"A man loved by a beautiful woman will always get out of trouble." –Voltaire
Bass Monroe has had a shitty day.
It didn't start off so bad. He had woken up to the blissful feeling of Charlie in his arms, still in awe that he was somehow lucky enough to have her love him. They had parted ways early, Charlie off to hunt and Bass off to go see Miles to plan for their next scouting mission.
Bass had gotten to his brother's house and started going over plans when Rachel decided to get involved. She came stalking into the room, telling Miles in a cold voice that she needed him here. Miles had tried to talk to her, saying that she could do without him for a few days, which earned him a cold glare that was almost immediately turned to Bass.
"Miles," she said icily, "I thought we agreed to not let him poison your life again. He already corrupted Charlie."
Bass's temper immediately flared as Rachel brought Charlie into this. When Bass and Charlie first got together, Rachel had absolutely lost it. She accused Bass of trying to steal her daughter away from her, and when Charlie tried to defend him and her choices, Rachel had yelled at her for being so stupid to believe him. He could still remember Charlie's words, the ones that had made Rachel speechless:
"I love him, Mom," Charlie had declared, "and if you make me choose between him and you, I will choose him."
Bass had stared at her with tears in his eyes, shocked that this beautiful, strong woman felt this way about him, that she refused to leave him like everyone else had. Charlie had moved in with him that day, almost a month ago.
So when Rachel brought Charlie into this completely unrelated argument, Bass was pissed. He had growled out, "Charlie and I love each other, but then again, I'm not shocked you don't understand what it's like to actually commit to another person."
This, of course, provoked a screaming match that nearly came to blows until Miles, who had been trying to get them to stop, finally grabbed Bass and forced him out of the house.
"We'll have to move the scout to a different time," Miles had told him, his tone making it clear that he wasn't going to argue.
Bass shook him off and stormed away, muttering under his breath about how whipped his friend was.
Noticing that it was around noon, he decided to go into town to get more supplies for the next few weeks. He was still irritated, and knew it probably wasn't a good idea to deal with the store owners while he was so close to snapping, but he didn't care.
He had gone to the general store to buy more oil, only to find that the owner had jacked the prices up to an insane amount. Bass's simmering temper spiked as he tried to negotiate with the man, and ended up getting kicked out of the store.
Bass then decided to just go to the bar and drink some whiskey.
He started to feel slightly better about a half hour later, his temper finally cooling with the help of the whiskey, when he began listening in on the conversations around him.
"…gotta have a magic crotch in order to tame General Monroe, huh?"
Bass's head snapped up as he caught the end of the sentence.
"Hell, makes me wanna have a go at the little Matheson. Can you imagine what it must be like? I bet she's quite the wildcat."
Bass downed the rest of his glass and stood, having heard enough. He could deal with people saying crass things about him, even if they weren't true, but he wouldn't let them disrespect Charlie.
He quickly identified the two muscled men at the table behind him as the speakers and stalked over, planting himself in front of their table.
"Let's make something clear," he said in a soft, menacing tone. "You can talk all the shit about me you want, but you leave Charlie Matheson out of your perverted little conversations. Got it?"
The two brawny men eyed the former general's lean form and stood, towering over him. "You don't get to tell anyone what to do anymore, Monroe," the first one growled.
The second man nodded. "Damn straight. If we wanna talk about how good it'll feel to do the girl, then-"
Bass didn't even let him finish, slamming his fist into the side of his head. The man staggered back a few steps before falling onto a table, knocking glasses to the floor and irritating the men sitting there.
The first man swung his fist at Bass, which he easily dodged. He effortlessly knocked the man out, and turned just in time to see the second man's fist coming straight for him. He briefly saw stars as he stumbled, shifting around on pure instinct to avoid blows. As he regained his footing, he whipped around and knocked the man out in three shots.
Bass stood above the two men, breathing hard, blood seeping from his cut lip, as rangers burst into the bar and went straight for him.
"What the hell?" Bass protested as they began to cuff him.
"We received word that a fight broke out, so you're coming with us to cool off in a cell for the night," one of the rangers snapped.
They started pushing him toward the door, still spluttering and protesting, when Charlie burst into the bar. She quickly saw his situation and walked up to the rangers.
"I'm sorry about this," she said, giving them one of those smiles that lit up the room. "Is it okay if I just take him with me instead?"
The ranger in charge hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "Sorry, ma'am, no can do. He's been causing trouble."
"I promise it won't happen again. He's just had a long day, and a little too much to drink." She stepped forward, looking at the man with wide, pleading blue eyes. "Please?" she said softly. "I doubt this will happen again, but if it does, I'll help you arrest him."
The ranger struggled to remain strong, but Charlie's pleading expression never wavered. "Fine," he said reluctantly. "Only this one time, though," he added as his men uncuffed Bass.
"Thank you!" Charlie gave the man another one of her blinding smiles as she lead Bass out.
They walked a little ways down from the bar when Charlie turned to Bass with a smirk and shoved his shoulder lightly. "You're welcome, asshole."
Bass tipped his head back, laughing loudly. "I love you," he murmured, throwing an arm around her shoulder and pressing a kiss to her temple.
She grinned up at him. "Love you, too."
A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed :)