Sorry for the delay in posting, the semester is getting down to the wire and I still have a ton of papers to write… anyway, hope you all like…please leave a review, they make me blissful with glee.

Chapter 10

Saving Souls

Hearts break, hearts mend
Love still hurts
Visions clash, planes crash
Still there's talk of
Saving souls, still the cold
Is closing in on us

-Sarah McLachlan

"What is this place?" She whispered, with a shudder as she took in the cell in which they now laid in. Her eyes had drifted over to the chains on the walls, like old slave shackles.

Jack caught where her gaze had traveled and reached for her, pulled her back into his arms.

"Just a room," he told her, kissing the top of her head.

They had managed to untangle themselves from each others arms, long enough to put back on their clothes, once dressed, he had gathered her up in his arms and held her, pulling a filthy worn blanket over them both for the little warmth it provided.

She leaned her head against his chest and felt him rest his hands there, his fingers twirling the ends of her hair in a way she found relaxing.

She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him, willing herself to block out everything but him. The knowledge that here, holding her was the one she loved. The man she needed. It was for her a revelation, the sheer knowing - that she at last could readily admit to herself that there was someone in this world that she needed.

They were quiet for a long moment, each busy with their own thoughts.

She started to doze off, and then it dawned on her as she drifted off, that he was crying softly as he held her.

She sat up quickly and reached for him. He seemed ashamed, holding a hand to his face, he turned away from her.

"Goddamn it!" He swore, slamming a fist down onto the hard tiled floor. The look of raw, frustrated pain etched deep into his handsome face, caused tears of her own to whelm up in the corners of her eyes. She reached for him again.

"Hey, it's okay…"

He turned back to her as she spoke and he shook his head, jaw clenched tight.

"It is…"

He grabbed her hands and held them, brought his eyes to her face.

"No," he said somewhat roughly, "it's not okay - it's as far from fucking okay…"

"Jack," she pleaded, not being able to stand the sight of his suffering. He was the strong one and here he was breaking apart right in front of her. She didn't know what to do. Knowing that words at this point were pointless things, what could she offer to him to ease the horror of their situation, the hopelessness of where they were and who kept them there.

"Goddamn Kate, I shouldn't - we shouldn't have…"

"Don't talk like that, don't you dare."

She hated to think he regretted what had just happened between them. There was no going back, what's done was done and she for one wouldn't have had it any other way. If this was their last day on earth, then all that mattered to her was that he was there with her.

After all she had done, she had never dreamed that she could ever begin to feel whole once more.

He grabbed her by the back of her neck and pulled her into a tight hug.

"It's all fucked," he muttered into her shoulder, " I love you and its all fucked."
She pulled back slightly and searched the dark despair of his beautiful eyes.

She leaned over and placed her mouth to his, "If you lose hope so will I…"

He sat back, her face still cupped beneath the roughness of his palms. He took a deep breath, nodded.

"I know, I'm sorry - I don't regret it, I never will," he told her.

"Me too," she offered him the smallest of smiles.

"If we ever get out of this…"

"Don't - don't say if - its when, Jack - I love you."

He ran his hands lightly over her face, the tears in his eyes spilling down his face as he brought his lips to hers and kissed her, hungrily she pressed her own lips to his, deepening the kiss between them.

"Okay," he said, "when - when we get out of here, I promise - you and me."

She felt her heart swell at the sound of his words, the urgency behind them. The truth.

She pulled back, trailed a finger down his face.

"That sounded dangerously like a marriage proposal, Dr Sheppard."

He finally allowed a small grin of his own.

"It was, it is…I love you and I want you - not for now, not for tomorrow but for as long…as we have, you and me."

"Okay," she said, leaning towards him, hungry to feel his lips once more, "you and me," she said.

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He woke to the sound of the door creaking open. He came to with a start as he sat up and took in the sight of Juliet entering, accompanied as usual with her two armed body guards.

Jack shook Kate awake, she grumbled something but opened her eyes, saw that they were not alone and quickly sat up with a start.

Jack felt her reach for his hand and he took it, squeezed it tight in his own. He faced their captors with a hard stare, noticing the dark purple bruise he had left on Juliet's lily white throat.

"You have to come with us, Kate," Juliet told her, her voice hoarse.

Kate clung to Jack and shook her head.

"No," she said, stubbornly.

Jack tightened his grip on her hand and gave Juliet a look that could have froze water.

"She's not going anywhere," he told her, allowing the heat of his anger to creep into his voice.

"Yes, she is," Juliet said and then she gestured to the two men, who stepped up and went to Kate, grabbed her roughly by the shoulder and pulled her up and out of Jack's arms, hauling her to her feet.

Jack scrambled up with them, his hand still locked in Kate's.

"No, goddamn you people…"

He tried to force her back and to him but they pulled her away and out of his reach. and started to shove her towards the door.

"No! Jack, don't let them…"

He heard Kate shout towards him, twisting her head back to look at him. Her eyes big with her fear, her panic.

He went after her but the older man turned on him suddenly with the butt of the gun and slammed it into the side of his left temple, causing him to hit the wall behind him and slide down it. He must have blacked out for when he came to, Kate and the men were gone. Juliet stood above him, her hand around her throat. Her expression pained.

"I'm sorry, Jack…"

He reached up, touched the raw, bleeding spot were he had been struck

"Why?" he started to ask as his eyesight blurred and another wave of blackness over took him, blotting out the sight of her troubled blue eyes.

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They had brought Sawyer back to the outdoor cell, he had started to ask questions but one glance at the pissed off, older man with the gun made him hesitant.

They threw him inside and locked him up.

No one would tell him where Kate was…no one would tell him a goddamn thing!

He kicked over the bucket left behind, full of now stagnant water and sent it crashing against the bars.

"Son of a bitch!"

"Your not going to accomplish anything with that," a woman's voice said.

He turned and found himself looking at a pretty young lady with beautiful full lips and a thick mane of dark hair.

Her grin was easy, almost as if she were amused by him.

He cocked his head to the side and took in her smile, felt angered by it.

"What would you know, kid?"

She stood, hand on hip, her smile broadened.

"Plenty, seeing how I actually live in this shit hole," she told him.

"Yeah, you live with these people?"

"Uh huh, my dad says…you guys are here to deliver us," she told him in a quick, almost excited rush of words.

He eyed her curiously.

"Deliver us from what?"

"Nothing…I should…"

There was panic now on her face, her smile slid off and a look of almost frightened terror overtook her.

She shook her head.

"It's nothing…"

She started to back up and away from him, ready to bolt.

"Hey wait! Don't run, what the hell are yammering about?"

He started towards her, gripping the bars between his hands.

"Never mind," she said quickly as she turned and hurried away from him, running as she did.

"Hey! Hey wait!" he called after her retreating figure but she had rounded the side of a building and disappeared from his view.

He stood back, shook his head.

My dad says you guys are here to deliver us…

What in the hell was that kid talking about? He felt a strange sense of unease but shook it off, after all it was just the mere ramblings of some smart mouth teenager. Why the hell was he letting her words affect him like this?

It didn't mean a goddamn thing.

"Deliver us," he murmured, "from what…"

Evil

He turned back towards the direction that that girl had run off to and felt a cold chill spread through him and settle in his gut.

"Oh what the fuck," he growled, kicking at the empty bucket again, trying to will away the cold fear that had come to replace his initial frustration.