Guys, I am so sorry for how long this update took. I'm working on a collaboration and needed to get a chapter done for that. And then real life has kicked my butt lately. Works has been busy and I caught a really rough cold last week. But enough with excuses, I'm just sorry for the delay.

I want to thank everyone for their reviews and PMs. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this, and I so love getting reviews from all of you.

Also, once more, thank you to Lemon for her invaluable help.

I own nothing of Revolution (obviously) or we'd all be watching S3 right now. I also do not own David Lyons, but if he wanted to hang out for a bit, I wouldn't say no ;)

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye for what must have been the hundredth time. He was trying not to watch her, trying not to stare. Trying desperately not to be the creepy, evil dictator she thought he was. But he couldn't help himself.

He just missed being around her.

After a short disagreement with Rachel, who swore Charlie was not going anywhere with him, under any circumstances, the two of them walked out the door in search of Miles. Rachel was still pissed, but her resolve faltered when he whipped his gun out, flipped it over in his hand, and presented it butt first to Charlie. Once they all saw how serious he was, and after a short, shaky time when he was almost certain the woman he loved was going to shoot him, Charlie blew off her mother's argument and left with him.

So now here they were, all alone in the hallway, a very tense silence between them. Not that it made one bit of difference. She may have accepted some of the things he'd said back in the room with Rachel, but

to her, he was nothing more than a monster. A monster who was promising to stop the bloodshed long enough to find her uncle.

Bass led her down a side hallway, one that led to the back of the building, an entryway into his compound that was always slightly less guarded. Things were different than they had been last time, since he'd remained in the capitol building and not gone out to the factory, but he was sure this was the way Miles was going to enter. He would have, if situations were reversed.

He'd sent a guard to summon Jeremy to meet them. The man stood waiting as they rounded the last corridor.

"Sir."

"Jeremy, no need to be formal. This is Charlie Matheson."

The captain's eyes widened before he could compose himself. "Well, I've heard a lot about you lately, Miss Matheson."

"Yeah, I bet," she said, her tone as snappy as always.

Bass couldn't stop the small smile from crossing his lips. Some of his feelings must have shone through in that moment, for when he met Jeremy's eyes there was a question in them. Well, there was a discussion he was not going to able to avoid. "Jeremy, Will Strausser threatened the Matheson family. He disobeyed direct orders. I'm afraid I had to...take action."

The look on the captain's face said he completely understood. And that he completely approved. "Well, that is a shame."

"I need you to-" Nothing more needed to be said. Jeremy would take care of the body. "Did he have family?"

Jeremy scoffed. "Not Strausser, Sir."

Bass nodded. "Rachel and her son are still in the room, working on a project I gave her. Try not to disturb them, all right?"

"Of course," Jeremy said, his eyes flicking to the end of the corridor. "I dismissed the guards, as per your orders. Bass, are you sure you want to meet Miles alone like this?"

"I'm not alone." He motioned to the woman beside him. "I have Charlie."

The open-mouthed gape on Jeremy's face was almost comical. "Yeah, that would still leave you as the vulnerable party here. No offense, Miss Matheson, but they could team up on you."

"True." He stared at Charlie until her blue eyes met his in surprise. There was no way she could know what he was thinking, or feeling, but he loved having the contact with her again. "I could die within the hour, Captain Baker. At the hands of my best friend, or his niece. But I hope they'll give me the chance to try to make things better."

Jeremy cleared his throat, and Bass turned to him. "I could stay with you. Just...so you're evenly matched."

"Thank you, Captain. But I have to do this. I have to face Miles alone." He patted Jeremy on the shoulder. "Please, just take care of Strausser. And make sure the Mathesons are comfortable. Get them something to eat, drink, whatever they need."

"Yes, Sir." He paused before turning the corner. "Bass, try not to kill each other. I always liked the both of you."

Bass chuckled as Jeremy walked away, leaving him alone once again with Charlie. Baker really was a good friend. What a grave error in judgment he'd made last time, with his paranoia and distrust.

"Why are you doing this?"

