Disclaimer: I don’t own LOST.

A/N: I’ve liked the idea of Sawyer and Claire for a long time, but I never gave it a lot of thought because it never really seemed like a possibility. But now there could be a chance of it, so I decided to write a short one shot. I’ve never written Conmama before, so please let me know what you thought.

Sawyer sat in front of the little television, staring at the images on the screen. He didn’t comprehend any of it though, because all he could think about was Kate. He wondered if she would leave the island without telling him. She wouldn’t do that though, would she? He even found himself worrying if she would make it back to the beach, and he knew that she was fully capable of taking care of herself.

“Hey dude.” Hurley walked in the room.

“What?”

“Why don’t you like, go outside and get some fresh air. You’ve been moping around all day.”

“I’m not moping Hugo.”

“Yeah you are.”

Sawyer stood up. “All right fine. I’ll leave if that’s what you want.”

“That’s what I want.” Hurley followed Sawyer to the door. “Have fun.” He grinned, before shutting the door in his face.

Sawyer glared at the door for a moment before turning. He had no idea of where he wanted to go. He certainly didn’t want anything to do with Locke. He finally decided to go to Claire’s house. Maybe she had some inside information on Kate.

He knocked on her door.

“The door is open!” Claire called out.

Sawyer walked in the door and shut it behind him. Claire wasn’t in the living room.

“Claire?”

“Oh it’s you. Just give me a second. I’m changing Aaron.” She called from the other room.

“All right.” Sawyer decided to check to see what she had in her refrigerator.

“You’re not going to find anything good in there, besides soy and wheat products. Whoever lived here was a health nut.” Claire appeared in the room, holding Aaron.

Sawyer shut the refrigerator. “I was curious. I found a bunch of wine and chips at my place.”

Claire smiled at him. “Make yourself at home. Do you want that coffee now?”

“Sure.”

“Could you hold Aaron for me while I make it? I’m not used to taking care of Aaron alone.” Claire lowered her eyes for a second before looking back up at Sawyer.

Sawyer looked at Claire. He never knew how to act in these kinds of situations. Claire had just lost her boyfriend, and now she was trying to cope with raising Aaron by herself. He could tell that she was having a hard time even though she was trying not to show it.

“Sure.”

“Thank you.” Claire handed him to Sawyer and then went to make his coffee.

“Hey there kid. I hear you’re a pretty good sleeper.” Sawyer grinned at him.

“Oh he is. It’s incredible. I’ve heard so many horror stories about babies crying all night and then sleeping during the day, but he’s just amazing.” Claire talked as she made the coffee.

“Well that’s good.”

Aaron reached up and grabbed Sawyer’s hair, and Sawyer yelled. “Ow. Jeez.”

Aaron pulled away, scared for only a second, before pulling on Sawyer’s hair again. Aaron giggled as Sawyer gently lifted Aaron’s fingers out of his hair.

“Oh you find this funny don’t you?” Sawyer couldn’t help but like the baby, but he could never imagine having one of his own.

“Sorry about that. He does have a thing for people’s hair.” Claire walked over to him with the cup of coffee in hand. “I’ll trade you.” Claire grinned.

Sawyer took the coffee and Claire took Aaron.

As soon as Aaron was out of Sawyer’s hands, he began to cry.

“Oh, Aaron what’s wrong?” Claire held him close to her and Sawyer took a sip of his coffee.

“Those Dharma folk sure knew how to make coffee.” Sawyer commented.

Aaron immediately stopped crying and just stared at Sawyer.

“Um, why don’t you sit down?” Claire motioned at the living room, and Sawyer walked over to a chair, while Claire sat on the couch next to the chair.

“So what are you doing here Sawyer?”

“No reason. Can’t I come and visit my neighbors?”

Claire smiled. “Of course.”

Sawyer returned the smile, before looking down at his coffee. “Kate left this morning.”

“Where?” Claire asked.

“Back to the beach.” Sawyer looked at Claire.

“Oh.” Claire looked at Aaron. She knew what that meant. “I’m sorry.”

Sawyer shrugged. “She’ll be back. It’s not her fault. Locke banished her.”

“I heard him. But then Kate told me that she was going to see you. She said that she knew you wouldn’t let it happen. She didn’t seem to want to leave then. Something must have happened to change her mind.” Claire raised her eyebrows at Sawyer.

