Chapter 10
The Hatch was quiet: Jack deep into an exhausted sleep dripping limbs off the sofa, Locke had moved from the sink and was once again playing Dave to the computer's HAL 2000; Sayid was no where in sight. Sawyer slipped silently along the wall, then across the darkened open space of the main Hatch area heading for the closed door of the store room. He pushed the key into the lock and turned it. The door opened inwards into darkness.
There was a scuffing sound in the depths of the narrow cell.
Sawyer slipped inside, reached out to flip the light switch and turned back to check the state of the inmate. He blinked when he saw what had become of him. Sonnavabitch. The bruised and bloody man blinked as well.
"You?" Henry croaked.
"Surprised to see me then Billy Bob?" Sawyer said, covering for his reaction with a wiseass sneer. "I told you it takes more than a few bullets to put me down?"
"Wh-what do you want?" The beaten man stuttered as he pushed himself into the corner. Still had enough pluck to ask questions of his own then, Sawyer thought. This 'Henry' had more in him than his appearance would suggest. Good, he was going to need it.
"Used to have so many answers to that one." Sawyer said from where he stood, despite the lingering pain in his chest, tall and imposing against the closed door. Henry's eyes grew round. "But I didn't come in here to pick up where Ol' Sayid left off, much as I'd like to. Don't have the time for all that. There's only one thing you gotta tell me: what do 'you' want?"
"What?"
"Seems to me, if you're as sane as you look, there's only one answer to that an' that's outa here. Maybe right out of the county." The man in the corner said nothing, but Sawyer did not miss the sudden gleam in his eyes. "Maybe right back to the swamp." The gleam was suddenly extinguished. Sawyer cocked his head, curious despite himself. "You and yours have a falling out then Chuckles?"
Silence.
"You don't want to go back? How come?" Sawyer prodded, but the man did not reply. Instead, he bit at his bruised lower lip. "Look, I don't got time for this bullshit. Any minute now Mr Baghdad's going to figure out his key's missing and guess where he's going to come to find it?"
That worked:
"I can't go back!"
"Why not?"
Silence.
"Ok, have it your way-"
"No! Wait! I can't go back without- without-"
"Without what?" Sawyer demanded, taking a threatening step towards Sayid's punching bag. The man's eyes bugged at him.
"Without one of you. I can't go back without one of you or… Or… It will be bad."
"Worse than this?" Sawyer asked, receiving another terrified silence. "That's why you been letting Sayid beat on you for so long? Well shit Hoss, you don't gotta go back. This is a big damn island-"
"They'll find me."
"How?"
Silence.
"Seems to me you got three choices." Sawyer said. "You either stay here an' let Captain A-rab finish what he's started. You take your chances out there, runnin'. Or you go back home with what you were sent out to get."
"What?" The man's battered features suddenly crumpled into complete bafflement as the words sank in. "You- you'd give me one of your people. You'd let me take them?" 'What kind of person are you?' Kate's words came back at him through the under currents of Henry's question.
"Oh, I can do one better than that Billy Bob." Sawyer said. "But its gonna cost ya."
"What do you want?" Henry asked, confidence suddenly strengthening his voice. He regarded Sawyer with the suspicion of a mark thinking he suddenly had some power in this situation. Thinking that the tables were finally turning.
"I want the boy. I want Walt."
"He's yours as well is he?" And now, sarcasm. Good.
"Far as your concerned this whole fucking side of the island is mine."
"They'll never give you Walt. And I don't have the power to give him to you."
"Didn't think you did, but I ain't above helping myself. Just need to get in close enough, an' you're my ticket inside."
"You! You're going to let me take you back?"
"Ain't no 'let' about it. You're 'gonna' take me back with you, an' I'm gonna go willing. But once I'm in, you'll help me take Walt."
"You're out of your mind. It- Its suicide. You don't know what they will do to you."
