Sawyer awoke with a headache pounding in his ears. He knew he would be sensitive to the light, so he didn't open his eyes right away. This wasn't his first hangover. Sawyer took the time to probe his memory for what happened the night before. He vaguely recalled stumbling into the house, but after that was a only blur, just snippets of sound and picture. He definitely recalled the yelling, and he distinctly remembered a vase nearing missing his head.
Was that… birds chirping?
Sawyer's eyes snapped open, but even through the blinding pain that shot through his head, he could tell he was in the backyard, for some odd reason. He jumped up from his position in the grass and spun around. A lawn chair was tipped over beside him, and the bruise on his ass told him that he had aimed to sit in it but missed. There was this odd clicking sound, somewhat like a bomb about to detonate, but instead of an explosion, a shower of water from the timed sprinkler rained on him. Sawyer groaned and made his way toward the house. He felt in his pocket: no keys. Cursing under his breath, he looked toward the window. Thank God he liked to sleep with the windows open: there was enough of a crack to weasel his way in. After making a far from graceful entrance through the window, Sawyer glanced around at the house. It looked as if a robber had plundered it for something valuable and found nothing. Drawers were tipped out of their sockets in the dresser and the bed sheets were crumpled and drooped off the side. The vase he had remembered lay shattered beyond repair on the opposite wall. An anniversary present, he recalled. A tissue box lay empty on the ground. Every picture of the pair was ripped in two, each with the cutting line between their bodies. He looked out the front window: not only was her car gone, but his was parked in the middle of the yard with the tattered corpse of a lawn gnome wedged beneath his tire. Sawyer finally caught sight of the closet, with it's contents ripped and missing from it. There were only two items of clothing still lying in a crumpled heap on the floor, both of which he had bought her, he remarked. Her suitcases were missing. He ran towards the ajar door, snatching the note taped to it.
Sawyer, I know we've been through a lot together, but last night was that last straw. Neither of us are happy with each other, so I'm leaving. Don't try to look for me.
Kate
Sawyer crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it violently to the wall. Brushing his sandy-blonde hair away from his face, he pulled a cigarette from his back pocket, trying his best to light the damn thing with shaky fingers. He could only think of one person Kate would run to. He grabbed his jacket off the couch and snatched his car keys off the ring, not bothering to lock the door behind him. Slamming the car door shut, he backed out of the lawn without so much as a glance in his rear view mirror, narrowly missing a pedestrian on the opposing sidewalk and sped away. He had an appointment with a doctor.
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Sawyer pulled into the concrete drive-way, peering at the house ahead. The glass-plated front was shielded by forest green curtains, and the heavy fabric made sure almost no light shone through them. It looked like a perfect little house in the suburbs, complete with a manicured lawn (which Sawyer took the time to walk on despite the stepping stones that had been placed there for his convenience), a white picket fence and even a freaking wind chime.
"God damn that boy's a sissy." He thought with an awed snicker.
He knocked bluntly on the door, and even if he had noticed the bell, he would have ignored it.
"Coming!" a muffled voice sounded, and Sawyer recognized the distracted tone as Jack's.
He opened the door with flourish moments later, looking fairly less surprised than Sawyer expected.
"Where is she?' Sawyer asked right off the bat, skipping the game of how fucked up has your life gotten over the last few years. He didn't want to waste his time and he sure as hell didn't care.
"Where's who?' Jack responded in sickly-sweet naivete.
"Cut the crap, jackass, I know she's here"
Jack folded his arms across his chest and held firm, "I still don't know who you're talking about"
"I'm talking about Kate, dick-wad, and you can stop playing the oh so innocent rep. I know there's only one person she would run to. And you're it."
"I haven't seen Kate in, oh, five years, as you may remember. What's the matter, did you two get into a fight?" Jack grinned, and Sawyer wanted to smack it off of his face. Sawyer advanced, but Jack held up his hands to stop him. "No need to resort to violence," he stepped aside, "Why don't you come in"
Sawyer nearly knocked Jack over on his way inside. He glanced around the living room, but there was no sign of Kate.
"I'm telling you, she's not here."
"Why don't I believe you?" Sawyer asked rhetorically.
"If she's here, then where is her car?" Jack questioned with a smile.
"Then you don't mind if I check the garage?"
Jack's grin faltered.
"Look" Jack put his hands in his pockets, "Whatever happened between you two, go home. She doesn't want to see you"
"Yeah, I got that by the three sentence note she left me!" Sawyer shouted to the air. Wherever she was, he wanted her to hear him.
"Hey, "Jack placed a hand on Sawyer's chest to halt him, "What did you expect her to do? There are only so many times you can come home drunk and she'll take it. I guess last night was it"
"Oh, and she's not here?" Sawyer brushed off Jack's hand, "Come on Kate, you can't hide from my forever!"
Jack blocked Sawyer's path up the stairs, "Go home"
"What are you going to do, steal here from me?"
"You did"
"That's not your style"
"Isn't it?"
The two men stood there, motionless, trying to stare one-another down. Finally, Jack couldn't take the silence.
"She was with me first"
Sawyer snorted. "What, are we in a school yard?" Jack just raised his eyebrows in response. He shrugged. "But fine, if you want to keep score, she kissed me first"
Jack cracked a frustrated smile and covered his eyes with one hand. He turned toward the bar under the storm windows. His shoulders sagged, like only a man with the deadly combination regret over years past and exhaustion could bring.
"You want a drink Sawyer?"
"Excuse me?" he exclaimed, shocked at this sudden act of hospitality.
"A drink" Jack raised his eyebrows and said matter-of-factly.
Sawyer sighed, "Why not."
Jack nodded his head and unscrewed the cap off the amber bottle.
