Author's note: keep those reviews coming, they're greatly appreciated:)

Chapter 3

Kate was astonished when she heard Sawyer's yell.

"Two islands?!"

She hesitated, her pace slowed down. Was he telling her the truth? Or was he conning her again, because of some Others' threat?

"Sawyer's a liar and a bastard. I won't make the mistake of trusting him again."

Kate looked at her left and at her right. Woods or the Others' buildings? They wouldn't expect her to be inside the wolf's den, at least for the first hours of her escape. But then again, it was dark and everything was silent, most people had to be asleep. She would have a few hours in advance if she fled across the forest. But what if Sawyer was right? That was way too many ifs for her liking, so she just started to run as fast and silently as she could.

She wasn't quite in herself. She was feeling guilty and coward and some hidden place of her conscience kept telling her she shouldn't escape. She couldn't leave Sawyer behind. She couldn't abandon Jack.

"Pssst!" a voice whispered.

Kate stopped abruptly. What was she doing escaping from a group of people who murdered Scott? Or was it Steve? What was she doing escaping from a group of people that had kidnapped Walt, that had made Michael kill Ana Lucia and Libby? She must've been out of her mind.

She looked around, recklessly.

"Who is it?"

"Over here, Kate. Come, come!"

She followed the voice into the trees and found herself facing the girl who supposedly was the previous owner of her recently disposed dress.

"You?"

"Shhht!" the girl said, nervously. "They know you've escaped and they're coming for you, but I got to you first."

"What do you want?"

"You have to go back, Kate."

"I don't have to do anything" she said, defiantly. "I'm tired of your games."

"It's all lies, Kate. Don't believe in anything they say."

"And I get to believe you?" Kate asked, her brows rising with sarcasm.

"Yes. Look, do you have any idea what they'll do to him if you don't return?" Alex insisted, almost desperately.

"Him? Sawyer?" Kate managed a faint laugh. "I don't care."

"Yes, you do."

Kate shrugged her shoulders and walked away.

"They will kill him, Kate. You're the reason why he's here. At least, you're the most important motive."

She faced the girl, sadly.

"Too bad. I can't go back there. I don't want to be locked and alone."

"It's all about you being alone?" Alex questioned. "Well, you won't be! Trust me."

"I don't trust anyone. Let me go."

"What happened to live together, die alone?"

"Well, he's gonna die alone, isn't he?"

Sawyer had fallen into a light troubled sleep. He was still sit, his back against the uncomfortable bars. He was having dreams about bunnies escaping from the wicked hands of Ben. So when he felt a hand tapping his shoulder, he stood up quickly and pulled away from the bars as much as he could.

"What do you want?!"

"Calm down, Sawyer. It's just me."

"Damnit, Freckles!" he sighed, visibly relieved. "Don't you ever do that again!"

"Sorry. Bad dreams?"

"Tell me about it." He walked two steps forward. "Did you get caught?"

"Kind of."

"Guilty conscience?"

"That too." Kate smiled. "But I guess you weren't all that worried."

"Damn right I was!"

"So I suppose you can sleep through everything, then."

"What can I say? I was tired." He grinned. "Glad you're back, Freckles."

She fought the urge to respond "me too", instead she just whispered "Yeah".

"Promise you won't get hysterical 'til I finish my story?"

"I wasn't being hysterical!" Kate replied, offended.

"Of course not. You just got all pushy when I said I was gonna leave you. Didn't even let me explain!"

"Well, you're not exactly smart when it comes to the exposure of ideas!"

Sawyer glared at her.

"What do you want to know?"

"Why didn't you fight back?" Kate felt that was the wrong way to start, there were so many more important things to talk about, but she just needed to know what they had done to him.

"I told you they conned me" he said, wryly.

"Into what?"

"They made me believe I had this thing in my chest that would make it explode if my heart started beating too fast."

"And you believed it?" Kate couldn't contain her laughter. "Come on! You wouldn't recover so fast of a surgery like that!"

"I was unconscious, they shot me with whatever that was and I woke up with a scar below my heart. Forgive me if I thought I was gonna die, Bovary."

"So why didn't you just tell me that? You got me scared."

"They'd do the same thing to you..." he whispered, faintly. "They can hurt me as much as they please, but God be damned if I'll ever let them do anything to you..."

Kate looked troubled, her hazel eyes darkened and she glanced away. She didn't deserve his concern, his will to sacrifice himself. Not after she had been so eager to leave him, not after she was so mad at him.

"What's the deal with the two islands?" she asked, carefully avoiding to think about the meaning of Sawyer's words.

"There are two. That's all."

"Sawyer..." she insisted.

"This island is a smaller one, what can I say? I guess it's Papa Ben's Island of Horror." He mumbled, aghast. " He sure as hell kept us from running outta here."

"Yeah." Kate agreed, sadly. "Yeah."

They were silent for a while. She on the outside of his cage, staring at the sky like it was her only way out. Sawyer was looking at her, a mellancholic wave crossing his eyes.

"Will you come back, Sawyer?"

"If they don't kill me..."

"Yes, Kate. You won't even notice I was gone."

She highly doubted that, but she smiled anyway, and climbed back into her cage.