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Chapter 5.

The heat it seemed, did not have any notion of relenting once it had won the battle over the rain and gained it's rule over the island. Hot days turned into suffocating nights keeping most of the survivors from decent sleep. Tempers frayed and nerves were shot causing even the most calm of people to snap at their companions keeping both Sawyer and Ana-Lucia amused to no end as they continued to spend afternoons and evenings simply sat in each other's company.

Ana found herself seeking refuge from the heat during the day down at the beach where the breakers and waves brought mist and spray in cooling wafts from the sea. Sawyer had yet to be given permission by Jack to venture that far, though Ana was certain, despite not being from a medical background herself, that the salt water would only help heal him up faster. Jack, apparently, was a man with a vendetta and that vendetta was apparently against Sawyer, though Ana was clueless as to what had gone on between them and Sawyer remained tight-lipped on the subject.

She glanced out at the crashing waves, the fierce sun already burning up the early morning mists that hugged the shoreline daybreaks. It was beautiful. She couldn't deny that.

"Come to seek some solitude?"

Ana spun at the sound of the familiar female voice, trying hard to keep her features from registering her ire at being interrupted and by the very last person she wanted to speak to, no less.

"Maybe." she responded, a little less politely than she should have. She didn't need the added stress of another argument, especially when she'd barely had four hours of sleep the previous night.

Kate stepped up beside her, curling brown locks framing her face and petite shoulders as she too let her gaze linger on the seascape before them.

Silence dragged out between them, though not the comforting silence that she experienced with Sawyer. She felt on edge, her teeth grinding together almost of their own accord as she folded her arms across her chest.

Wait. A voice inside told her. Wait and see what she has to say for herself before you start knocking out her teeth.

"Heard you've been taming the Tennessee Tiger." Kate mused, lips thin and words as wooden and hard as Ana's were.

"Great use of alliteration and all, but I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sawyer." Kate illuminated, green stare snapping to meet Ana's in the slowly heating air separating them. "You've been spending a lot of time with him lately."

Ana eyed Kate warily, trying to gauge what she was getting at, trying to see through her deceptively light tone and easy conversation and see what she really wanted.

"And?"

The smaller woman drew in a steadying breath through her nose, swallowing what was no doubt a bitter retort. Instead she smiled thinly, glancing back out at the sea.

"And nothing." she replied, airily. "He's been through a lot, you know."

"Haven't we all." Ana stated plainly and Kate made a noise of frustration deep in the back of her throat.

"Before the crash, I meant." she shook her head but Ana-Lucia merely shrugged.

"So did I."

The pause in Kate's speech was a welcome rest for Ana and she hoped that that would be an end to it. That Kate would get the hint and leave her alone. It was the best way to keep the peace between them. To stay apart.

Kate, however, had other ideas.

"You know about his parents, right?" Kate queried, trying and failing to sound uninterested. "That his father killed his mother and then himself?"

"I don't think it's any of my business. And I don't think it's any of yours either." Ana snapped in return, irritation beginning to tingle at the back of her awareness.

"I thought he would have told you by now considering how much time you spend together." Kate smoothed her hair back, fastening it into a band to keep it out of the way. The smile curling at the corner of her lips betrayed the smugness that she was otherwise keeping well hidden. Obviously she was revelling in the fact that Sawyer had not taken it upon himself to let Ana in on his terrible past, whereas he clearly had with her.

Ana shrugged, keeping her emotions calm and her features even more so, even though the shorter woman at her side was beginning to annoy her immensely.

"I think Sawyer can do what the hell he wants." she growled and Kate broke out into a false smile.

"Of course." she placated and Ana rolled her eyes as she continued to stare at the frothy white waves. "He is a grown man, after all."

"Look, do us both a favour and get to the point," Ana sighed impatiently. She was sick of Kate's superior smile, sick of her condescending words, thinking that she was better than Ana, all because Sawyer had told her something that he hadn't yet ventured to herself. "I don't want to spend my morning playing riddle-me-this with you."

Kate's eyes narrowed as did her smile, teeth no doubt clenching behind it's false friendliness. She nodded her head twice, in short, sharp bobs, folding her arms across her chest.

"I've heard what you did to him when you first met. I've heard how you acted towards him. You're the reason his wound got infected. You stamped on it! You were going to leave him to die!"

Ana opened her mouth to defend herself, to tell Kate where she could go and shove her lectures but the petite brunette continued speaking before Ana had chance to draw breath.

"Sawyer had a rough time here on the island even before you showed up, and he's had an even worse time in the past. What he needs is a little sympathy. A little compassion and if you can't give it to him, then he needs you to stay the hell away from him!"

Ana-Lucia turned slowly so that she was standing face-to-face with the woman intent upon hating her, for no true reason, it seemed, than she didn't like Ana's involvement with either Jack nor Sawyer. The girl couldn't make up her mind. She wanted them both and she wanted Ana-Lucia as far away from their camp as possible.

Her smouldering stare squared with Kate's and for an instant, uncertainty flickering in those emerald irises. She thought that Ana was going to hit her, and though it was what Ana would have dearly, sorely loved to do at that second, she didn't. She wouldn't, no matter how hard Kate tried to provoke her.

"Listen, Chica, hate to break it to you…but I'm gonna do whatever the hell I want." her eyes bored into Kate's noting the fury boiling there beneath the surface, lurking just behind the cool, collected front that she had erected. "The minute Sawyer tells me he don't want my company, sure, I'll leave him be. The minute he pisses me off, yeah, I'm gone. Until then, ain't nothin' you can say that's gonna make me do what you just asked." She stood to her full height, uncoiling her arms from where she had folded them defensively, causing Kate to take a half-step back. "If you knew anything about Sawyer whatsoever, you'd know that he don't want pity. Not from you and certainly not from me," she snorted to herself, in brief, irate amusement. "He needs someone to be straight with him, for once in his damn life and if that means pissing him off or saying something a little harsh, so be it." she shook her head, taking one last final glare at Kate's scowling features before stalking towards the waves, away from the palm trees beneath which they stood. "And you ever tell me what to do again, Kate…" she graced the brunette with a thin, humourless smile, tossed over her shoulder, hair shifting in the slight sea breeze. "…I'll knock you out!"

-oOo-