Ready and Waiting to Fall - Part Three
Series: Ready and Waiting to Fall
Title: Unforeseen Consequences
Part: 3/4
Pairing: Jack/Kate
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: AU beginning after 2.09 "What Kate Did"
Disclaimers: Not mine!
Previous Parts: 1 | 2
They are all looking at her, that much is obvious. Looking at her like they know, which in truth, they probably do.
Kate glances back over her shoulder at Jack as they walk from the jungle and onto the beach, his hand finding hers again the second there is enough room on the trail to walk side by side. Jack looks at the interested faces peering at them from over campfires and out from tent entrances and he smiles, blushing and casting his gaze down toward the ground for only a moment before looking back up.
“So hey…you think they know?” He murmurs to her jokingly. She laughs a little and pulls his hand tighter, nodding toward her tent.
“Come on.” Kate leads Jack through camp, pretending not to notice how they are being watched, and then drops her backpack onto the ground in front of her makeshift home with little flourish. Placing her hands on her hips, she tilts her head and looks up at him with a crooked smile. “I think this is the part of the date when you drop me at my door and kiss me chastely good-night.”
“But it’s morning,” Jack chuckles, stepping closer to her.
“And we haven’t exactly been chaste,” she points out, moving her hands to his hips now, letting his replace hers on her own waist.
“And it wasn’t exactly a date.”
“Hmmm…so what exactly is the protocol here?” Kate teases, biting her lip and pretending to think long and hard over it. “You got anywhere you have to be?”
“Of course I do.” Jack shrugs, sounding like he could care less about what he should be doing.
“But does it matter?”
“Not at all.”
“Well then,” Kate steps back from him, biting her lip now coyly. “I’ve been up all night and I think I need to take a nap.” She ducks into her tent without further comment, leaving Jack standing alone outside. He hesitates a moment, unsure what he’s supposed to do now, and then turns to go. “You coming in?” Kate pops her head back out and Jack stops, looking almost relieved.
He pushes off the straps of his own backpack and lets it fall carelessly next to Kate’s, then bends down to enter her low tent. Kate pulls down the flaps to block out the prying eyes from the beach and turns to face Jack with another warm grin.
She can’t remember the last time smiles came so easily.
Her tent is a bit hot and humid and the sunlight streaming in through the plastic tarp shades everything in a faint tint of blue. Despite the noises from the beach - the waves rolling onto shore, the faint murmurs of voices and the crackle of the camp fires as people rise and begin scrounging for breakfast - Kate still feels alone with Jack, just the two of them in this small space.
Jack sighs as he lies down next to her, his body slightly stiff and sore from last night’s exertions and the small amount of time they had spent sleeping on the hard, uneven surface of the cave’s floor. Kate nestles close to him and he automatically wraps his arms around her, twining his fingers with hers as they settle into the blanket and the soft sand beneath it.
It all seems to easy, Kate thinks, as she hears and feels Jack’s breathing grow even against her body. Nothing in her life has ever been this easy. She can feel it, the familiar tug deep down inside that makes her want to question it, the panic that maybe it’s all too easy.
But that feeling has never made her anything but unhappy so Kate forcibly tells herself to shut up. She closes her eyes tightly and moves as closely next to Jack as she can, determined not to listen.
*******
“It’s one o’clock…ain’t the good doctor back yet?” Sawyer smirks, getting a perverse sense of satisfaction from making Sun squirm in front of him. He knows she doesn’t want to be in this position but that’s almost why he can’t help himself. He has to make someone feel bad about this and she’s the only one around.
“I do not know, Sawyer. Jack did not tell me when we should expect him back.”
“Helluva doc, that one, ain’t he? Here I am, on the brink of dyin’, and he sees fit to go off on vacation and leave you here to take care a me. Seems like a kinda shitty thing to do, don’t it?” Sawyer states and Sun sighs. She is tired of battling him; she’s been doing it all morning long.
“Sawyer, you’re fine. You’ve been out of the clear for two days now, so stop your whining.” Libby appears in the doorway, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorframe as she shoots Sawyer a warning look. “You’re going to drive poor Sun here crazy.”
“I’m only askin' her a couple a questions. Ain’t my fault that she don’t got any answers for ‘em.”
“Oh she has answers, Sawyer.” Libby steps into the room. “She’s just too nice to give them to you.” She sets her hand on Sun’s shoulder and pats it once gently. Sun looks up at her and Libby nods her head back toward the door. “I’ll get Sawyer’s pills ready, Sun. Why don’t you go rest?”
