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2020-11-04
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Life's Movement

Summary:

Pairing: Charlie/Jack
Rating: PG, eventually NC-17
Spoilers: Yes, all of the them.
Summary: Jack reminisces about life on the island.
Archive: Yes to WWOMB
Feedback: I love it!
Series: Yes.
Disclaimers: Lost belongs to ABC and its other creators. Not mine.
Notes: No one has really been able to establish a timeline. So I gave it a shot.

Work Text:

Life's Movement
by SlayerKnight2

 

Jack stared out at the ocean. Even from their higher vantage point in the caves, it seemed to go on forever. There was an unwavering sense of despair that could envelope a person if they thought too hard about how large the sea was. But there was still a few hours before sunrise and there was little else to do.

He gazed out into the dark waters, the white light from the moon shining ominously on it's surface. He could hear the soft, soothing rumble-and-crash of the waves onto the sand below. It was a natural rhythm that ancient civilizations have listened to for solace and science. It reassured him to think that his ancestors had worshipped the very sea he was looking at.

Before this island, he had never stopped to really contemplate the ocean. He'd been too busy getting his B.S., getting his medical degree, trying to impress and then cover for his father. It was ironic that only when the world stops can one truly appreciate it.

Charlie stirred beside him, snuggling closer against him. His arms tightened protectively around the younger man. Charlie was lying curled up against his side, his head resting on Jack's shoulder. As for himself, Jack was leaning back against the wall of the cave. He had a few blankets around them, so he was fairly comfortable.

He gingerly touched the bruise on Charlie's throat. No permanent damage but it'll hurt like a bitch for a few days. The young man was lucky. He could have died. No, Jack thought. He did die. Jack had brought back patients more times than he could count, but none had felt more personal than Charlie. It was his past that converged with his present, yes, but he felt connected to the other man.

Charlie had awakened screaming, the demons of his nightmares overwhelming the ex-rocker. A brief rotation in psych didn't adequately prepare him for dealing with people who suffered from acute Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder nor did it train him on how deal with it when gasoline was poured on the fire. Charlie's screams had awakened most of the camp and he'd knelt beside him.

The other man had fought him for a moment, not recognizing where he was or who he was struggling against. It was very similar to Claire's night terrors just a few days before. What the hell was it about the savage natives on this island that utterly terrified people? On instinct, the same instinct that had told him to keep trying to revive the young man, he'd held Charlie close to him. The ex-rocker had done a complete 180 and had clung to him; hands fisting in his shirt and burying his face in Jack's shoulder.

He'd settled down against the wall of the cave, rubbing Charlie's back and murmuring reassurances to him. But he knew his words were hollow. He often wondered why people could recall the worst memories with such aching clarity. Kate had come over to check on them a few times, casting sympathetic looks.

His mind drifted to Claire. She was pregnant and defenseless, but she was relatively safe for the moment. They wanted her baby and would do nothing to harm her until the child came to term. His heart ached for her but he knew that if they tried to look for her too soon, more of the survivors would be endangered. They had to stop and regroup. They had to learn more of their enemy before they faced these people again.

He just had to find a way to tell Charlie.

Jack sighed. He didn't know how this would affect the man who had survived a plane crash, kicked a heroin addiction, and died. All in a matter of weeks. If there was light at the end of the tunnel, he knew Charlie's gregarious nature would take over. But there was no light, save for the moon shining out on the ocean.

Charlie's deep, shallow breathing and the slow, steady beat of his heart comforted Jack. He wanted to lead these people but he feared that he would fail. The fear of inadequacy was something that had been instilled in him since he was a child by his father. Never good enough, always weak.

"I'm here to rescue you."

He remembered the cave-in a few weeks back. Charlie had thought he'd been useless, something Jack could relate to. He recalled the warmth of the other man's hand when he'd jerked his dislocated shoulder back into place. The look in Charlie's eyes had struck something inside of him, forging a connection that had only strengthened in the week since the incident.

He also remembered the look in Charlie's eyes when he'd praised him in front of the others for saving both their lives; so shy. He had a lot in common with Charlie, other than a troubled a past. The other man had a good heart, a need to help people. And he'd been bitten in the ass for it. Claire had been violently kidnapped.

They would send a scouting party out tomorrow but Jack doubted that they would find anything. The survivors were up against a group of monsters would'd lived on the island for over a decade, possibly longer. They knew how to survive, how to fight, and how to win. They also possessed a brutality that no one else in the camp was capable of, not even Sayeed. Locke was the only one who came close, but Jack doubted the man was even that vicious. A hunter, yes. A sadist, definitely not.

Jack pulled Charlie closer, needing to keep the younger man close. He had no idea where to go from here. Surviving on the island was enough of a challenge. Now they had to survive predators, as well as a mysterious creature in the jungle, on an island that was foreign to them.

 

The End.