Disclaimer: I do not own Sawyer or any of the characters in Lost.

Notes: This chapter was as much a surprise to me as it might be to you. I can't explain these things, I see a blank page and they just come pouring out. There are a few things left unexplained here, but fear not, they will be explained in the next chapter.

Summary: Kate goes missing. Sawyer goes to look for her.

"Rhett Loses Scarlett"

Three.

One. Two. Three.

Wait…no still three.

This is what was going through Sawyers head as he sat at his shelter, waiting for something to happen. It seemed like this was always how it went. Freckles would go off and do her thing with everyone else, and he would wait behind and see what happened. The Skipper and Mr. Miagi would fiddle around with their boat talk, how Sawyer just couldn't figure considering Mr. Miagi didn't speak a word of damn English. Nor could he figure why he was always the one who was left sitting by himself, reading or just waiting for the next interesting thing to happen.

And now he was doing it again. Dammit. Truth was, he didn't want to go kill time with the skipper. If he went over there he would have to give him the answer he knew he'd have to give. It had been an hour and, due to some technical errors, the boat had not been finished yet. Sawyer had to laugh at the skippers anger at the situation. Sure, he could help. But clearly he was in no hurry to get off of the island.

Even if there were evil headhunters coming to attack them.

This was the last thing he'd heard via the ever turning rumor mill on the island. He somewhat doubted this theory, but he didn't doubt that there was something to the French chicks warnings. Sure, she was crazy as a loon, but that didn't mean that she wasn't right. Hell, Sawyer knew people. He knew that whenever possible they found it appealing to attack each other, whether it was to chop some heads or just take some lives.

Three. It went through his mind again.

"Dammit!" He shouted and dropped the gun back into the bag again. He tried to look away, but found himself looking back again. Because he knew that there were more bullets in that gun when he'd last looked. He knew it had been fully loaded. Sure, he'd shot that polar bear that one time. But there should still be four shots left, shouldn't there?

And then he emptied the gun out in his hand.

"Oh hell no!" He grabbed the gun and stuffed it his pants, letting his shirt fall down to hide its existence. He then walked with determination over to where he knew he would find the person he was looking for.

He found him at the caves, as expected.

"Hey Doc!" He shouted. The man was standing there talking to the Iraqi. Kate was no where to be found and who knew when those crazies were gonna come and chop some heads off. He needed to see Kate. He needed to say goodbye before it was time to leave for good. But first he needed to do this."Yea I'm talkin' to you." He said in anger. He had suddenly realized that he had reason to be deeply angry with this person.

The Iraqi stood tall and walked in front of the Doc, as if defending him. Sawyer had to laugh, but it was not a happy sound when he did. "Oh that's cute, protecting him like a good little soldier are ya Muhammad?" The Iraqi was ready to hit him. "Go ahead! Try it! I dare ya!" He held his hands out as if in submission.

"Leave him alone Sayid." The hero said from behind him. The Doc stepped up to him and Sawyer responded similarly. "What do you want Sawyer?"

Sawyer found himself breathing heavily, trying to keep calm. "I have a question to ask you Doctor. Know anything about guns?" He tilted his head to the side, waiting for the man to back down and confess. Instead, he got nothing but a look of confusion.

Jack turned away from him and shook his head. "I don't know you're talking about Sawyer." He paused and turned to look at him. "You know what? I don't think I want to either." He raised his hands in defeat and tried to walk away. Sawyer couldn't handle this. This man had to know what he was talking about, he just wouldn't admit to it.

So, he tackled him. He got a few good punches of his own in before being pulled away from him by a load of arms. Jack, apparently not being as peace loving as he seemed, was also be held back from hitting Sawyer.

"Let go of me!" He threatened the people holding him back. They eventually dropped their grasp on him. Sawyer was beaten and worn. His eye was developing a nasty bruise and he felt that his cheek was swollen as well. "Wanna hit me do ya Doc?" He gestured with his hands. "Well do it! Don't wuss out like you always do."

Jack was let go as well and now both men, calm as possible, were staring each other down in an animal like manner. Jack waved his arms in defeat.

"You're not worth it. We're about to be attacked here Sawyer, we could all die any minute now." He stopped to catch his breath. Sawyer listened. "Look Sawyer if there's something you think I did to you to piss you off or whatever just tell me what it is." He leaned himself on his knees and looked up at him. Sawyer looked back, pushing his hair back with his hand. He took a breath and forced himself to calm down. Freckles would tell him to handle this rationally, if she were here.

Where the hell was she anyway?

"Where's Kate?" He asked simply. Jack smiled and shook his head.

"Got me man. I thought she was with you. She took off about an hour ago. Headed into the jungle saying she needed to talk to you. I tried to stop her but, well you know Kate, there's no stopping her when she's determined to do something." He said the words with scorn and Sawyer knew what he was talking about. This made his angry all over again.

