They Don't Call It "Down Under" For Nothing *open*

[shannon]

She'd always heard that Australia was a beautiful country; a land like no other. But based on what little of it she had seen, Shannon was significantly unimpressed. She hadn't been outside of Sydney yet, and, after the stories she'd heard about the vast wasteland that lay beyond the larger cities, she wasn't about to venture outside the city's borders. And Sydney, when it came right down to it, was a city like any other city in any other country. It had the same things--the shopping districts, the slums, the sleazy bars, the wild nightclubs, as well as the museums and the other pretenses at having culture.

Sure, Sydney had the beach, which was nice, and the opera house, which was nothing short of spectacular. But other than that, it was no different than any place else where she had been.

At the moment, she was standing in the middle of a nightclub--she wasn't even sure what it was called anymore--feeling decidedly bored. She turned to her companion, a tall, muscular guy with blond hair and a thick Australian accent. "You call this rat trap a hotspot?" she said in a lofty tone. "The lighting sucks and so does the music. Doesn't your backwards country have anything recent?"

The guy, Steve (or was it Scott?) stammered a lame apology, saying it had come recommended by a friend, but that the friend wasn't really up on what was "cool."

Shannon rolled her eyes and thrust her empty glass into his hand. "Yeah, whatever. Get me another drink, will you?" She fluttered her eyes prettily, to make up for the harshness of her voice.

While he was gone, she moved further into the club, heading towards the dance floor. There had to be something interesting going on in this place...

[Charlie Pace]

The place could have been called the bloody Kangoroo Hop for all Charlie knew. He barely remembered entering the club, but remembered surely when he had found the bathroom. He had fingered the bag in his pocket the entire 20 minutes it took to get a drink, and the entire two seconds it took to down it. The thump thump thumping of the music made Charlie ache in more ways than one. There had been some bird that had been on him for the 20 minutes it took to get his drink, but when the bartender hadn't heard that he wanted another drink, the girl frustratedly left him alone. He was jonesing and he was horny as hell. Stumbling to the bathroom, he pushed himself into one of the stalls, fumbling into pockets for the baggie. He dipped his finger into the baggie and rubbed the powder onto his gums.

The loud sound of sniffing hit his ears, and his eyebrows rose. The sound of a man yelling in frustration hit Charlie's ears, and he found himself grinning at the man's words.

"Gawd, it's---it's bloody SUGER!"

The buzz hit, and Charlie leaned against the stall wall, a groan escaping his lips. His mouth opened slowly as the drug slid through his bloodstream, and his lips upturned into a smile. He'd see Liam tomarrow, and tomarrow he'd stop. He'd stop and it'd be over...just one more bump.

"Hey, asshole! I gotta PISS!"

Charlie pocketed his drugs and opened the door, nearly stumbling out and into the man. He stumbled past the bathroom and back out into the club. The sea of people and bodies and lights and sex passed in front of Charlie's eyes, making him dizzy and he stumbled, bumping into a woman standing next to him. "Sorry, love." he told her, and saw that he was sure she didn't hear him. The music's vibration alone was enough to make him come, not to mention the volume of the singer's voice alternating between rapping and singing which Charlie didn't really care for but it was a club. The girl in front of him was cute, however Charlie wondered if she was of legal age to be in the club. What was the legal age of drinking in Australia anyway? It didn't matter, Charlie told himself. The music still pounded in his ears, and he winced slightly before yelling to her again.

"I said, 'I'M SORRY, LOVE'. CAN I GET YOU A DRINK?!"

[shannon]

She scanned the crowd and stifled a yawn. Why did it seem like there was just nothing fun anymore? It was just the same shit, different day. Same crappy clubs, crappy music, meatheaded guys with more muscles than brains. Of course, she was already living with Brian, but she was getting bored with him. They barely even liked each other anymore; they just lived together out of mutual need. She used him, he used her, and that was it. He'd been even nastier to her lately, since the money started running out. Good thing Boone was on his way... she'd be able to leave Brian and maybe even this stupid country.

She felt someone bump into her, but she paid it no mind at first. Whenever she went to a club, guys would "accidentally" bump into her and use it as an excuse to buy her a drink. It was getting a little old. She moved back a few steps and continued to look around. She could see Scott (or whatever his name was) peering through the crowd with a drink in his hand, trying to find her. She ducked down slightly, not wanting to be seen. She'd decided she was bored of that loser.

As she bent down, however, she heard a voice yelling at her. "I said, 'I'M SORRY, LOVE'. CAN I GET YOU A DRINK?!" She looked over and saw a guy standing near her, looking right at her. She opened her mouth to respond with a snotty remark, but hesitated.

