Once the intial shock of being able to see and touch his daughter wore off, Bass couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. His daughter and her mother had come to visit him in a clearing, in a forest. No house to host them in or a couch for them to sit on, just some trees and a fucking log. Plus, the first time his daughter had ever set eyes on him his beard was crusted to his face with dirt.

It didn't matter though, Charlie said that they would come back on Thursday, which meant that he had two days to clean himself up and get his shit together. Gathering what little possessions he had, Bass set out to find some more comfortable accommodations. And a bath.

After nearly two hours of stumbling around the woods that lined the walls around Willoughby, he finally found a house with a structure that was still mostly intact. A tiny kitchen just inside the door, a living room off to the right, a useless bathroom, and one bedroom complete with a thin, holey, possibly moldy mattress. Something a little less disgusting would be preferable, but given his time frame and lack of funds this would do. He needed to clean it and take a bath before he did anything else though.

Thankfully, the well in the back yard still had clean water in it. He took a bath, trimmed his beard, changed into the only other clothes he had, and then went into town to find some real food. He used the last of his money to buy some potatoes and a bag of flour. It wasn't much, but it was better than squirrel.

He spent the rest of the day alternating between wondering how Emily was doing and cleaning up his new, hopefully temporary, home. While he was clearing out the cabinet under the sink he found a kitten in there all by itself. It was frail looking and whined loudly when he picked it up. He was so tempted to toss it outside and move on with his day, but the pathetic thing wouldn't stop meowing so he put some water in a cup and watched the little cat lap it up. Poor thing was probably starving. Sighing, he dug in his pack to find something to feed it.

First a daughter, now a goddamn cat. And he didn't even like cats.

XxX

Charlie and Miles had talked late into the night about what had happened in Vegas - she'd skipped the dirty details for both of their benefits - and discussed what her options were. Miles had half-heartedly offered to just kill Bass and be done with him but he'd let it go pretty quickly when she explained that she planned to let her daughter have a relationship with her father. No matter who he was. It took a while, but he'd eventually agreed with her. Though he did say that he definitely wasn't going to be the one to tell her mother. Chicken.

As she walked through the woods with Emily she couldn't help but feel better though. Keeping her deep, dark secret for so long had left her feeling lonely and isolated, but with Miles now on her side she felt ten times better. The only problem now was that the clearing was empty. No Bass, no pack, even the remnants of the fire were gone. "Hello?" The silence around her left her oddly sad and disappointed.

"Hey," Bass came stumbling out from behind a tree, "sorry, I had to relocate. The middle of the woods isn't exactly a great place to sleep." He looked much cleaner than the last time she'd seen him, his beard was trimmed and his clothes were cleaner. He looked good.

"It's alright," he reached for Emily and she handed the baby over, "for a second I thought you might have left."

Bass wasn't even looking at her, his eyes were focused on Emily while she played with the buttons on his shirt. "I'm not going anywhere Charlie. Not while you guys are here."

She knew it was stupid, but for some reason those words made her heart skip a beat. "Good. Emily's going to need you."

He stopped playing with the baby long enough to look at her seriously. "Don't worry, I'll be here."

"Yeah, that's what Miles said."

"You told Miles?"

Charlie nodded and sat down. "Yeah, he was pissed at first, but he's still talking to me so I figure that must be a good sign."

He huffed a laugh absent mindedly while he played with Emily. Charlie watched the pair quietly. It was a little strange how easily Emily got along with him, usually she shied away from anyone other than herself and Miles. Even Rachel sometimes had a hard time with her. But Bass was a natural, her babbling didn't seem to confuse him at all he merely talked to her like she was any other person and she watched him with rapt attention. It was memorizing and heart warming all at once.

When she finally realized that she'd been staring for over ten minutes, Charlie pulled a book out of her bag and settled in to read. She figured that this way Bass would be able to bond and spend time with Emily without feeling like he was being babysat. Which he technically wasn't, Charlie was really only there because they had limited time before they had to get back home.

XxX

He knew that Charlie was watching him but he didn't really mind. It was probably better that she didn't go trusting people with their baby right away anyway. Their baby. It was still a little unreal to him. Emily was happy, healthy, and beautiful, sitting happily in his lap and babbling on and on about things he couldn't possibly understand. Her little bottom tooth was so adorable it hurt, especially after she bit him with it. He was content to just sit with her and have her in his presence, and he was grateful to Charlie for giving him that.

It was obvious that she was a little uncomfortable with the whole situation, but hell, so was he. Their weird one night thing had been a mutual moment of weakness and vulnerability that he was sure she wanted to forget. Emily making that just a little difficult of course. He however hadn't really wanted to forget it, he'd been using it as a beacon of sorts to steer himself in a better direction. One that was cleaner and less self destructive. There were no illusions about what they were though, co-parents, and nothing more. Charlie was beautiful and young, any romantic relationship between them would just be impractical. So he shoved his delusional fantasies aside and told himself to be happy with what she'd already given him. A new life and hope.

"I owe you a thank you, Charlie."

She used her finger to mark her spot on the page and looked up at him. "For what?"

He found her big blue gaze to difficult to meet so he looked at Emily instead. "For this. For Emily, for being... nice to me. I don't deserve it."

Charlie was quiet for a while and he worried that he might have said something wrong until her soft voice filled the air. "Everybody makes mistakes. But my dad always said that everyone deserves a second chance, that applies to you too."

