126 Days
Day 3
Author: Cath
Disclaimer: Characters, etc, are not mine. They belong to some corporate types and JJ Abrams and a whole bunch of other people that aren't me. You're surprised at this admission, aren't you…!
Summary: Post series 2. Jate. Sawyer and Kate have made it back to the camp, but how? And where is Jack?
Notes: This is my second Lost fic, which I promised myself I'd never write. But as soon as I start reading fics in a new fandom I always get sucked in. Let me know if you enjoy this first instalment as I plan to continue if there is interest.
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Day 3
Pain. This is all she feels when she first wakes up. Her leg throbs and when she tries to move it, pain shoots down it. In her shoulder there is a dull ache. Her stomach advertises its hunger loudly.
She tries opening her eyes. Slowly, but then closes them again as the brightness overcomes her. She doesn't recollect having seen sunlight in days, and it disorientates her. Eventually she opens her eyes again, shields them from the sunlight as they adjust.
She hears the voices of others surrounding her slowly come into focus: Sawyer, Sayid, Sun, Hurley. And for a moment she wonders if more of them were abducted by the others.
Her eyes fully adjusted, she moves herself so that she can observe her location. Myriad emotions take over her: shock, confusion, fear, relief.
The beach. She sees the beach. She sees the ocean. She sees their camp. She sees all those whom she'd never expected to see again.
"Morning, Freckles," Sawyers voice greets her, and she manoeuvres herself slightly to see him. He appears only mildly injured, bruises and scratches scattered across his arms and face.
"Where…what…?" She struggles to form a coherent sentence that fully sums up her thoughts.
"You've been drifting in and out of consciousness for a few days," Sayid informs her. "We could only hope that you would recover without medical treatment."
"Where's Jack?" she asks. Is he too injured to advise, she wonders silently.
No one answers. She looks from person to person: Hurley shifts uncomfortably, Sun looks at her compassionately, Sayid looks down for a moment as if gaining the courage to speak, Sawyer half-grins awkwardly; it is as good as an admission of worry from him.
She doesn't like their response. She sits herself up; feels too vulnerable lying down. She repeats her request, but this time more demanding: "Where's Jack?"
"Jack… he didn't come back," Sawyer replies, and her levels of paranoia increase at Sawyer's lack of sobriquet.
"The others still have him? Is someone going back for him?" she demands. She struggles to retain her composure; the effort of ignoring the pain in her leg weakens her emotionally, and this is combined with an overall feeling of exhaustion causing her to lack an ability to remain stoic.
Again there is no answer, only uncomfortable silence. "What happened?" she asks. "How did we get back here, Sawyer?"
"You don't remember?" Sayid queries, a concerned glance towards Sun.
"No," she responds. "I don't remember much of anything. What happened?" she inquires again, moving herself around to face Sayid, the most likely person to answer her questions truthfully. She unintentionally jolts her leg as she shifts, and is unable to mask the pain. She grits her teeth and attempts to even her breathing out. It does not go unnoticed.
Finally she glances down at her leg, but it is hidden beneath wrapped cloth. Blood has seeped through the cloth in various areas and she comes to realise that this is no minor injury. She feels light-headed, as if noticing for the first time that she is not as well as she had thought. Tiredness washes over her against her will.
"I think that now is not the time for answers to these questions," Sayid responds, observing her waning energy.
She tries to fight against the tiredness, but her efforts are futile. "Is Jack alive?" she asks quietly.
There is a pause. "We don't know," Sayid replies. And that is the last she remembers before yielding to exhaustion.
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She is stumbling blindly over ground as rain pours down on them. A hand on her arm guides her, but not gently.
Fear. She feels fear and anxiety and a hundred other negative emotions that she tries to keep in check. She needs to remain calm, to try and figure out some sort of plan to get them out of this situation. But she finds it difficult to focus on anything beyond walking and anticipating the worst.
They seem to walk for hours, but she cannot concentrate on time and distance under the cover of darkness, and her emotions play with time, making seconds stretch out indefinitely.
After what seems like hours, they come to a stop, and she tries not to think about what the next stage of their ordeal may bring. But then after some hushed voices, drowned out by the sound of rain hitting leaves, they move again.
They walk on, on ever more unsteady ground, and at one point her ankle gives way. She is prevented from going over by the hand that remains strongly on her arm. Her ankle throbs with every further step, and the discomfort draws out the time even more.
Eventually they must come to a clearing as she no longer feels trees brush by her side, branches attacking her.
They stop, a door opens loudly, they move forward, and then she feels a cold, damp atmosphere associated with being inside some place where light is permitted no access. Her hands are untied, heavy breathing, footsteps leading away, and then the door is closed.
She circles her wrists, which ache from their maintained position, and then draws them up to her head to remove the hood.
Her eyes adjust to the darkness, and she notices that she is not alone. She shares glances with Jack and Sawyer as if to silently question what the hell they should do next.
She wakes up breathless.
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End Part One.