Title: Fall Into The Light
Author: GlowFish
Fandom: Lost
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Ana Lucia/Sawyer, Ana Lucia/Sayid
Summary: Life certainly is not what it was twenty-four hours ago
Warnings: Mostly mild swearing; I’ll up the rating if it gets any worse. I don’t know Ana Lucia’s mother’s real name, so sorry for that mistake; Totally un-beta’d so all the mistakes are mine. Feel free to comment. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows. Thanks!
Disclaimer: If I owned Lost, d’you think this story would even be necessary?

***

"So the world’s still out there?"
--Desmond Hume to John Locke, S2E2: Adrift

I.

"I'm sorry."

Whispered words of pain before a loud, earth-shattering pop. And then she felt it, something hot and metallic burrowing into her chest with the unrelenting mindlessness of a thing built to maim, built to kill. One moment of agony, one moment of pain. Louder pops. A gasp of surprise. A body slumping to the floor somewhere beyond her, but the world was already growing dark, and getting darker by the minute.

"Oh God."

Moments ticking off into moments ticking off into eternity. Darkness unending, surrounding her on all sides, drawing closer and closer as light faded from her eyes. One moment, then two and the pain dissipated into numbness and then into nothing. Nothing all at. Cold. Chill. And nothing.

"I'm so sorry."

And then her world went black.

~*~*~

Eyes open. Eyes closed. Brief catches of memories that fade into darkness. Voices.

Ana, hold on!

Amber lights. Red flashes, and the glaring whirl of blue. A man in white speaking into a walkie-talkie and the pulse of a heart monitor going berserk.

Ana! Hold on! Just-Just hold on!

An explosion. Wind whirling like the mind boggling, dizzying topsy-turvy world of a Dorothy being transported to Oz. A whirlwind of confusion. Screams. An airplane crash landing, and water rushing into lungs. Going under and the lulling stillness and silence of an ocean swallowing hot metal, plane engines and people alike.

Hold on! Please!

The whir of an ambulance and the paddles of a defibrillator. Clear! Shock. And a pulse. Life. Life fading. Men in white, and a man talking on his walkie-talkie. Man down. Man down. We need assistance here. Man down. Blood. Blood trickling from veins, potent red waters of life. Man down. Amber lights. Red flashes, and the glaring whirl of blue.

Ana! Ana-Lucia, can you hear me?

Hot beaches. Glowing sand. Whispers. Whispers. Strangers in a jungle world, on a mysterious island. Fear. The first night, devils from the thicket come, wearing the masks of the faces of men, and only the good ones were taken.

Ana, please wake up! Wake up!

Doctors crowded around. Cops in blue, in uniform, in civvies. Her mother weeping in the waiting room. Heart monitor stopping. Starting again. Stopping. Starting again.

Ana...Ana, please...

Hold on.

Hold on.

Eyes closed. Eyes opening. Eyes closed.

Eyes closed...

~*~*~

When next she woke it was not to the rusted roof of an underground hatch, but to the harsh fluorescence of blinding white hospital lights. There was pain in the center of her chest, as if she had been hit by a freight train. She gave a sharp gasp, shut her eyes and waited the pain out.

"Ana?" A voice floated to her ears from the world beyond. Soft, soothing, familiar. Her eyes flew open and she beheld the face of...

"Danni?"

His wide mouth broke into a relieved grin. He looked somewhere over his shoulder and called," She's awake. Thank God, she's awake."

She lifted her head slightly to look. Her mother and her partner, Big Mike, were coming into her hospital room with equal looks of relief etched into the tired wrinkles and creases of worry. She frowned and tried to sit up quickly, a question of alarm on her lips, but before she could utter her confusion, pain rushed from her chest to her brain, frazzling her nerves with agony. She hissed in pain, hand going to her chest and finding bandages tightly wound about her ribcage and breasts.

"Jeez, Ann," Danni exclaimed, hands reaching out to grab hold of her shoulders and push her back down into bed. "You've been shot. Lie down." She looked up then and recoiled, hissing again in pain and glared at him with eyes heavy and heated with pain, confusion and a touch of anger.

"Ana-?" Her mother stepped forward, brow creased in confusion. "Meja, are you alright?"

"What's--" she struggled to speak, but her voice came out coarse as if it hadn't been used in a long while. She cleared her throat and tried again. "What's-What's going on? Why are you here? Where am I?"

Her partner swore as her mother tried to approach her, glancing at Danni as she did, before turning to her daughter and holding her hands out in a placating gesture.

"Ana--"

"What the hell is going on?!" Ana Lucia cried, clutching her chest as a spike of renewed pain flared. She winced and backed away from her mother's hands, glaring at all of the room's other occupants with the predatory look of a caged animal. Her eyes darted this was and that, seeing only one exit. The door. Resting behind her mother--mother? -- Danni, and her partner.

"Annie, meja, you were shot," her mother said quietly, grief evident in her tone.

"That bastard kid," her partner exclaimed. "I wish I could've gotten there sooner, Al. I should've gotten there sooner."

"We almost lost you," Danni said just as quietly as her mother. He looked at her, his brown eyes wide, haunted with dark rings, tell-tale signs of a sleepless night.

She shook her head, confused. "I-I don't understand. The plane crash. The island. I was shot. I was shot."

Her mother shot her a funny look. "Ana? What plane crash? Do you know where you are?"
Ana looked around, face clouding with uncertainty. Clearly, she was in a hospital. The linoleum floors reflected the fluorescent lights, and the room had the sterile feel of cleanliness that she had always hated about hospitals. But she didn't know how she had gotten here, wherever here exactly was. The last thing she remembered...The last thing she remembered...

"Where's Michael? And-And--" she frowned, struggling. A grey fog was starting to cover her brain, and exact details were becoming sketchy--"Libby? Where's Libby? Is she alright? Michael shot me, and then...then..."

"Michael?!" Danni and her mother exclaimed at the same time.

"Was that the kid's name?" Mike growled, his hand rubbing his right thigh where his gun usually was holstered.

"You spoke with him?" Her mother asked in surprise. Ana shook her head emphatically.

"No, No. The island. We were on the island. The plane had crashed and we...we..." Ana's voice trailed off as confusion clouded her mother, Danni's and Mike's faces.

"What-What exactly do you remember, Ana?" Danni asked cautiously.

Ana looked from one face to the other as her brain struggled to piece together the memories that were starting cloud over.

"A plane crash. We-I was on Flight eight-eight fifteen, and we-I was on my way back to Los Angeles. We crashed." Ana frowned. "I was there, with the other survivors of the plane for ninety days. We crashed. Three months. There were these Others, and they took people. Took the good ones. Left the rest of us. I-we-found other survivors. And I-I-I-I was shot. I was shot. And Libby. Shot. In the H-hatch. I was shot." Her voice took on a hysterical note, and her mother stepped forward once again to comfort her daughter. Ana Lucia leapt back, crying out as her chest flared with a vicious stab of pain.

