The Impossible
Chapter Three
Disclaimer: Some of the headache references come directly from "Deus Ex Machina."
Kate watched from the jungle line as Sawyer dipped a folded up t-shirt into the waves, and held it against his forehead, sighing in relief. He then brought it back down, and walked back to where Michael was sitting beside a lit fire, and sat down, propping himself up in the sand.
Though she had to admit that it was different seeing Sawyer actually having a conversation with someone other than herself, pleasing, even, she knew she'd never forget what he did to Jack. She tried to tell herself she shouldn't be so worried about Sawyer, and in a way, she did feel like she was betraying Jack. But something about the way he acted when she had asked him if he was all right told Kate that he was lying, and made the situation even worse. Preparing what she was going to say, Kate gathered her thoughts, and marched up to Sawyer and Michael.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" Kate asked Sawyer.
"You can't see that i'm busy?" Sawyer asked, holding up some fish he was eating, or had tried to eat, because the fish was clear of any scratches or marks.
"No," Kate said, staring at him as she stood impatiently.
"Fine," Sawyer said throwing the fish down on a suitcase they had been using for a makeshift plate, "but there ain't no microwaves around here, sweetheart, so I hope that you know how to start a fire for that thing."
"Just come on!" Kate said, dragging Sawyer to the side, where she stood with cold feet, leaving Sawyer to just stare at her.
"What, you free Saturday night?" Sawyer said, smirking.
"What's wrong with you?" Kate blurted out.
"Excuse me?" Sawyer said, the smirk gone.
"Why can't you just come out and tell me that something's wrong?" She asked, glad to have finally gotten that out.
"Why, you worried about me?" Sawyer said, amused.
"Stop doing that!" Kate said, annoyed.
Before Sawyer could asked 'what' she jumped into her story.
"I've been watching you you know," Kate said, "from the beach, every morning. They're right. You look sick. You're never eating and you hardly sleep."
"You're right," Sawyer said, seriously, "something's wrong with me: I'm turning into Jack."
"I'm not kidding around about this, Sawyer," Kate said, "what if there's something wrong with you?"
The amusement left Sawyer's face in an instant.
"What?" Kate asked, worried, studying him. "There's nothing wrong with you..is there?"
"I don't know," Sawyer said finally, "I've been getting these weird- headaches."
Kate ignored the fact that Sawyer sounded embarrassed by admitting such a small egnima.
"And you haven't had one before?" Kate said, sounding nervous now that she knew that she had something to worry about.
"Not like these," Sawyer said, "and nothing's helping. I've must've taken a truck load of aspirin by now, and it's only making them worse."
"Worse?" Kate repeated.
Sawyer nodded.
"I even asked what's-her-name," Sawyer said, "the Korean lady?"
"Sun?"
"Yeah," Sawyer said in remembrance, "anyway- I asked her for some of that herb stuff."
"And it didn't help?" Kate guessed.
"Nah," Sawyer said.
"So why don't you just go to Jack?" Kate asked, before realizing..
Was Sawyer afraid of Jack? Or afraid of what revenge Jack may take on him once given the chance. But they all knew Jack wasn't that type..
"That's the plan," Sawyer snorted, "go to the guy I beat up and ask him to save me."
"Save you?"
Sawyer glanced around before speaking, and his voice dropped drastically.
"I think the headaches are worse than we think," Sawyer said, avoiding Kate's eyes, "I think that there might be a good chance that I might be-"
His voice trailed off into a deadly silence, and Kate had to think a moment before realizing what Sawyer was trying to say.
"You think you're dying?" Kate said, laughing. "Sawyer, they're headaches, they're not-"
But Sawyer cut her off as he lifted his head, and looked straight into her eyes. He was afraid, that much was obvious, and to see Sawyer show obvious fear for the first time, brought an extra beat to her pulse. Sawyer was dead serious about this.
"Why don't you just go to Jack?" Kate asked again, receiving the same silence. "Look, Jack's not like that. He's over what happened-"
She knew that was a lie. Jack hadn't flat out told her that, but she knew there was no possible way that Jack could get over something like that so quickly. It still came as a surprise whenever she realized that that was only three days ago.
