Broken Road

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or anything, just the plot. The song belongs to Rascal Flatts… and they ROCK!!!

Summary: Charlie/Claire fluff. How does being separated affect Charlie and Claire? Two-parter for now. Charlie centric chapter.

A/n: I love Rascal Flatts, they're my favorite band. I was listening to this song on the radio and just went awwww… how Charlie/Claireish! Then I went on this one website and this other song on the CD is like so Claire… so… I hope you like it! :D It has nothing to do with my other fic. It is Post- All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.

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"Broken Road"

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Sitting there. Fire illuminating everything around me. There wasn't much to do around here after dark, especially when half the camp thought I was brain dead. Kinda loony when I think about it. There was just nothing to really talk about, or any reason to talk. So I didn't. People found that odd.

My stare was pointed directly at the fire, and I stared intently. The fire seemed welcoming in a way. It was warm, and it was bright. I can't remember why these two things are so appealing, but they just were. Thoughts began to fly around my mind like they did a lot at night.

I felt someone wrap a blanket around my shoulders. I didn't move. I knew I was just fueling the fire by not responding, but there was no point.

The island hated me. They hated me. They took away the only thing that I really had on this ruddy island, the only connection I had (if any) to home.

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"I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road"

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My stare focused on the fire again, but not only on the fire, but beyond it. My mind wandered. And when one is stuck on an island, all alone with no one to talk to, one's thoughts wander to the past, the only solace I really had left anymore, and it wasn't the greatest one.

I was thirteen and out on my first date. Her name was Amelia, and she was pretty. She had flowing brown hair that was pulled back into a bun and blue eyes that reflected the light so wonderfully. But all that beauty came with a price. She talked a lot. I listened, but after the night of dinner and walking around the park, I had heard enough. I know if I would have paid attention to every word she said I would have known her life story and more. The next day, I was about to let her down easily, when she just kissed some other guy, right in front of me.

Even though I didn't like her that much, it still hurt.

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"But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you"

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Then there was Christina. She was a lot like Claire with her blonde hair and blue eyes. We were great friends all through primary school and started dating when I was fifteen. She was great. Everything I was looking for in a girl; sweet, smart, pretty, outgoing and a best friend. Those times were great. It may have been that I was more mature or something, but our relationship lasted all through high school.

And then the inevitable happened. Graduation. We went our separate ways and she called me a month after she moved away saying that she couldn't do the long-distance-relationship, and that it was great while it lasted, and that she hoped we could still be friends. I never saw her after that summer.

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"Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you"

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I was snapped out of my reprise of the past by people talking around me. I stared at the fire and listened closely. I could hear every word they were saying:

"He's not the same Charlie," said someone, who sounded an awful lot like Hurley. "He just sits there, doing nothing, looking at the fire. And it is just a little creepy."

"I noticed it too," said someone like Kate. I chuckled to myself. I knew exactly what they were thinking. "Jack, you're a doctor, what's wrong with him?"

I heard someone laugh hollowly. "I'm not that kind of a doctor Kate, and there is something wrong, I just know it, but the question is what."

"Well who the hell knows what that mad man Ethan did to him. He could have done something. But we have no idea because Charlie isn't talking. Hasn't talked since that night."

There was some silence. "Would it be possible if there was some brain damage?" asked Kate. "I mean we don't know how long he was hanging there, and he wasn't breathing when he was cut down."

Jack cut in. "Lack of oxygen could have done something. I've seen it before."

Silence. The conversation ceased. Until Hurley spoke, "Or he could be heartbroken."

"What?" asked Kate and Jack at the same time.

"Did you ever see the way him and Claire were always together, doing everything together. Didn't you see the way Charlie would look at her? Now I'm no doctor, but I think that the fact that he has no clue what happened to him, and that Claire isn't here is really getting to him."

I didn't hear anything more. Maybe Hurley was right. Maybe I was missing Claire. Yes, I was.

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"I think about the years I spent just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you"

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If there was anymore to that conversation, I didn't hear it. I went back to thinking. Hurley was right. And I didn't need Hurley to tell me that. They had taken Claire. I didn't know who they were, but they had ruined the only thing I had going for me on the island.

Maybe I could have done something if I only could have remembered what happened. Maybe I did try to do something; maybe that was why I couldn't remember what happened. Maybe I was going crazy.

But I knew one thing, I did like Claire. She was perfect. Always optimistic, even though she was pregnant, and on a deserted island with absolutely no hope of getting rescued. She probably was still optimistic while she was gone. Maybe she was missing me like I was obviously missing her.

"And maybe she's dead."

I heard that spoken, not in my head. I spun around, trying to figure out where it had come from. Claire wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead. She wasn't dead, I knew she wasn't. It was then that I decided that I had to do something. I heard talk. Locke and Boone had gone missing too, while they were looking for Claire… or me, but that didn't matter.

