She saw him storming his way into the jungle, swiping as the leaves and foliage furiously. She noted the pain that such movements caused and how that, in turn, only fuelled his anger.
"Ana?" Libby queried with that knowing light in her eyes. Her lips were on the brink of a smirk but to the woman's credit she disguised it well, masked by a curious, concerned frown. "Something wrong?"
Ana shrugged, her eyes lingering on Sawyer's retreating form for the briefest of seconds longer, before she squared her hard stare upon the older blonde. Libby, however, effectively ignored the dark look, turning to share a conspiratorial glance with their other companion, cradling a baby in her arms.
"Nothing is wrong!" Ana insisted as Claire, less able to efficiently control her facial features, grinned broadly.
"Looks like something's got Sawyer's knickers in a twist…" she chuckled, smoothing her hand over her son's downy hair and ignoring that Ana's ire was now focused upon her.
"So?" Ana demanded, trying desperately to sound nonchalant and uncaring. She folded her arms defensively which only served to make Libby look more triumphant. She was psychoanalysing her again and Ana suddenly remembered why she had not been spending much time with her fellow tail-survivor over the past stretch of days. "Anyway, what was I saying?"
Libby laughed lightly as if Ana's swift bid to change the subject had been something that she had predicted all along. It was evidence apparently, to some crazy idea that the pair of blondes had gotten into their air-filled heads.
"I don't know…" Libby continued, eyes narrowing in well controlled amusement. "Maybe you should go after him…"
"Why the hell would I do that!" Ana snapped, defensively. "He's a grown man and doesn't need me running around after him!" she shifted slightly in discomfort, penned in by an offensive on both sides. Questions and insinuations hurled from both woman. It was a conspiracy! She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear which only earned another of Libby's 'I know you're covering something up' looks.
"It is getting dark." Claire added suddenly making Ana suspect that the two of them had some sort of telepathic abilities, reading each others minds and possibly her own to boot. "And he is injured. He wouldn't have a chance if something went after him…"
The look in Ana's eyes changed suddenly, flickering back to where Sawyer had disappeared into the thick jungle undergrowth. She hovered on the edge of making her decision. Torn between concealing her obvious concern for the Southerner's well-being and dashing after him, not caring that Libby and Claire knew of her worry.
She shot them both a wary glance from the corner of her dark eyes, studying them for any hint of what their reactions would be whatever she decided to do.
"Maybe…maybe someone should go and tell him to stop being an idiot. He knows that no one should leave the caves alone at night!" she coughed, shuffling as discomfort once again prickled the back of her neck as she paused beneath the two blue-eyed stares.
"Maybe someone should." Claire agreed at length, smile growing and Ana rounded her irritation upon the young mother and the therapist once more, sending their knowledgeable, dancing eyes darting around the cave for something other than her to focus their attention onto.
"Guess that someone's me, huh?" Ana growled, though her irritation was feigned. "No, never mind. Let's stick Ana-Lucia with the dirty work. She's tough. She can hack it!" she snarled, rolling her eyes and stalking away from them towards where Sawyer had broached the tree line.
"That is so cute." Claire breathed once she was satisfied that the distance between them was enough and that there was no possible way that Ana-Lucia could overhear her.
"Fascinating!" Libby concurred, still studying Ana's movements as she dwindling into the distance. "But don't let her hear you saying that, or she'll rip you a new one."
-oOo-
"You got a death wish, Rambo?"
He heard her voice calling him from behind and his jaw clenched tighter. Fists balled themselves at his sides and his pace increased despite the pain flaring in his shoulder at the extensive movements.
"You deaf now too!" she called louder. Her legs weren't as long as his were and she had to double her speed to even keep him in sight. "Okay, Claire was right. Something's got your dick in a knot." she chuckled and Sawyer flashed a glare over his shoulder, noting that she had stopped to lean languidly against the thick trunk of a tree.
"Come after me 'cause you felt sorry, huh?" he sneered continuing his furious stalking away from both her and the camp and she remained silent for a long time, though he heard her footsteps following him once more.
