Notes: Sorry It's been forever since I've updated this one... At this point I'm hoping that the story is taking a big change from the show, I'm going to try to do a more original story than just placing my character in certain situations after this one...Anyway, I hope you like it... please review!

It had been a while since Daphne had really been involved in the matters of the island. She was a little withdrawn, for she feared that if she spent too much time around the other survivors she would let something slip, and if she did that… the results would not be good.

After Henry had been found out, security around the hatch was extra tight. There was no chance that it would be unoccupied again and she would be able to sneak in a conversation with the prisoner… not that she really wanted to, but if she didn't talk to him soon, she was sure that their stories wouldn't match up exactly right. And the person she would've thought she would spend the most time with appeared to be exactly the strung-out loser that everyone had warned her he was.

Like everyone else she was surprised to see a number of events unravel on the island in the last few days. Apparently there had been a lockdown in the hatch, which she was completely unaware of until she noticed Locke's injury. She had noticed Locke limping just a bit before, like some kind of harbinger of what was to come.

Previously she had almost hoped that he would be on crutches… there was something about him that she didn't quite trust. He was too happy to be here and too ready to trust everyone with a good story… she wished that Locke better saw through her charade, that someone would confront her and say "Hey, you know you're story really doesn't match up with what you said before…" but no one did.

There was also that weird parachute filled with boxes and boxes of Dharma Initiative food… she almost wished she could talk to Henry about where those things came from. She was pretty sure he knew.

So Daphne continued on with the whole gathering black stones for Bernard bit. She brought another few rocks to the big SOS dug out in the sand but realized quickly that Bernard had left and that only a small portion of the letters had been written out.

"Um… excuse me, Mr, uh, Bernard?" she said, approaching Rose and Bernard who were sitting on a tarp, holding hands and watching the sun go down on the beach.

"Yes?"

"What happened to the whole SOS thing?"

"Just forget it. It's not going to work anyway," he said and gave her a funny little smile.

Before Daphne could reply, Jack and Kate rushed in from the jungle with a man in their arms. He was out cold and looked like he had been through absolute hell. They set him down beneath a shady tarp and brought him water.

Daphne rushed with the rest of the crowd to see what was going on. At seeing his face she recognized the man immediately. Michael. Jack splashed water on the unconscious Michael and after a bit of shaking, the man came to.

"Michael… Michael, can you hear me?" Jack demanded.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," he replied blearily. "But, Jack… I was there, and things were… I need Walt, Jack. I have to get him back."

"First things first, you need to rest and you need to stay still for a bit. Too much excitement right now is the last thing you need, it could just make your condition worse…"

"Daphne?" Michael interrupted.

"What… you know Daphne?" Jack asked.

All eyes turned toward Daphne.

"I… I don't remember… when did I meet you?" Daphne stuttered.

"When I ran away, I think I… damn it, I can't quite remember either," Michael said quietly and with little energy. A lot was missing from his memory, and there were a lot of holes in what he had learned about these Others. But he still recalled some things, and that was enough.

That was why he came back. He knew more about them than they had ever wanted to divulge, but without help that knowledge was useless. He needed a few helping hands to get his on back… thinking about it too hard made him black out. He was out cold.

"Daphne, you met Michael before, and I'm sure you could remember. If you just concentrate, we could get Libby to try to help again…" Jack said.

"No, I think it'll come back in time if I just rest and think about it a bit, if I try too hard I might end up like him," she gestured toward the fainted Michael.

"I can't imagine what it's like to be in Michael's situation," Claire told Daphne as she rocked Aaron to sleep. "I mean, Aaron was taken from me once, but it was for less than a day… and I was devastated for such a long time after that."

"Aaron was taken from you? By the Others?"

"Oh, no… by Rousseau."

"She took him? Just a bit ago we were trekking through the jungle with her like we were old chums."

"I needed her help. And, she gave him back to Charlie when he found her, so it was all okay in the end I guess."

"Oh… wait, Charlie saved him?"

"Yeah… he was, well, helpful at least."

"He's not Aaron's father."

"No, he's not. His biological father, Thomas, well, I don't ever want to see him again."

"Thomas… my boyfriend's name was Thomas. Well, Tommy. Before all of this."

