Take Your Place
Part One of Two

Characters:Desmond, Charlie, Bonnie, Greta, Mikhail, Jack.
Rating:PG-13
Setting:Towards the end of Greatest Hits
Disclaimer: I own nothing but fabricated ideas.
Summary:Desmond sees a small but important vision and makes a choice that would ultimately change fate and the events of the Looking Glass. Desmond’s POV.
Note: This story explores the idea of Desmond seeing a vision he did not see in the show. Although it is small, you’ll see that it changed things.

---

Looking at Jack, I knew the situation was hard for him. He didn’t have enough time to save everyone.

Charlie just gave him a small smile and Jack sighed as the group of gathered people split up. I touched Charlie’s shoulder to lead him away to our boat, but Jack crossed over to us, looking at Charlie like I had never seen him look at anyone before.

Charlie looked uncomfortable and downcast as Jack searched his eyes.

“You don’t have to do this,” Jack muttered. But the three of us knew that he did. Time was running out, and Jack was at a stage where he was willing to do anything to get everyone rescued. Even if it meant giving a life. However, it was more than obvious that he wasn’t so sure about giving this life.

“Sure I do,” Charlie said, looking up with a different light flickering in his eyes. “Desmond’s coming with me, and we’ll be fine.” Charlie looked at me as he said this. His voice hitched as he said ‘we’ll be fine’ because we both knew very well that this wasn’t the case.

Jack looked over the camp, knowing that people needed him. He then turned back to Charlie and pulled him into a hug. He didn’t give me the same reassurance. In fact, the look that he cast my way was one that said ‘don’t even bother coming back without him.’ And I got this mental image of myself wasting away in our boat out at sea. It wasn’t a flash because it was something I was already aware of. When I didn’t come back, they would know.

---

I offered to take his place.

When Jack said his goodbyes, when he lingered near Claire and Aaron as long as time would allow him, when he raced across the beach to get a final hug from his best friend and when he shoved his list of memories in my hands…each of those events was like a stab in the gut that was pushing be more towards the idea of going down for him.

He didn’t protest. We both knew that I had a better chance at survival than he did. And even if I did die, then the visions would stop and he would be fine. Isn’t that all we ever wanted? I came into his life with hardly a warning and brought this upon him. So I could leave his life and take the burden I had brought with me as well. God knows everyone would accept my death more than his.

I studied his face for a moment. He was looking down at the bottom of the boat, chewing on his lip. I thought that at any minute he would tell me to forget my silly idea and jump in. But he didn’t move or say anything.

I rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder and turned my back to him to grab the weights. As I turned, my head ached and I paused, resting a hand on the edge of the boat to steady myself.

I saw Charlie grab one of the oars and swing it at me like a bat and then my vision darkened. I could imagine what he would do next.

I threw a worried look at him over my shoulder. Sure enough, he was staring at the oar on the floor of the boat with decisive and determined eyes.

I sighed and turned my back again. I heard him swiftly pick up the oar as he muttered the location of the weights. I heard him hesitate behind me. I then jerked around, grabbing the handle of the oar with two hands just as he took a swing. Charlie’s eyes widened as I shoved the oar downwards, forcing him into a seated position. I stood over him, still gripping the oar, with a wry smile.

“You seem to be forgetting I see things, Charlie.”

Charlie smiled up at me sheepishly. “Oops.”

I laughed despite our situation and turned back to where the water loomed above the Looking Glass. I grabbed the weights and sighed.

“Surprise parties must be such a bore for you…”

“Charlie,” I said sharply, turning back to face him. “Don’t dive in after me.”

Charlie cringed slightly. “I can’t make any promises, Des.”

I sighed and grabbed the oar again. “I’m sorry, then.”

Charlie’s eyes widened and he shielded his face. “Wait! Don’t!”

I gripped it a little tighter. “When you come to, it’ll all be over. Hell, maybe I’ll be the one that wakes you up.”

With that, I took a swing and he ended up draped over the side of the boat. I carefully pulled him back over and rested a hand on his chest, checking to make sure his breathing wasn’t irregular and that the blow wouldn’t cause any long term damage. He seemed fine. So I smiled down at his face which looked surprisingly calm, considering he’d just been knocked out.

“You and I both know I’m supposed to take your place, brother.” At least, I hoped he knew.

With those possible final words lingering in the air, I dove.

---

Swimming through the water, I doubted if Charlie could’ve done this. With death looming over him, the pressure to turn off the jamming, and the deep water…I didn’t think he would’ve made it in through the station. Before I was even halfway there, I started to feel the pressure building in my own lungs.