“Thank you,” Sun says gratefully, not hesitating before getting up, practically running for the door. Libby takes her seat and finishes Sun’s task and hands a mixture of three pills to Sawyer with a glass of water. Sawyer shoots her a skeptical look and Libby rolls her eyes.
“You really are a big baby. Just sit up and take them, please?”
“Fine,” Sawyer grunts and sits up, taking them from her roughly. “So…” He tosses them back and takes a swig of water, swallowing hard. “What are the answers?”
“You already know, Sawyer. And torturing poor Sun over it isn’t going to make you feel any better.”
“It kinda does,” Sawyer shrugs and Libby shakes her head at him.
“Does it really? Because I don’t think so.” Libby leans forward and places her elbows on her knees, looking at Sawyer intently. Sawyer makes a scoffing noise and then looks away, out the fake window at the bright lightbulbs standing in for sunlight. He picks absently at the lint on the bedspread for a moment before sneaking a sideways glance at Libby.
“So. They back or what?”
“They’re asleep in Kate’s tent. Together.” Libby tells him bluntly. “The got back a few hours ago, and they were holding hands. They both looked very happy.”
“Don’t hold anything back on my account,” Sawyer snorts.
“Oh, I won’t,” Libby retorts. “I’m not going to sugarcoat anything for you, Sawyer, I don’t see the point. Jack and Kate are together now and you don’t have much choice but to get over it.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“Yeah, you could choose to be an asshole about it, sure,” Libby agrees. “But all that’s going to do is make them both hate you and alienate yourself from the group. Because people like Jack and let me tell you, they’re happy that Kate is with him. But…they like you too, even though you don’t want them to, and if you put even a little bit of effort into it, you could easily have a shot at winning her back.”
“Back implies I had her to begin with, and I didn’t. Guess you could stand to do a little research, Dr. Feelgood.” Sawyer replies tightly, his eyes narrowing. Libby shrugs and then stands up.
“Just trying to help, Sawyer. Stay down here and pout then. I can’t help you if you don’t want to be helped.”
“Well I’m just fine, so why don’t you go back to analyzin’ everyone else ‘round here and leave me the hell alone,” Sawyer snaps. Libby smiles and it makes Sawyer uneasy, that unaffected grin that shows only amusement at his defensiveness back again at full force.
“You should talk with Ana Lucia. You two have a lot in common,” Libby states. Sawyer chuckles sardonically at the very idea.
“Me and Rambina? How’s that.”
“Jack was her only real ally around here, just like Kate was yours. And she’s not willing to put herself out there and try to make any new friends. Maybe you could help each other out.”
“If you think me and Xena are gonna be braidin’ each other friendship bracelets anytime soon-”
“Not what I meant, Sawyer.” Libby replies and then turns and walks out, not giving Sawyer a chance to reply. She passes Hurley on the way out and gives him a small smile. He manages to smile back goofily long after she has already walked by, like it took him a minute to realize that she was looking at him.
He enters the bedroom and sees Sawyer scowling and his expression promptly turns to one of confusion.
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?”
“You notice anything weird about that Libby chick?”
“Uh…weird?” Hurley shakes his head. “She seems fine to me. Why, what do you think…?”
“Something’s off. She ain’t right. It’s like…if she were a guy, I think James Spader would play her.”
“Dude, harsh.” Hurley throws a look over his shoulder in the direction that Libby had went and shrugs. “I dunno. I think she’s kinda pretty.”
“Oh you do, do ya?” Sawyer says knowingly.
“Yeah, uh, I mean, don’t you?”
“Not my type, Chubbo.”
“Oh, right.” Hurley nods, reminding himself that clearly Sawyer’s type is Kate and then remembering why that’s a bad thing to bring up now. Sawyer sighs.
“Libby already told me, all right? So quit that.”
“Quit what? I wasn’t doing anything,” Hurley says defensively and Sawyer shakes his head.
“Yeah, you were doing that Oh poor Sawyer, look that every god damn person who comes in here has, like I’m some poor broken-hearted disgraced Wharton chick who got passed over.”
“Wharton chick?”
“Don’t you read, Jabba?”
“I read comic books?”
“Point is, I ain’t all upset over it, so if you wouldn’t mind spreadin’ the word that ol’ Sawyer down here don’t give a god damn that Doc and Kate are bumpin’ uglies, that would be real helpful.”
