This, That and the Others

A Lost/Grey's Anatomy Crossover

Fifth in the Series

By DavidB226Morris

Summary: It's been nearly three years since the Losties returned to civilization. They've found new jobs, gotten married, had children. They have every reason to believe the island is done with them. The problem is there are people out there who aren't done with the island. They want to get back there. And some of them were on Oceanic 815 before.

Disclaimer: I think we know the drill by now, but just in case. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Locke belong to Darlton and J.J. Abrams. The staff at Seattle Grace belongs to Shondaland, but by this point in my writings I think they'd want to go back to her as much as the Oceanic 6 wanted to go back to the island after they got rescued. Still borrowing them, though.

Author's Note: Well, it's finally happened. The world of island is going to intersect with the nice happy world to the Oceanics have happened. Now, I don't plan for Sayid and Sun to lose their spouses or for Hugo and Jack to start seeing dead people. But.

The thing is there are a lot of mysteries about the show that I would like to at least try to answer. And I think I've exhausted just about all the ways I can do that without going into somewhat darker territory (heh heh) than before. The Oceanics are done with the island. But those of who watched Season 5 in particular know that there were a lot of people in civilization who knew something about the island. Certainly those same people knew Ajira 316 was going to crash. And I don't believe for a second these people would just leave it alone now that there are new people in charge.

I actually planned on doing another light story for this series. You'll get bits of it throughout. But once an idea struck me, I decided I wanted to follow that particular worm. And if you've been reading this series so far, you know I follow those worms.

Here we go again. You might want to fasten your seat belt.

Prologue

"I gotta admit, it was a lot different then I remember when I read it when I was a kid," Hurley said slowly. "I mean, I read quite a few of his books growing up, but unless you'd, like, told me this was his first book, I'm not sure I would've bought it."

Kate nodded. "I read it when I was in high school. I don't know what you saw in it when you read it, Juliet, but I connected with Carrie in a big way. I mean, I wasn't as na?ve as her growing up, but I definitely knew what it was like to be an outsider."

Juliet gave a small smile. "I have to say, this is a much better reception than I got when I tried it at Other Book Club."

"I think it's safe to say, we'd have been more favorable." Claire said. "Of course, we'd been happier to have been in a nice house reading rather than, falling from the sky."

It said a lot about what the Oceanics lives were like nearly three years after coming back from the island that they were able to joke about the experience that had changed their lives. It said even more about them that their lives had returned to normality enough that they and some of their friends were getting together for book clubs every month. Juliet had been reluctant, given how miserable her life had been the last time she'd gotten a group of people together to read Carrie but her sister and her husband had persuaded her that, considering everything else that happened over the three years on the island, this was a really silly hill to die on.

"What's your opinion of it, James?" Rachel asked her brother-in-law.

"How ya asking me?" James said slowly. "As Blondie's husband, a reader, or as a writer?"

"James, after everything we've gone through, you think I'm going to divorce you if you hate my favorite book?" Juliet said fondly.

"From what I understand, Ben didn't like it and you pretty much destroyed his life not longer after," James said teasingly.

"Is that your opinion too?" Kate asked, with a similar tease.

"Hell, the fact that monster hated is a reason I'd love it. But seriously," And James actually did sound serious. "I agree with you. It's pretty close to a masterpiece. I remember reading it for the first time when I was fifteen and really liking it then, and it holds up as well now. I agree with Freckles that it's damn accurate picture of what high school is like, the style is very radical – I can't imagine what it was like for people reading it back then – and the images are terrifying and sad at the same time. I don't say this that often, but the book is way better than the movie."

Juliet smiled at this. "I'm guessing you have some objections."

"Part of its due the fact that, you know, it was King's first published novel." James said carefully. "So it is awkward in a lot of places."

"Well, you'd speak from his experience on that part," Helen said wisely.

"That said it wasn't King's first novel. Guy had been writing for awhile before then. But even if this had come later on, I'm not sure I would have put in my top five of King's work." James said slowly.

Juliet considered this. "Out of curiosity, those five would be…"

"Off the top of my head," James thought. "The Shining, The Stand, Different Seasons, Misery and It."

