Quick Note

Hi, um… this is my first fic, so be nice! The first chapter may be a little boring, because most of it is just a repeat of episode six. But I promise, it'll get better… I hope to get chapter two up really soon, so check back, and I hope you enjoy!


CHAPTER ONE

"You needed to be in surgery yesterday," Jack said to Ben, studying the blood test information Juliet had given him before moving behind the glass partition.

"Alright, then. Whatever you need, it's yours. I'm ready," said Ben. Jack laughed cruelly.

"No, I think you misunderstood me. I didn't say I was gonna do it. I just wanted you to understand how you're gonna die!" Jack laughed again. "You think I believe you people? You think I trust you? That I'm just going to do the surgery, and then I'm just going to HOPE that you let me go?!"

"Jack!" Juliet exclaimed. She thought she had done her job - she thought she had become close enough to him that all she needed to do was say please, and he would do whatever she asked.

"No, don't!" Jack yelled back at her, throwing the notebook at her. It fell to the floor with a bang. Ben gave Jack an odd look.

"Well, Jack. I'm very disappointed in your decision," he said. Jack gave another cruel smile. Being locked in a shark tank for nearly a week had made him rather sadistic.

"Well, Ben. At least you won't have to be disappointed for very long."


"I thought you said he'd agree?" Ben asked Juliet, his voice dangerous.

"I thought he would," she replied. Ben wasn't listening. He was watching Sawyer and Kate arguing on the monitor in front of him. "What are you thinking?" Juliet asked.

"I think Jack believed me when I said I'd take him home - I don't think he wants to leave his friends behind, though." Ben narrowed his eyes. "He needs to understand that they don't care about him. Especially Kate."

"What should I do?" Juliet asked.

"Get Danny."


Jack woke to a crunching sound. For a moment, he didn't know where he was… then the cold table underneath him brought back the memories of that day. After yelling at Juliet and Ben, they'd left, and hadn't come back. Juliet hadn't even brought dinner the way she usually did. Right now, he didn't particularly care - he knew that she had just been wriggling closer to him, building up a fake friendship.

He lifted his head, and looked around. He heard his neck crick, stiff after falling asleep in such a bad position. The intercom on the wall - the one Juliet said hadn't worked in years - was working again. He had wondered, that first day, whether Juliet was right, and he was hallucinating, hearing things due to being so tired. But another part of him wondered if she had lied about it not working, so that he would take the food…

He shook his head at the memory. Why was it making noises now? He swung his legs over the edge of the table, and when another crackle came through, got up and walked quickly to it. he didn't try and 'communicate'. He just listened. Then he heard a voice, one he wasn't familiar with.

"Try the door," it (she? he wondered) said. Jack turned, and looked at the door to his cell in the dark light. He shrugged, and did as the voice suggested. The handle turned and the door swung open. Instantly, Jack was on guard - was this a trap? Odd sort of trap… why make him think he could escape? He made a mental note, as he ducked through the gap and into the corridor, not to try the big door he'd used on his last escape attempt. He grinned at the memory, then thinking of how close he had been to Juliet, his smile faded.

He walked down the hall, at any moment expecting to hear someone call out, though he could see no-one there. The big door with the red handle was on his right, and in front of him… another door. He slipped inside, and was faced with a wall of monitors, flicking between scenes, like security footage in a shop. To his right was a metal cupboard… his heart started beating faster. Full of guns! This definitely wasn't a trap - if they were going to lure him out and try and make him escape, they wouldn't let him arm himself. He grabbed one and loaded several bullets into it, and instantly felt more confident.

He recognised the gun, though only dimly… he tried to remember, then realised it was the same type that the man with the fake beard, (Tom, he recalled) had threatened Kate with nearly a month ago. Her name slid easily into his mind, despite the fact he'd spent the last week trying not to think about where she was or what they were doing to her. And Sawyer, whom he'd heard on the intercom, was he alright? Jack felt oddly amiable towards Sawyer - possibly because, apart from Kate, he was Jack's only true ally here.

Maybe it was because he was thinking about them that his peripheral vision caught the image on the monitor just before he left the room. His heart, previously beating a rapid rhythm fuelled by excitement, nearly stopped. He stepped closer, his grip on the gun relaxing.

Denial flooded through him, but his eyes only confirmed it. They were right there on the monitor. Lying with each other. Under a blanket. Wearing very little. Jack felt an odd rage swell up within him. He didn't know who at or why - maybe Ben, for abducting them all in the first place, or Juliet, for lying to him. At Sawyer, for stealing the girl Jack thought he had developed a strong bond with - or even at Kate, for abandoning him. As he watched, the flickering image of Kate lifted herself up and kissed Sawyer, before falling back onto his chest.

"If it helps, I was surprised, too," said a voice from behind him. Jack turned, saw Ben, and quickly lifted the gun up. "If I were a betting man, I would have picked her and you," Ben continued, and Jack felt even worse. It should have been her and him. So what the hell was she doing with Sawyer? He knew she'd had a thing for him, but he hadn't realised it was serious…

"Shut up!" he said, hiding the ache in his chest with anger, and pressed the end of the gun into Ben's chest.