Her voice interrupted his train of thought, and he gazed at her. If that didn't bring back memories of their time on the road. The ferocity with which he missed her threatened to swallow him whole. How strange to miss someone so much when they were right in front of you. But this woman wasn't quite his Charlie; she would never wrap her arms around him to offer him comfort. But, God, did he want her to.

So why was he doing this? For her, for Miles, for his son, for the better world he wanted the Republic to be, for the chance to be the man she deserved, and maybe, most of all, for himself. To be the type of man his family would have been proud of.

But the last time he'd answered that question it hadn't gone so well. What could he possibly say this time to make it better? "Because I've made a lot of really bad decisions."

"And you think you can make it all better now?"

"I can never make it better, Charlie." His eyes locked on hers. "I love Miles like a brother, but he made a lot of bad choices too. It seems like he's getting a second chance. I hope I can, too."

Her eyes filled with something that might have been understanding, but she looked away before he could tell. Her voice was small when she spoke. "You can't fix some things."

He recognized the tone. She was such a strong woman, but there were times when she needed to be the soft-hearted girl deep inside. In the time he was currently in, she was a lot closer to that young girl, but even in the future, she sometimes needed someone to lean on. More often than not in the last few months, that had been him. It took everything in him not to pull her against him. "I know, Charlie. I can't bring back your dad. I wish to God I could. I would give so much to be able to bring him back to you, Charlie."

"Why do you do that?" Her gaze caught his again. Jesus, even in this world, there was no way to stop their connection. "Why do you talk to me as if you know me?"

There was no easy way to answer that. "I'm sorry if I'm being too informal with you. I don't want you to be uncomfortable. I just...need your help. Miles is coming into this city to kill me. For years, he stayed hidden and didn't care. But I suspect you have something to do with his change of heart."

"So I'm a hostage?"

"No!" Oh God, no. "You're not a hostage. You have the gun, Charlie. I just want you to help me convince Miles to talk to me. To offer me the same opportunity he's getting. To have the chance to change."

She said nothing. Her eyes darting from him to the end of the hall where Miles would be coming through and back again.

"Please." That was all he could do. Simply ask for her help...for even a smidgen of her trust.

She stared at him for what seemed an eternity. "OK."

He was pleasantly surprised. "OK?"

"But if you screw this up..."

"Just give me a chance."

She nodded, and they both went back to keeping watch for her uncle.

Ten minutes later, the man in question crept into sight, shock registering on his face when he found Bass and Charlie at the opposite end of the hall. Aiming his gun, he took one look at the situation and immediately drew the wrong conclusion. "What the hell did you do to her, you son of a bitch?"

Yeah, he'd heard that before, too. "Nothing. I didn't touch her, Miles. I swear to you. She's here of her own freewill."

He glanced at Charlie, waiting for her response, worried for just one second that she might deny his last words and leave him to the mercy of her uncle after all. But she didn't. "Miles, he's telling the truth."

Miles looked between the two of them, anger drawing over his face. "How the hell could you brainwash her so fast?"

"I didn't."

"Charlie, come over here to me," Miles said, gun still pointed at Bass.

He knew that if she left his side and crossed to Miles, he was most likely a dead man. "You're free to go, Charlie."

She stared at him; she must have drawn the same conclusion. Miles was so angry and uncertain that he wouldn't hesitate to shoot him if she was out of harm's way. Charlie turned back to her uncle. "I think we should just listen to him."

Miles rolled his eyes. "Charlie, he's a master manipulator. He will say anything to get you to believe him."

Well, now he knew where that opinion came from. Not that it wasn't warranted. "So, you're the only one who gets a second chance, huh, Miles? You're the only one who woke up one day and thought 'this is not what I want?' That couldn't possibly happen to me. I couldn't ever realize that things had gotten so far out of my control. We were brothers once. Don't I deserve a chance?"

Miles just glared at him.

"All right, let me tell you what I know. I'm not the same man that went to bed last night. You can say that was fast, but it was just as fast for you. I made a horrible mistake, and you just turned and ran. And all along, I thought I was protecting you. So yeah, this was a rapid change for me, Miles, but it's real all the same." Bass slowly started down the hall towards his best friend, Charlie trailing right behind. At least this was the same as last time; Miles still had the gun pointed at him. "We were family. We looked out for each other, we always did. Even when the other one screwed up."

