Author's Note: I don't love this chapter and it was a freaking beast to write. The whole theme of the chapter is Charlie has building the stability he desired for so long. This is really just a transition chapter to build up to jokes and plot twists later. Not a whole lot story a whole lot of fluffy and a hot snogging scene. Enjoy.
Chapter 10 Peanut Butter Day
It was more then just the nightmares that keep Charlie from sleeping it was fear. Bone chilling, paralyzing fear that haunted Charlie nearly every second of the day. It wasn't the fear as much as it was the if's. What if she got hurt? What if someone tried to take Aaron again? What if Daniel got sick? What if we never get off this island? Charlie hadn't slept a full night since Ethan took Claire; the what if's and fear were his bedfellows.
The morning broke away from the rare night that Daniel had slept though. Charlie trudged and into Daniel's room and leaned in the doorway, "Morning little man." Daniel was already up and drawing. "Whatcha got there?"
"Picture." As if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
"What of?" He inched towards the child.
"You." It showed squiggly lines and circles with yellow for the hair. But there was the start of two letters being written next to the picture, and if Charlie looked hard enough he could see the letters D and A.
"What's this?"
"Dad. Because that's who you are." Daniel tried the words, unsure of the impact of the meaning, but still it was worth trying.
A lump started to form in Charlie's throat. "You think I'm your dad?"
The little boy shook his head, "No, I want you to be my dad." He put his chubby little finger to his chin and tapped it. "But I'm not going to call you that in front of other people, because then EVERYONE would want you."
Charlie embraced Daniel, his tiny little body being nearly crushed under Charlie's arms. In a low voice, he tried to keep steady, "You can call me that when are alone." The little boy nodded into Charlie's chest. Charlie cleared his throat when he remembered he was British and he doesn't show emotion, "Come Little Man, let's get you dressed." Charlie picked up the picture, folded it and placed it in his back pocket.
Jacob wanted to speak to Charlie before he taught the children their piano lessons today. Jacob was always grave when he spoke to Charlie about issues that didn't involve music or the house or his daughters.
"Do you think you were attacked? Was it a warning?" The bearded man asked.
"I don't know."
"Do you want more protection? We can have people walk with you," he offered, but Charlie shook his head no.
It would be putting other people at risk, other people both communities needed for survival and ultimately his life wasn't worth that. The two men chatted, Charlie wanted to ask if it was alright if Daniel started to call him Dad but the words caught in his tongue.
Charlie opened the metal door of the office to find nearly twenty kids standing waiting for him. Josh, the loudest and the eldest who decided to storm Charlie's beach, spoke. "Mr. Charlie, I think we should have a recital."
All the kids nodded furiously in agreement. Josh, their leader, spoke again, "I have a few reasons. One, what's the point in working hard if there is no one to see it?" Charlie rolled his eyes but the boy continued. "Two, our parents want to hear us play. Three, I want to see my girlfriend Kate again."
"What?" Charlie could no longer hide his confusion.
"Four, we want to meet all of your friends. Five, we all promise to be extra good in practice today. EXTRA GOOD."
"You want my friends there?"
As if planned, they squealed, "PPPPLLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE!" The noise was glass shattering.
"Guys, I don't know if my friends would be into that. Its such a long walk and…" Charlie wasn't comfortable with this at all. Daniel had pushed his way to the front and started to squeal too, with his hands folded in prayer. Daniel had never asked for anything from Charlie. He sighed in defeat. "I'll ask, but I'm not going to guarantee anything!"
The children erupted into an explosion of delight. Charlie lifted Daniel on his shoulders. "So Little Man, I've been thinking."
Chubby little fingers pulled at Charlie's face, "yes?"
"Its high time you started to learn about the finer things in life, Floyd, Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. What do you think, you wanna learn how to play the piano?"
Suddenly a little upside down face appeared in front of Charlie's eyes, "Like the big boys?"
