A little different chapter here, not so much Jate :( but there is Jack interaction with someone else :)
Too bad Jack (or Lost) isn't mine :(
Jack left Kate sleeping in the bedroom and walked out into the main room to find Sawyer putting ice on Locke's very swollen and bruised leg.
"What happened?" he inquired
"I don't know, something went wrong and these heavy steel doors dropped from the ceiling, locking me and Henry in, when I tried to stop it, my leg got caught underneath one of the doors. Henry saved me." Locke replied, with an obvious look of pain.
"What do you mean Henry saved you?"
"When the doors came down, the armory opened. He tried to get me out and when he couldn't, he took care of the button until the doors rose again."
Jack was very confused upon hearing this. He had always found the hatch to be somewhat baffling. A fully functioning underground bunker with the button that must be pushed every one hundred and eight minutes or else the world would end seemed a little ludicrous to him. But now this too? As well as Henry Gale, the potential intruder, helping Locke? None of it seemed to make any sense to Jack. However, Jack had more pressing matters weighing on his mind than the general insanity of the island. Jack walked over and began examining Locke's leg.
"Is it broken doc?" Sawyer asked
"Without an X-ray, any equipment, it's hard to tell, all I've got is my best guess."
"And what does your best guess say?"
"It's broken, probably a hairline fracture. You're going to have to stay off of it for a few weeks, we have that wheel chair we took from the wreckage."
"NO! No wheelchair!" Locke adamantly protested
"Hey doc, I think there was a pair of crutches we took before we burned the fuselage, down at the beach." Sawyer offered
"Yeah, that would work, otherwise, just keep ice on it to keep the swelling down. We'll need to make a splint after you've ice it for a while. Just stay here for a while and take it easy." Jack instructed
After taking care of Sawyer, Jack went back into the bedroom and sat with Kate while she slept. Jack could not shake the image of her begging him to help her, her trying desperately to breathe and nearly failing. Jack spent his whole life in Los Angeles. He was a spinal surgeon. Malaria was not something he had much experience with treating. He knew it would come and go but he had no idea it would come back so much worse. He was now terrified that instead of getting better, she was going to get worse. And if she got any worse, he wasn't sure if there was anything he would be able to do for her. He knew though that there was no way he could just sit by and watch her die. Jack was beginning to realize that he felt more for Kate than he had ever felt for anyone in his life, more than Sarah even. She owned his heart and if she died, she would take it with her.
"Ok Jack, you can't let your thoughts get so dark," he said to himself
"That's right Jack, you can't let your thoughts linger in dark places."
Jack looked up at the sound of the voice and saw Claire standing there, holding a bowl of mango.
"Hey Claire," Jack greeted
"Hey Jack, how is she doing?" Claire asked as she walked into the bedroom and sat down by Jack
"Honestly Claire, I just don't know. She was doing better and then she took a pretty serious turn for the worse. She's been having trouble breathing." Jack responded with a shake of his head
"Well, I'm sure she will be fine. You are a great doctor and I know you'll take care of her. Here, I brought you something to eat," she said as she handed him the fruit.
"Thanks Claire, I appreciate your faith in me."
"Jack, you've never given any of us a reason not to have faith in you. You do so much for all of us. I know Aaron and I wouldn't have made it this long here without you. Jack, I owe you my son's life and my own. I was thinking that maybe when we get back to the real world, I'll need to give him a middle name. What do you think about Jack? Aaron Jack Littleton? I think it sounds nice." Claire looked up at Jack with a smile.
Jack looked up at her and had to fight back tears, "Claire, you want to name your son after me? I don't know what to say, I'd be honored to share my name with him." Jack was stunned that someone would want to name their child after him. He always felt like such a failure and here was someone telling him that not only was he not a failure but in fact he had done something good for someone.
"You know, I never had much in the way of family. My mom had an affair with some guy, an American doctor actually, and she got knocked up. That's how I got here. I never met the guy though. No dad, no siblings, just me and my mom. Some of the kids at school used to tease me relentlessly because I didn't have a dad. I used to dream of what it would be like to have an older brother to protect me from them, to beat up those snotty kids. I mean, I dreamed of what my dad was like too, my mom used to tell some things about him, that he had another family in Los Angeles and that he was there taking care of them and that he had a really important job, I think he was a chief of surgery or something. Anyway, I imagined my dad, but it was my imaginary big brother that always got me through those worst times. My imagined big brother was a lot like you Jack. Protective, caring, willing to do anything to help those he cared about. I just thought you should know Jack. You're someone I look up to, we all do."
