Dislcaimer: i don't own this stuff.
a/n: okay, so, final chapter thanks for reading everyone! i really appreciate it and double thanks to those who reviewed. XXXXX
3 months later…
"What does it do?" Charlotte asked, she was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed under her chest.
"It's a pendulum, it swings back and forth." Daniel was standing across the other side of the room next to a computer.
"So you bought me down here to hypnotise me?" Charlotte queried sarcastically, she glared at him and then at the computer. "That computer is calculating longitude and latitude."
"Nope, it's a… uh…a screensaver." he attempted weakly.
Charlotte laughed, "Don't forget that I can tell when you are lying Daniel, and that i'm not an idiot."
"Right, right, okay here we go." he moved away from the computer.
Charlotte stood to attention, she could anticipate a "Dan lecture" a mile off.
"I bought you down here because, as you saw on the door, it's a Dharma station and I thought you would appreciate a trip to one." he begun, walking around the pendulum.
She nodded gratefully, it had been rather thrilling to see the "Lamp Post" logo. She had only seen the Hydra one she had found in Tunisia and the sketches Daniel had collected for her from his time on the island.
"That was very thoughtful of you. Only you would bring me to a place like this Dan." she smiled as her eyes focused the pendulum.
"Take a look at the map on the floor." he instructed pointing towards it with both hands.
"A world map, with scribbles on it?"
"Yeah, the pendulum, its kind of marking the map so that they can deduce when and where the island is going to be." He looked up to watch her reaction. Charlotte's eyebrows quirked.
"Why is it down here? This place is special?"
Daniel swallowed nervously, he didn't like it when she used any sentence with "this place is…" in it, it still frightened him, but he didn't want to talk about that terrible day anymore so he carried on talking. "Its built on top of a pocket of electromagnetic energy, like the place you went to in Tunisia, and the Island of course. There are a few special places like this one dotted around the world."
Daniel stopped moving around, he took out a book from a draw and continued, "Here's where they record the uh… I guess they are like "windows" sort of, and if someone were to take advantage of this and fly through one of these windows they could get back to the island. Charlotte there is a window in two days." he moved his hand miming the flight of an aeroplane.
"Oh well, we'll be heading off to Egypt by then." she shrugged waving it of as if were just a casual suggestion for a vacation.
"You are sure, absolutely 100% sure? I just had to check. I couldn't live with myself if keeping you from the island would make you miserable."
"Dan, I made up my mind ages ago." Charlotte strode the rest of the way around the pendulum so she could take his hands.
He heaved a relieved sigh, "Sorry, sorry, I needed to…"
"Foolish man, do you honestly not know how much I love you?" Charlotte slid her arms around his neck so she could guide him into a kiss. He grazed her lips with his own before deepening her kiss, enjoying the way her heartbeat increased. Daniel could feel it pounding against his chest, another blissful reminder that she lives and breathes. It caused his own heart rate to accelerate.
He held her tightly round her middle, she stepped back slightly to steady herself but didn't get far, " Just so you know… I wasn't going to let you go back, I was just making sure that this is what you really want."
"And people think I'm sneaky." she laughed resting her chin on his shoulder and pressing a kiss onto his cheek.
In their time together over the last few months Charlotte had discovered that Daniel was an incredibly kind and patient man, he would let her have her way most of the time and never even complain. He seemed content just to be with her, he had even mastered the art of reeling her in when her attitude got a little out of control, Dan was the only man she would let get away with that.
She knew, however, that if she ever tried to go back to the island that it would be a step to far and she would lose him. That was something that she would never let happen, it was her choice. When it really came down to it, choosing between Daniel and the Island, it had been the easiest decision of her life.
Sometime she could tell that he felt almost guilty about keeping her from going "home", she figured that's why he told her everything he could remember and showed her anything even remotely related to the island.
"Dan, what would happen if I stopped the pendulum swinging." her eyes were transfixed on it again, she wondered if it would do something incredibly dramatic or apocalyptic.
"Not much, they'd just have to reset everything. My mom would probably tell you off though." Dan was absently fiddling with a curl of her hair.
"She came to see me, your mum, the day of my mothers funeral. Of course I didn't know who she was at the time."
Daniel furrowed his brow, "I wonder why she did that?"
"Wanted to check if I was worth all the trouble, I don't think she was too impressed with me to be honest."
"Heh, she isn't impressed by anything." he kissed the top of her head. "You are worth the trouble, by the way."
