Bass took a hesitant step into his friend's apartment before quietly asking, "Charlie?"

He waited a few seconds, but still heard no response so he decided he'd better raise his voice a little.

"Charlie?" He repeated, much louder. "Charlie. I'm about to walk through the room. So if you could not freak out again and try to murder me again, that would be appreciated."

The room was still silent so, after a few seconds of waiting, he finally just let out a sigh before beginning to step carefully through the room. He moved, slowly so that he could dodge any objects that may be on the floor, as he continued to speak.

"A normal person would have said something by now if they were awake, so I'm assuming you're asleep," he commented. "And I don't really feel like a repeat of how you woke up yesterday. So I'm going to keep talking and then hopefully you won't wake up in a fighting stance."

He was running out of things to say, but was still only halfway across the room because of how carefully he was walking after the way things had gone the morning before.

"You know I really didn't mean to grope you yesterday. Not that you're not grope-worthy, but I don't usually tend to go for unsuspecting sleeping strangers. My chest wasn't having a lot of fun either at that point, getting burnt and all, if that makes you feel any better... Seriously, how are you still asleep right now?"

"I'm not," she spoke up in a tired, muffled voice as he finally reached the light switch. "I woke up somewhere around the groping part."

Of course she had.

Bass flicked the light switch on and turned around to find a not quite fully awake Charlie move to sit up on the couch. She was still wearing her clothes from the day before and her hair was disheveled.

Charlie rubbed at one of her eyes as she questioned, "So, what? You just bring Miles breakfast everyday? …Seems like a bad deal for you."

"Not when I get free booze out of it," Bass responded with a shrug.

He chose to leave out the detail that their breakfast routine had originated from Bass having to force Miles to get out of bed after the number Rachel had done to him when she'd shown up in Chicago. They'd both gotten used to it and so the routine had stuck, although it sometimes dwindled away over the years before eventually coming back.


Charlie noticed the extra coffee cup in his hands, then a small smile lit up her face as she asked, "Is one of those for me?"

Charlie had never been a coffee drinker, in fact she'd never even tried it, but she still found herself happy that she was being included into their usual routine. She guessed that Bass wasn't nearly as bad as his awkward first impression had made him seem to her. Still, Nora had warned her about him the night before, which had proven to Charlie that not all of her first impressions had been entirely wrong.

She watched as he looked down at the tray of coffees in his hands before his gaze flickered back up to meet hers. His tone came out amused as he told her, "I thought I may as well bring more coffee, just to make sure that I'd burn myself as much as possible if I tripped again... I brought you food too. Figured you might not try to take mine again then."

"Thanks," she told him as she watched him set the bag of food and tray of coffee down on the table.

He didn't respond before turning and slipping down the hallway, out of her sight.

As Charlie waited, she grabbed a coffee off of the table and decided to try it out. Although she took only a small sip, she still managed to burn her lip on it. That wasn't the only unpleasant thing about the drink. Even as it burned her throat on the way down, she was still just glad that she didn't have the taste of the drink left in her mouth anymore.

Charlie quickly set the drink back down on the table then and wondered why so many people were such big coffee drinkers. She didn't understand how anybody actually enjoyed drinking something so bitter and unpleasant.

And yet when Bass returned to the room with Miles, she decided that she would force herself to take a few small sips to hide how disgusting it was for Bass's benefit. She blamed his black eye and the fact that he had brought her the coffee and breakfast for making her feel guilty enough to still drink it.

Miles didn't say a word as he entered the room. Instead, he grabbed his own coffee and took a long swig out of it. He seemed to be completely desensitized to the taste, as well as the heat, of his drink as he expressionlessly set the cup back down before grabbing the bag of food and sitting down in a chair next to the couch.

Charlie definitely was not used to eating any of her meals in the living room. Her mom had always made everyone get fully ready and dressed in the mornings before having breakfast at the kitchen table, regardless of whether they had anywhere to be. Now she found herself still in her clothes from the day before and still on her couch-bed from the night before as Miles tossed some food over at her.

She had to smirk a little at the thought of what her mother's reaction would be if she could see her then. Charlie found that, even with the bad coffee, she still thought she enjoyed low maintenance meals much better than the meals at home. Her mother would preach table manners, especially when anybody had someone over, so Miles and Bass's routine was a welcome change for Charlie.


Miles narrowed his eyes over at Charlie when he noticed the look she was giving him.

"What's with the face?" He questioned.

"Nothing," she told him with a shake of her head.

"Good," Miles muttered before tossing Bass's food over to him. "You just planning on standing there all day?"

Bass mumbled something under his breath that Miles pretended not to have heard as the man went to sit in an empty spot on the couch.

There was a brief silence before Charlie focused her attention back onto Miles again, effectively ruining any peacefulness that the breakfast might have been holding for him so far. "...So. You and Nora..."

"No." Miles insisted before she could get any further with that train of thought.

"No, there isn't a you and Nora?" She continued to pry. "Or no, you're not going to talk about this."

"Both." Miles grunted out in an annoyed tone.

He didn't need to explain the details, which even he wasn't exactly sure of, of what had gone on between him and Nora. And he especially didn't need to talk about it to the kid, who would probably take it upon herself to meddle even further into his life.

As Bass muttered under his breath about how there was definitely something still going on between the two, Miles chose to ignore him for the time being.


Charlie fiddled with the lid of her coffee cup for a few seconds before she took another small sip, and hopefully didn't show just how much the drink disgusted her, before peering back up at Miles again.

"What?" He questioned in a tone that already sounded annoyed enough that she doubted revealing her news would ever go well for her.

She braced herself for a second longer before deciding that maybe it would be a better idea to try using his habit of brushing things off against him, rather than acting like she had made a big mistake. Who knew? Maybe he wouldn't even care.

"Well, this probably isn't that big of a deal. I mean, since there's nothing going on with you and Nora, right?" Charlie challenged, although the little smirk that was playing at her lips didn't feel quite right to her. "But she found out that I'm not your niece."


A/N: Please read and review! Another gigantic thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, Swcky, Sexy Meat Pies, driver picks the music, ToTheSkyAndBack, JM2788, 4ever-write, and J.C for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :D