Peanut Butter (Claire)

[Charlie Pace]

Charlie was clean a day, a whole twenty-four hours without taking one hit of heroin and oh man was he loving life everything was clearer, he got along with people better, everything was just perfect. That was until late the night before when he couldn't take it anymore, just before going to talk to a group of people Charlie gave in and got high and he hated it when he hope in the morning.

After waking up and praying softly to himself, which he had began doing every morning, after the time he prayed at the beach when he saw the doctor lady with Claire, Charlie got up and looked at the sky and then looked around and smiled at the beach. Okay, today is the day I stop, no heroin he thought to himself and after a couple second of deep breaths he walked out to the middle of the beach, feeling more confident then he had in a long long time.

Smiling and talking to the different people was something Charlie was becoming a big fan of now that he didn't take the hit as much, after taking his time with it all he heard someone call his name. It was the big fella who he tripped over a few days back, he told Charlie that he had found something his name on it and with that Charlie followed him to large pile of unclaimed luggage.

Looking around Charlie couldn't see what it was that he was told was his but then at that point the guy pulled out the only item Charlie had missed like mad, his guitar case. With a huge smile Charlie ran over to it, he put it on the ground and popped open the locks and then opened it and there it was his guitar that he had bought when Drive Shaft first started. "Ha! I thought I lost this"[/b] he said as he stood up and clapped the guy on the shoulder and shook his hand "thanks mate."[/b]

With his guitar case in hand Charlie looked around and saw Claire, he then grabbed an empty bottle and went to a spring with fresh cold drinkable water. Charlie filled the bottle, with the water, and then smiled and headed towards her. Standing beside her, he smiled another big smile and offered her the bottle of water and said happily "beautiful day innit."[/b]

[Claire Littleton]

When the second day had passed and rescue still hadn't come, Claire had started to fret. She hadn't felt the baby move since the crash, a fact she was trying desperately to trivialize and ignore, assuring herself it was nothing, that she should be glad to have a break from the kid playing soccer with her bladder. So she had made herself keep busy, doing all she could to help, trying to keep her mind occupied. The doctor woman - Evangeline, was it? - had spotted her helping to haul suitcases away from the fuselage, and had scolded her and made her sit down, but Claire soon found another occupation.

She sat in one of three airplane seats, a huge pile of clothes on a blanket beside her, and a couple of other piles beginning to form on another spread-out blanket. It was impossible to keep sand out of everything - the stuff got everywhere - but she could at least try. Sorting through the clothes, Claire sorted them into two main different piles - practical and impractical. She had just found a bucket hat, and had plonked it on top of her head, when she looked up to see a man she recognized, Charlie, approaching her.

She smiled, accepting the bottle of water gratefully - it was getting rather hot out - and said, "Thanks." It had been kind of a relief to hear someone with something besides an American accent. She'd been beginning to feel like a huge freak - pregnant, like a ticking time bomb, and Australian, from a completely "alien" culture. She took a sip of the water and then said, looking out at the crystal clear water with a smile, "Yeah, it really is. If not for the smashed pieces of airplane everywhere, I'd almost think it was a resort beach, and that Oceanic should be charging us for our time here."

[Charlie Pace]

Charlie smiled warmly as Claire took the bottle from him "any time"[/b], he then looked around at the wreckage and sighed softly to himself "well hopefully soon we can begin to clean out the wreckage, well in fact I would prefer rescue to come first but if not then hopefully we can."[/b] Charlie began looking around at the different people and then looks at Claire and whispers to her "I think you and are the only non-Americans here."[/b]

After having a light chuckle Charlie looked around again but this time looking for a certain something, after a short while he walked behind the three airplane seats and picked up a single seat that was somewhat behind the others. Before reaching Claire again he put the seat on the sand and dragged it over, deliberately making it look like he was dragging over a dining chair to a dining table, he then stood beside it and looked at Claire. "May I please join you dear lady"[/b] Charlie asked in a mock-posh tone before smiling the most cheesy looking smile he could pull off.

[Claire Littleton]

Claire couldn't help giggling a little, and said, looking around as well while she folded a t-shirt, "I know. I don't think I've heard a single person even mention tea, when I am dying for a cup of Earl Gray." Placing the folded shirt in the "practical" stack, she picked up a camisole, and after a bit of consideration decided it was more cloth then lace, and put it with the practical clothes. Someone could layer it with a button-up shirt, perhaps. Musingly, she said as she worked, "I think that's the first thing I'll do when we get rescued. Have a bubble bath and a big cup of tea, with honey in it."

Brushing some stray strands of platinum blonde hair behind her ear, Claire watched at first in confusion, and then amusement as Charlie dragged a single seat over. She laughed at his mock-posh demeanor, then pulled her face together and said, sitting up straight and putting on her own "posh" voice, "I would be most honored, good sir." She couldn't keep a straight face for long, though, and a smile cracked through her mask.

