PART 5

Nikki stirred slightly, hearing voices.
"Jack, there has to be some mistake..." Kate's voice was shaky.
"Kate, why are you on her side?" Jack demanded.
Kate paused for a minute. "Maybe, when she wakes up I can talk to her."
"Absolutly not Kate."
"Jack... please, I talked to her before."
Silence came as Jack thought. Nikki felt someone leaning next to her, and check her pulse. She jumped slightly to the touch, and tried to open her eyes, but there was a bright light.
"Hey, wake up." The person shook her slightly, she didn't recognize the voice. "Jack, I think she's waking up."
She heard footsteps hurry across, she shot up, and forced her eyes open, almost falling off the other side of the bed.
Jack and Kate grabbed her setting her up right.
"What...Where..." Nikki started, even though she knew exactly what happened, the words just kinda slipped out of her mouth.
"You fainted." Jack said almost robotically. Nikki knew that Jack was still unsure about her, she looked at Kate who was looking at Jack.
"Do you feel dizzy, lightheaded?" Jack continued.
Nikki shook her head. She almost liked the doctor Jack better than the other one... wait no she didn't. She put her hand on her head. "You've got to stop thinking!" She thought.
Jack looked at Kate, then nodded and left, mentioning the other guy to follow.
Kate moved and sat in front of her, then carefully chose her words. "Nikki, were you lying to Jack earlier? When he asked you her name?"
"No." she said flatly. "I don't get you guys and names..." she grunted softly.
"Then what is your name?" Kate asked. "Your full name."
Nikki laughed "Wait, your confusing me, didn't I just tell you my name?"
Kate stopped, "Ok, lets start over, what is your full name?"
"Why do you need my full name?" She asked questioningly.
Kate sighed. "Because we check everyone's name to the manifest after our mishap with Ethan."
Nikki laughed, "Oh, well in that case you won't find 'Nikki' in there. Or 'Nicole' for that matter, is that why you think my name is Nicole?"
Kate looked at her cautiously, and stood up. Nikki stopped laughing.
"Um... sorry, uh I..." Nikki started with a loss for words.
"Jack!" Kate called.
"Kate wait if you..."
Jack came in unexpectedly. "Kate something wrong?"
"Kate, wait, just let me say one thing." Nikki got up off the bed.
"Nikki or whatever your name is..." Kate started, a little scared.
"My name is Nikki." she stated plainly.
Jack stood back, wondering why Kate called him.
"Then what did you just tell me?" Kate said trying to keep her voice calm.
"I said Nikki wasn't short for Nicole."
Jack let out a sigh, and ran his hand through his hair.
"It's short for Nicoletta, which is what you would of learned in the first place if you'd of stopped jumping to conclusions and making assumptions." Nikki said raising her voice. "Probably the only Nicoletta in there." She groaned as she walked out.
Jack and Kate glanced at each other.
"I'll check it out." Jack offered, and Kate nodded.

Nikki hopped out of her makeshift tent that Sayid and Locke had build for her under a tree.

"Maybe I can sneak out and get my stuff…" she thought glancing towards the Jungle. She made a face realizing that she couldn't climb a tree, glancing down at her 'cast' that was made out of rough tree bark, with a cloth against her leg, tied together with some bamboo string. She had to admit Jack did a good job. Turning around, she looked at her tree and smiled. "I could at least see if I can." She said quietly. She glanced around to see if anybody was there, seeing there was nobody, she hopped over to the tree, and boosted her knee up to a first low branch. The next branch was a little high for her. "I can't… quite… reach." She grunted in effort

"Nikki!" A female voice called from behind her, startling her she almost fell out of the tree. She turned around to see Kate and some other guy. Kate moved forward to try to help her down.

"Don't touch me…" She said and Kate slowly backed away.

"What are you doing?" she exclaimed as Nikki lowered herself to the ground.

"What does it look like?" she said avoiding her eyes.

"I don't think a puny, little girl, with a broken leg, should be climbing trees." The other man said, and laughed a bit.

Nikki looked up, eyebrows low, and hopped a little towards him.

"Sawyer, you should really lay off." Kate said.

"First of all, I'm not a little girl." She replied angrily. "Second of all, I'm probably stronger than you anyday." Nikki stopped her self for a minute, seriously doubting she was stronger than him. "Oh, what's said is said…" She thought to herself.

"Oh, yea? Try me!" Sawyer said walking closer to her.

"Uh, Sawyer…Nikki" Kate warned nervously.

"Are you challenging me?" Nikki asked, chuckling a little, realizing how short she was.

Sawyer nodded "Yea, how does arm-wrestling suit you?"

Nikki smiled. "Push-ups are more my style."

"You guys, this is really not important." Kate said, pushing Sawyer away.

Nikki looked at Kate then looked back at Sawyer, "Be here in 10 minutes." She flashed an angry glare, and hopped away, then crawled into her tent.

Kate pushed Sawyer off to the side "What are you thinking? She could hurt herself… more!"

Sawyer looked at her pathetically "Chill Freckles, She thinks she's stronger than me and I'll prove her wrong."

Kate and Sawyer were caught in an angry stare for a minute, then Kate ran away.

"Jack!" Kate yelled, running across the beach. "Jack!"

Jack looked up, afraid there was something wrong. Kate ran up panting,

"Kate, what's wrong?" He said fear in his voice.

"Nothing," Kate replied, gasping for breath. Jack let out a sigh of relief.

"Sawyer… and Nikki… decided to have… a pushup contest…" she gasped.

"What!" Jack exclaimed.

Kate nodded.

"Sawyer…" He muttered under his breath, and chuckled a little amused at the thought.

Jack walked off towards Sawyers tent, with Kate following

Jack burst into Sawyers tent.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sawyer exclaimed, who was reading a book.

"You think you can beat her?" Jack said pointing.

"Yea" he replied confidently. "You doin' somethin' about it?"

Jack chuckled, "I need you to back out. She could re-injure her leg."

Sawyer looked up from his book, "Are you joking?"

Jack shook his head.

"She thinks she's smarter than me and I'll prove her wrong." Sawyer replied.

"Right" he replied and walked out of the tent, mentioning Kate to follow him.