It's a new story! The scene in the tunnels at the power plant goes a little differently...

Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.

- o – o -

Shot to the Heart

Miles stares at Bass, fingers tensing around his gun. His finger is on the trigger and the barrel is pointed right and Bass' chest. At this range, it's impossible to miss. There's no way…

"If you come back," Bass says, eyes dark with an emotion Miles knows all too well, "I'll leave your family alone. Danny, Charlie… They'll be my guests." He smiles, and it falters. "Miles…please."

It's the little whine in Bass' voice as he says please that makes Miles lower the gun. Bass stares at him, and moves forward slowly. Miles stares at him, entranced. Bass' eyes are blue and dark. Miles knows that look… Bass has his hands tangled in the hair at the back of Miles' head, and there's a smile on his face.

"On your knees, general," he says darkly.

Miles hates that Bass' orders still go right to his balls, and it's not helping that he's still the same as he was years ago—killing still crosses the same wires in his brain as sex, and there are four dead men in the power plant. He gets down on his knees. Charlie and Danny will be fine. Bass has never broken a promise. Bass smiles down at him, hands on either side of Miles' head, fingers running through his hair. Miles shivers, eyes glazing over.

"Welcome home, Miles," Bass whispers. Miles drops the gun. It falls to the floor, clattering on the cement of the tunnel. When the Militia soldiers finally reach their president, Bass has a belt around Miles' neck in lieu of a collar and leash, and he's tied the other man's hands together behind his back with the strap taken from the rifle. Miles is blindfolded and spun until he's disoriented and dependent on whoever is leading him out of the tunnels.

Miles stumbles a little, but he can feel Bass next to him, presence warm and inviting and so unbelievably solid and real. Bass is touching him a little too much, a little too familiar. Miles can't hold back the whine of need as Bass breaks contact with him. He trips over a stair and comes crashing to his knees. Bass keeps him there, one hand in his hair, massaging Miles' scalp. (Miles begins conjugating Latin and Chinese verbs in his head, just so he doesn't start mewling in lust or spread his legs so invitingly for Bass right there in front of everyone. Because that's only for Bass and Jeremy; not anyone else.)

Charlie is crying. Miles can hear her. He can also hear what sounds like someone getting a beating. He looks around, wishing he could see something through the blindfold.

"As you can see," Bass says, running his fingers along behind the shell of Miles' ear, "I'm quite alright, Sergeant Strausser. Danny, go sit by your sister."

So that's who was getting beaten. Danny, the nephew Miles has only seen as a baby—his future Marine, despite the asthma and occasional coordination issues. Miles promises he'll injure Strausser if Danny's been hurt too badly. (By badly, he means if there's so much as a scratch on his nephew.)

The belt around his neck tightens, and Miles stands up to ease the pressure. Monroe laughs, softly. Miles' lips begin moving as he begins to conjugate the verbs out loud. He's not going to last much longer at this rate anyways. Monroe's a bastard. An evil, manipulative, so very damn sexy bastard.

Miles is relieved when Bass leads him out of the room by the improvised collar and leash. It's starting to chafe, but what the hell. He's got Bass back. That's what matters.

Bass pushes him back to his knees, and Miles whimpers in need. He's too far gone to speak—and even if he could, he'd just be begging Bass to just bend him over the nearest hard surface (or just push him down on the floor, because his brain is about to enter the meltdown stage) and fuck him until he can't remember his own name, much less why he left in the first place.

Miles hears a zipper, and then Bass is pressed against his cheek. Miles turns and inhales, smiling up at Bass. Bass makes an impatient noise in the back of his throat that sends another spark of white-hot fire to Miles' balls. His pants are way too tight now, and Miles just wants Bass to hurry up already.

When Jeremy is with them, it's usually Bass who's sandwiched between them. Bass may give the orders, and he might like the things Jeremy and Miles can do, but he's still the one giving orders in bed. Miles knows what he's supposed to do, and opens his mouth obediently.

