Thanks to all my reviewers. Much appreciated. Big thanks to pacejunkie for the constructive criticism, if I continue with my repetition of certain words you shall have to come to Leeds, England and punch me : ) Enjoy!
Jack had helped Charlie back to the caves, much to his displeasure. He was far too tired and his legs too wobbly to complain although he would occasionally try and waft Jack away with his arm and walk on his own, often ending up falling down on the ground, groaning in pain and feeling like he needed to vomit up the few left over contents of his stomach.
"Lay here," Jack said gently, laying the shaking man down in the cave and covering him with a blanket. Jack thought it best he put Charlie far away from the others so they would not disturb him. "Try and sleep."
Charlie moaned as he tried to get comfortable. "Its day time," he slurred, confused. "I don't sleep day time."
Jack smiled sympathetically. "You sleep as much as you can till the heroins out of your system. Me and Locke will keep checking on you."
"Yeah," Charlie replied. "Thanks mate," he said as he closed his eyes.
Jack was just about to go before he turned round to glance at Charlie again. His eyes travelled down to the rock star's arm which was covered in goose-bumps. "You ever shoot up Charlie?"
Charlie snapped his eyes open and they flicked upwards to lock with Jacks. "Never."
Charlie walked out of the Church with Tony. They had just had to bury their best friend Cathy, she was only 22.
Charlie kept his head down as his passed Cathy's grieving parents, he couldn't deal with them right now. Talking to them would just make things worse; make it harder for them to grieve for their only daughter.
"Baby bro!" a voice shouted from across the graveyard. It was Liam.
Liam leaned against a gravestone, staring blankly across to the freshly made grave of Cathy.
"I'm gonna go find Shelly," Tony said and went off in another direction. Charlie knew he just didn't want to talk to Liam after his brother hadn't even bothered to turn up to Cathy's funeral.
Charlie strode up to his so called big brother and punched him across the face, hard. "Where were you?" he demanded as Liam staggered backwards, blood leaking from his nose.
Liam chuckled and clutched his bleeding nose. "What was that for?"
Charlie tilted his head, stunned by his brother's reaction. He had expected to be punched back. "You missed the funeral," he spat out bitterly, clenching his fist. Why was he laughing? They had just buried someone they had known almost all their life.
Liam took a step back and smiled broadly. "I'm here now," he said loudly so the people still outside the church could hear.
Charlie did a double take. Was Liam actually smiling that he had missed Cathy's funeral?
Liam dug into his pocket and withdrew a cigarette, lighting up. He stood next to Cathy's grave and lifted his head to read the words written on the grave.
'RIP Catherine Bates – Beloved Daughter. Best Mate.'
He exhaled and let the smoke float in the air across the grave.
Charlie's jaw clenched as he watched his brother. "You're not even sorry are ya?" he asked vehemently.
Liam gave a weary sigh and dropped the cigarette, stubbing it out with his foot. "Look bro, I was busy. Get over it."
Charlie's eyes widened. "Too busy? How can you be too busy to come to your own friend's funeral?" he yelled angrily.
Liam shrugged. "We weren't really friends anymore," he paused, leaning against a tree for support. "Not really."
Charlie was streaming. "I guess someone forgot to tell her that huh?"
Liam held his hands up. "Hey man, don't take it out on me cos she OD'd. She was a junkie, that's what they do."
Charlie took a sharp breath, trying to control himself. "You knew…" He muttered quietly.
Liam walked towards him, nearly tripping over his feet as he walked. Charlie noticed Liam's hands were twitching but chose not to say anything. "Yeah I knew. So what?"
"You knew and you didn't tell anyone?" Charlie snapped.
Liam sighed. "What would you have done if you knew? Look, I had to think of the band…"
Charlie paused, trying to take everything in. "The band? You don't give a fuck about the sodding band, you never have!" he yelled back.
Liam pinched the bridge of his nose. "If it wasn't for me, they'd be no Driveshaft."
Charlie scoffed incredulously.
"Look Charlie boy, if you'd have known what she was you'd have tried to help her. You can't help people like that…" Liam trailed off.
"I could've tried Liam," Charlie interrupted quickly. "When I found her she was bleeding. Her veins were so bloody screwed up that she had had to cut into her arm to just find a friggin vein to shoot that shit into."
Liam took Charlie's face in his hands and stared deeply into his eyes. "You gotta forget about her man, put all this behind us. We've gotta concentrate on the band. The important things y'know?"
Charlie moved away from his brother and turned his head to gaze at the grave, a stray tear making its way slowly down his face. "I can't forget Liam. She was pregnant."
Charlie screamed as the memory faded. He had been tossing and turning on the makeshift bed for twenty minutes now and still couldn't drift off to sleep. Suddenly he heard a noise from near the cave, gentle footsteps approaching.
Probably Jack, he wagered.
