One: Reflection of Time

Sawyer opened his eyes and looked around, immediately realizing he wasn't in his own room. As the vision became clearer he realized he was in the hatch again, and Kate was by his side. She rose as soon as she realized he'd woken up and sat next to him.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice soft, caring.

He tried to answer but couldn't. He looked up at her, eyes narrowed, unable to explain why he couldn't find his voice. Soon, the scene around him started to fade and the familiar music began echoing in his ears signaling the start of another day. Startled, Sawyer immediately sat up and ran a hand through his hair, mentally noting to cut it to rid himself further of memories.

That morning was one of the slowest, most tedious of his life. He never knew telemarketing could be such a pain. Half the day had passed and he wanted to shoot himself already. He wondered how long any one individual could stay at a job like this, before it was either time to move up in the world or end their existence. Regardless of how close to losing his sanity he felt he'd come on a daily basis, it was a real start to a real life. No more taking people's money or playing them with his own, no more long cons…cons of any kind. The people he called were interesting, huge CEOs from across the nation, and all, as he expected, perfectly happy with their stapler situation. Sometimes their receptionist answered, often a sweet sounding female counter part to the cut throat man running the whole show behind the mahogany desk.

Gradually, he slipped into a routine of "pretending to like the job." Every night he'd go for a drink with the twenty something's, every night the same place, the same people. Against all the stereotypes and clichéd sayings – Sawyer actually preferred to drink alone; but as much as he resisted, his coworkers successfully dragged him out nightly for at least one drink. He'd always started out slow; with something light, a beer maybe…he always made himself something more serious when at home.

Days turned to weeks which soon turned to months, while he was getting paid, it wasn't much and he sure didn't like the idea of being stuck there forever. Though one day things changed, he called a woman at a company half way across the country one day, who sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. The name definitely wasn't familiar, Jorja O'Neil, but the voice, something about it, the sharp attitude, he recognized. As usual, the voice on the other end ended the conversation abruptly, and he was growing used to the feeling of being hung up on. This, however, was different, the voice and the words she'd said still hung in his memory, and though it was against company policy to call back in those circumstances, he wanted to.

He couldn't though, so he did the next best thing. He addressed a catalogue to the office somewhere in Nebraska, a town he'd never heard of. Smiling slightly to himself he thought it might have about 150 people. Days wore on, and all he could hear was the woman's voice, the mere thought that it could be Kate on the other end of that phone brought happiness burning into his stomach, but he shoved that thought out of his mind as quickly as it had arrived. He wondered if it were her, would she recognize his handwriting or name on the note with the catalogue. Or would she ignore it just as he had been trying to do for at least a week after they'd talked. Who knew, but still, he couldn't get her out of his mind.


Kate sat in her small apartment, basically the middle of nowhere. While she'd been rescued, even though she'd been missing for so long, she realized if she continued to use her own name in the US again…she'd most likely get caught again. Two days after she'd arrived in a small town in the middle of Nebraska, she dyed her hair and made the appropriate actions to start a new life, again. The next day, she went to a local agency to find a job, when that didn't work, she headed to the next town over. It was slightly bigger, but not by much, but at least there were certain tall buildings; especially one that looked slightly promising. Given it wasn't a skyscraper of Los Angeles or New York, it was something for Nebraska, the biggest chain of accountants in Nebraska, even if it was just state wide; regardless it didn't matter. She needed something to keep her going, no matter how long it would be.

"How can I help you?" the woman at the desk asked, a graceful accent lacing her words.

"Ummm…I need a job?" Kate asked, unsure if this was the place she should've come.

"Sure…" she said her voice trailing off a bit as she began typing on the computer in front of her, "Something simple, like a temp maybe?"

Kate felt herself instantly relax at the mention of such a job, that's exactly the type of work she'd need, "Definitely, that sounds great."

"Great…and it looks like there's an opening on the third floor, with a Mr. Lawson," she responded, "I'll tell him you're on your way up…Ms..?"

"O'Neil…" Kate cut in, "Jorja."

"Beautiful name, Miss O'Neil, I'll let him know, elevators are just 'round the corner." The receptionist took a long look at Kate watching her turn carefully to find the elevators. Kate got an uneasy feeling in the bottom of her stomach; she didn't know how long she could pull this off. She was in a town where no one knew her, but…there was always the "what if" factor in her mind. She'd changed her hair color, but does that really do much? Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she stepped out of the elevator to find the office that hopefully would change her life forever.