"Hey, I heard you were able to get the supplies we needed to fix the submarine" Jack entered my tent, his expression holding mostly weariness from a full day of traveling. However, something about the glint in his eye immediately told me he wasn't just here to tell me about his journey with Kate and Miles.
"We did. I left them in the supply tent." Offering him a small smile, I pulled another shirt from the pile I was working on. Since the news about getting off the island had spread among the survivors, I was doing what I could to pack my own belongings whenever I could to help pass the time. "Let's hope we can get off this island soon."
"Sayid and Desmond will make the trip in the morning." Jack nodded in agreement, his gaze focusing on the deep scratch peeking out from underneath my sleeve. The scratch went clear down to my elbow but the worst was near the top where I had the impact of my fall. "What happened to your arm?"
"My foot got caught on a vine." I waved off his concern, throwing another shirt into the black bag sitting in front of me. "I'll patch it up after I'm done here."
"Do you remember what you asked me before taking my appendix out?"
"I believe I respectfully disagreed with your diagnosis of food poisoning, followed by the question, what do you think it is?" As I threw my white dress shirt into the bag, he looked at me with a raised eyebrow which indicated I had hit the response on the nail. "Are you disagreeing with me?"
"The way you're making that extra effort to hold yourself up as you move suggests you did more than just scrape your arm." He pointed to the pants now draped in front of my stomach like he was pointing out evidence. "If you hadn't pressed to examine me for appendicitis, I wouldn't be standing here. What do you think it is?"
"My best guess is probably a bruised rib. I'm sure it didn't help with me not getting much sleep last night. I couldn't stop thinking about how if we were successful in getting the supplies to fix the submarine, we could finally get away from this island once and for all." Tossing my clothes into the pile, I let my good hand rest on my hip.
"I was kind of having a hard time sleeping as well," Jack admitted, rubbing his index finger just below the muscle of his brow. "My mind kept reminding me how much we've all changed since living here on the island. How close we are to leaving. How I promised to get everyone off this island." He gazed at me specifically as he said, everyone. Despite helping Ben hold Jack, Sawyer, and Kate prisoner for several months, Jack had been the first person to see through my facade, about wanting to get off this island. "If it's a bruised rib, you have nothing to worry about. Let me help."
"I remember telling you something similar. Then I worried about you bleeding to death after you took off after the helicopter a few hours after surgery." I shot him a good-natured smile, which he almost instantly returned my way.
After being brought to the island, I put up a brick wall to keep myself from hurting from being unable to leave to go home to my sister, Rachel. I distracted myself while working long hours, secretly delighting in the headache the three gave Ben while in his grasp. I was released to go back to the survivor's camp with Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, but only so I could help Claire after she started exhibiting symptoms from the implant Ben had activated. What he thought was loyalty was really me joining the survivors, slowly breaking free from his hold on me. I still wasn't sure he had placed me there to do surgery on Jack, but it ended up happening.
"Lay down for me. Lift your shirt." His dark eyes softened, begging me to trust the process as he had trusted me. I reluctantly gave up, finding the motion of raising my right arm to pull on the fabric was a lot harder than it usually was. I realized the movement was particularly difficult because of the deep purple bruise that had been forming across my upper abdomen. "The good news is you don't seem to have any broken ribs. The bad news is your spleen is enlarged, which means you could have either bruised or torn it. You're still standing so I'm guessing it hasn't ruptured."
"Hopefully, we won't have to find out."
"Any fever, nausea, loss of appetite, cramping?"
"Mostly residual pain from falling." Pulling my shirt back down as he finished his examination, he sat on the edge of the bed.
"Residual pain or not, I want you resting from now until we get on that submarine. If your spleen ruptures while we're down in the water, I'm worried there will be little to nothing we can do. What do you know about splenectomies?"
