A pretty face don't mean a pretty heart

Chapter 3

Face 2 Face

"Hey take it easy." A firm hand held Connor down, with a firm but gentle voice.

"Fuck?" A pained voice screamed.

"You are at the bottom of a cliff that you probably fell down. You probably have a concussion, and the usual cuts and bruises, asides from those, you're in good physical shape…"

The man looked bemused.

"Yeah." Connor whispered. "Until the fucking boar turned the tables on me, fucking porky pig." Connor muttered. The man smiled, at his coarse sense of humour. "Twenty days of airline food, rainwater, coconuts, and fish. I was hankering for some fresh meat."

"You'll be pleased to know he'll soon be a banquet."

"With an apple shoved in his snout I hope." The man smiled again.

"Connor, call me Connor." Connor slowly leaned forward.

"I'm Locke, pleased to meet you."

"Twenty days out on your own Connor, that's some feat." He whistled. "You could teach me a few tricks."

Connor looked up then around. "I thought I was the only survivor." He grinned. "You're a sight for sore eyes Locke."

"Thanks for the compliment. Connor. However it's a bit crowded where I am."

"Why?"

"A lot of us survived" Connor laughed. "Thank you god."

Connor limped along the beach by the side of a jungle. Locke had improvised crutches, as one of his ankles was badly sprained, as they had both found out to Connor's cost.

"My training helped." Connor explained. "Eating bugs, catching rain-water, self discipline."

Locke looked at him. "Where did you train."

"I trained at Quantico." Connor said, as he hobbled along. "Marine?" Locke replied. Connor shook his head. "FBI. However I appear to have lost my ID and my pistol."

"Oh they'll turn up lots of things are turning up."

Connor stopped and stared out into the ocean. "I take it nobody has come." Locke stared out. "That's correct." He looked at Connor gravely. "We better get moving. There is something."

Connor started moving again. "Something in the jungle, I know, I've heard it. I had to dig with my own hands three graves for people that I never knew just to stop that thing coming near were I was. Trust me, I'm scared of it as much as you." I never did figure where the rest of the tail section was when I came round. I don't think they survived.

Dozens of campfires were a welcome site in the distance, as were the sounds of human voices. "We're split between the beach and some caves with fresh water. A couple of people, a family have moved into the hills" Locke explained. "Jack, the doctor is at the caves, I'll drop you off here tonight, and I'll fetch him in the morning."

"Thanks." Connor smiled. Salvation. "Bang goes my morning jog."

They both laughed.

Sunlight on a beach in the morning. Voices of people. Connor yawned. The first decent sleep he had had in twenty days. The blanket was a nice touch too. The people here seemed in awe of Locke. Connor pushed himself up. The jedi master. He jokingly nicknamed him. He reached for his crutches. No way I'm staying here today.

"So you're the new guy." A southern drawl greeted Connor as he hobbled outside. A rough looking man sat out on the beach in front of him. "Twenty days here you're the first new face around here."

"Yeah it's the same for me." Connor smiled politely. The man stood up. He was the same height and build. Then walked away.

Stimulating conversation. Connor looked around he didn't recognise anybody. Nobody from his end of the plane survived. Is that girl's parents here, are they looking for her, or maybe they're at the caves.

A couple were fishing, using stakes as spears. Connor remembered using his hands.

"How bad is he?" Jack grabbed his bag. Locke watched him from the cave entrance. "Good shape, apart from a sprained ankle. "I've left him with Sawyer."

"He was in good shape." Jack muttered, as he walked past him.

Hurley appeared out of no-where. "Is it true. You've found another survivor?" Locke smiled, and that meant yes. "They're could be others?"

"I hope so." Locke said. "He had to bury three people. Other than that he's seen nobody."

"The moral of the story is never go hunting a baby boar, especially when his mom or dad shows up."

Jack politely grinned, as he tightened the bandages. "So apart from some dehydration, you're in remarkable shape."

"What was it like here?" Connor's voice was quiet. "After the crash?"

Jack looked at him. "It was bad."

"I thought so, it looked bad as I watched from the tail end. My row then broke off." Connor felt a hand on his shoulder, Jack's. "You're here now. To have survived this long." He nervously smiled. "Takes a lot of guts."

