Lost and its characters belong to JJ Abrams, Bad Robot and TPTB. I'm just borrowing to entertain myself. Sawyer sees the fall of a hero.
Lost – Unsung
By Mystic
December 13th 2005
Sawyer didn't believe in heroes. He couldn't remember ever owning a comic book or wearing a cape or pretending he had superpowers. They were figments of children's imaginations; people adults unduly worshipped. So when Jack stood over Kate's bloody body and Sawyer told him to fix her, the fact that he was asking for a miracle wasn't lost on him. He was asking Jack to be a hero. He wanted Jack to be the hero.
The other man stared down with that shock in his wide dark eyes and his mouth dropped open just enough for Sawyer to see his bottom teeth. He could almost see Jack's brain working. Jack was trying to figure out what to do first, what part to start with, what injury to heal. For a moment, Sawyer wondered what he'd been like back in Los Angeles. In the emergency room. They probably called him the hero there too.
Now he hesitated. Jack stared down at Kate and his breath came out in shallow puffs. Timed and even and it unnerved him. What was he waiting for? Just do something. Anything. Sawyer imagined Jack could lay his hands on her body and concentrate and she'd be alright. Cracking jokes and blaming Sawyer and walking back off into the jungle like nothing ever happened.
"Come on, Doc, she ain't got all day!" He finally shouted, feeling the spit fly from his mouth and mingle with the blood on her shirt. The blood that covered him. He could smell it, metallic and ripe, making his head dizzy. He'd run for a mile listening to her choke on screams, her palm thumping against his chest occasionally before dropping onto her stomach in defeat.
Sawyer watched Jack lean forward, falling onto his knees, and his eyes went cold as he raised a hand to touch the delicate skin at her neck, his chest collapsing in a heavy breath from his mouth, and when he looked up at Sawyer, his eyes overflowed with tears that burned trails down his cheeks. Someone behind Sawyer screamed, but he didn't turn, he just watched Jack's hand hover in that space just above her body, as if trying to figure out what had happened.
"It got her," Sawyer breathed, something inside him constricting tightly, finding its way to his throat. "Got her and ran off with her. By the time I caught up, it had thrown her down and run off."
Jack wasn't listening, he slipped an arm under Kate's neck, the other under her knees, and he lifted her off the ground and pulled her tight to him. Sawyer watched the other man's legs weaken as he stepped backwards and fell onto a tree trunk. Some hero. Sawyer bit back the words in his mind, he watched Kate. He'd never seen her so still. Jack touched Kate's face, wiping away at the place where she'd cried, where blood was starting to crust around her jaw line.
Heroes weren't supposed to cry, Sawyer wanted to scream at him. Heroes were supposed to make things better. They were supposed to turn back time, save the girl, give everyone a happy ending. Sawyer growled and watched as people began coming closer, none brave enough to comfort Jack. They watched him press his forehead to hers, grip her side with his hand and kiss her hair where his tears soaked her.
Sawyer climbed up on the rocky slope and stared down at the man he'd thought was a hero. There were no heroes, Sawyer knew, there were just people who sometimes did extraordinary things. He stood behind Jack and pressed a hand into his shoulder, feeling the other man's body shake with tears. Sawyer was no hero, he never wanted to be, but he stood there anyways, long after everyone else had left. Until Jack was strong enough to let go.
Finis