"St-stay back!" her voice was shaking with pain. "Just-Just stay back. What the hell is going on? Why aren't I dead? I was shot. Michael shot me, and...and now, I'm here. And where the hell is here?!"

"Just calm down, Ann," Danni said gently, trying to calm her. "Just calm down. It's all right. Your brain is just trying to process the trauma."

"Trauma? TRAUMA?!" She laughed bitterly, then winced in pain as every drawn breath sent waves of agony to her brain. "I was shot! I was shot by Michael. Where's Jack? WHERE AM I?"
"You're in the Intensive care ward at St Sebastian’s Hospital in Downtown Los Angeles, Ms. Cortez, and could you please keep it down. There are other patients."

Ana stared in shock as her doctor came into her room with fake cheer etched into the lines of his face. The bottom dropped out of her stomach as very real fear laced its way up her spine. Her mother turned to the doctor first with a relieved look, then Danni and then her partner.

"Doctor, thank God, you're here," her mother said, the relief evident in her voice. "She's-She's not in her right mind."

"Is it the shock, doc?" Mike asked, worried. Danni nodded and as one her mother, boyfriend and partner looked to the doctor plaintively. The doctor's smile looked phony to Ana Lucia as she tried to edge away. But there was nowhere to turn, nowhere to go, and the doctor's eyes darted to her with a cold glare that froze her in her place.

"Doctor?"

The man turned back to a very worried Maria Cortez; she apparently had not noticed the glare sent her daughter's way or had misinterpreted it. He smiled his phony smile again.

"No need to worry," he said with a saccharine sweetness to his tone. "Just let me have a word with her."

Her mother looked doubtful and cast a worried glance back at her daughter. Ana pleaded with her mother with her eyes, Don't leave me. Don't leave me alone with him.

The older woman turned back to the doctor. "I don't think--"

"It's shock, Mrs. Cortez. Shock from her...situation. Please. It'll only take a minute."

Maria Cortez was doubtful again, but the doctor flashed her another saccharine smile and motioned to Danni and Mike.

"Please escort, Mrs. Cortez to the waiting area. I'll be out there in one moment. I promise."
Danni nodded, and Ana would've cursed him if the pain in her chest weren't sending wave after wave of agony to her brain. Instead, she glared daggers at him as he and her partner escorted her mother out into the hall, towards the waiting room. The door to her room closed with a thunk that sounded of finality.

And then she was alone.

With him.

"Well, Ana Lucia Cortez, you had a pretty adventurous night, didn't you?"

The doctor turned, and Ana Lucia was face to face with Henry Gale.

~*~*~

Author's Note: Okay, so what do you think? It was a while beofre I could even post a thing like this because quite frankly the damn S2 pissed me off. So, I decided what the hell, why don't I do something to bring her back. Remember, every time you review an angel gets its wings. ;)

uh wow that was totaly unique i was expecting jack for a moment hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Thanks! I was actually going to make that Jack, but then I realized...Jack is a spinal surgeon and I was all like, "Well, damn...that's not going to work..."

Gale was a twist, really... *grins*

ooooh, I like this. very original idea, and your writing's fantastic...I love the use of description in that second part, before she wakes up...that was a really fantastic part. Great job, and I can't wait for more.

Thanks so much, and I checked out that LVS3 vid on you profile page...dude...seriously, that is awesomeness!

thank you, sweetie!

you're welcome!

Title: Fall Into The Light
Author: GlowFish
Fandom: Lost
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Ana Lucia/Sawyer, Ana Lucia/Sayid
Summary: Life certainly is not what it was twenty-four hours ago
Warnings: Mostly mild swearing; I’ll up the rating if it gets any worse. I don’t know Ana Lucia’s mother’s real name, so sorry for that mistake; Totally un-beta’d so all the mistakes are mine. Feel free to comment. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows. Thanks!
Disclaimer: If I owned Lost, d’you think this story would even be necessary?

***

"So the world’s still out there?"
--Desmond Hume to John Locke, S2E2: Adrift

II.


She didn't like the way he was looking at her. A predatory look, like a hunter that hasn't eaten for days. Ana's hands flexed involuntarily, and she wished desperately that she had a gun or a stick or knife with which to injure the man with.

He hadn't moved from his spot in front of the door, just stared at her with that look in his eyes, and she could feel the tendrils of fear coiling around her brain and rooting frantic butterflies in her stomach. She met his hungry look with wariness.

"Standing there will do wonders for the pain, Ms. Cortez, I'm sure, but it has always been in medical experience, and this is really just a suggestion, that lying down always alleviates physical discomfort," he said in a matter-of-fact tone that almost caught Ana off-guard. She blinked, glared, but didn't move a muscle. He watched her, amusement creeping across his features.
"Alright. Suit yourself." He turned to the door with a carelessness that she was sure wasn't feigned and picked her chart from the chart holder nailed to the wall. He turned back to her, but looked at her chart, his eyes brows rising and falling at what he read.

"Multiple guns shot wounds to the chest, bruising to the lungs and three broken ribs. " He looked up. Smiled. "Will this convince you to lie down, Ms. Cortez. I wouldn't want that mother of yours to sue the Hospital for patient neglect."

"You leave my mother out of this, Gale," she growled. His smile was wan.

"Finally the living statue speaks," he said with false cheer. "Now, the real clincher is will you hold still for me to do an exam?"

"What are you going here, Gale?"

His look was innocent. "I'm a doctor, Ana Lucia. What else would I be doing?" He motioned to the bed. "Now, sit."

"You know what I mean," she growled. He paused.

"Do I?" He looked thoughtful as he crossed the room to a drawer containing a few medical supplies and, putting her chart down, pulled out a pair of latex gloves. "I can't honestly say--" He pulled one glove on and let it pop against his skin. Ana jumped; he grinned wickedly--"I know what you're implying."

Her glare was heated. "Oh, you know. What am I doing here? Where is here and why am I not on the island?"

He shrugged and pulled on the other glove. He turned to her. He answered, "You're here because you were shot. You're here because you sustained serious injuries after being shot. You're here--" and the look in his eyes went blank--" because your child was murdered."

That small declaration hurt almost as much as the pain in her chest did. Her face clouded over with rage and anger, and as Henry Gale approached her, she hissed in warning. He paused in his approach momentarily, stared at her with that blank look that scared her more than his look of false cheer, before closing the distance that separated her from him. She reached out to stop him as he came near, hand free hand balling into a tight, white knuckled fist and swung with all her might. But he caught it easily as her chest screamed in pain, and she cried out in agony, his other arm moving in to wrap around her waist as she slumped against him, tears dancing at the edges of her eyes.

