Not As Much Time
By CharliesHoodie

-LOST-

“Claire?” Libby asked, picking up a crate of the Dharma food. With a flick of her head, a strand of her golden hair flew out of her eyes. “Could you help me take some of this back to the hatch?”

Claire glanced up. “Yeah, sure.” She then looked down at Aaron questionably.

“You can leave him with Hurley,” Libby offered with a slight smile. “I doubt he would really mind.”

“I wouldn’t mind what?” Hurley asked, coming up behind Libby, who instantly took on a bright smile.

“Dude you gotta let me in the loop.”

Libby laughed. “You wouldn’t mind watching Aaron while Claire and I go down to the hatch.”

“The kid doesn’t like me, but ok,” Hurley said with a shrug.

Claire smiled and handed her baby to Hurley, who cradled him gently. Libby beamed, and Claire could feel their happiness coming off of them like sunrays.

They reminded her of she and Charlie…at least their first month, all she could remember of it. And that wasn’t too much.

And now they never spoke.

“Ready?” Libby asked, breaking her thought.

“Oh, yeah,” Claire answered, grabbing a crate of water bottles and following Libby through the jungle toward the hatch.

-LOST-

When Liam had left him to go to Australia with Karen, Charlie had said ‘What about my family?’

But Liam had still left him in their little studio apartment, with hardly a word until Charlie went to Sydney to try to get back his family. And Liam took that away from him again.

Coming to the island, he had gained a whole new family with Claire and Aaron. It was starting over – a time to leave his past behind. But it came back, and he lost another family.

Not much had changed.

“Hurley,” Charlie called, standing up from his place on the sunny beach.

Hurley turned around, the baby in his arms.

“…Oh,” Charlie said quietly as his face fell. He turned away.

“Sorry, man. I’m babysitting,” Hurley apologized with a shrug.

“Yeah, and unfortunately the one that I tried to ‘kill,’” Charlie said with distaste.

Hurley just shrugged again uncertainly and rocked the sleeping baby.

Charlie stared at the peaceful face for a moment before looking away and kicking the sand. And like a rather forgotten memory, Locke came out from the path with Jack. Charlie watched with a slight scowl. Locke was once a close friend, but now a distant enemy. He only glanced at Charlie now as he walked with Jack to where Sawyer was sitting, reading his manuscript of Bad Twin.

Charlie glared at Locke’s back and went out on the beaten trail.

-LOST-

Libby opened the hatch doors and let Claire walk in first.

“Here,” she said as she handed down a few pillows and crates. “All we have to do is put this in storage. It would go bad on the beach.”

Claire nodded, and Libby came down with her, grabbing a pillow. “Go put the food in storage, and I’ll take care of the bunks.”

Claire grabbed the water crate and headed to the storage room. She wasn’t there long until she heard a single gun shot. A bottle fell from her hand.

“Libby!” Claire cried, jumping up and heading toward the source of the shot. She came to the corner and stopped suddenly in shock. Libby was there, turning the corner just as Claire arrived there. She had obviously heard the shot as well, and was staring in front of her with shock.

Before Claire could scream, at least three shots were fired and Libby collapsed.

A buzzing noise went past Claire’s ear, and her vision slowly faded to blackness.

-LOST-

When her senses renewed, she felt warm hands on her cold cheeks and fingers gently running through her hair. She still couldn’t see, and she felt as if she couldn’t move, either.

Her lips slowly opened and she formed a soundless word.

“What?” asked a gentle voice, slowly pulling her to a sitting position. “What did you say?”

“Charlie,” she mumbled, and let her head fall on his chest.

-LOST-

Claire’s eyes flashed open suddenly and light poured into her mind, blinding her. She groaned, turning and rolling where she was in pain.

She jerked her head to the side and saw a body with blonde hair breathing heavily and violently grabbing the blanket she was lying on between her fingers.

“Libby?” Claire murmured, blinking twice to make sure she was seeing clearly.

Libby wheezed and turned to look at Claire, her eyes wide and bloodshot with her mouth open.

Claire’s eyes widened and she jerked herself up of the bunk, stumbling and falling on the cold, hard floor.

Libby wheezed, and Claire began to scream for help, delirious and frightened.

Right then, Charlie, Jack and Kate ran into the room. Jack and Kate ran past Claire and to Libby. Jack had two white pills in his hand, and slipped them into her mouth. Kate talked soothingly in Libby’s ear and managed to get her to swallow the pills.

Charlie was standing off to the side and looking at Libby with his brow furrowed. Claire looked up at him, feeling helpless and scared.

“Charlie?” she whispered, trying not to disturb Jack and Kate with what they were doing. “What happened?”

Charlie tried to forget the awkwardness between them for the time being. “Someone…someone shot Ana and Libby,” he said, stumbling over his words slightly. “Ana’s dead…Libby’s dying.”

Claire’s eyes widened, suddenly getting watery and soft. “Who did it?”

When he saw her eyes, his heart broke into a million pieces. His knees went weak, and he kneeled down next to her. Partly to sooth her, and partly because her presence almost literally brought him to his knees.

“Henry escaped, so they think it was him. He shot Michael, too. But just in the arm, so he’s going to be all right.”

Claire’s lips trembled and she let her head fall on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her back and rested his chin on the top of her head, watching as Libby struggled to breathe…and eventually couldn’t.

-LOST-

“That day, I found you on the ground next to Libby. A bullet had just gone by your ear and it scared you and you fell.”

Charlie sat down next to Claire, who was sitting by the fire and staring into it absently. It was dark. They had had the funeral for Libby and Ana that day…and she had grabbed his hand during the ceremony.

She knew why. He didn’t.

Only a few minutes after they had left the hatch that day, things were the same as they had always been. They didn’t talk. They didn’t even acknowledge one another until the funeral. Somehow they had stood next to one another. She grabbed his hand, and a few minutes later Desmond returned in his little sail boat and things got even more hectic and they ignored each other again until this night.

“I thought you were dead,” Charlie said after she didn’t say anything back.

Claire glanced at him briefly, then back at the fire. “When I saw Libby’s face…I just…” she shook her head in disbelief and a single tear slipped down her cheek.

This time, Charlie reached over and grabbed her hand and she tightened the grip and squeezed.

“I held your hand today because I realized something,” she said quietly, turning back to look at him with those same eyes that had brought him to his knees. “I realized…I could lose you anytime. And you could lose me. And nothing would be solved, and we’d both hate ourselves forever. So things need to be resolved, Charlie. I’m never going to lose you. We might not have as much time as we think.”

-LOST-

A/N: Awww. Do review, please.