"Why would I feel sorry for you?" she tried again to turn the mood, make it lighter and less oppressive. "I mean, talk to someone like Bonnie back there and you deserve all the angst you get!" she loosed a barking laugh at her own words, beneath which Sawyer could hear her tingling anger at his suddenly foul mood. "I learnt that the hard way this morning."
Sawyer snorted, swiping at the vines blocking his path with a clenched fist.
"Yeah? That ain't the only thing you learned this mornin' though, now was it?"
That stopped her from following him. Stopped her dead in her tracks and though he wanted nothing more than to put greater distance between them at that particular moment, he stopped also, turning to glance over his shoulder.
"This is about what happened between me and her this morning, isn't it?" Ana stated, rather than asked, her brow drawing down into a confused frown as she folded her arms. "You're pissed that I laid into 'your girl' again, huh?" she ran her tongue over the teeth at the very back of her mouth, biting it in an attempt to hide both her true rage and also keep her silence until she had heard what he had to say.
Sawyer rounded on her faster than either imagined that he could with his injury and to Ana-Lucia's credit she merely flinched slightly, her expression remaining stoic as her mood blackened to a shade not dissimilar to his.
"I'm pissed," he spat, his voice deepening with fury, pupils dilating and making his sparkling blue irises turn stormy. "Because of what you told her!"
"You're pissed I told her to mind her own business? That she should keep her nose out of other people's sht?" she queried, fiercely. "Or was it the comment about knocking her out that's got you all jacked-up?"
Sawyer shook his head, turning his face towards the night sky glimpsed between the tree canopy above their heads. He laughed, a blank, flat laugh of fury through gritted teeth, smoothing his hands back over his lengthening blonde hair.
"You're one to talk about keeping' your nose outta other people's sht, Chica." he growled and Ana's dark eyes flashed suddenly in comprehension.
"This about the letter then?" her voice lowered, the fire receding momentarily even as she raised her chin to him, staring him squarely in his face, no shame or repentance present. "Wondered when that was gonna come back and haunt me."
Anger surged within his chest again, turning the blood in his veins to liquid heat, scorching him from inside-out.
"Oh, you wondered, huh?" he sneered, sarcasm twisting his words harshly. "You wondered if I was gonna call you on it or let you off?"
"I didn't read it." she ground out from between her teeth and Sawyer laughed again, throwing his head back once more and releasing an even more furious laugh if it was at all possible.
"Sure, Sugar. I believe you, thousands wouldn't."
"I didn't!" she insisted. "I was going to. But I only got to the name…"
"Mr Sawyer?" he interrupted, eyes narrowed, his smile holding only hostility and frostiness towards her now. "Yeah, bet you figured it out too, huh? I took my name from him. To remind me of what I never wanted to be…of what I turned into. A Bastard! Mr Sawyer!" he shouted it to the trees crowding around them, penning them in from above. "Mr Sawyer, screwed my momma and that made my daddy shoot her. Used a shotgun an' opened up a big one in her. Then he shot himself. Brains right 'cross my bedroom wall!"
Ana swallowed hard, nostrils flaring with a sudden emotion that seemed so foreign upon her face. Sorrow. Upset. Though her eyes shimmered with tears, she did not allow them to fall, did not allow Sawyer the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
"Don't you cry for me! I don't want your goddamn pity!" Sawyer snarled but Ana didn't hear him, too lost in her own remembrance.
-Flashback-
She hammered against the door, glancing over her shoulder out into the pitch black road. Neon lights from the strip-joint across the road glared at her, making her squint against their brightness and turn back to knock on the door once more.
It swung inwards revealing him, standing in a stained vest and low-slung jeans similarly as filthy and Ana-Lucia had to keep her disgust from registering on her features.
His black eyes glanced at her only half warily. He looked her up and down, taking her in as he smoothed a hand back over his greasy, silver-streaked black hair.
"Yeah?" he grunted, cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips as he leaned up against the doorframe. "What you want?"
