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Post by Jack Shephard on Jul 8, 2008 22:59:32 GMT -5
Jack felt the rain begin to pick up again and was appreciative of the invite, seeing how as his tent was all the way on the other side of the camp, of course. He slid inside, sitting just inside the open flap, always keeping a watchful eye on the water when he was on the beach area, for anything, although his hope had dwindled significantly as the hours went by. He knew hope of rescue severely decreased after the first forty-eight hours, and now? After a week? It was nearly hopeless.
At the same time, he didn't want anyone else to know he felt this way. He couldn't help that his shoulders sagged a bit more now, but if anyone had asked him, he would have told them rescue was sure to be just over the horizon, although deep in his heart he felt otherwise.
"Thanks for the invite. Just until the rain stops, I need to go check on a few patients, especially the guy down at the other end of the beach, I think he's... on his last legs." He meant the marshal, although Jack didn't know who he was or what he did, because the metal embedded in his body had kept him from speaking.
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Post by Skinner Jones on Jul 9, 2008 11:37:24 GMT -5
Skinner settled into a comfortable position sitting and tossed a makeshift cushion to Jack, letting him make himself comfortable. She frowned at his mention of his patient, nodding slightly. "It's a sad thing. To loose a patient. My mother hated that most about her neo-natal care. I think it was harder on her than she let on, loosing the babies and such. They only lost a few every 10 years or so, which is an amazing percentage, but it still killed her."
Skinner heard the rain hitting the roof of the tent and despite the circumstances she smiled. She honestly couldn't believe how much she herself had changed in the past weeks, but she had. She smiled more, enjoyed the things in life more, enjoyed everything more. All because of the little life growing inside of her. She drifted her hands to her stomach smiling abswently. Well not quite absently, it was obvious why she smiled. She sat there, almost drifting to sleep when she felt a pressure on her stomach. Almost as if something was...kicking her? She sat up a little and looked at Jack, wordlessly before looking down at her stomach again. She felt the pressure again and laughed softly.
Skinner pulled up her shirttail to reveal her soft curve of her growing belly and watched the skin for a moment. She waited, looking at it and watching her stomach, but there it was again! The baby had begun to kick.
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Post by Jack Shephard on Jul 9, 2008 19:17:11 GMT -5
"Yeah, well, it's definitely tough. I mean, where I was, we weren't usually losing babies, but it was still hard, and it happens quite a bit more often. We're pretty excited if we go a day without a casualty with all the injuries we see in the E.R." Jack sighed and watched as Skinner lifted her shirt slightly and looked down. The smile on her face was unmistakable.
"If it starts kicking this early, and with the vomiting, I'm thinking girl. Of course, mom's always know best. You have any intuitions?" Jack raised an eyebrow and watched as she continued to move her hand about her belly feeling her unborn child's first kicks both internally and externally. He was happy and sad for her, and he leaned back on his elbows as he watched her.
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Post by Skinner Jones on Jul 9, 2008 19:35:42 GMT -5
Skinner smiled at Jack, reaching for his hand. She pulled it to the spot where the baby was kicking and she smiled. "God, you feel that?" she asked softly. She couldn't wipe the smile off her face, looking down at her stomach and watching it again. The pressure slowed and the kicking stopped, but she still smiled. "I've been thinking it was a girl. My mother always said that she was 3 times as sick with me and Lissy than with my older brother Scott."
Skinner laughed, leaning back against the perch she'd made before, making herself comfortable. "I don't know what the island would do though with another girl like me around," she teased. Then she realized it. On the island. She'd subconsciously known that rescue wouldn't be coming for a long time, and perhaps not at all. The baby would probably be born on the island and that was another 5 months or so. Reality just sort of sunk in to her.
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Post by Jack Shephard on Jul 9, 2008 19:41:30 GMT -5
Jack watched as the smile slowly ran away from Skinner's face. He let his hand slide from her belly as the same realization and epiphany he had had earlier today seemed to have struck her. He moved next to her and wrapped an arm around her for comfort, although if anything it served to make them physically less comfortable, with the humidity and rain trying to get at them. Still he felt it was the gesture that was important, and thought she would know that too.
He was beginning to work up a bit of an appetite after staring at the garden and then running from real or fake beasties in a cave. He let his arm slide back off and he moved to the opening of her small tent. Still pouring, oh well. "I'm going to go grab us some fruit or something, I'm absolutely starved. Don't go anywhere."
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Post by Skinner Jones on Jul 9, 2008 19:45:45 GMT -5
Skinner felt strangely comforted by his arm around her, leaning into him a little bit, despite the heat and such. Her hormones made everything so heightened and her moods swinging like a swing set made her go from smiling to crying in a matter of moments. But she wasn't crying. Not yet. She smiled at him when he made to gtet something to eat. She was rather starved herself.
"Don't forget that burger," she called at him in a teasing manner as he left the tent for the moment.
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Post by Jack Shephard on Jul 9, 2008 19:52:05 GMT -5
"Yeah, I'll ask Charlie to grill some up!" He called out smiling as he walked out. He walked over to their makeshift food pile. Already it seemed someone was working on a table or something to hold the food up off the ground. Amazing how quickly people adapted and suddenly looked for luxury items. Next, maybe someone would rig up some A/C. He walked to the pile and grabbed four mangoes, two for each of them, and walked back towards the tent. He jogged for a bit, even though he realized with this rain it didn't really matter, he was still soaked. He ran more to get back to Skinner. He missed her.
