Chapter 11

As Kate exited the caves into the late morning sun, she saw that Sawyer was already well ahead of her. She sprinted after him, calling out his name. She had no idea what she was going to say to him, but she was pretty sure she knew how he would respond.

Sawyer turned and looked at Kate, his face hardened. "Well here it comes." He said, there was a familiar edge in his voice. She had heard it often enough, it was the one he used whenever they fought.

Kate took a deep breath and folded her arms across her chest. "Here what comes?" she asked as innocently as possible.

"Oh Sweetheart, lets not pretend we both don't know who you are." He was trying to hurt her, to put her on the defensive, and it was working.

"What are you talking about? I just want to talk to you Sawyer."

"Yeah, and I know just what you wanna talk about, this has been a long time coming." He paused, and after it became clear that Kate was still formulating what to say, he pressed her "Well?" He asked scathingly.

"Sawyer, I never wanted to hurt you." She said plaintively.

"Like hell you didn't." he spat out. He was getting angrier, his blue eyes flashing in the sun as he got closer to her. "You knew this was gonna happen." He accused, his face now only inches from hers.

She backed away, but he continued almost unaware of her presence. "Whats crazy is I let myself….I actually thought…" His face softened as his voice trailed away.

"Sawyer," she whispered.

He looked at her, his eyes becoming fierce again. He pursed his lips and closed the distance between them once again. "I was right." He said.

"You were right about what?" She asked. She was suddenly very tired.

"I was right when I told you there was nothing on this Island worth staying for." He said it bitterly, as though it was the first time he actually believed it.

She thought back to that night, how much she hated to see him go. How incapable they both were of giving the other a decent goodbye. He had seemed so vulnerable, but at the same time, he knew exactly what to say to cut her at her core.

She turned away from him, tears stinging at the corners of her eyes.

"Go find Jack." He said dismissively and she heard him start to walk away.

"That's not what this is abo--" she started to say.

"Don't lie to me." He cut her off, he sounded so hurt.

"Saywer, I never…what I mean is, it wasn't a lie with you. You know that right?" She still had her back turned to him.

He didn't answer her for a minute, and finally she turned around to look at him, his head was down and his hair was hanging in his face.

"This isn't over Kate, and you know it" Sawyer said looking up. "You'll never be satisfied, not with him and not with me. And you're just pathetic if you don't know that by now." And with that, he left her standing in the middle of the path.

She turned and headed into the jungle, fighting tears all the way. When she was sure she was a safe distance from the caves and no one would find her, she allowed her self to breakdown. Harsh sobs were followed by ragged breaths, and after a little while, she was calm again. She pressed her hands into her forehead and leaned back against a tall tree.

Sawyer's angry words flashed again and again through her head. She hoped he was wrong, but there was a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that every word he had said was true. It suddenly occurred to her that she had done very little talking throughout the entire confrontation. He had said everything that needed to be said. This thought brought fresh tears to her raw eyes and they hurt as the spilled onto her cheeks.

When she was reasonably sure that there were no tears left, she slowly made her way back to the caves. If she knew anything about Sawyer, and she thought she knew more than anybody else on the Island, she was certain he wouldn't be there.

When Kate got back, the caves were nearly empty of people. Everyone was up and going about there business. She noticed a few people by the water source, but that was about it. She sat down on her mat and crossed her legs and put her head in her hands. She was grateful for the privacy.

She had just closed her eyes when she heard Sun calling out "I found her Jack."

She glanced up and saw the two of them heading for her.

"I've been looking for you Kate." He said approaching her. "We need to clean and bandage those cuts. I know you think they're not a big deal, but an infection out here could be really bad news, so just humor me, k?"

He was close enough to really look at her now and he grew silent. "I think I can take it from here Sun." he said quickly.

"Alright" Sun said, seeing Kate's face. She gave Kate a sympathetic look and headed toward the opposite ends of the caves where Jin was busy cleaning fish.

Jack helped Kate up and led her silently over to the infirmary area of the cave. "Sit." He said and she did, happy to have something else to focus on. Jack made himself busy pulling various supplies out of the drink cart that now served as a large first aid kit.

As he sat next to her, he didn't say anything, just took her arm and placed it on his knee, holding her just below the elbow. He pulled out some cotton and a small travel sized bottle of rubbing alcohol. "This might sting a little" he said, his brown eyes searching her face. She nodded and he gently cleaned the scrapes.

He said nothing more, as though he instinctively knew that was what she needed. A tear slid slowly down her cheek and she wiped it away with her free hand before he saw anything. She didn't know how he did it, how he was able to make her instantly feel safe and taken care of. He must have taken some sort of class for bedside manner.

As he finished wrapping her arm in gauze he gave her a small smile and told her "I think you're gonna make it Kate."

She smiled at him and as she headed back to her mat she said "See you later Jack."

Epilogue

Weeks passed during which Kate kept mainly to herself. Save for Ana and Sun, she didn't think she had had an entire conversation with anyone on the Island since that day. The sting of Sawyers words, once so fresh and raw, had faded into a dull sort of sadness that now only appeared sporadically. Most often when she would steal a glance at his side of the cave or run into him on the path to the beach.

As the weeks had passed, Jack had kept his distance as well. She could tell that he was concerned by the long worried looks he would give her. She tried not to think of either of them as she found small but necessary tasks to fill her days.

One day when she was cleaning water bottles at the waterfall in the caves, Charlie headed over to her, cradling Aaron in his arms. "Take him for a minute?" he asked.

She looked at him reluctantly, trying to convey to him that it was the last thing she wanted to do. But he wasn't going to let her get out of it that easily. "It's a baby, Kate, not a bloody snake."

