Sara sat a few feet away from Jacob as he laid on the cot, muttering in his sleep. The fire crackled and flickered, causing flashes of light to dance with the darkness outside. A long spear with a stone point leaned against the wall within reach of Sara as she gazed into the burning coals, occasionally looking up.

Jacob tossed and turned on the cot, mutturing something she couldn't make out. The movements became more violent as it went on before he sat straight up, eyes flickering open and turned to look straight at her. She saw panic filling his very pale blue eyes. He blinked a few times, seemingly recognizing her and his surroundings. With a shake of his head, he sighed and reached into his back pocket. A frown crept to his face as he found the pocket empty.

Sara reached up to a crate on her left, flipped a lid and pulled the two photographs out. She handed them both to him before leaning back in her seat.

"How did you?" he asked, accepting them and frowning deeper at her.

"Lifted them both off of you in the jumpship," she replied with a smile. "Didn't want to ruin them with the sea water."

"Oh," he muttered feebly. "Dick move by the way."

"You're alive aren't you?" she pointed out.

"Mostly," He grunted with a look at his own bandaged shoulder.

The two went silent for a few moments, Sara staring into the burning coals and Jacob staring down at his photographs.

"I used to watch Oliver with the same look on his face," she whispered, barely breaking the silence. "Only his was just a picture of my sister."

"Its stupid," he muttered feebly. "It's just two pieces of paper...but it's the only pieces of them i have left…"

"It's not stupid," she insisted. "Family is always a comfort."

"It feels like someone out there is laughing at me," he sighed bitterly. "To be taken away from my family in my happiest moment, then to be forced into a world where they are alive but skeptical….it's all so…"

"Tragic?" she offered, smiling.

"Well, yea" he nodded. "I mean, i realize it's a second chance, but without the one woman who practically saved my life…"

"I know how you feel…" she whispered, holding her hand out for the photograph of the three. "I miss her too."

She looked down at it longingly, a tear forming in the corner of her eye.

"We used to joke," she whispered, smiling sadly. "About how good of a mother she'd be, she used to dream about having kids someday, getting married right out of law school, trying to balance being a lawyer and a mother. Neither of us thought our lives would turn out how they did. I was supposed to go to medical school, become a doctor, marry someone of importance…."

She coughed, wiped the tear away and stood up. With a creak, she lifted the lid of the crate and gently placed the photograph back inside, pulling a bottle filled with an amber liquid out and breaking the seal. With a pop, she pulled the cork back and took a long swig from the bottle. She handed the bottle to Jacob before sitting back down.

"It's not going to kill you," she laughed as he eyeballed the bottle.

He shrugged, taking a long drink as well. He swallowed hard and coughed before handing the bottle back to Sara. She laughed and picked up the canteen beside her, tossing it to him. He took a short sip, breathing in and swallowed before taking another.

"What is that stuff?" he asked, nodding to the bottle she was drinking from again.

"Australian rum," she replied, saluting with the bottle. "Sort of a dark tradition from the old days here. You should probably stick with that anyway."

He rolled his eyes at her, taking a deeper drink from the canteen, With a wince, he pulled a strand of what looked like a plant off of his tongue and held it up in the firelight. He looked at Sara with a raised eyebrow.

"And this?" He asked, peering into the canteen.

"Its good for you, drink it." she insisted.

He hesitated, screwing the lid back onto the canteen.

"They're herbs that grow here," she sighed, taking another long drink from the rum bottle. "Anthony Ivo had a theory that they were somehow tied to the Mirakuru, either as an ingredient or a by product. Either way, they'll help you heal, negate any poison you've been dosed with, or combat an infection."

"Wonder what theyll do for a hangover…" he muttered, setting the canteen down and gingerly laying back on the cot, practically feeling the glare Sara shot him.

"Wouldn't know," she retorted. "Been a long time since ive had one."

He laughed and stared silently at the picture of himself and Thea in their wedding attire.

"How long were you two married?" she asked hesitantly.

"About twelve hours." he replied in a flat tone, absently touching his ring finger with his thumb.

"What happened to the ring?"

"Apparently your Thea was drawn to it," he muttered. "She held onto it when i was laying in their medbay in a coma. I left her hang onto it for now."

"Why?" she asked, propping her feet up and looking over at him.

