Chapter 3

AN: Man you guys have me in a pickle! Seriously, if I pick one pairing, I'll lose half my readers! (Well, less than half if it goes Jate, since there seem to be more Jaters, which is kind of strange.)

Anyways, here's my promise so that everyone (hopefully!) keeps reading. Kate will be with both of them (I know, sl00t! Haha, no, we love Kate.) at different points in the story. She is going to end up with one or the other, but there will be really cute romantic closure (with Kate!) for the other one right at the end, so it isn't really going to feel like just one pairing. It's really hard to describe without giving everything away, so don't give up! I just really, really want to stress that both parties are going to come out really satisfied, so please don't leeeeave me!

------------------

Kate awoke feeling remarkable comfortable for having slept on a dirt floor. There was something warm and relatively soft under her head. She sleepily opened one eyelid to investigate.

She was nestled cozily on her side in the crook of Sawyer's arm, one hand draped over his chest. She snapped open her other eye and couldn't help but feeling slightly annoyed. It was like her body had betrayed her. She got up slowly so as not to disturb Sawyer, who most certainly would have the balls to make this into an embarrassing scene. Jack seemed to be still asleep across the room.

"Well Freckles, how much did we have to drink last night?"

Kate jumped and then punched Sawyer in the arm. He was still lying on the ground, eyes closed, but smirking.

"Shut up, Sawyer," Kate snapped.

"It ain' your fault, sweet cheeks. It gets chilly at night here. We were just tryin' to warm it up…"

Kate 'tsk'-ed and sat up. "Your ability to be disgusting in the worst situations never ceases to amaze me."

"I guarantee you it'll keep us sane."

They sat in silence for a while. Jack was still out.

"I guess it's Jack's turn today," Kate said, drawing her knees up to her chest and looking worried.

Sawyer nodded. "They haven't really hurt us Kate. I know they worked you like a fuckin' dog and did some crazy mind shit with me, but they aren't trying to hurt us for the sake of it. Jack'll be ok. He's a big boy; he can take care of himself."

Kate snorted.

"What?" Sawyer asked, looking irritated.

"Sorry- it's just, that's exactly what Jack told me when I was worrying about you being gone."

"Aw, shucks, Freckles, you worried about big ol' Sawyer?" he said sarcastically, but was secretly pleased that she had worried.

"Of course I did," she snapped.

Their conversation was cut short by the cat flap in the door opening and some food falling in. Snatches of conversation could be heard while they pushed the food through.

"…Take Shepherd out. I want him on an empty stomach."

Kate gulped and quickly crawled over to Jack. "Jack," she whispered, "Jack, wake up. They want you."

Jack stirred and blinked warily just as the cell door was opened. "It's ok," he croaked, voice still raspy from sleep. He gave Kate's hand a strong squeeze and then stood up to be escorted out of the room.

---------------

Jack had barely exited the room when he felt something sharp prick his neck. "Fuck..." he muttered, knowing they had injected him with some sort of sedative. Dizziness overtook him and he swayed forward, knees buckling beneath him. The two guards caught him just before he hit the ground.

---------------

"Look Freckles, we got fish today!" Sawyer said, waving the still warm food enticingly under Kate's nose. She'd been strangely quiet since Jack left, not wanting to talk to Sawyer at all, just sitting stewing in her own misery and worry. "And there are some fresh, home grown papayas; why, I've never seen a more delicious lookin' fruit in my entire life!"

Kate had to smile a little at Sawyer's obvious concern for her. "If I didn't know better, Sawyer, I'd think you were trying to fatten me up!"

Sawyer shrugged. "You're a damn rail, Freckles."

"Sawyer likes fat chicks!" Kate teased.

"No, but I don't like starvin' ones," he made a face.

Kate snatched the fish, which had been unceremoniously plopped on a plate and shoved through the cat flap from Sawyer. She squinted at it in the dim light, tried her best to get the dirt off it, and ate voraciously.

Sawyer looked impressed.

"You have no idea how much food I can put away when I'm not stressed out, Sawyer," she said between mouthfuls.

"That's my girl," he said, opening up a bottle of water and taking a swig, feeling accomplished.