The guy wasn't exactly her type. He was shorter than she was, and skinny. Not exactly the pretty boy type, but not exactly rugged, either. He was actually kind of odd looking, and yet strangely appealing. There was something about him that intrigued her. Of course, he was utterly wasted, and not just on alcohol. He was high on something. This wasn't particularly strange or shocking to Shannon; she'd seen quite a lot of this in her travels, and had even tried a few drugs herself.

She looked him up and down in an obvious way, her hand perched on her hip. Biting down on her bottom lip, she smiled coyly. "Well, I don't know," she said. "Can you?" She signalled to the large crowd of people surrounding the bar. "There's a lot of people over there, and I don't want to wait all night."

[Charlie Pace]

The girl spoke, and Charlie smirked, arching an eyebrow slightly. He looked over at the throngs of people by the bar, blending together and melting into one big giant pool of arms and legs and backs of heads, and he looked back at Shannon. He knew that it would be a fruitless effort, it would be a waste of time...however, there was a perfectly good pub down the street, one that Charlie would have rather been in than this bloody club. He leaned to her, by her ear over the loud pulsating music. "There's a pub down the street, they got good food and better drinks than this bloody watered-down place" he said over the music. "Y'wanna go, then?"

Charlie looked back at the bar, and saw a man, his face twisted in frustration, and he looked back at Shannon, an eyebrow arched. The man looked like a big lug, and he wondered why Shannon was with him. He didn't look like her type at all. Of course, Charlie didn't know the girl from Eve.

He had seen Shannon in passing when he had came in, saw her with the man and she hadn't looked like she had been involved with him. They weren't holding each other close, or even smiling. Well, the man had been smiling, but it had been the smile when a man knows he needs to scrape at the bottom of the barrel to grab whatever he could to hold onto her.

"M'name's Charlie, by the way. Charlie Pace."

[shannon]

Shannon had to lean a little closer to hear him, even though he was yelling. The noise was starting to get to her. The constant pulsing of the music underscored the cacophony of voices that surrounded them. It was practically a solid thing, a wall closing them in. And if that wasn't bad enough, the smell was beginning to overwhelm her. The place reeked of sweat and sex and booze. It was enough to make her want to vomit.

So when he suggested that they get out of here and go someplace quieter, she was all too eager. "Hell, yeah, I'd love to get out of here," she said. "The music in here sucks. Don't you think?"

She saw him looking past her, to where “what's-his-name” was standing, drinks in hand, trying to find her. "Oh, don't worry about him. I'm not with him. I barely even know him." She rolled her eyes. "I haven't been able to lose him all night."

"M'name's Charlie, by the way. Charlie Pace."

She smiled at him. "Nice to meet you, Charlie, Charlie Pace," she said. "I'm Shannon." She grabbed his arm and started heading for the door. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here."

She paused before Scott, then just gave the tiniest little wave, summarily dismissing him. The crushed expression on his face was enough to make her laugh out loud. “God, what a loser,” she commented.

[Charlie Pace]

Charlie's eyes widened slightly as the girl said she wanted to leave, and he felt a smirk spread onto his face. "Smashing!" he told her, and then grinned wider as she said that the music sucked. "Oh god, yes! " Charlie said, nodding, thankful that someone else agreed with him that hearing 'smack that ass' as a single sentence for a song ws getting annoying. She spoke of the man, and Charlie glanced over, seeing Scott/Steve, until he found himself being nearly dragged by Shannon. He saw the crushed expression of Scott/Steve, and Charlie shrugged with a smart-ass grin. "Better luck next time, mate!" Charlie said to the man before he found himself stumbling outside with Shannon. The sound of the club was still pounding, however, it sounded almost like it was underwater. Muffled, thankfully. The sound of the Australian streets was a comfort.

"So, Shannon," Charlie said, no longer needing to scream over the music. "I'm guessin' your from America, then? What's got you all the way out here in the land down under?" She didn't look like the world traveller, nor did she look like a person who had lived in Australia. She looked completely out of place. He motioned down the street before he stuffed his hands into his pockets as they walked. "It's down here, by the way. I think it's called Wallaby Watering Hole or some crap like that."

[shannon]

The night air was cool and crisp. It was spring in Australia, so the days were getting warmer, but the nights were still cold. It occurred to her that she hadn’t worn a jacket tonight; she was getting used to the warmer weather. Besides, she’d been in a hurry to get away from Brian, who had been particularly annoying that day. So when Steve, a friend of Brian’s that she’d only just met, offered to take her out for the night, she’d jumped at the chance. Now, she was just as thrilled to be rid of him.