"Just like the big boys." Before entering the music room, they were stopped by Jo, who told Daniel to wait as she spoke to Charlie alone. Daniel, always compliant, nodded and left to two adults.
"So, I hear you did a great service to the island a little while ago?" She smirked devilishly.
Charlie was still confused about too many other things to really focus on her meaning.
"What great service? I didn't do anything special."
She shook her head, "Nope, you ridded this island of vermin, a worthless murdering rat named Ethan. And if I told you the full extent of his evil deeds, you would want to resurrect him, just to kill him again. For that reason and another," she wiggled her eyebrows, although what she could be referring to he knew and it made him fell a little ill, "I feel that I owe you a tremendous debt, so if you happened go down to the kitchen area you might find something interesting." Her smirk turned into a full smile. "You can take whatever you want in the shelf, but I would eat it fast, it tends to go bad in a day." She turned and waved, "Tootles, Charlie, I've got to be somewhere much cooler then here."
He shook his head but the confusion refused to let go of its iron grip on Charlie's mind. Finally, after playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star seven times with Daniel (the child only got as far as, "How I wonder.") Charlie was pleased with the progress.
Charlie poked his head into the kitchen area before he left for his long and lonely walk back to the beach, his eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped. "You've got to be kidding me."
Normally, Charlie's walk back to the beach was lonely and empty and his sprits would rise when he saw the familiar trees of the jungle, but today was different.
On the beach, Claire was tearing through the all her items: clothes, paper, and blankets. "Where is it?" She hissed in her own disgust, how could she lose it? How long had it been lost? She moaned as she dug through the sand.
Charlie's voice startled her, 'Ello, do you know what day it is?"
She sighed. She, like almost everyone, had lost track time. "No, Charlie I don't."
He looked around at the heap of clothes outside of the tent, and saw something that didn't quite belong, "Claire, is that my shirt?"
She looked at it absentmindedly, "Um yeah, I slept in it last night."
Charlie's eyebrows shot half way up his forehead. "Oh." He tried to play it cool, "are you doing a little spring cleaning?"
Claire's eye's scanned around her belongs, "What's up Charlie? What day is it?"
He grabbed her hand and wiggled his eyebrows, "Let's get Aaron and come with me."
She tried to linger in her self-loathing but Charlie's cheer slowly seeped into her as he led her through the jungle. She repeated her question on more time, "What day is it?"
In a clearing lay a blanket complete with food. He put her in front of him so she could get the full extent of view, his smile was nearly blinding, "It Peanut Butter Day."
Claire's jaw dropped a little and in hushed awe, "Charlie, its wonderful." Her eyes scanned the blanket and saw peanut butter and grape jelly, her smile started deep in her stomach. Then she saw something she didn't recognize right away, "Is that what I think it is?"
He wrapped his arms around her waist and nodded, "Yep, that's bread- fresh bread." He didn't need to see her face to know how excited she was; Charlie placed his cheek against hers and felt her smile. Fresh bread was a rare and valuable thing, Claire had not tasted it since first days on the island and everyone was still eating the remains of the airplane food.
They ate their feast. Charlie carefully cut the bread with his knife, (Claire did not mention that it was a little gross since it was the same knife he had killed the boar with) slathered peanut butter and jelly on the slice and handed it to her. The sweet sensation was intoxicating. The bread was light and fluffy with a hard and sour crust it was the perfect; contrast to the sugary topping.
Charlie let Aaron lick a little jelly; the child's eyes grew wide and made a sound like laughter.
Claire watched as Charlie blow on Aaron's tummy and tickled his feet; her heart glowed at the interaction between man and child. This was how it was supposed to be, right?
When Aaron was tuckered out from playing he curled up with the jelly jar and napped. Charlie munched on some of the left over bread and asked Claire about her day.
"Not much happened," Then she remembered with excitement, "Locke found that big arse sea turtle."
Charlie nodded with interest as she continued to talk about her day and finally added, "But this was the best part, right?" He moved to sit with his back against a tree; this also granted him access to wrapping his arms around her waist since she was sitting in front of him.
