I wanted to post this before episode 2x13 aired and might negate some assumptions I had made. I don't own Revolution, this is just for fun, enjoy!
Bass still isn't sure what made him change his mind. He was all set, in fact, looking forward to it, to spend his leave down in Miami. Somewhere nice and warm, lots of hot girls, tons of bars and clubs. He'd be able to drown his sorrows, get laid, and forget about his miserable existence. He had even tried to get Miles to agree and come with him. At first Miles seemed to like the idea but then had changed his mind and decided to go to Chicago. For about a week, Bass was still set on Miami and Miles was ready to go to Chicago on his own. Next thing he knew, there was a ticket in his name on his bed heading to spend two weeks in Chicago. Not exactly his ideal vacation spot. Especially since he knew Miles would never stay anywhere but at his brother's house and this would be one awkward vacation, with Rachel and Miles doing their best to avoid each other while at the same time pretend there was nothing going on, a newborn who apparently screamed a lot, Ben and his workaholic tendencies, and then toddler Charlie.
When he pressed Miles on what had happened, he knew he had been tricked. Miles got him drunk and then convinced him to buy the ticket, probably without even telling Rachel and Ben. Ben wouldn't be shocked, he knew that Miles and Bass spent all of their time together, but Bass wasn't sure how much he trusted Rachel. He pressed further and found out that the reason Miles was even going to Chicago? Not Ben, though Ben did try to convince Miles, but how can you say no to a crying three year old? Charlie apparently snuck on the phone and begged for Uncle Miles to come visit and only when he said yes did she stop crying.
Which is how Bass found himself accompanying Miles back to Chicago to Ben's house in the suburbs. After Miles rang the doorbell, Bass turned around the picturesque neighborhood, trying to decide if it was worth it to try and escape. A little too late, he thought, as Rachel greeted them at the door with Danny in her arms and a Charlie bounding down the stairs at lightning speed.
"Miles," Rachel greeted formally and then surprised, "Bass. Ben didn't mention you'd be joining us. Please come in, it's cold out." She stepped aside as they walked in. Charlie must have been on the third step or higher and flew towards Miles. It was a good thing Miles had lightning reflexes and that he had already dropped his bags on the ground. Her little arms wrapped around Miles's neck and Bass laughed at the sight of Miles being almost knocked over by a three year old. Charlie looked up from Miles to see Bass and pointed, "Mommy, who's that?"
"That's Uncle Miles's friend Bass. He's going to be staying with us for Christmas," Rachel answered as she moved back towards the stairs. Miles put Charlie down but found that she still didn't want to let go and grabbed on to his index finger. Charlie reminded him of his sisters when they were that age.
"Hello Charlotte, it's my pleasure to meet you," he said calling her Charlotte after hearing from Miles how she preferred to be called Charlie lately, just to see her reaction, as he kneeled down and reached out to shake her hand, as though he was a gallant prince and she was the princess. She laughed at first, shaking her head next.
"Not Charlotte. Charlie. Charlie. Charlie. Time to play!" she shouted, trying to drag Miles away towards the basement. Bass wasn't sure whether he should follow Miles, who was silently pleading with him. It had been a long time since either of them had been left alone with a small child and Bass had more experience in dealing with young girls, even for all of the time Miles had spent at his house growing up. Of course, it had been a long time since his sisters were that age and technology had changed so much.
"Bass, you can follow me upstairs. I wasn't expecting you, but we had set the guest room up for Miles. We have the pullout couch in the basement or we can set up an air mattress in the guest room for you, where ever you think you'll be more comfortable. I'm going to put Danny down for his nap," Rachel said motioning him to follow her upstairs.
He took his time up the stairs, glancing at the smiling portraits of a happy family. He remembered his own house with the smiling pictures around. Of course, his parents weren't ones for formality, instead their pictures were candid shots. Once upstairs, Rachel pointed the bathroom straight ahead, her bedroom to the left and the other three bedrooms on the right. Danny's bedroom was the closest to their bedroom, the guest bedroom was in the middle and Charlie's bedroom as at the end of the hallway. Great, he thought, he either had the choice of sleeping in the basement, where he knew he would be able to hear the footsteps from the first floor in the morning or he could stay upstairs on an air mattress and be subjected to children's screams all night. Granted, he wasn't quite sure if he and Miles still woke up with night terrors, he'd just have to remember to either drink enough or take sleeping pills. He opened the guest room, which smelled of old people and Febreeze, not that he was really surprised. It was a standard guest room, he put their bags down and went off to rescue Miles in the basement. He suspected Miles wasn't used to the high energy and at least with both of them they could split Charlie's attention.
