Chapter 2

AN: Oh my gosh! I am really amazed at how fast people got into this. I put it up around midnight before I went to bed and woke up at ten o'clock with ten reviews already. (16 at the time of publishing! Thank you so much!)Thank you so much!

Alright… so far we have: 6 Jaters and 2 Skaters. The rest of ye-! Declare your allegiance. Anyone wanting to know what I am need not ask because the honest answer is that I'm neither. I swear. I love both and that's why writing this is so fun because I can do both as my mood suits me. Don't worry- there'll be plenty of action on both sides, and it will turn out one way or the other with a satisfying ending for the other person.

Just a response to AnnPatrick: I'm using my er, artistic license on that one. They won't get hurt if they behave… but really, who's going to behave? Those three? I think not.

On with the show!

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Earlier

The treadmill was easy for a while. Kate was going at a brisk pace, but nothing she couldn't manage. Two months on the mystery-frickin-island would make anyone physically fit.

As she ran, the teenage girl attached several wires coming off a monitor to her and then sat down and started scribbling.

After ten minutes, Kate was starting to get tired. She had only had one fruit to eat last night and some water. The girl must have noticed her fatigue, because she got up and increased the speed of the treadmill.

Kate gritted her teeth but didn't say anything. She noticed the armed guard looking around, bored, and took her chance. She jumped off the treadmill and lunged at the startled guard, punching him hard in the face and trying to open the door.

Which was of course, locked.

That was her mistake. Her actions had been rash and not thought out. The guard promptly butted his rifle into her head- not hard enough to knock her out but hard enough to leave a bloody gash. Kate yelped and recoiled, giving the guard his chance to throw her back into the center of the room.

Present

"They told me if I tried something like that again they would kill one of the people at the beach until there were none left," Kate finished shakily.

Sawyer was rubbing lazy circles on her back, looking distraught.

"Oh god…" Jack muttered, burying his head in his hands and exhaling long and slow.

"They've got all their fuckin' bases covered, don't they." Sawyer said, now looking angry.

"They aren't half-assing or leaving anything out of their control," Kate agreed.

"Kate, you should drink as much water as you can stomach, slowly mind you, and then sleep, ok?" Jack said. "We don't know when they'll take you again."

"Or one of you," Kate said, feeling unbidden tears well up in her eyes. She swiped them away quickly. "Sorry," she whispered hoarsely.

"Don't be," Jack said, his anxious expression softening. "Just try and sleep, ok?"

Kate smiled a little and nodded gratefully. "You don't mind, do you Sawyer?" she murmured, letting her head droop onto his shoulder.

"Freckles…" he said, slightly alarmed, though pleased, that she had chosen him for a pillow. She never said anything back because she was already blissfully asleep.

Sawyer shot Jack a triumphant grin and a little wink.

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Hurley ran like he'd never run before. Sure, two months on a deserted island with nothing to eat but fish and fruit would whittle a guy down, but he still wasn't exactly fit.

Today, it didn't matter. There was so much adrenaline coursing through his veins and egging him onwards that he never stopped once on the way back to the beach. There were only a few people who could help Jack, Kate, and Sawyer now, and he was anxious to find Sayid or Locke as soon as he could.

Still, the Others' ominous warning lingered in his head… they were not to come to their side of the island ever again- and now Hurley had no doubt about the things the Others were capable of.

The beach was in plain view now. People were huddled together in little groups; probably still speaking worriedly about the huge sound and flash they had witnessed just a day earlier.

Jin was the closest person to Hurley, so he made straight for him. "Dude," he started, panting. "I need Sayid. Where is Sayid?" Hurley said urgently, gesturing wildly.

Jin nodded in understanding. He said something in Korean and then, "Sayid, hatch."

"Thanks man!" Hurley exclaimed and ran off again into the jungle.

"Hurley!" Someone called as he rounded a tree. It was Locke, chopping some deadwood. "Where are Sawyer, Kate and Jack?"

"The Others… captured them," Hurley panted. "I gotta find Sayid…"

Locke nodded seriously. "He's in the hatch. I'll be there in a minute."

"Sure," Hurley said and took off again.

