Chapter 2: Burden of Leadership
Characters: Jack
Summary: Jack considers who will replace Locke on dish washing duty. It's what a leader has to do.
Locke made it clear that he wasn't going to wash anymore dishes when he stalked out of the hatch leaving Jack to clean the result of his temper tantrum.
The doctor looked in the cupboards and breathed a sigh of relief seeing that there was still placeware in reserve. Certainly not enough to serve everyone at the same time but it wasn't like they were going to have dinner as one big happy family anyway.
Clearly Jack had to protect the few dishes that remained. Locke was definitely unstable and could not be trusted cleaning the fragile items.
John was right; his days of washing dishes were over.
As their leader Jack would have to delegate the task to someone else. Washing the dishes himself did not come to mind at all. He was doing more than he should, bent down with a damp sponge in one hand and sprinkling generic powdered cleaner with the other.
Jack thought of the people on the island and who he could ask.
Charlie was more than likely a heroin addict again. He probably wouldn't do a good job cleaning the dishes because druggies lived in squalor, right?
Claire was too busy with the baby.
Sawyer. Sawyer was a fucking prick and had all the guns.
Sayid provided necessary services. If he felt like cleaning he would. Plus Jack didn't feel comfortable asking the interrogator to wash dishes.
Kate might do it but she would have some ulterior motive. She was tricky. Beautiful but tricky.
Sun acted as their pharmacist, mixing up the indigenous herbs to create remedies. Her husband Jin helped put food on the table. It wasn't his fault that Locke smashed half the dishes that the food would be placed in.
Hurley... what did he do besides say dude a lot? Well, he did lift people's spirits. Making that golf course had been pure genius.
Poor Michael was just too overwhelmed with worry about his son. Jack knew that asking him to do something like this would be out of the question. Again, cleaning the dishes himself never occurred to him.
The doctor considered the newest additions to their group as he scrubbed at a particularly greasy patch of floor.
Ana-Lucia would probably try to kick his ass. Mr. Eko was just too busy being creepy carrying around big sticks. Libby might be willing to help but she might use psychology to get out of it.
Rose, he just couldn't imagine asking her to wash dishes. It just seemed so wrong. Her husband Bernard on the other hand... what did he do? What did he contribute? He was a strong prospect for being the replacement scullery man.
Jack frowned as he got back to his feet. He knew that he would have to make a decision soon. Maybe after getting some sleep things would come easier to him. He shrugged and shook his head lightly.
Being a leader was tough. He didn't ask for the position but someone had to do it.
TBC
A/N: I see one more chapter of this and then it'll be completely out of my system. I hope.