Chapter Eight
How in the hell did she get me to promise to cut my hair? Sawyer thought. She threatened to leave me behind, that's how.
Sawyer could say, however many times he wanted, that he was attached to his hair. But the truth was he was more attached to Kate. Hair would grow back, would it not? If he left Kate now, he would likely never see her again. His heart couldn't fathom the idea of that. So, he agreed to part ways with his locks instead.
Sawyer turned his attention to Kate in the driver's seat, watching her as mile after mile of concrete passed beneath them. Though the situation they were in should be terrifying and nerve racking, she drove with a calm confidence that manifested itself from the control she had over the situation and over Sawyer. Everything they did was done her way: the escape plan, stopping at the gas station, stealing the car, cutting his hair. He wondered if there was anything he wouldn't do for her.
She's even gotta be the one drivin' Sawyer thought with a sense of amazement. Admittedly, she was going to let him drive the bus, it turned out that he couldn't drive the bus. But the car was an automatic, and driving should be a man's job, in Sawyer's eyes at least.
"So what are you trying to do Sawyer? Communicate with me telepathically? Because I'm not getting the message," Kate asked, after Sawyer's stare had become uncomfortably long.
"Not in the least bit, Freckles," Sawyer said, breaking his gaze with a little laugh. "Don't believe in that stuff. Nah, I was just sittin' here thinkin' how tired you look. When's the last time you actually slept anyway?"
"Sawyer, if you want to drive you should just come out and say it."
"But it's got to be your idea. Otherwise, there's no chance in hell it's goin' to happen."
"And what's that suppose to mean?"
"I'm just sayin', that you're the one in control and we've done everything the way you wanted. I'm surprised you didn't steal a standard so I couldn't drive."
"That's it," Kate replied angrily, violently pulling the car on to the side of the road, sending gravel flying through the night. "Get out."
"What! You're leaving me standin' on the road in the middle of the night, Freckles? When all of the FBI is going to be lookin' for me? Even after I promised to cut my hair?" Sawyer ranted, disbelief flooding throughout his body.
"Get out," Kate repeated. "You're driving. And that's exactly why I don't allow you to make more decisions concerning our circumstance."
"And what's that, sweetheart?"
"You overreact," Kate stated simply.
"What! I don't overreact. Why in the world would you think that? Did I overreact when you told me I had to cut my hair?" The words tumbled out too quickly for Sawyer to catch them. He regretted it too.
"What did you just say?" Kate grinned in open-mouthed wonder, knowing that he had just proven her point.
"Nothin'," Sawyer muttered as he opened the car door to get out.
"That's what I thought," Kate said as she, too, climbed out of the car and scooted into the back seat, brushing the empty beer cans and trash onto the car floor.
"So I was right," Sawyer said triumphantly in response to Kate climbing into the back "You are tired."
"Not exactly Sawyer," Kate sighed. "I just want to stretch out for a while."
"Yeah, whatever. You'll be asleep in ten minutes."
Kate let out another sigh. Did he always have to be such great company? she thought sarcastically to herself.
"Keep a lookout for anywhere we can stay tonight," she told Sawyer tiredly, a few minutes after they were back on the road.
"Will do, Freckles."
"No motels though….too risky," she said through a stifled yawn.
Sawyer nodded, though he doubted she saw as she drifted off to sleep.
The car rolled slowly as it approached the old abandoned farmhouse. The windows were broken and boarded up, the once pristine white paint now was a dull gray, peeling off graciously on all sides of the house. The dwelling was located far from the main highway and partially hidden by a tall grove of oak trees. A barn also accompanied the residence not a hundred yards from the house. Sawyer thought that it would be a great place to hide the car and he was quite satisfied with the location overall.
He left Kate sleeping in the car as he went to seek a way to open the barn door. He found that the entry was barred with chain and lock. Frustrated, he started around to the other side to see if it was locked as well. He stopped halfway through his walk at the side of the building.
"Well, ain't that just great," he spoke aloud to himself. He stood in front of a large, gaping gap that was large enough to drive the car through. "Guess there's no need for a door."