---------------

Jack came around slowly. Whatever drugs had been used to sedate him, Kate and Sawyer the other day seemed to be in his system again. He had that same feeling of extreme fatigue and heavy limbs. He was lying down on something hard, and a very bright light, much like the surgical lamps he had been around in the hospital, was suspended above him.

This time, though, he also had the sensation of tingling in his hands and feet. This, he found, was due to thick, leather restraints tied tightly around his ankles, wrists and middle. There was a heart monitor attached to him as well.

"Jack," said a male voice, "good to see you again."

Jack squinted and looked around the room. It was Henry Gale, complete with a lab coat and his dark, beady, sinister looking eyes.

"Henry," Jack croaked, "Henry Gale."

"You know that isn't my real name, but it'll do fine for now," he got up off the chair he was sitting in and went to a desk and pulled some syringes and vials from its drawers. "Fitting that you, doctor, are on my operating table now, at my mercy, after you locked me away, and I do nurse a bit of a grudge."

"I thought you weren't going to hurt us," Jack said desperately, pushing against his impossibly tight bonds.

"As sinister as we might seem, Jack, everything we're doing here is for the greater good. I'm not trying to hurt you, as much as I'd like to," he paused to look at Jack distastefully, "but I am literally going to make you a better man. The road to getting there is going to hurt, but I'm not trying to hurt you. Do you understand the distinction?"

"No," Jack said stubbornly, eyeing the syringe Henry was filling with distaste.

Henry shrugged and came over to Jack, flicking the needle. Jack paled and shrunk into the table as Henry made to inject him. He stopped short and his upper lip curled. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were afraid of needles. How ironic." He found the vein in Jack's elbow joint and inserted the needle.

Jack made a strangled noise. It felt as if Henry had injected him with ice, so cold that it burned. The sensation quickly spread into the rest of his arm and then his entire body, leaving his muscles twitching and convulsing involuntarily.

"What... did you... do?" Jack choked out.

"Powerful cocktail of stimulants..." he started preparing another syringe. "You know what they say, Jack, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

--------------

Kate's good mood only lasted another hour. Jack had been gone much longer than her and Sawyer had been.

Kate had gotten up and was pacing back and forth across the length of their cell.

"Kate," Sawyer said exasperatedly, "sit down. You're gonna make me sick jus' watchin' you."

"Then close your eyes," Kate snapped, looking angry and scared.

"Kate," he said again, trying for a gentler approach this time. "Please, just relax. Jack is gonna be ok."

Kate's eyes welled up with tears, and this time she let them fall. "I just feel so useless!" she said, voice cracking. "I want to help him so badly!"

"I know baby, I do too, I honestly do," Sawyer said, and he meant it. He didn't hate Jack as much as he publicly expressed. They were rivals, of course, and he did find him annoying and too high and mighty for his own good, but he didn't hate him. And now this; trapped with only two other people in God-only-knows. That could bring anyone together, Sawyer reflected. That or make them try and kill each other, which wasn't really an option with Kate around.

"I hate this," she said, on the verge of hysteria, "I hate this. I hate this. We've only been here three days and I would already rather be dead."

"Don't say that," Sawyer said, anxiety instantly filling him. "Just don't. We gotta be strong. You gotta be strong for Jack."

"And you," she said, pausing to look at him.

"And me," he conceded, feeling touched. They looked at each other intently for another moment. "C'mere, Katie," Sawyer said, opening his arms to her. She didn't hesitate a second, but fled to him and let him rock her back and forth in his arms while she had a good cry.

When she had finished (and wiped her face on his shirt), she said, "Katie? That's a new one, Sawyer."

"Yeah," he said, looking at the ceiling embarrassedly, "it's a nickname, but it's still your name."

"Guess that must mean you like me," she smiled.

"Guess so," he said. "Guess so."

---------------

Sayid loaded a pistol and put it in the back of his jeans. "I'm going to find Rousseau," he called to Locke, who was sitting at the kitchen table of the hatch eating some dry cereal. "She may know more about the Others' camp than we do."

"You want me to come with?" Locke asked, putting down his spoon.