"Let go of me," she growled. Henry Gale chuckled.

"I don't think so, Ana Lucia," he said brightly, cheer evident in his voice once again. "You're going to sit on that bed like a good little girl and let me examine you, aren’t you? Yes you are. If not, I'll make your life a living hell for as long as I have you." And squeezed the arm around her waist, crushing her ribcage. She cried out in pain as wounds not yet healed scrapped against bandages and bone.

He sat her on the hospital bed carefully, and she glared at him hatefully as he examined her.
"It is a terrible tragedy, though," he said thoughtfully as he worked. Ana tried to drown him out. "That baby of yours. Would've been a real, handsome boy."

Ana's gut twisted, and she tried not to cry out he hit a particularly sensitive spot. What came out instead was a small whimper. Henry Gale ignored her and continued," He would've had his mother's stubborn streak, that's for damn sure--"Ana grimaced--"And his father's determination."
She wanted to kill him, rip him limp from limp, so that that sweet saccharine voice of his would be silenced, and she wouldn't have to hear him talk. Wouldn't have to hear him speak, reminding her of the past. Or the present. She frowned as he moved her right arm, winced and hissed in pain.
Was this the past? Or was it the present? And why was Henry Gale here? He should've been on the island. He should've been millions of miles a way from here, and for that matter, so should she. All she could remember was being shot by Michael, and then her world going dark, and then she woke up here, in this bed, in the hospital, a place she had thought she had left behind years ago. Was this all fake?

Ana hissed in pain as Henry Gale prodded her ribs with diligent fingers. If the pain was any indication, then this had to be real. But then what about the island? What about Jack and Sawyer? What about Eko, the kids, Shannon, Sayid? Was all that a dream? A nightmare?
Henry Gale stood, finally finished, and there a gleam in his eye that didn't sit well with Ana at all. Her instincts, the ones that had echoed in her blood like an ancestral memory, the instincts that had been honed in the Academy, were screaming at her to run. Once long ago--or perhaps not so long ago?--she had not listened to them at all, and had paid dearly for it. She had sworn to herself that she would never ignore those instincts again. He knew something, knew what was going on, and is she were stronger she would've beaten the answers out of him. Instead, she glared at Gale suspiciously, and his saccharine grin returned.

"Well, Ana Lucia, for a woman who was shot very recently, you're doing better than expected," he said, ignoring her glare. "You should be able to go home in a few days." He turned, taking off the gloves and threw them away in the trash depository near the medical supply drawer. He retrieved her medical chart and continued, "I'll just go inform you mother, Officer Regis, and Mr. Santivanez of your progress."

He headed towards the door, but Ana stopped him, calling his name. He turned to her with that blank look returning, but she--despite the cold chills running up and down her spine--asked him, "Where are they?"

She didn't say Jack or Locke or Eko or Sayid or Kate or Rose, or any of the others, but his blank look faded and the grin returned, haunting and chilling. He answered simply, "Oh, they're here. You'll see." Then turned away and headed out of the room. Ana Lucia lay back in her bed, a dead weight settling in her stomach and apprehension lodged in her throat.

***

Author's Note: I'm sort of at work and there is like only paperwork to do, and so when I get bored with that, I type, and I type fast. So this is the end result. Once again:

Remember, kids, every time you review, an angel gets its wings.

lol, wow, you're fast. I still love it, though. this is awesome. creepy!doctor!Henry rocks; I love the way this is written.

"They're here''....oooh, now I'm curious. Again, can't wait for more!

yeah, it's an incredily slow day, and all I've got to do is catch up on paperwork, but it's all so dang tedious, that I get bored and need to take like 30 min breaks in between, and what better way to break then to break and write and eat chips and soda.

LOL!

LOL, yeah, I know what you mean.

I work at Sam Goody, and the only business we get is from 80-year-old senior citizens, cause we're right near a retirement home. and how many times a day does an 80-year-old need to buy dvds or cds? So yes, it's a very boring shift for me, so I sit there and play minesweeper on the computer for most of it, lol.

LOL, mindsweeper...coolness! I'm almost done with like chapter three because I really type that fast, not to say that I won't misspell alot of stuff on the way though. D'you think it'd be good to post this on the Lost-forums too? I'm not sure if they're Ana friendly over there.

Title: Fall Into The Light
Author: GlowFish
Fandom: Lost
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Ana Lucia/Sawyer, Ana Lucia/Sayid
Summary: Life certainly is not what it was twenty-four hours ago
Warnings: Mostly mild swearing; I’ll up the rating if it gets any worse. I don’t know Ana Lucia’s mother’s real name, so sorry for that mistake; Totally un-beta’d so all the mistakes are mine. Feel free to comment. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows. Thanks!
Disclaimer: If I owned Lost, d’you think this story would even be necessary?

***

"So the world’s still out there?"
--Desmond Hume to John Locke, S2E2: Adrift

III.

It was three days before she left the hospital, three days of agony in Ana Lucia's opinion, and not the physical kind of agony even though there were heaps of that too. No, it was mental agony plaguing her as more and more she realized, she was losing details in her memories. Just little things really: the way Bernard looked when he used to silently muse about his wife while the tailies survived on their lonely, but dangerous side of the island; Eko and that quiet strength that radiated from soul and gave courage to anyone he spoke to; Libby and her boundless depth of understanding; the way Jack looked when he was concentrating particularly hard on something that had captured his attention; the way Sawyer seemed to glow with absolute abandon, all cares and worries forgotten when he was in the throws of passion. But...those images were starting to fade, starting to disappear underneath the gray blanket that was clouding her mind, snatching away everything of substance. She couldn't understand it.

Had it all been a dream? Had she been trapped in some kind of limbo between the waking world and the world of dreams, between life and death, imagining these people, these lives, these dramas? Had it all been fake?

She looked out the window of Danni's SUV as he prattled on about some new gig he got, working construction for a company named Widmore, down near East LA, how much it was paying and whether or not he'd have enough money to be able to move them into a larger apartment. She let his words wash over her, not really paying attention. She wanted to care about his work, she wanted to care about his ideas about the new apartment, but as she stared out the window, eyes lighting on sun dappled lawns and children playing hopscotch on neighborhood corners, on gaggles of old ladies talking boisterously in front of a beauty parlor and a small group of teenage kids smoking near a stop light, she wondered if this world was even real too.

Was she lying dead somewhere, underneath the sifting, shifting weight of beach sand as an ocean roared somewhere beyond her shallow grave? Were there people weeping over her and was her corpse locked in the first throes of rigor mortis? Was she dreaming corpse dreams, and this place, with its old ladies and smoking teens, playing kids and sunny lawns--this place--the manufacture of electrical impulses finally shutting down in her expired brain?

