Into The Strait of Insanity
Discliamer - Ch 1.
Notes - So, here we go. The next chapter. I think my plans might have changed. I think this'll be longer than 5 chapters. Oh, well. Lol

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Into The Strait of Insanity - Ch 3
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I can't believe it. We're actually getting out of this God forsaken hell hole. We've been found. Actually, this is a bit back. We've been on this cruise ship for a good week or so. I can't believe that we were found. It had seemed utterly impossible. And suddenly, out of nowhere at all, we were found. There it was. This huge white cruise ship. I'm going to talk to the people about changing the color of this thing. It's damn bright, you know?

Over the time we were there on the island, I've stopped. Completely. Locke helped, mind you, by taking the drugs away, but I still quit. I'm not going back to it. And if I do...I'll never be able to forgive myself. That'll be the second time I've gone back on a huge promise to anyone in my life. And I don't want to do that. Not again. Not after I did all that for her.

I have to make a call. I've got to call her, talk to her. I can't do this any more. It's not right. She'll never forgive me, though. I know she won't. I wouldn't forgive me if I were her. And if she does....she's a helluva lot better person than I am. I'd never forgive anyone for going back on such a big promise like that. Never. Not in a million years. Had she done that to me...As far as I would be concerned, I'd be an only child. Never have had a sister. Thank the Lord that didn't happen.

I'm surprised I can remember her number. I've dialed it at least a hundred times in the last three days alone. She's not home. Or just not picking up. She can't know it's me, though, right? I mean...it's a phone on a cruise ship, for Christ's sake! Maybe that's why. Maybe she thinks it's a wrong number. But if it was a wrong number, wouldn't they eventually figure it out? Get the number they were really working on dialing? If it was a wrong number, the person calling her wouldn't keep hitting redial every six minutes.

"Hello?" A female voice came to my ear.

I jumped, shocked at the voice, but didn't say anything. Just to hear her voice again was so wonderful. I hadn't talked to her in so long.

"Hello?" She repeated, confused this time.

"S-Sorry...um...Kristina?"

"Yeah...this is...Kristina...Who is this?"

"Has it really been that long, Kris?" I sighed silently, "You don't even recognize my voice..."

"What? Are you sure you have the right Kristina?"

"Yeah. I'm your brother."

The line was quiet. I could barely even hear her breathing. For a moment, I wondered if she'd hung up.

"No you aren't." She said in a low, harsh tone.

"Yes I am!"

"No! You can't be!"

"Why's that?"

"My brother's been dead for a year!" She shouted into the phone.

No. No. She can't think that! Of all the things, of all the people. She can't think that! "No! No, Kristina....no! I'm not dead!"

"Shut up..."

"But--"

"Shut up." It was harsher this time.

"Kris, if you'll just let me explain a bit, I can--"

"SHUT UP!" She screeched. "He...he's not here. He's gone. He's dead." She sounded like she was holding tears back. And if she really believed what she was saying, she probably was.

"No, no...I'm not dead, I'm here, Kris, right here. Right now. On the phone. It's me!"

"Prove it."

I knew she'd ask that. But how would I do that? "Your name is Kristina Anne Rhodes, unless you got married, of course, but I wouldn't know about that, would I, Krissie? No. I wouldn't have been invited to that. Especially if it was within the last year, as I've been stranded on an island with nothing at all!"

"I don't believe you. You aren't my brother. I don't care what you say."

"What do you want me to say to prove it to you, then?"

"Tell me something. Something that no one else would know. Something that only me and Charlie would know." Kristina said quietly, knowing she will have stumped the crazy guy on the phone there.

"The summer....of my Freshmen year in high school, you found out about my addiction. You had tried, since then, up until we stopped speaking over the past four years to make me stop. I never listened. Except that once. When I was laying there in that hospital bed and made that promise to you. That promise to go to rehab. To stop doing the drugs. To not go back to them. But that didn't matter. I broke that promise. That's why we haven't talked in four years, Krissie. That's why."

"No. I don't accept that."

"All right, fine." I have to get a sharper point. My tone has become sharper and slightly higher pitched in my desperation for her to believe me, "The first boy you ever kissed was Jason Pierce. Well, you thought it was Jason, but it was his twin brother Drew, but still, it was all the same, right? And..in...in eighth grade, you smoked. A whole pack of cigarettes. Bet mum and dad still don't know about that, eh? And what about your twenty-first birthday, Kris? Do they know about that? About the drunkenness. The strip club. You...dancing and stripping at that club?"

"Oh, my, God! Charlie!"

"Honestly! Took me enough shit to dish out for you to know it!"

