Author's Note: It's a Claire chapter, you so know what that means, scattered and random thoughts. In case anyone cares the order of the rest of the chapters will be Claire, Ben, Claire, Ben, Charlie and an epilogue with Ben. This chapter was one of the orginial ideas for the story. (I only have two more chapters to write in this story so I should be updating quickly.) Not a whole lot to say about this one. I hope you enjoy it as always.

Love and Memories

Chapter 5

The Key and the Lucky Penny.

Claire's POV

I don't know what I am expecting to find here. But I've been parking in Joseph Mittlewerk's staring at his perfectly manicured lawn and three-story house for nearly an hour. It took me nearly a week to work up the nerve to drive out to La Jolia and go check this place out. I hate the unknown, even more so now. But I have so many questions and my only hope for an answer is in that house.

I spent the last week doing some research on my dear friend Jo. Apparently Mr. Mittlewerk owned a lot of the same stocks that Charlie does but a larger amounts. But according to a Google search, he doesn't exist. But there is a Thomas Mittlewerk who happens to be the President of the Hanso Corperation and who lost his son nearly twenty-six years ago in a car accident,

What I don't understand is if Joseph does exist then who's house am I standing in front of?

An even larger question is why was his stock and bank statements hidden in Charlie's porn stash?

Hell this key in my hand might not even be for his house.

I think I am beginning to smell I wild goose chance.

I pull Aaron out of his car seat and carry him to the front door. What do I have to lose? Just my dignity and whose does gonna see me lose that, other then Aaron. God I hope there's no security system.

I deep a breath and hold it as I slip the key into lock. It fits. I exhale. I open the door and enter a world I've only dreamed of. Marble floors, spiral staircase, and a crystal chandelier. Everything feels to elegant and formal. It's the exact opposite of Charlie's apartment. Charlie radiated out of every aspect of that place, but here, its crystal, cold and empty.

I shiver, but I'm not cold.

There is a huge pile of mail on the counter; clearly Mr. Mittlewerk hasn't been here in a long time. I open the cabinets, there's they are empty, expect for one box of English toffee. I smile thinking about Charlie.

I nearly snap my neck when I hear the front door open and a woman call out, "Hello?"

I stand in the kitchen, my brain freezes, and Aaron shifts in my arm. "Um Hello?" I call back out. For a woman who's been kidnapped, you would think I would be smarter about this situation.

Ok the woman looks like Shannon in ten years, if Shannon was a platinum blonde and alive. She smiles carefully at me, "Hi, I'm Susan. I live next door."

"Oh hi." Please don't ask what I'm doing here.

"So, who are you?"

"Um, I'm Claire." Please no follow up questions.

"Claire, what are you doing in my neighbor's house?"

"Mr. Mittlewerk is thinking about selling. I'm his real-estate agent." I hope that sounded confident and convincing. Now that I've lied to you, please go away.

"Oh, what a shame." She frown or I think she would be frowning if it weren't for all the botox. "He was such a good neighbor."

"So you know him?" I ask as Aaron tugs on my hair.

"Well, not so much 'know him' as much as I've been picking up his mail for the past three years. He called me the day after he moved in, he said he wouldn't be around often and if I could bring in his mail once a week. He used to come by about once a month, pick up the mail and leave me some flowers." She smiles and laughs, "it was the most rewarding relationship I've been in."

"So you've never met him?" I'm getting nervous about this and I don't know why.

"He's written me notes and sends me a great fruit basket at the holidays. Oh I know he's like British or something. Since he's never around I was sort of taking advantage of the situation and using his house my own personal love nest with my boyfriend Paulo. Joseph left me a note, "stop shagging in my house, if I'm not getting any, you shouldn't either." I had ever heard the word 'shagging' before I saw 'Austin Powers.' Although I'm not sure how he figured it out. Hell my husband doesn't even know." She shrugged then looked down at the pile of mail. "So you've heard from him right? Because he hasn't come back in a few months. Which is strange because he texted me about picking up a package but I haven't heard from him since."

My stomach starts to twist up. "Do you remember when this was?"

"Yeah it was a day before that plane crashed into the ocean. You remember that?"

"Yeah I remember." I say flatly.

"But you heard from him, right? He's ok. That's why he's selling?" She looks at me fore hopeful concern. I bite my lip and nod. "If you need anything let me know, tootles." She waves at me and hurries out just as fast as she comes in.

