TITLE: Drawn Together
CHARACTERS: Kate and Sawyer
RATED: PG-13 for now... (Language, somewhat specific details)
EPISODES: After "Outlaws"
STATUS: Chapter eleven of -?
BETA READER: Harlequin
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of LOST's characters. That privilege is entirely ABC's. (Dangit! jk.)

Quickie/Reminder

Just so we're clear on this, this story takes place after "Outlaws" and before "Exodus". Therefore, some characters that may have already 'left' the show or whatever have not. Just reminding ya'll! Also, this is a very jam-packed long chapter! So beware!

Chapter 11

A cold feeling traveling through her is what woke her up. When she opened her eyes, she could see again, and the first thing she saw was Sawyer, sitting next to her, his knees up. Confused, she looked up at him. He glanced down at her, but then looked away. She sat up, felt pressure on her head, and leaned back so she was sitting up against a wall. Then she realized the pressure was Sawyer holding a wet piece of cloth on her head. She began to wonder when he came, and why. She wondered if he knew she was lying about her head. Then she saw a few red cloths next to him. Her shoulders slumped and she closed her eyes.

"How long have you been here?" she asked him.

"A while," he responded, still not looking in her direction.

His voice was very quiet, and no traces of anger from earlier remained. He got up, taking the cloth with him. She watched him go to the water and rinse the cloth, and then he came back. He sat the same way and put the cloth over her wound, again. She looked down, feeling sorry for lying to him. She wanted to apologize, but something told her that it wouldn't matter either way.

"Is it bad?"

"Well, what do you think?" he said coldly, holding up the other red cloths.

She looked down. His returning anger made her feel even worse. She still had no idea what set it off, but she didn't want to ask him. She knew it would just be adding insult to injury. Instead, she had a different idea.

"Sawyer?"

He finally looked at her. She looked down, then back up at him.

"Thank you."

He looked at her for a moment, as if she had just uttered the words of death. Then he looked away. There was no "You're welcome" or a nod of agreement. Just a death stare. Something was on his mind, and Kate had no idea what. But she was determined to find out.

"Are you okay?"

"Couldn't be better."

"Now why don't I believe that?" she grinned at the ground.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't seem like…yourself."

"Who are you to know who I am?" he growled, removing his hand from her head.

"You see? You're acting like an angry monster. What's wrong?" she grabbed her head to hold the cloth in place.

"Nothin'," he looked away again.

"Stop looking away and tell me!"

He looked at her again, and looked like he was about to say something. Alternatively, he got up and stormed through the curtains to the other side. She groaned, frustrated, and got up to follow him, although she was still somewhat dizzy. She almost fell, but grabbed the curtain and maintained her balance. When she got through to the other side, she leaned against a wall, panting. She looked at him angrily, and he stared fixedly back at her.

"What is wrong with you? Something is apparently bothering you and I'm not stopping until you tell me!" she declared, still panting.

"Well then I guess there ain't no stoppin' you!"

"Ugh! Why are you being like this? Did you wake up angry or was it something I did?"

"It's not about you, sweetheart! It's about me! But I am not interested in tellin' you!"

"Why not?" she gasped, grabbing her side.

"Because…" He looked at her, curiously, when she grabbed her side. Then he remembered what he was saying, "Because I said so!"

"That's not –" she almost lunged, but grabbed the wall to stop the fall. "That's not a full answer."

"Are you all right?" he took a few steps toward her.

"Fine," she held a hand up to stop him. "Now tell me what's going on!"

"I already told you! It's got nothin' to do with you!"

"I didn't say it did!"

"Then why do you have to know!"

"Because! Maybe I can……" she blinked furiously and seemed to be having a hard time breathing. "…..help….."

Suddenly, she got way too dizzy. She blinked several times and shook her head vigorously. Then she lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground. Sawyer ran over to her and leaned her upper body up in his arms. He was slapping her very lightly on the face in attempt to wake her up.

"Hey…" he whispered. "Hey…Hey…Kate!"

