Rating: T, maybe a little stronger in places so be warned.
Pairing: Sana, Jate, Shayid, Libby/Michael, Charlie/Claire/Locke.
Summary: Sequel to For What it's Worth.
Warnings: May be some swearing and this chapter starts with a sex-scene.
Status of fic: WIP
Author's Notes: Told you guys I couldn't contain myself! Here is the sequel you've been waiting for. I hope I can finish this one like I did FWiW. And I hope you like this chapter. There's some of those 'pressing matters' that you wanted to start with. And d'ya know? I found it so exhausting to write mutliple characters. Blummin' nora!
Disclaimer: I own nothing Lost wise. Nor do I pretend to.
For What You Have.
Chapter 1.
His breath was hot, scalding her skin when he blew it out. It fanned across her like unseen flames, licking at her, caressing her, moulding to her body which was cold from the chill in the evening air.
His hands were everywhere, all at once, like she wanted his lips to be. Callused and burning, they followed the trail that his breath had blazed before and in response she dug her short, bitten down nails into his shoulders, leaving tiny, red crescent-moons in their wake.
Tree bark scraped at her back, scratched at her skin but she didn't care. They were both beyond caring about their environment. Beyond caring that at any moment at all a wild boar, or a polar bear, or the creature, the monster that was known to stalk through the jungle, might discover them. That the Others could come for them at any second and then they would be dead for sure before they had even reached their zenith…Or something far, far worse could happen upon them in the throws of their passion…
"Sawyer? Sawyer? Are you out there? Ana? Ana-Lucia?"
Sawyer felt as though he had been doused with a bucket of ice water, his motions halting as they both became silent and still, though they remained clinging together in the hopes that they could finish what they had started once the threat of discovery had passed.
Ana-Lucia gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut so tight that the pressure, and her lack of breath, made brilliant flashes of colour dance in the darkness of her eyelids. Together they held their breath, hoping, praying that whoever it was that had been sent to find them, most likely on the orders of the 'Good Doctor', would pass by, thinking that they weren't there and move on, leaving them in peace.
They weren't that lucky, it seemed. Fate obviously had other plans which involved screwing up theirs.
"Come on, guys. I know you're out there! I saw you walking up from the bloody beach!"
Charlie. Charlie 'You All Everybody' Pace. Persistent was his middle name. Annoying was the other.
Ana-Lucia heard Sawyer groan in frustration as he moved away from where he had pressed her into the thankfully large tree trunk that concealed them from the view of the meddling Britton. Charlie wasn't all bad, even if he did have god-awful timing and an appalling singing voice, but right at that moment, Ana herself could have quiet happily and guiltlessly garrotted him with his own guitar strings.
"I'm gonna kill him." Sawyer ground out between his clenched teeth, forehead pressed down onto her shoulder heavily, making her muscles and bone beneath it ache. "I'm gonna take that guitar and shove it up his a-"
Ana chuckled, deep in her throat so that only Sawyer would hear it, cutting him off from his ranting and pushing him away.
"Deal with it, Cowboy." she growled, snatching up her clothes from about their feet and tugging them on as swiftly as she could. Her eyes flickered upwards as she worked, taking in her partner-in-crime's form, still partially naked where he stood unmoving. Her dark eyes flashing at him, part amused and part just as unfulfilled as he was as she wandered around the tree with a final glance over her shoulder and then disappeared from sight towards the man that had put pains to their recreation. Towards the man that Sawyer was contemplating murdering in many different and creative ways.
"Where the hell have you been!" he heard Charlie query, his voice rising dramatically as he spotted Ana-Lucia. "Michael called a group meeting like donkey's years ago! Everyone's waiting on you and Sawyer!"
"Yeah, yeah…" Ana grunted in response and Sawyer smirked, imagining the look on her face as he pulled his own shirt on over his head and re-buckled his jeans. "Am I not allowed to have time for girl-things?" she demanded and he had to stifle a laugh at her use of words. 'Girl-things' his ass!
"Ah, yeah, sorry, anyway…" Charlie stuttered nervously in reply, changing the subject as hastily as he could, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of what she had just insinuated. "Have you seen Sawyer anywhere? D'you know where he is?"
"He'll turn up." Ana replied, enigmatically, a definite smirk in her tone of voice as their footsteps through the jungle became quieter and further away from the topic of their conversation's hiding place. "He always does."
oOo
The minute that he stepped into the mouth of the cave where the small
group of survivors had chosen to hold their 'council meeting' in, he
could feel the weight of their glares upon him. Jack's more so than
anyone else's, although Sayid's glare came a close second in forceful
irritation.
Sawyer was the 'bad-guy' once more, in all of their eyes. He had held them up. He had made them wait for him, though no such anger seemed to be focused upon his counterpart where she sat languidly against the wall of the cave, considering him with a knowing smirk.
