Hey everyone. Back with a new chapter. I hope you enjoy it. Also, I wanted to let you know that I made some slight changes to the end of the last chapter. Nothing major, but a little different. Anyway back to the new chapter which I stayed up late finishing because I had coffee at 8 pm and I couldn't sleep. Although tbh I would probably be up anyway.

It is the middle of the day, and I am sitting in the caves camp and shuffling cards absentmindedly.

"Whatcha' doin', grey eyes?" Sawyer asks.

I barely glance up, bridging the cards and letting them fall together as I speak "Literally nothing." I quit shuffling and pass the deck between my hands "Unless you want to see a magic trick"

"No, I've got something better to do. Come on." he offers me his hand.

I raise my eyebrows "First tell me where we are going."

"It's a surprise. Come on grey eyes. What else you got to do besides sit here and twiddles your thumbs." he asks, grinning.

I sigh and slide the cards into my back pocket "Fine, but this better be worth it." I take his hand and he pulls me up and close to his body.

"Now, that's more like it," he says suggestively.

I shove him and glare at him. "I'm regretting this already."

"Come on, you know you love me."

I roll my eyes and we make our way into the jungle, Sawyer leading that way.

We walk through the jungle on an unmarked path. We fall into a comfortable silence that is far more pleasant than the buzz of trivial conversation. I keep this silence for about 15 minutes before I say something "Seriously, where are we going?"

"Patience grey eyes. We are almost there," he says turning to me with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"Tell me why I agreed to this again?"

He doesn't answer. He just walks a few paces forward and pushes some vines out of the way to reveal a waterfall and a clear pool of water.

I step forward to stand next to him "Woah, how'd you find this?"

Sawyer is already walking towards the pool and he motions for me to follow "Just by chance, come on. Don't tell me you don't want to swim in this?" He takes his shirt off without waiting for an answer and I can't help but admire his bare torso.

"Like what you see?" he asks with a cocky smile.

I scoff and sit down next to him to take off my shoes and socks before removing my jeans and shirt. Sawyer's previous cocky stance turns into a leering stare. Part of me knows that I should mind and that I should be more upset but I mostly don't care. Even enjoy it somewhat. It's what I am used to, this shallow aspect of humanity. I've not had a close relationship with anyone really, at least not since before my dad died. Patrick being the exception, but even now we aren't nearly as close as we were when we were younger. It is just easier that way.

Before I can think about it too closely I shrug these thoughts off "I thought we were going swimming" I say, wading into the water, Sawyer jumps in behind me. The water is chilly, but it is a pleasant contrast to the hot climate of the island. Sawyer pulls me deeper in and dunks me under the water.

I resurface, spluttering water "Hey" I exclaim. I scramble to dunk him down as payback. When he resurfaces he has a vengeful look and I quickly swim away. He swims after me, but I stay ahead.

I reach the rocks on the other side and rapidly climb up. Sawyer climbs up behind me "Where'd you learn to swim so fast grey eyes?" he asks.

"I grew up in Florida, I swam in the ocean all the time. When you can swim well in waves everything else is just easy."

"Well, aren't you so great," he says before jumping off the cliff and plunging into the water. I wait for him to resurface before jumping in after him. Swimming here feels amazingly freeing. At that moment I was not thinking about Claire's disappearance or Patrick's hatch or how far we all are from home. It doesn't last forever, no good thing does, but while it does it is amazing.

After we get out of the pool Sawyer and I sit in the sun on the rocks to dry off. I put my shirt back on, but I leave my jeans off, waiting to dry off more.

"Why'd you show me this place?" I ask him as I lie back on the warm rocks.

"What? Don't tell me you didn't have fun?"

"I did; but, why show it to me?" I ask, empathizing my point. If I found this place, somewhere isolated like this, I would have just used it to be alone. And Sawyer didn't strike me as a people person.

"Don't we deserve a little fun? Something good, after everything that happened."

I nod "Maybe you're right. Thank you, for bringing me here."

He stiffens up at this, the praise seemingly toxic to him "Can I ask you a question grey eyes?"

"You can ask. I'm not promising an answer." I tell him.

He nods slightly, understandingly "Why were you so nice to me, even after that whole deal with the inhalers?"

"What? You mean after you were tortured?" I respond, taken aback by the change in conversation.

"You don't think I deserved that?" he asks, struggling to maintain a casual tone.

"Do you?" I ask him. He doesn't respond, but the look on his face is enough to confirm that he does. I think back and remember how weak and in pain he looked after Sayid tortured him. "You didn't. No one deserves that."

"You don't know me. As much bad as I have done here, I've more than matched it in the real world," he says, his voice a strange mix of anger and sadness.

