Lils: OY WELCOME TO CHAPTER SEVEN! Now to reply to reviews! Oh wait…first: OMG SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG! Jaye and I started school and I've been so busy I just couldn't find time!
Luthien and Tari Oronar: IT WAS ALL JAYE! SHE KILLED HER! And I thought it would be sweet to bring Rose in…anyway, thanks for reviewing!
Charlielover28: Uh…I guess that was a mistake. OOPS! And about Charlie…uh…maybe something good will happen to him…sometime…
Lil Aussie Alias Chick: No comment. ((lol)) Thanks for the review!
Irionelissa: Glad things are clearing up…hope you like this chapter!
Dandadn2300: Hmm. Hope you didn't damage the computer when you threw something at it. And once again, I am happy to announce that it was ALL JAYE'S FAULT. I even went, "WHAT?" when she sent me the paragraph.
Jaye: Really? You'd strangle me? Maybe I should get Gunner to crap himself while you're "watching him" and then get you grounded! HA! What a genius dog! (oh crap, you're probably gonna strangle me for that one, too)
Chapter Seven:
Shocking Events
"So…Charlie," Claire said the next morning. "If you could uninvent something, what would it be?"
Charlie paused and thought for a second. "Er… Hitler's mum, broccoli, guns…" (A/N – Lils: ((lol)) Hitler's mum…)
He hesitated and took a deep breath. "…And drugs. Especially heroin."
Claire tilted her head and studied his expression, which he unsuccessfully tried to keep blank.
"I get the broccoli, guns…and Hitler's mum," she said with a slight laugh at the last part. "Obviously those have an effect on everyone…but what about the heroin? Did you know someone who was addicted?"
Charlie closed his eyes, praying to God that she would understand. "Yeah. My brother…and myself."
Claire's mouth fell open a bit, but her eyes told the true story. They were terrified, shocked…and worst of all, Charlie realized, betrayed. For a moment she went sheet white, and then, gradually, she turned pink. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
"You…I…You didn't tell me this until now?"
"Claire…calm down…" Charlie's mind whirled. He tried to grab her hands, but she pulled away as though his touch had burned her.
"Don't talk to me! I can't believe you would keep something like that from me! You know, all this time I was being honest with you!" The tears began to fall faster. She stood up and backed away from Charlie.
"But I was being honest!" he protested. "I – I already told you!"
"Oh sure Charlie, tell me that. Of course you told me now that I don't remember! Is this a game to you?"
"NO!" Charlie cried. "Claire, this isn't…a…a game to me! It never was, Claire!"
"So heroin's not a game? How long have you been sneaking it behind your back when I wasn't looking?"
She didn't give him time to answer. With a final huff over her shoulder, she stormed off, leaving Charlie sitting on the ground, struck dumb. After a few moments he dropped his head into his hands and let go.
Everything he had done for her. Everything he had wanted. It had all ended because of the stupid stuff.
"That's it. My life is over. Again."
"Again?"
Charlie looked up, suddenly furious, at Kate. She had just walked into the caves, and her eyes were red and puffy. She looked very pale and nervous; something very un-Kateish. "I…I just came to tell you and Claire that the…the funeral's started."
"Sydney's?" Charlie felt strangely detached. He had completely forgotten about Sydney's death between searching all the last day for Carter and then…the outbreak just a fewseconds ago.
"Yeah," Kate whispered. Charlie stood up, looking so sad that Kate's heart almost broke.
"What's wrong?" she asked hoarsely.
"I told Claire my darkest secret…I thought that she would understand," he said quietly. "But…she didn't…and now she hates me. She'll never speak to me again, I know it!"
Kate gave him a sad look. "Just give her some time, Charlie…I'm sure she'll come back."
Charlie shook his head. "No way…no one will ever…she won't come back. Not after what I just…confessed."
Kate crossed her arms and gave Charlie a sideways glance.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Oh, not you too…" Charlie shuffled his feet nervously. "You know, we really should be getting to that funeral, you know."
Charlie could tell Kate wanted to say more, but before she could open her mouth, he had scampered off, feeling even more like a coward, and more and more miserable with every step toward the beach…more and more sorry for himself, and then, just a bit angry.
He had finally spilled his heart out to Claire, the only one he had ever really cared for, and just to find out she couldn't handle the truth.
"I mean, it's not like I actually do it anymore…" he muttered under his breath, kicking a root that stuck out of the ground, and grinding his teeth against the pain that was sent up his leg.
If Claire couldn't understand him, no one could.
As Charlie walked along, his anger faded into hopelessness. He stopped in mid-stride, as though he had just walked into an invisible barrier of some kind, and dropped his chin down on his chest. His shoulders shook as he stood there and cried, hating himself for it.
A loud crash made him jump and whip around. "Arrrrrg…" a young, feminine voice moaned.
