Notes at the bottom.
Charlie had been resolved to give Bass some time to cool off and calm down before she tried to approach him again. She knew him well enough by now to know that if he had a feeling about anything, it was all or nothing. He loved or hated, with little in between. And when he was pissed, well he was fucking pissed. And right now that's exactly what he was. She knew that his anger could last a long time. She was still hoping that he'd calm down enough to at least hear her out long enough to fix the fragile bond they'd once shared.
She'd decided to give it a week. By then, the rest of Duncan's men should have arrived. She was also hoping that by then Tom and Jason will have given up in watching her every move. At this point, they had not been doing a good job of hiding the fact that they obviously considered her the weakest link. She had only been home a few days before she noticed that she couldn't go anywhere without bumping into one of them. She had expected this, but it was starting to drive her crazy.
Apparently, it wasn't just her movements that drew attention. Connor had come to her one day whining about the same thing. "Charlie, we've got to do something about these guys. Tom actually followed me when I went to go take a leak in the woods. I get it - they're suspicious, but seriously? I can't even take a piss?" he'd complained.
By the week's end, Charlie's nerves were frayed. She could not put her confrontation with Monroe off any longer. Miles had inadvertently given her a window of opportunity with a supply run to a neighboring town. Always being the helpful one, Tom had decided to go with him. This left only Jason to distract. If she could get him to follow Connor for a while, it might give her an opportunity to get away unseen.
Charlie thought about ways to accomplish this. In the end, she simply decided to come right out and ask him. She approached him while Miles was preparing to leave with Tom early that morning. While Miles loaded the wagon, Tom was deep in discussion with Jason, likely giving him instructions. Connor was sitting up against the barn with a cup of what could have been coffee. She sat down next to him and watched the Nevilles with Miles.
"Hey," she wasn't quite sure how to begin.
"Well hey to you too." Connor tried not to react when she sat down. He could tell she was about to ask him for something.
"Looks like we're only going to have one shadow for the day," she said, offering a sly smile.
Connor looked at her, wishing she'd just come out with it. "Yep."
She crossed her legs at the ankles, trying to appear casual. She could tell Jason was watching them out of the corner of his eye. "Might make it easy for one of us to get away for a while without being seen."
Connor let out a low chuckle, amused by her attempt to appear so nonchalant. He knew exactly what she had in mind and where she wanted to go. "And let me guess, I'd make the perfect patsy?"
The way he put it did make it sound kind of bad. She winced at the way he said it. "If you'd be so kind?" She couldn't believe it, but she was practically begging.
Connor sat in silence for a while, watching Tom and Miles get up on the drivers bench at the front of the wagon. As the older men pulled out of view, Connor tilted his head to look at Charlie. She looked at him quizzically, as he suddenly stood up and practically shouted, "I told you I just need to get out of here for a while!"
His back was to Jason. He used the opportunity to send her a meaningful look, which spurred her into action. Jumping to her feet, she started to play along. "Miles said to stay here, are you stupid?"
"Since when do I ever do anything that asshole tells me to do!" Connor looked like he was actually starting to enjoy their mock argument. "I'm going, it's final."
He stalked off towards the barn and started saddling one of the remaining horses. Charlie followed him inside. "You're an idiot!" Thank You! She mouthed before pretending to storm off. She passed Jason as she headed inside the cellar. She walked towards the stairs as Jason tried to look oblivious as he watched Connor take off on the horse.
Rachel and Gene gave her strange looks as she sprawled on the stairs to get a better look without being seen. "What was that all about?" Gene finally asked.
Charlie looked back at him and smiled. "Nothing," she tried to appear innocent, but her grandfather knew better. "Looks like Connor just needs to blow off some steam," she added.
Sure enough within half an hour, Jason had saddled the other horse and was following Connor. Connor knew he that Jason had caught up just enough to follow without being seen. He'd decided that if he was going to take one for Team Charlie, he'd at least have some fun while he was at it. There were two towns several hours south of Willoughby. They'd passed both on their way from Mexico. Miles and Tom were headed to one. Connor decided to head towards the other. He just took the most winding path he could think of to get there. She owes me big time, he thought to himself as he deliberately went off course for a few miles just to annoy Jason.
Charlie lost no time making her move. She grabbed her crossbow and crammed a canteen and some food into her pack before she set off. "Where are you going, Charlie?" She hadn't counted on Rachel interfering.
