Chapter 7: You had your chance to chose

Shannon stopped breathing again the next morning, so Jack repeated his inhaler process. She began to breathe again, but Jack was concerned.

"Sayid, she really could die in her coma,unless I give her head surgery to release excess fluid and relieve pressure from the brain," Jack informed Sayid of the risks. "I have to get permission from Boone, but I wanted you to know." Jack left the tent and looked for Boone.

Jack couldn't find Boone anywhere. He saw a crowd around Shannon's lounging area, which had moved near Sawyer's broken chair area. "Boone!"

"Yea?" Boone yelled back, not moving his eyes from the middle of the huddle.

"I need to talk to you!" Jack called.

"Okay," Boone jogged over to him. "Yea?"

"Shannon isn't doing very well and so I wanted to get permission from you to operate on her," Jack told Boone.

"Where would you need to operate?" Boone questioned Jack.

"On her head. It will release fluid and relieve pressure from the brain," Jack said. "If I don't then she could have serious brain damage. I think the damage has already started to come, because she is forgetting to breathe sometimes."

"Why do I never hear about these things earlier?" Boone glared at Jack.

"Can I operate or not?" Jack asked firmly.

"Go ahead, but I want to be there," Boone said.

"You can't be inside, but you can wait outside," Jack said. "I'm going to operate today. Like now."

"Oh. Okay," Boone smiled,and blushed. He was a little embarrassed. Boone followed Jack back to Shannon's tent.

"So what were you looking at any way?" Jack asked before he went into the tent.

"The new girl, she was wearing Shannon's bikini," Boone answered. Jack entered the tent and asked Sayid to get Locke.

Locke came into the tent a few minutes later. "Yes Doc?" he asked.

"I need to operate on Shannon and I need knifes," Locke left and came back five minutes later with his knife case. He opened it.

"Take your pick," Locke left Jack with Shannon, after wishing her good luck. The clock said ten twenty-five.

"Here we go," Jack took out the sharpest knife. He cut the top of Shannon's head open. Blood flowed like a waterfall out of her head. Jack took out a smaller knife and cut away at the tissue protecting the brain. The tissue made even more blood spill out.

"Your going to make it, this is a normal amount of blood loss," Jack talked to Shannon, hoping she wouldn't wake up. He then picked up the sharp knife again and cut a tiny hole in her skull. Bluish- purple fluid spilled out with more blood. The surgery was completed. He put stitches in her head, knowing that the skull and the tissue would grow back. Jack called Boone into the tent.

"Oh my god, is she okay," Boone looked at the blood and fainted. He was falling towards Shannon so Jack grabbed him and laid him down softly next to her. Jack took the towel he used to catch Shannon's blood and went to wash it in the stream at the caves.

"Sayid!" he called. Sayid came over to him, not liking the blood stained towel.

"What happened?" Sayid asked urgently.

"She should be okay, the fluid came out and I gave her thirty head stitches," Jack said. "I need to go clean this towel, I would say you could go in and visit her, but Boone's in there, well sort of." Jack left the beach.

Charlie had readopted the job of cleaning towels, while Claire was feeding Charles. If Charles wasn't eating, Charlie stuck to Claire and him like glue. Jack came to the caves with the towel.

"What happened?" Claire asked sounding worried.

"Shannon needed surgery," Jack said walking to the stream. Charlie and Claire looked at each other and followed him.

"Is she okay?" Charlie asked.

"She's fine, she should recover in the next week," Jack answered, not knowing that she almost died. "But if she doesn't recover in the next week, then she might not ever come back."

"Oh, well thanks for the news," Claire said. She was staring at the towel.

"Yeah, I hope she's doing great," Charlie said as Jack finished rinsing the towel. Jack got up and hung the towel on a branch, separate from the brach that Charles' diapers were on.

"She'll be okay. Thanks for the concern," Jack turned and headed back to the beach. "I'll update you when there is new news!"

"Okay!" Claire yelled back.

"I can't believe he operated on her!" Charlie was astonished.

"He saved you didn't he?" Claire said, lying Charles down for a diaper change.

"Yeah, but he didn't operate on me!" Charlie said. Claire just shrugged her shoulders and handed the wet towel to Charlie.