"He's playing fetch with a squirrel," Miles hissed out. How did no one else see just how insane Connor had gone? Clearly Monroe insanity was genetic and Connor had more than inherited it from his father. "Don't try to pretend that you can't see that."

"Shut up," Bass grumbled back at him.

"I can't just sit here and pretend that this is normal," Miles insisted as he watched the squirrel rush back over for the tenth time in the last couple of minutes to return a shiny piece of metal to Connor's outstretched hand.

"I think it's kind of cute," Charlie commented, causing her uncle to turn and glare at her over at her. "What? I'd rather him be the crazy guy that talks to squirrels than turn into a paranoid dictator like his dad did."

Bass grunted out some incoherent retort as he watched his son throw the piece of metal once again. Apparently he'd had enough, since he turned away and headed off to go get some water, mostly just for the sake of getting away from Miles' constant complaints for a few minutes.


When Bass noticed Charlie standing by herself eating later, he decided to walk over to talk to her.

"I've got a favour I need you to do for me," he told her.

"You mean other than the one I just finished where I spent weeks on end helping you track down your son?" She retorted. "Sure. I'd love to help you out after just how grateful you were for that."

"Look, I'm serious. I barely managed to convince him to come back and he's threatening to run off the second that something doesn't go his way," he insisted.

"And what do you expect me to do about it?" She asked as she arched a brow at him.

"Give him something to stay for," he responded.

Charlie let out a laugh at that. "You're kidding me, right?"

He simply shrugged in response and she realized with a sudden horror that he was in fact not joking.

"You're serious?" She asked him in disbelief. It was a surprise, even coming from him. "You want me to sleep with your son so that he won't run away from you again?"

"It's not like it would be the first time you had sex with him," Bass countered.

"That's disgusting, even for you," she insisted before spinning on her heel and walking away.

"Charlie!" He tried calling after her, but she just ignored him. He could only hope that she wouldn't tell Connor about his request and mess things up right away for them.


She stormed off with her food, over to where Connor was feeding a couple of squirrels some of his own food out of his hand, and sat down next to him. She could feel Bass eying her and felt an overwhelming urge to tell Connor what had just happened, but decided against it for the time being. She hadn't spent that long helping search for him to have him run off again right away.

"So, did you always want pet squirrels?" She asked in an amused tone after several long seconds of silence.

"No." He responded as he watched a couple of his squirrels chasing each other up a nearby tree. "Originally I wanted a monkey."

"A monkey?" She repeated. "What, normal pets just don't do it for you?"

"I watched Aladdin a lot when I was little," he offered up as an explanation. "And then I ended up having my life pretty much turn into that, but without the monkey and the happy ending." His gaze finally focused over onto her as he asked, "What about you? You have any pets before the blackout?"

"No, but I remember begging my mom to get a dog," she responded.

"When I was six, my mom got me sea-monkeys," he told her. "I couldn't have a real monkey, so I guess she figured it was the next best thing. Probably the only kind of pet she could really afford anyways. I was thrilled for a week. Right up until I realized how boring they were and started complaining for something better."

They sat in silence again for a moment, picking at their food, before an especially large squirrel began to inch its way closer.

"You don't need more food," Connor insisted as he tossed a stick over at it, hoping to scare it off. "I'm serious."

"Why don't you feed that one?" Charlie questioned.

"Look at him, he's huge. He already steals enough food from the other ones without getting anymore," he responded. "Besides, he doesn't listen. There's a reason I named him Asshole."

"No wonder he doesn't listen with a name like that and you throwing things at him," Charlie defended. She turned her attention to the squirrel and held out some of her own food in offering as she insisted, "You're just misunderstood, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't feed him like that if I were you," Connor advised. "He bites a lot."

The squirrel skittered over and began to eat out of Charlie's hand and she smiled over at Connor triumphantly as she commented, "See? He doesn't bite if you're nice to him."

"Believe me, I was plenty nice to him," he retorted. "He's just acting nice to you now to spite me."

"Oh come on, not you too," Miles grumbled out as he walked over to find his niece feeding a squirrel out of her hand. "We should be eating the squirrels, not feeding them." Connor glared over at him for that and Charlie shook her head in disapproval. "If you had to choose one, did you really have to pick the asshole squirrel that keeps biting me?"

Connor shot her a victorious look at that since, for once, he agreed with Miles.

"Stop calling him Asshole," she insisted. "He needs a new name." A beaming smile slowly crept its way onto her lips and she looked up at her uncle as she told him, "I'm going to name him Squirrel Miles because he likes to pretend that he doesn't like anyone, but he acts like less of a grump around me. Just like you."

"Right. Because that won't be confusing at all," Miles responded dryly.


A/N: Please read and review! The rest of the chapters of this are written now, so there should be daily updates until it's done. Also, a huge thanks goes out to RyansDreamMaker for reviewing last chapter! :D