/I don't anything you recognize in this story. /

Chapter Seven

Charlie was mad, really mad. Actually, he was more upset than angry at the moment, but he knew he was feeling angry at the moment as well as being upset. It was about Kate and Charlie knew he should've seen it coming, but he didn't. Yesterday, several days after the incident of chasing after Walt's dog, Charlie got the courage to ask Kate if she would go out with him. Charlie felt a pang inside his chest as he remembered those painful few moments...

"I'm sorry, Charlie, but I can't be a part of a relationship right now," Kate said.

"But why not? It's not like we're going to be rescued any time soon and this will be like our way of living for a long time," Charlie persisted, not wanting to believe what Kate had just told him.

"No, I can't, Charlie. I'm really sorry about all of this, but I can't go out with you," Kate said again.

"But why, Kate? I thought we had something going on here. I thought we were friends and I just thought that we could get something out of this," Charlie exclaimed.

"Well, I'm already in a bind, Charlie. I'm already in love with somebody else and unless I get my heart back from him, I can't see myself being with somebody else. It's just that simple," Kate said.

"But Kate—" Charlie began.

"Don't 'But Kate' me, Charlie," Kate stated. "I don't want to go out with you and I don't want to hear anything more about it. I just don't have time for it."

Charlie felt his heart sinking as he watched Kate walk away from him, wishing he had never acted so stupid just now...

"Charlie?"

Charlie looked up from his reverie and saw Jack coming towards him.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked.

"I'm doing fine. What do you need?" Charlie asked.

"I just need somebody to go and sit with Claire to keep her company. She would probably love you to talk with her," Jack said.

"I don't really feel like talking to her at the moment," Charlie said.

"Can't you please, Charlie? I'm depending on you and nobody else can do this," Jack insisted.

Charlie sighed. "Fine, I'll do it just this once, but after this I'm not going to be doing anymore favors of the sort."

"Thanks," Jack said distractedly as he turned and headed off towards another direction.

Charlie looked after him and shook his head. Jack had been acting weird lately, and the guy seemed like he hadn't had any sleep for several days. But what Jack did with his life, Charlie didn't care because that was Jack's life and not his.

Charlie walked quietly towards the tree that Claire was lying under. As he came closer, he saw that she was lying on her back, asleep. Charlie decided that this was stupid and that he shouldn't bug Claire while she was sleeping, but he had made his promise.

As he came closer, Claire woke up slightly.

"Hey, Claire, love," Charlie said softly as he came closer.

"Charlie? How long has it been?" Claire asked.

"Several hours. We would've gotten you some water if somebody hadn't stolen it," Charlie said, grabbing a stick and breaking it in half...

Several hours later, Charlie was walking down the beach, looking for Jack since nobody had seen him all day. While he was searching, Charlie thought about Claire. The girl was beautiful, she was going to have a baby and it didn't look like the father was going to be around much for the little one.

Charlie mentally slapped himself. Why was he thinking about somebody else immediately after being put down by somebody else? He had no life and Charlie hated himself for it.

Suddenly he had an idea. Maybe he could talk with Sayid. He always told the cold faced truth about stuff and was always trying to help out. And it seemed that the man was becoming softer hearted about stuff, yet Charlie didn't know why.

Charlie turned and jogged lightly up the beach towards the camp. As he came closer, he saw that Sayid was working on the transmission device again. Charlie didn't know how the man did it, because Charlie could barely understand his math when he studied it in school.

"Charlie," Sayid said when Charlie came towards him and sat down.

"Sayid. How are ya doin'? You always seem to be working on that transmitter thing," Charlie said.

"Well, I think it would help if we had this transmitter working, wouldn't you say? I personally want to get off this island. What do you think?" Sayid asked, completely missing Charlie's question of courtesy.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind getting off this place, either. It gives me the serious creeps and it's a wonder nobody's figured this place out before," Charlie commented.

"They probably were, but they kind of died, wouldn't you say?" Sayid stated.

Charlie nodded. "Good point."

The two of them fell silent, Charlie staring absentmindedly at Sayid working on the transmitter. It was crazy that there were a million little wires and contraptions that made up one device to make the whole thing work.

"So what brings you up here to talk to me, Charlie?" Sayid asked, breaking the silence.

"Not a whole lot. I WAS looking for Jack, seeing where he went off to, but that hasn't turned out too well. And I was thinking about something else," Charlie said truthfully.

"What else were you thinking about?" Sayid asked.

"Well, Kate kind of put me off when I asked if she wanted to get into a relationship with me," Charlie said.

"Who wouldn't on this island?"

"Well, that's true, but I was really starting to like her and she just put me down. Then when Jack asked me to keep Claire company while he went off into the oblivion, I was starting to fall for her and I don't know what to do now," Charlie stated.

"Well, I would say go for it, Charlie. If I didn't with the girl I loved, I wouldn't have had the joy and love that I felt for her and it wouldn't have kept me going here on this island if it weren't for her," Sayid said.

"Who's the girl?" Charlie asked.

"You wouldn't know her, but here," Sayid pulled out an envelope and tossed it gently towards Charlie.

Charlie grabbed the envelope and opened the lid, pulling out the pictures that were in the envelope and started looking at them.

"Wow. She's beautiful," Charlie exclaimed, putting the pictures back into the envelope and handing it back to Sayid.

"Don't I know it. I miss her every day of my life while I'm here," Sayid said.

"I hope you get to see her again," Charlie said.

"Me too," Sayid said, "me too."

"Well, I better get going. I'm not doing any good just sitting here," Charlie stated, standing up.

Sayid nodded. "And don't forget to take that chance with Claire. You never know if you don't go after her."

Charlie nodded and smiled. "Thanks for the advice."

Sayid nodded and quickly returned to his transmission work. Charlie turned and started walking away along the beach, hoping to find Jack and his hopes raised for Claire. He hoped that she would take him for who he was.

A/n: Sorry for not updating. Went trick or treating last night and had a blast. For all of you all who went trick or treating last night, I hope you all had fun, too. And happy Halloween, today's the true Halloween. For anyone who wants to know, I was Samara from 'The Ring' and it was a blast. By the way, has anyone seen Thirteen Ghosts? That's a freaky movie.

Anyways, thanks for all who have reviewed the past week or so and I hope you continue reading. I somewhat know what happened last episode, but I'm still in the dark; so if anyone watched it, educate me, please. And once again I'll have to miss next episode, part of it, which sucks. I'll quit talking now, happy reading to you all.