Following, Part Eight [Jack/Juliet] [R] [WIP]
Title: Following (Part Eight)
Characters: Juliet, Jack, Charlotte, Daniel, Hurley, Bernard & Rose (so far)
Pairing: Juliet/Jack, hints of Charlotte/Daniel
Rating: R (sex, language)
Spoilers: Season 4
A/N: I’m thinking of subtitling this fic “What would have happened if Lost characters had ever shared information with each other.” In other words, this part is heavy on the exposition-hopefully not too heavy! As usual, I would love to hear any comments you may have, good or bad!
~~
Charlotte was rolling her eyes at him. Pained and still a little disoriented, it took Jack a second to realize that he only knew this because he was no longer looking at her through the darkness of the cave. The light had passed over them suddenly like a wave, and now he was back on the operating table, his right arm hanging limply over the side. Behind Charlotte, Daniel was rubbing the back of his neck, staring at the peeling paint of the Dharma logo on the wall as though it held some fascinating secret for him.
“Now that-” Daniel said to himself, taking a small notebook out of his pocket and flipping through the pages hurriedly, “That was interesting.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Charlotte said over her shoulder, and then crossed her arms, looking down at Jack, "Why don’t you give me that gun back? It’s not like you can use it like that anyway.”
Jack only looked at her pointedly.
“Freak accidents notwithstanding,” she granted. He sighed, offering her the weapon reluctantly. He didn’t like to give it up, but he was absolutely certain that she would take it from him the next time he slept or blacked out, one or the other of which was bound to happen soon.
“God, I’m hungry,” Charlotte said to no one in particular, tucking the gun into the back of her jeans. Without further preamble, she limped slowly toward the table where she had been sitting before the flash. The box of cereal that Daniel had placed there had fallen to the floor and was lying against the leg of the table. Charlotte bent over to pick it up.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” She exclaimed, straightening up, her hand rustling against the bag that was inside, “It’s empty. How is that even possible?” With a sigh, she lifted a few pieces of broken cereal from the bottom, popping them quickly into her mouth. Her face soured almost immediately. “Ugh-Stale, too. Could this day possibly get any worse?”
“….if we’re not actually within the radius itself-No, no-that’s not it,” Daniel was muttering to himself, scribbling something into his notebook.
“So, I don’t want to interrupt you people or anything,” Jack looked at them, lowering the sheet a little to show them the blood on his torso, “but would one of you mind trying to find Juliet for me?”
“Right,” Charlotte said, putting the box on the table and looking briefly at Daniel, who had not even looked up to acknowledge the request. “I’ll get her. Although I might have to use this to get her back in here,” she nodded at her gun, “She looked totally cheesed off at you when I-”
“Jack!” Jack jumped at the sound of Juliet’s voice in the stairwell, Daniel remained oblivious, and Charlotte only laughed.
“Well, at least that was easy,” she quipped, turning away from the table as the door burst open. Jack turned his head to see Juliet moving toward him rapidly, still holding her gun at her side.
“Jack! Are you okay?” She was looking him over, her hand reaching immediately for the sheet over his waist, pulling back the corner to reveal the bloody bandage underneath, “What happened?” she asked, her eyes returning to his face, her hands already peeling the tape away from his skin.
He felt breathless, slightly overwhelmed by her proximity as she leaned over him; it was difficult to speak.
“I think I ripped some of your stitches,” he eventually found his voice, moving to catch her hand and waiting until she paused to look up at him before he continued. When their eyes met, he squeezed her palm softly. “I’m sorry.”
She looked down at their hands as if to verify that he was really touching her. Then her eyes moved disconcertedly back to his face. He held her gaze, hoping she would be able read him the same way that, months ago, he had been able to read her. After a long moment, she sighed, lowering her eyes and putting the gun down. She turned to the small metal tray beside him to check her supplies.
Almost before he could process the actions, she was giving him a local anesthetic and her gloved hands were moving over his wound.
“God Jack, you ripped out almost half of them: what did you do?”
