Sawyer shifted uncomfortably inside his tent. His arm still hurt, when Jack returned successfully from his rescue mission he would get up and get some more painkillers.

His plans seemed ruined when he glanced outside his tent to see what the sudden commotion was. What he saw was Kate rushing onto the beach. He pushed through the gathering crowd to see her and felt the wind knocked out of him as she flung herself into him, her arms gripped around his waist, her head buried against his chest, tears soaking into his shirt.

He considered pulling back, he had never been comfortable comforting women, that had always been part of his job and he didn't want to see Kate as a con.

"What's wrong?" She shook her head and clutched at him further. "Kate," he pulled her head gently back, "what is it?"

"Charlie… he's dead." Sawyer tensed, he felt worried that he didn't care very much. He was sad, but he didn't feel like crying, or even gasping alongside everyone else.

Kate had buried herself against him again and he suddenly felt suffocated. He was the centre of the group, on show, and he didn't want them to find out how little emotion he was feeling. He patted her on the back and tugged away, melding into the crowd wall around Kate.

"What happened to him?" Everyone shot a glance at the person who had dared to speak before looking back at Kate with expectant glances.

She shuffled a bit, looking down at her feet and wiping the remains of her tears away with the palm of her hand. "Ethan hung him. Me and Jack got there too late. We couldn't find Claire."

"What about Boone?" Shannon had managed to push herself to the inner ring of the circle.

"What?" Kate looked confused by the question before she remembered. "I don't know where Boone or Locke are."

"What the hell do you mean you don't know?"

Kate looked at Shannon and turned away again. She was starting to shiver as her words came out shakily. "There were two trails. Boone and Locke went down another one from us. I haven't seen them since."

"Then why are you here? You should be looking for him!"

Sawyer pulled himself out of the wall and walked over to Kate, wrapping one arm around her waist and another against the back of her head, letting her fall against him. He grimaced and tensed against her touch but he wasn't sure if she had felt it or not. He looked over her shoulder at Shannon. "She doesn't need the attitude right now Princess. I'm sure he's fine. After all, he's got Master Hunter with him."

Kate pulled her head back and smiled at Sawyer before turning back to the group. Sawyer disentangled himself and went back to his tent, watching the crowd thin and eventually disperse altogether before Kate walked over to him.

She crouched down on her haunches in front of him. "Thanks for helping with Shannon."

Sawyer looked away from her, he felt like he had to put a distance between them again, he'd got too close to her because he had felt like he had to protect her, but he couldn't let her think that she had power over him. "Whatever, I would have thought that a tough girl like you could have managed to deal with her." He smirked, "guess I was wrong."

"Yeah…" She sighed. "Jack is going to go after Ethan; I think he's going to build an army up at the caves."

"How nice for him."

She stood up, "come on then."

"Come on then what?"

"To the caves."

"Why would I be going to the caves then?"

"To help Jack; to go after Ethan and save Claire and get revenge for Charlie."

He laughed, "what on earth made you think that I would want to do any of that?" Kate's face darkened before she stormed off.

Sawyer closed his eyes and lay down, trying to decide what he should do. All of his instincts were screaming at him that it was a bad idea but he couldn't shake that nagging feeling of wanting to be accepted by the other survivors. Pushing himself off the ground he began to trudge towards the caves, already cursing his decision.