Charlie sat at the front of the caves and thought. Kate walked by, they exchanged greetings, she moved on and he kept on thinking. Hurley walked by, they made plans to play golf later on in the week, he moved on and Charlie kept on thinking. Jin came by and said something in Korean which translated into "Why have you been sitting there for the past hour?" Charlie blinked in ignorance, Jin rolled his eyes and moved on. Charlie quit thinking for a minute.

'What the hell did he say?' Shrugging his shoulders, the British rock star went back to thinking. He thought for another goodten before Jack entered the caves, abruptly ending his thoughts.

"Jack!" The blond pushed himself up from the cave floor and ran over to the doctor. "I have to talk to you..."

"Later." Came the short reply.

Charlie was undeterred. "I really have to..."

"Charlie!" Jack held up his hand. "I said later. I have an infected toenail, a migraine and a mild case of heatstroke. I just came by to refill my water bottle." He held up the empty water bottle to emphasis his point.

Charlie blinked. "When you say you have all that, you do mean your patients have it, right?"

"Yes Charlie." Jack nodded as he kneeled to refill the water bottle. "Look, whatever you want to talk about, can it wait until this evening?"

Charlie nodded. "Sure." Jack sighed.

"Good. I'll see you later then." The doctor exited the caves almost as abruptly as he came in. Charlie stood there, rubbing the back of his head for a moment, then he stepped out and made his way to the beach.

Claire was seated under a shady tree, thoughtfully rocking the cradle. It lookedalmost the same as it had when she and Locke (mostly Locke) had made it, with one major difference.

Charlie squatted down beside her and squinted at the cradle. "Where'd you get the blanket?" He asked, in reference to the fuzzy red blanket bearing the Oceanic Airlines logo that now adorned the cradle.

Claire smiled and shook her head. "You'd never believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

The pregnant girl looked at the cradle, then at Charlie, then at the cradle again. "Sawyer...see! I told you you wouldn't believe me!" She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her left ear. "He just came up to me and handed it over. Said it was too cold on this island for a baby without a blanket. I guess he was hoarding it. Charlie, close your mouth!"

Charlie closed his mouth. "I don't believe it."

"Neither did I, at first. He left before I could even say thank you." Her smiled got a little wider. "It was sweet of him though. I guess it was his way of apologizing for getting in a fight with you a few days ago."

Charlie stared at her. "You knew about that?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "It's a small island. I know why you were fighting him too. Kate told me. Thank you."

Charlie Pace, former rock god of Britain, looked away so she wouldn't see him blush. They sat like that for a few moments, not saying anything, before he spoke again.

"D'you think I'm a kid?" Upon seeing Claire's puzzled look, he elaborated. "I mean...do you think of me as a little kid? Like I can't take care of myself."

Claire shook her head. "No, I don't. I think you're the sweetest man on this island." To prove her sincerity she leaned over and smooched the tip of his nose.

Charlie left the scene a little later smiling like a lunatic and blushing furiously. One down, two to go.

"Sayid?" The former soldier didn't look up. "Sayid?"

He looked up from his map of the island. "Charlie." He acknowledged.

Charlie sat down on a fallen tree. "I need to ask you something." Sayid raised his eyebrows in a way that meant: 'Continue'. "I want to know if you can teach me how to fight."

This time Sayid's eyebrows indicated surprise, which was unusual. Sayid was not an easy man to surprise. "You want me to teach you to fight?"

"Yeah."

Sayid put the map aside. "Why?"

Charlie bit his lip. "I want to fight my own fights."

Sayid nodded. "This is because of Sawyer and Jack?"

Charlie looked at the ground. "Yeah."

Sayid nodded again. "Let me ask you: what would you have done to Sawyer if Jack hadn't interfered?"

"If...what?"

"Would you have killed him?" Sayid asked bluntly. "Sometimes knowing how to fight means killing. You already killed one man, do you want to kill another?"

"I don't want to kill anybody." Charlie said quietly. "I just want to fight my own fights."

"That is admirable." Sayid told him. "But do you really think that all fighting is is punching someone?"

"Sayid, look at me. I'm short. If I can't fight, how'm I supposed to protect myself or Claire? How'm I supposed to be a man?"He hadn't meant to add"or Claire?". Sayid arched an eyebrow but didn't mention it.

"Do you know, when I found the French woman, why I left in the first place?" He asked. Charlie shook his head. "It was because I tortured Sawyer. I don't like hurting people Charlie." He paused. "And I will not teach anyone else to hurt people either."

Charlie nodded. "Fine." He got up and was about to leave when Sayid stopped him.

"Just because I won't teach you to fight doesn't mean I don't think you're a man."