“It’s a long story,” he sighed, watching her thread the needle under the light. “Just tell me this: did the Dharma initiative, that you know of, ever happen to keep any cheetahs on the island?”
“What?” She almost laughed before she lowered the needle, poking him experimentally with it. A half-numb pinching sensation shot through him and he winced. “Sorry,” she said, “Did that hurt? Should I give you another injection?”
“No-no: it’s fine. I’m drugged up enough as it is.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” he answered, biting his lip, unable to think about the pain when she was looking at him the way she was-like she still cared about him despite what had happened. With a sigh, she bent her head and pushed the needle through his broken skin. He squeezed the side of the table, gritting his teeth.
“I’ll try to make this as quick as I can,” she assured him, focusing on the needle.
By the end of it, he was cold and sweating, his side throbbing dully. When he felt her press a clean bandage over the injury, he exhaled in relief.
“Thanks,” he said, exhausted, shivering as her fingers tickled his skin.
“I’d tell you ‘you’re welcome,’ but I don’t think I want to encourage whatever sort of behavior led to this in the first place.”
“Next time there’s a cheetah stalking me, I promise I’ll let it devour me instead of trying to shoot it.”
“You mean-You were serious about that?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he lifted his hand to his face and rubbed his eyes, trying to get as comfortable as he could on the table, “After the first light flashed-did you see it?-we ended up in some kind of cave. I’d have thought that I was hallucinating except Daniel and Charlotte saw it too.”
She nodded at him, her eyes brightening in understanding.
“It was like everything just changed around you, right?”
“Yeah: I shot the cheetah, and then after a few seconds, we were right back where we started,” he answered, “What happened to you?”
“Yeah, what did happen to you?” Charlotte asked, leaning against her crutches where she had just come back through the door. Jack sighed, turning to face her.
“I thought you were supposed be telling us what happened,” he remarked frustratedly, looking over toward Daniel. “Is he ever going to finish with those ‘calculations’?”
“He’ll come up with something: I can promise you that, but you can’t rush him, not when he’s like this. I want to hear what happened above ground,” Charlotte looked at Juliet curiously, “How did you see the flash at all? I thought you were taking a nap.”
“I was,” Juliet said dryly, sitting back in the chair she had pulled up next to the table, “But when my house disappeared, it kind of-woke me up.”
“What did it look like out there, then? Just jungle?”
“No-not just the jungle,” Juliet said, as though she was still trying to puzzle it out herself, “It was actually more like a desert.”
“What?”
“Most of the trees were gone, there was sand-it looked dry, and I thought I could see-a village on the horizon.”
“A village?”
“It was far away, but there were buildings; some kind of houses. By the time I figured out I wasn’t dreaming, I was back here.”
“Back in the jungle.”
“Back in the jungle,” Juliet agreed, resting her arms in her lap. Jack looked from her to Charlotte.
“And neither of you knows anything about this from being on the island before? You don’t remember villages, or cheetahs?” He felt stupid asking the question, but he needed to do something to prevent himself from slipping into unconsciousness, which was rapidly becoming more and more difficult the longer he tried to stay awake.
Juliet only shook her head, but Charlotte leaned forward on her crutches contemplatively.
“Cheetahs aren’t native to this climate. If the Dharma Initiative wanted to get a hold of them, they would’ve had to import them from somewhere in China or-Africa-Christ-”
“What is it?” Jack watched curiously as Charlotte’s eyes moved back and forth, unseeing.
“Cheetahs live in arid climates, like the one you saw,” she nodded at Juliet, “and there probably used to be lots of Cheetahs in Tunisia.”
“Tunisia?” Juliet asked over his shoulder, her interest clearly peaked.
“What’s in Tunisia?” Jack asked when Charlotte didn’t immediately continue.
After a few seconds she turned to him as though she had only just processed the question.
“What’s in Tunisia?” She repeated, no longer bothering to hide her excitement, “Lots of things. But the only one you probably care about is the direct path that leads from there to this island.”
~~
“A land path to Tunisia? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jack scoffed, his exhaustion taking most of the bitterness out of his voice, “If there are so many ways off this island, why is it that nobody can ever seem to leave?”
