Double fic post part I - Someone (to watch over me)
Title: Someone (to watch over me)
Genre: fluff, hurt/comfort
Rating: G
Spoilers: season two finale
Summary: Between Charlie coming back from the hatch implosion and night falling on the beach camp, Claire never once stopped watching him.
Disclaimer: clearly Lost isn’t my doing. Crying shame if you ask me. This fic was inspired in part by the song “Someone To Watch Over Me” by George Gershwin.
~*~
Charlie hesitated on the edge of the light from the fire and watched Claire for a moment. She was blissfully unaware of his scrutiny, rocking Aaron’s cradle, sipping from her water bottle, singing a lullaby. If Charlie’s hearing hadn’t been so compromised he might’ve been able to make out the words but as it were, he still had an incessant ringing in them that was slowly driving him bananas.
Vaguely he wondered what had become of Eko and John and the crazy Scotsman - Desmond. None of them were back from the hatch yet and he was starting to feel a bit edgy, wondering if maybe he was the only survivor. He still wasn’t entirely sure how he had gotten out of there in one piece or why he hadn’t gone back to help the others - he didn’t really recall what had happened.
It was mostly a blur of green as he stumbled through the jungle and the next thing he’d known he was back at camp and he’d seen Claire staring at him. Feeling nervous under her scrutiny he had smiled tentatively. To his great surprise, she had smiled back. Encouraged, he had taken a confident step toward her…and nearly fallen over with the onset of a sudden dizzy spell. Claire had raced forwards to grab him by the elbow and steady him.
“Are you okay?” she’d asked, repeating her question a little louder when he cupped a hand to his ear, indicating that she was speaking too quietly.
“Just a bit dizzy,” he’d shrugged. And then somehow, for some reason Charlie couldn’t fathom, she had assigned herself the task of looking after him.
Instead of drilling him about where he’d been and what had happened out in the jungle like Jack or Sayid would have done, she merely led him back to his tent, and made him lie down and rest while she went and sourced painkillers and water for him.
“You look like you got blown up or something,” she’d observed shrewdly. “What the hell happened out there?”
“I dunno really,” he’d answered truthfully, swallowing down the aspirin she offered without any water. “Eko tried to blow up the blast doors at one point - that probably explains my blown-up-ed-ness. You’ll have to speak up by the way, my hearings still not the best.”
“Well something happened,” Claire said, raising her voice helpfully. “Did you see the sky turn…?”
“Look Claire I’m sorry,” Charlie apologised as he interrupted. “I’m a bit wrecked right now and I’ve got this killer headache. Can we save the inquisition for later?”
Claire frowned at the obvious snub but all she said was, “If you need anything just let me know.”
As it were, he hadn’t needed to ask for anything though. Claire had made regular visits throughout the remainder of the afternoon with more water and painkillers. Charlie dozed between her visits but every time he woke up and looked out of the tent she was already there, asking him if he wanted anything and how was he feeling?
Charlie had been bemused by all the attention. “I don’t think I’m concussed or anything,” he told her when she brought him a plate of food for dinner. “You don’t have to, you know, babysit me or anything. I mean, I feel a bit dizzy if I stand up too quick and my ears are still ringing but that doesn’t mean that I…”
“You should rest anyway,” Claire told him firmly. “Remember when Jack practically passed out at Boone’s funeral from lack of blood? We don’t need you doing the same thing when there’s no doctor around.”
“I’m okay though!” Charlie protested, sitting up too quickly and immediately getting a rather violent head spin. “Ngaaaaah…all right maybe I’m not totally okay,” he gritted his teeth and moaned quietly to himself as the world slowly righted itself.
Claire pushed him firmly back onto his makeshift bed and eyed him sternly. “You just rest until you’re feeling better okay?” she told him. “If you feel any better later on then come past the fires. I’ll be with Aaron and I want to hear about what happened okay?”
Charlie was so surprised that Claire had invited him to come and talk to her that all he could muster was a strangled “okay” before she smiled at him and then disappeared.
It was late when Charlie opened his eyes again - the stars had come out, sparkling like tiny sequins in the dark sky. Tentatively he sat up, pleased to find that he wasn’t so dizzy anymore. Standing was a little more of a problem. He swayed unsteadily on his feet for a moment but then he managed to centre himself and he began to totter off through the beach camp. Everyone seemed to be settled around the fires, gossiping about what had happened. If his hearing had been better he might’ve been able to eavesdrop but just as this thought occurred to him, he had seen Claire sitting alone at a fire with Aaron.
She’d been watching him all afternoon - maybe now it was his turn to get to do some watching. Suddenly however, she looked up, ruining his staring. She held up a hand and beckoned him over, obviously realising that the gesture would be more effective than trying to call out to him.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as he sat down beside her. Charlie blinked, surprised to realise that his hearing had actually improved slightly. He shook his head vigorously for a moment, and then held his nose and exhaled violently, pleased when he felt his right ear pop.
“Better,” he said, pleased. When Claire stared at him, non-plussed, he explained. “I just got my right ear to pop. I feel a bit lopsided but at least I can hear you a bit better now.”
Claire nodded and then fell silent. Charlie, in absence of anything to do to ease the awkwardness between them, began to toy with the grazes on his knuckles, sucking on the more painful parts to try and alleviate the stinging. Claire began to fidget, watching him, and then finally she burst.
“What happened out there Charlie?” she demanded.
“You wanna hear about me nearly getting killed by the flaming fireball?” he teased immediately. “Or the flying fork?”
“I want you to be serious!” Claire said and then scoffed impatiently.
“Nothing happened,” Charlie told her stubbornly.
“Well something happened,” Claire returned just as stubbornly. “The sky turned that weird violet colour…”
“Did it?”
