Finished another chapter! We are very close to finding out the kidnapper's identity...
I have spent a lot of time in the last month or so developing the overall story arc and I think you will enjoy where this is going. This chapter is mainly build up for upcoming chapters but there are many plotlines going on. Some are obviously happening now, there are even more starting up and there are ones that have begun even if you haven't realised it yet... And on that note I present Chapter Nine- New York.
Sawyer lay staring at the ceiling in his motel room. It was 7 am. He could feel his leg touching Kate's and did not dare it move in case she woke. He tilted his head downwards to look at her.
She was breathing in and out softly and every few minutes she would twitch or slightly reposition herself.
The sun shone strongly through the curtains and reflected off of the room's cream coloured walls.
Sawyer wished he could stay there forever watching Kate as she slept. The two had gotten through the storm together and he had a feeling that there might be another one before the ordeal of the kidnapping was over.
He suddenly became aware that Kate had woken up and was looking up at him curiously.
"Hey." She said sleepily.
"Hey." He replied. "So you did get to sleep in the end then."
"Not without nightmares." She said, sitting up and putting a hand to her head. "What time is it?" she asked.
"Seven. We should probably get ready to leave."
She got out of bed and said "Okay, I'll go to my room and wash then I'll meet you in the hall in about fifteen minutes?"
"Sure," he said.
Kate poked her head out of the door before she left Sawyer's room as she was still only wearing her pyjama shorts and top from the night before.
Once she was gone Sawyer got up and dressed still thinking about what they had both almost done last night. He got an erection just thinking about it so he tried not to. After all, this weekend was an important one. On Sunday, he would meet his daughter's kidnapper and hopefully get her back.
[Flashback]
Another enemy jumped out from behind a wall nearby and Sawyer span around quickly to shoot him between the eyes. His aiming was perfect. He spotted another two bad guys in higher windows of the building to his left and took them out.
He was sweating and out of breath but if he had counted correctly, the fight was over. He checked his watch.
"Yeah!" he shouted. Miles came in clapping.
"Nice one man, looks like you beat me!" he said.
"Don't feel too bad. You can't really simulate these experiences anyway. Especially when the guys you're shooting are made of wood."
"True, true." Replied Miles patting his friend on the back. Some other officers came onto the set and congratulated Sawyer on his time. This had been his final test and he had passed with flying colours. It was official. He was becoming a cop.
It had been a few months after the experience at the mall until he had finally felt confident about becoming a cop. Then he and Miles had gone through many weeks of training tests together and done well in all of them.
At the end of the day the two got told the date of their ceremony for completing the course.
That night there was a party at Miles' apartment. A lot of people turned up but luckily, it was a big apartment.
"Congratulations James," said Kate who had just arrived. He look up at her from his seat on the sofa.
"Kate! I was starting to think you weren't gonna come," he said, standing up to hug her. "Claire couldn't make it then?"
"No she says she's sorry but we couldn't find someone to look after Aaron at such short notice and he obviously can't be left alone,"
To be fair, the party had been arranged very quickly and had not been planned until that afternoon.
The party went on for several hours and one of the highlights of the evening was when Richard, who had said he wasn't coming, made a surprise appearance. Sawyer enjoyed catching up with all of the guests and just to celebrate which he rarely did.
Frank Lapidus also turned up and won a variety of different drinking games.
"So what's been going on with you?" Sawyer asked Kate in the early hours of the morning.
"Not much. I've been working a desk job for a while. In fact today I got offered a promotion,"
"Really? You should have said something earlier! This party could be for you too!"
"They're trying to promote me to the New York division." She said with a bit of a slur. She was avoiding looking Sawyer in the eye as she knew that she would not be telling him this if she hadn't had a few drinks.
"Oh." He said. "That's uh- Have you told Claire?"
"No."
"And are you going to take it?" She paused and finally found the courage to meet his eyes.
"I… I don't know."
[Present]
Sawyer snapped the chocolate bar in half and gave one bit to Kate. It was midday and after realising that they had had no breakfast he had suggested they pull over and get an early lunch at a service station only to find that upon arriving neither of them were very hungry and they had agreed to just get something sweet.