Once again, I'm alone. Very alone. Standing in someone's house, who has been missing since the plane crash… maybe Joseph didn't survive, maybe he was on board and we burnt his body.

But that still doesn't explain why his bank statements were in Charlie's flat. Oh my old and familiar friend, square one. You welcome me with open arms don't you?

I guess I should go but a slow grin ebbs on my face; of course this is my only chance to see how the rich people live. Besides shouldn't I get to know Joseph?

I walked around his house and quickly notice he's missing stuff. Furniture. He has one couch and one telly in his living room. But he has a huge stereo and speaker system. Hmm it's the same brand as Charlie's. And this Joseph guy loves his music, all his CD's are alphabetized by category, hmm The Clash, The Cure, The Kinks, and Social Distortion and a ton of Beatles CD's. There are a lot of the same CD's Charlie has. I guess lots of guys like that music. Still there is a nagging feeling I just can't shake. My legs start to get weak and I sit down on the couch and place Aaron next to me.

My hands are shaking and I can't figure out why.

Just take a few deep breaths and everything should be fine.

Inhale

Exhale

Inhale

Exhale.

Oh the Telly remote. It's the same one in Charlie's flat.

I feel sick as the TV flashes to MTV.

I hit the last channel button, BBC America.

OH MY GOD!

I wasn't expecting such a physical reaction, but all the contents of my stomach start to make its way up my throat. I sprint to the nearest rest room. After I release the contents of my stomach then I lie on the floor. The cool porcelain feels perfect against my skin. I want to cry, I want to weep, and I want to scream at the top of my lungs.

This can't be true. I mean, my Charlie? He couldn't be? Could he?

Evidence I need more proof before I make a decision. I rush back to Aaron and lug him around as I search the house.

Think, Claire, think, what do you know? You've been living in Charlie's home for two months now, what do you know?

He writes all important information down.

He hides things in common locations.

I start to turn objects upside down, vases, teacups and pillows. I search all four bedrooms, looking for a computer but there's nothing. There is an Internet router but no computer. So I guess he used a laptop. My stomach once again is making the trip up my throat.

I start opening all the closets going through his clothes. Suits, finely tailored perfect suits, just like the one in Charlie's closet. Oh god the pieces are slowly starting to fit together.

In the bottom on the closet there's a safe. I have to get into the safe. I place Aaron on the floor and I try tons of number combinations. His birthday, his address, this address but nothing. Think Claire think. Where would he hide the combination?

Where would he hide it where he would remember but no one else would look?

Where does he hide things he doesn't want people to find?

Under the bed!

Ok I really don't know where my life took a turn down a path where I would be crawling under some stranger's bed looking for a safe combination. Aaron looks at me as if I am quite mad and I think he could be right. I sigh deeply about to give up on this silly flight of fancy, after all who am I go to breaking into some guys safe? What's to say that this guy would even write his safe combination down? And why the hell would it be written under his bed. This is stupid Claire just plain, bloody hell, something is written on the bed frame.

A three number combination.

I crawl under from the bed and try my luck with the code. I should be shocked, I should be horrified but at this point I am just filled with anticipation as I hear the click of the lock unlashing and the safe opening. Papers, more stock statements, some tax returns, nothing amazing, nothing that really links him to Charlie. I'm not sure if I should sigh of relief or what.

I numbly read through the papers, this guy owns a ton of the Hanso Corporation stock. So far I've discovered nothing interest until I dig at the bottom of metal box and find leather bound copy of the odyssey. Strange, in my survey of the house, this is the only book I've found. My fingers dance of the cover feeling each bumpy ridge, as I hold it in my hand. I flip through the pages when the book stops and opens to a bookmarked page. It isn't the content of page that is important as much as the bookmark itself. It's a photograph, of a young boy, around eight years old with a woman in her late twenties with her arm around the boy's shoulder. He smile's brightly, I know that smile. I see it in my sleep. His blonde dusty hair falls in front of his gray eyes. The woman is copper hair that seems to capture the light. She looks like she doesn't smile often, but this kid is one of the reasons she does. I wonder who's taking the picture. I flip the picture over, in black sharpie it says, "me and Penny."

I flip back to the picture and for some reason the boy gets burly, very blurry, I blink and I my hand feel wet. I pull my knees up to my chest and start to sob and honestly I don't fully understand why.

