Ok so I went to look at the story traffic yesterday afternoon and guess what! On Saturday, exactly 108 people viewed this story, and on Sunday? At that time anyways, it was at 42! And, well, if you're in this section of the site, I probably don't have to explain anything else. Ahhh I miss Lost.

Anyways, thank you all for all your amazing reviews. I love you all. And as usual, I don't own Lost. Oh and a warning: this is the torturing chapter for Jack and Kate. After this, I promise I will be nicer to them.

When Kate opened her eyes and went to snuggle up closer to Jack, she was met with only blankets. Jack was gone. She was instantly awake, and in a panic. His leg was badly hurt, where the hell was he? He couldn't have gone far, not with Sayid or Locke outside, could he? "Jack?" There was no answer. Kate could feel her heart rate skyrocket as she jumped out of bed and hurried out of the room. "Jack!"

But instead of Jack, Locke appeared in the doorway to the living area. "Its okay, Kate-"

"Where's Jack?" She demanded.

"He's right here; he's with Juliet and me. We're just giving him some breakfast." Locke said calmly, and motioned towards the table.

Kate rounded the corner quickly and let out a breath she didn't know she'd even been holding when she spotted Jack. He sat at the table across from Juliet, who was laughing at something he'd said, happily chewing his cereal. "Jack," she breathed, rushing over to him, "you had me worried there for a minute." She grabbed his head and kissed the top of it before taking a seat next to Juliet. Locke poured her some cereal as he sat down next to Jack to eat his own. Kate thanked him before turning to Jack. "How long have you been up?" Jack just shrugged so she turned to Locke with a questioning look.

Locke thought for a minute, watching Jack. "Not long, half an hour at the most. He woke up himself and I figured I should give him breakfast while he was up. Juliet and Sayid only arrived about 10 minutes ago." Kate glanced over and realized for the first time that Sayid was standing across the room, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed and watching them intently.

"We thought it would be best for you to catch up on some sleep," Juliet added.

Kate nodded. Maybe Jack being up without her wasn't a complete disaster after all. "How's your leg?"

Jack shrugged again. "Locke gave me some pills and it's not so bad now." His tone was happy, relaxed, and not like himself. Kate knew it was because of the drugs he'd been given, but she couldn't help but find it cute how carefree and almost childlike he had become. "Locke even gave me his old crutches, see?" Kate nodded and glanced at the crutches leaning against the wall before he continued. "And then Julie came down and had breakfast with me. And she told me about the things that happened while I was gone."

"Yes, we were all worried about you, Jack. You're very sick." Kate told him, not missing the fact that he had called Juliet "Julie". It was just a nickname, she told herself. The friends that she'd made at the beach called her "Julie" too. Like Sun and Sawyer, who she hadn't gotten along with at first but were now pretty close with her. Still, Jack using the nickname unnerved her, sending jealousy coursing through her veins. She forced the feeling away, telling herself it was juvenile to get so worked up over a silly nickname.

Jack took another bite of cereal and chewed quickly before continuing. "But I'm getting better," he argued.

"But remember I told you, Jack? That the only reason you feel so good right now is because John gave you some pain medication. You still need lots of rest." Jack frowned into his bowl, mad for only a minute before going on chattering about his time with Juliet and Locke, as well as asking about the people at the beach.

"He's very talkative this morning," Juliet whispered to Kate as John was answering one of Jack's continuous questions.

"You know why that is," Kate shot back quickly and quietly, annoyance creeping into her tone.

"Don't pretend you don't think it's cute, Kate," Juliet told her. Kate only flashed her a warning glance in response, and Juliet didn't take it any further.

Glancing back over at Sayid, Kate noticed he was still observing them. She excused herself and went to join him, knowing that he had experience with truth serum. Once at his side, Kate wasted no time getting right to the point. "How much do you think he got?"

"That's what I've been trying to figure out. I've been watching him for some time now. I would say he received about half of what he would be given by someone trying to get information from him."

Kate glanced back over at Jack, who was smiling with Juliet and John. "What does that mean?"