Hurley considered this. "Which one was Different Seasons?"

"A collection of four mini-novels he wrote in the mid-70s." James said. "Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me were adapted from two of them."

"I guess you actually read some beach novels aside from the heady literature you always were looking at," Locke said, clearly impressed.

"Now I don't know how much of the King you actually read along with his first novel," James said, turning back to his wife.

"Actually, I have read a dozen of his other books, including four of the five you mentioned," Juliet acknowledged. "And I actually agree with you, the four I read, excellent books. But I still like Carrie the most."

"Was it the first one of his novels you read?" Claire asked.

"Wasn't even the fifth," Juliet admitted. "And no, I didn't the see the movie first. Though it's not like I hadn't heard of it."

"Everybody knows prom night and Carrie," Hurley said.

"Part of it had to do with the fact that King, good as he is, doesn't write a lot of very good female characters," Juliet told them. "I'd gone through five of his novels before and I had yet to meet one who had more dimension than being a love interest or a wife."

"Can't disagree with you there," James admitted. "I may not have worked for the Times Book Review, but even the most devoted reader of his book would have to admit after Carrie, it was a very long time before he wrote a book with a real female character, never mind an actual lead." James held up a hand. "Another day. Keep going, Jules."

"The women in this point are basically all seen as villains in a way," Juliet said. "Carrie, in particular, but Sue who just tries to make things better is basically turned into a monster by the media. Chris mostly comes across as pure bitch. And yet, for all that, King somehow manages to see that none of them are truly in control of what happens to them. Carrie doesn't use her powers planning to be a monster, but in the end she just can't live in it anymore. She's responsible for a massacre, but King makes it clear from beginning to end that she's just as much a victim as anybody else at the prom or in her town."

"'Jesus watches from the wall, But his face is cold as stone, And if he loves me As She tells me, why do I feel so all alone?'" Claire quoted. "Considering what her life was before she ever set foot in high school, it's hard not to feel for her."

"That and her mother was batshit insane," James said matter-of-factly. "I'm from the Bible belt, but there are televangelists who wouldn't be as hardcore as Mrs. White. If anything, Carrie was too merciful to her in the end. I'd have given her a wall of knives."

"It is kind of subtle for him," Juliet admitted. "I'll also admit there are some medical issues that are…intriguing. Carrie doesn't start experiencing telepathy until her first menstrual cycle. As someone who's devoted her research to fertility, it was an interesting choice."

"You ever met someone like Carrie?" Kate asked. "Someone who was so restricted by her family that when she had her first period she thought she was dying?"

"I've had some hard cases over the years, but nothing that bad." Juliet said. "That said I've met my share of mothers who think if their daughters so much as cross their legs funny, they're basically whores."

"That I have no trouble believing," James said sadly. "When I started dating, there were a quite a few moms who did want their daughters even talking to me… or any boy."

"We haven't made a lot of progress since then," Helen agreed sorrowfully.

Locke, who in typical fashion had been quiet for much of the club, suddenly spoke. "I remember reading Carrie pretty close to when it first came out."

"You're not going to say you read it before the movie?" James asked, a little mischievously.

"I could, and you wouldn't know otherwise. No, I think I saw the film in August of '76. It was only the second 'R' rated film I'd ever seen. The first was Chinatown, in case you were curious." Locke said. "Up to that point, it was the scariest movie I'd seen in a theater or pretty much anywhere else. And even though I'd read my share of dime horror novels when I was growing up, I had only a vague idea who Stephen King even was."

"Hard to believe there was a time like that," Hurley said. "So what, you went to your local library and got a copy?"

Locke nodded. "Now I'd read my share of horror stories when I was growing up. And when I read Carrie, I was a little confused. Part of it had to do with the fact that, like you said Hugo, it bore only the barest of resemblance to the movie in terms of style. But most of it had to do with the fact that I hadn't really read any horror novel like it before."

"Seriously?" Claire asked.

