Disclaimer; i don't own Lost
Locke and Kate stood there for some time just staring at the place it had been.
"We have to move," Locke said placing a hand on Kate's shoulder pushing her a little to move. She stumbled ahead, she too stunned to think or even say anything when Sawyer appeared out of nowhere and hugged her. Then everything went black and she fainted, for the first time in her life she fainted.
"Kate," Sawyer said looking at her as her green eyes rolled back and she went limp in his arms.
"She fainted," Locke said then rubbed his head, "I'm surprised she didn't do that when we saw it. Guess she didn't feel safe enough then."
"Freckles doesn't faint," he said scooped her into his arms before looking back at Locke, "what was it?"
Locke shook his head, he had no words to describe the horror they had seen; he was still in shock himself.
Sawyer carried her back not paying attention to Locke as he killed a boar that had been sleeping in the setting sun.
Jack sat and looked into the forest; he had already stitched up Michael and was now waiting for Kate. If someone had asked he would say he was waiting for the rest of the hunters but he really was only there for Kate.
Claire stood beside him then placed a hand on his shoulder as she sat down, being 8 months pregnant that wasn't exactly easy.
"You okay?" he asked her.
"Are you?" she asked him back.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Cause she's not back yet."
Jack said nothing after that, and after a few minutes she got up and left him with his thoughts.
He blinked as Locke walked out of the jungle carrying a boar. Locke motioned with his thumb over his shoulder, and Jack got up and ran forward, then froze as he watched Sawyer walk out carrying her, his heart sank as he followed them into Kate's tent.
Jack cleaned her scrapes as Sawyer told him all that he knew.
"Whatever it was she saw most have scared her really bad," Sawyer told then repeated what he had told Locke, "Freckles doesn't faint."
After a while Sawyer left to get some fresh air while Jack stayed with her. He had been gone for 10 minutes when Kate sat up a gasp. Jack placed hand on her shoulder pushing her back down again. Her terror filled eyes looked around the tent before the rested on Jack, who had been whispering words of comfort to her.
"This your way of saying 'I told you so'" she asked him having finally relaxed.
"I'm not big on rubbing it in," he smiled at her; he waited a while before asking her, "Kate what's out there?"
She stared up the tarp which made the roof of her tent, after a while she closed her eyes and shook her head, "I don't know what it is, but Jack," she looked at him and he could see her fear, "it's not natural."
After a while Jack told her that she should rest, she nodded and was about to close her eyes when she looked into his deep brown eyes.
He could still see the fear in her beautiful green eyes; they seemed to be pleading for him to stay. He placed a hand on hers.
"I won't leave you," he told her and she smiled back at him the fear in her eyes seemed to dissolve and she fell asleep.
Outside the sun was setting as Claire read off the names held in the fuselage, once finished it was set a light.
Kate and Jack were walking on the beach in the midmorning talking and enjoying one another's company when the sound of yelling and run was heard.
"Jack," came the voice several time, it had a British accent which meant it could only be Charlie.
"Now what?" Jack said not happy that his walk with Kate had been interrupted. They had only been making small talk but still it was something seeing as they had been alone.
Kate turn and was about to tease him by saying that what he got for being the only doctor on the island when something in the water caught her eye.
"There someone out there," Charlie said when he reached them pointing to where Kate was already look. Jack looked out too he could see them also.
In rush he pulled off his shoes, sock and shirt and dove into the water, Kate was alongside him as Charlie watched from the shoreline along with a few other people who had joined him.
They reached the last place they had seen him, then dove under the water. Jack's eyes stung from the salt keeping him from seeing anything clearly. He was forced to resurface a looked around expecting to see Kate but she wasn't there. Seconds ticked away, it seemed like hours before Kate came up again bring Boone along with her.
"Deep breaths," Jack instructed him as he gasped for air.
"Did you get her?" he asked as Kate held him above water.
"What?" Jack asked.
"The woman, I was trying to…did you get her?" Jack spun around finding who Boone meant, a person was about 50 yards out.
