Part 156: Two Doctors

Underneath his tent, Sawyer calmly squinted his eyes, reading through the trivia calendar. He never was a big reader back in the world but trapped on the island, he had little much else to do. He breezed through another page, and then looked up to the outside entrance of his tent to see if the blind doctor was still there.

And he was.

Tony sat down in the sand, twirling his cane. He had been doing it so long, he might start drilling into the ground. He took a deep breath and waited; he knew Jack would be coming back soon. Any good doctor would. The change in the wind to his right and a familiar denim smell meant Sawyer exited the cave and sat down next to him. “If I asked you to leave, would you?” he sighed.

“No,” Tony said sternly.

“Even if I said, pretty please?” Sawyer scoffed.

“No, so stop asking me.” The blind doctor retorted.

“Doc, you are annoying the hell out of me.” The redneck grunted, “I am fine, so stop hanging around my damn tent.”

“You are NOT fine, Sawyer. I am not leaving till I hear what Jack has to say.”

“Oh, God,” Sawyer grunted.

Tony raised his head. Judging by the sound of the Southern man’s tone of voice, Jack had arrived. From what the blind man was hearing, it sounded like Jack was sloshing around a box of something. Sawyer immediately pointed at him. “If you want a stool sample, you can forget it.” He grunted.

Jack leisurely pointed at the trivia calendar. “You been reading a lot right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Jack, what is wrong with him?” Tony asked.

“He has . .uh . . .hyperopia.” Jack tried to say with a straight face.

Tony paused for a second, then snickered, holding his mouth.

“Hyperopia?” Sawyer blinked,” Why . . why is cocheese laughing? It’s terminal, isn’t it?”

“Jack, stop teasing him.” The blind doctor laughed.

“You’re far-sighted, Sawyer.” Jack smirked.

“Far-sighted?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, you are,” the doctor laughed.

“Makes sense,” Tony concluded, “You admitted you’ve been reading a lot. It can develop later in life.”

Jack then pulls out some glasses from the shoebox he had. He hands a pair to Sawyer. The redneck sighed, and then took them, placing them on. The doctor held up the book to the southern man, who strained to read it. “Blurry,” he replied.

Sawyer tried another pair. “Better or worse?” asked Jack.

“Worse,” he said, taking the glasses off.

Jack then hands Sawyer glasses that resembled something an 80-year old woman would wear. “Uh, uh! No way!” he grunted.

“Sawyer, it’s not a fashion show.” The doctor said coldly.


After a few minutes and several pairs of glasses later, Jack was able to determine that two of them had the proper lenses to match Sawyer’s vision problem. He gave them to Sayid, who was able to burn the plastic around the lenses and chop up two pair, smelt the plastic and made two.

Jack finally brought back the Frankensteined glasses. He gave them to Sawyer who sighed. Tony stood nearby with Kate as the southern man tried them out. The doctor quickly wrote down something in a pad and then held it up to Sawyer. The redneck checked them out and it read in perfect clear letters; Better or Worse? He quickly took off the glasses. “Very funny.” He grunted.

“Dude, looks like someone steam rolled Harry Potter.” Hurley said in passing.

Jack and Kate laugh at the large man’s joke. Tony smiled, shaking his head. “Now I REALLY wished my eyes worked.” He chuckled.

“Laugh it up, Cocheese.” Sawyer sighed.

Jack walked up to him. The redneck man looked at him, with a smirk. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t ya?”

“You’re welcome.” He patted him on the back.

Jack then turned to Tony, “Hey, Tony. Come with me to caves, man.”

Tony followed walked over to the sound of his voice and took his shoulder. The two doctors began their walk toward the caves. As they continued, Tony could still hear Kate snickering a little while all Sawyer could do was sigh.



Back at the caves, Jack led Tony over to the area where his medical supplies were. He set down his backpack, signaling the blind doctor they had arrived. Tony felt around for an empty spot and sat down. Jack smiled at the blind doctor, putting away his supplies. “Thank you for that, Tony.” He whispered.

“What did I do?” the blind doctor smirked, “You were the one who gave him the glasses.”

“And you would have to, had you been able to use your eyes to diagnose him. No, what I am thanking you for was giving a damn.”

“About Sawyer?”

“Yes, about Sawyer. It’s easy for me to remember what it was like back off this island and how we did in the real world. I don’t give a damn about Sawyer but I can’t think of him as the moron he is; he’s still a patient. You saw that when I didn’t. You got him off his ass to come see me and you stayed with him to make sure he was okay. You’re . . .you’re a better doctor than me.”

“Jack, don’t sell yourself short.” Tony smiled, “You would have helped him eventually.”

“No, not really,” Jack sighed.

Then from the sound of footsteps he had recognized before, Tony was able to tell that Kate had arrived in the caves. The brunette walked over to Tony putting her arm around him. “Here is to the best doctors we could ever hope for to have on this island with us.” She said in a make-believe toast.

“You are too kind, Kate.” He said, patting her arm.

“So Jack . . .did you know before or after you asked him about his latest outbreak?” Kate asked.

“Outbreak?” Tony laughed, “What the hell did I miss?”

“Well, I'd answer that, Kate, but, you know, doctor-patient confidentiality.” Jack said with a wink.

“Of course,” she smiled, “Thank you for helping him. I know it was probably the last thing you wanted to do.”

“I didn’t do it for him,” he admitted.

Jack and Kate stared at each other for a moment. Even blind, Tony was able to feel the growing intimacy between them. He was about to politely leave to allow them some private time but then he heard heavy foot-falls. The blind doctor was confused, as it sounded like someone was carrying somebody. “Jack, help me.” Locke whispered.

Jack gulped as he saw Locke walked into the cave with Boone dripping blood all over him. Kate froze, unable to speak or move. “No, no, no.” Jack hurried, “Okay . .uh . .put him down up here.”

Locke grunted as he hoisted Boone up the main stone platform. Tony shook his head waiting for someone to tell him what was happening. When he realized it was so severe, he quickly pulled off his blindfold and saw a blurry image of two men putting down a man and judging from the red blur, he was badly wounded. “WHO IS THAT?” Tony demanded.

“It’s Boone.” Mia wept.

Tony quickly turned around and grabbed her. He could see her blurry face but not sure what happened. “Mia, are you all right?” he asked.

“Tony, I . . “ she cried.

“Alright, alright that's it, easy!” Jack finally got him down,” What happened?”

“There was an accident, “Locke grunted, “Boone fell off a cliff out near the place we were hunting.”

“Tony, I need you over here!” Jack screamed.

The blind doctor let go of Mia and walked over to Boone. He quickly fell to his knees and ripped off Boone’s shirt. He saw the massive cuts, and open wounds all over his chest area, after he stooped his face to within two inches of the wound. “Oh, my God,” he whispered.

“Kate!” Jack screamed, “Okay, we’re going to need some water and shirts, towels, anything that we can use to staunch the bleeding.”

Kate didn’t move.

“KATE, NOW!” Tony screamed.

Mia was frozen, watching the poor young man slowly dying. Before she could say anything else, Locke grabbed her by the jacket and pulled her with him outside of the caves.

Kate quickly ran off to get what Jack and Tony needed. Jack then leaned up, “Okay, John, tell me everything that happened,”

Locke was gone. Tony reached over Boone, grabbing for the white shape that he knew was the medical kit. He started to pull out the needle and thread he found earlier from the French Foreign Legion. Coughing he realized, Locke didn’t answer Jack’s question. “John?” Jack said again.

The cave only had the other survivors with them but no Locke and no Mia. “LOCKE!” Jack demanded, “LOCKE?”

“Mia?” Tony asked, wondering why she was gone.