Author's note: Thanks as always for all the wonderful replies! You guys always manage to make my week!

As always, these characters do not belong to me (but oh, don't I wish that they did!) and feedback would be so very, very much appreciated.

I'll say more later, so as not to say too much before you've read the chapter. (ie please see the author's note at the end of the chapter)

Test Subject

Chapter Four

Neither Jack nor Kate would have voluntarily said it out loud, but they both liked falling asleep listening to each other breathe.

It wasn't nearly as intimate as it sounded, of course.

He slept in the top bunk, and she in the bottom.

Still, though, they had been logging a lot of time together lately, and essentially sharing a bedroom, even if only for the sake of their project.

They'd tried three different meds from Desmond's stash so far. The first had knocked Kate out cold for the better part of a day, while the second and third had had no noticeable effect at all. Jack had examined both pills, and suspected they were either antibiotics or something akin to aspirin, and since there had been no negative effect from either one he planned to give them to the next person who came to him complaining of headache, provided of course that he or she was willing, as a form of further test.

The whole process had become significantly more relaxed than it was the first time around. They still always had at least one or two people nearby in case anything happened and Jack needed an extra hand, and they still kept the Epipens within reach in case of allergic reaction, but Jack was taking his own brief notes and no one stood by rigidly in the corner as Sayid had done that first day.

They'd become strangely comfortable with what they were doing, the further they went without any problems. Over the last two uneventful days they had played too many games of darts to count. They were surprisingly well matched, and neither was quite sure anymore who held the greater number of games won.

They had shared every meal, developed a few inside jokes, and talked through their plans for the drug project.

It was nice, the two of them working together on something, just like it used to be.

Today, though, the nerves had been kicked up a notch again. They had already tried every kind of pill Desmond had, and so they were moving on from pills to injections.

Charlie and Hurley were out in the living area, listening to music, available if needed.

Kate sat waiting patiently on the bed while Jack looked over his supplies again, a look of deep concentration on his face.

"You look worried," Kate told him after a few seconds had passed in silence, and he looked up at her.

"Just want to be sure I don't give you too much of this," Jack told her, and he picked up a bottle of liquid and a syringe, taking a deep breath.

"Everything's been fine so far," Kate reminded him. "This will be too."

Jack nodded, not wanting to worry his 'patient', but he couldn't deny to himself that this worried him more than the pills had. He suspected that it had the same effect on her, but if it did she was doing a good job of hiding it.

When he had filled the syringe and made a few notes in his notebook, he sat down in his chair next to her bed, syringe in hand.

"Might want to lie down," he suggested to Kate, who was sitting on the bed, her feet planted firmly on the floor.

Kate did as he asked, and he realized once she had that it left only one of her arms accessible to him.

"This arm okay, then?" he asked. She nodded, and he nodded back at her. "Okay."

It was tense again as they sat there, like it had been on the first day, and he positioned the needle in his hand and put it against her skin.

"You'll feel a little pinch," he told her, out of habit more than anything else, but she didn't react as he pushed the plunger.

He put the used needle aside and pulled his chair up closer to her.

"You okay?"

Her eyes narrowed, a look of surprise and unease coming over her, and she sat up quickly, looking down at her own arm.

"It's going numb," she stated simply, and then looked up at him, a question in her eyes.

A mixture of curiosity and concern filled his face, and he leaned forward and brushed his fingers over the skin of her forearm.

"Can you feel this?"

"A little… barely, it feels… it feels weird, Jack."

"Just numb?"

"I don't know how else to describe it."

Jack sat back for a second, thinking.

"You feel okay otherwise?"

"Yeah, I feel fine."

He took her unaffected arm and checked her pulse, and they were both silent while he counted her heart beats.

"Heart rate is just fine," he mumbled, more to himself than to her, and he reached out to touch her numbed arm again.

"You feel this now?" he asked again, and she shook her head, her eyes wider than usual, her mouth hanging open just slightly.

"I can't feel a thing now." Fear was creeping into her voice against her will, and he was quick to reassure her.

"It's just temporary. I'm sure it's just temporary. I think we probably just stumbled across a local anesthetic. That would be a fantastic thing to have, Kate. This is going to be great for the group." He smiled warmly, reassuringly. "Just relax."

Kate nodded yet again, apparently believing him, and a few deep breaths later she looked thoughtful rather than worried as she ran the fingers of her other hand over her numb arm.

"It's the weirdest thing," she said, and looked up at him. "I can't move my fingers at all."

Jack took that in with a nod and reached for his notepad to write it down, and then turned back and reached out for her arm.

"Tell me when you can feel this, okay?" he instructed her, and then slowly ran his finger up her arm.

When he reached the uppermost part of her arm, almost to her shoulder, the numbness died away. It took a split second for her to stop focusing on the sensation of his touch and answer him, and his finger traveled just an inch or so higher before she reacted.

"There," she said quickly, meeting his eyes again, and he nodded and made another note.

