Title: Hearts United (Missing)
Rated: T for swearing
Authors: Hanna and Alisha
Pairing: Sawyer/Kate/Jake
Warnings: Season one – last episode spoilers
Summary: Sawyer and Jack realize they both have feelings for Kate. But what about Kate? Who does she like? Who will she choose, if the chance to choose comes? What do the "others" want with Kate? Well, find out in…

Hearts United; (Missing)

A/N: Hanna wrote most of this, but I wrote a part! She was going to do all the prologue, but I got impatient, and when she wasn't looking I stole the notebook and wrote some. Hehe. Well, we hope you enjoy this! Most of the story will be written in Kate's, Sawyer's, and Jack's point of view.

:Prologue:

The raft is finished. After all the hard work and sunburn, Michael, Jin, Walt, and Sawyer where ready to fly the coop. They were getting provisions now.

Sawyer tried to act normal as he looked for Kate. All his life, putting on a tough face and acting arrogant had been an easy way to hide fear. But it didn't seem to work with love. It became harder and harder to hide his feelings for 'Freckles', as he affectionately called her each day.

Sun was lovingly packing a bundle for Jin. They were fighting; Jin wasn't speaking to her. 'Why shouldn't he be angry?' Sawyer thought. She had lied to him. If she would have come straight out and told him that she spoke English, she would have saved herself a lot of trouble.

But, in each move she made, there was love, innocence, and hope. Love for Jin, innocence that shone like a light from her eyes, and hope for reconciliation. Whether her hope was false or not remained to be seen. 'God help me,' he thought to himself. 'I'm becoming a helpless romantic.'

His thoughts spurred on his search efforts. But, no matter where he looked, Freckles wasn't there. There was – ocean, beach, Jin, beach, Walt and Michael, beach, ocean, some idiots, beach, the rest of the idiots and… beach.

Now, Sawyer used to love the beach. Used to. This god-forsaken hell- hole changed that. Staying in one place and seeing the same thing over and over and over and over again seemed to do that to you. He still stared out at the ocean from time to time, reading "his" letter. The ocean still seemed to calm him down, even though he saw it most of the day.

Why was he talking about the ocean? He really didn't know himself. Maybe it was the sun. Maybe it was the lack of real food. But where the hell was Kate?

Ok, now he was getting pretty desperate. He wasn't showing it, yes, but all the same he was a mess. His 'mental' self, his mind, wouldn't admit that he was like her, exactly like her; that they were both outsiders. And outsiders needed to stick together. But in his heart, he knew it. Many people know that it may take a long time to get a message from your heart to your mind. It took Sawyer's heart three times as long. Which was pretty long.

He plopped down on the sand and put his head in his hands. What would he do? He really didn't like asking the other survivors for help, – 'It ruins my reputation', he said to himself. – but like he said, he was getting pretty desperate. He wanted to see Freckles – Kate – one last time. What would happen if they came back for them, and Kate got arrested? That would be the last he would see of her…

Sawyer sighed angrily as he heard his name called, Michael asking if he was ready. "Damn island…" he muttered to himself before reluctantly standing up and wiping sand off his jeans.

"We're ready to go," Michael said. "Now, whatever the hell it is you're looking for, you better find it real quick." Sawyer wished he could snap his fingers and make Freckles appear. He wanted to say goodbye. But in his heart, he knew it wouldn't happen.

Defeated, he trudged after Michael. To everyone around him he seemed like an arrogant jackass; calm, collected, and ready for trouble. But inside, his heart and mind were raging a furious battle. Should he postpone his freedom and go find Kate, or leave and forget about her?

At the end of his rope he remembered something that gave him a small ray of hope. The bottle! He had an empty bottle in his tent, and he could write a message back to her.

"Hold on a sec, Mike. I remember where it is now." Sawyer found it hard to contain himself as he sprinted off to his tent. He barely heard Michael yell after him, "Hurry your ass up! I have GOT to get my son out of this place!"

He was totally winded by the time he got to his tent. Instead of resting, however, he frantically grabbed a few sheets of paper, a pen, and a green bottle he had found. Thank god he was such a packrat. Praying that his lungs wouldn't burst, he ran off back the way he had come.

When he arrived at the raft, all he could think of doing was lying down. But, with all the people around that were going to see him off, he really didn't think that was a possibility. Instead, he got out a hair tie – one that Kate had given him, he thought despairingly – and put up his long blonde hair in a ponytail. It was windy, and he needed to be able to see.

In the half-hour that followed, he did all that he could do to help, but his mind was full of thoughts. About… Freckles. About why he loved her. This stopped him for a moment. He loved her! He could admit it, at least to himself, shamelessly. Why did he have to wait until now to realize it? He stood in one spot one the verge of tears – which was super rare for him – until Charlie came and said it was time to go.

Sawyer barely realized what was happening – all he thought of was losing her.

He heard the people pushing the raft into the water, a splash as it collided with a wave, the cheers- but it all seemed meaningless. Kate wasn't there – did she care about him at all?

He waved as the raft drifted away, smiling and almost crying as Walt's dog Vincent swam after them, until Shannon called him back. He scanned the island one last time. He wasn't sure, but he thought he had seen a freckled face move into the crowd.

A/n: Well, that was it! Our first chapter! I hope it's long enough, it looks awfully short on here…

Eeep.

Can anyone tell us where Kate is during the raft pushing off thing? Me and Hanna thought she was checking dynamite, but others thought differently because Jack wasn't there… help? I have the season on D.V.D., I'm just too lazy right now to check… please help!

Anyway, we hope you all can review our story! It motivates us write more!

Review Please!