A/N: I do not own Lost, as common sense would tell you.

Jack sat on the beach, watching as the waves crashed into the rocks below. It was a sight he rarely got to watch. All kinds of dangers awaited a group of unsuspecting people in an unfamiliar land, and since he was the only doctor he had his work cut out for him. No one could stay unharmed for very long.

But now he felt himself overcome by an unexplainable urge to just sit and not think about anything. All he wanted to do was relax and watch the natural beauty of the world.

He could hear the friendly chatter coming from the beach behind him. Probably wondering what he was doing sitting when he could be back at the hatch, waiting like any doctor in his regular office, waiting for the patients to come filing in. But he didn't care what they thought. He felt he deserved a reward for his patience after everything he had dealt with.

"Hey." A familiar voice broke through his silence. He didn't need to look up to know who it was. Kate sat herself down beside Jack, her attention focused on him instead of the ocean.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were out hunting with Locke," Jack asked, but his voice expressed no regret. He thoroughly enjoyed her company, and was always looked forward to their conversations, as long as they weren't about anyone's past.

He saw Kate shrug through his peripheral vision. "There's only so much hunting you can do in a day. And besides, seeing you lounging on the beach seemed much more appealing at the time."

"I see." A small smile was forming on the side of Jack's face, and Kate smiled too.

"Yeah. So how long do you expect to stay here?" she asked, seriousness setting in.

Jack shrugged. "As long as I can. Why?" For the first time he tore his eyes away from the ocean to stare at Kate. They made eye contact for a split second before she turned away.

"No reason. I've got to go see Sawyer for something," she said, standing up and wiping the sand from her jeans.

"I'll see you back at the caves," Jack called after her as she made her way into the jungle.

Kate stopped walking, a guilty expression on her face. She looked back at him, but his attention was once again on the ocean. She turned around and started walking again, passing Sawyer's empty tent as she did.

Kate entered the jungle with a heavy heart. She had meant to tell Jack, or at least give him a little clue to what she was about to do just in case things went differently than she had planned, but she couldn't do it. He was so peaceful out on the beach, a rare treat indeed, and she just couldn't ruin that.

Ever since they had crashed on the island, she hadn't thought that Jack would become to her what he was. An acquaintance at the very most, certainly not a close friend, and definitely not someone she would fall in love with.

But he never cast judgement on her except when it was unavoidable. She knew she couldn't keep her story concealed forever from anyone, and knew that when it came into light that people would look at her differently. And the outcome of Sawyer's exposure of her was predictable.

Jack was the only one she could ever completely count on. Even when he was pissed he always found some time for her, and she had thought she could tell him what she was about to do, and was scared that she couldn't.

All she could hope for now was that he would find out from her when the time was right.

A snap of a branch broke her from her reverie, and she spun around, her eyes searching everywhere behind her. Finding nothing, she reluctantly continued. No more than five minutes later she heard the ruffle of leaves and an income of breath.

Slowly and carefully she walked the way she had come over to the massive tree off to the shadows. She had a hunch who was there.

"Sawyer, what are you doing?"

Sawyer's face held an expression of half shock and half amusement. "I was out picking fruit when I happened upon you. Where the hell are you going?" he asked as if she had failed to mention a trip they were both going on.

"None of your damn business. Stop following me, or I swear Sawyer…"

"You'll do what? Shoot me?" he sneered.

She just stared at him. "Go back. I'll know if you don't. You can't keep yourself hidden for very long, and you know it."

Sawyer shrugged. "Alright, alright, I'll go back. I just hope you can find your way back. It would be a shame if you got lost out here. Who knows if I'll be able to find my way back here again."

He turned around and started back towards the beach without a second look back. But Kate knew better. Sawyer knew she could find her way back to the hatch or the beach in her sleep and that he could follow her trail accurately if he needed to.

After making sure he was, in fact gone, she continued.

"Has anyone seen Kate?" Jack asked later that day.

"No." That was the answer he got in various forms. The few who said they had seen her told him that they had seen her enter the jungle hours before and hadn't seen her since.

That was when he remembered. She had said that she needed to speak with Sawyer.

Just as abruptly as he came, he left the hatch about to talk to the last person he wanted to.

James Ford, aka Sawyer.

