Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone that's still reading and reviewing, with special thanks to my faithful reviewer LexieMcSteamy. I appreciate your feedback, always love to hear from you all so keep reading and keep commenting … I love it. Thanks! Here's the next chapter. I worked day and night for the last couple of days to get this posted up so soon, so I hope you like it!

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Somewhere in Mexico

James critically eyed his reflection in the rectangular mirror that hung above the small sink in the even smaller bathroom of his newly acquired trailer home.

After repeated applications of the hair dye remover he'd finally managed to get most of the brown dye out and his hair looked more like his own again. Sure, it looked like it been through hell and back … his scalp felt like it had been stripped of its skin and burned as if it had been set on fire and there was no shine, no luster but at least the color matched that of the man she'd married and that was really all that mattered. In fact, the more battered it looked the better he thought to himself as he ran another hand through it.

The beard he was sporting these days looked perfect for the part, he noted. It wasn't long like it would be in over a month when he was supposed to do this, but it was long enough to pull this charade off.

But as he turned to catch a glimpse of his own back, he realized he'd have to do something about the still visible remnants of the fake tattoo he'd sported.

Over the last week it had slowly faded and eventually disappeared on his chest and arms and everywhere else he could actually reach and scrub, but it was still clearly visible on his back. He'd have to do something about that before he could set his own plan in motion.

Still shirtless he rummaged through the cabinets and drawers around his trailer for anything he could use. Looking for anything that would spark an idea of how to get rid of the remainder of his tattoo, but nothing seemed suited.

He'd already rubbed his back down with a towel until his skin felt raw, but the tattoo was still there. He's scraped his back along the edge of the door frame, not even fearing to draw blood – which he had – but still, the tattoo was still adorning his back.

Coming up with no new ideas, he opened the door to his trailer and sat on the stoop once again. The early afternoon sun was beating down at him mercilessly and he squinted in the bright sun as he lit himself a cigarette and looked around the desert that surrounded him.

It wasn't all just sand. It was sticks and stones, dirt and gravel. His eyes landed on the jeep for just a moment and he once more began to weigh the options presented before him.

The jeep was a stick. He'd have to get it driving in first gear at least and then … then he'd have to weigh down the gas pedal just enough that it wouldn't just stop. But at the same time it wouldn't need to go fast, in fact it would be better if it went slow, because when it was all over and done with he would have to run after the damn thing to catch up with it again.

With the cigarette hanging from his lips, he strutted over to the dingy jeep, opened the trunk to the vehicle and threw everything out. He'd need room to get through to the back. It took him a couple minutes, but he managed to attach a thick rope to the trailer hitch of the jeep.

Just to double check every detail of his plan, he actually got in the still parked car, climbed through to the back, took a hold of the rope with both hands and instead of just jumping out he practically threw himself out into the dirt. He grunted in pain as he hit the dirt, the sand, gravel and rocks scraping his skin and him knowing all too well that this would hurt 100 times worse when the jeep was actually rolling.

But lying still on his back and feeling the hot sand and dirt burn the skin on his bare back, he smiled because he knew that this would get rid of the tattoo and then he could finally get his real plan into full swing. And he could finally go home!

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Somewhere in a car leaving Las Vegas

"So, what? You're some kind of spoiled rich kid with a trust fund, who never had to work for a day in his life?"

Miles almost spit the drink out at Clark's description of him. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and retorted an offended, "No." while giving Clark a look as if he was crazy, "Why'd you think that?"

"Because you just handed over more for this DVD of your dead buddy, then what I make in a fucking month." Clark blurted out still in awe. "So if it isn't a trust fund, then what the hell is it? You won the lottery? Or are you secretly some high tech geek that struck it rich with Apple or something? You're some kind of philanthropist?"

Miles shook his head and smiled, "None of the above, man. I just … just did this job for this really rich guy and he paid up big time."

Clark looked over at him, his eyebrows shot up and his forehead wrinkled clearly intrigued, before he turned his attention back to the road, "What kind of job?"

Miles shook his head again, before he took another drink from his soda bottle, trying to pass it all off as nothing, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, man. Trust me."

They shared a quick look and for a long moment Miles thought that he'd gotten away with it but he was mistaken when Clark just couldn't let it go, "Try me."

Miles put the bottle down into the cup holder and sat back again, "Nah, just drop it, man."

