Disclaimer: I do not own Kate or Sawyer. I also don't own Gone With the Wind. Margaret Mitchell does. I just borrowed it as inspiration.
Summary: Sawyer thinks about a classic story, and Kate shows him how much that story applies to both of them.
Notes: Set right after "Deus Ex Machina". No one knows about Boone's accident yet.
"Like Rhett and Scarlett"
He sat on the beach, not too far from the ocean. He looked from one side of the beach to another and back again. Once he was satisfied that no one was looking back at him, he reached into his pack and pulled out a rather ugly pair of makeshift reading glasses. He backed farther into his shelter before cautiously sliding the spectacles onto his face. He then reached into his bag again and grabbed something else: a book. It was large and red with big bold letters on the cover. The letters said: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Sawyer reclined back in his shelter peacefully and studied the book first without opening the cover. He'd found it hanging out of one of the rich blonde's bags and thought it looked interesting enough to steal. Being a proud man of the south, Sawyer knew the story well enough. He always thought it funny how being on the losing side of a war created so much inspiration to celebrate what was lost. Why did anyone really care so much? So the south lost. Big damn deal. People lost stuff all the time. He'd lost plenty in his lifetime. At least he was making the best out of it instead of whining and yammering on about it.
He flipped the book open to a random page and read some. The words brought back memories that he would have rather kept hidden away for awhile. Memories of his mother mostly. She was a big fan of the book. Hell, instead of listening to books about three bears at bedtime he would be read excerpts of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler bantering back and forth like a couple of stubborn pansies. He hated the thought of it, yet continued to read the words on the page without pause.
"Stop your yammering and kiss the damn girl will ya?" He muttered to himself. The book frustrated him more then anything, yet at the same time totally enthralled him. It could have been the thoughts of his mother, back in the days when she was always home to read him a bedtime story. But that wasn't all it was. Something about Scarlett, her words as she rejected Rhett, reminded him of everything he wanted but couldn't have. It pissed him off.
"Ah!" Suddenly, in a fit of anger, he threw the book. "Dammit!" He said, loud enough to convey his annoyance but not so loud that the others could hear him.
He stared at the book, now lying open on the sand in front of him. The wind coming in from the ocean was blowing the pages left and right. They made a noise like, well, like paper flapping in the wind. This annoyed Sawyer even more.
Just as he had officially given up and was thinking about taking a nap to get the disturbing thoughts out of his head, a voice made him look up.
There was Kate, wearing her usual tank top and jeans. Her hair was blowing in the wind and made Sawyer ache with desire even more. "Lose something?" She was holding the dreaded book out to him.
" What makes you think I would read…" He pretended to be reading the title. "Some book about the wind?"
Kate smiled that thin little smile that he liked so much. Dammit, why did he have to like her so much! "Well, your wearing you're reading glasses. And somehow this book got all the way from Shannon's bag to here." She paused and cocked her head. "Lucky guess."
He reached up and smugly removed the glasses from his face. "So, come to bribe me to get the little rich girls book back huh freckles?" He held the glasses in his hand and gave her a cocky grin. "Ain't gonna be so cheap this time."
Kate laughed silently and shook her head. "It is a great story. Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara, so in love yet unable to get it together enough to actually be together. Unable to get past their monstrous egos and mile long stubborn streaks long enough to realize their true feelings for each other." She paused and opened the book to the page towards the middle. Then she began to read.
"There's one thing I do know, and that is that I love you, Scarlett. In spite of you and me and the whole silly world going to pieces around us, I love you. Because we're alike - bad lots both of us, selfish and shrewd, but able to look things in the eyes and call them by their right names...I've loved you more than I've ever loved any woman. I've waited longer for you than I've ever waited for any woman."
He was entranced by her. As she said the words he felt the hairs on his arms stand on end. He was both curious by her intended mystery and hopeful that maybe it wasn't too late, at least not yet.
She looked up at him and sighed. "That's my favorite quote. Too bad that she just doesn't get it. At least not until its too late." She walked closer to him and crouched down next to him. She held the book out to him, locking her eyes with his. "it's a good book, you should read it sometime."
For a moment their eyes met and he saw something in her that he had never seen. All the stubbornness that usually resided in her was gone. She was completely open. More then anything he wanted to kiss her at that moment. But still, something held him back. Was it his stubbornness? His ego?
She dropped her gaze and disappointment showed on her face. "I'll see you around Sawyer."
He watched her walk away and felt a hollow pit forming in his stomach. She was right. They were playing their games, just like Scarlett and Rhett. Well screw that! He wasn't no pansy and he wasn't going to let her slip through his fingers.
He picked up the book, grabbed his ugly makeshift reading glasses, and trudged along the beach after her.