"Charlie? Charlie can you hear me?" Charlie immediately became alert, yet he was certain that he was dreaming. He hadn't heard that voice in over three years. It brought him memories of the sun, blue sky, and ocean breeze. An empty jar. And now she was here, again. Claire had returned in a vision to ease Charlie through the pain. I must be dying.

But something was different this time, and it took Charlie a moment to understand why. He could hear her. He could actually hear her. Usually when Claire visited, Charlie talked and Claire's voice would appear in his head, quieter than the faintest whisper, mixed with his own thoughts.

But now, her voice was real. Charlie couldn't believe it. What does this mean? Charlie figured it was just another hallucination, an indicator that he was getting worse to the point of no return. Imagining voices was one thing. Hearing them was something different entirely.

Claire tried to explain it to him. She said that she was rescuing him, that she was taking him away. How could she be so cruel? Charlie wondered. What part of me is this that wants to taunt me? Charlie let her words slip over him, relishing the sound but ignoring the content. Maybe Claire really was going to take him someplace better.

I can't do this again, he thought, I need to stop this. He kept talking to Claire while he waited for the drugs to inevitably pull him under. Charlie was ready to give up.

That all changed when a voice came over the intercom. "Hey there Blondie, … How're you and the munchkin … doin? The Dr. Pepper, … has exploded."

Charlie's eyes snapped open. Claire sat over him, her curly hair in a ponytail. He watched as she repeated the words to herself with a frown-line between her eyes. Her eyes widened and all Charlie could think was
that they were so blue, like the ocean.

"We need to leave, Charlie," she decided. He felt her arms pull him onto his feet. His head spun and Claire steadied him when he almost fell.

The only thing to Charlie, that would allow her to be here, touching him… real, would be the one thing he couldn't accept. He'd been visited by Sun and Jin… Boone and Shannon, too. He hadn't seen Sun and Jin die… but he knew it had happened. At least they told him it had. And if Claire was here… in this place… She must be dead.

"I'm sorry you died," Charlie told her, about ready to lie back on the table and let his thoughts fade into oblivion.

Claire's eyes filled with tears, and she tried furiously to blink them back. What was that in her expression? Pity? "Charlie, I'm not dead. I'm alive Charlie, so is Desmond, Kate, Jack, Hurley… the whole lot of us. And we are here to rescue you. Now please, we have to go." Charlie felt his heart beat for the first time in a long time. Charlie decided to believe her, just for now. He stumbled along as Claire dragged him from the room.

Claire opened the door to reveal a guard. He stood like a professional soldier, with a rifle in his arm. Claire leaned Charlie against the wall and signaled for him to be quiet. Charlie watched in horror as Claire grabbed the rifle from behind and slammed the guard in the face with it, to confuse him enough to pull it from his grasp. She then took the butt of the rifle, and with one movement, she knocked him unconscious.

Claire slung the gun over her shoulder and grabbed Charlie's arm. What had happened to her? He wanted to ask, but he was too tired to think of how. A memory came to him of Claire in the jungle…

A noise echoed from down the hall. It was the same vicious churning sound of that smoke monster back on the island. But it couldn't be, Jacob promised Charlie that the smoke monster would die soon after he turned the wheel.

A billowing white cloud of smoke became visible, followed by the terrified screams of guards being ripped to pieces… like the pilot. The monster began to travel down the hallway at a high speed.

"Get back!" Claire shouted. Charlie thought for a moment she was yelling at the monster, but she was yelling at him. She pushed them both back into the room, and shut the door. "That's Jack." she explained.

"Jack! Jack is-" Charlie sputtered. Claire stood with her ear to the door, a hand clenched on the door-handle. She muttered to herself while Charlie leaned against the wall for support.

"We have to go, now," Claire ordered seconds later. She swung the door open and pulled him out. Somehow she wasn't the same person as before. Now she was tough, brave, and somewhat unkind. She seemed less like the Claire he knew, and more like the Claire who had nearly shot him in the foot thinking he was the smoke monster. Accusing him of taking Aaron.

Claire, still trying to support Charlie, was pulling them both along the hallway in the direction that Jack had came. The white-tiled floor seemed to slope upwards and the walls would begin to turn, then skip back to their original position like a broke record.

"Claire!" a voice yelled. Another familiar voice… It sounded like Kate, a little less fierce than her former self.

