Brace Yourself

Chapter One

Claire was standing on the beach, a fresh ocean breeze spilling over her and making her hair and soul soar. She smiled to herself, feeling her flat and smooth stomach with her free hand – for the other arm was occupied by Adam, her baby boy.

She smiled down at the cooing child, who screeched with happiness as his mother tickled his stomach gently. Adam had a chubby face, light blue eyes, and sunshine-colored hair. He looked like her, and Claire was glad. The child looked nothing like Thomas.

Claire’s body suddenly wrapped in warmth from a force from behind, and Adam’s blue eyes went wide as he stared over his mother’s shoulder. Hands other than her own were stroking Claire’s stomach, and lips were against the nape of her neck.

“Char-LIE!” Claire complained half-heartedly, tilting her head back and smiling. “Your scaring Adam, you know.”

Adam was baby talking to himself and gurgling, a couple fingers shoved into his tiny mouth. He was watching Charlie intently.

Charlie smiled at the child and snatched him from his mother, cradling him gently and smiling down at the soft, flawless baby face.

‘If Charlie stays with me, after we’re rescued,’ Claire thought, smiling to her self, ‘he’s bound to make the perfect father…’

“Claire, he’s beautiful,” Charlie complemented, handing Adam back to his mother as he reached for her.

“Yes, yes, Charlie. You said that yesterday. And the day before. And for the past three months!”

Yes, it was true. Claire’s little Adam, no, their little Adam was almost three months old. He would be tomorrow.

“Only stating the truth, luv,” Charlie said, grinning and kissing her cheek, cooled from the chilled wind.

An especially cold breeze emerged from the ocean and swept over them. Claire shivered, Adam whimpered, but Charlie felt nothing, as his hoodie was on.

Seeing Adam’s reaction to the breeze, Charlie shrugged off his hoodie and handed it to Claire who bundled Adam in it. Charlie grinned and pulled the oversized hood over the thin-haired head. Adam giggled, cooed, and fidgeted until Claire smiled and pushed the hood off of him.

“Don’t want him to suffocate, now, do we?” she teased, turning and walking back to the camp at the beach. Charlie followed.

The camps hadn’t really developed from what they had been the first month on the island. Still fragile, dinky little makeshift tents. No new inventions.

“Would you like to go see nanny, Adam?” Claire asked, propping the child on her hip as she walked into the camp, Charlie at her side.

Of course, Adam didn’t answer. He stared at her and shoved two fingers into his mouth.

Claire laughed and kissed his forehead. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

She walked to the back of the camp where Kate sat outside her own tent, sharpening Locke’s hunting knives, the suitcase itself at her feet. Kate glanced up and smiled at them, packing up the knives and jumping to her feet.

Adam cooed as he was handed over to Kate.

“He won’t cause you much trouble, I’m sure,” Claire informed Kate, smiling. “I just fed him about an hour ago, so he should be asleep soon.”

As if on cue, Adam yawned.

Kate nodded and smiled. “Shame, Adam and I always have fun. Oh well, we’ll play when he wakes up.” Kate flashed a smile and disappeared into her tent.

“Come on, Charlie,” Claire said immediately, grabbing his hand and running back for the beach.

He had never seen her run before. Even in these past few months, she had been too busy with Adam to even think about running. Now she was dragging him along down to the beach.

When they reached it, she slowed her pace to a trot and they walked down the beach together, hand in hand, a kind of experience Charlie had never really had with her.

The camp was soon a mere dot in the distance. The couple hadn’t said a thing to one another, both of them not wanting to break the peacefulness and the sound of the crashing waves.

Finally, Claire pierced it.

“Wanna go for a swim?”

Charlie turned bright red and quickly shook his head, embarrassed.

“Ok…” Claire sighed, no even trying to hide her disappointment.

After a moment, she asked, “Why?”

“I can’t, okay?” Charlie blurted, turning redder by the second and kicking at the sand bashfully. “Remember that day, a long while back, when Boone ran out there to try and help that drowning lady? Well, I was the first to see Boone out there, and I would’ve helped him…but I can’t swim.”

Claire hid a smile and nodded. “I can fix that, I bet.”

Charlie stared at her in horror. “No, Claire! I can’t swim, really, it’s like a disability!”

“Maybe it’d help if you had something to enjoy out there…” she slid off her shirt to reveal a bikini top, but left her tan cargo shorts on.

“Extra flab and nasty stuff like that,” Claire explained with distaste. “Not pretty.”

“Your pretty, Claire,” Charlie said with a smile, shrugging off his t-shirt and kicking off his shoes so he was down to his jeans.

“Jeans’ll weigh you down, luv,” Claire teased as she dipped a toe into the water.

Charlie sighed. She was right. The thought of going down to his boxers wasn’t the thing that made Charlie sigh. It was her being right. And the sigh wasn’t meant to be an aggravated sigh, but an admiring sigh.

Claire paused and watched as Charlie discarded his jeans to reveal himself in plaid boxers.

“Looking good, Charlie!” she said, touching his lightly but hot over-muscular abs and springing off into the water.

Charlie followed close behind and scooped her up from behind, carrying her through the waves. Might as well make the best of the water now, because he knew he wouldn’t be able to swim once they got to the deeper area.

Claire laughed with delight and closed her eyes so she could concentrate on the bright sun, beating down on her closed eyelids, the cool breeze that danced and teased her hair, and the feeling of being held against Charlie’s bare chest.

Everything was ruined when a loud, motor like sound erupted around them.

Claire screamed and clung to Charlie, closing her eyes tightly. Charlie held her closer and stared up into the sky where the noise was coming from.

Above them soared something yellow and red, and it took Charlie a moment to comprehend that, indeed, it was a plane.

“Hey!” Charlie screamed, half laughing half crying. He almost dropped Claire, but quickly remembered to put her down as he waved his arms wildly in the air, uselessly trying to scream over the plane’s engine.

Whoever was in there, saw him, and circled back around, making to land – the beach as his runway.

Claire clung to Charlie as the small plane came to a smooth landing on the beach, spitting up sand.

Charlie gripped Claire’s arm and drug her out of the water just as the pilot was climbing out. He examined them curiously, asking no questions about their coming to the island. He was tall, lightly muscled, and had sandy colored hair with blue eyes to match. He simply asked:

“Are there others?”

A/N: Hope you liked! Next chapter will be up later! Please leave a review.