Thank s so much for all the fantastic reviews, guys! I'm so so so sorry about theshameful delay between the chapters of this story, and I certainly hope that you will all be happy with this one. After this, there will be ONE MORE CHAPTER, and let's all cross our fingers that there won't be as much of a time gap until it gets put up!
Chapter Three
The baby was covered in blood. Its tiny face was scrunched up as it let out a high-pitched wail. It cried, and cried, and cried, and its little hands grasped at the air.
A boy. It was a boy. Jack announced this proudly as he cleaned off the baby's mouth and nose before handing him over to Claire, who hugged the baby, her baby, who she had put so much strain and desperation into bringing into this world. She had tears in her glassy blue eyes as she gazed down at her little boy in her arms, and she had never looked so beautiful before in Charlie's eyes.
Her cheeks were flushed, her face was slick with sweat, her lips were dry and chapped, and her hands had been clammy when Charlie had held him in his before she had let go to take her baby, her beautiful baby boy.
Soon Charlie felt his vision fogging with tears at the site of the woman he loved with her child. He couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at the sight. Claire had been so strong, and so brave, despite how painful the experience had been and how tiring it had been for her small body.
Jack gave the pair one last smile, and then stood up and quietly left them, gone unnoticed by Charlie or Claire. He joined Kate at the edge of the clearing, and the two of them gazed at the new family lovingly from a distance.
Charlie gazed down at the tiny baby that nestled its way into its mother's chest. His screams had stopped upon being placed in Claire's arms, and he now appeared to be sleeping soundly.
"Charlie?" whispered Claire, breaking the tranquil silence that had fallen over the clearing.
Charlie tore his eyes off of the baby and looked at Claire, finding that she was gazing back at him with glistening eyes that were now heavily lidded with fatigue. He could tell that she was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.
"Yes, Claire?"
She struggled to keep her eyes open as she groped blindly for his hand, the hand she had squeezed to death and dug her fingernails brutally into during the intense moments of her childbirth. Charlie took her hand delicately in his, and she gave it a soft squeeze.
"Charlie," she whispered again, much softer this time. Her eyes fell shut, and she murmured out, "I love you."
She said it so softly that Charlie thought he might have imagined it, but his heart still skipped a beat.
Charlie leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, letting his lips linger on her warm, soft skin, still slightly moist with sweat.
"I love you too," he whispered.
He let his lips linger against her forehead for a moment, and didn't see the small smile playing on the lips of the presumably asleep Claire.
&&&
"Jack, can I talk to you about something?"
Jack looked up from the water bottle he was filling to find Charlie standing by the small waterfall, fidgeting with the hem of his hoodie and shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other.
"Sure, Charlie. I was just about to head down to the beach with some water. Do you want to give me a hand? We can talk on the way."
Charlie nodded swiftly and bit down on his lower lip.
Charlie and Jack finished filling the water bottles together in silence before loading them into their backpacks, hoisting them up onto their shoulders, and starting off on the familiar trail that led to the beach.
"Claire will be at the beach," Charlie thought, though he didn't know whether to be joyful or nervous about this. Either way, the thought made his heart lurch.
His mind was so preoccupied with this thought he didn't even realize that Jack was speaking to him.
"Wh-what?" stammered Charlie as he came back to his senses.
Jack gave him a little half smile/half smirk before repeating himself.
"I just asked you what it is you wanted to talk to me about."
"Oh yeah," Charlie mumbled, gazing down at his shoes.
He adjusted the pack of water on his shoulders, cleared his throat twice, and bit his lip until it turned pale before finally raising his head and meeting Jack's gaze.
"It's just," he began, then stopped again and looked back down at his shoes before continuing. "It's Claire.
"Claire?"
Charlie nodded.
"What about her?" Jack asked nonchalantly, though he had a knowing smile on his lips.
Charlie gave a half-hearted shrug without looking up from the ground.
"I really like her," he said quietly.
"I know," Jack replied as if Charlie had just stated that fish can swim.
Charlie nodded briefly, then froze in his tracks as the impact of Jack's words hit him.
"Wait a minute," he gushed, gaping at Jack disbelievingly. "You KNOW? You KNOW that I like her?"
"It wasn't exactly hard to figure it out Charlie. Come here, let's sit down," said Jack in a tone that was just a tad too therapeutic for Charlie's comfort.
He set down his heavy back and sat gingerly on the jungle floor with his back up against a large tree, and Jack sat on the ground across from him.
Charlie hugged his knees to his chest before he began.
"When I'm around her, I feel things that I've never felt for anybody before," Charlie said softly.
Jack nodded and gave him a small encouraging smile. That was all it took.
"I just look at her, and I know that I want to take care of her. She's just so beautiful, and so sweet, and so perfect, and I'm afraid that I'll never be good enough for her. But I really WANT to be good enough for her! I want to find a way to be good enough to take care of her and her baby. I love them. I love them both. But I just can't find a way to tell her that. And even if I did, that doesn't change the fact that I'll never be good enough to kiss the ground she walks on."
"You practically already do, Charlie," stated Jack levelly.
Charlie sighed heavily and sank back against the tree, exhausted from his outburst.
"I just don't know what to do."
"What do you mean you don't know what to do?"
"Well I can't exactly tell her how I feel, can I? Why on earth would she want a guy like me taking care of her and her baby? If I do tell her, she'll probably have Locke hunt me down and slaughter me like a boar for being a creepy obsessive stalker."
He moaned softly and rested his head in his hands. His heroine withdrawal hadn't been giving him much trouble lately, but when he felt overly stressed or upset, he would often get headaches or chills, and sometimes even found himself craving a fix.
"Charlie," said Jack, nudging some Tylenol into his hand, which Charlie gratefully accepted. "If Claire was going to send Locke after you, I'm sure she would have done it by now. You've been taking care of her so much lately, if she thought you were in any way creepy or obsessive, she definitely would have done something about it by now."
Determined to wipe the doubtful look off of Charlie's face, Jack leaned in and said, "Look, I know that Claire likes you too."
"How?"
"As she was going into labor, she kept asking for you. I kept telling her to lay back and start pushing, but she refused. She just kept begging for somebody to bring you to her. Finally I sent Kate off to get you. Claire wouldn't listen to a word I said until you showed up."
Charlie blinked in disbelief, his eyes no longer clouded with doubt, but now filled with hope.
"Really?"
Jack leaned back again, now fully satisfied.
"You bet."
Charlie beamed and clamored quickly to his feet.
"Brilliant! Thanks a bunch Jack. I'll send you a signed CD once we get back home, I promise."
And with that, Charlie took off into the trees in the direction of the beach, no doubt to find Claire.
Jack smiled into the trees that Charlie had disappeared into, and swung both his water-filled backpack and Charlie's onto his shoulders before trudging off into the trees in the same direction. He didn't at all mind the extra weight on his shoulders when it was in comparison to the elation he felt at the notion of finally succeeding in getting Charlie to admit his feelings to Claire.
He could only hope that by the time he got back to the beach, there would be a happy new couple waiting there.
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