Clark wouldn't let up though, more intrigued by the way Miles refused to explain, "Come on. It wasn't some kind of sexual deal … I mean, you're with Claire and –"

"What?" Miles cut him off, "Why'd you even say somethin' like that, man?"

Clark laughed out loud at Miles' reaction, "Alright, so it wasn't some sort of indecent proposal then!"

"No." Miles proclaimed. "It wasn't."

"Sheeeeez, just spit it out then. Whatever else it was … couldn't have been that bad."

Miles grew still and stared out the window, contemplating just how much he was willing to reveal to this guy. "Alright." He turned towards Clark, figuring the bluntest approach would end this conversation the quickest, "He paid me to talk to some dead people." He threw his hands up in defeat, "There you have it. Happy now?"

Clark shook his head, frowned and turned his attention back to the road, "Didn't need to be a fucking dick about it, man. Can't throw that much cash around and not expect people to wonder where the fuck it all came from."

Miles remained quiet, wondering for a minute if he should leave it at that, but it bothered him that Clark thought he was just blowing him off.

Clark on the other hand looked over and caught Miles' facial expression, "Fuck! You were serious, weren't you?"

Miles shrugged, "Told you you wouldn't believe me."

Clark looked back at the road then back at him and back at the road again and a long moment passed before he spoke up once more, "So what? You're some kind of scam artist too? That's how you two knew each other? Running in the same circles an' all?"

"Jim and I?" Miles asked back to clarify.

"No, you and MacGyver." Clark retorted sarcastically, but then nodded, "Yeah, Jim and you."

Miles shook his head again, "No, man, it wasn't like that. We go way back …" he paused and hesitated for a moment, "we've known each other since the seventies."

Clark looked at him perplexed but then rephrased, "You've known him since you were kids?"

"Yeah." Miles nodded, "Sure." Unwilling to explain and ready to cut this particular conversation short.

And it worked, since they drove for a while in silence, but suddenly Clark spoke up again. "You're not a con man then?"

"No." Miles replied, "I'm not."

"So … what? You're like that chick from that TV show Medium, dreaming about shit and stuff?"

Miles thought it over for a minute, "I guess more like that chick in the Ghost Whisperer, but not so intense, not so dramatic and shit … you know different. It's kind of hard to explain."

Clark laughed, "You're different alright! That chick's hot, man." He paused and the smile faded slowly from his face, "But it's real … I mean, you're really some kind of ghost hunter or something?"

"I guess. It's complicated, man. Let's just drop it, alright."

"Alright." Clark agreed, realizing how Miles' mood had changed the longer they talked about his line of work, and with that the subject was finally put to rest.

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The car was rolling forward, a heavy rock he'd found weighing down the gas pedal and the steering wheel was clamped down with some tools he'd found along with some other junk in the shed behind his trailer. James climbed through the two front seats and kneeled in the back of the jeep, holding on to the rope but was frozen in place.

Nobody liked pain … alright, maybe some Sicko S and M dude would find some twisted pleasure in this kind of shit, but that wasn't the case for him. He'd gotten hurt quite a few times in his life.

Countless schoolyard fights. Bar fights. Street fights. Took a beating inside a boxing ring a time or two. And not to forget Gun fights. Hell, you name it, he'd probably done it. He'd been punched, kicked, shot … tortured with a big ass fucking needle to his chest. Sayid's fucking wood splints hammered under his nails. Hell, even a god damn shark had tried to take a bite out of him once!

But fuck!

In none of those instances had he purposely chosen to hurt himself. The pain … this pain he was about to experience was only his own doing and he supposed it was only natural for him to hesitate because of that very reason.

He looked up and saw the trailer disappearing in the distance. He turned his head in the direction the jeep was slowly driving, and there was a whole lot of nothing in its way.

He took a deep breath.

"All the shit I do for you, Freckles!" He mumbled under his breath and jumped out of the moving jeep holding onto the rope and got dragged along.

He felt his skin being scraped off of his back by the sand and gravel beneath him, and the immense pain that shot through him was almost more then he could handle, but instead of loosening his grip on the rope he only held on tighter. He had to be sure that the tattoo was gone and he knew that he wouldn't have the guts to pull this kind of a stunt twice, so this was it. His only chance to get it right!

James held on as long as he could, his jaw clenched in pain and his eyes shut tightly trying to think of anything to keep his mind off the ground tearing apart his flesh. He focused on thoughts of Kate and Clementine, this was all for them and when he thought that he might pass out from the pain he finally let go of the rope and lay still with dirt and gravel settling around him.

