Lost: "I'm Calling, I'm Falling" (Claire/Boone) CHAPTER 7
Title: I'm Calling, I'm Falling
Chapter: Seven
Fandom: Lost
Characters/Pairings: Boone/Claire, Boone Carlyle, Claire Littleton, Boone/Shannon, Shannon Rutherford, Charlie/Claire, Charlie Pace
Rating: R
Narrative: Boone's POV, third person
Genre: Romance, Suspense
Length: 11 chapters
Warnings: Gore, smut, strong language
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I do not own Lost or the characters
Author's Note: Part 7.
Summary: After the camp is violently attacked by the Others, Boone is left with a Claire in extreme agony and cannot find Shannon anywhere. Part 7.
CHAPTER SEVEN
About a week had passed since that dreadful night. There was still no sign of Jack, Sayid, Shannon…anyone. Everyday, he had visited Claire. And everyday, she had asked after Charlie.
“Can you get him?” She’d say, and Boone would simply nod, not saying anything. Boone worried that she was beginning to get suspicious. Boone had started to make excuses, like “He’s bandaging someone”, “He’s out getting food” or something like that. Every time, Claire would believe him. He felt awful to lie to her, but he didn’t want to be the one to tell her. He couldn’t tell whether he was looking out for her, not wanting to cause her more pain, or whether he was just being selfish. He and Claire had been getting on very well over the past week. They spent most of each day together, even when she slept, Boone stayed in the tent and watched her.
He hadn’t realised how beautiful she was; the way a few locks of hair strayed away from the others and hung over her face, the way a smile completely transformed her face, the way her brow furrowed when she was deep in thought. Sometimes, he even thought that she was more beautiful than Shannon. She certainly treated him a lot better than Shannon ever did. In that one week, Claire had shown him more kindness than Shannon ever had. When he looked at Claire, he didn’t see flashes from that night anymore. He just saw Claire. He never knew that you could like someone this much after only properly knowing them for a short while. He had even found himself flirting with her a bit, well, if he was honest, more than a bit. He wasn’t sure if he had imagined it, but sometimes, he thought that Claire was flirting with him back.
Claire could walk now. She was a lot better - even Sun was impressed with her recovery. Boone had suggested that it may be partially due to Claire’s upbeat attitude. Sun had agreed; not many people who had received such an injury were so cheery. But Claire was just happy to be alive, and that she had Aaron. And, Boone thought to himself, because she didn’t know what had happened to her, or about Charlie.
Jin was making Boone’s job of protecting the camp redundant, as he was patrolling a radius he mapped out himself a couple of times every day and a couple more at night. Boone thought he would have hated to not be doing anything, but he didn’t mind, since it meant he got to spend all of his time with Claire.
Many of the injured were healing well, some of them just about completely recovered. The atmosphere in the camp was considerably higher than it had been a week ago, people were becoming less paranoid. Some of the braver ones were even starting to venture out to the caves to get more water. The others were still rationing the water that was already at the camp.
The sun was beginning to fall, when Boone and Claire set out for their evening walk along the shore line. They passed Jin, who was on one of his rounds, and sometimes splashed their feet in the water. Sun was taking care of Aaron while Claire walked, just until she was back to full strength.
Right at this moment, Claire was walking in a very shallow edge of water in her bare feet, while Boone carried her shoes. She lightly kicked the water up into the air occasionally, smiling happily whenever she did.
“Boone.” She said.
“Yeah?” He looked at her. She was still kicking the water, but she was silent for a second.
“You were in love with Shannon, weren’t you?” Boone stopped in his tracks.
“How did…?” He couldn’t believe it. Was he that obvious?
“I can see it. Don’t worry, it doesn’t really show.” Claire smiled. “It’s just when you’re pregnant you don’t really have much better to do than watch people.” Boone froze. Did she know that she had been pregnant before that attack of the Others? Did she know that she had lost the baby? “You know, with Aaron.” She added, when Boone didn’t respond. He sighed with relief. That was one less issue to worry about. In the past week, she hadn’t shown any signs that she had known about the baby.
He often wondered why he was so protective of Claire now. Was it because she had been hurt so much? Because he wanted to protect the one good thing going for him at the moment? He still wasn’t sure whether he was trying so hard to protect Claire, or himself. Either way, he knew that he cared deeply for her. She was so kind, and she made him better just by the sight of her.
“Claire.” He muttered.
“Hmm?” She turned to face him, walking backwards through the water.
“You’re probably my best friend here.” He smiled at her. She was. He didn’t really talk to too many people on the island often, besides Shannon and John. John was more of a… teacher, than a friend. And Shannon… was Shannon.
“Mine too.” Claire responded. “Seeing as Charlie as disappeared off the face of the earth.” She laughed. Boone grimaced. It had been a whole week, and still she didn’t know. She deserved to know.
“Claire…” He began. Yet he found he couldn’t continue. He couldn’t tell her. As soon as he started, images came back to him. Her screaming face, the blood spurting from her mouth, her smeared face, her screwed up features, her thrashing body. If he told her… she’d be feeling that all over again. On the inside. He couldn’t do that to her. He just couldn’t.
“What?” Claire asked. Boone shook his head.
“Doesn’t matter.” He needed to distract her. “How’s Aaron?”
“You should know,” She laughed again. “You see him everyday.”
“Yeah I do.” Boone laughed back. He had started to laugh again, since being around her.
“Is there any food for when we get back?” She asked. Boone smiled. He had distracted her.
The two could see the camp ahead of them. They had walked for an hour, and Claire was now feeling in need of nourishment. The two were talking together of a nonsensical topic, and laughing, when Claire came to a sudden halt.
“What…?” She said. Boone turned to see what she was looking at. All the bodies had been buried by Jin now, and all the graves had been marked with their names. Boone and Claire were now standing directly across from the grave marker which read ‘Charlie Pace.’