Remembrance

A loud, long creak sounded in her ears, slicing through the silent daze of half-awareness in which she'd been suspended. Opening her eyes, blinking twice, she looked over at the source of the disturbance with a vague sort of smile on her face, expecting to see Ethan there. But her smile quickly turned to a puzzled frown as she saw that it wasn't him. This was a new man, one she'd never encountered before, a man with piercing blue eyes that made her feel as though he could see through her, into her very soul...

"Hello, Claire," he said to her, crossing the room swiftly and settling into a chair by her bed. His voice sounded friendly enough, soft and smooth and dignified, but she continued to watch him with a great deal of unrest.

"My name is Ben," he continued, his eyes never leaving hers. "Ben Linus. I came to see how you were feeling today."

"I'm...I'm fine," she mumbled groggily, running a hand through her long, blonde hair as she propped herself up with an elbow. "Wh..." She tried to collect her thoughts; it was proving to be an exceedingly difficult thing for her to do since she'd come here. "Where's Ethan? It's usually Ethan..."

The man named Ben gave her a smile. "Ethan has the day off today. He asked me to come instead; he said he didn't trust anyone else to take care of you." He laughed shortly and somewhat jokingly, but Claire's mind was so full of strange, thick pinkness that she couldn't see what was funny, so she simply squinted at him.

"Well...do I have to have another needle? I thought..." She checked the clock on the wall, but to no avail; the numbers seemed strange and blurry to her, and she couldn't recall exactly what the little hands were for. She couldn't recall a lot of things, lately. "What time is it? Am I supposed to have one now?"

Ben considered her thoughtfully. His expression was odd, containing some emotion that she couldn't quite place. "It's four p.m.," he told her. "And no - your injection can wait another twelve hours. I just came to check on you, and introduce myself. That's all."

"Oh." Claire paused for several seconds, and the man didn't break her silence. He seemed to realise that it took her a while to form coherent sentences. "Well, um. It's nice to meet you, Ben." She held out a hand, which felt oddly heavy on the end of her arm. He took it gently and they shook, once.

"Now," he said, suddenly business-like, "how are you feeling? Any stomachaches, or nausea? Anything out of the ordinary?"

Claire gave this some thought. These were the same kinds of questions Ethan always asked, but something was different this time. This man was making her nervous, making her feel as though she were some kind of test subject rather than a person. But he seemed to know what he was doing, at any rate, and so she answered him. "No, I'm fine. I'm just a bit...tired. Ethan said that was from the medicine?"

"That's right." Ben's tone was odd, but Claire didn't notice. Her drowsiness was beginning to return; she yawned hugely, not even bothering to try and stifle it, and looked back at the man. She could barely keep her eyes open now.

"Where's Charlie?" she asked suddenly, through another, smaller yawn. It felt a little like she'd asked someone this before, but she couldn't remember it clearly.

His eyes darkened slightly. Claire stared at him. A part of her was curious as to his reaction, but it was very much dwarfed by the part of her that wanted to go to sleep. Speaking slowly, appearing to give immense scrutiny to every word before he said it, Ben told her, "Charlie...is back with your people, where he belongs. Don't worry about him."

"Where he belongs..." Claire repeated, pulling on her fingers absentmindedly as she mulled over the concept. "But...I belong there, too, don't I? When - when am I going back?"

"Well, we thought you might like to stay with us after you have your baby, Claire." Ben smiled at her, but it was a strange smile, as if he wasn't smiling about what he'd said but what he'd meant by it. "We can certainly provide for the two of you much better here."

"Mm," she said. It wasn't really meant to mean anything. Closing her eyes suddenly, overcome by an abrupt wave of tired dizziness, Claire pressed a hand to her forehead. She could feel the blood pulsing in her ears, in her head, and she felt like she was going to be violently sick, or faint, or both. Vaguely, she heard Ben's voice asking her if she was all right, but it didn't sound sincere and anyway she didn't care. All she wanted to do at that moment was sleep, to stop the splitting pain that was shooting across her forehead...

"It hurts," she mumbled, clutching the other hand to her head too. Claire felt a pair of hands grasp her shoulders firmly and push her back so that she was lying down again. She couldn't open her eyes, though, and she felt too weak to stay sitting up, so she let it happen.

The last thing she heard before unconsciousness claimed her was Ben's voice, barking an order to someone, although she didn't remember there having been anyone nearby. "She's symptomatic," he was saying. "She needs an injection, now! I don't care what Ethan said about intervals, we are not losing this baby!"

Claire felt a sharp, piercing pain in her abdomen. Then there was nothing.