Jack had no idea how to respond to Claire. By this point, the tears were slowly leaking out of his eyes. He was quickly developing a deeper bond with the young Australian mother. He had always felt very protective of her, ever since he saw her having contractions just moments after the crash. And watching her grow and bond with her son had been one of the bright spots of life on the island. However, he had no idea that she looked up to him and respected him like a long lost big brother.
"You know, I had a mom and a dad but still wouldn't say I had much in the way of family. My mom was always kind of cold and distant; we never really got along well. And my dad, well that's a whole different matter entirely. We had a pretty big falling out just before he died. He was the chief of surgery…" Jack trailed off as a thought occurred to him.
"Did you say that your father was the chief of surgery at a hospital in Los Angeles?" He asked her
"Yeah, he was, I'm pretty sure he was." She answered
"Do you know what his name was, I know most of the big time doctors in the area, I might know him?"
"My mom would never tell me his last name, I think she was afraid I would go looking for him one day, and honestly, I probably would have. But she always called him Christian."
Jack's face turned a ghostly pale white upon hearing that Claire's father's name was Christian. His name was Christian; he was the chief of surgery in a Los Angeles hospital. Jack knew his father had a penitent for drinking and with drinking usually came some random woman. Though Jack never really got along with his mother, he had always been furious with his father for constantly hurting her like that. Suddenly Jack remembered a time when he was in fourth grade and his father went away on an extended business trip. He was gone for over a month. When he asked his mother where his father was, she had said that he was in Australia.
"Claire, how old are you?"
"I'm 22, why? Jack what's wrong; you look like you've just seen a ghost?"
Jack quickly did the math and realized the timing was right. Claire was just old enough to have been conceived during the month Jack's father had spent in Australia. Was that why he had returned to Australia in the end?
"Claire, my father's name was Christian. He was the chief of surgery in a Los Angeles hospital and he spent a month in Australia in 1982. Do you understand what I am saying?"
This news completely took Claire by surprise. What exactly was Jack trying to say? Their fathers had eerie similarities? Did Jack know her father? Wait…maybe…no…was Jack trying to say that their fathers were the same person? Was Jack her brother?
"What, Jack, I don't understand, what are you trying to tell me?"
"Claire, I think you are my sister," Jack said in awe.
"Jack, seriously? How is that even possible? The chances of this are so, so impossible! But then…" Claire began to wonder if maybe this was why the psychic she saw in Australia he demanded she be on this plane. Did he know that her brother would be on that plane and that he could be the person she had always dreamed of?
"Jack…you're my brother…you're the person I used to dream about…I spent so much of my life imagining an older brother because there really was one out there!" Claire exclaimed with an excited smile.
Jack wasn't sure what to make of this whole situation but he did know that having Claire as a sister wouldn't be a bad thing. "Claire, I can't believe this, it's insane, and if it's true, there is so much I need to tell you, so much you need to tell me. But Claire, even if it's not true, even if this is all a big mistake, I'll be your big brother. I'll make sure you and Aaron are taken care of, whether it's here on the island or when we get back to the real world. But, I hope it is true." Jack told her with complete sincerity.
"So do I jack, so do I," she said before jumping up to hug him.
Just as he stood to hug her back, he heard a moan coming from the bed. He looked over and noticed Kate beginning to shift and groan in her sleep.
"I have so many questions I want to ask you Jack, but I know you have a lot on your mind right now, so I'll just let you get back to taking care of her. But Jack, you should plan on setting aside a great deal of time for your little sister once the love of your life is healed," Claire said with a smile
"Don't worry Claire, as soon as Kate is well again, I promise we can have a sibling bonding session. And you're right; she is the love of my life." Jack whispered to Claire before turning to tend to Kate.
Claire looked over at Jack as he began to wash Kate's face with a cool cloth and couldn't help but smile as she thought how lucky she was to have such a wonderful brother and how lucky her brother was to have found the love of his life, even if they were all living in the most primitive of conditions in the middle of a dangerous, mysterious, craphole island.