"Is my Dad going to be okay?" Walt asked anxiously, as he stood beside the doctor and his father. Walt hadn't left either of their sides the entire trek home.
"I think he'll be just fine," Jack said tiredly, wiping his forehead with the back of one hand. "It's you I'm worried about."
"Why would you be worried about me?" Walt asked, raising one eyebrow. Jack smiled. He didn't remember the boy being able to do that when he'd left. Apparently a lot had changed.
"Walt, why don't you tell me about what you've been doing for the past month," Jack insisted. Walt paused for a moment, and then sat down beside his father, not saying a single thing. Jack sighed, and stood up.
"Where you going?" Walt asked. Jack smiled a little.
"I'm going to head into the main room," he said. "Where I'm going to lie down on the couch and try to get some rest. You ought to try and do the same."
"What if something happens to my Dad while you're sleeping?" Walt asked. Jack sighed.
"Walt, your dad's going to be fine, at least for a few hours."
He walked out of the room, still marveling over the change in the boy's appearance. He saw Locke, sitting dutifully at the computer, staring as it began to count down.
"How's the boy?" Locke asked, never taking his eyes off the computer screen.
"Older," Jack said. That was enough to get Locke to rise his eyes and look toward him. "Or haven't you noticed."
"I noticed," Locke responded. "What do you think that means?"
"I don't know," Jack said, allowing a bit of his frustration to come out in his words. "Dammit, I don't know. Any disease I can think of that seems to cause rapid aging has other symptoms, and he doesn't display any of them."
Locke nodded his head. "Maybe it's just fate, Jack," he said. Jack laughed a little, bitterly, and shook his head.
"You don't really believe in that, do you John?" he asked. The bald man looked up from the computer again, and stared steadfastly at Jack.
"You don't"
"Hey," it was no surprise that Kate's soft voice was the one to finally break the tableau. "What's going on here?"
"Nothing," Jack said wearily, running a hand over his head. "I'm just going to try and get some sleep."
"Oh," Kate nodded her head. She looked confused, but for once seemed to understand that Jack needed a bit of space. "Okay. I'm just down for my shift."
"That's right," Locke said with a smile, standing up. "Who's with you?"
Before Kate had the chance to answer, a cocky grin and swagger entered the room.
"Y'all miss me?" Sawyer asked with a broad grin. Kate laughed. Jack rolled his eyes. Locke glanced at Kate for a moment, before heading over to Sawyer.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. Sawyer looked down at him, and then nodded. Locke led him to the pantry.
"I want you to let the timer count down," he said. Sawyer stared at him.
"Did I just hear what I think I heard?"
"Run it down," Locke said again, a little more intensely this time.
"Why, you wanna know what happens? Whether this little island goes boom or not?"
"It won't blow up," Locke said. Sawyer grinned.
"Well, hell, that's what I've been saying all along!"
"Let it count down," Locke said again. Sawyer nodded his head.
"Alrightee, hoss," he agreed. "Let the games begin."
Theodore froze. He stared at the pair of white espadrilles. White espadrilles meant a woman, he was pretty sure. He allowed his gaze to follow them up. Yup, long, long legs, ending in a blue cotton skirt. Follow them up some more, to a waist in a white tank top, tanned arms, huge clouds of wavy brown hair, and deep brown eyes. And freckles. He swallowed. Theodore had always been a sucker for freckles.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Jess asked, pushing her hair back from her face. She stuck out her tongue a little, at what, Theodore couldn't be sure.
"Jess, you'll never believe what we found!" O'Keefe exclaimed, leaping from his feet and dragging the girl with him to the computer. "Check that out!"
"Um. . .a map?" she said. She'd given up on controlling the hair, and just pulled it back into a ponytail. Theodore tried to keep from sweating.
"No! Ted, tell her what it is!"
Jess swiveled around in a chair, and her face broke out into a wide smile. Theodore could feel pools of moisture under his arms. "Teddy bear!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet and running over to give him a hug. Theodore prayed that she wouldn't feel his sweaty back. "I haven't seen you in ages! How are you?"
