Chapter 37
Jack was glaring at Danielle, who didn't bother to look at him; she was keeping her eyes on Locke. "You've been there? Why didn't you tell us about it?" Her lack of response irritated him and the glare he was giving her started to look a little crazy. "What are you hiding?"
Locke put his hands up to placate him. "Easy, Jack." He turned back to Danielle, who was still gazing at him. "If you've been there, why can't we go? Do you remember how to get to it?"
She nodded. "Yes. But you cannot go yet. You need something first." She turned to Sawyer, who was standing in front of Kate, shielding her; as Danielle's gaze swept over them he felt her take his hand and he smiled. "You found a body about a week ago, lodged in a tree?"
Sawyer looked at her questioningly; Kate squeezed his fingers and he nodded. "Yeah. So?"
Danielle smiled tightly, taking in Sawyer's protective stance and Kate's hand in his. "You found a backpack near him, yes?" Sawyer glanced at Kate and nodded again. "Was there an injector in it?"
He looked confused. "A what?"
"An injector." She sighed at his blank look. "It would look like a gun with a needle on the end."
Jack glanced at him sharply; he remembered seeing Sawyer with something like that while they were in the jungle; right before the Others took Kate. Sawyer stared at her suspiciously. "What if there was?"
"Do you still have it?" Sawyer couldn't honestly remember what had happened to it; he'd had it in the clearing with the pit, but then he went to the Others and he hadn't thought about the pack since.
Jack broke in, impatient with the way the conversation was going. "What does that have to do with anything? Why can't we go to the station now?" He was really agitated; the relaxation and good feeling from his romp with Ana was gone. She put her hand on his arm, trying to calm him a little.
Danielle finally turned her gaze to Jack; he was staring at her, the demented gleam in his eyes fading a little. "You need the injector to administer the vaccine."
Jack felt like his head was going to explode. Every damn answer she gave just brought up two more questions; she was like the frigging Sphinx, everything was a riddle. "Vaccine for what?"
She looked at him kind of pityingly. "For the sickness. The Shark Station is where it came from."
Locke spoke up. "Is that why you didn't get sick? Because of the vaccine?"
She shook her head. "No," she said softly, looking very sad and alone. "I do not know why I did not get sick when everyone in my crew did. I did not learn of the vaccine until a few days ago."
Kate squeezed Sawyer's hand gently and he glanced down at her; she looked a little upset. "We left it in the clearing," she said, "the backpack. After They...t-took you I forgot all about it, and when we left nobody picked it up."
Danielle glanced sharply at Kate. "You must get it before we can open the hatch."
Jack snapped, "We can find the hatch ourselves."
Danielle smiled at him, shaking her head. "I seriously doubt that."
Hostility radiated from Jack as he laughed humorlessly. "Really. Why?"
She looked sad and a little lonely. "Because I buried it."
-----
Eko came to sit beside Kate; he smiled at her as he pulled a makeshift sling from behind his back. She smiled in return but her eyes darted back to Sawyer, who was huddled together with Locke and Jack. He felt her eyes on him, and he turned to her, flashing a reassuring grin.
As he turned back to the huddle, Kate glanced up at Eko. He knelt beside her and slipped the sling around her neck, gently lifting her arm to slide it in. She paled a little, it was throbbing like mad and her head was pounding sickly; one of the reasons she hadn't joined Sawyer and the others was she was afraid she was going to throw up if she moved from the stump she was sitting on.
Letting her arm back down gently into the sling, Eko glanced over at Danielle. She was leaning against a tree, her rifle propped up beside her watching the huddle with idle interest. "How are you, Katherine?" He didn't just mean her arm.
She flicked her eyes back to Sawyer again, smiling. "I'm fine," she said, softly. "It just hurts." She wasn't just talking about her arm, either.
Eko grinned at her. "Love always does, Katherine." His smile faded a little as he nodded at Sawyer. "James does not know how special he is. How important. What they are planning to do is going to be dangerous for him; he ignores the risks because he feels like he needs to do this for you. That he needs to belong for you." Seeing her scared expression, he touched her aching arm, shocking her; the pain faded a little and as the headache eased the urge to puke was gone. "He is close, Katherine, to becoming what he has it in him to be. You have to help him, especially now."
