Chapter 3
He was sure he had only been out for a couple of seconds, but when he opened his eyes everything changed. It was daytime, for one thing- sunlight hadn't been streaming straight into his eyes, he probably could've slept a while longer.
Glanced around and suddenly the guy's punch wasn't the only thing making his head hurt. What the --? Where the hell was he? It looked like some kind of crude shelter, leaves and ferns lashed to a framework of bamboo, sunlight beaming through the crack. A girl on his other side- small, blonde, nursing a newborn baby. He had never seen her before, didn't miss the opportunity to stare a bit now. Hot mom.
"How you feeling?" Gently; unabashedly Australian. "Jack says you gave him a scare."
Sat up against the wall of the hut, careful not to lean too hard. "I'm enjoyin' the view. Who's Jack? The guy who decked me? I'll have to remember to return the favor."
Her mouth opened slightly- looked a little alarmed. He frowned back. "What's the matter, Kanga? Little Roo been cryin'?"
"You don't remember?" she whispered.
"Don't remember what? I remember the damn Showdown in Quarantine Corral. Probably better for this 'Jack' fella if I didn't."
"What happened on the raft?" she demanded, grabbing his hand. "Michael and Walt and Jin? Where are they? Are they alive? Sawyer?"
"I dunno, did they get Lost?" he snapped. His temples were beginning to ache. "Damn, you looked all Madonna-and-child till you started with the 20 questions. How the hell y'all know my name anyway? Someone slap a sticker on my back?"
She didn't get the chance to reply.
"Claire? Who are you talking to?"
The jackass- no wait, just Jack- ducked through the entranceway into the hut and frowned a proud, responsible, I-am-the-boss frown. Sawyer disliked him immediately.
"We were just talking," she said softly.
Jack crossed the room and knelt at Sawyer's side, ignoring the blade-edged glare that Sawyer was carefully giving him. "How are you feeling?"
"Depends." Rather bitter. "You mean before or after you slugged me out?"
"I mean right now. What was going on back there, Sawyer?"
"Would you people TELL me how y'all know my name?"
Jack and the woman called Claire exchanged a long glance.
"What were you doing in the hatch?"
No point to lying. His head hurt too much to attempt it anyway. "I'm in quarantine."
"For what?"
"For amnesia."
A raised eyebrow. "You don't quarantine amnesia. It's noncontagious."
"Well," Sawyer growled, "I felt like tryin' an experiment!"
"Was that sarcasm?"
Sighed. Guy was brain dead. "What the hell you think?"
"…I see." Something in his eyes that he wasn't saying.
"What about Walt and Michael and Jin?" Broke in Claire.
"Already TOLD you. I don't KNOW them people."
Another long and exclusive glance between the two strangers. Finally, Jack said, "He doesn't remember."
"Yeah, that 's what amnesia IS, dumbass." Glare. Headache getting worse. He looked away, stared at the wall. Confused, scared, but mostly just angry. He had to be careful. This could go wrong. Well, wronger than it already had.
"Kate's all right, by the way." He was writing something in a notebook, pretending he wasn't interested, but the muscles in his neck and shoulders were bunched up and tense. "Just in case you were wondering."
"The hell do I care whether she's all right!" he was relieved, secretly, but he didn't want to admit it to himself and sure as hell wasn't about to admit it to Captain goddamn Marvel.
"Well, I just thought you might-"
"Listen, Round Three." His voice was so hoarse it made the growl nearly inhuman. "Someone comes barging into my home I got a right to defend myself. Now, if she's fine, that's peachy keen, but as far as I'm concerned-" he blinked. What? "As far as I'm concerned-"
As far as I'm concerned
Possession is nine-tenths of the law
He closed his eyes. A wave of nausea was beginning to come with these random lines and if this guy knocked him out and then watched him throw up, he'd never get his damn pride back.
"Sawyer?" Jack sounded so selflessly worried that he wanted to punch the guy. "Sawyer? You okay?"