“Um, okay. Sure thing.” Hurley replies. “You…you need anything else? I mean, besides that?”
“Not really. Some damn peace and quiet would be just fine.”
“Yeah. Right.” Hurley gets his message and heads for the door, but then stops, remembering why he came down in the first place. Swinging his backpack off his shoulder, he digs through it and eventually comes out with a beat up paperback. “Lance had this. Thought you might want it.” He tosses it to Sawyer, who catches it with his good hand.
“Dorothy Parker. Great.”
“What, you don’t like it?”
“No, bitter and witty - it’s right up my alley,” Sawyer assures him with a touch of reluctant sadness in his voice. “Uh, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Hurley seems genuinely touched by Sawyer’s mumbled gratitude and smiles widely at him before he leaves. Sawyer watches him go, happy to have the book but a bit unnerved by how nice mostly everyone is still being to him. The urge to apologize to Sun that comes at that moment is strong and he quickly chooses to ignore it, instead flipping open the book and letting it fall to a random poem.
“Give your heart, and toss and moan; What a pretty fool you look! I am sage, who sit alone; Here’s my wool, and here’s my book.” Sawyer reads aloud softly to himself and then sighs deeply. “Amen to that, sister.”
*******
Jack stirs slowly, taking a moment to adjust to the dim light inside of Kate’s tent and to realize where he is. Kate is still sleeping soundly beside him. Her tank top has ridden up slightly, revealing the skin of her flat stomach accidentally. He runs his hand over her waist, scarcely able to believe how quickly everything has changed between them.
After Sawyer had left on the raft, they had started growing so much closer. He felt it and he was sure she had too; things were easy and natural between them again, the way it was at the beginning when they first met, before Sawyer - and many other things - had come between them. Then Sawyer had come back, on the brink of death and in the blink of an eye all of that was gone. There was the kiss and then she had run back to Sawyer’s side. And he had gone to Ana’s.
He figured that was it and he had already prepared himself to write her off as yet another regret on his ever-growing list when she surprised him by being completely straight with him, for perhaps the first time since they’d met.
That was all it took.
Now she is lying beside him in the fading glow of twilight, looking every inch the delicate, innocent angel that he knows she is not and that he would never want her to be, not anymore. It’s her fire and her stubborn determination that makes her her, and while it certainly gives rise to many occasion when he wonders what it is they see in one another, more often than not reminds him exactly why this could work between them.
Unlike Sarah, or any other woman before her, Kate needs him and depends on him because she chooses to, not because she thinks he can or should save her. Kate can save herself. She gave him her trust and confidence like a gift he had to earn, not something he deserved by proxy of simply being him. As a result he’s never been more sure that he deserves her trust and her love and never more willing to give it himself.
He runs his hand over her stomach gently before letting his fingers slide up underneath the worn fabric of her thin tank top, brushing the undersides of her small bare breasts. Bending his head, he lets his lips whisper over her ear as he says her name gently, easing her awake. She shifts into his touch as her eyes flutter open.
“Morning,” Kate murmurs and he smiles, kissing her neck gently.
“It’s evening.”
“We’ve been asleep for that long?”
“Sun’s already going down,” Jack replies and she smiles lazily, turning to face him, his hand sliding around to her back now and down to the waistline of her loose jeans.
“We’re never going to be able to sleep tonight.” Kate pushes back on his shoulders and he lets her roll on top of him easily.
“Do we want to?” Jack asks and Kate giggles, pushing her hands underneath his t-shirt and running them up his chest, taking the fabric with her.
“I can’t believe you really slept all day. You’ve got to be pulling my leg,” Kate responds, climbing off of him and making like she’s going to go look outside and make sure he’s not lying. Jack actually grabs her leg as she sticks her head out the entrance to her tent, erupting in a loud laugh that captures everyone’s attention as Jack pulls her back inside. “It really is getting dark out there!” She exclaims with overdramatic surprise as Jack pins her down underneath him, laughing too. “Guess I really wore you out, huh.”
“Yeah, I’m blaming you entirely,” Jack replies, dipping his head and kissing her gently, playfully. Kate puts her hands on either side of his face as he draws back and her face becomes serious and thoughtful as she looks up at him.
“I like it when you laugh,” she says as if the thought just occurred to her. Jack’s wide grin becomes a little softer and he kisses her again. “You should laugh more.”