"No. You should probably stay here and keep an eye on things. I will not be gone long."

"Alright. Be careful that you don't shoot off a buttock." Locke said, smiling.

Sayid smiled. "I'll try not to."

----------------

Jack had never felt worse in his life. Every last muscle in his body left like it was on fire, making movement of any kind agonizingly difficult, especially as the guards half-dragged him back to the cell. His muscles burned but his skin was freezing cold, and sweat pouring unchecked from every pore in his body. All he wanted was sweet release; to fall asleep, or to be sedated again, but the stimulants in his system made sure that he stayed wide awake, eyes wide and breathing shallow and erratic. He also felt like he was going to throw up, but he had nothing in his stomach to expel.

The lights in the corridor were simply too bright for the drug induced, dilated size of his pupils and he was immensely grateful when the guard threw him back in the cell, where he hit the floor with an inhuman yelp and started shivering violently.

Kate blanched immediately when she saw the state Jack was in. Even Sawyer gulped audibly and muttered "Oh God…"

"Sawyer, get that strip of shirt Jack used on me the other day and drench it with water," Kate said, voice shaking and looking very pale. Every impulse in her was telling her to start screaming and crying, but Sawyer's words kept coming back to her. She had to be strong for Jack.

"I'm on it," Sawyer scrambled to comply. He'd never seen anyone look that bad.

"Kate…" Jack was babbling. "Oh God, Kate, Kate…" he reached out towards her, but she took his arm and put it down.

"Jack, shh, just try and relax, ok? Sawyer, give me the water bottle too." Sawyer handed over the drenched cloth and the rest of the water. "Jack," Kate murmured, dabbing at his forehead with the cloth, "just try and breathe ok? Deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth, like you taught me, ok? Sawyer, can you help me here?" she was trying to prop Jack up on her crossed legs so that she could cradle his head and give him some water without drowning.

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Sawyer said, helping Kate lift the heavier man.

Kate opened the water bottle and brought it to Jack's lips. "You have to drink some of this, ok? You'll feel better, I promise." Kate kept dabbing his face with the cool washcloth. With the other hand she tipped some water into Jack's mouth. He coughed and spluttered, getting none of it down.

Jack was completely delirious. He was wide awake, but the room was spinning around him and there were faces floating above him. All he knew was that he was on fire, and that all he wanted was to die. He needed to die. But then someone was dabbing face, cooling the fire that burned there and whispering sweet nothings into his ear. It was Kate, and she was a beautiful angel and she could give him what he wanted.

"Kate, he murmured, "I want to die. Please, please…"

Kate simply looked alarmed.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about, Kate," Sawyer said reassuringly. "He's delusional." It was all he could offer at the moment. Kate seemed to have everything under control and Sawyer felt useless because there was nothing he could do to help her help Jack.

"I know," she said, and leaned down so that her head was at the same level as Jack's.

"Jack, she said quietly into his ear, "Jack, please drink." She pressed her lips to the side of his face and kissed his cheek softly, the first of a path of kisses to his ear, where she whispered softly to him and held the bottle to his lips again.

Jack calmed down immediately. He could feel her cool lips on his skin and her voice in his ear. Kate was an angel and if she would stay close to him forever he would do what the angel said and drink, so he did.

Sawyer watched in morbid fascination as Jack relaxed slightly and let Kate pour the water down his throat, doing his best to get it down. She was amazing. There was no other word for it.

"Kate…" Jack said, in a delirious haze, "don't leave. Don't leave me."

"I won't Jack, I promise," she murmured. "Never."

That night they fell asleep clinging to each other, and for once, Sawyer didn't mind or say anything snide because he knew that that was something he had never, ever experienced with another person.

He realized that Jack was in love with Kate, and Kate was in love with Jack, and that he was in… something, with Kate, and he didn't know if it was love because he had never loved anyone in his entire life.

---------------

AN: Wow, that was intense to write. I love it so much. Sawyer angst makes me sad. I love him. I love Jack. I was like "Nooo, what am I doing to him?"

I am so amazed by the volume of positive feedback I've received. Love for everyone… and please, REVIEW!