Chapter 7

Claire woke up early morning with a small smile to the sound of a guitar strumming. She knew she couldn't have possibly gotten more than 3 hours of sleep, yet she felt as though she had been sleeping peacefully for hours. "Good Morning" She said as she turned toward the sound. She was surprised to find herself in an empty tent.

"Charlie?" She said as she looked around and realized none of his stuff, including his guitar that he had moved back to the tent the night before was there. She quickly stood up picking up Aaron gently and headed out of the tent. "Charlie?" She said a bit louder in case he was nearby, as she looked down the beach for any sign of where he had went.

"Sun!" She said noticing the woman hanging clothes by her tent. The woman turned at the sound of her name and gave Claire a light smile. Claire walked as quickly as she could with the small infant in her arms toward the woman. Sun saw the panic on Claire's face.

"What's wrong?"

"Have you seen, Charlie?"

"No. Not since yesterday. Did something happen?"

"The church" Claire said quickly, ignoring Sun's question.

"What?" The Korean woman asked in a state of confusion.

"Will you watch, Aaron?"

"Of course. But what's…" Claire quickly placed the baby in Sun's arms and ran towards the one thing that could replace Charlie's drug addiction…religion.

"Eko!" She said seeing the priest coming out of the church. She sighed in relief that they had gotten back, and the night before was not just a beautiful dream. As Claire got closer she saw the look of sympathy in Eko's eyes. "I was coming to find you" He said sternly. Claire felt that sick feeling from the day before crawling back through her veins.

"What's wrong?" She said biting her lower lip in fear of the answer.

"I'm sorry" He said shaking his head slightly.

"Sorry for what? What hap…"

"Come" Eko said cutting her off and motioning to the church door.

She nodded slightly as she entered the church. She was amazed at how hard Charlie had been working on it. All four walls were up and half of the roof. Once inside the church Eko motioned his head toward a figure covered in the blue waterproof tarp, Claire had gotten to accustomed to seeing. She knew where this was going. But it couldn't be true.

"What happened?" She asked turning her head from the form, and looking back at Eko with tears in her eyes.

"There was an incident in the hatch. I'm not sure what it was. Some sort of electromagnetic explosion…Claire, Charlie…died…a few hours after the explosion" Claire laughed slightly. "No…That's not true. We felt the explosion here, and Charlie…Charlie showed up a few hours after it"

"Claire…what you say can not be true. Charlie was with me and Locke in the hatch until he died. I carried him back here myself"

Claire's voice broke suddenly as she looked at the figure.

"No! That can't be him! She said pointing as the form.

"Claire" Eko said putting his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry" Claire gave him a dirty glare before pushing his hand off of her shoulder and walking towards the tarp slowly.