The Boys From Tennessee

The Boys From Tennessee
Pairing: Sawyer and Peter
Author: Chissy_Rose
Rating: R
Author's Notes/Disclaimer: I don't own them. Make no money from them. No infringement intended.

The Boys From Tennessee
Chapter 3
You Look Worse

Jack was up and down all night waking up Peter and checking on him. In the morning, he asked Sun if she could get some fruit for Sawyer's and Peter's breakfast, and if she would wake Peter in a couple of hours as he was still concerned that Peter had a concussion since he had lost consciousness the previous afternoon. Jack kept replaying the events of the night before in his brain. He felt like he had an endless loop going in his head, still couldn't believe everything that had happened. He knew he needed to get some uninterrupted sleep to be worth anything today so he headed back to the caves. Sun walked into the computer area and saw that it was Sayid that was on button duty with the computer for this shift. Sawyer was sitting at a nearby couch and was actually having a conversation with Sayid.

She gave Sawyer a few pieces of fruit and offered some to Sayid who thanked her but said he had already eaten. "You might want to offer it to our newest patient who is still in the bed," Sayid suggested.

Sun smiled & nodded, "That's what Jack asked me to do," as she walked towards the bunk area. As she rounded the corner she said, "Hello Peter, this is Sun, can I come in? I have some food for you."

Peter responded sleepily, "Sure come on in, I think I am going to get up anyway and I might still be unsteady on my feet." Sun put the fruit down and stood by the bunk bed. He did seem to still be a little wobbly.

When his feet hit the floor he turned towards Sun who let out a surprised, "Oohhhh...I am so sorry about what happened to you....I saw the fight, I did not know she was martial arts master."

Peter looked down at the floor. "I guess I should find a mirror and see what I look like," he said.

"Why don't you do that later, and come out a sit with Sayid and Sawyer and have your fruit?" Sun replied. Peter thought that she could be right, he might not have any appetite once he saw himself. So he let her steady him and they walked down to the computer area. When they rounded the last corner, both men looked up and saw him and tried not to react. Sayid made a small noise and slightly stiffened up. He had seen and caused other faces that looked like Peter's in his previous life as an Iraqi soldier and inquisitor.

Sawyer actually grimaced, "Well, I'll have to tell you, I wouldn't have thought it possible, but boy, you look worse today than you did last night."

"I'm sure the bruises are starting to surface now" Peter mumbled, "I guess it's good Jack wants me to stay here awhile. Maybe less people will see me like this." Sun helped Peter over to the couch, and he sat down next to Sawyer. "Thanks for your help Sun and for the breakfast," Peter smiled, and noted that even smiling hurt some.

"I'll be back later to check on you if that's okay. I'm going to go work in my garden now, and I'll see if I can bring you all something else for lunch." Sun replied as she nodded and left.

Sayid just glanced at Peter, "I heard about your breakup and fight last night at the campfire. Apparently your girlfriend Julie is a grand master of the martial arts, and judging from your looks, I'd say that was so."

"Ex-girlfriend," Peter corrected, "and yes I'm lucky to be alive probably. All I could do was block blows, but she got me one time really good, and that did most of the damage." Peter started eating his fruit slowly and was quiet and somber. After several minutes he asked Sayid, "So what else were they saying?"

"Well, there were two women who had apparently been very close by to your altercation and had seen the whole thing, so we got a blow-by-blow of the entire thing."

"Oh no, just what I needed. Did they talk about what was said?" Peter asked.

"Oh, yes. They seemed to relish retelling that particularly." Peter just moaned, closed his eyes and leaned back on the couch. "Oh great, everyone on this island is going to treat me differently now."

"Well," Sawyer said slowly, "They'll forget about it over time, anyway. They're more concerned about what's happening to them." Peter didn't reply, he just sat, ate his fruit and thought about what a sorry state of affairs things were in for him. Sawyer was complaining about Jack not wanting him to go back to his place on the beach until he went 48 hours without spiking a fever again. Sayid smirked at Sawyer and reminded him that he would have been dead without Jack. Jack had kept him alive with very little sleep, and had stayed with him and cared for him.

Sawyer nodded and said, "I know, I know, I'm just ready to get on with my life and not be cooped up in here. Sleeping on a bed has been real nice though." Peter decided he wanted to go find a bathroom and a mirror and he stood up to go look, and found he was swaying and still having stability problems. He put his hand back and plunked down again on the couch.

Sawyer looked at him, "You're still not exactly right yet in the head are you boy? You're still not standing up so good by yourself... Where were you going to the can?"

"Yes, and to find a mirror," he said.

"Well," Sawyer replied with a grin, "I can help steady you to the can and show you the mirror, but you ain't gonna like what you see when you look in it. You look like a raccoon that got run over, backed over again and bandaged up." Sayid thought Sawyer's description of Peter's appearance was a funny one, but did feel sorry about how bad he looked. He's a nice looking dark haired young man with dimples in his face just like Sawyer. It's striking when you see the two of them together like that he thought.

Peter stuck his tongue to the side of his mouth like he wasn't sure what to say back to Sawyer, and just replied, "Ok, I could use a hand cause I'm not too steady yet. Jack might have been right, I may have a concussion. Head still hurts." Sawyer stood up, helped him stand, then put his right arm over Peter's and headed them towards the bathroom. When they got to the urinal, Sawyer quipped, "Do you want me to help you get it out and aim it?" Peter felt a blush rise in his face. "I didn't think that was possible," he said smiling. "You actually made me blush. No, I don't need any help with my equipment, just put a hand on my shoulder just in case." Sawyer grinned back, he liked the fact he had embarrassed Peter and made him blush. Peter finished and zipped up, and asked where the mirror was. Sawyer walked him around the corner to the sink and up to the mirror. "Oh God," Peter cringed, "I look like hell. I've seen plenty of accident victims that didn't look this bad."

