Title: Mourning
Author: ficklemuse
Fandom: Lost
Characters: Michael and Sun
Word Count: 472
Rating: G
Author's Notes: This is an interlude to my Sawyer/Boone series.

When Michael bursts into the garden, he finds Sun kneeling in the mud between rows of seedlings battered by the storm. He tried to speak, got as far as opening his mouth and forming Jin's name when Sun broke into tears.

Her too thin frame collapsed in on itself and her sobs ripped through Michael stomach like a knife. Sun's grief on top of his own was almost enough to send Michael to his knees. "I'm sorry." He finally found his voice even if the words weren't enough, would never be enough. He knelt beside Sun in the mud and carefully hugged her. "It was an accident. I'm so sorry."

Neither of them moved for so long that Michael's knees and back scream in protest when he stood up, pulling Sun with him.

"Where…?"

"The caves. They're bringing him to the caves."

Sun allowed herself to be brought along. Talking mostly to herself. "I never wanted him to go. I tried to stop him. I tried…"

Michael nodded. It wasn't a stretch to figure out who was behind the thing with the water bottles. Right after he'd figured it out a small part of him hoped Sun had been trying to protect him. The weight of that guilt is heavy on Michael's chest and forces his next words out. "He – he just wanted to get back to you. He really tried to get back to you."

Sun nodded and Michael could see her steeling herself. The tears were gone and her shoulders squared not bowed. "Is Walt alright?"

Michael's stomach clenched and he tried to say the words as quickly as possible, hoping maybe they'd hurt less if they didn't linger in his mouth. "Walt's gone. They took him off the raft. They took him." He was wrong. The words are still like broken glass and he can feel himself bleeding.

Sun stops on the path, grabbing Michael's arm.

He turned slowly but when Sun reached out to him, Michael jerked out of reach. "Don't. Please." He knew if he let himself be comforted, be held, then it would all be too real. He couldn't let it be real. Couldn't let it sink in that his son was gone forever. As long as it wasn't real in his heart then he could keep walking, keep talking and most importantly he could keep looking for Walt. "I can't…" He turned sharply off the path. "You should go." He said finally. "You need to go. I've got to go back to the beach and get Vincent. We still have some time before it gets really dark. I need to keep looking."

Leaving Sun alone on the path was one of the hardest things Michael ever did in a lifetime of hard decisions, but he had to keep moving.

Walt couldn't bring himself home.