Seize the Day

A/N:Hey guys. I’m being one of those loser posers that sit in Starbucks with their laptops and write. Mmm, Cinnamon Dolce! Anyhow, this idea just sort of came to me last night at 3am. I started to write it, and then my computer decided to be a jerk and do some crazy stuff and delete it. I hope you guys like it.

Disclaimer:If I owned Lost, all of the good characters wouldn’t be dead, now would they?
Characters:Charlie, Desmond, Claire, Penny.
Setting:London, England. Two and a half years after rescue.
Dedication:She doesn’t know this, but this story is dedicated to falafel-fiction, who has produced many wonderful fan fictions that I’ve enjoyed so, so much. She’s recently decided to stop writing fan fiction because of a novel she is working on and also because of the writers’ terrible treatment to Charlie. Her wonderful stories are going to be missed, but I still love her all the same. Thanks, Faf!

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Charlie and Claire raced across the busy London street in stitches. Both were laughing hysterically as cars honked at them from all different directions. Claire had fat tears rolling down her cheeks and Charlie was really trying to contain himself but was failing miserably.

They made it to the other sidewalk and slowed their pace. Charlie swung their gloved hands back and forth together and grinned over at her. His hair was slightly teased and had recently been highlighted. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a Smiths t-shirt with a black jacket over it. Claire was also wearing blue jeans. A pageboy hat was on her blonde hair, which was now about chin length and straightened. She still looked as beautiful as the first time he met her, but now she was simply stunning.

“What did he say after that?” Claire asked, still laughing as she wiped a tear off her cheek.

“He said ‘Who are you, mate? Do I even know you? Are you anyone? You don’t just expect me to book a nobody, do you? You’re not gonna attract an audience!’ And that’s when the news cameras came in to do a follow-up on me from the plane crash. Like a ‘where-are-they-now?’ type of thing, I suppose. It even shocked me.” Charlie grinned. “But he was so bloody embarrassed. He was practically kissing my feet the rest of the night.”

Claire laughed and put her head on his shoulder as they continued walking down the sidewalk. Charlie smiled at the warmth of her breath on his neck and shivered slightly. He gently lifted her chin up and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

Claire gave him a warm smile. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold English weather and a lavender scarf was wrapped around her delicate neck. “Have you heard anything from Hurley yet? Is he ever going to come and visit us again?”

It had been two and a half years since their rescue from the Island. Hardly anyone talked to each other anymore.

Charlie nodded slightly. “I talked to him on the phone last week. But we didn’t talk about getting together again.”

Hurley was the only one Charlie and Claire had actually seen and spent time with after rescue. Charlie and Hurley kept in contact over the phone, and every now and then Hurley would fly over from L.A. with his Gold Pass to see them and spend a week or two in England. The three of them would send Aaron off his sitter, hit a few bars together, get tipsy, and then go back to Charlie and Claire’s apartment to play Charades or some equally strange game until they fell asleep on the living room floor laughing.

It was a way to forget about things.

Charlie also kept in touch with Jack. He had been talking to his old friend over the phone. But each time they spoke, Jack seemed more and more depressed. He always spoke of not seeing Kate, issues at the hospital, and general flaws that had worked their way into his life. Jack had eventually admitted his drug problem to Charlie, knowing that he would understand. Charlie had been speechless. He offered to fly to L.A. to stay with Jack for as long as he needed or to just call him more frequently. But Jack shied away from all Charlie’s attempts to help. Then he just stopped calling. Charlie hadn’t heard from him in six months.

And then there was Desmond.

Charlie and Desmond had only spoken on the phone once since the rescue. It had been a month since they had all settled back into their lives.

“Charlie, it’s Desmond,” he had said. “I’m just calling to tell you I’ve not seen any visions since we’ve been rescued.”

Charlie had let out a small laugh of relief. “Really? You mean it? Des, that’s great!”

Desmond had paused. “Are you ok?”

“I couldn’t be better.”

After that, they had just been writing back and forth to one another over e-mail. Sometimes they wrote elaborate stories about what was going on in their life and other times their e-mails were just brief one-liners. Sometimes Charlie would get no e-mails from his friend for months at a time.

Charlie remembered one instance where he had awoken from his sleep in a terror. Nightmares had been haunting him ever since they left the Island. He had terribly vivid memories of water surrounding him - smothering him and refusing to release him. It was hard for him to remember when Desmond pulled him out and revived him. He was never sure how it even happened. He had woken up in the sand on the beach with Desmond hovering over him. Touching his face…feeling his pulse. His eyes were red-rimmed from apparent crying. Charlie could only guess how his friend had saved him.

