Disclaimer: I don't own Lost or the characters or anything... sadly. besides, there's not another new episode until January 5th. So I would go insane without fics. Would you rather have me write about something that isn't mine or be insane? Definitely not the latter, trust me.

A/N: a regretfully short chapter.. Review if you want more!

How Blue

Chapter One:

Thomas hadn't always been good to her. Claire remembered as she looked at the night sky now, all the times she was afraid to say what was on her mind or give an opinion on anything. Not because he hated her. He told her that he loved her two, maybe three times a day. And late at night, when she lay in bed waiting for sleep that may never come, she would wonder why she stayed.

But love obviously wasn't enough to keep him from the blind rages he would have, screaming at her and breaking lamps and striking her across the face, leaving her sobbing on the floor, curled up in a little ball. Then he would have a drink or two. By now he was feeling slightly guilty of what he had done in the living room thirty minutes before. So, as always, he would go to the bedroom and apologize. Claire wouldn't accept after a few weeks of this, but she would instead count the stars on a painting that hug on the other side of the bedroom while Thomas was thrusting into her, obviously his idea of making up. He seemed to want her every night, and soon her pleas of "later" and "I'm too tired" were ignored.

She supposed that's how she came to be pregnant. One of those nights without protection, when Thomas was half-drunk or in too much of a bad mood to bother to listen to her. After they had found out, Thomas had gone uphill. He came home in a better mood, he was kind to her and demanded less every night. But that didn't last for long. Then of course, he left her.

She wanted to think of something else, but there wasn't any way around it. She was oblivious tot he fact that Charlie was watching her. She was sitting up, her blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders. The camp was very dark, as there was no moon that night, and the stars blinked distant and hazy. With a deep breath, Charlie told himself it was now or never and walked over to Claire.

"What's the matter love?" He asked in a whisper. He didn't know why he whispered, because it wasn't very late yet and he was sure no one was gone to bed. Fires burned brightly on the other side of camp. She looked up, a bit startled.

"Oh! Charlie, I didn't see you. Nothing's the matter.. Why?"

"I just happened to look over here and see you all hunched over like something was the matter. It's not like you to be away from the group." He nodded to the fires, where everyone sat.

"Oh, I was just .. You know.. Thinking, is all."

"Well I know this must sound terribly nosy and I'll forgive you if you wont say, but.. What were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking.." Claire said carefully...

"About my baby's father." She bit her lip and ran a hand over her stomach.

"Oh." Charlie was curious.

"What was he like?" He asked.

"Young.. Ambitious." Claire chose her words carefully. "Willful."

Charlie sat down beside her.

"Was he good to you?"

"No, not really." She said plainly.

This wasn't the answer he had been expecting.

"What?"

"Well he was very wilful, like I said. He had his own ideas of what he wanted, and nothing was going to get in his way, you know?"

"Oh, I see. So he never, like," Charlie paused. This was a bit awkward. "Hit you or anything though right?"

Claire looked at the ground.

Charlie's eyes widened. He didn't like to think of sweet little Claire getting hurt or beat up.

"He did?! My god Claire. Why the hell would he do that to you?" Charlie was mad now, he could feel himself getting warmer and warmer in the face with anger.

"Charlie, please, It wasn't that bad really." Claire said.

"Yea well, I don't care if it was. He still had no right to do that."

"Not the right, no, but the power." She said. Charlie thought for a moment.

"Did you leave him?"

"No, he left me." Claire's eyes filled with tears and Charlie could see how blue they were even in the dusk. It was clear that Claire was uncomfortable on the subject, so Charlie tried to calm down and talk of something different. He put a hand on her shoulder and shivered suddenly with a chilly breeze.

"You wanna share that blanket?" He asked. Claire smiled and shifted the fabric on her shoulders to accommodate one more. Charlie slipped under and wrapped his arm around her waist. A minute went by and neither said nothing. They both realized it was something special when a stretch of time without words spoken could be so comfortable. It was late. Charlie kept turning over in his mind events that he imagined concerning Claire's ex-boyfriend.

After a few minutes, Charlie decided he had had enough of this comfortable-silence business . Charlie took her chin in his hand and tilted her face up to meet his. Her eyes were the most pure blue reflections of life as he could ever imagine, and in that moment, their lips met. At first their kiss was tender and unsure, soon dissolving into a passionate frenzy. Claire's lips parted and she wrapped her arms around Charlie's neck. The intensity was seemingly a circle, unbreakable, and neither of them pulled away from the kiss. Suddenly there was a movement near them and they stopped short, breaking apart and trying to look casual. Jack broke through the bushes.

"There you two are." He said. Claire was glad it was dark so he couldn't see her flushed face.

"Wont you come and join us at the fire before everyone goes to bed? Or were you-talking... Oh.. I'm sorry." He retreated once he noticed they were under the same blanket and that he was clearly interrupting something.

"Oh, no, no." Claire said, standing up. Charlie followed her move and rose hastily.

"We'll come over for a while.." She continued casually.

"Alright, yea, great." Jack said.

Charlie gathered up the blanket and draped it over Claire's shoulders as they followed the doctor to the center of the camp.