Charlie peered over his shoulder. Melanie was sitting there, rubbing her head.
"What happened? Are you okay?" he asked, hurriedly brushing away his tears.
"Ugh. I just fell. I was looking for Carter again."
Charlie's eyes widened. We'll go look first thing in the morning…I promise. "Oh, no, I forgot—I'm sorry!"
"It's no problem," Mel said, standing up and brushing the dirt off of her jeans. "You had a lot on your mind… With Sydney dying and all…" She paused and looked into his red-rimmed eyes. "Hey…what's wrong?"
Charlie shook his head. "N-nothing. I'm fine."
"Is it about Claire?" Mel asked with a knowing look.
Charlie gave her a look that was somewhere between "Uh, yeah" and "were you listening!"
"Yeah then," Mel said. "I saw her run out of the caves…I heard her talking really, really loud—I couldn't make out the words, but, um, yeah. She looked…pretty much like you do now. What happened?"
"You're a smart kid," Charlie said, now shaking his head in pure disbelief.
Mel looked at him expectantly.
Charlie sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I told her something that I thought she could handle…and she couldn't. I mean, I had told her before we were…kidnapped and she lost her memory, and I told her that and she didn't believe me."
"Oh," Melanie nodded. "Well…do you want me to talk to her?"
"I would prefer than you didn't…well, about this anyway," Charlie replied.
"Okay," Melanie reached up and untied her necklace—a leather cord that had a black guitar pic hanging from it. She handed it to him. "You need this more than I do…it's lucky."
Charlie gaped at the pic. "Is that…?"
Mel smiled. "Yeah. You dropped it…I was in the front row at the one concert where Liam sang the chorus to You All Ev'rybody—which made me SO mad because that's YOUR part, NOT his—and when y'all left the stage, the pic fell…some other girl picked it up."
Charlie looked at her in confusion. "Then how do you have it?"
Melanie smirked. "I beat her down!" she laughed.
Charlie gave her a look of pure admiration and surprise. In this time of obscurity, she always seemed to understand. Now he felt even guiltier for not being more enthusiastic the other day about Carter. He realized then that Melanie was a good kid, and he smiled.
"We should get going," he said. "We can't miss the funeral. It's really important to Kate, you know. And then, I promise I'll go with you to find Carter."
"But what about Claire? We have to find her," Melanie protested.
Charlie was taken aback. "You mean you would rather help me find Claire than find Carter?"
"It's not that I would rather do anything more than the other…it's just…I feel like Claire needs help now. Carter's strong." Tears came to her eyes as she said these last few words.
"You know," said Charlie softly. "You're not too bad."
"Neither are you," she said, and together they made their way to the beach.
Kate looked out over the group that had gathered around her…and the six-foot hole that had been dug in the ground. Jack stood next to her, his eyes distant. Next to him on the other side was Ana Lucia – she was pale, but looked determined to stay strong. Then there was Hurley, Michael, and Walter. Jin and Sun stood together, while Sayid, Shannon, and Boone made an awkward group of three. Vaughn stood alone staring down into the empty hole, while Charlie had his hand on Melanie's shoulder. Kate tilted her head as she saw the battered form of Sark standing next to Rose, and as usual, Sawyer was being Sawyer, facing the other way. Locke was barely visible among a gaggle of other survivors, but Kate decided she wouldn't worry about him.
Steve and Greg brought Sydney's body towards the grave. Vaughn turned toward them as they laid her body onto the soft sand. He stepped forward and kneeled by her side as Steve and Greg melted into the crowd of onlookers. He picked up her limp wrist and held it for a moment.
He suddenly dropped her hand and fell backward, eyes wide. "She's alive!" he cried. "THERE'S A PULSE!" (A/N: - Lils: FWA! GO AHEAD, JUMP FOR JOY, EVERYONE!)
Claire sat in the middle of the jungle, scribbling in her diary. Dear Diary, this has been the worst day of my life. I thought Charlie was different than anyone that I've ever met…well, he is, he's worse. He's a junkie—he told me today, and then tried to pass it off as a "oh, I told you before you lost your memory". I couldn't believe him. I thought…but I was stupid. I'm going to be a nun, I swear, because I see no good relationships…in my past or in my future. Besides…Libras aren't compatible with Sagittariuses. I'm pretty sure that Charlie said his birthday is December 8th. He's compatible with a Gemini. Though right now I wouldn't exactly dump him on Kate. She has enough on her plate. Love, Claire.