"About the same amount as appendectomies. Find me some paper and I'll write down what I know," I told him reluctantly, hoping this sense of dread was something I was just imagining things. "Jack, I want you to promise me you won't take it out unless you absolutely need to.
"I'm getting you off this island, Juliet. Even if it means doing surgery to keep you alive." Visibly sighing, he disappeared out of the tent. I was left to my own thoughts as I stared up at the ceiling, my stomach knotting at the prospect of needing surgery right before we were to leave. I couldn't get it out of my head that the island might not want me to go.
"Juliet? Can you hear me?" Jack's voice sounded distant, almost muffled for a few seconds before everything turned back to normal. His hand lifted from my shoulder as my blue eyes met his, silently questioning whether I was okay.
"I can hear you just fine." Blinking back my thoughts, I slowly sat up against my pillow taking the pen and paper from his hand. Instead of expressing how I was feeling about the possibility of getting cut open on an unforgiving island, I focused on writing everything in the best handwriting I could manage. "That should be everything."
"Try to get some rest. I'll check up on you in a little while" Jack nodded appreciatively as he took back the pen and paper, cradling the instructions carefully in his hand. I did my best to listen to anything happening outside the tent, however, I found myself staring at the ceiling of fabric until my eyes grew heavy.
"Juliet?" Rachel uttered through a flood of tears as she pulled me into a hug after opening the door to her apartment. Her blonde hair had grown back just enough for it to be pulled into a low ponytail, and my fingers got tangled in her golden locks as I held her tightly. She looked about the same as I remembered, just healthier with more color in her cheeks. It was a miracle she had made it through her cancer treatment, went into remission, and was now thriving as a mother "I didn't know if I would ever see you again. When your plane went down-" I didn't have the heart to tell her that's not how it went down. At least not yet.
Sitting up in bed with a start, I looked around the tent in confusion. Instead of standing at my sister's apartment, I was alone with other survivors of a plane crash. Pain radiated through my stomach. I knew I should get Jack but I couldn't stop myself in my tired haze from walking out of my tent, and through the trees, until I threw up behind a tree of twisted roots popping out of the ground. It was possible I was sick because of the dream I had, although somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that wasn't exactly true. I missed my sister terribly and the dream I had about her wasn't helping the situation.
"Juliet? What are you doing out here?" James came bounding through the brush in front of me, his torch lighting up the darkened island around us. "Thought you'd be asleep by now."
"I couldn't sleep."
"So you decided to take a walk on the island in the dark?" He asked skeptically, holding the torch closer to my face so he could observe me more fully.
"Something like that." Suddenly I didn't have the energy to explain what happened this morning or the dream I had about my sister. How either one could have caused my sudden sickness to quickly wash over me I had left my tent to empty what little I had in my stomach.
"You do know I used to con people for a living."
"I'm aware of what you did for a living." Brushing right past him, I only stopped long enough to empty my stomach once again. The fact I had nothing in there was painfully obvious, the upheaving motion was crippling which sent another wave of nausea through my body.
"Dangit, Juliet. What happened?" He gave me a peculiar look, which I ignored by pushing away from the tree I had been holding onto, making my way back to camp even though it was the last place I wanted to be right now. My feet hit the sand just about the time I ran into Kate
"Looking for something?" James inquired to her, now standing beside me with a curious raise of an eyebrow in her direction.
"Jack?" Kate's voice carried over to the medical tent. I could only shake my head, moving further onto the beach where I could focus on the ebb and flow of the waves instead of focusing on what was coming. The whole thing reminded me of when I would walk into the house and my parents would argue about where I had been. After they divorced, this same scenario happened a lot as it was happening now.
"Where was she?" Jack came out of the tent, all of his attention focused on me. I did my best to follow the conversation between him and Sawyer, yet I could tell I was starting to lose steam from walking around the island.
"About five minutes from camp. "James supplied, looking in the direction we had come from. "She's thrown up at least a few times since I've been with her. Wouldn't tell me what happened."