The Spirit of Friendship

by pacejunkie

Hurley begins getting regular visits from his old friend in the jungle.

Title: The Spirit of Friendship

Authors: falafelfiction and pacejunkie

Rating: PG/K+

Summary: Hurley begins getting regular visits from his old friend in the jungle.

Characters: Hurley, Charlie

Warnings: Spoilers through season three

Disclaimer: If you take us to court we'll deny everything.

A/N: This is our first co-authored fic! Thanks to falafel for the plot bunny.

Hurley had been seeing his pal Charlie in the jungle for over a week now. The first time he had been taking a leak when the diminutive rock star had jumped out from behind a bush and scared him.

"Whoah!" he had cried, leaping back and shielding his eyes as if Charlie were the sun. "Charlie man…is that you?!"

"Sure is Hurley," he replied, a little embarrassed to have caught his friend peeing. Charlie was looking exactly the same as he had done the day that he left for the Looking Glass and never came back.

"Dude, you nearly gave me a freaking heart attack! Where have you been, man? Desmond said you were dead."

"Yeah…I pretty much am," Charlie stated bluntly.

Hurley's eyes widened. He must have looked like he was about to bolt at this revelation because Charlie immediately raised his hands and stammered, "But it's okay, man! That's why I'm here, to tell you that…I hope you're not still mad at me for not letting you come along."

Hurley sighed. He couldn't stay mad at Charlie. He had been so crushed by the news of his death. It was sweet to have him back. So, they talked for a bit and then the next day Hurley went back to find him again.

Charlie became Hurley's dirty little secret. At first he had been worried that he was seeing stuff again. But he soon got used to the idea and eventually started seeking Charlie out on a daily basis. As imaginary friends go, Charlie was much better than Dave. Dave just used to run him down all the time. Charlie would try to cheer him up. Hurley really needed that right now. Jack ignored him most of the time. Sawyer was always calling him stupid names. Desmond freaked him out with his future crap. Jin still hardly spoke any English. Claire was so sad that it hurt to look at her.

So maybe seeing Charlie made him crazy, but talking to Charlie was the one thing keeping him sane.

"Everyone's really bummed," Hurley told Charlie one day as they sat together looking out over the ocean. "They really miss having you around the camp. Lots of them were crying at your funeral."

"Really?" Charlie said, a little surprised. "Who cried?" He played with a handful of sand, trying not to seem too curious.

Hurley ticked off the names on his fingers. "Well, there was Jack..."

"Jack always cries! I've never met a bloke who cried so much."

"Yeah, but he was like crying as though it was all his fault and he was gonna have a complete nervous breakdown over it."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Bloody hell. Is Jack like the centre of the universe or something? Tell him to get a grip."

Hurley ignored the remark and went on. "Kate cried. Jin cried. Rose and Bernard were bawling their eyes out. Sawyer frowned a lot and pressed his lips together, which I think means he's really broken up about it. Locke actually managed to show up and he was crying too."

"Locke cried?!" said Charlie, looking at Hurley sideways. "Okay, now you're just winding me up."

"Seriously," said Hurley, "Locke cried like a little girl."

Charlie shrugged. "Maybe the island did something to upset him."

"Oh and Sayid was really grieving for you, man. He made this speech about how brave you were for swimming down to that station. Then he told us about the time that you let him set your head on fire."

"Oh, finally someone mentions it! That bloody hurt by the way." Charlie smiled, satisfied. "Nice one, Sayid. I hope he doesn't feel too bad about how things turned out. If anyone should understand why I did it, he should."

"Yeeaah," said Hurley, who was not quite sure himself. "Hey, you know that I cried, right? And not just at the funeral, but like…a bunch of times. After Desmond told me about what happened to you I just sat on my own and got all weepy. I didn't eat for like…two days."

Charlie's eyes widened. "Honestly?!"

Hurley frowned. "Dude, you don't have to sound so shocked. There are times when I go off my food, you know. Like when my best friend goes off and gets himself killed." He shook his head. "Ass."

"Sorry Hurley," Charlie said, sheepishly. "And sorry for saying that you wouldn't fit in the boat. I mean, it was true, but I wasn't meaning to offend you. I just didn't want to upset you with my death."

"Well, you totally did! You upset a lot of people, Charlie. But I guess it wasn't your fault the universe kept trying to kill you."

Charlie nodded, letting the sand run through his fingers.

"Oh, and Aaron cries more these days," said Hurley. "I think he knows, man."

Charlie sighed. "Well, that's because nobody else bothers to play with him. He must be bored out of his little baby mind. What about Claire and Desmond? You haven't told me how they're getting on."

Hurley winced. He had been saving the worst for last.

