Title: The Magical World of Civilization
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Charlie/Claire and Jack/Kate
Summary: Back in civilization, things aren't as great as they are supposed to be.
Warnings: Nothing so far...
Status of fic: Work in progress...I'll continue if there's enough response.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost. If I did, I wouldn't be writing about it.
A/N: I've had this idea for the longest time and I finally sat down and wrote it out. I have lots of ideas on where to go with this, but I haven't got anything else written down yet. If I get enough response, I'll definitely continue, but I warn you, I'm a slow updater!

Prologue

Civilization. For months it was the equivalent of Never land, Oz, any magical place where people were happy and everything was perfect. Now that it was here, the only word that Claire associated it with was hell. Was this really the fairy tale land that she had prayed for, dreamed of, longed to be? Thomas was fighting for custody, Claire was penniless and had two to care for and Charlie had disappeared like fog in the afternoon sun. In fact, everyone had disappeared. Claire wondered if they were all together somewhere, leaving her on the outside and laughing as she scrambled to make a semblance of a life for herself. Claire shook her head and chastised herself for thinking like a self conscious, paranoid 12 year old. Still, the evasive question lingered. Where was everyone?

Kate pressed her forehead against the cool window and closed her eyes. She tried to let the low hum of the wheels speeding along the road and the raindrops speckling the window lull her to sleep, but it was no use. The voice at the back of her mind wouldn't let her rest.

You just made the biggest mistake of your life, Kate.

She opened her eyes, when they were closed she was all alone with her thoughts. She looked at the window. The black night made it opaque, so all that she saw was her reflection filling up the window. Little rivulets of rain ran across her face, making it look like she was crying.

How appropriate, she couldn't help but think dryly.

She sighed exasperatly and closed her eyes again. She'd rather be alone with her thoughts than watch the cruel metaphor of the window. Forcing all the thoughts out of her head she fell into a shallow sleep where she dreamed of a woman drowning in a river of guilt and tears.

Jack was at his desk, finishing up some paperwork. The clock on his desk had bright red numbers that read 2:41 AM. Here was Jack, dressed in his usual blue scrubs with the white coat over top, sitting in his neat (if somewhat dusty) office, working late. It was as if his whole experience on the island hadn't happened, it was just some bizarre dream and the next day he got up and went about things as normal. His boss had offered to let Jack take at least a week off of work, but Jack refused, saying that he spent six months on a tropical island and it only cost him a couple hundred, the cheapest and longest vacation he had ever had. After all that time off, he didn't need another week. What a load of crap. Living on that island, vacation? Anything but! Still, Jack was glad to be at work, it gave him something to do, to keep him preoccupied...to make him forget temporarily.

Charlie rolled over and looked at the clock. 3:17 AM. He sighed and sat up, giving up on trying to sleep. He tried to tell himself that it was nothing unusual, he had never been much of a sleeper. The heroin, coupled with the alcohol and women usually kept his mind and body busy. But now he was clean, and he couldn't pin his insomnia on any three of those things. In the back of his mind, he know what it was. But Charlie had always been good at denying and burying things.

Charlie swung his legs over the bed and buried his toes deep into the plush carpet of his hotel room. What was there to do at 3:30 AM in the city of Sydney? He pulled on a pair of jeans and the T-shirt he wore the day before. Grabbing his coat, wallet and key, he left the room. There was bound to be a bar open somewhere, and anywhere was better than his hotel room, where he was left with nothing but the silence and the undeniable truth he was trying so desperately to run away from.