"Kate?" Claire called back. They both reached the end of the hallway and found Kate standing there. She looked as she had on the island. Blue t-shirt, jeans, and her hair pulled back in a bun. Charlie couldn't tell for sure from the black spots that tainted his vision, but it looked like she had blood on her shirt and hands.

"Charlie!" She nearly screamed. Charlie guessed she must have gotten a good look at him, because her face changed from joy to horror. She clamped a hand to her mouth and then looked at Claire. "Is he okay?" she breathed through the gaps in her fingers. Charlie didn't know what she was so worked up about.

"I'll live, don't you worry about me" Charlie groaned. Kate slipped herself under his other arm, taking half his weight. Together, Kate and Claire dragged him down the hallway. Charlie assumed he was going mad - this was the strangest nightmare he'd ever had.

"How did you get in?" Claire asked Kate as they half-walked, half-jogged down the hallway.

"We… well Jack… well… it's a long story." Kate mumbled. Her voice seemed strained, like she was in pain. "I'll tell you when we get out of here." Charlie noticed that their roles seemed to be reversed. Claire was looking into each doorway they passed, with her hand resting on her gun. Kate was panting, letting Claire take charge. What happened in those three years?

"Kate, are you bleeding?" Claire asked, stopping in her tracks. Kate kept looking straight, her face emotionless. The last thing Charlie remembered before passing out was what Kate said.

"It's not mine."

"Charlie wake up!" Charlie felt like he was swimming in darkness, trying to reach the surface, trying to reach the voice that had been calling him. It might have been Claire, but he wasn't sure. The closer he got to the surface, the longer the distance became. It was endless. "Charlie wake up!"

He felt his lungs begin filling with water… he was drowning in the darkness. It would consume him. He pushed upward. It seemed like a hand reached down to pull him up. He grabbed a hold of it.

He woke up sputtering to get water out of his lungs that wasn't there. "Charlie!" Claire shouted. He was lying on the floor, Claire bent at his side. Kate was standing by a door, looking out the small rectangular window in the center of it. They seemed to be in some sort of warehouse, with cold floor and shiny metal walls. A woman was standing in the corner of the room talking to a man who had his back to Charlie.

He wasn't sure who it was until he heard the man talk. "Pen, everything's going to be alright." It was Desmond. Charlie remembered a photograph of Penny, she was a bit older now, but it could have been her.

Charlie wanted to say something, he was trying to think of something clever. But when he concentrated on one thing he felt himself drifting back into the darkness. "Claire?" Charlie looked up at her, she stared down at him with big blue eyes. Aaron's eyes. "Claire, where's Aaron?"

"He's alright Brotha'," Desmond answered. He had turned, and Charlie could see his face. "He's with your brother, Liam."

"Liam? Bet that tosspot's letting him stay up past his bedtime." Charlie chuckled. "What are we doing here?" Charlie felt himself drifting again.

"Charlie, stay with us. We're just waiting for Sawyer and Jack to get back, then we can-"

"Sawyer?" Charlie questioned. There was no response, not one Charlie heard. He slipped back into the abyss.

Charlie woke to the sound of a gunshot. He wasn't in the building anymore. Charlie hadn't realized it, but they must have been very near the water. They were standing on a dock, and Claire was supporting him. There were shouts, and Charlie tried to look around to see if anyone actually had been shot. Someone had. A figure fell into the water. A voice screamed. Water lapped gently against the dock.

Charlie tried to clear his head, to focus on the task at hand. Somebody had been shot. He looked around the dock. Jack appeared to be unconscious with his hands bound behind his back; Kate was tending to him. Sawyer and Benjamin Linus stood with guns pointed at a squat woman with white hair. Eloise. Penny wasn't anywhere Charlie could see… nor was Desmond.

"You've lost!" Eloise shouted. The same disgusting grin played across her face, as it had for the past months Charlie had been held captive. "You are outnumbered, haven't you already lost enough of your own? Tell me the location of the island! Or I shoot another one!"

"Oh Eloise. You poor simple-minded fool. Nobody knows the location of the island. You just can't admit that you weren't special enough for the island to find you!" Ben spat. "There is no way to bring Daniel back. Dead is dead, trust me."

"You will not succeed!" She snapped. Charlie chuckled despite himself. She was just a desperate old woman.

"And you're going to kill us all anyway, right?" Kate stood, and pulled a third gun on Eloise.

"Eloise!" A voice called. Everyone turned towards it. A hooded man stood a couple yards away. "The island is done with you." There was a loud boom, and Charlie's world went black… again.