Title: 6 Hour Shift
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sana
Summary: Up to "What Kate Did"
Warnings: Maybe swear words
Status of fic: Completed
Author's Notes/Disclaimer:

#Disclaimer#

I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Lost". They were created by JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof and they belong to them, Touchstone, and ABC.

Chapter One: Hour One

Ana sat in her makeshift tent, trying to relax like everyone else, without the responsibility of trying to protect and save everyone's life. She closed her eyes enjoying the sun, a simple pleasure that she could have without judgment and regret. If one has to be trapped in helladise, then why not try to make the ambience work to her advantage. She absorbed the last vestiges of heat, trying to warm the coldness that always tried to creep through when she was left with her thoughts too long. Too many bad memories flooded in while she stayed in her self-imposed exile. Unlike her compatriots, she was not free to just blend with the crowd. She had killed one of theirs, and that accident made her different. That and all the other decisions she'd had to make as the so-called leader of the tailies.

Rolling her eyes, she rocked back onto her elbows and stared at the horizon as the sun went down, turning another day into night. It had been a week since their arrival and the woman, Shannon's, funeral. Since that time she had spoken to Jack, even had a couple of drinks with him. Ana respected him a lot more after he came to her without making a bunch of self-pitying speeches. He just said he understood, and from that moment on, she knew she could talk to him if she needed to. She didn't trust him like Eko, but it was a start--well another start with them.

Eko basically went ghost on her, only popping up every so often, usually right at the moment she was ready to walk into the ocean and try her luck with the fish.

They didn't really talk about much, just what he had learned about the island and the chamber that everyone seemed to have access to but her. She didn't envy them. From what Eko told her, people had to sit around for six hours, pushing buttons every two. She really wasn't in a hurry to do that and because of that she never asked Jack too many details about it. She just figured that people's mistrust of her was the reason she hadn't seen the place.

Just as the sun faded into non-existence, she heard a rustling behind her. Turning slowly, she found that the one they call Locke was coming towards her. She kept her face neutral but inwardly wondered why he had approached her at all. She really hoped it wasn't one of those "welcome to the neighborhood" chats. She wasn't in the mood to try and fake a bonding session with anyone-- especially someone as strange as Locke.

She had seen him around whenever she ventured from her space to grab a bite to eat. Compared to everyone else, he seemed to be on a Robinson Crusoe kick, not minding being trapped in a nightmare paradise. She couldn't think of what he could possibly want with her.

"It's your turn."

Ana frowned. "My turn?" What the hell was he talking about?

"Your shift. Everyone has a six hour shift, and now it's your turn."

"Really?" she said, surprised. She would have sworn up and down that she wouldn't get a shift.

Locke nodded, "Yes come on. We need to get back to relieve the others and let you see what you're supposed to do."

Before Ana could protest, Locke had turned walking back through the woods. Ana scrambled to her feet, wanting to catch up with him before he disappeared deeper into the trees. She caught him a moment later and they trudged through the wild area. Eventually, they made it to the door and Locke held it open for her.

Ana let her eyes adjust to the artificial light pumping through the chamber. It was bright enough for a person to see, but dim enough to create a lot of shadows. Their feet echoed through the corridor leading to main sections of the chamber. Ana took in everything she saw, including the various shut doors they passed. She didn't ask too much about them, figuring that if she had to be down in the hole, she would just explore on her own.

They came to the computer room where a couple of people were waiting patiently for Locke to return. They left without comment and Locke turned to her.

"You input the numbers before the time runs out. You can only input the numbers four minutes prior to the next two hours. The numbers are written there by the computer. An alarm will go off if as the countdown gets closer to the end…"

"What happens if you miss the time?" she asked. She had asked Eko but he just shrugged and said he didn't know. She figured since Locke practically lived in the Hatch like a sewer dweller, he would know.

"Something bad," he stated before breezing on. "Anyway, in between the time you are waiting, you are entitled to up to three snacks and one meal," he said, walking to the next room showing her the food supply. "Here's the list. Make sure you write down what you took so we know what we have left."

Ana stared at him like he just lost his mind. Something bad? What kind of vague B.S. is that! But then her mind caught up with her when she heard the magic word.

"Did you say you can shower?" she said shocked.

"Of course you can shower. Everyone indulges in it when they are down here. Just remember that cleaning supplies are in short order, so don't go over board.

"There's a shower? You mean to tell me we could be having real showers around here?" She couldn't believe it. Using the cool water of the ocean left a lot to be desired.

He stared at her a moment before saying, "Not really. It's a luxury one gets during their stay here, like the extra food and such. It's like an incentive to do the shift."

"So where is it?"

Ten minutes later, Locke was gone and she was standing in front of the shower smiling like a kid in a candy store. Putting down the shampoo and placing the towel on a rack next to her, she stripped down. Turning on the water, she waited until the amazing warm water splashed into her hand. Gleeful, she jumped into the water letting it run all her body just for the thrill of the familiar. Grabbing the soap, she slowly cleaned herself.