It was odd as both of them were usually quite healthy but they were being affected by a very frustrating situation.
Sawyer had used his maths skills to work out that they didn't have enough time to go to a motel for the second night and instead Kate could try and sleep in the car as he would continue their drive and in the morning Kate would take the wheel.
The hours in the car dragged on and Sawyer and Kate would rarely speak. Miles would usually have something to offer- whether it be his occasional complaining or comic relief to keep the mood a bit lighter but since he had left, their objectives seemed further away than ever which depressed them more than anything.
At about midnight, Sawyer stopped to get some coffee. He had been slowly falling asleep in the driver's seat and knew that doing so would be irresponsible. After this he felt much more awake and carried on speeding through the country until dawn. When Kate took over it was Sawyer's turn to get some sleep. The journey seemed to last for a lifetime and neither of them were a hundred percent sure of what was waiting for them in New York.
"Sawyer. Sawyer wake up."
"What?" he asked becoming alert quickly.
"We're here." Said Kate. He looked through the windscreen and saw the huge city silhouetted against the sunset.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Half six." She told him. He felt odd. Something Kate had said was different…
When had she started calling him Sawyer again? He tried to put it out of his mind. All that mattered now was that they found the building they were meant to go to.
[Flashback]
Claire came into Kate's room holding a glass of orange juice.
"What time did you get back last night?" she asked.
"I don't remember," groaned Kate in reply. Her head felt like it was on fire. Hangovers were one of the things she hated most.
Claire came over to the bed and handed her the juice.
"You said you weren't going to drink." She said.
"I know. It's just- I've been feeling…" Kate trailed off.
"You can tell me anything you know. You're my best friend."
"I got offered a promotion… In the New York department."
"When?"
"Yesterday afternoon."
"Why didn't you tell me straight away."
"Because I knew would try and talk me out of it."
"So you're taking it then?"
"No. Maybe. I'm not sure."
"Look- Kate. If you really want to go I'm not going to stop you. After all, I think you've helped me so much that I might be able to cope on my own. At least for a while. How long would it be for?"
"It's a two year contract. But I could come and visit every summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I'd phone every week. I promise."
"So you're going?"
"You're right Claire. I think you're ready to do this on your own. You're a great mother."
"I'm going to miss you."
"You too." They hugged and started to get tearful.
"How long before you have to leave?" Claire sniffed.
"A couple of weeks."
"Okay. But I think I know someone who's going to miss you even more than me…"
She was referring of course to Aaron. Kate knew she would find it hard not to think about him in New York. But the job paid amazingly well and she felt that it may well be time that she start over.
[Present]
After Sawyer had fed a parking meter he and Kate set off onto the streets of the city.
Luckily Sunday was not an extremely busy day in New York and they didn't have too much trouble getting around.
Finding the right building was something that neither of them had given much thought although evidently they should have as it was turning out to be a lot easier said than done.
"Shit, we've only got a few hours left and I can't see that Goddamn skyscraper anywhere around," said Sawyer checking his watch.
"It's okay, it's okay," Kate reassured him.
"No it isn't!" he replied. "Are you sure you can't remember exactly where it was?"
"I don't know. It's been around two years since I was here last." She looked around. They were both utterly lost.
"Wait a second-" said Sawyer suddenly. "You said you had to walk past it in the morning to get to your work building,"
"Yeah…"
"So why don't we go to your old apartment block,-" Then Kate caught on.
"-, and follow the route! Good thinking," Sawyer shrugged modestly.
"Do you remember the address of the apartment block?"
"Yup." She replied confidently. "Come on, we can get a cab." And so they called over a yellow taxi and got in.
The ride took longer than Sawyer had expected but finally they paid the driver and came back out onto the streets. By this time it was dark.
"So…" he said. "Which way did you go?"
"This way," she said pointing to the right. They went down several streets turning corners and over bridges.
"You used to walk this route every day?" asked Sawyer, struggling for breath.
Kate just smiled and kept going.
Sawyer looked around and then he saw it. After seeing it's picture so many times he was starting to think he would never see it in reality.
"Over there!" he shouted. Kate turned around and saw it too.
