Drugs and Jeans

He did not know where his body ended and the darkness began. Then there had been splitting up that darkness, breaking the complete dark. Sand falling down on his body. Sounds above him, getting closer to him, finally reaching him. His instinct kicked in. He tried to move. Only his fingers obeyed that order. He was able to open his eyes just enough to see a figure above him. He knew he should recognise the shape, but he couldn't. It felt like his body was pulled into the ground. 'Don't try to move.' Darkness washed over him again.

Bass heard the sound of voices around him. Slowly realising that he apparently was still very much the hell alive. Before he could think about that fucked up thought even more, his focus was already gone, losing the thought to another.

Opening his eyes sluggishly, he noticed the light in the room, almost flowing around him, something soft around his body, feeling weird to his bare skin.

'Bass,'

He knew this voice.

'Hey, Look at me.'

He tilted his head towards the voice he knew so well.

He looked directly into Miles' face. Reminding him off the time when Miles was sitting next to his bed, when he had woken up in a hospital, after he got knocked of his feet in an unexpected attack on the road when they were on a mission together.

'Hey buddy,' Bass noticed how his own voice came from very far away. And then, he was aware of another voice, he knew so well.

'How much did you give him?'

'Enough. Enough to drop a horse, to make him look dead.'

He was almost able to put the right faces to the voices, he was almost able to try and understand what they were saying, when Miles started talking again, pulling him away yet again. He turned his head back to face his brother.

' How are you feeling? Can you walk?'

Bass had to think about those questions. Miles looked serious but he knew better. He knew his best friend.

'Look at you, you are happy to see me.' He felt a something that resembled happiness washing over him, a smirk around his face.

'What?' Miles was doing a fucking bad job at hiding his amusement as well as he would like right now.

'You missed me. You are my best friend.'

'Okay, that's enough Bass,' Miles wished Bass would stop with this mushy shit. Miles noticed Rachel was not amused, to say the least, but Charlie had a smirk smile on her face and was looking at Bass.

Bass tried his hardest to remember something so damn important. It had been on his mind right before...right before...everything stopped.

His son. He remembered his son, somewhere out there.

'Miles, you have to tell me,' His voice low. He tried to gesture to Miles to come closer, but his arm barely left the bed. Waiting for him to come closer, wanting to keep this between the both of them.

'You have to tell me where my son is.'

'One thing at a time.' Was Miles his only answer.

Bass wanted to argue but his mind was already drifting off again, other voices reaching him again.

'Why did you do it?'

'Because we needed him, and because you asked me to'.

Bass heard the words, observing that they mattered, he just did not know why. He let his body pull him into sleep.

When he woke up, his first thought was that he had to talk to Miles again about his son. He started calling out for his name, when he realised after what felt for fucking forever that Miles was not standing where he was before.

'Miles is gone for a while. It's me, Charlie.'

'Charlie, ' He mentioned her name out loud to make him help remember.

Bass followed the sound of the familiar voice he had heard before and turned his head. The image of clear blue eyes on his mind before he saw her. There she was. Sitting not too far away from him. A golden tan on her skin, her smooth skin, smooth shoulders, her blond hair flowing around her face and eyes that looked at him curiously.

Did she always look like this? Fuck.

'Charlie,' He said her voice one more time, not being sure if he said it out loud or not. She was here. He knew on some level he was staring, but his mind had a will on his own. He couldn't care less.

The brightness in the room around him had faded and now it was Shelly that was sitting across from him. Smiling. Smiling until he noticed a dot of blood in the middle of her stomach, covering her more and more. How much he tried to reach her, how much he wanted to hold her, hang on to her before she left him again, he couldn't. It was like his body was paralysed and invisible chains locked him to the bed. Their child. Shelly, he had to reach her. He had to save her. Panic set in, old sharp hurt made him his priosner, fear of losing her all over again.

'Wake up, Monroe.'

The voice touched the lines of his dream. He still desperately tried to reach Shelly, who's face had turned into Emma's now, her eyes hollow, staring into the air above her.

'Bass, wake up. It's me, Charlie.'

He heard his name, he heard his name in a way people never used to talk to him anymore. There was reassurance. He felt how the images finally started to fade away, releasing their cold grasp around him.

Charlie. She was close. He felt himself reaching out, reaching out into nothing. Not realising he was reaching out for her, until her hands found their way around his hand. Her skin was soft and warm. Her fingers covering his skin.

Charlie watched how he had calmed down, how his strong hand relaxed in hers. The sheer agony on his face disappearing. His breathing evened out until he was back to sleep. She slowly guided his arm back to the mattress. His hand leaving hers. She sat in silence, just watching him every now and then.

She got up and walked to the window and opened it, the last warmth of the day flowing inside with a small breeze. She felt the breeze touching her face and welcomed it.

This was Sebastian Monroe, the Sebastian Monroe . A man she had believed capable of nothing more than destruction, death and control. Today she had seen a different side of him, she had seen some of the old friendship between him and Miles. She had seen a lighter version of the man she spent so many time with on the road back to Willoughby. She had seen his agony and fear.

She realised things had changed, but how she truly felt and where she stood in all this, was something she still had to figure out. Charlie could still feel the roughness of his skin, his warmth, his hand in hers.

She did not know how long she had stood there but the light was changing slowly. Her mouth felt dry, and she realised she had nothing to drink since this morning. She headed for the kitchen. She walked away from the window, and was almost out of the door, when she realised he was awake. She turned around, just in time to see Bass his eyes lingering somewhere around her hips. A smirk around his face.

'Those jeans are working for you, Charlie,'

Charlie felt her body freeze in surprise, felt how the blood rushed to her face. Did he just?

'Seriously, Monroe?' She tried to go for the casual are you kidding me tone in her voice.

'I am always very serious Charlotte,' teasing in his words.

She tried her best to give him a pissed off look, but something told her she failed miserably. Because he was still looking at her with that stupid amount of charm in his smile. A genuine one, she never saw before, that stirred something within her. A smile that made it almost impossible for her not to return the gesture.

Almost though, her Matheson stubbornness coming to her rescue.

'Miles will be here soon, Monroe. Maybe you can say something nice about his shirt,' she snapped in his direction. 'Now, get some sleep,'

'You are very bossy, you know that?' Bass almost pouted.

'And you are being a pain in the ass, Monroe.'

She could see the amusement in his eyes before she turned away from him.

She walked out of the room, a sigh, a roll of her eyes, with her head shaking, and started to walk down the stairs.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, there was a small smile around her lips. Her cheeks still warmer than normal. She walked outside the house. It was almost sunset, the air filled with the sound of crickets.

She sat dawn on the steps of the porch, waiting for Miles. Thinking about what the hell just happened upstairs, and more importantly, how the hell he got under her skin. Did he truly think about her in the way she just saw in his eyes? She shook her head, more firmly this time. This was Monroe, a drugged Monroe. These were the drugs in his system talking. She would not fall for one of his womanizing lines, she called herself to order. Drugs. That was all.

And then, all of a sudden, a big explosion came from within the town, making the ground beneath her feet tremble, yanking her out of her thoughts.

As you may have notcied, the season is slowly changing, because things between Charlie and Monroe are changing...Thank you all for reading, I am happy you are here :)