This is to all the dummies and the Jaters. Its not finished and I'm only giving it to you guys chapter by chapter. I wrote this a little before and a little after Locke Down so forgive me if some of my info is a little incorrect by then…. Without further ado here's my Jack/ JATE fan fiction…
The Storm
"Four, eight, fifteen, sixteen, twenty three, forty two, four, eight, fifteen, sixteen, twenty three, forty two, four, eight, fifteen, sixteen, twenty three, forty two, …" Jack goes to room number one hundred and eight to a patient the nurse briefed him on as a "mental patient" who has gotten really sick with a mysterious disease. As he walks down the hallway he thinks to himself "Oh, great another late night dealing with a homeless schizophrenic." He had planned dinner at eight o clock with Sarah at the French restaurant she loved so much but now it seemed like he was going to have to cancel. As he reached room number one hundred and eight he looked at the briefing the nurse gave him. As he looks at the briefing he sees the name Lenny Smith on the top with symptoms of hallucinations and high fever with ramblings of bad luck, some numbers and the others. Jack enters the room as the light flickers. It has been happening all night since the storm started. Jack sees raindrops all over the room's window with complete darkness outside. The lights flicker back on.
"Good evening Mr. Smith, I hear you are experiencing an unusual high fever." The man ignores Jack and continues to chant the same numbers he's been chanting all night and rocks back in fourth in his bed. Jack checks his vitals. He pages the head nurse over as he steps out realizing this patient should have been given to psych and never should have been directed his way. This was not his order of expertise and he was quite frustrated none of the nurses caught this sooner. "Yes, Doctor Sheppard" said the head nurse Barbara Coonie. Jack didn't particularly like Nurse Coonie. She was older than the guy that shot Lincoln and she was due to retire but she just wouldn't leave the hospital for some reason. "Nurse Coonie, why am I being paged to take care of a patient who obviously belongs in psych?" Barbara sighed and rolled her eyes "Because psych is full right now and we have no where else to put him because of the storm." Jack sighed with frustration. Tonight was not the night he wanted to look over a psych patient. His morning started on call at four thirty in the morning when his father paged him about scrubbing in for him for a particularly long complicated surgery. His father had once again spent an all nighter at some hole in the wall bar and although it killed his father to admit it, this time he knew he couldn't perform surgery and had to ask for Jack's help. So once again it was up to good old Jack to pick up the pieces.
When he had left that morning so early he could feel Sarah curled up next to him. He didn't want to leave her. Not again. This was the fourth night in a row he would spend an eighteen-hour day at work. He knew this bothered her and it bothered him too. He rationalized it, as she knew what she was getting when she married him. She knew Jack loved his job. He loved helping people. He loved challenges. He loved fixing things. He also knew though that once he married Sarah his busy work schedule would have to slow down. He actually had great dinner reservations planned. Afterwards they would do the usual. Go to a movie and go back to bed. He would take off the next day and go jogging with her in the morning. He would then come home and make coffee and breakfast for both Sarah and he, read the comics to her especially the love is comic and take the better part of that Saturday exchanging stories about work with each other. Something was missing though. Something was wrong. Something he couldn't put his finger on. Something in their marriage was not right. Was this how you were supposed to feel when you got married? Was this what married life was like for everyone? Whenever these types of questions would come up in Jacks mind the most annoying questions would come after them. Did you marry Sarah out of pity? Sure you loved her and cared about her but something was missing. Then he would stop. He would shove those offal thoughts out of his head. He loved Sarah. She was smart, attractive, witty, sweet, she loved kids and loved him. Was he crazy?
What was his father's surgery and now was his took four and a half hours. Despite Jacks most hardworking attempts it seemed like the patient was practically dead before he got there. Jack was just Hoping for the best in trying to revive the dead. After all he did save Sarah's life and that was a miracle within itself. The man died leaving Jack to break the news to his grieving wife a woman who looked similar to Sarah. She was about the same age. They had about the same body type and similar hair but the face was not the same. Immediately Jack thought of Sarah. It was hard for him to hold back the tears when he thought of this.
After the surgery was done he had a fifteen-minute coffee break and then he was paged again. Apparently there was a five-car pile up in the expressway from the messiness in the roads from the storm. The confusion, madness, craziness, and sadness were unbearable, but Jack seemed to work his best under pressure. It seemed like all the events in his life were preparing him for something but he didn't know what. Not only being a doctor either but also his father issues, Sarah, etc. After the car pile up stuff cleared up he gets the page from the nurse about the psych patient that was not supposed to be his. His night was supposed to be finally over. Talking to nurse Barbara he completely did not acknowledge Dave's rambling's about the numbers. He just figured he was one of those compulsive people that repeated things a lot. He knew everything about medicine and conditions but for some reason the technical name slipped his mind at the moment. He was too tired and frustrated to care about the numbers or even the patient at this time.
Jack had too much on his mind. The death that happened in his E.R, the pile up on the road, worrying about his fathers continued downward spiral into alcoholism, his emotionless marriage to Sarah, and the mess it was going to be to get home in the storm. The last thing on his mind was an obviously crazy patient that came in with a slight fever. He was so tired he had to sit down. He was about to sit take a nap in a chair when heard someone calling his name "Jack! Jack! Wake up!" As Jack woke up he saw the swollen, blood shot red eyes of his father. "Jack your obviously beat. I'm sorry. I had a really bad stomachache earlier and was puking all night. I'm better now though. I'm sorry about your surgery though Barbara told me about the death. There was nothing you could have done son…" "No, I could have saved him had I had more time and more knowledge of his history like you did I…" Shouted Jack. "Calm down Jack. Everything is okay. I'm sorry I took a sick day off of work." His father said sarcastically. "You know damn well that is not why you scrubbed in for surgery this morning!" Jack said, angry as all hell and not patient today to sit through one of his fathers many lies about being an alcoholic. "Ask your mother Jack. I was throwing up all night with the stomach flew…" "So that's what they call hangovers these days huh?" Jack said with a sour jab. "Jack, I didn't come over here to argue with you. I came here to take over your shift. You should be home now with Sarah. I will take over your patients the rest of the night." His father said this smugly as if this made up for all of his antics. At this point Jack didn't have the strength to argue with his dad. He was already a half hour late for dinner with Sarah, traffic would be another hour in this kind of weather. He would miss dinner with Sarah and barely make it for the movie if he was lucky.
Jack decides he is already pretty late and a short nap in the chair won't kill him. Jack dozes off in the chair while his father and nurse Barbara go in to check on crazy Dave. The way the nut job was repeating the numbers over and over again made his sleepier.
Suddenly the loud hatch alarm goes off and Jack wakes up startled from the couch hearing Locke repeat the numbers as he frantically plugs them into the ancient computer. The alarm shuts down. As Jack groggily gets up Locke is staring right at him not letting him get past him. Locke is pist and ready for a showdown with Jack…..