Chapter Thirteen: Ghost of Christmas Past
Hurley sat alone on the beach, watching the sun set over the ocean. The sight of it was gorgeous, with all the reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks reflected over the endless horizon, but he was used to it, and bored of it, by now.
He had to find a way to get Desmond home, but he didn't know how to leave the island himself. Ben wasn't any help, and Bernard was too focused on building a porch swing for he and Rose's cabin to give any advice. Rose said not to ask her, since she didn't know anything about "all this island stuff." She added that if they were done "shooting at each other," they could start having Sunday potlucks. Desmond was quiet. His concussion, no doubt, was still quite painful.
"Hey, Hoss." Said a voice from behind him.
Hurley whipped around quickly, shocked out of his mind. "Sawyer?!"
"Howdy there, Hugo." Sawyer replied.
"How are you here?" Hurley asked suspiciously, standing. "I thought—"
"Long story." Sawyer said wearily.
"But dude, you left on the plane, didn't you?" Hurley asked.
"Yeah, but I had this dang spider-bite." Said Sawyer, looking annoyed at the mere thought of it. "It was poisonous and I had to go to the hospital and everything."
"Do you still have the bite?" Hurley asked curiously.
"Nope." Sawyer replied. "I'm genuinely cured. . . except I had to come back to this stupid place."
"Why?"
"Why do you think, Snuffy?"
"Cause it's got healing powers and stuff."
"Hey, you're in charge here, not me." Sawyer answered.
"Wait, how'd you know I was in charge?"
"Well, I figured Doc'd be dead by now, and you and me were the only candidates left, and I wasn't here. . . unless Doc went and got new ones. But I doubt he'd make Bernard the new lord of the island. I mean, Jacob picked us for a reason, didn't he?"
"Yeah. . . cause we were flawed."
"I think flawed means parent issues." Sawyer said. "I mean, I knew Jin, and he had issues with his daddy, and even more issues with the in-laws. Doc got his daddy fired, heck, Locke's old man practically killed my parents, and Locke got me to kill him, so I can only imagine their relationship was peachy. My daddy killed my mamma, and then blew his brains out. I don't know about you and Sayid, but I'm sensing a pattern."
"My dad left." Hurley said.
"Yeah." Sawyer said. "Figured it was something like that."
"Jacob was a jerk." Hurley realized sullenly. "None of us wanted to be here."
"Yeah, he was." Sawyer agreed. "But we was all kinda doomed anyway. . . maybe he did us a favor."
"You know, those numbers- the candidate numbers— 4,8,15,16,23,42– they've been following me around for years. I always thought they were bad luck."
"Well, you was right about that." Sawyer said. "I mean, look at us candidates. We only ever got bad luck, and we sure as heck spread it around."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Hurley mused.
"Guess I am."
"So. . . I guess you're kinda stuck here now, huh?" Hurley asked. "I mean, what with the spider-bite and stuff?"
"I dunno" Sawyer said.
"You wanna be leader?" Hurley asked, half-pleading. "If you have to stay here anyway- you'd probably be much better at it than me. I suck. Desmond needs to go home, and I don't know how to help him—"
"Hold it, Jumbotron." Sawyer interrupted. "I ain't gonna take your spot."
"Why not?"
"Cause it's supposed to be you." He answered. "Besides that, I don't wanna. I wanna get the heck off of this rock."
"But the spider-bite-"
"Look, if the poison's gone now, it ain't coming back, ya hear? It ain't like I got an underlying condition."
"Well, that's the problem, isn't it?" Hurley snapped. "I don't know how to get anyone out of here! Desmond's stuck too! No one told me what to do! Even Ben's clueless!"
"Well, Dumbo ain't the leader now, is he? That's you, Neo."
"I think that's the nicest thing you ever called me." Hurley said, slightly pleased.
"You seen it, then?"
"Dude, like everyone's seen the Matrix." Hurley scoffed.
"Then why don't we put it in them terms?" Sawyer asked sarcastically. "You gotta believe you can, Tinker-Belle, and once ya do, you can probably do whatever ya want."
"Hey, I guess you're right. Kind of like when Yoda told Luke to get the X-wing out of the Dagobah swamp, and couldn't, and then Yoda did it, and Luke was like, 'I can't believe it,' and then Yoda's like, 'that is why you fail.' " Hurley realized.
"We can go with that explanation too." Sawyer shrugged. "Whatever the heck you feel like."
"So, you think if I believe I can get off the island, I can?"
"Obviously, Mr. Chosen-One." Sawyer replied.
"Thanks, Sawyer." Hurley said, smiling. "I'm gonna try all I can— maybe I can teleport."
"Maybe." Sawyer said. "Why don't you focus on something? That's how it usually works. . . in the movies anyway."
Hurley shut his eyes, thinking of where to think of— Kate was the first one to come to mind. She wasn't a place, but he figured that if it worked— and he had to have faith it did— he'd wind up near her. So he thought hard about Kate, and thought about teleporting. . .
"Dude, I don't think this is gonna work." He said after about thirty seconds, opening his eyes, and looking toward Sawyer. But he was no longer on the beach. Instead he was in a horribly beige hospital room.
"Hurley?!" Kate exclaimed, standing up from the chair she'd been sitting in.
"It worked!" Hurley exclaimed, hugging her. "It actually worked! You'll never believe it, Kate! I teleported from the island— man, I'll have to tell Sawyer his idea actually worked."
"Sawyer?" Kate asked, backing away from him.
"Yeah." Hurley said. "He got back to the island somehow, blamed it on a spider-bite. Anyway, we talked, and his idea totally worked!"
He looked at Kate, who he now realized was crying. Tears stained her colorless cheeks and continued to flow from her red eyes. She glanced at the hospital bed, which Hurley hadn't paid much attention to up to this point.
Suddenly apprehensive, he walked over to it. What he saw there nearly gave him a heart-attack.
Sawyer looked as though he was sleeping, not as though he were dead. The give-away for most would've been the flat-lined monitor, or his stillness.
But not for Hurley. For Hurley it was the expression. The fact that his eyebrows weren't furrowed, the fact that his usual frown was twisted into what looked like a faint grin. Overall, he looked peaceful, and that was the most unnatural part about it. Sawyer just wasn't a peaceful person- even when he was happy, peaceful was the last word Hurley would ever have used to describe him.
"He died fifteen minutes ago." Kate choked, bursting into tears. "He didn't want to come here, Hurley! But I brought him anyway, I thought they could help him, but the first thing they said was that there was nothing they could do, and then they gave him a bunch of pain-killers! He told me not to let them do that!"
Tears sprang to Hurley's eyes, and he looked awkwardly away from the body.
"Not him too." He mumbled. "Oh, please, not him too!"
Kate grabbed him suddenly, tears continuing to flow from her eyes. "Where's Jack, Hurley? Why isn't he with you?"
The tears were flowing freely now, and he looked at Kate. "He's gone, Kate. Locke stabbed him, and—"
"NO!" She shrieked, crying harder and collapsing against the wall, sinking to the floor, and burying her head in her hands. The guttural sobs that left her throat were pained, and for a moment, Hurley thought she would die of grief.
Miserably, he sat beside her, and put an arm around her. He opened his mouth to comfort her, but the words died in his throat.