diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ShardFieldDocSortedHitQueue.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ShardFieldDocSortedHitQueue.java
index 6544b2427ae..e829f38eced 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ShardFieldDocSortedHitQueue.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/lucene/search/ShardFieldDocSortedHitQueue.java
@@ -19,13 +19,12 @@
 
 package org.apache.lucene.search;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.util.BytesRef;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.PriorityQueue;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchIllegalStateException;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.controller.ShardFieldDoc;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.text.Collator;
-import java.util.Locale;
 
 /**
  *
@@ -86,8 +85,8 @@ public class ShardFieldDocSortedHitQueue extends PriorityQueue<ShardFieldDoc> {
     /**
      * Returns whether <code>a</code> is less relevant than <code>b</code>.
      *
-     * @param a ScoreDoc
-     * @param b ScoreDoc
+     * @param docA ScoreDoc
+     * @param docB ScoreDoc
      * @return <code>true</code> if document <code>a</code> should be sorted after document <code>b</code>.
      */
     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
@@ -98,8 +97,8 @@ public class ShardFieldDocSortedHitQueue extends PriorityQueue<ShardFieldDoc> {
         for (int i = 0; i < n && c == 0; ++i) {
             final SortField.Type type = fields[i].getType();
             if (type == SortField.Type.STRING) {
-                final String s1 = (String) docA.fields[i];
-                final String s2 = (String) docB.fields[i];
+                final BytesRef s1 = (BytesRef) docA.fields[i];
+                final BytesRef s2 = (BytesRef) docB.fields[i];
                 // null values need to be sorted first, because of how FieldCache.getStringIndex()
                 // works - in that routine, any documents without a value in the given field are
                 // put first.  If both are null, the next SortField is used
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/Lucene.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/Lucene.java
index 1376a473f05..258e9d9474d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/Lucene.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/lucene/Lucene.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.analysis.standard.StandardAnalyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.*;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.*;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.BytesRef;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamInput;
@@ -173,6 +174,8 @@ public class Lucene {
                         cFields[j] = in.readShort();
                     } else if (type == 8) {
                         cFields[j] = in.readBoolean();
+                    } else if (type == 9) {
+                        cFields[j] = in.readBytesRef();
                     } else {
                         throw new IOException("Can't match type [" + type + "]");
                     }
@@ -258,6 +261,9 @@ public class Lucene {
                         } else if (type == Boolean.class) {
                             out.writeByte((byte) 8);
                             out.writeBoolean((Boolean) field);
+                        } else if (type == BytesRef.class) {
+                            out.writeByte((byte) 9);
+                            out.writeBytesRef((BytesRef) field);
                         } else {
                             throw new IOException("Can't handle sort field value of type [" + type + "]");
                         }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/DocFieldData.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/DocFieldData.java
index c8e435aa9ee..c6cc070a8f4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/DocFieldData.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/DocFieldData.java
@@ -46,11 +46,15 @@ public abstract class DocFieldData<T extends FieldData> {
         return !fieldData.hasValue(docId);
     }
 
-    public BytesRef stringValue() {
-        return fieldData.stringValue(docId);
+    public String stringValue() {
+        BytesRef val = fieldData.stringValue(docId);
+        if (val == null) {
+            return null;
+        }
+        return val.utf8ToString();
     }
 
-    public BytesRef getStringValue() {
+    public String getStringValue() {
         return stringValue();
     }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/strings/StringDocFieldData.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/strings/StringDocFieldData.java
index a4edcdf8e01..2c75ed6d63e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/strings/StringDocFieldData.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/strings/StringDocFieldData.java
@@ -31,11 +31,31 @@ public class StringDocFieldData extends DocFieldData<StringFieldData> {
         super(fieldData);
     }
 
-    public BytesRef getValue() {
+    public String getValue() {
+        BytesRef value = fieldData.value(docId);
+        if (value == null) {
+            return null;
+        }
+        return value.utf8ToString();
+    }
+
+    public String[] getValues() {
+        BytesRef[] values = fieldData.values(docId);
+        if (values == null) {
+            return null;
+        }
+        String[] stringValues = new String[values.length];
+        for (int i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {
+            stringValues[i] = values[i].utf8ToString();
+        }
+        return stringValues;
+    }
+
+    public BytesRef getBytesValue() {
         return fieldData.value(docId);
     }
 
