Chapter 2

Hi everyone,

First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you for your reviews! They were awesome. Really. I've always wanted to me a writer, but this is the first time I've ever posted anything. So if it seems like I have no idea what the hell I'm doing, that would be why. For example, I realized that parts of Chapter 1 make no sense, like how they got off the island, etc. The idea is, after the last episode, Kate and Sawyer escaped from Pickett and ran across the other island, where Alex found them with a boat on the shore that helped Kate escape, but Sawyer was left behind. Kate got back to the old island, and a few days later, they were rescued, Kate under a new identity. That's all I'll put here and most of what I've got so far. It might change as it goes on. The rest of what happened then will be in flashbacks(that's what the italics at the beginning of some chapters are.)

I know. I never shut up. But thank you again, and now back to the story.

This chapter has more fluffiness than dramatic mystery stuff, so have fun.

Kate

p.s and I don't own lost or iris.

Run. All her life, that was the only thing Kate could do. Run, run as far as she could from her past. But she had never run this fast, never in her life. She could feel the world breaking away from her, feel herself beginning to rise from the ground. Usually this was the part of running that she loved, the freedom of it. But this time it was different. This time she was running for her life.

She kept twisting her head to look around her as she ran. Every step she turned to look, listening for Sawyer's footsteps following behind.

She screamed his name again and again, beginning to cry, her tears falling with the heavy rain. But no matter how hard she screamed, he didn't come. The only sound was a gunshot breaking through the rain.

Kate whirled around and slammed the door shut against him, breathing hard as though she had been running. She closed her eyes tight and violently shook her head. It was happening, she was going crazy, that had to be it. Sawyer- Sawyer was dead. It was her fault, Sawyer was dead. But still she could hear his yells through the hard wood of the door.

"Damn it, Freckles, that nearly chopped off my foot! What the hell were you thinking?"

She fell to the floor and buried her head in her hands, pleading for the voices to stop. But his voice still kept echoing back to her, from just inches away.

"Freckles, Freckles- Kate! Open the door, okay? I need to talk to you."

"Go away," Kate mumbled.

"What?"

"You're dead!" Kate screamed, flinging the door open. "You're dead! Go away!"

"Freckles, what the hell-" He grabbed her shoulders. "Stop squirming, damn it, Kate! What the hell-"

She finally looked at him, and that was when he noticed the tears in her eyes. "Shhh, calm down," he whispered. He took her in his arms and pulled her out of the hallway, gently closing the door behind them. "It'll be okay."

He stroked her hair and pulled her closer, and in that moment she wanted nothing more than to give in. But the one thing that stopped her was what she had been telling herself the whole time. He was dead, it was her fault, he wasn't coming back. She had said it so many times she couldn't believe anything else, even if it turned out to be the truth. Both thoughts fought in her head until she didn't know what to do. She could move as he lifted her up in his arms and brought her out of the hallway.

He set her down on the foot of her tiny bed, and she curled her knees to her chest, locking herself up. Sawyer sat next to her and took her head gently in his hands, but she pulled away, her thick brown hair falling over her face.

"C'mon, Freckles, look at me. What's goin' on?"

"Y-you were dead," she stuttered, glaring at him from behind the veil of her hair.

"Yeah, about that. Whad'ya mean, I was dead?"

"I heard the gunshot, you didn't come after me, oh God, I'm going crazy," she rambled, her voice fading to a whisper as she spoke the one thought that had been scaring her for weeks.

Sawyer almost smiled. "You really think that just 'cause you heard a damn gunshot that I was dead? C'mon, Freckles, you know better than that."

She was still glaring at him, and he could see her green eyes fixed on him even under the protection of her hair. Most caught by that glare would have thought she was mad, but it brought a tiny smile to Sawyer's face. Good old Freckles, he thought.

"How did you find me then?"

Sawyer shrugged. "That old passport? I didn't forget the name, Joanna." You don't look like a Joanna at all, Freckles, he thought. She could tell that was just what he was thinking. But she didn't release him from her sharp gaze, and he could tell she still wasn't ready to believe him.

"Still don't think I'm real?" he asked, a bit of a challenge in his voice. "All right then," His voice drifted off as he looked back on their time on the island. "You never wore pink," he said triumphantly.

Kate's head snapped up. "What?" she said sharply.

"The game we played on the island. I Never... You never wore pink."

Kate's mind traveled back to that night by the bonfire, and just the memory of it began to calm her. She brushed her hair out of her face, looked him in the eyes, and they were still the same green eyes she knew so well. "Sawyer?" she whispered.

"It's me," he whispered back, linking his fingers with hers. He ran his fingers gently through her hair, and she pulled closer and closer until finally his lips met hers. They waited there, neither of them knowing how much time had passed with them there, breathing together. When they finally pulled apart, Kate's tears were dried and smiles fell onto both their faces.

"I missed you," Sawyer breathed into her neck. "Only been two weeks, but you have no idea how much, Freckles."

"Yeah, I do," Kate whispered back. "I missed you that much too."