"Get him back to shore," Jack ordered Kate before swimming out.
Kate flipped on to her back her arms still under Boone's arms as she used her feet to move them both backward towards the shore. By moving backwards she could also watch Jack; he had reached the woman and was bringing her back in. Jack and the woman had reached the half-way point when Kate and Boone reach the shallows.
Sayid took Boone the rest of the way in while Sawyer helped the exhausted Kate. Jack reached the shore about 2 minutes later and started giving the woman CPR.
Jack sat looking out at the calm blue sea, but he's mind was not on the calmness of the water it was still on the woman. He didn't even look up as Kate sat beside him.
"Who was she?" he asked her, there was no emotion in his voice.
Kate sighed she knew he was beating himself up on the inside for not saving her. Would knowing what her name was make it any better? She didn't think it would but she knew if she didn't tell him someone else probably would.
"Her name was Joanna, she wasn't supposed to be on the plane. She was scuba diving off the barrier reef and got an ear infection so the doctor grounded her for a couple days. She bumped her flight, and ended up there with us. She went swimming and got caught in a riptide."
"We've been here 6 days and I never talked to her. Never said a word to her."
"Jack," Kate started but stopped, how was she supposed to tell him not blame himself when she blamed herself for it.
"6 days and not 1 word," Jack repeated as he threw a rock he had been holding towards the water.
"You tried Jack."
"Not hard enough."
Kate was placing water bottle she had just filled in the storage area along with some fruit she had collected on her return trip. That day had turned into the hottest day on the island so far and she had already made several trips to refill the bottles.
"Hey, Kate," called Walt as he and Vincent run to her.
"What wrong?" she asked as he stop in front of her breathing heavy, it was to hot for him to be running without an important reason.
"The pregnant lady she fell," he panted.
"Where is she?"
"My dad and that Charlie guy are taking her to the infirmary."
Kate ran toward the large tent that was used as the infirmary. She got there a couple of second before them, she held the flap open as they carried the past out Claire in, they placed her in one of the plane chairs.
"What happened?" Kate asked them.
"I don't know she just dropped," Charlie said. Kate placed the back of her hand on Claire's forehead, she was warm.
"Where's Jack?" Kate asked.
"He went in to the jungle earlier with Locke but I have seen him since," Michael told her.
"I think the heat got to her," Kate said, "go get water."
Michael and Charlie hurried out of the tent as Kate pulled her own water bottle out of her bag. She poured it on to a rag and dabbed it against her forehead and her flushed cheeks; she then gentle pulled her shirt up to expose her enlarged stomach. She re-wet the cloth and draped it over her stomach, she rest her hand on it for a moment and felt the baby move. As she did this she talked quietly to Claire.
"Claire, honey, can you hear me? It's Kate. I need you wake up, please. Come on honey. Wake up Claire."
Claire shifted a little and groaned as she opened her eyes.
"Hey," Kate smiled at her.
"The baby," Claire's eyes opened wider and she tried to sit up in the reclined chair but Kate held her down with a hand on her shoulder.
"He's fine," Kate reassured her giving the water that was left to drink. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"I don't remember much, just felling warm and really tired all of a sudden. After that things get fuzzy. What happened?"
"You past out, had a bit too much sun," Kate told her.
"A bit," Claire smiled.
"Yeah, just a bit," Kate joked and Claire laughed. Charlie and Michael arrived then with more water, once Charlie was reassured that Claire was fine he and Michael went to make sure everyone drank plenty of water and stayed out of the sun as much as possible as Kate had instructed. Their departure allowed Claire and Kate to have some time alone to talk.
"Kate," Claire said as Kate placed a cloth on the back of her neck and shoulders.
"Hmmm."
"Can I ask you a serious question?"
"Sure," she said moving back to sit in front of her.
"Would you be the baby's godmother?" Claire asked, Kate blinked at her stunned then pulled her into a hug.
"I'd love to," Kate said smiling and Claire also smiled hugging her back.
