For Claire/Charlie fans only :)

Disclaimer: I love this new show. Its obviously not mine. If it was.. Well I wouldn't be here writing fanfics about it that's for sure.

A/N: this fic meets my dysfunctional brain's odd needs. Hope you enjoy but if you don't, then, well my day certainly wont be affected. If you like it or want to leave a comment, please, please do so. Via the fantastic lil button at the bottom of the screen. Reviews more than welcome...

Summary: This wrote itself. Nothing really adventurous or thrilling happens here, but what does go one is enough for me :D .

She was thrashing through the jungle in the dark. Sounds in the trees like whispering were everywhere. And she was following the crying. Hey baby's crying. She had no memory or having the child, and just knew that when she should be getting closer to the noise, it seemed to draw away. The whispering became clearer.

You alone have to raise this child... No other... Your goodness must be an influence in the development of this child! No other...

"Why just me?" She screamed as she ran. Suddenly in front of her was a crib. A white crib standing alone in the midst of the trees and ferns and suffocating underbrush. The crying faded and her pale hands searched through the blankets. Her heart was beating faster and faster and screams were catching in her throat. Suddenly her hand swere submerged in warm, thick liquid.....

"Claire!" Charlie yelled. He gripped her shoulders and ducked as her flailing arm almost came in contact with his face. Her eyes opened and then she stopped altogether, breathing hard and wide-eyed.

"My baby, my baby.." She repeated feverently.

"Claire, it was a nightmare, you still have your baby!" He assured her, and placed his hand on her stomach. She nodded her understanding and looked around them. Charlie had been sleeping just feet away. It didn't look like anyone had been woken up besides him. They were all about thirty yards or so away, only mounds under blankets. The ones that hadn't gone to the caves that is. Now that Jack was at the caves, Charlie was spending his spare time trying to coax and convince Claire that she'd be safer where there was a doctor, but there was no turning her.

Earlier that night, minutes before Claire had fallen asleep, she and Charlie had been sitting side by side, their backs propped up by a stray palm tree that stood a bit closer to the water than the other trees. The stars were bright and vivid, and the dark waves lapped the shore calmly. A slight breeze blew through their hair. "You know, you really should come with me to the caves." He said through his drowsiness.

Claire sighed and looked up at him.

" You keep saying I should come with you, or follow you, or you'll take me to the caves."

"Yea? So?" Charlie pressed.

"Well the thing is, I don't see you going to the caves any time soon. And I don't want to come. So you'll have to head off there yourself one of these times and stop threatening me with it." Her accent wove around her words pleasantly. For a moment she was caught up in Charlie's intense gaze.

"Oh, and leave you here? Leave you in the care of, hmm, lets see, a dozen strangers, the lone ranger," He tilted his head in the direction of Sawyer's shrine he had made for himself down the beach. "And the poor asthmatic girl?"

Claire was swept up again by the good intentions of Charlie, and his piercing blue stare.

"I can take care of myself." She blurted out before she realized how ridiculous it sounded. She didn't exactly look capable of much in her condition.

"Can you now?" Charlie leaned back a little, amused. Claire laughed at herself and tucked her hair behind her ears.

"Perhaps I can't. But you think you're the one who will?"

"Well yea. Subtly of course. It's a delicate matter, you being so stubbornly independent, yet at the present time rather incapable." Charlie grinned.

"You look tired." He said finally.

"Yea. I've done absolutely nothing all day but I'm beat."

"G'Night. I'll be right over here if you need me."

"Now there'll be no reason I'll need you Charlie." She said, which actually meant, "thank you Charlie that was so sweet of you."

"Well, just in case. I'm here." He shrugged his shoulders lightly and spread out a blanket not far from her own bed. She covered herself up to her shoulders to ward off the cool night air and closed her eyes, drifting off quickly.

Now, six hours later, Charlie glanced at her, concerned as she sat up and pushed the covers back like she was going to get up. But instead, she just sat there with her hands in front of her.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course." She said quietly.

"That was half-hearted." He said, understanding why.

"Hmph." was her reply.

"Want to talk about it?"

"It was just a bad dream, Charlie. I woke up, and you weren't there. My baby was gone. I started hearing whispers, and my baby crying, so I followed them."

"On the beach?" Charlie asked.

"In the jungle." She replied. She took a breath before continuing.

"Eventually I came to a crib. He was crying in there, but when I looked in it was all blankets." Buried in the memory, Claire started rocking back and forth slowly.

"I was digging through the layers of white baby blankets, but when I got to the bottom it was all ..." She stopped, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Charlie moved next to her and put both his arms around her shoulders.

"It was what?" He whispered.

"Blood." She mumbled. Lost in the memory, she held both her palms up to face her, and to her surprise they too were covered in blood.

"What happened?" Charlie let Claire go to hold her wrists up for examination. The moon bathed her hands in a soft light, but it was still unmistakably blood.

"You dug your fingernails into your skin... That was one hell of a nightmare."

"I didn't even notice the pain until just then." She said.

"Jack will clean it up so it wont get infected." Charlie told her.

"He's asleep. The moon is real low, so it wont be long 'till morning but still."

"Not now." Charlie said. " I can fix you up for the time being. You'll be fine. He'll have some antibiotic cream for it I bet. Seems there was a lot on the plane. Here." He tore the bottom piece off of his extra-long tee shirt and stood up.

"Don't go 'way." He said as he jogged to the beach barefoot. She watched him dunk the cloth into the water and then bring it back. He wrung it out and then ripped it in half.

"The salt from the water will sting but it should make it heal faster. It wont hurt it at any rate." He told her as he took her wrist. Grimacing, she watched him gently fold the cloth around her palm and tie it off securely before doing the same to the second one.

" That's better. Now to bed, Doctors orders." He helped her lie back down. The stars were already fading in the east. He was about to go back to his blanket when he reconsidered. Bringing the blanket up next to hers, he crawled underneath and folded his arms for a pillow. Despite herself, she nudged closer to Charlie, and she felt his arm wrap around her warmly. Closing her eyes, she hoped that dawn would hold off a little longer.

TBC