The door to the medical hatch flies open as Pickett and the others enter. They look through the halls cautiously so Jack doesn't see what they are about to do and head to the gun room. Picket grabs a pistol and the other man grabs a shotgun. The rest take what is left. "Let's go!" Pickett exclaims at the men head back out the hatch and into the dense, soaked, jungle.
"So you will even become a murderer for her? I didn't know you had it in you Jack." Tom states. "Especially after she screwed that good for nothin' redneck."
Jack bites his lip. He is not going to say shit to them until he knows Kate is safe. He in all honesty did not know if he is ever going to see Kate again. His heart wrenched at the idea. Hell, he might not even hear her voice again either if this all falls through. If something ends up happening to her because of this plan of his, he has no idea what he would do if he knew he caused her death.
He needs to know she's alright, that when she gets safe she will stay safe. He needs to know Sawyer will protect her with all he has, that he too will lay down his life for her. He needs to know she will feel loved like she deserves and make sure it never stops. He needs to know Sawyer will be giving everything Sawyer can possibly give to their relationship. And he absolutely needs to know if she is happy with the choice she made, no doubts or backing out. Oh how he wished she would have chose him instead of Sawyer, because unlike Sawyer he knew he would go to the moon and back for her. He had no way of finding out if Sawyer is going to treat her right or anything like that. Has he even told her about Ana? That was only a few days back and now he's fucking Kate's brains out in a cage. He hoped Kate didn't know and that she would never find out. If she truly loved Sawyer that would just tear her up inside to the point of insanity. And no matter what Kate has done to him, no matter how many times she has received his heart and shoved it right back down his throat, he never wanted her to feel the way he does right now, in this moment.
He leans against the cool wall and stares at that clock. In reality it had only been fifteen minutes but in all it seemed like an absolute eternity. Jack waited impatiently as the clink of the scalpel hitting the table sent his mind into a frenzy of annoyance. So he starts to pace. If there was ever an award for the world's best pacer, Jack Shephard would win it. It's what cleared his mind. He needed to be in movement. Unlike Kate he liked all typed of movement, not just running. He just needs to preoccupy himself that gets his heart racing and he could think up an answer to almost anything. Except one person he could never find an answer for. Because this one person was the most complicated being he has ever come across. She completely fascinated him. Her complete mess of a person that she is draws him to her. It was like she couldn't be fixed, and for once he didn't even want to attempt fixing her. He adored her just the way she was. She was almost like magic in his eyes. The way she could read him like an open book astounded him. No one could ever do that, not even his ex-wife. The way she can turn him on completely with that one tone she does when she is attempting to flirt. It is completely sexual, yet so innocent at the same time. And the way he can picture her in his mind, no matter where he is, or no matter the last time he saw her. He can conjure up every sparkle that resides in her eyes, every freckle on her cheek, and every crease above her nose that appears when she is genuinely smiling. And he loved he could do that. He couldn't even remember his wife in that much detail after a day at work. And even after almost five days he could still picture every little thing about her.
Tears were still cascading randomly down her soft face, wind blowing them almost in her ears. Kate could tell that Sawyer was getting tired. He wasn't use to so much running. So she stopped and leant against the nearest tree. She would give almost anything for a bottle of water, and she would give even more to have Jack right here, with her.
She can feel Sawyers eyes scanning her. It's not in his usual checking her out sort of way. She can feel him just searching, searching her face for answers. Seeing if he can even get the slightest glimpse of her true self. But he eventually lets out an exasperated sigh signaling defeat. He must have not found what he was looking for. Kate slowly slinks down, the bark digging into her back but at this point she really didn't care. She had too much else on her mind than to worry about a few scratches.
She looked across the small clearing at Sawyer who was holding himself up against a tree, it looked as if any minute he was about to pass out. She wouldn't blame him; that had been a lot of running even for her. Then her mind started to trail off to something else, someone else. Someone she had been thinking about the entire run. For the first time in her life it had called for running, yet her feet couldn't seem too unattached from the spot they had been in. She actually wanted to stay... for him. So much danger but she would risk it all…just for him. So what does she do, she gets up and starts to run…to him.
She can hear Sawyer call after her but she doesn't care. She needs to save him. She knows she can do something, she just doesn't know what yet.
The pacing really seems to be getting to her. She watches him walk back and forth from wall to wall and every once and a while he can hear an exasperated sigh and it lightens his spirits.
"Jack…do you have to pace?" Juliet asks him with irritation in her voice.
"It's what I do." He says with a slight smirk. Liking the fact that he is slowly getting under her skin.
