Jacob (Jake) Reynolds

[Scott]

Name: Jacob (Jake) Reynolds

Age: late twenties-early thirties (exact age unknown)

Occupation back home: U.S. Navy Lieutenant

Appearance:
Brown crew-cut hair, hazel eyes, hard facial features, althletic build

Nationality: American

Residence: Memphis, Tennessee

Skills: He failed to get into the U.S. Marines Corp after flunking the training course twice, so is very familiar about gun models and ammunition, putting them together, as well as cleaning and handling. He knows basics in ambush and sabotage, as well as boat and plane piloting.

Weaknesses/bad habits: Jake has a brash, frantic and aggressive behaviour, and likes to argue to make a point. He talks a lot because he likes the sound of his own voice, and talks over the top of people in conversations if he feels their point is irrelivant or conflicting. He loses interest in people when he is convinced he is right and he can't persuade them to see things his way choosing to take action rather than waste time arguing. He is very stubborn and hard-headed, refusing to back down from a decision he has already made unless he's throughly convinced otherwise.

Frequent moods/expressions: Mostly he is kind and friendly to people, and gets along well with most types of people. He has a confident personality, and he occasionally makes references to modern 20th century pop culture in his humor, a personal interest of his. He has one-sided conversations with the people who might outright refuse to talk or get along with him, trying to get them to lighten up and see his point of view. In his quiet moments, he rarely shows to others close to him his soft, sensitive nature, which is the true part of his personality he hides behind the mask of his outgoing personality. At his core he is very true and noble, and always seeks to find the moral victory behind everything.

Reason for flight: Returning home from the burial of his child and Australian wife

Item from wreckage: The photo of his deceased wife and child, tape recorder for his notes, laptop (battery is dead)

[pearl]

Good Bio though. Meaning Bio both ways: Physical and psychological
But that deceased wife and child story seems to be very popular among military characters ... I can't tell how often I have heard that. Is there a movie or sth where that comes from?

[Scott]

Thanks Pearl. But no, I just thought of the idea because Jake needed something bad, something horrible to have in his flashbacks to make him the kind of character he is on the island today. Having a wife and child means that he was happy once and wanted a family, but now they're deceased he'll be conflicted and hurt by his loss, wandering if he'll ever have that kind of happiness again. And wanting to lash out at something in his anger, it's good motivation if he ever accompanies the other survivors on hunting trips against the Others. It's stuff like this that makes for a good character. Keep watching this space for his flashbacks, as I'll be putting them up soon, hopefully in chronological order to make things easier to understand.

[Scott]

FLASHBACK

"Jake? Jake?!? Where is that boy?!?" A gruff voice came from down the corridor, as a large man strode through the small farmhouse in Tenasee, looking for his stepson.

"What?" came the voice of a small boy, about seven or eight, who was sitting in the living room, watching TV. He had heard his name called, but he still continued to watch the cartoons on the television.

The man strode in front of the television and switched it off. "I thought I told you to do the yardwork." The man growled at him. "No more TV for you. Get out there and do it!" he yelled.

"But I want to watch TV!" Jake complained, not thinking it was serious. "I'll do the yardwork after I watch cartoons! Please..." He tried to step around the TV to turn it back on.

That was when he felt the first blow. The man hit him across the face, making him stumble and fall over. He did not expect the strike coming, and yelled out in pain, looking back up at him.

"Do it, NOW!" the man demanded. "I'm sick and tired of you, boy. You're lazy, you're no good and you're undisplined."

"You can't tell me what to, Wayne! You're not my real father!" Jake shouted in defiance at his stepfather. "I'm going to go tell my mom what you did!"

That's when Jake felt the second blow. Straight into his eye socket. He didn't even see it coming, and lay sprawled out on the floor, with his stepfather standing omniously over him.

"You always hide behind your mother, but she can't protect you forever." Wayne snapped at him in a barking voice. "I'm going to work you so hard, that I want to see you sweat by the end of the day. You're useless, you know that? Now, get out there, before I come and smack you again. I'll be waiting for you. And for god's sake, get some work clothes on." Then Wayne stepped out of the room, slamming the flywire behind him.

Jake lay on the hard, cold wooden floor, his eye swollen and tears in the corner of his eyes, threatening to streak down his face. But he held them back. "I'm not useless... I'm not..."

END FLASHBACK

[ana]

Awe, poor little Jake

[Scott]

FLASHBACK

Jake hid under his bed that evening, afraid of what his stepfather might do to him next if he ever got caught watching TV again. The wood was cold and dusty, but he had pulled out some of his favorite comics to read to help pass the time. The characters in them helped him to calm down, taking him to another world where right always triumphed over wrong, and no physical harm could come to him.