"I guess we've got a couple of things in common," Claire said and smiled faintly, wishing to get off of this subject and cooing to Aaron.

"So, were you and Charlie like… an item?" Daphne asked, hoping that she wasn't getting too personal.

"Well, no. But he kind of took care of Aaron like a father, he just assumed the role. I never asked him to. But, I can't let him do that anymore."

"When did you find out about the, uh, drugs?"

"Just a little bit before you showed up," she replied. "I never knew… he always acted pretty normal. You know how addicts usually are, all testy and temperamental?"

Daphne nodded. She knew exactly what Claire meant.

"He was never like that. He was always really caring, really sweet… that's all I can remember about him. And the whole peanut butter thing," she grinned slightly. "Until the whole baptism incident, he was just… Charlie. "

"Do you think he was using all along?"

"I really hope he wasn't, and I feel like he told me the truth. But I can't trust my instinct, I trusted Charlie and he had a whole stash of heroin hidden away all along that he never told me about."

"Oh…" was all Daphne could muster. She had never let Charlie finish that little chat a bit ago. Just because he had it didn't mean he was using, not that it made much sense. Maybe he was trying to prove to himself that he could restrain himself. She had changed her mind about Charlie so many times on the island she didn't really know what to think.

"Daph," Daphne heard in her left ear as she was repeatedly poked in the shoulder. She turned.

"What?" she shouted with exasperation as she turned her upper body to face him, knocking over her pencil.

He picked it up and placed it back delicately on the desk. "Look," the boy said, pointing with the Sharpie in his left hand to the nails on the right hand, which he had colored in with the black marker so his fingernails were black as well.

"Oi'm Chah-lie Pace," he said with an extremely forced, terrible fake British accent.

"Shut up, Billy," she laughed and smacked him in the back of the head, but in a playful manner. Since Daphne had told him about the whole meeting Driveshaft incident he had stopped acting like Liam and started acting like Charlie. He had even taken up guitar and bass. Anything for Daphne. They had been best friends since they were little kids and he had liked her for years, but no matter what he did he couldn't catch her attention.

"At least you turned around this time," he said, smiling. Sometimes she ignored him completely and stared at the magazine clip-outs in her binder and he would have to wave his hand in front of her face to break her gaze.

Now that she was at least kind of listening to him, it was his chance.

"Daph, will you go to Spring Fling with me?"

"What?"

"I'm serious. Will you go?"

"But dances are stupid, Billy."

"No, it'll be fun. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…"

"Okay! Just shush yourself."

"…eeeeeease."

"I said yes, Billy."

"Oh! Okay, rad."

The bell rang and class started. The kids settled down and all went silent.

"Class, you may notice the new student sitting in back," announced Mr. George the English teacher, fixing his tie with one hand and motioning toward the back of the classroom with the other.

Everyone had noticed except Daphne. She didn't notice him because she was staring so fixedly at her folder.

"Tommy, would you like to introduce yourself?" Mr. George prompted him to present himself to the rest of the class.

"Um, hi. I'm Tommy, I'm 13 years old… um…" he trailed off, nervous, and reasonably so. He had just moved from England to Southern California without much time to really get himself accustomed to the place. He didn't know if the kids here would be nice to him or if they would treat him like a pile of crap. At home he had been relentlessly taunted for being smaller than the other boys his age.

Daphne had other thoughts… she couldn't help being reminded of Charlie by this boy. She gave a little sigh as she listened to him stutter.

Billy on the other hand was already resentful that this new kid had shown up. He knew that Daphne would be all over him soon, with his stupid little accent and crooked teeth…that was just the kind of obsessive person she was.

"It's okay, Tommy. How about you tell us where you came from, what are your likes? Your interests?" Mr. George encouraged Tommy.

"Well, I'm from Manchester, England…"

Manchester… that's where Charlie's from! Daphne thought to herself.

"…and I, um, my favourite colour is green, and my favourite band is Driveshaft…"

No way… Daphne thought.

"No way…" Billy said quietly to himself in anguish. Hell no, this was not happening.

"Would anyone like to escort Tommy around the school, show him where his classes are, where the multi-purpose room is, help him get comfortable?" Mr. George asked.