The next day Kate and Jack had found a string of caves the next day while on the run from a hive angry bees and the day after Jack prepared to move to the cave as it was a better shelter than what was on the beach. They had a bit of an argument about the move but had worked out that Jack had to do what he felt he needed to and so did Kate, they had parted with her asking him to be safe and he had asked the same of her. It was had become what they would always tell each when they parted ways not as a goodbye since neither wanted to say that, it was the closest thing they had to actually confessing to each other they were in love with the other.
That afternoon Sayid prepared to led Boone and Kate in the placing of the last two antenna "Three antennas. Three points of a triangle. One here on the beach. Another, Kate has positioned in the jungle, roughly two kilometers in, and the third I'll take to high ground, up there. If the French woman's transmission is coming from somewhere within our triangulation, I'll be able to locate the source. But there is a complication."
"Of course there is," Boone scuffed.
"The power cells I grafted onto the antennas are dry. There's no telling how long they'll last. A minute - maybe more, maybe less."
"So we have to wait until we're in position before we switch them on," Kate said and Sayid nodded.
"Wait. Wait a second," Boone interrupted. "How are we going to be able to tell that we're actually in the right position? We have no way to communicate with each other."
Sayid unzipped his bag and should them three, rather large, rockets he had salvaged from the crash.
"Bottle rockets?" Kate asked unsure how someone had managed to get them on the plane.
"Thank God for fireworks smugglers. Now, when I'm in position I'll fire off my rocket. When you two see it, you fire yours. As soon as the last one has gone up we all switch on the antennas."
Jack had started to set up another infirmary in one of the caves when Charlie came in yelling about something.
"You know? A lot of people look up to me. They respect me. And you, you just treat me like I'm some bloody child! Like I'm some useless joke!"
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked as Charlie came closer, Hurley stayed in the entrance way of the cave with Sun and Jin.
"Charlie's not good enough to do this; Charlie's just in the way. Put Charlie onto that."
"Charlie, just calm down, alright. You're not yourself," Jack said trying to calm the raging brit, but it wasn't working.
"You don't know me! I'm a bloody rock god!" Charlie yelled.
A sudden rumble could be heard, Jack and Charlie looked up at the ceiling to watch a crack in the ceiling started to grow and spread. Small stones started to fall around them.
"Run," Jack yelled as he spun Charlie around to face the cave's collapsing entrance. Charlie finally got his feet to move and ran for it with Jack behind him.
Charlie land on the outside Hurley moved over to him.
"Charlie you alright dude? Where's Jack?"
Charlie looked around then turned back to the cave, pointing at.
"Jack can you hear me?" Hurley yelled, but there was nothing. he turned to Charlie. "Dude, go to beach and get as many people you can and tell them what happened?" Charlie started to move when Hurley called after him "and be sure to tell Kate."
Jack coughed; he lay on his back in what had been the cave. He could hear yelling coming in from the outside but it was all muffled, all except one word which was already revolving in his mind.
"Kate," he choked out.
Kate stopped on the hike to the antenna she'd placed, her gaze moved to one spot in the distance like it was drawn by a magnet. 'Jack?'
"Kate," Sayid's voice brought her back to earth, she turned to him to look at him, "you alright?"
"Yeah," Kate said starting to move again.
She was soon sitting in the tree she had placed the antenna in, she'd placed the rocket in position so she could fire it once she saw Sayid's flare. Her mind was elsewhere though as she checked her watch, 20 minutes till 5. Her mind was on Jack, it normally was but this time was different something was wrong, very wrong.
'Is he still mad at me?' she wondered, she thought they had settled the matter before he left but maybe she was wrong. She was pretty sure she wasn't but still something was off.
The beeping of her watch's alarm brought her back the reality, it was 5 minutes till 5 and she looked in the direction she had last seen Sayid heading and waited for the signal. Second tick away like hours then she sees the rocket in the air and heard its explosion. She flicked the zippo Sawyer had given her after he told he had quit smoking, sparks fly as the fuse lights. The rocket soars up in to the sky, and with her hand on the switch she turns look for Boone's rocket, nothing.
