Chapter 6
Present day...
He awoke to the cool air of the cave, and the smell of all of the survivors in the cave. He had thought it was bad enough when they were on the beach, but in the cave the smell just lingered and intensified. Surely, after almost two weeks that the trauma of the crash would be over and people would start caring for themselves. All Jacen could smell was body odor and obnoxious gas that a few released while others slept. So far, Jacen wasn't enjoying the cave idea.
Next to him, Veronica laid on a make-shift bed pieced together with a blanket and a few large leaves for padding. She was less than a foot away, lying on her side and breathing softly. Jacen could see the rise and fall of her side with each deep intake of breath, and for the first time, Jacen noticed her necklace. Usually, she kept it beneath her shirt and Jacen assumed it was because she was afraid of someone else on the island taking it. As she slept somberly now, the necklace had fallen from her v-neck, white t-shirt and the piece of jewelry attached to her necklace was resting on the blanket below her. It was a silver ring. He couldn't see any diamond or stone attached to it, or even any markings. It was a simple, silver band. He wondered who gave it to her, and why she kept it so close to her. That had to be an engagement ring. Was she engaged? She was a pretty big flirt if she was engaged.... A part of him felt lied to.
Jacen sat up, and groggily wiped his face with his hand. The sun was shining in the entrance of the cave, but around Jacen, nobody was moving. He stood up quietly and wandered out of the cave entrance, standing in the sunlight. It felt so warm against his skin; he stretched himself and after smelling his own body odor, decided it was a good time for a clean-up. He glanced behind him, and noticed Veronica sitting up and rubbing her right eye.
"Good morning." He said, and waved.
She smiled with her lips, "Morning."
"I'm going to go clean up some." He said.
She nodded, "Yeah, I need to also." She stood up from her bed and dusted herself off. She walked over to him, and then said, "Lead the way."
Together they walked downstream a ways to get away from everybody else and get some privacy. They didn't talk much; mornings were not the loveliest of times for people. Neither of them really wanted to get too close to the other person, since that would mean an up-close look at morning faces and the smell of morning breath. Jacen knew all too well from being married that mornings were not good times for flirting or anything more. Not until everybody had a shower, at least.
As Veronica walked further downstream and out of Jacen's view, he began to clean himself up. Around twenty minutes later, he was sitting on the stream's edge and waiting on her. Another fifteen minutes and she finally came back, looking very clean and very pretty.
"Wow, if you can clean up that good from a stream in a jungle, you must really be a heartbreaker when you have a complete bathroom." Jacen said.
"I've never had a complaint." She winked at him, "What's your plan for today?"
"Well, I wanted to stop back by the beach and clean out my old hut, and see how life was back on the beach still. I haven't seen Hurley since I've been back to the cave, I'm wondering how he's been too." Jacen answered.
"Aww, does Jay-Jay have a buddy?" She teased him.
He smirked, "Well, you'd be his buddy too if you'd seen him in that polka-dot bikini...."
She raised an eyebrow, "So, am I wasting my time here then?"
He shook his head, "I don't know, I'd have to see you in that polka-dot bikini. But so far, Hurley's winning."
She laughed, and together they headed off toward the beach camp. At first they didn't talk much, the heat of the jungle hit them pretty fast, and as soon as he was surrounded by trees again, Jacen grew paranoid. He had a bad feeling that ole' Smokey was going to try for him again, and he was starting to really hate that thing. As they walked, he kept scanning the area around him. Apparently, Veronica picked up on his nervousness cause she grew quiet as well, only asking a few questions. After the few failed attempts at conversation, she reserved herself to quiet marching.
As they neared the camp after a couple hours, she asked him a question again, "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, why?" He answered, inwardly trying to quiet his nerves.
"You just weren't acting like yourself," She said, both of them exiting the tree line and finding themselves on the familiar sandy beaches that Jacen had missed. This place felt more like home, gave him more of a calm spirit. The cave didn't feel safe to him, too close to the jungle and what was hiding within it. Veronica continued talking, "You can talk to Jacen. I'm not going to go telling your secrets and I'm definitely not going to think less of you for any reason."
