As dust rained down from where the building had collapsed over them, Charlie coughed viciously into the crook of her arm. She silently thought to herself that she now knew how Danny had felt with his asthma.

"How much longer do you think that the oxygen will hold out for?" She questioned once she had managed to somewhat re-catch her breath.

"Unless there's a crack in here somewhere, not long," Bass told her honestly. "But it's pretty damn dark in here. It doesn't seem like odds of air getting in are very high. Besides, even if we can get enough oxygen to survive, we're still trapped down here. We'll die of starvation anyways."

"That's nice and optimistic," Charlie responded sarcastically. "Remind me to get stuck in these situations with you more often if we make it out of here."

"Charlie, I'm not making it out of here. Even if you do," Bass told her before stopping to cough for a few painful seconds as he clutched at a wound that he had gotten from something that had fallen on him. "I'm going to die from whatever stabbed through my side when the entire place fell on top of us long before we get the chance to get out of this place."

It was pitch black, too dark to see what was sticking out of his side, but Bass could feel it and the blood that was pooling around it.

"What?" Charlie asked, her voice on full alert. "How bad is it? Where is it?"

Bass couldn't see Charlie, but he could feel one of her hands hit his arm and move along it in search of his wound.

"Here," he said as he brought one of his blood-covered hands over to hers.

She let out a little noise of surprise at the dampness of his hand before he carefully guided her hand over to his wound.

"It's bleeding a lot, Charlie," Bass told her. "You should worry about getting yourself out of here, not about me."

"No, you might still be able to get out of here," Charlie insisted and Bass could hear the panic and franticness in her tone. "The others weren't that far away. They must have heard. They're probably already here and they're going to dig us out any second."

"We don't know how much debris is on top of us, Charlie," he pointed out. "It's got to be heavy to try and move. They might be able to get you out of here, but I'll already be gone by then. And that's assuming that they can get it off of us without making any more fall."

"No, we're getting you out of here," Charlie repeated.

Bass felt her hand leave his wound and a few seconds later felt some kind of fabric pressing against it.

"We just have to slow down the bleeding and you'll be okay," she continued.

"Charlie-" He tried weakly.

"No, they're going to get us out of here."

"Charlie-"

"They're going to get us out of here and then my mom's going to fix this. You're going to be fine!"

"Charlie!"

"I bet it's not even as bad as it feels."

"Charlotte." he said in the strongest tone he could muster.

"What?" She asked finally and he was sure that he could hear tears in her tone.

She could feel his hand move on top of where hers were still applying pressure to the wound as he spoke in his gentlest tone.

"Charlie, I'm not making it out of here, okay?" He asked her.

"No-"

"I'm not, so please just stop for two seconds and let me say something," he insisted.

She nodded her head in agreement and then realized that he couldn't see it, so she quickly said, "Okay."

"Charlie Matheson, you are one of the most stubborn and downright irritating people that I have ever met, and that is saying something," Bass told her and he heard a small laugh come from her at that. "But you're also one of the best and strongest. And somehow, somewhere along the line you stopped being annoying and started being something else."

"Bass, you don't have to-"

"Yes. I do," he told her. "I wish I could see you right now. Dying might not be so bad if I got to see a pretty face as I went."

Charlie let out a weak laugh through her tears at that.

"Trust me; you don't want to see me right now. I'm a mess," she told him.

"I want to see you, mess or not," he assured her. "Just hearing your laugh drives me insane, Charlie. And I've been trying to deny it for so long. But there's not really any point anymore, is there?"

"Bass, stop talking like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're about to die," Charlie responded.

"But I am," he insisted.

"No, you can't," she argued.

"Charlie, I am dying. And lying to me isn't going to change that," Bass told her.

"…Where are you?" She asked, shifting so that one hand held pressure to his wound while the other searched for his face.

"Right here," he said as her hand reached the side of his face.

Charlie carefully brought her face closer to his, making sure to keep one hand pressing down on his wound, until she could feel his ragged breath on her lips. She used that as a guide as she brought herself just a little nearer, closing the distance between their lips.

Bass could taste the bitter dust and saltiness of tears on her lips as he kissed her back, silently wondering if this was all for his dying benefit or if she felt something for him too.

When she pulled away for a moment to take a breath, Bass told her, "This is a pretty good way to go too."

She wasn't sure of how to respond to that, but it didn't matter much since his mouth was already back on hers before she had the chance to speak.

As they kissed, Charlie could hear crumbling sounds in the debris above them and wondered whether the entire thing was going to come crashing down on them at any moment.

Eventually the noises stopped and it was silent for a few seconds before a new sound replaced it.

"Are we interrupting something?" Miles asked in an amused tone. "…Should we come back and save your asses later?"

Charlie quickly pulled her lips away from Monroe's and tried to wipe the tears off of her face. Instead, she ended up just smearing more blood and dirt onto her face as she suddenly became very aware of the fact that she only had a bra covering her top half since she had taken her shirt off to use on Bass's wound. She was sure that they were quite a sight to walk in on.

"Well I'll be damned," Bass commented as he struggled to remain conscious. "Maybe your crazy denial wasn't quite as insane as I thought."

That was the last thing that he managed to say before he lost consciousness.

"Mom! Do something!" Charlie shouted urgently. "He can't die now. Not after he made it until you dug us out."

Rachel carefully jumped down next to her daughter and then gently pushed her daughter's hands out of the way to try and help Bass herself.

Miles reached down and pulled Charlie back out of the hole that she and Bass had been trapped in and held her back as she continued to panic from shock. While Miles held onto Charlie's waist to keep her from running back over to Bass, Gene went to go help his daughter.

The next few minutes were a slow-motion blur to Charlie that came in a bunch of incoherent phrases.

"-still breathing-"

…

"-looks bad-"

…

"-might be able to-"

…

"-bleeding slowed-"

…

"-might be alright-"

…

"Charlie, you need to calm down," she heard Miles say in her ear, dragging her somewhat back to reality.

She finally realized how hard she had been thrashing against her uncle's grip and stilled before turning and sobbing into his shoulder.

Miles wasn't in much better condition, but was forcing his emotions down as he ran a hand through his niece's hair in an attempt to help calm her down.

Charlie couldn't look, so she quietly asked, "Is he..?"

Although her voice was muffled by his shirt, Miles just barely heard her and quickly responded with, "No. Your mom and Gene think that they've got the bleeding under control. It looks like he's going to be okay, just out of commission for a while… Trust me; it takes more than that to get rid of Sebastian Monroe."

Charlie managed to laugh weakly into her uncle's shirt.

"You're a mess, kid," he told her. "Here, take my shirt."

With that he pulled away from her for just long enough to remove his shirt and hand it to his niece.

Charlie pulled it over her head and then let herself turn to look over at Bass. He looked pale, too pale, but she could see that the rise and fall of his chest had become much more even than before.

"…So am I allowed to ask what the whole making out when we found you thing was about?" Miles asked. "Or is it too soon?"

A/N: Please read and review! I hope that you're liking it so far :)