Author's Note: Thanks for all the great reviews, it keeps me motivated to write!
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost, JJ Abrams and co. does.
All he could feel was a consistent pounding inside his head, something that was starting to become all too familiar. He tried to raise a hand rub open his eyes but he found both tightly bound behind him.
"What the hell," he wasn't surprised, just irritated. He opened his eyes to a semi-dark room, a light hanging from the ceiling and Sawyer was strapped to a wooden chair. He almost laughed, this wasn't the first time he'd been in this position, in fact, some of those times had been pretty fun...
Just as Sawyer started to rock the chair back and forth, hoping to knock it to the floor and break it, a woman walked in. If you could even be sure she was a woman. Her hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in years, Sawyer was sure he could even see leaves hidden in her wild woman hair. She was wearing a white lab coat but her clothes underneath were torn and dirty. Not to Sawyer's surprise, she had no shoes.
"Mr. Ford. You're going to answer some questions for me." Her voice was as cold and calculated, contradicting her appearance.
Sawyer smirked at her, ignoring the shock that she knew his name, "Or what, you gonna take my shoes?"
She was feisty though, he realized as she punched him square across the chin. Then stood back and returned her eyes to the clipboard she was holding.
"Do you feel guilty about the man you killed in Australia, the one you thought was Mr. Sawyer?"
Sawyer once again maintained his cool exterior while the surprise caused his heart rate to quicken. How could these people know about this stuff? Hadn't they been stuck on this island for the last…how long had they been here?
"Don't know what you're going on about."
The woman's face remained the same but before she could say anything more, a voice came through the wall, through an intercom.
"Shoot him"
The words barely finished before Sawyer found himself looking down the barrel of a gun. "Hey, what the hell!"
The man's voice came through again and the gun was lowered slowly, after he was done talking.
"We have ways of making you talk, Mr. Ford."
Sawyer tried not to grimace at the name, "Don't call me that," he said darkly.
The woman almost smiled, "I don't know why anyone would want to be called by the name of their parent's killer. So to speak anyway."
"Let me see Kate."
"Answer the question."
Sawyer gave her a fake smile, "If you let me see Kate, I'll answer the damn question, " he said through gritted teeth.
The woman tapped her pencil against her clipboard, thinking. "Fine."
Sawyer paused for a second, letting of a breath, "Yeah. I feel guilty about killing the guy, alright."
The woman knocked on the door and then turned back to him, "When you see her, you'll figure out what happens to people when they don't answer our questions."
Sawyer's face fell. What had they done?
A soft buzzing noise came out of the intercom in Kate's room. Without saying anything, the skinny man left the room. Kate tried to wait patiently, wondering what kind of sign the buzzing was but the reminder of the electrodes still attached to her body kept the majority of her attention. She needed to get out of this. After a few minutes the door opened again.
"Sawyer!"
Sawyer ignored the pain as he was pushed to the floor and the door was slammed shut behind. All of his attention was on Kate. He would have made some sort of smart-as remark but the sight of her rendered him speechless.
He stood up slowly and walked over to her, "What…" He took off the electrodes and ran his hand over her face. Her lip was cut and she had bruise on her cheek. Her eyes were red and swollen, he could tell she'd been crying. She looked drained and he didn't have to ask to know why. He started to untie her feet, "So you think you're tough, is that it?" He didn't dare to look at her, he was mad and she was the only one around to be mad at.
Kate let out a breath, ignoring his comment. "You're okay?"
He'd finished untying her and stood up in front of the chair. "Ya, I'm just dandy, Freckles. Godammit, what in the hell did you think you we're doin'?"
Kate tried to stand up but her legs gave out and she collapsed back into the chair, "Sawyer don't." Of all things right now, this, she did not have the energy for.
"I'm not planning on staying here and I'm definitely not planning on dying here. Do you think not answering their questions is gonna help us?" He knew he was being hypocritical but he couldn't stand the thought of what they might have done to her.
Kate tried again to stand up, she wasn't about to be chided by Sawyer sitting down. But she realized, the electrocution had drained all her energy. So she paused for a second, took a deep breath and tried again.
Sawyer saw what she was doing and huffed in frustration, moving back towards her to help her stand up, "Why do you have to be so stubborn."
He had to hold her up with both hands but she was standing, which was better than sitting. 'Small battles', she thought. "And I'm sure you just answered those questions right away." She rolled her eyes at him, she knew it was his way of worrying about her, he was just going about it completely wrong.
Sawyer lowered his head to hers, "You alright?"
Kate smiled back at him, "Yeah, you?"
Sawyer wrapped his arms around her tighter and whispered, "Now I am."
Sawyer moved them against the wall across from the door and brought them down to sit on the floor. He put his arm around Kate and she laid her head on his shoulder, both well aware their time was fairly limited.
"What did they ask you?" Kate finally inquired.
Sawyer took a minute to answer. There was no sense in keeping secrets now. "About the man I killed, if I felt guilty about it. What'd they ask you?"
