Glimpsing the Fandom

by Dreamality

Summary: A mysterious laptop appears out of nowhere. It has Internet access, but the survivors can only get to certain websites that are all based on themselves. Watch as the characters are amused, shocked, horrified, disgusted, or intrigued by such things as fan fiction, slash, fan girls, incest, and the crazy theories surrounding the island. Butwhat evil mastermind could bebehind all this madness??

Rating: PG-13 for stuff and things.

Please note: For those of you who could not discern this from the summary alone, this story is very much AU and will not follow the plotline of the show very much.

Disclaimer: Lost and all related characters, settings, plots, etc. belong to J.J. Abrams and ABC. I claim no ownership and make no money from this venture.

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Chapter One: A Message Board Sends a Message to Charlie and Claire

It was Claire and Charlie who first stumbled upon it as they were moving Claire's things from the beach to the caves.

At first both had been sure they were hallucinating as a result of overexposure to UV rays and lack of adequate food and rest. When Charlie reached out and touched it and the machine sprang to life, whirring and clicking, both had jumped back in shock as though it were a monster stirring from sleep.

"D'you… d'you reckon this thing works?" Charlie asked incredulously.

Claire shrugged, still staring wide-eyed at the laptop sitting on a plain table with two chairs in front of it. There were no wires leading away from the laptop, but when Charlie tried to pick it up it did not budge. Likewise the table was held in place by some invisible force, unable to be moved from its place in the middle of the jungle, with absolutely no explanation for its sudden appearance.

"Is it safe?" Claire asked. It was Charlie's turn to shrug. He set the bag he carried down on the ground and slowly lowered himself onto one of the chairs. It was padded and much more comfortable than the cold, rocky ground he'd been sleeping on for the last few weeks. Claire sat beside him and watched as the black screen slowly came to life.

An Internet browser was open. Much to Charlie and Claire's surprise, pictures of themselves and of the other survivors greeted them. Impossibly, yet evidenced before their very eyes, there was an entire website dedicated to them, and they had actual pictures of the crashed plane and the people on the island.

"Bloody hell," Charlie murmured, and the flabbergasted look on his face conveyed Claire's exact thoughts. "How did they get this?"

"Look, Charlie, there's our names. Click on that," Claire said, tapping her finger on the screen to point out a link under the pictures that read 'A Forum for Charlie/Claire Shippers.' While neither of them had any idea who or what shippers were, they were drawn by curiosity to their own names.

Charlie clicked, and a message board quickly loaded. Both he and Claire scanned the message topics, eyes widening in shock the lower they went.

'Charlie and Claire are sooooo cute!'

'My fave couple evah on the island!'

'Claire Charlie are going to have ten babies 2gethr!'

'Charlie is so H0TT OMG LYKE WHOA!!!!!!111!!1!11!!!'

'Charlie and Claire are kewt!'

"Charlie… what is this?" Claire gasped. Part of her was shocked that there were people who knew who she was and spent time discussing her while the other part was appalled at the horrendous spelling littering the message board. Who were these people, twelve-year-old girls?

"How do these people… they know… why do they… no one is supposed to know where we are! Everyone thinks we're dead!" Charlie exclaimed. Charlie took control of the mouse and clicked on the top message, which was titled, 'Peanut buttah is so secksi!'

There were a few posts beneath the initial one. All were discussing the moment when Charlie had gifted Claire the jar of peanut butter. The jar which currently resided in Claire's bag at her feet, the jar Charlie had given to her only hours prior. Somehow these people, random strangers on the World Wide Web, had learned of this and were discussing it excitedly amongst themselves. More than a few of those participating in the discussion digressed into detailed accounts of Charlie's tongue and what else they wished to see him lick. By the time they got to the end of the thread, Claire was giggling and Charlie was blushing bright red.

"Rubbish," he grunted. "All of it. Bloody rubbish."

"I think it's rather funny," Claire said. Charlie just grunted in response. "But how did this get here? And how do these people know about us?"

Charlie shook his head. He had clicked the 'back' button to skim over the rest of the posts. Randomly he chose another, which had a slightly more intelligent topic: 'Why Charlie and Claire are meant to be.'

This was a rather lengthy discussion of every possible reason for Charlie and Claire to link up in a romantic way, from the silly ('She's the only woman on the island who's not too fall for him!') to the serious ('Raising the baby can become Charlie's reason for quitting drugs'). Every moment of their time together on the island was analyzed and broken down until it became an illustration of their undying love for one another. Charlie had to admit, they had some valid points. While it was disconcerting that total strangers knew so much about him and thought about him so much, he found himself starting to believe the things they were saying.

"We should tell Jack about this." Claire's voice was much softer than she'd meant it to be. When she looked at Charlie her eyes were soft and a faint blush remained on her otherwise fair complexion. Charlie's hand reached up of its own accord to run his fingers through her golden hair.

"Yeah," he agreed, his voice a soft breath of air against her cheek. She wasn't sure how he had ended up so close to him, only that she didn't want to move away. "We should. I mean, it would be the right thing to do, I suppose."

"Yeah. The right thing to do." Claire nodded. "But, I mean… we don't have to… I mean, we don't have to go rushing off right this minute, do we? We have… some time… right?"

"I think so," Charlie said, and his fingers ghosted across her cheek. "I think we have plenty of time."

"So we can look at more–" Claire was quickly silenced when Charlie pressed his lips on hers forcefully. She made a little surprised sound into his mouth before relaxing and returning the kiss, loving the feeling of his hands on her stomach. The kiss seemed to last an eternity. When they finally have to separate to breathe again, Charlie glanced at the computer screen with a cheeky grin on his face.

"So. Ten babies, eh?"

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To Be Continued…

Next chapter: Jack wants to write his own fan fiction.