"How do you know that?" Jacen asked, walking toward his old hut, "You don't know me anymore than I really know you."
"I know you're a nice guy with a good heart." She replied.
"Do you?" He asked, noticing somebody in his hut. Sawyer walked out of the front of it, and flipped his hair back after seeing Jacen. He didn't look happy, but he didn't look apologetic either. Jacen growled, "What are you doing?"
"Finders, keepers. You left your stuff behind, I found it," He said, holding some of Jacen's old clothes and a few of other things. None of it was really valuable except the tube of toothpaste that Jacen found, which was very rare to have on the island.
"Well, guess what. I want it back." Jacen said, holding his hand out.
"Look Gilligan, why don't you and the Mexican Mary-Ann go wrap bamboo together and build a car? This stuff is now mine." Sawyer said, and turned to walk away.
Jacen grabbed his arm, and flipped him back around to face him, "Look, I limped back to the cave after falling and busting my head open while looking for water for all of us. If you want to be a smart-"
"Jacen," Veronica said, and grabbed his arm, "Leave him alone. It's fine."
Jacen stopped talking, but Sawyer and Jacen kept their eyes locked. Neither of them was going to back down, and while other people let Sawyer bully them, Jacen wasn't going to have it. He reached out, and snatched his toothpaste before Sawyer could react.
"You can have the clothes, but this is mine." Jacen said, sticking it in the back of his jeans.
Sawyer eyed him for a moment, and Jacen wondered if he'd actually fight him for his junk. Eventually, Sawyer shook his head, "Whatever, I got plenty."
As Sawyer walked away, Jacen let himself relax and the tension ease out of him. He'd been chased after and bullied by a puff of smoke, and almost died. Sawyer picked a bad time to try to throw his weight around. Jacen took a breath and calmed himself down.
"That was stupid." Veronica said.
"I wanted my toothpaste...." Jacen said, and walked inside of his tent.
"It's just toothpaste, what's the big deal?" She asked, chasing after him into the tent.
"It's mine, and he took it. That's the big deal. What do you care?" Jacen asked, his voice rising lightly. He was already aggravated, and getting lectured now wasn't helping.
"There are other ways of dealing with him than seeing who can punch the other the hardest..." She said, "I don't want to see you get hurt again."
He shook his head, "I wasn't. I can deal with him, he's all bark."
"Jacen..." She sighed.
He tried to push his anger down, but looking around his post-scavenged hut was not helping. He turned around, raising his voice to just over his normal level, "He's got no right coming into my hut, and I was gone for two days! He can't go taking people's stuff; somebody's gotta show him..."
As he started to leave the tent and go after Sawyer, Veronica stood in front of him and put her hands on his chest to stop him. She wasn't angry; he could see that in her eyes. She was hurt. He sighed, and asked, "Why do you care?"
"Because I do," She said. She shook her head, "I care what happens to you. You wandered off into the jungle, and disappear for a while. I was worried enough you wouldn't come back, but when you do, you stumble into the cave bleeding from your head. Do you know how that made me feel?"
"I'm sorry you were worried, but I can take care of myself."
She stood there looking at him, a depth of emotion in her eyes that Jacen was blind to. His focus was still on surviving everything he was dealing with, and not her. The past few days had been bad enough, but now he had his own fellow survivor taking from him. The smoke he couldn't fight, but Sawyer he could. Those thoughts made him blind to her though. Even though he could have seen the hurt in her eyes, he wasn't able to right now.
"Maybe, but what about me? You ever think I need you right now? This place scares me..." She said, fighting back a tear swimming in her eye.
"Stop. Stop doing that to me." Jacen said, holding his hands in protest.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I saw the ring. That's an engagement ring, which means another man gave it to you. Just because we're stuck on an island doesn't mean you should lead me on just so you can feel safe." Jacen blurted out, but then regretted it.
She started to say something in anger, but she lost her words. The anger that flooded her face though was quickly overpowered by hurt, and her eyes were welling up with tears. She started to yell at him again, but her voice failed her. She shook her as a few tears started to fall, and the anger that still simmered in her was released when she slapped him across the face. He stood there, silent and regretful. He knew he should start apologizing, but he couldn't. He'd said what he'd said.
