Author's Note: Well I'll be honest, I don't love this chapter, I think bits and pieces are funny, (I like the Mountain Sharks- they make me giggle mostly because in my head I am picturing sharks attacking people on a mountain. But hey that's just me. ) This chapter is really designed to give you more insight into the island. I like Strong Claire, we don't get to see her all that often in the show, or in fan fiction, Angry Claire we see tons of, but if she is ever going to step into her role as a mother, she needs to learn how to take control of all sorts of situations. Um, that's all I have to say. (oh, but this chapter was a lot shorter in my head and was supposed to be a part of the next chapter. But when I went to write it, it turned into a beast and a half. So I spilt the one chapter into two.)

Gee I can't even seem to shut up in my AN.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. You rock.

Chapter 12 The Morning After

Everything hurt. Well hurt wasn't the right world, excruciating was closer to it. He couldn't move and breathing was a labor. His eyes were closed but that didn't mean he was sleeping, with the alarm going off ever hour and forty minutes quickly followed by Aaron's screams, and the events of the night before, sleep was a luxury he couldn't afford.

He heard stirring outside the sleeping quarters, quiet conversations, he knew who it was and why they were here. He breathed deeply; fire and pain flooded his body. He kissed the top of Claire's head, which was resting on his shoulder. This was her cue, her morning wake up call. She stirred.

Charlie was always a little jealous of Claire's ability to sleep. She blinked the hazy out of her eyes and lifted her head to look at Charlie. Momentarily she had forgotten about last night, the beating and abuse. Her eyes started to tear when she looked upon Charlie's bruised and purple face.

"That good, huh?" Charlie tried to smile, but stopped when it strained his facial muscles too much, "I'm one sexy beast." He tried to joke, but it was his lamest joke to date.

Claire shook her head as Charlie brushed the tears away with his thumb, "You're alive, we're all alive and that's what matters." Charlie had cheated death twice on this island and her biggest fear was when Death wanted to settle the tab.

There was a knock at the door, but neither turned to the door. Charlie's heart and soul was being ripped from his chest with every tear he wiped from Claire's cheek. He had never felt like such a failure.

Jack entered the room, "Hey, how are you two feeling?"

"Ducky." Charlie replied.

"You want to come with me for a few minutes, let me check out the swelling." Jack offered, but Charlie knew he was going to have to go with Jack no matter what the request.

Charlie forced his body to move, winced sharply and regretted moving in the first place. Jack led Charlie into the bathroom, but he refused to allow the Brit to look in the mirror "Looking good, Rock Star." Sawyer smirked as he stood in the doorway and offered Charlie a change of clothes. "Freckles brought Claire clothes, I didn't think you would take too kindly to be touching her underwear when you haven't even gotten to yet."

Charlie unleashed his death glare upon the Southerner. Jack tried to break up the tension, "Good news Charlie, you're gonna live." Charlie's death glare was now focused on Jack for his stupidity, "bad news is that we will have to reset your nose." Sawyer took the cue and rested his hands on Charlie's shoulder forcing him to remain where he was.

Jack gently touched Charlie's nose causing him to flinch, "One, two…"

Of course Jack didn't wait until three to twist the nose. Of course, Charlie was not prepared in the least for the fire pain, that burnt like the heat of a thousand suns, to course though his entire body. Of course, no one was prepared for the slew of words that came out of Charlie's mouth. Curses, vile, horrible words, and practically every one he had ever heard in his life.

Charlie had been in several countries while touring with Driveshaft and he took it upon himself to learn a little bit of each native tongue from every country. He learned two things, how to say thank you in every language and the raunchiest cruses he could think of. It was the latter of the two that spewed out of Charlie mouth. American, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Italian, and that was just a few. He screamed at the top of his lungs, venting his frustration over his pain and his uselessness. He finished a good five minutes after his nose was readjusted.

Jack and Sawyer stood still, staring blankly and in shock. Jack was the first to speak, "Um was that Mandarin or Cantonese?"

Charlie answered hoarsely, "Both."

"I don't think what you said in Italian is physically possible." Sawyer swallowed.

"Sure it is, you just have to be into yoga." Charlie said absentmindedly. Sawyer's jaw dropped a little, slightly impressed.

Charlie reached for his shirt and strained to change his clothes. When the physical effort became too much for him, Jack stepped in and help him. A new level of humiliation washed over Charlie.

"Dude, that's a terrible thing to say about someone's mother." Hurley stood in the bathroom door way. Just as Charlie was about to apologize, Hurley got a complete view of Charlie's bruises. "Holy crap Dude, you look awful."

