A/n: Hey, a semi-timely update? Whaaat? I know. And I keep saying I'm going to be on top of updating regularly and I keep failing at it, so we'll see if it sticks this time. Thanks as always to all ye who review - I hope you know how much I appreciate every word. :)

Chapter 18

As the weeks rolled by, Jack became less and less the subject of conversation and for that he was very grateful. There was always some new scandal or rumor circulating, and especially once the last of the press gave up and left, the story about Jack and the plane crash was already fading from the notoriously short memory of the hospital staff. Though Jack still felt uncomfortable with the fact that everyone knew about his unusual past, he had no choice but to accept that things would be different in that respect and simply move forward.

Even the press that had gathered outside his apartment building had given up by this point. There was nothing new to report with Jack, and no new developments with Kate. Jack still wondered why she had taken the trouble to come all the way to Seattle and not contact him in any way, but he did his best not to worry about it.

Late one night, a couple weeks after the news reported that sighting of Kate, Jack laid in bed thinking hard about her. He knew that there was no future where Kate was concerned and that he couldn't keep holding onto her ghost forever. Nevertheless, he could not let go of her just yet, not after all they had been through together. Not when he still might love her (he uneasily noted his use of the word might). The thought that he would never be with her made his heart ache even now, though he couldn't help but notice that the pain was much duller than it had been several months ago.

Despite the increasing emotional distance he felt when he thought of Kate these days, Jack continued checking news outlets for information of her, though it was becoming more out of habit than anything else.

Jack had other things to keep him occupied as the days wore on. For one thing, the hospital was putting on a major benefit at the end of the month to raise funds for the hospital as well as some local charities, and the Chief reminded the staff of this at nearly every opportunity. It was going to be a huge event, held at a nearby auditorium, with live entertainment and fancy catering, and Chief wanted as much of his staff to attend as possible.

Jack and Addison were enjoying a few rounds of darts with Callie and Derek at Joe's late one evening discussing the upcoming occasion, when Derek had to call it a night.

"Oh come on," Addison pleaded. "Just one more round."

"Are you kidding?" Derek chuckled. "You guys are absolutely creaming us. I've had enough losing for one night."

"I had better go too, sorry," said Callie, grabbing her coat. "It's getting pretty late and I have two bone grafts and a femur repair tomorrow, starting first thing. Addison, are you coming?"

Callie had earlier offered to drive Addison home, but the red-head was not quite ready to leave.

"I can give her a ride," Jack offered, seeing Addison's hesitation.

She turned to him. "Are you sure? I can just go with Callie now."

"No, I don't mind at all. Besides," Jack smiled and took a quick sip of his beer before saying, "We're not done this round yet."

Callie and Derek exchanged significant looks, which Addison ignored and Jack missed because he'd risen to take his next turn.

After their friends had gone, Jack and Addison opted to continue playing darts for several more rounds, chatting, teasing and laughing. Before they realized how much time had in fact passed, Joe was saying it was time for last call.

"Already?" Jack glanced over his shoulder.

"Wow, I had no idea it was that late," remarked Addison as she began putting away the darts.

Jack paid their relatively small tab and the pair headed out. The car ride to Addison's apartment was quiet, but it was a comfortable and tired sort of quiet. Jack pulled up in front of her building not too long later.

"Thanks for the ride, Jack," Addison smiled. "I appreciate it."

"No problem." He replied.

She had her hand on the door handle when he stopped her by saying her name hesitantly. Addison turned back to face him.

"I want you to know what happened to me." He said quietly.

"I already do, Jack," she replied, confused.

He shook his head. "I want to tell you the parts… that I haven't told anyone. The things that no one else knows except the people who were with me on that island."

It wasn't really something he'd planned or thought in depth about, but as he drove, he simply knew that he wanted her to understand, wanted her to be the first person to know it all – about him, the island, everything.

After a few moments where she contemplated what he'd said, Addison suggested, "Why don't we go inside? I'll make us something to drink."

Addison handed Jack a steaming mug of tea before seating herself on the couch beside him. She crossed her legs and perched herself sideways, her back leaning into several pillows and waited patiently for him to begin.

"My father and I… had a complicated relationship." Jack's tone was quiet and he often kept his gaze trained on the mug before him on the coffee table, as if that somehow helped him say everything out loud. "He was an alcoholic and he… one day he left for Australia and didn't come back. My mother convinced me to go after him, find him, and bring him home. I flew to Sydney and found him: he'd died of a heart attack.

"I made arrangements for his funeral, and bought tickets for a plane back home. I… I actually argued with the check-in girl – she didn't want to let me on the plane with my father's coffin." Jack chuckled at the memory, though it was a sad sort of laugh. "She pulled some strings, though, and got me on that flight. I can't help thinking that if she hadn't – if she'd have just stuck to her regulations and rules, or told me off… I would've been on a different flight. Everything would have been different."

He sighed and paused to try the tea, continuing a few minutes later.

"A few hours in, we hit a patch of severe turbulence. I don't remember much about the flight, to be honest. I blacked out. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the middle of the jungle." He shook his head, his mind swimming with memories. "I got myself up and ran out to the site of the crash. There was just… people and twisted metal, luggage… everywhere. Screaming…

"I just sort of… flew into action – helping others. I didn't even think about it. It wasn't until later that I realized I was hurt myself. Big gash, here," he gestured with his hand to his back and ribs on his left side. "I was going to sew it up myself but the angle wasn't good enough, I couldn't reach."

Addison barely restrained from making a comment. You were going to sew yourself up? She thought incredulously. She was a doctor, of course, and realized that in that situation, it was probably the best he could've done. Still, she struggled to imagine a scenario where she would be sewing up her own wounds.