"Hey," the voice was feminine and Australian.
Charlie smiled to himself when he saw who it was but then felt extremely embarrassed. He didn't want Claire to see him like this. "Hey," he rasped out. "You shouldn't…"
"Don't worry; I've had my flu injection. It's alright," she assured him, taking a seat next to him. "Hurley told me."
Charlie let out a dreary sigh. "Is there anyone he hasn't told?"
"Maybe Sawyer, everyone pretty much thinks he's a dick," Claire beamed, covering her mouth and stifling a giggle.
Charlie sniffed and did a crooked smile. "Young pregnant women shouldn't talk like that."
Claire smiled sweetly at him. "I'm not pregnant anymore Charlie," she answered, her voice changing. It wasn't Australian anymore but he couldn't place what it was. She then stood up and started stripping down in-front of him.
"Claire, what…" he began, confused as she stood naked. Something definitely wasn't right.
Claire beamed at him again and pointed to her stomach, it was flat and the skin smooth. "See."
Suddenly the image of Claire changed right before his eyes. Her normally beautiful hair turned greasy and Charlie noticed it now had specs of dried blood in it. Her skin paled and her eyes looked like hollow slits in her head "Why didn't you save me Charlie?" she asked through cracked lips.
Charlie gasped. "Claire?" he hesitated. "Cathy?"
Cathy stood right in-front of him. She was completely naked and covered in blood from head to toe and had bruises up both arms and on her thighs. Charlie stared at her bruised arms, the track marks clearly visible as the blood dripped down her body. He then gasped as he saw she was holding something…A baby. "No, no no…"
"Why didn't you save us Charlie?" She asked as the baby started crying in her arms and thrashing around. She shook the baby gently and murmured a lullaby but the baby kept crying.
"The baby…" he said softly, mesmerized. "It's alive."
Cathy grinned then produced a needle from somewhere and patted the inside of the babies arm gently to bring the vein's up. She then proceeded to inject the needle and its contents into the babies arm and watched casually as it quietened down and seemed to relax in her arms. She hugged the baby close to her chest and walked towards Charlie. As she approached Charlie he backed away from her. "Relax," she smiled coyly.
Charlie's eyes darted around the cave. He was sickened by what he had witnessed. "JACK!" he screamed loudly, his back bumping into the wall of the cave as he struggled desperately to get away from her.
"Shh," Cathy said, pressing a finger against his mouth. She then reached behind him and pulled out another needle filled with something. "You wanna go first?" she asked, grinning as her face seemed to change back again so he found himself gazing into the eyes of Claire as the needle got closer and closer…
He screamed as loudly as he could as he felt needles piercing his skin.
Jack heard Charlie's scream and rushed towards the cave. When he got there Hurley and Claire were already there, staring at Charlie with a mixture of shock and confusion.
Charlie lay on the ground sweating profusely. His left arm was covered in numerous gashes and bleeding.
Jack ran forward hurriedly and grabbed the discarded blanket, wrapping it around the young man's arm to stop the bleeding. Charlie appeared to be unconscious yet he was still shaking and his face was contorted in pain. "I need some bandages," Jack shouted towards Hurley.
Hurley stood in a daze for a couple of seconds before he ran off to get the bandages.
Claire gazed at Charlie. She had come to visit him to see if he was feeling any better and had found him bleeding and sweating on the floor of the cave. It had terrified the pregnant woman.
Jack slapped Charlie hard across the face and Claire gasped. "Jack?" she questioned, uncertainly, taking gentle steps towards the two.
"He's gotta wake up. I need to know what happened," he said firmly, slapping Charlie again.
Charlie's eyes opened and he coughed violently.
Jack let out his breathe. "It's okay Charlie. You're okay."
"I saw…I saw her Jack, I saw her…" He stuttered incoherently, lifting himself up onto his elbows.
"Who did you see?" Claire inquired from behind Jack.
Charlie immediately looked terrified at the sight of Claire and recoiled back. "Stay away!" he cried. His eyes were pale and frightened.
Jack looked down at him sympathetically. His gaze turned to Claire whose eyes betrayed her feelings, she was scared. "Claire," he said, gaining her attention.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked worriedly, glancing down at his arm.
Jack considered telling her the truth but knew Charlie really wouldn't appreciate it. "It's really bad flu."
Claire eyed him, confused.
"Hallucinations," he clarified. "Must have been bad," he said, inspecting Charlie's arm delicately. "His finger's dug so far down they broke the skin."
Charlie kept silent as he let Jack examine him, his eyes not meeting anyone's.
Claire's mouth formed an 'O' as she went forward towards Charlie again and reached out with her hand. "Charlie. It's me, Claire."
He blinked. "Claire?"
She smiled back at him. "Yeah, Claire," she answered, grabbing hold of his hand and placing it gently onto her very pregnant stomach. "See."