"I-"
"Don't!" She growled, and stormed out of his hut.
He stood there, face hot with pain and heart pricked by sorrow. He knew what he was doing, which was the scary part. He'd done the same thing to his wife, and she left him with worse feelings and with half his stuff. He'd loved her even, and a part of him still did. But, he chased her away too for the same reasons. Now, when he finds a girl again that he connects with and is thousands of miles from his past problems, he still is guided by the fear in his heart. He sat down on his empty cot, and leaned forward onto his knees. This felt like he was losing his wife all over again, and dooming himself to seclusion. He had to change, but he still couldn't after all these years.
Jacen sat on the beach with the dim rays of sunlight still peeking over the horizon stained the sky crimson. The absence of clouds gave the sky a feeling of some awe-inspiring oil painting that, for the first time, Jacen paused and looked at. The world looked different from this beach, even the sunlight seemed richer. As all the colors mingled in the light blue ocean and white-tipped waves in one kinetic movement all at once, Jacen forgot what lay over that horizon and the civilization that awaited them.
The beach-camp was mostly quiet by now; most people were spending time with their friends or that special other person that they had found. Even among the small population of survivors, people were connecting, whether out of love or fear. The only other solitary person was Sawyer, who sat a couple hundred feet down the beach at his own hut. Yet, this didn't bother Jacen. He had spent the last three years of his life alone, riding along the asphalt rivers that criss-crossed America. He'd even ventured to Australia, putting the entire globe between him and everybody that was once his life. Now on an island in the middle of the ocean and surrounded by people, he'd found himself a solitary man again.
His mind drifted back to the pretty girl that had made friends with him so fast. It was unusual, even in these circumstances. Plane crash survivors that were living among other survivors and their own trauma. Surrounded by a thousand problems of varying importance, they'd still found connections. It still felt as if she had come on too strong though, made friends too fast. Jacen assumed she was looking for somebody to latch onto, somebody to help her feel grounded in all the chaos. Jacen, well he just wanted the company. While many people saw some great mystery in a man of self-seclusion, Jacen knew far too well it was nothing more than a life of loneliness and running along roads for the sake of something to do. There was no glory, no greater purpose. It was a life of a man afraid to face himself, who he was within his own heart and the guilt that rested there. Those haunting words of Christian came back to him, reminding him that he had already been judged as 'broken.'
Maybe there was truth to that, maybe there was something deep within him that was broken...
"Hey," A soft female voice said, but the source was not Veronica as his heart had hoped. He turned to the see the pretty blonde that was always wearing a bikini, Shannon.
He turned back around and faced the ocean, "What?"
"Look, I didn't come over here for you act like that." She said, standing next to him.
"Then why did you?" He asked.
"You looked lonely," She said, and sat down. Her long, brown legs stretched out in front of her, enticing Jacen. She smirked, "And so was I."
"Really?" Jacen asked dryly.
"Yeah, some cute guy sitting on the beach by himself and watching the sunset... It's kind of romantic..." She said, touching her words with just the right tone and pitch to send the signals she wanted.
"You know, I've met girls like you." Jacen said.
"Like me?"
"Girls that know they're pretty, and that knowledge warps them. They think they can use their sexuality and looks to get whatever they want. So, you prey on guys that look like they need somebody or after breakups, and you take them for all their worth. Most of the time, it's just to get what you want." Jacen said, and stood to his full-height. He wiped the sand off of his butt and turned, looking down at her, "So whatever it is you want, you can get it from somebody else."
Without another word or moment's hesitation, Jacen walked off and left the pretty blonde to wallow in the misery of knowing exactly what she was. Jacen had learned easily that if you really want to hurt somebody, you tell them exactly who they are. Nobody wants to know the truth, especially about themselves.
He walked up to his hut, and slipped between the hanging blanket and hut door. He froze inside, looking down and see Veronica sitting on his cot and fingering the ring still attached to her necklace. She didn't look up at him, didn't even acknowledge his presence. He stood there, wandering what exactly this conversation would entail.