"I'm FINE," he grated, forcing his eyes open. There was a steadying hand on his arm and he nearly removed it by force, then suddenly realized it wasn't Jack's, it was Claire's.
"Thanks, darlin'," he said, patting her hand before she removed it with rolling eyes but a slight smile. "Least someone around here knows how to do a man good."
"What just happened, Sawyer?" Jack asked, watching him close.
"False memory..." he admitted. "They happen a lot. Long as I take my medication I'm okay."
"False memories? Of what?"
He furrowed his brow. His head still hurt. "Of- I dunno. They're weird, okay? Like… I just thought… 'possession is nine-tenths of the law'. Like, what the hell does that mean?..." He had no clue why he was telling all this; but for some reason Jack reminded him of a doctor. And hey, if nothing else, he might get a sympathy lay from Mother Hen on the side.
"Possession is nine-tenths of the law," Claire mused. Her voice made it sweet, harmless. The idea of sentences attacking out of the black void of his memory a little bit less scary.
"Possession is nine-tenths of the law." Jack echoed, and abruptly shattered the rather comforting illusion. "Sounds like something you'd say."
"Well, ain't it great that despite the fact ya knocked me out and kidnapped me, we can still get to know each other." God. This guy was driving him nuts. "An' after just ten minutes. Warms my heart."
Jackass didn't respond, unfortunately. Instead, he seemed to focus. "These… these 'phantom memories'." He said. "I've never heard of anything like that. They're just sentences? Here and there? Or are they more?"
"They're FALSE memories," Sawyer snapped. "And they're usually short. Like a sentence or two. Or a phrase. I mean one time… one time… look, I took my meds and it went away. But one time…."
"What?" whispered Claire. It was all the incentive he needed. Pity lay! Pity lay!
"Well, you're gonna think I'm crazy," he said fast-like. "But one time, it was like… I was on this raft with some black guy and his mini-me and this Korean dude… And it was dark and someone threw a Molotov onto the raft and blew it up, and shot me in the shoulder, and they took the kid and I went after them." He shrugged uncomfortably; they were both staring at him.
Claire broke the silence with a strangled "Oh god."
Not the effect he had hoped for. "They're just nightmares, Kanga," he said awkwardly. "Doc says my mind makes 'em up to explain things I can't remember. And that was the only time it happened. I was reading a book, forgot to take my meds, and I noticed a scar on my shoulder and that came out. Took my meds and it went away. No more nightmares. Easy as pie."
Silence. She didn't look comforted (well, she was looking desperately at Jack; not the most comforting view.) He almost wished that Roo would wake up to break the loaded silence. No such luck- it was Jack. "Sawyer," he said slowly. "What would you do if I told you, as a doctor, that those memories weren't false? That you really were on the raft?"
So he was a doctor. "I'd deck you one and get you back," Sawyer retorted. "So don't."
"But how do you KNOW-"
"Cause I GOT a doctor looking at it, okay!" he snapped, "One who doesn't work in Knothole Village!"
"The Others," Claire whispered.
Sawyer cocked an eyebrow. "You wanna play doctor with someone, Jackass, check up Lady Madonna there. She's talkin' nonsense. Now if you'll excuse me-" he rose to his feet, touching the wall unsteadily for balance- "I'm headin' home."
Jack rose too, blocked his way through the nonexistent door. "You mean the hatch? I don't think that's a good idea, Sawyer."
"Well, congrats. I'll be sure to send you a medal. Now get outta my way." He shoved Jack, who to his surprise not only stood firm but gave him a shove back. Unbalanced Sawyer hit the wall of the hut- his hand ripped right through the leaves and someone outside shrieked in surprise- and it wasn't Kate or Locke. Sawyer's blood went a little cold.
"There's more of- how the hell many are there of you anyway!" he demanded, struggling to get past Jack, who to his pleasure seemed to be having more trouble holding him back.
"Sawyer!" Jack cried to be heard above him, and only then did Sawyer realize he had been yelling. "I want you to go lie down, okay? Sawyer! I need you to go lie down!"
