Bass was still stuck on bed rest for much longer than he would have preferred before his wound had finally healed enough that he was able to convince Charlie he was actually in good enough condition to be up and walking around.

There was still a faint bruise and it bothered him somewhat, but for the most part he was able to ignore it. That was especially true whenever Charlie was nearby.

He'd just finished complaining to Miles about how the other man should feel sorry for him, since he still hadn't fully healed yet, when she walked into the room.

"What are you two talking about?" She asked them.

"Bass was just bitching about how fragile and still injured he is," Miles told her with a smirk. "Really, you should be careful. He's like a China doll."

Bass glared over at his friend before defending himself, "I am not fragile."

Miles ignored that though as he continued to tell his niece, "You should have heard him. All morning he hasn't shut up about how much it's been bothering him."

Maybe he was exaggerating a little, but Miles didn't mind. He was having fun.

"I said one thing," Bass argued with Miles before insisting, "It's not even bothering me anymore."

"Look, now he's healed. It's a miracle," Miles commented sarcastically.

Charlie laughed a little at that as her uncle headed past her towards the doorway.

She wasn't sure of exactly what she and Bass were or how much things were going to change with him off bed rest. Up until that point, he'd either been dying or stuck in bed with her as his caretaker and token distraction. Things had grown comfortable with him on bed rest and she found herself hoping that things weren't going to be different or weird now that they were outside of that room and back to what was normal life for them.

"Miles is a terrible liar," Bass insisted.

"Really?" She taunted. "Because I seem to remember you doing a lot of complaining while you were stuck in bed."

"Exactly," he told her. "I'm out of bed now. I'm in good enough condition that you don't have to worry about hurting me. What's there to complain about?"

Charlie thought that the idea of her mother watching them like a hawk now that he was up and about was probably worth complaining about, but she decided against it. They'd made an agreement to try to ignore Rachel in order to keep them arguing about her and she didn't need to break that arrangement. The system seemed to be working and she figured that they'd be seeing enough of her mother during the next couple of days, at the very least, that she didn't need to waste time alone with Bass thinking about her.

She took a couple of steps towards him before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him a lot less gently than she ever had before. She felt his lips quirk up slightly as she let her chest press against his.

When she pulled away from him, she still remained standing in the same place as her arms loosened their hold around his neck, but didn't let go.

"Are you sure you're not still recovering?" She asked him with a playful smirk.

"I've never felt better," he insisted as his hands moved to rest on her hips.

"You'd say that no matter what condition you were in, wouldn't you?" She accused.

"I definitely would," he agreed. "But I don't have to lie this time."

"I don't know," Charlie teased him. "The last thing you probably want to do right now is get back into a bed."

"So we won't go in a bed," he insisted.

"Right," she responded sarcastically. "We'll just stay right here where anyone can walk in on us."

And she was sure that people would, especially her mother.

"You know, I was just thinking," he told her as if he'd had a sudden realization. "I was locked up there for a long time. I could use some exercise. I should really go get some fresh air. Stretch my legs... Care to join me?"

She let out a small laugh at the way he was trying to word it as if he wasn't inviting her to go have sex in the middle of the woods.

"Sure," she agreed. "Since I need the fresh air."

The pair walked down the hallway together towards the front door and it was clear by Miles' expression that they were definitely not fooling anyone, or at least they were not fooling him.

"Try not to have a building collapse on you again," he told them with a smirk as he watched them head for the door.

The End


A/N: Please read and review! A ginormous thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, LemonSupreme, banneg, and crschuetz for reviewing last chapter! :D