"Is scotch alright?"
"Go ahead" he waved his hand and plopped down on the sofa. Of all the ways he thought this confrontation would end, he certainly didn't see the doctor and him hunkered down with a bottle of alcohol to ease their spirits. But then again Sawyer had never met a problem he couldn't fix with booze.
"So how exactly do you see this ending?" Sawyer questioned, yet the edge in his voice was gone.
"At this point, I really don't even know."
Sawyer smirked. "I've always admired a man who knew what he wanted."
Jack's lips turned up just the slightest in a weak effort to smile. Sitting next to Sawyer, he let out a sigh. "I'm getting too old for petty arguments. I thought I'd be settled down, not going through the same song and dance with you. No offence, but I though you'd have died of lung cancer by now."
"And what did you think was going to happen then? She'd swoon and fall into your arms?"
He hadn't meant it as an insult, but Sawyer could tell by the slight tense of his muscles that the man next to him had took it as such. Suppose that after all these years, in the back of his mind he still wanted to make Jack squirm.
"Never even a question."
The answer surprised Sawyer, but then again almost nothing did these days.
"I guess nothing works out according to plan."
"Guess not." Jack took a long sip of his drink and ran a hand over his hair. "So what exactly happened between you two?" Jack asked, more out of curiosity then to rub Sawyer's nose in it.
"Just bring on the salt to put in my wounds" Sawyer resented sarcastically, then frowned, "You really want to know?"
"Hey, it's not like I care," Jack held up his hands in defense, "I just was wondering."
"To be honest-," Sawyer ran his hands through his dirty blonde hair which automatically resettled back into his eyes,"- I think she got bored."
Jack looked to the other man in surprise, "Bored? With you? There's a shock."
"I suppose the girl's never going to be happy with anyone for too long. Can never be satisfied."
Both men nodded their heads in a quiet understanding. As different as they may seem on the surface, there was one thing they had in common: frustration over a certain criminal they both knew.
"If you don't mind me asking…" Jack's head jerked up as Sawyer woke him from his reverie,"… what happened between you?"
Jack rubbed his temples as if stimulating his brain to remember that far back. But he remembered all too well.
"Same thing I guess. We just wanted different things: Kate wanted to get away after her trial, I wanted to settle down. Not exactly compatible ideas of the future. She tried to stay, but… didn't exactly work out- obviously," motioning his hand to Sawyer.
Sawyer pressed a hand to his chest, "Me? Hey, you can't put this on me, I wasn't the one that started things, remember?"
"Right." Jack's face crinkled like a used piece of paper and Sawyer suddenly felt sorry for the man. He really had gotten the sour end of the deal in the end. And Jack was the one who had played the game fair, the rules of which Sawyer had rarely abided by.
Both men looked up at the sound of slow padded footsteps coming down the stairs. Kate's mussed head appeared around the corner.
"Got worried when the yelling stopped, thought maybe you'd finally killed each other" she smiled, more as a reflex.
"I'll give you two a minute." Jack rose and walked past Kate towards the kitchen. She arched her eyebrows up at him questioningly.
Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, he paused just a moment before continuing into the kitchen.
Kate then glanced at Sawyer and folded her arms over her chest, "So. You found me."
"That I did. It wasn't too hard figuring you'd come here. Jack was always your safety net."
Kate glared at him slanted-like, even though he hadn't intentionally meant it as an insult to anyone.
"Jack was always more than that. You were just too busy trying to compete with him to realize it."
"Can you blame me? There was one hell of a prize hangin' in the balance." Sawyer hadn't meant to say it, it just slipped out.
Kate's lips twitched, trying not to smile.
"Yeah…well… it was more about the chase than anything to do with me."
"I'm betting one of the only thinks me and Jack-o would agree on is that that isn't true."
Silence.
"So, was there something you wanted to say or did you just come here to stake out your territory from Jack?"
She sounded tired, he mused, like them all. They were getting too old for this shit.
"Would it be too much to say I was hoping to win ya back?" They both chuckled lightly.
"Probably"
"I'm not exactly sure why I'm here actually. But as far as staking out my territory goes, don't tell Jack that I pissed in the flower pot on the way in."
Smiling slightly, Kate didn't look at him, only at the floor. Her arms still crossed, she began to drum her fingers on her forearm. He took this as a sign to leave.
"So. I guess I'll just go." He brushed past her and it was as his fingers closed around the doorknob that her voice called out.
"Sawyer?"
He spun around.
Kate took a small step forward. "Just so you know, it wasn't all bad. You and me… we had our share good times."
"Yeah," he nodded, "We did."
He stepped out, but before the screen door shut behind him she heard his scratchy voice say, "I'll see ya around."
Her eyes fluttered shut as she heard the click of the door latch.
It was exactly ten seconds until Kate heard the shuffle of chair legs on linoleum and Jack come up behind her, placing hands on both of her shoulders.
"Are you alright?" His tone was concerned but almost expectant.
Yeah, I'll be fine. I just…" She turned to face him, his grip sliding down to her forearms. "I need to think."
"About?"
"About everything. Me, my life, Sawyer… about you."
Kate could see the emotion in Jack's eyes and for the first time she could read it all clearly; the confusion, the understanding, the hurt, the pleading. She knew he wanted her to stay. She also knew he didn't expect her to.
"Goodbye Kate." He glanced away, if only for a moment, and when he looked back the shields were up again; Kate couldn't read him anymore. Maybe she never could.
"Goodbye Jack."
Kate left his house not knowing whether she would ever see either of them again, but in the most basic sense they had finally tied up the ends of their relationships. For the first time in occurred to Kate that there really were no love triangles, no couples, just a world of dots who simply adhere to one another, yet unfortunately don't as easily break apart.