CHAPTER SIX
By the time that Boone woke up the next morning, Jack and Sayid had already left. The sun was already fairly high up, he had slept in for a while. He had slept soundly from early evening – he had been exhausted. He felt a lot better rested, and for a moment, he had forgotten what was going on. He was brought back to reality when he left his tent and looked around. A lot of people with still deep injuries, and torn tarps, to name but a couple of the differences in the setting.
Now that he was staying behind, he didn't know quite what to do with himself. He strolled for a couple of metres down the beach, and then spotted Sun standing outside Claire's tent. He hurried to approach her.
"Hi." Boone greeted. "You alright?"
"Yes, thank you." Sun smiled at Boone. "Me and Jin got away unharmed." Boone nodded. "I'm taking care of the patients, but Jack has mostly set them up and what most of them need now is time."
"What about Claire?" Boone inquired. Sun's smile struggled to stay in place.
"She needs rest, but Jack says she'll be able to get up in the next few days." Sun smiled reassuringly at Boone. "She's awake, if you want to see her." Boone gazed at Sun, and smiled back at her.
"Thanks." He moved to go in, but Sun stopped him.
"But…it's best if you don't say anything about her…injury." Sun said quietly, so Claire wouldn't hear. Boone nodded. "Or that she lost the baby. Jack says it's possible she didn't even know about it yet." Boone nodded again. "Or about…" Sun gulped. "Charlie." Boone was confused. Charlie? What about Charlie? Before Boone could ask, Sun was walking over to Jin. Boone shrugged and entered the tent.
Boone was surprised to see Claire sitting up, and she held Aaron in her arms. She was unrecognisable from the girl he saw yesterday. She was still pale and looked as is she would break at any moment, but she was smiling. She was letting Aaron suck her finger, and cooing at him. When Boone came in, she looked up and grinned happily at him. When he saw her face, her couldn't match her with the woman he had carried the other night.
"Hey." She said warmly. She watched as Boone sat down in the same place had had yesterday. "Would you believe it? He's alright! Nothing on him!" Claire gestured towards Aaron, and laughed in delight. Boone smiled at her joy – it was good to see, but surprising in the circumstances. When Boone didn't speak, she gazed at him, and grinned again.
"I hear that you're my hero." She laughed. Boone nodded lightly.
"I guess you could say that." He sighed. Claire looked at him, concerned.
"You okay?" She asked. Boone almost laughed at the irony of the question. Claire, the one who was ill, was asking Boone, who didn't have a scratch on him, if he was alright.
"They… the Others… they took Shannon." He looked down at his hands.
"Don't worry about that." Claire stated. Boone looked up at her in shock. "I mean, she's strong, isn't she?" Claire hastily added. "She'll be fine. If anything, it's the Others that we need to worry about." Boone did not find the joke at all funny, but he smiled at her attempt to cheer him up.
"Thanks."
"It's nothing." She smiled calmly at him. "Nothing compared to what you did for me, anyway." Claire yawned, and put Aaron into the crib next to her simple bed. "I think I'm going to have a little sleep." Boone nodded, and got up to leave. Yet he stopped as Claire spoke again. "If you don't mind, could you send Charlie in? I haven't seen him yet." Boone stiffened. What had happened to Charlie? Boone hadn't seen him either.
"Right." Boone muttered, before leaving the tent. It was at that moment, when he remembered. One of the bodies outside of his tent that night. Charlie was dead.