Title: Derailed
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sawyer/ Kate
Summary: Spoilers for chapter 1: up to 2.09, but I'll use stuff from the newer episodes as they air.

Warnings: None
Status of fic: WIP

Author's Notes: This story is about Sawyer, Kate and four other castaways who struggle to be who they were meant to be…

Oh, and English is not my first language, so I apologize for any grammar mistakes.

#Disclaimer#

I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Lost". They were created by JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof and they belong to them, Touchstone, and ABC.

A/N: The beginning of this fic is totally based on what happened on the show. But I'll take a different path very soon, I promise.

Thanks for reading!

Jenn

Derailed

Prologue

His shoulder hurt more and more with every step he took, but he had to keep going. After subconsciously hoping to die on the raft, he'd found out that there was still something strong enough inside him to keep wanting to live.

Kate.

Although their last talk had been less than heart-warming, he wished for nothing else but to see her again. He was under no illusion that it would happen, but if it did, he would tell her why he had decided to get on the raft. He would tell her that there was something worth staying on this island for… Her.

Kate, Kate, Kate, he kept repeating to himself with every painful step, because she was the only thing that kept him going. Only the unreasonable hope of seeing her again prevented him from just letting himself fall to the ground and waiting for the end. That wouldn't take too long, he thought dryly. No one here would raise a finger to help him, and he couldn't blame them.

Kate, he thought once more, as he felt his strength abandoning him. His vision was blurry now and he wasn't even surprised when his knees finally buckled from under him and he collapsed into darkness.

Chapter 1

"You may want to move," Jack advised Kate as he got ready to hit the golf ball. Kate and himself had been engaged in a friendly contest to decide who the best golfer was between them. Things hadn't gone too well for him so far, and he was eager to prove his superiority… If she could just move, he thought, raising his eyes to look at her. But the expression on her face wasn't the mocking grin he expected to see.

She was staring, in shock, at something behind him. Quickly, Jack turned around, anticipating to see some wild beast ready to charge him. But it wasn't the case. It took him a second to understand what he was actually looking at: a tall, black man was standing before him. And he was carrying someone on his shoulders. Someone who looked a lot like… Sawyer.

Struggling as he tried to explain the unexpected sight to himself, he opened his mouth to speak. But the man was quicker than he was.

"Where is the doctor?"

"I'm the doctor," Jack replied, still stunned.

Behind him, he heard Kate stifle a sob.

"He needs your help."

Getting into doctor mode, Jack instructed the man to follow him down the path to the hatch. Although he had many questions for the guy, like who the hell was he, for instance, he focused on asking about Sawyer's state of health.

"What happened to him?"

"He was shot in the shoulder."

"Shot?" Jack repeated, surprised. "How did he get shot?"

The tall man looked at him with his deep brown eyes before giving him a short, terrifying answer.

"The Others did it."

"Alright, I'll take it from here," Jack said to the stranger who wordlessly took Sawyer off his shoulders.

"I got him. I got him," Jack repeated when he got a firm hold on Sawyer. He shot a brief glance at the man, wondering if he could trust him to be here in the hatch with them. What if he, himself, was one of those dreaded Others? But something in the stranger made Jack trust him. Anyway, he had more pressing things to do. He started to walk away and Kate finally emerged from her cataleptic state to ask:

"Where are we headed?"

"Bathroom," Jack replied, panting. "He's burning up. We've got to get him in the shower… bring his fever down."

"What can I do?" she wondered out loud, clearly needing to stay busy. Jack understood and nodded.

"Okay, go through the medical stash; there's a bottle of Ofloxacin…"

"Ofloxacin," she repeated, making sure she'd got it.

"Ofloxacin," he confirmed, his back turned to her as he tore Sawyer's shirt off, uncovering the bullet wound. "Little white pills. Bring the alcohol and some gauze patches, and strip that bed and make sure it has clean sheets on it."

