Chapter 16

Kate was scared, Eko had left her with the Emma and her brother Ben, and had taken the other nine children with him to the beach. The oldest of the children was ten years old and the other eight were between the ages of five and nine. It surprised Kate to no end how they did not show signs of tiring, never spoke and were all generally so disciplined it scared her. It wasn't natural for children to be so sedate, she couldn't wait until they were all on the beach and she would be able to question them.

They had decided to let Eko go with the children leaving her with Emma and Ben because he could move silently with them and Kate's legs had refused to cooperate. It galled her to admit that she was worse for wear after the last few days and needed to rest. Clutching the children to her swiftly beating heart as she heard footsteps approaching, Kate shakily cocked the 9mm she was holding in her right hand. Pointing the gun at the spot she was expecting someone to appear, she pressed her back against the cave wall and felt the children tense in her arms. Breathing a sigh of relief she saw it was Eko. He motioned for her to release the children and she did. The children ran to Eko as if they were afraid of Kate and had been too polite to say so. Kate felt a little twinge of betrayal at their shift of allegiances. 'Whatever, at least we're okay. Kids don't like me anyway.'

Drawing herself up she followed Eko and the children out of the caves and towards the beach. They were all still walking barefoot, especially since her boots had been left behind outside the secret entrance to the Others' camp. Halfway back to thebeach Eko heard someone approaching, frantically Kate looked for a place to hide, whispering to Eko, "Take the children and go! I'll only slow you guys down. I'll find somewhere to hide!"

As she spoke she spied a hollow in the earth behind a bush, running over to it, she kicked at the dirt with her foot and to her relief the dirt collapsed, providing a sort of burrow for her to hide in. Eko didn't hesitate taking the children with him as she had the gun still. He melded into the jungle with them leaving Kate shaking like a leaf in fear as she heard the footsteps approach. They passed her hiding place and she breathed a sigh of relief until she heard her pursuers stop and turn around, 'Oh God, Kate get it together!' She berated herself.

As she held her breath in fear, she tried not to think of what being in the enclosed dark space reminded her of. And she was succeeding until she felt something move against her back. Petrified, that something felt like a warm, muscle as it slid against her back and she didn't need to look to realize that she was sharing her hiding place with a large snake of some kind.

When it moved against her angrily slithering over her and out of the hole she swallowed the ice cold dread that gripped her so tightly she thought she was going to expire on the spot. She was so terrified she was shaking uncontrollably and she could feel the scream welling up inside her. She couldn't hear or see anything anymore she was so scared, all she could feel was the effort it was taking her not to cry out. Turning her mind inside itself she was back in the cage and reliving the nightmare.

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James was trying to think over the cresting waves of panic that were washing over him. He had found Eko and the two children as they ran towards the beach. Eko had told him he'd left Kate behind as she hid in hole in the ground of some sort. Luckily Sayid had taken the kids and James and Eko had retraced their steps to find Kate. That was twenty minutes ago.

"Where is she?" He hissed at Eko with mounting frustration.

"I don't know. See here are the tracks made by the Others, I think they brought Alex with them because this footprint is heavier than the other. I don't think they found her because if they had carried her away she would have been an additional weight on someone."

"Unless they didn't find her and are waiting in the shadows for us to lead them to her, or they are waiting for her to come out on her own." James said with dawning realization.

Eko looked at James sadly, "Wherever she is, we cannot risk her safety if she's still hidden by looking for her now. Either we endanger everyone by bringing more people to look for her or we wait until morning."

"That is unacceptable! We cannot wait until morning!" James hissed angry now.

"I don't see another way, do you?"Eko seemed aggrieved as he said this which made James feel a little better.

"You don't understand, she's afraid of the dark. She has nightmares, if she is still hidin' she is livin' through an unimaginable hell in her mind right now." James was whispering calmly now.

"Whatever hell she has to live in her mind is better than any reality she will have to face if we get her captured... or worse." Eko said, ever the voice of reason.

James sat on the jungle floor in acceptance of this argument, "I will wait here for mornin'. If the Others are close by either they make a move or leave." He spoke this loudly, he wanted them to hear if they were in the shadows listening.

Eko lumbered down opposite James and together they sat in wait for morning.

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Around 5 a.m. James heard faint sounds in the bush that sounded like a retreat of some kind. Bone tired as he was he had stayed awake during the 2 hours that had preceded the sunrise. He couldn't have slept if his life depended on it, because Kate's lifedepended on him staying awake.

Eko hadn't slept either, and the two men had just sat in the dark waiting with bated breath. Now he could see that Eko too heard the sound of retreat in the brush, waiting for another torturous ten minutes they finally sprang up, running to the place they thought Kate was hiding.