"God this feels good," she murmured before reaching down for the shampoo washing her hair. She couldn't believe how something as simple as a shower could make her forget the hell that she had been living for the past month and a half. All the horrors, the guilt, the very fact that she was trapped on Misery Island seemed unimportant for just a moment.

But her happiness faded quickly, as she began to think of the reason the shower was so important. The faded memories in the far recess of her mind dripped into her consciousness reminding her again of the deadness, the emptiness she felt in the darkest part of her being.

She'd had to leave town, the world she knew after Jason. How could she face her colleagues, her mother, when she had killed the sorry man that had hurt her so deeply? She knew that they wouldn't find the body, but she was afraid of who she would become around them trying to hide that kind of secret. She already felt dead. And she knew staying in her old world in her old city would just make it worst. So instead of staying, she told all and sundry that she quit and really needed to get away. She knew she made the right decision when the protest from friends and family was all about leaving the country, not about leaving the force. She hadn't planned at first to race off to Sydney but then she remember telling her friends that she wanted to go there and a good friend of hers from high school lived there.

She packed her bags inside of a day, telling her mother she was just going on a vacation. He mother asked her why she was rushing away all of a sudden but Ana couldn't explain it. How could she explain the creeping frost that seemed to be nipping at her heels. No, she needed out and she told her mother that much. The reality was that what she tried to call a vacation slowly converted itself to the truth while waiting at the airport for her flight. She was running. Running from herself and the nightmare that created this dead human staring back at her in the mirror.

Once in Sydney, she did manage to find a certain peace. The totally unfamiliar feel of the land seemed to erase the demons that were chasing her back home. For two solid weeks, she frolicked in the sand with her friend, acting irresponsible in a way she hadn't for months after being shot, her baby dying and Danny leaving her, blaming her for their child's death. She was free to redefine Ana Lucia Cortez.

Then forty-eight days ago it all changed. She had fallen into the pit of hell. The hopelessness returned with the frost, the fear, the void that seemed to choke her heart like a vice until she finally dropped the weapons before a man who had every right to demand vengeance for the death of a loved one. She wanted him to take her away from the hell, the torment of her existence. But one statement, "You're already dead," caused a break in her that she didn't realize that she needed. It was like a nail in her coffin, sealing her into a non-existence that she had been trying to permanently escape since that moment. She saw the myth of her existence, the lies she told herself, the false happiness she created to avoid the truth of the words from a total stranger.

Ana didn't realize that she was shaking under the warm water, or that she was screaming that she wasn't dead until a voice shocked her back to reality.

"If you're dead, you have to be one of the best looking corpses I've ever seen."

"Who the F…" she whipped around to come face to face with Sawyer.

Sawyer had been living pretty well in the compound. Life was pretty much routine, people came and went, turning off that stupid alarm. Freckles would come by chatting him up, and the good doc would come in reassuring him that his arm wouldn't need to be hacked off. All in all, it was better than sitting on the beach remembering their failed attempt at getting off the island. And things would have been fine, but for a crazy man waking him up telling him that it was time he took a turn.

"Man, can't you see I'm convalescing?"

Locke snorted at him. "Jack says you're fine. It doesn't require you to do anything but get up, type in some numbers, then lay back down. If you just can't seem to do that, you'll have a partner to help you. Make a deal with them to do the typing."

Before Sawyer could protest further, Locke was gone. Thirty minutes later, he heard him talking to someone. He couldn't make out the voices, he just knew that one of them was female. Sighing, he turned to the side. He'd be damned if he got up pushing buttons when no one could explain why the hell it was so important. He let his eyes close, thinking he'd return to the dream he was having about a certain female on the island.

But then he heard shouting. At first he ignored it, thinking he was hearing things, but the sound traveled to him again and he knew that it was real. Getting up slowly, he walked toward the direction of the sound. Immediately, he heard the water running and the most painful wailing sound of guilt coming from a woman. Sawyer hesitated, not wanting to intrude. But he worried that something serious was going to happen or was already happening.

"Locke would leave me with a nut partner," he grumbled, walking further into the area. When he turned the corner he got an eyeful of the woman that had had the audacity to punch him, not once, but twice. The very same woman who had killed Shannon while he was out for the count. Ana Lucia stood in the shower, water running down her golden skin, her back to the door. She was shaking terribly, but he could see the steam from the water so he knew it wasn't from cold water. She said something in Spanish before repeating that she was not dead.

Sawyer felt he should be embarrassed at taking in the body of the curvy woman. He thought to leave. However, what little embarrassment he felt didn't outweigh his need to know why the G.I. Jane was cracking up in the shower. He figured he would rather face her wrath just to stop whatever was eating her up.

"If you're dead, you have to be one of the best-looking corpses I've ever seen."

When she spun around, he made sure to divert his eyes, but it took a lot of effort. He still managed to get an eyeful too. "You'd think by now that being dead, your mouth would finally shut. But instead, you're howling around like somebody from the night of the living dead."

The silence in that moment was deafening. He saw the towel slowly move from the rack where it hung. Two smack sounds on the floor and a shove later, and she was past him with her clothes in her arms, leaving him standing there staring into empty space. He reached out to turn off the water before leaving the shower room.

