"So what do you make of this island?" Sawyer asked Buffy as they made their way through the jungle.

"I don't know, maybe its on top of a hellmouth."

"A hellmouth?"

"Yeah, where I live, it's on top of one. Kinda sucks actually. What do you think?"

"I don't know...some people think we're in hell."

"That would mean we're dead?"

"Yeah."

"I don't feel dead."

Sawyer laughed.

"So what's your story anyway?" Buffy asked him.

"My story?"

"Yeah, I told you mine, now it's your turn."

"I don't really want to talk about it."

"Why not?"

"Now, you hide under your bed and stay there," Sawyer's mother told him, "Don't come out. No matter what happens, you hear?"

Sawyer nodded his head and went under the bed. He watched his mother leave the room and shut the door. He was younger then, barely old enough to understand what was about to happen next. Then he heard the front door slam open.

"Where is he?!" his father demanded as he threw the door open and Sawyer, who was still under his bed, instinctively moved closer to the wall.

"He's not here," his mother said, "He's at his grandmothers."

"Good," his father said, pulling out a gun and killing his wife with an almost casual air. He then walked over to Sawyer's bed and sat down on top of it. Sawyer heard another gun shot go off and he watched as his father fell to the floor, dead.

"I just don't okay?"

"Fine," Buffy said, letting Sawyer take the lead. She noticed a letter fall out of his pocket and she picked it up, looking it over.

"Why'd you write a letter to yourself?"

"What?" he said turning around to find Buffy holding the letter. He snatched it out of her hand.

"Where'd you get that?"

"It fell out of your pocket."

"You had no right."

"I didn't read it, I didn't get a chance."

"Good."

"Aren't you going to answer my question?"

"My names not Sawyer, its James."

"Then who's Sawyer? Why would you take his name?"

"Because it turns out I'm just like him."

"Honey," Sawyer's mom said to her husband, "This is Daniel Sawyer. This is my husband, Mark and this is our son, James."

"It's nice to meet you," Daniel said.

"My wife tells me you have the deal of a lifetime for us," Mark said.

"That I do, if you just give me say a few grand, I can triple what you give me with this investment."

"Really?"

"It's a sure thing."

"I don't know."

"Mark, triple," his wife said

"We don't even know this guy," Mark said

"He's a good guy, trust me I know," she replied.

"Alright, Mr. Sawyer you have yourself a deal."

"Excellent."

"You're incredible Sawyer," a woman gasped to Sawyer. They were in a hotel bedroom and both of then were in their underwear, "Oh, uh-oh, baby."

"Oh, what."

"I thought you had a meeting," she said indicating the clock.

"Yeah, but it's not until 3:30."

"Baby, its 3:28."

"Dammit. Dammit, baby, why don't you just, uh….."

"No just go. You go, okay, I'll stay here. Order room service, get fat."

"Why don't you order a chocolate sundae, when I get back, I'll use you as a dish," he said, giving her a kiss and pulling his brief case from on top of the armoire. It fell causing money to spill out, "You weren't exactly supposed to see that."

"You told me you were going to Baton Rouge to close a deal."

"Just trust me, there isn't any time to explain. I'm already late. I miss this meeting, the whole deal's a bust, alright? That's everything I have. 140,000 dollars. There's an oil mining operation in the Gulf of Mexico, drilling platforms. 300,000 dollars buys one share, but as soon as you invest a Government sponsored fund kicks in and triples your money in two weeks. Triples it."

"300,000?"

"Yeah."

"You've got 140,000?"

"I found an investor in Toronto, wants in 50/50. In two weeks we'll be splitting almost a million bucks. Jess, this is my chance."

"There's another option."

"Yeah, and what's that?"

"That I give you the 160,000 and we split the profit."

"Yeah. And how in the hell are you going to scare up 160,000 bucks."

"My husband."

Sawyer sat in a restaurant with the woman he had spent the night with and her husband.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea," Sawyer said.

"Why not?" Jess, the woman said.

"Because business between friends is always a little sticky. I don't know you well, but I know your wife. Working with her at the auto dealership, I'm just not sure I'm comfortable."

"Louisiana will invest 2/3's of the drilling costs. What is this? A loophole?" her husband asked, staring at the papers.

"Look David, you're reluctant. I get it. You got your lumbar yard, you don't need this," Sawyer said.

"You should do this," Jess urged him, she was getting thrown for a loop just like Sawyer's mother had.

"Jess, I don't even know this guy," David said.

"He's a good guy, trust me I know," she said.

"Okay," David said.

"Tell me Sawyer, do you want to die? Cuz when a man walks in my place and tells me he left 160,000 of my hard won dollars in the care of a civilian I've got to ask myself if what I'm hearing isn't the desperate cry for the sweet release of death," a tough looking guy said to him.

They were both sitting at the bar of a pool hall, "Deal closed today. See, woman are easy, a few cosmos, a couple of stunts they haven't seen between the sheets, and they think the scam's their idea. Now husbands, they need to touch the money, smell it, believe that if they had the brass to put that suitcase in the trunk of their family sedan and speed away, they just might have a chance at being an honest-to-gosh outlaw."

"Okay, Tex. You got your grift so pat, what'd you need my money for? Where your seed from the last couple you roped?"

"Well, what can I say? I like earning it as much as I like spending it."

"Be that as it may, I know a thing or two about making people suffer. Now you have my money, plus 50, by noon tomorrow or I'll tell you all about it."

Sawyer sat with Jess and David at their house.

"Alrighty. It looks like we're in the oil business," Sawyer announced.

"We get the money back?" David said.

"Week from tomorrow, tripled."

"You're not going to skip town, are you? "

"David, for god's sake. He's a good guy," his wife said.

"Smart woman you got there David. Don't let her go."

Sawyer noticed a young boy enter the room.

"You okay?" David asked.

"Deal's off."

"Excuse me?"

"Deal's off, forget it," Sawyer said, leaving with the money.

"I don't get it. Why'd you write the letter?" Buffy asked, "Why have you been carrying it around?"

"Here," Sawyer said as he shoved the letter into her hands, "Read it if you're so god damn interested."

Buffy slowly opened the letter and read it aloud, "Dear Mr. Sawyer, I'm writing you this letter so you know what you've done to me. You killed my parents, made my daddy kill my mommy and kill himself…" Buffy's voice faltered.

"Keep reading."

"I'm gonna find you and give you this letter so you know what you've done to me and my family."

Buffy handed him back the letter.

"You didn't go through with it though," Buffy said, "You didn't break up that family."

"No, what's your point?"

"You're nothing like him."

"I took his name hoping he'd fine me someday so I could kill him. How does that make me any better?"

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