Work Text:
Title: Girl Stuff
Author: GeorgiaRayne
Summary: Kate has cramps. Kate/Boone friendship
Feedback: Please?
Archive: Sure, but let me know first, 'kay?
Disclaimer: If I owned anything, Sayid wouldn't wear clothes. Ever.
*Ouch*. Kate grimaced in pain and tried to suppress a groan. She didn't want people to worry over nothing - especially Jack, who had a tendency to do exactly that.
She'd dealt with this just fine four weeks ago, but that was before her birth control pills ran out. They'd always suppressed the worst of the cramps, but now she had nothing. Sun, suspecting what was wrong, had brought her some herbal tea earlier, but it hadn't done much to alleviate her pain.
Now she was sitting near the edge of the campsite, having separated herself a little from the group. Her fellow survivors were occupying themselves in their usual manner - Michael cooking fish, Charlie strumming out chords on his guitar, Hurley playing some kind of guessing game with Walt. Kate closed her eyes and listened to the late afternoon breeze softly rustling the canopy around the caves, trying to ignore the dull ache in the pit of her stomach, but all the while wishing for a Midol, a Hershey's bar and a hot bath.
"Kate? Are you okay?" Jack had returned from delivering water to the beach, and presumably checking up on Aaron. He was standing over her wearing his "doctor" expression, eyes clouded over with concern. "You look a little pale."
She smiled tiredly. "Yeah, just - you know - girl stuff".
Jack sat down next to her and handed her a water bottle. "I thought you took Levlen for that."
"Levlen ran out," she replied, swallowing a mouthful of water. "But I'm fine. How's Aaron?"
"Aaron's doing great. He's putting on weight and Claire says he's beginning to sleep better." He grabbed the bottle he'd just given Kate and took a swig. "Sawyer's arm looks okay too. Antibiotics seem to be working." He turned his head on its side and glanced at Kate. "Is it always this bad?"
"On the first day, yeah. But I'll be -" her voice caught in her throat as her stomach throbbed painfully, "ah, fine if I can get some sleep".
Jack put a hand on her shoulder. "I think there's some Advil left if you -"
"Thanks, but Advil doesn't do anything for me." She grinned at his concern - even as a doctor, Jack was proof that men couldn't help being flustered when it came a girl's time of the month. "Trust me - I'm okay".
Jack stood up and returned her smile, handing the water back to her. "Okay, if you're sure. I'm going to go check on Walt; Michael said he was complaining of a sore throat earlier. You," he picked up a blanket and draped it over her shoulders "should try and stay warm. Keep near the fire, and try putting a little pressure on your stomach - I hear that's supposed to help."
"Yes doctor," she teased as he went to see to Walt.
Kate shivered and pulled the blanket around her shoulders, wincing as another cramp washed over her. It was getting closer to nightfall now; people were stoking the campfire, adding small pieces of wood and flammable debris. She knew she should probably follow Jack's instructions and sit by the flames, but as she drew her knees up so her chest she felt the searing jolt in her stomach spread to a familiar tightness in her lower back, and decided she'd better stay put. No point in aggravating the discomfort. She watched as Jack spoke to Walt, his fingers pressing lightly on the sides of the boys' neck. Walt smiled and shook his head, obviously not in any pain. Jack was still talking, but Walt looked keen to get back to outwitting Hurley. She grinned again - Jack's constant worrying, unconditional concern for all of them, never ceased to amaze her.
Kate stiffened and tried to force herself to breathe deeply as her stomach contracted agonizingly. Maybe I shouldn't have been so hasty to dismiss the Advil, she thought as the pain intensified, and she brought her forehead down to her knees, squeezing her eyes shut and biting back the cry of pain that threatened to escape her.
"Hey." She looked up and saw Boone standing in front of her, the flickering campfire casting an orange glow on the left side of his face. "That bad, huh?"
"I'm fine," she grimaced. "It's just -"
"Yeah, I know, 'girl stuff'; I heard you telling Jack," he said, moving to sit behind her.
"What are you - ?" Boone put his legs either side of her and pulled her back against him.
"Come here. Relax. Jack said warmth and pressure, right?" Boone wrapped his arms around her waist, but instead of just holding her he squeezed tightly, his hands and wrists pressing on her cramped stomach, dissipating the pain.