Eko was the first to speak as they saw the slither marks, "Either a python or a boa constrictor from the size of the marks. Pythons are very common in the South Pacific. Looks like she either scared it out of it's hole or it's in there with her now."

James glared at Eko, "I don't want to think it's in there with her now. It coulda killed her by now."

Eko took his club and used it to prod in the hole, after a few prods, James hunkered down and reached his arm into the hollow. He felt her leg, it was stiff with fear and she was shaking uncontrollably. Dragging her by the leg his heart sank in despair when he saw her face.

Kate could feel herself being dragged out of the oubliette, that's where it felt like she was. The cage, but this time it was in the ground and everybody had forgotten about her. 'I'm dying, I've been down here so long God has finally heard my prayers and he's releasing me from this hell. I didn't think my spirit leaving my body would hurt so much.'

James was scared, Kate's eyes were darting wildly from side to side and she was making a weird choking sound in the back of her throat. She'd been crying and the tracks of her tears had left dirty streaks down her filthy face. There was also dried snot on her upper lip and she was shaking so hard he was afraid the force of it was going to break her in half. Whiter than a sheet and half-crazed she flinched at the sound of his voice, "Kate! It's me, it's Sawyer, it's okay, I got you. I won't let anythin' happen to you ever again. You're safe."

Her eyes seemed to register something at the name 'Sawyer' and the word 'safe'. Eko, uncurled Kate's fingers off the gun she was gripping tightly, with the safety off. James had her in his arms and was trying to hold her but she was shaking and started to resist. "Kate! Talk to me please, look at me, sweetheart."

She threw her head back and started screaming, wincing James tried to tighten his hold on her. She started to fight back screaming a blood curdling scream as she head butted him and struggled to get out of his grip.

"Sonofabitch! Freckles, stop it!"

She was fighting in earnest now, her pupils dilated like two pennies, it took both James and Eko to hold her down as she bucked and fought like a woman possessed. Finally, James had to knock her out using a pressure point because he didn't want to hurt anymore than necessary.

Suddenly she stopped screaming and with a sigh was in a deep sleep. Eko looked at James like he had never seen him before, "Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Right now we got bigger things to worry 'bout than where I picked up a nifty trick like that, would'tcha say?" He was angry at himself and at Eko for what Kate had gone through in that hole. If he was to be honest with himself, he was afraid that the stint in the hole had sent her over the edge.

Lifting her limp body in his arms James and Eko walked back to their camp, in worried and more than a little guilty silence.

Taking her to the hatch, James never thought he would be so happy to see Jack. "Help us please!"

Jack rushed over to James concern clouding his features, "What happened? Where did you find her?"

"In a snake's burrow, she was there for a spell and she's kinda gone off the wall."

"Why is she unconscious did you find her like this?"

Ana-Lucia, Sayid and Locke all looked on in with curiosity as James briefly explained what happened. When he had finished Jack's face was grim, "Did you hit her to knock her out?"

"No!" James yelled, agitated.

"So how did you get her like this, she's out cold Sawyer!"

"It's a Dar Mak energy draining technique." James answered, angry at Jack, Eko, Kate and most of all himself.

"What the hell is that?" Jack asked rudely.

"It's an energy draining pressure point, it's not lethal and only martial artists of the highest rank are taught it because it can be lethal if used incorrectly." Sayid offered. All eyes swiveled to look at James in surprise.

"She's wakin' up Doc, now why dontcha do what all those years of med school were supposed to have taught ya and treat her?"

Turning back to Kate, Jack approached her where she lay on the kitchen counter, "Kate are you alright?"

She looked at Jack in confusion and fear, recoiling from him when he tried to touch her.

"Where is he?" She croaked out in tiny voice.

"I'm right here Freckles."

Looking at him with relief she threw her arms around him and started to cry, "Oh God, I thought I was going to die in there. I thought I would never see light again, it was so horrible! When that snake slithered over me… I wanted to scream, and I couldn't and I just wanted you to get me out of there, I was there for so long!"

"Hush now, sweetheart, it's over now, you're home and you're safe. We're all safe. Don't think 'bout that anymore, ok. I'm here, I'm not goin' anywhere." As he soothed her she now began to cry in earnest, crying heartbreaking sobs as she clung to him like he was the only thing stopping her from drowning.

Jack looked on uselessly, chafing at her dismissal of him, looking over at Ana-Lucia he saw that the former cop looked quite upset by the way the couple were holding each other so closely.

Sayid, Eko and Locke both withdrew from the room trying to give James and Kate some privacy but Jack and Ana-Lucia stood there in jealous paralysis.

Finally, Kate stopped crying, looking up at James in a slightly embarrassed voice she asked, "Where's Emma and Ben? Tex, the kids, where are they? What about Eko?"