"I'm sorry, I just....I didn't know..."

"It's fine, it's fine, don't worry about." For the first time in a really long time, I smiled. "Kris, I..."

"Charlie...."

"Yeah?"

"Did you stop?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because....we said that we wouldn't talk to each other until you stopped. For good. So....unless you're calling for something else that's so extremely important, you stopped, right?" I could hear the small smile in her voice.

"Yeah. I stopped. Honestly! I can get any of the people I was on the island with...they'll tell you. ....Some of them would probably tell you the what I did during the withdrawals, too, but...that's not the point."

"I am...so proud of you, Charlie. You actually quit...Oh...I can't believe this. This is so great! After all these years of me trying to convince you...." She paused, "Now...wait a minute. What's all this talk about being on an island and trapped there for a year? Charlie..." She started to sound doubtful now, "Are you sure you've come off?"

"Yes, I'm sure. And..." I sigh. Great. Now look at all the bloody explaining I've got to do. Dammit. I hate explaining things. "You remember...I was...I was in Australia...gonna come home so we could get the band back together...and I never showed up?"

"Yeah, I was....actually gonna be at the airport. I always wondered if you'd just never taken the flight."

"No...I took the flight, but...we got off course and...crashed on an island and no one knew where we were because no one knew we'd ever got off course. I don't know how we all survived an entire year there....but we did."

"So...you aren't there any more, then?"

"No....we got picked up by a cruise ship. I think we were just lucky."

"Wow. That's insane. Charlie...."

"It's the truth! Honest!"

"But, Charlie, think about that. Think about how farfetched that sounds..."

I've got to find someone to tell her it's true. And just my luck that the easily most hated person from the island would walk by. "Sawyer!"

"What?" He snapped, that Southern accent still managing to creep into the one word.

"I need you to confirm something to my sister."

"Why?" He sounded positively uninterested.

"Because she doesn't believe we were trapped on that bloody island for a year!"

"She damn well better believe it," Sawyer entered the room I'm in. "Give me that phone." He grabbed it from me. "Listen, sweetheart," He started.

"Uh...who's this."

"Name's Sawyer. And I'm here to tell ya that your brother here's not delusional or on anything when he's tellin' ya that forty-eight of us were trapped on that damn island. You believe him, missy, or if I ever meetcha...I'm kickin' your ass."

I took the phone from him and whacked him in the head. "You're not touching my sister!" I shouted out after him as he left.

"Maybe...maybe not. Depends on what you mean." Sawyer winked and went on to go wherever it was he had been originally planning to go.

I sighed and fell back to the bed, "Sorry about that. I think Sawyer's the only one of all of us that didn't come to like anyone on the island at all." I said, apologizing for Sawyer since he would never do it himself, not to mention the fact that he'd already left the room.

"So....were there any women there?"

"Yeah, several, actually." I paused and frowned. That tone in her voice... "Why?"

Kristina ignored the question, "You fancy any of them?" Her voice was teasing, but still serious enough.

"Well, I--"

"What's her name?" I could just hear the huge grin spreading across her face.

"Claire." I said, knowing she'd never slack off if I didn't just tell her.

"And you never did a thing about it in that year you were trapped, did you?"

"No, but we were all a bit more worried about staying alive, Kris. Somehow, that seemed more important to us all." I said sarcastically. Honestly. She was a true romantic. It could be quite amusing at times. And others, it was utterly annoying.

"You can't tell me that in an entire year there was no romance at all between any of the--how many people were there?"

"Forty--forty-eight. There was originally forty-eight of us."

"No romance between so many people? That's not very realistic, Charlie."

"Well...we did leave the island with a few couples. There's...Kate and Jack and I think...Sawyer and Shannon, but I'm not completely sure about those two. They confuse me. And there were others, but....why does that even matter, Krissie?"

"Well, it's just...ever since Drive Shaft split up, you just sort of...drifted, you know? When was your last steady date, eh, Charlie?"

"Drive Shaft's making a comeback, thanks. And...that's none of your business, now, is it?"

It was obvious from her tone of voice that Kristina was smiling. "I asked you nicely, don't you think I deserve an answer?"

"Couple years, I guess," I muttered before quickly rushing, "Why does it even matter, Kris?"

"Charlie, you've got to make a movie here, if you really like her. You'll be home soon and if you don't do something now, you may never see her again. You can't just let opportunity slip through your fingers, Charlie."

I laughed lightly. That was Kristina. Ever the romantic. "You're such a hopeless romantic, Kristina."

"And damn proud of it," Kristina immediately went back to, "So, are you going to do anything, Charlie?"

