Chapter Nine

"The caves collapsed on you?" The question nearly came out as a shout. It was bad enough waking up in the jungle with a banging headache and pissed off Sayid, and then I had to come back to find out my brother was involved in a cave in with Charlie. Naturally, I found out after he lectured me about going on a hike without telling him. "Thought that was meant to be the safer option?"

"It is the safer option." Jack rolled his eyes as he continued to dab alcohol on the back of my head.

"I don't know about you, Jack, but I'd rather get bitten to death by sand fleas than have a cave suffocate me," I muttered, wincing at the sting from my head. He ignored me after that, before moving over to take a look at the angry Arab next to me.

"This is going to hurt." He told Sayid, alcohol in his hand ready to sterilise the wound. "So, what exactly happened?"

"We were trying to find the source of the distress call. I saw the flare from the beach and then the flare from Sawyer's position in the jungle. I switched on my antenna, activated the transceiver, and then—darkness." Sayid replied. "Whoever hit us came from behind."

"And destroyed the equipment?" Jack asked, voice full of intrigue.

"Yes." Anger shook the man's response.

"Listen, we're going to figure this out, but don't do anything—"

"I will do whatever I need to do to find the man responsible." Sayid told him, face stern. I would not want to be someone who pisses him off.

"We need some help over here!" We all turned to look at Shannon who was helping an injured Boone walk into the caves. I was on my feet immediately to help her get him seated.

"What happened?" Jack and I asked at the same time.

"Sawyer." Boone nearly growled. I'm surprised my eyes didn't fall out from rolling so hard.

After finding out Boone's side of the story, I made my way back to the beach with a full water bottle and a confused frown. Why would Sawyer keep Shannon from having her asthma medicine? I knew he wasn't Mr. Rogers, but that seemed way too evil for the man I'd come to know. I wondered if he knew about Jack being stuck in the caves when he came to join us on the hike.

After about ten minutes of sitting at my shelter with a head full of racing thoughts, my eyes caught sight of the man that consumed most of them. The troubling thing was, he was with my brother – and it didn't look like they were discussing their favourite books.

"You sure you want to make this your problem, Doc?" I heard Sawyer question, once I made my way into earshot.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure." Jack had a rebellious confidence in his tone that told me I better step in. The hot headed Southerner standing up helped me realise that fast, too.

"Everything okay?" My voice seemed tiny in comparison to the loud, angry ones they were just using. With one glance at me, Jack walked away from the man. I narrowed my eyes at Sawyer before quickly following after him.

"I'm going to kill him." He told me, stopping just in front of the water. I crossed my arms in front of me with a huff.

"What goods that gonna do?" My eyebrows rose.

"It'll feel good." He retorted. I had to fight the urge to laugh. My do good, doctor brother murdering anyone was an impossible thought, but to add in that it would feel good was just the icing on the cake. The man didn't have an evil bone in his body.

"I'll talk to Sawyer." I told him.

"What makes you think he's going to listen to you?" His eyebrows rose at me this time.

"I don't know," my shoulders shrugged. "We talk sometimes. Maybe I can get through to him."

"Good luck." Jack snorts.

About an hour after my chat with Jack, I caught sight of Sawyer chopping fire wood. Unable to gauge his mood due to the aggressive task, I slowly made my way over to him. If only this whole IOU situation was the other way around, then I could get those inhalers easily. But I had a feeling nothing came easily when it came to Sawyer.

"Hey," came my lame greeting. The man looked up at me with a questioning brow that faded once he lifted his arm to wipe the sweat off of it. I'd be lying if I said he wasn't attractive as hell in that moment.

"Hey yourself." Sawyer gave me a smile that said he didn't want what I was selling and I didn't blame him. The sister of the guy you nearly duked it out with earlier comes over to you with a 'hey' and you're obviously going to put two and two together.

"Why are you doing this?" I decided beating around the bush wasn't really an option. He looked up at me with a sigh before learning on the axe he was using.

"You think this wood is gonna chop itself? I don't know about you, twig, but I ain't fond of freezing my ass off on this beach." There was a smile on his face but it wasn't as smug as the one he usually wore. But at least we were back to Twig. Did that mean he was in a good mood?

"The inhalers, Sawyer." I crossed my arms over my chest. "Surely you can't just risk letting a girl die because you're too stubborn to give back her inhalers. You're not like that."

"Not like what?" I didn't notice the way his eyes darkened when he spoke, or the way he stepped closer to me.

"You're not a bad guy." I told him, my hand making its way to rest on his arm. "Just give them to me."

"You think you understand me?" It was like a flip had switched in front of me. He ripped his arm out from under my hand like it had burned him.

"I mean—"

"Shut up. You want to know what kind of human being I am?" I nearly flinched when Sawyer pulled something from his back pocket, but it was just an envelope. He handed it to me. "Read it. Out loud."

The last words he spoke were nearly a growl and it had my hands shaking as I took a letter out of the envelope he gave me. If I was being honest, I really didn't want to know what was written on the page. Not with the way he was looking at me, or the way I was a little terrified of him in that moment.

"Dear Mr. Sawyer," I started, my hazel orbs scanning the words. "You don't know who I am, but I know who you are and I know what you done. You had sex with my mother and then you stole my dad's money all away. So he got angry and he killed my mother and then he killed himself, too."

"Don't stop now," Sawyer told me once I stopped. Tears brimmed my eyes as I looked up at his expression that I couldn't read. "You're just getting to the good part."

"All I know is your name." I took a deep breath. "But one of these days I'm going to find you and I'm going to give you this letter so you'll remember what you done to me. You killed my parents, Mr. Sawyer."

"Still think I'm a good guy?" He cocked an eyebrow at me before grabbing the letter from my hands. "I didn't think so."

