So I know that LOST is a really old thing, and that not many people will actually read this. But I just felt that I had to write this having just finished LOST a little bit ago. It's set after Through the Looking Glass, from Desmond's POV. My first LOST fic, just a little internal drabble. Enjoy :D
Desmond slid to the floor as Charlie slipped from the glass, drifting into the water and into another life. The ink on his palm was still imprinted on his eyelids- NOT PENNYS BOAT. A warning, and an important one at that, most likely. Charlie's last act- even drowning, he had thought of those he loved.
But Desmond couldn't bring himself to care. Suddenly sobs overtook him as he sat against the door separating him from Charlie. The Looking Glass was now empty but for him, the dead under sheets or blown away or resting peacefully in the water.
Desmond had to get out, he had to move, but it was as though his limbs were not connected to his body anymore. All that Charlie had been through, all the trials that fate had thrown at him, it ended at this. Never mind that Charlie had wanted to die with honor, to die for what he loved and wanted. Never mind the piece of paper now soggy in Desmond's pocket, his last testimony to Claire- Claire, oh god, what would he tell Claire? Never mind the ride in a battered Dharma van with Hurley, all those times he had thrown his drugs into the ocean in defiance. Never mind all of the times that Desmond had saved Charlie from the universe. None of that mattered because he, Desmond was a coward.
Desmond shook and his eyes blurred. He could feel the tears lining his face. There was no end to this. Penny had been right there- right there, talking to Charlie. He had heard her voice, Charlie had called for him… and then-
He, Desmond Hume, was a coward. He had run off on a race around the world, drank himself into a stupor during his three years in the hatch, almost killed himself and been saved, only to be enslaved by fate again and again. Charlie was braver, and better and stronger than him and always would be, because he had had the strength to fight back against the endless despair that the universe threw at him.
As cruel as it was that fate should enslave a young man to his death countless times, and as cruel as it was that fate could separate love for years and then drive it back within reach, only to have Desmond not be able to touch it- as cruel as all that was, as it all was, he couldn't hide from it.
Not anymore.
"I'm sorry Charlie." Desmond whispered into the empty space.
"I'm so sorry."
And with that, Desmond wiped the river of tears from his face, shakily walked to the moon pool, and dived towards his new destiny above, where the forces of time were already building against him.