His hallucination hadn't been lying when he'd said Miles had a dirty little secret. Miles just hopes he doesn't have an audience for this particular one. He pulls away from Bass, disengaging with an obscene, wet pop. Bass groans and twines his fingers in Miles' hair, pulling sharply.

Miles hums and focuses on what he's supposed to do when he's on his knees after that. Bass is left weak-kneed and clutching at Miles' shoulders for support when he finishes.

"Up," Bass says, voice raspy and heavy with need, pulling on the trailing end of the belt. "Bed." He pushes Miles face down on the mattress.

Miles sees stars for quite a while after that.

The general wakes up sometime after dusk. His blindfold is gone, and the weak lighting from the lanterns on the walls are soft enough that he's not blinded. His clothes are missing. Miles fingers the belt around his neck, and immediately reaches for the buckle to pull it off.

"Don't."

Miles stops, hands falling to his sides almost immediately. He pushes himself up and looks around. He's back in his bed in Bass' home in Philadelphia, which means that Bass probably fucked him in the power plant—humiliating, but Bass had needed to reassert dominance, Miles guesses. (At least he'd been brought back to Independence Hall afterwards…) Jeremy is snoozing over a pile of reports, pen dripping ink onto a blotter sheet. He has dark circles under his eyes, and Miles feels guilty about that. Bass is wearing boxers and nothing else. One leg is drawn up to his chest, and the other long, tanned leg dangles in front of him. Miles swallows, feeling the blood rising in his cheeks.

"Hello Bass," Miles rasps. His throat is sore. So is everything else—he hasn't been around for four years, after all. That's a long time. Bass was gentle, but even that won't do much. (Miles wishes Bass hadn't been gentle—he wanted to know Bass was angry with him, wanted to know if Bass hurt as much as he did after four years and all those fights.)

Bass smiles. "I don't want you to leave," he says. "I want you to swear you'll never leave."

Miles opens his mouth to respond, but Bass cuts him off with a gesture.

"I want you on your knees, in front of your niece and nephew when you promise. I want them to see that you belong to me."

Miles is going to kill Bass for this… Just as soon as he can think coherently again. Jeremy is with them this time. Bass, for once, isn't in the middle. Miles is. He doesn't want to leave.

It's not about family this time—not his biological one. These two men are his family. He'll stay with them.

- o – o -

Miles knows his niece and nephew are going to have conniptions when they see him swearing not to leave Bass' side again. (Just that promise is going to leave Charlie apoplectic in rage.) Charlie's going to be pissed. Who knows what Danny will think? The problems are all going to stem from the fact that Bass, the bastard, hasn't returned his clothes. The belt's still around his neck. Miles knows what Bass is doing. It takes a very cold shower (and god did he miss those, the closer the gang got to Philadelphia) to make his problem over that go away.

Jeremy's snarky comments don't help. Miles shoots the man a dark look, promising many horrible things if the captain doesn't shut up. Jeremy just blows him a kiss and finishes up the last of the reports. Miles stays kneeling in the center of the office, hands tied behind his back. (He could wriggle out of them in a second, but it's a power game. And a promise to Bass, that Miles won't leave again. He owes the man that much.)

Miles stays there for several hours, knees growing stiff. Jeremy and Bass both ignore him, which annoys Miles. He's spent four years trying to avoid them, only for it to come crashing down. Even now that he's back and agreeing not to leave, Bass doesn't trust him. So, he's tied and hobbled and the belt is still around his neck. Bass has made his point clear—he's the one in charge, no matter where they are. (Okay, maybe not entirely, since Miles was the one with infantry experience. But the point remains either way.)

Charlie's scream draws Miles out of his stupor. He looks up and sees Strausser restraining Charlie. The man has an arm wrapped around Charlie's torso, and a hand wrapped around her fragile neck. Charlie keeps kicking and screaming, trying to free herself. Miles licks his lips, wondering what he should say, if anything.

His blood freezes as Danny is dragged into the room. When he'd first seen his nephew, the boy had two black eyes and a bloody lip. There had been bruises on the kid's lower back (in the shape of boots, not hands, or Miles would have killed everyone instead of surrendering to Bass), but that hadn't prevented Danny from moving. Now he was supported between two guards, head hanging down between his shoulders. His feet were dragging along behind them.

