A/N Thanks for all your reviews! Evermore - Yeah, I found a title! "Espoir" means "to hope" in French. ronandhermionealltheway - Haha first of all, I love your username. And how do you know this chapter has Charlie and Claire meeting? I could drag my story out and make it Chapter 10... just kidding.

Charlie was on his way back to the caves when he was stopped by Kate.

"Ah, Charlie? I was looking for you. Can we talk?" she asked.

Was it just him, or did she look kind of nervous? He wondered what she had to talk to him about. Whatever it was, it sounded serious.

"Sure. Yeah, sure." He said, sitting down on a log.

After a moment, she sat down next to him. She seemed to be gathering her bearings. She looked off, not at Charlie, but a few inches to the left of his shoulder. He turned to see what she was looking at, but there was nothing there.

"Kate?" he prompted.

"Huh?" She jerked back, realizing that he was waiting.

"This isn't good news, is it?" he said seriously.

"Oh. Well, I guess not, but kind of." She answered. She shook her head at herself. "I mean, well…" she stopped again and took a deep breath. "Okay. Boone and Locke found Claire last night."

Charlie felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach. She was dead. They found her body when they were hunting boar. Ethan killed her. His hands curled into fists, wishing he could find Ethan and give him what he deserved. He looked up at Kate, who seemed frightened by his expression.

"Oh! She's alive, Charlie!" she told him hurriedly. "It's just… well, she's all right except… she doesn't remember any of us. She's lost her memory from the plane crash to last night." Kate finally blurted out. "I'm sorry, Charlie, I didn't mean to scare you. I just didn't know how to say it…"

"But she's okay?" Charlie interrupted, swiftly getting to his feet.

Kate nodded. "She's in the caves." She said softly.

With that, Charlie left, running up the path. He tried to figure out how he felt as he quickly followed the dirt path. It was hard to categorize; he felt a number of different emotions at the same time. He was happy that Claire was back, relieved she was physically unharmed, and yet at the same time, he was very disappointed. Just when he had been figuring things out, and becoming her friend, and giving up drugs… and now she was back. Charlie had played out her return in his mind these past few days, and while he hadn't expected her safe arrival at the camps, he certainly hadn't expected this either. In sight of the caves, he took a deep breath and entered the dim, cool entryway.

Claire was finally comfortable, for the first time she could remember in a long time, she thought wryly to herself. She was lying on a cot in the cave, a thin blanket over her. Her eyelids were drooping, though she knew she had only been awake for a few hours. She began to fall asleep, knowing she was protected by Locke and Jack, who were just a few feet away. Then she heard voices arguing, and her name, and she willed herself to open her eyes.

"No, she's sleeping." Came Jack's firm voice.

"Just a minute." Someone with an English accent said angrily. "You hide her from me on purpose, and wait bloody hours to tell me, and now I can't even see her?"

"Claire's only just arrived maybe one hour ago. And she's exhausted – Charlie, what good will it do? She doesn't remember us!"

Charlie. Claire was very interested in this Charlie she kept hearing about. With great effort, she sat up, and called out, "I'm awake."

There was a silence from the mouth of the cave, then a man walked in. She looked at him closely. He was on the short side with blonde hair. He had pieces of masking tape around each finger of his left hand. Each piece had a letter on it, but she couldn't read what they said. He was smiling, genuinely smiling at her, and she couldn't help but smile back at this stranger who she used to know. He stood in front of her, then, seemingly on an impulse, leaned forward and gave her an awkward hug.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"I'm glad you're back." He said quietly.

She nodded, and they both looked shyly at each other. Claire felt like she was on a first date with someone that she had been set up with by a friend. She didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry I don't remember anything…" she said, suddenly feeling almost guilty for something she knew she couldn't help.

Charlie forced a grin. "Hey, it's not exactly your fault." He said, echoing her thoughts. "How are you otherwise?"

"I'm fine." She said for what seemed like the millionth time that day. But she knew that every time she said she was fine, she was telling a huge lie. She was definitely not okay, less okay than she probably ever had been in her life. Her boyfriend had left her. Her plane had crashed. Her baby was due and was going to be born in the middle of nowhere and she couldn't even remember the people who obviously cared and worried about her. With that thought, Claire began to cry.

Charlie immediately sat down next to her and put his arm around her. "Hey, it's okay. It's all right."

"No, it's not. I can't remember anything I'm supposed to. I want to remember you, I thought maybe I would recognize you. Everyone said we were friends, I thought…" she tried to choke back her sobs, but she couldn't stop.

"Hey. Claire." Charlie said, pulling her back arm-length so she would look at him. "You're going to get your memory back. It just might take some time. Jack said memory loss was a way of dealing with shock or some doctory crap like that. Meanwhile, let's start over." He put out his hand for her to shake. "Hi, I'm Charlie Pace, ex-rocker, fantastic base player, and the only Brit on the island."

She wiped her face and shook his hand. "Claire Littleton, loving mother-to-be, and coincidentally the only Aussie on the island."

He looked at her for a moment, surprised.

"Locke told me." She said quickly.

"Of course." Charlie answered, but she knew he was covering up.