Sink Or Swim

Chapter 7

Mac glanced over at Sayid, who was shucking coconut husks. "I'm not even going to ask what you're doing."

Sayid laughed. "Simple explanation," he said.

"One you can keep to yourself," she said, closing her eyes.

"You sure you don't want me to go get Jack to see if there's anything he can do for that headache?" Sayid asked, kissing her.

"No, it'll go away," she assured him. "Always does," she said, kissing him.

Hurley came in, without knocking. "Whoa sorry Dudes."

"We need a door, lock, key," Mac said laughing.

Sayid shook his head. "What do you want, Hurley?"

"So, I'm over at Rose and Bernard's tent. Did you know he's a dentist? Well, that's not all he's been holding out on us. The guy picked up Boone's signal from the Norwegian plane," Hurley said.

"Nigerian," Sayid corrected.

"Right, anyhow, he picked it up with this," Hurley said, holding up a radio.

"We found it in one of the bunkers; I didn't know Bernard had kept it," Mac said, sitting up.

"That is a short wave radio. It's a glorified walkie-talkie," Sayid said, ignoring the glare Mac shot him.

"Yeah, but can't you switch a blue wire with a red wire - make it stronger," Hurley suggested.

"We tried to send a signal with the plane's transceiver and all we got was the French woman's message on a loop. Why would I bother?" Sayid questioned.

"Come on, man, I mean, it's worth..." Hurley said.

"It's worth nothing. It's a waste of time," Sayid said

Mac reached for the radio. "I'll take a look at it, Hurley, Sayid isn't the only one able to do radio stuff," she said.

"Thanks," he said handing it over, leaving.

"Why did you do that?" Sayid asked.

"Why did you do what you did? People come to you because you have a skill they don't have, and look for guidance and even hope," Mac said.

"False hope, which is worse than no hope at all," Sayid told her.

"But it looks like we're doing something. Hate to tell you, but you're one of the leaders these people look at. And if I had been in the mid section, they probably would have came to me too," she said holding the radio closer to him.

"Fine I'll look at it," he said, taking it, kissing her. "You're going to keep me honest aren't you?"

Mac laughed. "Doing my best," she said with a grin, starting to step outside. "Rain," she said quickly turning back.

Mac sighed hearing someone knock at the door again, pouring herself another drink getting up and opening it. "Mom…..what the hell are you doing here?"

"Well that's a nice welcome Mackenzie, we haven't seen each other in over twelve years, and that's the greeting I get?" she asked coming in.

"Why don't you come on in mom, and make yourself comfortable," Mac said, closing the door, drinking her drink. "Mom I've got a lot of things going on and this is not a good time for a family reunion."

"I heard about my precious granddaughters, I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help," she said.

Mac laughed, pouring another drink. "That's a crock of shit. The only person Abigail Grayson ever cared about helping was herself. You started taking cocaine while you were pregnant with Taylor, and by the time I was 12, you all but forgot you had 3 daughters at home. I practically raised Jordan and Taylor, with little or no help from you. Now you show up the day after I bury my daughters playing the doting mother," she said, sitting down on the couch.

"Baby, I do have my regrets," her mother said.

"Right, regrets. More like how you can turn this situation to your advantage," Mac told her. "If I was in a plane crash and died, you'd be counting up dollar signs, figuring out how much I was worth dead. It would be considerably more than I am to you alive. I heard what you tried to do when Taylor was killed, sue the driver of the car for mental anguish. I wrote a scathing letter about you in the defense of the driver. I hated the driver, but I hated you more," she said, picking up her gun and aiming at her. "I will shoot you and who in their right minds would convict me? A mourning mother shooting her own deadbeat parent when she comes in uninvited. Perfect way to get rid of a problem in my life," she said, watching her. "I'd leave now."

Mac walked out of the tent after the rain stopped, going to get some water. She felt a hand grab her elbow pulling her backwards.

"We need to talk GI Jane," Sawyer said.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mac asked.

"Sun was attacked," he said. "A black hood was put over her head, and her hands tied."

"Is she ok?" Mac asked.

"Yeah, she'll be ok," Sawyer said.

"The Others," Mac answered.

"Or someone who wants us to think that," Sawyer said.

"What?" Mac asked looking at him.

"The Doc and Rambina are trying to get an Army together; no one seems to be biting, so it would be convenient way of scaring people to have them think the Others are coming," Sawyer said.

"You're not suggesting that Jack and Ana would attack Sun are you?" Mac asked.

"You have to ask yourself, GI Jane, why they didn't invite you and your boyfriend to be members of their Army. I mean if I was setting up an army, I would want the two soldiers to be involved," Sawyer said. "The hoods are different to," he said, handing them to her.