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Kate was awoken rather violently by Sawyer shouting right beside her and a flash of light as the cell door was opened. Suddenly he was yanked up from beside her, her head snapping into the wall. Two armed guards were hauling him out of the room.

"Sawyer!" she screamed and lunged for him, but two strong arms wrapped her around the middle and yanked her backwards just as the door slammed shut again.

"Jack!" She yelled at him, infuriated and made to slap him in the face, but he caught her wrists.

"Kate! Stop it," his voice was deathly quiet. "You have a deep enough gash in your head as it is. You know that if we don't co-operate they'll hurt us or the people at camp. You gotta remember everyone there… Claire and Aaron, Sun being pregnant and everyone else there."

Kate relaxed a little bit and hung her head. "You're right. I know you are. I just don't want them to hurt you or Sawyer the way they hurt me."

"I know, Kate, I know. You just have to work on staying strong. Sawyer's a big boy; he can take care of himself, ok?"

Kate extricated herself from Jack's arms and sat down close beside him. "Ok. I just hate sitting around and not being able to do anything. You know I don't do this sitting duck thing too well."

"I know you don't Kate. Just remember we have to scope out the place first… find out exactly what they want with each of us. The best idea may just be to wait it out, as crappy an option as that seems."

Kate nodded, not willing to consider that one yet. "The others… I mean, our people… they're probably going to try and help us, right?"

Jack nodded. "Hurley went back. He knows where we are. That's really the best we can hope for right now."

Kate felt quite a bit more relaxed now. Sitting close to Jack, a feeling of peace came over her… like everything would turn out alright.

"Jack?" she said weakly.

"Yeah?"

"I couldn't think of a better person to be stuck in an underground cell with a bunch of mad scientists on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere with."

Jack smiled for the first time since they were captured. He started to laugh, and put his arm around Kate's shoulders, struck by just how ridiculous their predicament actually was.

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"Sayid?" Hurley called into the hatch. Locke was standing behind him, looking wearing his usual wary expression.

Sayid emerged around the corner and hurried forward when he saw who it was. "Hurley!" he exclaimed. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah man, I'm ok. I've just been running."

"The others?" Sayid asked.

"The uh, other Others have them still. They only let me go to deliver a message."

"What was the message, Hugo?" Locke said, his interest immediately piqued.

Hurley looked at him distastefully for a moment and then said, "They sent me back to tell you not to go to their side of the island."

"Or what?" Sayid asked, looking dubious.

"I dunno, dude, but these guys are dangerous! I wouldn't be messing with them if I were you!"

"Hurley's right." Locke said. "We know that these 'Others' are capable of a lot of things and I don't want to be going onto their turf without a damn good plan."

"Yes," Sayid nodded. "But we are going to have to work quickly and quietly, perhaps do a little reconnaissance."

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Sawyer was sitting in front of a table, hands bound behind his back. There was only one person in the room aside from the guard- the dark haired teenage girl, again with a clipboard and pen.

She looked down and read. "James Ford… also known as Sawyer. Thirty-five years old. That right?"

"Yeah," said Sawyer, irritated. "God, didn't know they had fuckin' child laborers in this shithole. How old are you, twelve?"

"I'm sixteen," she said coolly. "And shut up. I can tell him to hit you if I want."

"Well, fine then Jasmine. I'll play nice, but only if you get our your Barbies and serve me tea," Sawyer taunted.

The girl signaled to the guard, who slugged him hard across the side of his face.

"Motherfucker!" Sawyer exclaimed, spitting blood from his mouth and looking enraged.

"Look," the girl said. "I'm not planning on hurting you. All I want to do is a few tests and then you can go back to your cell, ok? Lets just get it over with."

Sawyer looked at her stiffly for a moment, but figured she was telling the truth. "Fine," he said. She was young, and Sawyer was very persuasive... maybe a few sessions like this and he could get her to help them.

She signaled again and the guard came forward with a blindfold and tied it tightly over Sawyer's eyes.

"There are three balls in front of you, James," she started.

"Sawyer," he corrected her.

"Sawyer. Fine, whatever. Each ball is a different color. Red, green and blue. I'm going to scramble the order of the balls, name a color and then ask you which position it's in: left, center, or right."

