Title: In Admiration - Part 9

Fandom: Lost

Characters: Jack Shephard, Boone Carlyle

Prompt: #2 Middles

Author's Notes: Written for the LiveJournal community slash100 (underscore between "slash" and "100" – for some reason FFN deletes it)

…………

Boone had to admit that Shannon sounded a lot better because of the eucalyptus, and now her voice wasn't as hoarse after she had some of the water he brought. Boone hadn't heard anything about what happened with Sawyer, but he either didn't have the inhalers or wasn't going to give them up. Boone just figured he didn't have them; Sawyer wouldn't have had a reason to hold onto them for this long. Especially now that Shannon was doing fine without them.

He kept going back to all the blood, though, the blood that Sayid had said was Sawyer's. Then he thought about how Jack seemed to be avoiding him, like he was ashamed. Whatever had happened with Sawyer got out of hand. Boone absent-mindedly touched the scrape on his forehead.

"It would have been touching if you weren't covered in blood."

He looked over at Shannon, knowing he was getting teased for something but relieved she had the breath to string a full sentence together without gasping. "What would have?"

"Jack playing doctor before."

"I don't think you can 'play doctor' if you're an actual doctor, Shan."

"Have you slept with him?"

The bluntness of her question caught Boone off-guard. "Excuse me?"

Shannon smirked at him. "You're usually not this dense and needing so much clarification."

"I'm just curious as to why you assume I've slept with Jack," Boone tried to sound at least a little angry, but from all that had happened, he didn't have the energy.

"It seemed like there was a lot of sexual tension, so I figured you slept with him. He's a little old, but since he's a doctor I'd guess he's loaded."

Boone scowled at Shannon's put-downs. "Given your tastes, then, I'm surprised you haven't slept with him yet." Boone found himself being thrown off-guard again from the hurt expression on Shannon's face. "Sorry."

She just shrugged. "I think I had it coming." They were quiet for a couple minutes as Jack entered the vicinity, looking drained. He dropped something off at the area all the medical supplies were kept, washed his hands in a stream, and then went back out into the jungle. "Do you like him?"

"I wouldn't have a chance, so it doesn't matter."

"That didn't answer the question."

Boone sighed, fully understanding that Shannon would be able to tell if he was lying, so there was no point in denying. "I am attracted to him."

"So what's stopping you?"

"We're on an island in the middle of no where with an extremely thin chance of rescue. If he's not interested, it's not like I can just move to another uncharted island so I'll never worry about seeing him again." Shannon's imploring gaze was starting to make Boone feel defensive. "Straight guys don't always respond well to getting hit on by other guys."

"So you know for certain he's straight?" Boone had to admit Shannon had a point. He didn't know one hundred percent either way. Just the day before he had been willing to test Jack, try and figure out how he would respond, if he'd be receptive to any advances Boone tried to make, but then other days he didn't feel like it was worth the risk.

At the time Boone had been too concerned with keeping his hormones from Jack's proximity to pay attention to Jack himself. The other man had been very insistent on making sure Boone was okay, which Boone thought had been overbearing. Sure, he happened to have been hit in the face, but it wasn't any different than the various cuts and scrapes from the plane crash. Jack had seemed more actively concerned with the scrape on Boone's face than Shannon's breathing, which was decidedly a far more serious problem. But Jack didn't seem to be screaming "I like men," either. Although Boone had to admit neither did he. Sometimes these things were hard to tell.

"I'll take that as a no," Shannon said, a little too smugly. "And the fact that he flirts with Kate doesn't count, so don't even try arguing with it. In case you've noticed, Kate flirts with Sayid, Charlie, and even Sawyer. I could talk to him for you, if you like."

Boone frowned at that idea. "What are we in, junior high? I just want a little more assurance, which I'll be able to manage perfectly fine without your help."

However Shannon was gonna respond got buried under another coughing fit. Boone grabbed the eucalyptus Sun had prepared, rubbing some onto Shannon's chest to help her breathe. "I'm okay," she gasped, "Really." She grabbed for the bottle of water, draining its contents. "All this coughing is making my stomach hurt." Boone noticed that she had an arm crossed over her middle.

"Maybe you should get some sleep."

She nodded slowly, Boone glad that there was something they were agreeing on. "Will you stay? In case I can't breathe again?"

"I'll be here. Just get some rest."

Shannon smiled softly at him before quickly falling asleep. Boone looked around and saw that there was no where near that was comfortable for him to lie down and rest himself, but he didn't mind so much. He had too much to think about to sleep.