CHAPTER 16

As Jack and Artz came to a clearing in the jungle and stepped out onto the beach they were immediately spotted by a frantic Jin who came running over to them, gesturing dramatically and speaking incoherently in Korean. Jack stood in confused silence for a moment, struggling to get his head around the language barrier between himself and the man now standing before him, before quickly taking control of the situation.

"Wo, hey, Jin calm down, I can't understand you." He spoke slowly, raising his hands above his shoulders as he tried to make sense on the flow of indistinguishable words coming from from Jin's mouth. His recent frustration at Artz only increased as he noticed the older man out of the corner of his eye starring dumbly at the two men, totally at a loss at how to handle the situation. Suddenly Jin put his hands to his throat and started to imitate a vague retching motion as he pointed to a spot a little further up the beach, and as Jack turned to look in the direction Jin was pointing he suddenly understood as he spotted the blue tarpaulin not too far away from where they now stood.

"What kind of a state was Dexter in when you left him?" Jack asked turning to Artz as they both began to follow Jin back up the beach, obviously concerned by Jin's apparent state of panic and distress and the growing realisation of what they were now facing as it became increasingly apparent with each new case of what this new virus was capable of.

"Pretty out of it I think." Artz spoke gravely. "He appeared to be in quite a lot of pain. I couldn't get much sense out of him."

"That'll be the dehydration." Jack explained before adding, "Did you notice anything else about his condition?"

"Like what?"

"Any blood in his vomit? Anything that looked remotely alarming about his physical appearance?"

"No… no I don't think so." Artz stammered as he tried to recall anything, but without success.

"Well at least that's something."

Suddenly Jack heard the crunch of sand below approaching footsteps as they neared the makeshift tent and he turned to see Charlie as he emerged from within and began to make his way stiffly towards them.

"Charlie what are you doing here?" Jack frowned.

"I thought I could be of some help." He croaked, and Jack was troubled to hear that his voice was distinctly weaker than it had been when he had seen him last – his face pale and covered in a film of sweat – he stumbled slightly and Jack ran to steady him. "I'm OK." Charlie insisted as he pushed Jack away.

"Charlie your immune system has been shattered." He insisted as he looked him over uneasily. "You're still vulnerable to infection, you can't risk anymore than you've already been through."

"I just figured I understand what he's going through." Charlie looked at Jack desperately. "I've been nothing but useless to everyone I've known nearly all my adult life… I just hate feeling so helpless."

"You need rest Charlie, I'm here now." Jack reassured him. "Claire and the baby will be waiting for you, go to them. I'll come and check on you later." He patted the young man gently on the shoulder as Charlie offered a brief smile before they watched him as he walked unsteadily away. Jack was tempted to go to him a couple of further times as he noticed him continue to stumble but resisted the temptation as he recognised that it would not be appreciated and instead turned his attentions back to Dexter as he entered the tent.

Dexter lay curled up, shivering as he pulled an old blanket tightly around himself for comfort and warmth. He held his legs pressed tight to his stomach in a semi-foetal position in an attempt to deaden the pain. As Jack approached him cautiously, he flinched at the sound of the older man's voice and withdrew further into himself – giving him a brief fearful glance out of the corner of his eye.

"Dexter?" Jack asked, his voice sympathetic. Although he himself had so far thankfully not contracted any symptoms of the virus whilst treating those afflicted, he had witnessed the devastating effect that it had had on Locke, Sawyer and Charlie and could well understand the young man's fear as he knelt down beside him.

"Go away." Dexter whispered – quite uncharacteristically hostile towards the doctor. Although Jack had not taken much time to get to know the youth over the past few weeks since the crash he and had found him to be highly polite and sensitive, if not a little quiet during the few brief snippets of conversation that they had shared.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Dexter," he spoke softly, "not this time." He remembered that the first couple of occasions the boy had been brought to him had been nothing too serious. "I need to take a closer look at you." He explained.

Dexter did not respond, either out of fear or anger – in fact he completely failed to react to the doctor's refusal to leave him alone, and as Jack noticed the young man's eyes begin to close he was initially concerned that Dexter had given into a long encroaching unconsciousness. To his relief however, as he placed his palm to the young man's forehead – Immediately feeling the heat of his dangerously high fever – Dexter pulled away, revealing that he was at least partially aware of his surroundings.

