Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, the show, or the song.

I am mentally blocking out this second half of this season- this takes place sometime after "Everyone Says I Love You" when Bass came back for Charlie at the high school.

I never saw you coming from inside my little prison,
Your autograph would really buy me time.
If you think you are the reason,
Give me something to believe in.
It's always darkest right before the dawn.
It's always darkest right before the dawn.


He liked to pretend that he didn't notice the way she had begun to look at him. Quick glances had turned into lingering stares. Bass was quick to shake it off as an infatuation. Mainly because he had saved Charlie's life multiple times since they met up in New Vegas, back when she was actually trying to kill them. The irony of it all was ridiculous- but so much of his life was ironic now. After all, he'd waged a war with his best friend. The one man he thought he could always count on had tried to have him assassinated.

Nothing in this world resembled what he knew in the old world. In the old world, by now he would be an old man to a young woman like Charlie and she wouldn't give him a second glance nor would he even consider it. She was Miles Matheson's niece...but this wasn't the old world anymore.

She couldn't quite pinpoint the timeline, but at some point, Charlie had begun to view Sebastian Monroe as more of a person and less of the monster she had spent so many nights plotting to destroy. The maniacal dictator of the Monroe Republic had somehow revealed that below the surface, there lurked a deep soul...a soul who on more than one occasion, had put her safety before his own. Even worse, through this connection, the strong feelings of hate had begun to dissolve into an odd attraction to him. This both frightened and exhilarated her and she had no idea why. Of course, nothing could ever happen between the two of them for a multitude of reasons...but she found herself watching him when she thought no one was looking...and then there were the dreams.

These vivid dreams of his hands roaming her body, the heat of his skin, the tickle of his beard as he kissed her, the way he could make her tremble in his arms. All of these feelings were so real in her dreams that it would make her wake feeling shameful that somehow, someone would know what she had been thinking about...or who she had been dreaming about...and that would be mortifying.

Of course, as luck would have it, she had just woke from one of those dreams.

She sat up quickly to see her mother and Aaron leaning over her bedroll, concerned looks etched on their faces.

"Charlie, are you okay?" her mother asked with concern.

"Uh, yeah, what happened?" Charlie said, rubbing her eyes, confused by their expressions.

"You were whimpering in your sleep, like you were in pain," her mother replied. "...was it a dream about Danny?"

"Ummm, no," Charlie said, beginning to feel embarrassed for everyone hearing her, but thankful that they had misunderstood what she had really been dreaming about.

"She's okay, Rachel," Miles said, still lying across their camp in his bedroll. "People have nightmares, she'll live."

Charlie smiled, "Yeah, I'm totally fine...just a dream."

At that moment, her eyes met Bass' as he sat on his bedroll, running his hands through his hair. He was giving her an odd look. A look that she couldn't quite decipher but the intensity of his gaze was enough to give her a chill.


Earlier that night, Bass had gotten up, thinking he heard a noise in the clearing outside of their camp. He had stepped across their campsite, holding his gun steady, waiting for another sign that they were not alone.

After a few moments, he had not heard anything and decided it may have been an animal, but whatever it was seemed to have gone further away from their camp.

The camp was silent, all were asleep. It even bordered on peaceful. Except, the closer he got back to camp, he could hear a faint whispering, paired with an even more faint whimpering moan.

Bass tried to adjust his eyes as the camp fire had burned out and he couldn't see exactly where the noise was coming from.

He walked the path back over and once he stood over Charlie, he realized that she was the origin of these noises. He had been concerned, thinking maybe she was sick. He knelt down and gently felt her forehead- no fever. She rolled slightly toward him and moaned again. This caused Bass to almost jump back and lose his balance in the process.

He was trying to quietly walk away from where she was lying when he heard her whisper again in a voice so faint he thought he must have misunderstood, "Bass.."

Bass turned to look over his shoulder trying to figure out exactly what was going on here. He thought for a second that perhaps she had heard him come over to her, but Charlie was clearly asleep. Plus, she had never called him 'Bass.' That was completely new.

His eyes widened at the next time she spoke, still asleep. "...Bass...I need you."