Turning around to face her, he noticed she hadn't moved. She was petrified, her eyes glued to the infected area on Sawyer's shoulder.

"Kate!"

She was startled.

"Uh, yeah, yeah," she mumbled to herself as she finally exited the room.

Jack turned back to tend to Sawyer's wound and sighed. It wasn't a pretty view. For a second Jack felt a bit desperate, knowing his chances were slim. If only he could be at the hospital, he'd have a better chance to save him… But he wasn't about to concede defeat yet. His jaw clenched as he admitted to himself how much it'd hurt Kate if Sawyer didn't make it. He had to save him, if only for her.

Locke entered the room, stopping his train of thoughts.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice as calm as ever.

He had barely finished his sentence when they heard the blip sound of the timer.

"John, the button."

Locke quickly walked up the computer and entered the numbers. As he pressed the 'Execute' key, he tried to find a logical explanation for Sawyer's return. But he couldn't figure out any. He wasn't the man to be surprised, but he certainly hadn't expected things to turn out this way.

Preparing to go to Jack again, he caught a glimpse of the stranger examining the Swan Dharma logo. He must have been the one that brought Sawyer back, but who he really was was another story.

Locke sauntered towards the man who turned around when he heard footsteps.

"Hello," Locke greeted him, like it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

"Hello," the man simply replied.

"I'm John Locke. Who are you?"

"My name is Mr Eko." He paused, but then, guessing Locke probably wanted to know more than that, he added: "I was a passenger in the tail section."

Locke raised an interested eyebrow.

"Flight 815?"

Eko nodded.

"Yes."

Locke pondered on the answer for a moment and then said:

"You brought Sawyer back. Were there others with him? Two men? A young boy?"

"Michael and Jin are safe. But the Others took the boy. Walt."

Locke's brow furrowed. So Aaron really wasn't the one the Others wanted… He sighed. Awful things were to come, he sensed it.

"What happened? Out there… what happened?"

"I do not know everything. But I will tell you what I know, Mr Locke."

Hurriedly, Kate rummaged through the medical stash, in search of the antibiotics Jack had asked for. She was trying to calm down, to keep her mind clear so she could be of some help.

Back when the stranger had shown up, she had immediately recognised those blond locks. All her being had wanted nothing other than to walk up to Sawyer, to touch him, to shower the black man with questions. But she had felt paralyzed. What if she'd found out his injury was deadly?

She still was very scared for him, but for now she just wanted to take comfort in the fact that he had returned. She kept telling herself that it would just be too much of an injustice if Sawyer had came back, against all odds, only to die in front of her. Somehow the thought reassured her a little.

She finally found a bottle of white pills, but had a hard time reading the label because of her foggy eyes. Annoyed with herself, she angrily ran her hand over them. It was no time to get emotional. Sawyer needed someone to take care of him efficiently, not someone on the verge of a breakdown. But it was difficult to stop herself from worrying about him. Since their kiss, back when everyone thought he had Shannon's inhalers, she'd suspected she had feelings for him. She didn't like the idea, though; for years she had tried to run away from her past, from what prevented her from being a good person, and now she might be falling for bad boy Sawyer?

She exhaled loudly, knowing that now wasn't the time to analyse her feelings for Sawyer. She tried to remember what Jack had asked for. Alcohol. Gauze patches. She quickly found what she needed and headed to the bedroom. Putting everything down on the bedside table, she quickly changed the sheets and then went back to the bathroom.

Jack had just turned the shower off.

"Good, you're back. Help me, we'll take him to the bunk bed."

Carefully but rapidly, they managed to move Sawyer to the bed. Kate tried to avoid looking at his face; she didn't know if she'd be able to keep her composure if she saw it.

"Go get some water; I'll give him his antibiotics."

She complied and a few seconds later she was back with a glass of water.

"Here you go," she said, handing the glass to Jack. But as she did Sawyer began to tremble. "What's happening?" she asked, trying not to sound panicked. "Why is he shaking?"