Feeling oddly satisfied she closed the small book with more force than was needed, and crossed her arms tightly around her. Charlie, how could you do this to me? She felt tears coming, but she wiped them stubbornly away. There was no use in crying over him anymore. This had been major disappointment number two…
Nearby, she heard a rustling. Her heart jumped, her mind flying instantly to Sydney and the Fake Agents. Claire screamed and scrambled to her feet, ready to run if needed. The rustling grew louder, closer…
Carter was now very close to the tower. He couldn't see the top of it anymore, he was that close. He scrambled up the rocks, making a lot of noise he could admit, until he came to the ladder at the bottom of the tower. He craned his neck up to see how far it went—a good one or two hundred feet. He shrugged off his backpack and started climbing.
One hand over the other. One foot over the other. One hand over the other.
After what seemed like hours, Carter finally dragged himself into the radio tower itself. "Ag, air conditioning!" he yelped. He took several deep breaths, taking advantage of his time in the cool, refreshing air. Then he looked around, and saw the radio.
He stood up and rushed towards it. He picked up the handset and pressed down the button. "Mayday, mayday, is anyone there?"
Static. Carter's heart sunk. But then—
"We copy. Who is this?"
"I'm a survivor of Oceanic 815!" Carter said, trying to keep his voice steady. "We crashed almost two months ago, and—"
"EY! What'choo think yer doin' son?" The gruff voice made Carter jump, almost dropping the radio. He spun around to see a man with a bushy gray beard and a knit cap on his head.
"I was using the radio! Trying to get off of this (heck) hole!" Carter said angrily.
"Well what if this is my tower?" the man said in a dangerously low voice. "And what if I don't like any trespassers?"
Carter felt a pang of worry go through his being. "I don't understand…"
"There's a lot thang's you ain't goin' ta understand," the man sneered. "Like why I ain't about to just let ya scramble back to yer friends and get them all up here."
Carter started to back away, one step at a time. Who was this man? What was he going to do?
"Nighty night," the man leered. He pulled out a gun. Carter's eyes widened. BANG. Carter hit the ground.
"Charlie…did you hear that?" Melanie asked, looking nervous.
"I heard a gun," Charlie answered, looking around for the source of the sound. "Is that what you heard?"
"Yeah…that's…that's what I head," Melanie replied. "Do you think that the…other agents got Claire or Carter?"
"No…" Charlie said, shaking his head. "I don't…I don't think they did."
But Melanie could tell that he was getting a little more than nervous as well. "Maybe…maybe we should turn back," Melanie suggested quietly.
"If you want to, you can," Charlie said, shaking his head again. "But I'm going to keep looking."
Melanie smiled. "I don't want to. But, I thought, if you're scared, then we can go back," she teased.
"OY! I'm not scared!" Charlie protested.
"Sure you're not," Melanie snickered. "But c'mon let's keep lookin'."
Vaughn's head felt as though it had detached itself from his shoulders, and was now spinning somewhere in space. He felt dizzy; so many things had happened in the past few days. First with the plane crash, then with Sydney dying…and now she was alive. Shock, sorrow, and overwhelming joy engulfed him, and the only way he could make it stop was to look at her.
Sydney's face was the very depiction of calm, and in a way, looking at it made Vaughn feel calm, too. There was some color in her cheeks again – some sign of life that kept him going as he, and Jack, and Michael, and Kate ran Sydney back to the caves on a makeshift stretcher.
By the time the sound of falling water reached their ears, they were exhausted, but knew they couldn't stop there. Jack turned and looked at the stunned crowd that had followed them from the beach – from the would-be burial sight – if Sydney had actually been dead like he had said.
"Hey! Back! Everybody move back!"
Kate turned as well and stared into the confused faces of the other survivors. "L-listen to Jack!" she managed to shout, her own voice hoarse and barely heard above the bemused murmur of the gathering.
"Get outta the way!"
Vaughn looked up from Sydney to see the rough southern man, Sawyer, pushing his way through the crowd.
"Anybody mind tellin' me what the (heck) is goin' on here?"
"I believe Mr. Sawyer is right."
Heads turned. There stood Sark, just as outspoken and strangely arrogant as ever, despite the fact that he could barely walk. "We all have a right to know why we nearly buried a – "
"Shut your mouth, son," snapped Sawyer. "The grown-ups are talking."
"Sawyer…" Kate sighed.
"We don't have time for this!" Jack said irritably. "We've got to get her water…I've got to run a response analysis…"
"Now you've lost me, doc," said Sawyer, his voice dark.
"Look." Jack's face was flushed, and he was sweating badly, obviously he was in no mood to deal with any more questions. "I'm in no mood to deal with any more questions. I need time to work on the patient…"
"Jack," Vaughn whispered. "It's okay."
At this, Jack seemed to relax a bit, and slipped into his high-speed-doctor-mode.
"She's lost a lot of blood," Jack said, shaking his head. "We need to find someone that has the same blood type as her, so that we can get more into her. Do you know her blood type, Vaughn?"
Vaughn thought for a moment. "A positive."