Sawyer headed back toward the house to give it a closer inspection. Since the windows were planked up he figured that the door would be locked just as the barn door had. But surprisingly as he pulled on the handle, it swung easily open.
He stepped inside the foyer that led onto the living room. In the darkness, he could dimly make out the outline of what appeared to be a sheet covered couch along with other various pieces of furniture. He continued to stumble through the rest of the house, discovering an adjoining bedroom with two covered beds, a kitchen with dishes still sitting in the cupboard and a wash room with a mirror covered in a thick layer of dust.
As much as the house showed its dilapidation on the outside, the interior was in fair condition. The floors were solid, as were the walls. No draft entered through the wooded windows. In Sawyer's eyes it was the perfect place to stay.
He trudged back out to the car, intending to wake Kate up. But once he opened the car door, he couldn't bring himself to wake her up from her peaceful sleep. Her haunting past had disappeared from her expression and all the pain ceased to exist. He recognized that deep sleep such as this would probably come few and far between in the next months. So he gently lifted her into his arms and carried her into the house laying her lightly upon one of the beds.
Kate awoke the next morning, a sliver of light falling onto her face. She felt the bed beneath her and inwardly cursed Sawyer for going to a motel. She knew she shouldn't have let herself fall asleep.
She slowly set up, bringing the rest of her surroundings into focus but before she could inspect her new environment too much, her attention was brought to Sawyer.
"Mornin' sunshine," he drawled from a chair near the foot of her bed.
"Sawyer, I thought I told you no motels," she chastised drowsily.
"Well, now, look around Freckles because if this is a motel, it's one of the crappiest I've ever stayed in. And that's saying somethin'."
Kate now noticed the boarded windows, the layers of dust and general musty smell of the place.
Sawyer watched as she took in every part of the room, memorizing every detail. For a split second, he thought he saw a look of recognition in her expression but quickly assumed it was because she had stayed in places like this before. Then she slipped off the bed, stretching her lithe limbs back into movement, grabbing her bag heading towards the bedroom door.
"You're not going to ask for the grand tour of the place, sweetheart?" Sawyer called after her playfully.
"No, I think I can find my way around, but thanks for the offer," her voice echoed back to him.
Sawyer grabbed his own bag, pulling out the copy of Watership Down that he still had from the island along with his makeshift reading glasses as well. The pages were crinkled from where the book had been waterlogged when he first found it in the tide and the cover was tattered where he had carried it for so long. The book itself wasn't of any importance. He kept it because it had brought memories of his first kiss with Kate in a roundabout way. Boone assumed he had Shannon's inhalers because he had the book even though he didn't. And of course that led to the kiss.
Even the glasses reminded him of Kate. She was the one who dragged him to Jack when he was having those awful headaches. It was one of the first times that he realized that she cared about him. No matter how god-awful they looked, he couldn't bear to part with the glasses either.
After reading for quite awhile, Sawyer started to worry about Kate. He put down the book and strained to listen for any sound of her within in the house. He didn't hear a thing and that made him feel uneasy. Just as he got up to search for her, she appeared quietly appeared, framed by the door.
She stood there waiting for him to react. In a way, she hoped that he would like it. She had never done anything like this before and wasn't too sure of it herself.
"Well Freckles, you might've had an easier time last night convincing me to cut my hair if you told me you were cutting yours," Sawyer said in a neutral voice, not indicating whether he liked it or not.
Kate had cut her hair into a short bob, reminiscent of the roaring twenties. The hair fits perfectly with this old house, Sawyer thought to himself. He admitted that it quite flattering and framed her face perfectly. He stood in front of her taking in her new appearance when the tranquility of the moment was broken by the sound of shattering glass in the kitchen.
Both Sawyer and Kate tensed immediately, turning the expectancy of the moment to that of fear. Neither moved, listening for any sign of movement within the house.
"Didn't you check to see if anyone was actually in the house before you decided to stay here?" Kate whispered frantically to Sawyer.
"No, didn't think I needed to. The entire thing is boarded up," he whispered back defensively. At that point, he remembered how easily the front door had opened.