"So we know how far it extends." Jack sat back again, the look of quiet contemplation returning to him as he looked her over. After a moment, he seemed to make a decision. "You still feel okay otherwise?" he questioned again.

"Fine."

"No light-headedness?"

"No. Is that usually part of local anesthetic?"

"It can happen," he told her, his mind elsewhere already. "You okay for a few minutes with Hurley and Charlie?"

"Where are you going?"

"I just want to re-sterilize the needle," he told her, and though she thought it was a bizarre time for that, she didn't object.

"Charlie, Hurley?" Jack called loudly, and within a few seconds they were there, nearly crashing into each other in their hurry.

"Everything okay, Man?" Hurley asked quickly, his eyes on Kate.

"What's wrong?" Charlie added, and Jack held up his hands to quiet them.

"It's okay," he started, but Kate interrupted.

"I'm fine, nothing's wrong."

"What was in that bottle?" Hurley asked curiously, and Kate answered him before Jack could.

"We think it was a local anesthetic. Can't feel a thing," she said with a good-natured smile, nodding her head toward her arm.

"Seriously?" Hurley sounded almost excited, and promptly sat down next to her on the bed, intrigued. "So, like, if I punched you right now, you wouldn't even feel it?"

"Hurley!" Jack cautioned, but Hurley just grinned up at him.

"Kidding, Dude. She's cool here with us."

Kate looked up at Jack and nodded her agreement, and Jack turned toward Charlie, looking serious.

"If anything changes, she gets light-headed, whatever, you yell. I'll be right out in the kitchen."

"Got it. No worries, Mate," Charlie assured him.

Jack took one last look at Kate, and then quickly headed out to the kitchen. Charlie took his chair by the bed.

"So is it like going to the dentist? Like the freezing?" Charlie asked curiously, and Kate managed to shrug.

"Never had any cavities," she told him matter-of-factly.

He looked amazed.

"Never in your entire bloody childhood? My mum would have given me a medal!"

"I think I had six," Hurley chimed in with a grimace.

"I hear ya, Mate. I really overdid it with the candy bars and toffee the year I was nine. Had nearly my entire mouth frozen for three whole hours," Charlie said with a sigh.

Kate shifted over on the bed so as to lean against the wall behind it, and carefully used her good arm to place her other arm safely in her lap. She gazed out at the wall beyond the bed.

"I guess I've kind of felt like this before, but not at the dentist," she shared freely, comfortable in their presence. "I was hiding out in someone's backyard shed one year, up in Canada, in the middle of the winter. After a while I couldn't feel my fingers or toes at all. That hurt like hell while the numbness was setting in, though," she told them, and looked over at them again, smiling a sad little smile. "It was one of the worst birthdays I ever had."

"One of?" Charlie repeated, stunned. "What, do you Americans regularly spend birthdays being held captive or attacked with fire pokers?"

Kate smiled but said nothing, her eyes downcast.

When she looked up again Jack was standing in the doorway, and she didn't have to ask to know that he'd overheard.

The look on his face was the same slightly pained and disappointed look he always wore when reminded of her fugitive status, and it sparked a hint of something wounded in her eyes.

She hated that look.

She stayed quiet, silently daring him to stay anything.

Jack seemed to consider his next move for a moment, then opted to keep things light.

"My worst birthday, I threw up half the cake," he said, his tone bright. "Guess you've got me beat."

Grateful that they weren't going to deal with any of their outstanding issues just now, Kate nodded her head at the needle in his hand.

"That was quick," she noted.

"I used a flame," Jack informed her, and then turned to Charlie. "May I…?"

Charlie took the hint and got up, giving Jack back his chair, and Jack met Kate's eyes seriously.

"I had an idea, and you can feel free to say no, but it would be really, really good for us to know just how extensive the numbness is."

"But… you already…?" Kate looked at him in confusion.

"Not how far," he clarified. "How deep."

Kate nodded slowly, understanding, but less than thrilled.

"You want to… pierce… my arm."

"Oh, Dude…" Hurley said quietly, sounding a little sickened, but Jack nodded.

"You might be a little sore later, but it shouldn't hurt right now, not if this is really what I think it is."

Kate took a quick moment to think that over, and then nodded.

"Okay. That might actually give us a chance to test the other pill again," she pointed out. "If it's sore, I mean."

"Maybe," Jack agreed, and pulled his chair closer to the bed again. He reached for her arm and gently laid it out in front of him, along her lap. He had a tissue ready to wipe away any droplets of blood.

He pierced her palm first, and although Kate and Charlie watched in mild fascination, Hurley headed for the door.

"I'll, uh, I'll just… I'll be out here," he said weakly, and quickly left.

Charlie smirked, and Kate had to hide a smile.

Same old Hurley.

"You can't feel that?" Jack asked, and Kate shook her head in the negative.

"Not at all."

Jack moved up her arm bit by bit, first piercing the skin lightly and then deeper, and each time looking into her face for a reaction.

