"I am not going to say in the caves Jack." Sayid said firmly. "But I do admit, it will be better for Minta to go there."
At this the two men both turned to Minta, who was making a pot for the storage of water. She purposely evaded their gaze by bending down.
"Will you look after her for me?" Sayid begged.
Jack nodded but did not fulfilled his promise, as Sayid had barely reached the entrance when he heard a splash, to be followed by her scream!
Spinning around he saw that Sawyer had pulled Minta into the river, and she was thrashing madly, screaming wordlessly. Even though Sawyer was clearly taken back at her reaction, Sayid could not quench the anger boiling inside him.
He punched Sawyer hard and picked her up. She was panicking so much that she was completely oblivious to his touch. Her body was still shaking and she continued her screams.
"Minta, you are safe!" Sayid coaxed to her, putting her onto his lap and rocking her gently.
She shook her head but did stop screaming, only to start choking. Her face became so pale as she tried to breath, but dry gulps of air come instead. Tears streamed down as she struggled to breath.
"Asthma…" Jack said in horror, scrambling in his brain for a solution.
"You are the doctor, do something!" Sayid demanded in semi-hysteria, his coolness and calmness slipping fast. Turning to Sawyer, who was still spitting out water, he cried out angrily. "Can you not see how much she is suffering? Give the inhalers back!"
"Sawyer!" this time the other man did look at Sayid. The panicking tone had suddenly changed to a very flat one, one that meant business. "I know why you are doing this. You hate me and so try to hurt me through Minta's pain. I don't care if you hate me due to whatever reason, but what did she do to you to deserve this?"
"It is not without reasons that I hate you Sayid." Sawyer said coldly. "And you can forget about ever having the inhalers back."
"Is that so? If you don't give her inhalers back then I will give you reasons to hate me." Sayid promised to the departed man.
Minta grabbed him and this time her tears were from emotion, and she kept on shaking her head.
"There is no other way," he said gently, "I will not let you suffer like this."
Turning to Jack Sayid asked very businesslike. "Can she last five minutes?"
Seeing the nod he tenderly pricked her fingers off him and stood up. "I will be back in five minutes with the inhalers."
"Sayid, Sawyer is not going to see reason easily." Jack warned as he and Michael both ran after him, leaving Minta in the care of Kate.
"Who says that I will be reasoning with him? You asked me why she is afraid of me, I will tell you." Sayid snarled as he snapped a piece of bamboo off and started to sharpen it. "She discovered that I was a torturer."
At this blunt statement neither Michael or Jack knew what to say. Finally Michael asked dumbfounded: "I thought you are a maths teacher."
"When I went to America I became a maths teacher. But in Iraq…"
"You said that you were a communication officer when you were in the army."
"My job involved getting the enemy to communicate." Sayid explained without any emotion. "I just need five minutes."
As Michael and Jack looked into his face they immediately shared the mutual relief that Sayid was not angry with them, and the second thought was that they actually felt sorry for Sawyer.
"Sawyer!" Sayid greeted the just waken man coldly. "Good morning."
The last thing Sawyer remembered was the raising first of Sayid, the next time he opened his eyes, he was seeing the first once more.
"Some hero you are." He spat angrily, trying to loosen the tight wires Sayid had purposely used as a more painful substitute of rope. "Attacking a guy when he was napping."
"And what of you? Withholding the sole substance that might save a woman's life just because you hate her husband." Sayid replied flatly. "For her sake, I will give you this one last chance. Where is it?"
"For goodness sake, just tell him!" Jack yelled, not sure whether he could watch this. "It does not need to be like this."
As Sawyer snorted Sayid crouched in front of the tied up man, holding the sharpened bamboos up. "We do not have bamboos in Iraq, but we do have something similar…"
As Sayid continued to explain the finer refinement of torture in vivid details, both Michael and Jack were slowly backing away from the man. They both knew that he was a solider, one who experienced many hardship and pain due to the corruption of his country's government, but they would never have connected him with this being.
An interrogator; a torturer; likely even a murderer. His voice was so chilling because of their calmness, foretelling the merciless actions he would soon commit. Sawyer, who faced Sayid, finally understood the mistakes that he had made.
But he was a man who never knew when to stop, and was to proud to beg for forgiveness. So he continued taunting his opponent.
"You know, despite all this Ali, I think you've never actually tortured anyone before."
"Unfortunately for us both, you're wrong." Sayid said steadily with the faintest hint of bitterness in his voice as he drove the bamboos in.
Sawyer was tortured, while Michael and Jack were deeply frightened. This man who was so gentle and tender to his wife, who would pick a flower for her everyday with the hope of her wearing it, who treated her like the most sacred and precious object in the world.
"I understand now…" Michael gasped when he finally stopped vomiting, having made the mistake of looking at Sawyer's hand.
