A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews, I love anyone who's read this whole thing!

This was it, the day Claire had had circled on her calendar for three months now, the day Charlie's tour ends and he comes back to her. She had debated back and forth whether or not she should meet him at the airport, but eventually decided not to. Aaron had been fussy all day, and it wasn't worth it to hire a sitter for the hour or so she would be gone. She rolled his ring around in her palm, today she would have to give that back to him too. It had been practically attached to her these last four months, and Claire was a little sad to have to return it to Charlie. Having the ring was like having a little piece of Charlie wherever she went, and she liked that feeling. While he was away, Claire had decided she was done with being cautious and scared of love. She was thinking about this as the door opened, interrupting her thoughts and making her jump.

"Charlie!" She was mildly surprised at how excited she got by finally seeing him. She had tried to hard to picture his face when he was gone, and it had gotten harder and harder. Now though, she just ran to him and gave him a hug, temporarily forgetting about all the worrying she'd been doing lately about Charlie's lack of phone calls among other things.

Charlie didn't say anything, just took a deep breath, and soaked in her blond hair and her smile, two things he had missed terribly over the last four months. Obviously, he hadn't died... yet. His meeting with Richard had been so long ago, maybe it was time to just forget about it already, except for what he said about bringing danger to Claire and the baby. He couldn't do that, so he stepped back from her, as hard as it was.

"What's wrong?" She asked, and his heart nearly broke.

"Nothing, I just have to go unpack."

"You don't need to unpack right this second. Tell me how the tour was."

"I told you over the phone, it was good, lots of fans." He picked up his bag and headed toward the bedroom.

"Oh. Well, Aaron's asleep right now, but when he wakes up I know he'll love to see you again."

"Claire, he's just a baby, he won't even remember who I am." He couldn't look at her when he said this, he didn't want to see the hurt that was inevitably on her face.

"Of course he will, your his daddy." This caused Charlie to jerk his head around in surprise. She had never referred to him as that before.

"What did you say?"

Claire half smiled and walked to him. "You're the only father he's ever known."

"Right, well, I have to... you know..." He walked into the bedroom without even bothering to finish his sentence. She had caught him off guard, it would be so much harder to separate himself from them if he was Aaron's father.

Claire woke that night to the sound of a guitar. It was sound she had greatly missed. The way Charlie acted when he came home and hurt her, sure, but for her own benefit she would chalk it up to his being tired and try to start again. She glanced at the clock, 3:00 AM. Really early, or really late depending on how you looked at it. Claire crept out into the living room where Charlie was sitting on the couch, playing some quiet, beautiful melody that she didn't remember ever hearing before. She stood there for a few minutes, just watching him play.

"It's beautiful," She told him finally, announcing her presence.

"It's nothing," He replied. "Doesn't even have lyrics."

"Maybe it doesn't need them. It's pretty great the way it is." She sat beside him on the couch, and remembered the happy-go-lucky guy that he had been before the tour, the guy that was always cracking jokes and making her laugh. Claire wondered where that guy was.

"It's not really a song then is it?" They locked eyes for a brief second before Charlie broke the gaze and set his guitar on the floor. "I didn't wake Aaron did I? I was trying to be quiet."

"Oh no. Just me."

"Sorry."

"No, it's alright. Are you OK?"

"Brilliant," Charlie said, though Claire didn't really believe it. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know. You seem really... moody or something since you've been back."

"Well I'm fine. Don't worry about me." He said this probably rougher then he should have, and she frowned.

"OK I won't."

"Good."

"I guess I'll go back to bed then." Claire stood up, but didn't turn away.

"You didn't have to come out here in the first place you know."

"I know, I thought maybe you would want to talk or something." Charlie had picked up his guitar again, and set it on his knee but now he stopped.

"I'm tired Claire. Maybe in the morning." That wasn't what he wanted to say. He wanted to sit with her and tell her all about the tour, and how happy he was to be back, and have it be just like it was before he left, but it couldn't be like that anymore.

"Fine." With that she went back to bed and Charlie was left watching her walk away.