"Since Jason seems to be distracted at the moment, I'm going to put this reprieve to good use. I'm going hunting while I have the chance." The lie rolled off her lips easily enough. Rachel and Gene were both very well aware that her previous attempts had been thwarted by Jason's surveillance. He had been scaring any possible game away.
"Be careful," Rachel warned as Charlie headed up the stairs.
Charlie arrived at the camp Bass was calling home late that afternoon. Deciding to wait until nightfall to confront him, she watched the camp from the woods, using the binoculars she'd lifted from Miles' pack the day before. The walk had been uneventful. She'd kept to the woods as much as she could, and had done her best to cover her tracks. Jason wasn't the worst tracker, but she knew he wasn't as good as Bass had been when he'd followed her to Texas from the Plains Nation. She crossed the creek that ran through the trees several times, hoping to throw him off.
After a few hours of watching the camp's activities, she was confident she knew which tent Bass was staying in. She'd idly wondered where the tents had come from, when it hit her that Duncan's clan would have brought their entire settlement with them. Warclans were nomadic, and it wasn't practical for that many men to sleep on bedrolls over a long period of time.
It was well after midnight before Charlie made her way quietly into the camp. She was lucky that Bass' tent was close to the outer perimeter. Allies or not, the men within were still members of a warclan. If they caught her, there was no telling what they would do to her before they realized who she was.
Unfortunately, she found the tent empty. It just now crossed her mind that he may very well be spending his nights with Duncan. Her heart sunk at this idea, but she could hardly blame him. He had history with her, and despite Duncan's initial insinuation that it had ended badly in New Vegas, they had fallen into a friendly pattern fairly early on the journey home.
As she considered this, she looked around. Bass' gear was stuffed haphazardly on one side of the tent. An old camping cot and a wooden crate turned on its end as a side table were the only furnishings. Charlie was roused from her dour thoughts by the sound of voices outside of the tent. "You know you don't have to spend the night alone, Sebastian." Duncan's voice wafted to Charlie's ears.
Charlie ducked into the corner of the tent, squatting behind the cot. If Bass brought Duncan into the tent, she was screwed. She held her breath, waiting for his response. "Thanks, but I'm good, Duncan." Charlie let her breath out slowly, relieved.
Bass entered through the flaps of the tent and stopped short. He instantly felt a presence in the tent. He slowly set the whiskey bottle in his hand down on the crate by the bed. He pulled the pistol out of the back of his jeans and quickly raised it. "You might as well come out," he warned. His voice betrayed how much he'd drank but Charlie knew his reflexes were still sharp.
Taking a deep breath, Charlie slowly stood and stepped forward out of the shadows to stand before him, her stubborn chin held high in defiance. The moment he registered that she was the intruder, he slowly lowered the gun and set it on the crate next to the bottle. He looked her up and down before he locked eyes with her. He did not look happy to see her.
Before she could say anything, he crossed the tent and grabbed her by the shoulders roughly. "What the hell are you doing here, Charlie?"
"I want to talk to you." She could feel the anger radiating off of him. So much for him cooling down a little, she thought glumly.
"This is a warclan Charlie. Do you have any idea what they would have done to you if they'd caught you sneaking into camp? Do you ever think before you act?" He released her now and turned away, dragging a hand over his face in utter frustration. An image of her being drug off into the woods and raped had flashed in his mind the second he realized she was the one hiding in his tent. There were a few female clansmen, and yes their leader was a woman. Those women were off limits, but any other woman, well that was a different matter.
Charlie just stood there and stared at him. She'd been so ready to finally have it out with him while she'd been waiting, but now she was starting to lose her nerve. She'd hoped he would be a little happy to see her; It would have made things a little easier. She could see now that her presence only served to provoke him further, especially now that he'd been drinking – quite heavily by the look of him. "I-"
He cut her off before she could even begin. "You're leaving." He grabbed her arm and ushered her towards the front of the tent. She knew she would not win in a tug of war against him. He simply outweighed her by too much. Going back to her training, she did the only possible move in her repertoire: She went limp, throwing him off balance as she crumbled to the ground.
As he was stumbling over her, Bass realized that he should have been prepared for it. Hell, he'd been the one to teach her that move in the first place. They found themselves in a heap on the ground. As angry as he was, it was impossible not to see the humor in it. He clenched his jaw in an effort not to laugh as he attempted to untangle his limbs from hers.
Charlie was determined not to waste this opportunity. At the moment, she quite literally had a captive audience. Before he realized what she was about to do, she reached up and lightly stroked the back of his neck with her fingers, and lifted her head off the ground. She tentatively pressed her lips to his. When she'd come to him that night behind the barn, she had been all fire and passion. Not wanting him to think of that night, she deliberately kept her kiss tender and soft.