"You know, you were right." She said.
"What?" He asked.
"I was using you," She said, not once taking her eyes off that ring. Her voice was low, deep. She kept talking, "After the crash, I was terrified. The first night on this beach, I was laying a few feet from John Locke. I couldn't sleep; I laid there and stared up at the stars. At first, I was wondering how this could happen to me. I wasn't perfect, but I wasn't a bad person, I didn't deserve this. Then, I started thinking about everything that was going to happen. There weren't police to run to, or my Aunt and Uncle to tell me everything would be alright. I was alone, surrounded by people I didn't know. There weren't any rules here either, anything could happen. People could kill others, and every time a guy looked at me, I thought he was going to drag me into the jungle to...."
Her words trailed for a little, and Jacen almost spoke up but thought about it. She wanted to talk, whatever she was saying she wanted to say and had a reason, so he kept his mouth shut. He waited for her to gather herself together, and she said, "I cried for a long time that night. I tried to be quiet, but it just wouldn't stop. I would think about something or I'd hear something moving, and I'd just get afraid all over again. I guess I wasn't as quiet as I thought."
"John got up, and then sat down next to me. He didn't say anything at first, just looked at me. For some reason, I wasn't afraid; there was something else in his eyes. He didn't ask why I was crying, he just said, 'Go to sleep. Everything will be okay. I'm here.' I didn't know what to say. Who says stuff like that, you know? But then he said, 'Nothing will hurt you. I'll make sure of that.' Then, he smiled at me, and just sat there. We didn't say anything else, he just sat there. But, it worked. I fell asleep for a few hours, and when I woke up, he was still there."
"Veronica..." Jacen started to say, and then she put her finger up to tell him to stop.
"But, John has other things to do here. He wasn't always going to be there, but you were always there. You were like me, just trying to survive while everybody else was running around and keeping secrets. I figured, you'd always be there. So I talked to you, I flirted with you. I wanted you to like me, okay? I needed it." She said, and then finally put the ring back down into her shirt and patted it against her chest, "It started out that way, but that wasn't how it was... When you came back from the jungle bleeding, I wasn't worried about losing my 'protector,' I was worried about losing you."
Jacen stood, still taking in all the information she was pouring out of her. A part of him felt like he should say something, but he knew this wasn't about him. This was about her; she was getting this off her chest.
"I used you at first, but I fell for you Jacen. I really like you, and when you said that to me yesterday, it.... really hurt me." She said, and clasped her hands in front of herself, "But, you were right... at first. I did use you, but that changed. And the ring..... the ring doesn't mean what you think it does."
"What does it mean?" He asked.
"I can't tell you," She said, and looked at him with her brown eyes flooding with the emotion in her, "I can just tell you it doesn't mean I love him."
Jacen was quiet a moment, staring at her. He gathered the thoughts in his head, but the words to say were failing him. He had been out of this situation a long time, and dealing with people felt like he was punching at the wind. It seemed futile, but he wanted to do something.
"Veronica....," He finally said, "I'm sorry for what I said. I was mad, and scared. The past few days have been crazy, and it had all just gotten to me. I lost my temper."
"Maybe, but you were right." She said, "And you needed to hear what I said..... because I want you to know I still care about you."
"I... care for you too." He answered, "I always did. It was just, I saw the ring and it hurt because-"
"I know," She said quickly, trying to avoid that conversation again, "But, let's put that behind us. If we really do have feelings for each other, I want us to start on a clean slate and no lies."
Jacen paused, "... yeah."
"What?" She asked.
"Well," He said, and then paused. Did he really want to do this? Finally he said, "There's some things you need to know about me."
"Like what?" She asked with concern in her eyes.
"I lied about falling and hitting my head." He said, and then took a deep breath.
"What... really happened?" She asked, taking a few steps toward him and standing in front of him.
"You're not going to believe me..." He said, "I don't believe me..."
Three years prior to the crash...
It had finally hit the fan...