Charlie let his hand linger on her stomach for a while until he pulled it back and wrapped his arms around himself, hugging his body tightly. "Go, please," he pleaded.
Claire was about to protest before she looked into Charlie's eyes. "Sure Charlie," she said dejectedly and left.
A few moments later Hurley arrived with the bandages. He handed them to Jack who immediately started tending to Charlie's wounds again, luckily they weren't that bad. "Hey dude. Will he be alright?"
Charlie was sat staring blankly at the cave wall while Jack bandaged him up. He hadn't spoken since Claire left. "He'll be fine," Jack replied.
"Right. Cos right now, he kinda looks like that dude off Trainspotting," Hurley observed. "Y'know, that guy from Star Wars. Ewan McSomething," he added at Jack's confused expression.
"Ewan McGregor," Charlie muttered.
Hurley and Jack exchanged looks as they glanced towards Charlie. "Oh yeah. Ain't he English?"
Charlie scratched his arm which Jack had just bandaged. "Scottish."
Hurley shrugged. "Same diff."
Charlie grimaced and rubbed at his red-rimmed eyes as nausea took over again.
Charlie had come back to the flat him and Liam shared with a stack of DVD's to watch. Since they were children the brother's had dedicated Wednesday night to watching DVD's and stuffing their faces with junk food.
"Liam?" he called out as he slammed the door shut behind him. "I got some good ones."
He dumped the DVD's down on the table and slumped down onto the sofa lazily. "Liam?"
"I'll just be a minute," his brother's voice called out from the toilet. "Just takin' a shit bro."
Charlie grimaced at his brother's vulgarity and put the DVD 'Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace' into the DVD player. "Hurry up will ya," he yelled.
The brother's had made up again after the argument at the graveyard. Charlie had done what Liam had said and tried to put Cathy's death behind him. It was hard but he had to try or he was never going to move on with his life.
"Bugger," was heard from the toilet and then a huge smash.
Charlie jumped up off the sofa and banged on the toilet door. "What was that?" he shouted at the door, banging on it harder. "Liam!"
A memory flashed into his mind. Cathy sprawled out on the pub toilet's floor, unmoving. "Open up or I'm coming in," he threatened.
No answer.
Charlie took a sharp breath and kicked the door hard, it broke on impact.
Liam was leaning against the toilet, a belt wrapped tightly around his arm. A needle had been scattered unceremoniously across the floor and was now next to Charlie's feet.
Liam's head was hanging low, his eyes glazed over. He hadn't even bothered to look up when Charlie kicked the door in.
Charlie stared at his brother, not quite believing what he was seeing. "No…" he breathed. He turned away from the scene in-front of him and walked back into the brother's living room. He shakily ran a hand through his hair. "No, no, no, no, NO!" he screamed up at the ceiling.
"Bro…" Liam mumbled softly from his place on the toilet floor. "It's…It's not what it looks like."
Charlie felt sick to his stomach. It was Cathy all over again. He went back to where Liam was and picked up the used needle, staring at it then looking back at his brother who had now fallen into a drug-induced slumber. "Yeah, it is."
Hurley sighed. "You wanna…" he began then stopped and sighed.
The two friends had been sat in silence for a while now and it was really grating at Hurley. He was the talkative type and couldn't stand uncomfortable silences.
Jack had long since left after he was called off somewhere by Locke so Hurley was left to be Charlie's nurse.
"Hurley. I'm fine on my own," Charlie insisted. "I'm not a child. I'll be fine. I haven't had another hallucination so they're probably gone now."
Hurley raised an eyebrow. "Hrmm. Whatever. I'm staying."
Charlie heaved a sigh. "I feel much better now."
"Look dude, I know about heroin withdrawal. I've seen loadsa films," Hurley said casually, picking up an apple that had been left by Jack for Charlie and taking a bite.
Charlie's head snapped up and his eyes widened. "I'm not a…"
Hurley took another huge bite of the apple and shrugged. "Druggy rocker?"
Charlie flinched and sat up to lean against the wall of the cave. "Not much point denying it anymore is there?"
Hurley bobbed his head and wiped his hands on his shirt.
"How did you know?" he inquired softly while scratching his arm. He felt incredibly itchy all over his body but especially his arm. It was very annoying.
"I kinda…Guessed," Hurley answered truthfully. "Don't worry man. Your secrets safe with Hurley," he grinned. "Flu right?"
Charlie smiled through the pain he was feeling. "Flu," he nodded. "So…You don't think I'm a wimpy sad sack of a man?" he asked gently, afraid of the answer.
"Wimpy sad sack? Is that a British expression or what?" Hurley scoffed. "We all have our addictions bro," he commented, waving him off. "Take me for example. I really like pie."
Charlie shook his head and raised an eyebrow. "You're comparing heroin to pie. Now I'm thinking you're on drugs mate."