Miles scoffed. "You're saying I screwed up. That you forgive me."

"No, Miles," he said, inching even closer. "I'm asking you to forgive me."

That must have surprised the hell out of Miles because his gun dropped to his side. "What?"

"I screwed up, brother. A lot." He continued his slow crawl down the hallway. "I know you think I'm a lost cause. I...I probably was. And you can say we're no longer family. You can say I mean nothing."

"Bass..." Miles whispered.

Miles had used those hurtful words on him last time, and they'd tipped him all the way over the edge he'd been teetering on. But last time, Bass hadn't had the luxury of knowing about a future conversation. "But I don't know if that's true. I think that deep down, we will always be brothers. And no matter how much that might bother you, it's still there. After you left, I asked myself the same question over and over again. Why did you try to shoot me? But let me ask you a different one. Why couldn't you shoot me, Miles?"

Miles's eyes widened and he turned away. He was silent for a few minutes. "Because you're right, you pain in the ass."

The tension in the hall dropped significantly. Bass released a deep breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding. He heard Charlie sigh heavily as well. "So...can we attempt to talk without you pointing a gun at me?"

"I don't know, Bass. This isn't exactly the reception I was expecting. There are almost no guards out there. I come in here and you're here...with my niece."

"You sound pissed that I don't have soldiers after you."

"Well, I...I mean, I was expecting something. Neville, Strausser." Miles turned to Charlie. "I get back to Kip's house and you guys are all gone. I was preparing for the worst. Where the hell is Kip?"

"I think he's having a night cap in kitchen, actually," Bass said. "Kip's fine, Miles. I had them all brought here, without Neville's knowledge."

"Because..."

"Because Neville's been placed under arrest. And Strausser..." Bass looked at Charlie. Miles raised an eyebrow. "Strausser held your niece at gunpoint. An order I did not give, I assure you. When I asked him to lower his weapon, he disobeyed me. He continued to ignore my orders, until..."

His eyes met Miles's. "You shot him."

Before he could respond, Charlie jumped in. "He would have shot me."

"Well, one good deed doesn't make you a changed man, Bass," Miles said. "But saving my niece gives you a bit of an extension. Is Danny okay?"

"He's fine," Charlie said. "He's with mom."

It took Miles two seconds to react. He shoved Bass against the wall, rifle pressing against his neck. "She's alive, bastard. You kept her prisoner for...how long?"

"Miles!" Charlie shouted at her uncle's outburst.

"She was a prisoner before you left," Bass choked out. "I kept her here, true. But those are apologies I have to make to her, not you."

"She was dead."

"No, there was an accident. You saw a body and assumed. It's a bad habit you have." Bass coughed. "Miles, it's getting hard to breathe."

Miles released him with a groan. "This just gets better and better."

"Shouldn't you be happy she's alive?" Bass rubbed at his sore neck.

The glare from Miles's dark eyes was formidable. "What the hell other surprises am I going to find here?"

Without initiating it, Charlie's gaze locked with Bass's. He could barely hold back his delight. "Maybe we should sit and talk."

"So, let me get this straight..." Miles sat across from Bass's desk, Charlie beside him. Still having a hard time being in the big leather chair behind the desk, Bass leaned against the front of it. "Strausser's dead; Rachel's alive; Neville's under arrest, and there's a guy coming here who can pretty much blow up the entire east coast. And you've had a giant change of heart. Did I miss anything?"

Well, that was the last hour of conversation in a nutshell. "Nah, pretty much covers it."

Miles ran his hand over his face. "I gotta tell you, Bass, I was coming here to get my nephew back and put a bullet in you. This is...not how I ever saw this scenario playing out."

"I understand that. And I have to ask you for a big favor."

Miles rolled his eyes. "Why do I think I'm going to hate this?"

"Because you are. I need you to help me run this Republic again." He took a deep breath, muttering a quick prayer that his words wouldn't fall on deaf ears. Then his eyes shifted to Charlie. "The both of you, actually."

"Me?" Charlie squeaked.

