AN: I've been a very, very, very bad girl, haven't I? Sorry about the long wait again. Guess I was distracted by the very skatey last episode. But no excuses for the week and a half without a new chapter. I do have good news though. I have two new chapters!

Chapter Thirteen

"So you walked all the way back from the laundry mat?" Sawyer asked as he let Kate out of his embrace.

Kate looked up at Sawyer with tear-brimmed eyes and nodded slowly. Relief flooded her body now that Sawyer was back. It mystified her too how Sawyer had become such a vital part of her life in so few of days. Of course, he had become a part of her life on the island. But she never imagined that it would be a part that would pain her if she lost it. Guess the old saying is true, she thought to herself, you don't know what you have until it's gone.

But one thing truly perplexed her about the feelings she had for Sawyer. She wasn't able to put a finger on what had caused them. He had always been so forward with his advances to the point of being crude at his best moments. She had thought herself impervious to such things, but maybe she wasn't…But that couldn't possibly be it. If it were she would have been attached to hundreds of guys by now. No, it was something that she couldn't explain, it was a connection, just as he had told her before. And it seemed that he was probably right.

Kate was still standing in the middle of the living room with her face toward the floor. She moved to sit on the couch. Even though it was almost midnight, she wasn't in any mood for sleeping. Sawyer followed her suit and plopped down beside her. Both sat staring unseeingly at the space in front of them, neither quite yet willing to break the comforting silence.

Sawyer wasn't sure what to think. He had been almost certain that he had lost Kate only a few minutes before. He was angry with himself for leaving her stranded in the first place with the precarious position they were both in. And it damn near got her caught too. Hell, it was his fault that they were here, on the run. It would have been even worse if the blame lay on him for her arrest.

But he also felt another unfounded sentiment, one of resentment. Resentment that she was so quick to accept his presence again after all that had happened. He should be grateful, he knew that. But he was expecting her to put up a fight when he returned, at least exchange a few fighting words. That didn't happen and he wasn't sure what to make of it. Whether it meant she cared or she didn't. He wasn't able to make heads or tales of it.

He was caught off guard when he felt Kate lean her head against his shoulder. He glanced her way. She seemed content with the silence, but Sawyer increasingly found it deafening.

"So, uh, back at the laundry mat," he started slowly, not sure if he really wanted the answer to his question. "You, uh, you really thought I was going to leave you there?"

Kate turned her green eyes up to Sawyer and then quickly looked back down without moving from her position. She drew in a deep breath before beginning to speak.

"I didn't know what to think, Sawyer. You just took off. With everything that happened and…" Kate left her sentence unfinished. She was unable to speak the last part of what she had been thinking. All the fear and hurt she had felt returned to her with recalling the events of the past day.

"Well, Freckles, I was looking for more of a 'yes or no' answer with that question. So how 'bout you give me one?" Sawyer said with a hint of hardness in his voice.

Kate lifted herself from Sawyer's shoulder as she let out a sigh. He just doesn't know when to leave well enough alone, does he? she thought. He was staring at her intently. Looking into his eyes, Kate detected the vulnerability that lay within. The vulnerability that he was always trying to hide, the one that made him build walls around his heart, the one that caused him to loathe who he was. She hated that she was about to hurt him as she began to speak, but she knew she had to be honest for once.

"No, I didn't think you were coming back," she said regretfully. "I mean, I hoped you would. But…I felt that the reality was that you wouldn't." She watched as pain and betrayal appeared in his expression.

"So you thought I would just leave you there, in the middle of nowhere, with no way to leave? You must think that I'm a callous bastard, don't ya? You didn't even come back here to wait for me, did ya?" Sawyer said with anger rising in his voice.

"It's not that simple Sawyer," Kate said, allowing Sawyer's hostility seep into her also.

"How's it not that simple, Kate?"

"I waited there for almost five hours, Sawyer. It's not like I started walking the minute you pulled out!"

"You really think I'm goin' to buy that five hour bull? Maybe an hour at most. You were probably sure that I wasn't coming back with in the first five minutes, weren't ya?"

"How do you expect me to know what you would and wouldn't do? I barely know you, Sawyer! Learning your real name through a television set doesn't exactly say that I could anticipate if you were coming back or not! I'm not stupid. I wasn't going to risk being caught by staying there, on hopes that you would come back." Kate yelled with a trembling edge in her voice. She let the memory of the panic and anxiety that she experienced at the laundry mat pour into her passionate declaration.

"You aren't exactly a clear picture either, Kate," Sawyer retorted.

Both sat on the couch, looking at each other in silence, both hurt by the other's words. It could never be simple between them. The secrets that they kept affected their dynamic. In the past, they were able to pretend that they were presenting their real being to the other. But now, that fragile façade was broken with just a mere argument.

Kate remained quiet because she knew she couldn't deny what Sawyer had said. She hadn't been open with him like she should. He barely knew anything about her past, the way she became the person she was. But she hadn't let anyone in for so long. Pushing people away became her habit. The idea of breaking that habit was terrifying.

For one of the few times in his life, Sawyer was truly didn't know what to say. He knew things were going too smoothly after all that had happened. There was no way in hell he expected he would seemingly be forgiven that easily when he pulled her close to him earlier that evening. In addition, he didn't want to say anything else that would distress her further.

Sawyer was disappointed too. How could she say that she didn't know him? She knew about his past, about his childhood. They had shared enough time together before that she should know, at least have an inkling, of how he would act. Hell, he had even told her that he had killed a man! It just didn't make sense. He couldn't think about it any longer.

"I'm gonna go to bed," Sawyer said with indifference while pushing off the couch.

"What's that?"

Sawyer stopped walking and turned back around wearily.

"I said, I'm gonna go—"

"No, that noise. What is it?"

Again both were silent, but to listen. It was clear as day. They heard distinct voices coming from outside. Two or three it seemed like and apparently they had a dog with them.

"Good dog, keep going!"

"He really has the scent doesn't he? Seems like he finally might be trained."

"Yeah, after all the money the police department has spent on him, he better be."

After Kate and Sawyer heard the exchange, they turned to each other with fear constricting their faces. They were momentarily frozen with the intrusion of voices from outside, paralyzed with fright. Sawyer was the first to act. He grabbed Kate by the wrist and pulled her off the couch. Quickly he led her under the attic entrance.

"What did ya leave at the laundry mat?" Sawyer asked in a fervent whisper while he lifted Kate up through the ceiling.

"Nothing, just clean clothes that I've never worn!" she said in hushed tones as she reached down to help pull Sawyer up.

"Well, they got your scent somehow. It just didn't drift to them from nowhere."

Kate gave him a stern look and put her finger to her lips signaling that he needed to be quiet. They moved the cover back over the opening of the attic just as an insistent knock came at the front door.

"Frank, it's an abandoned house. Do you really think you need to knock?"

"Guess you're right Paul. Just not use to forgetting my manners."

"You're still too soft to be a police officer, rookie."

Kate and Sawyer heard the door slowly creak open on its squeaky hinges. Sawyer pulled Kate closer to him as they held their breaths. It would be a miracle if they escaped this one without being captured.

"If they're here, they can't be too smart. Didn't even lock the front door," Paul stated.

Frank didn't answer. He was too busy trying to keep the dog under control.

"Whoa boy! Heel! Calm down!" echoed his repeated commands. They didn't seem to be helping. The sound of thudding boots and padding dog feet became closer and closer until they were in the room below the two criminals.

Hehe…another cliffhanger! But it's not so bad. Because the conclusion is in the next chapter! ;)