Title: In Admiration - Part 36

Fandom: Lost

Characters: Jack Shephard, Boone Carlyle

Prompt: #62 Shattered

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

…………

"Jack!"

He turned at the sound of his name, looking away from Kate towards the source of the voice that demanded his attention. Jack's first instinct was to wish he hadn't turned around for when he did it was as if the world had shattered around him in a cacophony of broken glass. It was Locke, his shirt soaked in bright red blood, with Boone unconscious and draped across his shoulders. Jack stood without registering the movement, John seeming to walk towards him really slow, shouting for help but sounding farther away than he really was. Jack was seeing in tunnel vision, gaze focused on Boone and all the blood. It wasn't until he tried to put Boone down did the things return to normal speed, Jack feeling doctor-mode take over, telling Locke not to put Boone down there but inside the cave that had the medical supplies.

Jack barely registered Kate's presence as he put his face near Boone's mouth, making sure he was still breathing. "What happened?"

"There was an accident," Locke's voice was calm and almost instantly Jack wanted him to leave even though he was the only one who knew what had happened. "Boone fell off a cliff out near the place we were hunting."

Boone's shirt was soaked through with blood, so Jack ripped it open to see how badly he was hurt. It looked like he'd been in a car accident - Jack had seen many people ripped up this badly coming into the emergency room fresh off the interstate. It looked worse than it really was in a normal situation, but this wasn't the normal situation - he had limited supplies to sterilize the wounds and the only antibiotics he had were weak. Jack mentally went through the catalogue of what he did have access to, thinking about what would be useful.

He turned to Kate, seeing from how pale her face at gotten and the way that she couldn't stop staring at Boone that it was bad, but Jack didn't need to be reminded of that at the moment - he needed to take it one step at a time. Jack took a deep breath to try and keep his voice steady. "Okay, I'm going to need some water. And shirts, towels, anything that can be used to stop the bleeding."

"Okay," Kate responded faintly, but she wasn't moving.

"Kate, now! Please!" Jack was well aware that he sounded like he was begging, but a life was possibly on the line here. Boone's life. He turned back to Boone, hearing Kate move to get what he'd asked for. "John, tell me exactly what happened." Jack turned to the cart at his side, pulling out rolls of gauze and trying to figure out if the hydrogen peroxide he had left would be nearly enough to help here, forget what they might need afterwards. Locke took a while to answer, and Jack looked back at where he had been standing, thinking maybe the other man hadn't heard him, but he was no longer where he had been before. "John?" There are people around, but none of them are Locke. He shouts the man's name a few times, seeing Kate look at him from where she's collecting water, but he isn't there anymore.

Damn it, Locke, Jack swore mentally, noticing that Hurley and Sun were suddenly nearby. Kate returned with the water and cotton T-shirts she must have gotten from the unclaimed luggage that had been found close to the caves.

Boone's eyes were open, but he didn't seem to realize what was going on, gaze unfocused and filled with pain. He was gasping for breath now, too, and Jack hoped that none of his ribs were broken. They moved him further into the infirmary area, Kate applying pressure to the wound on Boone's chest as Jack noticed Sun checking his legs while they put him down on some seat cushions on the cave floor.

"What happened?" Hurley asked, mirroring the question Jack had asked mere minutes ago. Had it really only been a few minutes? It felt like hours had passed since Locke called Jack's name. And where the hell was he?

"He fell down a cliff," Jack heard Kate answer for him.

"But he was with Locke."

Hurley's statement caused Jack to clench his teeth in anger. He knew he had no reason to trust the man. Jack hadn't wanted Boone to go out hunting, and he had told him that much, but Boone was so damn stubborn, and he just wanted to be helpful. And now because he wanted to be helpful, Boone was lying on the cave floors, barely conscious but incognizant of anything but the pain, and he seemed to be bleeding from everywhere. The injuries on his chest seemed to finally be clotting with the pressure Kate was applying, but then there was his leg that was also bleeding and looked broken, and Jack didn't doubt that he'd lost too much blood and needed a transfusion.

Jack got Sun working, telling her to switch places with Kate as Boone starting gasping for air. Sun picked up some clean shirts from where Kate had put them on top of the cart, replacing Kate in applying the pressure. Boone's breathing was sounding even raspier now, and Jack knew he needed to work faster. He could see other survivors standing around and gaping, so he told Hurley to get the mesh that they'd salvaged from the plane - they could use it as a divider to give them some privacy and maybe help make the environment a little more sterile. He looked up and saw that Hurley was looking pale, and he remembered when he'd pulled the shrapnel out of the marshal's chest and Hurley had passed out from the sight of blood.

"Hurley, I swear to God if you faint..."

"No. Mesh. I got it. I'm cool."

Hurley left, and Jack turned to Kate. "Get to the beach - I want you to go and ransack Sawyer's stuff. I'm going to need his alcohol. Rubbing...scotch..."

Then Boone started choking, a rattling wheeze as he inhaled, but he wasn't exhaling.

"Jack, what's going on?" Kate asked, sounding panicked enough for the both of them.

He knew what had happened, but Jack put his hands on Boone's chest anyway, feeling for the rise and fall of breath as he listened at Boone's mouth. Jack had hoped that what he thought happened wasn't what was really going on, but it was one of those instances where he hated being right. "His lung just collapsed."