They had gone back together to the camp with hardly a word. When they arrived, Desmond never told anyone what had happened to Charlie. The story was that Charlie had swum into the flooded looking glass and had somehow miraculously survived. Sayid and Jack had gone back to the Looking Glass later, only to report that it was indeed flooded like Desmond had said. Charlie assumed Desmond had broken the glass, pulled him out, and swam to safety. But he still wasn’t sure.

After his nightmare, Charlie had gone to his computer and clicked on Desmond’s e-mail address. He stared at the blank page for a few minutes before he typed three words that said so little but meant so much.

“I miss you.”

Charlie knew it sounded like something a girl would write to a long-distance boyfriend, but Charlie meant it in the most sincere way possible. He missed Desmond. He missed his companionship.

It had taken Desmond one month to write back. One month to try to find the right words to respond to something like that. He finally wrote back in the simplest way he could.

“I miss you too, Charlie.”

And they had left it like that. Charlie never wrote back to him and Desmond never set off another e-mail. Charlie wasn’t sure why he didn’t write back. He guessed it was because things felt awkward now. They hadn’t seen each other in almost three years. Charlie wanted to invite him to stay in their guest room for the weekend. After all, Desmond was only in Scotland and they were in the suburbs of London. But Charlie couldn’t bring himself to ask him to stay. He was almost too scared of how different things would be.

“Well, Hurley was here only six months ago,” Claire said, bringing Charlie back to reality. “I guess we couldn’t ask him to come pack up and stay with us again.” The couple looked at each other sadly. They both knew they missed people from the Island.

After Charlie didn’t say anything, Claire wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned against him. “Oh, forget it. We have each other, right?” She tilted her head up to look at him and grinned. Charlie smiled back down at her, but Claire knew something seemed a bit off.

“Are you thinking about Desmond again?” she guessed, squeezing his hand. Charlie only nodded slightly.

Claire stopped on the sidewalk. Aggravated people huffed and zigzagged around them.

“What happened with you two? In the Looking Glass?” Claire asked. She had avoided asking before because she saw how different Charlie seemed after the experience. She saw the fear in his eyes every time it was only briefly mentioned in a conversation. She saw how closely Charlie watched Aaron when they went to the local pool and how he himself would never go in the water.

Charlie looked down nervously. “I-”

“You can’t just stop in the middle of the sodding street, brother!” Someone from behind them exclaimed. “People are trying to get through, you know!”

Charlie and Claire both turned around. Desmond and Penny were standing right behind them, blocked off from either side by moving people. Penny looked annoyed and was carrying several shopping bags. Her already pale skin was white from the cold. Desmond, who had since trimmed his hair, looked like he was about ready to run them right over. But then he saw their faces.

He was speechless. Penny didn’t realize who they were.

“Excuse us,” she said, trying to be polite. “It’s Sunday and the stores close in twenty minutes. It’s the last day for winter sales, and I-”

Desmond jumped forward and pulled Charlie into a huge hug. Charlie stumbled back, laughing. Desmond shook him, grinning madly and ruffling his hair.

“You’ve not changed a bit! Look at you!” Desmond exclaimed. He grabbed Charlie’s shoulders and turned him to face Penny. “Pen, this is Charlie!”

Penny’s eyes lit up in recognition. “Charlie! Yes, right! Desmond talks about you nonstop. He loves you dearly.” Penny smiled and reached out to shake his hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you. You know…formally. When you’re not on the other side of a scre-”

“And this is Claire,” Desmond cut her off. He knew Claire didn’t know about the events in the Looking Glass. And it was probably for the best to keep it that way. “Charlie’s fiancée.”

Claire smiled brightly. “Nice to meet you, Penny.”

The four of them spoke for a few more minutes before they agreed to split up. Claire and Penny left to shop for the last few minutes the shops were open and Charlie and Desmond went over to a local coffee house to catch up.

They sat down in two large chairs that were facing each other. They paused for a moment, just taking in the situation. A grin finally perked up on Charlie’s face and they both started laughing.

“It’s so good to see you,” Charlie smiled. “I’m so happy that you’re here.”

“It’s good to see you too, brother.”

Charlie took a sip of his tea, still smiling behind the cup. He put it back down on the table and looked at Desmond’s hand. He was wearing an engagement band.