“I’ll try,” He mumbles. “It’s just a lot easier to do when we’re alone I guess.”
“Why, you think you’ll blow everyone’s minds if you actually let them see you smile?” Kate asks and Jack rolls onto his back beside her, letting out a long breath, his smile fading. Kate sits up, alarmed, wondering what she said to make him pull away.
“I guess there’s just not much to smile about out there,” Jack explains, nodding his head toward the side of her tent to indicate he means what is waiting for them when they finally emerge. Kate sighs and lays down beside him, her arm over his chest and her leg slung over his. She rests her head on his shoulder and she feels him take a deep breath, nuzzling his face in her soft hair.
“We could just stay in here forever then.” She gives a little shrug and she can feel Jack smile at the idea. Not moving anything except her hand, she slides her palm over his abs and then begins working open the fly of his jeans. His boxers are still in her backpack outside, put there last night after she accidentally discarded them into the mud, so she knows nothing stands between her and what she wants. She wraps her hand around him as she pulls him out, lifting her head and stifling his surprised groan with a kiss. “Everything I need is right here anyway.”
“Everything? What about food…wat…er…fuck, Kate,” Jack’s thought is interrupted when Kate grips him firmly and pumps him hard, eager to get things started. Kate sits up and moves down, straddling his ankles, and pulls down his jeans before taking his quickly hardening length back in her hand.
“Food and water? Might be overrated,” Kate jokes, running her hand up and down again and bending over, her lips parting slightly in anticipation.
“Kate, everyone is going to hear us.” Jack whispers, starting to sit up in an attempt to stop her.
“Not if you’re quiet,” Kate points out, flicking her tongue out and around the head of his cock. Jack’s body shivers at the sensation and she sees him bite his lip, holding back an enthusiastic groan. “Think you can stay quiet?” She inquires before taking the tip into her mouth. Jack nods fiercely but Kate doesn’t believe it for a second. He won’t be able to, not if she does this right. She may not have much experience being in love, but she had still picked up quite a bit of knowledge in the bedroom anyway.
He’s still halfway sitting up and looking down at her when she takes him in, first halfway, then almost entirely. Feeling him throbbing against her tongue makes her own body pulse, her heartbeat quickening and her blood pounding through her veins. She’d almost been overwhelmed by it last night, the strange feeling of having sex with someone and having so much more behind it than mere sexual satisfaction or an agenda of her own.
She sucks Jack harder to let out some of her own pressure, releasing her need for him by giving him everything he could want, taking him in as deep as she can. She can feel him swell inside her mouth and soon she can taste him leaking onto her tongue. Kate glances up at him and she finds him watching her with hazy, dark eyes, his mouth parted as breathless, shallow gasps push past his pale lips. He swears softly when she looks at him and he brings his hand to the side of her face, a gesture so sweet and loving that Kate knows she must be doing something wrong. She doesn’t want him to have the presence of mind to touch her like that, as much as she loves it.
She closes her eyes and draws him in completely, forcing her throat open and letting her hand drift down between his legs, running over his balls and then squeezing them gently. Jack swears sharply, loudly, and his hand is suddenly in her hair, tugging hard on the curly tendrils.
But then his other hand is around the base of his cock and he’s holding himself tightly, pushing Kate away. Kate looks up the length of his body to his face, flushed and shining with a faint sheen of sweat. He winces once before trying to speak, unable to get any words out.
“What? What’s wrong?” She asks, worried.
“Not like…” He manages, shaking his head. “I want…inside you.” He draws in a deep breath and gestures toward the tent’s entrance. “I want to be inside you…together,” He says when he has more control and Kate understands that he’s pointing to where there bags are outside on the sand.
Hurriedly she reaches out and grabs her bag, then his, pulling them inside.
“Side pocket,” Jack whispers and Kate unzips it quickly, pulling out the last condom they have left.
“What are we going to do after this time?” Kate asks as she stands up, pulling off her clothes, not worried about being graceful, too distracted by the sight of Jack lying there in front of her with his hard-on pressing up against his stomach to care. She helps him pull his jeans all the way off and then tugs off his t-shirt before straddling him again and tearing open the condom.
“I don’t know,” Jack replies, leaning up to pull her face down to his, kissing her deeply. “We’ll figure something out.”
“We will?”
“Well I certainly don’t plan on never doing this again,” Jack assures her, out-of-breath, his voice a gravelly rasp that sends a surge of arousal through her. She wraps her fingers around the base of his cock and positions herself above him, guiding him inside her as she sinks down. They both groan far too loudly as their bodies join and Jack’s hands find her waist, holding her to him.
