Thanks for the reviews for chapter one! Again let me know if you enjoy this part as then I know whether to continue or not! Italics indicates flashback.

Day 6

Boredom. Fatigue. Pain. These are her primary feelings over the last few days. Everything requires far more effort than usual, and a large part of her day is taken up by mundane tasks. She has started to eat and drink again, and she is back on a diet of fruit, fish, and crackers courtesy of Dharma. She is able to have conversations that only last up to about twenty minutes before needing to rest again, and it frustrates her intensely.

Sun stays with her a lot, talks to her, gets her food, and treats her injuries. She has even managed to convince Hurley to get the wheelchair out for her so that she could get some air, but when back among the other survivors she finds their pitying looks and questions about her health unbearable.

But still there is no information: the people she asks cannot give her answers, and Sayid and Sawyer are never around when she is awake.

She is alone this time when she wakes. She sits up slowly, looks around. She is hungry and thirsty, but her water bottle is not within reach and there is no food in the vicinity. She curses her dependency on others and does not want to shout out for help. She does not want to accept help, period, but these last few days she has had no choice.

She twists round, making the decision to try and stand on her uninjured leg. She places it on the ground then slowly moves the other one. She cannot deny the fact that it hurts, but the pain is not as intense as only a few days ago, and so she continues with her endeavour to stand.

She is somewhat successful. Standing still on one leg is manageable, but in order to travel, she has to move her injured leg and this is no small accomplishment. Defeated, she sits down again, angry and frustrated.

She hears movement outside the tent, and turns to see Sayid standing at the entrance.

"I have brought the crutches for you in anticipation that you may wish to get out of here," he smiles. She gratefully accepts them, and tries to stand again. There is still pain, but she is willing to put up with it in order to gain her independence back.

"Thank you," she replies.

"Where would you like to go?" Sayid asks.

"Not allowed out on my own yet?" she queries, but it is with some humour: she can cope with being escorted this once.

"I would like to talk to you," he replies.

Slowly, hesitantly, she starts moving on the crutches. It is more difficult than she had anticipated, as the sand lacks the support of concrete, but she doesn't complain.

They move away from the camp, along the beach, and although she knows that she will tire soon and have to rest, she enjoys this brief moment of freedom.

"What happened?" she asks eventually, repeating her request of several days ago.

"What do you remember?" he asks, cautiously.

"We were taken by the others to a room. We were there a few days, but I don't remember anything else," she admits. It irritates her that she cannot rely on her own memory.

"All I can tell you is what I know," Sayid informs her. She stops moving, tired, and Sayid sits down. She joins him, glad to have a rest. "I don't know how you escaped the camp," he explains. "I was walking through the jungle, trying to find tracks that would lead me to you. I heard something in the distance, and I hid, fearing that it was them. The noise moved nearer to me, and eventually I saw that it was Sawyer. He was holding you up, but only barely. You both had lost weight, and I could see that he was tired. You had been shot in the knee, and had other injuries, so I had to carry you. Sawyer explained to me that they were after you both, that you had escaped. We continued on, back through the jungle. Fortunately, there was no evidence of the others having followed us," he pauses for a moment, and appears to debate whether or not to continue.

"What?" she asks.

"You kept repeating "Left Jack behind. Gotta go back for him. He had to stay." You were barely conscious." He pauses once more. "And then you said: "They're going to kill Jack. They're going to kill all of us.""

---

Almost immediately, Sawyer starts arguing with Jack.

"You got us into this, hero, you gonna get us out?" he demands.

It escalates from there, bitter words and posturing, and right now she cannot deal with this. The only way out is to work together against the others, she thinks, but she is too tired to try to reason.

"Stop this, both of you," she commands. Her words are not enough.

She looks around the room, trying to figure out an easy way to escape, but it is futile. There are four concrete walls, a low concrete ceiling, and a metal door. It is locked from the outside. She wants to shout and scream and cry, but it would get her nowhere, and she fights her emotions.

Fatigue washes over her. The events of the day have been too much for her, and she craves rest. She awkwardly limps over to one of the walls, leans against it for a moment, and then slides down it slowly.

The shouting stops. She looks over at Jack and Sawyer and notices them looking back at her. She must look worse than she imagined.

"Let me take a look at it," Jack says, nodding towards her ankle.

"It's too dark. You're not gonna be able to see anything," she argues.

But Jack is unwilling to give in, and she is too tired to argue effectively.

He sits down in front of her, takes her ankle, removes her boot and pushes her sock down. He presses his fingers gently on her ankle and for a moment, all she can feel is the heat of his touch. He gently probes her ankle.


"Tell me where it hurts," he directs.

She closes her eyes, concentrates on the feel of his fingers moving up and down her ankle and lower leg. She informs him where it hurts.

"It's probably a sprain. You're going to need to rest it for a while," he informs her. His hand comes to rest on her ankle.

"Uh huh," she replies, too exhausted to be more creative in a response.

His hand does not move. She relishes in the feel of its contact. She shivers.

"Cold?" he asks.

"Yeah," she replies, and it's the truth.

"Well, I think we're clean out of blankets," Jack comments. He releases her ankle, moves beside her, and puts his arm around her, rubbing his hand up and down on her arm to create heat. It helps a little, as does the heat emanating from his body. She leans against him, too tired and overwhelmed by their abduction to maintain her guard.

She opens her eyes briefly as she hears Sawyer move across the room. He makes no comment on her sitting against Jack, but she sees a quick glimpse of an expression fall across his features before he hides it. She is too tired to interpret it.

Unintentionally, she falls asleep against Jack's shoulder.

---

End part two