That Happy Story

By:

LiL Pippin Padfoot

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Disclaimer: "Nothing quite ruins the tast of peanut butter than unrequited love." - Charlie Brown

Gotta love good ol' Charlie Brown...and peanut butter.

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Chapter 6

A Constant

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Claire had to laugh whenever some other survivor came over to see the baby and reminisce on their own, or their brothers or sisters, or distance counsins twice removed as babies.

But she didn't laugh at that. She laughed at how Charlie would introduce himself as "Charlie, The Cutest Baby's Godfather."

Claire tried to hide her smile. She couldn't tell sometimes if Charlie did it to make her laugh, or if he really was like that. She was fairly sure it was just that Charlie was like that.

Some survivors stopped by more often than others.

For instance, Hurley liked making faces, just to see him laugh.

Jack would come by and claim to be, and she quotes "Making sure everythings fine", but she saw how he loved playing with her son.

Sawyer seemed to be a nicer person, he even apologized for swearing within earshot of Claire and her baby. Even though Claire swore that Sawyer was trying to teach him to say "Hell yeah!" And Sawyer, being the only sole owner of books on the island, would every now and then stop by and read a book to Claire and her baby, claiming he didn't want any one to touch his books.

Even with the steady flow of people to see the baby, Charlie was a constant.

Claire's memory was still a bit shotty, what she did was blurred and unreconizable. Except Charlie.

At first, Claire had thought maybe it was because he had been around her so much. Jack had told her that her mind can create memories, things that didn't happen. But as Claire watched Charlie, this former rockstar, playing Pee-ka-boo with a baby, Claire decided that Charlie was for real.

"Aw, little things tired, aren't you?" asked Charlie to the yawning baby. "Aren't you?" he said, his face right in front of the baby's.

"Claire," he said "I think he's tired."

Claire smiled. "I'll put him to bed then." after a moment, she paused and said "Would you like to do it, Charlie?"

"Would I?" he said, trying not to hide the excitement in his voice.

Claire had heard that there was nothing like a baby to turn grown men into babies, but this made her really believe it.

Claire tried to stifle her laughter as Charlie attempted to sing 'Rock-a-bye Baby', apparently, ballads were not this Rockstar's sort of thing.

Soon, Charlie came back and sat down by Claire.

"Is Charlie short for Charles?" she asked.

"Yes." said Charlie "But you are never to speak of the name Charles again."

"Why?"

"Too stuffy of a name. It's more suiting for a lawyer, or a political figure. That's why my mother gave Liam and I upstanding names. Charles and Liam Pace. Destined to be lawyers, political figures, or police men. Not Rockstars."

"So was your mother disappointed?" Claire asked

"Nah." said Charlie. "At least, not until after we got our first gig, and used some of our money to buy her a car. Her old one was a real clunker. Absolute trash. So after that, she sort of left us alone, saying it was our life."

"My mother would have killed me." said Claire. "In fact, she would have. She was so angry at me when I told her..." Claire's voice trailed off as she thought. "She was single mother herself. She told me Thomas would leave, and I didn't listen."

"Don't worry." said Charlie. "I didn't listen to my mother and I turned out all right." he said

"Besides the fact that you are stuck on an island, right?"

"That's true." said Charlie. "But she's not the reason I was on a flight to L.A. My mum died years ago."

"I'm sorry." said Claire.

Charlie just shook his head. "It's all right."

"I never liked my mother." said Claire "We always argued. I was her only daughter, so she felt she needed to follow me every waking second. I promise not to do that to my little one."

"You might need to." said Charlie "As Hurley would say 'There could be some pissed off giraffe out there."

Claire giggled at Charlie's imitation of the American, Hurley. Charlie's British accent got in the way, and made it sound even funnier.

"Oh Charlie." said Claire

"What?" he asked.

"You always know how to make me laugh, even when I want to cry."

"You wanted to cry? What'd I do?" asked Charlie.

Claire shook her head. "I didn't want to cry, but there were times...before. When I couldn't remember anything. And you were just there. I mean, I was frustrated to tears, I just wanted to break down...and then I remembered you and peanut butter. For some ungodly reason peanut butter! It would drive me nearly crazy at night, thinking, and wondering. 'why peanut butter? why you?'"

"Are you implying that you would have preferred Jack or Boone?"

Claire blushed. "No, not really..."

"I know I'm not the cutest thing on the island, but still, Boone?"

"I didn't say Boone." said Claire "You said Boone."

Charlie snorted. "Well, I want you to know, at my concerts, just as many people were yelling 'Charlie' as they were 'Liam'."

"I know they were." said Claire. "I would have been one of them."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Thank you for lying."

"You're welcome."

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"Chels, what does D.C. stand for?"

"Declaration of Independance."

"Chelsea?"

"I'm an idiot." - Chelsea not knowing what the D.C. in Washington D.C. stood for.