And true to my word... more fiction!
Title: Bedside Manner
Pairing: one-sided Jack/Claire and Charlie/Claire
Rating: PG. Just because.
Genre: angst, slightly AU
Summary: Jack never assumes that Claire could be as manipulative as the next person until she becomes desperate enough to try and use him to solve her problems.
Disclaimer: Lost still isn’t mine *sigh*
Spoilers: A few season two references in relation to the C/C relationship
~*~
She was there for Aaron’s check up at the end of every week and he was always waiting for her. Somehow they both instinctively knew the exact time every week to stop whatever they were doing and seek each other out.
At first it was a necessity, both of them were concerned about Aaron’s growth and Jack had suggested that they both keep a close watch on him for the first few months at the very least, in case anything should go wrong.
‘In a place like this anything could happen,’
Claire bit her lip, looking worried and then nodded. Jack felt slightly guilty. He’d never had much but bad news to give to her and he paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before offering some form of consolation.
‘But if I check him out every week or two he’ll be fine,’ he tried to smile and was rewarded with a tentative half-smile from Claire. ‘You’re doing an excellent job of taking care of him anyway, there shouldn’t be anything drastic happen.’
Claire smiled wider and more genuinely this time and Jack felt a rush of relief. Hurley had told him that his bedside manner sucked but Claire didn’t seem to think so and that cheered him immensely. She’d been through so much, due in no small part to his lack of belief in her. When she returned from the jungle he’d been there for her as much as he could - but ultimately he knew that she didn’t really need a doctor to fix her - she needed Charlie.
Their week began to revolve around Aaron’s check ups. Often the two of them would get talking and wile the hours away talking and laughing until they were interrupted, usually by Charlie who was liable to get jealous if Claire was within a ten metre radius of … well anyone really.
‘He’s very protective of you isn’t he?’ Jack remarked one day, laughing a little but he stopped at the look on Claire’s face. ‘What?’
‘He’s a little too protective,’ Claire said darkly. ‘He acts like he’s Aaron’s father, like I don’t know what I’m doing which is stupid. It’s not like I don’t have maternal instincts.’
Jack frowned slightly. He’d never seen Claire so vehement, least of all in relation to Charlie.
‘He’s just trying to help…’ he began.
Claire sighed and her eyes became a little less fierce. ‘I know. I just wish he’d back off sometimes.’
Jack hesitated as she sighed and rearranged Aaron in her arms. ‘Did you want me to talk to him?’
Claire glanced up, surprised. ‘What? Oh no that’s okay,’ she laughed a little. ‘I’m not that desperate yet. I’ll let you know if I do need your help in that department though.’
Claire was late for her next check up and Jack waited impatiently. It wasn’t like Claire to be late. Nearly half an hour had gone by and he was about to go looking for her when she arrived looking rather cross, arms crossed over her chest. Jack glanced past her and saw Charlie coming up behind her, crooning softly to Aaron.
Jack raised an eyebrow at Claire but didn’t say anything as he took the infant from Charlie and did his usual check up.
‘Everything seems fine,’ he said shortly, handing him back to Claire but it was Charlie, not Claire who took Aaron.
‘I got him,’ Charlie hefted Aaron into his arms and smiled down at him. ‘Come on then mate. Let’s go.’
Claire whipped around to glare at Charlie, disbelieving and incredulous, and reached out for her son. ‘Charlie…’
But he was already gone, off down the beach and singing nursery rhymes.
Claire stood there for a moment, her posture stiff with anger and then her hand dropped to her side. She jumped at the touch of Jack’s hand on her shoulder but then sighed and looked up at him.
‘You see what I mean Jack?’ she said despairingly, on the verge of tears. ‘He just wont take no for an answer!’
‘Have you tried talking to him?’
‘Yes! He wont listen!’ Claire gave a dry sob and pushed his hand off her shoulder. ‘I’m sorry to be bothering you with all this.’
‘No, that’s okay,’ Jack said quickly. ‘If you ever need me you know I’m here.’
Claire smiled bitterly. ‘Of course you are. You’re a doctor - you have to be there for everyone.’
‘I didn’t mean just as a Doctor,’ Jack said gently. ‘I meant as a friend.’
Claire gazes at him searchingly for a moment and then touches a hand to his cheek gently, her fingers soft on his skin through the harshness of his stubble. ‘I’ll remember that.’ She murmurs, smiling a little. Then almost before he can register what she’s doing, Claire drops a gentle kiss at the corner of his mouth.
And then she’s gone.
He doesn’t see a lot of her that week but at the normal time she’s back for Aaron’s check up. She’s alone this time but she seems frazzled and jumpy.
‘Can we make this quick?’ she asks breathlessly as she sits down. ‘I’ve got some … things I need to do.’
‘Sure,’ Jack takes Aaron from her but once he’s checked him over Claire lingers, not saying anything, just shifting uncomfortably and averting her eyes from Jack.
‘Are you okay?’ Jack ventures after a minute or two.
‘Charlie kissed me today,’ Claire blurts and for a moment they make eye contact but then her face flushes crimson and she looks away from him again. ‘I kind of … came here to get away from him.’
Jack opens his mouth to say something but finds no words. ‘Oh,’ is all he can think of.
‘You said I could talk to you,’ Claire looks distinctly uncomfortable now. ‘As a friend as well as a doctor.’
‘I did,’ Jack wonders when exactly he agreed to become Claire’s sole confidante but can’t find a specific moment. He supposes it just happened without him realising. ‘Um … so what did you say to him? You know, before he…?’