"When I was growing up, horror wasn't a respectable field. Not only were you considered sick to read it, they questioned the mentality of the people who wrote it." Locke told them. "Back then, horror basically came in two stripes – the Gothic novels and stories that put in the previous century or they basically made it so ridiculously badly that it was practically a comedy."

"Like those movies they were talking over in Mystery Science 3000," Hurley said thoughtfully.

"John's basically right," James admitted. "King himself said in much when he wrote about horror early in his career." Everybody must've looked at James funny, but he shrugged. "I thought Danse Macabre was another horror story when I picked it up in the joint. That's how good a writer he is; he makes a college course entertaining."

"Clearly, you never went to college, but I get your point," Juliet said. "Go on."

"There were maybe two or three writers who were trying to write contemporary horror fiction back then. The best were Robert Bloch – the guy who came up with the original story for Psycho – and Richard Matheson, who was basically fluent in every other field of fiction that he could afford to write horror stories." Locke said.

"Matheson write anything I might have read?" Kate asked.

"Basically, the guy was responsible for every other sci-fi or horror movie coming out of Hollywood for the past ten years," James said fondly. "I Am Legend, that's the third time they've made it."

Hurley's eyebrows went up. "Seriously? That's his?"

"Well, they keep changing the style with each one, but the basic plot is his," James told them. "But honestly, we've all seen his work before Johnny even told us who he was. Guy was one of the original writers on The Twilight Zone."

Everyone but John and Helen was clearly impressed by this. "He write any episodes we'd have heard of?"

"That episode where William Shatner sees a gremlin on the wing of the plane he's on, that's one of his," Helen told them.

Claire shivered a little at that point. "I remember seeing that when I was nine," she told them. "It gave me nightmares for weeks."

"Probably did for a lot of people," Hurley said. "Honestly, I'm kind of amazed all of us saw that episode and had no problem getting on any kind of plane before, well, you know…"

"In case you forgot, some of us didn't exactly have a choice," James reminded them. "But to the point, King has said on more than one occasion that Matheson was one of his biggest influences."

"It wasn't really present in Carrie," John said, nodding at James. "The novel was different, but that could've been a fluke or a one-off. I didn't really know that King was going to be a game-changer until I read his second novel, which had come out about a year earlier, but was actually harder to find. I had to go to a bookstore to find a copy. Had to spend to three whole dollars."

"You're kind of rubbing that in, aren't you?" Helen pointed out.

"What was it?" Kate asked.

"Salem's Lot."

Hurley frowned. "I thought I knew most of them, but I don't remember that one."

"Wasn't turned into a big budget film, Hugo," James frowned, and then looked at Helen and Locke. "They do a version for TV? I don't remember one growing up."

"Mini-series, '78 or '79. Wasn't that good." John told them.

"Well, unless King was writing the script himself, TV could never quite handle him," James conceded.

"Uh, what was it about?" Claire asked.

"Basically, it was a reimagining of Dracula in contemporary Maine," James told them. "These days, something like that's coming out of Hollywood every five minutes, but in '75 it must've been unheard of."

"It was. If you'd read the novel or seen the movie, you could see the parallels pretty easily," Locke said. "But if King had been dark with Carrie, this is where he pretty much established himself as the bleakest of writers. I won't give away all the details because with him that's the better part, but he pretty much maps out how vampirism sort of works like an infection. Those who realize and try to thwart the threat are either killed or forced into exile. The only two who manage to kill the king get away not just by leaving the town, but by leaving the country."

James nodded. "King really seemed fascinated by this story. He actually wrote two short stories in this world, one a prequel, one a sequel. He kept say he might end up to doing a sequel to this one – so did his wife, for that matter – but he never followed through. Probably ain't gonna happen by now, but hell, you never know."

"It was pretty clear after I read this one that I knew what horror would like from this point forward," Locke said. "There's been a lot of new talent in this world – some of them are even King's friends – but there's never been anyone like him."

"I agree with John on that one, and you know how hard it is for me to say that."

Everyone nodded as Jack walked into the room and made a beeline for his wife. "Guess that last surgery took longer than you thought," Kate said.