Sawyer sighed exasperatedly. "What the fuck kind of test is this? I'm not a fuckin' psychic and I certainly don' believe in shit like this."

"Everything is possible, Sawyer, if you apply the right kind of pressure. Now, tell me, where is the red ball?"

"In Notre Dame, Esmeralda," Sawyer rolled his eyes under the blindfold, knowing he was pushing it.

"Sawyer!" She said menacingly. "Come on!"

"Fine," he snapped. "Left," he said, picking one of the options at random.

The girl scribbled something on her clipboard and shuffled the balls. "Now the green one."

"You ain't even gonna tell me if I was right or not?"

"No," she said. "Green ball, Sawyer."

Sawyer sighed and answered left again.

This went on for a good three quarters of an hour; the girl asking, recording and shuffling, and Sawyer pulling answers at random out of the air.

"We're done for now. You did well."

The guard removed Sawyer's blindfold. "Well golly gee, thanks Jasmine."

"Stop calling me that. I don't even know what you're talking about."

"You never watched Aladdin?" Sawyer asked incredulously.

"I grew up here. I never watched anything." She said coldly.

"I guess Disney ain' exactly mad scientist educational material…" Sawyer muttered. "Well then, sweetcheeks, what is your name?"

She looked hesitant for a moment, but figured there was no harm in it. "Alex."

That was her first mistake.

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Jack looked up as he heard someone unlock the heavy dead bolt in their cell door. Sawyer waltzed in, escorted by a guard, who promptly slammed the door shut again.

Kate stirred. She had fallen asleep again, but on Jack this time.

"You ok?" Jack asked as Sawyer grabbed a guava and some water and sat down.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sawyer shrugged. "They didn't do to me what they did to Freckles here."

Kate let out a relieved breath and gave Sawyer a bone-crushing hug.

"Nice to see you too, Sassafras."

"They didn't hurt you?" Kate asked incredulously.

"Nope. Just blin'folded me'n did some weird psychic testing crap."

"What?" Jack said, not following at all.

"There were three different colored balls, and this chick wanted me to figure out what order they were in. That sorta thing."

"What did the woman look like, Sawyer?" Kate asked, wondering if it had been one of the people she had met.

"Hardly a woman, Freckles. She was really young. Sixteen I think. Name of Alex," he said offhandedly.

"Oh," Kate said, "she was there with me too, with a clipboard?"

"That's the one."

"Wait a minute," Jack interrupted. "Alex. Sayid told me about her. She's Rousseau's daughter. The Others took her pretty much right after she was born."

"We could use that to our advantage, you know." Kate said, suddenly interested. "Play her against the Others. Tell her about her mother and such."

"I can do it," Sawyer said abruptly. "I can persuade her. She wasn't gonna tell me her name but she did."

"Looks like your con skills are good for something, Sawyer," Jack rolled his eyes.

"It's a lucrative business, you hafta be good at it."

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They talked late into (what they thought) was night- Jack filling Sawyer in about Alex. She was really their only way out, and only if they could persuade her.

Jack was still awake long after Kate and Sawyer had curled up on the dirt and fallen asleep. He was restless, in their stupid, tiny room.

Sawyer had fallen asleep curled up into a near-fetal position, his knees drawn up towards his chest and his hands curled up into his shoulder. It was interesting, though not unexpected, Jack thought, that Sawyer would sleep like that. Even in sleep he was still defensive and shielded. Jack had the fleeting though that he would definitely not want to wake Sawyer up from a violent nightmare.

Kate was sleeping in a little bit more of a relaxed pose on her side, legs splayed at the knees and hands sprawled out in front of her as if she were pushing someone away or trying to keep them at a distance. Jack wondered what he looked like when he slept.

She was dirty, her clothes were ragged and her tangled hair had fallen all over her face. Her lips were chapped and the gash on her forehead had turned a spectacular shade of purple.

It suddenly occurred to Jack that he had never, in all his years, seen anything more beautiful.

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AN: So…. Locke, Sayid and co. are hatching up a plan, J/K/S are cooking up something too… and Jack, well, he's falling for Kate as you can see.

If you haven't already, let me know if you're Jaters or Skaters.

Review!