"There ain't much on this planet that ain't been done to me already Hoss. Besides, I'm comin' willin', and despite what you spied since coming to this side of the island: I can be mighty accomodatin' when I've a mind to.
"You do your bit to get Walt, an' you'll get yourself a co-operative lab rat or what the hell ever it is you people want. You don't an', well, you'll find out."
"You're crazy." The man said in a whisper, but Sawyer could see the desperate hope in his eyes. The sort that makes drowning men clutch at straws.
"Yeah." Sawyer agreed. "I been called that, and other things.
"Do we have a deal or not? Time's awasting and I got better places to be than here." He watched the cogs spin inside Cousin Henry's beaten in skull, watched them click and whirr through all sorts of his own connivings. It didn't much matter what Henry thought he was thinking up to turn the situation even more towards his own advantage. All that mattered was that he took them both back to Hick-town. Once there Henry was going to find that nothing was what it appeared.
"How do you know I won't just given you to them and leave you there? And not help you take Walt."
And there it was: the inevitable question.
"You'll help me." Sawyer told him. "Or I'll finish what Sayid started. And believe me: you don't want that to happen."
Henry regarded him with even more confidence now and he clearly could not see how this situation was not going to turn out 100% in his favour. Sucker. No matter where you went in this world there were always people willing to believe whatever lie came there way, just so long as it sounded like they were going to get what they wanted. And there were people like him: the liars who were only too willing to sell them what they wanted.
Sawyer watched Henry's confidence grow, thought of what he was about to do and tried to ignore, to hide, the pain in his chest and ribs and stand tall and fit as he needed to. It was a long hike to the other side of the island. From what he remembered of it, and that wasn't much, it had been hard even on those already fit. He was going to need more than a handful of painkillers if he was going to make it without making himself easy prey for the beaten, desperate man in front of him. He was going to need the whole damn bottle, and he was going to need a gun. Problem was he didn't know where the new gun stash was.
"Morning." Locke's voice suddenly sounded from outside the room and both men in the store room froze. Sawyer cocked his head towards the door and heard muffled voices. Then Locke again. He frowned. He bet the tracker knew where the new gun safe was…
LOSTLOSTLOSTLOST
Kate struggled free of the bedding, her eyes pinned on Sawyer's empty cot. Clearly, from the crumpled mess of his bed, he had thrown aside his own blankets, put on his own boots and shirt and left the room. She smiled to herself: he was feeling better. She knew that he hated Hatch, how he hated feeling smothered inside it, so the fact that he had been able to dress himself and walk out was a very good sign.
Now she just had to find him: they had to talk this out. They had to fight it out if necessary.
Despite his callous fuck-you attitude after he had stolen the guns, despite him pushing her away so violently, he had come rushing to help her in the jungle after she had fled the beach. Despite everything, he still loved her and she still loved him, but without intending to they were returning to type. Sawyer had begun to fight again and she had started to run.
It had to stop, or they had to. If they could not break old habits, it was going to get worse and worse until … She couldn't let it. She loved him and she knew that he loved her, but it wasn't going to be enough if they could not break this destructive cycle.
They had to talk.
Kate climbed cautiously out of the bunk, careful not to move too fast, but her head was clear this morning. All that was left was a dull ache that ran across her skull and down the side of her face. She stood and slowly moved around the room collecting up the rest of her clothing and dressing as fast as she could, and ran her fingers through her hair in a vain attempt to 'brush out' the tangles.
She padded from the room and into the quiet hum of the Hatch's communal space. Immediately she saw Jack across the room, asleep on the sofa and she paused. The events of last night came back to her: finding Sawyer alive, her talk with Jack, what John and Sayid had done, and Henry…
Henry.
Kate ran her gaze over the room, finding the store room and its closed door. Henry. She felt the same frisson of fear and anger that she had felt last night, but in the light of day the anger was stronger.
