01; [lobby]

[not_a_savage]

The prospect of leaving the island was more than a welcome one. When he heard the news of an outsider with a satellite phone Jack would have quite literally leaped to the occasion. Unfortunately the sand providing uneven footing hindered his movement considerably as he pushed himself up from a sitting position to stand. After leaving the beach to

Comments

[notaredshirt]

Boone had been here for about a month at this point, and while yeah, it was still kind of weird when he thought about it, he had mostly accepted the fact that he was dead and this was some kind of weird afterlife. Admittedly, most people seemed to think whatever this place was they definitely were still alive and well back home, but when you entered the place by smashing into the floor, covered in blood and pretty badly banged up, it seemed to be a pretty likely conclusion.

Still, there were worse places to be then El Dorado, afterlife or no, and in a lot of ways, it was a step up from the island. He wasn't sleeping in a cave or in a tent made out of wrecked airplane materials for one.

So when he strolled into the lobby, he was feeling pretty good. He didn't exactly have a lot to do around here, but that was okay. It still felt a little bit like a well deserved vacation, and he wandered by the familiar lounge chairs and other landmarks without breaking his stride.

But there was something unexpected in the lobby today, or more like

[not_a_savage]

Reception desk or not, Jack found himself not nearly as concerned about courtesy as he had moments before. What looked at him was a ghost from the past, and one that he could have sworn he would never see again. The face of the other man was familiar and his distinct blue eyes seemed to look right through Jack.

He took two steps back while holding out a hand at arm's length. Jack has seen his share of weird, but first a hotel and now visions of Boone? This couldn't be random. Jack wanted to look at this shadow of Boone with a stern look of skepticism and he mostly succeeded except for the unmistakable expression of guilt that passed across his features.

"What is this?" he snapped, doing his best to keep his emotions in check. "You're not real."

[notaredshirt]

Okay, fair enough. He held up his hands in a way that he hoped conveyed something along the lines of 'don't flip out, it's not like I'm going to turn into a polar bear and come at you or anything' and tried to keep his own response in check. He knew first hand how weird it was to end up here seemingly randomly, and he didn't want to freak him out any more then he already probably was, especially since his being here meant he'd probably had some horrible accident on the island, even if he didn't look all that banged up.

And he definitely caught the flash of guilt, but didn't really know what to make of it. It wasn't like Jack had been the one to tell him to go investigate the beechcraft or anything.

"I'm pretty sure I'm real. Sorry."

Sorry you're stuck here, sorry I'm kind of freaking you out, sorry you're quite possibly dead back home. Sticking to a one word statement just seemed easier.

[not_a_savage]

Boone's hands helped a little, but Jack continued to hold out his own just to be safe. It wasn't like a gesture could really fend off much, though it did serve the purpose of non verbally telling this apparition to come no closer.

"If you are who you say you are, what were you doing when I first met you?" Asking a question specific to their own shared experience seemed like such a cliched tactic and only one he'd ever seen in the movies. It was a start and Jack wasn't sure what else to do. As much of a relief as it would be to have Boone alive again it seemed far more likely that someone was playing mind games.

[notaredshirt]

And that got a smirk out of the younger man. Honestly, he was happy enough to see a familiar face that he wasn't going to get annoyed by the questioning. Hell, Sawyer could have shown up and he probably would have been excited to see him, and they definitely hadn't exactly seen eye to eye, like, ever back on the island.

"I was giving CPR to Rose after our plane went down. Or, I was trying to. You said I should give my license back."

It was, frankly, an incredibly embarrassing incident and the first of the many incidents of Boone trying to be helpful but massively screwing up in one way or another. But at least he'd been doing something after the plane went down. That was better then just standing around screaming while other people needed medical attention.

[not_a_savage]

That was enough to get Jack to drop his hands and let out a short laugh. He had meant to continue with a longer line of questioning but that was just so typical Boone. The past scenario, the reply, the smirk - it all added up and was far too genuine to be faked.

Jack dropped his hands and stepped toward Boone with an apologetic smile, looking at him as a person rather than a ghost. A weight he had been carrying in the pit of his stomach seemed to vanish, and Jack could regard Boone as a friend again. He hadn't forgotten how much he had missed it.

It was Jack's turn to apologize. "I'm sorry about that. It's great to see you, Boone."

[notaredshirt]

His more relaxed attitude meant Boone could relax too, and he smiled honestly as Jack apologized.

