Capable Part 04

[sapphire_child]

Title: Capable 4/5
Author: sapphire_child
Rating: PG
Summary: When Charlie is blamed for stealing someone’s watch, someone unexpected comes to his defence…
Disclaimer: still isn’t mine.

~*~

It had been over a month since the incident with the heroin and they still hadn’t spoken or even acknowledged the other still existed.

But everyone had noticed that they were both looking decidedly miserable, and they looked more and more miserable every day.

And they also noticed that both of them denied it.

Claire garnered the attention of most of the inhabitants of the beach, many of whom came to offer their condolences. One in particular who began to make regular visits was a younger man called William who seemed to have been waiting for Claire and Charlie to figuratively “break up” before making a move on Claire.

While he was sweet and smiled at her a lot, he was far too old for her and on top of that Claire found him intolerably boring and couldn’t understand why if he had liked her before he had ignored her for so long before making his move? Surely he had seen her after they first crashed sitting alone all the time? Charlie had had no troubles with breaking the ice and becoming friends with her...

She threw herself into looking after her son, devoting all her time and energy to him, all the easier to forget Charlie who hadn’t been so lucky with sympathy. Once word had gotten round about his addiction it seemed that nobody wanted anything to do with him and he spent most of his days mooching about near the water with his fishing spear or disappearing into the jungle for long periods of time.

These jungle trips were met with judicious suspicion – everyone knew he had found the heroin somewhere in the jungle and many thought that he was secretly running off for a quick high, earning him more scowls than ever.

Claire found she didn’t care either way. He wasn’t around her and that was all she cared about right now. Occasionally she would see him on the beach and she would feel an inexplicable tug towards him, especially when he watched the ocean for hours looking as though all he wanted was to wade in and drown himself but then her brain would take over and she would steel herself and look away from him.

‘Hey Claire,’ William smiled brightly at her and Claire snapped out of her reverie. She had been thinking about the situation with her and Charlie again, a dangerous past time, and was glad that he had jolted her out of it.

‘Oh, hi William,’ she smiled indulgently at him when he handed her a full water bottle.

‘Here. I was up at the caves and I figured you might need a refill.’

‘You’re sweet,’ Claire said absently, frowning down the beach at where Charlie was sitting. A man was walking towards him very purposefully. ‘I did need a refill.’

‘Right,’ William hovered awkwardly for a moment. The man who had been walking towards Charlie now seemed to be having an argument with him only Charlie wasn’t moving or even responding it seemed. ‘Hey, Claire? Wh-what’re you looking at?’

Claire didn’t answer. The other man was waving something in Charlie’s face, Charlie turned away from him and went to stand up, the guy grabbed his arm. ‘Claire?’ William pressed again. Charlie pushed the guy away from him angrily, Claire felt her heart leap into her throat as the other guy drew back his arm and…

Charlie practically flew backwards and then stumbled and fell, crashing head first into the sand. Unaware that she had even moved, Claire found herself running towards the water leaving William standing there holding Aaron and looking highly confused, calling after her.

As she ran, Charlie began to stand up slowly but the other guy kicked sand into his face and then punched him again, kicked him in the guts so that he doubled over, picked him up off the ground and punched him again…

‘STOP!’ Claire screamed, as she got close. ‘You’re going to kill him!’

The guy continued to pound into Charlie as Claire tried to tackle him, neglecting to remember that this guy was nearly a foot taller and weighed probably sixty kilos more than she did. She felt like she’d slammed into a brick wall. She sprang to her feet again, feeling slightly dazed and stood between the two of them.

‘What the hell is your problem? Leave him alone!’ the guy went to push past her but Claire stood her ground. Charlie gasped and wheezed on the ground behind her, sand and blood forming an unpleasant crust on his face.

‘He stole my watch!’ the guy yelled belligerently, brandishing a shattered wristwatch in Claire’s face. ‘My dad’s watch! A bloody antique!’

‘And what makes you think he stole it?’ Claire stumped her hands on her hips.

‘I didn’t,’ Charlie managed to gasp. ‘Claire…This guys…had it in for me…since he found out…about the heroin…’

‘Charlie? Shut up,’ Claire said coldly and looked back up at the man who was still looking livid. ‘Why do you think he would steal your watch?’

‘Because I told him the truth,’ the man’s fists were clenching and un-clenching and Claire could tell he was itching to throttle her. ‘Didn’t like me telling him that he was no good. Nothing but a filthy addict and a liar to boot,’ he jerked his head towards Charlie who was still gasping and wheezing on the sand. ‘I knew one of them once see? They don’t give a damn about anybody but themselves. If one of them ever brought their drugs anywhere near my kids I’da punched his bloody lights out! Why’re you even defending him? He’s nothing but scum lady, doesn’t deserve you or you defending him.’

Claire stared at the man in front of her for a long moment and then glanced down at Charlie.

‘No one deserves to have the living crap belted out of them,’ she said quietly. ‘Even if they are a liar.’

Charlie gazed up at her, panting slightly. A trickle of blood was hardening and turning black underneath his nose and a plum coloured bruise was slowly blossoming around his left eye.

‘If you think he’s a liar then how can you believe that he didn’t steal my watch?’

Claire turned back to the man.

‘Because he didn’t.’

‘I thought you said he was a liar?’ the man sneered.

‘He didn’t steal your watch.’ Claire said firmly. ‘And when you find it I hope you’ll have the guts to come and apologise to him.’

The man eyed her cynically for a moment before lowering his eyes slightly and Claire knew that she’d won. She turned to walk away but his voice halted her. ‘I thought youse two were fighting anyways?’

Claire didn’t even turn back. ‘I never said we weren’t.’

Fifth and final part coming soon!