She leaned back into his chest and sighed, "This is the best part of my week, quite possibly the best event since being on this crappy island."
"I don't know, Aaron's birth was pretty cool."
'Yeah, but this wasn't as painful or scary."
When he reached into his pocket, Daniel's picture flopped out. Claire pounced on it and started to unfold it. "What's this?"
Charlie started to blush a little and was unable to hide his excitement, "It's a picture of me, and I think I look rather dashing."
"You do, but what's these letters up here?"
"DAD. He wants to start calling me Dad." His pride was oozing out of every pore.
A strange pang hit Claire and she was unsure of what it was, jealousy? Fear? Pride? Whatever it was, she was slightly frustrated that a three year old had more faith in Charlie than she did. "How do you feel about this?"
"I dunno know, I know I like it, but I'm not sure how other people are going to feel in the community. Daniel's father was highly respected. I guess it's not a big deal if he calls me that when we're alone." Charlie didn't really answer the question, and he knew it. In all the months he and Claire had been together, then not together and now together, she never referred to Charlie as Aaron's dad. Sure, mentally he considered himself to be the only possible suitor for the position, but he didn't want Claire to feel any pressure. When it came to Daniel she was very hard to read at times, always supportive and interested but sometimes distant. Daniel belonged to Charlie, in her mind- or at least that's what he assumed, and she didn't want to invade.
Charlie used misdirection one more time, "Do you know the importance of Peanut Butter day?"
She settled back into Charlie's chest and put Daniel's picture down. "I'm assuming it has to do with imaginary peanut butter."
"That's correct, today is the anniversary, and well monthiversary of the day you trusted me to give you imaginary peanut butter. And do you know what goes along with monthiversaries? Lavish gifts." Charlie pulled from his pocket an object that made Claire gasp.
Her shell with a tiny hole drilled into to on a dark blue ribbon. She touched it in Charlie's hand and whispered, "I was looking for this all morning. I thought I lost it."
Charlie voice echoed the same tone, "I'm sorry, I took it yesterday after I mastered the fine art of drilling a hole in a shell without shattering it."
She traced the fine lines of the shell with her fingers, "Will you put it on for me?"
He moved her hair out of the way as he lifted the ribbon and wrapped it around her neck. The shell's smooth touch grazed across her bare chest. Charlie held his breath as he tied the ribbon in a bow, staring at the contrast of the color of the ribbon against her skin.
She thanked him and wrapped her fingers around his. Charlie let out a yawn; he had been fighting fatigue all day.
"Am I keeping you awake?" Claire laughed.
"I just haven't been sleeping much." Charlie's eyes focused on the curve of her neck.
"Maybe you should talk to Libby about your nightmares."
"Talking to Libby won't help, it would only freak her out. Besides it isn't the nightmares that keeps me awake most nights."
"Really?" Her curiosity got the better of her, "What is it?"
"You. You're very distracting, Miss Littleton." Charlie answered coyly.
Claire put her hand to her chest and touched the necklace, "Oh really, what's so distracting about me?"
"Lots of things, but mostly your neck." Charlie's voice had changed over the course of this conversation, lower and slightly more hoarse.
"What about my neck?" She tilted her head slightly, exposing more of the desired body part.
"It's pretty and I want to touch it." While his answer was quite simple, it had major implications.
"You only want to touch my neck?" They were going down a new road and she wasn't sure where it was heading, but she wanted to check out the scenery for a while.
"Oh, I want to touch much more than just your neck, but for now that's what's got my attention and keeping me distracted."
"Well, you're a very busy man and you need your sleep." She said wistfully, "maybe if you touched it now, it would get it out of your system and you'd be able to sleep?"
"So this is a…" Charlie questioned, although he certainly enjoyed where this was going.
"A science experiment, data collection, if you will."
