Wow. Sorry it took all day for me to update. I took a nap and then whoosh, all my cares for the day were forgotten. But yeah. So...here's the chapter.

Just so ya know, I love reviews. The more reviews I get, the more anxious I am to update for you guys.

And incase you're wondering how I'm doing, I'm really stuck on chapter 21. I have 42,700 words and major writers block. I'm sure something will come to me though.

Chapter 8

Rotto

"Now it's cold and we're scared and we've both been shaken."

They were led down a long hallway that contained nothing but grey doors, white walls, and a white floor. It kind of resembled the hallway in a doctor's office, only much more creepier. The four of them stayed close as the followed the man, not wanting to get separated. All of them looked at least a little bit frightened of the place, having no idea what was going to happen to them while they were in it, or even why there were in it to begin with.

Jack looked around, shaking his head slightly. He glanced at Kate, then gently took her hand and laced their fingers.

Kate snapped out of her thoughts and looked down at their hands. The blank look on her face turned into a small smile for a few moments and she gently squeezed his hand. The blank look returned though as they stopped at a door at the end of the hallway.

The man glanced back at them, then turned towards the door. He pulled a key ring out of his pocket and looked through a few of the keys, finally grabbing hold of one. He put it in the lock and unlocked the door then opened it for them. "There you are." he said, motioning for them to go in.

Sawyer glared at him, then hesitantly took a step in the room, slowly followed by the other three. He glanced around in disgust and shook his head. They couldn't be eating here. It wasn't sanitary. It was a grey cafeteria like room full of broken chairs and tables. Dust and cobwebs were all over and he was sure he saw a cockroach scurry across the floor. There was a place where they could get food and the food looked even worse than the room. That too was gray and it looked just liked ripped up paper soaked in water until it was nothing but mush. It smelled horrible too. "We ain't eatin' that."

"You don't have a choice." The man replied simply. "You either eat it, or we torture one of you until you eat it." He glanced over at Kate and smirked at her.

Kate looked down and squeezed Jack's hand again, hoping somehow he could persuade Sawyer to just shut up and listen for once. But to her surprise, for once, Sawyer shut up and listened all by himself.

Noticing him glance at Kate, Sawyer sighed and walked over, grabbing a bowl of the mush. He shook his head and sat down on the floor with it, poking at it. "Well ain't this just peachy." he muttered under his breath. He glanced at the other three, wondering if they were going to try and eat it too.

Jessie slowly walked over to the food and picked up a bowl. She looked down at it in disgust, trying not to gag. Slowly, she walked until she was a few feet away from Sawyer and sat down, placing the bowl in front of her. She was not going to be the first to taste this stuff.

Jack shook his head, looking at the food. As a doctor, he knew that this stuff couldn't be healthy for them. It wouldn't even take a doctor to figure that out. A monkey could have figured that out. The garbage can probably wouldn't even take that stuff. He had to eat it for the safety of the others though. Letting go of Kate's hand, he walked over and grabbed a bowl, then sat down on the ground, looking at Kate.

Kate shifted slightly, trying to figure out whether to be stubborn or not. Deciding being tortured was not something she wanted to do today, she walked over and grabbed a bowl then sat down by Jack. "So…Who's gonna eat it first?" she asked quietly.

Sawyer looked at the three of them then rolled his eyes. "Well don't all volunteer at once…" he said, sarcastically. He looked at the food in disgust then figured it'd be best to just get it over with. He held his nose and tilted his head back again, then brought the bowl up to his mouth and let the mush slide down his throat. He then put the bowl down and closed his eyes, trying his best not to gag. The stuff was even worse than it looked.

Jack followed his lead and did that same thing. He made a face and stopped halfway, not sure if he could even finish it. The sooner he did it, the quicker it'd be over with though. The sickening taste hopefully wouldn't last that long. He ate the rest of it, then stared at the ground. It made his throat and stomach burn. He would have much rather gone without breakfast. Glancing up after a few moments, he looked at the two girls that were just sort of staring at the 'food'. He sighed and put his hand on Kate's back. "Just get it over with…" he said, looking at her.