He nodded, trying to swallow around the lump in his throat at the mention of Ben. The bell tower clanged to signal that it was noon, so he kissed Emily on the head and reluctantly passed her back to her mother. "Bye-bye, baby." She gurgled and waved at him.

"My mom and Grandpa are going out of town for house calls on Saturday."

"Uh... ok."

She hesitated. "I thought that maybe you could come to the house. You know, so I don't have to drag Emily though the woods everyday." She finshed a bit awkwardly, looking like she thought he might hate the idea.

"Yeah, of course. Uh, when do you want me to be there?"

She smiled and shifted Emily on her hip. "I was thinking around lunch. I can make some sandwiches and we could try to figure out what we're going to do about Emily in the long-term."

Bass didn't know how the hell he'd gotten so lucky, but rather than question it, he simply nodded. "Definitely, I'll be there."

"Ok," she smiled and turned, making it completely out of sight before he let out the breath he was holding. That smile made his stomach do a weird flipping thing which didn't bode well for him. He couldn't afford to get attached to her, they weren't together, and he had no right to feel that way. But he still did.

XxX

Inviting him for lunch on Saturday had been a little impulsive, but he looked so damn adorable when he got all hopeful that she couldn't help it. There was something in him that drew her in and she wondered if maybe it had been that way from the start. Had she been attracted to him back in Philadelphia? Truthfully, yes, but it had kind of been outweighed by her desire to cut down the Republic. Vegas had been different all together, the physical attraction was still there but it was outweighed by this strange emotional connection. It was almost like he could see right through her, all the way to the secrets hidden away even from herself. Vegas had been freeing in one way and binding in another. In a way, she figured that she and Bass had always been bound together - with his connection to her family - but now it was so much stronger. Emily connected them in a very specific and intimate way, and she found that it wasn't something she minded very much. Actually, she didn't mind it at all.

XxX

After finally doing some laundry and heating up a proper bath, Bass felt much better about having lunch with the girls. At least he didn't look like a homeless person anymore. He felt good about getting to see Emily again and tried to convince himself that he wasn't excited to see Charlie. But any excitement that he had been feeling faded immediately when he made his way into the Matheson backyard. Miles was sitting on a blanket in the yard playing with Emily. Bass held his breath and slowly started to back away.

"I know you're there, Bass." Miles voice held no anger though. In fact, he sounded more amused than anything else. Miles' head swiveled in his direction, his eyes looking him up and down for weapons.

"I'm unarmed."

Miles nodded. "Good. Come sit."

Bass approached the blanket cautiously, careful to keep Emily between them because he knew Miles wouldn't risk hurting her.

"Oh for fucks sake, Bass. Just sit down."

Charlie came out of the backdoor with three glasses in her hands and a scowl on her face, though Bass noticed it wasn't aimed at him. "Grandpa, little ears." She looked pointedly towards Emily then back at Miles.

"Right. Sorry." Though he glared at Bass as if it was his fault.

Charlie caught the glare and gave Miles one of her own. "Don't blame him, he hasn't even been here long enough to do anything." She turned to him with a smile and offered him one of the glasses she was holding, "lemonade?"

Wow, first she defended him, now he was getting lemonade, he should have come by earlier. "Thanks." He took a big gulp and sat down on the blanket. Emily immediately reached for him and tried to scoot herself his way. "Come here, cutie." He scooped her up and gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek, ignoring the grumpy look on Miles' face.

"Well I'm going to go get the food so you boys play nice." She nudged Miles with her toe and pointed at Emily, "and remember, little ears."

"Ok, ok, I've got it." He waited until Charlie disappeared back into the house to say anything. "You look better."

Not bothering to look away from the baby, Bass asked, "compared to what, when you left me for dead outside the tower or when you put a gun to my head in Philly?" He chanced a glance at his brother, finding him deep in thought.

"Both."

The bitterness ran out of him and Bass nodded in agreement. "I feel better," he said quietly.

"That's good, 'cause if I'm going to be ok with this, then you can't be that guy Bass. Not around my girls."

Bass leaned down to kiss Emily's forehead and watched her grin up at him in response. "I know."

"Good."

Charlie came back outside with a tray of of sandwiches and some cut up vegetables. "Everything alright out here?" Though it seemed more like a threat than a question.

Miles smiled up at his niece happily. "Don't worry, kid. I think we've come to an agreement. Right, Bass?"

Blowing kisses at his daughter, Bass barely glanced in their direction. "Believe it or not, we never disagreed."

Charlie seemed to take that as an acceptable answer and plopped down on the blanket, grabbing a sandwich and stuffing it into her mouth. "Good, 'cause I really didn't want to have to kick both of your asses in front of Emily."

Miles eyes narrowed in her direction. "Uh, little ears, Charlie."

She rolled her eyes but turned to poke at Emily's cheek anyway. "Mommy's sorry, baby, but you'll learn soon that sometimes you have to make exceptions where your grandpa and daddy are concerned."

Miles huffed, but Bass had completely ignored everything she'd said except for 'daddy'. It was so unfamiliar but fitting at the same time. He grinned down at Emily's smiling face. "I'm Daddy, by the way." She ba-ba somethinged at him and he couldn't help but laugh, catching Charlie's soft smile out of the corner of his eye.

A/N Thank you for reading everyone and special thanks to those of you who have used some of your precious time to review, I really do appreciate it! :-D