Chapter 41
Sawyer was staring up at the path ahead with disgust. "This is the easy way?" he asked. The mountains stretched before them as far as they could see; the thin path rose steadily up the side of the one in front of them and it was crooked and littered with boulders, smaller rocks, tree limbs and brush.

Kate's hand was warm in his; since his words earlier she hadn't let go of him if she could help it, as if she was afraid they wouldn't be true if she broke contact with him. Squeezing his hand gently, she stared at the trail too; her arm was throbbing and she wanted to curl up in Saywer's arms and let him make her forget about the pain. "Yeah, this is the easy one." She sighed wearily, leaning almost unconciously against him; he let go of her hand and wrapped her in his arms instead.

"You okay, Freckles? We can stop for a while." He lifted her chin with his finger, looking in her eyes, and he knew she was hurting even as she said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

He gazed at her for another second, searching her eyes for a lie. "You're not fine." Hugging her to him he called up the trail to Eko, who was walking behind a bouncing Vincent, "Hey, Ed! We need to take a break."

Eko stopped and came back down the trail, Vincent running ahead of him. He came to Kate with some concern, also seeing the pain she was trying to hide. "Katherine, are you alright?"

She nodded. "Yeah, my shoulder is sore." It was a vast understatement; even with it in the sling every step pulled on the stitches in the muscle and in her skin and all of the muscles across her back were stiff and inflamed.

Eko hesitated, looking at the pain in Kate's eyes, then turned to Sawyer. "James, it is time that I showed you something." He sighed. This was going to be tricky; he didn't want him to learn too much at one time.

Vincent sat in front of Sawyer, grinning, and he barked once. Saywer craned his head, looking at the dog like he had just recited Shakespeare; he shook his head in disbelief. "He's gonna show me what?" His eyes rose to Eko.

Giving the dog a look of consternation, Eko shook his finger at him. "Do not give it away, Vincent. Discretion is the word of the day, yes?"

He looked up to Sawyer for translation as Vincent whined and let out a yip. Sawyer was still staring at Eko in stunned shock and he didn't answer right away; Kate looked between the three of them, feeling a little left out. And a little freaked out. Still gazing at Eko, Sawyer finally said, "He said sorry, he didn't mean to let the cat out of the bag." He glanced at a grinning Vincent. "Bad joke." Vincent rolled over and put his paws in the air, whimpering a little; Kate couldn't help but laugh, though this was all feeling very surreal and she kept expecting to wake up, safely back on the beach.

Eko nodded at Vincent. "Yes, Vincent, that was a bad joke. But good for a dog," he laughed. Smiling kindly, he turned his eyes to Kate. "Katherine, I need James for a minute." She didn't look willing release him, and Eko said softly, "It's alright, Kate. Let him go."

She sighed and looked up to Sawyer, who was beaming down at her; he loved that she didn't want to let him go for even a minute but he needed to see what Eko had for him. Kissing her quickly, he whispered in her ear, "I'm not goin' anywhere, Freckles. Just wait for me, okay?"

Reluctantly she let him go, and kissing her again he moved away with Eko as Kate watched them. Vincent sat next to her, nosing her hand, and she patted him absently as she gazed at Sawyer. She still couldn't believe he'd said the words to her; she already knew of course, but hearing them come from his lips had made all the difference in the world. He loved her. It was out, there was no taking it back now. She wanted to say them back; she had them formed on her tongue, but her throat closed around her breath and she couldn't choke them out. As she sat watching him she ran them through her head like a mantra, willing him to hear them from her heart instead of her lips.

Eko pulled Sawyer away a few feet; he didn't want Kate to overhear, not yet. He looked Sawyer in the eyes and sighed gently, smiling a little. "James, I am going to show you something that is going to frighten you. Understand that, and move away from the fear. This is a gift given to you and it is time that you realized it; the time is coming when it will be sorely needed." Sawyer was staring at him, strangely calm. "Are you ready?"

He glanced at Kate, who gazed back at him with blazing eyes; something was rolling through her mind and he could almost read it but it was too shadowy and vague for him to grasp. "Ed, will this help me...keep Kate?"

Eko touched him gently, his eyes dancing. "Everything you do will help keep her." He smiled and took on a businesslike air. "Now, James, Kate is in pain, yes?"

Saywer glanced at her again; he could see it written across her face. "Yes."

"And how does that make you feel?"

