Famous Last Words
Chapter Three
Author's Note: That I won't be making fun of southerners in this story, since I am one. Some of my friends and I may be incredibly slow when it comes to jokes, but other than that, we aren't country hicks like everyone thinks. In fact, out of the three schools I've been to, and countless people I know, I think I only know a total of five people that like country music.
Author's Note2: (aka, I'm an idiot) Yeah, that last part last chapter, just pretend like I left out a zero..or two..because..um..I suck at math, and 5000 is not half a million. So however much half a million is, just pretend that that's what Sawyer gave Jack..yeah..
Two fifteen..two sixteen..two seventeen. Jack sighed. It was the first time that Jack could admit that he was an impatient person. A very impatient person. And impatient people didn't go well with hospitals, annoying security guards, or prisons. But who could blame him?
His fingers twitched madly as Jack beat them against the staring wheel, glancing every other second towards the door where any minute Kate would come running out to him. He could only imagine. Now that Sawyer was gone(hopefully gone, anyway) it brought on more and more opportunities for the brewing relationship, but Jack had to keep reminding himself not to move to fast, as he had a tendency to do. He'd probably scare Kate away before asking her out to dinner.
Just then, a small bang echoed in the parking lot, and Jack's head jerked up, and he broke out in the first smile he had in a long time as he got out of his car, greeting Kate, who nervously stepped outside the side door, a guard watching her every move until she reached Jack. But when she did, the two just stood there, partially in shock of being able to see each other again.
"You look good," Kate said finally, in a dry voice.
Jack laughed a little, and then looked down at his shoes.
"You, um..want something to eat?" He asked, figuring that would be one question Kate would have to answer.
"Are you paying?" Kate teased.
"Will ten minutes at the bank kill you?" Jack said, relieved.
Kate walked over to the passenger side of what she assumed to be Jack's car.
"I've been waiting two weeks," she said, smiling, "I don't think ten minutes is going to hurt."
(Space)
Three fifteen..three sixteen..three seventeen. This time, Jack's fingers tapped against his pants leg as he stood in the mile long line at the bank. Feeling guilty, he glance over to Kate, who agreed to sit and wait on a bench provided under a fake palm tree during the 'ten minute' wait. So much for trusting banks.
"Next!" The accountant called, and Jack was about to step forward(now only ten feet away from the booth) when a loud voice bellowed, echoing through the quiet atmosphere of the room.
"Everybody, get down!" A man's voice demanded from the door way.
Screams followed four even gunshots, along with pops of broken glass.
"Hey! You!"
Jack didn't even realized he was being talked to until someone grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him to the side.
"Get down!"
Recovering from the shock that Kate was now beside him, Jack unfroze himself, and managed to able Kate and himself to crawl to the wall where they sat knee to knee.
"I want all your valuables, now!" The same man shouted, as one padlocked the door and two others pulled the blinds down over the windows.
"Kate." Jack whispered as people began throwing watches and bracelets into the center of the floor as if brainwashed. "There's a phone in my back pocket.
"They'll never know you have it if you don't-"
"No," Jack hissed, "dial 9-1-1, or something- quick."
"No!" Kate whispered back. "No Jack, I'm afraid.."
"Don't be afraid Kate," Jack said, clinging on tightly to her hand, "these things happen all the time."
"No, you don't understand-"
She was about to explain when she was caught.
"You!" The man shouted to her. "Come here!"
That was when Kate realized that she recognized that voice. She knew that voice.
"I said come here-" the man said, and Kate found herself being pulled to her feet, though her hand was still permanently attached to Jack's, who remained hovered between squatting and a full stance. "Let go of her."
The man jerked Kate hard, but Jack went up with her, only to find himself being punched straight in the nose, falling back painfully against the wall. Before he could muster up the strength to fight back Kate was pulled into a side room.
(Space)
At the same time she tried to jerk away, Kate was tossed aside against the far wall in what appeared to be somebody's office.
"What the hell are you doing alive?"
"Jason," Kate breathed as the man pulled off his ski mask to reveal Jason, her old boyfriend of three days.
"Fun game," Jason said, "wish I could get myself stranded on an island every time i got myself into trouble. But no. i have to deal with the police instead.
"I'm sorry," Kate said, choking on her words.
"It's a little late for 'I'm sorry'," Jason spat, "how 'bout ten thousand in hospital bills and one thousand in jail bail?"