"Jake?" a softer voice called for him from the doorway now. It was his mother. Jake immediately came out of his world of looney tunes and superheroes, crawling out slowly from underneath the bed. His mother gasped when he saw him. "Jake, what did he do to you? Come here." His mother sat on the bed and patted the bed beside her, and Jake sat down on it. She took his face and examined it. "You should put some ice on this, Jake..."

"I know..." Jake said defensively, and couldn't help but look up at his mother's face. Underneath her chestnut brown hair and over her blue eyes, she was wearing sunglasses, which was strange considering it was almost night time. "Mom, why are you wearing those? There's no sun out..." he said, and lifted up his hand to take off the frames.

"Jake, don't..." His mother protested, but it was already too late. Jake could see her eyesocket now... and it was swollen and bruised, just like his was, but on the other eye. "Jake honey, it's not what you think..." she said defensively. "I fell over, the was this gap in the floorboard, and..."

"Mom, you don't have to lie to me." Jake told her. "I know, it was him, wasn't it? Wayne? He's bad, Mom. I want him to leave."

"Jake, no, don't blame him. He's had a very hard life, and he needs our support now, okay? I know you don't like him now, but that will change when you get to know him better. Come here." She held Jake close to her and held him tightly in a hug. "Everything will be better soon. You just wait and see."

Jake squirmed a little, not used to hugs and feeling a bit old for them. But as time passed his resistance grew less, as his mother started humming a familiar tune to him. He recognised it as a baby from the cradle...

END FLASHBACK

[LostLuverJemmz]

OMG! I love this! There's so musch emotion and a excellent plot! Keep writing more, I love it! ;D

[pearl]

Scott you have a certain kind of greatness about your syle of writeing. Really, it's absolutely nice to read. Very precise and so emotional.
A poor guy this Jake ... well guys like that, sadly or not, do end up at the military quite often.
It's kind of sad ... I seem to be in the minority on the island with that good relationship with my parents ...

[Scott]

(Wow, thanks for the feedback guys. I'm going to jump ahead forward in time with this next one, but I'll try to give hints to what point in Jake's life it is in relevance to the timeline leading up to the crash.)

FLASHBACK

The sound of planes flying overhead brought Jake out of his deep thoughts, bringing him back to the atmosphere of the airport around him. He was at the departure terminal, and was looking at the departure times. The departure board displayed his flight among a list of others in dotted bright lights:
OCEANIC FLIGHT 815 - DEPARTING SYDNEY TO LOS ANGELES - TIME:

He read the time displayed and looked at his watch. Still plenty of enough time to wait before the Flight departed. His mobile phone rang, and he fished around in his pockets for it, pulling it out of his inner jacket pocket. "Hello?" he answered.

"Hello, Jake. This is Mom. I'm just checking to see if you made your flight and you're coming home." the familiar voice of his mother came through the reciever.

"Yeah, Mom, I did... I still have to wait a fair amount of time before we board." Jake answered. "Try not to call me while I'm in flight, I can't answer the phone while we're in the air."

"I know." Jake's mother said affectionately. "Jake, I just wanted to let you know again... I'm sorry I couldn't make the funeral. I'm sure it was lovely. Please give my reguards to Nicole's parents."

"Sure." Jake said in a melancholy tone, still feeling sensitive about the subject. "I made sure I did before they dropped me off here at the airport."

"And Jake," his mother reassured, picking up his tone across the line, "I'm sure Nicole loved you very much. And I'm certain that Dawn did, too. They would have been happy with what you gave them at the funeral. They're in a better place now, watching over you."

Jake was silent for a moment, reaching a hand up to wipe the corners of his eyes, where he felt tears were welling up and fought them back. "I'm sorry, Mom, but I have to go. Thanks for checking up on me. I'll be fine. See you when I get back. Bye."

"Bye. I love you." his mother replied, sounding uncertain.

"Bye." Jake hung up. His mother's words had brought back feelings of remorse from the funeral, and Jake felt he needed some air. He walked away from the departure times and looked around for a men's bathroom.

Finding a vacant one further away from a more public men's bathroom, Jake entered and clasped his hands around rim of the sink, leaning over it for support. With his head hung low, he prepared to look into the mirror. When he eventually did, he looked at the reddish skin around his eyesockets, where it looked like he was about to cry. He turned on the tap and washed his face thoroughly, wanting the tell-tale signs to go away. He didn't want to appear that he had been sobbing in public.

As he turned off the tap, as if by some strange co-incidence, he heard someone else crying coming from inside the bathroom. He looked around curiously, wandering where it was coming from. Walking past the stalls, he bent down and peeked underneath every one of them for legs, until he found a pair of them lying across the tiled floor. Pushing the door open that was already vacant and slightly ajar, he found the owner's legs confirmed his theory - the crying he had heard was from a female.