"Oh I will." Charlie added gleefully. He moved his hand up her side, never once breaking contact until he reached Mecca. His index finger slowly traced her shoulder, warming her skin and creating goose bumps along the way.
"Chahlie?"
"Yes." His attention was elsewhere.
"Why do you do such wonderful things for me? For Aaron?" Her question was filled with an apprehension Charlie had never heard from her before. Quite frankly, the question left her lips without her even realizing it. She was expecting a three-word answer, what she got was completely different.
His breath followed shortly behind his finger as he traced her neck. "Well, currently you're letting touch your neck, which is pretty cool."
She let out an exasperated sigh, although it sounded more like a moan, "Chahlie."
His fingers and breath inched up towards her ear, "the reasons are purely superficial and self-serving."
Claire's stomach tingled and fires explode up her spine as Charlie's lips grazed her earlobe. Her entire being was focused on his lips, as they touched her, and the words that left them.
"You're stunning, clever and make me laugh, and a sense of humor is a rare thing on this island." His lips lightly kissed down her neck. He was treading in dangerous waters, but Claire didn't seem to be moving away or telling him to stop. In fact, she tilted her neck further back to grant him more access. Her hand caressed his knee, lingered and stayed.
"That's it?" her voice was quiet and shaken.
His mouth moved down towards her shoulder, counting her freckles as he went, "No, I've been after you for your money."
She warned, teasing, "Chahlie."
His kisses started to last longer, instead of quick and light pecks, he started to taste her. "I liked being around you. You're the first thing I think about when I wake up."
Her eyes shut slowly as a small moan left her lips as her hand inched towards his thigh, "Really?"
He continued back on the path he had created with his fingers breath and kisses. "But the whole truth is…" Her stomach tightened as Charlie spoke, "I like the man I am becoming and you are the whole reason I changed. It like this is who I was supposed to be."
He moved slightly to kiss her cheek, "For that, I thank you and I will continue to do as much as I can for you and Aaron."
The blood rushed to her face and it took her a second to respond. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the light again. Claire twisted around, wrapped her arms around his neck and flung both legs around his right leg; he instantly wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her. She smiled half shy, half coy, "Do you know why I like to be around you?"
"My dashing good looks, charm, wit and rock god status?"
She shook her head and leaned in close. "Nope. All that is appealing, however, except the rock god thing, I don't find that appealing at all." Charlie eyes grew wide in shock; he couldn't understand why any woman wouldn't find that appealing. Her face was so close to his, he couldn't remember when she had seemed so beautiful. She was instantly forgiven for the crack about the rock star. He wanted to touch her cheek, to hold it in his hand if only for a second. He watched as her lips parted. God, they looked so soft. If she didn't do something quickly he was going to, and he wasn't sure if she was going to like it.
Her voice was barely above a whisper, "you saved my baby and my life, gave me hope and a second chance when I really didn't deserve either. But mostly, it's the way you look at me, me and Aaron, that makes me want to be with you."
If there was a certain way Charlie looked at her, he wanted to make sure he was aware of it, "How do I look at you?" He pushed a stray hair out of her face, his fingers brushed against her cheek and his eyes fluttered shut for a second.
"Like we're the only things in the world that matter." She whispered closer to his lips so he could breath in the words.
Just before their lips touched, he uttered, "But Claire, you are the only thing that matters."
The kiss happened so softly, Charlie wasn't sure it was happening at first, his head was far too light and dizzy. It was the familiar taste of peanut butter that made him presses his lips ever so slightly harder against her.
Her fingertips played and traced his hair; his hand moved away from her waist and slowly inched towards her thigh. His mouth caught her moan. They both wished this could have gone on forever.
A twig snapped and Charlie's eyes shot open. Panic and fear took over; there wouldn't be enough time to react.
'YO CHARLIE!" A southern voice called out.
Claire pushed back away from Charlie. Aaron woke from his nap and started to fuss. Three flashed the same look of venom when Sawyer stepped into the clearing.
"Oh, sorry. Am I interrupting something?" Sawyer saw Charlie and Claire entwined.