"It means it could be much worse. He's going to be very talkative and saying things he wouldn't usually say, but he does still have a choice. If he doesn't want to tell you something, he'll resist…though you could probably make him talk if you questioned him for long enough." Sayid explained, conveniently leaving out his other observation. He'd noticed that Jack was more prone to do, well, whatever he wanted, especially around Kate. If he wanted to hold her hand, he would, and Sayid had no doubt that if he ever got the urge to do something like kiss her, he would without hesitation. But Sayid decided to leave this part out, so that Kate wouldn't be expecting anything from him, or think that it was just the drugs that caused Jack to show affection towards her.

"What about the people at the beach? What do we tell them? I mean, can they see him?" Kate asked, just as Juliet was walking up to them. John shot them a look that told them they would have to repeat the conversation later to him, but he stayed with Jack. It was weird, the trio thought, to see them getting along so well. It was no secret that Jack and Locke bickered about just about everything, but now they sat together eating breakfast and talking like old friends.

"We'll just conveniently leave the truth serum part out." Juliet chimed in.

Sayid nodded. "We tell them that he's very sick, and we set regulations for seeing him. They'll have to accept it, just for a couple days until he's off the Rocephin."

"That's actually what I came to talk to you two about," Juliet clarified. "Back with The Others, we used this drug before. I'm not sure how much experience the two of you have with it, but it's very strong. Many of our patients would have little or no memory of the time that they were on it."

Kate sighed. This drug was looking worse and worse by the second. First, it had hints of truth serum in it, and now Jack might not even remember any of this? "Maybe it's for the best, Kate," Sayid encouraged her. "All this pain that he's been in, he won't have any memory of it."

"Besides, we don't even know if he will or not. Some did, some didn't. We'll just have to wait and see."

"But until then, we keep it quiet down here," Kate told them. It wasn't a question. "I don't want Frogurt coming down here and Jack accidently telling him how he lost his virginity."

Sayid and Juliet grinned at the mere thought of this, but nodded in agreement. By now, Jack was giving them glances that said he didn't like that they were leaving him out of whatever they were talking about. So, their overall plan for at least the next few days figured out, the group dispersed.

...

Jack sleeping schedule for the rest of the day was erratic and random. The Rocephin that was helping his body fight the infection from the bullet wound was also making him incredibly tired. He would wake up for a few hours and then go back to sleep. However, the people at the beach were getting fed up with the group that was allowed to see Jack whenever they wanted. Rumors were flying about what was really going on in the hatch, which had been closed off for the most part. Even people who had been in it before were now finding themselves spending more and more time on the beach. But it wasn't Jack people were getting frustrated with. It was mainly Kate, Sayid, Locke and Juliet who they blamed for not being able to see their leader. Some had started up with the "we're never included" complaints again, accusing the group of forming a clique. However, they simply ignored the comments, and continued with their strict rules for seeing Jack. You had to be in a group of only a few people, you had to be brought to the hatch by Sayid, Locke or Charlie and finally, Kate would be in the room the entire time you were with Jack. Most of the survivors thought this was all overkill, but the small group who knew about the truth serum knew that this was for the best. If Jack started talking too much, Kate would be there to quiet him before he said something he would later regret.

He'd also been having what Sayid and Juliet called "episodes". These only happened in-between doses of painkillers. Since the pills were so strong, they were only allowed to give him one dose every 6 hours so at the end of those 6 hours, or sometimes a little bit earlier, it was extremely painful for him. Some were worse than others, but for Kate, every one was unbearable. With the weak ones, he might only need the wet cloths to be comfortable. But with the bad ones, he would become unreasonable and difficult no matter what they tried to do, screaming in pain every few minutes until they could give him more pain meds. It was a particularly bad one, the worst it had ever been, and it would still be a good half an hour before the 6 hours was up. They'd halted all visits, and Kate, Sayid and Juliet were desperately trying to calm him.

Locke stood back, watching the scene and trying to block out Jack's horrifying screams. After about 10 minutes of this, Sayid was ready to quit. "There's nothing we can do. We're just going to have to wait another 20 minutes, until we can give him another dose."

"So, what? We just let him scream?" Juliet asked incredulously.

"Have you got a better idea?" Sayid challenged, and Juliet massaged her temples. As far as they were able to tell, the pain would come in waves. For a few minutes, he would be silently squirming in discomfort, then he would unexpectedly erupt into screams for 20 seconds or so, and it would repeat. It was the cries that really got to them, sounding to Sayid eerily like the sounds his former torture victims would make. For Juliet and Locke, it was simply disturbing to hear Jack in such agony. But for Kate, it was unbearable. It had become very obvious to the other 3 that she was incapable of seeing Jack in any sort of pain. So, when he burst into another set of screams, she promptly burst into tears. Jack was oblivious to the world around him when he was in this state, so he probably had no idea he was accidently causing her such pain. Either way, Kate had been escorted out of the hatch by the other three. She had refused to go any further than the door, though, and had sat there with John until Juliet came out to tell her it was over.

