Title: Smoke and Mirrors

Rating: T

Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance

Author's Note: I've written for my recent fandoms, Bones and Sweeney Todd, but the one show I've been passionate about since it first hit the small screen, LOST, is one I have yet to sit down and sink my teeth into and write a true, dramatic piece of fanfiction about. Always I try to come up with ideas for the show, but I always feel I'm no match for the actual writers and whatever I come up with would be a disgrace to my own eyes. So I decided to take a different turn and write in a complete AU centered on my favorite couple, Skate, and all written in my favorite classic movie style, film noir.

Sawyer is a private eye of the 1950's and Kate is a femme fatale with a job for him. But in the midst of their murky relationship of lies, deceit and lust a love spawns as he must fight to protect her all while uncovering a secret that may condemn her in his eyes forever.

Disclaimer: If I owned LOST or film noir I'd be a very wealthy girl and probably would be sipping mojitos on some island I also owned instead of hunching in front of a computer screen to bring my humble aspirations of writing to you fine folks. Also the first sentence is a quote by Kurt Vonnegut, I just thought it read better without the pause for the name or quote marks and Kate's line about the penny is from Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. It just fit too well to pass up.

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All the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies. Smoke and mirrors.

The deceptive mist in shades of gray painted the air with each lingering drag of his cigarette. The moonlight's luminescent and eerie glow shrouded the walls of his own little corner of the world in illusive shadow. Lazily, his feet reposed upon the cedar desk as his steely gaze, crested in umbra by the raven fedora atop his head, scanned the faded print of a newspaper.

The melodic click of heels against the floor in a fox's approach broke through his reverie and captured his attention. The paper, he folded in his grasp, allowing her to seize his sight and consume his most forbidden desires all with one lethal glance.

Katherine eluded sex appeal with every curve of her slender form - the sparse, ruby dress she wore, clinging, hugging, loving her body. Her lips parted softly in a seductive pout, and her murky eyes, in meeting his, gleamed with a furtive mystery. And even through her camouflage of cover up and powder, he could detect the faint, sun kissed spots that decorated her cheeks, peaking out from behind her masquerade.

"Detective Ford?" She spoke, her voice sugar coating her every word like a divine aphrodisiac.

"At your service, Freckles." Sawyer smirked pushing to his feet in a polite gesture with a steadfast nod in her direction.

"I inquired at the hotel for the name of a dependable detective…they mentioned yours."

Katherine advanced towards his desk, resting her a hand upon the surface of it, the other casually reaching out to pluck the cigarette from his lips and place it between her own, taking a lengthy draw from it. She teetered so very close to him, barely a breath away and the voluptuous temptation of her siren beauty and poise triggered a carnal tension, a fever radiating throughout the meager space between them.

"Care ta take a seat, Miss…uh?" His robust southern accent seemed to caress his speech in an undeniably irresistible quality, and noticeably, he did not shy away from her forward behavior but rather encouraged it with a mischievous glimmer behind his grin.

"Austin. Katherine Austin." She acquainted him with her name as she sunk leisurely back into the chair, puffing away languidly upon his cigarette.

"Well, Miss. Austin, what can I do ya for?" Sawyer returned to his own seat, raising an eyebrow to accompany his question.

"Some property… money was stolen from me. I know it's in a safety deposit box, care of an Edward Mars. It was my inheritance after the death of my father and this man ran off with it." Kate spit out the name of the so-called thief with such venom as if it were truly a sin, a blasphemy to the tongue.

"And you need me to locate it for you?"

"Locate it and bring it back to me." She confirmed, twirling the roll of tobacco between her pale and delicate fingers.

"How do I go about findin' this Mars?"

"Stay with me for a few days. He's like a bad penny; he always turns up."

"That's quite the time consumin' job, Darlin'. How can I be sure it'll be worth my while?" The inquisition was obviously intended as a suggestive remark, Sawyer's dimples adding to the provocative undertone.

To this, Katherine merely smiled rising once more and dousing the cigarette in the ashtray. She leaned into him, catching his lower lip between her own in a sensually flirtatious kiss, stalling in her farewell. When finally did she release him from her spell, she bid him a wink and presented him with the key to her hotel room and an immodest roll of pure cash.

"It'll be worth your while… I can promise you that."