When he hit her upper shoulder she winced, and leaned back since she couldn't otherwise pull her arm away.

"Sorry," Jack said quickly, but looked confused. "Earlier you said you couldn't feel that area, so…"

"Guess I wasn't quite accurate," Kate told him, her eyes locked on his, and she hoped she wasn't blushing, remembering why she hadn't exactly been 'quite accurate' earlier.

Charlie looked intrigued by the exchange, but quickly grew bored as Kate resumed her earlier position against the wall and Jack went back to making notes.

"So… s'it all right if I go back out with Hurley?"

"Yeah, Charlie, it's fine," Jack said without looking up, and Charlie wandered away.

The room went silent again for a full minute or two, and when Jack looked up from his notebook and met Kate's eyes, neither of them knew what to say at first.

He fell back into his medical routine, reaching for her good arm to take her pulse.

"Still holding steady," he told her after a moment, and she nodded.

"No darts today," she said with a smile, looking down at her useless arm.

"What, you don't think you can take me left-handed?" Jack teased.

"I wouldn't want to put you through the embarrassment," Kate teased back, and Jack laughed a truly amused laugh.

"As soon as you're back to normal, I'm using the rest of this notebook to keep score," he told her.

Her smile died off slowly as she looked around the room and sighed.

"Jack, I know you think I should stay in the hatch during all of this…" she started.

"It's a controlled environment, Kate, and private, non-chaotic… We've got the guys and the Epipens -"

"I'm bored," she said pleadingly, looking him in the eye. "We can have that on the beach!"

"You shouldn't be traipsing around the jungle right now. This is still a foreign drug, and even if it wasn't you could still react to the --"

"Then it's a good thing I'll have my doctor 'traipsing around' with me, right?" Kate tried, smiling a smile she'd known guys to have trouble resisting in the past.

It almost worked. She could see his resolve starting to crack.

And so she pushed on.

"It's what, almost eight-o-clock?" Kate asked, and Jack nodded, not sure where she was going with that question. "So people have had dinner, everyone's probably hanging around a big camp fire right now. If we leave now we'll be there when the sun goes down. You can check on Claire -"

"Sun has been -"

"Sun's not a doctor, though," Kate insisted, and Jack gave her a knowing look.

"You're really going to play the doctor card right now?"

"If it means we go up to the beach? You bet."

Kate grinned at him again, and though he tried, he just plain couldn't resist.

Truth be told, he was beginning to go stir-crazy in the hatch himself. And realistically, there wasn't much more that could go wrong up on the beach than here in the hatch.

He reached out his hand to her, and she took it and stood up.

"Anyone ever tell you you're stubborn?" he asked playfully.

Kate just laughed as she left the room.

…

A half hour later, despite the continued numbness of her arm, Kate was as close to feeling that all was right with the world as she'd been in years.

These little campfires in the evening were by far the best part of their now-settled life on the island.

The setting sun left everything looking slightly orange and glowing, and groups gathered together to share stories and often share fruit, and with all the traumas and tragedies they had all suffered in the past several weeks, it was something they all needed.

Hurley often served as entertainment, comedian extraordinaire that he was.

Presently he was in the middle of some long tale about a squirrel trapped in an apartment, and though Kate wasn't really paying much attention, she cracked a smile whenever everyone else laughed. It was infectious. Even Sayid laughed now and then, laying in the sand next to a snoozing Vincent.

Kate was seated next to Jack on a large log someone had placed next to a regular bonfire pit. Sun and Jin were nearby, as were Rose and Bernard, and the apparently recently reconciled Claire and Charlie, and Kate felt a little bit paired off, coupled up with Jack, sitting next to all of them.

She didn't get up and move, though. She didn't even think about it.

In fact, when the slightest feeling of light-headedness passed over her, she leaned against Jack slightly, and he noticed immediately and turned to face her.

He looked at her uncertainly, wondering if something was wrong or if she was simply getting closer to him for the sake of getting closer to him.

"Little dizzy," she nearly whispered.

Perhaps it was that he'd been expecting this, or perhaps it was that he was just feeling that relaxed right now, but Jack didn't look worried. He just put his arm around her as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and slowly, gently moved them both off of the log and onto the sand.

"Lean back against me," he offered, speaking almost as quietly as she had.

She did exactly that, settling in against his chest, and though it felt a little bit new and foreign to her, it also felt right.

That was the thing with her and Jack. Things weren't always good between them, but when they were it was so damn right.

She closed her eyes, comfortable and content.

This place was crazy.

But every once in a very long while, there was nowhere else she'd rather be.

…

Author's (other) note: We've been moving forward slowly and establishing some things, and setting up other things when it comes to Jack and Kate and what he knows of her past, and how he reacts to that. Without giving too much away, this was the last sort of 'set up' chapter. Next up things are going to take a significant turn…

Kate is about to get far more than she bargained for with this 'project'.

And it just might change everything.

Feedback rocks my world!