"Yeah, I think you might have some very good ideas, Charlie." He already knew she did; she'd filled him in on his inadequacies as a leader on the way to Willoughby. But a lot of what she'd told him made good sense. "I suspect there are some things you find very wrong with the Republic. I want to know what they are. I want to know things that might be going on that are illegal. And I want any ideas you have on ways to fix these problems. I meant it when I said I'm making things different, better. I want the two of you to help me do this."

Miles's mouth was hanging open but no sound was coming from it. Bass realized it was a lot to take in, especially considering the original plan had been to take him out. "Miles, what are you thinking?"

Miles stared at him for awhile, and a flood of memories from their lives together flashed through Bass's mind. "I'm thinking I'm still in that tunnel hallucinating."

"This is real, brother."

"I can't go back to being who I used to be," Miles said. Having a future perspective, Bass knew enough to realize Miles wanted back in. But he also knew that if he wanted his best friend on his side, nothing could stay the way it was. The song couldn't remain the same. "I don't want that."

"Miles, I'm not lying. This isn't a scheme or a plan." He placed his hand on his chest, rubbing it over his heart, his next words choking him up before he uttered them. "I swear to you...on Shelly and the baby, I am not the same man anymore. If I had help, if I had my family, I could make this into what it was supposed to be all along. Jeremy is willing to change. I'm rooting out the men we can't trust. I trust the people in this room with my life. Help me."

Charlie seemed startled by his statement, though Miles did not. She and her uncle exchanged a glance before turning back to him. "So, Rachel's destroying this amplifier thing?"

"She is," Bass said.

Miles sighed. "We take this one day at a time. And my family stays safe."

"Miles, I need some assurances. I need to keep the doors locked. I don't want you guys to be prisoners, but I..." Jesus, he was going to lose it. He couldn't face being abandoned again. All he wanted was to be a part of Miles's life again, Charlie's life. He felt his eyes tearing up. "If you change your mind, you could all just leave..."

They could all just leave him.

Miles must have seen how he was struggling. He stood and rested a hand on Bass's arm, swallowing thickly before speaking. "Bass, I don't want my family to be held against their will. So if you really have changed, you gotta start trusting people again. I will not leave you, but if they want to go...you have to let them. But I will stay. I will see this through with you."

Bass breathed out, a shaky chuckle escaping. To have that, to have his brother's support again eased so much of the pain scarring his heart. "Thank you."

"I'll stay too." Both men turned to Charlie. A sheen of unshed tears made her blue eyes vibrant. My God, he loved her and her sweet, tender soul. He had no doubt those tears were for her uncle and not him, but he loved her anyway. "If you promise to make these changes, then I'll stay."

Miles having his back was one thing. Charlie having it...well, it almost felt like he was home again. "I'll...I'll take you to see Rachel. I know you want to. Charlie, you should go too. Your whole family should be reunited."

And no matter how much he might wish it, he wasn't a part of that family. Not yet anyway.

It was almost nightfall when Miles came waltzing into the office like he owned the place. Bass rolled his eyes, chuckling to himself. Some things never changed. No one else would dare walk in unannounced. Even if he wasn't the dictator they all thought he was. At least Miles had kept his promise; without a guard and with no locks on the doors, he hadn't walked away. Bass had kept his own promise, one he made to himself; he hadn't bothered the Matheson family all day. He locked himself in his office and read over rules, regulations, and policies that had been the basis for the Monroe Republic. If he was going to make changes, he had to start over at the beginning.

"Everything go okay with your family?" he asked.

"It did." Miles was silent for a second as he stared at Bass. "I don't assume to know what happened here. I just know that 24 hours ago, I was fairly certain I was going to have to kill you. I mean, Bass, you had bounty hunters after us, militia. You killed Ben for Christ's sake. You took Danny."

"I didn't mean for Ben to die. Neville was supposed to bring him in alive. And Danny...I never ordered that."

"Yeah, but you used it against Rachel, didn't you?" Miles glared at him, his eyes hard. "She told me you taunted her with the fact that her son was on his way here. And that you would use him to force her to do what you wanted. You son of a bitch."

