Title: In Admiration - Part 37

Fandom: Lost

Characters: Jack Shephard, Boone Carlyle

Prompt: #61 Broken

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

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Sun turned her head with a gasp, screwing her eyes tight as Jack stabbed a metal rod into Boone's chest. There was a hiss of air, and Boone was breathing again. Sun was still hesitant to look, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Kate had averted her gaze as well while Sun listened to Jack's words, telling Boone that he was doing well, but Sun wasn't so sure. The encouragement seemed to be as much for Boone as it was for Jack himself and maybe even those of them that were standing around, watching, hoping, and, at least in Sun's own case, praying. She prayed for Boone's health as well as for Jack's strength, knowing that it would have been taxing for Jack if it were any of them in this state, but it was Boone, and they all knew he cared for the younger man so much. She turned back around, watching Jack remove the rod and applying pressure to the wound on Boone's chest as Jack moved to get a plastic tube that would help Boone breathe.

"What are you still doing here?" Jack's voice was so loud and suddenly harsh that Sun was startled and Kate visibly jumped. Sun saw Kate struggling for words, but Jack didn't give her the chance to answer. "The alcohol, Kate! If he's going to live, you need to get to the beach now!" She ran out of the caves without another second of hesitation, and Jack got to work on inserting the plastic tube into Boone's chest. The tube looked like it had been cut from the oxygen masks on the plane. Boone's breathing still didn't sound good, but it was nowhere near as labored as it had been before his lung collapsed.

Jack closed his eyes, exhaling deeply, and it seemed like to Sun that he was counting. "Jack?"

"You checked his legs earlier," he said after a moment. Sun could tell it wasn't a question.

"I think his right leg is broken." She kept her eyes trained on Jack as he got a hold on the hem of Boone's pants at the ankle, ripping the material up until the younger man's knee. She watched Jack press against the bone with his fingers as Boone moaned in pain, his gaze unfocused before closing like it would shut out all the hurt his body must be going through.

"It's a closed fracture... I think I can set it."

"The wound on his chest... Can you, uh..." Sun made sewing motions with her hands, struggling to find the word she wanted and mentally berating herself on the poor timing of her lapse. "Can you sew him?"

Jack left Boone's leg to inspect his chest, removing the bloodstained shirts they'd been using to try and stanch the flow. "He's lost a lot of blood; I don't know how far Locke had to carry him." Jack moved up more, checking the deep gash on Boone's forehead. "Boone, listen to me," Jack began, one of his hands cupping the side of Boone's head as the other rested carefully on his shoulder. "Listen!" Sun saw Boone's eyes flutter open, and he looked like he was staring directly at Jack. "You are not going to die. I'm gonna fix this, okay?" Sun turned away politely as Jack kissed Boone, promising the young man that he was going to save him.

They remained silent as Jack got to work stitching up the wounds on Boone's chest, his incoherent mumblings the only sound. Sun tried to figure out what he was saying, but the only thing that was clear was when Boone muttered "I'm sorry" over and over again. Sun wasn't sure if the apologies were for Jack or for someone else. He didn't seem consciously aware of what was going on again, and Sun could see that hearing Boone in pain hurt him, but it also seemed to motivate him to work harder. Hurley returned at some point with the mesh, getting some men who were living at the caves to help him put it up, soon enclosing Jack, Sun, and Boone from everyone else, giving Jack privacy from the prying eyes. Boone was still saying he was sorry as Jack finished with the stitches, cutting the thread as Sun wiped Jack's forehead.

Sun put away the supplies as Jack checked Boone's injuries, looking at his head and then at his leg. "He needs blood."

"What?" Sun said with a gasp.

"Blood... Transfusion..." Jack was moving around, looking through what he had to work with.

"How will you do...?"

"I don't know," Jack interrupted, "I'll figure it out."

Jack was exhausted. Sun was tired, but she knew the situation was more straining on Jack, and he looked almost ready to fall over. He had taken a bottle of hydrogen peroxide out of the cart and was eyeing Boone's broken leg. She knew setting the leg had to be the next course of action Jack had in mind, but Sun also knew that Jack needed to get out, even if he didn't want to, and even if it was only for a moment. Sun grabbed a new cloth from off the cart as Jack uncapped the peroxide bottle.

"Let me," she said, holding out her hand to take the bottle.

Jack shook his head stubbornly. "No, it's okay."

"Let me," Sun repeatedly insistently. She could be stubborn, too, and as Jack met her gaze, he seemed to realize that she wasn't going to back down. "Get some air."

He relinquished the bottle to Sun, slowly backing away as he watched Boone, and once Jack was gone, she got to work, dabbing hydrogen peroxide on the fresh stitches and the gash on Boone's forehead. She knew setting Boone's leg was going to be simple enough, but it was also going to be extremely painful. Sun couldn't think of anything that might help Boone to at least keep him from hurting so much, remembering the pills that the doctor gave her when she was little and broke her ankle falling off a horse during riding lessons, but here they had no such pills, and even if they did, she wasn't sure they'd be able to get Boone to swallow them. Sun could hear Jack talking to Charlie somewhere in the caves, but she couldn't hear what was specifically being said.

Jack came back inside, looking more agitated if anything, and Sun had an idea. She excused herself for a moment, hurrying back to the section of the caves that had been hers and Jin's. Jin was gone, but he had left some of the things he had found on the island. In particular, there was a small collection of driftwood that got caught in his fishing nets, and she looked through the fragments of wood until she found one that was smooth and fairly small.

When Sun reentered the mesh enclosure, Jack was studying Boone's leg and paid Sun no attention as she approached him, the driftwood in her hands. "Give him this for the pain," she said, getting Jack's attention, but he didn't seem impressed.

"I think we're a little beyond herbal remedies here."

"It's not a remedy," Sun replied, going over to Boone and fitting the piece of wood between his teeth, and Jack seemed to understand.

At Jack's request, Sun reached down and held Boone's shoulders as Jack placed on hand on Boone's ankle and the other just below his knee. Jack looked at Sun, nodding once, silently telling her that he was ready, and Sun braced herself, putting all of her weight into Boone to try and keep him from moving. Sun closed her eyes as Jack quickly pulled on Boone's leg, fighting against Boone's strength as he thrashed and, under the screams muffled from the driftwood between his teeth, hearing the distinctive crack of bone snapping back into place.