"Your nephew's a wild cat," Strausser commented as Danny was dropped to the floor. Danny groans, the only sign that he's alive. "As soon as he saw we had his bitch of a sister, he started trying to kill us." Strausser smiles and licks the outer shell of Charlie's ear. "General Matheson, I'd say it's a pleasure, but…"

"That's enough, Sergeant Strausser," Bass says, coming back into the room. "We all know how much you want to play with the Matheson brats again. Let's try to keep that to a minimum, hm? They are collateral against Miles' good behavior. The girl especially."

Strausser puts Charlie on the sofa, glowering unhappily. Miles stays staring at the floor, flexing his hands as though he's testing his bonds. He's pretty sure Charlie can tell he's not trying too hard; he's kind of mad at himself for teaching her how to tie knots and how to escape from most bindings. (Nora had taught Charlie how to break zipties using her hips and basic physics. Miles had to wonder if something was developing between his niece and the rebel, before deciding that, fuck it, he had previously been sleeping with two other men at the same time. If Charlie wanted to date Nora, fine. He'd prefer someone not associated with the bleeding heart idiots, but what the hell.)

"Leave," Monroe commands Strausser and the guards. They leave without protest. The president at least has Captain Baker with him. Two beaten prisoners and a tied-up former general aren't a match for the two men.

Monroe smiles at Miles as Jeremy cuts the ropes around Miles' wrists. Miles looks over his shoulder at Danny and Charlie. Charlie is on the floor, cradling Danny in her arms. She looks scared, and her eye has swollen shut. She looks terrible.

"You know what to do," Jeremy says, patting Miles on the shoulder.

Miles crawls over to Bass on his hands and knees, head down submissively. Every line in his body is screaming submissive, even though Miles' eyes are burning with anger and a little bit of humiliation. Anger, because this was supposed to stay in the bedroom he shared with Bass and Jeremy, and humiliation, because this wasn't something his niece and nephew (the ice-cream fuelled Fiend and little Peanut, embarrassing as those nicknames were) didn't need to see. Bass knew what he was doing, though.

The general puts his neck in Bass' hand and looks up as Bass squeezes gently. Miles closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

Repeating the vow he made so many years ago, he speaks. "I, of my own free will, do swear to serve the militia of the Monroe Republic. I swear to devote myself to the purpose of maintaining order and ensuring the safety of the citizens of the Monroe Republic. I swear, of my own free will," he adds, changing the oath, "to serve President Monroe in any capacity he requires."

Bass smiles and pulls Miles up off his knees. "I accept your oath, General Matheson," he says, voice nearly a hiss. Miles can hear Charlie make a noise of angry protest as Monroe pulls Miles into a deep kiss. Jeremy pulls Miles away from Bass for a few seconds, claiming his own kiss. (Miles is pretty sure that, if Danny didn't need her to look after him, Charlie would be attempting to kill Bass, or Jeremy, or…him, probably, given that he's basically just betrayed her mission.)

Miles can't bring himself to care. Jeremy calls Strausser in, and has the sergeant and the rest of the guards escort Danny and Charlie to guest quarters—the rooms where Eve Jaffe is residing. They're honored guests, now. Not prisoners.

As soon as the Matheson siblings are gone, Bass bends Miles over the desk.

And Miles grins, because he's finally home.

- o – o -

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Is Charlie going to kill Miles after her brain stops frying? Drop a line and let me know!

Author's notes: FOHL is undergoing some revision to remove the blatant cheating from NaNo (no contractions and archaic terms that are incredibly long-winded) and the timeline is being cleaned up, but it'll be up sometime in the next three weeks. I got finals.

2. Canon divergences: Rachel didn't manage to kill Strausser. He knocked her out first or something. Miles, obviously, gets back with Bass and Jeremy, restoring the status quo. Bass is no longer as nutty, and he's not trying to kill Danny and Charlie as collateral against Miles' good behavior.