He made his way to the beach, not exactly sure what he was expecting. Sawyer knew something, that much he was certain of. Other than Sun and himself, Sawyer was the person she confided in most, as much as it pained him to admit it. Why, he had no idea, but she did, and that was all he needed to go by.

When he got to the beach, he became aware of other survivors watch in confusion at his anxiety. He did his best to ignore them, and stormed into Sawyer's tent. Sawyer was reading a book, the cover torn away, probably because it had been waterlogged before it had dried off. Sawyer found it incredibly interesting, and didn't appreciate it when one of his least favorite people came into his quarters uninvited.

"Where is she?" Jack demanded the minute he stepped into his tent.

"Good evening to you too, Doc."

"Where is she?" he repeated, not bothering to conceal his agitation.

"Well, I must say I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about. She hasn't been to see me all day," he spat, his eyes on the pages of his book, but his eyes weren't moving.

"Bull. She said she needed to talk to you about something and hasn't shown up since."

"And what, you think I kidnapped her and stashed her mangled body deep in the jungle, is that it?" he asked bitterly, throwing his book down and standing up to his full height.

Jack didn't say anything, but he could see that Sawyer didn't know where she was any more than he did.

Sighing, Sawyer said, "Look, I saw her walk through the jungle so I followed her for a bit, but she found me, and I didn't see much point in continuing to trail behind when she would know I was there anyway. If she hasn't come back yet, then my guess is she's still doing whatever she went in there to do."

"Did she tell you what she was doing?"

At this Sawyer let out another bitter laugh. "If she did then I wouldn't have come back, would I?"

Jack nodded, doing his best to look calm. "Alright. Thanks anyway," he said, then exited, trudging back to the hatch with the hope that she would be there when he got back. A part of him hoped she might even have a little scrape that he could patch up so that he'd have an excuse to ask her what she was doing.

Those in the hatch were staring at him when he reached the hatch again. "Everything's fine, okay?" he announced, although he knew it would be a miracle to get anyone to believe him. They knew him better than that, and knew when something was bothering him. It was a trait he carried with him wherever he went.

"What's wrong? Is it Kate?" Charlie asked, sitting across from him by the table.

"Yeah." He figured it was better not to lie.

Charlie nodded. "Well, Kate's a big girl. I'm sure she's fine. She'll get back here when she can. She's too smart to get captured or anything like that. You don't have anything to worry about. Besides Locke, she's probably the best person to be with out there in the jungle," he said, doing his best to comfort his friend.

"If anyone should know that, it's me. I know I'm overreacting. You're right, she's fine," Jack said, though more to himself than to Charlie.

"There you go. You might want to sleep on it, you look like you could do with some rest," Charlie said as he headed back to the beach to Claire and Aaron.

For once, Jack heeded someone else's advice, and got some sleep, hoping that Kate would be back when he woke.

The next morning Jack was woken to the sound of hushed voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying, and he didn't quite care. He got up and gathered some relatively clean clothes and decided on a quick shower. He hadn't taken one in a while, and knew he needed one.

The warm water felt like heaven against his sore body. Patching people up had definitely left it's mark on him, and soothing water was exactly what he needed.

He spent enough time there for the room to steam up a bit, but not too terribly. There wasn't enough hot water to take the amount of time he did back home, and he wasn't going to be the only one taking a shower that day.

After dressing in a gray t-shirt and blue jeans he went to find Locke since he knew he would be up. The man rarely slept.

And sure enough, Locke was sitting in the room that once held Henry Gale, staring at a piece of paper as though waiting for it to come alive and speak to him.

"John, where's Kate? Did she show up?" Jack asked.

Locke looked up at him and gave him a straightforward answer, only because he had called him by his first name. Jack only did that when he was worried, angry, or scared.

"I don't know. She didn't come in before I went to sleep, and she wasn't here when I woke up."

Jack was out of the hatch before Locke even finished the sentence. Something was amiss, but he didn't know what. He ran into the jungle as fast as he could. "Kate!"

Nobody replied, and he hadn't expected anyone to. But he kept running anyway, hoping against hope that she would answer him. "KATE!" he kept screaming her name until his throat ran dry. Reaching the invisible line the Others had drawn for them and finding no sign of Kate, his heart started beating faster.

There was only one man he knew of that could help him find her.

Sawyer.

A/N: My first Lost fic, please let me know what you think of it so far.