Title: The Aftermath

Summary: The only thing scarier than life on the island, is life after the island.

Words: 2,750

Author's Note: Wow! Y'all are actually the best. I didn't expect this must feedback this quickly. I mean, I wasn't even expecting to get reviews and there were five and they were positive and awesome. Honestly, I'm super excited about this fic because it's a story I've been playing with in my mind for months and I have finally began to put it down to words. I hope to continue this and make it pretty long and as realistic as it can be. Also, I realize my characters might be a little OC at times, but I mean recovering from being in that kind of situation makes people a little different and this is just how I personally picture them reacting. Anywayyy, enjoy this next chapter, sorry it's so short!

Reviews:

MissSadieKane: Thank you so much sweet heart! Also, I write these on my phone and, you know how phone writing is, it just comes out a mess. I did got back and edit on my computer and I think I got most of the grammar mistakes out of the way!

Demons of the Arch Angel: Oh my gosh you're actually the sweetest! Thank you for you're support in my story. I was actually a bit worried on how I was writing my characters out, because I write mine a little differently than most, so I'm glad there' somebody who enjoys reading this as much as I enjoy writing it.

The Rambler13: Thanks hun, you're so sweet! I wish there was more LOTF fanfiction, but it's such an old book I guess I have to be greatful for what we have. Good fanfictions certainly are hard to find and the fact that you think mine is one of them really puts a smile on my face!

HitTheRoad: I can't wait to tell you this, but this actually was intended to be a Jalph fic! I love those two and it will be defiantly be a big part of this fic, but the build will most likely be pretty slow. Also, about Jack, I have a plan for his background but at the moment all that you need to know is that he couldn't stay with his father because he was away, so he's temporarily staying with Ralph's family in London. As to Ralph, I explain it some in this chapter but I just imagine Ralph not being very popular. I see him having a few core friends but with his rules, moving with his dad in the military, and his nature, I just can't see him being popular with all the boys his age rolling around in dirt and not caring about rules. If that makes any sense, haha. As for Ralph's initial reactions to Jack, I honestly just wasn't sure exactly how to write that. Lazy writing, I know, but I think, like I'm doing for some other issues, I'm kind of having small little blowouts leading to one big explosion of feelings in a later chapter. Just my personal thoughts on what coming back from an experience like that would be like. And finally, gosh this was long, thank you so much for all your feedback! I love hearing reviews like yours because it feels like you really read through this and were interested, which is all a writer can really ask for!

sharfases: Thank you and yes, I am defiantly going to be making this a Jalph story!

Chapter Two

Island Boy; kids were so clever weren't they? Was the best name they could come up with Island Boy? Before the island, nobody in the school even knew Ralph. Ralph, being the navy brat that he was, had traveled everyone and moved so often he couldn't count how high the list was getting. Eventually, he simply gave up trying to be Mr. Popular and just tried to keep the attention off of him. When he moved to Eastwood he had already known Daniel, so he allowed himself the courtesy of one friend. The rest of the kids just knew him by his father's profession and perfect attendance. They used to call him a goody-goody or Daddy's boy, but now things were much worse.

Daniel was right when he had told Ralph he was the talk of the school. Sadly, he had lied when he told him kids thought it was cool. It had gone from just Island Boy to Anorexic Boy to Crybaby Boy to Freakshow and back to Island Boy. Surprisingly, Island Boy was defiantly what bothered Ralph the most. Every time he heard the word he was reminded of the terribleness that went on at that stupid island. Ralph was almost beginning to wish he had never been rescued at all.

For most of the day Ralph would lock himself in his room and refuse to speak with anyone. At school, he would just try his best to stay in the shadows and pray for any miracles. Ralph also began skipping lunch, to get away from everyone because lunches were by far the worst. Well, second to gym class.

Ralph had never been a huge fan of gym class. Ralph had never been a jock type; he'd always been more interested in criminal law than in tossing a football around. For most of his life he wondered if that was why his father never wrote any letters to him. When he got older and learned more about being in the navy, he understood why he wasn't getting a personalized note every day. Still, he always believed he was disappointed his dad, and Michael too.

Now, gym class wasn't a time for family angst but a time for all the guys to harass him even more. Ralph tried to skip gym for a few days but the ended up calling Laura and she flipped out on him. Ralph was beginning to get really overwhelmed really quickly.

"Ralph! I asked you a question." Ralph suddenly was taken out of his train of thought and looked up to see his mathematics teacher giving him the death glare.

"I-I," Ralph stuttered not having a clue in the world what was going on.

"That's what I thought," she said angrily turning around to write something up on the board. Ralph tried his best to shrink even further into his chair.

Jack didn't seem to be having as much trouble. Nobody in the school really knew him, and seeing as how he never spoke a word to Ralph, nobody afflicted them to each other. Jack, as on the island, was extremely outgoing. He had seemed to make many friends, not that Ralph was watching of course. Ralph was quite baffled by Jack. How someone could spend months on an island, witness murders, participate in a murder, and potentially burn down an entire island just to kill someone, could function as a completely normal and ordinary teenage boy. Ralph thought that Jack was either on a prescription, or just insane.

