Title: Frimples
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sawyer/Kate
Summary: Takes place a few months after 'He Has You'. Kate is with Sawyer now and everything seems to be going smoothly. But then she starts getting sick again, and she knows she can't hide it from Sawyer the way she hid it from Jack. But can she face the demons that come with the truth of what's happening?
Author's Notes/Disclaimer: I strongly suggest reading 'He Has You' if you haven't already before you read this. Oh yeah... -- I don't own Lost.
Hope you enjoy this.


Kate felt a sharp stab in her stomach and she cringed and scrunched up in pain. A cry of pain escaped her lips. Tears welled up in her eyes and she let out a few sobs. She was alone now. He had left her. Sawyer had told her that he was afraid for her. He told her he was scared of what would happen to her out in the woods, so she didn't go with them. She stayed behind one time, and he was gone. Jack had come back with his body.

Sawyer's bloody body.

"Sawyer." Kate said quietly. Her voice was full of tears. "I can't... Sawyer." Kate gripped her stomach tighter. "This can't happen. Sawyer!"

Kate felt arms wrap around her tightly and she opened her eyes, letting the tears fall down her cheeks.

"You alright Freckles?" Kate shook her head, looking up into Sawyer's steel blue eyes. He was there. It had all just been a nightmare. She had imagined it all. The memory of Sawyer's bloody body had been a fake. Everything was fine.

But the pain. It was still there, lingering beyond the dream. The pain wouldn't go away. She bit her lip, trying to push it aside. It was imagined too right?

"Freckles?" Kate looked up at Sawyer, nodding slowly, working on trying to find her voice, burried somewhere in her fear.

"I'm fine Sawyer. It was a nightmare." Kate said quietly, looking away from him.

"Yeah. Been havin' a lot of them recently haven't you?" It was a statement, not a question. She closed her eyes and laid back down, trying to steady her breathing.

"I'm fine Sawyer." Kate tried to make her voice steady and sure. Sawyer sighed, reaching up and wiping a stream of tears away from her eyes. He leaned forward, kissing her forehead. His voice came out quiet and smooth.

"I'm worried about you Kate. Something's wrong and you know something more about it then I do." Sawyer wrapped his arms tighter around her, holding her against his bare chest. The moonlight snuck in through the corners of the tarp covering the entrance of his tent.

Kate had pretty much been living in his tent since the incidnt with Jack, using the excuse she didn't want to be alone. After awhile, she stopped giving excuses as to why, and everyone just accepted it as what happened.

And Sawyer was right, he had been woken up by her mutterings and thrashing from nightmares more frequently then normal. It seemed like it was every night now for the past two weeks. She had been distant and waved it off. And when he kissed her, she was never there.

Sawyer looked down at Kate's quiet form, fear in her eyes and something else. He had always been able to read her so well. He was too close now. He couldn't see past her exterior because she knew him better, knew certain tricks to hide things from him.

And what was killing him most was that she actually wanted to hide things from him. He wasn't looking for complete honesty, he knew that would be uncharacteristic for both of them, but they had sort of an agreement that the big stuff would be delt with. They only held back the things that didn't have a real effect on them.

But she was. Whatever she wasn't telling him was killing him. It was killing them.

"Everything's fine Sawyer. It's just a nightmare. It doesn't mean anything." Sawyer shook his head, gritting his teeth. He felt like he was talking to a wall. In a way, he was. Her wall, the one she had built between them. Her protection. Protection from him.

"Well if everything's fine then I guess we can talk about this dream. If it's not all that bad then there's no reason that I..."

"Not now Sawyer." Sawyer groaned in frustration.

"Not now? Not now! That's all you ever say anymore. 'Not now', 'we'll talk about this later', I can't do that Kate! I'm not just gonna sit..."

"Sawyer!" Sawyer looked down at Kate, noticing that she had started to cry again. He clenched his jaw and shook his head, angry at himself for doing that to her, but still mad at her for not talking. Kate pulled him down onto the bed and leaned into him a bit.

One of his hand reached up and he started running his fingers through her hair. She took a few staggering breaths.

"I'm tired Sawyer. We'll talk later. I promise Sawyer... we will talk later. I'll tell you... I just... I can't now. I need to get some sleep." Sawyer nodded.

"Tommorow Kate. We are going to talk about this tommorow." She bit her lip. He was using her name to tell her without threatening her that he meant business. She would either have to break tommorow and tell him what was wrong, or everything between them was over. He wouldn't play this game anymore.

He didn't go back to sleep or loosen his grip on her until he heard her breathing fall into a steady rythm as she slept. He tried to tell himself it was so he knew she would fall into a peaceful and dreamless sleep, but his mind wouldn't let him escape from his everpresent fear that the second his guard dropped she would run.


TBC