Charlotte playfully nudged him in the rib at the accusation that she continued to be troublesome.
She manoeuvred her arm so she could look at her watch. "It's a quarter to midnight, we need to get going or it'll be bad luck!"
They both laughed. Neither of them were superstitious but after everything that had happened to them they were adamant about covering all of their bases.
Daniel would be staying at his mothers tonight, while Charlotte would be returning to the hotel.
"Goodnight, I'll see you here tomorrow." Charlotte grinned, they kissed each other goodnight and separately left the church. It was to be the first night they had not spent together since he had returned from the island.
David had arrived while Charlotte was still getting ready. Catherine and Matilda were not with him, he told her he wasn't sure if they were coming. Charlotte was disappointed but she wouldn't let her father know.
"I'm sorry, I really thought they would come with me. They don't blame you anymore, not really." he informed her as he placed the gifts he had bought with him down on the table with the other presents.
"It doesn't matter," she sighed as she dragged her brush through her hair. "It's a long way to travel anyway."
"Hmph, They should be here with you today."
"So should mum, but things don't always go the way they should." Charlotte went about fixing up her hair, pining it up into a complicated and precise style.
"She would have been so thrilled." David smiled, Charlotte glanced back at him in the mirror and rolled her eyes.
"Your mother was always immensely proud of you, you achieved more than she ever dreamed you would. I know that she would have been prouder of you today than any of the other defining moments of your life." he stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Ha! What about the awards I won? All of my academic achievements, those not impressive enough?" she scoffed.
"Charlotte seeing you truly happy and in love, well it renders all those other things pale in comparison. Its what we really wanted, just for you to be happy."
"Even if my happiness came in an American form?" she joked as she applied her lipstick.
"Hah, I think she would have made an exception this time." they exchanged amused looks.
"Dad? Could you help me with this?" Charlotte asked as she struggled to attach her veil. David obliged, fixed it to her hair neatly and straightened it out.
Charlotte got to her feet and went to check her appearance in the full length mirror.
"This is a good look for me, just a shame its too impractical to wear more often." she smoothed the soft fabric of her long white dress out.
"Are you ready to go?" Her father handed her the bouquet of flowers that had been resting in a box on her bed.
Charlotte had never been the type of girl to dream about weddings, she had always been to busy with other pursuits. If she had taken the time to dream one up she suspected it would be exactly the way it was playing out.
Catherine and Matilda had decided to attend after all, they were sitting with her grandfather and Catherine's husband in the front row to the left. This pleased Charlotte, they were willing to come and support her even after everything that had torn them apart.
Her co-workers would not have flown to L.A to attend so she hadn't bothered inviting them.
Eloise Hawking was sitting with a small group of people, Charlotte assumed they must have been members of Daniel's extended family as she knew he didn't have any siblings, she was also aware that a majority of his friends had abandoned him after the incident with Theresa.
It was a meagre congregation, but she honestly didn't care. The only person who mattered was standing waiting for her at the alter. As the music begun to play, David led her down the aisle and gave her away.
Dan gave her a warm smile as he lifted her veil.
"New tie?" she asked.
"Uh yeah, well its special occasion after all. You look…amazing."
"Thanks, I scrub up alright don't I?"
The ceremony proceeded.
Charlotte and Daniel had chosen Egypt for their honeymoon for a number of reasons. Daniel's reluctance to visit anywhere remotely islandish in nature and Charlotte's love for lost cultures being the two main factors.
They had also decided to travel by boat. Charlotte had insisted upon this as they would get to travel up the Nile. Boats also offered a certain symbolism for them, after all they had first met on a boat.
"Here we are again." Charlotte observed as they watched the American coast line fade into the distance, replaced with nothing but ocean. "No phone call is going to drag me away this time."
"I hope this boat doesn't blow up like the other one." Dan was glancing around nervously.
"That's a cheerful note to start our honeymoon on, Dan." Charlotte leant against the railing, she threw her head back as she laughed.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close.
Charlotte put her arm around his waist. She was ecstatic, even more so than the day they had met on the freighter. Only now she was no longer worried about all the years she had wasted searching for that bloody Island, because in the end she had found something better, something worth sacrificing for.
The end
A/N: thanks again everyone :D, i thought momentarily about going down an angsty path with the end of this story, but i couldn't bring myself to be so cruel. Dan and Charlotte deserve a happy ending, even if its just in a fanfic. XXX