"Ana? Ana Lucia?"

She turned with a start as Danni looked at her strangely. He asked, "Did I lose you for a second?"

She tried to smile, failed and said, "Just...Just being out of that hospital..."

Danni nodded wisely, smiled himself. "I do suppose it's a bit overwhelming..." He paused, a doubtful look crossing his features. "Are you-Are you--"he hesitated. Took a deep breath--"Are you thinking about it? Him? The baby?"

Ana froze for a moment, then relaxed, turned away and stared out the window as they passed an old man, haggard and worn, all his worldly possessions piled in a haphazard heap in a shopping cart, standing on a corner waiting for the light to change. She locked gazes with him for a second; he grinned a snag-o-toothed grin and waved, she waved slightly back.

"Ana?"

"I wasn't really--" she stopped, started again. "I wasn't really thinking about anything at all."

"Oh." Danni was silent for a moment as he made a turn down a street to their right. Ana turned back to her window gazing.

Truth was she hadn't thought about the baby at all. It wasn't that she didn't care, it wasn't that she had forgotten--she hadn't, and could still feel that ache, that gnawing ache of emptiness in her womb, in her heart, in her mind, that knowing that she had had life growing inside of her, foreign and alien, but still her's, still a piece and part of her--she just remembered a different time, a different life in which Danni no longer existed and her baby was dead and buried, and all that mattered underneath the daily goings about of wrecked castaways was survival. Part of her was still wrapped in the thralls of the crazy, dangerous life, still remembering instances, still feeling as if, in the next minute, whispers would swirl from underneath bushes and travel on the backs of the wind and strangers would come rushing out to snatch up the ... "good ones."

"You know," Danni said interrupting her thoughts. "We don't have to go home yet."

She thought about it for a second then shook her head. "Nah, take me home, cowboy. I could use some rest on real sheets."

Danni grinned. "Sure thing, querida."

~*~*~

The apartment was cleaner than she remembered it, and it smelled like spearmint and pine. Danni bustle around as she entered slowly, feeling the doorframe for a moment, settling herself in moment, wanting to feel the wood and make sure it was real. For months, she'd never even had so much as a welcome mat to step on. She breathed, gripped the doorframe one last time then stepped into the threshold.

Everything was as it had been before, had been as she remembered from years ago. The furniture, a nice set of earthy tones--Danni's idea, not her's--complimented the off-white color of the walls, giving the room a feeling of spaciousness, but also comfort so that she didn't feel boxed in nor did she feel like a lonely island in a vast empty sea; Danni always knew how to find the happy median in-between. He was bustling in the kitchen now, opening and closing cabinet doors, sifting through the refrigerator and freezer. She left him to his own doing and wandered around the apartment.

It all looked the same; she didn't know what she had been expecting. Perhaps something, anything, to tell her that this world was a lire, and the one that she just came from, the one with mangoes and a temperate climate was the real world. In that other place, and that other time, she had come home to this apartment to find Danni packing up his things, a look of set resignation on his face as he told her it was over, that he couldn't deal with her and her problems, that he'd had enough. She remembered yelling at him, betrayed, telling him that he didn't lose something like she had, that he didn't feel the agony that she felt every day, like she was a dead corpse walking. He'd left her then, in an angry huff, never looking back when his car tore out of the apartment complex, going on to his new life.

She wondered what made this world so different. What was making Danni stay? What was making him act the way that he was? She looked around again, and saw where they had set up a table filled with framed pictures of his family, her family and pictures of him and her in various stages of happiness. Valentines day, Christmas, New Years and Fourth of July, she picked up a particular picture with he and her at a friend's party--faces red as cherries and smiling, insanely drunk--some time ago, maybe even just last year--this reality's time?--where lights had been flashing in a cacophony of reds, blues, greens, hot pinks and oranges, blurs of people in the background. She studied each face curiously, trailing a finger lightly down the picture frame's edge. Suddenly, her finger stopped and she stared wide-eyed as her gaze fixed on a face, a familiar face in a frozen crowd of strangers.

Rugged was the only way to describe him, rugged with a sly grin and deep brown eyes, hair falling about his face in lank brown locks. He held a drink and in the picture had clearly been talking to the bombshell beside him, but had turned right when the photographer yelled, "Cheese!" And had flashed that sly grin.

Ana nearly dropped the frame.

"Ana!"

She looked up startled as Danni came over, face awash with concern. "I called you, like, three times. You alright."

She thrust the picture at him, ignoring his question. "Who's that in the picture? I mean, not who, but when--where--why was HE at that party?"

Danni stared at her for a long moment, a peculiar look coming into his eye, but he looked at the man in the picture that she was pointing at and shrugged.

"Some friend of Carlita's," he replied. "She invited him over last year. Some investor or salesman or something from Tennessee or Georgia, I don't know. Why do you ask?"

She pulled the picture back and stared long and hard at the man’s face. "I know him."

Danni frowned. "Huh?"

"I.KNOW.HIM." Ana said, jabbing her finger at the picture. "Sawyer. Sawyer's his name."

"How d'you--?"

"He was on the--" Ana looked up as Danni got that peculiar look in his eyes again. She shook her head.

"He just...He just looks familiar."

"Yeah, from the party." Danni took the picture away from her and set it down on the table then he took her hands in his own. "You should go lie down. I'll make dinner."

Ana stared at him for a moment, long and hard. He looked away, releasing her hands and turning back to the kitchen. "Go lay down, Ana."

She nodded, still staring at him, edging towards the bedroom. She glanced back at the picture once more, catching that conman's sly grin and locking it in her memory.

She made a mental note before disappearing into the bedroom altogether: Tomorrow, she was going to contact their old friend, Carlita.

***

Author's Note: Okay, so this is like the last bit that I'll be able to add for today anyway, but don't worry more will come *winks* because I'm living in that happy place called 'Denial' where Ana hasn't died and she gets two of the island's sexiest hunks to herself! w00t!

Oh...yeah, and Kate dies...

*prances off*

:bow: Amazing, I love this story. I can't wait to see what happens when she runs into all the others from the island. This is getting so good. And Kate dies? w00t! I absolutly love this. Can't wait for more, great job!

i LOVE this fic :)

update soon

and sana all the way*

Thanks so much, I'm writing up four and five; I'll probabyl be able to post them later on tonight, but really...thanks for the reviews!

Thanks, Kat!

Thanks, skadi!

ooh, yay. I come back and there's an update. whoot! love it. nice work. and yay, Sawyer! =D

Damn that's good! It gives me the chills! Keep on writing!

Whoa. This is creepy cool. I LOVE it!

L.

