Being apart and awake

Bass had made a plan B with Miles after the only leverage they had took a nice bite of cyanide, destroying their chances of getting the proof to Fry that Miles had told him he would have.

They made sure that Fry's body disappeared, but not before they framed the room so that it would look like the patriots had shot him.

He had been surprised by Miles' reaction. By Charlie's look full of loathing after she had walked into the room, when he had put a bullet in Fry. This was war, and those sons of bitches needed to be dealt with. So he took a decision, making sure they were still in the game.

He was confused out if his damn mind. This is what they, Miles and him, always did, always had done, together. Making sure the job got done. Texas would give those patriots hell, if they would find Fry's body.

They had decided he would sleep in an empty run down shed, away from the town's centre to keep him out of sight. He was sitting on a wooden box, his hands on his elbows, staring into the dark.

He was looking to his left, half expecting to find Charlie over there, asleep. Blonde curls, her slender body under a blanket, her crossbow close. He shook his head.

There was nothing but darkness, dirt and emptiness around him in this fucking shed.

Last night, the last he had spent with Charlie on the road in another shed felt like ages ago. He had watched her while she was watching the storm around them, something that had been heavy in the air all day.

She was deep in her own thoughts, leaning into the doorpost. It reminded him of Miles, the way she was staring, thinking. He noticed how she was shivering, even without noticing herself. He threw her jacket her way and she took it, without even arguing or throwing him a cold look.

But what he could remember most, and maybe he shouldn't keep going back to that moment, was the moment she took a step back when lighting hit the ground before the shed. He watched her. her, full of adrenaline when she took a step back. She had crashed into his chest.

He froze. He felt the smooth curves of her small back against his chest, her hair soft to his cheek. Charlie did not not moved either. So he did the only thing he could. He stood there, with her.

Suddenly, way to aware of his body so close to hers, he stepped away and had never been happier over some piece of bread and cheese that he had pulled out of his back earlier.

She sat down against the back wall of the shed next to him. She told him how she hoped that Miles would listen to him. He expected her smart ass mouth to tell him something else too, but it never came. No cold looks, no pushing him away.

He did not understand what changed, and why the hell it mattered, he just knew that something between them had shifted.

The storm had raged on,when Charlie was slowly falling asleep next to him. He watched her toss and turn, realising she had forgotten her blanket in the wagon and that the intensity of the storm, and probably her Matheson stubbornness, kept her from going back to the wagon and collect it.

He took his own blanket, and closed the distance to her. He was not sure what hell was going to break loose when she would wake up and notice him being so close but he slowly covered her with his own blanket, holding in his damn breath. He sat down against the wall, zipped up his jacket and listened to the rain and watched how Charlie wrapped herself closer into his blanket.

When morning came, the storm had passed, and it was time to get back on the road again. He had waited for her to wake up and leave the shed. Then he went over to the horses to make sure everything was ready to go.

He heard her approaching and when he realised she was walking towards him, he turned around.

His attention went to her face, the wind had picked up a string of her hair and brushed her face. He looked away, his attention back to the horses on his right. Then he turned his head and locked eyes with her. Before he knew it the moment was over, but when she returned the blanket, he could her a flat thank you. But it had been still a thank you.

When the memory faded, it left him alone in the empty and dark shed.

Told himself to get a fucking grip. Thought of why he came back to Miles. Came to this damn town.

Patriots, Texas and war.

Revenge.

Blue eyes and the rythem of her hips before him poking through those thoughts again.

Charlie.

Charlie walking into that Mill, when Rachel had a gun aimed at his face. Her eyes cold, and there was no fucking doubt in his mind that Rachel would pull that damn trigger. He had not been sure what would happen if Rachel would see Charlie.

He had not been surprised what Rachel had been insinuating. But he was surprised to watch Charlie stop in front of her, next to Miles. She stood behind her choice, straightening her shoulders, waiting for Rachel's reaction. She told Rachel why she had brought him back and was not taking any of Rachel's bitching. In that moment, his eyes going from Rachel to Charlie for a second, he felt for her. He had wondered why Charlie left, and when Charlie spoke in flat words, he knew how much it took from her to face all this bullshit again.

He let a sigh out a frustrated sigh between his teeth, sunrise was still hours away.

Revenge. That's what he came back for.

Revenge.


Charlie could not figure out where she was when she wake up with a rush of adrenaline. She felt a bed under her. It was soft, clean sheets around her body. She had expected to feel the cold forest night air against her face, to hear the nightly sounds of the forest above her and see the shape of Monroe's body in the dark, not too far away from her.

But then she remembered she was not on the road anymore. She was back in Willoughby. Back in her grandfather's home. Back at the place, and the past it held, she had left behind now almost three months ago.

Her mind went back to the moment she had rushed back into the room where Miles was shouting at her mother. When Charlie had walked into the room she had quickly taken in what was happening in front of her.

Monroe was standing at one side in the room that was the heart of the old Mill.

Aaron was in the back.

Her mother before him at the other side of the room, piercing icy eyes blazing , her face on edge, a shotgun firmly in her hands.

Miles caught in the middle, trying to reason with her mom.

'Get out of my way Miles,' Rachel said, her tone cold and determined, the end of the shotgun piercing into her own body. Her aim still firmly on Monroe. Her face filled with harsh tension.