"He'll help you," Kate told him, "if you ask for it."
For a moment it seemed as though Sawyer was going to suck up his pride, and agree, but she knew that that was too good to last.
"Nah," Sawyer said with his cocky grin, "it's good. I'll let the doc go back to being the hero with the patients with broken legs and messed up ribs. I'm fine."
Digging his hands into his pockets, Sawyer looked down as he walked back to the fire, disappearing as a single line in the shaded beach, and Kate stood, broken in two about the consequences of her actions.
(Space)
"Hey Jack," Kate said as she entered Jack's caves.
She had been sure it was to ease her worries, but after the one-man burial of Jack's father, Jack had return sometime around one in the morning, making sure Kate saw him as he passed from the beach to the caves, and from inside information from Charlie, Jack had stayed in his caves(sleeping or not, it was unknown), silent, until morning. Though she'd never know what really went on, as Kate watched Jack stand up from where he sat, fiddling with some medicine tape, she saw that his eyes were dried red, with dark rims around him, and his face was ghastly pale, making every scratch(and bruise) stand out for a mile.
"Yeah?" Jack asked, putting the tape into a standing cabinet they had been lucky to find in the wreckage.
"I have this friend, "Kate begin, "who has the headaches."
"What kind of headaches?" Jack asked, his natural doctor instincts making him concerned.
"Bad ones," Kate said, "not being able to eat, sleep, energy-drawing headaches."
"Uh-huh," Jack said, thinking, or at least she thought he was, "so when did they start, Kate?"
"Funny," Kate said.
Jack smiled, and then grew serious.
"Kate," he said, in a tone way to grave for her, "if there's something wrong, you know you can always-"
"This really is about a..friend."
As Kate said this, she realized her mistake.
"So who's this friend?" Jack asked before she corrected herself.
Kate considered lying, but then the image of Sawyer looking at her, with his eyes full of fear, came floating back into her mind, and she knew it was now or never.
"Sawyer, " Kate said quietly.
"Oh I see, you two are just friends now then?" Jack joked.
When Kate didn't reply, he dropped his engrossed tone, kicking back into doctor mode again, and suddenly he could see himself back home, at work, and this was just another patient. Except Kate wasn't just a patient, but Sawyer was.
"I'm sure he's fine," Jack said, turning back to busy himself with restoring medical supplies, "it's probably just a cry for attention. He's probably just waiting for another chance to beat up somebody-"
"He thinks he's dying," Kate cut in, not wanting to hear the rest of Jack's sentence.
"Of a headache?" Jack snorted before breaking out into a small fit of laughter.
"Jack-" she looked at him as seriously as she could.
"Look," Jack said, "I'd love to help the guy out, really, but-"
"But what?"
"Kate, I don't know if I-"
"Jack, you're going to have to get over this sometime!" Kate lashed above her control. "He needs your help, you know he does! I'm not expecting you to become buddies with him or anything. All I want you to do is tell him that he's okay."
Jack stared at Kate long and hard before speaking. For a split second he wanted to do nothing but yell back at her, asking her to take a step in his shoes for a while, and to see what it felt like, to have to pretend that everything's okay, and to know that you can't make a big deal about everything, just because you're not expected to. But then the reality of the situation came in, and Jack knew that she was right- for now.
"Fine," Jack agreed at last, "I'll talk to him.
Kate breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Good," she said simply.
"But I'm not making any promises," Jack added quickly.
"I know," Kate said, turning to leave.
They were silent for an awkward moment, each avoiding the others eyes, inflicted in the surroundings, and Kate finally decide to leave.
"Oh, and Kate?" Kate turned back around to face Jack. "You know if there's anything wrong, you can always talk about it, and I'm not just talking health."
Kate smiled.
"Yeah," she said, "I know."
Author's Note: Sorry for the shortness, but I'm only able to get up a little at a time during weekdays, which means more chapters for ya. Thanks for the reviews, and I'll reply to them next chapter.
October Sky