Jacen looked up as both the criminals walked into the lobby of the bank, all of the hostages tensing up and huddling together. They walked with heavy feet and determined eyes, the grace period was over. The male crook pointed his pistol down at the bank teller next to Jacen, "Get up!"
"What?" She said, clutching her still tied hands to Jacen's arms. Jacen struggled to keep his hands steady so the loose tie around his wrists wouldn't move, letting them know his was cut. He was also very thankful though that he hadn't cut her tie loose, but now prayed she didn't spill the beans on him and the others.
The male crook dragged her to her feet, and then pushed her forward into the open space in front of the lobby doors. She slid across the floor a little, and came to a stop. She was already dripping tears, and Jacen felt sorry that she had to suffer through everything these people wanted.
The female crook leveled her gun at the woman, "You get the key and bring it back, nobody else. If you don't come back, everybody in this building will die because of you. You understand?"
The bank teller looked solemnly at the crooks, tears dripping from her chin but not making a sound. She nodded her head, "Y-yeah... I'll get it..."
Jacen watched as she stumbled to her feet and through the door. Once out there, she made if halfway to the line of police cars outside before two SWAT officers corralled her and took her safely to the opposite side of the stand-off. Jacen kept watching, but his thoughts were about what would happen with her out-of-sight now. She'd made it, and now she was gone. Was she really going to come back?
For about two hours, the crooks stood around the lobby and paced back and forth. It was an uneasy stalemate as everyone waited. Jacen and the rest of the hostages all were nervous, knowing that with each tick of the clock the chances of death were increasing. Jacen's fears of the young girl coming back were starting to become cemented in his mind.
He thought back to that safety deposit box, though. What were its contents? What was so important? Two people were already dead, shot for getting in the way of the acquisition of the box's contents. These two crooks, hopefully, couldn't have possibly expected to get the contents of the box and leave, as if the police would let them leave. They'd gone to so much trouble and risked so much, the contents must be extremely valuable.
They were about to find out, though. The young bank teller was walking nervously back over toward them, slowly approaching the front door of the bank. She carefully pulled it open, and walked back inside. Jacen couldn't believe it. Even in his heart, he hadn't expected that kind of courage from her. She was the one that wanted to leave, bargained with everything to get out. Now, she was walking right back into it.
"You get it?" The male crook asked.
"Yes." She answered softly, and walked toward them.
Standing in front of them, she opened her clenched fist and dropped a small, brown key into the male crook's hand. Both of the crooks smiled ear to ear, and Jacen didn't know what to expect now. The two crooks hugged each other, and whispered words of congratulation to each other. Jacen expected a sniper's bullet to pierce the lobby windows and then strike them. Yet, it never came. They were simply given the key.
The male crook pulled out a tie and wrapped it around her wrist. She didn't fight it this time, subjected herself to it. Once tied back up, she was dropped back down onto the ground next to Jacen. She sat there calmly, no tears in her eyes and simply watched the crooks walk back toward the still open vault. Stepping into the vault, Jacen turned and asked, "What are you doing?!"
"You didn't have a plan, now I do." She said with a nervous confidence still in her voice.
She reached into her blouse and pulled a pocket knife from her bra. Unfolding it, she twisted it around and cut away her own ties. The plastic ties fell to the floor, "Stay here."
"Wait! What?" Jacen asked, standing up with her. As she started to walk toward the vault door, he grabbed her arm, "What are you doing?!"
"Shut up! I have a plan." She said, and shoved him back down. He stumbled back against the desk. She jogged over the vault entrance, and pulled a metallic cylinder from the belt of her skirt at the small of her back. Jacen hustled over, grabbing the older man's hand and pulling him to his feet. They needed to act fast. The young girl swiveled around the door and into the vault. Jacen and the older man hurried to catch up to her. What was she thinking?!
As Jacen and the older man turned to enter the vault behind her, Jacen caught a split second of time. The girl turned, eyes closed and hands over her ears, sticking her head out of the vault. The next second, the world turned a solid white, and it felt like Jacen's head exploded. He cried out in pain, dropping to the floor with a thud.