"Come on," she mutters waiting then she sees it and hits the switch.
"Freckles," comes a yell from the jungle as she heads down the tree.
"Here," she called from half way down.
Sawyer hurried out of the jungle towards the tree; he was out of breath having been running around looking for her to tell her the news of the cave-in.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"Jack," Sawyer panted, "he got trapped in a cave-in." He hated that he had to be the one to tell her, he hated the look of fear in her face. Kate had never shown fear before the damn crash.
She jumped from the tree and literally hit the ground running, leaving Sawyer to try and keep up.
Kate made it back to caves in record time her energy fuelled by fear that she would get there too late. She would never see Jack again, never see his smile, hear his voice and never have a hope in hell of telling him what he meant to her.
She found everyone sitting, 'is he safe? Did they get him out?' she wonder. She looked around but didn't see him and their faces weren't triumphant.
"Where is he?" she asked, they looked up at her startled. They looked afraid of her and sorry for her. She hears shaky breathing behind and stumbled running but she doesn't look to see who it was, it didn't matter they weren't Jack.
Hurley swallows he would have to tell her since no one else had the heart to. He points over his shoulder at the rock covered entrance way and the small collapsed tunnel. "In there."
"Is he alive?" she asked in a shacking voice, no one answers in a stronger, demanding voice she repeats the question fearing the answer.
"We.. we don't know. We made tunnel and Charlie went in after him but the tunnel collapsed," Michael said, he look like he was about to apologize to her but she walked past.
"Then why aren't you digging?" she asked them coldly. She started moving the rubble out of the way, Sawyer moved next to her and the others form a chain to move the rocks again.
Sawyer moved the larger stones for her, he couldn't tell her to stop even though he wanted. He knew it wouldn't do any good, she wouldn't listen to him.
"Kate you should take a break," Michael said finally voicing Sawyer's own thoughts.
"I'm fine," she told him without emotion, giving the answer Sawyer knew she would as she kept moving rocks.
"You keep digging like this and you'll end up killing yourself." Kate shot him a look and he reluctantly backed off.
When Kate did stop she scared Sawyer, who thought she would keel over. But she turned to look behind them, then Walt spoke up.
"Hey, it's the doc."
Everyone else looked now, Jack stood there covered in dirt with Charlie.
Jack had stopped when he had seen Kate, he wanted to tell her what he had promised himself he would tell her if ever got out alive. But seeing her there cover in dirt, sweaty and looking utterly exhausted she was still so beautiful he could hardly breathe let alone speak.
Kate hugged him to her tightly almost not able to let go.
"How did you get out?" she asked finally letting go.
"Charlie," Jack said when he found his voice, "he found a way out," Jack clapped the slightly shorter man on the shoulder, Kate hugged him also as the rest of the digging team came to congratulate Charlie for the rescue. With everyone crowding around them no one noticed an emotion and physically spent Kate moved away leaning heavily on Sawyer.
""I'm telling you he must have it," Boone told Jack and Sayid. Jack was in thought; Boone had just finished explaining to him that he believed that Sawyer had Shannon's asthma medication sine he had Boone's book which had been in the bag with it.
"And you have spoken to him about this," Sayid asked as Jack kept cleaning the head wound he had received while searching for a signal.
"Yes, but the hick just smiles at me and says he doesn't have it, he is lying," Boone ranted.
"I'll talk to him," Jack told him which seemed to help some.
Once Jack had finished with Sayid he went to look for Sawyer. He wasn't that hard to find, he was sitting on the beach with his back against a tree as he read the book Boone had said was in his bag and with the medicine.
"Where's the inhaler Sawyer?" he asked directly.
"Sorry doc, but I ain't got it," Sawyer said getting up and going to walk away.
"But you know where it is," Jack followed.
"Haven't the foggiest."
