A/N: Thanks to my beta WinterBaby19 for the speedy editing! This is my first fic from Charlotte's POV so go easy on me. As for the multiple ellipses when Daniel talks, I put those in as an attempt to get across the pauses in his speech. Hopefully that makes sense. Happy reading! Please read and review! Oh and sorry to those people I told this would be up last week. I have no excuse! Forgive me. A Soft Spoken Head Case
She didn't need a man. She just had a tiny desire for one. It wasn't a crime was it? He didn't have to be perfect. Just good.
But, she realized, there wasn't much a chance of that on this bloody boat. Everyone here was a bad person. Mercenaries. Shady technicians. She didn't like the look of them. The captain seemed all right. But Keamy, he was trouble and she knew it. And Kevin Johnson, his eyes wandered a bit too often. Only one guy seemed nice enough so far. The pilot- what's-his-name... His surname started with and L…or maybe it was a R. It didn't matter. He kept to himself, which was probably best on this boat.
She did not completely understand their mission. They were looking for some man by the name of Benjamin Linus.
Whoever the hell he was.
She didn't really think it was right to kidnap a person from somewhere he wanted to be, but then again, what say did she have in the matter. Another thing she didn't understand was why she had been invited to join the crew aboard the Kahana. An anthropologist with mercenaries? It did not bode well, but she was sick of the monotony in her life. And maybe this island…based on her scarce findings was where- well she should not get her hopes up. Who knew if she'd ever find where she was born.
She looked out past the end of the boast. The island they had just left was swiftly disappearing into the horizon. The captain said it would take anywhere from two weeks to two months to find the general area of the island that they were trying to find. Finding the actual island after that would be difficult. Apparently only a certain bearing allowed entrance to the island. She wasn't sure she believed in such superstitions. Some man however, had been hired who knew how to find the correct bearings. She scoffed. No one she had met on this boat so far was nearly smart enough.
Charlotte decided to head to the upper deck. A couple hours on this boat and she was already bored to death. Wonderful.
She turned around and crashed into something, or rather someone.
Stumbling backwards, she swore. The someone she had crashed into grabbed her forearm and helped her steady herself all the while apologizing profusely.
Once she was stable again, she pushed her hair out of her face and stared at the person she had bumped into.
He was of average height and had unkempt dark brown hair. He was skinny, like he spent too much time doing things more important than eating. What she found most striking however, was that he was wearing a tie. A tie? On a boat? She stifled a laugh. His eyes were the strangest though. They could not seem to focus on anything at the moment. They kept darting back and forth frantically, like he was looking for something.
"I'm so sorry, I…You are all right….aren't you?" he asked softly.
"Yes, of course," she replied tersely. Thank God he had stopped apologizing. It had been quite annoying.
"Sorry, I should really watch where I'm going. I mean, maybe I shouldn't read while I walk…" He gestured to the notebook in his hand.
She wanted to smile but did not. A smile did not grace her lips often.
"What's in that notebook?" she asked, reaching for it.
"Um, just, you know…equations…" he said scratching the back of his head as he allowed her to take it from him.
She opened the journal and flipped through the pages. She did not comprehend a word of what was written. There were page long equations and diagrams that she in her wildest dreams could never understand.
She looked up at him questioningly.
He just returned her gaze and looked slightly guilty for some reason.
"You're a…?"
"I'm..." he seemed to be searching for a word, "I'm a physicist. But I don't like being pigeonholed into one thing."
A physicist. Obviously. She should have known.
"What's your name?" she asked, studying him.
"Um…Daniel Faraday."
She nodded. She liked his soft voice and, well, twitchy mannerisms. He was harmless. He was interesting. Why was such a soft spoken man on this boat? They would bully him. She knew they would.
"So Dan, do you carry around a notebook all the time and make a habit of running into people?" What was wrong with her? Was she trying to be witty? Charlotte Lewis wasn't witty.
He laughed nervously. It sounded like he didn't laugh often. She did not know why, but that made her sad. She did not laugh that often either.
"Well, I try not to run into people," he responded with a half smile and tilted his head to the side, "But yes, my- my journal is always with me."
Obsessive-compulsive? Or just crazy? No, he was not crazy. Just a little overwrought.
"I…I have memory problems," he suddenly said, looking ashamed.
That wasn't a statement she expected.
"See, I can't really remember things…short term I mean. Long term…is better. I need to read to remember." The words seemed to just tumble out of his mouth this time. She noticed that he liked to gesture with his hands while he spoke.
Charlotte felt concerned. She saw his head drop. He must have felt embarrassed. She didn't see why –
He started to walk away, rifling through his notebook once again.
"Wait! Daniel, I never told you my name. I'm Charlotte Lewis." For some reason she wanted him to know her name.
He turned around and giving her that slightly crooked half smile softly said, "Nice to meet to you, Charlotte." Then he walked away.
She liked him. He was twitchy and kind of sad-looking, but she liked his mannerisms. He was polite, too polite. He'd get pushed around be Keamy and his group of hooligans. She did not like that idea.
She looked at Daniel's retreating figure. He was muttering to himself and gesturing. She smiled. He looked crazy. But there was something endearing in that.
Then she had an idea; she'd help him with his memory. It was a project for her on this long voyage. And he seemed like the only decent man on this boat. She could spend time with him and not want to kill herself. Or him.
"You met the head case, now did ya?" Naomi asked as she passed Charlotte. "Completely mental isn't he?"
Charlotte wanted to turn around and tell her that he wasn't mental, he just needed some help.
But she didn't.
She decided that she really liked head cases.