The words came to him automatically. "Helpless. Hurt."

Eko smiled again. "Good. You are not helpless, you know. Now, if you could take the pain from her onto yourself, bear it for her, would you?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation, though his voice was hoarse.

"Very good." He paused, glancing at Kate. "I want you to visualize it, see it in your mind. See you taking her hurt from her and giving to yourself." He gave Sawyer a second, then said, "Can you see it?"

"Yes." His eyes were closed and he pictured himself reaching over to her and drawing her hurt from her, letting it wash over him and into him; he gloried in it.

"Open your eyes, James." He did, and Eko was smiling at him, broadly. "Now, James, I want you to visualize it again, see it, but as you do I want you to touch her." Sawyer looked at him sharply and Eko nodded. "Trust me, James."

Hesitantly, Sawyer turned to her. Eko was right, he was frightened. He moved towards her, visualizing it; taking her pain for himself. He ran it over and over in his mind and as he approached her she smiled uncertainly, a little scared at his look. "Sawyer?"

His voice shook a little. "Kate, I'm gonna touch you but I don't know what's gonna happen." She was frightened; as he closed his eyes and pictured her hurt flowing out of her into him he reached out for her, hesitating. He was terrified. His fingertips touched her skin and he was filled with blazing agony; he heard her gasp and he opened his eyes, his body on fire. She was staring at him, in awe; the pain shooting through him compressed into one spot on his shoulder, where Kate's wound was. "Are you okay, Kate?"

She nodded, speechless. The pain was gone, completely gone. No ache, no throb, no pulling stitches. It didn't feel numb, either, and she waggled her arm experimentally; she could move it with not even a twinge. "I-it's gone, Sawyer. My arm doesn't hurt. At all."

The pain in Sawyer's shoulder was throbbing; slowly the throb lessened, compressing into a smaller and smaller space until it disappeared too.

They both turned at the same time and gazed at Eko, who was smiling serenely, happily. "Very good, James. Very good."

-----

Progress on the hatch was slow but they had cleared quite a large space by late afternoon; everyone sat in the shade to take a break from the heat. Jack and Ana sat close, but not too close; when they had returned from the jungle everyone had studiously avoided looking at them, but Ana was sure she saw Michael grinning at her when he thought she wasn't looking.

Michael looked up from some papers covered in diagrams as Locke sat next to him; he had found them in his pocket, and he remembered taking them when the hallway in the Zoo had collapsed. They weren't making a lot of sense to him, the technical aspects of the diagrams were beyond his knowledge of construction; there were elements and metals that he had never even heard of. "Hello, Michael."

"Hey. What's up?" He and Locke had never been especially close; in fact, he didn't care for him much at all. He was too weird and way too interested in a little boy for Michael's comfort.

Locke glanced at the papers Michael had in his hand. "What's that?"

Michael sighed and pulled a paper to the top. "I don't know, actually. I grabbed these from the Zoo, but I can't make anything of them." he held one up and pointed to a hand drawn and labeled diagram. "This is some kind of chamber, but I can't figure out what it's for. It has something to do with magnets but I don't know what half of this stuff is." He shrugged. "I'm in construction, not nuclear physics." He hesitated, then handed Locke the papers. "Here. Maybe you can work 'em out."

Locke took the pages from him. "Thanks." He perused them shaking his head; this stuff was way beyond him, too. He looked closer as a word caught his attention, above one of the chamber diagrams was the word tesseration. "Interesting."

Michael glanced over, not really interested. At every opportunity Walt stole into his head, dragging him down into sorrow; Locke looked up from the papers and saw the expression on Michael's face. "Michael, you know Walt is okay. What is happening to him is his destiny. He is very special; the island would never hurt him."

Micahel glared at Locke. "What the hell do you know? Are you like Obi-Wan Kenobi or something?" He shook his head, getting to his feet. "Don't come and talk to me about my kid, man, telling me it's his destiny. Screw that! He is my son, and his destiny is with me."

He stalked off across the clearing and sat next to Ana, who smiled at him. "What was that about?"

Locke hadn't moved, he was still sitting in the same place, staring into the jungle. Michael glared in his direction, then scowled as he said, "Nothin'. He's nuts."

Ana gave Michael a knowing look. "I know it's easy to think that, Mike, but I can tell you he's not as crazy as you think." She ignored Jack's angry glance. "He may be one of the sanest people here."

