Chapter 9

The whole midmorning on the third day passed pretty quick for Megan, she helped to clear up the big airplane body on everything they could find, everything they could need. To begin with she had been inside the airplane body but after a while Boone had come and switch with her. Megan was incredibly grateful for that, all the humans in there, it had started to smell from the 200 people in there. A terrible smell that didn't disapered.

Now Megan was sitting some distance away from aircraft with a small group of additional five survivors. Some of them chat with each other but Megan was quiet. The situation didn't need more talk. They were searching through bags and luggage. Megan felt pain every time she had to open a new bag, the memories from the persons she'd never met. They had had a life, lovers and jobs. They would never have a chance to meet their families again. Megan mourned for them but she knew that it was necessary. They needed things like batteries, flashlights, clothes and food. But the most important thing they needed was water, they almost didn't got any left and they were 40 people who would share it. They were forced to find a source here on the island. Locke was out in the jungle and searched for one. He was the one who could track best and he knew where he would look.

Megan disappeared into her thoughts again. She was back in Seattle, together with Ryan. Sat by his side in a hospital room. It was raining outside the window, like it always does, but the rain was also a comfort for what the doctors had to say later. Even through it wasn't a scenario Megan wanted to be with in it felt better then be stuck on a desert island and to know that Ryan is laying in a hospital bed all by him self and is having a conversation with four doctors anyway. Megan hoped devoutly that at least their uncle Joe could be with him. Ryan couldn't be alone, he would never handle the notification by himself, Megan had always taken care of him.

Megan returned to the reality, looked up on the sky, the sun shone strongly and there was not even a single cloud. It was a warm day.

Megan turned her eyes down again and tried to return to sort everything in the bags. Towels in one bag, toilet requisites in another. Shirts in the three big ones, pants and shorts in two other. Panties, bras and other underwear in a red bag. But the bag with food and snacks in it was almost empty and it concerned Megan just as much as for the others, they needed food!

When she had done it for more then two hours, with a steady stream of thing from the guys who worked inside among all the dangerous metal parts in the air craft, she saw Jack for the first time that day. He looked pale and nervous and he walked at her direction with a really big and heavy book in his arms. Megan wondered what kind of book it was, she was curious.

When Jack came up to the little group it seemed that he got relived when he saw that Megan sat in it. Megan even thought she heard him mumble a "thank god".

"Emh, Megan, can I talk to you for just a second?" He asked insecure.

Megan threw a look at Rose, the older black woman next to her.

"Well don't look at me sweetie! You can do whatever you want!" Rose said and put on a little crocked smile. So Megan got up of the sand and walked away from the group so that they could have a little more private conversation. They stood right at the edge of the forest. Right next to an enormous three. It was a really nice three with thousands of green leafs. Megan didn't recognized the three, it wasn't a three that she could find back home in Seattle.

"How are you?" Megan asked Jack. "Are you feeling fine because you look a little pale."

"I…" Jack started but then he shook his head like if it was a strange though to even talk about him self. Jack took a deep breath and took a harder grip around his book. Gray's Anatomy was the name of the book. It was a medical book.

"I…" Jack started again, but also this time he hesitated and he looked down on his book like that he hoped on the book gave him some kind of solution.

And then Megan finally understood! Jack didn't know what to do. "This is about the guy with the shell-fragments right?"

"Yes Megan! I, I can remove the pieces but then there's a risk that he bleeds to death if I can't stop the bleedings and I don't know how they look until I've already take them out. But if I don't…" He's voice died out again.

This were one of those moments when you shouldn't say anything immediately so Megan waited a moment or two before she continued saying the thing Jack should have said. "If you don't take the metal away he will definitely die."

"Yeah, exactly that way."

"So what are you going to do?"

"That's the thing I don't know Megan! Either how he is going to die!" Jack slid down on the ground and leaned against the big three.

"Oh, okay." Megan sat down next to Jack and suddenly felt exhausted. It was difficult to think and she got terrible headache. "Umh, okay. If you won't take of the metal." She doubted and Jack looked in to her eyes. His eyes were filled with hope, like if Megan should say something magical that would make everything alright again.

"How long should the man be living if you don't take the metal away? How long will he live then?" Megan finally said.

"I'm not sure but perhaps for two or three days? But if he gets some infections or dehydrated."

"Okay, and if you do the surgery it can stop with that he dies immediately or in a few days. Or maybe the bleedings aren't that bad as you think! What if he survives? What if we get rescued? What if Jack?"

Jack didn't say anything but his new expression in his face told Megan everything. He confirmed everything she'd said. It's possible, he can survive.

"And I know it would feel better, it would feel better for anyone, if you tried! You need to at least TRY to save his life Jack, or else we're the one who kills him. Or else we're just standing there and watch when he dies, you, we, we need to try to save his life."

"I could never live with the fact that I will maybe kill a man, just watched when he died. But the truth is Megan that I'm scared! I don't know if I can handle this by my self. God! I don't even know what I can use as instruments."

Jack took a firm grip around Megan's shoulders and looked into her eyes. His earlier expressions where all gone and there was not even a trace of the panic you've seen earlier. Now there was only sense and persuasion left.

"Megan, I beg you. Please, please please! You need to be with me."