‘Just that I had to take Aaron to his check up with you and he wanted to come with me but I told him no, he had to go get us some more water,’ Claire looked slightly guilty. ‘He looked a bit … angry for a moment but then he packed up the water bottles in his bag. I started walking away but then he came running after me and…’ her voice trails off but Jack can imagine the scene in his head. It’s certainly not hard. ‘And then he left for the caves.’
He doesn’t know anything he can say that can make this any easier for her but he tries for a comforting hand on her shoulder and allows her to scoot over and put her head on his shoulder as she begins to cry.
‘I never wanted it!’ she sobs. ‘I never wanted his love or his protectiveness or - or - or him! Not like this Jack! He was just a friend! Just a close friend …’
‘It’s okay,’ his arms encircle her thin shoulders carefully as Aaron begins to snuffle and then to cry, softly. ‘This can be fixed okay? You just need to go and talk to him.’
‘I’ve tried!’ Claire cries and pulls back so she can look him in the face and despite himself, Jack notices that even crying, her eyes brimming over and a heartbreaking look of sadness on her face, she somehow manages to look beautiful. ‘You think I haven’t tried talking to him? He won’t listen to me Jack!’ she pauses and looks up at him hopefully. ‘Maybe if you could…?’
‘There’s nothing I can say or do to fix this,’ Jack snapped impatiently and Claire frowned and drew away from him. ‘Maybe before I could have … but now … it’s out of my league Claire, you need to sort this out by yourself.’
The two of them regard each other solemnly for a moment and then Claire pushes herself to her feet.
‘You’re wrong.’
‘About what?’ Jack stands as well as Claire ducks out of his shelter. He follows her out but next moment she grabs the front of his shirt and pulls him out into the open and then slams her lips against his in a confused and frantic kiss, her tongue lashing out to meet his as he responds without even realising what he’s doing.
When Claire breaks the kiss and he realises that there are no less than half a dozen people a little way down the beach watching them, looking thoroughly shocked he realises what she’s doing and he feels sick. He would never have thought Claire capable of using him like this - it seems he doesn’t really know her at all.
‘You’ve done everything to help me,’ she says, utterly devoid of emotion. ‘Thank you.’
Their next appointment comes and goes, as does the next, and the next and he doesn’t see her except for quick glimpses on the beach. He notices that Charlie is never far away from her and that she seems to look more and more melancholy with each passing week. He hears through the grapevine that she and Charlie have begun sleeping together and before too long she’s pregnant again and comes to him begging for an abortion.
‘There’s nothing I can do to help,’ Jack shrugs her away. ‘If I tried to give you an abortion here I’d probably kill you Claire. It’s far too dangerous’
‘Please,’ she pleads, her eyes streaming. ‘I can’t have this baby Jack! I don’t even love him!’
‘Well that’s not my fault is it?’ he feels like a bastard for saying it but its her own stupid fault that her plan backfired and he’s disinclined to feel sympathetic after being used by someone he thought was a friend. ‘Why you would even ask for my help after what happened last time I “helped you” is beyond me. It didn’t work out very well last time for you, did it?’
Her eyes flash with anger then. ‘If you had just talked to him when I…’
‘If I recall rightly, you told me not to talk to him,’ Jack interrupts coldly. ‘And even if you’d asked me I wouldn’t have. It wasn’t my place to say anything and it still isn’t.’
As it transpires, Jack doesn’t need to say anything to Charlie, Claire does it for him.
‘You bastard,’
The force of Charlie’s punch, coming from behind, knocks him face first into the sand.
‘What?’ he says, disorientated and tries to pick himself up only to find Charlie’s face inches from his own and livid with anger.
‘Claire just told me what you’ve done,’ Charlie snarls. ‘Where do you get off fucking her behind my back all this time? Did you think I wouldn’t find out?’
‘I never touched her!’ Jack protests immediately.
‘That’s not what she told me,’ Charlie growls and punches him again. Jack doesn’t even fight back, allowing Charlie to hit him. There’s no point in fighting back. ‘Are you saying that she’s a liar now? Huh?’
Jack pauses for breath. ‘I think the real question is, would you believe me if I told you she was?’
‘You’re the liar Jack,’
When Claire goes into labour, Charlie wont let Jack come anywhere near her, enlisting Kate and Sun’s help instead. Several hours after she has given birth however, Claire totters into Jacks shelter and stands there crying.
‘It was a stillbirth.’ She wipes her eyes ineffectually. ‘I didn’t want it to die. Not really, you’ve got to believe that Jack.’
He doesn’t say anything.
‘We’re burying him today,’ she continues dazedly. ‘I wanted you to know - I named him Jack. After you. Don’t tell Charlie.’
After the funeral, Jack seeks her out and puts a hand on her shoulder.
‘Jack?’ her voice is confused as he holds out a single, sad flower to her.
‘It’s for the grave,’ he says quietly and walks down the beach a little ways before wading in up to his ankles.
‘Jack? Dude, you okay?’
He turns slowly when he recognises Hurley’s voice.
‘I’m fine Hurley.’ he hesitates before adding, ‘Thanks.’
‘Was the baby really yours?’ Hurley ventures after a while. ‘Because that’s what people are saying … well its what Charlie’s been saying.’
Jack laughs hollowly. ‘No. It wasn’t mine. I never had anything to do with Claire in a romantic or a sexual sense for that matter.’
‘Oh,’ the waves lap around their ankles. ‘Then why did she say that you did?’
Jack is silent and eventually Hurley leaves to ease the awkwardness. Jack stands contemplating the ocean until the sun goes down.
It’s a beautiful dusk. The ocean is the same colour as her eyes.