Ralph couldn't sleep without waking up sweaty and laying in a pool of tears, but he never heard a peep come from Jack's room. Ralph couldn't go a day at school without hiding in a bathroom stall, a closet, or small corner, but Jack walked down the halls like he owned the place. Ralph couldn't stand it.

Ralph and Jack hadn't spoken a word to each other. Laura and Michael didn't seem to think anything of it, seeing as how Ralph never spoke to anyone. Ralph was still terrified of the guy. He grew even more scared as Jack grew happier, more content. Ralph was honestly also pretty scared for him. He could sense the fact that Jack would probably explode one day or another and clear out everything in his path. Jack was obviously holding a lot of feelings inside that should be let out. One could say Ralph was doing the same, but he wasn't really, or at least not to the extent which Jack was.

Daniel had asked him questions about the island; nothing deep or personal, but about the little things. The two boys were sitting in the library at school and Daniel had been staring at this girl named Genevieve. Genevieve was tall with light brown hair and olive oil skin. Her face was polished with makeup and her uniform was always a little too tight with a button undone too low.

"How did you manage to spend so long on an island without being able to look at something so amazing?" Daniel had asked him. Ralph tilted his head and eyed the girl over. He didn't really understand what all the fuss was over girls like her. She was so desperate for affection that she folded her skirt up at the waist so more of her upper thighs were showing, she laughed a little too loudly when Daniel and his friends cracked a joke, and she just didn't seem to have any respect for herself.

"What do you see in her?" Ralph asked without realizing. Daniel gave him a strange look before continuing.

"She's hot and the other day she asked me to go for ice cream with her and her friend Victoria. I said yes," Daniel went on with a glazy look in his eyes.

After going out for ice cream with Genevieve, Genny as he called her, he began to spend every minute with her. After another week, Ralph was sure he must have forgotten Ralph's name. Life was getting darker and darker and Ralph couldn't seem to find a light switch anywhere.

As the bell rang, Ralph left the math room and rushed to his locker. The end of the day could never come soon enough and in the blink of an eye Ralph was running out of the building. The walk home from school was something Ralph found a lot a fear in. He was alone on the streets of London, walking more two miles, and his legs didn't really have enough muscle left on them to make walking two miles bearable. It also gave him enough time to reflect on school and the kids at school and all these thoughts took him back to the island.

"It must have really sucked," Michael told him one night as Ralph explained the bathroom situations, the shelters, and the food supply – excluding the pigs. He had no idea. Nobody really knew how bad being stranded on an island was, until you were actually the one who was stranded. They were trying and Ralph really did appreciate that, but it also just stung a little more to know that the innocence he once held in regards to pain like that, his older siblings still held onto. He never wanted to tell them what happened on the island. The first night, he let his guard down and told Michael about how they tried to kill him, but he never went further into detail. Michael never tried to bring up again and the two brothers basically ignored the subject all together.

When Ralph finally got home he headed up to his room, where he spent pretty much all of his free time. About halfway up the stairs he was stopped by Laura.

"Can I talk to you Ralph?" she asked from the entryway. Ralph nodded and silently walked down stairs and they two took a seat in the den. "How're you doing?'

"Fine," Ralph answered eyeing the door and wishing for this to be over with. He knew this look, the talk in the den, the way she started off soft. Something bad was going to happen.

"Good, that's good. Your brother and I have talked a lot and we think it would be best if you had somebody to talk to, somebody that wouldn't judge you," she went on.

"No," Ralph insisted almost immediately. "No. I don't need a therapist, I need a new school."

"Ralphie, I know school is hard but you need someone to talk to….about the island," she spoke the last few words very gently like she was walking on eggshells.

"I talk to Michael about the island; I don't need to talk to anyone else."

"I know you do and I'm so proud of you," she placed her hands on his shoulder but he pulled away. "Look, can you just give it a try. Dr. Baughman is a very nice man and I went to him when Mama died so it's not like he's a total stranger. Plus, everything is confidential so you don't have anything to worry about," Laura explained.

"No, please Laura I don't want to talk about it," Ralph cried desperately.

"That is exactly why you do need to talk to someone! You cannot keep this bottled inside of you or it'll break you. I can't see you get hurt again Ralphie," she exclaimed with such sincerity that her eyes were beginning to water. Ralph couldn't handle seeing his big sister cry.

"Fine, one session. If I don't like it, I get to leave," Ralph compromised.

"Deal," she smiled and watched silently as he left the room and headed back up to his bedroom.

Weekends were a strange and endless time. Jack would leave the house to go see his friends or practice for some team he was on while Ralph would sit at home on his window seat. Ralph was always quiet, but he had never been shy. Now, Ralph was oozing with shy and felt nervous by any people near him. Therefore, Ralph spent his weekends sketching people who walked by on the street or the city from his bedroom window.