Bass froze the moment their lips met. He fought the urge to respond to her, pulling away. As he did, he looked down at her and saw the look of utter defeat on Charlie's face. "Don't push me away, please." Her voice was barely above a whisper, her eyes pleading. He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath in an attempt to maintain his weakening resolve.
When he rested his forehead on hers, Charlie knew that at least for the moment he was hers. "Damn it," was all he said before he crashed his mouth down on hers.
"I'm so sorry," she said against his lips. Bass broke off the kiss and looked down at her again, waiting for her to continue. "I tried so hard to convince myself that you couldn't matter."
He fought down the urge to rail at her. Instead, he gently stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. "Why did it have to be Connor?"
She hesitated for a second, trying to find the words. He sighed heavily and rolled off of her. She thought morosely that her hesitance had ruined the moment when he reached out a hand to pull Charlie to her feet. He sank down onto the cot. Unsure, she slowly sat down as well, a couple of feet away from him. Shaking his head in exasperation, he reached over to her. "Come here," he said as he settled her into his lap. He brushed her hair out of her face with his hand. "Okay, spill."
"You were right. I wanted you that night, but I tried to make it feel cheap, so I could pretend it didn't mean anything. But it wasn't because I hate you. I don't hate you. I never hated you. Just the idea of you. Before, I didn't even know you. You were just General Monroe, this boogeyman that stole my family."
Charlie could feel Bass become tense at her words. His past would always come back to haunt him, no matter what he did in the future to make up for it. He knew he deserved it, but the constant reminder wore on him. "Charlie, I-"
She held up a hand to cut him off. "I wanted to keep hating you even after I actually got to know you. How do you admit that you have feelings for someone that caused you so much pain?"
Bass looked away from her as she spoke. He didn't know what he expected of her. He couldn't change the past. "If I could take it all back, I would, but that part of me will always be here."
"I know. And it is so much easier to say I hate the monster than it is to admit I love the man. So I just tried to deny it instead, and I hurt you because of it. And when you turned me down that night, I was angry, and then we got to New Vegas and I realized you'd been planning on meeting up with someone you'd been involved with, and I felt so stupid and jealous. Connor was just there, and a way to prove I didn't care. And, well you know the rest."
He leaned over and silenced her now with his mouth. Bass didn't know if he exactly forgave her, and he knew it didn't change much if he did. He ended the kiss, scooping her up as he stood. Charlie wrapped her arm around his neck to support herself. He held her there against his chest for a few minutes. Charlie leaned her head on his shoulder and looked up at him questioningly.
He turned and gently laid her on the far side of the cot. Without a word he sat down to take off his boots. When he turned to take hers off as well, she finally asked him, "So where does this leave us?"
He laid down next to her on the cot. "It's late. We're both tired, and I'm kind of drunk. Just leave it, Charlie. I'll take you back to your family in the morning. It's a long walk. There'll be plenty of time to figure it out then."
The cot was old and narrow. It had not been designed with two people in mind. After drawing up the blanket over both of them, Bass wrapped himself around her to keep from falling off as much as he did it to keep close to her.
His initial intent had been to just sleep, but the feel of her body against him was making that difficult. He stroked her face gently as he lowered his mouth to hers. She sighed into his mouth, her lips parting enough for him to deepen the kiss. He ran his hand from her shoulder to her hip, his hand resting there, pulling her closer.
Bass removed her clothing piece by piece until she lay nude beside him. He slowly explored her body with his hands and mouth. As he nuzzled her breasts, she reached up to pull his shirt off, desperate to feel his skin on hers. His muscles flexed under her touch. The shudder that went through him as she ran one hand down his chest aroused her further. She moaned and writhed as he tortured and teased her nipples with his lips.
He was determined to memorize every curve, knowing that this may very well be his only chance. He separated himself from her just long enough to kick off his jeans before joining her once again. Charlie rolled on top of him, capturing his mouth as he dug one hand into her hip, his other wrapped in her hair. He wanted her, now. He went to take control again when it registered with him that they were sliding off of the cot. He braced himself and rolled to take the brunt of the fall.
She pulled away in a daze and stared at him for a moment. "Oops," he said, smiling at her. They both erupted in laughter. He gently cupped her face, bringing it towards his as their laughter faded. As their lips met, he reached up and whipped the blanket off the cot, tossing it next to him before rolling her on to it. He settled himself between her thighs, spreading them with his hands.