Kate glanced at him, then back down at the bowl. She closed her eyes, then sighed, once again feeling defeated. In the end, she'd make sure these people paid for making her feel like this. Picking up the bowl, she held it against her lips, then ate it as fast as she could. She put the bowl down and crossed her arms, closing her eyes. She took deep breaths, feeling Jack's hand rubbing her back. After a moment, she opened her eyes again. Leaning against him, she frowned, not wanting to ever eat that junk again.

Jessie still stared at the bowl, shifting uncomfortably under the man's gaze. She wouldn't eat that. She couldn't eat that. She felt sick just looking at the stuff. Frowning, she crossed her arms and shook her head, her chin beginning to quiver. Why were they making them do something like this? "I'm not going to eat that." she whispered, her voice shaking.

The man looked at her and shook his head. "Are you sure about that?" he asked her, raising his eyebrows. "That's probably not a very good choice…One of your little friends is going to get horribly hurt if you don't eat."

Jessie looked at the ground sadly and shook her head. She wasn't sure if she could put up with herself, knowing that someone got hurt and she could have easily stopped it. Picking up the bowl with shaking hands, she refused to even glance at anyone else. Taking a deep breath and holding it, she quickly at the food, putting the bowl down when she was done. She pressed her hands to her eyes, shaking her head slightly.

The man rolled her eyes with her and called her a name under his breath. "Come on…I'm taking you to where you're going to be staying now." he informed them. "And I don't have all day, so hurry up." He looked at them and crossed his arms, then headed towards the door.

Jack stood up, keeping an arm around Kate. "You alright?" he asked, his throat sounding kind of scratchy from the food.

Kate nodded her head slightly. "Yeah…" she replied quietly. "I think I'm okay…" She continued to lean against him, even as they followed the man out of the room.

Sawyer stood, then glanced down at Jessie. He looked around then sighed. Reaching down, he took her hands and pulled her up. "Come on." he muttered, then turned and followed the rest of them out.

Jessie kept her eyes glued to the ground. She crossed her arms and slowly followed them, not liking this place at all. She'd rather be back at the beach right now, working on a painting or something like that. Sniffling, she wiped a few tears off of her cheeks with her arm and continued to follow, wondering who she'd be stuck with in a cell. She'd be happy with anyone except Sawyer.

They headed back up the hallway they'd come down, but stopped before they got to the end. The man led them through one of the doors and into another long hallway. This one was much different though. It was all dark gray and lined with dozens and dozens of what looked to be like prison cells. Or maybe they were slightly like cages. Most of them were filled. Some contained children, some adults, some a mixture of both. The entire place smelled of rotting bodies and it was obvious that these people could care less about the living conditions of their prisoners. Deceased people had not been removed from any of the cages and were just left the rot. Some people were coughing and looking quite sickly. Others were looking scared or crying.

Kate looked around as she walked, tears filling her eyes at the sight. This was only a place that would have been imagined in her most horrible nightmares. Her eyes landed on several of the children, ranging from what looked like weeks old to teenagers. Her arms wrapped around one of Jack's arm and she buried her face in his shirt, not being able to look anymore as she walked. And to think. This was what their lives were going to be like now.

The man stopped about halfway down the hallway and unlocked one of the cells. He opened it up, ignoring the creaking noise it made. "You two." he said, nodding towards Kate and Jack. "You'll be staying right here." He held the cell door open with his foot, watching the two carefully as they slowly made their way in. He shut the door behind them and locked it, making sure they couldn't get out.

Sawyer watched as they walked in, frowning. Great. Kate and Jack got put together. Now he was stuck with Jessie. Crossing his arms, he followed the man down the hall even more, looking even more unhappy than he had been before. "You better watch it, Zeke." he muttered, brushing past the man as he walked in the cell that was meant for them.

