Title: Today
Rating: PG
Summary: It was like they had never been apart tonight. They sank into a familiar, but gentler, rhythm, and that familiarity carried over long after they had collapsed, sweaty and sated, onto the sheets, and Sawyer had fallen asleep.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost. At all. I wish, but alas...
Author's Note: With permission, this story is set in holycitygirl’s Apocalypse 'verse. It directly follows Apocalypse Now: Part Seven. I thought it was going to be longer, but it turns out…not so much. Used for philosophy_20, prompt #10: time.



Sawyer fell asleep almost instantly. His body was curled around Jack’s, heavy but familiar. They way his leg laid along Jack’s. The way his breath was released, hot, along Jack’s neck and shoulder. It was like they had never been apart tonight. They sank into a familiar, but gentler, rhythm, and that familiarity carried over long after they had collapsed, sweaty and sated, onto the sheets, and Sawyer had fallen asleep.

He was exhausted and, Jack knew, still recuperating. He wouldn’t be back to his full strength for probably another week, despite his stubborn insistence that he was just fine, good as new. No matter how much Jack might want to wake him up, make up for lost time, make use of what little of it they had for each other, he just couldn’t.

So, he watched Sawyer sleep. The angle was awkward and he had to turn his head just the right way to see him with any clarity, but it was worth it. More than worth it. After so long spent watching Sawyer sleep in that hospital bed, his face blank, body still, it was a relief to see him like this now.

His skin had begun to return to its golden, tanned color. His face was soft, peaceful. And he was snoring. Even that was a welcomed change from the beeping of the heart-rate monitor and the near dead silence of the hospital's halls.

The truth was, before he had lost Sawyer, the idea of watching him sleep would never have occurred to Jack. There was always somewhere he needed to be, something that needed doing, and once Jack was done, falling into bed next to Sawyer and letting sleep take him over was really all that he had the energy to do.

Before, he probably wouldn’t have had the impulse, the desire to savor the moments when he had Sawyer with him, because he hadn’t yet experienced very many without. But that was before. Before Sawyer had left – before Sawyer had left him. Before he had returned, half-dead. Before Jack had him back.

They didn’t have all the time in the world; there were so many crisis to attend to, so many people that needed so much. But they had today, and they had now, and that was enough for Jack. It had to be.