Quick Note: Huge thanks to my one reviewer - I'm updating now because of those sweet words.

Chapter Six

Three days passed. Sawyer and Kate headed south-west, into largely unexplored areas of the island – they didn't want to run into the Others while running away from the new threat. Kate had at one point referred to their attackers as 'the New Others', which Sawyer had scoffed at.

"So what do you want to call them?" she asked.

"Well, you can't just call them the New Others. Because then the Old Others might get offended," he replied cheekily. His sarcasm and weak puns were all that kept her going now, and he knew it. So he kept a steady stream of words that meant little but were the only way of filling the huge hole of despair they each carried around.

"So what? The Ship-People? Ship-Others?" Kate suggested, giving him a weak smile, one that he was thrilled to see. It meant Kate was coming back.

"The Evil Bastards Who Attacked Us In The Middle Of The Night?" he replied, grinning. He still had no idea what they were doing or where they were going, or if they would go back, but he knew he wasn't going to do anything rash. That wasn't really part of his temperament, being patient, but with Kate in his care, he would check the list twice.

"The Others, Version 2," Kate replied. Sawyer had laughed, but hadn't replied for a few minutes.

"It's good," he mumbled eventually. Why hadn't he thought of that? "But it makes them sound like a computer program."

"Computer virus, more like," Kate replied, her new-found smile vanishing. They kept walking in silence.

The physical barriers – gullies, thick stands of trees that couldn't be pushed or hacked through, the sounds of animals moving in the bushes around them – they barely noticed, having been trekking to various places around Craphole Island for at least three months. Maybe three and a half. Kate sighed. Four months seemed like a long time. Sawyer looked up, but didn't say anything.

It was nearing midday when they stopped, and Kate didn't seem very interested in eating, even though she should have been ravenous. They'd been walking on nothing but papayas for several hours now, but it was the ache in Sawyer's feet rather than his stomach that had convinced him to call a break.

"Did you ever actually have to run?" he had asked as they'd sat down. For a few moments, she'd just stared at him in confusion. He elaborated. "I don't mean metaphorically, or in a car... did you ever have to get up on your feet and run away?"

Kate swallowed. "A couple of times. They'd come close, without me knowing, and that was all that saved me."

"You move around a lot?" he asked. She couldn't help giving him a slight glare. She didn't want to talk about it. He knew that.

"Wouldn't you?" she asked. He didn't say anything, and she had to say something to break the silence. "Even when I thought I was safe, I never stayed. I tried, several times. Never could."

"Well," he said after an uncomfortable break. "That does explain a lot."

"You didn't pick up on that the first week?" she asked, a hint of irony in her voice.

"Well, yeah. Everyone did. But I never heard you admit it before."

"Why does it matter?" she asked tiredly. He gazed around them.

"The first step to recovery is admitting the problem," he quoted, and this time she really glared at him.

"You think I have a problem?" she asked harshly. "Whose idea was it to keep going, not to go back?"

"I'm not saying you have a problem. Just quoting the ol' AA proverb," he replied. She stared at him, disgusted. Well, it wasn't surprising – they'd managed half a week without an argument, they were well due for one.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked.

"Do you think they're dead?" he asked softly. Kate was caught off-guard, just as he'd known she would be. She silently cursed him, even as she struggled not to show how unnerved she was. She failed, of course.

"What sort of question is that?" she asked angrily.

"Answer it."

"Do you?"

"I asked first," he pointed out. She narrowed her eyes.

"Maybe. There's probably lots who made it to the jungle, like us. I know some of them are dead. I saw Locke... and Jin... oh God." Kate's breath caught, and her eyes misted as the memories came back to her. Sawyer moved so that he was sitting beside her. "I saw Jack get shot," she whispered, burying her face in his arm. The irony of the statement and the action didn't pass Sawyer by.

"Don't mean he's dead, though," Sawyer said, trying to reassure her. "I've been shot before. I'm still here."

"I tried to get to him. I was going to help, but then you... you..." Kate pushed herself away. He was gazing at her sorrowfully, like a puppy that's been caught stealing food from the table. "You pulled me away. You made me go, and left him there to die!" she yelled at him.

"If I hadn't done what I did, you'd be back there with him," Sawyer snapped back, his hurt twisting into self-righteous anger.

"Why did you come back?" she screamed, so loud a few birds took off from the branches above them in alarm. Even Sawyer couldn't help himself, and took a step back. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen her this angry. Usually her anger was of the cold-shoulder, smouldering variety, not this raging tempest.

"I saved your life," he said coolly.

"I didn't ask you to," she snapped back. Without waiting for an answer, she turned and walked off. Not having any packs or supplies, there was nothing to make her hesitate for even a second, and by the time Sawyer had garnered a reply, she was already too far away to hear it.

"I did it anyway, Freckles. And I'd do it again."