-    public BytesRef[] getValues() {
+    public BytesRef[] getBytesValues() {
         return fieldData.values(docId);
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/support/FieldDataLoader.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/support/FieldDataLoader.java
index bc6e9c1088d..a52525f5438 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/support/FieldDataLoader.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/field/data/support/FieldDataLoader.java
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ public class FieldDataLoader {
 
         Terms terms = reader.terms(field);
         if (terms == null) {
-            return  loader.buildSingleValue(field, new int[0]); // Return empty field data if field doesn't exists.
+            return  loader.buildSingleValue(field, ordinals.get(0)); // Return empty field data if field doesn't exists.
         }
 
         TermsEnum termsEnum = terms.iterator(null);
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHit.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHit.java
index 7405227e854..adc97b9feaf 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHit.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchHit.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ package org.elasticsearch.search.internal;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Explanation;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.BytesRef;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchParseException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
@@ -29,6 +30,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.compress.CompressorFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.text.StringAndBytesText;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.text.Text;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilderString;
@@ -295,6 +297,14 @@ public class InternalSearchHit implements SearchHit {
     }
 
     public void sortValues(Object[] sortValues) {
+        // LUCENE 4 UPGRADE: There must be a better way
+        if (sortValues != null) {
+            for (int i=0; i<sortValues.length; i++) {
+                if (sortValues[i] instanceof BytesRef) {
+                    sortValues[i] = new StringAndBytesText(new BytesArray((BytesRef)sortValues[i]));
+                }
+            }
+        }
         this.sortValues = sortValues;
     }
 
@@ -571,6 +581,9 @@ public class InternalSearchHit implements SearchHit {
                     sortValues[i] = in.readShort();
                 } else if (type == 8) {
                     sortValues[i] = in.readBoolean();
+                } else if (type == 9) {
+                    // LUCENE 4 UPGRADE: There must be a better way
+                    sortValues[i] = new StringAndBytesText(new BytesArray(in.readBytesRef()));
                 } else {
                     throw new IOException("Can't match type [" + type + "]");
                 }
@@ -664,6 +677,9 @@ public class InternalSearchHit implements SearchHit {
                     } else if (type == Boolean.class) {
                         out.writeByte((byte) 8);
                         out.writeBoolean((Boolean) sortValue);
+                    } else if (type == BytesRef.class) {
+                        out.writeByte((byte) 9);
+                        out.writeBytesRef((BytesRef) sortValue);
                     } else {
                         throw new IOException("Can't handle sort field value of type [" + type + "]");
                     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/index/field/data/strings/StringFieldDataTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/index/field/data/strings/StringFieldDataTests.java
index bb026de1afe..d266657340e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/index/field/data/strings/StringFieldDataTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/index/field/data/strings/StringFieldDataTests.java
@@ -82,11 +82,11 @@ public class StringFieldDataTests {
         // svalue
         assertThat(sFieldData.hasValue(0), equalTo(true));
         assertThat(sFieldData.value(0).utf8ToString(), equalTo("zzz"));
-        assertThat(sFieldData.docFieldData(0).getValue().utf8ToString(), equalTo("zzz"));
+        assertThat(sFieldData.docFieldData(0).getValue(), equalTo("zzz"));
         assertThat(sFieldData.values(0).length, equalTo(1));
         assertThat(sFieldData.docFieldData(0).getValues().length, equalTo(1));
         assertThat(sFieldData.values(0)[0].utf8ToString(), equalTo("zzz"));
-        assertThat(sFieldData.docFieldData(0).getValues()[0].utf8ToString(), equalTo("zzz"));
+        assertThat(sFieldData.docFieldData(0).getValues()[0], equalTo("zzz"));
 
         assertThat(sFieldData.hasValue(1), equalTo(true));
         assertThat(sFieldData.value(1).utf8ToString(), equalTo("xxx"));