"Jason, please-"
"Jason please," Jason mocked, "what the hell were you thinking. Setting me up on some scam to get a stupid toy airplane. I bet you don't even have that anymore, do you?"
She didn't. Kate hadn't even thought about the plane. Her thoughts had been with Jack, worry and wanting, and thinking that ever since the rescue, maybe rescue wasn't such a good thing at all.
"So who was that guy you were sitting so close to? Boy friend?" Kate tensed. "Touched a nerve?"
"If you heard Jack-"
"Jack?" Jason said. "Ah- now I remember. The doctor/hero/leader. He's lucky I wasn't on the plane. I would've killed his over-hearted ego the first night.
"Don't you talk-"
"I won't," Jason said, "listen. I've got things to do. I could care less about this stupid bank or the people inside it- besides you, of course. But I'll make you a deal. You get out of this town, and swear that I'll never have to see your face again, or they'll be no Jack Shepard for the news to interview Monday."
What interview? Kate had to think. Or maybe Jason was just messing with her mind.
"If you haven't noticed," he continued, "there's a door to the back alley in this room."
He cocked the gun at her once more.
"And don't worry, hero," he snarled, "everyone's making it home safely. Jack may have one hell of a migraine in the morning though."
With that, Jason swung open the door, and left Kate on the floor, contemplating on what to do..
(Space)
Gravel spun under the wheels of Sawyer's Ford pickup, a little present he bought for his own birthday last year. He'd gone with your basic black, and tented the windows for his own privacy- which he sometime shared, and not with the guys he usually got drunk with on Fridays.
Merging left, he drove past the sign that read 'Little Rich', the small town about three hours and two back roads out of Nashville that he lived in. The skies were blue up ahead with a few clouds that strayed the horizon, and there were reports of tornado watches all across the radio. Sawyer had to snort. Typical Tennessee.
There was a warning every time it rained, every time it was cloudy, hell, someone's tree would start blowing and they would get all paranoid about it. He said why didn't they all move up north where it did nothing but snow(kids complained about the lack of it anyway) and leave the town to him. He wouldn't mind. But his thoughts of the weather were distracted as he noticed a lone figured walking along side the road. It was a woman, with long, brown, hair, hugging herself tightly as she scuffed her shoes against the coat. Sawyer smiled to himself as he pulled over, rolling down the dark tented windows.
"Well well well," he said, causing the woman to jump out of her skin, "so you goin' over the river and through the woods, or did the plane take you to the wrong grandmother's?"
"God Sawyer," Kate said, shaking a little as she walked along with the slow moving car, "you scared the hell out of me."
"Speakin' of hell," Sawyer said, "what brings you to this one?"
"You sure do seem fond of it," Kate pointed out.
"True," Sawyer admitted, "how 'bout you hop in, and I'll show you around, and tell ya all about it."
Kate smiled, and Sawyer stopped the car.
(Space)
Sawyer took brand new house keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door to the house he hadn't step foot in in ages. It was weird, coming home again, to a real home. Not a hotel room, or an apartment, but a home. But the bad part was that he was alone, because when your alone, there isn't anyone there to keep you sane.
It took two tries for the lamp to flicker on, and when the room lit up, even Sawyer was taken aback by the house's layout. A grand piano he had long ago forgotten about sat on the far side of the room, and a box of old music books sat beside it. A bookcase lined with photos, family books and albums, and on the bottom shelf, records, was built into the wall in front of it. An old tv sat on a homemade wooden stand. The kitchen ran into the living room, and a small, three seated table was in the center of it. Kate even spotted an old toy fire truck under a couch, but was afraid to mention it to Sawyer.
Finally, Sawyer sat a box he was carrying down, and sighed as the weight was lifted off of him.
"Well," he said, "make yourself at home."
"Wait," Kate said, stopping, "this is your house?"
"My name's on the papers, ain't it?"
"I wouldn't know," Kate said, as Sawyer walked towards the far side of the room.
She watched carefully as Sawyer sat down at the grand, the dirt from his tattered jeans scratching the slick black seat, and fingered a few keys.
"I didn't know you played piano," Kate commented, making Sawyer jump at the slightest.
"I don't," Sawyer said, "I can do a damn good Ray Charles impersonation though.
Kate rolled her eyes.
"I don't think I want to see that impersonation."
"Yeah, well it was my mom's," Sawyer said, standing back up, gazing down at the instrument in front of him.