"He's septic. The infection's gotten into the blood stream. If the antibiotics don't bring the fever down he'll go into shock. Hold him up," Jack asked as he took a pill from the small bottle.

Without hesitation, Kate climbed into the bed, behind Sawyer, pushing him into a sitting position. She stayed there, his head resting on her chest.

"Okay, I've got him."

Immediately, Jack put a pill in Sawyer's mouth and poured some water in.

"Swallow it, swallow it, swallow it," Jack encouraged him, but Sawyer coughed it out.

"I'll do it," Kate suggested.

Jack tiredly shook his head.

"No, no, I've got it."

"I can do it," she insisted, holding out her hand to him. She knew she could do this. Jack finally nodded doubtfully and placed the pill in her waiting hand.

Kate moved a little to her left until her mouth was directly in front of Sawyer's ear.
"Sawyer?" she said quietly, stroking his hair. "Hey, you have to listen to me, okay? The only way that you are going to get better is if you take this pill. So I want you to swallow it, okay? Okay, here we go."

Oblivious to Jack's presence, she put the pill in his mouth, hoping this was going to work. It had to. She held up the glass for him to drink.

"Now swallow, swallow."

To her relief, he did. Did that mean he could hear her? She clung to that thought.
"Good! Good," she congratulated him, grinning.

"Nice job," Jack said, startling her. She had completely forgotten about him, too focused on her task. He went on, trying to speak light-heartedly: "I never learned the whole whisper-in-the-ear thing in med school."

She smiled a little and looked down, slightly embarrassed. After the tender way she had just gotten him to take his pill, of course Jack would wonder if she had feelings for Sawyer. Would she mind if Jack thought she did? Right now she was too preoccupied with Sawyer's health to try and answer that question.

"Now he has to rest," Jack said. "Would you stay here, keep an eye on him?"

She nodded, avoiding his inquisitive gaze.

"Yes."

"Alright. I'll go and check on the man who brought Sawyer back, try to learn what happened. If he wakes up or anything, just call out for me, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks, Jack."

He nodded and, after a quick smile, left the room. Kate glanced after him; somehow she felt relieved when he was finally out of sight. She didn't have time to try to understand why: Sawyer was shivering. She quickly went to get a damp cloth and gently applied it to his burning forehead.

"Hey! Hey, can you hear me? You're going to be okay. You're going to be alright. You're home."

The shivering finally subsided but she kept on running the cloth over his face and torso, washing him in the process. He really needed it, she thought. Her heart sank: what he had been through? She could hear, indistinctly, Jack, Locke and the black man talking. She was dying to know more about how the stranger had found Sawyer, but she couldn't bring herself to leave the bedroom where he was now sleeping tranquilly. What if he woke up while she was gone? He wouldn't have any idea where he was, and she didn't know how he'd react.

So she stayed by his side, praying that he'd pull through.

A while later, Locke came into the bedroom. Kate was just sitting by Sawyer's side, lost in her thoughts. She raised her head to look at John and he asked:

"How is he?"

She briefly glanced at Sawyer and replied, unable to hide the anxiety in her voice:

"He seems to be okay. At least I think he is," she replied, unable to mask her concern for him.

Locke nodded, grabbed a nearby chair and sat close to Kate.

"I'm guessing you might want to know what happened."

It was Kate's turn to nod. Of course she did. Quickly, he filled her in: the raft's encounter with the Others, Walt's kidnapping, the walk back to camp with the tail section's survivors, Shannon's death.

"Where's Jack now?" she wondered, suddenly worried. She just hoped he wasn't going to do anything rash.

"He and Eko went to find Sayid. Without any guns," he added, sensing her apprehension.

She let out a relieved sigh; the last thing they needed was for their doctor to get hurt. Especially when Sawyer was in such a bad state, she though with a hint of guilt.