"Sawyer, I can't believe that Jack or Ana Lucia would attack anyone," she said.

"Maybe Jack wouldn't, but Ana might," Sawyer said.

Mac took a breath. "I'll look into it," she said, walking off, in the direction of Ana's tent. "Ana," she greeted.

"Well she remembers my name. You seemed to have forgotten your tail section survivors, been hanging out with Sayid a lot. Are you hitting that?" she asked.

"Excuse me?" Mac asked.

"Nice beach, two hot people, it's what happens. Jack's denying he's doing Kate, but what we've gone through together, I'd hope you'd tell me the truth," Ana said.

"Only if you do the same for me," Mac said.

"What am I supposed to tell you the truth about?" Mac asked.

"Sun being attacked," Mac said.

"You think I had something to do with it?" Ana asked.

"I don't want to," Mac answered. "But you and Jack are looking for volunteers for an Army to go after them, you're not having a lot of success, then someone gets attacked. Does wonders for recruitment when people are scared. Look at the Army recruitment numbers after 9/11."

"I didn't have anything to do with it," Ana said.

"The bags are different, Ana," she said throwing her the bags. "It wasn't them," she said.

"Mac, you need to walk away now," she said.

"I was there with you on the other side of the island. You would have killed Nathan had I not intervened, and proven he wasn't the infiltrator. When it comes to the Others, you have a one track mind. Though I hate to think you're capable of this, it's not out of the realm of possibilities," Mac said.

"Bitch," Ana said, pushing her down. "I kept you safe and you accuse me of something like this?"

Mac kicked her off of her. "You're building a damn army, Ana. You ever think that perhaps you should ask the soldiers to build the army?"

"I'm doing it to protect us," she said, pushing her in the mud. "I'd expect it from them, but you? You were there with us! Did you forget what they did to us? That they took the kids! They had a hood over your head too, or have you forgotten that too. You feeling safe with your boyfriend, you forget what danger we are really in?" Ana asked.

"Ana stop it," Jack said, grabbing her around the waist.

"She accused me of attacking Sun," Ana said.

"Did you?" Kate asked.

"Jack let me go," Ana said.

"No," Jack said, keeping her back. "Ana, I was coming to ask the same thing," he said.

Sayid wrapped his arm around Mac's waist. "You ok?" he whispered.

"Yeah," she answered.

"You think I had something to do with this too Jack?" Ana asked.

"You did say earlier that we weren't scared enough, and then Sun gets attacked," Jack explained.

"There's someone in this camp that wants us to believe the Other's are coming, and since Ana is saying it's not her, then we need to figure out who," Mac said.

"You and I need to talk," Jack said to Ana. "Mac you ok?"

"Yeah, fine," she said, walking away.

"Where are you going?" Sayid asked, following her.

"If I can convince myself I need a shower bad enough, the hatch, otherwise the stream to wash off," Mac said.

Sayid grabbed her arm. "Hey, stop, look at me."

Mac turned and looked at him. "What?"

"What happened?" Sayid asked.

"Sawyer told me that Sun was attacked, and showed me the bags, the one put on Kate's head and the one put on Sun's. There different, then Jack and Ana are trying to build an Army to go after them. It's not hard for me to believe she could do something like that, Sayid. As much as I hate to admit it, I can see her doing it if it strengthens her case to go after them," Mac said.

Sayid pulled her close and kissed her head. "I believe you."

"Thanks," she answered.

"Jack had the same idea," Sayid told her. "But, you shouldn't have went over there alone," he told her.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"You should have told Jack or me, we would have come with you," Sayid said.

"I've been taking care of things on my own since I was 14, Sayid. I'm not one to ask anyone for help, especially when it's something I can handle on my own," Mac said.

Sayid touched her face. "You don't have to depend on just yourself anymore," he said.

"I may need you to remind me of that every now and then," Mac said looking at him.

"You got it," he said, kissing her.

Mac sighed, walking into the JAG office, going into the office of the attorney that called her. "I should have known Mom, if there is a way you could try to profit from my daughters' murders, you would," she said, turning to the lawyer. "Thanks for calling me Ayden."

"When I overheard the conversation, I figured you needed to know. I'm sorry about the girls, I'll be outside if you need me," he said, leaving.

"I just wanted to help," her mother said.

Mac laughed. "Yeah, help yourself. Coming here, playing the grieving grandmother, asking how you could get access to the girls life insurance policies, to help me out so I don't have to deal with it. Nice, mom, real nice," she said.

"I wanted to save you the trouble of having to worry about it," her mother told her.