Title: Fall Into The Light
Author: GlowFish
Fandom: Lost
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Ana Lucia/Sawyer, Ana Lucia/Sayid
Summary: Life certainly is not what it was twenty-four hours ago
Warnings: Mostly mild swearing; I’ll up the rating if it gets any worse. I don’t know Ana Lucia’s mother’s real name, so sorry for that mistake; Totally un-beta’d so all the mistakes are mine. Feel free to comment. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows. Thanks!
Disclaimer: If I owned Lost, d’you think this story would even be necessary?

***

"So the world’s still out there?"
--Desmond Hume to John Locke, S2E2: Adrift

IV.

Ana? Ana, can you hear me?

Whispers. Whisper everywhere. Shadows moving in the underbrush, feet slapping against wet ferns as the sky rages with a storm overhead and rain patters down in thick drops. Everything is a blur. Everything is chaos.

Ana, wake up! Ana!

Turning this way and that, turning everywhere to look, to see, but there was nothing to see, nothing to see except the rain, the blur of green as she whirled and the whispers rising, rushing in to cloud her mind and her senses with stifling, choking fear. She had to be ready, she had to be fierce, she had to be...

Ana Lucia!

In this one moment, in this one moment, everything mattered. She gripped her gun and the cold steel cut into her palm, arms tense, trigger finger ready. She wasn't going to make the same mistake again. She wasn't. Too many people died, too many people were lost...

Not again. Never again.

Ana! Ana!

The underbrush stirred. A figure emerged. Ana Lucia didn't blink—

Never again

--and pulled the trigger.

~*~*~

She snapped awake breathing hard, her heart beating frantically as the sounds of gunshots rung in her ears. She sat up quickly, hissing in pain as her still healing chest protested that action. The room was dark, and Danni was right beside her, his face tight with concern.

"Jesus, Ana, what the hell was that?!"

She turned to him, frowning, then looked away. Stared into the darkness of the world around her for long moments.

"I mean, goddammit! It was like you were having a war flashback or something," Danni continued.

She ignored his tirade and stared into the darkness, her frown deepening. There was only the closet and her's and Danni's neatly hanging clothes, Danni's posters and Ana's bookshelf and the usual clutter of life that littered a room occupied by two people. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to tell her that someone was waiting there, lurking in the darkness, the Morpheus of disturbing dreams.

"Ana? Ana, are you listening to me?"

She glanced at Danni, who was glaring at her in irritation. She nodded, looked away. "What--Did I say anything? In my dream or nightmare or whatever?"

He paused, frowning at her. "I think we should go to the hospital. Talk to Dr. Gale."

"No!" Ana's answer was immediate and explosive. "No. We don't need to-We don't!"

"Okay, okay," Danni said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "We won't go to the hospital, but dammit, Ana..." His voice trailed off, and he looked away. "You're scaring the crap out of me. You're really just..."

"What did I say?" she asked again. "What did I say in the dreams?"

She watched him struggle for a moment, before sighing. He met her gaze squarely. "Never again."

She sat back against the headboard of their bed as Danni continued, "What the hell does that mean anyway? "Never again"? Never again, what? "

She smiled humorlessly. "I won't--"she stopped, took a breath and her chest protested slightly--"Never again. Not another death. Not another...I won't get shot. Not again."

He paused, looked at her, brows furrowing. "I'm...I'm sorry. I didn't--but Ana, it's--You've--It feels like you're on a completely different planet. I mean, I know Dr Gale--"Ana grimaced--"said it's probably just the shock. That you're still trying to process...everything, but since you left the hospital..." He turned to her, that peculiar look coming into his eyes again. "What's happening, Ana?"

I might be losing my mind, Ana wanted to say. Instead, she shrugged. "Nothing. Nothing, I guess. Just the shock as Dr-Dr. Gale said."

His peculiar look deepened. "Maybe, but that whole fixation of an island--"

"--is just a fixation," she lied. She tried to smile, didn't and looked away. "Look, I just gotta deal with the stress on my own."

"No, you don't," Danni said firmly, reaching and taking her chin in his hand, craning her face towards his. "We're a couple. Means we're a team. You suffer, I suffer."

Ana stared at him, wondering once again about this new Danni that she was presented with. This reality's Danni that was actually trying, that was actually reaching out and trying to make an effort, a Danni who wasn't packing up after just a few weeks of silence, of stress and grief and leaving her to deal with the death of their child alone. And once again wondered if this world was even real or was this the last vestiges of life trickling out of her blood stream. Was this her own subconscious' effort to make her death less painful than it was? Was it trying to give her a resolution?

"Danni--"

"Go to sleep, Ana," he said cutting her off. The peculiar look had vanished. "Just go to sleep. I'll watch over you."

She frowned, but he stroked her cheek with a gentle smile. She wanted to pull away, wanted to shake him and ask him if this were all a big joke. Did she dream up three years of hell? Did she dream up a plane crash and spending ninety days on a hostile, jungle island? Did she make up these lives, these nightmares just to stop herself from grieving her child? Her hand reflexively went to her stomach, her womb, which was empty of the life that had once occupied it.

He would've had her stubborn streak, Gale had said, and his father's determination.

But how could Gale have known she was pregnant? He was one of the Others. He was the enemy, and even in this world he seemed like he knew more than he was letting on. Or did he? Was she imagining things as much as that jungle island? Was her paranoia sweeping in and taking over her brain so fully that everything she knew and held familiar was becoming suspicious and strange?

Was this the way she was grieving for the lost life of her child?

Ana stared at Danni long and hard, and he leaned over, kissing her softly on the lips, before pulling back and motioning with his chin for her to go to sleep. She stared at him a second longer before looking away and turned, lying down carefully. Ana closed her eyes with Danni watching her, but it was a long time before she could get any real sleep.

~*~*~

The next morning found her creeping out of the bed, not wanting to disturb the slumbering figure of her Danni as early morning sunlight slanted in through the windows from the world outside. She crept out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen, seeking privacy. Danny’s brief case was hanging from the back of a chair, and she went rooting through it, trying to find his day planner. She knew that if Danni considered something worth remembering, he would jot it down in the planner. Finally, she found it and sat at the kitchen table, wincing a little when her chest protested, riding out the discomforting pain, before opening the leather bound book to look for Carlita’s number.

She remembered Carlita from college, having met her through Danni, while Ana Lucia was just entering into the Academy and Danni was just finishing up his Bachelor’s Degree in Business at the local college. She was a spunky woman, a wild child who seemed like she would be more comfortable running around naked in the streets then wearing the mismatching skirts and tub tops that she usually wore. Ana remembered thinking, when she first met Carlita, that if that girl wasn’t going to be a rock star’s girlfriend, she most certainly was going to end up be the leader of her own band.

