Charlie woke up, wondering for a brief moment where he was before everything came flooding back to him. He was lying on the bottom bunk bed of the hatch, stitches along the length of his arms and the feeling of loneliness still gnawing away inside of him. But at least he had Claire back, she had been spending more time around him recently and that made him happy, it meant that there was a small chance that the loneliness would subside and he could feel worthy of being human again.

Listening carefully he could hear the hushed tones of two women speaking, punctuated briefly by a sound that made him smile, Aaron. He sat up unsteadily, his body feeling tired and uncooperative and, using the wall as a support mechanism, he walked out to see Claire standing there, looking at him with panic in her eyes, her body tensed, alongside Libby.

"Hey ladies."

Libby smiled placidly, "hello Charlie. Jack asked me to talk to you…"

"You don't need to; I'm going to be fine. Eh Aaron? Aren't I going to be fine?" He moved closer to Aaron to try to pat his head and was surprised when Claire jerked away. "What's wrong?" He thought for a moment before remembering, "I'm not going to hurt him Claire. I wasn't trying to hurt him then! I was just…" He was beginning to feel stressed; he didn't know why everyone assumed that he wanted to hurt Aaron. Besides Claire, Aaron was the only person that he had on the island. Even if he had been on drugs he was sure he wouldn't have harmed him. But from how Claire hugged Aaron even closer to her chest he knew that she didn't feel the same.

"You need to try to remain calm Charlie. Getting aggravated isn't going to help anyone." He looked at Libby, feeling angry that she was telling him to calm down. "Claire, maybe you should take Aaron back onto the beach."

"Yeah," she walked out of the hatch, holding Aaron as tight as she could manage.

"Charlie… are you okay?"

"Of course I'm not okay. Claire doesn't care about me." He leaned against the wall, sinking down to the ground.

"She does care Charlie, she just…"

"Doesn't want me around her son."

"Can't you understand that?"

"I didn't kidnap him! That's just what Locke said I did."

"He said that?"

"Well he insinuated it when he tried to murder me!"

"He didn't try to murder you Charlie."

"He punched me, into the bloody sea and I can't swim!"

"Charlie," she sighed heavily, "you can't keep blaming other people for your problems."

"You have no idea what problems are." He stood himself up and made his way away from Libby, "I'm going back to bed. Just leave me alone."

"Hey John."

Locke opened his eyes warily and sat up when he saw Claire standing there with Aaron. "Hey."

"Could you hold him for a minute?" Locke nodded and smiled as Aaron was placed into his arms. He was distracted when Claire slumped down next to him, wiping furiously at her eyes and the tears that still sparkled beneath them. She saw him looking and he felt his stomach clench, expecting to be shouted at to mind his own business but she shot a pathetic attempt at a smile at him. "Can I have him back now?"

Locke held his arms across to her, ready for her to take Aaron away, not happy at the prospect. He'd wanted to keep him for a while; it was nice spending time with someone who didn't judge you for things beyond your control, even if they were less than two months old. He wondered if Claire could see so as well because she didn't remove Aaron, "you might as well keep him for a couple of minutes."

Locke pulled his arms closer towards him, still not very comfortable that he wasn't going to drop him but at least Aaron wasn't showing any signs of distress; instead he was just sleeping. "I'm surprised that you're here."

"At the edge of the beach? I just didn't feel like going any further in."

He chuckled, "here with me. Haven't you heard that I'm evil?" She looked at him inquisitively, "I murdered Boone and now I tried to murder Charlie with my amazing powers of mind control."

"People believe that?"

"People believe whatever Jack tells them to believe." He saw her glancing over his facial injuries, "I'm fine. They don't even hurt." It was a stupid lie; the cuts and bruises that Jack had inflicted hurt like hell, as did the knee-shaped indents on the sides of his stomach from being pinned down but he didn't want people to think that he was so weak that he couldn't handle being beaten. He was drawn out of his own mind when he saw that she was crying again. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She paused, "or not fine… I'm not sure… it doesn't matter what I am anyway. All that matters is that I look after Charlie."

"You don't have to watch him if you don't want to."

"Yes I do. Jack said that he'll commit suicide if I don't make him better so I need to make him better. But I just blew it." He didn't ask why, not wanting to intrude. Usually he was happy to try and mould people to whatever path they seemed to need but this time Claire was actually talking to him willingly and he didn't want to jeopardize that. "I wouldn't let him see Aaron. Kate was stupid enough to bring him down into the hatch and Charlie found out." This time Locke remained silent for a different reason, remembering how he had informed Kate that Aaron missed Claire and allowed her to take him to the hatch. "Is something wrong?"

"What?"

"You went quiet."

"Nothing's wrong, just thinking."

She nodded, "can I have Aaron back now? I'm going to go spend some time with him." He held his arms out and she took him this time and stood up, "see you later?"

"Sure." He watched her leave and lied back down, determined to force himself into falling asleep and trying to quieten the worry that he had screwed things up even further.