"Hey! It's serious. I eat ten pies and I just want ten more straight after," he answered. "My mum tried to put me on this detox programme but it didn't work cos one of my girlfriends kept buying me pie when we went out on dates. Pie dates."
Charlie mouthed the words 'One of' as he listened to Hurley's story, amused. Hugo Reyes certainly had a knack for lightening the mood in depressing situations.
Hurley finished off his apple and licked his fingers. He then stood up and spread his arms out dramatically. "I'm Hugo Reyes," he shouted in an over-the-top tone. He then dropped his voice and his expression turned sad. "And I'm a pie addict."
Charlie clapped even as his hands continued to shake, smiling at his friend. "You could be an actor Hurley. Possibly even the next James Bond."
Hurley lifted his head up, a huge grin spreading across his face. "Bond. James Bond," he practiced in a really bad imitation of Sean Connery's accent.
Charlie frowned. "Maybe not."
"When did you start?" Charlie asked Liam when he woke up from his heroin-induced nap.
"Go away," Liam replied bitterly. He had moved to lay on the sofa after he had woken up and was now watching re-runs of The Simpson's while trying to ignore his brother.
Charlie stood over him, glaring down at him distastefully. "Sod the bloody TV Liam," he snapped, grabbing the TV remote and switching the TV off.
Liam groaned and tried to sit up but he couldn't, he felt really ill. "I can't remember," he mumbled.
"You can't remember," Charlie repeated, lifting his brother's legs off the sofa so he could take a seat next to him. "Withdrawal setting in already huh? How long has it been…A couple of hours?"
"Don't start…" Liam began, agitated.
"You're a sodding junkie Liam!" he said acidly until his voice dropped to a whisper. "Just like Cathy."
"I'm not a junkie," he denied insistently. "I just chip."
Charlie laughed out loud but it wasn't a nice laugh, it was a horrible bitter one that made Liam wince. "You can't 'just chip' with heroin."
"What do you know Charlie boy? You know shit all about drugs. You were a sodding choir boy for god's sake!" Liam spat back.
"I've smoked weed," he pointed out.
"Hasn't everyone?" his brother shot back.
"Oh yeah and I found my best mate dead from a heroin overdose," he answered ruefully. "Were you high at Cathy's funeral?" he asked disbelievingly, realization dawning on him. "Is that why you weren't at the pub with me and Tony? Were you bloody high when I was pulling that sodding needle outta Cathy's arm?" he shouted spitefully. It all made sense. Charlie had known something was wrong with Liam at Cathy's funeral but he had just assumed he was drunk or grieving in his own way. He never thought his own brother would become a junkie…Although he never thought his best friend would either.
You idiot Charlie, he thought to himself.
Liam chewed on his lower lip but didn't answer, his eyes darted around the room before they settled on his shoes. "I'm off out," he announced, getting up slowly.
Charlie jumped up from the sofa and pushed him back down hard. "To visit your dealer?"
Liam sighed. His muscles ached. "Stay out of my business Charlie."
"You are my business Liam. You're my brother," Charlie responded. He sat down again next to Liam. "I wanna help you bro. No rehab, you don't need that shiat."
Liam was sweating now, his finger's drumming on his knee. "I don't need help. I'm fine," he assured him. "I really gotta go out."
"Please, don't…" Charlie pleaded as Liam got up and made his way to the door.
"Trust me baby brother," Liam replied softly as he went, shutting the door behind him.
Charlie was utterly devastated. He lay back on the sofa and let the tears stream down his face. He wouldn't let his brother end up like Cathy…He wouldn't…
"And this one time…" Hurley continued. He had been talking non-stop for going on an hour now and Charlie was a bit fed up and sick of listening to Hurley's adventures before the island. He felt disgusting, his skin was clammy and his bones hurt. He needed a really long shower but Jack had advised against it in-case he had one of his hallucinations again.
"Dude?"
"Fine. I'm still fine," he repeated. Charlie was sick of people asking how he was. How did they think he was? He was going through bloody heroin withdrawal.
"Wanna go to the beach man? Claire's probably there," Hurley winked.
"I shouldn't be around Claire," he responded quietly, his expression sad as his gaze settled on something in the distance.
Hurley frowned. "Right, why not? Does this have something to do with you hallucinating and tearing your arm up? Some girls dig the whole self-harm thing…I knew this one girl…"
Charlie continued to stare into the jungle, completely ignoring Hurley. He could distinctly make out a figure standing just at the entrance of the jungle. "Liam?" he breathed.
"What was that?" Hurley asked.
"Let's go to the beach," he said hurriedly. He got up a little too quickly and ended up vomiting all over the ground. "Bloody hell."
What do you think of this chapter? I hope this chapter's better then the last. I'm trying to improve! Do you like Hurley and Charlie interaction?
To be continued…