Before Charlotte could answer him, Juliet spoke up.
“If there was a land path to this island,” she reflected reasonably, “Then why would your team choose to come here on a freighter? And why would Ben need the submarine?”
“Because there was a path to Tunisia. It’s not here anymore. Or-it might be, but if it is, it’s blocked, or broken.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“Remember how I told you I’d spent most of my life looking for evidence that this place was real?”
Juliet nodded encouragingly.
“Well a couple of years ago, I found some of it in Tunisia-on a dig. We excavated the skeletons of some strange animals-animals who should never have been living in that climate, even during the dates we assigned to the bones. Like polar bears.”
“Polar bears?” Jack couldn’t help the involuntary reflex.
“Yeah-why? Does that mean anything to you?”
“The Dharma Initiative used to keep polar bears on Hydra Island as part of the animal experiments that they were conducting,” Juliet explained, “There were still some left on this island up until a couple of months ago.”
“In Tunisia-” Jack broke in, “did you find anything besides the skeletons?”
“No,” Charlotte shook her head, “except-almost all of the animals had collars around their necks. I’ll give you three chances to guess what the symbols on the collars looked like.” Without waiting, she gestured toward the large Dharma logo on the wall.
“How old were the bones?” Juliet asked, leaning forward, placing her hand on the edge of the operating table.
“They carbon dated between 1000 and 400 B.C.,” Charlotte answered quickly, lifting up on her crutches to stretch her back.
“And you think this means that there once was a path between Tunisia and the island?” Juliet asked.
“At some point, yeah. I reckon it’s a bit like the Bering Strait: you know, contact for a little while, some migration, and then, for whatever reason, things fall apart.”
“But if the path is closed or broken now,” Juliet began, “how could a live cheetah-“
“Charlotte? Jack? Juliet?” They all looked back toward Daniel, surprised that he had spoken. His notebook was hanging open in his hand, and he looked back and forth between them with worry in his eyes.
“What is it, Dan?”
“I think we need to get out of here right away.”
~~
Part Nine
Characters: Juliet, Jack, Charlotte, Daniel, Hurley, Bernard & Rose (so far)
Pairing: Juliet/Jack, hints of Charlotte/Daniel
Rating: R (sex, language)
Spoilers: Season 4
A/N: I’m thinking of subtitling this fic “What would have happened if Lost characters had ever shared information with each other.” In other words, this part is heavy on the exposition-hopefully not too heavy! As usual, I would love to hear any comments you may have, good or bad!
~~
Charlotte was rolling her eyes at him. Pained and still a little disoriented, it took Jack a second to realize that he only knew this because he was no longer looking at her through the darkness of the cave. The light had passed over them suddenly like a wave, and now he was back on the operating table, his right arm hanging limply over the side. Behind Charlotte, Daniel was rubbing the back of his neck, staring at the peeling paint of the Dharma logo on the wall as though it held some fascinating secret for him.
“Now that-” Daniel said to himself, taking a small notebook out of his pocket and flipping through the pages hurriedly, “That was interesting.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Charlotte said over her shoulder, and then crossed her arms, looking down at Jack, "Why don’t you give me that gun back? It’s not like you can use it like that anyway.”
Jack only looked at her pointedly.
“Freak accidents notwithstanding,” she granted. He sighed, offering her the weapon reluctantly. He didn’t like to give it up, but he was absolutely certain that she would take it from him the next time he slept or blacked out, one or the other of which was bound to happen soon.
“God, I’m hungry,” Charlotte said to no one in particular, tucking the gun into the back of her jeans. Without further preamble, she limped slowly toward the table where she had been sitting before the flash. The box of cereal that Daniel had placed there had fallen to the floor and was lying against the leg of the table. Charlotte bent over to pick it up.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” She exclaimed, straightening up, her hand rustling against the bag that was inside, “It’s empty. How is that even possible?” With a sigh, she lifted a few pieces of broken cereal from the bottom, popping them quickly into her mouth. Her face soured almost immediately. “Ugh-Stale, too. Could this day possibly get any worse?”
