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The room went silent. Although daylight was streaming in through the window, the atmosphere couldn't have been darker. What had once been a friendly, inviting get-together, was now a dark, tense meeting. Desmond knew that this would happen, the reaction that he would get. All he could do was hope that he was right. Claire spoke first.
"Wh-what do you mean, alive?" she asked in a hushed voice. "He's dead." She said it with finality. She had been believing it for three years now. "You told me he was dead!" Claire was yelling now, sadness, anger, desperation, all bubbled to the surface of her mind, screaming to be released.
"Claire, you'll wake Aaron" Kate whispered from the corner. Claire glared at her, ready to explode. But then, she saw the expression on Kate's face. Kate looked just as shocked, and tears were forming in her eyes. She wiped them away when she noticed Claire looking at her.
"I'm sorry," Claire said quietly, and she meant it. "I'm sorry Kate, I just overreacted." Desmond looked between the two of them, feeling slightly awkward.
"What makes you say munchk-," Kate slapped Sawyer's arm and gave him a look towards Claire that Desmond caught out of the corner of his eye. "Sorry..." Sawyer corrected himself. "What makes you say that Charlie is alive?" He gave Kate a look- Satisfied? Desmond took a deep breath. Sawyer leaned forward again, waiting for a response.
"The first time it happened was when I woke up after Hurley and Ben saved me." He started. "I saw Charlie lying in a room... I think it was a Dharma station. He was unconscious, in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines. I didn't know what to make of it." His voice was shaking.
"Hurley, and Ben, they said I was raving like a lunatic." "They saved me, and then, when I was healed, they let me leave. I left on my old sailboat, the Elizabeth." Desmond paused. "I made it home safely enough." Desmond sighed. "And then, when I got home, it happened again..."
"The first night back, when I fell asleep, I saw him again, Charlie. He was in the same room, but awake and trying to find a way out." Desmond remembered it clearly, every detail was burnt into his mind. "I don't think he was on the island though" he added. "I could here cars, traffic outside. And the symbol, the Dharma symbol, was one I had never seen before. It was a tree." Desmond reached for his folder. "I did a little research, and this symbol was one the Dharma initiative used at an off island location, in England."
Desmond pulled a picture out of the folder, a photo of the logo; a white tree with its limbs outstretched. Desmond noticed the others looking at the folder, curiously. "There's other things in this envelope..." He said, almost to himself, "But it's only for Claire to see." He slid it over to her, like he was letting go of something important. Claire put it next to her mug, but didn't open it. She was still waiting for an answer, as were the others.
"Look, I don't know how, I don't know why, but Charlie is alive and he needs our help." "He needs you!" he said desperately, "Please!" Desmond looked at each of them anxiously, taking in their reactions.
Kate was staring off into space, lost in thought. Sawyer hid behind a mask, looking down at his mug; Desmond couldn't read him. Claire's eyes were glossed over in tears; she was shaking slightly. Desmond knew that she was the one to convince. If she went, the others would follow. "When do we leave?" she asked quietly.
"Now you wait just one minute," interjected Sawyer, reverting back into his old habit of nicknames "Just because the medium says that the rock star is alive, don't make it true." "Charlie's dead!" Sawyer stood up to make his point, and gestured towards the door, "Claire you're not just gonna go running off with Desmond- chasing ghosts!"
"Sawyer!" Kate yelled at him. She reached out an arm to console Claire, who had begun crying, "try to have a little sensitivity."
"What about Aaron?" He asked Claire quietly. Desmond could tell that Sawyer was concerned. His face was one of pain and his outstretched hand was shaking.
"And who are you?" Claire asked angrily looking up at him, "My father?" Her expression was livid. "Are you in charge of me?!"
"No!" yelled Sawyer, noticeably offended. "I'm just... I'm just looking out for you is all." He said quietly. Sawyer sat back down with a grunt. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I guess we'll just have to take him with us," He mumbled to himself.
"So, when do we leave?" He asked aloud, looking at Desmond pointedly. Desmond realized now, how much it would hurt them if he was wrong, and he was only reopening old wounds. Chasing ghosts.