Disclaimer: I do not own Lost or any of the characters in it. I do not own Gone With the Wind either.
Notes: This one was longer then I imagined. Actually, this whole story is getting longer then I ever imagined. But I'll keep writing as long as there is something to write about.
MistyX: Thank you for the honest comments. I appreciate your honesty and I'm glad you finally decided to read this.
Tiny0815: Thanks for your dedication to this story also. I'm so glad you're enjoying it because that's why I write it and I appreciate the comments and emails.
Summary: Sawyer faces an unexpected enemy and finally finds what he's looking for. But what happened to Scarlett out there? And will Rhett be able to help her through it?
"Rhett Saves his Scarlett"
Sawyer felt something that resembled relief. Of course Freckles had taken the bullets out of his gun. She hated that he had that gun. And now she was trying to tell him where she was, trying to help him to help her. It was something that only he would be able to figure out, something only between them, which made him feel both privileged and needed. He hadn't felt much of either since being on the damn island.
She wasn't dead. He knew this in every cell of his body. If she were dead then he would know, period. And when the doc referenced even the possibility of her death he snapped on him.
"She's not." Was what his reply had been. It was a quick tempered remark said straight to the doctors face.
"Sawyer you have to at least…" Began Jack's boring realistic reply.
"You know what doc? I am sick and tired of hearing ya! That woman is alive and I know it and if you don't know it then maybe you shouldn't be out here at all, huh?" He paused. "The beach is that a' way."
Sawyer continued to walk, searching the ground for more bullets. He hadn't found anymore and was starting to get less and less optimistic by the minute. It didn't help that his arch nemesis was trailing behind him re-hatching every bad or scary thought that was going through his mind.
"Sawyer I'm here because I want to find Kate, one way or the other." The man stepped on ahead of him, this angered Sawyer.
"Oh of course, Mr. Big shot doctor wants to be the hero yet again! Well I've got news for ya doc, if you want a pissing contest I can give you a pissing contest. Or hell, we can arm wrestle if ya want. See who can hold the most liquor without fallin' off the stool." He paused. "Oh wait, like father like son. Hell I bet you'd win that one hands down."
The doctor turned on him like an animal and he barely had time to get out of the way of the incoming fist.
"You don't know anything about my father!" Jack shouted at him. Sawyer knew that he'd pushed just the right button with that one. Part of him loved it, and that was the part that he had been trying to suppress as much as possible. That was the part that always got him into trouble at the worst times. Like now, for instance.
"Hell of a guy. Had a great sense of humor." He continued to duck punches. He hated backing down from a fight, especially with a guy like Jack, but there were more important things at stake right now then his ego. "Loved talkin' about his son 'bout as much as he loved that whiskey we were drinkin'." Jack stopped swinging at him, questions now crossing his face.
"You met my father?" He asked, calming down slightly. Sawyer began walking the trail again, not wanting to waste any time. He just assumed the doc would follow him, and he did.
"Well I was having myself a shitty time in Australia, so I went to this hole in wall bar to get myself good and drunk. Met 'im there. We both had the same intentions so we chatted it up a bit. Heard a lot about you Doc, all of it good. Made me sick to tell ya the truth. But your Daddy loved ya if that's what all your brooding is about."
He said it all while walking, searching the ground, and making sure to make no eye contact with the other man. He wasn't one for sappy drawn out moments, but since he had brought the subject up and all he figured he should be honest and let the poor guy off the hook.
When there was no answer for a few minutes Sawyer began to wonder if the man was still behind him at all. So he turned around, just to check.
Sure enough, he was all alone.
"Doc?" He asked in a normal tone. There was no answer of course. There was no one there to answer him or to hear him. Or so he thought anyway. "Hey Doc? You get lost or somethan?" He paused again but heard nothing. "Look I don't know if ya missed it but I was actually bein' honest there." He said, louder this time. And, for the final time, he still heard nothing.
Then he realized it. He really couldn't hear nothing. No birds. No crickets. Not even the grass movin' like before.
"Damn." He whispered and shook his head. He ran even before it made its first move. He knew enough of the damn polar bear to know that it would follow him fast enough. As he ran he could hear the trees behind him being knocked around and it sounded as if a herd of cattle were chasing him. He wouldn't get scared, he couldn't be scared. He didn't have that option now. "You want a piece of this! Come and get it Smokey!" He shouted as he ran. He didn't know about the rest of the island, but he for sure wasn't gonna piss in his pants over a bear that shouldn't even exist.
He ran until his breath began to fail him. He felt it coming, that tightness in his chest that signaled his body was about done with all this running. The thing was still one step behind him though, he knew he needed to find a place to hide and he needed to find it fast.