Ralph learned during his time on the beach that he was actually an amazing artist. Ralph no and again drew things about the island. He drew the beach, he drew a picture of a few littluns sitting by the fire, he drew the sunset over the watery horizon, and other little things. He had contemplated drawing Piggy, but he couldn't get himself to do so. He had tried this morning but ended up staring at a blank piece of paper for a few hours trying not to cry like a child.

Secretly, and very secretly, Ralph had sketched a few pictures of Jack. He wasn't sure what compelled him to do so but it just sort of happened. If Jack ever found out he knew it would be the end of their little mutual avoidance they had going on. Ralph planned on never saying a word to Jack and vice versa. Sadly, that fantasy would end a lot sooner than Ralph would have hoped.

Ralph was busy drawing a picture of a boy on a bicycle when the doorbell rang. Ralph waited a moment and it rang again, nobody else was home to answer. Ralph hesitantly hopped off the cozy nook he had arranged and walked down the stairs to get the door. No other than Jack was waiting for him when he opened it.

Ralph was horrified at the sight he saw. Jack was standing the rainy doorway with a wrecked skateboard next to him and a smashed pair of glasses in his other hand. He face was cover in tears, or possibly just rain, Ralph wasn't sure.

"I-I, I didn't m-mean to break them I s-swear," Jack choked on his words and Ralph now realized that the wetness on his cheeks was indeed tears. Jack's breath was going a little crazy and Ralph was actually worried he was having a panic attack. However, he was too upset about the glass to care about any of this.

"What the hell were you doing with those?" Ralph practically screamed as he snatched the broken frames out of Jack's hands. The glass had shattered long ago on the island but the frames had always remained intact, until now. "What is wrong with you? Why-, How-, What-, How could you?" Ralph cried with tears now rolling down his cheeks. He hadn't let himself cry since that first night and now it was like he reliving Piggy's death, so he really couldn't help it if he cried a little.

"Ralph, Ralph I'm so sorry," Jack pleaded but Ralph was already racing up the stairs to go cry into his pillow. Jack kicked the skateboard and it landed in a puddle near the door. He then ran his hands through his mangy hair and followed Ralph up the steps. When he got to Ralph's door he wasn't surprised to find it was locked. He could hear Ralph's sobs and cringed at the thought of the gaunt boy curled up on his bed with broken glass clutched between trembling fingers.

"Ralph, can I just talk to you?" Jack tried gently. The door suddenly clicked and then flew open, almost nailing Jack in the face.

"You want to talk to me! You want to talk to me! You tried to bloody kill me you bloody bastard. You killed my best friend and you burned down an entire island. You let the fire go out time and time again so we remained on that bloody island for months and you want to talk to me?" Ralph exploding wanting to rip Jack limp from limp and feed him to the beastie. "You can go ahead and try but nothing you could possibly say could ever make up for anything you've done. You broke his glasses. You broke Piggy's glasses. That-, that was the one thing I had." Ralph finally hit the climax on his little explosion and actually was crouched over on the floor sobbing.

Jack just kind of watched as the whole world seemed to spin around the two of them. What could he do? Ralph said it himself, there was nothing he could do or say to make up for everything. Jack watched as Ralph completely broke before him and he couldn't even mutter as much as a word from his heart. What was wrong with him?

"Leave," Ralph finally order wiping his nose and his eyes before shakily standing up. He swayed slightly but held onto the doorframe to steady himself. "What are you still doing here, I said leave," Ralph went on without looking Jack in the eyes.

"Ralph, I need you to know how horrible I feel about breaking Piggy's glasses," Jack explained.

"These aren't broken Jack, they're bloody shattered," Ralph spoke softly yet furiously. "Why the bloody hell did you have them to begin with?"

"I-I carry them around, okay?" Jack sighed hating the way his voice broke at his words.

"Oh," Ralph said simply. He stared down at his feet, feeling flushed and embarrassed from his outburst.

"Did you draw that?" Jack asked abruptly and Ralph just about jumped out of his skin.

"What?" he exclaimed even though he knew exactly was Jack was referring too. "We're not friends, and I want you to leave."

"These are really good," Jack said in awe, ignoring Ralph's wishes and walked around him to the pile of images laid out of Ralph's bed. "Is this your friend and that girlfriend of his?" Jack was holding Ralph's picture of Daniel and Genevieve as Ralph blushed.

"Yeah," he nodded as he bit his lip. He wasn't sure why he was so nervous. It was Jack and Jack made him nervous, but not this kind of nervous. He had always been scared for his life around Jack, now he was jittery and tentative.

"Wow, you ever think about a career in art?" Jack asked nonchalantly. Ralph shrugged. "You sure are quiet." Ralph turned an even deeper shade of red. Jack simply smirked. The two kind of looked at each other for a minute before Jack set the drawing down and began to leave. Ralph watched him silently even though his insides were screaming at him to tell Jack to stay. Something about talking to Jack made him feel less afraid, weirdly enough. Ralph was starting to think this whole therapy thing was a good idea.

Author's Note: Okay so a big part of this chapter was me trying to explain what is in my mind to you all reading and kind of build up for later chapters. I know, parts of this were probably very boring and there wasn't very much dialogue, but I'm only human right. I hope everyone still likes this story!