Track 5: This Will Be Our Year

The name of Charlie Pace, once barely identified as Liam's younger brother in DriveShaft (if it was even remembered at all) has now been eclipsed by Charlie Pace, survivor, hero. The notoriety it has brought him is fading from memory now--a year after their rescue--he and Claire notice as they walk one afternoon in Griffith Park. His left arm is around her neck, the fingers occasionally caress her shoulder, an act he would not have dared until only very recently--ever since her warm, but all-too-brief reception of him when he and Desmond returned from the Looking Glass.

The large settlement they received from Oceanic allowed them to purchase a house in the Los Feliz area, close enough for business, but in a safer environment in which to raise Aaron. His music career has taken off--slow, it was true, especially at first--but he is getting more club dates now, and working more on not only his own songs, but with other musicians who are up-and-comers wanting him to write material for them.

Their relationship has improved. Gone is his nagging uncertainty, his jealousy, his almost too-protective nature of her and Aaron; it is replaced now by a more confident, happier Charlie--a Charlie who no longer needs to cling to her or anyone else for stability, someone who is patient with Claire and her understandable reluctance to enter relationships. She is warmer now, more receptive to him and more eager to show how grateful she is to have him in her and her son's life.

It was Charlie's idea to take Claire for a picnic, a proper one this time, one guaranteed not to be interrupted before it even had a chance to get started. He could not have picked a better day, it seemed that Fate is now rewarding them for surviving all it had put them through on the island. The weather is clear and bright, the air is redolent with the dizzying aromas of surrounding flowers, and the two of them have never been happier or more secure with their lives.

They walk on, tacitly enjoying the other's presence, the path stretching out before them.