“….if we’re not actually within the radius itself-No, no-that’s not it,” Daniel was muttering to himself, scribbling something into his notebook.
“So, I don’t want to interrupt you people or anything,” Jack looked at them, lowering the sheet a little to show them the blood on his torso, “but would one of you mind trying to find Juliet for me?”
“Right,” Charlotte said, putting the box on the table and looking briefly at Daniel, who had not even looked up to acknowledge the request. “I’ll get her. Although I might have to use this to get her back in here,” she nodded at her gun, “She looked totally cheesed off at you when I-”
“Jack!” Jack jumped at the sound of Juliet’s voice in the stairwell, Daniel remained oblivious, and Charlotte only laughed.
“Well, at least that was easy,” she quipped, turning away from the table as the door burst open. Jack turned his head to see Juliet moving toward him rapidly, still holding her gun at her side.
“Jack! Are you okay?” She was looking him over, her hand reaching immediately for the sheet over his waist, pulling back the corner to reveal the bloody bandage underneath, “What happened?” she asked, her eyes returning to his face, her hands already peeling the tape away from his skin.
He felt breathless, slightly overwhelmed by her proximity as she leaned over him; it was difficult to speak.
“I think I ripped some of your stitches,” he eventually found his voice, moving to catch her hand and waiting until she paused to look up at him before he continued. When their eyes met, he squeezed her palm softly. “I’m sorry.”
She looked down at their hands as if to verify that he was really touching her. Then her eyes moved disconcertedly back to his face. He held her gaze, hoping she would be able read him the same way that, months ago, he had been able to read her. After a long moment, she sighed, lowering her eyes and putting the gun down. She turned to the small metal tray beside him to check her supplies.
Almost before he could process the actions, she was giving him a local anesthetic and her gloved hands were moving over his wound.
“God Jack, you ripped out almost half of them: what did you do?”
“It’s a long story,” he sighed, watching her thread the needle under the light. “Just tell me this: did the Dharma initiative, that you know of, ever happen to keep any cheetahs on the island?”
“What?” She almost laughed before she lowered the needle, poking him experimentally with it. A half-numb pinching sensation shot through him and he winced. “Sorry,” she said, “Did that hurt? Should I give you another injection?”
“No-no: it’s fine. I’m drugged up enough as it is.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” he answered, biting his lip, unable to think about the pain when she was looking at him the way she was-like she still cared about him despite what had happened. With a sigh, she bent her head and pushed the needle through his broken skin. He squeezed the side of the table, gritting his teeth.
“I’ll try to make this as quick as I can,” she assured him, focusing on the needle.
By the end of it, he was cold and sweating, his side throbbing dully. When he felt her press a clean bandage over the injury, he exhaled in relief.
“Thanks,” he said, exhausted, shivering as her fingers tickled his skin.
“I’d tell you ‘you’re welcome,’ but I don’t think I want to encourage whatever sort of behavior led to this in the first place.”
“Next time there’s a cheetah stalking me, I promise I’ll let it devour me instead of trying to shoot it.”
“You mean-You were serious about that?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he lifted his hand to his face and rubbed his eyes, trying to get as comfortable as he could on the table, “After the first light flashed-did you see it?-we ended up in some kind of cave. I’d have thought that I was hallucinating except Daniel and Charlotte saw it too.”
She nodded at him, her eyes brightening in understanding.
“It was like everything just changed around you, right?”
“Yeah: I shot the cheetah, and then after a few seconds, we were right back where we started,” he answered, “What happened to you?”
“Yeah, what did happen to you?” Charlotte asked, leaning against her crutches where she had just come back through the door. Jack sighed, turning to face her.
“I thought you were supposed be telling us what happened,” he remarked frustratedly, looking over toward Daniel. “Is he ever going to finish with those ‘calculations’?”
“He’ll come up with something: I can promise you that, but you can’t rush him, not when he’s like this. I want to hear what happened above ground,” Charlotte looked at Juliet curiously, “How did you see the flash at all? I thought you were taking a nap.”
