Living is easy with eyes closed.
Disclaimer: I do not own Lost or the lyrics "Living is easy with eyes closed." From Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles. Don't sue me! :D
Set: Right after the Looking Glass episode. Season 4 Episode One. The 'Through the Looking Glass' episode didn't end the way it did, you know, where Charlie was supposed to die (IN THIS STORY HE LIVED). THIS IS NOT A ONESHOT BTW. It's an actual story.
Okay, read on!
Eyes Closed
(CC/PB&J)
The relief they both felt when they saw each other again was evident in both of their expressions; the way their lips curved up into a relieved smile, the way a light shined in their eyes. The love they felt for each other was obvious to everyone, to all of the other survivors, except for them. Claire refused to look past her own hurting and suffering to allow herself to think of the feelings she felt for Charlie, and Charlie couldn't get over the regret of the broken promises he'd made and how many mistakes had hurt all of his past relationships. Charlie thought that Claire deserved someone better than a washed up rock star with drug issues. Claire thought that Charlie deserved better than a girl who was so stupid that she got pregnant out of wedlock then was going to give her baby away because she was too lazy and immature to take care of herself, let alone a baby.
So their worried thoughts meshed together to an unspoken agreement between the two: they never admitted their feelings, and they shared nothing more than the odd kiss here and there. They only shared a few kisses, in fact, and the few kisses they shared were only light pecks that left them both wanting more.
"Charlie." Claire said with her Australian accent, speaking loudly over the rush of excitement from the other survivors.
A wide smile spread across the Brit's face, revealing his crooked teeth, but Claire didn't care about appearance. If she did, then she wouldn't have been pregnant, or even if she was, certainly not with Thomas' baby, because Thomas wouldn't necessarily be classified as attractive. She knew that back home Charlie also wouldn't be classified as attractive to other women, besides the loyal, die-hard fans of DriveSHAFT, but to Claire, there had been no man more beautiful to her.
"Claire." Charlie breathed, running through the crowd, heading straight towards her. He pushed past a few people that were crowding the way, and ran as fast as one could run in the sand.
Claire's smile grew until she was full on beaming, and Sun tapped her on the shoulder, gesturing to Aaron. Claire smiled thankfully at her and handed Aaron to her and sprinted towards the man she had come to care deeply about in the past few months that they'd been stranded on the island.
When the two lovers were about to meet in the middle, Charlie stopped and opened his arms wide for Claire to jump into. She ran fast, kicking up sand behind her, and finally reached the Brit. She jumped on him and his arms wrapped tightly around her, spinning her around in a circle, both of them laughing loudly with joy.
"Oh, Charlie, I wasn't sure I'd see you again!" Claire sighed into his shoulder, allowing him to set her down on her own two feet, but still not releasing him from her grip.
Charlie leaned his head into her hair, breathing in her scent deeply, as he thought about what he had planned to go down in the Looking Glass; about how he was supposed to die. Desmond had seen it, had even tried to stop it, but it didn't happen. "So much for fate…" Charlie said, walking out of the tiny room before a noise stopped him. "Me too, Claire." He whispered into her hair. "Me too."
"Alright listen up!" Jack announced, gaining the attention of the crowd on the beach. It was night, the sky was dark and a big bonfire was the only thing that lit up the sandy shore. "I'm going to lead a group up to see if we can get a signal on our transceiver. Locke, Kate, Sayid-" he nodded at the three. "-you'll be coming with me. We're going to see if what Charlie and Desmond did worked. The rest of you, head to the caves. Sawyer-" he made eye contact with the Southerner. "-I'm trusting you to lead the rest of them to the caves. Got it?" For once, the con man didn't put up a fight.
"Alright, let's head out." Jack said, after giving the crowd time to process what they were all doing. Then, just like that, Jack, Kate, Locke, and Sayid were off on the trail through the jungle.
"Wait, Jack!" Charlie called out, his arm wrapped around Claire's shoulder. Jack stopped the group and turned back to him.
"Yes, Charlie?" he asked, a little agitated at being delayed from rescue any longer than he already had been.
"Did Desmond tell you about the… you know…" Charlie trailed off, not saying any exact thing as he saw the rest of the survivors looking at him curiously.
Jack quickly caught on. "Yes, he did, Charlie." Charlie nodded and breathed a sigh of relief, and Jack turned to start heading off again with the group, before he stopped and turned back. "Thank you." He said, and then the group was off again.
"Alright, you heard the Doc," Sawyer started after the group disappeared into the jungle. "So grab the important things and let's get outta here."
As the crowd starts to disperse back to their tents to grab their things, Sawyer looks at Charlie and Claire. "And babynapper and Mamacita, I don't want to hear a peep outta Baby Huey on the way, got it?"
