A/N: Mia belongs to the wonderful littletonpace, who is graciously allowing me to borrow Mia and shape her story however I want in mine.
Matt felt a hand cupping his face, another hand gingerly running through his hair. The fingers brushed against the cut, where the rock had smashed into his head, and he winced, eyes shooting open. "Hey gorgeous, take it easy, you're ok," a familiar voice said, and Matt blinked, Mia's dirt-stained face coming into view.
"Mia?" Matt asked in disbelief, his head nestled in her lap. Then "Mia!" Matt exclaimed, a grin lighting up his face as he sat up, throwing his arms around her. She laughed, a matching grin on her tired face, and wrapped her arms tightly around him.
"Not exactly the place you thought we'd meet again, huh?" Mia asked, pulling back enough to check his wound again. "It looks ok, won't need any stitches this time."
"Where are we?" Matt asked, finally getting a chance to look around. All around him was dirt, a hole with smooth earthen walls, and something like a grate across the top. His eyes then fell on Sawyer, Michael, and Jin, all looking exhausted and filthy, Sawyer holding onto a shoulder that seemed to be oozing blood through a thin wrapping. It was then Matt's brain settled enough to process who was missing.
"Jack? Have you seen Jack?" Matt asked frantically, glancing from side to side of the small hole as if Jack might be hiding somewhere.
"I'm sure he's fine," Mia tried to assure him. "We haven't seen him yet, but I'm sure he's fine."
Suddenly the grate moved, and every prisoner immediately rose to their feet, straining to see what was happening. "Throw her in with the others!" was heard, and a woman's body came tumbling down into the hole. She groaned, rolling over until she was facing the men and Mia.
"Where the hell am I?" she mumbled, moving gingerly to a sitting position.
"Same place we're in," Sawyer said with a roll of his eyes. Mia rolled her eyes right back before turning back to the strange woman.
"A pit somewhere on an island," Mia said with a shrug. "That's all we've got. You ok?"
"Fine," the woman said, running a hand over her ponytail. Matt scrambled over next to her, laying a hand on her arm.
"Did you hear them say anything about a man named Jack?" Matt asked quickly, trying to fight back panic. "Jack Shephard. He's a doctor."
"I heard them saying there was a man who didn't make it," the woman said, eyes zeroed in on Matt. "They said it was a shame they'd hit him too hard, could have been useful since he was a doctor."
"You must have heard a different name!" Matt said desperately, grabbing the woman's arm and shaking it. "Some other name."
"They definitely said Jack," the woman said, and Matt didn't hear another word. He slid back to a corner of the pit, arms wrapped around his knees, eyes staring into nothingness, tears streaming down his face. His ears picked up something about tail end, ocean, forty-eight days, sick prisoner scheme, but his brain didn't process anything. He couldn't even feel Mia's arms circle around him, hear her saying his name, over and over, trying to call him back, trying to reassure him through her own tears.
As if in slow motion, he saw the woman grab a gun from Sawyer, saw her being raised up from the hole to join a group of people up above, but he couldn't bring himself to care about trying to stop her, trying to escape, trying to breathe.
And then he heard his name from above. "Is there someone named Matt down there?" a man was asking the woman who had been in the pit with them. She nodded, and the man continued. "Go get him out. The doctor says he won't look at any of our people til he gets to see this Matt person."
"Matt?" The voice, so familiar, came from a few feet from the pit, and Matt was instantly on his feet, running towards where the woman and man had just extended their arms. The woman nodded and they swung him up.
He found himself just a foot from Jack, whose face broke into a wide, relieved grin at the sight of Matt before him. Before he could move, Matt had thrown himself forwards, hurling himself into Jack's waiting arms.
Jack wrapped Matt up tightly, scattering kisses across his face and hair, pulling him in flush against his body. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you," he gasped out, his breath hot against Matt's cheek. "They wouldn't let me see, wouldn't tell me if you were ok. I had to threaten not to help them, so much talking, and I just wanted to see you."
"She told me you were dead," Matt whispered, the words still choking him even with Jack in his arms. "She told me you'd died, and I thought…I couldn't…" He trailed off, burrowing his face into Jack's shirt, breathing in his scent, feeling the familiar fabric against his cheek. His hand found its way up the front of Jack's shirt, resting over his heart, feeling the rhythm against his palm.
"I'm not, Matt I'm not, I promise, I'm so sorry," Jack said softly, tears choking his voice as he cupped Matt's face in his hands, pulled Matt in for a deep kiss, hands grasping at the well-known grooves of Matt's back.
"I love you," Matt whispered against Jack's lips.
"I love you too," Jack whispered back, kissing Matt again, keeping him close, wrapped tight in his arms.
"Ok, not what I expected." The woman from the pit spoke bluntly, moving towards them with her eyebrows raised, hands on her hips. Jack turned around, still keeping an arm around Matt's waist, pulling him in close.
"Ana Lucia?" Jack asked, eyes widening.
"Remember me, huh?" Ana Lucia said with a smirk, swaggering closer to the two men. "Remember flirting with me too?"
"You mean when I was getting drunk because my father had just died?" Jack tossed back, eyes hard.
"Ouch," Ana Lucia replied, and for a moment something flickered behind her cold eyes. The indiscernible something vanished just as quickly as it had appeared, and she took another step forward. "Got yourself a boy toy now, I see. No need for me anymore."
"Why the hell would you tell him I was dead?" Jack exploded, tone furious. "You knew I wasn't!"
"Some reason I pretended to be one of them," Ana Lucia said, gesturing with her head towards the pit. "Information. Figuring out who you all are, what you want." One hand came down to rest purposefully on her gun, and both Matt and Jack tried to step in front of the other.
"Ana Lucia, that's hardly necessary." The voice, soft and kind, came from their right, and Matt and Jack turned to come face-to-face with a new woman, eyes warm, blonde hair frizzed by the heat. "I'm Libby," she said, extending her hand to the two men. Hesitating for a second, each man took her hand and shook it. "Sorry for the less-than-warm welcome. We can't be too careful." Her eyes misted over for a second. "We've already lost so many."
"How? To what? What's going on here?" Matt asked urgently, but Libby only shook her head.
"We have to get moving," she said. "We've been here too long as it is. Ana Lucia, get the others please." Ana Lucia and the silent man from before stepped forward, and between the two of them raised the others from the pit.
"Mia?" Jack exclaimed, hurrying forward and hugging her. Then his eyes widened as the implication sunk in. "The raft-" The others came into view and his eyes widened still further. "Michael? Jin? Sawyer?"
"Sawyer's hurt," Mia whispered in his ear.
"I need to look at Sawyer's injury," Jack said immediately, moving towards him, but Ana Lucia stepped in between.
"Later," she said forcefully, fingering her gun, making sure Jack saw her gaze on Matt. She pushed Sawyer ahead, and Matt took Jack's hand as they began their trek.
"Are you ok?" Jack asked softly, his hand gently ghosting over Matt's head wound, the bleeding now stopped.
"Fine," Matt whispered back, laying his palm gingerly on the bump on the back of Jack's head. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine, babe," Jack assured him, squeezing his hand tighter. "We'll get out of this. We'll be ok." Jack repeated the words again, as if trying to reassure himself as well.