SquidgeWorld Archive

The Start
by kkmwills

It was another sunny day on the beach. The warm sun, the gritty yet comfortable sand, the gorgeous cooling ocean, and the charred hunks of fuselage.

'Least I've got some shade for a bit, thought Claire. Absently rubbing her pregnant belly, she continued to write in her journal. A shadow fell across her pages.

"Hi, Hurley!" Looking up, the big man filled her gaze.

"Hi, Claire; I was just checkin' to see how things are. With you and....the, uh, baby." There was a slight pause. "Goin' okay?"

The normally thin blonde smiled and nodded. Claire enjoyed seeing another calm person, but Hurley had found a special spot, what with what happened after the crash....

"Charlie and me? We're gonna be tryin' to fish again. It wasn't so awful the last time, and who knows? We may catch two fish this time." The grin and shrug that accompanied the laid-back tone was infectious. Claire smiled back.

"So you two just watch out; baby sharks can swim in pretty close."

"Uh, yeah, we'll do that. Thanks."

Sitting in the airline seats, facing the ocean, Claire was alone again.

Day 4 P(ost) C(rash)

Baby moving: /// times
Bathroom trips: stopped counting
Eaten: bananas/ water/ some boar (thanks to Mr. Locke!)/ some more of that fish from that Korean gentleman

It's very weird here on the island. Since he's started moving around again, I'm feeling better, but mostly about the little guy. Some of the people are still nice and helpful- mostly due to the baby- but there are some I'm not sure about. Maybe the crash has me all paranoid. Still, I'm going to try to think of this as an extended vacation so I don't upset my little guy.

*********

In the water , down aways from Claire, a comical sight was there to be seen: The tall, stout, wavy-haired Hurley and the shorter, slender, mostly blonde Charlie- the bassist for DriveShaft, natch- were using their improvised spear to get fish.

"Dude! I thought you had that one." The light tone was infectious.

Sputtering, Charlie manged," My synchin' up with the waves was thrown off. Mainly because of someone yelling 'Get it now!! Now!! Get it!!'" The smile came easily to Charlie, but with Hurley, it felt right and natural.

"Dude, don't blame me if you can't keep a rhythm. I'm not the bass player."

"Okay, 'dude', your turn." The spear was held out to Hurley. There was a couple of heartbeats, but then Hurley took the spear.

"Dude, you know I'm more likely to hit you than a fish right?"

"I'll take my chances."

It took about two hours, but there was indeed two fish that night. For Claire.

The guys were glad that they weren't the only ones getting into the food-scrounging mood. About three other guys buddied up and were using sharpened bamboo spears to get fish and whatever else that swam. They had decided that was a good thing as they were going to give Claire first dibs on their bounty.

"So, did that Shannon chick ever apologize or anything?"

With a bit more muscle behind his stab, Charlie answered, "No, she didn't. Boone, her brother, said he was sorry about how she acted, but it was my own damn fault, really."

"Nahhh, don't do that, man. Chicks like her? That's what they play on- that you'll even beat yourself up over her for her. She still doesn't have to do anything." There was a disgusted sigh; Charlie figured there was a story there, but decided not to press.

"I hear that," Charlie said. "Kate seems nice enough, though."

"If you say so." Charlie heard something- not disbelief or jealousy, but he let that drop too.

"How's that black lady?"

"Which one?"

"The one Jack saved."

Hurley grinned. " Which one?" They both chuckled at that. "Rose, the older lady? She lost her husband- he was in the can- but she seems to be okay. Just needs to be off alone sometimes."

A nodding head showed Charlie understood. Hurley thought there was a bit more to the nod, but he figured Charlie'd tell him when he wanted.

"Sir?"

The woman who addressed him was the pregnant one. She was cute with that full face, but it wasn't fat, it was just rounded. Of course she's glowin', thought Sawyer.

"Yeah?"

"We," the blonde motioned between herself and the young black woman with her," are going around and asking folks to bring personal effects of...those who died to us."