“Yeah…there’s no way in hell I’m stopping this.” Kate leans forward, placing her hands flat on either side of his head and starts to ride him, forward and back, her hair falling in a curtain around his face. They kiss until they can’t, feeling too much to handle the coordination it takes for their tongues to explore one another’s mouths. Instead her lips brush over his with each purposeful thrust, tongues meeting by happenstance, their breath mingling as they pant breathlessly against one another.
Jack’s hands slip downward and his wide palms slide over the soft curve of her lower back and her ass, pushing into her with the rhythm as she rocks against him, each movement seeming to make them closer together even though they’re already as close to one another as they can be. Kate closes her eyes and loses herself in the whirl of sensation as it overtakes her, everything she is doing, everything he is doing, somehow heightened. She feels everything, from the hold of his hands to the tension in his muscles, the way he breathes her name sounding so loud even though his voice is terribly quiet and low, how her own cries seem desperate and overpowering, the kind of pleasured moans she used to let out when she was faking it with other men now erupting forth from her of their own volition. She knows she must sound ridiculous, panting over how good he feels and begging for him, but when he rolls her over onto her back and pounds into her, wrapping her legs around his back, she thanks god that she hadn’t been able to control herself.
The second she begins to feel it take over her body and she tightens around him, Jack lets go, like he was waiting for her before he gave in. They cry out together, the sounds muffled against one another’s mouths, and they hold, perfectly joined for a long moment of drawn-out bliss before she relaxes her hold on him, her hands soothing the skin she had just clutched at wildly in the throes of it.
They sink together against the blanket and he gently pulls out, soothing her legs down from around his back and stroking her thighs as she stretches them down alongside him. He moves to lie beside her and she takes her now familiar position against the side of his body, her head now seeming to fit perfectly in the curve between his shoulder and his collarbone.
Spotting the empty condom wrapper out of the corner of her eye, Kate reaches across Jack’s body and picks it up, turning it over between two fingers.
“Yeah…there’s no way I’m giving that up, so we need to find more of these. Stat.”
“Stat?” Jack repeats, letting out a short burst of laughter that shakes through her body too as he holds her close.
“What? That’s what you doctors say when you need something right away, right? Stat! So…” She holds up the wrapper and then tosses it in his face. “Stat!”
“I promise, I will try to find some. Maybe Sun and Jin have some they’d be willing to part with.”
“Maybe,” Kate says, though she doubts it. Sun had handed over quite a few the day prior and she hadn’t seemed too concerned about parting with them. She said Hurley had snuck them to Jin one night with good intentions but that they did not really need them. Kate didn’t ask why they didn’t and she didn’t ask why Hurley had them in the first place. All she knows is that Sun had given them to her and she and Jack had blown through them in one night. Not exactly the best planning, but then again, she hadn’t really been thinking about that at the time.
She reaches across and takes Jack’s hand in hers, twining their fingers together, and looks at his roughened palms thoughtfully.
“So what now?” Jack asks her softly, mistaking the serious look on her face for something like doubt or misgivings, when in reality her thoughts are only intensely focused on how much she loves his hands.
“Now,” Kate starts, bringing his fingers to her lips and brushing them across his knuckles. “Now, I venture out there and get us some water. I’m thirsty.”
“I can go.” Jack makes a move to get up and Kate lays her hand flat on his chest, pushing him back forcefully.
“You lie right there. Let someone else take care of you - it could be a refreshing change,” she teases, sticking her tongue out at him. Jack gives in easily, not about to fight her on it. He watches as she sits up and pulls on her clothes. She grins at him slyly, knowing he’s watching. “You look so young when you do that,” she comments.
“What?” Jack asks, clueless.
“I see you looking. All wide-eyed and appreciative, like you’ve never seen a naked girl before.” Jack laughs, his smile wide.
“Sorry. I just haven’t had much opportunity before last night to look at you, is all. I can stop.”
“Don’t you dare.” Kate tugs down her tank top and stands up, grabbing their water bottles from their packs. “I’ll be right back and then you can look some more, how about that?” With a playful wink she ducks out of the tent.
*******
“Whatcha doin’ out here all by your lonesome, princess?” Sawyer accidentally-on-purpose kicks sand over Ana Lucia’s boots and is met with a withering stare that seems to cut through the gathering darkness like a knife.