"Carlos Revera?" she queried, keeping her tone polite and fighting the temptation to use her authorities 'police officer' tone. That would merely scare him away, make him think that it was an undercover raid on his property and Ana couldn't afford to lose everything that she had worked so hard to gain since her dismissal from the force months ago.
"Who's askin'?" he grunted again, taking the cigarette from his lips and blowing smoke out into her face, making her lungs burn with the air to cough.
She had to do this. It was the only way. Everything pointed back to him. The man stood before her who had haunted her childhood.
"You don't remember me." she stated and he hacked out a brief laugh, raising his eyebrows at her as if to let her know that she had just stated the obvious. "You knew my father. You dated my Aunt for a while back when I was a kid."
"I ain't payin' her no child support if that's what you've come for!" he snapped suddenly, stepping back from the door and making to slam it in her face, but Ana stopped him, slamming her hand flat against the panel of the front door.
"Please, it's not about that!" she replied. "I'm Ana-Lucia Cortez."
His eyes narrowed as he searched her face for truth, scrutinizing her as he drew hard on his cigarette.
"Cortez, huh? I remember you now."
Relief flashed through her body for all but a few minutes.
"I need to know where my Papi is." she stated, getting back to the matter at hand. The sooner she could get out from beneath the stare of the man who had broken her Aunt's heart and who had given her the chills as a child, the better.
"Sorry, can't help you." he barked and once more the door began to shut in her face. She rammed her foot into the gap, forcing her way up onto the top step and half into his filthy house.
"Please, Carlos. I need to know where he is!" she begged, gritting her
teeth against it. She had stooped to her lowest. Begging, pleading with
a man like Revera. A man like her father. But she would do anything,
absolutely anything to get to him. To look the man that had ruined her
mother's life and sentenced her to a premature death in the form of a
paracetamol overdose, in the eyes once more. Anything!
Carlos, considered her once more, eyes running over her in a way that she remembered and that made her feel sick.
"What's it worth?" he asked, jerking his head and grinning widely, revealing yellowing, nicotine stained teeth. "I don't operate for free. I ain't no charity donor."
Ana ground her teeth, turning to rummage through her pockets and find any money that she had on her person at all.
"I've only got a few dollars. I can get you more. Tomorrow, if you just tell me where he is!"
"No deal!" he snapped.
Desperation was a dangerous thing to display, Ana knew that deep down, but months of searching had left her tired. Tired of being disappointed. Of always being one step away from her goal. Of never seeing justice done.
Carlos, sniffed suddenly as if the change of emotion deep in her eyes had given him an idea. He had seen her hopelessness and he had seen that she would do anything for his information.
"Why don't you step in here with your Uncle Carlos, Ana." he grinned, blowing more smoke down into her face and this time she couldn't hold back the coughs. "I'm sure we can figure something out for payment."
-oOo-
The room was dark and she sat upon the filthy bed, head in hands, fighting the disgust in the pit of her stomach.
"He moved to Sydney. Got a new girlfriend over there. Younger than you even! His own daughter! But he did always want to live down-under." Carlos laughed deep in the back of his throat and Ana stood abruptly, storming from the room. Trying to escape what she had done.
When would it all end?
-End Flashback-
"I don't want your pity!" Sawyer repeated vehemently, dragging her from her memory and Ana resisted the urge to turn around an throw-up.
"I never gave you any!" she snapped back, swallowing hard at the burning lump in her throat.
Sawyer paused, in half a mind to believe her. He searched her face, noted the agony there from, what he couldn't imagine.
"Kate told me-"
"Maybe Kate is a fcking liar!" Ana roared, wild in her anger now, fixing him with a glare so dark it almost knocked the wind out of him. "You ever thought of that one, genius!"
And suddenly she whirled away, taking off at a dead, flat out run back through the trees towards the caves and Sawyer at first thought that she was trying to get away from him. Her clenched fists, however, her furious movements and the look that he had seen in her eyes told him that she wasn't running away, she wasn't the type of girl to dash off to sob her heart out. No. She was heading for the caves. She was heading for Kate and they were all heading for trouble!
-oOo-