No Contest

Summary: Jack, Kate, and Sawyer have been captured by the mysterious Others. But these extraordinary circumstances are no reason for Jack and Sawyer to abandon their rivalry for Kate's affections...

Yeah, this sort of picks up where the end of season two left off... Jack, Kate and Sawyer stuck in a room together, fighting to stay sane. You know, usual Lost craziness. This is going to be either Jate or Skate, and I have one of the two in mind, but we'll have to see how it goes...

Rated T, but it's a pretty hard T for general torture situations and a few F-bombs. Might become M later... we'll see how it goes

Disclaimer: All of Lost and it's brilliance belongs to JJ and all the honchos at ABC. In short, I don't own. I don't claim to, and I'm not making money off this. Just having some fun.

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Sawyer awoke very slowly. He had to blink a few times to clear the thin mist that floated across his vision. It was very dark; the only source of light was a dim orange bulb hanging from the ceiling. He didn't register much else at first- whatever drug that was in his system hadn't fully worn off yet and he was still drifting in and out of consciousness. He was aware that he was sitting on a dirt floor, and that he was leaned against a concrete wall. His hands were unbound but his gag was still in place. Two other dark shapes were slumped against the wall opposite to him. Jack was propped up in the corner, head lolling at his chest and Kate was sprawled on the floor next to him.

He tried to lift his hands to untie his gag, but his arms felt like they had twenty pound weights attached to them. Sawyer sighed and blinked hard a few times, willing the drowsiness to leave him. It took him another ten minutes before he summoned up the will to move. He started slowly, wiggling his toes and fingers and then his feet and hands until his entire body co-operated a little better. He untied his gag and spat to get rid of the leftover fibres and the bad taste in his dry mouth.

"Jack?" he called, voice raspy. "Kate?" The circumstances seemed to call for him to use their real names. When nobody answered back, he pushed himself off the wall and crawled over to them, shaking Kate gently and murmuring "Freckles?" into her ear. She didn't respond- she was still out cold but breathing slowly and steadily. He moved over and shook Jack by the shoulders with a little more vigor. Almost immediately Jack gave a low groan and rolled his head slowly up around to rest on the wall.

He tried to say something, but nothing comprehensible came out through the gag. He tried to lift his hands as Sawyer had, but failed and let them flop uselessly back to the ground.

Sawyer took pity on him and gave his gag a good tug and threw it away carelessly and slumped tiredly into the wall adjacent.

Jack said something that sounded vaguely like a thank you and blinked hard a few times. It was a good few minutes before he mustered the energy to say anything else. "Is Kate ok?"

"Yeah," Sawyer nodded slowly. "She's still out cold though. They drugged us up pretty good."

"Kate's smaller," Jack said in agreement. "The drugs will take longer to wear off."

For a little while they didn't say anything but focused instead on getting their motor skills back up to snuff. There wasn't much to say- they knew they had been captured by the Others and were their prisoners. Not a whole lot to discuss.

"We are so fucked." Jack didn't cuss often, but, well, no other words seemed appropriate to describe just how much shit they were in.

"Thanks Cap'n Obvious," Sawyer scowled.

"And I've just figured out the worst part of it," Jack went on, ignoring Sawyer.

"Please do tell," Sawyer drawled.

"I'm stuck in a dirt room with you." He looked around desperately.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I called up ol' Zeke and asked if we could schedule some male bonding time," he snapped sarcastically.

Their irritated conversation was cut short when Kate stirred and moaned on the ground next to Jack. They both shut up and scrambled towards her, Jack pulling her head into his lap and untied her gag. Sawyer scowled jealously. She yelped slightly and stiffened instantly, making a rather feeble effort to push them away.

"It's ok Kate," Jack said in his most soothing doctor's voice. "It's just us."

Her rigid body relaxed somewhat as she heard his voice and she groaned heavily, letting her arms fall listlessly to her sides. "Just relax Freckles, it'll take a while for the drugs to clear out," Sawyer said reassuringly.

"I'm thirsty," she rasped. Jack and Sawyer were also aware of the sticky, dry state their mouths were in. The gags had absorbed all the moisture in their mouths.

"Us too, sweetcheeks," Sawyer said, "but we got nothing right now. Hopefully those bastards'll come around with something sometime soon."

Kate rubbed her eyes and scooted over a little. "What do you think they want with us?"

"Something, hopefully. Then they'll have a reason to keep us alive," Jack added by way of explanation.

Sawyer looked alarmed at the prospect of not being kept alive. "We gotta find a way outta here, and soon." He looked frantically for some way out. The room was rectangular, perhaps twelve feet long and nine wide. A there was a heavy looking metal door with a slot (for food, hopefully) to the front of the room and nothing but a dirty looking metal toilet to the back. The walls were bare save for something that looked like it could be a loudspeaker and a small vent. There was nothing above them except for the dusty, dim orange lightbulb. Sawyer scrambled up and over to the door, testing its strength by throwing himself into it.