"Yea, but you've had bruises before, you know they'll clear up eventually. You'll be good looking again." Sawyer said quietly as he stood behind Peter, looking at their reflections in the mirror. Sawyer reached up to Peter's neck and ran his finger tips over the exposed reddish hickey he had given Peter the night before. Peter quivered under his touch.

"I marked you with that one. That's not something that she gave you," he whispered as he pulled Peter closer by his hips and kissed it softly on his neck. Peter's breathing hitched and then was faster. He looked at Sawyer and he worried, "He reminds me of myself, slick and seductive, we may be too much alike...we even favor each other in our looks. I feel like I've known him before but that would be impossible."

Peter turned around so he could put his hands on Sawyers hips and look in his eyes. Peter smiled and spoke, "I'm so attracted to you it's scary to me. You know we don't really know each other - maybe we should slow it down a little and spend some time with each other."

Sawyer frowned, "Was that a brush off? Are you afraid of me too? Afraid you won't like me? Or afraid to be seen with me?"

"No!" Peter cut him off. "You misunderstand me Sawyer. I'm just coming out of a very bad breakup with someone I've been with for 16 months."

"Hell," Sawyer whispered still upset, "I wasn't trying to get you to go steady with me."

"Sawyer, let me talk a minute and don't be so defensive," Peter begged. "There's a lot of things in my head right now, and I'm not so sure I'm thinking right yet or not, but I just need to tell some of it to you. I'm upset and I'm not in a good place right now physically or emotionally. I've had major trust issues in my life before this even happened. Second, even my damn mouth hurts when I use it - I didn't realize my lip was split until I ate breakfast a while ago." Peter reached up and touched his own lips and drew his hand away quickly. "I need some time to get steady on my feet and heal a little bit. My damn eyelid was torn to hell. My nose is broken and looks huge right now, and you were right I do look like a raccoon with two black eyes! I'm even worried about what I might look like when the bandages & splints come off."

Sawyer grimaced. He hadn't thought through everything Peter might be going through emotionally right now. Damn it, he thought, I'm pushing him too fast. He was so responsive last night though...

"Third," Peter continued, "I told you and Jack last night that I had four years of therapy. If that didn't set off alarm bells for you, I don't know what will. I'm still the most fucked up person I know Sawyer. I was a good kid, but I've been through things that nobody should have to go through. My whole life was a nightmare from hell until I left Tennessee when I was seventeen and went out on my own. I've lived a wild and sinful life since then. I've felt like an animal, like I don't really have control of what I do, the desires I have or what I am. I hate myself sometimes. I've tried to make some changes, but I keep slipping back into old patterns."

Sawyer had a real somber, troubled expression on his face as he listened to Peter. "Let me talk a minute now," Sawyer said quietly. "I don't know what you think you've done that's been so all fired bad, but it probably can't compare with some of the crap I've done in my life, so I don't really care what you did before you ended up here on this island. And you're not the only one who went through hell growing up. We could swap our childhood-from-hell stories, but that won't change anything that's already happened in the past. I won't dwell on that with you, and you don't do it with me. Second, I don't want to rush you, and hell I don't know where things might go, but it's rare that I feel an attraction this strong this fast to another guy." Peter put this hands to Sawyer's face, stroking his face and then his lips with his thumbs.

Peter spoke back, "I don't think you're feeling anything I'm not feeling too. I just want us both to go into this with open eyes - you don't know me yet, and I don't really know you. I'd love to be your fuck-buddy, but you have to understand I have always had problems with trying to be monogamous in the past. Maybe I just haven't loved the right man yet," he smiled. "If this does go somewhere, I don't want to hurt you or anybody. I've gotten beaten up several times because I had more that one lover at a time. Also, Julie does have me pegged on one thing, I'll fuck a woman, but I'm more gay than straight and would rather have a man. Having a girlfriend has always given me good cover to pursue the guys I was really interested in. Also, my tastes in sex aren't always vanilla, I may be younger than you but I've experienced a hell of a lot of kinky stuff in my life, way more than most men."

Sawyer just smiled at that, "You think you can scare me off with a little kinky sex boy, you are mistaken. I like vanilla sex sometimes, but if I have the right playmate, I can play kinky too." Sawyer took his tongue and licked Peter from his Adam's apple up to his ear and gently pulled on his ear lobe with his teeth.

Peter moaned deeply. "God Sawyer I want to fuck you so badly, you're a seductive son-of-a-bitch."

"Good, that'll keep you interested in me 'til you feel up to having the hell fucked out of you," Sawyer leered. "And by the way, what's the deal with Charlie? Y'all got something going on I need to know about?"

Peter looked sheepish, "That was the first time I had come onto Charlie, I was just trying to see if I could loosen him up and get a blow-job or a fuck out of him - he was a rock star you know. He was used to people coming on to him. Charlie's not really my type for a long term thing, but he looks like he'd be fun in the sack. Can't promise I won't try again in the future, so just be aware."

Sawyer answered by running the palm of his hand hard against Peter's cock. "Jeez, you're not making this easy," Peter mumbled as his cock tried to come alive.

"Don't plan on making it easy, just unforgettable," Sawyer replied. Peter suddenly shivered hard. "What's wrong?" Sawyer asked.

Peter replied, "I must be running a fever, I'm freezing and shivering all of a sudden. Maybe I need to go back to bed now and try to keep warm."

"I think we do need to put you back in bed. Jack won't let you out of his dungeon to play if you're feverish. We'll see if someone can ask Doc to come check on you." Sawyer put his arm around Peter and guided him back to the bedroom.