Note: This is unbetaed so any glaring errors, please let me know. Feedback would be much appreciated, this is my first fic for fanfic100 after having some major writers block.
MIGHT AS WELL BE STRANGERS
Claire doesn't really know anything about Charlie except that he likes to play the guitar, he used to be in that band Driveshaft that had that one hit song, and apparently he was some kind of religious freak, judging by how often he holds that Virgin Mary statute in his hands.
And now they are some sort of family, at least according to him and half the people on this island. But she didn't remember marrying him or asking him to be Aaron's father. Sure, the attention from him at first was flattering - especially when she felt like a beached whale, and when she couldn't remember anything he was a friendly face - but then it took a slightly creepy turn. It was scary enough to come back with no memories - of things she still couldn't remember, and only to see this guy, this Charlie said they were together when she was taken, and that they were friends, kill a man in front of her. He shot him three times and didn't express any remorse at all. Claire was sure that this Ethan had been a bad man - reportedly killed one of their own, Scott (or was it Steve?) and hung Charlie from a tree and kidnapped her and made her forget two weeks worth of memories - but Claire realized then that she didn't know Charlie at all.
She tried to forget about it...forget about the shots and the rain and how scared she was and how horrible Ethan's blank dead face was. And focused on the good - Charlie was sweet to her, Charlie found her attractive, Charlie was not the man that left her pregnant and alone.
But ever since Aaron had been born, she was feeling smothered. Smothered by his affection that she didn't think she'd ever return. Up until the plane crashed, she didn't even want her baby, this huge reminder of Thomas and her broken shattered heart. Now she was part of this tiny little family that she didn't ask for, on a deserted island with a man she didn't know.
And now Charlie was giving her parenting advice and treating her like she was some sort of moron. Claire was pretty sure that Charlie hadn't been a dad before. She knew she had a lot to learn, but she was Aaron's mother, and Charlie was not his father. His constant hovering and the fact that he was acting like Aaron's father was beginning to bother her. She thought back to the birth, later after Aaron was sleeping and remembered how everyone was shaking Charlie's hand and she was pretty sure if they had cigars the men would have been handing them over to Charlie. And it irritated her a bit then because really what had Charlie done? Had Charlie conceived this baby? Had Charlie given birth? And really, who was Charlie?
Claire sees Charlie approaching, holding Aaron, and she has this immediate gut reaction that things are going to go horribly wrong soon. Because he's been staring at that statute more and more and Claire is sure by now that he's not praying to it. He's got this obsessed glint in his eye – the kind he gets when he looks at her and Aaron sometimes when he thinks she's not watching – and it's beginning to scare her. She knows that nothing good can come of that tiny porcelain statute.
She wonders how to tell someone that she's not interested in playing house with a stranger.