“Bein’ alone, what’s it look like?” She retorts. Sawyer stops in front of her and looks down, watching as she cuts off another piece of the mango she is holding. She glances up at him, annoyed. “Alone means one, Sawyer. Solo, singular, uno.”
“Thanks for the helpful definition and ample synonyms, guess you missed your calling as a first grade teacher, Ana LuLu.” Sawyer sits down next to her anyway. “One outcast to another, sitting on the fringes of camp? Looking at them all longingly? Ain’t the way to gain loner cred.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“Ah, that’s right. It ain’t about them.” Sawyer shakes his head and then nods toward Kate’s tent, which he had seen Kate slip out of a few minutes ago with two water bottles and an incredibly satisfied smile. “Guess I should say looking longingly at Jacko, if I want to hit the nail on the head.”
“Lookit, you ass, you don’t know the first thing about me. I’m not going to sit here and commiserate with you or some shit like that because Jack stole your girl. Don’t expect any sympathy from me. I’d say you deserve whatever you get.”
“Yeah, except if life was about getting what I deserved, sweetcakes, I’d probably be dead by now. Something tells me you wouldn’t be much better off.” He looks at her critically and she frowns, but doesn’t contradict him. “So, I don’t get what I deserve. I get what I want.”
“And what do you want, Sawyer?”
“Same thing you want, just diff’rent side of the coin.” Sawyer gestures toward Kate’s tent. “Your pal Libby seems to think we have a lot in common.”
“Maybe Libby should keep her mouth shut,” Ana snaps and Sawyer shrugs, leaning back on the sand on his good arm and tossing his hair from his face.
“Yeah, she prob’ly should, but I daresay she does have quite the point about you n’ me.”
“If you think I’m going to help you break the two of them up, just because Libby-“
“You’d want to break them up because Jack’s the only person around here who don’t look at you like the murderer you are and don't pretend you wouldn't.”
“Shannon was an accident, I-“
“Yeah, that’d be all and good except somethin’ tells me Blondie ain’t the only person you’ve sent a bullet through,” Sawyer states flatly and Ana looks at him in surprise for a split second, unable to conceal it. Sawyer waves her off as she opens her mouth to defend herself and tell him he’s wrong. “Don’t worry about it, you ain’t alone in that.”
Ana stares at him for a minute and then regains her composure, turning away from him and going back to the fruit she was cutting up.
“Yeah. Well. Maybe you shouldn’t go around admitting you’ve killed someone to a cop.”
“Maybe cops shouldn’t go around killing people.”
“You know what?” Ana brandishes the knife in his direction but Sawyer doesn’t flinch. Ana sticks it harshly down into the ground and clambers up from the sand. “Screw you.”
“Fine, babycakes, if that’s how you wanna play it. I just thought maybe you’d want in, is all.”
“In on what?”
“I’m figurin’ on turnin’ things around in this here camp. Ol’ Doc’s all distracted with Freckles over there and now would be prime opportunity to show these folks who’s really boss.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is that I went by my old tent the other day and all my stuff’s gone. Everythin’ I had. They took it.”
“And then Jack takes Kate too.” Ana supplies simply.
“All I got goin’ for me is that I’ve been stuck down in that hatch for days with nothing to do but think about how I’m gonna get back at all these jerks around here.”
“Forget it, Sawyer. Revenge isn’t my thing.” Ana turns to walk away but Sawyer’s voice stops her.
“You’re a terrible liar, Ana LuLu,” He says, almost in delighted sing-song. He stands up now, walking toward her. “It’s only a matter of time before something goes down around here that sets everyone off. And when it happens, the person with the guns is gonna be the one in charge.”
“The guns?” Ana repeats, disbelieving that this is actually where he’s taking it.
“Hell, I’m down in the hatch all day practically by myself. I’ve got ample opportunity to nick ‘em.”
“So why do you need me?” Ana asks, crossing her arms over her chest and staring him down.
“Because your boy Jack’s got four guns of his own and boxes of ammo hidden somewhere around here, and I don’t know where. You gotta get him to tell ya.”
“And once I do this, this incredibly impossible thing - what then, Sawyer? We got the guns, then what?”
“Then we’re in charge.”
“People hate us. How’s that going to work?”
“Name one leader that people actually liked.” This gives Ana pause and Sawyer smirks. “Exactly.”