There is a lengthy pause before another word is spoken.
"I know Danny is going to go after them, he wants to kill James and have Kate watch while doing so. So she can feel the pain of him in front of her eyes just as he did with Colleen." She stops. "But it won't be the same."
Jack looks up at her curious as all hell.
"If he really wanted that effect he would have chosen to kill you." She said with a sly smile. But then her eyes grew soft. "I'm going after them Jack."
Jacks eyes widen at the words and the gun is immediately pointed straight at her.
"Not like that Jack. Put the gun down." She states coolly
Jack slowly does as she requests. "Why are you going after them?"
She takes in a deep breath. "To save them, so you can save Ben."
Jack looks around the room as if he is deciding to let her go. Finally he meets her eyes and nods. "Please save her." Jack pleads.
"Thank you, Jack. I'll try." Juliet says with the sincerity she's good at, as she heads out the door.
"FRECKLES YOU CANT GO BACK!" Sawyer yells trying his hardest to catch up with the speeding girl.
Kate stops dead in her tracks and turns around to face an out-of-breath Sawyer.
"And why the hell can't I?" She shouts coming towards him aggressively. Looking as if she is about to pound his face in.
"Because they will probably threaten to kill you in front of him so he finishes the operation."
"He would come back for me." She says with a quivering bottom lip.
Sawyer comes up to her and places his sweaty hands on the soft skin that resides on her shoulders, holding them tightly as if to stop her from taking off with a mad dash yet again.
"Freckles we gotta get back to the beach, the Doc probably isn't going to survive this if we try to break him out or not. It's better to lose just one person than two." The second he finishes that statement he regrets it ever left his mouth. Her entire being starts to quiver as the tears cascade rapidly down her cheeks.
She looks towards the jungle floor and lets out a defeated sigh. "I can't leave him."
Sawyer huffs. "Well, I hate to burst your bubble but you have to. You can't go after him now Freckles…it's too dangerous. When we get back to the beach we will have everyone join in on a master plan or some shit like that. Then I promise you we will go back to get him." He sighs knowing how much Jack means to her but not wanting to admit it out loud.
"You promise?" She raises her head to meet his stare. There are tears in her eyes and she looks like a little lost puppy.
"Yeah, yeah I promise." Sawyer says with a brief nod.
Suddenly bullets start whizzing past their heads. "RUN!" Sawyer screams at Kate and pushes her in the direction of the beach. And this time Kate immediately does as she is told.
They run for what seems like hours until Kate unexpectedly trips on a tree-root that is sticking straight up out of the ground and gashes her knee open, hearing a crack as well. Blood starts to pool out of it yet it's not the first thought on her mind. She just so happened to land on the top of a high cliff and the radio had flown off the side. Kate flies up after it, ignoring the searing pain that is shooting through her entire limb at the moment.
Sawyer caught up to her and saw the blood trail leading up to the side of the cliff.
"Fuck." Is all Kate could let escape her mouth as she looks down at the walkie-talkie which is balancing on a root that sticks out from the wall of stones.
"Damn it freckles what happened?" Sawyer asks glancing back and forth from Kate to the jungle.
"It…it's just a little out of reach." Kate moans as she stretches her arm towards the radio the furthest she can possibly reach it.
Sawyer slowly scoots towards the edge and looks down. "That's a lot more than just a little out of reach Freckles." He says as he too tries to reach it.
Bullets start to fly as Kate starts to climb.
"WHAT THE HELL YOU THINK YOU'RE DOIN'?" Sawyer asks while ducking from the raiding bullets.
"What does it look like I'm doing; I'm getting the radio back." Kate states, determination evident in her voice.
She slowly lowers herself over the unsteady ledge. Rocks fall from underneath her small body. She starts to fall with them until she feels Sawyers hand tightly grasping her arm. The tightness of his grip hurts her but she overlooks it as he helps lower her down the cliff-side. It's much further down that she thought. It's far enough down that Sawyer can no longer reach her, causing her to climb the rest of the way down. Which was such a difficult task since she could barely put any weight on her right leg which was dripping blood down into the water below.
Suddenly, the branch she and the walkie-talkie were on started to snap. Kate quickly reached for the device shoving it in her pocket. The branch gave way and fell in to the depths of the ocean as Kate is left hanging onto the sharp rocks sticking out far enough to grab onto. Sawyer quickly holds his hand down to her seeing what a pickle she has gotten herself into.
She starts to panic but then instinctively starts to count.
"One… Two… Three… Four… Five."