'Rachel, ' Miles' eyes were on the woman in front of him, he knew the moment Bass and she would met, all hell would indeed break loose, 'we don't have time for this, Fry is going to be here any minute, and I'm supposed to meet with him. Alone'

'Why are you protecting him, Miles?!' Rachel was shouting now, anger and more cold frustration in her voice while she could not believe her eyes that Miles was still standing between her and Monroe.

Charlie felt her face tense up, along with the rest of her body while she walked into the space. She was not surprised that it took her mother only a couple of seconds to get her hands at a gun and point it towards Monroe. She knew this moment was coming, when the past would crash itself into the present moment. She walked forwards and positioned herself between her mother and Monroe, next to Miles.

'Because he's here to help,' she said firm but also almost flatly,hearing her own voice in the dark and silent room, looking at her mother, doubting her mother would time the time to listen why she had done what she had done, what happened to her on the road, what happened in Pottsboro. Old frustration was working it's way into the conversation with her mom already. Monroe was here to fight the patriots, she did not came back to watch her mother make it all about her again. No.

She felt how Monroe shot her a look, when she said this. She could feel his eyes.

'Charlie?' Rachel was clearly surprised, when she found herself looking at her daughter once again, after long months.

'And because I brought him,' Charlie added, waiting for her mother's reaction, facing her mother's eyes with hers.

She could hear Miles sigh next to her. 'Perfect Charlie, that was very helpful,' his voice full of sarcasm.

Rachel's eyes lit up, holding on to her weapon even more before shooting a cold look at Monroe, while her tone went to a condescending and loathing place.

'So, you brought him here, and why ...why on earth would you do that?' Rachel's eyes were now back on Monroe. The insinuations in those words were lingering in the air.

Miles was running out of patience, hell, they would have company soon and this nice little tea party would have to wait. He took one big step forward and grabbed the weapon from her hands.

'You can shoot each other later, right now you need to get out of sight.'

When he realised that nobody was moving, he yelled with frustration. 'Now! I am begging you, go!'

He turned around to throw the shotgun at Monroe, as he gestured to the loft upstairs for Charlie, Rachel and Aaron to disappear into.

Charlie joined Aaron and her mother into the small loft. Aaron smiled at her, and she had hugged him. She just had to, she was happy to see his friendly face. Then she turned towards her mother.

'Hey,' Charlie said with reservation.

Her mother decided to go all in from second one.

'You brought him here? Monroe? Monroe off al people?'

'Rachel..' It was Aaron, his normally so gentle words filled with a kind of warning towards Rachel.

He was happy to see Charlie again, he had been so worried for her. He had watched her take care of Rachel for weeks after the tower, when Charlie stayed strong and kept on going. If Charlie was back, with Monroe, which he had to admit was a kind of suprise, then Charlie would have a good reason. Hearing Rachel going for the attack in seconds, brought up his protective side. Something he had grown to feel for Charlie, but after Ben had died, he had made a silent promise to his friend, he would watch out for her in any way he could. It was good to throw his arms around her again, to give her a hug knowing she was back with them again.

Aaron had watched Miles sitting on the porch steps night after nigt, a bottle of whiskey in his hands, starring in the dark. He knew Miles had been waiting for Charlie.

'I know Mom...listen, I wanted him dead, I did almost kill him. But then he...' She struggled, trying to find the right words for something she was not understanding completely herself.

Rachel did not let her finish, her voice hard.

'And you really think he is here to help? Are you really that stupid to come back with him?'

Her mother's punch hit home, Charlie felt anger rising up in her. She did not expect their first moments to be exactly easy, but her mother was not even willing to listen to what she had been through. Hear her story, validate her emotions and what strength it took her to make the decision to come home again, to help them, to help her after she saw her mother's name on that bounty. To push all her own emotions to the side.

She felt blown away by the fact that she was not even willing to listen, that her words did not matter, anger battled with bitter disappointment. Disappointment and hurt. She felt invisible. Small. And she hated it both.

Silence filled the room until she could hear voices downstairs, Miles and another men she could not identify. The voices had stopped abruptly when there was a shot booming through the Mill. Without thinking, she immediately grabbed her weapon and rushed back downstairs. Monroe and Miles were shouting.

There was a man on the floor, a bullet in his back. She looked at Miles, at the man who had to be Fry, lying dead before her, and then she looked at Monroe. She knew it had been him, who took the shot.

Monroe looked at them with wide wild blue eyes, and by the look in his eyes she could see he really thought he did what had to be done here. Monroe looked at Miles and then at her. A look filled with anger and doubt. His eyes searched for her.

After that, Miles and Monroe had stayed behind. Miles telling her to get some sleep and go back with her mom and Aaron.

And now, at the end of this impossible day she found herself at her grandfathers home. Her grandfather gave her a warm welcome, but after that, Charlie had not said a word to her mother, who had not spoken to her either.

Charlie just wanted one thing. She wanted, and needed to be alone. She had found in a small bedroom upstairs. The curtains were flowing in a nightly breeze.

She was not the same person she was when she left Willoughby, but she was not sure where she was standing right now.

The walls of her bedroom seemed to be crashing around her, it made her chest feel constricted. She was turning to her other side. She should be able to find some comfort, relax her tensed and aching body. She really should.

But instead, she felt restless.

Restless and aware that Monroe's silhouette was not in the dark with her.


Thanks for reading! I will publish another chapter soon, thanks for all your kind reviews for last chapters! Love from Love