Okay, so I'm hoping to end this one within a few chapters. I hope you guys enjoy this one and remember to read and review.

Chapter Ten: Dead Is A Relative Term

Once they were a safe distance from the warehouse, Jack grabbed Charlie's arm so hard that he nearly fell backwards.

"What the hell Charlie!" Jack screamed at him.

"I have a plan, of sorts," Charlie said simply.

"A plan----of sorts? What the hell does that mean?" Jack asked him, clearly pissed off at the Brit.

"Look, we can't really kill her, that wouldn't be right. It'll be easy, I promise. Look he doesn't want the body, so all we have to do is find Des and Penny. Once we do, we'll just explain to them what's going on, get Penny to act all dead. Snap a few pictures, give them to Ben. He'll give us the information, then we can use Penny's boat to get us back to the island," Charlie explained to them.

"Oh, uh...wow, that's actually a good plan," Jack said, as he let his hand run over his head.

"Yeah, I kind of thought so too," he smiled at Jack.

"Then lets go," Jack said, but Sayid grabbed his arm and shook his head.

"I've had to listen to Ben conplain about not being able to find those two for months now. It's not going to be easy to find them," he pointed out.

"Des gave me his number once, let me see if it still works," Jack said simply. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number, and it rang three times before it was answered.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end was a scottish one.

"Desmond?" Jack questioned.

"Jack?" Desmond asked back.

"Desmond, we need your help, where are you?" Jack asked, and shook his head as Desmond rattled off the information.

The rest of them stared at Jack, waiting for them to tell them where they were headed.

"We need to book a flight," Jack said simply.

The next day

They had been lucky enough to find a flight that left the day before, and were just now landing in Tahiti. As they got off the plane, and headed out of the airport, they felt a tiny sense of dread, like maybe their plan wouldn't work, that something bad would happen. Jack was the first one to see Desmond waiting on them.

"I didn't know you were...." his sentence trailed off when he saw Charlie standing with him.

"Hey Des," Charlie said, a smile on his face.

"That can't be. Your dead...you died. I watched you die..." his words trembled out.

"It's a long story Des..." was all Charlie could say, as Desmond hugged him tightly.

For the longest time he had dealt with the fact that he had watched his friend die. He had watched Charlie drown, and he still had nightmares from it, but now Charlie was standing in front of him, alive and well.

"Well, let's go then," Desmond said, as everyone tried to pile into the small car Desmond had brought with him. "Oh, and Charlie this is Penny...Penny this is Charlie."

Penny looked at Desmond, a look of shock on her face. She had sat up with Desmond on numerous nights when he'd have a dream about Charlie's drowning. How in the world could he be alive?

"Hello," she said kindly, looking back into the backseat.

"Hello," he said back, just as kindly.

He felt bad about what he was about to ask the both of them to do, but he needed them to do it. He needed to save Claire.

Before long, they pulled up outside of small home.

"I know it's not the best looking house, but when your hiding from a psychopath, you get what you can," Desmond said simply.

They all climbed out of the car, and walked toward and then into the house. Once the door was closed, Charlie sighed heavily before blurting out their mission.

"We need your help...both of your help," Charlie said.

Desmond spun around, and looked Charlie directly in the eye.

"What do you need brotha?" Desmond asked, he was willing to do just about anything for his no longer dead friend.

"We have to get back to the island Des. Claire is stuck there, and she cannot leave because of her psycicatic father....who is apparently dead," Charlie paused shaking his head.

"We don't know how to get back there. Even if we could, why would I want to go back there?" Desmond asked.

"You don't have to Des, I promise. We've been sent here by Ben...he wants Penny dead."

"What!" Desmond screamed at him.

"We're not going to hurt her..." Charlie paused and looked at Penny. "We're not going to hurt you, I promise. I couldn't do that to you Desmond. We just have to make it seem like she's dead. That's the only way he'll help us get back....We also need to use your boat," he said, turning back toward Penny.

"So how is this going to work?" Desmond asked.

Charlie slowly explained his plan, and all agreed that it was a great plan, and would help get Ben off of Desmond and Penny's back.

"Okay, so we're understood then?" Charlie asked.

Desmond and Penny both shook their heads. "We'll help you."

The Next Day

The plan had already been set into motion. Sayid had called Ben, and told them that they had located Desmond and Penny, and that they were going to make their move tonight. That they would be back by late the next day with his proof that she was dead. What Ben didn't know, was that while they were flying back with his proof, that Desmond and Penny would be getting their boat ready to set sail.

"Okay, so here's what's gonna happen," Charlie started. "You need to lay on the floor, I'm gonna put this gooey red stuff under your head, it'll make it more believable. Then just don't move, we'll take some pictures, then we'll take something that Ben will definitely know belonged to you, and he'll believe that we killed you."

Penny shook her head, as Desmond helped her onto the ground. She laid her head back against the red gooey substance that did appear to look a lot like blood. She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, as Charlie snapped a decent amount of pictures. Desmond slowly helped her up, and she handed him a locket that her father had given her when she was a young girl. It had her intials carved on the front of it, and a picture of her and a picture of Desmond in there.

"Don't worry, you'll get the locket back," Charlie promised.

With that, they went their separate ways, as the gang traveled back to the airport, as their plan had been fully kicked into motion. Hopefully, at most, by this time next week they'd be back on the island, and he'd be able to save Claire. If only Ben knew what kind of trouble was really coming his way.

Special Thanks to:

AlexaGeorge

Also, I've never really been a Ben fan. Never really liked him, and I think that he's partially to blame for Charlie's death, which makes me like him even less. Plus, after some spoilers for season five that I've read, I really don't like him now. So yeah, trust me when I say that things are not going to end well for Ben.