Jesus, had he really done all those things a year ago? It about killed him that he had. He really was the monster Charlie and her family accused him of being. No wonder she had hated him with such ferocity. How had she ever forgiven him enough to even touch him? The fact that she cared for him, that she wept for his death at all was a miracle. "I know all the things I've done, Miles. I will have to live with them every day for the rest of my life. And yes, I was cruel. I was evil. I suppose I was even a little insane. How can I justify that? The truth is I can't. I can only tell you I'm a different person now."

"That was yesterday, Bass," Miles said, the anger barely concealed in his voice. "Yesterday you threatened Danny."

"Miles, if I told you what happened to me, you wouldn't believe me. So please, just once more, please trust me. I'm so sorry about Ben. I'm sorry about Danny. But he's here now. He's safe. Nothing's going to happen to him."

"And Charlie?"

"I would never hurt her." He'd die first.

Miles stared at him for a minute. "You know on the way here, Charlie wanted to help these kids out. The one kid's older brother had been taken for conscription."

Taking kids against their will. That had to be one of the most heinous acts of his entire republic. "Miles, the orders to disband those ships and get those kids safely back home are going to be done first thing."

"She got onto one of the boats, Bass."

His heart stopped. That was news to him; all the things they'd shared on the way back to Willoughby, all the topics they'd covered...she had never mentioned that. "Charlie was conscripted?"

"Well, she snuck on. But, uh, things got a little out of hand." Miles crossed the room, pouring himself a whiskey and slinging it back, before pouring another. "She was branded."

"What!" Bass's eyes widened. No, that wasn't possible. He'd shared a small space with her for a month. He'd held her at night; he'd kissed her; he would have known.

Or would he?

Charlie always wore her jacket, or if not, she always wrapped her wrist. He'd thought nothing of it; after all, he wrapped his own on the road. And the one time she hadn't, in the bar, he'd hadn't looked. He'd snagged her jacket and thrown it over her prone body before lifting her into his arms to carry her out. Even setting her down under the bridge, he'd kept her covered. He'd never seen her wrist. And she had never told him. Of course she hadn't; she was sparing him the guilt he was now submerged in.

"So see, Bass, you've already hurt her," Miles said.

Charlie...Charlie bore his brand. Now he had to make that damn symbol mean something so much more than it currently was. He had to make the Republic into something good. "Then I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to her."

Miles scoffed. "Well, it's just a hell of a day, isn't it?"

"I'll make it up to her, and to you. To Danny, to Rachel. I know I did some bad shit, Miles. I know I lost it. But a lot of bad shit happened to me. That's not an excuse for what I became. No more excuses." He said that to Rachel in the tower. And he meant it. He did know how much blood was on his hands. Time to start making things clean. "But I have the power."

"Power?" Miles questioned, cocking an eyebrow.

"Not like that." He shook his head, his eyes fierce as he explained to his best friend. "The power to do good, to help people."

"We fucked this up before, Bass. What makes you think things will be any different now?" Miles plopped into a chair by the desk.

Because now he knew the future. That and... "Charlie. You can't ask for a better moral center than her. I'll have a council I can trust."

"Yeah, kid knows how to lay on a guilt trip, I'll tell you." Miles chuckled, a smile crossing his face. "She got to you already, didn't she?"

"What?"

"You already look like you've been bowled over."

Oh, he'd been bowled over by Charlie, all right. He'd been bowled all the way over into falling in love. "She's an interesting girl."

"Yeah, but don't get too interested. She's my niece. Don't get any funny ideas." Miles scowled at him.

Too late, buddy. They'd already moved way past ideas.

This was such a bad idea. Walk away, idiot. Go back to your room and leave her in peace. She doesn't want to talk to you.

He knocked on her door. "Charlie?"

A few minutes passed before it opened, Charlie fixing him with a cold stare. "Can I help you?"

"I, um, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay." Why did he feel like a nervous teenager? "Can I come in for a second?"

She eyed him for a moment, then walked away in silence, leaving the door ajar behind her. He supposed that was the best invitation he was going to get. He entered, gently closing the door behind him. "Uh...is this room okay for you?"

She raised an eyebrow. "It's fine."

"Do you need anything?" She shook her head. "Well, if you do...need anything...just ask one of the guards in the hall, and they'll make sure you get it."

"Oh, you mean the armed guards outside my door?"