Charlie’s face brightened. “You and Pen! You’re engaged! Why didn’t you tell me? You lunatic! I mailed you when I proposed to Claire!”

Desmond smiled. “Penelope and I have always been engaged. It’s just now we know its for real.”

“Yeah, yeah, all your fancy words don’t make up for the fact that you didn’t tell me! Or visit, or call…we finally get to catch up and it’s because you were some goon trying to beat me up in the street!”

Desmond rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. “I wasn’t going to beat you up in the street. I know someone who’s incapable of defending themselves when I see them.”

This caught Charlie off guard for a moment, but a slightly confused grin slowly worked it’s way on his face. “See, now that we’re past the ‘saving-your-life’ thing the insults start coming. You’re just like all my other friends. It’s not my fault I didn’t get the tall gene and Liam did.”

“You mean you have friends?”

“Original, Desmond. Completely original.”

Desmond grinned and stood up, squeezing Charlie’s shoulder. “We’re meeting the girls at the park. And then Pen and I have to be going, so-”

“Well, wait!” Charlie stood up and looked at his watch. “We didn’t tell them we’d meet them for twenty more minutes. The park’s five minutes away…we need to catch up! You know…anyone else you might be engaged to? Anyone else who has an impending doom? You can’t just keep these things to yourself, mate.”

Desmond forced a smile. His eyes gave away how he was really feeling, though. “I’m going to go meet Penny. It was nice to see you.” He walked out the doors and down the sidewalk.

Charlie stood in the coffee house for a moment, speechless. He quickly followed Desmond out the doors and jogged to catch up with him. He ran around in front of Desmond and walked backwards momentarily before Desmond stopped.

“So it’s just like that, huh?” Charlie said quietly, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. “Just a brief hello and then you’re gone again? After everything?”

“Charlie, it’s not-”

“I don’t understand!” Charlie exclaimed. “Was I just a person that needed saving and that’s it? Once you know I’m safe I just don’t matter anymore? I thought we were friends, Desmond.”

“We are, Charlie…” was all Desmond could say.

“Really? After three years you could’ve had more to say to me than ‘it’s good to see you’ followed by a couple insults.” Charlie turned away from Desmond and walked away.

Now it was Desmond’s turn to run after Charlie. He grabbed Charlie’s arm and jerked him back around roughly. Charlie’s eyes widened in fear and he looked around at the people walking by, wondering if they were going to find this suspicious at all.

“You think I like this?” Desmond said, anger edging his voice. “You think I want things to be this way?”

Charlie’s face fell. “You’re having visions again.”

“No!” Desmond corrected him quickly. “No. Absolutely not.”

“Then what’s wrong?!”

Desmond sighed and let go of Charlie. Charlie rubbed his arm and winced.

“I’m afraid they’re going to come back.”

“Why?” Charlie asked, frightened. “There has to be something that makes you think that…are you seeing parts of them?”

Charlie looked like a scared child. His eyes revealed that he was doubting his place on Earth all over again.

“I’ve not seen anything that suggests them,” Desmond promised. “It’s just…they didn’t start happening until we met. And they didn’t stop until we were separated. I feel that if we’re together too long it might trigger them again.”

“Desmond, you think too much,” Charlie said, his voice shaking slightly from the thought of having to go through the events on the Island again. At one point the had wanted to die for Claire and Aaron. Now he couldn’t picture himself without them.

“I’m just afraid. Like you said Charlie; I’m a coward.”

Charlie grinned slightly. “Are you still stuck on that? Surely people have called you worse.”

“They have,” Desmond assured him.

The two men started to walk towards the park together to meet Claire and Penny. After a few minutes of walking, Charlie looked over at Desmond and smiled.

“You know, I don’t think we should worry about it, Des.”

“It’s a serious situation.”

“We only live once,” Charlie reminded him. “Why spend our life being afraid of something like death? Who knows, maybe the visions won’t come back and then we’ll have spent all the time we could’ve been together apart.”

Desmond looked down at the ground and smiled. He was right.

“After all,” Charlie continued. “This isn’t Twilight Zone Island with polar bears and death traps just about everywhere. We even have a lower crime rate.”

Desmond laughed. “Polar bears?”

Charlie grinned. “See! This is why we have to spend more time together! You’ve been kept in the dark about everything just like me.”

Desmond smiled. Already he could sense that their friendship had always been about more than just saving a life.

-LOST-