Author's Note: I don't own Revolution or any of its characters, and the following is intended purely for fan entertainment and not for personal financial gain. So please don't sue me for playing in someone else's sandbox for a little while. :-)

Annealing: "a heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing changes in its properties such as hardness and ductility. ...Annealing is used to induce ductility, soften material, relieve internal stresses, refine the structure by making it homogeneous and improve cold working properties. ...The first stage is recovery, and it results in softening of the metal through removal of crystal defects...and the internal stresses which they cause. ...The second stage is recrystallization, where new strain-free grains nucleate and grow to replace those deformed by internal stresses." (Wikipedia)

Recovery

Miles Matheson knows that damn girl is going to get him killed. He's thought it over a hundred times since she burst into his bar, blue eyes sparking, and uprooted his sad excuse for a life.

She's impetuous, naive, pushy, cocky, and insecure rolled all into one package. But she's also brave, hopeful, strong and determined, and she sees the best in people - even him. When he thought he'd locked his heart up behind enough steel walls that no one could find it, his brother's daughter Charlie had come along and jumped those walls in one unfair leap: "Because we're family."

So although, inevitably, Charlie Matheson is going to get him killed, Miles finds he's actually grateful to the girl, because it feels so good to feel something in his life that's not guilt or fear or pain. To be known by someone who loves him and looks up to him more than she fears him. To be part of someone's family.

She stirs in her sleep and Miles absently reaches a hand down and tugs the blankets of her bedroll up over her shoulders. It's reaching that coldest part of the night - sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. - and he's shivering inside his leather jacket as he sits watch over their camp.

If Ben could see you now… His older brother had always sworn he'd had a caring side, and Miles had always laughed it off. He'd taken their parents' love, Ben's love, for granted and never seen a need to reciprocate gestures of affection. But in wrapping his arms around Charlie as she cried over Maggie's death, Miles had discovered something he'd been missing all his life, and though it pained his steel-walled soul to do so, he'd begun, slowly, to drill holes to let some of his love out for Charlie and the rest of their ragtag crew.

"You're different with her." Nora's voice, soft from the bedroll at his right, brushes across Miles' ear as she rises to take watch. "Softer."

Miles shrugs, standing to give up his spot to Nora. "She's family."

"She's good for you." Nora smiles as she passes him and rests a hand briefly on Miles' shoulder. Normally, he'd turn and brush the comment, and her hand, aside. Tonight, he grabs her hand and squeezes briefly, shooting her the barest of smiles. It's enough, and he sees the gesture take effect as Nora's small smile blossoms into a full-blown grin. "Careful, Matheson," she whispers, "or I might think you're really going soft."

He probably is, but damned if it doesn't feel good.