Bass woke up to silence, he shot his eyes open. Where was she? Had she left him, without even saying goodbye? Was last night too much? He scrambled up and threw on his pants and the old battered t-shirt that had been stripped from him last night. "Charlotte." He yelled out.
"What?" She said, laughing a little. He had been worried about her. Men. "I'm sorry, I thought I should get something for us to eat so we could get going quickly." She walked over to him, slid her fingers into his and kissed him gently, but he wanted more. He pulled her back into him and kissed her repeatedly, then held her close for a few minutes before letting her go. "Are you ready now," She asked.
"I think so." He was, after all, extremely content. They walked hand in hand down the road, every once in a while one would pull the other into the woods to make out with, but mostly they just walked and talked. Charlie learned about Bass and Miles as children, and Bass learned about Danny and everything Charlie had done for him since the blackout. They talked more in that one day than they had the entire time they had been together.
"What was it like when you lost your parents?" Charlie asked hesitantly, she could see the pain sweep across his face.
"It was unbearable, I don't know if Miles ever told you about it, but I considered suicide the day I buried them. I had lost everything. I didn't see anything I had to live for and so I thought I should join them. If I could get to my parents, I would. But Miles stopped me." He told Charlie through sobs.
"How?"
"He told me that I had him, and that without me he would have been nothing. So from that day forward I lived for my brother, I lived to protect him, to stand by him, and to support him in his endeavors. That's why I did everything I did in the republic. For him. Anyway, without him I never would have made it past that night." Charlie was glad he could open up to her.
"It was so hard to lose my father and then my brother, I cannot imagine what it must have been like to lose an entire family." She hated that her family was gone but she had Bass and she was never going to let him go.
"It was unbearable, and it stayed that way for the longest time. After the blackout happened and I took power I pushed them to the side. I thought my duty to the people was to get rid of anything that may hold me back. It is probably my biggest regret, trying to forget my family." Charlie could see all is pain in each tear that fell.
"Are you ready to stop?" she asked trying to change the subject. She was tired, the sky was nearly pitch black and they obviously needed a break.
"Yeah, I guess so." They built up a fire and set a shelter on the edge of the forest. And after cooking up a bunny they had caught, Bass found his way I to the shelter and reached out his arm for Charlie, after she laid down beside him under his muscly arm Bass whispered "I'm so glad you're here with me Charlotte." She turned her head around and kissed him gently.
"I know."