"Well. I suppose this would be the proverbial nail in my coffin, wouldn't it?" Jack paused. Ben was dying. Jack was a doctor. He couldn't kill a man. He couldn't. he was in it to help people, even when the didn't want it…

"Tomorrow," he said, forcing his mind away from the times he had saved Sawyer's life. If he had known this would happen, would he have done it? Sawyer had always made it perfectly clear he would let Jack die.

"Sorry?" Ben asked, confused, as Jack lowered the gun.

"Tomorrow morning. First thing. And everything I mentioned before. The instruments. The anaesthesia. And someone who can hold a damn clamp." Ben's face lifted as he realised what Jack was saying.

"Yes. Of course," he agreed.

"I'll get it out, your tumour. And I'll keep you alive. But I need your word. I need what you promised me before. I need to get the hell off this island."

Ben smiled, congratulating himself on the plan. "Done."


The Next Morning…

Kate woke to the sound of rain falling. For a moment, she thought that was what had pulled her out of the most pleasant sleep she'd had since they'd been captured. Then she heard boots treading through puddles, coming towards them.

"Sawyer!" she yelled, and he woke up immediately. She pulled him to his feet, and when he saw Pickett walking towards them, he tried to shield her behind him, while she was trying to do the same thing.

"Well, well, well. Look who got out of her cage. You shoulda run when you had the chance. Let's go, James," he said, coming through the open cage door, his friend already pulling out his gun.

"Don't, please! You don't have to do this," Kate begged, holding onto Sawyer's arm as if she could stop them from coming any closer with such a simple action. She was wrong.

"He's coming with me, and there's nothing you can do about it! Step away!" Pickett yelled, and lunged forward. Sawyer pushed Kate out of the way, to stop Pickett from hurting her, but she dodged back in between Sawyer and Pickett.

"Step away!" Pickett repeated, and Sawyer firmly pushed Kate away, hard enough that she lost her balance and couldn't come back in front. He then punched Pickett, grabbing the hand with the gun. He twisted Picket's hand around, so that the gun wasn't aiming at him any longer. Neither man could move without the other gaining the upper hand. Pickett suddenly turned sideways, and smiled. His companion had twisted Kate's left arm behind her back, and pushed her up against the bars of the cage. There was a gun sticking into the back of her neck.

"You let go, or I do her too!" Pickett told Sawyer. He looked over at Kate, helpless, and made up his mind. "Let go!" Picket repeated.

"Don't you let go! Don't you think about it, Sawyer, you fight!" Kate yelled. Her concern for him made his chest ache, and he realised just how much he loved her. He wouldn't let them do anything to her, and if his life was what was needed, so be it. He let go of Pickett's hand.

"No! Sawyer, NO!!" Kate screamed. How could he do this? Pickett spun him around and pushed him through the open door, away from Kate. "No, NO!! Sawyer, PLEASE! You get your hands off of him!" she yelled, struggling against the man holding her, not caring if he fired the gun, knowing only that she loved Sawyer, that he was going to die, and she was trapped, unable to help him…

"Get on your knees!" Pickett yelled, kicking Sawyer's legs out from under him, so that he landed on his knees in the mud. The rain continued to fall.

"Please!! I'll do anything you want!" Kate called, and she meant it. Surely, that was what he wanted, for her to do something? Surely this wasn't just revenge? She would do what they asked her, whatever it took, even her own life, to save him.

"I want you to watch!" Pickett called back, and Kate felt her throat close up. Sawyer just waited, kneeling on the ground. He no longer seemed to care. Kate thought she might have been crying, but it was raining too heavily to tell for sure.

"Close your eyes, Freckles," said Sawyer, not facing her. Her knees trembled, and she felt another burst of anger hit her, this time at Sawyer, for letting it happen.

"Stand up!"

"Close your eyes!" he repeated, more firmly. Pickett aimed the gun at Sawyer neck, his finger quivering on the trigger. Sawyer closed his eyes.

"NO! NO! NO!" Kate screamed into the rain, but then instinct took over and she squeezed her eyes shut.

"This is for Colleen. You son-of-a-bitch!" Pickett said, and for a moment, Sawyer was clearly aware of his heart pumping, and the push of his blood moving through his veins, and the air running into his lungs, and the rain dripping down his back.

Kate heard a bang, the sound rippled through her, and she couldn't help herself - she opened her eyes. For a split second, she saw Sawyer still kneeling in the mud, and allowed herself to hope, to pray, that Sayid and Locke had found them, and were here to rescue them, and that was their gunshot… then she saw Sawyer give a soft hiccup and topple forward, a crimson hole in his neck.

Her knees buckled, and the man holding her at gunpoint stepped back. She fell down, her eyes wide, staring straight ahead. Tears stung her eyes, but she didn't care. Pickett looked up, as a thin trail of smoke came out the barrel of his gun, only to be lost in the rain. And he smiled.