“I don’t see what this has to do with Jack and Kate.” Ana tries a different tack, knowing it’s a bad idea to get involved with this yet somehow not able to walk away from it. “How’s this going to get us what we want?”
“Girl, with them? We ain't gonna get what we want or what we deserve. They - and everyone else - thinks we're gonna pine for 'em? Hell no. This ain’t about goin’ all WB and deviously plottin’ to break up the happy couple. This is about showin’ everyone we don’t give a damn about them, or anyone.”
“But you do give a damn.”
“No one has to know that ‘cept you, just like no one has to know about you n’ Jack 'cept me. Deal?”
Sawyer extends his hand out to Ana Lucia and she eyes it, not about to shake it.
“Libby gave you this idea?”
“Not on purpose. I think she was thinkin’ we could use each other to make Jack and Kate jealous. Poor gal has no idea what a dark and twisted guy she was talkin’ to. For a psychologist, she’s pretty fucking naïve.”
Sawyer is still holding his hand out to her and he raises his eyebrows, waiting for her to either take it or walk away. Apprehensively, she shakes it once, quickly, then steps back.
“You better be right about this, Sawyer, you better not screw it up.”
“You worry about yourself, I’ll worry about me. You find out where Jack keeps those guns we’ll go from there.” Sawyer looks over her shoulder to Kate’s tent as Kate comes back, bottles of water full. She is about to go back inside when Claire hurries to her side, clinging to a wailing Aaron, asking for Jack. Kate sticks her head inside and within seconds Jack is stepping out onto the beach, still in the midst of pulling his t-shirt over his head.
He looks purposefully at them, relishing the hurt he feels when Jack runs his hand across the small of Kate’s back as he stands beside her, listening to Claire explain the trouble with her son. He stares when Jack kisses her on the cheek and sends her off to his tent to get his medical pack. He glances at Ana Lucia before going after Kate, finding the other woman staring too.
Libby was right about that. They are very similar.
He doesn’t say anything to her as he walks away. He catches up with Kate as she’s about to go into Jack’s tent.
“Freckles, what is it you’re doin’ in the Doc’s tent?” Sawyer asks fakely, as if he has no clue as to how Kate and Jack’s relationship has advanced in the last 24 hours.
“Do you see the med supplies?” She asks him, shining the flashlight into the darkness of Jack’s tent. She stops, turning back around to look at him, it finally striking her a moment later that it is Sawyer who spoke. “And what are you doing out of the hatch? You’re supposed to be resting.”
“I’m rested. Now why are you lookin’ for the meds? Someone sick?”
“Claire’s worried about Aaron. Jack wants his stuff.”
“Look at you playin’ nurse. Ain’t that cute,” Sawyer states snarkily and Kate throws him a dirty look. She finds the bag she’s looking for and slings it over her shoulder, pushing past Sawyer.
“Go back to the hatch, Sawyer. You shouldn’t be out here.”
“Go back down there and miss hearin’ you and Jack screw all night long? Now why in the world would I want to do that.”
“Sawyer…” Kate pauses and her eyes close like she’s hurt. She turns back to face him slowly, taking a deep breath. “Look…I’m sorry that things turned out this way. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Sawyer's eyes narrow, her apologies, so cliched, so meaningless, only serving to make him want her to say anything else. He can't take her pity, her regret, not when she turns around and goes back to Jack, to smile and be happy and loved, all the things that he can never be.
“I ain’t hurt,” Sawyer assures her, forcing a tight smile onto his face. “You can spread your legs for anyone you want to, Freckles, I don’t care.”
“Sawyer-“ Kate is offended but Sawyer pays her no mind, happy to see anything on her face besides her overdone expression of sympathy.
“I just think it’s amusing, is all.”
“What is.” Her voice is clipped now, all semblance of compassion gone.
“You. Fooling yourself into thinking it’s gonna work between the two of you. You’re like me, Freckles. He ain’t. People like us and people like him…it never works.”
“Funny. I seem to remember a time when you tried to convince me you and Jack weren’t that different,” Kate replies, her eyes narrowed to tiny slits. She hefts the bag up onto the top of her shoulder again. “We’re done here, Sawyer.”
He watches her go with the smallest twinge of regret but he knows it’s for the best. He catches Ana Lucia’s gaze from across the camp and smirks at her. She holds his gaze for a moment before turning to watch Jack with Aaron, Kate by his side the whole time.
She has made her choice. And he’s made his.
He’s made his.
*******
------->THIS PART CONTINUED...