"The HELL do I care what you want?" he demanded, grabbing Jack (who didn't flinch) by the shoulder. "Look, I've enjoyed my little stay in Fern Gully but now I'm going to get my meds. Get-" shove; no go "Get OUTTA my way!"
"You can get whatever you want later! No one's going anywhere right now. Sawyer. Are you listening to me? Sawyer!"
Oh, SNAP.
"Listen, Doc Ock!" He yelled, not caring if the whole damn summer camp could hear him anymore. "You slugged me out, dragged me to Tree Town, gave me the third degree and then decided to play Clockwork Orange, so EXCUSE ME if I'm not feelin' mighty cooperative! You expect me to sit here and take your orders, Cortez? When you won't even tell me how you know my goddamn name? You got another thing coming! Now move your ride to the side or your ass is grass!"
"Sawyer, I am NOT moving. You might as well sit down. I'm not done with you yet."
Fear tangled with fury and became something formidable. "You know what, Jackass?" he hissed. "I don't think I care."
With a sudden movement he reached out and grabbed Claire, who screamed- forcing her upright, he wrapped one hand around her slender white neck, eyes locked with Jack's. "Get outta my way, Cortez, or I'll squeeze so hard I make a fist. Baby or no baby."
Claire burst into terrified sobs, and suddenly it was Jack's turn to squirm. Sawyer smiled grimly. There was a second for which neither man did anything. Then Jack shattered the silence, yelling frantically, hoarsely- "CHARLIE! SAYID!"
In only a matter of seconds the two men entered the hut, so damn fast Sawyer wondered if they hadn't been there all along. The taller Arab took one look at what was happening and tackled Sawyer to the ground, ripping his hand from Claire's throat so hard Sawyer thought he felt something crack. Then (as the smaller guy calmed the hysterical Claire, who seemed on the verge of a serious breakdown) Jack and the Arab wrestled Sawyer down, pinning him to the ground despite his best efforts. Ali put one damnably steady knee on his chest, keeping him down, as Jack yelled to the midget "CHARLIE! In my backpack! Get the sedatives!" 'Charlie' evidently didn't jump fast enough because Jack followed it up with a furious "NOW!"
And when the little round bottle of pills appeared in Jack's fist, Sawyer realized just how much danger he was in.
He fought with a new strength- one fueled by terror as well as by rage- but it was two against one and he was already weakened. Sayid straddled his chest, one knee on either arm, and Jack gave him the bottle, yelling above Sawyer's wordless, furious primal roar- "Two! Just two, and if we need more we can use them later!"
Sayid tipped two pills into his palm and Sawyer lashed out desperately with his legs, hitting nothing, then closed his mouth so hard it was painful, gritting his teeth with a vengeance. They'd have to cut a hole in him to get those pills in
-or so he thought, because Jack reached out and grabbed his nose, pinching it shut until he had to open or suffocate, and then Sayid was ready, dropping in the pills and then forcing his mouth closed again before Sawyer could spit them out, and then it was all over.
He realized later, much later, than he could have fought further if he had used his brain- hid the pills under his tongue, for instance, or maybe simply faked some sleep. But exhausted and angry, the idea didn't occur to Sawyer, and there didn't seem to be any option but to swallow, which he did- gasping and panting, choking a little with no water to wash them down.
The drug worked quickly, though Sawyer kept on fighting to the very last, determined to escape even as the room blurred, spinning. But the thrashing, the barely coherent insulting screams, the hate could not postpone the inevitable- and the now-familiar darkness finally closed in, stealing him from himself, blacking out the bright world, until he knew nothing
falling thoughtless
and friendless
into the black hole, exiled from the world, adrift in the void.
(Who are the others?)
((A/N: 230 hits and 4 reviews? That's not cool. Hopefully I'll get a few more this round, if just to yell at me for torturing our favorite Texan. Don't worry, y'all- things go a little more in Sawyer's favor come Chapter 4.
-Locked Heart Ami))