A Showman's Life

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Summary: Two-shot. After the rescue from the now infamous island, DriveShaft hits it big and Charlie is on the road almost 300 days out of the year. The only thing missing is Claire and their kids.

A/n: This song amazes me… I heard it at work and immediately thought Charlie/Claire, but I took a different route than the writer intended…

So some background information. It has been five years since the rescue, 3 since DriveShaft became HUGE! Claire has two children, Aaron and David. Aaron is eight and David is soon to be five. Now to the story!

This part is short because I am not used to writing as Claire… or Charlie, but the Charlie part is coming out so much easier!

Disclaimer: Lost belongs to ABC… Dom belongs to himself (thankfully) and the song belongs to Reba McIntyre…

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"He Gets That From Me"

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"His early mornin' attitude:
You have to drag him out of bed.
Only frosted flakes will do,
He gets that from me:
Yeah, he gets that from me…"

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"So you'll be home soon?" I asked over the phone. It was one of the many early morning phone calls that I had gotten so used to now-a-days. Charlie was always on the road. At first I was as excited as he was that DriveShaft was all big again and that everything was going to be perfect.

But I never expected him to be gone as long as he always seemed to be.

It was never a matter of whether he was being true to me. I knew he would always be, especially after the whole island incident, but I missed him, I missed him all the time.

So did Aaron and David.

"I don't know," he said over the phone. "I'll be home as soon as I can."

I knew that that was going to be the case, but it still made me a bit upset. I knew that Charlie was going to be away for a long time. That was the life he wanted more than anything, and I knew that. But I didn't expect him to be away from home as long as he was.

It was like I never saw him anymore, and it was upsetting.

"Okay," I forced out. Looking at the clock, I saw it was 5:30 in the morning. "I love you honey," I added. I always finished our conversations like that.

"I love you too, luv," I could hear the smile in his voice. He was happy. And if he was happy, then I could be happy about it too. "I love you too."

I heard the all-too-familiar click of the phone hanging up.

Aaron and David would be up soon. I didn't want to have to face it. Slowly, I put the phone back on the hook and curled up into a small ball on the sofa and fell asleep.

If Charlie was happy, then I would be happy too.

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"His curly hair and his knobby knees:
The way the sun brings those freckles out.
Talk and talk, never miss a beat,
Yeah, he gets that from me:
He gets that from me…"

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The days passed since the phone call, and I hadn't gotten very many more. I knew that Charlie was busy, but I always looked forward to his phone calls, all the time. But they were become farther and farther apart, and I was beginning to get this bad feeling.

I didn't want something to happen. Whether it be him finally giving into all the temptation of being a 'rock god' or there being another crash. Oh God, I didn't even want to think about if a plane would have crashed again.

I would be more than devastated. The thought alone brought tears freckling to my eyes. At least Karen was there. We lived in the same neighborhood and we got together all the time. Just to talk. We were in the same boat. We were stuck at home with the kids while our husbands went out and partied all the time, rarely ever coming home.

"What do you think they're doing right now?" Karen asked me as my eyes gazed out at the three kids playing in the overly large back yard. Megan was now eleven, Aaron was eight and David was almost five, but they all got along. They were like siblings, seeing as they were always together.

"Who?" I asked, my voice sounding far away.

"Liam and Charlie…"

"Sleeping." I said with a chuckle. "They're always sleeping." I knew they probably weren't sleeping, but I knew that if they were sleeping, they weren't getting into any trouble.

They had to be getting into trouble. They were men, seriously. And rock stars on top of that. Trouble Magnets. That was what they were.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Karen laughed right along with me.

I sighed. Oh I missed him. So much.

We sat in silence for a while. Not know what exactly to say to each other. This always happened. We'd talk for a little bit, then lapse into a long silence.

I looked at David, or 'Davie' as Charlie so lovingly called him. He looked so much like Charlie. Hell, he was Charlie. The spitting image of him. A lot of time it hurt to look at him. But I was so thankful for him. So glad that he was there.

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"He looks at me with those big brown eyes:
He's got me in the palm of his hands,
And I swear sometimes it's just like you're here again.
He smiles that little crooked smile:
There's no denying he's your child.
Without him I don't know what I'd do:
He gets that from you:
Oh, he gets that from you…"

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The next time I got a phone call from Charlie, he was so upset. "What's wrong?" I asked him. It was late at night. I had already put David and Aaron to bed.

