How It Would All End
By Charlieshoodie

A/N: Be aware this contains a season 3 death spoiler from the fifth episode. Read at your own risk!

-LOST-

When they brought back the body, he avoided everyone.

Even her.

It was like a dream to him, seeing people gather around the edge of the jungle, talking to each other silently and whispering. He hardly even remembered pushing through the crowd before emerging on the other side.

And then stopping, right where he was.

Sayid almost beckoned for him to help with the body, but then decided against it as he saw Charlie step back in shock, almost trembling.

Claire had shoved herself up to the front of the gathered crowd as well. She stopped behind Charlie and rested her hands on the back of his elbow, her slender fingers touching him gently. But he was stiff and rigid.

And then she saw why.

Her presence was also dream-like to him. Claire’s eyes left Eko’s body and traveled up to look at Charlie. Whether he felt her eyes on him or not, she couldn’t tell.

“Oh, Charlie…” she whispered, voice trembling.

She knew of the relationship Charlie had with Eko. He had admired the man greatly – he had looked up to him since the plane was burned, the church had been introduced, the hatch had become nothing and ‘til the day that he died.

Although the events after his death were a dreamy haze, there was one event that was so real to Charlie it would be impossible to get out of his mind.

-LOST-

He watched Locke leave with Desmond, Sayid and the other two people whom he didn’t know. He had almost opened his mouth to speak up, say ‘I’ll come along,’ but he didn’t. He watched them all leave out of the corner of his eye as he chopped the fruit absently. Locke had enough people – he would find Eko. What use would he be there, anyway? He wasn’t going to improve the chance of finding his friend. If anything, he would be in the way.

He tossed another rock into the crashing waves. It reminded him of the time he had thrown out the heroin statues.

Which reminded him of Eko.

Claire looked up from her diary. “Why do you think that?” She was sitting in the sand, reading over old entries from the first days of the island.

Charlie took a final glace at the glistening blue ocean and sat down next to her.

“Ever get that feeling you should be somewhere?”

“I guess.”

“Well, that’s the feeling I have right now.”

-LOST-

So, dream became reality.

The moment the words ‘Oh, Charlie…’ escaped Claire’s lips, he pulled away from her and walked in the opposite direction. Her face fell and she watched him leave.

Hurley tried to stop him, but Charlie didn’t show any sign that he had heard his friend. Hurley watched him helplessly as he traveled down the beach.

When he got to a place he felt no one was watching him, he wept.

Warm, salty tears streamed down his paled face. He felt angry and disturbed. It didn’t matter how the priest had died. That wouldn’t change a thing.

He remembered all of their small, almost pointless fights. Such as the incident when Eko had decided to stop construction on the church. Charlie had been unnecessarily angry.

The things he had taken for granted in his life.

He saw Claire coming toward him nervously.

“Will you talk to me?” she asked hesitantly.

He wiped his eyes and looked away.

“Please, Charlie?”

No response.

“This is hard for me, too, you know?” she choked, catching his attention. “He baptized Aaron – he was my friend too.”

“He might have been your friend, Claire,” Charlie said, running a hand through his blonde hair anxiously. “But do you realize he was the only one who gave a shit about me here?”

Claire’s eyes widened and she stepped back. She was offended.

“That’s not true,” she whispered, but didn’t think he heard.

“He was the only one that consistently stayed on my side, even if I wasn’t on his all the time. He cared…even after what happened with us, and the sleep-walking…”

Claire shook her head slightly. She wanted to argue back at what he had said earlier, but decided it really just wasn’t the time.

“It’s ok to be angry, and sad…” she said instead, quietly. “But I want you to at least let me help you out.”

Charlie quivered slightly and nodded. Claire smiled with her deep blue eyes and kissed him.

-LOST-

During the funeral, he spoke.

He spoke about everything that happened since Eko had came into his own personal life after Locke explained what Eko had done on the other side of the island. Charlie even included the drugs, as it was an essential part of the story. While hardly anyone knew about his previous addiction, it was overlooked now that they knew he was clean.

It almost felt good to talk about everything that had happened. Almost like he was reliving it, unaware of how it would all end.

Then Locke took over and told the story of the hatch.

Charlie took his place next to Claire and wrapped an arm around her waist. It felt like the day of Ana and Libby’s funeral, when they realized that time didn’t stand still and things happened no matter how much you thought they never would. And now they were relearning it, and it was reinforced in a way they could never imagine.

And even though he was dead, he still saved them.

-LOST-