"They're all fine, Sweetcheeks, the only one from our party I'm worried 'bout now is you. I think you need to get some sleep, and some hot food down that skinny frame of yours." As he spoke he helped her off the counter top, wrapping an arm around her waist to support her. Kate looked up at him, not even noticing the other two in the room.

"Thank you. For getting me out of that hole, for saving our lives at the Others Camp, for being this incredibly resourceful person…everything, really." She wrinkled her nose when she said 'everything'.

Smiling down at her for the compliment, James replied, "On second thought, I think ya should take a shower first, ya look like-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence because she punched him in the arm, hard, "Didn't your momma teach you it was rude to highlight a lady's faults Tex?"

"Well Freckles, ya sure don't look or smell like any lady I ever seen."

Rolling her eyes at him she detached herself from him, "Fine I am going to take a shower!" As he made to follow her, she added, "Alone!"

Holding his hands up in surrender James flashed her his dimples, "Just holler if ya need any help gettin' those hard to reach places."

Shaking her head as she smiled she walked past Ana-Lucia, sneaking in an arched eyebrow at the Latina that neither James nor Jack saw.

Ana-Lucia turned to look at James with her trademark angry sneer on her face, James laughed and shook his head. "I don't wanna hear it. I'm tired, hungry, dirty an' all I want is to go to sleep."

James could feel Jack's eyes boring holes into his back as the surgeon fumed silently. Turning to refrigerator, James opened it and pulled out a carton of milk and shutting it with his foot, rummaged in the overhead cupboard for some cereal.

Ana-Lucia bent over to get some bowls out of the bottom cupboard, and placed them on the counter top. Grabbing a banana she started to peel it briskly then sliced it into small thin pieces.

Jack sauntered over to James, "What's Dar Mak and why do you know it, Sawyer?"

James ignored him and asked Ana-Lucia to pass him some banana which she did. Smiling his thanks at her he poured his cereal into the bowl, then milk, before adding the banana to the top. Skirting Jack he walked to one of the stools and sat down to munch on his cereal, with a smile of pleasure at the simple food on his face.

Jack moved to go to James and Ana-Lucia restrained him, shaking her head at him wordlessly. Jack frowned, 'What kind of alternate reality was this? Now Sawyer had Ana-Lucia pandering to him. What the hell is wrong with the women on this Island?'

"I'd listen to her Jack, she's got a good head on those toned shoulders." James spoke absently without even looking at him, as he devoured his cereal.

Leaving him to it Jack stomped off to find Kate and see if she was okay. He got to the bathroom door and realized he couldn't barge in on her in the middle of her ablutions. Thinking back to the time he had seen her in the shower he sighed in frustration, 'Those were simpler times. Didn't have Deadbeat Southern Asshole around stealing all my women.'

Changing his mind he went back to the kitchen, and sat at the breakfast table with James and Ana-Lucia who were having an engrossed conversation in rapid Spanish.

"No hay Ana-Lucia, este individuo su líder verdadero, yo observó a esta gente por casi 24 horas, yo sabe de lo que estoy hablando. Zeke justo el segundo en comando, sin su líder y su segundo en el comando que el campo será en caos. Esta mañana era su tentativa pasada de la zanja de ser coordinado, yo le apostó mi dólar ese pandemonium pasado explotado en ese campo." (Translation: No Ana-Lucia, this guy was their real leader, I observed these people for almost 24 hours, I know what I'm talkin' 'bout. Zeke's just the second in command, without their leader an' their second in command that camp will be in chaos. This mornin' was their last ditch attempt to be coordinated, I bet you my last dollar that pandemonium's broken out in that camp.)

"¿Cómo puede usted ser seguro? Tenemos los cabritos y los desean tan gravemente. ¿Cómo puede usted ser seguro que cualquier cosa que usted vio era el reparto verdadero?" (Translation: How can you be sure? We've got the kids and they want them so badly. How can you be sure anything you saw was the real deal?)

James had finished eating his cereal at this point, "I'm sure, because no one saw me comin' Cupcake." James replied in English this time.

That seemed to satisfy her because she stopped asking questions and actually acknowledged Jack's presence.

"What do you think Jack?"

"About what? I don't speak Spanish."

"Do you think that the Others have been diffused as a threat?"

"I don't know, Sawyer hasn't told us anything yet about what happened out there so how can I say."

"In a nutshell, he killed their leader, his bodyguard, shot Zeke in the leg and his bodyguard Alex, got the kids, disarmed the entire camp, and here we are." Kate said, as she walked into the room refreshed. She still looked exhausted and was still very pale but at least she was wearing clean clothes because she always kept a spare set in the hatch. Her hair was wet and curly as ever, and her eyes were sparkling with amusement.