"Well Desmond he's…he's kinda gone back to the bottle and he's hitting it pretty hard. I mean…even for him. Mostly he just hangs out inside his tent and drinks himself to sleep every night."

Charlie sat up straighter, his face creasing with worry. "That's not good Hurley. You need to help him for me."

Hurley squirmed. "Dude, what can I do?"

"Talk to him!" said Charlie, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "He's using the alcohol as a substitute friend. He's just trying to numb the pain instead of letting himself grieve. Trust me, I know."

Hurley looked at his friend and remembered the Charlie he once knew, the one who once told him he was snorting heroin in the john when the plane went down. Yeah, Charlie would know all about that. Hurley knew a bit about it too, having often used food for comfort when he didn't have a friend to turn to.

"Okay dude, I'll see what I can do. Hey! So you're like…all wise and enlightened now that you're dead, huh?"

"Pretty much," Charlie nodded. "Des has to know that what happened wasn't his fault. I don't blame him. It was my choice to swim down to that station. I'm a big boy. I knew what I was getting myself into." Charlie rubbed his chin. "So are you gonna tell me about Claire or what?"

"Dude, I don't even wanna say…"

"Just tell me!" Charlie insisted.

"Well, at first Claire just cried all the time and now she's gone all quiet and won't look anybody in the eye. It's even worse than crying, it's like she cried all her insides out and now there's nothing left."

Charlie tensed for a moment and then came over all serious. "You haven't told her about seeing me have you?"

"No way, dude! There's still a big part of me that thinks I'm imagining you. I don't need everyone thinking I've gone crazy again."

"Well good," said Charlie. "Because you're the only one who can see me, so it's better that no one else knows. Desmond has seen quite enough of me in visions. And if I appeared to Claire…she would just be upset with me. I lied to her when I said that I would be fine. She always hated it when I lied to her. But I had to do this thing for her and Aaron. I had to…" Charlie sighed and held his head in his hands. "I've put Claire through enough. She needs to forget me and move on. I don't want to hurt her anymore…"

A few days later Hurley and Charlie were sitting on a rotted log, taking turns tossing stones at a tree and trying to hit it. Hurley was reminded of how he had no one to do stupid stuff like this with him anymore.

"Look, I didn't have a chance to tell you this before, but I'm sorry man," he said.

"Sorry for what?" asked Charlie.

"I'm sorry I told you it would be okay, when we took off in the van. I thought we could win against our bad luck. I wanted to break my curse and give you some hope. But none of it mattered. You died anyway…"

"No, Hurley, you were right."

Hurley looked at his friend. "Come again?"

"You said you make your own luck," Charlie explained as he casually flung his rock. "Yeah, I was going to die anyway, but every death Desmond saw for me was meaningless. You taught me to take control of my destiny and make it count, and that's what I did." Charlie flinched. "Well, I hope I did anyway. That bloody helicopter hasn't come yet has it?"

"Nope," said Hurley.

"Bollocks…" Charlie hissed. "But it will come! I unblocked the signals. Now you guys can call for help and someone will rescue you. I did that! Me! Useless Charlie. I finally achieved something. I've you to thank for it, mate."

Hurley took his shot and missed the tree by a foot. "If you say so. I still wish you were here to get on that chopper with us though."

"Yeah. Well, can't have everything I suppose."

"You should tell that to Claire." Hurley said pointedly.

Charlie's hand tightened around his stone. "Well if my death is what it took to get her and Aaron off this sodding island I don't regret it for a minute! They were in danger here. You need to make her see that this was for the best. Speaking of which, I need you to do something for me."

"Anything, dude."

"Try talking to Claire…show her some affection..."

Hurley winced at Charlie's command.

"Why are you making that face?" Charlie asked him.

"Dude, it's just that…in the past when other guys would get friendly with Claire you would get kinda twitchy and your cheeks would go red and you would be staring daggers of purest hatred at them."

Charlie looked skyward, exasperated. "That was the old me. Look Hurley, somebody has to cheer up those miserable sods. You're the man for the job. Seriously, who else is gonna make Claire smile again? Desmond isn't exactly a barrel of laughs now is he? Come on! You owe me a few favours seeing as I died so you could be rescued."

"Dude, we weren't rescued. I keep telling you. Those people on the boat were just like…new people wanting to kill us."

Charlie shrugged. "Well, it's the thought that counts."

They sat tossing rocks for a bit longer in silence until Hurley burst out laughing. Charlie raised his eyebrows.

"Care to share the joke?" asked Charlie.

"That's kinda funny, dude. You tried to save us and you just wound up bringing more danger. You were a duffer to the end!"

"It's a little less amusing if you drown over it actually."