The girl was a teenager, dressed up in a white dress shirt and a black mini-skirt, and her face looked like it had been recently washed of black makeup, probably mascara. She had a red leather handbag, and she was proped up sitting against the toilet, her head hanging loosely and looking down as she sobbed. As Jake opened the stall, she immediately became aware and pulled her legs towards her body, protecting herself.

"Go away!" she started screaming, raising her voice. "Leave me alone!"

"Whoa, slow down, take it easy." Jake said, backing away and raising his hands in defense. "You're kind've in the wrong place to do that. This is the men's stalls, not the ladies. What are you doing in here?"

"Just go away!" the girl refused to tell him, turning her head away. "You can't help me anyway. Just leave!!!"

"How do you know that? I'm here to help you." Jake offered, still resisting the girl's warnings. There was obviously something wrong enough with the poor girl that she was crying, in the men's restrooms of all places. "Just lower your voice, calm down." Jake's eyes lowered to her handbag, noticing some things had fallen out of it. There were a VISA credit card, a student card with her picture on it, her passport, and a small purse. The VISA card nor her student card were in her purse. Jake took a pot-shot guess.

"You're out of money, aren't you? You're a student who ran out of money? You need some, right?" Jake took pity on the poor girl, fetching his wallet from his pocket, and threw down 3 $100 Australian notes. "That's the last of my Australian money. You can have it, it's the last of it anyway."

The girl's eyes widened towards the money, and looked up at Jake. "I don't take money from strangers." she said hesitantly.

"Well, why don't you tell me your name, and I'll tell you mine?" Jake smiled. "Then we won't be strangers, now, will we?"

The girl sniffled a little, still looking a little hesitant and uncomfortable. "My name's Maureen." She said in a stern and unemotional tone.

Jake nodded and chuckled a little, liking the way the girl gave her name, and adapted it for himself. "My name's Jacob, but my friends call me Jake." he said, repeating the phase back to her in his own way.

Marie sat up a little straighter and reached for her handbag. "What are you expecting me to do with this money? Are you expecting something from me?" she asked suspiciously.

Jake simply chuckled. "Yes, but I'm only expecting you to - " He didn't get to finish the rest of his sentance, as suddenly Marie pulled something from her handbag and sprayed him with it directly into his eyes. Jake shouted out in pain, smelling pepper, dropping his wallet as he stumbled backwards out of the stall. Clutching his eyes in agony, he heard Marie move past him and run out the door, leaving him alone in the bathroom. "Ahhh, son of a gun! Marie, wait... ahhh! I'm only trying to help you! Wait!" But she was gone. Blinded by a painful stinging sensation in his eyes unlike the likes of which he had never felt before in his naval career, Jake started feeling around the bathroom floor for his wallet. He swept the whole floor, but found nothing. The money was gone, his wallet was gone, and now that he felt around in his jacket pocket, his phone was missing, too.

Jake collasped against the wall and slid back into the corner of the bathroom, mesmerised in the sheer pain that had been inflicted into his eyeballs. He couldn't believe it. He had been robbed by a teenage girl. He had taken pity on her, and she had used it to take advantage of him. He sat there, thinking of what just happened, wondering how long it would take until the blindness in his eyes would go away. Tears had begun dripping out of the corner of his eyes in retaliation to the pepper spray, the eye's natural defense mechanism for foreign objects.

So much for not crying, he thought to himself.

END FLASHBACK

[Gwen Havers]

Wow, Jake is having a really bad week. Remind me to give you two bottles of vodka on the plane, hon.

[ana]

I really like the way you write, it's like I can see what i'm reading, it's great And yeah, bad week for Jake. He's such a nice guy though, wanting to help.

~cough~Sucker!~cough~

[Scott]

Until the next flashback, I thought I'd post up some pictures of the actors and actresses I picked out for the characters in Jake's flashbacks. Let me know people if they conflict with anyone you had in mind for your flashbacks. They are, in order of appearance:

Wayne Brewster, Jake's stepfather:

Jake's mother, Patrica Reynolds:

Maureen (Marie) Collins:

[Hollywood Heidi]

Oh phew, in your first flashback with your stepfather Wayne, I thought maybe it was the same abusive Wayne that Kate's mom ended up marrying!

As the other's have said, really great writing! Love how it gives you a visual of it.

[Severin]

Brilliant flashbacks, really enjoyed reading them but...is it wrong that I thought it was funny when Jake got maced? Poor guy just can't get a break.

[JINX]

Great flashback!!!

Poor Jack, and things don't look any better. If ya see Vivian around I'm sure she'll help with any Future wounded.