The man rolled his eyes and shook his head a bit. "You goin' in too, or do I gotta throw ya in?" he asked, looking at Jessie.

Jessie walked a bit faster, flinching as the door slammed shut behind her. She sat down in the corner and pulled her knees to her chest, burying her face in them as she hugged them tightly. This was just wonderful. She already felt sick from the 'food' and now the smell and the horrible sights here were making it even worse. Her stomach hurt, and that was beginning to make her head her. And now that her head hurt, she was getting a bit scared, making it even worse. Her medicine she used for migraines was back at the beach, and without it, things wouldn't be good.

Sawyer glanced at her, then looked down, staying silent. He sighed and leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes. He found it hard to ignore her though. He could hear her quiet crying, but how was he supposed to know what to do? He wasn't perfect Jack-O who knew how to do everything. He wasn't really a people person like Jack was. Shifting slightly, he glanced over at her again. "You okay?" he asked.

"Why would you care?" Jessie asked quietly, her voice thick with tears. Why would he care? The only things he cared about were Kate and insulting people. Why in the world would he care about whether she was okay or not?

Sawyer looked at her, blinking a few times. Yeah. He needed to come up with a good answer for that one, not really sure himself why he was caring right now. Ignoring her question, he hesitantly scooted over to her. "Is that a yes…or a no?" he asked her.

Jessie paused for a moment, not even acting like she had heard him. After a moment, she let out a sob and shook her head. "I need to go back to camp." she cried, beginning to shake slightly.

Sawyer looked at her, frowning when he noticed her shaking. "Well we all need to go back to camp." he replied, raising his eyebrows at her.

Jessie shook her head, signaling that that wasn't what she meant. "I have medicine back at camp…in Jack's stash." she cried. "He keeps it there so I don't accidentally lose it when I'm walking around."

Sawyer nodded slightly, staring at her. "Medicine…" he said, nodding slightly. "Medicine for what?" he asked her. "I got some uh…Aspirin in my pocket…"

"For…for my head." Jessie told him, moving her hand up to the right side of her head. "It hurts…" She held her hand out slightly as if asking for some of the Aspirin.

Sawyer reached in his pocket and pulled out the bottle. He normally carried it around incase his arm hurt, but the gunshot wound was all healed now. He opened it and emptied it into his hand. There was only one left. He sighed slightly and handed it to her. "I don't got any water…" he informed, looking at her sadly.

Jessie shook her head a bit. Water was the last thing she cared about right now. She put the pill in her mouth and swallowed it without any water. She hoped it would work. Her medicine was a lot stronger than aspirin, being specifically made for migraines. She crossed her arms again, leaning her head forward against her knees. If anything, it would hopefully at least make the pain bearable.

Sawyer looked at her and frowned. It would have been better if they put her in a cell with Jack. He was a doctor. He knew how to fix things. Sawyer had no clue about things even as simple as migraines. When he had them, he couldn't fix them and all he needed was glasses. It took the most embarrassing 'doctor's appointment' with Jack to figure that out. And Kate just /had/ to sit in and listen. He glanced around, then put his hand on the right side of her head, rubbing her temple gently.

Jessie scooted closer to him. She sat down right in front of him, letting him rub her head for her. She was quite surprised he was even trying to help her. She would have expected him to be on the other side of the room, totally ignoring her.

Sawyer surprised himself by helping her out like this. He wasn't completely heartless though. He just didn't like to show that he really did care. It didn't matter though. The were locked up all alone in this tiny little cell. Who was there to know he really did have a heart but Jessie? He moved so his legs were spread out straight and gently pulled her down so she could rest her head on one of them. He continued to rub the side of her head, occasionally glancing down at her.