He heard music coming from the basement and when he heard "It's Raining Men," he could only imagine what was going on downstairs. When he saw a bouncy Charlie and confused Miles attempting to dance along with the screen, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. Charlie, smart kid, paused the game and hit Bass on his arm. Of course it didn't hurt, but it was the principle of it.
"Hey, what's that for?"
"No laughing! You made me mess up! Here, you play too!" she told him as she handed him a Wiimote and Miles gave him a look that said to shut up and do what she says. Bass forgot for a minute there how bossy little girls can be but definitely didn't want to push his luck as a guest in their house. Several terrible pop songs later, songs he heard often when out at the bars trying to pick up college girls, Rachel called them upstairs for dinner. Somehow Charlie still had energy to run up the stairs, but Bass just shrugged at Miles and let Miles chase after her.
Upstairs, Rachel had set out dinner on the table, fried breaded chicken, mac'n'cheese in Spongebob shapes (which Charlie screamed in glee about how much she LOVED Spongebob), and lima beans. "Help yourselves. There's milk, water, soda and beer in the fridge. Glasses are in the cabinet to the right of the stove," she said as she scooped out some food and cut up Charlie's food. Bass was glad to have a homecooked meal and when Miles held up the Budweiser bottle from the fridge, he nodded. If Miles was drinking, then it was acceptable for him to drink too.
Charlie chattered away during dinner, constantly looking towards her precious Uncle Miles. He felt a pang in his heart as he realized this was the closest he'd come to having nieces and nephews, unless Miles actually ended up having any children. Then he'd be Uncle Bass for sure. Why did he agree to come with Miles? He could have just spent it in Miami, wallowing in his own sorrows and not dragging down the Matheson family with him. Miles turned from Charlie and glanced at him, noticing something was wrong. He shook his head, which meant not now and they'd talk later. It was nice to have a friend who could read you and you didn't always need verbalize everything, especially when a three year old has no filter and will repeat everything to her parents. Charlie then declared it was time to watch a movie, her choice, of course. Bass hoped she'd at least pick something relatively interesting and when she chose Mulan, he smiled. It was Angela's favorite movie so he had watched it a million times and knew all the words to all of the songs, not that he would admit that to Miles of course.
Not surprisingly, Charlie fell asleep in the middle of the movie snuggled against Miles. Bass got up, turned off the DVD player, and scooped Charlie carefully off of Miles to carry her upstairs. She stirred only slightly but not enough to wake up. Miles followed Bass upstairs and Bass tucked Charlie in. When they walked out of her room, turning the lights off behind them, Bass bumped into Rachel.
"Do you mind that we just put her to bed? Does she need to change into PJs?" Bass asked Rachel, really just wanting to go grab a beer and watch whatever was on ESPN, probably coverage about tomorrow's football games.
"She'll be fine, thanks for entertaining her this afternoon. It's been a little crazy around here lately," Rachel said and Bass noticed just how tired she looked. And that she kept looking at him and avoiding making any eye contact with Miles. Miles kept his eyes down too, but then asked, "Ben coming home soon?"
"He'll be home late, don't worry about waiting up for him. I do have a favor to ask of you two tomorrow."
"Depends," Bass answered.
"Do you mind putting up the Christmas lights? Charlie keeps insisting Santa won't be able to know it's our house without them. Ben just had to tell her that," Rachel sighed.
"Good ole Benjamin. Sure, we'll do it. Umm, I think we're going to just have some beers downstairs if you want to join us," Miles said and Bass made a face. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to hash out his issues with Rachel, not when he didn't trust her entirely or trust whatever was going on between her and Miles. He thought whatever it was, it was over, so now all they did was make everything awkward. Luckily, Rachel politely declined and said she was going to go to bed but there was beer in the fridge and more out in the garage. Good, Bass thought, he only saw a six pack in the fridge and they had already gone through some with dinner.
When he went to the garage, flicking the lights on, he only found another six pack. Not nearly enough beer for him and Miles. He walked past Miles, waving the rental car keys and walking back out. Miles understood and followed, since he was the one who knew where the closest place to pick up beer. They quickly went in, grabbed a case of 30 cans, paid and headed back. Bass settled in while Miles put all of the beer in the fridge. He waited patiently for the questions he knew were coming.
"Alright, are you going to tell me or do I have to drag it out of you?" Miles asked.
"It's just. I'm glad I came, ok? But, being here, seeing your happy family, it's hit me. I don't have this anymore. I won't get to have it," Bass sighed, taking a long drink from his beer.