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t do anything. She’s the one that can’t make up her mind.” Sawyer straightened up in his chair.

They were both silent for a second, and Sawyer mentally kicked himself. Since when did he decide to confide in Claire? It wasn’t like she cared about him at all.

“Do you think we made the right decision? Staying with Locke?” Claire asked Sawyer.

“Yeah.” Sawyer nodded. “Locke may be crazy, but it’s the right decision. Charlie knew what he was doing.”

Claire looked down again. “I feel bad for siding against Jack.”

“Why?” Sawyer’s voice rose slightly.

“I don’t know. It’s just that we’ve trusted Jack this far and he’s taken care of us. And now we’re betraying him.”

“Jack doesn’t know what he’s doing. All Jack cares about is getting off the island. He’s not thinking straight. These people are bad. This guy that Locke has locked up, there’s something wrong with him. We made the right decision. But Claire, if you ever decide that you want to leave this island, I bet that we could make arrangements with Ben, and he could probably get you off. And I would make sure that you would get off safely.”

“Why would you do that?” Claire was intrigued now. She had never seen Sawyer care so much about someone else other than Kate.

Sawyer leaned forward. “Because you deserve it more than anyone. You and Aaron. He deserves a normal life.”

Claire smiled. “I don’t want to leave. There’s nothing at home for me. My dad doesn’t care about me, my mom is… my mom doesn’t even know where I am. And I don’t really want Aaron exposed to all the evil that is out in the world”

“What about Aaron’s father?”

Claire looked at Aaron for a second, then looked back at Sawyer with a sad smile. “As far as I’m concerned, Aaron’s father died heroically trying to rescue us.”

Sawyer leaned back.

“What about you Sawyer? Isn’t there anyone at home for you?”

“Nope.”

“But Kate’s leaving the island.”

“Kate’s not going to leave.”

“How do you know?”

“Trust me, Kate will realize that leaving this island is the worst mistake she could ever make.”

“And what if she doesn’t?”

Sawyer looked away. “If she doesn’t, Jack will take care of her.”

Claire nodded slowly. She set Aaron down beside the coffee table, and he immediately crawled over to Sawyer.

“He’s crawling already?”

“He just started this a couple days ago. It’s not normal. I once heard Jack telling Juliet that he thought Aaron was growing too fast, but Juliet didn’t say anything.”

“What? You really think it’s the island?”

“Maybe.” Claire folded her hands in her lap as Sawyer picked Aaron off of the floor.

Aaron looked up at Sawyer and reached for his hair again. Sawyer couldn’t help but smile. He looked over at Claire, and she was smiling at him.

“Listen, Claire. Uh, I know since Kate’s gone you’re alone here in the house. If you don’t feel safe, I could move in with you for a while, or I could kick Hurley out and you could move in with me.”

“Thanks for offering, but I think I’m okay here. You’re right next door, so all I would need to do is yell”

“Okay.” Sawyer felt weird all of the sudden, and had the sudden urge to leave. Sawyer set his coffee down and stood up. He handed the baby to Claire. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“You’re leaving?” Claire stood up as well.

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” Claire understood, and didn’t ask him why. She knew that it was too much to ask of Sawyer to sit and talk about his personal life, but there was one thing she wanted to ask. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why does Kate call you James?”

Sawyer grinned. “That’s my real name.”

“Oh. Is it okay if I call you that?”

Sawyer thought for a second. “I don’t see why not.”

Claire grinned. “Okay. Goodbye James.”

Sawyer opened the door. “See you later Claire. Thanks again for the coffee.”

“Anytime.”

The door shut, and the house reverberated from the force. Claire looked down at Aaron, who was starting to cry again. “Oh Aaron, it’s okay. Mommy’s here.” She walked over to the window and looked out of it. Sawyer was knocking on the door of his own house, and he was getting annoyed.

“That was a little strange wasn’t it Aaron?“ She asked him. “Let’s hope Kate comes back soon, so that I don’t have to deal with that again.”

But Kate never did come back, and eventually, Sawyer moved on. He started visiting Claire regularly, and they both ended up looking forward to those daily visits with each other. The circumstances under which they became closer weren’t the best, but they were no longer lonely because they had each other.

A/N: So please let me know if you liked it or not, I would appreciate it!