Aaron's fist started to ball and he huffed. Claire left the safety of Charlie's arms to attend to her child, who was on the verge of tears. "I know sweetie, that mean man Sawyer woke you from your nap." She took the baby into her arms and rested him against her breast.
If looks could kill, Sawyer would have been killed several times within a few seconds. "Um, I need to speak to Charlie about something."
'WHAT?" He could no longer hide his frustration.
Sawyer looked from Charlie to Claire, "Um I have a weird rash and…"
Claire threw up her one free hand "I'm leaving."
Charlie panicked, "Alone?"
"Chahlie, the beach is a quarter of a mile," She pointed behind her, "That way."
"But you're traveling with a baby." He waved his hands around as if that was going to make the statement more meaningful.
'I'll be fine, you have to trust me."
"I trust you, it the rest of the island I don't trust." Charlie huffed.
"I'll be fine. But when I get back to the beach I plan on slathering myself in blood and Aaron and I will go swimming with sharks. After that we're going rock climbing with no safety equipment." She smiled brightly to make her sacrasmism even more apparent.
"You think your funny and cute/"
"You just told me I was." She turned away and walked through the jungle.
Charlie's eyes followed her the whole time until she was completely swallowed by the trees. He then turned to Sawyer and punched him in the arm. "Thanks a lot for the cockblock."
'Sorry, I didn't know."
"Obviously. Well what do you want?" Charlie hissed as he started to clean up the remnants of the picnic.
"If you want condoms just ask for them, but stop stealing them."
Charlie picked up the blanket and started to fold it, "what the hell are you talking about?"
"You and Claire and the shagging." Sawyer motioned in circles with his fingers.
Charlie was offended, "I am not shagging Claire. You do not shag women you have feelings for. You do NOT shag a woman like Claire."
Sawyer threw his hands up in the air, "Sorry, I didn't know."
Charlie's mind instantly flashed to something evil and devious, "Of course, you would know all about shagging, after all, you're shagging Jo out in the jungle."
Sawyer froze, "What?"
"Yeah, you've been doing it for about a week, week and a half now."
Sawyer grabbed Charlie's arm, "What are you going to do? Tell Jack? Kate?"
Charlie looked confused by Sawyer's instant fearful and aggressive behavior. He shrugged, "What do I care who you shag, as long as it isn't Claire."
Sawyer relaxed, "Oh."
Charlie continued, "But I will tell you this, Jo isn't like her sisters. Amy is a horrible liar, but incredibly book smart. Beth is life smart but can be hard to handle some times. Jo, she cares the most, about everything, her family, and her community. She's a thrill seeker and is always looking for the next good time, probably what she sees in you. But there's something hidden in her eyes, different from her sisters. I've seen it here on the island, you have it in your eyes Kate has in hers, Sayid, Anna Lucia, even Mr. Echo, I'm sure I have it too. Death, she's looked at death. Just be careful with her. That's my only advice."
Sawyer blinked, "No, no feelings, just sex. That's the way I roll."
"Good, that's the stuff I understand. The stuff with feelings and emotions is a brand new to me." Charlie thought it over, "You ever that? Sex with feelings?"
Sawyer thought it over, "nope. I'm kinda shallow like that. Hey when you do, let me know what's that like."
"Sure thing."
When they reached the beach Sawyer asked, "So, it isn't you stealing my condoms?"
"Nope." Charlie shook his head, "Sawyer, I'm an expert in safe sex; two world tours and I've been STD free since I was sixteen." Sawyer questioned him with a glance and Charlie sighed, "Her name was Jean from St Mary's, it turns out Catholic school girls can be a little slutty. Anyway I learn my lesson and everything there is to know about the fine world of prophylactics." Charlie scanned the beach for Claire, who waved at him. "Sawyer, with the heat from the fire of the plane crash and fluctuating heat on the island, your condoms went bad two months ago."
Sawyer's jaw dropped, "What?"