Author's Note: I intended this chapter to be a bit longer, but wasn't sure if I could update it in its entirety before I leave for a two-week vacation. So I split it into two smaller parts and hopefully, part two will be up sometime tonight. Yes, that also means that I probably won't be able to update for a while, but to all my readers, don't worry. I'll still be writing chapters the good old-fashioned way! As always, please read and review!

Chapter 10: Tensions

She was caught in the middle of a war. Her mind no longer wanted to surrender to sleep and her body didn't want to transition to fully awake. That meant moving from her comfortable spot and Kate knew she definitely wasn't willing to give that up yet. So she dozed, snuggling against her pillow, as if she were lazily wasting away the few hours of a Sunday morning that made breakfast become brunch.

Except her pillow moved. Even in this state of limbo, Kate was pretty sure pillows were not supposed to move.

This was still a dream, she lied to herself. Wake up, Kate. Just get up. She blinked slowly, allowing her eyes to adjust and buying herself time to control the panic rising in every nerve. Trying to plot out her next move, she heard a dull steady thud under her left ear and noticed that whatever she had decided to make a pillow was rising and falling. She wondered briefly if they had been rescued, before her memory kicked in to full gear.

Nope, there was no boat. There was no rescue. She had fallen asleep on Jack. How the hell was she going to get out of this one?

"Well g'morning, Sleepyhead! Pancakes are on the griddle if ya want some!"

Sawyer, she should have known.

Kate moved to sit-up and was acutely aware of his arms sliding off her lower back. Had he really been holding her that long? She felt her heart jump wildly in her chest and berated herself for reacting like a love-sick puppy. It was just Jack. He would have held anyone who had been drugged and… Kate stopped herself in mid-lie. Why bother?

"Ummm," she mumbled, her voice thick with sleep. "How long was I out?"

"About two hours," Jack answered. He was looking at her, in that concerned way that left her uncomfortable and giddy at the same time. She forced herself to avert her gaze. This was getting ridiculous.

Pretending that being locked in a hut with the two men most interested in her was a completely normal situation to wake up to, Kate feigned indifference and stretched luxuriously. She waited for the familiar twinge from a muscle that hadn't slept well, but none came. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she leaned back against the brace of the hut, forcing herself to ignore Jack's presence to her left.

"How are you feeling?" His eyes were on her again, watching with trained patience for any sign of abnormalcy. She swallowed.

"Like I had a few too many drinks." That wasn't a lie. Her head was throbbing in tandem with her pounding heart and her stomach felt like it was executing the perfect gymnastics routine inside her.

He chuckled. "That's normal."

"I wish I had a drink," Sawyer drawled from across the hut.

They offered him polite smiles at the attempt to raise the tension, even if it had failed.

"Any numbness?"

Kate smiled to herself.

"Nope, I feel just a little stiff."

He nodded and Kate could almost see him crossing off the symptoms on his invisible checklist. Leave it to Jack to examine her as if they were sitting in a first-rate hospital and this was just another routine check-up.

He reached for her wrist tentatively but she didn't resist. If it made him feel better to check her vitals, she wasn't going to keep him from the relief, however trivial it would be.

"Pulse is good," he said, his hand moving to her forehead. His touch lingered a second too long, a feeling not lost to either one of them. He held her gaze and Kate felt powerless to look away. There was something different in his eyes, she thought, like he was searching for an answer he knew wasn't there but wasn't willing to admit its nonexistence.

"No fever," he recovered, glancing away.

Realizing his doctor duties had been worn out, Jack moved to sit back down and though her eyes were still on him, mystified by the change she had glimpsed, Kate knew Sawyer's eyes were watching them both. She had the vaguest feeling she was trying desperately to understand whatever had happened when she'd been sleeping. It was almost like the tension that flamed whenever Jack and Sawyer were together had somehow transferred to settle between Jack and herself.

Shaking off the confusion as an aftereffect of the drug, she whispered a quiet thanks.

"No problem," came the equally soft reply.

They were making her out to be the bad guy again, Alex thought. She walked slowly, careful to avoid the stones that jabbed sharply into her barefeet. But she wasn't fooling anyone, only herself. She was just trying to delay the inevitable.

Henry said that Jack would let her go more willingly. Tom said she would be less of a threat to them. Bea said they'd trust her and they wouldn't try anything stupid. Pickett just handed her a rifle and grumbled, "Get!"

Either way they had slanted it, the end result was the same. "Alex, go escort Kate back to her hut. You be the bad guy. You be the one to piss off the two toughest men we've probably ever captured."

That was why she had refused to drag Kate out in front of Jack and Sawyer before, when they had come traipsing through the jungle in search of Michael. She shuddered, imagine if she had listened then. Both of them would then have twice the animosity to throw at her. Once for that and now for this. She would be a marked person.

The scorching sun glared down from its high-noon point in the indigo sky, as she shaded her eyes to search futilely for clouds. A few mares' tails sailed lazily past, barely thick enough to dim its brightness. Alex scowled, feeling the first beads of sweat forming at her dark hairline. She still couldn't believe that angry fireball had earned her admiration only a few hours before, when it had painted the horizon a stunning shade of vivid red. Now she wished she could shoot it out of the sky.

Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the shabby hut, staring uneasily at the closed door. She could hear gentle murmuring inside and felt like she was about to intrude on something she had no right to disturb. Turning her head to survey the area, she saw the flick of a shadow disappear behind one of the other huts. Someone was watching her.

Fine, Alex thought angrily. As if they couldn't trust her to transfer a prisoner.

Her hand found the rough wood of the crudely-built door and shoved hard. She stepped into the cooler darkness out of the blistering sun and away from the eyes of her friend.