He found her haphazardly, but fully dressed, standing in the "living room." Her hair was still dripping wet and the clothes clung to the places the towel had missed. Her soulful brown eyes were cool and angry, but Sawyer ignored them, walking instead to a couch in the room, and took a seat.

"So you're my partner?" she asked in a cool voice.

"Looks like it, Chica. Although I had hoped for someone a little more stable."

She faced him fully. "Yeah, well, I wanted someone with some respect, but it seems I got you."

Sawyer snorted. "Whatever. I ain't the one screaming about the obvious fact that I'm not dead, am I?"

Her mouth worked a little before she turned away from him again.

"So that gave you the right to come get a peek?"

"Psst. Look, I just wanted to make sure no one ended up hanging from the rafters in this joint. I don't need these idiots blaming me for something else."

"Ha, I didn't think you were the type to care," she said, turning back to him with slight amusement in her eyes.

He shrugged as much as his injured shoulder would allow. "I don't. But I got a good thing down here, and I ain't quite ready to give it up."

"Lying around pushing buttons all day. Yeah, I bet it was a 'real party over here' in this place." She smiled, relief visible in her body, though Sawyer had no idea what had gripped her so fiercely before, or why the sudden relief.

"Who says I push buttons? I leave that to those other fools that come down here. I just rest my wounded body. You know that already-injured shoulder you step on?"

Ana rolled her eyes as she walked over to the couch. She flopped next to Sawyer, saying, "Yeah, thank your big overzealous, macho mouth for that, hillbilly."

He turned to her. "Me? At first I was trying to help you out, you crazy broad, and you punched me…"

"Help me? Is that where all that protector crap came from? I didn't need your help. Hell, you were half-dead on arrival…"

"My point exactly. Yet you felt the need to try to make it worse…"

"I felt the need to show you your place. I think you're too used to swaggering around like you're tough shit, but we didn't have time for that crap. We had real issues and couldn't have some egotistical rodeo clown from the foothills of some crazy, southern state trying to prove that his scrawny balls are worth something!"

Sawyer had been leaning back on the couch but sat up with a deep frown. "Rodeo Clown! Scrawny balls? As if you've seen a pair of balls in your life. I wouldn't think a sane man would allow you anywhere near them, considering how much to like bustin' them."

She glared at him. "Wait. So because I don't take crap from you or anybody, that makes me gay?"

"No, commando. I don't think any woman would put up with you either. You're the type of chick that likes beating up on men, feeling powerful because you can knock down an already wounded man. Probably got issues with men. Most like you do. But I told ya, hit me again, She-Bitch, like now, and see what happens."

Ana laughed out loud then. "Oh, you bad now? Hmm. I always loved men like you. You're the total gentleman in public, opening doors, holding out the chair, but behind closed doors, won't hesitate to knock a lady out…"

"Since you ain't no lady, you don't count. Hell, if I hadn't seen your tits, I would have guessed otherwise."

Ana jumped up, seething. "Really! I don't recall you trying too hard to look away! How long did you stand there staring at my ass before you finally opened your mouth? Five minutes? Ten? The fact is, I am exactly like you said. I am the best-looking body you've seen, but you aren't used to women not falling stupid for you. All that southern charm and the brain of a hummingbird! Maybe these silly little birds around here found that bull flyin' out your mouth appealing, but I think it is what it is. CRAP!"

Sawyer chuckled inwardly. The girl had fire. He loved the way her chest heaved as she stormed at him. He took a good look at her face, watching those full lips form every word in slow motion in his mind's eye. When she finished speaking, she turned on her heels, butt in his face, and did something that shocked and amused him at the same time.

SMACK! Ana slapped her butt. "You can kiss this, pendejo!"

Sawyer barked out a laugh, "I would, but you would like it too much. Besides, I don't have half a year to give away like that!"

She glanced over her shoulder, eyebrow raised, before going into the other room. Sawyer felt slightly disappointed that she left without firing a comeback. "Well, that was interesting. Went from screaming like a— "

"Like a what?" she said, leaning on the archway wall. Her face was calm, and strangely cool, considering her animated behavior before.

"Like a loon." He replied, waiting.

They stared at each other, assessing what to do or say next. Then Ana spoke.

"Don't worry about it. It won't happen again."

"I hope not. I heard the last time you cracked up, someone ended up dead." It came out before he thought about it.

She froze, then slowly walked over to him. Her face was cold, her lips tight, eyes dead.

"Let's hope you don't cause me to crack, Jimbo," she whispered in the deadliest voice he had ever heard.

At that moment he was frightened of the woman, though he would be loath to admit it. He thought he would have to sleep with one eye open until he saw the pain on her face for a split second before the cold shell returned. She stood, then stiffly walked away. He heard her say something in Spanish and he knew it was a very bad description of him.

Right at that moment, Kate walked past Ana. She mumbled a greeting that was ignored by the other woman. A frown covered her pretty face as she walked over to him.

"What's her problem? You okay?" Kate asked.