A/N: OK you guys have been waiting for Charlie, so here he is. This story is screwing with me; I can't separate what I wrote from what is really happening. When the season finally starts up again, all this will seem really strange compared to what JJ has written.

Chapter 12

"Charzli…Shcharlie…Charlie!"

Who was that? Someone was calling his name.

Charlie could hear someone speaking, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Who was that? Someone he knew. God damn it! He was so confused! He tried to move, but instantly felt a splitting pain in his shoulder, and his head throbbed.

Slowly, Charlie opened his eyes and looked around at the blurry landscape. Wow he was dizzy. The person was standing above him. As his eyes became focused, Charlie recognized the figure. It was definitely someone he knew, but hadn't the Others captured him?

"Jin?" Charlie slurred as he lay in the dirt.

Jin kneeled down and spoke some Korean which Charlie had no way of understanding. He laid his hand on Charlie, signaling for him to stay still. Regaining some clarity of what was happening, Charlie suddenly remembered the fall he had taken as he ran away from the monster and the events leading up to that.

Charlie began to sit up, it was hard work, his neck ached badly, but somehow he reached a sitting position. That brought on a new wave of nausea. Charlie looked at his shoulder which felt like it had been run over by a steamroller. He could see that it didn't look normal, fantastic, it was bruised and the muscles were oddly bunched together. Charlie looked away; he was aware of Jin trying to speak to him, but instead, the British man fell back onto the ground and closed his eyes wearily. He fainted.

Jin was poking him, trying to keep him from losing consciousness.

"Bloody hell," he murmured, "okay, I'm up!"

Charlie opened his eyes once again, Jin was still there, but he could see that the sun had sunk a bit farther down the canopy sky.

"….Walk…." Charlie picked up the English word Jin was trying to tell him.

"Yeah, okay I'll walk." Charlie tried to get up, Jin helped him. Briefly, Charlie lost his vision standing and wavered precariously, but then managed to regain it and look around. He was standing in a rocky ravine, deserted of water. No doubt he had fallen in it in an attempt to escape the thing in the jungle.

"This is going to be one hell of a walk." Charlie spoke bitterly to himself. It felt as if every step he took, his body vibrated with pain. It was slow going, but soon they made their way out of the ravine and up into the forest. Charlie repeatedly had to rest as he would get light headed and weak. He just hoped Jin could find the camp, because they were screwed royally if Jin was going to rely on Charlie to find it.

They came across a small stream and the two gladly drank from it. The water looked a little questionable, but neither of them cared much. It was a relief to wet his face and wash some of the dirt out of his cuts. After their break, they continued on in what they hoped was the right direction. Note to self: Stop going out into the forest. Charlie spoke in his head, trying to get it ingrained in his memory so he would never have another one of these incidents.

After an hour of wandering through the wild, Charlie finally recognized something familiar. It was the old cockpit from the plane. He remembered being here their second day after the crash with Jack and Kate. Similarly, they had also been chased by the monster that day.

Jin had never seen the cockpit before and he looked at it excitedly. He pointed and said something in Korean.

"Jin, we saw it already." Charlie tried to make him understand, "Seriously, you don't want to go in there."

Charlie started heading in the opposite direction and Jin had no choice but to follow him. The long, hard walk back to the camp finally proved the effort as they reached society again. Jin helped Charlie over to Jack who was talking to Kate.

"Charlie, what happened?" He questioned.

"Fell, is Sayid back?" Charlie asked.

"No, he was supposed to be with you." Kate spoke, looking confused.

Jack examined Charlie's arm. "Looks like you pulled quite a few muscles, nothing broken though." Jack guided him over to his tent and Charlie sat down next to Desmond who watched them. Jack did his magic and pushed the muscles back into place.

"Why don't you rest here for awhile." He advised, then went back to Kate and left the two of them.

"What happened out there, brother?" Desmond asked once Jack was gone.

"Fell down a ravine."

"Humph, well I guess you know me, but what's your name?" Desmond asked.

"Charlie, I'm the recovering drug addict on the island." Charlie decided to bring him up to pace.

"Yeah, and I'm the crazy hatch man." He laughed a little, "What part of England are you from, brother?"

"Manchester."

"Really, I've got relatives there."

"That's cool, so I can't believe they found you down there, when the hatch collapsed." Charlie said as he looked over the Scottish man.

"Good riddance. That's one less blasted thing to worry about, but of course this bloody island will give us something else to drive us mad." Desmond spoke with anger in his voice.

"I don't know, seems like everything is finally turning around for me." Charlie mused, "I couldn't get a break back home. My band fell apart mostly because of drugs, sex, and fame. Here, you know everybody, back there you pass people on the street and never see them again."

"Well it's different once you've been stranded here for three years with one other person. You have someone on the island?" Desmond asked as he picked up a rounded stone and looked at how perfect it was.

Charlie was taken back by the question, "What do you mean?"

"Someone you care about right here." Desmond cleared up.

"Um, yeah. Claire and Aaron." Charlie told him, remembering their kiss.

"Lucky," Desmond laughed, "I knew a woman back home. Her father's the reason I'm here right now." Charlie saw the pain in his eyes as he spoke. "Her name was Penny." Desmond continued, "And God, I'd do anything to get to her. The one girl I loved thinks I'm dead."

"I'm sorry." Charlie tried to fill the silence that was between them."

"Nah, don't feel sorry for me." Desmond hurled the rock; it hit the sand hard and created a small crater. "I'm pretty much already dead."

A/N: Yeah! My two favorite characters were in this chapter, Desmond and Charlie. Read and review. Reviews are cool. And I wants it. I'm addicted to it. Chinchillas are friends not furs!