A/N Ok, so we switch point of views between Charlie and Bass in this chapter a few times. I marked them so I hope you guys don't get confused. :-)
June 28, 2030
Chicago, Illinois
Stonewall Security Firm, Bass' office
Two months and three days since Miles' death.
Nineteen days. Nineteen days, seven hours, and roughly fifteen minutes. That's how long it had been since the last time he saw Charlie. When he left her apartment, he had been angry and hurt, and since that night, his heart constantly felt like it was sitting in his stomach. Not sleeping, barely eating, and in a constant zombie-like state. Even his co-workers had noticed his strange behavior, he could hear them whispering about him when he walked down the hallway.
Bass couldn't remember ever feeling so torn. When his parents and sisters died, Miles had been there for him thoughout the entire thing. Then when Miles died, Charlie had been there for him to lean on. But now with no Charlie and Miles' death still sitting fresh on his heart, he wasn't sure what to do with himself.
"Your doing it again." Jeremy Baker's voice broke him out of his internal hate-fest.
Feigning innocence, because he knew exactly what Jeremy was talking about, he asked, "doing what?"
Jeremy frowned at him, but looked more sympathetic than annoyed. "Staring at that picture," he pointed to the frame sitting on Bass' desk, "everytime I pass your office, you're either staring into space or looking at that picture."
Bass looked sadly at the frame on his desk. It was a picture of him and Miles, his arm around Miles' shoulders while a little Charlie hung off of Miles' other arm. The picture had been taken at the zoo, a nice lady with two kids had offered to take the picture while the three of them stood in front of the glass separating them from the tigers in the enclosure. He could remember Charlie's face at seeing them in the cage, she had been sad, thinking that the poor 'kitties', were locked in a cage. Miles had consoled her by saying that it was to keep the tigers safe, though Bass wondered if he actually meant keeping the people safe from the tigers.
"See, told you." Bass' head snapped back in Jeremy's direction and he smiled guiltily.
"Sorry, I just..." But what exactly, he wasn't sure. He absolutely missed Miles, but he was starting to think that he actually missed Charlie more. Everything he did reminded him of her. Brush his teeth, there's her toothbrush still sitting on his counter. Do some laundry, oh look, one of her bras. Charlie was everywhere in his house, but no where at the same time, which left his heart twice as heavy and his head twice as confused.
"I know you miss him... I do too." Jeremy had obviously misread why, exactly, he was upset, but Bass wasn't about to correct him. "Actually I've been thinking that we should all do something together, you know, like in honor of Miles."
Bass smiled at him, Jeremy was no Miles, but he was a great friend none the less. "Yeah, sounds good. Any ideas?"
"Poker night," Jeremy grinned like a kid in a candy store. "Me, you, Ben, and Aaron. Oh, and lots of whiskey."
Bass couldn't help but smile, Miles' perfect tribute, poker and whiskey. "Definately, we can do it at my place, Charlie gave me the poker table when we cleared out the house."
"Oh, we should invite Charlie, too." Jeremy looked particularly happy with himself for having thought of it, but Bass' stomach dropped, if possible, even lower. "She should be there with us, I mean, he was her dad."
Bass nodded slowly. "Yeah man, great idea."
"Alright, tomorrow night. I'll call everybody else, but you should call Charlie," Bass looked up at him in shock, thinking that he couldn't possibly know anything about the two of them. But Jeremy merely rolled his eyes, "I just mean that she'll probably take it better from you. Plus, I don't do well with crying."
He snorted, knowing that Jeremy was right. "Ok, I'll call her."
"Great, I'll bring the snacks. See you tomorrow." Jeremy gave him a big smile as he left his office, and as soon as he was out of sight Bass slumped back into his chair with a groan.
Nineteen days since he last spoke to Charlie, and now he had to call and invite her to poker night, at his house, in Miles' honor. To say that he wasn't looking forward to it, would be the understatement of the century.
The next day
Ultimately, he had chickened out. He hadn't called her to tell her about the game, he sent her a text to invite her. A part of Bass had even expected her to ignore the message just because it was from him, but she had texted him back not much later saying that she wouldn't miss it.
Wouldn't miss the game or him?
That was one of the many, many, thoughts filling his head as he moved the coffee table from the center of his living room in order to make way for the poker table. Jeremy was already in the kitchen putting chips in bowls and setting out plates for the pizza Ben was bringing. Aaron would be providing the alcohol for the evening, because he was a billionaire and could afford shit like that.
All too soon, the front door opened and Aaron came into the house with Priscilla at his heels, each of them carrying various bottles of alcohol. She waved and smiled as they headed into the kitchen and Bass went to close the front door behind them, but was stopped by Ben coming into the house carrying pizza boxes. Bass tried to shut the door again, but had to wait because Charlie was coming up to the door carrying what looked like a tray of cookies.
She was dressed in simple jeans and a t-shirt, her usual after-hours Converse on her feet. God, she was beautiful. Twenty days apart and the mere sight of her nearly had him on his knees.
"Hey, Bass." Her voice was soft as she slipped past him and headed straight for the kitchen. He had to hold back a groan as her shoulder brushed against his chest and closed his eyes, praying to the gods to just let him get through this one night.