"Sorry to hold up your little pow-wow, fellas." he announced, flashing his challenging grin around the circle before finding his own spot on the ground, across from Ana-Lucia and matching her glare with his own. "Got distracted."
"I'll bet you did." Jack muttered bitterly beneath his breath before turning away from the blonde man who irritated him so, and giving his entire attention to Michael. "Michael, do you want to start now?"
Michael nodded in response, rubbing a large, powerful hand across the back of his neck, obviously contemplating what he was about to say and how he was going to put it across to the gathering around him.
Firelight flickered, lighting his face from below, only serving to illuminate just how tired he was, just how worried and exhausted he felt. He'd not been sleeping, that was clear for anyone who cared to look to see. He simply sat up all night thinking, staring not at the sea like so many people did when they were troubled or grieving. He sat with his back to the crashing waves, the thunderous surf. He sat and he stared into the absolute dark of the jungle. The shifting shadows and the creaking trees. His eyes burned through it all seeking the one thing that he knew he was not likely to find there.
"I want to get my son back." he said finally, patting the head of the yellow Labrador sitting faithfully by his side for what was possibly the first time. The dog seemed to sense Michael's distress, his need for some sort of comfort, and rested his broad, heavy head upon the man's knee. "I'm gonna need some help putting together a search party. I wanted to ask for you to help me find, Walt. Whoever will come is welcome."
Sawyer watched closely, swinging his gaze around the entire group as they failed to meet Michael's pleading eyes. Each head bowed as the stricken man looked at them in question.
"Michael, I know you want to rescue Walt, we all do, but we don't even know if he's still-" Jack began placidly, palms raised in a calming gesture towards the other man.
"He's alive!" Michael bit back in response, swinging his heated glare onto the doctor, darkened by a livid frown. "I know he is!"
"Because of a message on a computer? A computer that's been down in that hatch for at least sixteen years. That could have been anyone and you know it. We need more information before we go rushing head long into something that might endanger everyone of us here." Jack soothed and Michael's gaze whipped around the gathering as people nodded and mumbled their agreement. They took Jack's side. Everyone always took Jack's side.
"You saved my ass, Brother. Seems like I owe you one." Sawyer announced suddenly and resolutely, clearing his throat and the gratitude swept over Michael's face like a wave, washing over his features.
"I'll go too." Locke spoke from where he stood, apart from the group, on the edge of the cave. No one trusted him anymore, it seemed, since the Boone incident. Even Sawyer himself had been wary of the older man, until he had come to him that night when he had thought that his world had been crashing down about him once more and had offered him a lectured about the migration habits of wild geese…and that had changed his mind in the process, kept him from making possibly the biggest mistake of his life. Letting the past continue to rule him.
"I'll be glad to have you." Michael responded with a nod of his head. "Both."
"Do you even know where you're going to look?" Jack demanded from his place at the head of the circle. He really did hate to lose control of a situation and that made Sawyer's smirk return, wider than before. "Do you even know which direction to head in first?"
"Ali Baba there has those maps." Sawyer pointed out, waving a hand in Sayid's direction. He sat beside Shannon who was still pale, still recovering from her gunshot wound, but alive, and she gripped onto the Iraqi's arm as if it was the only thing that anchored her to life…and the only thing that could protect her from the woman who had shot her. That made Sawyer's irritation prickle slightly, though it didn't seem to be bothering Ana-Lucia at the moment, plus he guessed that their reaction was a natural one to have. He'd probably be the same, were he in Sayid's shoes. "The one's he stole from Frenchie."
"We do not know what they mean." Sayid countered, with a slight shake of his head, flashing a wary glance at Jack who clenched his teeth, grinding them at Sawyer's determination to oppose his managerial opinion, his self-appointed leadership.
Sawyer shrugged in reply finally. "All we need is a drawin' to show us which way we're goin'."
"Can you read a map?" Sayid demanded, barely after Sawyer had finished speaking. "Can you read it with no compass, with no idea where exactly you are or where you are going?"
"We can tell roughly where we are from the lay of the land," Locke injected drawing glances of curiosity, thanks and irritation alike from those surrounding the fire, though he seemingly ignored all of them. "From up there on the mountains. We'll be able to look down and match it up to the map…like a jigsaw puzzle."
Jack gave an incredulous laugh at Locke's words, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to draw strength or to restrain his temper, which Sawyer couldn't be sure.
"It's not that simple, John." he stated after a long pause. "What happens when you find where you're going? What happens when you come face to face with these…Others, that Ana-Lucia and her group have warned us about? Are you going to fight them, John? All three of you?" his gaze squared with Locke's still smiling blue one and he gave his head another disbelieving shake. "You're good, John, but not that good."
