'd never stopped wondering about that crash but I never really figured you'd all be alive, you'd all be living. And I was reading all this stuff about you and I just thought you were really amazing. To do the things you did in that kind of situation. You're kind of like my hero. You're the reason I went pre-med. You're the reason I'm doing this."
Jack looked at her in disbelief and wondered what the hell he was supposed to say to all that. "You don't even know me," he finally managed. "You don't know anything about what happened. I'm not special. Anyone would have done the same thing in my situation."
"I don't know about that," she replied.
"I am no reason to change your life plan," Jack told her. "That's just crazy."
"Well, before the whole Oceanic thing I didn't really have a life plan," she told him. "So really you totally did me a favour."
Jack just looked at her. He had a hard enough time dealing with people on the island looking at him like he was some saviour, like he was sent to lead them all to safety, he'd never even considered that anyone else would ever think about their time on the island like that. He couldn't even understand where this girl was getting all this from. When they'd gotten back he knew that certain people had talked to the press, Charlie for one had done anything going in an attempt to re-ignite the Driveshaft flame, but Jack had never read any of those articles, he didn't know what anyone had said. Now he was starting to wonder.
"Anyway, I guess I better go," Lisa said after clearly realising that Jack wasn't going to say anything else.
Jack gave her a nod and got another smile in response before she headed off. He shook his head a little and sighed, turning his attention back to his charts.
"Maria's right about you," Alice commented.
Jack looked up at her, only just registering her presence. "What does Maria say about me?"
"She says you take yourself far too seriously," Alice explained.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack asked.
"I think it means you're a boring stick in the mud," Alice smiled. Jack gave her a look. "It means you could be nice to people every once in a while."
"I'm nice," Jack defended. "I just wish people would concentrate more on their work and less on idle gossip."
Alice nodded. "Lot of people look up to you," she observed. "Wouldn't do you any harm to cut them a little slack every once in a while."
"My father never cut me any slack when he was chief of surgery," Jack stated. "Never did me any harm, look where I am."
"That what it all comes down to?" Alice asked him. "I remember your father, he wasn't the most popular man around."
Jack fixed her with a look. "My father was very well respected in medical circles."
"He was, yes, I'm not saying he wasn't," Alice insisted. "But he wasn't a whole lot of fun to work under, either. You and me both know that."
"He was concentrated on patient care," Jack told her.
"You and him have that in common," Alice observed. "But you're a nice guy, Jack, you can't hide that. You have to see these people everyday, it wouldn't hurt you to get along with them."
"I get along with them fine," Jack dismissed.
"What about Jeremy?" Alice asked. "I know you like Jeremy but I don't think I've heard you say one nice thing to him since he made chief resident."
"That kid needs to get his act together," Jack commented.
"He needs a little self confidence is what he needs," Alice replied. "You could give him that if you really wanted."
"Okay, what is this, lecture Jack day?" he asked. "Why are you getting at me?"
"Because that girl just said some very nice things to you and you just dismissed her," Alice commented. "You could have said thank you."
"The last thing I need right now is a groupie, okay? I do not want to encourage her," Jack said.
"You're not a little honoured that a cute girl like that would have a crush on you?" Alice asked.
Jack gave her a look. "She has a crush on her idea of me," he replied. "That's not who I am. She'll find out."
"You did all that stuff, Jack, whether you want to address it or not," Alice commented. "And there's nothing wrong with being a little bit famous."
"I don't want to be a little bit famous," Jack replied. "I just want to be Jack. I just want to work on my patients, do my job and then go home to my family. That's all I want."
"Simple man," Alice nodded. "Something almost refreshing about that."
"Almost?" Jack asked.
"But I still think you could try being nicer to people," she insisted.
"I'll bear that in mind," Jack replied, turning his attention back to his work once again.
"Remember, Jeremy wants to be just like you, just like you wanted to be like your father when you were in his position," Alice said. "Bear that in mind the next time you talk to him."
"I'm pushing him," Jack said. "The kid needs a push."
"He needs a little reassurance sometimes too," she replied, walking around him. "Wouldn't kill you, would it?" She headed off down the hall.
Jack watched her go. "Might," he mumbled to himself.