Hurley swallowed his chuckle. "Oh sorry, man. That was uncool. It's just...I never realised that you were noble. I always thought you were a goofball. But people think the same about me. I guess we don't have the tall handsome hero thing going for us like Jack does… "

"Maybe that makes us all the more heroic?" suggested Charlie with one solid fling of a rock that hit the tree dead on.

Hurley didn't see Charlie for a few days after that. He had other matters to attend to. When these things were done Hurley went into the jungle to seek Charlie out. He found him at the caves, bending over the rock pools as though he was looking for his missing reflection in the water.

When he saw Hurley he straightened and frowned at him curiously. "Hey man…where have you been?"

"I've been spending some time with Desmond and Claire," said Hurley. "I've been trying to do your bidding, you know…"

Charlie's face lit up. "Good! Sit down, mate. Tell me how it went."

"Well, I confiscated Desmond's whisky bottles like you told me to. The next morning he was storming around the beach all frantic and wide eyed, asking who took them. I said maybe your ghost stole them from his stash. Man, he didn't find that as funny as I did. Anyway I admitted that it was me and I told him that if he wanted them back he'd have to beat me at golf. It turned out he was really up for that."

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Desmond plays golf?"

"Yeah," Hurley shrugged. "He's Scottish, you know. He's actually way better than anyone else in the camp. It's just that no one ever invited him to play. I've asked him to help me get better and he agreed to coach me. By the end of our game he'd totally forgotten about the whisky stealing. We're gonna play again tomorrow so at least that'll get him out of his tent."

Charlie grinned. "Nice work my friend!"

Hurley raised his hand a bit in a high five motion, but when Charlie didn't respond in kind, he drew it back. Hurley wasn't entirely sure but he suspected if he had tried he'd pass right through Charlie, and he didn't want to deal with that reality, the one that said that his friend wasn't really there.

Charlie must have noticed because he coughed uncomfortably and asked, "So, how about Claire?"

Hurley whistled and shook his head.

"Man, Claire was tough. I tried bringing her tea, making her a fruit salad, offering to help with Aaron…she said thank you and all, but it was a really cold and distant thank you. Jeez, the girl has her barriers up…"

"Oh, you don't have to tell me!"

"So anyway I was sitting in my tent and thinking what to do when I noticed that little hula doll. You know the one that you found when we were rescuing the parachute lady and you gave to me after losing our bet over which of us could fit the most chestnuts in our mouths?"

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, the little doll…"

"Well, I decided to give it to Claire. She has this little collection of Charlie things that she keeps under her bed and she's always looking for stuff to add to it. She actually smiled when I told her that you were the one who found it. She let me hang around her tent for a while and we played with Aaron. He really loves that little doll. He wouldn't let go of it. Claire was really happy and grateful, cos Aaron stops crying when he has the doll to chew on. She gave me a big hug for it…but I wasn't like hitting on her or anything."

"Don't worry, I trust you…thanks for doing that," said Charlie.

Hurley lightened. "My pleasure, dude! So…you wanna go and throw rocks at something?"

Charlie looked away. "Not today, Hurley. I have to go… somewhere else."

"Oh…okay. Catch up with you tomorrow then?"

Charlie sighed and shook his head, apologetically. Hurley felt his chest tighten and tears springing into his eyes.

"Dude…you're leaving again? You're leaving and not coming back? What the hell for?! Can't a ghost decide where he hangs out?"

"It's not really like that Hurley. This is just like a… temporary stop. I had to make sure that you were all okay. Now I have to move on." At Hurley's disappointment Charlie tried to cheer his friend. "But at least we got to have a proper goodbye, yeah?"

Hurley screwed his face up, struggling not to cry.

"So this is the last time I'm gonna see you…forever?!"

Charlie shrugged. "Well, I hate to break this to you, Hurley, but you'regonna die too some day, mate."

"Oh yeah," he realised. "I guess it won't be so bad if I get to go where you're going. It pisses me off when I'm left out of stuff."

Charlie laughed and then turned to leave. "Goodbye Hurley. And thanks."

"Wait!" said Hurley before his friend vanished for the last time. "I need you to do something for me too, man. If you see Libby in that place you're going… tell her…tell her Hurley says 'Hey'. Tell her I really miss her." The tears were spilling down his cheeks now. Hurley wished he knew what to do with his arms, hanging loose and ineffective at his sides. "I'll miss you too, man. Thanks for seeing me one last time."

Charlie nodded with a kind smile and a glint in his blue eyes. "Sure, mate. No problem."

Hurley watched as Charlie slipped away into the jungle, snapping his fingers and singing in that high-pitched voice that used to get on everybody's nerves. It was a lot quieter on the beach now. Too quiet. And Hurley knew that whenever he or anyone else felt that quietness, they would miss Charlie.