"Four." announced the Nigerian man, thickset and heavy built, from where he knelt beside Ana and Libby. "I am through running. We must make a stand, not just for the child's sake…but for our own as well."
"Five then." Sayid sighed reluctantly from where he sat, arm wrapped tight and protective about Shannon's slim shoulders. "If you want to have any chance of success then you will need someone who can read the maps properly. And you will need my…other skills…" his dark eyes glazed over slightly with memory before he focused them surprisingly onto Sawyer, revealing that they were remembering the same incident. The bamboo episode that both of them had tried to forget but had not yet succeeded in doing so.
Shannon clutched at his arm tighter, drawing his gaze down from the blonde southerner's to meet with hers. Her words so soft that they went unheard by any but Sayid, though it was clear from her face that she was begging him not to go.
Ana-Lucia took that chance to intervene, clearing her throat and arresting the attention of the group.
"I'll go too."
The words rang around the cave, though they were not Ana's and her deep brown stare narrowed as she recognised the voice's owner. Sawyer shifted, readying himself to spring to his feet and cross the small distance to restrain Ana if need be but she merely folded her arms across her chest and leaned back against the cave wall.
"You wanna wait you're turn, Sister?" Ana growled but the previously silent Kate ignored her, focusing instead upon Michael.
"I want to help you find Walt." she spoke to the man and he rewarded her with an increasingly rare smile.
"I'm going too!" Ana interrupted but before Kate could respond angrily or Michael could extend his gratitude, Locke's murmuring tone curled out, diffusing the potentially volatile situation…or perhaps creating an even more dangerous one.
"We only need six." he smiled, glancing up at the sky and canopy of jungle trees as if all the answers resided up in their heights. "More will slow us down, will jeopardize the success of our excursion. Too many feet, too much noise."
Ana shook her head violently, sending her shadowy hair shivering out around her shoulders, gritting her teeth together. Sawyer knew that glare only too well and he hoped, for Locke's sake, that he was as smooth a customer as he had been previously when he had dished out advice and kept himself, Sawyer, from doing something that he would have regretted the following day.
"No way! You know I was going to volunteer before she interrupted!" Ana seethed, waving her hand in Kate's direction, not concerned with how petty her words actually sounded. "You can't tell me not to go! You need all the help you can get! The Others-"
Locke shook his head, though not as harshly as Ana had, and he fixed her with his blue, knowing gaze.
"I know that Kate can track," he began, talking over Ana's attempts at countering that comment. "And I want to be out there with people who I know what they are capable of."
"What about Eko?" she snapped.
"We've hunted together a few times. I trust him and his ability." Locke never once raised his voice to her, even when she seemed so intent on shouting at him and it only serving to increase her rage further. Sawyer was in half a mind to get up from his seat and leave before the real fireworks started.
"And you don't trust me, is that it? Bullsht!" she hissed, rising to her feet suddenly and fisting her hands at her hips. "You know what I'm capable of!"
Sawyer could sense where events were heading. An all out war was imminent and he was receiving looks and disapproving glances from the other survivors. They obviously thought that Ana-Lucia was now his problem, that he needed to keep her in check, under control…and there was only one way that he could do that. Only one way that he could keep her from throttling John Locke where he stood.
He needed to piss her off. Get her angry at him.
"Who's gonna keep an eye on my stash if you come too, Chica?" he called to her, a cocky twist to his lips as she turned to him as if she couldn't quite believe what she had just heard him say.
"S'cuse me!" she raised an eyebrow. That was the only indication that fury now boiled within her veins. "I ain't your damn housekeeper!"
"Someone needs to run my empire while I'm away, Sugar." he responded.
The people sat around the fire, witnessing whatever it was that was taking place before their very eyes, shifted uncomfortably or coughed into their hands or even began their own conversations, trying to keep themselves from gawking at the fiery pair suddenly squaring off in opposing corners.
"Okay!" Michael announced in a loud voice, covering the tension filled silence. "Six people, a map and it looks like we have a plan. That's all I wanted to say really."
Ana's glare flickered to Michael briefly as she chewed on the inside of her cheek before she nodded her head in a curt bob and strode from the cave, escaping as fast as she could back to the beach, quite probably to turf Sawyer's belongings out onto the sand outside their shelter. It wouldn't have surprised him really and yet he didn't relish the thought of being on his own with her that night. She knew too many ways to physically hurt a man.
He stood slowly as the gathering filtered away, Jack still shaking his head and attempting to talk Kate out of going, and stretched out his muscles, already stiff from sitting upon the hard ground.
"Good luck, Man." Michael called from the cave's innards and Sawyer snorted, turning his gaze once more to the path that lead back to the beach and to his impending confrontation.
"Yeah, I'm gonna need it…"
-oOo-