He didn't know how long it had been since he'd let go of the rope and his body had come to a sudden stop on the gravel beneath him, all he knew was that his skin felt raw, burned like it was on fire and he wasn't entirely sure he could actually get off of the ground, yet alone move at all.

But somehow he did. Slowly but surely while grunting and moaning in pain he slowly turned onto his stomach, pushed himself up and off of the ground and on trembling legs he'd managed to get to his feet. The unbearable pain made him feel lightheaded and for a moment he feared he would pass out, but when he steadied himself and finally looked up, he just barely saw the jeep disappearing into the distance. That's when he knew he had to fight through this, had to get through this or this not so genius plan of his would fall apart right before his eyes.

So he stumbled after the dust cloud he saw up ahead in the distance. Painstakingly slowly he trotted along, moaning and grunting as pain radiated from his back throughout his entire body.

It wasn't until he stumbled and hit the ground hard, his palms flat on the ground, lifted his head, looked up through squinting eyes and couldn't even make out anything resembling his jeep when he realized that this wasn't going to work out as he would've hoped.

Plan B then … yeah

He allowed himself and his body a moment to relax – as much as you could when you're in that much pain – and he simply lied down, his cheek on the dirty ground and with his eyes closed he tried to get his mind once more to focus on something beyond the horrible pain, but rather come up with a plan B … and hopefully quickly!

X

He'd crawled, literally crawled on all four before he finally managed to get back to his feet. The jeep had only driven about two miles – give or take – before he'd gathered enough courage and jumped. He'd hung onto that rope for maybe another quarter of a mile before he couldn't stand the pain any longer and finally let go of the rope. But now, this walk back to the trailer seemed it was dragging on and on and seemed so much further now that he was in pain. Surely the fact that the sun was shining mercilessly onto his bare and bloodied skin didn't help the situation one bit.

But at least it gave him time to think of what to do next.

X

The plan all along had been that he'd drive into the more shady part of town. Drink himself to a stupor, all the while cheating while he gambled, flirting with a few girls that weren't his to flirt with until he'd managed to piss off just the right kind of people.

After all, pissing people off came natural to him … this part would be a piece of cake.

So it would end up in a fight and he'd end up getting hurt, ending up in a hospital, no ID on him, but being the celebrity that he is, someone would recognize him. But no, that can't be, he is dead … they would say. Taking his fingerprints, maybe even running some dna … either way, before too long he'd find himself back home again. One way or another. Sooner or later.

However, the town was a good hour drive away and he no longer had a car to get him there.

But luck would have it that he'd taken the map out of the car a few days back and that's what he found himself staring at this very moment.

After a long look in the mirror he'd decided that he looked more than enough the part of a beaten and battered man to pull this stunt off without anyone else getting involved.

Now he just needed to find himself a town close enough to make the hike before nightfall. The only problem was that he couldn't go to the town that he'd usually go to for his smokes and groceries. He had to go somewhere, where nobody would step up and announce that he'd been shopping and living among them for the past few weeks.

He took another drag from his cigarette and leaned in closer to look over the map spread before him.

Bingo!

Content that he'd found the perfect place to execute his plan, he got to work, because he wanted to make it there before it got too dark to see he knew he needed to get going real soon. He looked like hell warmed over; with an itchy crust of blood and dirt covering most of his body, but it was all part of the plan. He needed to look as badly as possible to pull this con off.

Just then his cell phone rang and Richard's name appeared on the display. Determined to get home his own way now, he didn't even hesitate before he dropped the phone and stomped it into the ground with the heel of his boot. The device broke and splintered into large and tiny pieces, which he just haphazardly kicked under the trailer, before he stepped back inside to get everything ready.

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They drove on in silence, and when they did talk it was mostly about sports … avoiding anything that would be deemed as too personal. Only stopped once for gas and something to eat for dinner before getting right back on the road, and managed to reach Palm Springs close to midnight.

Miles pulled into the driveway of the house Clark and Cassidy shared and cut the engine. He reached over and opened the clove compartment of the four door sedan and retrieved the DVD Case in silence before him and Clark exchanged a look of agreement and got out of the car.

Clark searched for the house key on his keychain, when the porch light came on and a split second later the door flung open, revealing Cassidy wearing a fluffy looking rope and slippers.

"Clark?!" she exclaimed with a surprised and equally confused look on her face and her eyes went past Clarks larger frame, "And Miles?"