She reached up and pulled the rubber band out of her hair, releasing the sloppy ponytail she’d stuck it in earlier. Tossing her head around a couple of times, she ran her fingers through it a few times, fluffing it back up again. Just as she finished doing this, she realized Charlie had been talking to her. She turned to him with a cool expression.

“Yeah, I’m from America,” she replied. “LA, actually. But I had to get away from my bitchy stepmom and perfect stepbrother, so I came here with some guy I met. I ditched him months ago,” she added with a smile, “but I’m still here. I like it here. I can go to clubs without getting carded. And I got a thing for guys with accents.” She winked at him as she said this last part.

She laughed at his comment about the bar’s name. “Oh, I know. It’s so cheesy, isn’t it? Like the whole damn world’s a tourist trap. I spent a year in St Tropez last year, and it was the same kind of thing. Lame, really.”

[Charlie Pace]

Glancing sideways at Shannon for a moment, Charlie watched as she removed the rubber band ffrom her hair. Well, she was cute, there was no doubt about that. She spoke of getting away from her family, and Charlie felt himself nod slightly. "Yeah, I know how it is to get away from family. I actually came here to see if my brother will do me a favour. I'm hoping that it'll go smashing, but...we havn't really talked in about a year."

She spoke of liking guys in accents, and Charlie cleared his throat, his eyebrows lifting slightly. "Oh, that? I'm actually from America, too. But, y'know, I got dropped on the head as a child, and BAM. English accent." Charlie found himself smirking slightly. "They said it's somethin' about a brain phenomonia or something. Quiet strange, it is."

Charlie liked Australia well enough, but he really longed for Manchester. He knew he longed for the Manchester of his youth, before all the drugs and the bands and everything that had happened.

She spoke of the bar, and Charlie laughed slightly. "Completely and utterly lame. However, the alcohol isn't bad there, and the food's decent. It does have it's high points which makes one bypass the sucky-ness of the name."

They arrived and Charlie moved, opening the door for Shannon. "After you, m'lady." he said with a grin. The smell of greasy bar food hit his nose, and suddenlly, he was starving. "Y'know, this place reminds me of the pub by my house in Manchester where we played our first gig. Smashing sound and awesome alcohol."

[shannon]

Shannon peered at him sideways out of the corner of her eyes. There was something familiar about him, but she couldn't quite place it. She was pretty sure she'd never met him before, although some of her days in St. Tropez were a bit of a blur. No, this was something else... like she'd seen his face before from a distance. As he joked about being dropped on his head as a child as the cause of his accent, she had to laugh. Maybe a little too enthusiastically. "Well, I just hope you won't lose your accent if you fall on your head a second time," she teased, her mouth curving upwards into a smirk.

As they stepped inside the bar, she was assaulted by the heavy smells of smoke and booze and fried food. Yet still, the place smelled better than the dank, dirty building, once an old warehouse as she'd been informed by Steve, that was being passed off as a hot nightclub. Although of course Shannon would never consider eating anything fried, the greasy smell was somewhat appealing. Mercifully absent was the loud pulsing beat of heavy bass. Instead, the music was more subdued, as an old rock song from the 90s played comfortingly in the background. She smiled at Charlie. "Not bad," she said approvingly.

As he mentioned playing gigs in Manchester, something clicked in Shannon's head. Charlie Pace. "Wait a minute," she said, remembering. "I know you, don't I? I mean, not personally... but I've heard of you before. You're from that band... Driveshaft. Right? Are you related to Liam Pace?"

[Charlie Pace]

Jesus H. Christ. Cock-blocked by Liam and the bloody bastard wasn't even in the room. At least, Charlie thought silently, she knew who DriveShaft was. However, no one ever knew who he was. He had been the words to DriveShaft and yet, no one new who the bass player was. "Yeah, DriveShaft!" Charlie said, his lips forming into a smile, however it was slightly tight. "And uh, yeah. Liam's my brother."

I am DriveShaft! No one knows who the sodding bass player is. Face it, Charlie. Without this band...what the bloody hell use are you?

Charlie's lips pursed into a thin smile once more as he moved, sliding onto a bar stool. He ordered a beer, and then looked at Shannon, the thin smile replaced by a full one. "We're gettin' back together. Got a show all lined up in Los Angeles at the end of the month. Y'should come. It's gonna be at...well, gonna be at some place by my hotel room. The Roosevelt, y'know?"

