It took me pretty long to update, at least longer, than usual. I'm sorry for that, but I've been on a journey with my class and besides I couldn't find a time lately.
LostFreakJ: "LOL, yeah, seen S.W.A.T. Actually, every movie with Michelle in, except Battle In Seattle. :P' So have I. :D
"Interesting chappy! I love how you thought out the whole Dharma thing. I think it's actually quite smart enough to be on the show. The show is being really ridiculous now, your storyline sounds much better compared to it. :P" Oh, my… Thank You so much!! And you're quite right about the show. It really is getting more and more ridiculous…
"It's weird though that Ana chose Boone, Sawyer and the rest over het mother, her friends, her home. Although she probably felt she had nothing to go back to." Well, maybe it is. But You actually used the same words I was planning to use in this chapter and I did. She felt she had nothing to go back to.
Chapter 28:"Shall we?"
"I love you." She heard him saying and she froze, but decided to not look back. She swallowed hard and opened the door leaving the man behind her confused and lonely…
Later
Boone was walking in circles again impatiently waiting for Ana to come back. It was a few hours already and he started to worry. Something was clearly wrong. What did Pickett mean? About her leaving the island? And why? First, they wanna kill her and in the next second they wanna get her off the island…
Just then the blonde woman appeared leading Ana, who had the same bag put over her head once again. He came over to the rods quickly grasping them in his hands and staring as the woman took off the bag from Ana's head and closed her in the cage. Then she walked away not even looking at him to the building behind his cage. Boone gazed at Ana, who was now already sitting against the wall. He swallowed and asked quietly:
"You okay?"
She just nodded not bothering to stare up at him.
"What did she want from you?"
"Her name's Juliet." She whispered narrowing her eyes slightly, staring at the ground.
Boone frowned glancing at her questioningly. She was acting really weird. What did that bastards do to her?
"Where were you? Where did she take you?"
Ana finally looked up at him and shook her head trying to make him understand, that she didn't wanna talk about it, but he didn't get the clue.
"Tell me…, what did they want from you?"
She hugged her knees to her chest and rested her head on them taking her gaze off of him. He sighed heavily and decided to ask one more time:
"Ana..? What did they--?"
"Can't you see I don't wanna talk 'bout it? Leave me alone!" she snapped glaring at him and he raised his eyebrows surprised at her harsh tone and behavior. Not feeling guilty she buried her head in her hands as he was staring at her with hurt eyes. Boone nodded to himself slightly and then sighing and sitting back down against the cage wall he said:
"All right."
In the meanwhile
Sawyer woke up to find himself still sitting against the wall with his head in the hands., He shook his head rubbing his tired and sleepy eyes. Looking around he stared at the food, that was supposed to be his breakfast. His stomach grunted loudly and he grimaced swallowing hard, Sawyer picked himself up slowly and he didn't manage to make his way to the door, when the same young girl, Alex, entered blocking his way and eyeing his suspiciously.
"What are you doing?" she asked quietly and he sent her an ironic look and was about to turn around, when she grabbed his arm stopping him.
"You need to come with me."
Sawyer glared down at her and narrowed his eyes making her grimace.
"It's not my call, Mr. Ford."
He frowned slightly and pushed past her walking over to the door. Alex came over too and opened them, so he could get out.
She put the bag over his head and grabbed his arm leading him out of the building.
After at least fifteen minutes she finally made him stop and he heard some kind of noise and the bag was taken off his head. He looked around narrowing his eyes. He was in the cage and Alex was already gone.
"Howdy, Sawyer. Long time no see."
He flinched slightly and stared in the direction, where the voice was from and his eyes widened in surprise. He came over closer to the rods gazing at the brunette.
"Kate? What you doin' here?"
She rolled her eyes sighing and grasped the rods in her hands looking at him, not really friendly.
"The same thing you are, Sherlock. I'm locked up in the frikkin' cage."
He glared back at her, but after a second his eyes softened and he sent her a small, unsure smile.
"You okay, Freckles?"
She swallowed and finally managed to truly smile back as she nodded and ran a hand through her hair. Sawyer felt a weird feeling, burning his stomach as he was looking at her, doing the same, damn thing, that was so familiar to the other girl he was thinking about. Ana used to that often, when she was confused or nervous.