"This is why Minta had her nervous breakdown." Sayid said, a flicker of sadness crept into his eyes. "But I will not let her get hurt by anyone else!"
"Stopping now? Is that all you got?" Sawyer chocked, struggling to regain his breathings. "Bamboos for 10 seconds, no wonder we kicked your ass in the gulf war."
A seemingly light backhand slap actually drew blood from his lip.
"Believe me Sawyer, I can do this all day if it need to be all day." Sayid proclaimed. "But since you request more…
"Perhaps losing an eye will loosen your tongue?"
When the knife flashed over Sawyer's eyes he knew that Sayid would do it.
"I don't have it! I don't! I never did!" Sawyer screamed. "I found the box…the pot on the beach. It was empty, I swear!"
Much as he refused to accept the answer, Sayid was experienced and trained well enough to know when a man was lying and when he wasn't. Right now, unbelievable as it was, Sawyer was telling the truth.
"And you made me do this again! Yebnen kelp." Sayid spat in Arabic. "Cutting this lying instrument off will be no lose to the human race."
"Sayid, calm down!" Michael entreated. "Think of Minta."
"Thank of Minta? This will probably kill her when she learns of it. So why should I not take this one's tongue as a last enjoyment?"
The loud footsteps distracted Sayid from carrying out his promise. A slightly flushed but happy Kate ran in the scene, tugging a healthy Minta.
"Sun found herbal medications!" Kate said excitedly, but grimaced as soon as she observes the surroundings. "Please don't tell me that…"
Minta took a deep breath and walked to Sayid, who still stood in front of his victim with the knife hovering near Sawyer's face. Gently she jerked the knife out of Sayid's hand and then clung onto him.
The first tears came as she remembered the past once more. Sayid held onto her tightly and could only mutter three words over and over again.
"I am sorry."
Flashback
"Minta Daniel, that sounds so pretty. I am glad that your missionary friends didn't just give the name Smith or Bob to you." She teased.
"Daniel was suppose to be my first name but I just can't throw both my last and first name away, I felt that I am pretending to not be Iraqi. So instead of Daniel Smith, I choose Sayid Daniel. Now," he waltzed her lightly around their hotel room. "What about our walk?"
The two of them decided to go to Australia for their honeymoon after their very plain wedding. They simply stood at the church, he was in his most formal clothing: his only pair of suit pants with a buttoned shirt, it was short sleeved but still better then the t-shirts and vests he would wear. She was in the blue dress he had brought: skimpy at the top but ground touching at the bottom; the circle of daisy chains on her hair was her only ornament.
"I wish I can give you an ivory silk gown with a lacy veil trailing behind you, and diamonds with amber on your neck and hair. A wedding worthy enough for a princess." He said regretfully as he looked at her, she was in her blue wedding gown once more.
"Don't be silly, I don't care at all!" she said firmly. "I just want to be with you. Every morning I would wake up and just feel so deliriously happy as I am now your wife."
They then walked down hand in hand, so happy and blissful. The receptionist watched the honeymoon couple fondly, recalling her own honeymoon. Smiling she approached them.
"A letter from America for you, Mrs Daniel." She was lost in her own memories to notice the frown at the sight of the address.
"Better read it and get it over with." Sayid warned Minta.
"I don't care what my parents think, just because you are Iraqi and is a Christian. Well, a Jewish girl can't go more wrong then marrying a Christian Arab." Minta said bitterly as she tore the letter open. After reading the first sheet she laughed. "Oh this is ridiculous even from them! 'Minta, your partner is a killer, get away from him quick or he will murder you. Come back and we will acknowledge you as our daughter once more.' How pathetic, it is as if they took this out from a film."
Sayid found the smile on his face very strained.
"Let's see what they wrote on the second page…"
The paper dropped from his hand, Sayid saw the pictures of his forgotten memories glaring at him. Beside these was his file, he didn't know how her parents got these government secrets but there it was.
"Sayid, they are lying right?" she implored. "These are all fake! You can't be a torturer! You are just some Iraqi soldier who got out of a war torn country by the aid of Christian missionaries. You have killed before but you are not a…"
"I am a torturer." He whispered hoarsely. "No, I was a torturer. But Minta…"
She turned away from him, shook herself loose out of his embrace. A he approached her she darted away: a bird with her wings broken, a girl with her dreams dead.
He wanted to grab her into his arms to either explain or beg for her forgiveness. But she was so frightened and shocked that she could only run away from him. In her desperation she fell into the sea.
He swam after her, trying to put his arms around her, only to be hit and slapped. Accidentally she tripped and sank into the sea, the water soaked into her. All this time she was pushing him away.
Sayid was to carry his unconscious wife out of the ocean, and when she opened her eyes the fear in them made him weep. She was afraid of him…she flinched at his gaze…trembled at his touch.
Since that day a week ago, she stopped talking.