"My mouth feels dry." Dexter rasped, licking his dry lips as he did so. At this Jack gently reached over to pinch a small area of the paper like skin on Dexter's pale arm and watched as it slowly sank back into place, a solid indication of dehydration.

"I need to see you drink something." Jack said, his expression full of urgency. "Artz tells me you've been unable to keep anything down all night, do you think you could manage a couple of mouthfuls for me?"

To Jack's relief after a moment of consideration Dexter slowly nodded in agreement. "I have nothing to lose." He whispered as he watched Jack remove a full, fresh bottle from his rucksack and begin to unscrew the lid. As he allowed himself to be helped into a sitting position Dexter's immediate reaction was to take long, hard gulps of cold water as Jack held the bottle steadily to his lips – regretting his haste almost immediately as the cool liquid caused a sudden sharp stab of searing pain to erupt in the pit of his stomach, and as he doubled over with its intensity he once again found himself choking as he vomited uncontrollably.

Jack immediately jumped out of the way as the young man struggled to get to his feet, only to find that the sudden movement caused another surge of pain to course through his body. "I'm sorry." He apologised, once he had recovered.

"Just lay flat for a while." Jack said as he lowered Dexter's slim body back to the ground, taking his legs and laying them straight on the dry sand for the first time since he had entered the tent. Dexter lay breathing heavily for a moment, his chest and diaphragm wracked with minor cramps from the exertion of his movement. Jack sat beside him, watching his young patient closely as he allowed him to rest for a while before he appeared to fall asleep – he then leant quietly over him as he lifted his shirt to the point of his ribs.

"What are you doing?" Jack jumped slightly as Dexter suddenly turned to him – catching him off guard.

"I'm just taking a closer look at you, just try and lie still for a moment, this will probably hurt but just try to remain calm." He explained.

Dexter flinched and groaned as Jack applied weak pressure to his abdomen testing his response to pain, he clenched his hands into tight fists in an attempt to prevent himself from pulling away from Jack but as he increased the pressure on the younger man's stomach he cried out, unable to take it any longer.

"No more!" Dexter pleaded, tears in his eyes.

At this Jack ceased to continue to put his young patient through the obvious agony of examination and without word simply replaced Dexter's t-shirt, offering him a sympathetic smile to which Dexter forced a response in return.

"I wish you would have let me check you over last night." Jack sighed, his voice grave. "You definitely have this virus Dexter… there's no doubt about that. The problem is with fluids you should start feeling better pretty quickly but your stomach is still pretty inflamed, you won't be able to even contemplate taking anything by mouth for quite a while I'm afraid."

"It all just crept up on me so quickly." Dexter explained. "I felt fine yesterday… I thought I was just dehydrated."

"We're going to have to find an alternative way to get fluids into you." Jack took a moment to think before an idea occurred to him, and without hesitation he rose to his feet. "I'll be back soon." He told the man, before he left the tent.

Outside Jack squinted against the orange glare of the sun, surveying the beach for any signs of Jin, but without luck.

"Hey Sayid." He called, noticing the other man a little further up the beach. "Have you seen Sun or Jin?" He asked once he had successfully attracted Sayid's attention.

"Yeah I think I saw him fishing." Sayid indicated in a vague direction somewhere to the left of Jack with an outstretched arm, shouting to make himself heard as he still stood some distance away.

"Thanks."

Jack set off in haste in the general direction Sayid had given him, his cause was urgent, although as he spotted the young couple as he drew closer to the waters edge he smiled to see Sun with her arms wrapped around her husband, laughing as she watched him try and negotiate the large make-shift fishing net whilst kissing her affectionately at the same time. Their relationship had been rocky lately and the time they spent together was still unpredictable, although watching them both now it was clear that they still loved each other very much. At one point they both stumbled, soaking themselves as they nearly ended up in the water and stifling a small laugh Jack finally made his appearance known in the couple – not forgetting the nature of the business which had brought him here, and his urgency.

"Hey Sun."

"Jack?" She turned to him suddenly, eyes wide with surprise, although a small smile was still visible on her face.

"Can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Sure." She frowned as she began to make her way slowly over to him. "What about?"

"Do you remember when I gave Boone his blood transfusion?" He asked. "I need another needle."

"Yes… I kept the sea urchin." She explained.