Surprised, Sawyer blurted,"What?!"

"We're going to have a memorial service; we just were going around..."

"Why come to me?" Claire saw his eyes narrow; it reminded her of a lizard she'd seen.

"I've seen you go into the wreckage. You didn't come out empty-handed. If you would please look through your things, could you please bring the personal effects to us?"

Sawyer was impressed- she kept eye contact and a pleasant tone. Her friend was looking antsy. He smiled.

"Sure. Just got to Dune 5 and ring the bell?" Claire and Sawyer grinned. The other gal just shifted her weight.

"Just find me; I'm hard to miss. I'm Claire, by the way. This is Lani. We'll probably be near the main fuselage. Thanks...?"

"They call me Sawyer, Claire." A nod was given to both ladies. "Lani."

Breaking the surface, the guys shook the water out of their faces.

"ah. Dude, that was nice."

Charlie watched Hurley squeeze the extra water out of his wavy reddish hair.

"I'd prefer a jacuzzi suite, actually." They chuckled in agreement.

"You're okay, Charlie. Really."

"You're okay, yuirself." The weird silence grew. Hurley and Charlie realized they were were mostly alone. "I guess we need to take the fish back for Claire."

"Okay; here's Claire's. I'll eat the one I caught." Charlie grinned.

As they walked, Hurley asked, "Claire's sweet, huh?"

"Yeah," said Charlie.

Hurley saw the dark eyes- usually tense and searching-relax. Hurley had seen that look in plenty of friends. There was a mix of amused and understanding. There was also a little disappointment. That surprised Hurley most, but he pushed it away to think about later. Like just about everything since we 'deplaned', he thought.

Nearing the sprawling beach camp, the two men saw Sawyer leave Claire, her lady friend looking hacked off.

"I said I'd get to it, Madonna." Sawyer closed the eye he opened to make sure where the ladies were.

"Mr. Sawyer-"

"Just Sawyer, sweetheart."

"- we are going to hold the service in the next day or so. People have gathered most of the things they need from the luggage. The plane has mostly been emptied." Cannibalized, thought Sawyer. "Surely, there isn't that much in your belongings that we are asking you to give to us."

"I don't know why there's such a rush. We're not goin' anywhere and neither are they." Sawyer decided to stand up, in case....what? The preggers gal went nuts? That these two women attacked him? Well..., he thought for a moment then mentally shook himself. That's not right, even for me.

"... Jack says," Claire ended. Sawyer kept the blank look; folks usually repeated the important bits at least once. If Jackass was mentioned, it was undoubtedly less important than breathing. "Can you pay attention, please, Sawyer?"

His head lolled to look at Claire directly. "Why? To please the doc?"

Claire idly wondered if he kept his hair long to hide behind it. "No. It's something that I am heading up; Jack doesn't want to do anything with the memorial." Claire could've sworn there was a spark in his eyes at that. "It's just that I feel these people need to have some sort of closure. Something respectful. Your family and friends would want something like that for you and you them, right?"

Sawyer flashed to that night in the tent. The smells and the harsh whispers. The feeling of rightness. The terror afterward. He found his head bobbing up and down.

"Okay, you win, Madonna. I'll look. No guarantees, but I'll get what stuff I find to you tomorrow. Deal?"

"Deal." Claire stuck her hand out. Sawyer found a firm but not girly handshake in return.

"Gotta keep my looks up for the rest of the ladies, like Miss Lani here."

"You wish," came the reply.

"No, darlin', that would be you." Sawyer was surprised to see a bemused headshake from Claire as Lani went stomping off.

"I really don't think she's your type. I'll see you tomorrow." Claire hurried after Lani.

As Sawyer settled back in his seat, a shadow blocked his light.

"You messing with Claire? The pregnant girl?"

"She's pregnant?" Sawyer drawled, sarcastically. "Lissen, she came over and talked with me. It was her friend that got huffy. Ask her what the problem is."

"I was just askin' because she's so..." Both men nodded.