"Well you son of a…" He began and charged into the cave that Jack occupied. He knew Jack would follow him and the man was there in a flash, trying to pry Sawyer out of the cave. Sawyer grabbed everything he could find that could be useful: a flashlight, some extra food left over from breakfast, a pack to put the supplies in, and finally the briefcase which he knew held the remaining guns.

"Hey! What do you think your doing in here?" Jack demanded. When Sawyer felt the man grab his arm he pushed him away and against the cave wall. He held him in place and finally had the advantage in this battle.

"Look Doc, I ain't got time to play this game right now alright? Because of you she's out there by herself! In a jungle full of monsters and polar bears and some freaks who will do who knows what to her! Now are you gonna help me find her or are you gonna preach to me about manners?"

Jack backed off. Sawyer could see the relent in his eyes and moved back from his advantage point. He sniffed back whatever it was that was making his nose run and blinked his eyes a moment. Without looking back at Jack, he spoke. "Where's the key?"

"Sawyer…" Jack began. Sawyer turned on him again but this time it was not anger that caused him to do so, mainly fear.

"Dammit Jack open the damn case or …" He paused, trying to contain himself. "She needs us. She needed me and I let her down. If you give one rats ass about that woman you will open that goddamned case and do it fast."

Jack did what he said with no resistance this time. Sawyer was glad, because if the man had resisted once more he knew he would have had to club him in the head and take the key on his own accord. Despite the fact that he would immensely enjoy torturing the man, he needed him to help him look for Kate.

Sawyer took out a gun and opened the chamber. He poured the bullets into his hand and examined them. He nodded.

"Alright then. Let's go."

He stood up and closed the chamber of the gun. He slid it into his front pocket this time, unafraid of anybody seeing it. Jack followed him, standing up silently. He was unaware of the power he had just gained for himself. He was only aware that she was lost and needed to be found as fast as possible.

When they stepped out of the cave he noticed a large group of people watching them and rolled his eyes.

"Alright people we're gonna organize a little search party if you will." He paused and looked at his options. "You, Iraqi," He pointed to Sayid. "Take fat boy with you and head north." He noticed John Locke standing in the background of everyone. "You, mountain man, find a buddy and go south." He pointed to Shannon, who was standing rigidly behind the fat guy. "You, go to the beach tell everyone that Kate is missing and ask if they've seen her since this morning." He paused to think further about this and then decided his decisions were accurate enough. No one raised a word of question. "Doc and I will head out east."

And just when he was about to turn and leave a voice interrupted them. "Hey Jack…" He turned to see the Skipper standing there, eyeing him suspiciously. "What's going on?"

"Kate's missing." Jack said confidently. He gestured to Sawyer. "We're going to look for her."

The man seemed confused so Sawyer had to fill him in. "Listen Skipper, we're kind of on a little time limit here so either join the fun or run back down to your ship alright?"

"That's what I came to tell you." The man glared at him and moved to address the whole group. "The raft is ready to sail. We can leave soon."

"Good. Great. Swell. Now can we get looking'?" Sawyer demanded. Michael approached him with an angry stare.

"Not if we're gonna get leavin'" He mocked Sawyer's words, and this pissed Sawyer off more then anything. He chose to ignore this however, having more important things on his mind. Sawyer glared at him with a stare that could kill a small rodent. He turned to the doctor and gestured to the jungle.

"Let's go." He started towards the jungle.

"Wait a minute here!" Michael jumped in, once again keeping Sawyer from his search. "We need help pushing the raft out into the water. We need man power."

One by one people began moving towards Michael, towards the beach. Sawyer couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"I'm sorry but didn't I just tell ya'll to get searchin'?" He shouted loudly. Jack seemed hesitant, standing between Sawyer and the others. Sawyer was raging mad. He couldn't believe that this was happening. And when Michael came face to face with him, it enraged him all the more.

"Look man, this is our chance to be rescued. Kate's a good tracker, she'll find her way back. This raft is our only chance of survival." Sawyer could see that he was trying hard to explain the reasons to him. He could see that this crowd was genuine in their loyalties to themselves alone. He shook his head.

"Alright, I see how this goes." He snorted. "Never mind that she'd go searchin' for any of ya'll if you went missin'. Just go ahead! Go play with your little tugboat!" He gestured to the beach warily, almost in defeat, and turned towards the jungle.

"Hey Sawyer!" He turned one last time to see Michael standing there shouting at him. "I thought you wanted a place on the raft! Well it leaves in a few minutes."

Sawyer rolled his eyes. What a stupid thing, that raft. He wondered why he'd ever cared so much about it.

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!" He smiled that cocky smile that everyone hated and marched off into the jungle, a lone man on a quest to find a lone woman.