Kate let out a horrified "Sawyer!" but Jack just rolled his eyes.

"Sawyer, relax. We can't even think about escape until we know what's going on here."

Sawyer shot Jack an angry look and banged his fist into the door one last time before sinking down to the ground in front of it.

"Jack's right. Sawyer. We have to get our bearings before we try anything," Kate said tiredly.

"I'm glad to see you're all awake and conspiring already," a cool female voice came out of nowhere. Kate started violently and all three of them looked around wildly. "I must ask you to remember that you are at our mercy, and that any bad behavior of your will result in unpleasant consequences."

Kate gripped Jack's arm, pupils wide.

"We don't want to kill you- that would certainly be a waste. Quite the contrary- if you co-operate with us- not that you will have much choice- we will let you go eventually. You should be proud to be a part of this- your sacrifices will go towards the betterment of society and mankind.

Sacrifices? Sawyer gulped.

"Meals will be provided for you and your health will be monitored. We'll let you settle in for now," the voice said, strangely pleasantly, "but we'll be seeing you soon."

The voice stopped and the captives sat in stunned silence for a moment.

"Anyone else get the feeling we're fuckin' lab rats?" Sawyer muttered, confirming their worst fears.

A moment later several fruits, sealed ration packets and bottles of water fell through the slot in the door next to where Sawyer was sitting. He lunged for the little cat flap, but it was already closed and locked again. Instead he looked resignedly at the bottles of water and passed one to Kate first, then to Jack.

"High class establishment they got here," he said, examining his own bottle, which was branded with a familiar logo. "Dharma Initiative spring water." He raised his bottle in a mock toast and then opened it and drained it in three gulps. "Wonder why these sons o' bitches are hanging out in this shithole camp instead of our cozy little hatch?"

Nobody answered him, but Sawyer was pretty sure they all had their own suspicions on that point.

"I wonder what time of day it is," Jack said, looking around uselessly.

"We're underground, asshole," Sawyer snapped. "Seems you forgot to bring your heroically powered Rolex."

Jack opened his mouth to say something, but Kate beat him to it. "It's not going to help if you guys snap at each other all the time, ok? Please, just be quiet. I have a headache."

They fell silent instantly. Jack contented himself by giving Sawyer a dirty look.

Later they fell asleep on the dirt floor, all in shallow, uneasy slumbers.

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The next day, they took Kate.

The arrival of the guard was preceeded by a message on the loudspeaker by the female voice. She warned them that an armed guard would be coming to take Kate away for an hour. She wouldn't be harmed, but if any of them tried to interfere, they would knocked out.

"Please, don't do anything stupid, you two." Kate looked at them desperately. "I don't want you to get hurt."

Naturally, it was Sawyer who ignored her warning. He lobbed a piece of fruit at the guard- the only thing at hand. The man had retaliated swiftly and butted Sawyer hard in the jaw with his rifle, knocking him out.

Jack watched in silent agony as Kate was dragged away.

Sawyer came to half an hour later, groaning and feeling his face.

"It isn't broken," Jack said quietly. "I checked. Do me a favor and save the heroic bullshit. We can't afford to do crap like that right now."

"Sorry that I care enough to fight for her, Jack-o," Sawyer hissed.

"You know I care about her, you stupid hick." Jack fought to keep his temper under control.

"Well maybe next time you'll be a little more proactive."

"I'm trying to keep us alive and uninjured!" Jack said exasperatedly. "Unlike you, Sawyer, I've got Kate's best interests at heart here, not my own."

"Look, just because you're the 'morally superior' one here doesn't mean you're better than us."

"Us?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Me'n Kate." Sawyer paused to consider his next words. "We're good enough for each other."

"What are you getting at, Sawyer?" Jack sighed.

"She isn't good enough for you, Dr. Do-good."

"That's a really fucked up way to look at it," Jack said angrily, hot rage flooding him. "The way I see it, it's the other way around."

"Yeah, what else is new?" Sawyer asked, feigning boredom and picking at a scab on his hand.

Jack muttered some obscenities under his breath and fell silent once more. Sawyer had won the battle... and he had definitely started the war.

They said no more but waited in the dark, frustrated at their own inabilities to do anything to help Kate.

Twenty minutes later she was pushed back into the cell, exhausted and breathing heavily, dark circles of sweat on her clothes causing her to shiver.

She took two steps forward and collapsed.

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AN: So, worth continuing? Drop me a line, I'd really like to know if you like it.