"I can tell," Sawyer said. "Just to let you know, Claire was talking about her memorial. That's all." Hurley gave the other man, who was thinner and more in shape than himself, an appraising look. "Honest. Boy Scout swear."

"You were a Boy Scout?"

Sawyer grinned and asked, "Can you move out of my light?"

With a shrug, Hurley continued on to the cooking fire.

"There's nothing wrong, Charlie. Lani just got upset at Sawyer. He thought he was funny. She didn't." Claire explained, again, to the wary bassist.

Putting the fish on a stick for the spit, Charlie fell silent. He was surprised at the feelings of protectiveness toward Claire. Well, she is pregnant. And Liam's little one... Charlie's thoughts drifted back to his niece and idle thoughts of how she was and how Liam did the dad thing after all the band business.

"Charlie?"

He jumped, caught daydreaming. "Yes?"

"Have you found anything to add to the memorial?" There was a pause, which Claire moved to fill. "I mean, when you haven't been fishing." The sweet smile she gave Charlie warmed him more than the cook fire.

"Yeh, I understod; I'll look through my bit and see what's what."

"Thanks." Claire had heard about Shannon, that snotty Yank, and the stunt she pulled to win a bet with her brother. Claire hated feeling so bloated and the way people always thought she was incapable of things like caring for herself. If they only knew, the young Aussie thought to herself. Then again, they may insist on treating me like a child came the rueful rejoinder to herself.

Claire could tell the signs of infatuation in Charlie; she'd seen the signs plenty of times before. The bassist was a lovely man- he checked on her, made sure she was eating and had water, and making jokes to lighten her mood when she'd been caught up in her own thoughts for a while. Strangely, it wasn't intrusive. Claire couldn't feel too annoyed or upset with Charlie around.

The young mother-to-be also found herself realizing Hurley was almost as attentive as Charlie. Claire chalked it up to the situations they found themselves in after the crash; Jack placing Claire in Hurley's surprisingly capable hands. That she felt surprised at the big man's capability was a point of embarassment to herself, but Claire had worked on keeping her near-famous equilibrium despite the extreme circumstances and stress.

Even the Korean gentleman had been able to contribute concretely within a day or so. Claire had been trying to figure out what an eight-months pregnant woman could contribute, especially one who was into astrology and worked at the Fish'N'Fowl.

Claire saw the two new friends cooking their fish.

"Hurley!"

"Hey, Claire? How's it goin'?"

"It's going good. How was the fishing?"

"Well, I think I saw them actually pointing as they were laughing this time."

Everyone who heard had a chuckle. It was a nice moment.

"I watched a little Survivor , and that fishing stuff seemed pretty hard to me." The gentleman, whose name Claire couldn't put with his face yet- got into a conversation with the other fishers as well as Charlie and Hurley. Claire saw Boone whisper something to Shannon, who rolled her eyes and stalked off. Claire smiled a little to herself.

Sawyer saw the big guy, Hurley, and the little English guy- right, he's a rock star- sit around Claire. Granted the smaller one flitted around her more, but Sawyer was amused at how Freckles thought she was the belle of the ball. There were other women on the island, and they weren't hit with ugly sticks.

A chuckle at the sight of Miss Lani stomping off came back to Sawyer. Yep, he thought, Freckles would be highly pouty if she realized she wasn't the only game in town. Thoughts of another woman who didn't take his bullshit drifted back and Sawyer found himself going to sit and look at the ocean.

Locke was walking back to the group and grinned at Sawyer.

"What, old man?" The guy was freaky and gave off a strange vibe.

"Oh, just... smiling."

"About what?"

"Being alive. Being able to help the group. Glad I don't have anyone to worry about at home or here on the island."

"How nice." Sawyer wanted to move, but there was something almost hypnotic in this guy's eyes, especially with that scar that ran down to and down from his right eye.

"We never feel that we're worthy, that's why we do what we do."

"That's catchy; maybe there's a song in there." Sawyer felt his neck get a bit tenser, due to the freakiness of the old man.