I do know this; the boy in the picture is my Charlie. I just don't know who he is anymore.

It's a long drive home.

I've been trying to hold everything together; my crying fit back out Joseph's house didn't really make me feel better. I lug all Aaron and all the stuff back into Charlie's flat. I feed Aaron, it takes longer since I am trying to feed him baby food instead of breast milk. Tonight's menu is applesauce, mostly because it is the only kind I enjoy too. What? I got courteous and started trying some. After I clean Aaron up and change his diaper, I lay him down to bed. Normally I try to hum a little song, or tell him something about Charlie, but tonight it just hurts too much.

I can feel another crying fit coming; it's forming in my legs and slowly working its way up. I stop only because Carla knocks at the door. She smiles and offers me some of her leftovers. "So did you go down to La Jolia?"

Now I start to cry, weep, as I confess everything I've learned. Moreover I figure out what's really bothering me about this situation. "He lied to me. Sure I knew he was a liar and a junkie but I trusted him anyway. God I loved him anyway. So help me I really did. But I don't know whom I feel in love with. His parting words to me were, "Everything I told you was true." But if he lied about the most fundamental aspect about his life then how can I trust anything he said? All those whispers in the dark, tiny confessions, now they're meaningless. Empty."

"Like what?" Carla asks.

"Huh?"

"What did he confess?"

"Like I was the only woman he's ever loved. Aaron and I were the reason he decided to clean up his life. But, most of the time it was little jokes. Oh like he said he was the heir to a multi billion dollar company." Oh crap. Now I'm starting to feel stupid. I wipe my tears off my cheek and look up at Carla, "he didn't lie, did he?"

"That's what it looks like."

"Bloody hell." I sink my head in my hands. "Still, I don't know who he is, is Charlie still a good man, or is it Joseph? Does he have two different personalities or is it just two different names? It's just too much, I want to ask him, get some answers."

"Then get him off that island." She rolls her eyes at me.

"I DON'T KNOW HOW!" I yell, does she really think that it's that easy? Oh like the answer is going to be sitting in my lap the whole time.

Carla stands up and walks around the couch for a few times when her forehead starts to crease, "What book is that?"

"Oh this?" I pick up the book I stole and hand it over to Carla, "its just the 'Odyssey' I found in the safe. There's a picture of him as a kid in there."

"Um Claire, did you even look at the book?"

"Not really why?" I twist around to watch her.

"Well for starters it is identical to the book that's on his bookshelf but this one has an inscription on the inside cover: 'Penny, let's be friends again. When I'm famous again, I'll help you with your search. Money, time, Patience's and love, that's all anyone needs in this world. Merry Christmas 2004.' Claire this was a gift for that Penny chick. He was supposed to give it to her this Christmas but he was stuck on the island so he missed it."

I've heard that before something about money and time and love. Images of my old life on the island flash in my mind. Nothing's clicking so far. But I head over to his bookshelf and pull out the copy of the 'Odyssey.'

"What's this book about anyway?" Carla asks. I hold the book in my hand thinking the answer over. I haven't read it since High School.

"Its about this solider, Odysseus, his really smart but equally proud and its pride that makes him lose favor with the Sea God. So Poseidon makes sure it going to take him a long time to return to his wife, Penelope. Odysseus crashes on a whole bunch of islands and it takes nearly ten years for him to get home." Hmm that does sound a lot like Desmond.

I flip through the copy in my hand and check comes flies out and floats to the floor. It's written by Joseph's checking account for several thousands of dollars to a Penelope Wedmore. The memo says: For rehab. But across the front in very feminine handwriting, its says, "Charlie don't be silly, just get yourself the help you need. You're worth it."

He went into rehab? Penelope Wedmore… the women who is sitting on the board at the Hanso Corporation? How does she know Charlie?

The book has one more clue for me, a wedding invitation for Penelope and some other guy I don't recognize. But across the invitation in black sharpie and very clearly Charlie's handwriting. "So much for true love. I guess you'll do anything to make your daddy happy. I've never been more disappointed in you Penny. I can't believe you're willing to give up on him."

Him? She's been searching for someone.

Oh MY GOD!

"DESMOND! SHE'S BEEN LOOKING FOR DESMOND!"

"Who?" Carla asks.

"The guy living in the hatch… but that's not important right now… I know how to rescue Charlie!"