FIC: "Temporary Substitute" - Sawyer, Claire, Charlie/Claire (PG)

[hopelessfangirl]

Title: Temporary Substitute
Fandom: Lost
Characters/Pairing: Sawyer, Claire, Charlie/Claire
Rating: PG
Word Count: 297
Spoilers: Spoilers for 3x23 - Through The Looking Glass; set during early S4, pre- 4x09 - The Shape of Things to Come.
Summary: Sawyer takes Charlie's place for just a little while.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost. At all.
Author's Notes: For tellshannon815, who requested the "Gone But Not Forgotten" prompt and demonqueen666 who requested the "strange bedfellows" prompt at lostsquee's 2009 Luau. I'm trying to get through the last of my Luau bunnies. I'm so sorry this is so late! I hope you like it!


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Sawyer lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. His eyes traced the lines of the tiles over and over again, not out of boredom, but laziness and contentment that he could shut his brain off for a little while and do this.

Claire stirred from the other side of Aaron, who slept on the bed between them. These last couple weeks had been tough on her. A pillow to rest her head and a roof to cover it only provided so much comfort. In the blink of an eye, the person who knew her best and whom she knew best on the island was gone.

Sawyer felt her hand slide across his chest and rest there. He glanced down at it, then at her. Claire's eyes were still closed and her lips parted, breathing deeply. Hesitantly, Sawyer brought a hand up to his chest and covered hers with it.

"Mmm," Claire stirred again. She breathed in sharply through her nose and slowly exhaled. "Charlie?"

Sawyer didn't know if he should respond. He didn't want to remind her that he wasn't the person she thought she was talking to. "Hm?" he replied softly so that he didn't give away his voice.

"Did Aaron wake up?" she asked groggily. Her eyes remained closed.

"No," Sawyer whispered. "Don't worry. He's fine. Get some rest."

Claire made another sleepy noise and rolled over to face the opposite direction, her back to Aaron and Sawyer. Sawyer propped himself up on an elbow to take a peek at Aaron. He was fast asleep just as Claire was once again. Sawyer pulled the comforter up to cover Claire's shoulders and leaned back over to his side of the bed.

He traced the ceiling tiles again and again until he fell asleep.


 

Comments

[tellshannon815.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this! I miss Charlie and just wish we'd seen more of Claire missing him too, great job!

[hopelessfangirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it! I definitely agree that we needed to see more grieving from Claire. I think by S4, the writers became so accustomed to killing off characters that they took for granted that these deaths would affect other characters. One of the hardest things about losing Charlie was that it was hardly acknowledged after the fact.

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

I loved Sawyer's position in this story - how he's caught between present and past, except he's conscious for it while Claire gets to think it's a dream.

Really nice job :)

[hopelessfangirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I really liked Sawyer's protectiveness over Claire in S4, so I wanted to set this ficlet in that context. I'm glad you liked it. =)