Jessie slowly lied herself down, hurting to bad to care that this was Sawyer, the ultimate annoyance her in pathetic life here on this island. She wrapped her arms around one of his arms, burying her face in his shirt sleeve. "It hurts." she told him, her voice thick with tears.

Sawyer looked down at her, nodding slightly. "Yeah, I know it does." he said, then glanced around. "It'll pass…" He wasn't sure how long it would take for her headache to go away, but he knew that eventually it would. "Just try to get some sleep."

Jessie closed her eyes tightly, but sleep definitely wasn't going to come. She tightened her grip on his arm, shaking her head a bit.

Kate wasn't having much luck with feeling well either. She was curled up on Jack's lap, staring tiredly at the wall. Her stomach hurt like crazy and she was struggling not to be sick, the smell of the cells making it even worse. Leaning her head against Jack's shoulder, she began to think of what was probably happening back at the beach. Were they getting along okay without them? Did they need Jack at all? "Do you think everyone else is okay?" she asked quietly, glancing up at him.

Jack looked down at her, being snapped out of his thoughts. He paused a moment to think. He wasn't sure. He hoped everyone was okay. He sighed and looked at her, not wanting to worry her. "Everyone is probably fine…" he said. "They have Sayid and John…They can take care of everyone until we get back." he told her.

Kate nodded slightly and looked down again. She wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. "Alright." she said quietly, crossing her arms. She twiddled her thumbs, hating to be locked up in this cage. It was just as bad as being in prison, where she should have been right now. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around his torso. "Jack?" she said quietly.

Jack looked down at her again. "Yeah, Kate?" he replied, shifting slightly.

Kate hesitated for several moments before speaking again. "I want to tell you what I did." she said quietly, opening her eyes to look up at him.

Jack blinked a few times. "Kate, I don't…" he tried to talk, but she cut him off.

"I don't know what's going on with us, if we're just friends or more, but I think you should know why I was being taken back to the states to go to jail before the plane crashed…" Kate told him. She felt that he deserved to know why she was on the run.

Jack sighed and looked at the floor before looking at her again. "Alright." he said with a nod. "But whatever you tell me, will not ruin how I feel about you."

"I know." Kate told him, nodding her head. "I still think you should know." She closed her eyes, trying to think of where to start. The beginning was always good. "When I was five, my mom and my dad got divorced." she told him quietly, knowing that retelling these memories was going to be painful for her. "My mom remarried this guy named Wayne. For the first day or two he was at her house, he was this really nice guy, but then he started getting drunk. Every night he would go out to bars and come home completely trashed, and then during the day he'd drink too. At first he just sat in his chair and watched TV. He didn't even talk to us. But one day my mom was talking to him and he shoved her. Everything went crazy from there." She swallowed hard and looked up at him.

Jack looked down at her, showing that he was listening to her. "You don't have to go on if you don't want to." he told her softly.

Kate shook her head. "I want to." she told him quietly. She looked away from him again and continued talking. "At first it was just my mom…but then he started coming into my room and night and told me if I ever told anyone, he'd kill me and my mom." She closed her eyes. "I was just a little kid…I thought everything was normal. I didn't know him hurting us was wrong. But then I started going to school with bruises, and one time, my teacher called home about them and I couldn't even get up to go to school the next day it was so bad. And no one did anything. They just pretended like nothing was happening, because I was too afraid to admit what was going on."

Jack frowned, shaking his head slightly. He wanted to go beat that man's head in right now.