"Good, good, enough of that," O'Keefe said impatiently, untangling the two, grabbing them both by their forearms, and pulling them toward the screen. "Catch up later."
"That," Theodore explained, pointing a finger at the pulsing light. "is a site of high magnetic activity. My best guess, from the vibrance and frequency of the light, is that polarity at this site has actually been reversed."
"Okay," Jess said, clearly understanding neither what he was saying, nor what it had to do with you. "That's cool."
"It's fantastic!" O'Keefe exclaimed, and quickly ran through everything that he had told Theodore earlier. When he finished, he was breathing heavily, and looked even paler than usual. Jess looked at him in concern.
"Are you okay?" she asked. He nodded his head.
"Great. Let's get to work."
"Wait a minute. . .what do you mean, get to work?" Jess asked. "Guys, I'm not a scientist. What do you expect me to do?"
"But you are a journalist, right?" O'Keefe asked intensely. Jess laughed and shook her head.
"Yeah, for two summers I worked for a newspaper. What does that"
"We need you to go through the records here, any mention in newspapers, in grants, whatever, and see if you can find mention of something called the Dharma Initiative," O'Keefe said. "It was started by a bunch of U of M graduate students, as part of a thesis project, so there has to be some kind of record."
"You're kidding, right?" Jess laughed. "That's the work of a lifetime. Besides, what exactly are we trying to find out here? Aren't there profs or something working on this?"
Theodore groaned. He'd already brought up this argument, and O'Keefe had already shredded it to pieces. If nothing else, it had actually increased his enthusiasm.
"That's the greatest part," O'Keefe said. He grabbed Jess's hands in his own, and pulled her toward him. Theodore stepped back, awkwardly, wishing that he had the courage to make such a move. "Nobody would catch this on a world map. And nobody is going to start looking up blank spots of ocean for no reason. This is ours, Jess. If we find that island, if we can get those results. . .can you even imagine?"
"Okay," Jess said wearily. "I give up. Point me toward the Stacks, and let's get busting."
There were some definite bad points to being Brian O'Keefe's best friend, Jess thought wearily that same night, sitting in the dim lighting of the UGLi and poring over old records. Chief among them were the late nights, the frequent explosions of excitement, and the occassional hospital visits. Rarely did she enjoy the escapades he pulled her and Theodore into. Which made her wonder, yet again, how she had gotten dragged into this.
"Find anything?" she asked Teddy, glancing over at him. He shrugged, looked uncomfortable, and refused to take his eyes off of the graph he was staring at.
"Hey, look at this," O'Keefe broke the stillness. Jess looked up at him. He held up a large pile of documents. "They weren't just working on polar bars and polarity. They wanted to conduct psychological experiments on humans."
Now this was getting interesting. Jess, more interested in soliloquies and etymology than any science-mumbo-jumbo had been struggling just to keep her eyes open, but the suggestion of psychology perked her right up. She leaned over the table, grabbed the stapled papers, and pulled them toward her.
"These aren't just psychology experiments," she said. "This is a load of bullshit. They were trying to prove the existence of paranormal abilities."
"What does that mean?" Teddy asked, glancing up. "ESP?"
Jess nodded her head. "Telekinesis, telepathy, empathy, etc. etc.," she threw the papers down. "And they wanted to actually create such powers in people."
"They wanted to start up their own X-Men, huh?" O'Keefe asked, dragging the papers toward himself. He began leafing through them himself.
Jess stared up at the ceiling, fuming. Trying to implant bizarre powers into people. . .that was just cruel. Who would willingly be a mutant?
"Hey, guys," Teddy suddenly said. "What's this?" he held up a small, circle roll of film in his hands.
"Looks like someone forgot to get their last frat party developed," O'Keefe said, not really paying attention.
"No," Jess said, "may I?" Teddy handed over the film, and she glanced at it. "This is a slideshow, or some kind of movie," she said. Now things were really getting interesting. She could tell by the film that it included a number of people, and they definitely didn't look like scientists. "What do you guys think?" she asked, holding up the film. "Should we check it out?"