Kate leaned back against Boone and sighed with relief. Ordinarily she might have worried about what this would look like to the others - she and Boone had always gotten along well enough but had never been particularly close, yet here they were in what looked like quite an intimate embrace. Right now though, she couldn't have cared less - this just felt way too damn good.
She let her head fall back onto Boone's shoulder and closed her eyes as she felt him loosen his hold on her briefly and smooth her shirt over her stomach before hugging her to him again.
"Mmm. You're not worried about the Island Gazette picking this up for the front-page news then?" she asked.
"I'm not if you're not," he replied, his voice light and friendly. "You look like you're in pain, I can help, what's to talk about? Besides," he added, lowering his voice to whisper in her ear, "where's the harm in fueling a few little rumours? Most people are getting bored with the Tracey-Steve scandal; they could use some new gossip."
Kate laughed, then gasped as the movement caused pain to shoot through her lower body. Boone shifted his right hand slightly and dug his strong fingers into the muscles of Kate's lower abdomen, massaging deeply.
"Relax. Lean back. That's it, good," he murmured soothingly. Again, the cramp began to pass, and Kate sank gratefully against Boone's chest.
"So, how'd you learn to do this?" she asked. "Does Shannon get bad cramps too?"
This time it was Boone who laughed. "I don't know about cramps, but she sure turns into a major bitch for a few days. In other words....she acts like Shannon." He chuckled again. "It's the only time she'll ever break her diet though - I guess butterscotch ice-cream has some kind of healing powers." Kate tried to imagine Shannon, with her flat stomach and perfectly toned thighs, devouring a tub of Ben & Jerry's. It wasn't easy to picture.
Boone shifted backwards and slid his hands around Kate's waist, placing his thumbs either side of her spine. "I learned this from a friend of mine, Aimee. We were on the tennis team together, and she'd get so sore she wouldn't be able to go to class," Boone said, pressing against Kate's tense muscles. "She didn't like taking anything for it though - wanted to play professionally one day, she said, and had to be careful because of drug testing."
"They drug tested high-school tennis players?" Kate asked, moaning softly when Boone pressed on a knot in her lower back.
"No," Boone replied, "but she thought she'd do better to get used to the pain and learn to cope without drugs altogether. That way if she ever made pro, she'd be able to just play through it."
"Did it work?"
Boone moved his hands to Kate's shoulders and began kneading gently. "No. She passed out from the pain one day during training." He rubbed harder, eliciting another groan from Kate as he worked her tight neck muscles. "Turned out she had endometriosis pretty bad. After that she used to dose up on Midol and Nurofen pretty regularly, but she still said nothing helped as much as this," he said, squeezing Kate's shoulders.
"Mmm. I know what she means; this feels amazing." Kate let her head fall forward and was silent for a while, enjoying the feeling of Boone's warm hands easing the tension in her neck, back and shoulders.
"Hey Boone -" Kate's eyes flew open when she heard Shannon's voice. She looked up and saw the tall girl standing in front of them, holding several small travel cases and looking questioningly at them.
"Shannon!" Kate hurried to explain. "Boone was just, uh -"
But Shannon didn't look surprised, only bored. "I know what he was just doing, he was just being a total skeeze." She glared witheringly at Boone. "When are you going to learn, bonehead? Your 'charming cabana-boy' routine is pathetic."
"Shannon -" Boone started to address her, but didn't get to finish.
"Whatever, do you want to stop macking on poor Kate and give me a hand here? I found more hand luggage, someone should go through it." She looked at Kate. "Sorry if he was annoying you, he's kind of delusional - he thinks people actually want to talk to him."
Kate stifled a grin. "Uh, that's okay, I can handle it."
Shannon looked back to Boone. "Well? Are you going to help me or not?" Without waiting for an answer she stalked over to the campfire, sat down, and began rifling through the contents of a small lavender bag.
Boone moved to sit next to Kate. "How are you feeling now?" he asked.
"Much better, thank you so much," she said, giving him a quick hug. "I owe you one."
"Hey, anytime," he said, returning the hug and glancing at Shannon, who was staring impatiently at him. Boone sighed laboriously and got to his feet. "Guess I'd better go help Princess Petulant categorize dental floss."
"Good luck," Kate offered.
"Yeah, I'll need it," Boone replied. "Well - either that or some butterscotch ice-cream."
Kate laughed and watched as Boone approached the fire and sat down to help Shannon. Her cramps had abated now, and she picked up the blanket and wrapped it back around herself before lying down on a torn airline seat. She was asleep within minutes.