[Charlie Pace]

As Claire replied to him, Charlie put his left arm across his stomach and bowed, in a way an 18th century sailor would bow to a lady before dancing with her. He smiled before sitting next to Claire and saying in his normal tone of voice as he looked at her "thanks."[/b] Thinking back to what she had said earlier Charlie raised an eyebrow slightly and noded in agreement "I agree, some tea would be wonderful right now, so I think I'm going to put that on my list of things to have when we get rescued"[/b] he chuckles and scatched his head lightly "although I might not do the bath thing like you would, I would probably have my tea while writing some music"[/b] he nodded once with a slight grin, liking the idea.

Charlie glanced over at Claire with a smile and then looked at her belly "have you felt your baby since the crash?"[/b] Closing his eyes and letting the light breeze gently hit his face Charlie grinned as he began to enjoy the moment, he then began doing exactly what Claire said she would almost begin to think it was, Charlie began to imagine that they were all at a resort and that Oceanic was charging them.

Not wanting to spoil the thought but wanting to share it Charlie opened one eye and looked at Claire who was folding something that seemed for the inappropriate pile in his view, he cleared his throat "when your done with that item of clothing, close your eyes and imagine that resort, it'll do wonders"

[Claire Littleton]

Claire smiled, and then asked, "So you're a musician, then? What sort of music do you play? I'm afraid I've always been woefully tone-deaf." She had known a couple of pretty talented aspiring classical musicians before - she'd seen one woman get a violin tattooed on her side. But she'd never had very much musical talent herself. She'd briefly played the flute in school, but had given it up pretty rapidly. She'd shifted her focus to a different art form, and for a while had been convinced that she wanted to be a tattoo artist. Thankfully, she'd never actually done anything along those lines besides doing piercings. She sketched decently, but even she was willing to admit that it was nothing she would want permanently on her body.

When Charlie mentioned the baby, Claire's smile slipped slowly off of her face, and she looked back down at the pile of clothes. She picked up another article of clothing, but didn't really see it as she replied, "No, I.. I haven't. That women - Evangeline, I think? - she's a doctor, and she looked me over, but.. If there's a hospital equipped with a sonogram on the island, I haven't noticed it." She hadn't mentioned it to Evangeline again after that - she seemed busy enough taking care of the more seriously wounded, and Claire thought it would be selfish to bother her with something that she obviously could do nothing about.

With a valiant attempt at a little smile, Claire swallowed past the slight tightness in her throat and did as Charlie suggested, putting the shirt into one of the piles of clothing, and then leaning back in her seat, closing her eyes. She visualized the grandest hotel she could behind them, limousines parked out front, and a pool by it, just a few meters away from the ocean, for the less salt-inclined. Listening to the soft rush of the ocean, she imagined that she wasn't sitting in a ripped-out airplane seat, but rather a comfy beach chair. And, surprisingly, it did seem to ease some of the worry that hovered in the back of her mind. "You're right," she said, her smile more genuine now. "It does help. The waiter is taking an awfully long time with our drinks, though."

[Charlie Pace]

When Claire asked him if he was a musician, Charlie nodded and smiled as he puffed his chest out slightly "yes that I am, I play a range of things but I was in a band.. with my brother, well I am in a band, with my brother.. we're called Drive Shaft, maybe you've heard of us?" he never did handle all the business deals, it was usually, at first, big brother Liam and then after Liam was too high on drugs to know what he was doing it was the drummer Joel, so Charlie never knew if the album ever reached Australia.

Noticing his question made her sad Charlie closed his eyes for a second while mentally cursing and kicking himself, he then opened them and sighed to himself "I'm sorry.. I shouldn't have asked, it's none of my business I.."[/color] he stoped talking as he notices she was about to. Charlie listened to Claire intently and nodded once slowly. After a slight hesitation Charlie gently and lightly put his hand on her belly and looked at her, into her eyes, "I'm sure he or she will is okay, probably slept through the whole thing and you know I bet the little one is even more comfortable then we are"[/color] he said in a way to try and lighten the mood. "You know if you ever need someone to carry you to that sonogram, I'm your man"[/color] he said before showing off the muscles he doesn't have in a joking playful way.

Even though his eyes were closed Charlie could tell that Claire was imagining it too, probably not the same thing but she was imagining a better circumstance then what they were in and, for some reason, that made him smile, he then smiled a little more as she said he was right "see told you."[/color] Charlie opened his eyes Claire said that the waiter was taking a long time, he got up and silently as possible got the bottle of water, which she hadn't drank much out of it, he then quickly went over to the spring, filled it again and then went back to her. Charlie opened his mouth to say something but then stopped as something was missing.

Looking around he saw what he was looking for, a seat with some of the cloth ripped off from it. Charlie quickly walked over to it and ripped it off, he then looked over at Claire hoping the noise wouldn't make her open her eyes. Draping the cloth over his arm and the bottle in that same hand Charlie stop in front of Claire "excuse me miss... uh"[/color] he stops trying to think if she ever told him her last name but then continues after he realizes he hadn't "your drink is served, sorry it took so long."[/color]