He struggled just to right the world in his head, trying to regain some form of reality. The world faded from a blinding whiteness, but his hearing was in disruption still. His head felt as if he were underwater, distorting every sound and even his own breath became deafening to him. As he started to regain some recognition of reality, he realized that he had fallen onto his stomach and was looking out into the lobby. The hostages were hidden behind the door to his left, but the world in front of him was dark and obscured with shadows. He also realized that on top of him, the heavy, older man had fallen and was struggling to get up. Jacen tried to pull himself out, but he was pressed to the floor. He shook his head once, trying to dislodge the chaos in his head.
He took a breath that smelled of burnt wood and copper, and pushed himself up as the older man gave him just enough room to slide out from under him. He pulled his legs from under the heavy man's belly, and flipped over onto his butt. Inside the vault, the female crook was struggling to her feet as the male crook was just starting to get to his knees. The bank teller was nowhere to be seen, hidden inside the vault further.
Jacen jumped to his knees and crawled towards the male crook. As he snatched the pistol from the male crook's weak grasp, Jacen tried to flip it around in his hand but the female crook came at him fast and tackled him into the metal wall of the vault. His head thumped against the metal, and pain flourished again through his brain. He brought his knee up and weakly kicked her in the side, but was lucky enough to find her sore spot. She yelled in pain and crumpled to the floor. Jacen landed on top of her and pressed her to the ground. As Jacen looked up to see where the man was, he found the male crook on his knees already and rearing back with a heavy punch aimed for Jacen's head. Before Jacen could react, a large shadow crossed his vision and the large, older man came tumbling into the male crook. Easily outweighing, they tumbled back and the male crook crumpled under the weight. His head bounced off the floor as he fell, and he lay there, unconscious. Jacen pulled himself and the girl up, keeping her arms locked behind her back. She was in so much pain, she wasn't fighting Jacen though.
Jacen shook his head, still fighting the after-effects of the flash of light. He heard his ears pop, and then the voice of the older man, "You alright?" He yelled, but his voice still sounded like it was a hundred feet away from Jacen.
"Yeah, where's the girl?" Jacen asked, and then looked down into the vault. The bank teller was walking back toward Jacen calmly. He asked, "You okay?"
"Yeah.... I...." She said, and then shook her head, "Sorry, I got scared."
"What were you doing?!" The older man yelled.
"I... I was trying to help you guys..." She said, her face pouting together in pain.
"You should have told us what you were doing..." Jacen grunted. He stood to his feet, dragging the girl up with him. Jacen looked over at the man, "You got him?"
"Yeah, he's out cold. I think he hit his head." The man answered, "I think we both got lucky right now. What was that blast?"
"Flash grenade...." Jacen said, realizing it himself as he said it. He shook his head, still working the effects off, "Where'd you get it?"
"I took it from one of the SWAT vans; I thought it would knock them out." She said, and walked up to Jacen.
"No, they'll just be confused for a few seconds... You should have waited..." Jacen said, and then took a deep breath. He couldn't believe they'd survived it, and that it was only over in a few minutes like that. They really were lucky. He nodded to the teller, "Go to the front doors, and get the police. Tell them it's over...."
The girl jogged out toward the front door, and Jacen felt like he was finally getting his bearings. The whole situation was dumb luck that they'd gotten up before the crooks, and that both of them handled the crooks. Jacen wondered though, looking down into the vault. Why did the bank teller come into the vault when she threw the grenade? She couldn't have been that dumb. He looked at the line of boxes, and none of them looked disturbed or opened. It was strange, she didn't even bother with the crooks. She threw the grenade then ran into the vault, past them. Was she after the box? Maybe she was told to get it out...
"Weird, wasn't it?" The man asked. The male crook still lay crumpled on the floor, but in his open palm was the small, brown key that the bank teller had given him. That didn't make sense. What had just happened in here?
"Yeah... way too weird... " Jacen replied. In the distance, he could hear heavy boots against marble floors. SWAT was coming, whatever happened would soon come to light. Cops and detectives would go over this place with a fine toothed comb, so now the mystery of the box was their problem. Jacen was happy to be done with this...