"Because…." he stopped, holding out a hand for the bottle of rum; Sara gently placed it in his grasp and he took a drink from it and sighed before continuing. "When i look at her, i see the woman i grew up with, fell in love with, wanted to spend the rest of my life with, but there's something else there. There's this intriguing new spark in her eyes and i can't help but hope…."

"She'll fall for you here too?" she asked, smiling.

"Well yea, but when she looks at me she i can't help but feel like she's looking at a stranger."

"She kind of is," she admitted.

He sighed, taking another drink of rum before holding the bottle back out towards her.

"I know that, and it's frustrating." He held out the photograph for her to take, she took it carefully, putting it with his other one in the crate. "Don't think i should carry it, never know when you'll toss me out the jumpship again."

"Get some sleep," she chuckled through a mischievous grin.

Jacob was woken up to the sudden flash of bright light and the sound of something flying at his head. He managed to deftly dodge the object, the sound of wood clattering against metal resounding throughout the shelter. With a groan, he sat up and opened his eyes to see Sara standing in the entryway.

"Tomorrow, you'll catch that," she declared, nodding to the object. "Pick it up and follow me."

He groaned and turned to search for where it landed. After rummaging around, he pulled it out from underneath the cot he was sleeping on, finding it to be a length of bamboo. He stood up, his body loudly objecting and followed Sara out into the grassy area outside the downed plane. She turned to face him and stopped.

"I want you to try and hit me with that," she instructed.

"You want me to hit you?" he asked drowsily.

"I said try," she retorted with a smirk.

He shrugged, turned his body so his right side was towards her and lunged at her torso. Almost effortlessly, she took a step back, dodging his attack and rolled to his right side. She pulled two more lengths of bamboo up that he hadn't seen, striking him in the back of the knees. With an audible groan, he collapsed forwards and hit the ground.

"First lesson, Spatial awareness." She called, spinning the bamboo sticks in her hand. "Get up and try to hit me again."

He grunted in response, picking himself up out of the dirt and turning to face her. Pausing for a few seconds he took note of her body and position of her limbs. One hand held a bamboo stick high on her shoulder, almost to her neck as the other tucked her matching stick under her arm. He rushed forwards, aiming for the opposing side of her face. With a loud smash of the bamboo meeting, his blow was deflected. In turn, he felt a sudden stinging pain in his stomach where her counter strike landed. He doubled over in pain as she rolled over his exposed back, flipping him into the dirt with her momentum. With a grunt, he attempted to recover, rolling on his back and barely bringing his stick in front of his chest. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to block the oncoming strike. Sara knocked the stick from his hand and landed a rapid succession of blows to his chest. The air was forcefully ejected from his lungs, leaving him dazed and gasping for air.

"You're dead," she announced, standing up and walking back to her starting position. "Again."

He rolled to his side, barely able to catch his breath as he forced himself to stand. She waited till he could properly breath again and had located his weapon before motioning for him to try again.

He ignored the motion, trying to survey his surroundings with his peripheral vision. The wind caused the trees on his right to sway in its branches, a piece of black cloth danced in the remains of the cockpit in front and to the right of him. To the left, a bush shuddered as a small animal scurried around underneath of it. A few paces away on his left, he noticed another bamboo stick jutting up from the ground. What he didnt notice was how fast Sara had closed the distance between them. With a resounding crack, he felt the sting of bamboo on the side of his face and the sudden burst of pain causing his vision to blur. A second crack echoed out as her blow hit his weapon arm just above the bicep, causing the stick to silently fall to the ground. He tried to refocus his vision, only to find her left stick speeding towards his face again. The pain erupted inside his skull from the hit, sending him crashing to the ground again.

"Lesson number two, never lose focus on your enemy." He heard her call as he struggled to pick himself up.

He forced himself to his feet, trying to ignore the raging pain in his skull. Without falling down, he managed to pick up his stick and steady himself, this time not making a move. He watched Sara as she stood a few paces in front of him, he body in the same readied position as last time. He didn't have to wait long. Sara rushed forwards, preparing to strike at his face and chest. At the last minute, he managed to dodge both attacks, rolling to his left and plucking the stick he had spied earlier from the ground. Without thinking, he recovered from his roll, standing up and mimicking Saras body position. She spun around, clearly surprised at his maneuver and smiled when she took note of his stance. Before she could react, he launched into a frenzy of attacks, brining his right stick from his shoulder down diagonally across her chest. She barely managed to deflect it in time before his left stick slammed into the side of her rib cage, causing more surprise than pain. He mirrored his attack from the opposing shoulder, this time Sara easily deflected both, moving fast enough to knock both sticks from his hands and catching him across the temple with her offhand. Bamboo struck bone as the blow landed and Jacob went spinning into the dirt, fading into unconsciousness.

