Reflections
Disclaimer: If I owned Lost, would I be writing fanfic?
Chapter 11
"Claire!"
Charlie uttered a primal cry and blindly followed the sound of the scream.
Kate ran after him, foliage passing in a green blur, wind whistling past her ears. Her heart was pumping with adrenaline, as she tried to find Charlie in the vast dense foliage. She called his name-
"Charlie!"
- And promptly ran into him, knocking them both to the ground.
Kate winced as the ground and several branches met her body, bruising and scratching her skin.
"What's the matter? Why'd you stop? Charlie?"
"Do you hear that?" Charlie murmured, his whole posture admitting defeat.
Kate listened intently to the surroundings, but she could hear nothing. She strained her ears, trying to decipher even the tiniest sign of life. But it was silent. Eerily silent.
There was nothing to suggest Claire had ever screamed.
"I don't hear anything," Kate whispered.
They sat as they were, half in a bush, half sprawled on the muddy terrain for some time, contemplating what had just happened.
Finally, Kate spoke.
"Maybe we were just hearing things," she offered weakly. "The island has done strange things to us. Jack saw his father –"
"No. This isn't the same." Charlie's voice was unusually gruff, and he picked at his bandages on his fingers.
"Are you sure it was Claire?"
"When you first heard the scream, who did you think it was?"
"Claire," Kate admitted dejectedly. "But there's no guarantee that it was. Maybe we should head back to camp and see if she's there."
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Charlie's dejected tone seeped into anger. "You're giving up on her already, aren't you?"
"What? Charlie, no, I'm just-"
"You are! We haven't got a hope in hell of finding her, and you know it! No one bothered to look for her last time, and no one is going to this time!"
"Charlie, we had search parties for her-"
"Look Kate, fair do's to you, you and Jack searched and you found me; but after a few days no one bothered looking for her. And what was worse, they lied about it. And now she's gone, again. They snatched her out from under our noses. They're taunting us, Kate, but this time they're not going to let her get away again. It's my dream! What Liam said, it's true." Charlie's voice cracked, and he curled up in a foetal position, his chest heaving, dry sobs emitting themselves.
She watched him in sympathy, wanting to comfort him but not knowing how to. She laid a hand gently on his shoulder, but he flinched and shook her off.
She took a deep breath.
"Charlie." Kate's tone brooked no argument. "We will get her back. But we have to make sure that she's not safe at the camp before we go half assed into the jungle with no one knowing where we are, or what we're doing."
"But-"
"But no, Charlie, we have to do this. I'm all for running after Claire now, to find her as fast as possible, but do you have the slightest clue where she is? And like you said, Ethan on his own was more than a match for you and Claire. What if there's more than one of them? We need to go back Charlie."
He looked unconvinced.
"Charlie, look at me. Look at me. I promise, we will find Claire." Kate's voice wavered with intensity, forcing Charlie to almost believe her. "We won't forget, and we won't stop. Claire's my friend too. And I don't have many friends. So there's no way in hell I'm losing the ones I've got."
She looked hard at Charlie, searching in his eyes for some kind of hope. He breathed out deeply before looking up at Kate, who had stood up in front of him for her impassioned speech. He held a hand and she grabbed it, pulling him up from the dusty floor.
"Promise?" His voice was scratchy and low, but Kate caught it.
"Promise."
"Claire!"
"Claire, have you seen her?"
"The pregnant girl, you seen her around lately?"
Charlie's frantic questions yielded no results, save that some had seen her with Sawyer way up the beach a couple of hours ago. So he made his way over to the Southerner, who was seemingly engrossed in a girls magazine.
When Charlie's shadow loomed over the magazine he shut it so quickly his hands fumbled and he ended up knocking the magazine onto the floor.
"God, limey, you scared the hell outta me."
"Why you reading a girl's-"
"Look," Sawyer interjected quickly, picking the pages up. "Don't you think that this chick looks like Kate?"
"Uh…yeah…sure…Look Sawyer, me and Kate were in the jungle, and we heard Claire scream. And word is, you were the last to see her. Where'd she go?"
"Damnit, I told her not to go off on her own. Women!" Sawyer's speech had all the ingredients of his usual cocky self but the shakiness in his voice underlined his concern.
"What?"
"Look, long story, short of it is I think the Others are behind this. Had a…um…let's call it a dream…"
"You too? You knew Claire was in danger and you said nothing?"
Charlie angrily shoved Sawyer but he was no match for Sawyer's muscles. Sawyer grabbed him firmly and shoved him down.
"It was about Kate, not Claire. I was just warning your girlfriend this mornin', tryin' to do some good, but I might as well not have bothered for all the good it's doin'!" Sawyer's accent became more pronounced the more frustrated he got and he slammed his fist into his tent.
"So that's why you and Kate…"Charlie trailed off as the realisation of Sawyer's actions sunk in. "She thinks you're a heartless bastard you know."
"I was just tryin' to protect her!"
Charlie smiled, a sad smile. "She doesn't know that. You're a better person than I thought you were."
"What? No, I'm not a good person. Don't make me prove it to you. Now come on, let's get a search party together and go find your girlfriend."
"Jack, now is not the time for your judgmental attitude," said Kate, her voice wavering with intensity.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Sawyer sleeps with you then throws you away like garbage, just like I said, and I don't have time for an "I told you so"? Kate, I don't wanna be petty but you can't just come running back to me and pretend nothing happened. We're not going to happen Kate."
Kate was vaguely aware that her mouth was hanging open in what was probably a most unseemly fashion but the most she could manage was a "Wah..huh?"
Jack stared at Kate, his eyes rimmed slightly with red after a stressful night. She looked back at him, collecting her thoughts. She took a deep breath, willing herself to stay cool.
"Claire is missing Jack. Me and Charlie heard her scream. No one has seen her for hours. Now she doesn't have the time allow us to continue this conversation, so we are going to spread news, think of a plan, and look for her. Ok?" Kate's voice was measured, forcibly calm, but her eyes sparkled with determination. "Now I don't want to work with Sawyer, and I don't want to work with you. But Claire needs her help so we better put aside these "petty" differences and find her."
Jack wiped his hand across his chin, taking in the information. Finally, he nodded.
"Alright. I'll find Sayid."
"I'll tell Locke."
"Meeting on the beach in ten."
"Fine."
With that they both turned away from each other and walked in opposite directions. Sawyer and Charlie were heading towards Kate, who abruptly changed direction without skipping a beat. Charlie looked next to him and saw Sawyer looking longingly after her.
At first Sawyer thought that it was her touch he missed the most. Sometimes it was their unique banter. Sometimes it was her freckles. But most of all, he missed her just being there.
Absence definitely made the heart grow fonder.
A/N: This is officially my longest ever story now, w00t!