Charlie ran blindly down the hall. Tears clouded her vision and sobs choked her throat. It was too much. She hated them both. Miles for sleeping with her mother. Her mother for sleeping with him. She heard Rachel following her, calling out her name. She and ripped open the closest door and ducked inside.
Jason let go of the chin up bar mounted in his closet door and dropped to the ground, landing solidly. Sweat glistened on his bare chest and his pants hung loosely around his hips.
"Charlie? Are you OK?" he asked, quickly crossing the room to her.
She closed the door behind her and leaned against it. "No. I'm not OK. Nothing has been OK for over a year. I wish it all had never happened."
Jason stood helplessly beside her while her tears cut hot tracks down her face.
"I wish we'd never found him," she said.
"Who?"
"Miles."
"Miles?" Jason asked wide eyed.
"I caught him having sex with my mom. It's perfect really. She's the reason for the blackout and he was the ruler of it. What do you think their combined body count is? A billion? Two billion? Comparing them isn't fair to Miles really. He had to kill people one by one, with the help of an Army but still one by one. Mom got to use famine and disease."
"Charlie..."
"I wish I didn't know. I wish I didn't know any of it."
"Charlie..." He gathered her into his arms, squeezing her tightly while gently stroking her hair. Her tears ran down his chest.
"I wish we'd never found him. I wish when we'd gotten to Chicago he'd been gone, or denied it, or anything other than the way things have all turned out."
"You'd still have gone after Danny." Her sobs slowed as her mind ran down the different options. There had to be another path, an alternate world where he life wasn't a mess. He held her patiently, waiting for the storm to pass.
"Danny escaped," she said, methodically reworking her choices in search of a better outcome. "He met up with us in Chicago."
"Us?"
"Sure. Why not, right? You don't much like being Jason Neville. When I rewrite history you get to be Nate."
"Cool. I really did want to work on a fishing boat."
She paused then to look up at him, the randomness of his statement startling her out of the last of her tears.
"A fishing boat? Why?"
"Civilians have to have jobs, right? And I suck at farming."
"How can you suck at farming?"
"I don't know. I just do. I spread dung on the plants and plan to eat them, and they get mad at me for it and die."
She laughed outright at this. She vaguely remembered a time when she didn't know how to tend plants, but these days everyone could except apparently Jason. It didn't mean she liked farming, but she could do it if she had to.
"I don't want to farm either. What's my civilian career?"
"Hooker is always a popular choice," he teased.
She punched him in the arm for that but didn't step away. He laughed and squeezed her tightly to his chest.
"What did you like to do back in your village? What are you good at?"
"Hunting, I guess."
"OK. Fur trapper," he said suggesting a job he vaguely remembered from a history book. He didn't really understand how the economy worked outside of Philadelphia. "Um. Meat trader? Is that a thing?"
She gave him a small giggle and nuzzled her head against his chest. "Kissing. I'm good at kissing."
"So we're back to hooker."
"What is it with you and hookers?"
"Nothing. I swear. There's never been anything with me and hookers," he said. She eyed him skeptically. "Although," he admitted, "Nate is less patient than Jason."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I have a boat to catch. You have to give me something to remember before you send me off to sea."
"I'm sure I can think of something," she said.