Amused by the nicknames, the couple nods, then heads off to the tent they share. "Sawyer's still not going to let that babynapper thing go, eh?" Charlie questioned on their way back to the tent.
Claire laughed a little. "Charlie, I've already forgiven you. Does it matter to you about anyone else?"
He stared at her, and just smiled, shaking his head. When they got back to the tent, Charlie went straight to packing the clothes, putting a few sets for each of them in a bag together, while Claire started to gather up Aaron's things. She placed a sleeping Aaron in the Bjorn, and set him down on the bed. She started to grab blankets and placed them in the crib, trying to fold them, when something fell out.
Curious, she bent to retrieve the item in the sand. She stood up straight and brushed the sand off of it, and gasped quietly to herself when she discovered what it was. Charlie's DriveSHAFT ring. She knew for a fact that he never took it off and forgot it somewhere, nor did it ever fall off. That meant that Charlie had placed it here knowingly. But why would he-?
"Charlie?" she said, turning to look at Charlie packing the clothes. He stopped immediately at the sound of her voice and looked up.
"Yes, love?" he asked, worried something had gone terribly wrong.
"What is this?" she asked stonily, holding up the ring in the palm of her hand.
His eyebrows rose up in confusion, and he walked closer and peered into her hand. When he saw the ring, his eyes widened and he looked back up at Claire. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He swallowed. "Claire, I-"
"Charlie did you give this ring to Aaron, thinking you wouldn't come back?" she asked, cutting him off, her tone hard and angry.
He exhaled deeply, sadly. "No-ugh, yes. But Claire, you have to understand something-"
"Understand what?" she exclaimed.
"I wanted to save you." He said quietly. That made her shut up. "Desmond kept having flashes of me dying. But he kept saving me. Then he had one flash of me dying in the Looking Glass. He said that if I died, you and Turnip Head would be saved. I know how much you want Aaron to get a normal life, so I… I was going to do it for you. But something went wrong- or, er, right- and I didn't die."
"Charlie…" Claire trailed off, close to tears because of how much she discovered that the man right in front of her really cared about her.
Their moment was cut off by Hurley, the big curly-headed friend of theirs ran up to their tent. "Hey, dudes, you might want to hurry packing, Sawyer says we're about to head off, and he'll leave you here." He said.
Charlie turned and smiled widely at his island best friend. "Hurley, ya big lug, where the bloody hell have you been?" he asked, hugging Hurley.
"I was with Desmond dude. Anyway, yeah, hurry up with the packing. Or, do you need any help?" he offered.
Claire smiled at him. "Uh, sure, Hurley, could you maybe carry the crib for us?" she asked.
Hurley nodded, grabbed the crib with the blankets in it, and headed off to the crowd of people waiting to leave.
Claire grabbed Aaron in the Bjorn and put the strap around her neck while Charlie grabbed the bag he had packed and his guitar in the case and smiled at Claire. She smiled back, and they started to walk back to the crowd.
"Aye, look who finally joined us?" Sawyer taunted out to the crowd when Charlie and Claire joined. "You know, shagging should not be done in front of children..."
Claire turned beet red and Charlie growled out, "Sod off Sawyer!"
Sawyer raised an eyebrow, but none the less turned around and began to lead the crowd towards the caves. Charlie looked down at Claire, trying to make eye contact, but she was still flushing red, and looking down at Aaron to distract her. Charlie looked back up and sighed. Was she blushing because she was embarrassed that anyone could ever put them together in a situation like that? The thought unsettled Charlie. It was probably because he couldn't be trusted. He kept breaking promises, lying to protect her. Hell, he wouldn't even trust himself if he were her.
But all the negative thoughts about himself vanished when he felt her hand grip his. He looked down at her in surprise, but she was looking straight ahead, smiling. He smiled at their entwined hands and looked ahead as they kept walking on.
He felt like he was on top of a big huge cliff, or mountain. Mount Everest sounds big enough. He's standing on Mount Everest and he jumps off, head first, with his eyes closed. That's what it feels like to fall in love.
Living is easy with eyes closed.
My first ever Lost fanfic! :) I was always in love with Claire and Charlie, but after Charlie died, I stopped caring about the show. I still watched it though (the finale of the show sucks!) and lately I started watching it again, and fell in love with Charlie all over again (: so I looked up some fanfics, and read them and a lot of them are great, but here's the thing, the ones that I read that aren't completed haven't been updated in, like, years. Most of the CC/PB&J fanfics are just like one shots or something, so it made me sad. So now I'm trying my hand at one! Please R&R so I know if anyone is actually reading this! :D Thanks (:
Chapter Two should be up soon! :D