But she wouldn't wake up. Not knowing what else to do, he lifted her up and carried her to his "bed", since it was closer than her own. He took one of the blankets and ripped a piece off, then draped the rest of it over her. Then he disappeared through the curtains. He returned with the piece of blanket soaking wet and folded. He pushed the strands of hair out of her face and put it on her head. The coldness of the wet homemade compress sent a tremor through her. She instantly awoke and grabbed his wrist. He realized she was breathing rapidly and her eyes were wide.

"Hey! Hey calm down, girl! Come on!"

He tried to free his wrist, for her grasp was very tight. He knew something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what. When people hit their head, they don't go passin' out! he thought to himself. He gave up on loosening his wrist. He looked at her eyes, seeing if they could tell him anything about what was wrong with her. She looked at him, her breathing still swift. She saw worry and terror in his eyes. Could he…Was Sawyer actually scared?

"W-What happened?"

"Whaddaya mean what happened! You just collapsed on the ground!"

"I….I did?" she looked up at him confused. "Oh."

"What the hell did you do to your head, Freckles?"

"I already told you, its fine."

"No it ain't! It's bleedin' like a son of a bitch and you're passin' out all over the place!"

"I just bumped it is all! And I'm not passing out all over the place!"

He got up and went through the curtains to the mini-fall. He looked all around the area above it for anything worse than rock she could've hit her head on. Then he saw it: on the left, which is where she was, was a jagged rock pointing downward. And in fact, there was a bit of her blood on it. Damnit, Kate, he thought to himself. He felt the pointed tip of it, and felt a small bit that seemed to be missing. He sighed, exasperatedly. He went through the curtains and back to Kate.

"We gotta get outta here," he told her.

"What?" she struggled to sit up, and wouldn't let him help her. "Why?"

"We gotta get you back to Jack," he said, pulling the last cigarette from his pack between his lips.

"Jack?" she said, misunderstanding.

"That ain't just a bump on the head, Freckles," he said as he lit the cigarette.

"Please! It's not like I cracked my skull! It's a bump!"

"Well that we wouldn't know," he told her. He took a drag and continued, "Which is why I gotta get ya to Doc."

She looked at him puzzled. He looked at her too, and just realized he had used I in place of we. He muttered and cursed himself under his breath.

"I'm not going," she said, folding her arms.

"Whaddaya mean you're not goin'?"

"I don't want to go back," she informed him. "Yet!" she added quickly, after seeing his face.

"Freckles, that thing in your head could mess you up!"

"What thing in my head?"

He sighed. He really had to stop letting things slip like that. He didn't mean to let that out. He had no intentions of worrying her more than she had been already. He came up with a new idea. He tossed the cigarette in the fire.

"All right, look. You hang here for awhile, I'll be back in a few."

"What? Why!"

He didn't answer her.

"Sawyer!"

He started walking away and, again, slipped through the curtains. She tried to get up to follow him but was too dizzy and the pain in her head was full blast now. He came out with the flashlight in his hand, and held it up to her, grinning victoriously. She gaped at him. This was so wrong. She felt helpless.

"Stay put darlin'!" he warned, as he started into the tunnel. Then he called back over his shoulder, "Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

"Sawyer! Get back here! You're going to kill yourself! Sawyer!"

Meanwhile, back at the beach, Jack was busy devising a search party for the missing Kate and Sawyer. Unfortunately, not many had volunteered. Amongst those who had were Sayid, Hurley, Locke, and Boone. Charlie said he wanted to stay with Claire. He claimed that lately, her contractions were on and off and she probably needed someone to help her cope with it. And Michael didn't want to leave Walt by himself.

"All right," Jack began. "We all need to split up and look all around the jungle for any signs of Kate or Sawyer."

"Dude…Are we searching for like remains and…stuff?" Hurley inquired.

"They've only been gone for a week. Their bodies wouldn't have decomposed that fast."

"Unless they've been dead the whole week and any type of flesh eating creature has gotten to them. Then, yes, Hugo, we'd be searching for remains," Locke said, a bit cheerfully.

"Think the monster got them?" Boone asked.

"One can only hope not," Sayid responded.

"All right, look. There are five of us. If we all split up into two groups of two and one person goes alone, and we search the area, we can probably find them faster," Jack stated.

