PLEASE REVIEW IF YOU WANT ANOTHER CHAPTER!
Chapter 12
"Very sexy!" He said mockingly, smiling at the funny face she was doing.
She hit him hard on his shoulder, an effect of the alcohol she had been drinking, "Like you do it better," she stuttered.
"You're daring me honey?" He was easily amused too after only a couple of drinks.
They felt like a normal couple for the first time since they've met. The burden of parenthood was temporarily lifted off their shoulders by having Boones cousin Stephanie taking care of Aaron for the night. The alcohol had somehow sneaked in because Claire had constantly been worrying about her son. Their first real date and they were both drunk, isn't that ironic? Perhaps there was the pressure of taking their relationship to the next level too, they hadn't done that yet (despite sleeping in the same bed), and the time was coming up when her body would be ready for it. It was scaring for both of them.
"You up to it?"
She was almost giggling now.
Boone looked at her like she was crazy but then he gave in making a really silly face, which would had scared any person in it's right mind. It didn't scare her, though; instead Claire was almost lying on the floor, laughing so hard.
"You're not that sexy either when you do like that," she finally managed to say.
"Are you saying that you think I'm sexy otherwise?" He asked her curiously.
Their eyes met and sparkles flew through the air. She blushed at the question, "I'm not saying anything"
She zipped on her drink.
"My lips are sealed"
Boone smiled sneaking, "Let's see about that"
A couple of memories forever burned into her brain, that was all she had now, bits and pieces of the happiest time in her life.
The tears came again…
"I'm sorry Boone. I'm sorry that we didn't get more time together"
Claire swallowed, building up her strength again, for her baby's sake.
"We'll make it through this," her voice was barely above a whisper
She didn't know where in the room Aaron was, but she knew that he was in there; her mother instinct told her that.
During the last hour she had been able to calm down, if only enough to think about where she was. A basement, she had decided, seemed like the right answer. Her ears sharpened to the sound of a can rolling over the concrete floor.
Her body was shivering, "Who's there?"
"Anxious to know, huh?" A man's voice replied. It was clearly an American accent, local too, she guessed.
"What do you say, precious? You're tired of being kept in the dark?" He turned on the light pointedly.
Claire blinked, her eyes adjusting. After a while she could see who was standing in front of her. She stared in chock.
"Can you help me, John?" Boone asked frankly.
Locke cocked his head, like he was thinking about it.
"I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to say that it's going to be easy – a walk in a park. We have no clue, whatsoever, of who might have done this or where to begin"
Locke studied Boone. He had changed somehow during the last couple of months, grown. Yet he looked incredible small at the moment.
"I will not give up on her" He held his cup of coffee tightly, still surprised that his mind had been clear enough to make it. A tear was threatening to surface again.
He said it again, to make sure that Locke was listening. "I won't give up on her Locke. I won't"
He looked up. Pity. That was what was showing in Locke's eyes.
"Boone…"
"Don't," Boone's voice was harsh, "Don't you dare to pity me. I haven't lost her yet. You're wasting time; we should be out there – trying to find them."
He trailed off.
"Instead you want coffee!" He slammed down his cup against the table, getting up from his chair he continued.
"I don't know why I even called you. It's not like you were a great help the last time she was kidnapped. We just happened to find her, remember?"
Locke was hurt by Boone's behaviour but he knew that it was just his fear that was causing him to act like this.
"I know that you're terrified of losing her Boone, but if you don't focus, that might be exactly what you will do"
Boone nodded shortly.
"What can I do?"
"I don't know you"
"That might be what you think Claire, if you don't mind me calling you that, but you and me are connected in so many ways"
There was something about the mans voice that made her whole body to tense, that made her feel inferior and vulnerable (not only the fact that she was all those things), his face rugged face showed that he had been through some rough times in his life. Claire fleetingly thought that he must be around forty years old, give or take but that was pretty much what she could tell.
"Where's my baby?" She asked weakly.
"Your son? He's not yours. He belongs to me! You were supposed to give him to us!" The man was practically screaming at her now.
Rugging back, as far as she could get to the cold brick wall, she let it all in. It made perfect sense now, the feeling that she recognised him, but at the same time knew that she never had met him. This was the person Aaron would've had as a father if she had decided to go through with the adoption. Lucas Brighton, 43 years old from L.A. She defiantly saw the similarities of this man and the man she had seen in the picture that the psychic man had showed her. The same blonde sun stroked hair, same significant cheekbones and even similar type of clothes (sweatpants). The big difference was that he wasn't smiling or holding his wife around her waist now.
"I-I'm sorry. Things happened"
Staring hardly at her Lucas paced before her in the room.
"I don't think an excuse is exactly going to cut it this time"
Her eyes widened, knowing that she couldn't talk herself out of this.
"What do you want from me?"
In a harsh tone he continued, "It seems like destiny has given me a second chance. You see, I almost didn't believe it when I saw you walking across the street all those months ago. I followed you and since then I've never let you out of my sight."
He laughed, "I made a fortune out of it too, but that was just a bonus"
She interrupted him, "You want Aaron, don't you? Then if you do, why didn't you just take him, why did you take me as well?"
"You're a really nosy person. If you just stopped babbling for one second, I was going to tell you."
"I'm…"
He slapped her in her face. Shocked she looked at him, not able to do anything else, felling her cheek burning.
"Shut up!"
The slap was a wake up call, a harsh one. Until then Claire had succeeded to be relatively calm but now she was beginning to fall into pieces, at least on the inside.
Her subconscious told her that she had been through something like this before, but she couldn't recall when or how. Boone had hinted that something had happened on the Island but every time she tried to dig deeper, to get a clue of what had happened, he'd avoided the subject. She always gave up too, knowing that there was no point in forcing him to tell her, though she felt like she deserved to know it. After all, it was her life.
Despite feeling a hint of anger towards him each and every tine she wanted to know about her two missing weeks, she never told him that she felt that way, he was too precious to her to get in a stupid fight.
His face was only a couple of inches from hers. Staring hard into her eyes he continued to tell her.
"You want to know what I want? I want a normal life, I want a family. You took away my only chance to that" His voice was shaky and for a while Claire actually thought she saw a tear streaming down his face. He became silent for a couple of seconds, standing up again.
Leaning against a pool table he went on.
"I'm not a bad man, Claire. I've never done a single thing before this, to hurt a person, and I don't want to hurt you either but I have no other option. I love my wife so much that I would do anything for her"
Insecurely she asked, "You can still adopt, can't you?"
Lucas nodded, "Technically, yes, but this man said that we should have any other baby then one coming from you. That it was written in our destinies. You have ruined this one, he said – pointing towards Aaron, that was lying well hidden in a crib across the room, but rumours tell me that you have another one growing inside of you…"