Charlie frowned as Jack hissed. "Hurley!"

Hurley recoiled, "Oh, you look great Charlie. Awesome!" He gave a thumbs up. "By the way, we aren't alone."

"What?"

"Yeah those girls you hang out with, the Others, yeah they're out in the living space." He pointed behind his shoulder.

"Bugger." Charlie hissed.

Jack took out needle and Charlie scrambled out of the way, "What the hell is that?"

Jack's eyes questioned, "painkillers. I thought you might…"

Charlie shock his head adamantly, "Jack I didn't kick heroin just to get hooked on painkillers."

Sawyer glared at Jack until he put the needle back in its container. It took a few minutes for Charlie to move and head towards the living area.

Sawyer was the first to leave the bathroom and instantly came up with an excuse for their delay. "We wanted to see who the biggest man was. I won, but Charlie is quite impressive. Claire, when you start tapping that ass, you will be pleased."

Claire's eyebrows shot up. Charlie slapped his forehead, regretted the pain and sighed, "Jesus Christ." He certainly didn't need his lack of sexual prowess announced.

Jack slapped Sawyer on the back of his head, causing Kate to chuckle and say, "Gee Sawyer how does that foot taste?"

"Like the way it smells."

Claire ignored these comments and asked Charlie to sit down. "There's some bad news and you're going to need to sit down." Charlie froze, unable to read Claire's tone. She tapped the chair and he trudged towards it. It was only when he sat down he noticed Amy and Beth in the room. He glanced at Amy, but his contempt for Beth still lingered.

"What's going on?" He looked between Claire and Amy.

Beth sighed, "There was an attack last night."

"Is Daniel alright?" Panic set into his voice.

Beth's voice soothed, "He's fine, all the children are fine." Her voice became sharper, "Dad is closing the borders, and you can't come to the community until everything settles down."

Charlie's fist slammed against the table, the force made everyone jump slightly. "I have to go, I promised! I promised Daniel I would spend the whole day with him. " He started to plead with Amy, then Beth, he even searched for sympathy from Claire. But nothing came. In a defeated, heartbroken voice, he whispered, "I promised him."

Claire rubbed his back slowly in attempts to comfort him. She pushed the pad and pencil she laid out specifically for this moment towards him. "Chahlie, write him a letter, explain the situation- this is out of your control, otherwise you would be right next to him teaching him how to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.""

He stared at the paper, "Claire he's three, he won't understand."

She ran her fingers through his hair, and for that split second there was no one else in the hatch, just her and Charlie. "Use small words, draw pictures. I'm sure someone in the Community knows how to read." She smiled with kindness and love on her lips.

Charlie took the pencil and started to write, he was good when he's given a task. In all the chaos, this made him feel productive and useful.

Sawyer leaned against the bookshelf, watching but remained silent. Kate and Hurley were in the kitchen area milling about. Jack continued conversation while Charlie seemed preoccupied. "You said the children were fine, was anyone hurt?"

Amy nodded, "Yeah a few, nothing serious or I wouldn't be here."

"Why are you here?" Charlie asked without looking up from letter.

Beth responded snidely, "Because we were worried about you."

He continued to write, stubbornly refusing to look at Beth, his voice as dark as his thoughts "Oh, I thought you were concerned the junkie sold you out. Announced to the Dark Ones Alex's true location and all that jazz."

Claire warned, "Chahlie."

"I didn't, in case that matters. The Dark Ones had a knife to Claire's throat, but I didn't tell." Bitterness flooded his voice.

Beth hissed, "No, I was worried they would kick the shit out of you. Oh well, I guess I have nothing to worry about, you seem to be able to handle yourself just fine."

Jack redirected the conversation again, "Are you guys going to do anything about it?"

Amy nodded, "We sent runners out to the other communities to see if there were any more attacks across the island. If that is the case, we're going to need an ambassador from your tribe to represent you when all the elders meet."

A veil of confusion covered all the faces, "huh?" Hurley

"What part confused you?" Amy blinked.

"All of it."

Charlie continued to write as he said, "I'll go." He only looked up when Claire took the pencil from his hand and started to draw little cartons of Charlie pouting and moping because he wasn't going to spend any time with Daniel.

Amy shifted uncomfortably, "Charlie, you've got to know that if it was any other situation, you would be our guy, the rep for the group, but." She thought it over; "there are mountain sharks, so you can't go." Amy's lying skills left much to be desired.

"Mountain sharks?" Charlie uttered with disbelief, Jack repressed his laughter and Sawyer smirked.

