Disclaimer: I don't own any of this stuff.

The sun beamed down relentlessly over the dock. A rabble of people from all walks of life busied themselves with loading countless amounts of trunks, filled no doubt with all sorts of peculiar equipment.

Charlotte Staples Lewis paid them no attention as she worked on re-applying her sun cream. Being fare was a nuisance but she wasn't one to let it stop her from jetting of to exotic destinations when the situation called for it, and in her line of work the situation called for it more often then not. She peered out from beneath her hat to watch a frantic man nervously instruct a pair of rather brutish deck hands.

"Please, just be careful with that trunk!" The deck hands ignored this request and heaved the trunk up on to the freighter, bumping it slightly as they went.

The man caught her interest, he was unlike any of the other passengers she had watched board. She was beginning to worry that she was going to be stuck with nothing but the ocean and a bunch of arrogant louts surrounding her. She continued to watch as he heaved a sigh and ran his hands through his dark hair.

"You want to watch them, they dropped the bag with my books in over board earlier." She called out to him in an attempt to catch his attention as she clicked shut the lid on her sun cream.

He looked at her and then back to his trunk with panic in his eyes.

"Calm down, I'm only teasing you. Trust me if they had dunked my books they would have been thrown in afterwards." a smirk erupted across her lips, she pushed her self off of the stack of trunks she had been sitting on and approached him, her hand stretched out in front of her.

"I'm Charlotte."

"Ah, the anthropologist, right?" he took her hand and shook it, he made no effort to hide the fact he was sizing her up. He glanced from her boots to her hat, pausing momentarily on her freckled nose.

"That's correct, and you are?"

"Daniel, Daniel Faraday, Uh… Naomi was looking for you, she wants us up on the deck." he pointed his fingers up towards the freighter.

"Does she now? Bossy little madam isn't she? Come along we best not keep her waiting."

Daniel followed as they crossed the gang plank together.

Naomi was busy talking to a disinterested looking man, they waited patiently near a life boat.

"So, um, are you looking forward to this…voyage?" he asked giving Charlotte a sideways glance.

A smile broke out across her face, "You could say that."

"How much do you know about this place, the place we are going to I mean?" he asked, not meeting her eyes.

"Probably more than anyone else on this boat." she scoffed.

Daniel raised his eyebrows, " That's quite a claim to make."

He leant against the railing and met her gaze, challenging her to back up her statement with an intrigued smile.

Charlotte scanned the perimeter, after she was sure no one was watching she delved into her shoulder bag and removed a box.

"Now, you are a very lucky boy, only a select few have been allowed to see this."

His interest had been peaked. He stood up straight and moved closer, placing a hand on her shoulder to shield whatever it was from anyone who might happen to glance over. Charlotte glanced at his hand, slightly uncomfortable with a stranger encroaching on her personal space, then again she was about to show him her most precious possession so she let it slide.

Her eyes flickered up so she could observe his reaction, She lifted the lid and revealed the artefact.

"That is a Dharma Initiative logo." he stated in a whisper.

Charlotte's jaw dropped slightly, "You know about the Initiative?" her tone also hushed.

Daniel gave a slight nod and jerked his head to the side slightly, "Let's just say I am aware of some of their work."

She had to admit that she was both slightly disappointed and thoroughly excited by his reaction, she had expected confusion but found that she was pleased she did not receive it.

"Where…? Where did you come across this exactly?"

The anthropologist paused for a moment, she had become some what accustomed to keeping her thoughts and findings concerning the island to herself, as to avoid ridicule and reprimand from her colleagues and family. Of course, she never let them know that it bothered her.

"Tunisia, and the really fascinating part is that I found it with the remains of a Ursus maritimus" she bit her lip to conceal her delight.

"A polar bear? In Tunisia?" his tone was one of fascination and not scepticism.

She shut the box and slid it back into her bag, "Hm, perhaps this journey will be rather more enjoyable than I had first anticipated. You see I had feared that I would be trapped on this boat with a bunch of brainless brutes." she nodded her head in the direction of the group of bulky men standing near to the helicopter.

"I can see your logic," they shared a slight laugh.

"Now I find myself looking forward to some…stimulating conversation."

Daniel's eyes moved slowly sideways from the helicopter he had fixed them on to lock with Charlotte's. His eyebrow raised, causing Charlotte to smile inspite of herself.

"Charlotte, I'm Naomi Dorrit." Naomi and the man she had been talking too joined them.

"Nice to meet you."

"This is Miles Straum and you've met Daniel already, you'll be working as a team under my orders, alright?"

Daniel and Charlotte exchanged a quick unnoticed glance and gave affirmative answers.

Miles gave them a nod and a murmured "Hi" in greeting and wandered off.

"Apparently there's been a call for you. Now would be the best time to see to it, we'll be leaving soon and we don't need you holding us up." with that she swept off to supervise the last of the loading.

"Well she's charming, best go and take that call." Charlotte rolled her eyes and was led away to the communication room.

Daniel took out his journal and began to make notes about what she had just shown him, Widmore must have really done his research when assembling this team.

Charlotte returned about five minutes later. She looked pale and frightened, her eyes were wide.

"Are you alright?" he inquired.

She inhaled through her nose, her brow was furrowed. She seemed to be struggling with an inner turmoil, "Uh, change of plan, I need to go back to England, right away."

"Why? I thought you really wanted to go?"

"I did, I do! Something has happened and I…I just can't." she seemed to be in a mild state of shock. She shook it off and stared him straight in his eyes. A look of fixed determination in her unique eyes "So, here's what's going to happen. I shall give you my phone number and you will ring me the moment you get back, okay?"

She took his journal and jotted down a phone number in a spare corner, "I have a lot of questions that need answering. Would you do that for me?"

"Yeah, no problem." he was a little confused, but she was pretty and clever he wasn't about to turn down her phone number.

"It was nice meeting you, I sincerely mean that." she gave a worried smile and departed.

A/N: Please excuse any inconsistencies and dodgy science, i'm just writing for the fun of it :D, please leave a reveiw if you want X