"It was fine. I actually gave Jack a pass on this one," Juliet said with a nod. "Considering he'd already read this one in my presence."

Locke raised an eyebrow. "That's what you were doing when we were raising across the island to rescue you? Kind of makes wish I really had blown up the sub."

It said that they were all able to laugh at this now. "Well, when the leadership of a group of survivors is foisted upon you, I didn't exactly have time for recreational reading." Jack said with a grin.

"Told you there was a benefit to not listening to you," James said with a matching smile.

"There was a copy in one of the houses. Juliet told me that Ben had found Carrie intensely depressing, so naturally I was inclined to love it." Jack told them. "That said, it is kind of depressing. A very good read, but still pretty sad."

"Well, no one ever really reads Stephen King expecting a happy ending," Rachel admitted.

"Oh, I knew that going in," Jack acknowledged. "I'd read my fair share of him throughout college and med school. Though if I'm being honest, I'm a bigger fan of his short stories than his novels."

Everyone seemed a little surprised at this, except for James who made a motion of tipping an imaginary hat. "That's impressive. Don't get me wrong, his short fiction's great, but even guys like me don't go hunting them out."

"It was a habit I picked up during college actually. I'd get drowsy from studying and after awhile the coffee didn't quite have the same kick," Jack said. "So I'd pick up one of King's collections, pretty much open to one at random, and I'd be too terrified to close my eyes."

"Horror stories as stimulant," Juliet said with a smile. "Have to admit, that's a combination that never quite occurred to me."

"I guess counting to five didn't work then," Kate said, looking at her husband.

"King and his like earn their living letting the fear in," Jack told her.

"The man had could often be better at that then some of his novels," Locke told them. "Of course, from what I know about the man, he'd been making what passed for a living selling them well before Carrie got published."

"You could do that back then?" Hurley asked.

"Barely," James told Hurley. "Granted it was easier than then it is now, but the guy was working two jobs at the time. Every time he sold one, probably paid for an electric bill. Gotta tell you, I'm really impressed he managed to keep going at that rate."

"I know he did a few collections," Claire said slowly. "But I don't know any of his shorter works that well. Any in particular stand out?"

Jack thought for a minute. "Let's see. 'Strawberry Spring', story about a serial killer who struck in when the narrator was in college. There's a twist that anybody these days could see coming, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks back then. 'The Monkey', it's a children's toy that brings death every time it claps. Genuinely unsettling because it's more personal. 'The Raft', four college students go swimming in a lake, end up on a raft and find out that there's some substance floating under that isn't an oil spill."

"I think I know that one," Hurley said. "Showed up in an anthology collection."

Jack was more thoughtful now. 'Dolan's Cadillac'. Yeah, that's sort of an updating a Poe story. A mobster kills a man's wife, and so in order to get his revenge, he starts doing roadwork so he can build the perfect isolated place to bury that man a life. More of a short novel than an actual story. Oh, one that scared the crap out of me in med school: 'The End of the Whole Mess'. One of the most frightening and subtlest apocalypse stories you'll ever read. I'm still worried as a man of medicine that somebody's going to find a way to use that method some day."

"You read the most recent collection, Doc?" James asked casually.

"Everything's Eventual." Jack shook his head. "It was still in my bookshelf at St. Sebastian when I got on the plane. I really gotta get around to looking at that one. Any highlights?"

"Few good ones, but the one that scared the living shit out of me the most was '1408'. Apparently King released it as an audio recording before he put in print." James shook his head. "I've got brass ones, but even I ain't got the courage to hear it. Reading was scary enough."

"Haunted house story?" Hurley asked.

"Haunted hotel room. And that's all I'm saying," James told them.

"I'll get to the book, when I have a chance," Jack nodded.

"Well, hurry upon there's a movie coming out on it soon," James said.

Locke looked a little surprised. "Seriously?"

"Why? Couldn't Stephen King publish his laundry and get a movie deal from it?" Helen teased.

"It's just the lion's share of the short stories that get filmed, they tend to stink," Locke told them firmly.

