DISCLAIMER: This is one star in the universe of Lost. I own only this story. I will never own the universe.
Goodbye
"But in dreams, I can hear you name
And in dreams, we'll meet again"
(In Dreams-The Breaking of the Fellowship)
It has always seemed to me, that the one thing you want most, is the one thing you'll never be able to have.
I had always been a believer of destiny, and fate, or whatever else you may call it. And I had come to think, after all that time on the Island that Charlie and I were meant to be. It just felt right. It's like déjà vu, you know? That feeling you get sometimes when something happens to you. When I first met him, it was like that-for me anyways. I got this immense feeling in my heart that I had met him once before. Which was ironic, because he was Charlie Pace, base player for Driveshaft, the "rock god". Anyone would have felt like they had met him before. But this was…different. Like those sappy romance novels you buy at gift stores. I felt…as if I had met him before, repeatedly. Like we had always known each other in every life we had ever lived, and this was just another one of those meetings.
And as we spent more time together on the Island, I really began to believe that. I began to truly believe that we were meant to be.
But all that changed the day we were rescued.
Charlie had promised that he would come back with me to Australia, that he would be the father for my child. There was no one better. It seemed like we would get our happily ever after, just like we had on the Island.
But then the ship docked in Sydney, and Thomas was there, and my mother, waiting to take me back home. "Back to where I belonged," they said. I had refused, I told them that I was going with Charlie, that I loved Charlie. They didn't listen.
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"Claire I—"
"I'm so sorry Charlie."
"About what, luv?"
"Everything. I--we're not gonna get our happily ever after are we Charlie?"
Charlie smiled sadly. "Not in this lifetime, I'm afraid." I felt something slip into my hand, something hard, and cold.
"Take this Claire. And when we meet again, in this lifetime or the next, that's how I'll know that it's you. And Claire, no matter what happens, don't forget the Island. Don't forget me. You gotta promise me, Claire."
"I promise Charlie. I won't forget."
He kissed me then, and neither of us cared that Thomas and my mother where watching. It didn't matter. Not then. This was our Goodbye.
"I love you Charlie."
I think that both of us realized then, that we wouldn't meet again for a very long time.
"Love you too, Claire."
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It began to rain as the car pulled away from the docks. I liked to think that the sky was crying for Charlie and I, and our not so happy ending. I opened my hand, and stared at the object in my palm. Charlie's ring. I smiled sadly, and turned around in my seat, looking out at the docks we were leaving behind. There was a figure standing away from the crowds, watching the car drive away. I waved, and Charlie waved back; I continued to stare out the window long after I couldn't see the docks anymore, long after Charlie was out of sight. But not out of mind. That chapter of my life was over. There would be no returning to the Island. Though I knew that I would drown myself in memories and re-read those pages, that chapter of the days we spent stranded and lost on that Island, buried deep in my heart.
So in the end, it seems like we didn't get our happily ever after. Just like those sappy romance novels.