Sara knelt down beside Jacobs unconscious body and gently pressed two fingers to his neck. After a second, she found his pulse, his heart beating steadily. She sighed to herself and trudged back into the fuselage, returning with the canteen. With a small thud, she dropped it down onto the ground and sat beside his unconscious body. She folded her legs across themselves in a position suited for meditating and closed her eyes.

She mentally reviewed the fight, slowing each of his movements in her mind. After each failure, he seemed to make progress. But is it going to be fast enough? She thought to herself.

A few hours passed by before Saras meditation was disturbed by a sudden groaning and the sound of movement beside her. She opened her eyes to see Jacob trying to sit up, making her smile.

"Take it easy," she counseled, lightly placing a hand on his chest. "Lay down."

With a wordless groan, he gave in and laid back, rubbing his bloodshot eyes. She picked up the canteen beside her and unscrewed the lid, pouring a small amount in his opened mouth. He coughed and sputtered as the liquid spilt all over his face, reaching up to grab the canteen from her hands. Slowly, he drank from it by himself.

"What did you learn?" she asked.

"Two bamboo sticks arent an effective weapon against Sara Lance?" he grunted, giving a painful grin.

"You think you're weapons were the problem?" she asked, raising her eyebrow sideways at him.

He shrugged, taking a drink from the canteen again and staring up into the clear blue sky. Without saying a word, Sara stood up and walked off into the fuselage. A few moments later, he heard her approach before something metallic and heavy landed on his chest. He coughed and groaned before picking up the item. She had dropped a worn colt 1911 on his chest.

"Lets see how you fair with the advantage then," she taunted from a few feet away on his left.

He struggled to his feet, standing up shakily. Turning the weapon in his hands, he felt for the magazine realease, ejecting it and looking at its contents. As far as he could tell, they were real rounds stacked inside. He slid the magazine back into the handgun, pulling the slide back and taking aim with both hands at Sara. In a blink of an eye, she had closed the distance and knocked his hands away from her body with her right hand. With an overhead left, she grabbed onto the slide of the handgun and pivoted, coming beside him. She stripped the gun from his hands and accompanied it with a sharp jab to his kidneys with her elbow before hooking onto his out flailing arm and tossing him into the dirt. She stepped in close to him as he rolled onto his back, racking the slide back and ejecting the magazine at the same time before pulling the slide completely off the front and dropping it into the dirt.

"You now have no weapon and are dead," she declared, crossing her arms over her chest.

He groaned and nodded. She reached down, picked up the canteen and extended a hand down towards Jacob. With a grunt, he took her hand and accepted the help standing up.

"Maybe im going too easy on you," she muttered, slapping the canteen to his chest.

"That was easy?" he asked, rubbing his head where a bruise was starting to form.

"Drink," she commanded, ignoring the comment and nodding her head towards the canteen.

He grunted in response, taking a drink and wiping his mouth.

"Lets see the arm," she instructed, motioning for him to turn his injured shoulder towards her. He obeyed and rolled up the sleeve of his tattered shirt.

She gently peeled the bandage off of his skin, inspecting the wound. The skin was still bright pink and had black patches from searing it shut, but overall was healing. Thankfully there was no sign of infection or blood poisoning, the herbs she had mixed with his water were doing their job.

"Its better," she muttered, pressing the bandage back down and rolling his sleeve back over it. "It'll heal but youre going to scar."

"Not like i don't have a few already," he grunted with a shrug, touching his chest absently.

"Time for some cardio," she instructed, taking the canteen from his hands and shutting the lid. "I've laid out a course for you through the wood, past the waterfall and around back here. Each section will test you, there are markings so you don't wander and get lost, follow them."

He groaned and nodded as she pointed in the direction of a tree that had a ring of bark chipped out of it.

"What about the landmines and traps like the one i triggered yesterday?" he asked, frowning.

"Spatial awareness," she replied through a grin. "Lesson one remember?"

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"Not yet," she laughed. "Get moving, you will be timed."

Ah hell, he thought to himself before setting off towards the first tree. His first couple strides were shaky and his muscles protested. He ignored them as best he could and pushed onward, determined to make it through.

"Gideon," Sara muttured, tapping her ear.