...

After that one, they seemed to weaken. But despite the improvement, the mere possibility of an episode significantly reduced the amount of time left for visits, as they didn't want anyone in there when one happened. But while they could predict about when an episode would occur, the nightmares were unavoidable. And, Sullivan and his wife saw first hand why Kate always had to be around. One second, Jack was lying there peacefully and the next, he was tossing around, brow furrowed. "Is something wrong with him?" Sullivan asked nervously.

Kate remembered what Jack had said about the man being a hypochondriac as she went over to him. "No, he's just having a nightmare," she assured the worried man. Kate shook Jack, gently calling his name until he woke with a terrified expression on his face. Sullivan and his wife continued to question her, asking "should we get Juliet?" and "are you sure it isn't serious?" She assured them that she was sure as she rubbed his back soothingly.

"How can you be so sure? You're not exactly a doctor," his wife accused.

By now, Kate had had it with these people. What gave them the right to come down here and question her? They were lucky to even be allowed into the hatch. And had either of them actually had a real conversation with him? "What, you think I don't know how to handle a damn nightmare? How about you try sitting down here while he screams in pain, then you can come in and give me advice," Kate shouted at her. And before either of them could retaliate, she shouted Sayid's name, nodding at him when he entered as a sign to take them away. The two were quickly whisked out of the hatch, the bedroom door closed behind them. Once they were gone, Jack scooted further into Kate's arms, laying his head on her shoulder. When his breathing had returned to normal, he turned his head to look at the closed door. "Who was that? Why were you mad at them?"

Kate shook her head. "Oh, they were just some visitors. I was mad because they thought they knew how to care for you better than I did." She paused for a moment before asking, "You think I do an okay job, don't you Jack?" Remembering Juliet's words about not remembering any of this, she'd decided it was okay to speak her mind around him. After all, in a few days time, she would be the only person on this Earth who remembered these conversations, right?

"Yes," he answered honestly, "I like having you around, Katie. You're my favorite on this whole island." She giggled. This was not like Jack at all, but she had to admit she was enjoying his constant honesty, even if it made her feel guilty for letting them give him the truth serum in the first place. They had to give him more Rocephin every morning for 4 days, he'd insisted. This was the 2nd day and she was going to glad when it was all over, though she had to admit she was enjoying this new-and childishly adorable-Jack as well.

"What's funny?" He wanted to know.

"Nothing," she assured him. He accepted this answer so she continued. "Why am I your favorite?" She knew it was childish of her to ask this, but she couldn't resist.

He thought about this for a minute. "Because I like you."

She was glad he couldn't see her face with his head on her shoulder, because she was grinning like someone had just told her they were being rescued. She wanted so badly to tell him exactly how cute he was being right now, but she knew that would only earn her an accusation of treating him like a baby, so she settled for kissing the top of his head. "You do, huh?"

"Yes. I like you. Only you."

Now her eyes were welling up with tears. She bit her bottom lip and buried her face in his short hair to whisper to him, "I like you too, Jack."

"And Sawyer," he corrected her matter-of-factly.

She was a little hurt that he would even think that, but was quick to recover. "No, Jack, not Sawyer."

Now he lifted his head in surprise, giving her a confused look. "Not Sawyer?" He repeated.

She shook her head. "No, only you," she responded, reiterating his words from earlier. Then he surprised her again by leaning in and giving her a quick peck on the lips before laying his head back down. "What was that for?" She asked.

"I don't know," he replied honestly.

She felt him yawn against her and knew this conversation was over. "Go to sleep, Jack," she ordered. And she started gently scratching his back and stroking his hair again to relax him. It worked, and within a minute or so, he was sound asleep against her. But she continued working against his back and hair, just slowing and softening her movements. She would never tell anyone, but the continuation of these little actions was more for her than him.

I always find it entertaining when old stories tell you to "hit the purple button". I wasn't on this site when there was a purple button, but please leave a review anyways.