"If you get tortured for doing bad things then Sayid should come for me as well," I tell him.

Sawyer looks surprised at this "What did you do that's so bad, grey eyes? You and the doc are one and the same, back home you help people. I've spent my life doing nothing but the opposite."

I laugh at this "Jack and I are not the same. He's got this whole hero-saint complex thing going one. You can just tell he's been that way his whole life. But me? Maybe I am a good person now, but I've done some things that I can never make up for." One thing in particular, I think. But some details you keep to yourself.

"Well, ain't that something," Sawyer says with a curious expression.

"We should head back," I say, and I pull my jeans back on.

"What's with the rush, grey eyes? You ain't got nothing to do."

"If you want to stay that's fine, I can find my way back," I tell him.

He gets up anyway "Now what sort of gentlemen would I be if I let a lady walk home through the jungle alone?"

I raise my eyebrows "Since when are you a gentleman? And how am I a lady?"

"A thank you would suffice," Sawyer says, exasperated.

I grin "But that wouldn't be as much fun."

Before he could come up with a response, Sam was walking away. It seemed fitting that he would lead the way here and she would end up in the front on the way back. Sam was the type to take charge as soon as she could. Sawyer found that he couldn't quite stay away from the woman he was following. Sometimes she would find him, or their path would cross naturally, but today he sought her out. He couldn't figure her out, and if anyone asked he would say that was the reason he was so eager to be in her presence. She was like a puzzle he couldn't solve. That was true, for sure. Most of the time she put on a good mask, good enough to fool most of the others on this island. But he had seen he mask slip upon a couple of occasions, today was one of them, and the woman under the mask was a completely different person. But the truth was that he liked how she made him feel. Unjudged, Understood, Normal. Everyone else on the island just tolerated him but when he was with Sam he could feel their judgment drifting away. He wanted her, without question. That was the reason he wanted her to come here today. He wanted to see her strip down, he wanted to feel her in his arms even if just for a moment. But also he could tell that she was like him, in some ways. She fit in better with the others, but like him she didn't enjoy the constant buzz of company. He watched her and many times he saw her go off into the jungle alone and when she did this he would see the pressure lift off her shoulders. If he noticed her he would follow her, needing to make sure she was safe. And now, he was following her again.

Flashback

A year after Dad's diagnosis he is only getting worse. I can tell that his pain is getting worse, he yells more now. It doesn't help that he refuses to quit drinking. He drinks less than he used to, which I guess is good, but it's not enough. If he is in a good mood and I ask him to not have another beer, he will listen. But mostly the pain puts him in a bad mood and he yells. I try to cope with it as best I can. He is much more likely to yell at Patrick than at me, so I try to be the main one taking care of him. Sometimes I can't take it anymore and I leave the house and Patrick in charge, but never for more than a few hours. Unless I am working, but usually that is when Patrick is in school. Although now I am picking up a lot more shifts, the bills are piling up for doctor's visits and countless medicine.

"Yes, that is a necessary cost!" I say angrily over the phone. Blue Cross Blue Shield is on the other side trying to tell me that my father didn't need the treatment he recently got.

"Ma'am we understand that you are upset but you have to understand, we can only cover so much. And this is not something that is needed." the lady on the phone says, infuriatingly calm.

I fight back a scream and force my voice to sound nice "If it isn't necessary then how come the doctor's told us it was. In fact before we got the surgery I was in contact with your office to ensure it was covered. I have a document from you stating that it would be covered. If I fax it to you will this be cleared up?"

"Yes, miss Moss. If we receive proper documentation then we can approve this payment. Make sure you send all necessary documents, and we will review your request. Is that all?"

"Yes, that's it." I hang up the phone, not bothering with a thank you.

I exhale deeply and run my hand through my hair before heading back inside. Dad is asleep in his chair and Patrick looks exhausted.

"Hey, did you get them to pay for it?" he asks as soon as I walk in. I can see the worry on his face and it saddens me. He shouldn't be worrying about this.

"Yeah, I just have to send over some documents. But you shouldn't worry about this stuff, I can handle it." I tell him.

"I can handle it Sam! I'm not some kid anymore."

"I know you can handle it, but you shouldn't have to. And you are a kid, a very mature one, but still you are 14 years old. You let me be the adult. Not because you can't but because you don't have to be."

This takes the tension off his shoulders, but the pain never leaves his eyes. "Okay, fine." he says, and I wrap my arms around him and pull him ageist me for a hug.

It is late afternoon by the time we get back. Sawyer heads back to the beach and soon after he leaves I see Patrick sitting on a rock and studying a paper intensely.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you would be with Locke all day."

He barley glance up "No, today's a little different. Where were you?"