"Huh?" Kate said, examining the shelves.
"The piano," Sawyer explained, lifting part of the head up, checking the tuning pipes. "it was my mom's. She used to play. I guess I was always one of those geeks who wanted to learn-" he sighed drastically, "but there was no one to teach me."
"Oh," Kate said quietly, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Sawyer said, gently closing the top of the piano as he watch Kate examine 'his' stuff.
"This your mom?" She asked, picking up a photo taken obviously at a shop, with a white background.
The photo was of a little boy, maybe six, seven at the oldest, with sandy blonde hair that hung in his eyes, on his mother's shoulders, laughing. The woman in the picture had a natural beauty to her, long blonde hair, blue eyes. Her son had clearly inherited her looks.
"Yeah," Sawyer said, taking the photo and looking at it, "I was one ugly-ass kid."
"I dunno," Kate teased, taking it back, and putting the picture back where it belonged on the shelf, "you were pretty cute. Too bad looks can only last so long."
Sawyer playfully hit her in the shoulder as he picked up another box and moved it into the kitchen.
"I didn't know you liked jazz," Kate said, amused as she picked out an old, dusted, Ella Fitzgerald record.
"Mom's," Sawyer said simply, and Kate her a door open and soon after the sound of clinging glasses, "want a drink?"
"Sure," Kate said, putting the records back, "you know, if you have a good taste in music, don't hide it."
"Better than Jack's," Sawyer snorted, "found some old classic rock cds at his place."
"What's wrong with classic rock?" Kate shot back, before forgetting the important question. "And when were you at Jack's."
Sawyer came back into the living room with two bottles of beer, and handed one to Kate.
"Thanks," she muttered, opening it and taking a sip as Sawyer threw himself onto the couch, "but you never answered my second question."
Smiling, Sawyer pulled back some of the hair hanging from his mass of blonde hair, revealing a nice, developing, black-blue bruise.
"Some things never change," he shrugged.
"What the hell did you do to yourself?" Kate demanded, sitting down beside him and examining the cut. "Did Jack do that?"
"Nah," Sawyer said, taking a swig from his bottle, "I think he only stitched it."
"Then tell me what happened," Kate insisted, noticing up-close that the skin around Sawyer's jaw was bruised the slightest as well.
"Just some guys I'm in trouble with," he said casually, and was about to take another drink when Kate put out a hand, grabbing the bottle, "hey-"
"Some guys you're in trouble with?" She repeated. "What guys and why are you in trouble with them?"
"I guess they found out their girlfriends were cheating on me and I was their number one suspect," Sawyer said, smug, as if taking pride in the fact.
"What, is it like your job or something?"
Sawyer just shrugged.
"Wait," Kate said, slowly putting it together, "Jack's bail money for me didn't come from-"
"Nah," Sawyer said, "that fifty-thousand or whatever it was I lent to you? I've had that saved up in LA for years thinking I'd go back. I decided the other day I wasn't."
"Well thanks for the thought," Kate said dryly.
"You owe me," Sawyer said, smirking, "and I don't think there's anything carne blanche you'd want here."
Kate just smiled at him, and he looked back at her, and it took a moment before she realized what he must be thinking. The two. Alone. On a couch. In a house no one cared about any more. It didn't take a genius, and hell, if Kate wasn't willing to play along, why not get her a little drunk first?
"Actually," she said, breaking the silence, "a cheeseburger would be nice."
Sawyer's face fell the slightest before he sighed, and slapped his hands against his knees, sitting up.
"That," he said, "I can do."
Reaching down, he smiled a bit as he helped Kate stand.
"But, you still owe me for the bail."
Author's Note: I'm still trying to figure out how to add the next part in, so I decided to stop it there. Don't worry, I'm pushing towards Jate in this. Thanks for all the reviews! I couldn't believe how many I was getting!
Next time, on "Famous Last Words":
Don't get to used to Sawyer's house. You might see his backyard though. Hm..Jack's place might even turn back up again next chapter if I can fit it in. And let me tell, you, Jack is one very unhappy camper. Yeah, and when Sawyer turns up with Kate, it's even worse. And especially with the reason Sawyer and Kate go back in the first place. Oh, and I can let you in on a little secret about Sawyer's house: it's not Sawyer's house.
Hope you came again, and hoped you enjoyed it! Thanks again for the reviews!
October Sky