"Hey honey." Clark replied smiling, leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips in greeting.

She kissed him back, but quickly found her wits about it, "What … what is going on?" her eyes going back and forth between the two men in front of her, "You said you'd be back from your business trip until later this week?" Her eyes darted to Miles, "And why is Miles with you?"

Miles raised a hand and waved, "Hey Cass."

She sort of nodded her greeting to Miles, but didn't verbally greet him back, clearly confused and waiting for some sort of explanation.

"I can explain." Clark responded and raised his hands up in the air in surrender, "But let's go inside first."

She nodded yet still eyeing them both rather suspiciously as she stepped back and held the door for both of them to come in.

She hadn't so much as closed the door yet, when Miles spoke up, "Is Kate still up?"

Cassidy turned her full attention to him, but shook her head, "No, she went to bed a while ago. Is that why you're here? To check up on Kate?"

"Sort of. We –."

Clark cut him off, "We need to show you something."

"Actually, we need to show Kate something." Miles corrected Clark and gave him a pointed look as he held the DVD case up to prove his point.

"Well, nobody's going to show Kate anything until somebody tells me what the hell is going on here?" Cassidy looked back and forth between the two again as she folded her arms in front of herself, "And since when are the two of you even friends?"

Miles was about to protest, bursting at the seams at this point to show the DVD to Kate, but Clark spoke up, stepped towards Cassidy and reached for her hand. "Let's go in the living room, honey." He tucked her along and they all started heading in that direction, "I'll put this DVD in and we'll explain everything to you first."

"And then we go and get Kate." Miles announced, which caused Cassidy to shoot him a curious look over her shoulder as she trotted down the hall after her fiancé.

X

Cassidy swallowed the lump in her throat and took a deep and cleansing breath.

She had been wrong … she'd been wrong about a lot of things, but at this very moment she'd have to admit that she'd been wrong about Sawyer or James … or whatever people called him these days. Either way, she was wrong, but this time it wasn't just her that had been wrong … it seemed that the whole world had gotten this one wrong, and as strangely as that sounded, it actually calmed her a bit that she wasn't alone to blame this time.

Hesitantly she rapped her knuckles across the wooden surface of the guest bedroom of her home. After no response, she knocked again, this time a bit louder but remained glued to the spot right outside the door.

She knew that this was good news, and she also knew that Kate would be so furious with her if she waited until morning to tell her and show her the rest of the surveillance video that Miles and Clark had brought back, but … but she also knew that Kate wouldn't get any sleep for the rest of the night after this big revelation.

One more knock and she quietly opened the door, not at all surprised that Kate had left it unlocked, and stepped into the dark room.

The curtains were drawn, but the sheer fabric still allowed the moonlight to filter through into the room and eliminate just enough for Cassidy to see where she was going.

She quietly stepped up beside the bed and carefully sat on the edge. The slight dip in the mattress caused Kate to stir in her sleep, that's when Cassidy softly spoke up, "Kate."

Kate rolled onto her side that faced Cassidy and the window but didn't open her eyes.

"Kate." Cassidy whispered again and this time reached forward to flick on the lamp on the nightstand.

"Wake up, Kate."

With the small table lamp now illuminating the room, and Cassidy's voice in her ear, Kate squinted and then blinked a few times before her eyes had finally adjusted to the light.

When she came to her senses, she immediately was alarmed that something must be wrong if Cassidy woke her up in the middle of the night. So Kate propped herself onto her elbows and asked, "Is everything alright? Is it … is it Aaron?"

Cassidy immediately soothed her worries, "Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine. There's just … there's just something I have to tell you."

Kate sat all the way up now, and rubbed at her eyes before she glanced at the red numbers on the small alarm clock radio that sat right next to her on the nightstand. Her eyebrows creased in a curious arch and her forehead wrinkled in total confusion as she noted the time and asked rather skeptically, "At almost one am in the morning?"

Cassidy decided then to not drag this out any longer. Like ripping off a band-aid … faster was always better then painstakingly slow.

So she leaned in and looked Kate straight in the eye, "He didn't cheat on you."

"What?" Kate replied in confusion but Cassidy didn't give her any time to add anything to it.

"Sawyer, he didn't cheat. He …" Cassidy shook her head in utter disbelieve, as if she couldn't believe it herself, "That woman was drunk and he simply helped her to her room, and –."

"Are you drunk?" Kate suddenly snapped at her and interrupted her mid-sentence.