"That stupid bastard!" he cursed angrily.

"What's wrong Charlie, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong!" I said urgently, trying to get him to talk and tell me what was wrong with him.

"Devon, the bastard, he added another three weeks onto the tour!" he said angrily. "I'm not going to be home for Davie's fifth birthday!"

I could hear him getting upset. I was getting myself upset too. Charlie was the one who booked the shows, not Devon. And I remember him telling me that he directly made it so that we wouldn't miss David's fifth birthday.

Now he was going to, and it made me feel really bad.

"Just calm down Charlie. I'm sure Devon did it for a good reason. Besides, David's only turning five, I'm sure you'll be around for his sixth birthday." Once I said it, I wished I wouldn't have because silence lapsed over the two of us.

"I'm sorry…" he said quietly, I could hear bitterness in his voice, before the phone hang up.

No, that wasn't smart at all.

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"How he loves your old guitar:
Yeah, he's taught himself to play.
He melts my heart: tells me he love me every day.
And cracks jokes at the perfect time,
Makes me laugh when I want to cry.
That boy is everything to me:
He gets that from you:
He gets that from you…"

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Charlie didn't call after that. I tried to call him, but it just went right over onto his voicemail. I sure wished that he hadn't done something stupid. I had talked to Karen, and she said that Liam said that Charlie was fine, he just needed to think.

Personally, I didn't believe either of them. I knew Charlie too well. He was hurt, and now he was trying to numb… oh no.

He told me that he wasn't going get back on heroin, or that he wasn't going to get drunk every night. But what if I had pushed him to do that? What if I had upset him that badly? I choked back the tears as I sat alone in the dining room.

David was taking a nap. He was going to be five tomorrow.

Aaron found Charlie's guitar from the crash. It was old, and beat up, but it still played, and he was in the living room, just playing around with it. He was getting good. For an eight year old who taught himself that is.

I couldn't play guitar at all. I was 'hopeless' as Charlie once said. Yes I was hopeless. But Charlie always left the 'crash guitar' at the house because he too realized that Aaron was teaching himself. While I didn't want Aaron going down the same road that his father went down, he was like Charlie too, even though there was genetically no Charlie in him.

He was Thomas son. I could see some of Thomas come out in him every now and then. But he was more like Charlie. Charlie was the one he grew up around until DriveShaft became huge again. Charlie was his dad. He didn't want to believe anything else.

Sure I had told him about Thomas, but he didn't believe me. It was for the better I guess.

"All right Aaron, time for bed!" I shouted, slowly getting up and walking into the living room. "We have a busy day tomorrow."

Aaron looked up from his guitar. "Is dad gonna make it home?" he asked, biting his tongue as he concentrated really hard on trying to hit the right notes.

"I don't think so honey. He's really busy. I'm sure he'll be here in spirit though."

"I guess," was all he responded as he stood up and worked his way up the steps. "I miss him a lot… but we're fine without him…"

"Don't say that Aaron!"

"It's true, we are fine! He's never around."

"BED… NOW!" I shouted angrily. There was a tiny part of me though, that believed him. As much as I didn't want to believe him.

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The party came and went. No Charlie. It stung deep down that he didn't even call to wish his son a happy birthday. I was just about ready to put them both to bed. It had been a long, exhausting day. While David didn't have many friends his own age, everyone from the crash came. At least the survivors.

They all wished that Charlie was there, but they didn't want it as much as I did. Or as much as Aaron or David.

I brushed away the stray tears that had worked their way down my face.

"All right. Bed time!" I said, getting my mind off of Charile.

He was happy and that was all that mattered. It was then that I heard a knock at the door.

"I'LL GET IT!" Aaron shouted, as he sprung up and ran to the door.

I turned and followed him. I didn't like him answering the door himself. I stopped when I saw who was standing in the doorway.

"Sorry I'm late," he said with a small, tired smile.

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"Last night, I heard him pray:
Lord, help me and mama make it through.
An' tell Daddy we'll be okay:
He said he sure misses you:
He sure misses you.
He really misses you:
He gets that from me…"

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A/n: Okay, so the next part is from Charlie's point of view, because I write better as Charlie. I wasn't sure which one to post first because they both happen at the same time, but I really wanted this one first.

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