"Alright" she said and he gingerly placed Aaron in her outstretched arms. He gurgled happily and smiled at her. She smiled back before she realized that it was probably just gas.

"He knows you." Charlie said after seeing the exchange. "You guys are bonded"

Kate rolled her eyes as Charlie bent down to retrieve some water bottles from his shoulder bag. She bounced the baby on her hip and made funny faces at him to keep him entertained while Charlie filled each of the bottles. "Hes getting heavy!" Kate said, "How long has it been since he was born, it only seems like days."

"Three months, 4 days and about 14 hours, give or take" He said smiling proudly. She couldn't help but smile back. She passed Aaron back into his capable hands.

"You've been-" he paused trying to find the right word, " -quiet lately, you doin okay?"

"That obvious huh?"

"Actually, Claire pointed it out, she made me come over here and check on you – not that I didn't want to, I mean – what can I say, Im an unobservant putz."

She smiled at him again, "Its alright Charlie, I'd rather not talk about it anyway." She turned to walk away.

"Whatever he told you, it wasn't true." He said hurriedly to her back and she halted.

"What are you talking about?" She said trying to keep anger out of her voice, how did he know?

"Sawyer," he answered, "whatever he said to you, it wasn't true. What was it? Did he say you weren't good enough for Jack? You don't believe him do you? Cause you are."

"He didn't say that" she answered quietly.

"What then?" he asked.

"Nothing Charlie, it doesn't matter."

"Okay, don't tell me, but don't believe him either, he was probably just angry, you know him…" he trailed off.

"Okay" she nodded, then she smiled at him yet again. It was impossible not to be heartened by his eagerness "Unobservant Putz, huh?"

"Just returning a favor." He said pointing at Aaron. "Without you that night, who knows? See you later Kate" He said and headed back to Claire.

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A few days later, Kate woke up early and was surprised to find the sun shining. Most of the recent mornings had been bleak with rain that only cleared up late in the afternoon. This was in turn followed by more rain in the late evening. She decided to take advantage of the great weather and go on a small hike to gather fruit.

For over an hour, she found next to nothing. But just as she decided to give up and head back, she spotted a large tree with strange red fruit hanging from the branches. She couldn't recall seeing it anywhere else on the island, so she headed over and climbed up to investigate.

Pomegranates! They were pomegranates! She smiled thinking how of how thrilled everyone would be to have something different. She wasn't sure whether pomegranates were usually found on Pacific Islands, but she decided not to question it.

She filled her shoulder bag rather quickly. There was a ton of it, the lower branches were so heavy with fruit that they bent with the weight. As she descended, she glanced down at the ground and saw Jack staring up at her intently. His hands griped the straps of his backpack and he seemed not to even notice that she was looking back at him.

"So that's what you checking me out looks like." She laughed.

He grinned and looked down at the ground but didn't say anything. As she got closer to the ground, he stretched his hand up to help her down. For a half second, she considered not taking it. But then she did and hopped onto the ground.

Assuming he would follow her, Kate turned to head back to the caves. She didn't get very far and she realized that Jack was still holding onto her arm.

"Jack?" she hesitated and turned to look at him. He pulled on her arm slightly and she turned into him. He looked down at her for a moment, then he leaned down and kissed her sweetly. As he pulled away, his eyes searched her face, trying to gauge how she had taken it.

In answer, she leaned up and kissed him back, and as the kiss grew in intensity, he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her a few inches into the air so they were roughly the same height.

"Wait." She pulled back.

He put her down and stepped back, "I'm sorry, Kate."

"No, its just…" She lifted the bag of pomegranates over her shoulder and placed it on the ground. Then she slid his bag from his shoulders and he let it fall in a heap.

Keeping her eyes on his, she grabbed bits of the grey shirt he always seemed to be wearing and pulled him back a few feet into the shade of the tree. He bit his bottom lip, trying in vain to suppress a smile as he followed her. She leaned back into the trunk and he leaned gently into her, finding her mouth once again. Their kisses became feverish now and the ever increasing intensity created a rush in her head. She leaned her head back against the trunk and tried to catch her breath. He kissed down her neck, his tongue dancing in the hollow at the base of her throat.

She couldn't think, but she didn't care. She placed her hands on his face and drew him up to her again. His hands were in her hair, then on her waist. His thumbs tracing the skin just above her jeans.

Things were so heated now, that if one of them didn't put a stop to it, there would be no stopping at all. "Jack?" she whispered.

"mmm hmmm." He murmured into her hair as his hands traveled further under her shirt and up her back.

"nothing" she said and ran her hands up his arms, kissing him again.

"you wanna stop?"

"mmm hmmm" she said, finding the spot just below his ear.

He pushed himself back and away from her. "Yeah," he said wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, "we should stop."

"Want to head back?" she asked, struggling for breath, her lips still burning.

"Not really" he said, "but I guess we should."

They stood silently staring at each other or a few moments, debating if heading back now was really the right move. Finally, Jack made a move for her bag of pmegranates. He picked it up placed it gently over her head. As she smiled up at him, he held her chin in his hand and gave her a quick kiss. "I love that your chin is crooked when you smile, I've been dying to tell you that."

"I always hated it" she said.

He held her hand all the way back to the caves. When they got close though, he dropped it and moved away from her subtly. She knew he was thinking of Sawyer and she was glad he did it.

"Im gonna go…" he pointed towards Sun dealing with the Island's latest minor medical crisis.

"Sure" she said "See you later?"

"Damn straight you'll see me later" he said and smiled.

The End