"Hey, no problem," he said, and he meant it too. Considering the amount of weird stuff that they'd been forced to get used to, it wasn't like this sort of thing was out of the question. After all, he'd hallucinated and seen his sister get eaten by a monster, for god's sake. "It's good to see you too."

He managed to hesitate a second before blurting out "Uh, how is everyone?" One of the most frustrating parts of being here had been the no contact with the outside world thing, and he'd been - in his own way, of course, it wasn't like he'd been really losing sleep over it or anything - a little anxious about how things were going back on the island. Not that he'd really been integral to the society they'd created or anything, but he did have a sister he was still kind of looking out for when she'd let him. They could get to the 'what is this place?' thing at Jack's leisure.

[not_a_savage]

The smile fell into a more serious expression. It's not exactly grave, but it's the face of a man who has been through a lot and has grown tired. "It hasn't been easy, I can tell you that right now."

He knew that he would have to tell Boone about Shannon sooner rather than later. Saying what happened outright is crude, but keeping the truth from Boone isn't right.

"What is it you want to know?"

[notaredshirt]

Boone shrugged. He wasn't an idiot.

... Well, okay, he wasn't a complete idiot, and he had definitely noticed Jack's change in expression. That could mean a lot of things. Of course, the fact that he was there and seemingly capable of being sort of cheerful meant hopefully things weren't totally awful.

He chewed at his lip for a moment. There were a lot of things he could ask about, and he wasn't exactly sure how much he wanted to know.

"... I guess we didn't get rescued." Which, yeah, the hope of that had kind of been crushed when the person on the other end of the radio had said that they were the survivors of Oceanic 815. And because he obviously had poor impulse control or something, he asked - sort of dreading the answer, but trying to reassure himself that everything would be fine - "How's Shannon?"

[not_a_savage]

"You're right, we didn't," Jack conceded. There have been some interesting recent developments, but one thing at a time. He was the person who was new here and already he was slipping into the familiar role of finding use of himself where he could.

And there was the question Jack knew was inevitable. He looked down at his feet before looking back up and making eye contact with Boone. He wished the news wasn't true at all, and Jack's notoriously bad bedside manner being what it was he felt like the complete wrong person to deliver the unwelcome news.

"She's - she's dead, Boone."

[notaredshirt]

Even though he'd kind of been anticipating it, actually hearing Jack say it hit him harder then he'd expected. Sure, he wasn't infatuated with her anymore, but... she was still his sister. It took him a moment to find his voice, trying to process what he'd just heard and finally settled on something simple.

"Oh."

But there was something wrong about that. If Shannon was dead, why wasn't she here too? Sure, he hadn't seen anyone else who'd died in the wreck around the city, but he'd never really thought too much about it before. He'd just assumed that this was one giant dumping ground for dead people or something, which meant in theory, Shannon should be here too.

He looked at Jack, confused and clearly still struggling with the news. "Why isn't she here, then?"

[not_a_savage]

"Oh"?

Jack had imagined many scenarios depicting how Boone would react to the news. The first thing he considered was anger and how Boone would snap. Jack would have allowed him to have his moments and backed away, whatever was needed. He'd also anticipated Boone not doing or saying anything and for that he was prepared to deal with shock.

But this was something in between. Clearly Boone had heard and understood, but this wasn't something that could just be waved away. Jack put a hand on Boone's shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze, looking down to give himself a few moments to think. He isn't sure if he understands the question.

"I don't know what you mean," Jack replied quietly. "I came alone."

[notaredshirt]

"Yeah, but... I thought..." He was sort of struggling now. Really struggling, because he'd had a decent amount of time to come to terms with his own death, and while sure, it sucked that he was and he couldn't go home and stuff, he'd at least been sort of reassured that the afterlife wasn't all that bad. So if this wasn't the afterlife, then what the hell was it? And why couldn't they leave? And where the hell was his sister?

"I am dead on the island, right?"

[not_a_savage]

"You are," he answered slowly and removes his hand. "But I'm not. And Shannon was ...after you."

Jack wanted to be of more help but but found himself falling short with every reply.

[notaredshirt]

Well. That changed everything. And while sure, he was angry and frustrated, he was mostly just confused and didn't know what he was supposed to do now.

He scrubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to keep it together as best he could.

"Sorry."

[not_a_savage]

"You don't have to be sorry," Jack said quietly, not looking at Boone in case the other wants some privacy. He fights the urge to say "it's ok". The words were cliche and usually never true.

He allows himself a bit of a turn toward Boone, unsure of what is needed of him right now. "Do you want me to leave you alone?"