He peeled the flap back and found her where he had left her. "No burgers I'm afraid, but if you squint at the mango, it almost works." He winked and laughed, tossing one to her, dropping two, and keeping one for himself. He asked her he only question that seemed to be going through his brain, smiling as he did. "So, did you miss me too?"
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Post by Skinner Jones on Jul 9, 2008 20:01:32 GMT -5
Skinner yawned slightly, a muffled chuckle accompainying it as she reached for the mango. She turned it on its side, squinting at it and tilting her own head. "It's still not the same," she teased sighing. "Honestly." She looked at him, a peculiar grin on her face as she listened to his question. She actualll had missed him sincerely but she laughed instead.
"Maybe a little bit. That annoying chatter you do is strangely comforting, believe it or not," she teased, smiling as she peeled a piece of the mango off. "You remember the first day we met? When you ditched me in the forest in the mango tree? I almost fell out of that tree thank you very much." She laughed though, letting him know she was merely teasing.
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Post by Jack Shephard on Jul 9, 2008 20:15:34 GMT -5
When she spoke of what had happened in the tree that day, it came crashing back to Jack. He had left her there, and she had been pregnant. He had left her to chase his father. No, a ghost. NO, a hallucination. "I'm sorry Skinner. I thought I saw something... My father, who I was bringing back to LA in a coffin, I thought I saw hi-" Jack couldn't bring himself to say what he thought he had saw. "His body. I thought I had found it, but I was wrong." Jack sighed harshly and bit in to his piece of fruit, sweat dripping from his brow as he did so."
"And I know you missed me. My chatter's cute and endearing, not annoying." Jack smiled and winked, reaching his foot out and kicking at Skinner's before taking another bite. He tilted his head back and heard the rain on the tent, briefly thinking it would be nice to feel the rain on his face, and feeling the notion pass as he remembered that would mean leaving the tent again.
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Post by Skinner Jones on Jul 9, 2008 20:22:29 GMT -5
Skinner watched him and tilted her head at Jack, sensing he was hiding something. She watched him, taking another bite of mango and watching his facial features contort in a peculiar expression. He was hiding something and she knew that for sure. She nudged his foot back with her own, tilting her head at him.
"Youre hiding something," she spoke to Jack, ehr green eyes locked on his. "And I'd bet my life on it that it has something to do wiht your dad." She watched him, hoping she hadn't struck a nerve, but they were past that anyways. He'd struck enough nerves with her.
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Post by Jack Shephard on Jul 9, 2008 20:30:17 GMT -5
"Well, I thought I saw him." Jack said hesitantly, not really wanting to continue. "But it wasn't his body. I mean it was, but he wasn't... dead. He was moving around." It made no sense to him, even when said aloud, but there it was. He put a hand on her foot which had been prodding his and squeezed it gently.
"I know, it sounds crazy doesn't it... I mean, that can't be. It must have been a hallucination, y'know, but well, I didn't feel injured or fatigued. I don't know. It was weird. There's no other way to explain it I suppose." Jack smiled and tried to push the thoughts away as he took Skinner's foot into his hands and rubbed it gently while speaking, unconscious of the action. "I mean, it's not possible right?"
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Post by Skinner Jones on Jul 9, 2008 20:35:08 GMT -5
Skinner listened to him, chuckling a bit reluctantly at his action with her feet. She had always been a little ticklish on her feet, but it felt wonderful. "It doesn't make sense. Not at all. But....a lot of things are possible. You know? My grandmother swore up and down she dreamed of my grandpa's death, the week before it happened. Weird unexplained things happen everyday. We just choose to either focus on the,, or let them be."
Skinner shrugged lightly, her eye lids drooping slightly. She let them fall, sliding to rest her head on the cushion, her face loosing than dangerous, hard ass edge. "I'm glad you're here Jack. You know?" she spoke softly, almost inaudibly.
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Post by Jack Shephard on Jul 9, 2008 20:40:26 GMT -5
"Yeah, me too." He said, almost whispering, as he moved slowly up her calf, more aware of what he was doing now but not stopping. Every inch of her was seemingly tight and tense, and Jack felt her muscles pouring out and relaxing under his touch. He felt bad for her, knowing she felt this wall was necessary to protect herself. He had seen it so many times and every time it was heartbreaking in its sadness and maddening in it's stupidity. He let her leg go and pulled the other one over, continuing the action he had performed on the first.
"So, any big plans tonight? Big island luau going down?" He laughed and pushed his fingers into her a little more firmly, realizing she had closed her eyes for the first time.
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Post by Skinner Jones on Jul 9, 2008 20:44:41 GMT -5
Skinner chuckled softly, relaxing more at his touch and the massaging of his hands. It felt amazing, and she felt as though she could actually relax for once without fear of the consequences. She subconsciously rested a hand on the curve of her stomach, protecting it almost before the baby was even there.
"Oh you know me. Big party hopper like me is always busy. I figured I hti the beach luau, then the garden scene and finish with the caves." She chuckled again, a soft smile on her face, but a different smile. And intriguingly unguarded smile.
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Post by Jack Shephard on Jul 9, 2008 20:52:38 GMT -5
"Oh but of course. Can't forget to finish up at the caves with our neighborhood anorexics," Jack said of the skeletons that rested there. He looked at her slyly, her eyes still closed and a smile he had never seen on her before radiating across her lips. "So you got anyone to go to all these places with? Girls night out maybe? Because a lovely young woman such as yourself should certainly not be out travelling alone."
Jack let go of her foot but let it rest in his lap as he tilted his own head back and closed his eyes, smiling something comparable to the girl in the tent with him. He felt the rain lighten slightly but not completely, and wondered to himself if he was feeling okay, or if he had been drugged by her somehow.
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