"A woman came out of the jungle and I asked her for help. That's how I met Kate." He swallowed a lump of sudden emotion and covered it by having some more tea. Jack cleared his throat briefly and resumed his story. "The first night, there were horrible noises coming from the jungle. It looked like trees were being ripped out or mowed down and we were… terrified of what could possibly cause that. I suppose, in hindsight, that should have been an indication of things to come."

As Jack continued, he spoke of some of the most fantastical things Addison had ever heard. Had it been coming from anyone else, or had she not known Jack to be an extremely logical and down-to-earth type of person, she would have thought he were actually crazy.

He told her how he and Kate had found the pilot of their plane, only to have him ripped from the cockpit by an unseen monster. The survivors found a French woman who'd been stranded on the island for sixteen years, and a metal hatch in the jungle floor. The survivors tried to find their way off the island, they clung to the hatch for hope, and some even claimed that the island was their destiny. When the hatch was finally opened, they met a man who claimed that pushing the button inside it would save the world from a cataclysmic disaster.

Addison rose to refill their tea and Jack took a break. Her mind was reeling with everything Jack was telling her. People struggled on that island amongst themselves, they had been tortured, murdered, killed by accident, and abducted by these "Others". There was a monster made of smoke, an aged drug plane from Nigeria, and an old scientific organization from the '70s called The Dharma Initiative that had been "purged" by the Others. She couldn't believe that any of it was possible – how could it be? How could no one have found the French woman? How did no one find the Oceanic survivors for day after day, week after week? How could a place like that, and everything that went with it, possibly exist?

And yet it did exist, she had no doubt. It was utterly impossible, but hearing Jack explain it, she knew it was real.

She settled herself on the couch again, and Jack faced her warily.

"I know this is a lot," he said. "And I'm sorry. But I need you to understand. It wasn't just the crash, or the elements. It wasn't just the vague, blanket statement we released to the press. It was so, so much more."

Addison nodded and gave him an encouraging smile. "It's ok. Keep going."

Jack took a deep breath and carried on.

An imposter infiltrated their camp, and it wasn't long before Jack, Kate and Sawyer (who Addison had met at the party) were led into a trap set by The Others.

"We were tied up on the dock, and then the sky turned bright purple and there was this… noise." Jack paused briefly, thinking. "I couldn't even begin to describe it to you. It was piercing but it… hummed. We had no idea what the hell it was at the time. We found out later that it was because the button in that damn hatch didn't get pushed. When that man in the hatch, Desmond, said he was saving the world, it turns out he really was."

"What do you mean?" Addison asked quietly.

"I don't know the science behind it, but whatever that button was doing, was stopping the sky from turning purple – something to do with some crazy amounts of electromagnetism, and that button kept it at bay. The day we crashed was the first day in years that Desmond didn't push the button on time."

"He crashed the plane?" she breathed, unable to fathom the possibility.

He nodded. "As far as we can tell. It wasn't a coincidence."

Addison covered her mouth in horror as she listened.

Jack went on to describe that while he was held prisoner by the Others, he was manipulated and psychologically tortured. He'd had no idea what was happening to Kate and Sawyer for some time. Then their leader came to Jack, needing spinal surgery. When Jack refused, they forced Kate to ask Jack to do the surgery, threatening to kill Sawyer if he refused again.

"The thing is… I'd seen them. The Others, they had these monitors – cameras everywhere – all set up. One day I managed to get out of the cell they had me in and I saw them: Kate and Sawyer being held in a cage, together. They were… together. So I agreed to do the surgery."

During the surgery, Jack struck a bargain that ensured Kate and Sawyer were set free, and that he was to be sent back home. He ended up getting out of the Others' custody and returned to the beach with his fellow castaways.

"Then finally, something good happened."

A woman, from a freighter that had stumbled on the island, parachuted onto the island, and the survivors used her satellite phone to call the freighter for rescue. An underwater station was blocking any signals to or from the island, however, and a castaway that was a good friend of Jack's volunteered to switch off the jamming signal. He never came back. He had drowned in order to ensure another didn't as well.

"From there, it was all basically how the press reported it." Jack stopped to empty his second mug of tea before carrying on. "The freighter picked us all up and got us off that damn island. Some of the crew and Sayid managed to get the machines and engine working again, and they took us to Hawaii.

"We were transported back to LA. We all agreed it was better, and easier, to be vague about what really happened. It was all too insane. So a few of us came up with that statement I read at the press conference, and we tried to return to our lives."

Jack slumped back against the couch and exhaled. "And that's everything."

She could see him visibly relax. It was hard to describe, but he somehow looked… lighter. She still felt numb from everything that he had told her, all the terrible things, death, and more that he had experienced while trapped on that island. It went way beyond anything in real life she could think of or possibly identify with.

No wonder he was plagued with nightmares and had tried so hard to keep this all to himself – no one would possibly believe his story. She couldn't imagine going through everything that he had suffered through and still having the strength to get up in the morning. Her admiration for him increased tenfold in that moment but as she gazed at him, she was quite unsure how to respond to everything he had said.

He momentarily saved her the trouble, however, as he turned to her with glistening eyes and said,

"Thank you."

She reached out and grasped his hand tight, saying without words what it meant to her that he had chosen her to trust with his story. She felt warmth flood through her as she watched him and couldn't help the smile that grew across her features. He looked so incredibly unburdened and though she wished he hadn't held onto his secrets about the island so tight and for so long, she was deeply glad that he had finally let it go.

A/n: Kind of an information dump, I know, but hopefully it wasn't too boring... Thanks for reading! Big things coming soon...