My contribution to Miles Appreciation Week and a contiunation of Suffer the Children.
Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.
- o – o -
Taste of Crow
Miles sat in the backroom of the whorehouse, waiting for the rest of his co-conspirators to arrive. They were not going to like the change of plans. Still, he had a good reason to derail any plots against Bass. Two of them, actually.
The general sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He was tired. Scratch that, he was exhausted. He'd spent the last week and a half on a cot in the room Charlie and Danny were sharing, ready to light a lamp and crack open the book of fairy tales the second either of them woke up. Given what his niece and nephew had been through, though, Miles couldn't say that he was unhappy with the odd hours he was keeping now. He'd do anything for those kids.
Ben's kids. His niece and nephew.
He really would do anything for them.
Including derail a plot to kill his brother. He'd already lost one, and he hadn't even known it until it was too late to do anything. That irked Miles. After seven years, he'd finally found his family—the biological one, anyways, since he had Bass and Jeremy—only to realize he'd lost his older brother. Miles had looked up to Ben, even though he'd hated his older brother when they'd been kids, and even into his teenage years. Saint Ben.
He'd given anything to have the bastard back so they could have another fight about Miles' life choices.
But he couldn't. So he'd make up all those fights with Ben by looking after Ben's kids to the best of his abilities. That meant he couldn't try to pretend he had some sort of moral high ground over Bass (although that dig about bringing back the United States had stung quite a bit; once a Marine, always a Marine, after all) anymore. He couldn't pass it off as growing horror over how out-of-control Bass was, murdering an entire family, just because of the actions of one man. He couldn't do that. Not without uprooting two broken kids from the one place they finally felt safe.
Jim was the first to arrive. Mark was next, then Nora, and then the rest. Miles took a sip of his whiskey to get the dryness out of his mouth.
"I can't go through with the plan," he said without preamble or any of the usual social pleasantries. "I'm out."
There wasn't an explosion of fury, like he'd been expecting. Not even a disappointed look. Just sympathy.
"You look after those kids," Jim murmured, an odd smile quirking his lips up.
The former conspirators trickled out of the backroom, keeping a low profile. Miles stayed behind longer, drowning himself in glass after glass of whiskey until the bottle was finished and the sun was well and truly set.
Miles sighed and stumbled back to Independence Hall. On the way, he peeked into Charlie and Danny's room. The kids were curled up together on the large bed that still hadn't been replaced by child-sized ones. There was a lamp flickering on the night table, and Miles could just make out Jeremy's outline on the cot he usually occupied. Miles smiled.
He would do anything for his niece and nephew.
- o – o -
So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Happy that Miles decided not to carry through with his plot to kill Bass? Drop a line and let me know.