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

Chapter Ten

Claire held her newborn in her arms as she rocked him gently. She couldn't believe that it was a baby boy and Claire's mind was racing through names for him. Why did naming babies have to be so hard?

Something moved in the bushes and Claire looked up expectantly. She hoped it wasn't anybody other than Jack or Charlie who wouldn't hurt the baby and sighed with relief when Charlie appeared out of the brush.

Charlie smiled as he approached Claire and his eyes widened in delight when he saw the baby. He looked into Claire's eyes and the woman smiled gently.

"It's ok, you can come over," Claire said as Charlie approached tentatively and sat down next to Claire.

"How are you feeling?" Charlie asked.

"Tired. But I guess that's with the best of them, wouldn't you say. Isn't he beautiful?" Claire gushed.

"He's stunning. He'll be as handsome as his mother's beautiful when he gets older," Charlie complimented.

Claire blushed and a small giggle escaped her mouth. Charlie couldn't help but smile at her, everything about her was beautiful and Charlie wished he could just drink it all in.

"He will be, I'm sure. But I don't know what to name him," Claire stated.

"You can't think of a name for him? Well, we'll have to fix that up, won't we?" Charlie said.

Claire smiled and glanced down at her baby. "Yeah, I suppose so. But there are just so many names, and I don't know what to call him. I would name him after you, but that would get a little confusing, wouldn't you think if we never got off this island and he grew up here?"

Charlie grinned foolishly. "I guess so, but we're going to get rescued. I know we are. But if you don't want to name him after me that's fine with me, I feel honored though, that you would want to name your kid after me. Maybe you could have his middle name be Charles, you know?"

"You know that's a very good idea. I like that concept. But we still need a first name. It's not going to work with just a middle name," Claire said.

"Hmmm…how about Andreas? I've always loved that name, Andreas. I almost changed my name to that once," Charlie commented.

"Andreas Charles…that kind of flows," Claire said thoughtfully. "I actually kind of like it, what do you think?"

"I love it, Claire," Charlie said, smiling.

Claire gave an affirmative nod. "Well, that will be his name, then. Andreas Charles…"

Just then, Charlie noticed that somebody was missing. "Where's Jack?"

"He went down to the beach, to gather more supplies. He said I would be alright here," Claire said.

"Hey, dude," Hurley's voice called as he approached the two of them. "I've been looking for you. Jack needs you to go down to the beach to help him bring back supplies."

"But—why couldn't you have done it, or somebody else?" Charlie asked. "I mean, after all, he left Claire here alone, he can't expect me to just up and leave her here alone with Andreas."

Hurley gave a double take and his eyes fell down on Claire holding the baby in her arms. His eyes widened in surprise and his gaze went back to Charlie. Charlie just shrugged and continued his steady gaze.

"Man, another mouth to feed. This is some crazy stuff, dude. But, congratulations, Claire, I'm really happy for you. So it's a boy? Andreas is a great name for him, truly," Hurley glanced back at Charlie. "Don't worry, dude, I'll stay here with her and I can promise you that no harm will come to her."

"Are you sure? Because if I hear that something happened to Claire, I know where to point fingers to and no doubt about it," Charlie warned.

Hurley opened his arms in defense. "Have I ever looked like a guy who would hurt somebody in all the time you've known me on this island?"

"No…no, of course not, Hurley. It's just this island getting to me. Sorry, bud," Charlie apologized.

"Hey, don't worry about it, dude. Well, you better get going or Jack'll wonder where the heck you disappeared off to," Hurley said.

Charlie nodded and turned and waved at Claire. She waved back and as Charlie walked towards the beach, he had a bad feeling about leaving. It wasn't about Hurley or anything. It was just this odd, strange feeling that he wasn't going to see Claire in a long, long time.

As he walked through the forest, Charlie's senses became sharper and Charlie flinched at every sound. What was his problem, he never felt like this before when he went walking around the forest by himself here.

A bird called through the treetops and Charlie instinctively covered his head. This was getting ridiculous; he wasn't supposed to be getting scared. And anyways, it wasn't THAT far to the beach.

Suddenly a silence fell in the forest around Charlie. He looked around desperately. What was happening? He had a strange feeling that somebody was watching him, as if ready to strike. Charlie didn't like that feeling. He didn't like that feeling at all.

Something grabbed Charlie and he spun around in a panic. It was a woman, somebody that he'd never seen before. Where did she come from?

"So you're one of those people that Sayid was talking about," the woman said.

Something came towards Charlie's face before he could react and he fell down unconscious. Before the darkness took him, the last thoughts that went through Charlie's mind was how he was going to protect Claire and the baby.

Author's Note: November 25, 2004 Hi, everybody. Sorry I haven't written in a long time and I hope this long anticipated chapter's satisfied your needs.

I must say that I don't know what Claire's going to name her kid, or whether it's going to be a boy. I just randomly picked a boy and a name and there you go. And if we find out otherwise in some later episode, well, there you go, that's Claire's kid. But since we all don't know at the moment, I'm going to randomly pick like I did just for the enjoyment of this story.

Thanks to those who've been reviewing and I hope that you all continue to review because it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

But anyways, I'm talking too long. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving today and I hope you all continue to read and review.