A/N: Sorry it's been a while, everyone. Lots of crazy end-of-semester stuff is happening lately. But here's an update! Enjoy.
"We need to stop meeting like this," a concerned Jack told Kate early the next morning.
This garnered a smile from Kate. It faded as she brought a quizzical hand to her throat. A bulky gauze bandage made it awkward to move her head.
"Feel okay?" Jack asked. "You lost a lot of blood…enough that Sawyer carried you all the way back."
"I don't remember…after he…oh." Her mind drew a blank after Sawyer showed her his back. But she couldn't tell Jack that. She sighed inwardly. All this secret-keeping was taking its toll. She wanted to tell this sweet, caring man everything, if only he would understand. If only he wouldn't view her as just another clinical crazy.
He picked up her hand. Cold. "Michael, Boone, and Sawyer went to get that handcuffed guy a little while ago. Do you want to talk about that?"
His honest, pleading eyes melted her resolution. Besides, he was bound to hear it anyway eventually.
After she told him everything, excluding the cutting and the way Sawyer made her feel, he walked with her back to the beach, where the three plus one were waiting.
"So he's not on the manifest?" Jack inquired as he studied the scruffy, violent-looking man, now handcuffed to a particularly large chunk of fuselage on the far side of the beach. Thankfully they had found a safe spot devoid of any survivors' camps.
"We can't be sure, as long as we don't know his name," explained Boone.
"I bet Sayid wouldn't mind havin' a crack at him," Sawyer said dryly.
"Kate, was that you?" Locke asked with a nod towards the captive's leg."
She nodded. Were they going to lock her up, too? Was she a danger to the others?
"It's pretty impressive. A complex wound."
She felt relieved, until she caught Jack studying her, a dark expression on his face. He was suspicious of her and what she had done to warrant a listing on America's Most Wanted.
She turned back to the as yet anonymous killer and winced. Bringing a hand up to the bandage, she thought, This is going to take some getting used to.
"Jack. Are you going to bandage that?" Kate asked, bringing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.
"Yeah. Let me…Let me go grab the supplies." He jogged off towards the caves.
Sawyer and Kate brought the others up to speed, and Jack soon returned to diagnose and bandage the man's wound.
"It's pretty deep, but it missed the artery. Whoever pulled the knife back out," Here he looked up at Kate and Sawyer, "preserved a pretty clean exit. Complex, yes," he asserted, glancing at Locke, "but not fatal. Or even particularly harmful, that is, besides effectively severing motor ability for the time being." He paused. "Incredible." He was astonished. How did Kate know to find that kind of position with a weapon? There were so many secrets with her.
While all this was taking place, the captive maintained a stolid silence, staring icily at each one present in turn. His cold eyes rested the longest on Kate, who shifted uncomfortably under his impassive gaze.
She had wanted so badly to kill him out there in the jungle with Sawyer. She could have, too, but she knew restraint. Then she would have been condemned, as he had been, as a killer. She couldn't handle that again.
Kate left the captive's site late that evening. They had been questioning him for hours, to no avail. The only response was that cold, numb stare.
She felt Sawyer's approach before she saw him. She was developing a sort of sixth-sense for him, his comings and goings.
He fell into step beside her. "Has he said anything?"
"Not since he called you Wonderboy and hit on me yesterday," she quipped. "I keep shuddering, just thinking about his hands on me."
"Me, too," he answered truthfully.
This elicited a laugh from Kate. "You are a charmer, aren't you, Sawyer?"
"Hell yes."
She sobered for a moment. "I never had you pegged for the self-destructive type. Too cocky."
"Really? Well, I definitely expected it from you. You are way too put together, or I thought so, until I saw that." He slipped an arm around her waist and traced the square of gauze through her tank top.
They were coming up on Kate's setup. "Goodnight, Sawyer."
He stopped and stood in front of her. "No goodnight kiss?"
"You haven't got anything I want!" she declared incredulously.
"Oh, I do." Sawyer winked suggestively. "You'll see, eventually."
"You are a pig, did you know that, Sawyer?" She turned towards her bedroll.
"It'll get pretty cold tonight…you sure you don't want me to stick around?"
"Goodnight, Sawyer," she sighed dramatically as he slunk off.
The following morning, the questioning continued.
"What is your name?"
"Who sent you here?"
"How did you get here?"
"Did you kill the child?"
The only response was the same silent stare. He focused intently on Kate, mostly, when she was there. It was unnerving, and she avoided the place he was handcuffed unless it was totally necessary that she be there.
"He's not going to break. We haven't given him food or drink since he got here. We've asked him the same questions a thousand times. You have got to let me try some things from the Republican Guard." Sayid was beyond frustrated. He wasn't used to this being so hard.
"No. Jack's said it himself, we're not savages," Kate argued. "There've been relapses, yes," glancing at Sawyer and his bandaged arm, "but there has to be another way."
"Kate, he killed a baby. He's not talking," Jack reasoned.
"What use is he to us?" Sawyer asked. "Just get rid of him."
"He might hold the key to getting off this island," Jack reminded him.
"That doesn't justify more violence!" Kate exclaimed.
"I will give him today. Then we trust Sayid," Jack determined. Sayid nodded; Kate left.