Finally, she found the woman's number, scribbled in Danni’s wavy scrawl, “Carlita Zuniga-Sanchez” and her number right beside it. She stood carefully, mindful of her chest, and retrieved the kitchen telephone. Dialing the numbers, she put the phone to her ear and waited, hearing a click and then the phone ringing as the call was being placed.

A tendril of apprehension wound its way into her gut, and she tried to push it away, but it became more persistent, sending nervous chills up and down her spine.

What if Carlita couldn’t help her? What if Carlita herself had only met Sawyer in passing at that party and didn’t even remember him herself? What if Carlita thought she was crazy and called Danni back, and Danni took her back to St Sebastian’s, back to Gale?

The apprehension curled her stomach into knots, but before she could talk herself into hanging up the phone and to seeking out the location of Sawyer some other way, someone picked up on the other end of the line with a cheerful, “Casa de Zuniga-Sanchez, paradise at its finest.”

“Hello?” Ana called into the phone in confusion. “Is this Carlita?”

“Yes, this is she,” answered the voice on the line. “And who, may I inquire, are you?”

“Um…Carlita, I don’t know if you remember me,” Ana started. Her stomach did flip flops. “But I’m Daniel Santivanez’s girlfriend, Ana Lucia Cortez.”

There was a gasp on the other end and then, “My God, HI! I haven’t heard from you guys in ages! I thought Danny-boy’d forgotten me. How’ve you been?”

Ana Lucia let out a low, relieved sigh. “No, No, he hasn’t forgotten. Actually, I’ve been better. Look, Carlita, I really need your help.”

There was a pause. “Sure, Ana Lucia. What is it?”

Ana hesitated, took a breath. “I was wondering, you remember that New Year’s party you invited us to? We got the pictures and, well, I was just looking over one of them the other day and I couldn’t help, but notice that in one of the pictures there was a man that looked incredibly familiar to me.”

“Familiar? Really? Who?”

“Well, he had brown hair and brown eyes, a sly grin, and maybe a Southern accent,” Ana explained. “I remembered him from-from--"Ana racked her brain for a split-second trying to come up with a believable excuse--"one of the-one of the training classes at the Academy, and I was wondering if you are still in contact with him.”

“Brown hair and eyes, sly grin,” Carlita repeated after a brief pause. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

Ana nearly swore. She took a deep breath, said,” Well, his name was Sawyer. Sawyer, does that ring a bell?”

There was a longer pause on the line, and Ana held her breath.

Finally, “It does sound vaguely familiar. Hang on.”

Ana waited, listening in tense silence as the sound of papers being shifted and scattered met her ears. There was a bang, a mild curse and finally, Carlita returned to the phone sounding breathless.

“Got it,” the woman replied, triumphant. “I DO remember him. He was that Texan or Georgian or something or other. Flirted the pants off a friend of mine, then left her high and dry the next day.” Carlita snorted. “You sure he was training to be a cop?”

“Sure,” Ana lied. Carlita snorted again.

“I got his number,” she said. “I remembered he wrote it on my jeans trying to be smooth. You want it?”

“Yes.” Ana hoped her voice didn’t sound too excited. Carlita snorted again and told her the number. Ana scrambled to find a pen in the one of the kitchen drawers nearby, and when she did, she wrote it on the inner side of her palm. After thanking Carlita profusely and promising that Danni would call her before the week was out, Ana hung up and went to the kitchen table and sat for a moment, sighing in relief.

Then she stood, rubbing her sore chest lightly and went back to the bedroom.
She had some investigating to do.

~*~*~

Author's Note: Yeah, I was only able to work on Chapter 4, but I'm working on 5 as we speak. So, tell me...what does eveyone think?

I can't wait for more. I love how you write thoroughly yet quickly....moving the story forward without making it seem rushed. You're doing VERY well. Keep it up!

L.

Thanks! Really, really appreciate all you guys reading...I'll have chapter 5 up by tomorrow, but all your comments are greatly appreciated! I think chapter 5 will be a bit surprising!

Thanks, Leigh!

Thanks everyone!

MY. GOODNESS.
this is one of the best storys i have read in ages!! seriously. and you write so quickly i just noticed this now lol.

i think i have some idea whats going on. for some reason im thinking she's in a coma after being shot by michael. and shes imagined herself back at home with Danni and her minds starting to slip between reality and her imagination.

ooo this is so intriguing. have you put it on FF.Net???

omb im just loving this so much. you can tell cos im talking to much...

im gonna read it again.

Yeah, I was told by one of my betas in a different fandom that I shouldn't write LONG and COMPLICATED fics (<= her words, not mine) because I tend to lose people somehwere in the middle.


Well, Skayla, I can't tell you any details,else that would be spoiling it. I'll be like Damon and Carlton, and not budge an inch. We're more secret than the CIA!

keeping it short is good.

oh comeon! you can tell me a little bit...

btw im not sure if this has been answered but im pretty sure Ana's Mother's name was Teresa.

i could be wrong.

uh wow how cool is this its so interesting woot keep going

Another great chapter! Yah, your getting ready to get into some Sawyer&Ana :D. Amazing update, can't wait to read more. :)

YOU ARE A GOD. I BOW TO YOUR WRITING SKILLS :bow:

I like this.

can't wait for chapter five. :)

Title: Fall Into The Light
Author: GlowFish
Fandom: Lost
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Ana Lucia/Sawyer, Ana Lucia/Sayid
Summary: Life certainly is not what it was twenty-four hours ago
Warnings: Mostly mild swearing; I’ll up the rating if it gets any worse. Totally un-beta’d so all the mistakes are mine. Feel free to comment. Flames will be used to roast marshmallows. Thanks!
Disclaimer: If I owned Lost, d’you think this story would even be necessary?

***

"So the world’s still out there?"
--Desmond Hume to John Locke, S2E2: Adrift

V.

The police station was bustling and full of activity when Ana Lucia stepped through the doorway. She breathed deep, savoring the lingering smells of sweat, leather, starched uniforms and the underlying scent of unused gunpowder, and looked around. It was just as she remembered it: large, but still managing to be stuffy, with posters of wanted felons taped and pinned up messily along the station's white boards and walls, the coffee machine was steadily brewing the station's pick-me-up while some members of the LAPD were sitting at desks answering phones ringing on and off, handling paperwork, dealing with disgruntled citizens, the occassional lawbreaking criminal, and other officers were running too and fro on their own busy errands.

Ana smiled. It was great to be home.

"Hey, Al, on your feet already?"

She turned, startled at the call and was greeted by the welcome sight of a young officer in full uniform, hair cut short, eyes bright blue and twinkling in merriment as he took in her civilian wear.

Officer Raggs.

Ana smiled at him and shrugged.

"Can't stay away, man. It spices things up."