"Well, it's not like a lot of the movies made from his books are, like, diamonds," Hurley said. "I mean seriously, how many good ones have there been? Carrie, Misery, Stand by Me and Shawshank Redemption, The Shining…"

"That depends on who you ask," James pointed out. "King pretty much disowned the film after he saw it."

"And I agree with him there," Locke said. "It's a terrifying film, but apart from the names and the setting, it has nothing in common with the book."

Jack was nodded in agreement. "Nicholson's a great actor, but he was playing nuts from beginning to end. I kind of get why King felt he had to do his own version."

Hurley nodded. "Maybe The Dead Zone?"

James nodded. "There've been a couple good ones for TV, that Storm of the Century thing I actually wished was a novel. But basically, that's about it."

"And all of those are his novels," Locke said.

Claire raised her hand. "They ever try to do like an anthology films for his stories or just try to make an entire film about them?"

Everybody thought for a minute. "There were a couple of anthology films King himself made that were like that," Locke said thoughtfully. "And a few I think were done for television. Beyond that, most of were made into movies."

"That doesn't sound like a smart idea," Claire said. "It's tough to make a massive novel into a good movie, but what a twenty-page story that just sounds like a lousy idea unless you really have a good screenwriter?"

"Trust me, Mamacita, most of them didn't," James assured him. "They were the straight-to-cable type except I'm not even sure cable was there for a lot of them. "

"And that's without talking about the sequel, "Jack was actually holding his head in his hands. "Anyone remember Children of the Corn?"

Kate actually winced when she heard the name. "It was the first R-Rated movie I ever snuck into. Honestly, I'd been better of if I'd tried to sneak into Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

Juliet grimaced. "I've seen both movies. Roger Rabbit had more realistic characters."

"That movie was bad enough. But last I checked they were up to their fifth direct to DVD sequel," Jack said.

"Seriously?" Hurley said. "Are they just not paying the kids?"

"That may be the only explanation as to why there are so many," Jack said. "And even those that go one and done are just really awful."

"If they had anything to do with the story. Remember Lawnmower Man?" James said, shaking his head. "There was a lawnmower and a man. That's all the two had in common."

"Who was the lead in that movie? I can't remember," Kate asked.

"Does that matter? Only a truly desperate actor with no career ambitions at all would've gone out for that role," James said. "What Pierce Brosnan was doing in it, I'll never understand."

"And some of them are just weird," Juliet said. "Did anybody understand what that Hearts in Atlantis movie was about?"

James actually nodded. "The writers gutted the story. Like half the stories King writes about, it had a connection to his Dark Tower series. They basically made the film with no reference to the Dark Tower and without it the plot makes almost no sense."

"I'm kind of astonished, given the film industry's obsession with fantasy with quest films, no one's tried to make a film series of that," Claire asked.

"They keep talking about it, but it never happens," Locke said.

"And considering how the final novel ended, it never will," James added. "I just can't imagine how many loyal, devoted fans were as pissed off as I was when I finished reading the last one. Made me regret I'd wasted so much time and energy. I seriously considered never reading another book of his again."

"I hear that King and his group are making prequels that fill in the blanks," Hurley said.

"Honestly, I think that's worse," Locke said. "I may be behind in my culture, but if you're not going to tell the whole story the way you promised, trying to make money off it a different ways is just marketing."

"I don't know," Kate said thoughtfully. "I mean, it's not exactly like he needs the money. Maybe they just want to fill in the blanks."

"Yeah, and its comic books," Hurley told them. "How big a crossover can there be between that world and this one?"

James considered this. "Hard to tell. But from what I understand, his son does some work in that field."

Jack actually blinked at this. "King's son is a writer."

"Well, he uses the name Joe Hill," James said, "but I saw the author's pic on one of his books. Let's just say there's a family resemblance."

"Must not be a picnic following in his father's footsteps," Claire said.

"He could be following in his mother's," Juliet said. "Tabitha has been writing nearly as long as her husband has been."

This time Jack nodded. "Yeah, I actually read a couple of her books. She's more in the traditional literature field rather than her husbands, though I think she did do a horror novel or two."