"You ready for this?" she asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be." He replied.
"Ugh, please no more clichés." She said rolling her eyes. Sawyer laughed and they both headed for the building.
[Flashback]
Kate looked out of the plane window at New York below. She was coming in for a landing. The flight had been short but she was glad to get out as she had become uneasy about flying anywhere these days.
Although she had said goodbye only a few hours earlier she already wished she could see Aaron and Claire again. At one point she had even suggested that they could come with her but their life was in LA and that's where they would be staying.
The next day was Kate's first day at her new workplace and she set off early as she did not know how long it would take to walk there. It turned out to be a bit further than she was expecting but she didn't mind as she liked a little bit of exercise in the morning.
When she arrived at her office space she was met with a warm welcome and the work was surprisingly easy but she guessed that they were going to ease her into more amounts of it later on.
She had packed a lunch the previous evening and sat down to eat it during her lunch break. As she took a bite from a sandwich she had made she noticed a dark haired guy coming up to her.
"Hi, I'm Mark." He said, "Enjoying your first day here?"
"Yeah thank you." There was a silence and they smiled awkwardly.
"So you're not going to tell me your name?"
"Well you knew it was my first day so I'm guessing you know-"
"It's nice to meet you Kate." He said extending his arm to shake her hand.
"So you just came over to ask how I was doing?"
"Actually no. I came over to ask for some of your sandwich. I forgot my lunch today and I'm trying to stay healthy."
"Knock yourself out," said Kate passing the remaining half to him.
"Thank you so much,"
"You're welcome."
As he finished the final bite he nodded at her to indicate that it had tasted good.
"I wish I could repay you in some way," he said.
"Don't worry about it."
"Ah, I know. I'm meeting up with some friends after work. How about you come by and meet the gang?"
"Yeah okay." She answered. She felt good that she was already making friends and was looking forward to the end of the day.
[Present]
As they got closer to the building Kate and Sawyer could see that it was in fact a hotel.
"Well here we are." Said Kate as they came into the lobby. "Time?"
"It's eleven." Said Sawyer after checking his watch for what seemed like the millionth time that day. His heart was pounding loudly and quickly in his chest. To say he was nervous would be a severe understatement. "Have you got the, uh…" he looked uneasily at the man behind the desk. "…Guns?" He mouthed silently.
She nodded.
They then went to the desk and the man behind it became alert.
"How can I help you?" he asked.
"Can we use a bathroom?" said Sawyer.
"Of course sir, there is one that is usually used by the staff- it's on the eighth floor."
"Thanks." It was all too easy.
He and Kate headed for the stair well. It wasn't very well decorated and there was a nasty stench but it was to be expected from a three star.
They kept going upward until finally they reached the top, next to the door to the roof. There was no CCTV in this part of the building so Kate felt safe enough to take out the two guns from her bag.
"This one was going to be for Miles," she said trying to give one of them to Sawyer.
"No. I have to be unarmed."
"Why?"
"Cos I want him to trust me." He said.
She reluctantly put it back and held the other tightly.
"Is it locked?" she asked gesturing to the door. He shook his head. "How do you know?"
He pointed to the floor where a padlock (which had clearly been tampered with) was lying.
"Looks like Mr kidnapper's already here." He whispered.
"Good luck." She whispered back. Before she knew it Sawyer had opened the door and gone out onto the roof and she was on her own.
It wasn't long before she noticed a small grate on the wall that she could peer through. It was hard to see anything past the tiny bars. She could just about make out Sawyer's figure going over to the roof's edge and peering over. Suddenly she spotted another figure- a man she didn't recognise- creeping up behind him. She almost called out from instinct but knew she couldn't alert the man that she was there. Her only choice was to go onto the roof herself and attack him. She reached for the door handle but then she heard something behind her on the stairs.
She span around and saw several men in suits and at the front-
"Mark?"
He was speechless.
"You know this bitch?" said one of the other men as he rushed forward and pulled a bag over her head. Everything went dark and Kate screamed loudly.
L O S T
Classic Lost style ending right? REMEMBER- You don't need to have a fanfic account to leave a review and they are very much appreciated! Until next time...