"Bass, stop. You are my family. My family is your family. Charlie's three, you can teach her to say Uncle Bass and it will be true. Hey tomorrow, we'll go out and get a digital camera. Ben says Charlie's a ham for the camera and loves to pose. Or if you want to just sit here and watch football and drink beer, be my guest. Just remember, we're in Ben's house," Miles said as he flipped on the TV.
"Yeah, you need to stop making it awkward between you and Rachel. Seriously dude, you turned her down, remember? And you are in your brother's house, it's his wife. He's going to notice if he doesn't already know. Let's go to a bar tomorrow and watch the games after we put up the lights," Bass suggested, not wanting to spend his entire two weeks stuck in the house. He turned his attention back to ESPN to see what the matchups were for tomorrow. At least Indianapolis was playing Jacksonville, it'd be a good game to find some girl to saddle up with at the bar, lots of chance for the Colts to score and to get a kiss. Of course it was an early game, just meant that they'd have to get to the bar in time for lunch. Good luck explaining that one to Rachel. Miles started flipping the channels to see if anything else good was on, but seriously who stayed in on a Saturday night? Not him, that's for sure. The flight had taken a lot out of them and he was tired much earlier than normal. After they finished their third or fourth beer, Ben walked in. Bass glanced at the clock but wasn't really paying attention to the time.
"Miles, Bass," Ben said, "good to see both of you. Sorry, it's been really crazy in the office."
"Yeah so crazy you're working this late on a Saturday?" Miles asked. Miles still wasn't sure what his brother was doing lately. Bass had asked once and all Miles would say was some post-doc research at the university but Miles himself had no idea and even if Ben had explained, there's no way Miles would have understood exactly what he did.
"Mostly so I can have a few days off between Christmas and New Year's, especially with both of you here. I'm glad you were both able to make it," Ben said sincerely.
"You knew I couldn't say no to a crying Charlie," Miles retorted as Ben smirked at that.
"And Bass's excuse?" Ben asked.
"Miles got me drunk and I bought a non-refundable ticket," he said. He missed this. As much Miles was his brother, Ben was there just as much when they were kids. Usually trying to keep them from blowing up the house or setting it on fire, Miles really liked fire, but at the same time Ben would also help keep them from getting in more trouble than they deserved.
"Either way, you're here now. Any plans for tomorrow?"
"Rachel wants us to put up the Christmas lights. But do you mind if we go to a bar and watch the football game?" Bass asked.
"What Bass means is he wants to go hit on some girls," Miles added.
"You two go off, just be home for dinner. I think Rachel wanted to make a pork roast. I'll just tell her you wanted us to have some family time. I haven't been home lately, what with work and all."
"Rachel looks pretty stressed out herself," Bass added, hoping Ben had already noticed.
"I know. Which is why I'm hoping that the two of you can help out this week with Charlie. She doesn't mind being a big sister but you know Christmas is a special time. Look around, we haven't even gotten the tree and Christmas is only a week away. So lights Monday and tree Tuesday? Plus, I want to surprise Rachel, if you can sneak Charlie and Danny and get them to a mall Santa, I'd really appreciate it," Ben said.
"Yeah, we don't mind," Miles said.
"I'm off to bed now, do whatever you want, just don't wake the kids," Ben said as he headed up the stairs.
"Sleeping arrangements?" Miles asked, knowing Bass was the one to bring the bags upstairs and Rachel probably told him the options.
"Well you get the guest room bed, which is a double. There's a twin air mattress for me in the guest room or I have the option of sleeping on the pullout couch in the basement. So what do you think, we have enough beer to sleep quietly, sleeping pills, or the basement?" Bass answered Miles and figured he'd just follow his lead.
"Basement. Ben warned me that Charlie wakes up early and is a ball of energy right away. If we're downstairs, we'll at least have a little bit more warning. Grab the twin mattress or just share the pullout?"
"Hey, as long as you don't steal the covers, I'm good with sharing," Bass answered, which earned him a punch in the shoulder from Miles. They both got up from the couch and put all the beer bottles and cans in the recycling before heading up stairs and changing in the guest room. Bass grabbed his toothbrush and went downstairs so that they wouldn't be all elbows in the bathroom. He headed downstairs and moved the toys out of the way to open the pullout couch. Rachel had been nice enough and left the sheets on the armrest and there were pillows and blankets scattered around the basement. Obviously Charlie used this room to build her basement forts. Well, that would be one more activity Miles and Bass could get behind. Something low tech and something he actually could do.