"Oh yeah? Why the bloody hell did you stop me from beating up Sawyer then?" Charlie yelled. "Did'ja think I couldn't do it?"

Sayid shrugged. "No, I didn't. Besides, it wasn't your fight."

Charlie stared at him. "What do you bloody mean 'it wasn't my fight'? He..."

"Sawyer has been on Jack's 'to beat up' list a great deal longer than he has been on yours." Sayid folded his arms. "Think about it." Having said that, the man gathered up his maps and compass and left, leaving Charlie standing there.

The brit left not long after. He headed for the beach.

Time passed. Hurley came by, the two men reaffirmed their decision to go fishing and Hurley left. Kate came by, reassured Charlie thatno matterwhat Jack had said in the jungle, he didn't hate Charlie. She left and more time passed. Jin came by, said something Charlie couldn't understand, and left. Time kept on passing. And passing. And passing. A volcano erupted, the Red Sox won, and some other stuff happened, but that was somewhere else.

Finally, enough time passed that evening reached the island and Jack stumbled into the small part of the caves that he had claimed as his own to find Charlie waiting for him.

"Jack. We really need to talk." Jack nodded in agreement while reaching into the backpack that served as his medical bag. He pulled out a little white bottle, took out a pill and downed it witha slug from his water bottle.

Charlie frowned. "What was that?"

"Asprin." Jack stretched. Charlie nodded and the two of them sat for a moment, not saying anything.

Jack was the first to break the silence. "About what I said in the jungle..."

Charlie shrugged. "If anyone has a right to beat up Sawyer, it's you."

"Yes." Jack sighed. "Charlie, don't take this the wrong way, but you don't know how to fight." He lowered his voice. "You're getting over a drug addiction and Sawyer's a tough man." He placed his hand on top of the rock star's head. "He would've..."

"...Pounded me into a pulp?" Charlie shrugged. "Yeah. But Jack...I'm not a kid."

Jack nodded and looked at the ground as his earlier words in the junglecame back to haunt him. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

Charlie shrugged and silence once again prevailed. Again, Jack broke it.

"My problem is I can't help but see you as very young."

"Bloody hell, how old are you?" Charlie asked. Jack smiled a little.

"Thirty-seven. And..."

"Damn." Jack glared for a second and Charlie put up his hands in a show of goodwill. "Sorry."

"Right. But that's what I'm talking about, sort of. You're all of what, twenty-three? That's not that old."

Charlie looked offended. "Still, it's not like I'm a bloody kid either."

"True, and I'll try and remember that. But all the same. I see you and I think 'Where the hell where his parents when he started?' I keep thinking you never would have had togo through with that had your brother or your father or somebody had noticed."

Charlie gave his messy blond head a toss. "My brother got me started." He looked at Jack and continued. "That's not all; I go to Australia to visit him and the bastard has the nerve to tell me I should get clean." He looked at Jack again. "Not that there was anything wrong with getting clean, just in him telling me..." He trailed off as Jack pulled him closer into a slight hug.

"Listen, I know you're not a kid, but you still need somebody." Charlie nodded.

Things changed a little in the following weeks.

Word about the blanket spread and while people still avoided him, there was talk on the island about Sawyer actually being human.

Sayid was seen, if not teaching him how to throw a punch, at least showing Charlie a few blocking moves.

Hurley and Charlie went fishing and actually caught some fish.

Jin learned a few words of English. Not much, but some.

Charlie didn't blush as much when he talked to Claire. And while she didn't spread the information, Kate sometimes heard Jack giving him love advice, mostly consisting of "There is no peanut butter. Just give her some flowers."

For his part, Jack found his asprin and there is no reason to believe he was bothered with anymore weird dreams.

Finite.

Author's notes- I originally started this with an intent that, yes Jack would spank Sawyer. However the story took hold of my puny brain cells and mutated into what you just read. Not that that's a bad thing. The dream became more of a symbol of Jack asserting himself over the one person who questions his authority and the focus became mainly centered on Jack and Charlie and their relationship.

I did not mean to portray Charlie and being weak/stupid/helpless. He's not. What he is, is young/recovering from a serious addiction/in need of guidance. Jack can provide that guidance.

In response to Sayid's not fighting in chapter two and his reluctance to teach Charlie to fight, there's a reason for that. He's spent a good part of his life hurting people and it shows. He left the camp after he tortured Sawyer because he was feeling guilty. Besides that, why should he fight? He knows he can beat Sawyer, it's Jack's turn now. He and Charlie have no business in interering.

I think I have Jack a little bit more in character than I did when I first started writing this. He was kind of tough to get the hang of, but I'm sure I'll do better next time.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Any and all reviews are appreciated.