"And you?" Kate's voice snapped him back to reality. He shook his head and scoffed.
"What?"
Kate raised her eyebrows as she cocked her head to the side and asked one more time:
"Are you all right?"
He didn't manage to response as some voices ringed out not far away from them. Sawyer and Kate looked in the direction and the two men were walking towards them. On of them was Ben and the other one was a guy, that neither of them knew. They were arguing about something and practically yelling at each other.
"I already told you, what I think about it!" the stranger shouted.
"Could you be any louder!? And I told you already that I don't really care!" Ben yelled back.
"That's not how it meant to be!"
"What?!"
"You're keepin' her in the cage, like an animal !"
"When we were talking about the way she was supposed to be brought here, I didn't say she was gonna have a queen's chamber!"
Sawyer frowned and looked at Kate, who seemed to be as confused as he was.
"I want her to live in my house, do you get it?!" the man yelled in Ben's face, who grimaced immediately and stepped back "And I don't want them anywhere near her! Is that clear?! This is my call! I'm the one, who can make choices and decide!"
Ben laughed out coldly and glared at him with freezing eyes, but said calmly:
"You wanted her here. She is here. Now I'll give you two choices. If you want to get her off the island, then she needs to agree. If she doesn't want to leave, you won't take her anywhere. But if she does, then you're on your way. But first you gotta convince her, my dear friend. This is my island and she belongs to me right now."
The dark-haired man looked at Ben in disbelief and clenched his fists swallowing hard.
"Now you can decide." Linus added and walked away leaving him in this state of confusion.
Sawyer, still frowning stared at the man, trying to understand the whole situation. He knew, who they were talking about very well. He heard Kate's heavy breaths and turned his head to look at her. She just shook her head not knowing what else to say or do. Sawyer looked back at the stranger, who was now staring at them with anger.
"What!?" he yelled and stormed off not bothering to hear their responses.
Later
Jack sat against the wall after an hour of walking in circles in a small room, where he was locked. He didn't have the whole room at his disposal. He had just a small part and a pane was separated him from the other, larger part.
For the first time he completely didn't know, what to do. And that really was a rare thing. He started to think about his friends. Were they okay? Where they were?
And it seemed he was gonna break down, when the blonde woman entered and came over to the pane staring at him softly.
"Hey,… Jack. My name's Juliet."
He looked up at her form his spot on the floor and picked himself up and ran over hitting the glass with his palm.
"Let me go!"
She blinked quickly and gazed down on the ground shaking her head.
"I can't. At least not now."
Jack snorted, but after a while her words ringed out in his ears and he sized her up suspiciously.
"What do you mean 'not now'?"
"I mean, that if you do something, we'll let you out, Jack." She responded calmly gazing back up at him. He scoffed and let out a heavy breath.
"Where are they?" he asked looking deep into her blue eyes. "Where is Kate, Ana, Sawyer and Boone?"
"They're all fine…" Juliet stated nodding slightly. He sighed knowing she wouldn't tell him anyway.
"What do you want me to do?"
"You need to carry the operation on Ben."
"Ben?"
"Knowing ,as well, as Henry Gale, Jack."
He frowned and ran a hand through his short hair before asking:
"What's wrong with him?"
"He's got a cancer."
"And you want me to operate him, is that right?"
She simply nodded and he snorted smirking coldly at the woman as he came over to the corner of the room and sat back down on his previous spot on the floor shaking his head. Juliet was staring at him long and hard and finally she sighed and got out leaving him alone again.
In the meanwhile
"Who do you think they were talking about?" Kate asked looking at the sitting Southerner softly. He snorted not bothering to look up at her and snapped:
"Isn't it obvious?"
She blinked and licked her lips, her gaze darkening.
"Can't you just stop?"
"Stop what?" he hissed not changing his tone.
"You know what!" Kate said dryly "I mean, Goddammit, what the hell did I do to make you all angry at me!?"
Sawyer got up and turned his eyes glaring at the brunette.
"Now, Freckles, I thought you were smarter. Well, you seemed ta be, at least. Coz you were smart enough to keep playing with me like with a toy!" he yelled not hiding his emotions anymore.
"I wasn't playing with you!"
"Yeah and my name is John Travolta." He murmured sarcastically and she rolled her eyes groaning.