Cassidy shook her head and actually couldn't help herself and chuckled at that, "No, I'm not drunk. I'm telling you, that's what happened."

"Oh, you think this is funny? What the hell is wrong with you?" Kate reached over and flicked off the light, clearly not amused by Cassidy's late night antics, she snapped, "Good night, Cass."

Cass flicked the light right back on, grabbed her friend by her shoulders to gain her full attention again, and blurted it all out, "Miles and Clark went to Vegas, and they somehow got another copy of that surveillance tape and it shows Sawyer leaving that hotel room just moments after he went it."

Kate sat up, her eyes as big as saucers now. She was wide awake, "You're serious?"

Cassidy nodded and smiled, "They showed me the tape … just now."

"They're here? They're downstairs?" Kate questioned with her index finger curled towards the ground.

Cassidy just nodded and smiled and with that Kate simply pushed the covers back and climbed out of bed unable to wait another second.

Dressed in only a skimpy pair of shorts and a blue colored sports bra, Kate rushed out of the room before Cassidy could point out her state of undress to her.

Cassidy quickly followed and caught up with her in the living room, just as Kate flung herself into Miles' stunt arms, mumbling incoherent words of gratitude as she kissed his cheek in the process. But just as quickly as she'd hugged him she pushed back and ordered to be shown the tape that would make her life whole again.

X

The four of them watched the video, all eyes glued to the TV screen and for a moment Miles thought that Kate was holding her breath, but then she spoke up at the part of James looking over his shoulder before entering the room.

She pointed her finger at the screen just then and said, "This … this part gets me every time." Her eyes connected with Miles just for the briefest moment when nothing was to be seen on the tape other then the closed hotel room door. "He looks so … "

"Guilty?" Cassidy offered and Kate nodded in agreement, but then she gasped in stunned surprise, as if she hadn't already been told that he'd reappear again.

There he was – James – pulling the hotel room door closed behind him before he headed for the elevator. And that's when Miles hit the pause button on the remote and stepped closer to the TV, pointing out the timestamp clearly visible at the bottom of the screen.

"Look at this!" he announced, his finger hovering over the numbers displayed, "He wasn't even in there for thirty seconds, Kate. You see?"

Kate nodded and tears welled up in her eyes, a lump forming in her throat.

He really didn't cheat!

"So unless Jim suddenly turned into Speedy-fucking-Gonzales, he didn't screw her. That bitch is fucking lying!"

Kate wiped at tears rolling down her cheeks and unexpectedly announced, "I'm gonna sue her. I'm gonna sue her for every fucking cent she ever made selling this story to the tabloids. I got more than enough money to do it and she's gonna wish she'd never heard of James Ford when I'm done with her!"

"You totally should." Clark backed her up and everyone else agreed along with them.

Miles smiled in triumph and exchanged a look of contentment with Clark, before his eyes took in Kate's barely dressed appearance. Caught somewhat by surprise by the small yet noticeable belly on her, feeling more like his old sarcastic self again he couldn't help but blurt out, "You been hittin' the candy isle a bit hard lately or what's up with the pooch?"

Kate's cheeks flushed a crimson red and she immediately sucked in her stomach the best she could. But it was too late, Cassidy had noticed it too and gave her a pointed look, and Clark clearly pretended not to look, but it was too late.

She threw her hands up in defeat and let out the breath she was holding, the pooch reappearing as she inhaled again, her eyes connecting with one person after the other as she simply said, "I'm pregnant!"

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The next morning, somewhere in Mexico

The man cautiously approached the bloody mass a few feet ahead of him. He turned, holding up his hand and gestured to his young daughter to stay back and she listened as she stayed by the side of their rusty old pick-up truck. She either couldn't take her eyes off of the man on the ground.

He was close enough to touch the body and a swarm of flies buzzed about the lifeless form that was lying by his feet. Grouching down, he eyed the man for any sign of life. Touched his wrist for a pulse, there barely was any. He kneeled in the sand now next to the body and lifted his face from the dirt to get a better look at it … or him.

It was definitely a gringo, that much was clear!

"Papá?" The small voice of his daughter suddenly startled him and he looked up to see her standing right behind him now. "¿Está muerto?"

"No, él todavía está vivo."

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End Notes: I don't know Spanish at all, so all this is what I got using google translate. If it doesn't add up, or make sense or is misspelled, please feel free to comment and help me out, so that I can go back and fix it. Thank you so much for reading! xoxo