"Does anyone have an A positive blood type?" Jack asked loudly to the crowd.
The chattering stopped. Boone pushed through. "I do. What do you need me to do?"
Charlie and Melanie were still walking through the jungle. Charlie had grabbed a long branch and was now proceeding to poke the stick into the dirt randomly. Melanie was walking backwards, watching him with a raised eyebrow. "WHAT are you doing?" she finally asked.
Charlie shrugged. "Marking our path, I guess. I'm not Locke—and seeing as he didn't show up, we won't be able to get back to camp if we don't have a…visible, really bloody clear trail to follow."
Melanie nodded, finally getting it. "Ohhh… Good idea!"
"I know."
"Well, don't get too smug," Melanie said, laughing and shaking her head.
"You think you should be walking backwards in a jungle like this one?" Charlie asked.
"Why not?"
"I don't know," Charlie said sarcastically. "Between the polar bears, the insane gunmen, the French chick, and the 'others'—oh, and the bleeding monster, whatever it is—something tells me that you shouldn't be doing that."
"Polar bears?" Melanie asked, shaking her head. "Are you kidding?"
Charlie's eyes widened, and he grinned, positively joyful at the thought of telling the story. "No! I'm serious! There were polar bears—two of 'em at least!"
"Did you see any penguins carrying sporks around?" Melanie teased.
Charlie's face became serious. "No. But I did see a badger with a spoon. But I think that might've been the withdrawal talking."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he wanted to slap himself. SODDING IDIOT! He screamed in his head.
"Withdrawal?" Melanie asked. "Like, drug withdrawal?"
Charlie hung his head. "Yeah."
"That what you told Claire this morning?"
"Yeah."
"Well, she's an idiot then," Melanie said. Charlie could tell from the tone in her voice that she wasn't smiling anymore. He looked up.
"What do you mean?"
Melanie closed her eyes. "Your hands aren't shaking. You look perfectly healthy…other than your scars, of course. You aren't jumpy—really jumpy anyway. It's pretty obvious that you aren't using anymore."
Charlie stared at her, surprised and speechless. After a moment of stammering, he finally choked out, "How did you—"
"My brother was a user," Melanie said, a sad look coming across her face. "He died. He got high and drove his car off a bridge. I knew all of the symptoms, because I went to get his jacket to wear to a concert, and these little baggies fell out. I talked to him about it at the concert…and that night he killed himself with the car and all."
Charlie stopped, staring at her in shock. "I—I'm sorry… I shouldn't've brought that up…"
"It happened when I was ten," Melanie said, shaking her head and brushing away tears. She was still walking backwards. "He was seventeen… I'm fine."
Charlie gazed at Melanie with new eyes.
"It's not your fault," he stated.
Melanie said, "Huh?"
"You didn't cause your brother to die. And it's not your fault that Carter is, uh, missing."
"I know."
"You do?"
"Sure." Melanie shrugged, and turned around. "But when I see him again, I am going to hit him so hard for scaring me!"
Charlie laughed, finding new inspiration in this girl's hope and spirit. "And you can't blame yourself either," she said.
"For what?" Charlie had stopped laughing. They were marching again.
"For Claire. She'll be back, you know."
"Yeah…I hope so."
After that, they talked about good things. Happy things. Far away from the topics of drugs and uncertainty. At that moment, they knew they were going to find Carter and they knew everything was okay. They talked about Sydney and how Jack would save her, and how they would be getting home soon.
Across the island, the crowds had slowly filtered out of the caves. After all, Sydney was just lying there, breathing slowly, Vaughn at her side. Not much to see, anymore. They all went off to find something better to do.
Except for Sayid. He sat staring at the gun case, concentration etched in every line of his dark face.
I think, he thought, it is about time to take control again.
END OF CHAPTER
Lils: WHOOO! Sorry…I'm just so excited! The next chapter is going to be action-packed, lemme tell ya! BUT YOU MUST REVIEW!
Jaye: Well, people, here we are, at the end of chapter seven! I feel so special! Well…since Lils got to have a conversation with Marshall, I want one with Charlie! Hey, Charlie, how ya doin'?
Charlie: Erm. Where are we?
Jaye: ON MY COMPUTER!
Charlie: ((blinks))
Jaye: OMG YOU ARE SO ADORABLE! ((clings to Charlie and squeals))
Melanie and Claire and many other Dom/Charlie/Merry fangirls: ((growl and pull out knives…pointy knives…knives that burn with the flames of a thousand evils!))
Charlie: ((terrified look))
Jaye: Teehee.
Lils: Eh…oy Jaye, oy Charlie…oy fangirls. You know what? You can't kill Jaye just yet because she has to help with the next chapter! ((earns murderous glares from fangirls)) Anyway…like I said…review!