"Thanks. I've felt worse."

"I noticed that, a bullet wound. Locke said you're an FBI agent."

Connor nodded. "I am. I got it in the line of duty." Jack started packing the remaining bandages away.

"There was a US Marshall on the plane, escorting a prisoner. Did they both survive?" Jack stopped momentarily. Connor noticed this.

"One did, the other didn't." Jack answered, guessing the next question.

"Who survived?"

"The prisoner." Jack hurriedly left the makeshift tent. Connor sat on the airline seat. The only sound of his breathing. This is not happening.

"Where's Kate?"

Hurley ever petulant when demands are made of him that he couldn't possibly meet. "Dude when you had your me Tarzan, you Jane argument yesterday, she walked off, no body has seen her since?"

Jack rolled in his eyes in anger.

Hurley grinned. "Dude this is about the survivor isn't it."

"This stays between you and me." Jack snapped. "Not a word to anyone." Hurley solemnly nodded his vow of silence.

Jack hurriedly walked off.

Charlie then pokes his head around the entrance to the cave. Hurley looks up and grins. "Charlie you're not going to believe this."

"So you've met Jack." The redneck, Connor nicknamed him, sat down next to him. Connor sighed. "Yip. Very unusual bedside manner." A cigarette is offered to Connor, he declines. Sawyer lights up instead. I used to hide Max's cigarettes when we were on duty together, it seems like a world away.

"He has that. My name's Sawyer."

"Connor, Connor Sutherland." Both exchange a brief handshake. "Any others from were you came from?"

"No apart from a couple of dead bodies and airline seats!"

Sawyer shakes his head. "That's a switch."

"Anything to do around here, apart from surviving?"

"Golf, and there's shooting polar bears?"

Connor chuckles. "Polar bears." He exclaims in disbelief. "Polar bears don't live in the jungle!"

"This one did."

"Oh and watching Jackass rough wooing freakles."

Connor smiles. "Freakles who the hell is freakles?"

"Some sneaky little wildcat called Kate."

What I am I a circus freak-show.

Connor sipped some water, as more survivors walked up to him, introducing themselves. A glare from him, and they quickly walk away in the opposite direction.

"Husband its gotta be." Arty whispered. Hurley nodded in agreement.

"Husband who's husband?" A female voice demands from behind him. "Oh hi Kate." Charlie nervously grins, before disapeering. Arty too decides it is time to leave. Before long Hurley is left sitting with an expression of a seal that is about to be clubbed.

Okay let's take stock. I'm on an island, no chance of rescue, no gun, no id and the women that I thought I knew who shot me, and I have travelled to Australia to arrest (and failed), is on the exact same island.

Connor looks up to the sky, wishing a lightning bolt could strike him, at this moment.

It does.

"You're alive." A voice whispers from behind Connor. Connor recognises it; to him it is the echo of thunder. Connor doesn't look behind him. "Getting shot, and surviving the aftermath of a plane crash, I say that I'm in good shape." Connor replies sarcastically. He turns round. Kate is standing a few feet behind him. Behind her, he sees an exasperated Jack, with a fat guy behind him who's about to have a heart attack.

"Connor."

"Just walk away Kate, its what you're good at isn't it."

Moments pass. "I cared for you once Kate, my friends and family cared for you. There's nothing left."

"Connor"

"I'll give you the chance to tell them what you did." Every verbal assault is calculated to cause distress. "Go on tell them. Tell him." Connor points at Jack. "Tell everybody."

"I'm dead Kate, the Connor you knew and cared for is dead. Used, and discarded just like an empty beer can."

Connor pauses for breath.. "Get out of my sight you bitch."

"If you have any alcohol, I'd like to have some."

Sawyer grins. "Connor, I'd be happy to oblige my friend if I had some."

Sawyer sits down next to him.

"Women." Connor says.

"Women." Sawyer replies.

"How is she?" Sun yin shakes her head. Jack decides to see for himself. Sun yin, this time blocks his path.

"She wants to be left alone?" He asks.

Sun yin nods. Then puts her finger to her mouth, to tell him to be quiet.

In the corner of the cave, Kate lies huddled in a blanket. Sobbing. Beside her are the letter, the photograph, and Connor's ID.

To be continued…