Chapter 46

Next up... Let me know what you think.

It had been two weeks. Two weeks since they had come back. Two weeks since she had seen them. Mike and Sayid refused to tell her what had happened. She felt alone. She knew she was right, but no one else did. No one had asked them about him. They asked about Jack. Daily. But not Sawyer.

"Hey." His voice brought her back to the present. He was standing there, looking at her. He looked fine. A bit tired. But looked fine. Jack sat beside her. Saying nothing else.

"Now you talk to me."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"Kate..."

"I don't need you to explain. It's fine. I'm fine. Here. Alone."

"Kate..."

"You could've at least let me know what the hell was happening, you know? You just come back, throw me out. No information. No explanation. No nothing. You just..."

"Sawyer wants to see you."

She turned her head to look at him. "What?"

"He wants to see you. He's asking for you."

"He is?"

"Yeah, come on."

"Wait, I need to get something..." she got up, quickly walking over to her tent. She came out, folding a piece of paper into her pocket.

They walked through the jungle. They didn't talk, just walked. Jack was just behind Kate, watching as she didn't look back at him. He had to say something, "How have you been?"

"Great."

"Kate, please..."

"I've been like crap," she rounded around on him, looking furious, "For two weeks I sat and worried about you. All of you. Had to deal with no one else caring about him. People saying things about him, ransacking his tent..."

"They what?"

"It doesn't matter... I stopped them. But then you finally come back and you send me away. Rose... she didn't want to find him... and you let her stay."

"I wanted to protect him."

"Protect him from me?"

"No. No, not you. He... he was injured..."

"I saw that..."

"No. It's more. He was shot with a taser, he has a burn on his chest. It's... bad Kate. It's really bad..."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because, it's up to him who knows. I wanted to protect him."

"Ok."

They walked into the hatch, cool air hitting their faces. She saw Rose at the table. When she looked up, she smiled. Kate was too preoccupied with seeing Sawyer, she just smiled back.

"He's in there." Jack nodded over at the closed door.

She opened it. Her eyes adjusting to the dim lighting. He was lying in the bed, eyes closed. As she snapped the door shut, he opened his eyes.

"Hey." His voice was soft but he smiled at her. Everything caught up to her at once; telling him to leave, finding him gone, no one caring, seeing him in that stretcher. The tears started falling, she put her hand over her eyes.

"Kate... stop," she could hardly hear him, "Come here." Before she knew it, she was walking over to him, sitting on the bed, lying down beside him. She felt him raise his hand and gently stroke her head. She felt the door open.

"Kate..."

"She's fine Rose. She's fine."

"Sawyer?" Jack came in the room, Rose behind him. "It's time for more..." he looked at Kate, she was lying with her eyes open, Sawyer's arm around her. She looked over at them, slowly sitting up. She had been crying. Rose sat on the chair, Jack standing by Sawyer's head.

"You ok?" Sawyer looked at Kate, his hand still on her arm.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm good." Jack moved closer to Sawyer's arm as he spoke. Kate eyed the syringe, "It's morphine." Sawyer answered her unasked question.

"Morphine? Really? How...?"

"We don't know how it got here," Rose looked at Kate as she spoke, but Kate didn't look back.

"So, how is everything?" Sawyer looked intently at Kate. It was the first time he had seen her in four weeks. She looked sad, and tired.

"Fine. Better, now I've seen you. Oh... I have something for you..." he reached to her pocket, bringing out the folder paper. "Here, I found it in the jungle after you... when you were gone. I kept a hold of it for you."

Jack and Rose weren't sure what the paper was, but they could tell it was important. As Kate handed it to him, Sawyer looked down at it, lifting his hand to take it. He didn't unfold it, instead putting it on the bed beside him.

"Thanks. How have you been?" It was clear she wasn't going to get him to change the subject. So she thought it best to tell the truth.

"Miserable. I was so worried about you."

"I'm fine. Don't worry."

"You all just vanished."

"We're fine."

"Well," Jack spoke up from beside the sink, "We're fine. You will be fine. Eventually."

"It's fine," Sawyer moved his head so he could see Jack, who just smiled and shook his head. "How is everyone? Back at the camp?" Kate just looked at Jack, "It's ok, I know I wasn't top of the 'To Find' list."

"Sawyer..." Jack walked forward. They hadn't spoken about what he had said.

"It's fine."

"They're all fine. They... I haven't really had much to do with anyone recently," her eyes slid over to Rose without meaning too. It was quick, but Sawyer noticed.

"Really? Why?"

"Because... because you weren't top of their 'To Find' list."

"That's no reason to..."

"Yes, it is. It's fine. I'm fine. I'm just worried about you. Mike and Sayid haven't said anything... about anything really. So, I've just been worried about you."

"Well, stop. And Jack..."

"Yeah?"

"You can tell them. All of them, anything you want."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Then you," he stared at Kate, "can stop cutting people off. You need people. You need back up."

"Don't give them anything that you don't want to... for me..."

"It's fine."

"I'll tell them later," Jack walked past them and out the door. Kate watched as Sawyer's eyes followed him.

"I went into the jungle. Found your sleeping bag. That's how I knew you were gone. That's how I got your letter. I made sure it was safe. 'Til you came back."

"Thanks. How's the kid?"

"Walt? He's good. Better since he saw you."

"I wasn't much company."

"He's just happy he saw you. You look much better than the last time I..."

"People keep saying that. Can't take the credit..." He nodded his head at Rose. At this Kate glanced over.

"Aw, it was nothing, just glad you're ok."

"Of course you are," Kate was looking down at her hands, but the edge to her voice had added tension to the air. Sawyer just looked at her, eyes glancing at Rose and back. "So, I'm gonna go. You need rest. I'll come back. Tomorrow? Or whenever."

"Tomorrow sounds good." She leant in and kissed his cheek, just on instinct. But she just smiled, stood and left.

"Look Sawyer..."

"Don't worry about it Rose. It's fine. She's just..."

"Telling the truth. When it happened, until you got back, I was sure you had just left. Kate was sure you were in danger but we all... we didn't listen."

"I know. Well, I thought as much. Don't worry. We're good."