Together Now
Prompt: Incomplete

-LOST-

Funny now, you finally see me standing here.
Funny now, I’m crying in the rain.
All alone, I try to be invincible.
Together now, we can be saved.

Charlie chewed anxiously on the tip of his pencil. The song was nowhere near finished. He had abandoned it soon after he and Liam lost contact. He had forgotten the lyrics, the tune – everything.

But being stranded on an island does jog one’s memory. He had been sitting in the tent he and Claire shared, talking to a baby that not only couldn’t understand him, but also was sleeping.

Life was strange these days. In a way, it was treating him right. But then in another way, it was treating him like dirt. He had Claire. He had Aaron. But there was always the fact me might never be in his own home again.

After giving up on talking to the sleeping baby, he had dug through his bags and pulled out a rather huge empty five-subject notebook he had brought with him on the plane, hoping for some inspiration. But he had also been hoping Liam would’ve been there with him, helping him with his writing and taking notes as Charlie excitedly fed him lyrics that were too fast and too complicated to quickly write down. That’s how it used to be. Sitting in their apartment with the other guys, using up page after page and later going back and laughing at how basic the writing was, but later finding out it could be altered to make it beautiful.

But those days were over. No more band mates. No more band. And Liam hadn’t been there with him on the plane. And Charlie was happy about that – Liam had a family. He was finally complete, like he had always wanted to be.

The lyrics his brother had previously approved once upon a time slowly came to mind and that’s how he had come to where he was now – staring at a huge five-subject notebook with only a verse scribbled on an otherwise empty page.

He tried to sing the tune several times, but had to start over each time because it didn’t feel right.

“Bleeding Christ,” he muttered under his breath. The eraser of his pencil immediately went back up to his mouth and he pulled it back slightly with his teeth until it was almost ripped off the top.

He hummed the tune out loud again. Aaron stirred in his sleep and made a sound.

Charlie smiled slightly at the sound of Aaron. He remembered when he had been there to see baby Megan when Liam was not. Karen had made herself get out of bed after just giving birth to not only see the baby again, but to see if Liam was there yet.

And he hadn’t been.

He remembered Karen’s large hopeful eyes as he regrettably lied to her. In a way, she reminded him of Claire. So hopeful and innocent, not knowing what she was getting in to…they were both exactly like that. Karen didn’t know or understand what Liam would do to her, and Claire had been in the same situation with Thomas.

But Liam had made things so much better for Karen. And Charlie hoped he could do the same for Claire.

Now he remembered.

The tune came instantly into his mind. He remembered the notes on the piano, and now he remembered the soft guitar strums he had added with it. He quickly grabbed his guitar and strummed the now familiar tune, a smile on his face. The lyrics naturally escaped his lips and he sung the four lines softly.

“That’s beautiful.”

Charlie stopped strumming and smiled to himself. He looked over his shoulder to see Claire standing by the ‘doorway’ of the tent, the corners of her pink lips raised and the soft moonlight catching the ends of her pale hair.

“So’re you,” he said gently as she came into the tent and sat with him. He swung his guitar to the side as she leaned over and met his lips. They kissed deeply for a few moments, nervous and anxious as usual; never knowing how far to go or when to stop. This was all still so new to them.

Charlie pulled away gently and she lied down on the blanket spread out across the tent ‘floor.’ Charlie slipped the guitar strap above his head and put the guitar to the side and lied down next to her.

“What’s it about?” Claire asked. “The song.”

“It’s about someone who’s incomplete. Someone who doesn’t have anyone to fall back on…or love,” Charlie answered, gazing into her blue eyes absently.

“That’s kind of depressing,” Claire said gently. “And they say writers write about things they know…”

“Yeah,” Charlie admitted. “But I wrote it, or that part of it, a long time ago…I don’t feel like that anymore.”

“Good,” Claire said, resting her head on his shoulder. “Is there another part to it?”

“I never got around to it…that’s what I was trying to do now. It doesn’t have to be an entire song anymore, but I’d like it to have some closure…I’d like him to be complete.”

Claire sat up and grabbed the notebook. She read over the lyrics a few times and grabbed Charlie’s pencil out of his hand and began to write. Charlie sat up on his elbows, trying to get a look at what she was writing, but her body blocked the paper.

“I’m not much of a song writer,” Claire said as she finished off what she was writing. “But I guess you could call this a play on words.” She handed him the notebook. An extra four lines were written under the first four.

Funny now, no longer do I have to stand
Funny now, there’s no crying in the rain
All alone, there’s no way I could have made it
Together now, we already are saved.

Charlie looked up at her from the notebook, an amazed smile on his face. “Claire, this is good.”

“Writers write about what they know,” she pointed out again. “You’re not the only one that felt that way.”

Charlie sat all the way up and kissed the back of her bare neck. “I love you, Claire.”

Claire’s eyes widened slightly and she looked at him. “You do…?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “I do. I’ve never met anyone who could make me feel this way.”

Claire inched closer to him. “What way?”

“So…put together. Like no part of me is missing.”

“Complete?”

He smiled and kissed her forehead. “That’s the word.”

-LOST-

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