Locke chuckled and moved on, back to the camp.

Sawyer took a deep breath and moved to the shore.

"Freak."

As he neared the water, Sawyer saw he wasn't going to be alone.

"What do you want?" came the snotty, condescending welcome.

"Why, Sticks, if I didn't know better, I'd think you weren't glad to see me."

The youg blonde that wasn't pregnant greeted that statement with a trademark sneer.

"Why're you out here if you're so afraid of being attacked?"

"Because... People around here... they just are...accepting!" came the unexpected answer. "We've crashed, not died. We fell off the radar at some point; why wouldn't they send boats out in all directions?" Shannon barrelled on. " It's been less than a week, but it doesn't mean help isn't looking for us." Crossing her arms over her bikini-covering t-shirt, Shannon glared at the horizon, seemingly daring it to send help.

"Okay." As easy on the eyes as the chick was, Sawyer wasn't interested in listening to her. At least, just not now.

"What?" Shannon's voice held that most dangerous of tones- the hint of continuing.

"What what?" asked Sawyer, trying to remember why he walked over to the shore for.

"What are you doing here?" The look in her eyes and the tone of her voice held a bit of fear and irritability.

"Sorry, didn't mean to intrude on your private beach. I'll find another spot."

"I didn't say that."

"Lissen, Sticks? Don't need the hassle right now. I was just-"

"Looking for Kate?" There was a slight pause the young woman couldn't leave alone.

"Yeah," she said, taking his surprise for guilt," I've seen how pathetically you and Jack and that foreign guy pant at her." Still surprised, but quickly moving to amusement, Sawyer nodded, egging Shannon on.

"You have, huh?"

"It's really sad; you three men all trying too hard to catch her eye. She's just using you three."

"From what I hear, darlin', you know something about that."

Shannon looked as if Sawyer had just slapped her, the surprise was so real.

"I...Well, apparently I'm not pregnant enough for him." The bemused look on Sawyer's face spurred Shannon on. " I apparently am not sufficiently criminal enough for you or the hero. I wouldn't touch that stringy haired guy, like, ever..."

"What about the fat one?" The look of disgust almost got Sawyer to give the good news to Sayid- he'd be the next to last guy Shannon would 'touch' before she'd die. 'Least the girl's got her priorities straight, he chuckled to himself.

"So, you and that Boone guy...?"

"We're brother and sister, pervert! Ew!!" With that, Shannon's mind could not go on, so she stomped off bellowing, "Boone! Boone! There's a pervert over here..."

Sawyer grinned hard at that. That girl has lots of issues. But then again, don't we all? Sawyer thought for a moment, then stuck his feet in the edge of the tide. After sitting down, he looked up and noticed the moon. It reminded him of Claire's glow. Also, his promise to her. He stood up and made sure no one followed him.

Claire had gone to write her last bit for the day. Charlie and Hurley were talking by the signal fire. They volunteered to watch for a few hours during the night, like most of the men and some of the women.

"So, you have a girl back home?" Hurley plunged into the subject he felt he needed to settle in his mind.

"Nah. The DriveShaft groupies, the travel, the writing- didn't have time for a proper girlfriend." Charlie looked kind of down and sort of at the fire as he spoke. Hurley heard the wistfulness under the 'rock star' pat answer. "What about you, mate? You have someone waiting for you?"

Hurley looked as if he was seriously trying to answer...for about half a minute. "I was just wonderin', because... I was thinkin' you were eyeing Rose, ya know?" It took Charlie another half minute to realize the big man was joking. The chuckle turned into a guffaw.

Wiping a tear away, Charlie wheezed," That was cruel; funny but cruel."

"Cruel to be kind, dude; didn't want to bust up any action you had goin'."

"Well, Rose is open for you, especially since she just lost her husband."

"I like long courtships and walks on the beach, so I'm set."

Sawyer closed the bag and carefully replaced it. Looking at the handfull of wallets, he shook his head. I wouldn't want my life story to come down to that, but at least these folks have Claire wanting to do somethin' for them. He also checked on some things he put away for later.