“I was,” Juliet said dryly, sitting back in the chair she had pulled up next to the table, “But when my house disappeared, it kind of-woke me up.”
“What did it look like out there, then? Just jungle?”
“No-not just the jungle,” Juliet said, as though she was still trying to puzzle it out herself, “It was actually more like a desert.”
“What?”
“Most of the trees were gone, there was sand-it looked dry, and I thought I could see-a village on the horizon.”
“A village?”
“It was far away, but there were buildings; some kind of houses. By the time I figured out I wasn’t dreaming, I was back here.”
“Back in the jungle.”
“Back in the jungle,” Juliet agreed, resting her arms in her lap. Jack looked from her to Charlotte.
“And neither of you knows anything about this from being on the island before? You don’t remember villages, or cheetahs?” He felt stupid asking the question, but he needed to do something to prevent himself from slipping into unconsciousness, which was rapidly becoming more and more difficult the longer he tried to stay awake.
Juliet only shook her head, but Charlotte leaned forward on her crutches contemplatively.
“Cheetahs aren’t native to this climate. If the Dharma Initiative wanted to get a hold of them, they would’ve had to import them from somewhere in China or-Africa-Christ-”
“What is it?” Jack watched curiously as Charlotte’s eyes moved back and forth, unseeing.
“Cheetahs live in arid climates, like the one you saw,” she nodded at Juliet, “and there probably used to be lots of Cheetahs in Tunisia.”
“Tunisia?” Juliet asked over his shoulder, her interest clearly peaked.
“What’s in Tunisia?” Jack asked when Charlotte didn’t immediately continue.
After a few seconds she turned to him as though she had only just processed the question.
“What’s in Tunisia?” She repeated, no longer bothering to hide her excitement, “Lots of things. But the only one you probably care about is the direct path that leads from there to this island.”
~~
“A land path to Tunisia? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jack scoffed, his exhaustion taking most of the bitterness out of his voice, “If there are so many ways off this island, why is it that nobody can ever seem to leave?”
Before Charlotte could answer him, Juliet spoke up.
“If there was a land path to this island,” she reflected reasonably, “Then why would your team choose to come here on a freighter? And why would Ben need the submarine?”
“Because there was a path to Tunisia. It’s not here anymore. Or-it might be, but if it is, it’s blocked, or broken.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“Remember how I told you I’d spent most of my life looking for evidence that this place was real?”
Juliet nodded encouragingly.
“Well a couple of years ago, I found some of it in Tunisia-on a dig. We excavated the skeletons of some strange animals-animals who should never have been living in that climate, even during the dates we assigned to the bones. Like polar bears.”
“Polar bears?” Jack couldn’t help the involuntary reflex.
“Yeah-why? Does that mean anything to you?”
“The Dharma Initiative used to keep polar bears on Hydra Island as part of the animal experiments that they were conducting,” Juliet explained, “There were still some left on this island up until a couple of months ago.”
“In Tunisia-” Jack broke in, “did you find anything besides the skeletons?”
“No,” Charlotte shook her head, “except-almost all of the animals had collars around their necks. I’ll give you three chances to guess what the symbols on the collars looked like.” Without waiting, she gestured toward the large Dharma logo on the wall.
“How old were the bones?” Juliet asked, leaning forward, placing her hand on the edge of the operating table.
“They carbon dated between 1000 and 400 B.C.,” Charlotte answered quickly, lifting up on her crutches to stretch her back.
“And you think this means that there once was a path between Tunisia and the island?” Juliet asked.
“At some point, yeah. I reckon it’s a bit like the Bering Strait: you know, contact for a little while, some migration, and then, for whatever reason, things fall apart.”
“But if the path is closed or broken now,” Juliet began, “how could a live cheetah-“
“Charlotte? Jack? Juliet?” They all looked back toward Daniel, surprised that he had spoken. His notebook was hanging open in his hand, and he looked back and forth between them with worry in his eyes.
“What is it, Dan?”
“I think we need to get out of here right away.”
~~
Part Nine