"I wasn't! Don't even know, what you're talking about! Fifteen minutes ago you seemed to be worry about me and now here we go again! What is your problem, Cowboy?"
Sawyer grimaced at her nickname. Cowboy ? Ana was calling him like that.
"Nothing. Everything's just fine, Kate." He said quietly and sat back down feeling a burning gaze of those green eyes on himself. But he didn't care. He just wanted everything to go back to normal… If it was even normal before…
"Two guesses to who you're thinking about, Sawyer."
"You have a problem with that?" he asked coldly staring at the ground. She just shook her head and walked over to the cage wall leaning against it, deciding to let him think about whatever and whoever he wanted.
The next morning
Ana woke up as her stomach was grunting loudly. She groaned and rubbed it gently not opening her eyes. Eventually she picked herself up to the sitting position and rested against the wall yawning. She looked at the other cage and noticed that Boone was sleeping yet. She smiled a little at the sight, but then she felt that something was squeezing her throat and her smile faded. She shouldn't have been so unpleasant for him last evening. Everything what she's been through wasn't his fault. And the fact that Danny suddenly appeared had nothing to do with him.
Ana didn't really know, why it manipulated her that way… She shook her head and got up slowly coming over to the rods watching Boone sleep. Doing this was calming her down… She felt safe, when she was anywhere near him. She felt safe and incredibly happy.
She started to think, why she rejected Danny's offer. He was ready to get her off that damn island and take her back home… To her mother, her friends, her job, but…
Her mother knew about Jason. What she was supposed to do, when she would meet her daughter again? She wouldn't greet her with open arms, at least, Ana thought so. Her friends would reject her, as well. And her job was a history for her. She had nothing to go back to… That's why she decided to stay.
Besides, she knew she couldn't just leave all these people here. On that island, she found more friends than she's ever had. She learned to live with them and a thought of leaving them all behind disgusted her. She turned her gaze back at Boone and her smile returned.
Just then, the person, who she wasn't really wanna see right then appeared. Danny was walking towards her cage with a basket, that was full of fruits. Ana heard her stomach grunting again and she swallowed as he made his way to her.
"Hey." He spoke softly and she stared up at him with emotionless eyes. His smile faded a little, but obviously he didn't wanna give up so easily. "I need to talk to you.. Do you think you could--?"
"Talk about what? I thought we've been through this already, Danny." She said dryly and he nodded slowly and responded:
"Yes, but I gotta talk to you again. It's very important"
Ana narrowed her eyes at him and was about to refuse, but he said:
"You have two choices. You can stay here, deciding to not talk with me and I'll give you that basket then, so you can eat something. Or…" she send him a questioning look and he smiled "… you can come with me to my house and you'll eat something way, way better. That is spaghetti I prepared by myself. We can talk there."
Her stomach grunted louder and she grasped the rods swallowing and he noticed that and asked:
"I believe you remember that I'm an excellent cook, don't you?"
Ana stared at him and she just couldn't help, but smile a little and Danny seemed to be washed over with relief, as he nodded in understanding and put the basket down on the ground reaching to his pocket. He took out a key and opened a padlock and then the cage quietly. She looked around and after a while she stepped outside hugging her arms to her chest. She looked at still sleeping Boone and Danny sent her a suspicious look.
"Who is he?" he whispered, obviously not wanting him to wake up. Ana turned her eyes on him and responded:
"My friend."
He nodded, trying to hide that hint of jealousy his eyes had. Ana noticed it anyway and sighed looking down at the basket.
"Can you…" she started and he gazed at her questioningly "Can you leave it… for him?"
Danny frowned slightly as he glanced at Boone and then back at Ana. He let out a heavy breath and finally nodded reluctantly.
"Sure.." he breathed and picked the basket up. Then he came over to Boone's cage and put it down near the rods.
"Thanks." She mumbled and he walked over back to her nodding.
"You're welcome."
Ana forced a little smile and he smiled back at her.
"Shall we?"
She sighed deeply and nodded. He grinned and put his hand on her back, starting to lead her away.
He didn't put the bag over her head. And for that she was really thankful.
A/N: Sawyer's attempted escape will be in the next chapter.
Next chapter: Boone wakes up to find Ana's cage empty. While Danny is trying to convince her to leave the island with him. Kate's doing something, what makes Jack agree to carry the operation…