Jack stopped and let him walk off, he then turned to Sayid who had been watching and working as a lie detector or at least trying.
"So is he telling the truth?" Jack asked him.
"It is easier to tell if one is lying if they are under stress," he replied. Jack was about to ask what kind of stress he meant when Boone interrupted him.
"I need some help over here."
Jack run to Boone with Sayid behind, Boone knelt beside Shannon who was struggling for breath.
"The attacks are getting worse," Boone told them as Jack knelt in front of her.
"Shannon, listen to me. Look at me. You need to listen to me okay?" Shannon nodded. "This isn't just the asthma, its anxiety too. It's in your head, do you understand?" Shannon nodded again. "Good, now I need you to breathe in through your nose then out through the mouth."
She did that but winced in pain, the stress was causing her asthma to make breathing painful.
"Hurts," she choked out. Sayid moved to rest on his knees behind her.
"I may be able to help. If you will allow me," he told her and she nodded. He placed a hand on either shoulder, and moved his thumbs to rest on a pressure point at the tip of her shoulder blades. Shannon felt a small shiver run down her spine from the feeling of his hands; she knew that if the circumstances where different the feeling of his strong hands would be extremely enjoyable.
Sayid started to move his thumbs in circular motion applying light pressure; he nodded to Jack to try again.
"Okay, Shannon. We're going to try this again, now breathe with me." She took a deep breath in the let it out slowly as he instructed, there was no pain now. "Good your color is starting to come back, again."
They continued this until the attack had passed fully.
"Wow, dude that was amazing. I mean it was like a Jedi moment," Hurley said having watched the whole thing.
Sun walked slowly into the jungle, she had also seen what had happened and had an idea of how to help, but she would need Kate's help to find what she needed.
Once certain that Shannon was no longer in danger of another attack Sayid followed after Sawyer. He would apply the pressure need for him to be certain of the answer; it wouldn't be physical, though it was tempting, but emotional. It took almost half an hour him to find the southerner.
"You're here to ask me about Stick's meds too huh," Sawyer said not looking up from his book.
"Yes, but first I need you to consider a hypothetical situation first."
"Well, shot," Sawyer said and closed the book, using a finger to hold the place.
"I need you to think about if Kate…" Sayid started but Sawyer interrupted him.
"Are threatening her?" Sawyer growled getting to his feet.
"No," Sayid shook his head, "just think of what if Kate was in Shannon's place at this moment." Sayid watched as Sawyer's expression changed, it went from anger to fear, his eyes taking a slightly sad appearance. "Now I need you to tell me where you found the book."
"In the ocean, it was just floating there," he said, Sawyer's voice had lost all its usual cockiness.
Sayid walks away leaving Sawyer with his thoughts before he also walks away. Jack almost walks into Sayid.
"He's telling the truth," he tells him.
"You're sure?" Jack asks.
"Very, he wouldn't lie when it comes to her," Sayid nodded it head towards Kate, who was talking to Sun on the other side of the cave while working with some plants.
"What did you say?"
"I asked him to think about Kate if she was in Shannon's position." Sayid watched the same fear that had crossed Sawyer's face now show on Jack's.
"It's like a miracle. She put some of that stuff on her chest and 2 minutes later she can breathe perfectly fine," Boone said point at the greenish gel in half a coconut shell Jack held.
"It's eucalyptus," Jack said to him after smelling it, he turned to Sun and thanked her.
Kate walked after Sayid, who had finished packing his things for a trip around the island.
"Sayid," she called after him, "you don't have to do this you know. I mean you haven't seen what's out there."
"I know I don't have to, but who else can map out this island. I'm not afraid of what is out there; if it is my fate to be killed by it then it was meant to be."
Kate looked down at the ground then back up to him, "be careful."
Sayid smiled to her, "you do the same my friend," he started to walk off again then turned back to her, "and see if you can keep that cousin of yours out of trouble."
"That will be hard to do but I'll try," she smiled, he waved and was gone.