"Yes Captain?" Came her voice cheerfully.

"Start the clock. Are the sensors in place?"

"Yes Captain. I have arranged several checkpoints as requested, each will transmit data to the jumpship along with a video feed from each one."

"Thank you, Gideon." Sara said through a smile.

"If i may, Captain," Gideon interjected. "Do you think it's wise to push him so far, so soon?"

"He wanted to learn, this is the only way i know that will teach him. I see greatness in him, he could be better than even Olliver." she replied flatly.

"Of course, my apologies Captain."

"Let me know when he reaches the last checkpoint." She finished before tapping her ear in dismissal.

Sara ducked back into the fuselage, rummaging around before producing a length of tattered rope. With a smile, she walked back out into the grassy area and found two trees close enough together to be of use to her. She lashed a straight enough length of wood between the two at each end. With a nod to herself, she stood in the middle directly underneath the length of wood and jumped up, grabbing it. She tested her weight on it, checking to see if the lashing would hold. After a few pullups, she lifted herself up with her arms and held herself above the cross piece. With a sigh, she swung forwards and dropped down, gracefully landing on the ground and dusting her hands off. That'll work, she thought to herself as she ducked back into the fuselage and let the camouflage netting settle back in the doorway behind her.

Jacob ran as fast as his exhausted legs would carry him, trees whipping by. He came to another tree missing bark in a ring and followed the worn path ahead of him. As best as he could, he tried to maintain a focus on everything around him. His eyes scanned the path ahead of him as he ran, keeping a lookout for any surprises Sara might have left him along her route.

He continued on, cutting a sharp right at the next marker. Thankfully he saw the thin strand of vine between the two trees before, carefully jumping over it. Unfortunately there was a second strand he didnt see, about chest high, that he caught and was pulled with him as he ran. He heard another loud snap of a branch and felt the air shift as a branch line with sharp spikes began to swing at him from the side. Curling up as best he could in the air, he tried to roll out of the way. He felt the spikes catch on the outer edges of his clothing as he just barely missed it, hitting the ground and rolling into a tree stump.

He laughed to himself mentally, standing up and brushing the dirt off of his arms and feeling the shredded cloth. The spikes only managed to tear his clothing without hitting his skin. He turned back up the path and continued on running, forcing himself to push farther.

Sara heard a sudden beeping in her ear.

"Go ahead, Gideon," She answered, tapping her ear,

"He's reached the final checkpoint Captain, and should be returning to you in a few minutes."

"How's he doing?" She asked, stepping out of the tattered remains of the aircraft and gazing out in the direction he was supposed to be returning from.

"Very well," Gideon replied, Sara getting the feeling that she was smiling. "Aside from triggering a trap along the way, he seems to be unharmed."

"Good, I'll have to make it more difficult in the morning."

The sun was starting its descent into the horizon as she saw his figure come out of the treeline, his face covered in sweat and dirt. As he got closer, she could see the fatigue in his eyes and see he was starting to slow down. When he finally reached her, he stumbled and fell, rolling in an ungraceful manor before coming to stop in a crumpled heap in front of her.

"You made it," she announced, kneeling down and smiling at him.

"Barely," he gasped breathless.

She handed him the canteen from behind her back and he took it eagerly, taking a big gulp. With a cough and a sputter, he turned over on his side and struggled to breathe. After a second, he took another gulp and tried to stand. She hooked his arm and pulled him up with her as she stood, helping him to stagger inside.

The fire crackled and burned bright inside, with some sort of meat roasting on a spit between two Y shaped pieces of metal, giving the air a delicious smell. Sara helped Jacob to the cot, letting him fall exhausted onto the cot with a flop. She dropped the canteen on his lap before walking around the fire and turning the meat, causing fat to drip off and sizzle into the flames. Picking up another knife from a crate, she sliced off a piece of meat and ate it.

"What is that?" Jacob asked, gaining his breath back and taking a drink from the canteen.

"Pheasant," she replied, slicing another chunk off and offering it to him.

He eagerly took it and devoured the chunk, sighing in contentment. Sara reached behind her crate and produced the rum bottle from the previous night, drizzling a small amount onto the roasting bird and causing the flames to lap at the skin.

The two sat and ate in relative silence, the only sound coming from the crackling fire and the wind through the trees outside. Jacob leaned back on the cot as the fire started to burn low, closing his eyes and after a few minutes, slipped quietly asleep.