Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original character

Author's Note: Contains spoilers from Whatever Happened, Happened

Chapter 14: Now What?

Sawyer and I didn't talk much on the drive back. I heard him calling out orders to the other security people on his walkie as I drove. When he'd finished, he winced and pressed the rag I'd found against his side.

" You okay?" he asked.

" I'm not the one bleeding -- of course I'm fine." I said, knowing he was avoiding talking about what had happened in the jungle. I didn't blame him -- but he'd asked for an explanation and I'd given it to him. I knew he'd probably tell Juliet, but there wasn't anything I could do that would prevent it. We pulled up at the barracks to find mostly everybody working to put out the house that was on fire. Kate made sure Miles and Phil took care of locking Steve back up then ran to help. I helped Sawyer out of the van and we ran to see what we could do. Everybody seemed to have formed a group around Horace. So I joined them.

" We don't know yet if an attack is coming," said Horace. " So everybody needs to be ready for your security assignments. Make sure you're in contact with your team leaders. Lafleur's got search parties out, but the hostile's got a good jump on us. We're pretty sure he used this fire as a diversion in order to escape."

" He was locked up," said Jack and I turned to look at him. " How could he have started the fire?"

Horace stared at him.

" Who're you?" he asked.

" Jack Shephard. I'm -- I'm new."

Horace sighed.

" Well, Jack, the way he started the fire is he had help okay? Somebody torched that van, and then that somebody let him out of his cell. And since the security cameras didn't pick up any hostiles crossing the perimeter, it means it was one of us. Baxter!" he called. " I want a full report on clean up ASAP!"

" You got it, Horace," replied Baxter and he ran off.

I exchanged a look with Kate. Who the heck would be stupid enough to let Sayid go?

" Hey you," Kate and I turned to see a man beckoning to Kate as the group dispersed. " You're in the motor pool right?"

" Uh, yeah," she replied.

" You mind running that winch for me?" he asked.

I had no idea what a 'winch' was and by the look on Kate's face, she didn't either. The man seemed to understand.

" You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you."

She shook her head.

" Okay, no worries," he said, " Just throw this lever. When I tell you to stop," he whistled. " Just pull it up."

" Kate, I'm gonna go see if they need me for anything else," I said, " See you later."

" Yeah," she replied, " See you."

I was about halfway between my house and Sawyer's when I saw another van driving up. Curiosity got the better of me, so I changed course and went to go see what was going on. Jin climbed out of the driver's seat and ran around to the back door. After he opened it, I saw him lift a kid out. He was badly wounded -- shot in the chest from the look of it. I watched as he ran past with the kid in his arms.

" That's my kid," cried the man who'd asked Kate to help him. " That's my kid!"

And he ran after them.

" Alright, I want you to go find Jack, Hurley and Kate." said Sawyer as he and Miles walked through the Barracks. " Put 'em in a house and sit on 'em."

" What for?" asked Miles, " and what about Riley?"

" 'Cause I don't want them talking to anybody else. Things are starting to spin out of control here." he paused. " I'll deal with Riley."

Miles nodded.

" Alright, I got it."

" Alright, go."

Miles ran off and Sawyer headed for the infirmary. Along the way, he saw Riley wondering around.

" Hey Riles!" he called.

She looked up and stared at him. The dark circles under her eyes told him she hadn't slept much after yesterday's events.

" Hey Jim," she called wearily. " Need something?"

" Yeah. Come with me."

She nodded.

" Alright."

I ran across the campus towards the dormitories. Since it was evening I knew I had a chance of seeing him sooner. I snuck around to the main entrance of the dorms and punched in the key code. It beeped once, then I heard the door unlock. I ran inside and took the elevator to the second floor. When I reached room 12B I knocked on the door frantically. A few minutes later, the door opened and a man stood in front of me. He had sandy blonde hair and dark green eyes.

" You said nine," he said irritably.

" Circumstances held me up," I replied breathlessly.

" Oh yeah, how was the wake?"

" Fine. Though I don't think she wants me coming back. Told me to get out the minute she heard your name."

He laughed.

" Your mom always was overprotective." he said and pulled me to him. " So glad you were able to come tonight."

I smiled and kissed him.

" I wouldn't have missed seeing you for the world, Matt," I replied.

" Who're you?"

I flinched, then turned to see the man from the previous night staring at me. We were sitting outside the infirmary, waiting on Sawyer to come back with an update on how the man's kid was doing.

" Sorry?"

" You're new right?" he said, " I saw you with that girl from the motor pool last night...Kate."

I sighed.

" Yeah, I'm new. Name's Riley. Riley Carlen."

" Roger," he replied, " Roger Linus."

I smiled to hide my surprise.

" Nice to meet you, Roger." I said. We shook hands.

" You too," he replied.

Suddenly the door flew open and Sawyer came flying outside.

" Riley!" he yelled over his shoulder.

I saw Roger's shocked expression.

" Look I'll go talk to him...just stay here. I'm sure your son --"

" Ben." he said, " his name's Ben."

I sighed.

" I'm sure Ben will be fine."

And I ran after Sawyer. He was at one of the houses by the time I caught up to him.

" What's going on?" I panted.

" Wait out here." he said and went inside the house. Less than five minutes later he came back out onto the porch.

" James? James what --" I started.

" Jack won't help," he muttered.

My mouth dropped.

" What? Well why would --"

" Juliet said she can't fix him," he said heavily, " he needs a real surgeon. So I thought, ' why not go get Dr. Giggles, he can do it," he sighed. " but he said no."

" Do you want me to talk to him?" I asked, " I could always just slap him around or something til he agreed --"

" Nah," he said and smiled at me. " Look, just stay here with them...I'll be back later."

" Okay," I said.

" So you know that eventually they're gonna find out I let you have the code to get in here, right?"

I smiled and snuggled against him. We'd been sitting in front of his TV for over an hour but weren't really watching anything.

" Matt I really don't care right now."

" Riley, look I love you," said Matt patiently, " but maybe this isn't the right way to do what we're doing."

" and what is it we're doing?" I asked.

" Being together -- when you're trespassing on campus. You could get arrested if they knew."

" What if I don't care?" I challenged. He loosened his hold on me.

" Look you should probably go." he said glancing at the clock. " They'll have someone up here patrolling the halls soon."

" Okay," I kissed his cheek. " Love you."

Then I left.

" I've already saved Benjamin Linus, and I did it for you, Kate," said Jack. " I don't need to do it again."

" This is our fault," replied Kate, " We brought Sayid back. We caused this."

I sighed irritably. I was incredibly bored, and listening to Kate and Jack argue was not my idea of fun. Suddenly Kate walked into the room.

" Hey, where are you going?" demanded Miles.

" Kate?!" I yelled.

She ignored us both and slammed the door behind her as she left.

" So now what?" I asked Miles.

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