The Regulators
Chapter Three
Author's Note: For the sake of the timeline of this fic, the flashbacks happen while Jack and Sarah are married. They're living at her place, but this is only two years before the crash, and a few months after they got married.
"What the hell does it matter to you where I've been all day?" Sawyer shouted, shoving Hurley back.
"Come on man, you know you haven't set foot in the camp all day!" Hurley yelled.
"Yeah!" Charlie jumped in. "So where have you been? Why won't you tell us?"
"Because it's none of your damn business!" Sawyer yelled into his face.
"Hey, hey, break it up!" Jack shouted as he and Sayid ran back to the scene.
The audience stared as Jack stepped into the middle of the fight.
"What's going on?" Jack demanded as he looked around at the scared faces of the other castaways.
Behind him, Sayid was giving Jack the 'don't do anything you'll regret' look, which he was also receiving from Kate.
"Charlie thinks that Sawyer killed that man," Kate sighed finally.
Jack stared at Kate hard and long before turning back to Sawyer. Then, in one move, Jack turned swiftly, grabbing the gun that Alex still held(making Alex stumble back beside Sayid) and pulled the gun on Sawyer, backing him up against a tree where Jack held the gun against Sawyer's neck.
"Come on, son," Michael whispered gravely to Walt.
"But I want to see the fight!" Walt whined.
"No, you don't," Michael said, and nodded to Jack before leading Walt away from the crowd.
"Why?" Jack said loudly after a few moments of silence following Michael's performance.
No one answered him, and Jack's face grew hard in anger.
"Why do you think that he killed him?" Jack finished.
"Jack-" Kate said, stepping up to him, hoping to talk Jack out of whatever anger had just arose in him.
"Stay out of this!" Jack shouted in her face, more forceful than he meant.
Kate took a step back, and glared at Jack before becoming just another bystander.
"Nobody's seen him all day," Hurley explained calmly from behind Jack, as Jack kept his focus to the sandy grasses below him, "and he turns up, just after that guy does. And he's the only one besides us here who knows how to use a gun."
That was when Jack lost all control of himself, and pushed the gun further into Sawyer's neck .
"Stop it Jack!" Kate cried from her spot behind him. "You're gonna hurt him!"
"I think that's the point," Charlie muttered from beside her.
For the first time, Jack looked up at Sawyer, staring at him coldly, Sawyer returning the same look to him. All Jack wanted to do right now was to give Sawyer all the pain he had ever done to Jack, but in the end, Sawyer dead was going to do no good to him, especially if Sawyer really knew anything about the situation.
"Where were you last night?" Jack demanded to Sawyer.
One look told Jack that Sawyer didn't have an answer for him, or at least, not one that he was going to give away.
"He was with me," Kate said finally, and the crowd turned to her, "he was with me when I found you in the caves."
The realization hit Jack like bricks. Of course- he had seen Sawyer himself in the caves with Kate, and he knew that if he wanted to keep his reputation up(or at least get people off his back for a while) he'd have to make up an excuse for his sudden abrupt behavior.
"Then where were you this morning?" Jack asked, and received back the same, cold stare. "Answer me!"
It was two hours since Jack had heard the news, and he still couldn't apprehend it.
"But- how could this happen?" Jack asked wearily.
Apparently Jack had fainted some time after hearing the news when he tried to sit up.
"I mean, we were careful and-" Jack's words ran together as Sarah handed him a cool glass of water, which he drunk gratefully.
"I know," she sighed, sitting next to him, and she then turned towards Jack, "but this is real, Jack, and we have to ask ourselves. Our we going to do this?"
Jack looked into Sarah's eyes, realizing that this was what she wanted, and what she wanted, he wanted, which led to him nodding and hearing himself say:
"Yeah, we are."
(Space)
"This- this is our island?" Boone said, still staring at the screen in disbelief.
It hadn't moved since Boone had turned it on, so they were still staring at the same picture.
"Sure does look like it," Locke said, as he reached out for one of the keys, and pulled down.
Like a video game, the screen changed pictures, flashing before them, and zoomed in on an open door in the middle of the ground.
"That's the hatch?" Boone guessed, and decided to try and change the picture himself.
Reaching up, Boone pulled down on a black lever, and the screen cut in two, the bottom half showing the outline of an ocean, and as it moved in, little dots on the corner of the screen crowded around a single dot.
"Are those the rest of the survivors?" Boone asked, confused. "You know, the beach camp?"
"I don't know," Locke admitted truthfully, and pulled down on a white and black lever, and the reaction wasn't what he expected.
Don't do it.
Boone's head jerked at the sound of the voice, a voice that he recognized.
"Was that- Jack?" Boone said slowly.
Don't do it Jack, don't do it.
"Apparently," Locke said, grim in confusion that he didn't allow himself to show.
Please Jack- don't do this.
"That was Kate," Boone said, recognizing the voice as he turned to Locke, "what's going on?"
You know he didn't do it..just stop this while you still can.
Jack again.
"Is he talking to himself?" Boone wondered.
"I don't think he's talking," Locke said, pulling on another lever.
"I didn't do it," a booming voice said, filling the air around them.
Sawyer's voice.
Kate knows..I didn't do it.
"What do you think's going on?" Boone asked, decided his questions would be useless in his head.
"I think that we're hearing them talking to themselves- inside their head," Locke said, staring at the keys in front of him in awe.
"Like, reading their minds?" Boone said, and Locke nodded.
Boone suddenly felt very self-consious of his thoughts, expecting them to speak in the room next, and knew that he'd have to be very careful about what he thought for now on, which made him feel very uneasy.
Don't do anything you'll regret... that was Sayid.
You're better than this, Jack..Kate again..he didn't do anything, and you know it.
"What do you think they're talking about?" Boone asked Locke.
"It appears," Locke began, "that somebody's about to do something they'll regret."
"Think it's Jack?"
"Could be."
Boone stared at the screen as one of the mini figures shifted weight.
"Well, what're we going to do?" Boone said. "I mean, we didn't find this by mistake. It's showing this to us for a reason."
Locke turned to Boone and smiled.
"Now you're thinking."
Author's Note: Sorry again for the cheesy cliffhangers! Lol. And short chapters, but I'm trying to get them done fast. Thanks for the reviews!
Next up, on "The Regulators":
Locke and Boone's mind control is taken into action, which may or may not help out Sawyer, and as for Jack's flashbacks? Jack has a nice little chat with his daddy about being a daddy. Poetic, don't ya think?
Until next time..
October Sky