He glanced away. "Charlie, they are there for your protection. Not to keep you locked inside. You're all free. I made that deal with you, and I'll keep up my end of it."

"I'm fine, actually. Just getting ready for bed."

And that was a dismissal; he'd given enough in his time to recognize it. "Of course. I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure everything was..."

"Fine, yeah, I heard you." She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. "Well, my brother's not dead, so I guess I'm all right."

God, she was so good at the guilt trip. Not that he needed Miles to tell him that. "I'm not going to let anything happen. Not to either one of you. Charlie, I swear."

Her eyes narrowed at him. "You keep doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Acting like we're old pals. We're not friends, Monroe." He hated being back to that name with her. All that time they had spent meant nothing in the here and now. She stood, crossing the room and getting right into his face. Well, this he was familiar with. "Your troops killed my father and kidnapped my brother. I'm here for my family. I agreed to all of this to save the lives of those innocent people out there in your republic. I'm not here to help you."

He knew that, realistically he knew that, but damn it, if that didn't hurt like hell. Well, he deserved any animosity she directed his way. "So...my second chance..."

"I'm giving you one chance, Monroe. You screw this up and Miles won't have to kill you. I'll put a bullet in you myself." She shot him that sarcastic smile she loved to use on him.

Hell, not like she hadn't tried to kill him before. "Fair enough. But thank you anyway, Charlie."

She huffed. "You have to stop that. My family and friends call me that. What gives you the right to use my nickname?"

He gazed at her softly, memories swirling around him. He'd never brought this up to her on the road. It was a story they hadn't yet shared. If they'd had more time together, he would have told her, but their time had run out. "Well, it's my mine. I mean...I gave it to you."

She stepped back from him, almost stumbled really, and he resisted the urge to reach out and steady her. Her eyes were so wide and blue as they bore into him, obvious questions in them. "No...that's not true. That nickname was given to me by Basti...an..."

Her voice trailed off as she gaped at him, tears filling her eyes. He felt so much love for her in that moment he thought it might knock him to his knees.

She shook her head. "No...you can't be...he was..."

He knew she didn't remember it clearly enough. How could she really; she'd been four. "He was...a friend of your uncle."

"He was...a friend...an imaginary friend," she whispered.

"No, Charlie, he was very much real." His mind cast him back almost twenty years before. He chuckled, tears filling his eyes. "When Miles and I came to visit your family for a few days, you were obsessed with that movie, The NeverEnding Story. I think you drove your mother crazy watching it. One of the characters was named Bastian...and when you found out my name, you insisted on calling me that."

Not that he minded. She'd been so cute and full of life; she'd reminded him so much of his little sisters. It should have hurt; instead, her exuberance had placed a balm on his heart. "I told you that I'd have to give you a nickname, too. When I first called you Charlie, you laughed and told me that was a boy's name. I told you that a lot of girls had boy's nicknames...and you decided you liked it."

She hadn't just liked it; she'd loved it. In one of his last contacts with the Matheson family prior to the Blackout, Rachel had told him that Charlie liked it so much, she would no longer let anyone call her anything else. She proudly bore the nickname Bastian had bestowed upon her. "So it was my name for you...before everyone else."

A single tear fell down her cheek. "Bastian was my...friend...I felt safe with him. Right after the Blackout, I kept hoping he would come...and save me. But he never did."

His own eyes were swimming with tears. To hell with being a ruthless dictator. He wasn't that man. In his heart, he was Bass...he was Charlie's Bass. "I tried. Miles and I, we walked to Chicago to find you...but you were gone...we couldn't..."

"How did you become this?" Before he could utter a word, she sighed heavily and turned away from him. "Just...leave me alone, please."

"Yeah...I'm sorry. I'll go..." He gazed longingly at her back, the slump in her shoulders causing a crack in his heart. He exited the room without another word.

But he swore he heard soft cries as the door clicked shut. God, he hadn't meant to hurt her. He just wanted to hold her, to make it all better. But he couldn't. She wasn't his Charlie.

But he was still her Bass. And he swore to himself he would make her smile again if it killed him.

Yeah, I'm the one who likes it when Bass calls her Charlie. So now, I made it HIS nickname ;)