Her eyes were wide, and she swallowed hard, looking at Sawyer with fear and love. "How do I help him? I-I don't know what to do."
He smiled again, gently. "I think you do. You have been doing it all along; including him, supporting him, protecting him." His smile turned a little sweeter, and Kate's heart stopped as she glanced at Sawyer; he was turning to look at her and their eyes met. Eko smile softened again. "Loving him." Kate's gaze didn't leave Sawyer; he was grinning at her, his dimples deepening. "You are on the right road, Katherine, though there are many obstacles in your path. You must meet them together." He paused and Kate dragged her eyes from Sawyer to him. "Your name, Katherine, is Greek in its origin. It is derived from the word hekateros. Do you know what that means?" She shook her head. "There are two sides to you, yes? A division inside of you, as deep as your soul? It is no mistake that you are a Gemini, the twins. The opposite sides of the same coin." She was gazing at him trembling a little; it felt like he was looking inside of her heart, probing at the places she kept hidden. "One half of you is light; sunshine and laughter, and love, but the other," he touched her hand, noticing her tremors, and she relaxed a tiny bit, "the other half is dark; empty, cold and lonely. Is that true?" She nodded; she didn't trust herself to speak. He glanced over at Sawyer, who was arguing with Jack. "When you are with James, do you feel that other side? The dark side of you?" He leaned in close to her, whispering. "When you are with him, is it still empty and cold?"
She shook her head, her heart thudding against her chest. "No."
Eko smiled, satisfied. "Because he is the other half of you, Katherine. Hekateros means 'each of the two sides'; he fills half of you, you complete him." He smiled at her, and glanced at Sawyer, who had turned and was coming towards them. "The name James...it means 'supplanter'. One who seizes and holds the place of another. Do you understand, Katherine?" She nodded, smiling. "Remember, you can only do this together. As a whole." He stopped as Sawyer reached them, and he nodded to Eko before kissing Kate gently. She suddenly felt it, what Eko had talked about; she felt whole.
"How's the shoulder, Freckles?" He asked her softly, caressing her cheek. She lowered her eyes and pressed her face into his hand.
She realized that the pain was gone. Not completely, but it was just an irritation instead of agony. She looked wonderingly at Eko, who simply smiled at her and shrugged. "It's fine." She turned her eyes back to Sawyer and smiled at him. "Everything is fine."
-----
Kate didn't like the plan when she heard it either. She and Sawyer were to cross the island and get the pack while the others stayed to dig out the hatch. "Why us?" She glanced at Eko in a panic; she didn't want to do this. This would take them right into the claws of the people they were trying to avoid, and if they were trying to draw Sawyer out, wouldn't this be the perfect way to do it?
Jack sighed in irritaion. "Because you two know what to look for, and you won't be any help digging with that arm." He shot her an accusing glare, like she had hurt herself on purpose so she wouldn't have to dig; she glared back. "Sawyer volunteered for it, anyway."
She turned angry, astonished eyes on him; he grinned and shrugged and leaning in to her, whispered, "I figured we could put the time alone to good use."
She almost smiled through her anger; instead she glared at Jack, shaking her head. "No. It's too dangerous." She looked to Eko, hoping he would support her; seeing her expression, he nodded and smiled and she sighed with relief.
"I will go with them," he said, and Kate frowned at him; she thought he wanted Sawyer to stay out of trouble, why was he agreeing with them? Eko shook his head gently at her and she sighed and shrugged, feeling defeated.
Locke glanced at Eko and smiled. So, this was the time when they would part ways. Dividing their forces; Locke knew that strategically it was not a wise move, but he could feel the island's secrets in his grasp. Anyway, this was how it was supposed to happen. It was their destiny. "I guess it's settled, then." he glanced at Kate's arm, still in its sling. "I would wait until morning, give everyone a break. Danielle, can you draw them a rough map of where they need to go?" She nodded and he glanced at Jack, who was looking agitated and impatient, as usual. "Jack, be patient. The answers are there, they're not going anywhere. We've waited this long, what is another few hours?"
Jack glared at him. "I guess a few hours are nothing, as long as it's our destiny."
Locke laughed softly. "And it is, Jack. It is."