I left without another word to him. Tears still brimmed my eyes as my feet steered me back to my shelter, mind whirring for the second time that way. Well, third, if you count when I woke up in the jungle.

The letter was confusing. I had seen him read from afar a couple of times since we crashed and he always seemed so careful with it – like he was scared to break it. That made no sense to me if the letter really was written about him. The man that letter was written about didn't seem careful at all. He didn't seem like he cared about anything but himself, which is why the whole thing was so confusing. Sawyer wasn't like that, no matter how he tried to act or what he tried to tell me.

"You okay?" I wasn't sure how long I'd been sitting there before Charlie interrupted my thoughts.

"What?" After a quick shake of my head, I forced a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You wanna help with laundry?" He motioned his arms a little higher and I finally noticed the big pile of clothes bundled in them. "I heard you were highly skilled in this area."

"Oh really?" I let a laugh escape. "I guess the master can show the grasshopper how it's done."

I spent the next hour with Charlie. He told me all about his rock star life off of the island and I had to apologize more than once for never having heard of his band Drive Shaft. I wish I could say it distracted me, but with every break in our conversation, my mind went straight back to Sawyer.

"Lana." My vision snapped over to Jack, who called me a few feet behind us. Once I'd finished hanging the wet top on the line, I gave Charlie a shrug before making my way over to him.

"What's up?" I asked, wiping my wet hands on my jeans as I approached him. The serious look painting his face made me a little nervous.

"Sawyer says the only person he'll tell where the inhalers are is you," my brother told me. I had the urge to wipe my hands again, already feeling clammy at the thought of seeing the other man again so soon. "Come on."

I wasn't expecting him to lead me into the jungle and I definitely wasn't expecting to see Sawyer tied to a tree. Blood lined the left side of his face and underneath the fear I had of him after earlier, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the man. My body turned to ask Jack the numerous questions on my tongue but him and Sayid had left me alone with him.

"Okay," I started, turning to look at Sawyer. The smug look he always wore was back on his face as he looked at me. "Jack told me you'd tell me. So... where are the inhalers?"

"I'll tell you after I get that IOU." The side of his lips curved while my eyes narrowed. "A kiss. Right now. Then I'll tell you."

"What?" I wondered if the island had finally gotten to me and I was having auditory hallucinations. "Are you serious?"

"Baby, I am tied to a tree in a jungle of mystery. I just got tortured by a damn spinal surgeon and a genuine Iraqi. Of course, I'm serious." The man told me, exasperation in his tone. "You're just not seeing the big picture here, Twig. You really going to let that girl suffocate because you can't bring yourself to give me one little kiss? Hell, it's only first base. Lucky for you, I ain't greedy."

My teeth found my bottom lip as I let his words absorb into my spinning mind. Everything would be solved if I just kiss him?

"Fine," I mumbled, crouching to the jungle floor to be on the same level as him. He nods at me with a twinkle in his eye.

"Fine," he repeated me.

Seconds later, I found my face moving closer to his and our lips found each others quickly. What was seemingly meant to be a peck on the lips turned into more when his tongue grazed my bottom lip. I wasn't sure if I opened my mouth on purpose or in shock, but the kiss deepened after that, our tongues dancing around each other. I pulled back from him a moment later, cheeks stained pink.

"I don't have it." Whatever fog had clouded my brain after kissing him soon washed away with those words.

"What?" I questioned, confused.

"The medicine," he clarified. "I don't have it, never did."

"But Boone saw you reading the book, he said you found it in their luggage."

"The book washed up on shore, went in the drink with the rest of—" A loud slap interrupted him, nearly casting an echo in the jungle around us. Sawyer looked at me in shock while my hand stung.

"He doesn't have it." I told Jack and Sayid once I made my way over to them, my voice laced with annoyance.

"What?" My brother asked.

"He's lying." Sayid spoke. "Can't you see that? He's been lying from the beginning. He doesn't want us to get off this Island. That's why he attacked us."

"What?" I repeated Jack's question.

"He destroyed the transceiver!" Sayid shouted.

"You don't know that. Sayid!" Jack told him, but it fell on deaf ears. Sayid ran back to Sawyer with Jack and I following. We were too slow to stop what was about to happen, though. Sawyer had managed to loosen the bindings on his wrist and I watched as Sayid tackled him to the ground. After rolling around in the dirt, struggling for control, Sayid managed to get a knife in the other man's arm. I couldn't stop the gasp that escaped me as I watched Sayid back up.

"You hit an artery." Jack told Sayid, after removing the knife from Sawyer's arm. I watched the Southerner struggle as Jack held his arm firmly to stop the blood. "Sayid, I need my stuff from the caves, my leather backpack. Go!"

While Sayid ran out of the jungle, I made my way closer to my brother, my eyes glued to the pained expression on Sawyer's face. It looked a hell of a lot different to the smirking face I'd just kissed.

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked my brother, who doesn't care to respond – too focussed on the task at hand.

"Let go. I know you want to." Sawyer muttered. He's never one to pass up the opportunity to be a jackass.

"Shut up." Jack ordered. "And stop moving."

"You've been waiting for this, haven't you?" The blonde man asked him, smug even while he's grimacing in pain. "Now you get to be the hero again, because that's what you do – fix everything up all nice. Tell him to let go, Twig. We already made out, what else I got to live for?"

I ignored the urge to roll my eyes, given the amount of pain in his voice.

"Hey, Jack, there's something you should know – if the tables were turned, I'd watch you die." It was after that sentence that his eyes started slipping closed.

Panic crawled all over me like sand fleas. 

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Let me know if there's anything you'd like to happen in this fic! I'm also open to writing more Lost fics <3