James was thinking. "Now that I think about, I remember reading that she was actually considering writing the sequel to Salem's Lot herself. That I'd have liked to read."

"Now that you mention it, I think the whole family may be in the writing game," Locke said. "As I recall, King's youngest child Owen had a collection of stories that was published not so long ago."

"I've heard of a family business, but this kind of borders on the ridiculous," Claire said. "Are they any other children?"

"He has a daughter, but as far I know she hasn't written anything," James said.

"You know the family pretty well," Rachel said. "What are you; their number one fan?"

"I read the dedications too," James said with a laugh. "He's dedicated at least three or four books apiece to each child and a couple of them to all three. You do pick up certain things if you read his stuff."

"Must've been hard for the sons to decide they wanted to be writers," Hurley said thoughtfully. "Considering how great their parents are at it."

"Must've have been even harder for the daughter to choose her own path," Jack said. "That actually takes a little more dedication."

"From what I understand, she's the oldest," Rachel said. "The oldest child tends to get a little more liberty then her siblings."

"Is that how managed to get away with driving our car through a McDonald when you were ten?" Juliet said fondly.

"Now here's a story we haven't heard," Jack said with certain eagerness.

"I didn't know what I was doing," Rachel said.

"What, did you misunderstand the meaning of 'drive-through?" James said ironically.

Juliet would remember the night of the book club very fondly in the weeks to come. Not just because it had been far more fun and a celebration.

But because it was the last time any of them would be this relaxed for quite some time.

Author's Notes: Meta, anyone?

For those who might have forgotten or those might wonder why I'd start my latest fanfic like this…

Stephen King was a big booster of Lost when it was on the air, and as Darlton noted, The Stand was one of the central influences for the overarching plot of the series. There were several tributes to him throughout the series, most clearly in the fact that Juliet had Carrie at the Others 'Book Club' in the opening teaser to Season 3. I thought it would be fitting to have a mirror of it here; I've actually wanted to do it since at least my third story.

Most of the back story about horror in general and Matheson in particular is accurate. Matheson is one of the great writers of all time and during this period he was having a very late career renaissance in Hollywood. (Though a lot of the movies did stink.) 'Salem's Lot is one of King's best works, but it rarely gets its due because it was turned into a two-part series in 1978 and not a particularly good one. (There was actually a sequel to it a few years later and a remake in 2003. Neither was much better. Trust me, read the book.)

This chapter is also a tribute to Nikki Stafford, whose Finding Lost companions to the show were holy books to people like me who loved and obsessed about everything Lost related. In essence, I wouldn't be writing this series in the first place without her work. And as one of the things she did for us so often was analyze the books that characters like Sawyer or Ben were always reading in a way that made the reader understand that the writers probably weren't having them read Watership Down or Our Mutual Friend just because they were on the island, I thought the best way to pay homage to hear was to have the characters she loved discuss the books in a way she would. I always loved your work, Nikki; you even found a way to make Ulysses seem approachable. (I'll read it. Someday.)

The reference to The Lawnmower Man was deliberate, but even more intentional was the reference to King's The Dark Tower series. I don't know what King's final opinion on how Lost ended was, but considering how badly he handled not just the ending of The Dark Tower series, but much of the lead-up to it, all I can say is, at least Carlton and Damon didn't show up in the flash-sideways telling Desmond why he had to gather everybody together. The fact that fanboys Sawyer and Locke were extremely angry about it, let's say my tongue wasn't entirely in its cheek on that one. I've been able to forgive Darlton a lot after ten years; it's been sixteen years, I'm still having trouble forgiving King.

The King family is in the writing business, and while Joe's work has reached a certain popularity over the last few years, Owen isn't quite there yet. He most recently collaborated on Sleeping Beauties with his father. He tends to lean towards his mother when it comes to a style of writing; most of his fiction has been less inclined towards horror. Tabitha King is a fine author in her own right, mostly standing in the more traditional fiction (though like her husband, the lion's share of her work is set in small-town Maine). Considering all the parent issues the Losties have, I kind of figure this was a subject they'd discuss with interest.

Anyway, the action will begin proper in the next chapter.