Michael sighed. "I hope you're wrong, Ana. 'Cause if he's the sanest one here," he shook his head, "we're all in a lot of trouble."

-----

They made good time up the pass, stopping to camp on a small plateau about halfway up; Kate didn't think it would be safe to go any further until morning, and Eko agreed. She disappeared into the trees to find them some food and Vincent went with her after barking to Sawyer.

"Yeah, you do that, pooch. We're all tired of fruit. Wait!" Vincent came back to him, Sawyer held his collar until Kate was out of sight, then he looked the dog in the eyes. "Watch her, okay?" Vincent woofed softly, and ran after Kate.

Eko had already built a fire, and he was sitting, staring into it. Sawyer sat next to him, wanting to ask about what had happened earlier; it was scaring him that he had done that. What the hell was going on? He could talk to a dog, heal people with his touch, and strangest of all, he wasn't surprised, just concerned. "Ed, how did I do that?"

Eko smiled into the fire, not moving his gaze. "Ah, Cowboy. I cannot tell you."

Anger started to rise in him. "Why the hell not? I healed her, just by touching her! The cut is gone. Vanished. Like my-" he paused, his eyes narrowing. "Like my shoulder."

"Two sides of the same coin, James. You and Katherine. You healed her, but she has healed you too, yes?" Sawyer was looking confused. "She did not herself cure your wound, though she made a sacrifice that allowed it to be done. But that is not what I mean. She has healed you."

Sawyer nodded. "Yeah." He hesitated again. "What is the Cloud, Ed?"

Eko closed his eyes and sighed. "It is difficult to explain, James, because its purposes are many and most are beyond even my comprehension. Let me just say it is a door."

"A door." Sawyer shook his head. "I saw things, Ed. Things no one else knows."

"Yes. A door into yourself. You saw your past? Your present? You saw the possibilities of your future." he leaned in close to Sawyer, staring him in the eyes. "It chose you, James, because it knows what you have it in you to be. It wants you to realize your potential, those possibilities."

"What did it do to me?" He was a little scared; reality was sliding away from him; he prayed for Kate to return soon so he could find his feet again by anchoring to her.

Eko smiled. "It did nothing. All of these things were already yours. It simply gave you the motivation and the knowledge to use them."

He didn't get it. Ed was usually pretty clear, but this was all gibberish to him; he could always talk to animals? He could heal people? What a load of crap. "This is crazy. What the hell is going on? And don't give me a bunch of crap about a door and mysterious powers and my path. I just wanna be with her. That's all I want." He stood, frustrated, and looked in the direction Kate had gone; he moved to go after her, but Eko stood, putting his hand on his arm; Eko flinched as a surge of electricity shot from Sawyer into his hand.

"James, please. Have I ever led you wrong before? I know this is frustrating. There is more for you to know but you are not ready. Katherine is not ready. Please have faith, James."

Sawyer stared at him, his anger fading a little. Vincent and Kate came out of the trees, she holding two of the squirrel-like animals in her hands. She looked flushed and excited, her eyes gleaming. "Hey. Vincent and I caught dinner."

Everything else was forgotten as he looked at her; face flush, sweaty tendrils of hair hanging in her face; eyes gleaming as she looked back, their eyes meeting. "Vincent and you? And don't lie, Kate, 'cause I can always ask him." Jumping on Sawyer, Vincent barked twice, and he ran to Kate and jumped on her, licking her face. She spluttered and dropped one of the animals, wiping his slobber from her cheek. Sawyer eyed her appreciatively. "Well, he said you helped him. That's good enough for me."

He went to her taking her face in his hands and he kissed her, softly, slowly; teasing her lips open he slid his tongue against hers, making her moan softly as she dropped the other creature and returned his kiss with passion, gripping his hair in her hands.

Sawyer broke it off and glanced around the plateau; Eko and Vincent were gone. He smiled and buried his head on Kate's shoulder; his hands slid up under her shirt, feeling her muscles glide beneath his fingers. "I knew I liked Ed for a reason," he said, "and for once he's got perfect timing."

He felt Kate tense, and he pulled back, looking at her carefully. His eyes met hers and held them. "Did it hurt you when...when you did it?"

His heart swelled; God he loved her. "No, Freckles," he said, pulling her head to his chest, wrapping his hands in her hair. "It didn't hurt at all."