Patience is a virtue. It was something his mother told him when he was a kid, one of his few, happy memories. Good things come to those who wait.
Sawyer hated waiting.
Sawyer watched Kate from a distance. He watched her stare out to sea for hours and hours at a time, a blank look on her face. He watched her when she went deep into the jungle to pick fruit. He thought that if he watched her enough, her eyes would betray her, and maybe he could find something behind that mask. If he waited long enough, then maybe she would come to him.
But she never did.
Jack thought he knew Kate. He thought the hero act would keep her with him. Sawyer knew better. He heard them yell at each other in the caves. Sometimes Jack let his hero persona get the best of him. Sometimes he missed the look in Kate's eyes. That begging look that said 'Stop, god, please just stop,'
Sometimes Sawyer watched Kate from across the fire. Kate was usually deep in thought at night when the embers glowed hot. Her eyes were pensive, reflecting the dancing flames. Sometimes tears reflected the fire too.
It was times like that where Sawyer wished patience wasn't a virtue. He damned all virtue to hell. What good was patience if he couldn't just wrap his arms around her and tell her it was okay?
Sometimes, when Kate was off her guard, her eyes were like doors to her soul. Sawyer could read her like a book at those times. He saw things he had seen before. Ice, and cold. Longing, and betrayal. Things he saw in himself. It scared him. No one deserved to have walls that cold, no one but him.
But for some reason, Sawyer hung onto that old saying like a child to a security blanket. There was a little part deep down inside of him that wanted her to be true.
And one night, she was.
Sawyer was puffing at a cigarette and flipping through a magazine when the curtain to his tent was pushed aside. He looked up.
It was Kate. Her emerald eyes shone with fresh tears and her hands were balled into fists.
At that moment, Sawyer knew his waiting was over.
The little plane dug into his back as she wept in his arms and he stroked her hair and whispered into her ear.
"It's okay,"