"Boone and I will search for any boar we can find while we're at it," Locke suggested, looking at Boone a bit too mischievously.

"Yeah," Boone agreed.

"I will go alone," Sayid said, starting to take charge. "Hurley, you can go with Jack. I can search the North and East parts of the jungle, you two will search the West, and Locke and Boone can search the South, since that is where they claim the boar have migrated."

"Um, dude, what if we don't find them?"

"The best thing that we can do right now, is to not think like that," Sayid answered.

"Right…but if we don't find them?"

"We'll keep searching until we do find them," Jack said.

"'Kay," Hurley said, finally backing down.

"So we can meet at the caves by sundown. Hopefully, one of us will have found them by then," Jack said, more to himself than to anyone else.

Sawyer walked through the few feet of the tunnel, flashing the light all around. After a few minutes, he found the area that was stuck. He sighed in exasperation at what he saw. There were rocks – no, boulders – blocking the whole way. He'd never be able to get them out himself, and Kate wouldn't be much help if she was going to keep passing out on him. He paced for a moment, unsure of what to do. At first, he thought he should go back, but he decided against it. It would do no good.

He tried to move the boulders, but none of them would budge. As he kept inspecting the area, he noticed a smaller rock at the bottom. He gazed a bit longer and thought that if he could remove that one, the rest would pile outward and they could get out. Without thinking any further, he set the flashlight down, rolled his sleeves up and began to pull. It took him a while, but it finally started to nudge its way out.

When it was completely out, Sawyer stood back and took a look, proudly, at his small accomplishment. He looked at the wall of stone, and then saw the flaw. The rocks started to rumble, and crack, and bits and pieces started flinging everywhere.

"Son of a bitch!" he shouted, and it echoed.

Kate sat up completely, her eyes widened. She heard the loud rumbling first, then Sawyer's loud enraging cry. She knew instantly that something terrible had happened. She waited until the rumbling stopped, her eyes closed and looking away the whole time. When the rumbling started to soften, she heard scraping against the ground near her.

"Godamnit!" Sawyer cried, backing into the room.

She opened her eyes instantly and was relieved to find he was okay. She got up with all the strength she could gather and ran to him, throwing her arms around him, tightly. He wasn't sure it would be the best thing to do at just that moment, but he held her in his arms anyway. After a few minutes, when it got awkward, Sawyer started to push her off, but let his hands remain on her shoulders. She, however, seemed to be leaning on him.

"Freckles, I ain't one to lean on, in case ya didn't notice."

"Sawyer, I can't feel my legs."

"Christ," he muttered to himself.

He lifted her up, one arm around her shoulders, the other under her legs and carried her to his "bed".

"Bet you wish I was doin' this for other reasons, don'tcha, Freckles?" he said, trying to cheer her up a bit.

She smiled. "You have your fantasies, I have mine," she said artfully.

He placed her down gently, then went to the "Booze Chest" and helped himself to a beer. He sat next to her, knees up, and took a swig. He held the bottle out to her, offering, but she declined. She smiled to herself, then looked up at him.

"So what on earth did you do?"

"Let's just say you're lucky we got booze, 'cause it's gonna be a heck of a time livin' with me!"

"It isn't already?"

In the meantime, the search party was doing their best to find any trace of the lost couple. Unfortunately, they had no such luck, although some had worse luck than others…

"So, you think they're together?" Hurley asked.

"Probably," Jack said flatly.

"Think they like, banged, or anything?"

"Is this really the time to talk about that?" Jack replied, getting annoyed.

"I dunno. I mean 'cause I was just wondering. I know you got kinda a thing for Kate and all. So I was just wondering…"

"What makes you think I have a "thing" for Kate?"

"Dude. Do you seriously want me to answer that?"

Jack stopped and turned around facing Hurley. "Yeah, I do."

"Oh." He paused for a moment. "See I didn't think you were gonna really want me to answer that, so now I don't know what to say. You think maybe like –"

"You know what, forget it. Let's just keep looking."

"Um, dude?"

"What?" Jack sighed.

"I think I found something," he pointed to Kate's white shirt – the one she wore over almost every other shirt she had. "That's bad, right?"