Amy nodded, "Yes, sharks that live on the mountains, hence their name "mountain sharks" and they eat British blokes, so you can't come."

Beth rolled her eyes, "Am, you're useless." She paused and glanced over to Claire, "but we talked with Alex and she seems to remember helping a blonde pregnant women escape a medical hatch a few months ago."

Both Charlie and Claire looked up at Amy with the same dumbfounded face.

Hurley broke the silence, "Oh, you don't want him to go because when it comes to Claire he goes coo coo for coco puffs."

Amy blinked, "I have no idea what that means, but it sounds good."

The hatch door slammed, footsteps were heard and, finally, Jo emerged from the darkness. There were traces of fear still etched into her face. "Is everyone alright?" She caught Sawyer's eye, but didn't look at him.

Beth pointed, "Charlie got the crap kicked out of him."

"Holy SHIT!" Jo covered her mouth when she saw him. However, this action did cause her shirtsleeve to move up on her arm, exposing a blood stained bandage.

Sawyer's eyes bulged out a little and he repressed all desires he had to hold her, to yell at her, to comfort and take away any pain she felt.

Charlie glanced over and saw Sawyer's internal struggle. "Jo, you ok?"

She glanced down at her arm, moved her sleeve down and laughed, "Yeah, I'm fine, and you should have seen the other guy. He looks worse then you do."

Charlie continued to write as Claire continued to steal his pencil and draw funny pictures along the margins. Beth started to question her older sister, "What are you doing here? Did you even go to BlackRock? Are they sending a representative?"

Jo sighed, hating to explain herself to anyone, more so in front of Sawyer. "Oh, come on, the Plane Crash Clan is practically fodder for the Dark Ones, who do they have? A cop, a doctor, a solider and a con man." She didn't look at Sawyer, but she felt his eyes burning into the back of her scull. "I ran into Lucas on the way, BlackRock was attacked too, some injuries nothing serious. Lucas and Damon are going to be the reps for today's meeting."

Amy followed up, "Are you going?"

"Hell no, if Dad wants a peaceful resolution, he doesn't want me there." She added casually, "Besides, I figure I've got a small group outside, we could stay here and provide extra protection." She waved her hand around in a circle, "These guys have been here the shortest amount of time, there probably a little spooked." She looked at Charlie's bruised face, "Hey Char, you on any pain meds?"

He shook his head, but continued to write. Beth slammed her hand down on the table, "Are you kidding me? Take the damn pain meds. You have nothing to prove by being macho, we get it, you have a penis!"

Charlie didn't look up at her, his knuckles turned white and his breathing became more labored.

It was a voice, under a breath, female's and on the other side of the room that spoke. Kate snorted with a short exhale, "Not that he gets to use it."

Charlie's shoulders hunched a little as he sighed. Claire couldn't take much more of this, she had watched Charlie be humiliated for the past for few hours. Everyone has their dark side, their evil side they try to suppress. Kate had just reawakened Evil Claire. Now please keep in mind, this wasn't the first comment Kate had made about the lack of sexually activity between Claire and Charlie. There were off handed comments made while Charlie was away, like Kate was rubbing in Claire's face she was getting some and the mother was not. Good Claire knew she would regret anything Evil Claire said or did, but still, something had to be done.

Claire glanced up at Amy and in a sugary, sweet voice she cooed, "Hey Amy, you're a doctor right?" Amy nodded. Claire put her hand over Charlie's, "Do have you any methods of birth control? See, Charlie's a very responsible man and has promised to keep me safe." Charlie glanced up from the paper and caught her eye, he knew where she was going with this and while Good Charlie wanted to put an end of this before it started, but Evil Charlie wanted to see how it was going to play out. "And you see Sawyer's condom's went bad months ago."

Jack's jaw dropped, "What?"

Kate froze, "What? Does this mean I could be pregnant?" She turned to Jack and started to scream at him, "How the hell could you be so irresponsible?"

"ME?" He was so shocked he laughed, "It was all you, Kate."

It was almost instant, the dissolving of sanity and of chaos. Voices became louder, tension increased and snapped.

Sawyer growled, "I don't recall asking for you're help."

"That's because you're an arrogant jackass." Replied Jo.

Hurley swallowed, "Mountain Sharks? I didn't read anything about Mountain Sharks in the manual!"

Amy scratched at her head, "Um yeah, big ones."

Charlie looked up from his paper, "Hey Beth, quick question for you. Do you guys just sit around thinking of ways to kick me in the balls for fun?"

"Gee Charlie, if we did that now, what would we do for Christmas."

"Jack, how could you do this to me? I could be pregnant! What a way to ruin my life!" Kate bellowed.

