AN: Wow guys, yet another set of amazing reviews! All of you who review are wonderful, and you all deserve a special mention. So thanks to: GGRox07, Nyx, LittleMissBones, , TrueGirl, anonymous, Ewyn, Shirebourn and BollyKnickers. I love you all. Also, in the last chapter I said it would be going more AU – I've always used AU to mean that a fic goes against canon, although (as far as I've always been told) it actually stands for Alternate Universe. Hope that clears it up! I'm happy to say that I now have most of this fic planned out in my head, so I'll try to update as often as possible – I'm out most of tomorrow so the next update will probably be on Tuesday, and after that I can hopefully keep up updating every other day. I'd just like to make another plea to those who have this story on alert but don't review – even just a few words in a review are amazing, so please take a second to leave a review. Thanks everyone, and enjoy this chapter!


One morning, when Charlotte arrived at the garage, she found Juliet looking forlornly into her coffee.

"What's wrong, Juliet?" She asked, getting her own coffee and sitting down next to her. Juliet looked up at her, smiling sadly.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Sure it is." Charlotte replied sarcastically. "Come on, Juliet. Did something happen last night?" The night before, Horace had invited all six of them over for dinner, along with Amy, to celebrate the one year they'd spent with the Dharma Initiative. Charlotte and Daniel had left early, bored of Miles' constant anecdotes, which made less and less sense as he drank more and more as the night wore on.

"After we left," Juliet said quietly, running a hand wearily over her face, "James and I, we…slept together."

"Wow." Charlotte said after a second. "I didn't expect that." Juliet laughed a little.

"I didn't either, to be honest. But it happened." Charlotte sipped her coffee, wondering how to approach it with Juliet.

"How much did the two of you drink?" She asked tentatively.

"That's the thing, neither of us had enough to blame it on that."

"So…what happened, then?"

"We were just talking, and James mentioned the whole thing about how we have to pretend we're married, then the next thing I knew we were kissing, and then…" She trailed off.

"Has he said anything to you?" Charlotte asked, and Juliet shook her head.

"I left while he was still asleep." She admitted.

"Why?"

"Because—" Juliet started before trailing off. "Because I didn't really want to talk to him about it."

"Well, what do you—"

"Hey! Can one of you two help Rob out with the van over there!" Someone called over to them. Juliet took pity on Charlotte, putting her coffee down and standing up.

"I'll be right over." She replied. Charlotte grabbed her arm.

"Don't think this conversation's finished." She said, only half joking. Juliet laughed anyway, nodding.

"I'll come back as soon as I'm done with the van." She promised.

Once Juliet had left, Charlotte sat back, relieved no one had asked her to do anything. She'd spent nearly a year working in the garage, and had not once managed to successfully fix a single thing.

"Taking a break?" Someone behind her asked, and she jumped, thinking she'd been caught in her attempt to keep away from any of the vans. When she turned around, she realized it was only Horace, grinning at her. "Calm down, Charlotte, I'm only teasing you. Mind if I sit?" He asked, gesturing to the empty chair Juliet had left.

"Go ahead." She replied.

"I meant to talk to you last night, but I couldn't catch you before you left." He told her, and she frowned, wondering what he wanted to talk to her about.

"What's wrong?" She asked, and he chuckled.

"Stop worrying! I'm not here to shout at you or anything." He said. "No, actually I'm here because I've been hearing from a few people that you're not exactly enjoying working here in the garage. Is that right?" Charlotte gave him an awkward smile.

"I'm not going to pretend that fixing vans is exactly my calling in life." She replied, and Horace laughed again.

"That's what I thought. Anyway, as you may have heard, the Harrisons left this morning on the sub, which has left us with a free position in Administration, so I was wondering if that would appeal to you any more than working here. I'm not going to lie to you – there isn't much going on most of the time, the only time there's a lot to do is when we have people coming on the sub – like now." Horace rested his chin on his hands. "So what do you think? You up for it?" Charlotte grinned, thankful she'd be getting out of the garage.

"Definitely."

- - -

By lunchtime, Charlotte still hadn't caught up with Juliet. She managed to find her replacing a flat tire on Jin's van, and went over.

"Hey, Jin, mind if I talk to Juliet for awhile?" She asked pointedly, and Jin seemed to get the message, leaving them alone.

"You want to tell me how you feel about last night, then?" She asked, and Juliet sighed, standing up and leaning against the van.

"I don't know." She said finally.

"Well, let's make it simple. Do you like him as a friend, or as more?" Juliet was silent for a minute before replying.

"More."

- - -

Two days later, Charlotte found herself much busier helping Amy sort out the new recruits that were coming in by sub in less than an hour. She definitely had to do more working here than in the garage, but she was definitely enjoying working here more. When it came to the new people arriving, she had to help sort them all out and get them their overalls. One of the last people she spoke to was a young man with dark hair, around her own age, she would guess.

"Sorry, what's you name?" She asked apologetically, shuffling through the stack of forms in front of her. "I've got completely lost in my papers, I'm afraid." The man smiled kindly.

"Michael Staples." He told her. "Mike." Charlotte's breath caught in her throat, looking at him for a moment.

"Right, right." She said quietly, finally finding his form. "And are you here alone?" She asked carefully.

"No, my wife is with me. Jeanette, she's over there." Charlotte closed her eyes briefly; her suspicion confirmed that the man in front of her was her father. "Are you alright?" He asked, and she opened her eyes quickly, giving him a small smile.

"Yes, sorry." She mumbled, filling out the rest of his form and handing him his overalls.

"Thanks." He said, getting up to join his wife. Charlotte watched them for a moment, taking a few shaky breaths before leaving everything on her desk and leaving.

- - -

When she got in the front door, Charlotte put her hands over her face, unable to comprehend that she'd just met the man who she hadn't seen since she was four years old.

"Charlotte?" Daniel called from the lounge, coming out into the hall. "Oh, hey, what's wrong?" He asked, coming over and putting a hand on her arm.

"I – I just met my Dad." She said, a few tears slipping down her cheeks. Daniel's eyes widened, and he was silent for a second before he pulled her in close, wrapping his arms around her as she let her head rest against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Char." He whispered, and that seemed to snap her resolve. She began to cry properly for the first time in a long time, sobs wracking her shoulders as Daniel held her tightly.


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