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

Quickie:
So…are ya scared yet? Are ya..? Are ya? ARE YA? No?
Well…you should be! Why? Um...I don't know why…XD

Chapter 29

Kate was gone after that. Neither of them saw her for the next few days. Although, at the moment, Sawyer could care less. He was too caught up in drinking and smoking his brains out. Jack, on the other hand, started to worry. He thought of devising a search party for her. But no one was available to search. Charlie was with Claire, Sayid with Shannon, Michael working on his raft, Locke hunting with Boone, and Hurley just wasn't in the mood. What it came down to, was asking Sawyer.

Jack cautiously walked back to the beach in search of Sawyer. What he found in his tent was a passed out southern surrounded by bottles, cans, and cigarette stubs. Great, he thought. Part of him wanted to wake him up, spitefully making him help him find Kate. But the other part of him was too kind and wanted to do the right thing. But that was Jack – always doing the right thing. He turned away and went off back to the caves in search of someone else who wasn't busy.

A few more days passed, and still there was no sign of Kate, and still no search party. Jack was determined to go out alone, but it started to rain, and that would surely have washed away any tracks of her that he could follow. He sat on a rock near the fall, shoulders slumped. Her face popped into his head. He saw her standing right next to where he was sitting. He was telling her that they needed to bring the people to the water. He had to stop thinking about her.


The next morning, Sawyer woke with an enormous headache.

"Ah!" he screamed in pain. "What the hell!"

The pain was earsplitting. What the hell had he done last night? Was he with Jessie again? He sat up and looked around. He was at the beach? What the hell was he doing at the beach? Well he wasn't with her then. He looked around and saw Michael and Jin working on the raft. Oh that's right. They were still on the god damned island. But that was weird. Why was he thinking he was with one of his many girlfriends?

He sat up and hit his head on something.

"Goddamn!" he shouted. "I can't get a break!"

Michael walked over. "You all right there?"

"I'm fine," he said, irritably.

"That was a pretty loud shout. You sure you're okay, man?"

"I said I'm fine!"

"All right! Fine! Have it your way!" he stomped away.

It took a few minutes for everything to flow back into his mind. He was stuck in a cave with Kate. Jack came to the rescue. Then they were all stuck. Jack kissed Kate. Sawyer was angry about that. Then they finally got out of the cave, and Kate jumped. She wasn't hurt, but Doc had put her in Sawyer's tent for some unknown reason. He was with Kate. They were at this place surrounded by fireflies. They made love. Funny how many times Kate was in his thoughts. Wait. Kate!

What the hell had happened to her? And how many days had he been piss drunk and out of it! Where the hell was she? He got up and went to the caves, only to find Jack sitting miserably.

"Where is she?" Sawyer asked angrily.

"I don't know."

"What the hell do you mean, you don't know?"

"I haven't seen her since she ran that night."

Sawyer paused and looked at Jack. "You serious?"

"Why would I joke about it?"

Sawyer ran a hand through his hair. She'd been gone for almost a week. She had to be dead. There wasn't any other explanation. She would have come back by now, wouldn't she?

"You haven't gone to look for her yet?"

"No one is willing to come with me. And I must've said this a million times, but I prefer the buddy system."

"Well don't look at me," Sawyer said gruffly.

"I keep thinking that any day now she'll show up. Well, I hope, anyway."

"Doc, you got any Advil or Tylenol?"

"Why?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"'Cause I got a headache and I wanna get rid of it!"

"Tylenol and Advil won't really help a hangover, Sawyer."

"I ain't hung-over!" he shouted.

"Sure."

"Forget it. I'm outta here."

With that, Sawyer took off back into the jungle. Instead of going back to his tent, he had an idea of where he might find Kate. As he walked, he reminisced about the night that she ran. She was always running somewhere. But he really wondered why she wouldn't tell him whatever it was she was keeping. She was really torn up about it, and you'd think she'd want to tell and get it off her back. But Kate was Kate. She kept everything hidden from everyone.

He pushed through the large leaves, and noticed footprints on the ground. Could've been from a while ago, he thought to himself. He looked up where the cave was behind the fall. The rocks that were the tunnel still lied below, but now engulfed by water. How the hell was he supposed to get up there?

It took some time, but he made his way to the wall of rock that could be climbed up to the cave. He stood, getting sprayed by the mist of the fall, staring up. It was very possible that she'd be up there. Jack wouldn't think she'd be able to climb up there, so it got her away from him. She most likely figured that he really didn't want to climb either, and had him pinned. Damn. The girl was good. Not good enough, he thought, when he saw her green shirt lying on the ground, feet from him. He picked it up, and held it close, looking up again.

"You're puttin' me through hell, Freckles," he muttered. "Better be worth it."

He tossed the shirt over his shoulder and started to, slowly, climb. He made his way up, grabbing rock by rock, slowly pulling himself up. He was almost entirely up, when his foot slipped. He grabbed another rock above him, and held tight, trying to pull his foot back up.

"Son of a bitch!" he cried, as he grabbed her shirt from falling.

When he finally was on the wall securely again, he paused for a minute, letting his heart stop pounding. Was she really worth all this trouble? He finally carried on with climbing, until at long last, he made it to the top. He climbed into the cave and sat on the ledge for a few minutes, trying to catch his breath. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and leaned back a bit.

"Damnit, Freckles," he panted. "You gotta find a new place to hide. 'Cause this just place ain't a pain in the ass enough!"

He expected a snooty response from behind him, but it was silent. He turned around and didn't see her there. He got up and looked around the whole cave, but it was empty. She wasn't there.

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" he yelled.

He kicked the trunk of bones and it broke to pieces. He sat where his "bed" used to be, panting and aggravated. She wasn't here, but why was her shirt there?

"Unbelievable!" he echoed through the cave.


Back at the caves, Jack was packing some things into his bag. He finally decided he was going to look for Kate. If no one was going to help him, then he'd go alone. He was filling up a bottle of water when he heard a voice behind him.

"Jack?"

He turned around and saw her, standing there with the saddest expression on her face. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were dirty, but she had never looked so beautiful.

"Kate…" he got up and went to her. "I was so afraid you were dead."

He went to hug her but she stopped him. "Where's Sawyer?"

"What?" he looked at her, confused.

"I need to talk to him."

"Why don't you sit for a bit and –"

"No," she told him, firmly. "I need to talk to him."

He sighed, finally beat. "Probably at his tent."

"No," she looked even sadder. "He wasn't there."

"Well I don't know where he'd be then," he turned back to filling up the water bottle, feeling quite irritable.

She stood for a moment, watching his back, then turned away and walked into the jungle again. He turned around about to ask her something, but she was gone.