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The air on the beach was thick with uninhibited fear. Jack could feel it in his sleep even as he tossed and turned. Kate shifted and bolted up next to Jack. Gripping his hand she saw him stir and open up his eyes.

“What is it?”

A sick feeling permeated his stomach and sent it into rolling waves of nausea. Peering around the darkened shelter Kate shivered. Leaning forward she reached a hand inside the cradle to check on Megan. She let out a frightened cry and began to scream.

“Hey sweetie, it’s alright. Nothing’s going to hurt you here. Did you have a bad dream?”

Scooping Megan into her arms, she could feel the infant’s tiny body shaking. Despite the blanket covering her, her tiny hands were very cold.

“Jack her hands are freezing. She’s not coming down with something is she?”

Jack rested his chin on her left shoulder and placed a tender kiss to her neck. Handing Megan to him, she gave a small kiss to the child’s forehead. Wrapping Megan up in the
blanket he held her against his chest, the warmth lulling her back into a restful slumber. His heart sank when he heard Sawyer yelling for him down the beach a ways.

“Doc! Juliet needs help!”

Giving Megan back to Kate, Jack vacated their shelter and navigated through the dark. Sawyer had lit a fire a few feet away from their tent. He’d drawn back the tarp so that Jack could enter.

“Sawyer tell me exactly what happened.”

Cradled in Sawyer’s arms was a very still looking Juliet. Her nose was bleeding and she was pale.

“I don’t know doc. She just woke up screaming and in pain.”

Jack sat on the edge of the bed with Sawyer’s permission. He took Juliet’s face into his hands and pushed back her eyelids to reveal the whites of her eyes only.

“Juliet its Jack. Can you hear me?”

Cleaning the blood from under her nose, Jack had yet to elicit a response from her. Her pulse was faint under his fingers. Reaching for the stethoscope Jack placed the earpieces
inside his ears. Putting the bell up to her stomach, he sat and listened quietly. Furrowing his eyebrows he listened again double checking his diagnosis. Removing the earpieces from his ears, Jack set the stethoscope down on an old crate used as a side table.

“Everything sounds good and the babies are very active. Can you tell me anything else? Has she been getting enough water? Has she eaten anything she normally doesn’t?”

Sawyer’s eyes widened as he shifted Juliet a little.

“Jin gave her some sea urchin and some fish earlier.”

Jack put everything together. Wiping the last of the blood from under Juliet’s nose he saw her head begin to jerk left and right and she started to moan. Sawyer tried shifting Juliet again, but Jack stopped him.

“Don’t move her Sawyer. She’s having a seizure. Tilt her head back. Keep her airway open and make sure she doesn’t swallow her tongue.”

Since they had no drugs handy to stop what was happening to Juliet, they would have to wait this out.

“How come this is happening to her doc?”

Sawyer held fear/concern in his voice but was trying to mask it by staying calm.

“I can’t be sure unless we take her back to the medical station. My guess is that it could be from the skipped dosage of the serum I was supposed to give her this morning.”

Eyes looking almost black in the firelight, Sawyer glared at Jack.

“Get her the injection doc.”

Jack felt his shoulders slump. How could he have been so forgetful? He couldn’t let negligence become him. Juliet and the twins were his responsibility.

“When the seizure stops, she needs to rest for a while before I can give her the injection. She may also be having a delayed allergic reaction to the sea urchin.”

His muscles relaxed as Juliet settled comfortably in Sawyer’s arms.

“Do you think it was the sea urchin?”

Leaning over Juliet, Jack looked at her hands and arms.

“A large percentage of people are allergic to shellfish. Sea urchin falls into that category. Her skin isn’t irritated and there are no hives. But there other signs of an allergic reaction.
Did she say anything about having chest pain?”

Sawyer shook his head and moved a piece of hair from in front of her left eye.

“What? You mean like a heart attack doc?”

Shaking his head no Jack froze when he heard Juliet gasp.

“No. Not like a heart attack Sawyer. I know you’ve still got quite a large stash of drugs squirreled away in here somewhere. Would you happen to have some Epinephrine?”

Giving a frustrated sigh Sawyer set Juliet back onto their bed and dug under it revealing a lot of things Jack could actually use.

“Here doc, this is what you needed isn’t it?”

Jack gave half a smile and took the medication from Sawyer. Stopping just shy of injecting the Epinephrine into Juliet’s leg, he heard Kate’s voice. It was very far away.

“Jack wake up…”

With a start Jack bolted up right and kicked the blankets off him.

“Hey. Shh. It was just a bad dream Jack. You’re safe.”

The pit in his stomach was churning. The acid starting to rise. Nearly scrambling to his feet he checked on Megan at the foot of the bed. She was wrapped up in her blanket still
fast asleep.

“I’ve got to check on Juliet.”

Kate put a hand on his forearm. Tensing, Jack pleaded with his eyes. Something Kate hadn’t seen but once before.

“Jack wait until it’s a little lighter outside. I don’t want you to go stumbling in the dark.”

Adamant, Jack stepped out of the tent and navigated by firelight towards Sawyer and Juliet’s tent. Sawyer was sitting on a rock just outside their tent with a can of beans over the open fire.

“Something I can help ya with doc?”

Jack glanced at the cooking beans over the open fire and swallowed.

“You’re up early. I just came to check on Juliet.”

Sawyer stirred the beans and smirked.

“Be my guest doc. She must have been a kick boxer in her last life. She tosses and turns most of the time now. Those two little rascals in her belly are always kicking up a storm when we are trying to sleep.”

Jack acknowledged Sawyer and saw him stir the beans over the fire one last time.

“I think your beans are done Sawyer, and that’s perfectly normal. Some babies like to move around more at night. They don’t know when it’s day or night.”

Sawyer dug into his beans and chewed silently. Jack entered the shelter, finding Juliet sitting up and looking around confused. She stared straight into Jack’s eyes not sure what was going on.

“Jack? What’s going on? Where am I?”

Jack played it down and sat on the edge of the bed.

“You’re in your tent. Everything’s fine. I want you to lie back and relax. How are you feeling?”

Before Juliet could answer someone grabbed her from behind. She clawed at whomever was dragging her out of the tent, but there were strong arms securely wrapped around her. Jack could hear her screaming and then something hard connected with his temple and he saw black.

To Be Continued…