And there it was. The tree. The one with all the branches that resembled a sort of cage. He figured that would do. He took a wide left turn and dove straight into an opening in the branches. He felt himself fall against something hard and rough, all except his leg of course. That was still stuck up in the air, in between two closely knit branches. And it wasn't about to budge.
"Shit!" Was what came out of his mouth first. He tugged hard on his leg, first with his own body weight and then with the help of his two hands. He tugged hard and fast to the point where his leg was throbbing in pain. The thing was close by and almost there. "Dammit!" Figures he'd end up being the one to lose a limb. And of course it would happen after the only doctor on the island got eaten.
He'd all but given up on his leg surviving this one. "Come on you bastard! Do your worst!" He shouted at the animal, egging it on. If he couldn't save his leg he would at least save his dignity and deal with this like a man.
It all happened so fast. First he was closing his eyes, waiting for the pain. Next he felt it, two arms encircling his waste and tugging on him. Before he could turn and look he saw a large hairy claw attacking the outside of his tree cage, but not his leg. His leg was now safely inside with him.
But he wasn't alone.
He turned around and saw her. He followed his immediate instinct, which was to shield her from the angry animal with himself. He shoved her up against the tree trunk as far back as they could go and made it so that she was curled into a ball underneath him. He curled himself around her and waited until the noise of the angry animal disappeared. Next thing he knew it was gone and there was silence all around him. He could hear her breathing, it sounded erratic and frightened. He immediately moved back and took a look at her.
She was clearly mangled. Her hair was in shambles and her clothing had been torn and was covered in what appeared to be mud. Her face was scratched and she seemed to be in a considerable amount of pain.
"Kate?" He asked, even though he knew the answer. He convinced himself that he'd asked it in order to clarify her own state of mind, not his own. She looked up at him, fear and relief in her eyes at the same time. She swallowed thickly and without warning grabbed his leg, the one that she had saved.
"Is your leg ok?" She asked urgently, as if she hadn't been missing for half a day and his leg was their biggest concern.
"Still there I suppose." He replied with a smirk, hoping to ease her emotional state. She looked up at him and her lower lip began to quiver. It was slow at first, just barely noticeable, but then it quicken to the point where even she couldn't deny it anymore. She reached up and hugged him, laying her head on his chest.
He reached his arms around her and held her there. He found himself stroking her hair and laying his head against the top of hers. It was incredible to him, that he could do this at all. It was incredible that she had just thrown herself in his arms and it had actually made him feel better then anything had in a long time. Sawyer didn't let this happen, ever. Sawyer never let himself get this close to people, it was just a rule he'd lived by for as long as he could remember. And now in one moment it all gone to hell. He felt himself getting lost in his feelings and he hated every minute of it, but also loved it.
"Kate?" He whispered after a few minutes silence. After a few more minutes he pulled back just enough to be able to see her face. She sniffled and looked up at him. She moved back all the way, causing him to resist slightly. But he had to let her go, he knew he had to.
She looked shaken still, but a lot less afraid then she had been. He would have liked to think that it was his presence that made her less afraid, but he knew better then that. It was all her.
"Sawyer." She said his name, almost in question. For a moment he was worried about her memory. The pregnant girl had lost her memory when they'd taken her. What if they'd done the same thing to Kate?
"What'd they do to you?" He asked, surprised at the level of anger and dread in his voice. She looked down and touched her arm in a place where she'd been cut.
"Nothing." She whispered after a moment. "They didn't do anything to me." Sawyer didn't believe it for a moment. All he had to do was look at her to know it wasn't the truth.
"Tell me" He touched her chin and forced her to look him straight in the eye this time. "Tell me so I know how to torture them before I kill 'em".
This time she stood up and, before he could stop her, she'd squeezed herself through the branches and was wiping herself off. He quickly followed her and stayed as close as he could to her. He got the message that she didn't want him too close to her right now, she he stayed behind her a bit. He just followed her when she began to walk and stopped when she stopped.
"We have to get back to camp before it gets dark." She said, about ten minutes into their hike. Sawyer nodded, even though he knew it was unlikely that they would make it back by then. She looked so vulnerable right now, like if he touched her or even tried to disagree with her she would fall to pieces.
And he didn't dare mention Jack to her. Not right now anyway. He didn't even know if the doctor was dead or alive, although the odds seemed to be more towards the first option.
It was fifteen minutes after dark when they finally reached a familiar setting, their waterfall. This would be a good place to stay, Sawyer thought. It was a place no one knew about, a place where she could regain her bearings before taking on a crowd of curious lemmings back at the beach.
Kate made a move to head towards camp and he finally decided that he would have to interfere.
"Wait." He hooked himself onto her arm just enough to get her to turn and look at him. "I think we should stay here tonight." She shook her head.