Kate took a breath, "Sawyer, there's something I need to tell you-"
Her voice was cut off when the door opened, the two white-coated man and woman and Santa walking in. They had brought another chair.
Santa smiled at them, "Might be easier to do this with you both in the same room."
The two 'lab rats' placed the chairs close together, so they were facing each other. They secured them Kate and Sawyer into the chairs and attached electrodes to them. Kate stole a nervous glance at Sawyer. She had been searching her brain, trying to figure out what these people wanted from them but she couldn't figure it out. Was this just some sort of jungle game, they got tired of playing cards? Were they trying to pit Kate and Sawyer against each other or were they trying to get them together?
"How much do you know about us?" It was the woman talking, her voice uninterested, as if she didn't care what the answer was, just as long as they answered it.
Kate locked her eyes with Sawyer, she could tell he was thinking the same thing. "Hey Sawyer, why don't you take this one, you love to talk."
"No, no, you're the hero here. Go ahead." His voice sarcastic.
"Such a gentleman, what are you going to do next, steal my walle-"
Strong electrical currents surged through them both. Sawyer gritted his teeth, so he wouldn't scream and saw Kate doing the same.
"Who's the leader of your group?" This time it was the man asking.
Sawyer smiled up at him, forcing himself to ignore the pain, "Oh I'll take this one."
Kate grunted, her body may have been in pain but her words were strong, "You would."
Sawyer smirked, "Knew it, knew you loved him."
"At least I have a heart."
"Sweetcheeks, you don't need a heart when you're this good in bed-"
Once again the currents flooded through them, this time Kate wasn't able to hold out, she let out a pained scream."You couldn't satisfy a woman if you-"
Again and again, the electricity would send them both screaming but neither would give up, they just kept up their fighting. Finally Santa put up his hands.
"Enough."
Sawyer lay panting in the chair, barely sitting upright anymore but a smile was on his face, they'd won this round. He looked over at Kate. She was sitting in a similar position. He'd barely managed not to give in, if she hadn't been able to hurl the insults viciously, he would have asked for mercy, for her.
Kate smiled at Sawyer, whatever it was worth, they'd just won that battle.
Santa motioned to the other two people and they left the room, leaving him with a clipboard. "Do you trust each other?"
"Not as far as I can throw her."
"Not a bit."
Santa sighed, this wasn't going to be easy if they were going to keep this charade up. He pulled out his gun and handed it to Kate, untying one of her hands.
"You shoot him, I'll let you go. I'll even throw in some protection for the rest of your camp. All you have to do is shoot him."
Kate eyed him suspiciously as he pulled out another gun and handed it to Sawyer, untying his hand. "Same deal, though for you, I'm sure it's money that you'd like more. I'll arrange something.
With both their guns pointed at each other, worrying crossed Kate's face. Sawyer's was dark, intense, it scared her. But she knew there was nothing to be afraid of. He confirmed it, when he gave her a look, that look that said, 'I dare you.'
They aimed and shot their guns at the same time, at Santa.
The click of the empty guns sent Santa into near hysterics. "Well, I guess that confirms that. I guess I just don't understand. You have betrayed each other, lied, even cheated. Yet for some reason, you trust each other."
Kate averted her eyes on the last part and Sawyer caught it, he wasn't the only one.
"Guess you didn't know about that, did you James?" Sawyer ignored him, casting his eyes to the floor. "There you were lying, near death and she was off kissing that doctor."
Kate tried to fight the tears that reached her eyes but she failed. She couldn't tell what Sawyer was thinking, he wouldn't even look at her but she knew he felt betrayed. "It wasn't like that," she whispered. She didn't even wonder how Santa knew.
Glad with the reaction he was getting he continued, "And it's not like you haven't done anything to her. You were the one that betrayed her big secret to the rest of the camp Mr. Ford. And what was the reason you needed to be on that raft?" Sawyer finally lifted his eyes to Kate, guilt now across his face. "What was it?" Sawyer ignored the man, keeping his eyes on Kate's, whose were filled with tears. "There ain't anything on this island worth staying for."
Sawyer finally looked at the man, "Go to hell."
Santa just smiled back at him, "That's what you said, though right? How'd that make you feel, Kate?"
Kate shifted her eyes away from Sawyer, they had hurt her, those words. But she'd said a lot of things to him too.
"But, let's not forget who tried to get you kicked off the raft in the first place."
Sawyer had finally had enough, "Whatever's been said and been done, ain't none of your business." He looked to Kate, "What's done is done and it don't matter now."
Santa would have given up if his eye hadn't caught something on the page he was holding. "Mr. Ford, do you know who Wayne is?"
Kate eyes let go all the tears she was holding and they flowed freely down her face. She had wanted to tell him herself.
A/N: Just so you don't hate me too much, I'll give you a hint, these chapters we're moderately inspired by an episode of Firefly (Can't remember what it was called but it's the one where Mal and Wash get kidnapped) and "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" from X-Files. Was that long enough! JK