"Kate!" John's voice came from the right and she turned to find the tracker rising from behind the computer. He walked towards her. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine. Well, better." She motioned across the room. "Is that where he is?"
"Yes." John nodded after a moment. She bit her lip and looked at the closed door.
"Has- Has he said anything?"
"Some. Enough for Sayid to go and check out." He went on, and Kate looked him quizzically. "He said he was in a ballooning accident here on the island. We know that isn't true, but he's said a few other interesting things that Sayid wants to check out. He might be telling the truth this time, but-"
"But, you don't believe him." Kate said, and John shrugged.
"It could be true, but- There's something about-"
A groan from the sofa suddenly interrupted their conversation. They turned to see Jack slowly levering himself up right to sit sprawled against the cushions. His hair was stuck up in ridiculous tufts where he had been sleeping on it, and there were red lines across his cheek where the material of the sofa had pressed against his skin. He blinked slowly.
"Morning." John called.
"Hmph." Jack ruffled a hand through his hair. "Mornin'? Issit? Kate! You're up. You're looking better." She nodded and Jack rubbed both hands over his face. He hauled himself up from the sofa.
"Have you seen Sawyer this morning?" She asked the two men.
"Yes. I thought he had gone back to bed." John responded as Jack shook his head and yawned at the same time. "He isn't there?"
"No."
"Maybe he's gone back to the beach?" Jack said. He was eyeing Kate critically as he approached and she could feel another check-up coming on. She took a step back. If Sawyer was at the beach she needed to go there. The check-up could wait.
"Maybe." John said thoughtfully, distractedly. Kate could see that her questions about Henry had raised some issues for him and he was gazing thoughtfully at the store room door, scratching his chin.
"I'm going to go – to the beach." She thumbed over her shoulder as Jack moved in, a physician's gleam in his eye.
"Kate-"
"Jack, it can wait. I have to go-"
"I'll go with you. I have to check on Aaron anyway. I told Claire I would look in on him. John?" Jack waved a hand in front of John's face. "John! You'll be ok here?"
"Yes, yes." The older man nodded, still preoccupied. "Sayid will be back in an hour or so."
Kate lead the way out of the Hatch, towards the beach, towards the angry damaged man who waited there and to god knew what future.
LOSTLOSTLOSTLOST
Sawyer waited until the muffled voices stopped before making his move. Motioning Henry to stay and stay quiet Sawyer gripped the door handle, turned it without a sound and slipped outside-
Straight into Locke who was standing not a foot from the door. Sawyer baulked, almost falling backwards into the room.
"Fuck!"
"Morning." Locke said evenly, as if this was exactly where he expected Sawyer to be. "What were you doing in there?"
"None of your damn business. But he's alive if that's what you're after."
"Sayid said-"
"Fuck Sayid. He ain't the only one around here who's got the right to a little one on one time."
"What did you do?" Locke demanded, a little more forcefully.
"He can still talk."
Locke shoved passed the younger man, frustration and anger in his face, and looked into the room. Sawyer let himself be shoved, his own mind spinning and whirling. Shit. This wasn't exactly how he'd planned it out. There would be no chance to try to trick Locke into revealing the whereabouts of the guns now, but hell he was nothing if not adaptable. So when Locke turned back around Sawyer hit him – hard. And the man went down without a sound.
"Sorry about that Hoss." Sawyer muttered, stooping quickly to feel for a pulse. It was there and strong and steady. You fucking pain in the ass, Sawyer glared at Locke's face. Too fucking smart for your own good.
"What did you do?" A small voice came from inside the room.
"You know, I'm about sick of folks asking me that question." He glared up at Henry as he grabbed at Locke's arms and pulled. "Come on then. Help me get him in there. We got about an hour to put some serious distance between us and one angry fucking Iraqi."
END CHAPTER 10
OK, so this is where I got up to when I wrote this originally. If you want me to continue, I'll have to get some motivating reviews or follows and the like. Hope to hear from you.