Jo's head twisted around and she snapped, "You bitch! Amy's four months pregnant!"

Yep, no doubt about it, this was the breakdown of society. The fear, anger and confusion of the events of the day had caused everyone to collectively snap. Claire blamed herself- well she blamed Evil Claire-, and now that Good Claire had regained control she took it upon herself to fix the problem.

"SHUT UP!" She screeched. "Now raise your hand if you've been kidnapped, drugged, had your baby kidnapped twice, nearly had your throat slit AND preformed natural child birth?" Her hand shot up in the air, many pairs of eyes focused on her, "No one, just me? Right, than that means I'm the biggest bad arse in the room. So everyone is going to be quiet for a few minutes, because I just got Aaron to sleep!"

The rooms shifted uncomfortably at the change in power. Charlie hissed at Beth, "Way to go, you made her mad."

"Chahlie…" Claire warned. He returned to writing his letter. "Now this is how it's going to go down. Hurley, you're going to be our representative at this island meeting."

"But why me? I don't even understand what's going on." Hurley threw up his hands.

"It's really quite simple, there are many groups of "others" on the island, this BlackRock group, The Community," She pointed to Beth, Amy and Jo, "that's the group they live with, us and the Dark One. The Dark Ones are the people who kidnapped me and killed Charlie, they're the same ones you paid the little visit last night. Now Alex, that's Crazy French Lady's daughter, was taken as an infant and raised with the Dark One. Years later she helped me escape, most likely causing her to lose favor in the group. She ran away, and where she is right now…"

"She's with us." Amy offered.

Claire nodded, "Right, she's with them, and that's where she needs to stay. Hurley," Claire said with gravity in her voice, "she must NOT return to the Dark Ones, they are VERY bad people." Hurley nodded as she continued. "You must do everything in your power to help Beth and everyone else to keep Alex safe. Do you understand?"

"Sure, but what can I do? Why are you picking me?"

She smiled and her voice softened, "Because you're Hurley, everyone likes you. You have no hidden agenda, and you'll look out for everyone's best interest." Hurley smiled at the complement, but her voice slowly became harder, "The most important thing is to keep Alex safe. If the Dark One offer an apology, accept it." This caused a disruption from people in The Hatch; Claire waved her hand to silence them. "I don't recall any of you being attacked last night, the apology is ours," She placed her hand on Charlie's back, "to accept. If you need to negotiate with them, we don't have a lot to offer but we can give them Ethan."

Hurley frowned, "Um, but Ethan's dead."

Claire rolled her eyes, "Yes I know, we will give them his body. Hurley do you understand?"

He nodded. She turned her attention to the other people, "Jo, thank you for offering to help, I think it would be a great benefit to everyone. Kate, you have Hatch Duty." Kate offered some complaints, "Someone needs to push the button, and it has to be you. Jack needs to tell everyone the events of the morning and Sawyer needs to be next to him. It's well known Jack and Sawyer don't get along, but if everyone sees they agree on this topic, they'll feel safe."

"And what would the message be?" Jack asked.

"'We are not alone of this island, which we all knew. But the unknown is not always dangerous. We are not alone and we have allies.' Something along those lines."

"Are you sure you weren't in politics or something?" Sawyer asked, slightly impressed by her control of the situation.

She rubbed Charlie's back, "Are you almost finished?"

He sighed his name and nodded. Claire drew one last picture and folded up the letter. "Amy are you going back to the community?"

"Yes."

"Could you deliver this to a certain young man." She smiled as she lifted her arms around her neck and unties the ribbon Charlie had tied nearly three weeks earlier. She was about to hand over the necklace when she saw a dark brown tinny looking stain on the ribbon. It didn't seem right to give a child a blood stained present, so she removed the shell. "Could you give him this too?"

Charlie caught her hand in his, "But that's yours." He shook his head; softness broke over her face.

"And it's mine to give." She kissed his forehead and handed over the trinkets to Amy. "I'll walk you guys out." She stood and led Amy, Beth and Hurley out of the hatch.

Beth eyed up Claire while they were at the doorway, "So why aren't you going as the representive? You seem to have a better grasp of what's going on."

"'Cause she doesn't want to be eaten by Mountain Sharks." Hurley huffed.

"I have more important things to take care of." Claire commented coldly, "I have to fix the injuries you inflicted."

Amy smirked, "Gee, you're kind of getting the fuzzy end of that lollypop, huh?"

Claire was blinded by the sun as she rather whimskly stated, "We really should get together sometime when my life isn't in peril. Thanks for stopping by."