"I tried to run away from him, from Wayne, but he always caught me. He always found a way to get me back to the house. My dad, Sam, tried to get custody of me, but Wayne forced my mom to fight for me and she won…" Kate sniffled. "I spent most of my time and my friend Tom's house, just trying to stay away from my own, but one day, when after I moved out, Wayne broke my mom's wrist…And I couldn't take it anymore. I went to his house and waited for him to get home from the bar. I made sure my mom was at work, then I helped him into bed. I let the gas on, then left, and the house blew up. I just blew him up. Just like that." She choked on a sob. "I went to say goodbye to my mom and and she turned me in. She called the cops on me. And then I went to say goodbye to my dad. He had to keep his job in the army, so he called them too, but he gave me an hour to run, and I got away. I ran for awhile, before before I got this letter in the mail saying my mom was diagnosed with cancer. I couldn't just leave her to die alone. So I called Tom and asked him to get me in to see her, because he worked as a doctor at the hospital." Tears began running down her face as she choked on Tom's name. She had to pause to calm herself down.

Jack rubbed his hand up and down her back. So far he didn't blame her for what happened. He would have blown the guy up too. "Kate, you can stop…" he told her softly again, looking at her in concern. She was too lost in her memories to stop though.

"And so I went back, and before we went to the hospital, we stopped and unburied the time capsule we mad when we were kids, and we kept the stuff that was in it. And then we just went to the hospital…and when we got there, I went to see my mom but she, but she started screaming for help, so I ran. And I got in Tom's car and he followed me. I told him over and over to get out, but he wouldn't listen to me, so I took off. And then they shot at me, but the missed and hit him. And he died…He died because of me. He died. And I loved him. So much. I had to leave his toy plane in the car, because I had to go before they caught me." Kate buried her face in his hands. "They took the plane and they put it in a safety deposit box in Australia, and I found out which one. So I seduced some guy named Jason and had him and his friends help me get it. We made a promise that no one would get hurt, but he lied, and he tried to shoot the manager. So I shot him, got the plane, and ran…but later on the marshal finally caught me…" She buried her face in his shirt. "I'm sorry…" She sobbed hysterically into his chest, shaking her head.

Jack looked at her sadly. "It's not your fault, Kate…" he whispered, stroking her hair as he began to rock her slightly. "It's not your fault…" He rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. "Shh…" he soothed.

Kate continued to shake her head, holding onto his shirt. His comfort helped slightly, but she felt horrible. Absolutely horrible. After a moment or so, she pulled away, turning her head away from him. "Why would you want someone like me?" she asked him. "Someone who did horrible things…Someone torn and broken…? Why would you even want to be friends with me?"

Jack wiped the tears off of her cheeks. "Because no matter how you feel about yourself, I think that you are wonderful." he told her. "A little torn and broken, yes, but still wonderful."

Kate continued to shake her head, though began trying to calm herself down. Crying is not a good thing when you're feeling sick though. She crawled away from him and to another part of the cell, holding her stomach as she stayed on her knees and leaned forward, her face going sheet white.

Jack quickly followed her, sitting down behind her. He rubbed her back and pulled her hair back away from her face, trying to comfort her as she emptied the contents of her stomach onto the floor. He could tell she was going to get sick sometime by the way she was holding her stomach while she was sitting on his lap, though was just glad she didn't have to suffer through her stomach hurting her for too long. When she was finished, he wiped her mouth off and gently pulled her onto his lap, scooting back to where they'd been sitting before. He shifted so they could both be comfortable and rubbed her back, letting her bury her face in his shoulder, trying to soothe her as she cried. "It's okay, Honey…" he whispered, rocking her back and forth. "You're okay, Hun. It's okay. Try and get some sleep and you'll feel better when you wake up."

Kate kept her arms crossed over her stomach for a moment, then wrapped them around him. She closed her eyes, crying quietly into his shirt, staining it with her tears. She'd apologize for that later. Right now she just wanted him to hold her. She still didn't feel well, but she felt slightly better now, both because she'd gotten sick and because she'd finally told him what she did and he still accepted her.

"Shhh…" Jack continued to try and soothe her. "Go to sleep, Hun…" he whispered. He knew that it wasn't even lunch time yet, but she hadn't even had a peaceful night of sleep the night before. He smoothed her hair down her back, listening as her sobs tapered off and she slowly began to drift off to sleep.