I stood up. It took a while for me to get adjusted, my eyes were so used to gazing into the flames of the fire, that looking around hurt my eyes.

"Charlie?" asked Hurley coming up to me. "Charlie, where are you going? I haven't seen you move in the longest time."

I ignored him and continued walking when someone grabbed me from behind and stopped me from moving.

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"But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true"

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"Charlie, where are you going?" I heard Jack ask from behind me. I struggled against his firm grip. "Charlie, you can't go out there!"

I stopped struggling and he turned me around. I could feel anger showing up in my eyes, he was going to try and stop me. I needed to find Claire before it was too late!

A few angry breaths escaped me before I turned around and started heading back into the jungle, only to be stopped by Jack again.

"Charlie, you can't go out there. We already lost three people out there; we can't take the loss of another person, especially you Charlie." Maybe he was just looking out for me, but he didn't get it.

"Especially me?" I snapped angrily. I think I took both of them aback. It felt good to talk; I hadn't talked in such a long time. "Especially me? The me that you all think is loony? The me that you had to save from a bloody tree? The me who is brain dead or heart broken or whatever you think I am! Claire's out there! Boone and Locke! They're out there too, and you're all here sitting on your arses doing absolutely nothing about it!"

Neither of them said anything and I could see thoughts racing through their minds. "Charlie, it's dark out, we can't do anything, or we'll get lost too!" said Hurley.

Jack still said nothing. Taking my chances, I pulled my arm out from his grasp and punched him hard across the face. I didn't know what I was thinking, I was acting on impulse. Jack let go of me and I bolted. I didn't care that it was dark. I didn't care that I would probably get lost. I just had to find Claire before something bad happened.

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"Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you"

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I ran into the jungle. I didn't know where I was going, which way was the way back to camp or anything. All that I knew was that I had this feeling inside of me, and I was following it. Claire was out there somewhere, and the island wasn't that big, she was here somewhere, and they weren't going to get anything done just sitting around.

I stopped and took a few deep breaths. I was getting tired quickly. I hadn't eaten in a while, and I was starting to feel it now. Putting all my weight on the tree, I closed my eyes. And my mind drifted off to the past once more.

Driveshaft had just gotten off of the ground and we were starting to get a following. Especially a female following. Girls professing their undying love to us, and none of us knew how to take it. Absolutely none of us. That was when I met Julie. She was a spunky ball of energy that was for sure. She followed us everywhere, almost stalker like, and when she finally got the chance to meet us (she had found her way backstage somehow) I got to know her, and we weren't quite as different as I originally thought.

But she was just another speed bump on the road to stardom. Once we got the record contract she stopped coming to shows, stopped talking to me. She stopped as soon as the members of Driveshaft became Rock Gods, if we ever were even considered that.

I heard a rustling and it reminded me that Claire was out there and that I had to find her. I didn't know what I would do if she were to die. I would never forgive myself. I shouldn't have sent Ethan to get Jack, I should have helped her along, then she never would have been taken. The last thing I remember was Claire thinking she was going into labor and telling Ethan… Ethan.

If I ever see him again I was going to kill him with my bare hands, especially if he did something to Claire!

I heard more rustling. "Charlie!" I heard someone calling my name. Quickly I got up. I was still exhausted. But why had they come after me? I was just Charlie, the Charlie that didn't matter. All that mattered anymore was finding Claire. Claire first, then Locke and Boone. They were fine, they weren't days away from giving birth, they had each other. Thanks to me, Claire was alone.

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"Now I'm just rollin' home into my lover's arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you"

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I got up, my pace quickening. I had another feeling deep down inside that somewhere inside of me, I knew where Claire was. I knew where she was, and as long as I followed that feeling, I would find her.

The light of the full moon lead my way as I walked on a path. I had found the path now, and was no longer simply wandering through the jungle. That was when I came to a fork. One way went left, the other went right.

Left or right? I closed my eyes trying to feel something. There had to have been something there. Where was the feeling that I had been following the entire way here? I couldn't feel it. Left or right?

My breath came out in an uneven rhythm as I thought. One way must lead to Claire, but which one was it. One led to nothing, to the past. That one led to the past that I was trying to escape. The other lead to everything I held dear on this bloody island. It lead to the future, it lead to Claire.

Without any more hesitation, I turned left and headed down that path.

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"Now I'm just rollin' home into my lover's arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you"

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A/n: Okay, maybe it will be more than two parts, but I think I started a long term one here. I hope you liked it. Please tell me what you think, anything I could fix or even ideas for the rest because I had two parts planned, but it could very well get longer.

Thanks for reading, now please review. :D