Mac slapped her. "You're a con woman, a cheat, a liar, and a drug user. You only think about yourself, and how things benefit you. You never met my daughters', yet you're trying to get life insurance money? Honestly? I'm ashamed that you are my mother, and I never want to see you again, and if I do, it'll be the last thing you ever do," she warned. "I'd be doing the world a favor, getting rid of a con woman. No one would miss you, and you couldn't ever try to profit off any one else's grief, or anyone else's death. I want you out of town with in the hour," she warned, leaving

Mac looked up, hearing Jack walk into camp. John, where are they? You moved the guns. Where are they? We had an agreement!

"An agreement that you were about to violate, Jack. Yes, I moved the guns," Locke said.

"Where? Where? Where, John?" Jack said.

"Oh, are you going to start handing them out? How many? Who gets them? How much time before there's an accident? Another accident. I made a mistake teaching Michael how to shoot and now he's... He could be dead for all I know - and that, that was my fault. I take responsibility for that and so, yes, I'm taking responsibility for the guns, too," Locke said.

"I want 2 guns, John!" Jack said.

"I'm sorry, Jack! That's the way it's going to be, Jack!," John said

"Two guns! Now tell me where they are, right now!," Jack said.

Mac and Sayid turned, with the rest of the group, hearing three shots.

"You gave him the guns?" Jack asked.

"No. I hid them," Locke said, shocked.

"That's right, Jack. He's as stupid as you are. You were so busy worrying about each other you never even saw me coming, did you? How about you listen up because I'm only going to say this once. You took my stuff. While I was off trying to get us help - get us rescued - you found my stash and you took it, divvied it up - my shaving cream, my batteries, even my beer. And then something else happened, you decided these two boys here were going to tell you what to do and when to do it. Well, I'm done taking orders. And I don't want my stuff back. The shaving cream don't matter. Batteries don't matter. The only thing that matters now are guns. And if you want one you're going to have to come to me to get it!" Sawyer said, looking at Sayid. "Oh, you want to torture me, don't you? Show everybody how civilized you are. Go ahead, but I'll die before I give them back. And then you'll really be screwed, won't you? New sheriff in town, boys! You all best get used to it."

Mac placed her hand on Sayid's shoulder. "Leave it," she whispered, glancing at Kate. "I'll be over at the tent in a little bit," she said, kissing him going over to Kate. "Let's walk."

Kate nodded, going with her. "You and Sayid seem to be getting closer."

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "I think we just got conned by Sawyer."

Kate nodded. "I get that feeling too," she said.

"He made sure I knew about Sun's attempted kidnapping and that Ana and Jack were building an Army," Mac explained.

"He made a point of making sure I knew about Ana and Jack building up an army too," Kate said. "And he knew that I'd go to Jack."

"And that I'd go to confront Ana. He played us to a tee," Mac said.

"So what are we going to do about it?" Kate asked.

"Bide our time, but right now I think we need to confront Sawyer," Mac said.

"Let's go," Kate said.

"How'd you do it?" Mac asked, approaching him as he's polishing a knife.

"How'd I do what?" Sawyer asked.

"Locke said that he left you in the Hatch when he went to hide the guns, and we know you can't track worth a damn. So, how'd you get them?" Kate asked.

"A magician never tells his secrets," Sawyer said.

"You sure played the game well, Sawyer, I give you that. I never saw it coming," Mac said.

"You played us. You played me. All that stuff you said about Ana Lucia - you knew I'd go to Jack. And you knew I'd ask you to go to Locke," Kate said.

"Now, how in the world would I know all that?" Sawyer asked.

Mac smiled crossing her arms. "Because you're a conman Sawyer. You're only looking out for yourself, and you could care less about the rest of us."

"Did you have anything to do with Sun?" Kate asked.

"Of course he did," Mac said. "He needed a reason to pit Jack and John against each other."

"What kind of person do you think I am?" Sawyer said.

"What kind of a person do I think you are? I don't think this has anything to do with guns, or with getting your stash back! I think you want people to hate you!" Kate said

" Good thing you don't hate me, Freckles," Sawyer said.

"Guess you don't care what I think about you Sawyer," Mac said.

"You're already taken, GI Jane," Sawyer said.

"You're an ass, Sawyer," she said, walking away.

"Why do you have to do this?" Kate said.

"You run. I con. Tiger don't change their stripes," Sawyer said as Kate walked away.

Mac sighed seeing Sayid coming from his tent.

"Sawyer still standing?" he asked.

"Not worth the energy. You taking the radio to Hurley?" she asked.

"Yeah, you want to come?" he asked.

Mac saw Jack and Ana talking. "I have to apologize to Ana. I'll be back," she said, kissing his cheek, walking up. "If I had a white flag, I'd wave it," she said coming up.

"You apologizing too?" Ana asked.

"Yeah," Mac said. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Don't worry about it," Ana said.