When I got closer, I dropped the weights and hastily swam towards the opening. Once I was in, the flickering light I saw in my visions would be easy to spot and I could turn off the jamming. And if I was lucky, I could swim back out. But with weariness already engulfing me, I was starting to doubt the later.

To my surprise, my head broke through to the surface and I gasped in the air that greeted me. Choking and laughing, I spotted a ladder on the edge of the pool and pulled myself out.

Had taking Charlie’s place altered the condition of the Looking Glass? It wasn’t flooded, that was obvious. This was what was supposed to happen! I had known all along that the visions meant something more, but I had been to afraid to find out what. Now I stood up on my shaky legs with a new confidence that I could complete my mission and come out alive.

And then the shots rang out. Ah, hell. Should’ve known that it wouldn’t be this easy. I immediately threw myself back down, shielding my head. The firing stopped and I carefully looked back up to see a blonde and a brunette girl aiming at me. They had ceased their fire upon finding out I wasn’t armed, I suppose.

And it’s much easier to get information from someone that’s alive.

---

“Who are you?” asked the blonde woman, who I learned to be Bonnie.

“Look…” began the brunette woman, Greta. “If you tell us how you got down here, we won’t hurt you.”

I glared at them both, trying to stall and not tell them anything for as long as I could.

When I didn’t answer, Bonnie struck me again. It was hard enough to make me cringe a little, but not necessarily care.

Greta, on the other hand, looked irritated with her partner.

“Hey! Take it easy!”

“Take it easy?!” Bonnie exclaimed. “He’s one of them!” She turned back to me menacingly. “Why are you here? Huh? How’d you find out about this station?”

“Juliet told us,” I muttered. “She’s one of us now.” I was trying to catch them off guard and get their attention away from me, but it didn’t work. Bonnie just raised her hand and struck me again.

“Stop,” Greta hissed like she herself had been hit. Something had happened to her along the way to make her sensitive to this treatment. “We gotta call Ben.”

It seemed like she averted the attention from me on her own, even if she didn’t mean to. Now I had the opportunity to evaluate my situation and find a way out.

“Come on,” Bonnie muttered, throwing a glare back at me as she and Greta walked into the control room that was all too familiar from my visions. I spotted the flickering light and bit my bleeding lip, determined to complete this myself. I was thanking God that Charlie hadn’t found himself in the situation I was in now.

I listened as Bonnie spoke to Ben urgently. Ben asked who I was, and she answered that I wouldn’t say.

“It’s Desmond…” I called over to her, immediately wondering why I had done so. I heard Ben stutter in disbelief. They finished their conversation.

Soon, they came back out of the tiny room and continued their questioning. I could tell they were getting tired of me. They had stopped resorting to hitting me and were now just waiting for their leader to take action.

I tried not to go back to thinking that this was Charlie’s task and not mine. If Charlie had gone in instead of me would Bonnie and Greta be here? Maybe me diving down here had just set up a long line of disaster and failure waiting to happen.

“I’m gonna ask you this one more time,” Bonnie said, exasperated. “Why are you here?”

“In there, sister, next to that flashing yellow light…” I nodded in the direction. “…is your jamming equipment. I’m gonna turn it off.”

I wasn’t going to let the idea of all of this failing stump me. I was going to have to make this fast and get to the point.

“…How do you know about that?” Bonnie asked skeptically, frowning.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I grinned. “But I’m going to turn it off.”

“You are, huh?”

“Of course.”

“So what’s the code?”

I cringed, but tried to hide it. Bonnie just smiled slightly, content that she had weakened me instead of me weakening her again.

“The code?” I questioned nervously.

“Oh, Desmond…” she tsked. “If you’re gonna turn off the jamming equipment, you’re gonna need the code.”

She said it so matter-of-factly it nearly made me sick to my already-churning stomach. Yet another road-block set up by fate. The Grim Reaper really did want Charlie. Not me.

“Only three people know it,” Bonnie continued. “Me…” she gestured towards Greta. “Her. And Ben.”

I clenched my jaw and met her mocking eyes again. “I won’t need your code. Everything’s gonna flood, anyhow. I’ll just…switch it off. And then rescue comes for the 815 passengers. Simple as that.” I wondered if it really would be that simple. Charlie had made it that simple in my flashes.

Bonnie frowned and tilted her blonde head, seeming confused by my words. “But if this station floods, what happened to you?”

I shrugged my bound shoulders, causing the swivel chair I was tied on to creak.

“I die…?”

-LOST-