Day 5 P.C.

Hell, just forget figuring out my food and times I peed. I just am tired of sitting and doing nothing. Outside of the memorial, of course. The drive for the dead's personal effects (so we know who they were) is going okay. Lani is a great help! Most folks have started handing in items; the manifest was helpful in figuring out where to start on the who's who.

I think Charlie is ... nice. He brought a fish over for supper tonight, which was sweet of him. He and Hurley have been so good to me over the last few days. Just wish I wasn't pregnant, no not that, but ... to see if they'd like me for myself not my belly. Still, almost anyone is better than , well, you know.

That Sawyer; he is a touchy fellow. He seems to be trying to get everyone angry at him, but he's been taking stuff away from the plane. Wonder how that's going to end up for everyone. Still, he said he'd help with the memorial while Jack has given me the brush-off much like you-know-who.

Maybe, if we met under different circumstances, I might've liked a relationship with Charlie, but after the mess of the last year or so, I think I might should stay away from relationships. Sigh I'll write again tomorrow. Night!

*******

That was the night Hurley decided to be supportive as a friend. That night after the memorial. Unless Claire showed signs of liking him more than Charlie. Sheeyah, right, he thought. Even on a stinkin' deserted island, I lose my chance to a freakin' rock star!

Charlie sat and looked between the fire, the horizon, the moon and Claire's direction. The bassist noticed the slight grin on Hurley's face when the Californian realized who was in the direction Charlie was looking. Well, let them bloody guess. She's a good one. Maybe Claire will understand. Maybe she likes my music, but she's been shy or overly polite about talking to me about DriveShaft. She needs to have someone to look after her, especially now and especially as she's got no one to help out with the wee one when he's born.

At that thought, he turned and saw Hurley gazing in Claire's direction. He saw the other man's look and recognized something. What dawned on him made him feel stupid and selfish. He ran their conversations over again in his mind.

Bugger! He fancies her too! Then his mind realized something else from earlier that night.

'do you have a girl?'.....'didn't want to bust up any action you had goin' '.... Hell, he's letting me have a clear shot!

Charlie excused himself to the loo. After a quick sniff, he pondered the generosity of his new friend's gesture. Why ask why, he thought. Cuz Hurley's a friend; I don't want to lose him. He's backing off for the same reason, idiot. Just try. See if Claire will have you. You never know.

Charlie and Hurley finished the watch, still friends. There was an unspoken support between the two from then out. Claire continued to find herself under the light, concerned, and almost ubiquitous presence of Charlie and Hurley; so much so that she almost started to call them Churlie.

Claire also noted that Hurley, while still attentive, was becoming more active helping Jack and caring for the group as a whole. She wondered why from time to time, but it wasn't long before something else came up or Charlie would drop by with tea or something to eat.

Passing by on his way to see if Walt wanted to play backgammon the next morning, Locke saw the two young people.

"Hey, Walt; want to have another lesson?" he called out to his new friend.

Looking around for Michael, the boy nodded. As they set up the board, Locke looked at Walt.

"You ever see a movie called Casablanca?" At Walt's shake of the head, the older man went on. " It's a great love story, but it's not too gushy. A guy and a gal meet up during World War II, and it ends with two guys becoming friends after a bad time for both of them."

"Really?"

"Really. Rick, one of the guys, tells Louis,'This is the start of a beautiful friendship.'"

"They weren't gay, were they?"

"No, movies didn't talk about that then."

Walt got to asking about backgammon and Locke listened and spoke, yet once he saw Hurley join up with Claire and Charlie. Not too long after, Sawyer passed Walt and Locke. Sawyer pulled up at the sight of the trio.

"Can we help?"

"Oh, hey, Old Man; nah. She looks busy. I'll speak to her later."

"If you say so, 'Louie'." Sawyer, not sure he heard right, just looked at Locke.

"Don't forget to king him, kid," were Sawyer's smirking, parting words. Locke just smiled.

end