Title: Sing Us A Song
Original post date: 5th March 2006
Summary: A companion piece to one of my older fics, "'Arlie, Mummy & Mister Turnip". A fortnight after Charlie's overdose, he teaches Claire to play his guitar.
Spoilers: written loooong before season two
Disclaimer: Lost not mine. Piano Man by Billy Joel (the lyrics of which I have stolen for the title) not mine.
A/N: dedicated to Rachel for giving me the idea for the end of this fic – it never would have gotten finished without you! – and also for drawing fanart for it!
Charlie strummed his guitar distractedly, quietly in front of the fire. It was over a month since he had discovered the heroin in the plane. It was a fortnight since he'd almost died of an overdose. And it was less than week since he had stood with Claire and Sayid and watched his drugs burn away.
The headaches were getting better he had to admit but he still found himself feeling dizzy for no reason from time to time. And he'd also noticed that he was more liable to become angry for no reason at all.
He glanced up at Claire cradling Aaron and singing softly to him.
She never made him feel angry.
Her memory was still coming in patches. She remembered snippets of conversations; brief moments they had shared and she would reciprocate them to him. Charlie would often smile nostalgically as she talked of what she remembered.
He watched her now as she gently laid Aaron in his crib and then padded softly over to say hello.
'Right off to sleep tonight.' Charlie observed as she sat down next to him.
'Yeah,' Claire settled herself down comfortably and pushed her feet towards the fire to warm her toes. Charlie suppressed a smile at the sight of them peering out of the holes in her socks. 'I'm surprised he goes to sleep at all half the time, I have no idea what I'm doing.' Claire chuckled and Charlie couldn't help but smile despite the headache he could feel coming on.
They sat there in silence a few minutes, Charlie worrying the guitar strings and plucking quiet riffs.
'How are you feeling?' Claire asked presently.
'Mmmn?' Charlie said vaguely.
'I said, how are you feeling?' she repeated patiently.
'How am I feeling? You mean, have I got a headache, am I feeling nauseous, am I having a withdrawal?' Charlie retorted then winced when Claire looked at him stonily. 'Sorry. Yes. A bit.'
'Well that would explain the twitchy hands,' Claire tried teasing him.
Charlie glanced down at his hands fidgeting restlessly with the guitar strings and self-consciously stilled them.
'Well, no withdrawal as such. I've got a bit of a headache though.' He paused to pluck a short phrase before continuing dryly. 'I'm discovering all over again that withdrawals a long process.
Claire smiled faintly and nodded. She was still wary about him, he guessed she hadn't figured out whether to forgive him or not.
'It's not so bad if you've got something to hold onto but,' Charlie amended, looking softly at her. 'Something to…ground you.'
Claire gazed back at him, trying not to smile. 'Yeah? And what are you holding onto Charlie?'
'A couple of things,' Charlie patted his guitar fondly then reached over and touched her hand gently.
Claire face flushed a soft pink as she looked down at his hand on hers. He took his hand away, the desired effect having been achieved and she reached her own out and touched the strings on the guitar gently.
'I wanted to learn to play once,' she said, clearly changing the subject. 'My mum wouldn't pay for the lessons though. She wanted me to learn the piano instead, said it was more refined.' Claire rolled her eyes at Charlie. 'You know, a I girl's /I instrument.'
'I played piano,' Charlie said, offended and Claire laughed but then a silence fell between them as Charlie considered her previous words and the possible implications in them.
'I could teach you to play guitar,' he offered finally.
Claire smiled tentatively.
'I'd like that.'
Charlie, encouraged, handed the guitar to her and she held it awkwardly. 'What, right now?' she asked, surprised.
'Why not? We haven't got anything else to do.' Charlie knelt in front of her and positioned the guitar properly in her arms. 'Here. Your hands go here…that's right…now I'm going to put your fingers on the frets…'
'Frets?' Claire looked puzzled until Charlie explained them to her. He positioned her left hand carefully.
'Now take your other hand and brush your fingers across the strings…'
Claire ran her fingers across the strings and a chord stumbled out.
She looked delighted. 'What was that?'
'That was a C chord,' Charlie grinned at her glowing face. 'Want to try another?'
Claire nodded and he helped her reposition her fingers.
'Strum,'
She brushed her fingertips across the strings and Charlie hesitated before shaking his head. 'You're not doing it properly, here…' he tried to guide her hand across the strings properly but the angle of the guitar combined with the position he was in simply didn't work.
'Bollocks,' he sighed and paused to think. 'Hang on.'
Within an instant he had climbed around behind her and put his arms around her, holding the guitar neck in his left hand and her right hand in his. Claire stiffened at this sudden physical closeness and Charlie froze, panicked, but after a moment she relaxed and he tentatively began to mould her around the guitar. He rested his chin on her shoulder as he guided her hand up and down the frets, positioning her fingers as he went, murmuring the names of the chords they were playing in her ear.
'This isn't really that hard,' Claire said, pleased. 'Where's C again?' she strummed an unsuccessful C chord and Charlie gently guided her fingers to the correct place. He watched as Claire played it and suddenly found himself faced with a rather interesting view…
He looked away abruptly, trying not to clear his throat obviously.
Now was definitely not the time to be staring at Claire's cleavage. Definitely not the time to be staring at Claire's…oh God…
'B,' Claire muttered. 'Now where was B?'
Charlie automatically moved her hands but as she strummed, his eyes strayed yet again to her breasts. Vaguely he recalled having been in a similar situation before.
I'd have thought C's actually…sorry.
'And…C again…' Claire muttered, finding her way back to the chord without any problems. She grinned back at him. 'I think I'm getting the hang of this.'
Charlie averted his eyes, making sure she didn't think he was looking down her top.
'You're doing good. Want to try E minor?'
Claire's head ducked again to look at the way her fingers had been positioned on the frets and Charlie tried not to grin too much at the spectacular view he was being granted.
Oh what the hell. While he was here he may as well enjoy it.