"Give or take a near death by firing squad here, and nightmare hiding place there."

"Cereal's for you Princess." Said Ana-Lucia as she gestured to the bowl that she'd filled with cereal and sliced banana.

"Thank you, Ana-Lucia." Kate said,in a cautious toneas she poured some milk on it then walking over to James' newly vacated seat, sat down and devoured it with the same zest he had exhibited 15 minutes ago.

James had already headed for the shower, and Jack took it as an opportunity to berate Kate. "What you did was foolish to the nth power Kate. Sneaking off into the jungle in the middle of the night when you and I had agreed we'd wait until morning. I was beside myself with worry. We couldn't find you and had no idea which way you had gone by the time we discovered you were gone. Sawyer doing that was bad enough but for you to follow him and not tell anyone-"

"I told Hotlips Jack." Kate spoke over a mouthful of cereal before she carried on eating.

"What is with everyone calling each other everything but their own names?" Jack asked, exasperated beyond belief by Kate's attitude.

"You made it clear finding Sawyer wasn't a priority of yours and I felt that if we waited we'd never find him alive. Eko came of his own free will, I told Hotlips where we were going so I don't see what the big deal is Jack."

"The big deal Kate is that you got captured, and you slept in a snake pit where you had at for lack of a better word, some sort of mental breakdown."

"I've been captured before Jack, and compared to many people on this Island I got off lightly. The snake pit wasn't scary it was the memories it brought up that… upset me, it was my choice to hide because I didn't want to endanger the children and Eko. It was my decision to make Jack."

A silence descended over the room as Kate rose to make some coffee, and wash hers and James' bowls. As soon as the coffee finished brewing, she poured some coffee for all of them silently handing Jack and Ana-Lucia a mug each.

When James returned to the kitchen, Kate was standing by the sink in silent reflection and everyone else seemed to be lost in thought. Sitting down at the seat he'd vacated for Kate earlier, Jack was the first to speak.

"When'd you manage to squeeze in time for a haircut Sawyer."

James smirked at the question, "While I was observing the camp, I noticed none of 'em had long hair, so I used my huntin' knife in an attempt to blend in."

"What happened out there?" Jack demanded.

"I killed their leader, never caught his name but he was 'bout 6 foot 8 so I called him André. They had a much bigger hatch, an' computers that transmitted off this Island. Had Walt in a hut, hooked to all types of machines an' tubes, looks like they were doin' tests on him. André said we weren't ever gonna get rescued. This Island operation has connections in high places, a lot of money and careers are restin' on whatever the hell lil' operation they're runnin' here."

All of them were listening to James intently, Locke and Sayid had also wandered into the room and were standing riveted to the spot.

"What do you mean by connections?" Asked Ana-Lucia.

"André said that world governments were involved an' our plane was the first plane of a commercial scale that had successfully crashed with so many survivors. Said there'd been a number of failed attempts in the last 20 odd years." Everyone in the room gasped at this.

"Think that's bad? 'pparently, some of the people on our plane were supposed to be here. All part of whatever elaborate plan they had."

Everyone sat there in stunned silence trying to digest this new information. Reaching into his jean pockets James pulled out some vials, "Figured you'd be able to figure out whatever it was these folks were doin' as you're the Doc an' all. I took the morphine 'cause I thought it'd just be useful. But these other ones, maybe you'll recognize what type of medication they've been druggin' Walt with."

He dropped them into Jack's open palms, the surgeon looked at James with grudging respect. Inspecting the vials, Jack looked up at James in alarm, "This is sodium thiopental!"

"Truth serum." James explained in response to Kate's questioning gaze.

"And this is pancuronium bromide."

"Ya lost me there Doc."

"Don't they use that in the lethal injection?" Asked Ana-Lucia.

"Yeah, they do, it works as a muscle relaxant and it also masks pain. So does this one, Secobarbital." Responded Jack distractedly.

Looking at the other vials, he looked around at everyone in the room, "They've been brainwashing him. Trying to get into his mind as a form of narcoanalysis."

"So how do we know if they succeeded Jack?" Demanded Locke, impatiently.

"We don't. We'll have to talk to him. We also need to get Zeke for lack of a better name to talk." Turning to James, Jack said, "You did good Sawyer."

James didn't want to but couldn't help but feel good at the compliment, "Yeah well I've gotta drag my ass to a bed otherwise I'll fall asleep right here." With that comment he made to leave the hatch.

Placing her cup in the sink Kate piped up, "I'll come with you. I don't think I can stay awake much longer and I don't want to stay here."

Offering his arm to her she took it and arm in arm they walked out of the hatch together.