Jack Shephard (amanofscience) wrote in lost_in_time, @ 2010-06-29 22:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | jack shepherd, kate austen |
001: Back to the Start
Who: Jack Shephard and Kate Austen
What: Returning to Reality
Where: His Tent on the Beach
When: A Few Weeks After the Crash
Status: In Progress
The first thing Jack noticed was that it was warm. A clammy, uncomfortable sort of warmth. The tent – crudely constructed, yes, but definitely a tent – made him think of a stifling summer bedroom, with a restless sleeper tossing and turning beneath the sheets and the windows locked tight.
The second thing he noticed was that he had a headache. And that was it. A headache, a stuffy tent and the fact that his mouth was a bit too dry. He couldn’t remember what had happened or … no, he remembered where he was.
He was on the Island.
And Kate. He remembered Kate.
The recollection hit him like tidal wave and was followed, almost instantly, by half a dozen others. Juliet, Sawyer, Claire, Locke, Hurley, Sayid ... he remembered all of them. Everything they’d been through together. Where were they? What had happened?
It took Jack a moment or two to summon up the energy required to sit up. Everything was slow and hazy. He felt as if his head had been filled up with cotton wool. (Which wasn’t right. He was supposed to be a doctor. What if they needed him? He had to get up and he had to shake off this ridiculous lethargy.)
When he tried to speak, Kate’s name caught on parched lips. He paused, licking them before he tried again.
“Kate?”
It was still a croak, but at least it was audible. Clumsily, he reached over to pick up the glass of water that sat next to his bed. He drained it to the last drop, refusing to let himself wish for a cool tumbler of whiskey and ice. Under different circumstances, he’d have paused to work out who had put it there in the first place. Jack Shephard was not the sort of man to allow other people to take care of him or shoulder the burdens that should have been his.
“Kate?
Thanks to the water, the third attempt was more successful.
He needed a drink and a shower and – Jack raised a hand, frowning slightly, to touch the heavy stubble that covered his jaw – a shave, but he needed to see Kate most of all. If nothing else, she’d be able to explain what he’d missed and what had left him bedridden.
(And, though he barely admitted it to himself, he needed to know that she was still all right.)