A/N; sorry it took so long, ap exams and other things have been tying up my schedule. Third chapter will be up much sooner.
At first Sawyer refused to acknowledge the figure behind him; all logic told him that it was impossible that the man was there. So he swallowed hard, and kept his eyes focused on Miles, willing his mind to stop playing tricks on him. "I'm only going to ask you one more time. Where's Claire?" Sawyer said through clenched teeth. But Miles, looking thoroughly disoriented, was barely able to register what had been asked, much less put together a coherent response.
Instead, Sawyer heard a mocking laughter from behind him. "I told you, there is no information you can possibly gain from that man. He's on his way out." Sawyer remained silent, clenching his fists, unwilling to turn around and face the man who couldn't possibly be behind him. "I however, know exactly where Claire Littleton is."
This was too much for Sawyer, who turned around immediately after hearing this. "Then why the hell don't you go ahead and tell me!" Sawyer demanded. He paused for a moment, unable to register that there was a man behind him that he had murdered on the island. He saw the smug smile of Anthony Cooper, the man who had conned his mother, causing his father to kill her and himself.
"Well for starters, I remember you murdering me. I think that alone is reason enough for me to withhold any information I might possess."
"And for starters I remember you ruinin' my life. I think that makes us even. Now why don't you tell me where Claire is?"
"I didn't ruin your life James, your father merely overreacted. It's not my fault the man couldn't handle a bad beat. You should be blaming him, and your dumb mother." The shock had worn off by now, and it was quickly replaced by rage. Sawyer tensed up, with murder shining in his eyes. "You're not going to pull another letter out for me to read, are you?" The grinning Cooper mocked.
"I'll kill you again, I swear to God," Sawyer spat out through clenched teeth.
The old conman let out a knowing chuckle and shook his head. "I'm still dead James, you can't kill me."
Sawyer narrowed his eyes, and breathing heavily said, "Well at least I can have some fun tryin'." Without warning he threw a right hook that connected with Anthony Cooper's nose with a sickening crack. He continued his onslaught mercilessly, tackling the man he had once murdered to the floor. He brought his hands up as quickly as possible, clenching them around the man's neck in a death grip, his
thumbs push hard into Cooper's throat. "Tell…me…where… Claire is!" Sawyer spat out as he concentrated all his force into hurting the old man.
But the man didn't attempt to respond. His arms weren't desperately flailing around, nor was he trying to buck his assailant off. In fact he made no effort to turn the tables, and didn't denote that he was in the slightest bit of pain. After a full two minutes had passed, Sawyer slowly began to relax his grip before letting go. He fell to the floor, trying to catch his breath. Finally he collected himself and his eyes bore straight into the man he had once killed.
"You can't kill me twice," the old con said with a smile.
"If you ain't gonna tell me where Claire is, mind at least revealing why you're here?"
"Ain't it obvious James, you're losing your mind," Cooper laughed as he readjusted his collar. "Come on; let's go for a little walk."
Sawyer begrudgingly obliged, but pushed ahead of the man as he left the camp. "I gotta get looking for Claire anyways," he muttered, half to himself and half to Cooper. Before he left, he took one last glance over his shoulder at Miles. The injured ghost whisperer's eyes were drooping down, and his breathing became labored. He seemed to focus all his energy into fighting away his imminent death, managing to spit out one last plea for help. "W-Wait."
Sawyer shook his head regrettably, and then faced Anthony Cooper. "Let's go, we don't have any time to waste."
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
They walked side by side and in silence. But Sawyer was deep in thought, trying to figure how he could extract the information from Cooper. As if on cue, the man next to him said, "The only way I'll tell you where Claire is, is if you con it out of me. And you can't con a con,"
Sawyer looked over at him with arched eyebrows but said nothing. "Well at least a con who's worth his salt," Cooper said with laugh, "you however got conned by my good for nothing son! I don't know how you've survived all these years. People must be getting dumber."
Sawyer remained quiet, concentrating on formulating a plan. The sounds of the jungle had seemed to disappear, but the light of the sun managed to beat down upon him with a previously unknown intensity. He was still feeling light headed and woozy, still not having had anything to drink or eat. As
he walked forward, trying to think of a way to extract the information, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Slowly he turned his head out into the jungle and saw two men casually talking in the trees not too far away. He squinted, and stopped dead in his tracks upon recognizing them. There was the Marshall that he had shot, and missed, forcing Jack to euthanize him against his will. He was talking to Mr. Tom Friendly, an Other Sawyer had killed after he had surrendered.
Tom seemed to notice Sawyer's gaze and gave a salute. The Marshall in turn gave a smile and a wave. Sawyer clenched his eyes shut, and rubbed the sweat off of his brow. When he re-opened them the two men were gone.
Becoming paranoid and worried he scanned the forest around where they were, but saw nothing. Slowly he turned back around to where Cooper was before. No one was there. He collapsed to the ground, exhausted, dehydrated, and alone. Worst of all he was no closer to finding Claire or Aaron. Then he began to realize his encounter with Cooper might have been all in his head, brought on by trauma, exhaustion, and the heat. But the fight and the conversation, it all seemed so real. He ran his hands through his hair, forcing himself to come up with a plan on where to go. Then he heard something, footsteps not too far away. Then there was a voice.
"Hey cowboy, you don't look so hot."
He slowly raised his head, and leaning against a tree in front of him was Ana-Lucia Cortez.
A/N: please leave a review to tell me what you think!