"Good… in that case I'm going to need you to do me a favour."

Jack then began to tell Sun about Dexter's condition and explain his plan to her. She listened intently to him as he explained all that he needed her to do.

"If you need to, get Jin to help you." He concluded at last. "I will be back at the beach when you are ready. I'm sorry I can't come up to the caves with you but I can't risk leaving Dexter for too long at the moment."

"It's OK, I know what I'm doing." Sun smiled as she prepared to leave, making a mental note of everything Jack had asked her to collect, as well as all that he had asked her to do. Then as he watched as Sun and Jin disappeared, sheltered by the dense growth of trees as they made their way up the path through the jungle towards the caves, Jack turned back the way he had just come.

Back at the tent Dexter was relieved when he saw that Jack had returned, the young man looked exhausted and although Jack had only been gone a matter of minutes to the sick youth it had felt as though he had been alone for hours. He wasn't up to talking much but the company appeared to have a calming affect on him and as a further hour passed the two sat in silence – Jack occasionally popping his head out with each new sound of approaching footsteps to observe the unusually quiet stretch of beach – but the afternoon passed uneventfully and after a while Dexter sank into a restless and troubled sleep.

Jack himself had just started to settle during a very rare moment of relaxation quiet – his eyes closing as his tired body was warmed by the heat of the sun's rays – when he heard the sound of voices spoken in Korean outside and he jumped up, waking Dexter too as he did so. As he popped his head out the tent he saw Sun and Jin making their way up the beach towards them.

As Jack approached the couple he noticed that Jin was carrying the cooler that he recognised Sun had brought to him on the evening of Boone's blood transfusion and further inspection revealed that Sun was also weighed down by the heavy load of a rucksack filled with medical supplies and water.

Jack smiled in greeting as he gratefully accepted the cooler from Jin, who smiled in return as Jack turned to Sun.

"Thanks." He said.

"Do you need anymore help?" Sun asked as she assisted Jack in hooking the heavy rucksack over his muscular shoulder.

"No I'm fine. Thanks." Jack said – time now of the essence. He hadn't yet explained his plan to Dexter, who he was sure was not going to be too accepting of what he was about to do, and he knew that too many people present would only aggravate the young man's anxiety.

When he re-entered the tent Dexter was yet again fully awake and struggling to sit up. Jack knelt down beside him, restraining him gently.

"I'm going to need you to lie still for me now Dexter." He explained as he raided the supplies Sun had brought with her for gauze and anti-septic, tipping a small amount of the clear liquid out onto a fresh strip of cloth to clean an area of Dexter's arm where a vein lay.

"Why?" Dexter asked, slightly alarmed.

"We need to try and find a way of getting fluids into you pretty quickly." Jack explaned, barely registering the anxiety on Dexter's face as he watched him remove a small black needle from the nearby cooler and a length of fine plastic tubing that Sun had brought with her in the rucksack. "I'm going to try and set up an IV using one of the water bottles…"

"No!" Dexter suddenly cut him off, Jack turned to see genuine fear in the young man's eyes.

"It's the only way."

"Ever since I was a kid I've been terrified of needles. Growing up that was all I was ever really frightened of, nothing else, but it was enough. I said no."

"That's assuming that you have a say in this." Jack said, taking his eyes off Dexter as he struggled to make a hole in the end of one of the many water bottle Sun had supplied him with. "The decision has already been made for you!"

"What, by you?" Dexter frowned.

"No, your own body has made the decision for you. You can't keep anything down but if I don't get fluids into you soon you could die… of course I can't force you into anything." Jack paused to look at the young man who froze suddenly when he heard this – silent and unmoving – his own fear driving him into a mild state of shock as the sudden realisation of the severity of his condition hit him hard.

"Could I really die?" He asked at last.

"Yes…" Jack explained. "But you won't, I'm not going to let that happen… that's why you have to let me do this."

Both men looked hard into each other's eyes, and in that moment Jack observed Dexter's facial expression change from the soft, vulnerable complexion of a mere boy and harden into that of a man, with the knowledge that the right thing to do was not always the easiest.

"Just make it quick?" He asked, his voice shaking slightly. Jack nodded, and as he felt the sharp sting of the needle as it gently slipped into the vein he winced and turned away.

"You'll be fine." Jack tried to reassure him. "It'll be over before you know it."