Hello, hello everyone! This is my brand new AU story. It's perfect for Charlie and Claire fans, but it also throws in Shannon, Kate, Sawyer, and Jack in this little tale about what would happen if they had never been on flight 815. Enjoy!

Summary: Claire meets Charlie in the most unlikely spot and discovers through him a world of love, passion, and friendship. Very AU.

Rating: PG-13

AN: Most of the chapters will be titled after the episode titles of Lost.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone from Lost. They belong to ABC. The episode titles are not mine either.

Chapter One: Tabula Rasa

"Claire? You got the order for table number 7?" Kate asked. Claire was too busy daydreaming to be paying attention to anything Kate had to say. "Claire!"

"What?" Claire asked coming out of her daze. She turned to Kate.

"I just wanted to know if you took care of table 7?" Kate asked.

"Yeah, they're all taken care of," Claire said placing the order in. Kate watched her friend a little concerned. She thought Claire had gotten over what had happened two months ago.

"Claire, you okay?" Kate asked. Claire put a fake grin on her face.

"Just fine Kate," Claire said. Kate nodded not too sure of what her friend was saying was true.

"Kate! I need you to take this order to table 3!" Mike, their boss yelled. Kate sighed and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"Maybe you should take some time off," Kate said picking up the tray. Claire looked at Kate.

"No, I'm fine," Claire said. She nodded too unsure of her own words. Claire turned to pick up her next tray when she heard the door open.

"Guys, major news!" Shannon said taking her sunglasses off and sitting at the counter.

"Hey Shannon," Kate said walking past her.

"Hey," Shannon said. Claire leaned on the countertop.

"So, what's up Shan?" Claire asked.

"My mom, wants us to pay rent now," Shannon replied. Claire, Shannon, and Kate all lived in an apartment on the second floor of Sophia Carlisle-Rutherford's house. Sophia was Boone and Shannon's wedding planner mom.

"How much? We can't afford that much on our salaries," Claire said. Kate rushed back over and placed the tray down.

"I know, she wants each of us to pay 25.00 out of our paychecks to pay for rent," Shannon said.

"What? Then how are we suppose to live?" Kate asked. "She does know that we have to buy our own clothes, food, everything, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't understand, she's letting Boone live off her still. He won't move his ass out of the house," Shannon said rubbing her temples. Claire sighed; she was getting a headache.

Claire moved in with Shannon and Kate two months ago when her ex boyfriend, Thomas, and her broke up. She moved out of his house when she discovered him screwing a girl behind her back.

Claire had become friends with Shannon and Kate back in her freshman year of college. Shannon and Claire were the same age and had some classes together; Kate was a year older than they were. Now it was the junior year and the girls lived together under the watchful eye of Shannon's older brother Boone seeing as how Sophia was too busy to do it herself.

Claire and Kate worked at Delia's Diner in Sydney, Australia. Shannon worked down at the mall in Cynthia's Dress Shop.

Kate and Shannon looked at Claire, she had been suffering from depression a lot lately since her and Thomas split.

"Claire, maybe you should take the rest of the day off. I can cover the rest of you shift," Kate offered.

"No, I have an hour left, I'll make it. I just have a headache, you got any aspirin?" Claire asked. Kate nodded and grabbed some aspirin out of her purse. Claire took two and drank a gulp of water.

"Hey! Look who's here!" Shannon squealed with delight. "Sawyer Kelly! A face I haven't seen in so long!" Claire put her glass of water down and looked over at Shannon hugging a man with sort of long brownish blonde hair, sort of a beard, and very lanky in disposition. Next to him stood another man about the same age, he had short dark brown hair that almost looked like he had just gotten it shaved. He was a little more built than Sawyer was. Claire then panned her vision to another man.

He was shorter than the other two. He had dirty blond hair, the clearest blue eyes, and a beard of sorts. Across his fingers Claire noticed tape that spelled out 'FATE', he also wore a black hoodie. He had a nice body build to him for a guy his size. To Claire he was very cute.

"Hey Shan, you going to introduce your friends to us?" Kate asked curious as to whom these men were.

"Sorry, Kate Phillips and Claire Littleton this is Sawyer Kelly, but I don't know the other two," Shannon explained a little embarrassed.

"Well, sticks, these are my good friends, Dr. Jack Sheppard, you can call him doc," Sawyer said.

"Or just Jack, that works. It's nice to meet you ladies," Jack said shaking their hands. He took a little bit longer with Kate than the other two.

"And this here, is Charlie Pace," Sawyer said.

"Hi," Charlie said. Claire was astonished, he was British. So it was just him and her with the accents in this little group. It would work out very interesting. Charlie shook his hand with Claire's.

"It's nice to meet you Claire," Charlie said. Claire smiled.

"Nice to meet you Chahlie," Claire said using her accent to its extent. Charlie felt butterflies rise when he was standing there next to Claire who was just beautiful. And just the way she said his name put him up in the clouds.

"It was nice to meet you guys, but we really have to get back to work, come on Claire," Kate said pulling her arm. When they reached the kitchen area Kate turned to Claire. "Oh my God! Jack is so adorable!"

"Jack? What about Charlie! He's so cute!" Claire said. The girls giggled like they were teenagers again. But all too soon, they were interrupted when they had to take out more orders.

Later...

Claire returned home later that day. She walked up to the apartment and to her bedroom. She flopped down on her bed and stared up at her Orlando Bloom (yes that would be my man) poster on the opposite wall.

Claire's thoughts drifted to Charlie. She got the honor of waiting on his booth with Shannon and the other guys. He ordered what he called his usual, a burger, extra fries and a coke.

Shannon caught the drift that Claire liked Charlie and congratulated her at the counter by moving on, starting a new clean slate.

Claire thought about that. A new tabula rasa, she had learned about that back in high school in Sociology class (the truth, I learned about it last year in sociology wink). Was she really ready to start over?

"What do you think Orlando?" Claire asked. As always, he never responded. Claire sighed and thought about Charlie's smile, his laugh, why he had tape around his fingers, why did he have to look so damn adorable in that black hoodie?

Claire then stood and went around her room trashing everything that had to do with Thomas. She decided it was better to start new, take Shannon's advice.

She also knew that as soon as Shannon came home that night, she would definitely have to ask Shannon everything she knew about Charlie Pace.

Claire smiled satisfied with her new look in her room. She walked out to the kitchen to get a snack and for the first time in two months, her headache was gone.

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Okay, so what do you all think? Good so far? I hope so. Reviews are greatly appreciated, so take your time and review or not, whichever you want. See you in the next chapter.

Until next time,

Bloomy Angel