"Not doing anything important. What's that?" I ask, indicating the paper in his hand. He shows me a hurried sketch of the hatch.

"I've been thinking, but I can't figure out a way to open it."

"Let me see" I say and Patrick hands me the sketch. I look over it. I study it, remembering details from when I saw it in the jungle. "If you had some sort of power drill, or even a screwdriver maybe, you could get the hinge off. Or maybe just take the entire door off. But I would have to see the real thing to know for sure."

"Even if we could, that wouldn't help since we have neither of those things. And a screwdriver wouldn't even work. It is super sturdy, we would need more force." Patrick crabbed.

"I was just trying to help. Excuse me if my solutions aren't perfect."

Patrick rubs his knuckles against his eyes "Whatever, I just want to figure this out."

I fold up the paper and hand it back to him "Stop looking at this for a while. You're obsessing over it and your brain is running around in circle. If you come back to it later you will have a fresh mind."

He takes the paper from me and shoves it in his pocket. "Fine, what do you recommend I do in the meantime."

"Well, you could always try and be productive" I suggest, Patrick shoots that down with a simple look. "Or, I have a deck of cards. We could play Rummy."

"I think you know which option I am going to choose."

I pull out my deck of cards, shuffle, and deal.

Flashback

I am sitting on Rob's porch, leaning ageist him, with his arms wrapped around me.

"I just wish there was a way I could shield Patrick from all of this. He doesn't deserve to have to deal with any of this." I say, brokenly.

"Neither do you." he tells me.

"I know, but I am older. It's always been my job to protect him." I think back to what it was like before mom died. "Well, for a long time anyways. I just feel like I am failing him."

"Hey" Rob says with a soft anger "Look at me." I turn my head to look up at him "You are so far from a failure. You are amazing. You got dealt a crappy hand in life and you are still winning in so many ways."

I smile softly, "Thanks for saying that."

"I meant it, Samantha." he says, pulling me closer to him. I smile at his use of my full name. He is one of the only people who call me by it, one of the only people who I let use my full name.

After Patrick and I finish our game I head down to the beach to get some fish for dinner. There is no boar anymore, there hasn't been any in a while. I make a mental note to talk to Patrick about this. If he wants to keep his cover involving the hatch intact either Locke and them need to catch some boar or they need to think of a new reason for being out in the jungle all day. I grab my food and sit down next to a lone fire. I eat about half of my dinner before Jack approaches me.

"Hey, can I sit."

"Yeah, sure." I say and he sits down. "What are you doing down at the beach?" I ask him.

"I was looking for you, actually." Jack explains. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Okay, what did you want to ask me?"

"Do you know what Locke, Boone, and Patrick are doing out in the jungle all day? Because they aren't catching any boar."

"I don't know, you'd be better of asking Locke about that." I tell him.

"I just thought you might know more. You and Patrick seem pretty close." he prompted.

"Patrick hasn't said anything, but he doesn't tell me everything. If it was something important I am sure he would have mentioned it. The boar is probably getting more scarce. Animals tend to move away from areas where they get killed." I say, keeping a casual neutral expression.

"Okay, thanks for your help"

"I'm always happy to help" I smile.

"Well, I am heading back to the caves. Do you want me to wait for you. It's getting dark and the jungle can be dangerous."

"No, I'll be fine. I can stick to the path." I dismiss.

"Okay then. I'll talk to you later?" he asks, standing up.

"Sure" I say friendlily.

"Well, well, well look at you. Lying to the good doctor. I didn't know you were so bad." Sawyer says from behind me, moments after Jack leaves.

I turn around and redirect the conversation "Eavesdropping on conversation now I see?"

"You were talking at my fire, I just happened to overhear." Sawyer says, sitting down. "And you still haven't answered my question."

"You never asked me any question." I deflect.

"Why'd you lie to Saint Jack?"

I roll my eyes "Would it kill you to use people's real names?"

Sawyer doesn't respond, silently waiting for an answer.

"I didn't lie to Jack. Why would I do that?"

"Well sweetheart, that is indeed a question I would like an answer to. But I know a lie when I see one."

I purse my lips "Well, you know what the say. It takes a lair to know a lie." I stand up. "I am not going to sit here and have an argument over your false accusations." I walk away, ending the conversation.

Sawyer watched her walk away, briefly contemplating following her. She's a good lair, he will give her that. But he's built his life on lying, and he can spot the best. But he can also recognize stubbornness when he sees it. And, as curious as he is, he knows that Sam will never tell him what he wants to know. At least not right now.

End of chapter. So what did you think of Sawyer's parts? What about the chapter overall? Please, please review. It really boosts me up when you do. If you don't feel comfortable leaving your thoughts in the public forum remember my inbox is always open. - K