His smile turned into grin. "You know the captain'll have a fit if she finds you here. You're on leave."

To that, Ana looked around quickly to making sure her mother wasn't in the vicinty. Raggs chuckled knowingly.

"She's not here. There was some meeting at city hall," Raggs explained. "You're safe."

Ana shot him a look, sighed and asked, "Where's Mike?"

Raggs shrugged. "Patrol duty. Captain assigned him a new recruit to train until you got back on your feet." He paused suddenly in hesitation, the sparkle in his eyes dimming slightly. "Hey, Ana?"

Her eyebrow quirked in response. "Yeah?"

Raggs looked away. "You are coming back, right? I mean, your mother didn't say anything, but we sort of heard about...well...you know...We heard about what happened."

Ana swallowed, looked away herself and remembered. She remembered what it had been like to return to this place in that other time, in that other world and that other life, remembered what it had been like to slip back into the Uniform, to feel the reassuring weight of the pistol at her side like a long missed companion. Her stomach twisted rememering the sorrow, the pain, the anguish, buried underneath a hard shell, a granite rock of cold determination, locked away, so that she didn't have to think about,didn't have to recall that there had been life inside of her, there had been life, and that she had lost her chance to see that tiny child, that innocent baby live and grow because of her mistake.

He would have had her stubbornness, Gale had said, and his father's determination. Her stubbornness and his father's determination. And once again Ana was puzzled as to how this world's Gale knew so much. Why did he know so much? Where did he get his knowledge? And what did that mean for her?

Ana shook her head to clear her thoughts, squared her shoulders and met Ragg's doubtful gaze head on, nodding. "I'll-I'll be coming back. You can count on that."

Raggs' smile was a slow, relieved one, and his blue eyes regained some of their earlier sparkle. "Fantastic."

She smiled slowly herself, feeling a swell of warmth for the man before her, before swallowing and saying,"Look...um, let's not get into this sappy crap, alright? I'm here on official business."

He grinned again, eyes twinkling. "Alright, Officer Cortez. What's your business?"

Ana dug into the pocket of her pants and pulled out a slip of paper, handing it to Raggs. He took it, opened it and looked it over, frowning. He looked up and met her intent gaze in puzzlement.

"It's just a name and a number. What do you want me to do with this?"

"I want you to run it through the system, see if you come up with any hits."

Raggs' frown was immediate and suspicious. "This isn't the guy who--"

Ana shook her head emphatically. "No. No." She pointed. "He's...Look, it's important that you do this for me. I need to find this guy."

Raggs' look was dubious. "Why?"

"Look, I can't tell you any more than what I have. He's just really...Look, I gotta find him."

Raggs looked back down at the slip of paper in his hand, stroking it speculatively between thumb and forefinger. Ana held her breath. Finally, Raggs met her gaze and nodded.

"I'll see what I can do. It'll take me a minute though."

"I don't care as long as you find him."

Raggs nodded and turned to go, but stopped and turned back. He said, "Ana, if he is the one who...Look, you can't play the hero. You can't be the vigilante. I know you're...hurting, but taking this guy out? Ana, if he's....just let us bring this guy in, alright? Let us do this."

"It's not him," Ana said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. "It's...not. I just...I have to find this guy."

"Okay," Raggs said and walked away. Ana sighed, rubbed her face with one hand wearily. She looked around, searching for a place tosit; her chest was starting to ache with a dull throb of pain. She breathed slowly, and finally saw a set of metal chairs nailed to the station's wall across from her. Shewalked across the station quickly, sidestepping other officers, waving at the few that greeted her as she passed. She reached the set of chairs and sat down gratefully with a sigh, rubbing her ribs lightly to alleviate the pain.

The station bustled around her, and with the exception of the occassional greeting, Ana was left alone with her thoughts, and inevitably turned to the man she was looking for, and desperately hoped to find.

Her stomach twisted into anxious knots when she thought of him, that conman with a Southern gentleman's charm. If she did actually find him, would he even know her? Would he even remember the island like she? Was he, even now, looking and searching for clues of the other passengers of flight 815? Her stomach twisted even more as nervous butterflies suddenly started to flutter madly. Would he...Would he remember how they had last parted ways? Would he remember what it had felt like, the tension, the passion, of two people with absolutely nothing in common, coming together for a brief span of time, unleashing their anger and frustration, their fear and lust, in a wild power play of bodies and sweat, grappling hands, raking,scratching nails and intense kisses that bruised the lips and left them red and swollen like cherries? Ana Lucia shivered at the memory.

She didn't know what she would do if she was the only one--if she was the only one who remembered the island, the plane crash, the hellish days on that jungle rock. She needed to know the others were out there, she needed to know if they remembered what she remembered, felt what she was feeling right now: confusion, uncertainty. She needed to know if they were out there trying to put the pieces together, trying to understand why this world was here and why this timeline existed. Because if she found them then she'd know she wasn't losing her mind.

Ana sat forward in her chair, wincing at her chest's sharp protest of the movement, and put her face in her hands. She sighed and felt a sudden weariness settle about her shoulders. What if none of this were real? she wondered not for the first time. What if everything she was looking at, everything she could smell and taste and feel--the brush of wind as someone passed her on their busy-body way, the feeling of the hard metal seat below her, the throbbing ache of her chest--was just the split second flash of life before her eyes before her life drained out of her forever? What if she was--right now--still seated on that chair in the Hatch with Michael pointing that gun at her, pulling the trigger, feeling the life bleed out of her?

"Ana?"

She looked up with a start. Raggs was standing there with three thick manila folders in his hands. She sat up straighter, pushing her troubled thoughts aside.

"Are those--"

Raggs nodded. "I almost didn't find the bastard. Sawyer's his alias. His real name is James Ford." He handed her the three manila folders. "I made you copies of his file. He's some con man from the South. Been evading the police for while. Fifteen arrest warrants in six states. Every time someone tries to catch him, he skips town and disappears, goes underground. Then he resurfaces months later only to give police the same run around."

Ana took the files, opening the largest folder, and flipping through it. She stopped on a picture of his mug shot, and noticed, even then, that he had had a sly, pretentious grin written across his face. She wanted to snort.

"His last known address is in the last folder," Raggs was saying. Ana looked up, but the man wasn't looking at her; he was staring off into space. "But it probably won't do you any good. That place was raided last month. No sign of him anywhere."

Ana nodded and, hefting the three folders, stood. "Thanks for all your help, man. This...This means alot."

Raggs' turned to her with an intent gaze. "Anything I can do to help. We gotta keep these scumbags off the street somehow."

Ana nodded, smiled. "I guess so." She edged toward the station's exit. "I'll be seeing you."

Raggs' gaze was still intent as he nodded, lifting his hand and waving slightly. "See you."

