Chapter 3 - Heart to Heart
The hunting party returned a few hours before, and now the sun splayed golden rays over the castaways, as the darkness grew more complete, and the light slipped away. Fires grew in many places along the beach, and Dusty was desperately seeking out a new distraction before the sun sank too deep. Locke had divvied up the boar they'd killed earlier, and dinner was had. She saw Jack hopping from one person to another, all complaining of some ailment. She was about to go talk to him when Kate appeared and placed her hand gently on his shoulder. Again, he smiled that smile. Dusty smiled to herself, and walked away.
"Hi." He greeted her, and she sat next to him, hugging her knees to her chest.
"I almost didn't recognize you standing still." She said with a smile, which he returned.
"Don't get used to it. Some people have started complaining about the island's lack of bathroom facilities."
"It's no surprise they'd come to you."
Jack just raised his eyebrows in helplessness, and they sat in companionable silence, until Kate spoke again.
"Where's Claire?" Urgency and worry in her voice.
"She's not on the beach." Jack said curiously, searching around.
Jack furrowed his brow, and started walking quickly into the jungle, toward the caves. Kate followed him immediately.
Charlie, with two large leaves serving as plates, carried boar meat over to Claire's bedroll, where she was sitting fanning herself, more for the sake of movement rather than cooling. He set the leaf on top of her belly.
"Dinner is served." He pulled a water bottle from his pocket and set it next to her as well, and plopped himself down in front of her.
"Thanks." She said, and dug in ravenously. Charlie ate tentatively, taking Claire's distraction as an opportunity to watch her. The sun was sinking to her right, casting golden rays over her face. Her skin was glowing. She glanced up at him, and swallowed the bite she was chewing.
"Sorry. Am I that disgusting?" She chuckled, wiping her mouth.
"Not at all. Exactly the opposite, actually." He said softly, with a faint smile. Claire looked at him a moment. But quickly looked away.
They'd finished their dinner when Charlie interrupted their conversation, which had strewn to their beloved movies.
"Come with me." He said, standing, and reaching down to her.
"W-Why?"
"I have something to show you. I was goin to wait until later, but I just can't wait anymore."
Claire obliged, and took his hand as he led her into the trees. She hesitated.
"Charlie, it's getting dark, should we be going in there?"
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you. And it's not that far." He reassured her, and pulled her closer to him as they walked. Soon, they came to a sheer rock wall, going about twenty feet up. The dense vegetation blocked off most of the sunlight. With his hands, he searched the smooth rock until he found what he was looking for. He took her hand again and pulled her in front of him, facing the wall.
"What, Charlie? I can't see anything."
"Just wait." He whispered in her ear. The wind rustled the branches, moving them enough to let golden rays from the sun through the dense vegetation, and cast them on the wall. There, across the stone wall was chiseled a heart. With Claire's name inside. She softly gasped, and smiled. But, feeling Charlie's hands softly skimming her shoulders, she turned to him, the smile gone from her lips.
"Why are you doing this, Charlie?"
"Doin what?"
"This!" She said, pointing to the rock wall. "And this!" She pointed feverishly between them. "I'm pregnant, Charlie. We're stranded on a desert island with monsters. How could anything good possibly come of this?"
"Claire," He took her shoulders and stepped into her. "I like you, a lot. And I care for you so much. I care about what happens to you and your baby. How could something good not come of this feeling?" Charlie placed his hands on her neck, running his thumbs over her jaw line. Claire held tightly onto his wrists, neither pushing him away or holding him there. He leaned down to her, and she closed her eyes in anticipation of his lips upon hers.
"Claire!" A voice shouted from nearby. It sounded like Jack. He sounded scared.
"Yeah, we're here." Charlie shouted back after a sigh of disappointment. Soon, Jack came running to them, with Kate close behind.
"What the hell are you two doing? It's getting dark, you shouldn't be out here." Jack reprimanded.
"Sorry to frighten you, Jack. We just went for a little walk." Claire spoke quickly before Charlie, whose brow had furrowed angrily.
"Well, I'd rather you stay in plain sight when the sun goes down, okay?" He said, gentler this time, the anger gone from his eyes, replaced only by concern.
"Sure, sorry." Charlie apologized.
Dusty carefully set a few more branches onto the fire. She had to leave Walt before Michael returned, and completed the task of gathering more firewood. It was now the dead of night, and most were asleep or in the process of getting there. She stared into the flickering flames for a while, and her thoughts ran away with her, as she feared they would if she stopped moving for too long.
In an instant, their lives flashed before her eyes. Small bits and pieces of memories, each packed so full of emotion that she felt happiness, sadness, pride, and anger all in one terrifying mix. Girl scouts and boy scouts, knee scrapes, loud boisterous laughter, falling asleep in her arms. Until it came to the day they got on the plane.
The screams replayed in her head, as if it was happening all over again so near to her ears, and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly to block them out. Night time was the worst. With a sigh, she opened them and turned around to walk somewhere and do something to absorb her mind, and protect herself from the memories, but found Sawyer standing there.
"Howdy there, Pipsqueak."
She started, then furrowed her brow at him. "Oh fun, I have a nick name." She said dryly.
"You should feel lucky, it's an privilege I bestow upon few." He grinned
"I'm so honored."
"So what're you doin up so late?"
"I could ask you the same thing." She said, and walked past him down to the beach.
"Don't you sleep unless it's raining buckets?" He asked, walking up next to her, sure to keep a foot of space between them.
"Not if I can help it." She sighed out.
"What's wrong? Afraid of the boogey monster?"
"Why do you care?" She snapped.
"Just makin conversation, sweetheart. Would you rather sit here alone?"
Dusty swallowed hard, and he noticed it with a smirk. "I have nightmares." She said lightly and immediately slapped her forehead with her palm. "God that sounds so stupid!"
But Sawyer did not come back with some sarcastic remark, as she'd expected. "Not that stupid. Stranded on an island we're not even sure is deserted, with a monster in the jungle and a bunch of strangers." Dusty looked to him as he spoke he looked out over the ocean. He caught her gaze and smirked. "Hell, I'd have nightmares too, if I didn't have you to fill my dreams."
Yep, there it was. Dusty rolled her eyes. "Could you be any more inappropriate?"
"Well, I'm sure if I tried…" He trailed off, as Dusty had turned from him and made for her bedroll, disgusted. But she found, as she lay on the sand looking up at the stars in the velvet sky and the palm trees blowing in the breeze, she smiled faintly and chuckled, shaking her headgood naturedly at Sawyer's stupid remarks. She almost wondered why everyone hated him, before she remembered everything she'd heard around camp. She was not one to put too much weight on grapevined gossip, but every individual story she'd overheard had the same core happenings and results. Sawyer was an ass, someone got punched.
So, Dusty pondered long on the conundrum, strangely happy to have something else to keep her mind. Something that didn't involve moving, since her body had begun to lag, but also something that did involve a pretty, dimpled smile and sparkling blue eyes.
Leigh - Thanks, I was actually quite concerned about writing characters to coincide with their actual TV doings. I wasn't sure if I could make them do and say things their characters would actually do. Yikers. But thanks for that, it was a great confidence boost.
Orlando's Hot Chick, DemonQueen666 - lol, I hear ya…that Sawyer's a piece of work.
Cat1 - Oh, see, it was Dusty who was reciting the little Government/History lesson about John Locke. Sorry about the confusion!
Pink Pinker - lol. Most definitely. I'm going to make a T shirt that says I heart Jack and wear it every Wednesday.
-Austin B.