Daphne's hand shot up. Billy's hand quickly followed. He couldn't let her fall for the new kid, not after all he had down for her.

"Okay. Daphne, Billy, come on."

The three students left the classroom and walked out into the quad.

"Hi, I'm Daphne," she said, holding out a hand to him.

He shyly shook her hand. "Tommy," he said.

"And I'm Billy…" Billy butted in. "…her boyfriend," he added.

"What? No you're not, you're just…"

"But you said yes…"

"That doesn't mean anything I just…"

"I assumed that…"

"…to shut you up…"

Billy and Daphne continued to quarrel while Tommy stood close by, watching all the while. Was this what all Americans were like? Hell…

"You know what, I'm going back to class, do what you want with your little Driveshaft buddy," Billy spat.

"Billy, wait," she said as he rushed back to class, but she made no effort to follow him, because she still had the responsibility of showing Tommy around.

"Sorry about that… follow me," she apologized to the poor boy that had been forced to stand through the break-up of two people he had just met.

"…did I …do that?" he asked, worried that he had been the catalyst for the split.

"No… I think it was kind of inevitable. We didn't ever really like each other that much," she lied, because she knew that he was crazy for her and she had always liked him to some extent. But not as much as she liked Charlie.

"Sorry about your… rather rocky relationship."

"It's fine. So, I hear you like Driveshaft?"

"Yeh, I think they're bloody brilliant."

Daphne smiled. 'Bloody' had been her favorite word for quite a bit now.

"I totally think so too," she agreed. "But Charlie's really the most brilliant of them all."

"He writes all the songs," Tommy concurred. "Liam's just the poster-boy. And those other two guys… well, drum and guitar are necessary for any rock group."

She realized soon that he wasn't as shy as he initially appeared. As soon as the two were familiar he opened up and the two soon found out that they had a great deal in common. The sadness she felt for losing Billy was overshadowed by the delight of meeting this miniature Charlie.

Tommy, however, saw exactly what had happened between Daphne and Billy. Behind her back he had approached Billy and talked about the situation. The two soon became close friends and despite Daphne's requests, he was soon a part of the group. Before long he learned that Daphne only liked him because of his resemblance to and idolisation of Charlie.

At first he was a little irritated, but soon he fell for her and it barely mattered anymore. All the while he attempted to make Daphne see that he and Charlie were different people. Tommy wanted Daphne to like him for himself. But Daphne liked Charlie, and that was that.

"Charlie, what'cha doing?" Daphne asked, walking up behind Charlie who was helping Eko build something.

"Oh, so you're speaking to me again," he joked. He found it odd that she had suddenly stopped following him around like a lost puppy after they had spoken last week.

"Hmm, oh. Yeah."

"Church," he answered. Daphne remembered reading that Charlie was a devout Catholic. She herself, being a bit non-religious besides celebrating extremely commercialized Christmases and Easters, had actually thought about converting but decided against it.

"Awesome…" she replied, with other things on her mind. "Charlie, did you ever do the heroin in the statues?"

"Getting right to the point, are we?" he said. "Well, to answer your question, no. I've been clean since about a week after we landed."

"Why haven't you told Claire?"

"Look, it's nice that you care about my relationships, but really…"

"No, Charlie. She told you she needed space. Time to heal. You've given her time. It's time to talk to her again. Give her the peanut butter, make things good again."

Charlie looked at her for a long time. "Daphne, you can't know how I've hurt her. I lied to her. And our best times together, the times before the baby was born, when I think she loved me…" he stopped.

"What, Charlie?"

"She doesn't remember any of it. Because of them. The Others. They took her away from me. Call me selfish, but I hate that more than I hate the deaths they've caused. I loathe them more for stealing her away than I do for them hanging me up by my neck in a tree."

"They… did what?"

"They tried to kill me," he said, almost emotionless. "I think they actually might've… I wasn't breathing when Jack found me."

Daphne didn't know they had almost killed Charlie… she almost didn't believe it. Was it because she had almost escaped? Was it…

"Hey, have you seen Jack?" Ana-Lucia came storming through the jungle, yelling.

"No," Charlie answered, "What's wrong? Is someone hurt?"

"No," Ana-Lucia replied. "Jack's missing."