Ana gripped the folders to her chest tightly and headed towards the exit, sidestepping a gaggle of complaining teenagers and the annoyed cop who had to deal with them. She was almost passed the station's threshold when Raggs called her, "Ana! Ana, wait!"

She paused, looked back.

"Be careful!" he called, worry evident in his tone. She shot him a thumps up gesture as she walked over the threshold and onto the sidewalk outside. He smiled and she turned away.

There was a glint of metal and the echo of island whispers suddenly surging from her memory, filling her ears, the muffled intake of a sharp gasp and then Ana met the hard body of a man walking swiftly down the sidewalk as she stepped out into the warm rays of a California sun.

Her chest screamed in pain at the impact, the manila folders and papers scattered and Ana gasped from the agony surging through her, trying to stay upright despite the black spots dancing at the edges of her eyes, the sudden nausea of pain and the trembling in her legs, tale-tells signs that her knees could giveout at any second. It was tortuous to breath and Ana wobbled on her feet even as strong pair of hands slid around her shoulders and a deep, accented voice said with some concern,"Miss? Miss, are you...are you alright? I didn't see you. Miss?"

Ana swallowed, gritting her teeth and nodding. Tears were balanced precariously at the edges of her eyes, but she held them at bay, struggling to right her breathing.

"Perhaps...a hospital? Miss, are you...?" The man's grip tightened around her shoulders, warm and solid, and suddenly, from under the haze of pain came the sudden thought, 'This feels nothing like Danni.'

"I'm-I'm alright," Ana was finally able to gasp out. She looked up, saw the man's face. Her eyes widened to surprised, bewildered saucers.

"You-You-You--" She couldn't speak, didn't trust herself to speak. The man's look became peculiar: a look of familiarity tinged with puzzlement at the familairity.

"I...know you," he said slowly. Ana nodded, still too surprised to speak. The man frowned.

"I've seen you...in my...dreams?" The man's frown deepened. "How?"

Ana shook her head, eyes still wide. "S-S-Sayid?"

The man's eyes widened considerably. "My name. You know my...name. How do you--?"

"SAYID!" He looked back quickly. There was another Iraqi man approaching the two from the opposite direction on the sidewalk. Ana turned to Sayid, but he was staring at the man with a look of resignation on his face. He glanced at her and the look cleared. He stepped away from her quickly, and Ana didn't understand why she suddenly missed the warmth of his arm around her.

"I am sorry, miss," he began, stooping to pick up her fallen papers quickly. Ana stared at him in shock.

"That's-That's...I mean, you don't have to." And she stooped to help him.

The Iraqi man that had called to Sayid earlier stopped a few feet away and watched, hands palying nervously in his pockets, his eyes darting this way and that, but Sayid didn't acknowledge him. He continued until he had gathered most of Ana Lucia's paperwork as she was hastily stuffing the rest in one of the available folders. She reached to grab a final sheet, turned face down, but Sayid beat her to it. He turned it overand gasped, his eyes widening.

"This man," he looked up, holding the sheet up for her to see. It was Sawyer's mug shot. "You are seeking him, yes? I know his face too."

Ana nodded. "You should."

Sayid looked at the picture closely. "How--? I know this face. I know yours. I don't understan--"

Suddenly, the Iraqi man stepped forward and said something in his native tongue that made Sayid glare at him sharply. The man swallowed thickly, said something else and Sayid growled something back. He turned back to Ana Lucia as she looked between the two men, frowning.

"I must speak with you concerning this..." He trailed off and held out Sawyer's picture. Ana nodded, pushing away the frightened butterflies that suddenly quivered in her stomach. After all, it seemed Sayid was just as bewildered about this world as she was. And while he did have some inkling of who she was, he didn't seem to remember exactly who she was.

She nodded and stood, gathering her file to her and holding out her free hand for the rest. Sayid gaveher thepaperwork he had,but was hesitatn about relinquishing the picture. He stared at it with a frwon on his face, as if he were trying to map out the con man's features, commiting them to memory, and when hefinally gave her the picture it was with some reluctance.

He reached into his pocket as Ana gathered the paperwork and placed it in the other folders. He handed her a card.

"My name is Sayid Jarrah, but you already knew that." His look was speculative as she took the card. "Call that number, and ask for me, and I will come."

She nodded. "Thank you."

"No thank you, An--" His brow furrowed. "Ana...Ana L--...Ana Lucia?"

She nodded,and his frown deepened. "Call me soon."

She nodded again, and after one last look, Sayid headed off with the other Iraqi down the street. Ana stared after him as he glanced back before disappearing around a bend in the road.

"My God," she said.

***

Author's Note: Hey all! Sorry for the hold-up, my muse decided to evil *kicks muse* and forced me to work on my other fandoms, but I have come with the fifth installment. What d'you think? I said it was going to be surrpising, didn't I?

Oh yeah, I wasn't sure of Ana's relationship with officer Raggs. I used lost-hatch.com for my sources and they don't give much personality-wise for lesser known characters, so if he's not canon, that's my mistake as well..

oh, and don't worry...Sawyer's coming up soon...

w00t!

Alright, I just wanted to make this small post to thank the people who've given me such great reviews:

Kat
skadi
Leigh
midnight riot
mge1979
Skayla
junior fan
REGirl
DarkHuntress

THANX!!! YOU GUYS ROCK!!!


If I forgot anybody, then I thank you too!

Sayid! WHOOT! lol, that was awesome. Man, I can't wait for Sawyer. and I can't wait for you to explain this craziness!

more! soon!

oh yes, SHEER craziness....


Fifty points and a million cookies if anyone can guess what connection the M-Theory in physics has to do with this...

There! So if Skayla asks, I have given everyone a bone to chew on. Albeit a screwy and very weird bone, but a bone nonetheless.

:o Sayid! That was a great surprise. I can't wait for Sawyer to but I'm glad you have Sayid & Sawyer being metioned first & of course Ana (my 3 fav charecters :)). Anyway amazing update & I can't wait for more!!!

Sayid!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh this is awesome... just . oh i love you. :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

damn i have no idea what the hel that phyisic thing is,.,. im going to hafta google search now... *googles* Wow i think i might be getting it...

i cant wait for the next chapter!!!

woot! that was an awesome chapter.... :clap:

can't wait for sawyer either.

aaaaaaaaaaaa sayid woot so he knew her they all know each other omg woot

Whoa! The Sayid-miester is here!

:D

No seriously....damn this is good....can't wait for more!

L.

wow...this is amazing!

can't wait for more...and the sawyer stuff! :rolleyes:

ll

Great!!!! I love this fanfic. Please write more soon!!!! I can't bear not knowing what happens. lol :grin: :P

Be HOT, Be TRUE, Be WILD, Be YOU!!!