Ribbons & Paper
Title: Ribbons & Paper
Character: James/Sawyer, Mary Ford, Anthony Cooper
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Through 3.19 “The Brig”
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Dedication: For lostsquee Luau Queen gottalovev, who wanted firsts. I tried to do a little different interpretation of that, a little dark and angsty.
He bounds down the steps of the stage two at a time and throws himself into his mother’s waiting arms. She is beaming, laughing, and her long blonde hair falls over his shoulder as she hugs him tightly; she smells of something flowery and sweet.
“James, we are so proud of you!” He smiles wide and happy, revealing the gap where he’d lost two of his teeth.
“Look, look!” He pulls back from her and holds up his big blue first place ribbon, sticking it proudly close to her face.
“That’s my little spelling champion! I knew you could do it, James.” Then her arms are around him again and he giggles. Her fingers at his sides tickle. Looking over her shoulder, he recognizes his father’s shoes, his father’s pants, and raises his head, clutching his ribbon to show off for his pa.
“That’s it?” comes the snide remark as he takes it and begins to tear it into shreds. Fabric turns to paper in his hands, ragged strips falling to the ground.
By the time he lifts his shocked eyes to his father’s face, Anthony Cooper is staring at him, smirking hatefully as those perfectly spelled words of hatred and revenge are torn to shreds.
“Doesn’t much matter now, does it?” Cooper laughs.
Sawyer wakes with a start and sits bolt upright, his heart pounding. For a moment he forgets where he is, that it's over.
Slowly he sinks back down onto his blanket and tries to forget the terror, regret and pain of doing what he always said he would.
He rolls on his side and stubbornly forces his eyes closed.
No, it doesn’t much matter now. Not anymore.