"No, its not safe." Her eyes pleaded with him to agree with her.
"It's safe." He replied forcefully. He knew it probably wasn't any safer here then in the middle of the jungle, where he'd found her. He also knew the beach wasn't safe anymore. There was no safe place anymore as far as he was concerned. But if those freaks were going to attack them it would be at the beach first, in an open crowded place. No one knew about this place, they would be safe enough for now.
She seemed to examine his face for a moment, trying to gauge his level of confidence in this place that seemed to frighten her. "How do you know that for sure?" She asked, obviously hoping for a solid answer to ease her fear. He looked her over, considering how to respond.
"Come on, we can camp right over there." He ignored her question, hoping she wouldn't insist on an answer. He couldn't give her an honest one, not one that wouldn't worry her more anyway. He began to lead her to a small cave formation just to the side of the falls.
"No, stop." She pulled herself out of his grasp. He let her go easily, not wanting to intimidate her or take away her control. He'd been here before. He'd been in a place where someone had taken everything from him in one moment and caused him unbelievable pain. More then anything from that moment on he'd wanted control over his life and his actions. It had been all that held him together, that small amount of control that took him through his childhood and into adulthood. He still held onto it like a safety blanket. It was hard as hell to give up even a small part of it, but he knew it was what she needed from him at that moment.
Suddenly she began pulling at her clothing and smelling it. "Its here! Its all over me!" She was beginning to lose her control right before his eyes.
"What's all over you?" He asked, wondering if she was talking about the mud.
"The blood. The bait. Its everywhere!" Without warning she dived into the water and began dunking herself underneath and splashing water onto her clothing.
Sawyer tried to comprehend what she'd just said. Blood. It wasn't her blood, at least he didn't think it was her blood. She didn't appear to be badly injured, physically anyway. Bait. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Dread poured through him at even the thought of it.
He removed his shirt and jumped into the water after she didn't resurface again. He found her swimming around underneath, not wanting to come back up yet. He forced her, having to use nearly all his strength to do so. When they resurfaced she was crying and trying to peel her clothing off. Normally this would be something Sawyer would want to see a beautiful woman do, but this was different. She wanted out of her clothes so badly, like they were hurting her somehow.
"Kate!" He said, trying not to shout, and grabbed onto her by her waist. His first concern was that she would go under the water again, but when it appeared that all she wanted was to get her clothes off he let her free long enough to do just that.
"Its everywhere Sawyer! The blood its everywhere! They put it all over me, so that it would take me." She began to confess to him, right there in the middle of the waterfall. Sawyer felt a sick feeling grow in his stomach. If she meant what he thought she meant he would certainly be doin' some killin' come morning.
She finally freed herself from all of her clothing and was swimming more calmly now. She seemed to be more calm, almost satisfied that everything would be ok now that the clothes were gone.
"Its cold." Was what she said next. She smiled slightly at him, as if she now felt foolish for wanting to get rid of her clothing.
"Well Freckles, that tends to happen when you go swimming' in the nude in the middle of the night. Figured you'd know about that by now." He smiled back at her, noticing that she was returning to her old self. He swam back to the shore and got on land. He held up his shirt so she could see it. "Here, put this on."
She swam quickly back to shore and hesitated when he handed her the shirt. She was still under the water, hiding herself. He rolled his eyes. "Aw, what? Ain't nothing' I haven't seen before Freckles." He complained. He began to wonder if this was a bad idea when she didn't smile her usual smile at him. He looked down, unsure of himself. But a moment later he heard her emerge from the water and turned his head just enough to notice that she was still in her bra and panties. Seemed she hadn't lost her mind entirely, although part of him wished she had. She grinned a mischievous grin at him and he found that familiar spark rekindling inside of him. He shook his head.
She leaned down and picked up the shirt that was lying on the ground next to them. He watched her the whole way, partly aroused and partly concerned that it was all an act for Kate to distract herself from the truth of what had happened to her.
"Maybe we should go start a fire." She suggested and turned towards the cave. The shirt was big enough on her to cover down to her mid thighs and she seemed comfortable enough in it.
Damn sexy too, Sawyer thought.
"Now why is it that women always look better in my clothes then I do?" He said loud enough for her to hear him but not loud enough for the monsters and polar bears to find them. She turned her head and smiled a shaky smile at him in response.
His smile faded as he watched her walk into the cave and put together some sticks and leaves to start a fire. She was shaking. He'd pretended not to notice, trying to make her as comfortable as possible.
He knew that they had a long night ahead of them.
Plenty of time to figure out just what had had happened to Kate.
And plenty of time to figure out how he was going to kill the assholes who did it to her.