Claire stared at him for a moment and then rolled her eyes. Charlie chuckled quietly to himself and went back to inspecting his grazed knuckles again.
And then suddenly Claire was touching his arm, inspecting the scrapes on his elbows. Charlie drew in a sharp breath at her touch but Claire seemed not to notice. She made quietly sympathetic noises as she peered at his arm, holding his hand in both of hers.
Frowning, Charlie peered at her. The last time she’d touched him had been a vicious blow to the face. What had changed her mind in the past two days to make her hold his hand not once, but twice?
Claire looked up then, catching his eye and smiling slightly as she disengaged one of her hands and then reached out tentatively to brush at a stray piece of his hair. Charlie froze up, swallowing carefully as Claire’s exploration of his face continued. She was looking at him with the strangest expression on her face, half smiling, half thoughtful. He shifted uncomfortably under her scrutiny, unsure as to whether or not he was reading her the right way or not.
No - surely not. Not after so long…
Claire’s fingertips were at his chin and her lips were on his before he even registered that she’d moved her face towards his. Charlie’s eyes fluttered shut automatically as she kissed him for the first time, her lips so soft against his that he almost opened his eyes again just to make sure that she was still there.
As Claire pulled away, Charlie’s head did a dizzying swirl that had nothing to do with getting blown up.
Christ - did that really just happen?
Claire smiled shyly at him, drawing back, still holding onto his hand before she dropped her eyes down to their hands again.
A nervous giggle burst out of Charlie before he could stop it. Biting the rest of them back so that he didn’t make a fool out of himself, he placed his other hand over Claire’s.
He could feel his cheeks burning red and was thankful that in the glow from the fire, Claire wouldn’t be able to see it. The last time he’d ever felt such a giddy rush from kissing someone was when he was fourteen. It was amazing how Claire could bring out such emotions in him.
Chancing a glance upwards, Charlie saw that she was still looking down, smiling quietly and biting her lip.
“Hey,” he said quietly, his lips pulling at a smile as she looked up at him. “Thanks Claire.”
“What for?” she asked, quietly befuddled. “Kissing you?”
“For taking care of me today,” Charlie murmured, brushing the pad of his thumb over the back of her hand. “If you hadn’t looked after me I probably would’ve just pretended everything was fine and then fallen over my own feet and knocked myself out on a rock or something.”
“You brought me the vaccine yesterday,” she said simply. “I thought that I should return the favour.”
“Even after everything…?”
“Yes. Even after everything,” Claire interrupted him then added, “I guess I sort of realised that I didn’t really want to lose you.”
Charlie’s face glowed with pleasure.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Claire said softly. “Really.”
Charlie nodded to himself for a moment and then he looked up and caught Claire’s eye again, a cheeky smile on his lips.
“Can I kiss you again?”
Claire laughed and now she was blushing as Charlie leant forward and it was his hand was on her cheek and his lips that were pressing gently against hers…
When they drew back, Charlie smiled at her, his heart felt swollen in his chest with pleasure. It had been a very long time since he’d felt this happy.
“I was kind of thinking,” Claire said tentatively. “That maybe you shouldn’t sleep alone at your tent tonight. Because if you get worse or anything, there’d be nobody around to take care of you.”
Charlie gaped. “Are you…” he paused to clear his throat and then started again. “Are you asking me to stay the night?”
Claire blushed again and shrugged. “If you’d like to.”
Charlie considered her offer for a moment but then he shook his head regretfully.
“As much as I’d love to spend the night I think it might be pushing the gauntlet just a little luv,” Claire looked disappointed at his answer but pleased at the endearment he had granted her. “Let’s just take this one step at a time yeah?”
Claire smiled at him, but her eyes showed her bemusement. “What’s brought about this sudden change of heart?” she wondered out loud. “A week ago you would have been falling all over yourself if I’d asked you to stay.”
Charlie considered this for a long moment before he finally spoke, and when he did speak he spoke carefully.
“A week ago…I don’t think we would’ve been anywhere near ready to reconcile.” Claire gazed at him thoughtfully. “A week ago, I don’t think that if I’d stumbled out of the jungle covered in dust that you would have given me the time of day. A week ago…” Charlie paused, unsure of how to say this tactfully. “You wouldn’t have been able to bring yourself to take care of me - let alone kiss me.”
Claire considered his words for a moment.
“It’s not last week Charlie. It’s today. It’s here and now. Things have…changed between us. Again.”
“I know they have,” Charlie said, and then he grinned. “But that doesn’t mean we should just jump straight into it again. Let’s just…take it easy to start off with this time yeah?”
Claire smiled broadly at him. “You’ve changed a lot,” she said but her voice was approving. “If you do need me then you know where to find me.”
“Claire,” he called out and she stopped, halfway. “Thanks once again.” At her confused look he smiled slightly and then to Claire’s great surprise, he began to sing softly.
“There’s a somebody I’m longing to see
I hope that she’ll, turn out to be
Someone who’ll watch…over me.”
Claire blushed furiously but she was smiling as she leant over and kissed him once more before standing up.
“Goodnight Charlie,”
“G’night Claire,” he returned, turning back to the fire again with a wide smile on his face.
When he finally went to bed, much later on, he chanced by Claire’s tent. She was still awake and sitting up, wrapped up tightly in her blanket. It was only once he had passed her by that she finally lay down and curled up for the night.
Charlie went to bed that night smiling, and for the first time in weeks his rest was peaceful and his dreams sweet. He was never to know that during the night Claire came to him not one, but three times, to make sure that he was still okay. It was the first time she had ever really worried about him - but it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
Although I may not, be the man some
Girls think of, as handsome
Through her heart I’ll carry the key
Won’t you tell her please to put on some speed?
Follow my lead, oh how I need
Someone to watch...over me