I shook my head, even though she couldn't see that. "I-I...I don't think so."

"Aww, why not?" She actually managed to sound a little disappointed, but she made sure to allow the teasing tone to be evident as well.

I don't remember ever actually sitting up straight and turning to face the wall nearest me, but evidently at some point, I had. I sighed into the phone. "Kriiiis...." I complained.

"Come on, Charlie! This is a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity! You know what opportunity doesn't do, don't make me tell you again."

"Oh, jeez, not the opportunity thing. That thing goes on for hours!"

"Not hours," She sounded offended, "Just a good ten minutes or so." She laughed lightly. "Now, straying back to the subject..." She trailed off. "Why not?"

I sighed again, but actually decided to talk to her, since Kristina was being so persistent on this, and really probably wouldn't give up for a while. "It's just...I don't think a girl like Claire....would like someone like me. It just doesn't...I don't know, fit, I guess, is the word? I just don't think she'd like me, all right?"

"Is that what you think?" A clearly Australian accent came from behind me.

My eyes widened. No, no, no. Don't let her have heard that. She couldn't have. Oh, but she did. She wouldn't say what she was saying if she hadn't. ....Wait..... What the hell did that mean? Maybe I should find out...

I muttered something to Kristina about calling her back later before I turned around to face the doorway again. I smiled a little, a sheepish sort of smile. No one was supposed to have heard that except Kristina. Dammit. "Hey..."

"Not gonna answer my question?" She asked, tilting her head to the side slightly, her hair falling in her face.

I watched her as she slowly walked into the room and stood in front of me for a moment before sitting down on the bed next to me.

"Oh, right, um...yeah...that's...that's kind of what I think." I decided to at least try to change the subject. "Where's Hope?"

"Kate's watching her right now." She said softly."About your opinion there..."

I was chewing on my lower lip. It's a nasty nervous habit I've really got to look into getting rid of. "Yeah?"

"I think you're wrong." Claire said, smiling. "And you'd better not chew your lip so much. Ya might just chew it off one day, Chahlie." She grinned.

I smiled back, "Yeah...that wouldn't be good, would it?"

"No...cause then I couldn't do this." She closed the space between us, placing her lips on mine.

Somehow, this seemed backwards to me. Isn't it the guy that's supposed to make the move? Oh, well. Someone had to do it, didn't they? So here we are. God, this feels great. And...no. Now it's ending. Oh, no. I hate these stupid awkward silences. They're so...awkward. I sighed and broke it. I can't stand a weird silence like that. "I hate uncomfortable silences."

"Yeah...they're a real bitch, aren't they?"

I laughed lightly.

She looked up at me, "What?" Her blue eyes held a slight curiosity.

"Just...not something I'd expect you to say, is all."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't try to predict things from someone you've only known for a year."

"Yeah...I'll take note of that."

"Who was that you were talking to before?"

"Uh, my sister, Kristina." Something suddenly struck me. How I didn't realize this before, I'm not quite sure, but I did now. "...Actually...we're going to New York, right?"

Claire nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"Well, Krissie lives there. Maybe we could stay with her."

"We as in...you and me? Or...as in the whole island?"

"Well...you and me, because, I don't know because I haven't seen in four years, but I really doubt that she's got room enough for forty-eight people. Fifty maybe? Fifty-one? I don't know, she never did tell me if she was married or not. I know I've got a niece, but...she was only just born when we'd....started not talking."

"It's all right, Chahlie, that's all over now." Claire smiled a little.

"Yeah...it is." I smiled, too. "It really is."

"All right. So, um, we'll stay with your sister, then?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm sure it'll be all right with her, I'll just have to call her back..."

"From what I can understand, we'll be there in a day, so...she can just sort of expect us then-ish?" Claire smiled.

I laughed a little, "Yeah, all right, then. I'll go ahead and call her, tell her...so she can expect us."

"Ok. I'm gonna go get my baby girl back." She said, getting up and walking towards the door. Before she left, she turned back to him, "Don't ever become a mother. It's very addictive." She grinned and waved her fingers at him.

"I'll keep that in mind," I laughed and fell back on the bed, grabbing the phone and hitting redial.

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Notes - Aww...that was cute, eh? I hope it was. I hope it didn't end up being all cheap and cheesy. Except I like cheese, so, I probably wouldn't notice. LOL!

Oh, and if you want to know about the "opportunity thing" that Charlie & Kristina were talking about, let me know. It's from a different fic I wrote, but it's so funny. I'll probably put it up before the next chapter starts, so....if you are looking at this now, look at that starting A/N. It'll be funny.

Drop me a line!

Later days,
-PFB-