He waved the thought away as the beer came, and he took a drink, looking at the brown-haired girl. "But enough of that prattle. I want you to tell me all about you. D'ya always go with random guys you've met to far away countries?" he asked, refrencing her earlier statement that she came to Australia with a guy she had met. "I mean, Australia *is* rather far from Los Angeles. The plane ride was horrid, by the way, was yours? I got stuck in coach with a screamin' baby behind m'head for the entire flight. I think I was ready to commit murder."

[shannon]

Shannon couldn't quite fight the grin that crept up on her lips. Driveshaft... just the name brought back memories of her younger days. Her father had been alive then, and had spoiled her so much that she didn't even have time to hate Sabrina. And of course, at 16 years old, she had been desperately in love with Liam Pace.

It almost embarrassed her now, to think of how she'd acted back then, going out of her way for just a chance to meet Liam. She'd even once tried to sneak into the very same Roosevelt Hotel because Driveshaft had been staying there. "That is so cool!" she said enthusiastically. "I used to have such a crush on your brother." She tilted her head and looked at him for a moment, trying to remember him. "And you were... Wait... the bass player, right? My best friend Nora thought you were so cute... She'd just die if she knew I met you! I'd love to go to your reunion show, too; I used to go to all your shows in LA."

As he asked about her, Shannon took a sip of her beer. She liked the beer in Australia better than the American beers. It had more flavor here; it didn't taste quite like horse piss. "My flight wasn't so bad. But then, I always fly first class. You should try it... it's a whole different experience." She arched her brow meaningfully, but didn't explicitly comment on the fact that a rock star like him was stuck sitting in coach. "Anyway, it's not the first time I ran off to another country with a guy," she admitted. "When I went to St. Tropez, it was with a guy. Actually, I was his au pair for a while. I was just doing whatever I could to get away from my stepmom. Same as this time. I was just looking for an excuse to get away from her."

[Charlie Pace]

"Yeah, everyone has a crush on my brother." Charlie stated honestly, shaking his head with a slight laugh. "Liam Pace was in love with Liam Pace." he told her, and it was the truth. At one time, if Liam had found a female copy of himself, he'd wreck it. However, he had found Karen, and while she had her wild streak, she grounded him. It reminded him of Finland for some reason, just then, and the way that Liam had told him that he needed to pass the ring onto his child...Liam...Liam had a child of his own now, a wife and a house in the 'burbs and what did Charlie have? Just enough money to buy a fix, pay his bill at the Roosevelt, and buy food.

"I'll be lucky if I live past thirty..."

Charlie blinked the thought away as Shannon spoke of how she used to love DriveShaft, and her friend. A smile spread onto Charlie's face. "Gimme her number, I'll call her up, I'd love to." Charlie said honestly, however, the smile slowly faded as she said that first class was the way to go. "Yeah, I uh...I love first class. It's tops, it really is, but, um...there's some royalties problems right now, with...you know, I made the flight last minute and they didn't have any first class seats left, can you believe it?" Charlie asked, shaking his head. "Bloody Oceanic. I mean, I told them, but...but they couldn't bump me up."

They couldn't bump him up because he barely had enough money for the flight, let alone the amount he set aside to get from the dealer he had in Australia. She spoke of running away to St. Tropez, and he leaned his chin on his hand for a moment as he watched her. "Why didn't y'just...move to another part of the country or something? Australia's pretty far, y'think your brother'd be worried about you or somethin'?"

He knew Liam worried about him. He got the calls and three in the morning, 'Baby Brother, just...just checking in...gimme a call back, lemme know how you are...' He had always deleted the message before he got to 'I miss you' because if he heard 'I miss you' he'd have to dive more into the drugs just to erase the feeling of utter failure.

"But I getcha. My brother, Liam--" he said with an obveious nod, "He...well, he basically did the same thing. Ran off to Australia...to get away from me." The sentence trailled off, and Charlie moved to take a long sip of his beer. "But, you know...he's doing smashing from what I heard. I, uh...I havn't spoken to him in about three--three months, so...but I'm sure he's doing smashing. I'll find out tomarrow, won't I?" he asked, almost talking outloud to himself

[shannon]

Shannon nodded knowingly. "Yeah, well, I have one of those brothers, too, actually. God's friggin' gift to humanity." She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly, but in truth, she wasn't exaggerating. Everyone always loved Boone. The good one. The model student, the lifeguard, the boy scout. Even Nora had confessed to having a crush on Boone. And towards the end, even her father had started to give her the old Why can't you be more like your brother? speech. And she'd retorted some snotty remark about how maybe it was because Boone wasn't really her brother. It was typical, really. Boone was just so damn perfect, she'd been just unable to compete. But wasn't that always the way? It got to be so damn exhausting trying to compete with the paragon of perfection that was Boone, that she just gave up and decided to be as wild as she wanted to be. Just to prove Sabrina right.

