"Fuck." Sawyer knew he was screwed. There was no way Sayid would ever understand why he chose to talk to Kate first. The stupid thing was that he wanted to talk to Sayid. He was just scared that as soon as he did Sayid would use it against him somehow. He'd spent too long running from his demons to suddenly turn and face them. There was no way to fix this.

He almost prefered for Sayid to think there was something going on between him and Kate. He wouldn't though. Not after Kate told Sayid about how she got the bruises on her neck. Fuck. Maybe he could have explained why he talked to Kate first if Sayid hadn't shown up at that exact moment. Maybe. Not now. Sawyer fell asleep thinking about everything.

*Sawyer Dreams*

George swung the belt again and the buckle made another cut on the back of Sawyer's legs. When Sawyer looked back he viewed the times when George was only out to hurt him as better than the times when George would fuck him. Sawyer had a hard time thinking that while it was happening however. The ropes cut into his wrists as he struggled against them, trying to free himself.

"You're a whore." George grabbed Sawyer's hair and held his head so they were eye to eye. "You don't deserve better and you know it. You deserve everything I give you. Isn't that right?"

"Please. No more, please."

"I say when it's over not you."

"I don't deserve this."

Sawyer stilled. He was unsure what made him say that. He never spoke out, never said anything except to beg for George to stop hurting him. Why now?

*Sayid / Charlie*

Sayid returned when he was sure almost everyone would be asleep. He didn't want to deal with anyone right now. He was pretty sure there was nothing between Sawyer and Kate, but he couldn't help the jealousy he felt. Besides, if nothing was going on between them, why did Sawyer look so guilty?

Logically Sayid had to admit he knew nothing had happened in that tent. He was having problems being logical right now. To top it all off, he realized he'd probably just killed any trust he'd built with Sawyer. He was tired of thinking about everything right now. He needed sleep. Sayid walked into his tent and found Charlie. He crossed his arms and waited.

"We need to talk."

"No Charlie. You need to talk. I need sleep."

"Fair enough. How's this, then? I need to talk, you want to listen?"

"I do not want to listen, I want sleep."

"No you don't. Well actually, yea, you might want sleep. I bet you wanna listen to me more than you need sleep."

"And why is that Charlie?"

"Because you need to hear this. Just remember, I don't know much, but you need to know what it is I do know."

Sayid thought it through. Did he really want to hear Charlie out? It probably had something to do with Kate and Sawyer. Either that or Charlie knew what happened in the forest and was here to threaten him. Listening to Charlie might also be the quickest way to get him to leave, so
Sayid could go to sleep. He shrugged.

"So talk then."

"See, it's like this. Sawyer's kind of an outcast. Kate's kind of the same. So they kinda have this weird friendship thing. Just friends though,"

Charlie added quickly. "So when Kate met up with Sawyer in the forest today, they kinda talked about stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Yea, not too sure what about, but from what I gather it was probably about you. I'm probably gonna catch hell telling you this stuff so you better appreciate this."

"I see," Sayid said noncommittally.

"So Kate talks Sawyer into talking to you about stuff. But then he sees you and gets nervous again. They start having this argument and I sorta walked into it. After Sawyer left I talked with Kate for a while. She didn't really want to talk though. So I kinda also told her about what happened last night. Apparently Sawyer told her some, but he couldn't remember much." Charlie paused and watched Sayid.

"Continue."

"So, she tells me Sawyer had a few bad experiences and wasn't himself at the moment. I started thinking back and realized you tried to tell me the same thing and I didn't listen to you. Sorry about that, by the way."

"Accepted. Charlie, what is the point of this?"

"Hang on mate, I'm getting to that. So, since I already knew about you tying him to a tree, she explains it better. I'm still not sure that was such a great idea. Anyways, she tells me she wanted to explain things so that you weren't mad at Sawyer anymore, but she promised Sawyer she'd let him talk to you.

So I start thinking. You like Sawyer. You tried to tell me he wasn't himself when I found you in his tent. He walked off with you on his own this morning, even if he didn't seem happy about it."

"Wait. You knew he left with me?"

"Well, yea."

"And you didn't try to stop it?"

"Why would I mate? You didn't force him to go. From what I saw you started to leave first and he followed. Besides, Sawyer's old enough to make his own decisions. If I stepped in and said he couldn't go, he'd probably have told me to fuck off."
Sayid suppressed a grinned at the thought.

"Where was I? Oh yea, so I see him leave with you this morning. He comes back later with Kate without any obvious new injuries. You show up and see them together and start acting all jealous, and Sawyer gets all worried and takes off. So I figure he's got to have feelings for you too."

"What do you mean he took off?"

"Said he needed time alone and walked off. Then Kate gets all mad at me and tells me I don't know anything and she can't tell me anything about what I don't know either."

"Has he returned?"

"Umm, actually I'm not sure. He hadn't by the time me and Kate got back, but after that I came in here to wait for you. Are you even listening to me?"

Sayid began to pace back and forth.

"So I figure if Sawyer's got feelings for you too, than you guys deserve a chance to make things work. Since Kate can't tell you what's up, and she can't tell me enough to be helpful, I thought maybe I should tell you it would be a good idea to talk to him. That would be the point of this."

"Charlie, trying to talk to him is what started this mess in the first place."

"Can you stop that mate?"

"Stop what?"

Sayid attention was divided between what Charlie had said and if Sawyer was okay.

"Pacing, you're gonna give me whiplash soon."

Sayid stopped and looked at Charlie. He knew Charlie meant well, but he failed to see what good talking to Sawyer would do right now.

Especially if he thinks I'm jealous, and to be honest, he had been jealous. If anything it would make Sawyer more defensive.

"You should go talk to him."

"It would only serve to make matters worse right now. Sawyer gets defensive when he's scared."

"So make sure he's not scared."

"How?"

"Well, what's he scared of?"

"Me."

"No he's not."

"Yes, Charlie, he is. He even said so last night."

"Oh right, last night. You mean when he wasn't himself?"

Sayid opened his mouth but then closed it. Charlie was right. He'd said he was scared of Sayid when he thought Sayid was George. Sawyer was scared of George. He was scared of being hurt. He was scared of people taking advantage of him. That meant there was hope. Hope Sayid could show Sawyer he didn't have a reason to be scared around him. The way to do that was slowly coming together in Sayid's mind.

"Charlie you're a genius."

"I am?"

"Yes."

"Right on then. Two more things though."

"Yes?"

"One, you won't tell Sawyer or Kate I told you any of this?"

"No."

"Good, good. And two, do you know what happened to Kate?"

"Kate?"

"Yea. She's got these bruises on her neck. Like someone choked her, you know?"

"Oh. Charlie..."

"Let me guess. You can't talk about it. You'd be betraying her trust," Charlie said blandly.

"You've heard that a lot lately?"

"Every time I asked Kate a question about Sawyer."

"Charlie, I do know. I can't tell you who it was, but I can tell you it wasn't on purpose and it won't happen again. I'm sorry I can't tell you more."

"It's okay mate."

"Good night Charlie."

"Night Sayid."