Charlie watched Bass with hooded eyes as she he finally thrust himself into her. She wrapped her arms around him as he began to move within her. He claimed her mouth again as he set the pace, her hips rising to meet his thrust for thrust. "Like this," he murmured against her lips as he pushed them further to their breaking points. She knew then that this was how he'd wanted her the night she'd cornered him. Bass held her close as she shattered around him before he found his own release. Later, as he drifted off to sleep, Bass realized that he had already forgiven her. How could he not, after everything he'd done in the past? To do otherwise would make him hypocrite.
Charlie woke slowly as the sun began to rise. She was wearing one of his shirts. She must have gotten cold sometime in the night, but she couldn't recall when she'd put it on. She was currently alone in the tent. Stretching, thoughts of the previous night ran through her mind. Charlie smiled to herself, feeling better than she had in weeks. She knew she should probably be getting dressed, but instead she snuggled back down under the blanket.
Bass found her that way, already asleep again. He could see the top of her head poking out. Sighing, he spoke, effectively waking her up. "Planning on sleeping all day?" Charlie opened her eyes and peeked out from under the blanket. She watched as he set down a cup and a plate of what looked like beans and some type of meat.
"You're bringing me breakfast in bed?" she asked, offering him a sleepy grin.
He shook his head. Laughing, he sat down next to her on the cot. "Brat. Get up and eat. We've got a long day of walking ahead of us."
Charlie sobered at his mention of her going back. She sat up slowly, dreading it. He read her expression, his own softening. "You can't stay here, Charlie," he said as he leaned over to press his lips to her temple. "It isn't safe for you with the clan. Duncan's men or not, they won't hesitate if they catch you alone. You're too tempting." As he added that last part, he had slid a finger into the shirt she had wrapped around her, pulling it open to expose her breasts.
Playfully, she slapped his hand away as she reached for the cup of coffee and plate he'd brought. She offered to share, but he indicated he'd already eaten. As she ate he puttered around the tent, readying his pack and checking his pistol. He was trying to busy himself, trying to avoid the elephant in the room. Unable to keep herself quiet, Charlie finally spoke up. "So what now?"
Sitting back down, Bass watched her carefully before he responded. "I take you back and we wait for the next battle."
Charlie set the plate back down on the makeshift table. "So that's it? One night, see you later?"
Bass rested his elbows on his knees and looked at the ground. "What else are we supposed to do, Charlie? Where can this lead? I'd never had any intention of telling you how I felt for a reason. There's not future here."
Charlie stood up and slowly began to pull on her pants. "Why can't there be?"
He could hear the sorrow in her voice, which matched his own. "Even if we somehow survive all of this, what are you going to do? I told you before, I am a dead man no matter how this ends. If you stay with me, you'll only get caught in the crossfire." As he spoke, he watched her take off his shirt. That shirt was the last part of the previous night that had remained.
She abruptly turned around to face him now as she slipped her tank over her head. "After the Patriots are gone, we could always leave. There's got to be somewhere."
He put his head in his hands, desperate to get her to understand. "And what are you going to do when I die of old age at sixty and you're thirty-five and young and alone? Far away from everyone else you know? What then Charlie? People don't live as long as they did before the blackout."
Charlie had never thought of it that way. She knew he was so much older than her, but it never even crossed her mind they'd survive long enough for him to get old. "Then I will be grateful that either one of us lived that long."
He looked up at her incredulous. "You really are something, you know that?" He pulled her to him, and held her close, resting the side of his face up against her stomach. He was content to just sit there like that, when an anxious voice broke the peaceful silence that had settled.
"Monroe, you have to come quick. Charlie is missing." Bass turned his head to see Gene Porter panting in the entrance to the tent. In his panic, Gene had failed to notice the tent's other occupant. "She went hunting yesterday, and…" He interrupted himself as he did a double take, just now realizing who was in Bass' embrace. "Charlie?"
A/N: I think it's kind of in most fans head canons that Bass is the textbook definition for the ultimate shag. And, I could have written their scene a little sexier (and I might add another, more naughty chapter later) But I think given the way Charlie tried to make things cheap in chapter 1 that it was important for it to be more emotional than that, leaving the banging o' brains out for later, so I hope I didn't disappoint there after all of the buildup. Also, there have been so many fics with Miles catching them, that I thought I'd explore a new angle and have grandpa walk in. Other than the brief moments at his execution and after Bass brought Gene to Miles after the holiday break, there haven't been a lot of interactions between Bass and Gene on the show. I think there should be.