Her hand suddenly flies onto another rock sticking out of the jagged side. She grabs for the next rock up while her left foot fumbles to find something to step on. She uses all the strength she has and hoists herself up. Not able to use her right leg from all the pain shooting through it. She continues to climb. Pushing herself hard. Finally she reaches the ledge and Sawyers arms as he begins to hoist her up.
"Jesus woman, you're gonna get yourself killed for that thing." He smirks as he continues to raise her up to the top.
Kate just glares at him. He gives her a smirk and a nod as he raises her over the ledge.
Completely exhausted and out of breath they take a few seconds to regain composure until Kate notices something unusual about her surroundings. "What happened to the gunshots?"
They both raise their heads slowly and steadily. They are completely surrounded; Pickett had found more of his friends to come after them. Twelve sleek black guns were pointed at their still, terrified bodies.
"GET UP!" Pickett yells coldly at the two escapees.
Sawyer stands and looks down towards Kate, sympathetically.
"I CAN'T." She calls out to them, trying not to let her voice crack from the absolute fear she was experiencing.
"AND WHY THE HELL CAN'T YOU?" He yells back, anger so strong in his voice she could almost feel it infecting her wounded leg. He starts to come closer.
"It's my knee, it's banged up pretty bad." She states almost in tears, as the pain finally escalates to what it was supposed to be if it wasn't for the mental shield she had put up when she was gathering the radio from the cliff side no less than two minutes ago.
Pickett starts to inch closer to Kate. Holding his gun towards Sawyer but keeping his eyes trained on the fugitive.
Once he reaches Kate, the guns position changes so that it is now pointed directly to Kate's head.
She lets a fearful gasp escape from her trembling lips. Her mind was completely void of any thoughts by that point. "He won't save him if you do this. He's going to die."
"So will you're beloved Doctor." Pickett then cocks the gun. It's so loud in her ear it seems as if it is literally pounding her eardrum.
Kate swallows hard as she tried her hardest to keep the tears from falling. She trying to put up a front of strength, unfortunately Pickett and his men can see straight through her like crystal.
"What the hell do you think you're doin'?" Sawyer attempts to break free of the men who are now gripping him tightly and lunge at Pickett, but it is of no use.
"I'm just killing two birds with one stone." Pickett states harshly through clenched teeth. "I harm you and the Doctor at the same time. After what he's doing to Ben he deserves to lose the woman he loves."
A tear escapes from behind Kate's broken eyes hearing this. She didn't want to ever hurt anyone ever again. Now she is about to hurt the two people she cares about most in this messed up world.
He slowly pulls the trigger back making these few distinct moments prolonged and unbearable for all who stood watching.
The loud shot was heard. It rang through Sawyers ears like a church bell through the streets on Easter Sunday. He looked away the second it happened, not wanting to see her frail lifeless body fall to the hard rocky ground that sat beneath them.
But finally he brings himself to look. He sees' her trembling figure staring down at a bloody Pickett. He quickly raises his eyes to a silhouette he sees out of the corner of his eye. It is the blond chick, Juliet. Her body is solid and still, the gun is still aimed towards Pickett's inanimate form.
"Release them and get back to the site, NOW!" Juliet orders all the men around, and to Sawyer and Kate's surprise they all did as they were told, all tense and fearful. Three men head towards Pickett's body and lift him up; they disappear into the crowded jungle leaving Juliet.
Juliet slowly saunters over to Sawyer and Kate. "He is with Colleen now. He's happy." She says more to reassure herself than either of the two before her. But she still keeps a caring yet stone appearance about her.
"Why…Why did you do that?" Kate shakily asks. "I thought he was on your side."
"There are no sides Kate, it is a matter of right and wrong. And we are not done with him yet, we need you alive so he can finish. And after that…" She pauses. Usually she is so strong but she appears as if she is breaking. They watch as she takes in a slow breath. "After that I will try everything in my power to save him. It won't be easy but I will try."
"WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO TO HIM?" Kate demands as she attempts to stand only to fail miserably clutching her knee to try and stop the blood that is flowing effortlessly out of her knee.
Juliet gulps once. "I'm not sure, but it's going to be bad… I'm sorry Katherine."
Kate takes in a shaky breath.
"Take care you two." Juliet says as she turns around to start her journey back to the havoc in the operating theater. She turns back one last time. "Oh and Kate."
Kate looks up into the blond woman's eyes.
"Remember to radio."
Not able to do anything else Kate simply nods. Over a thousand things that they could do to him are going through her mind at this very instant. She looks towards Sawyer with worried eyes and he sees the same emotion in his vivid blue eyes.