"Well, when you get back to LA, you can look her up. She's in the book. Nora Kowalksy. I promise you, she's the only Kowalksy in the book. I haven't talked to her in a year and a half." She said this last part with sadness, remembering how close she and Nora had once been. But, hey, when you steal your best friend's boyfriend, you can't really expect the friendship to stand strong. It was her own damn fault, really.

Shannon could hear the evasiveness in his voice as he talked of first class, and she quietly pushed that part of the conversation aside. She knew full well that a has-been rock star most likely couldn't afford first class, and if she'd been feeling vindictive that night, she could have picked at it, ripped open the scar and made it bleed. But instead she let it pass.

"Well, yeah, I guess part of me wanted my brother to worry about me. Like maybe he'd miss me, and he'd come here and get me, you know? He's always nicer to me when I'm not around so much. Maybe you'll get just as lucky with your brother."

[Charlie Pace]

"Liam's too busy sitting on his high horse to worry about me."

Charlie knew that wasn't the truth, but it was so much easier to think that way. It was so much less painful to think that way because if he thought the other, he'd be a right mess. He picked at the worn coaster, glancing up at her slightly as she spoke. "Well, for your sake, I hope your brother comes 'round. It sounds like he does care for you more than you think." He knew that Liam cared for him, and the thought made his heart warm slightly, until he realised that it wasn't going to be that easy. It xcouldn't have been,

"If they cared about us, then why'd they leave?" he asked almost to himself, before he looked at Shannon. Shut up, Charlie, he thought silently, she doesn't want to hear about your sodding problems. She doesn't need to hear that you're a sodding mess. He felt a twang in his gut, and his fingers moved to his pocket before he realised what he was doing. No, he couldn't. No right now. Later...later he'd go to the bathroom. He moved, his fingers curling around the glass as he took another long gulp to try to quell the feeling.

"So what happened with your friend, then? Was there boyfriends and drama and hair-pulling abound?"

[shannon]

"It sounds like he does care for you more than you think."

Shannon almost laughed at that. She knew full well just how much her "brother" cared for her. "Oh, believe me, I know he cares for me. Too much, actually," she said. "He likes nothing better than to ride in on his white horse and rescue me from whatever my latest crisis is."

And she had learned, from a very early age, just exactly how to exploit Boone's hero complex. Whenever a kid at school was bothering her, she'd tell Boone and he'd step in to get rid of the problem. He'd gotten in an awful lot of fights on her account, and was even suspended once. And yet, he still came out of it looking like the paragon of virtue, while she was, at least in her dad's and Sabrina's eyes, the instigator. But again, that was always the way. Boone was perfect. She was not. She'd accepted it long ago.

She wondered if Boone really was on his way, after her little dramatic phone call. It had been one of her best performances, and even Brian had done a good job playing along. She was pretty sure Boone had been fooled. But would he continue to travel to where ever she was, just to give her money? Sooner or later, he was going to figure out the truth. And then her little game wouldn't work anymore.

She was lost in thought, and didn't really realize at first that Charlie was also deep in thought, and probably hadn't heard her previous comment. But his next remark took her by surprise.

"If they cared about us, then why'd they leave?"

Why, indeed? She didn't understand it, either. Why had her father gone and married Sabrina, anyway? They had been happy, just the two of them, before Sabrina and Boone came along. Everything would have been different if Sabrina Carlyle hadn't forced her way into her father's life, seduced him and roped him in like a runaway calf. The bitch... All she'd had to do was flutter her perfectly curled eyelashes at him and he'd been putty in her hands. And now he was dead, and she was stuck with Sabrina and Boone.

Yeah, she loved Boone. But from the time her father had married Sabrina, Shannon had thought of her as her wicked stepmother. And she, of course, was Cinderella. But Boone, instead of being the ugly stepbrother, was trying to be Prince Charming instead. But it just didn't work that way.

As he mentioned her fight with Nora, an obvious attempt to change the subject to lighter matters, Shannon broke into a grin. "Yeah, well, that's pretty much it, actually. I got drunk and slept with her boyfriend, and apparently, she had a problem with that. It was pretty ugly." Her voice was tinged with regret.

Eager to continue the lighter mood, she leaned over, so that they were barely touching. "So, tell me, Charlie Pace, do you dance?"