He followed her to where everyone was congregated in the kitchen. Charlie was hugging Jeremy and Ben was chatting with Aaron about some nerd project he was working on. Priscilla came over to him and gave him a hug.
"I'm going over to Ben and Rachel's to have a girls night, but I'll be back to pick them up around eleven," she pointed at Aaron and Charlie, "tomorrow may be Saturday, but we have a lot of work to do. So do me a favor and don't let them get too drunk." They both laughed and he walked her to the door.
"I make no promises." She laughed as she walked down the driveway and he shut the door behind her.
He turned around to find Jeremy already nice and comfortable with a slice of pizza in his hand and his feet propped up on the table. "What's it gonna take to get some service around here, where's the booze?"
Ben and Aaron came into the room each of them carrying two empty glasses, Aaron gave one to Jeremy and Ben gave him one, Charlie came trailing behind them with her own glass and a plate piled high with pizza. The boys took their regular seats at the table, Bass sat with Ben on his left and Jeremy on his right, Aaron sat on Jeremy's other side, which left the only empty seat between Ben and Aaron.
Charlie didn't sit down, she looked at the empty space at the table. That was where Miles always sat. The boys wouldn't let Bass and Miles sit next to each other because they were afraid they might cheat, which was stupid because they could talk to each other with just a look and they always ended up cheating anyways.
Before Charlie sat down, she filled everybody's glass with a good amount of whiskey and then held hers up silently in a toast. They all followed suit and downed the first glass all in one. She refilled their glasses and sat down while Jeremy started shuffling the deck.
"Well on the bright side," Aaron's voice was full of mock cheerfulness, "at least we don't have to worry about the wonder twins cheating anymore."
"Hey, we never cheated, you guys just suck at poker!" They were all trying to hide their smiles behind their hands at his defensive tone. Finally, Charlie couldn't hold it in anymore and snorted loudly.
"Whatever, my dad even told me you guys cheated. He said you had a system set up for it and everything."
Bass gaped at her. "He told you that?"
"Yup." She let the P, pop as it passed through her lips and she took another sip of her drink casually, like Miles had told her those sorts of things everyday.
He sat back in his seat scowling. He and Miles had been using the same system to cheat ever since Mr. Matheson had sat them down and taught them to play when they were eleven years old. He couldn't believe Miles told Charlie about it. Then again, maybe it wasn't so hard to believe, the two of them had been the closest father and daughter he had ever seen.
While his mind had been wandering, Jeremy had already dealt the cards and the game was started. They never actually played for money, it was just fun to play and have each other's company. As time wore on, Bass was nearly out of chips while Jeremy's pile had been growing significantly. Ben had always been terrible at poker, so it wasn't surprising that he had barely any left. Aaron and Charlie were both doing better than he was, and he felt stupid for letting his internal rambling get in the way of the game. Miles would have been so disappointed in him. He took poker very seriously, of course.
The group had finally finished catching up on all things boring and had lapsed into a comfortable silence, the only time they spoke was to place their bets or fold. Bass had to keep reminding himself not to look at Charlie, he was the one that ended it, so he had no right to look at her. Plus, she had been avoiding looking at him all night, so she clearly didn't want to see him.
When he finally worked up the courage to look at her, it was to find her blue eyes staring back at him. She seemed startled that he had looked up so suddenly and looked away from him, a slight blush rising on her cheeks. Seeing her blush like that made his heart beat speed up and all of a sudden, all he could think about was grabbing her and pounding her into the table. Forget poker, forget Aaron and Jeremy, hell, forget her uncle that was sitting right next to him. In that moment, Charlie was all he wanted.
Bass shook his head and cleared his throat, trying to clear his head so he could finish out the game with at least some of his dignity left.
OpOpOpOpOp
Charlie was embarassed that Bass had caught her staring. The man hadn't looked at her the entire night, so she hadn't been expecting it when his eyes finally turned her way.
She missed him, oh, how she missed him. Curly, blonde hair and clear, blue eyes. His toned body pressed up against hers and his insanely intoxicating scent, a mixture of whiskey and Bass. All she wanted to do was force the boys out the front door and drag him into the bedroom to have her way with him.
But she knew that was never going to happen again. She could still hear the anger in his voice when he left 'I can't put up with all of your childish bullshit anymore.' That's what he thought of her, a child, she ruined her chance and now she would just have to live with it.
The game was coming to a close, Jeremy was clearly going to win, and she knew that she needed to get the news out before she lost her chance. She didn't want to have to tell Bass with no one else around, she didn't think she could handle anymore of his condescension or disappointment.
"I got an offer on the house." Everyone's eyes were on her, the boys' expressions ranged from shocked, to relieved, to hurt. Bass was obviously the hurt one.
"Yeah, and I accepted it. I'm supposed to go and sign the paperwork tomorrow." Charlie gave them all a minute for the news to sink in, everyone except for Bass seemed to be handling it pretty well. He had shut his eyes and turned his head away from her, as if he couldn't bear the sight of her.
"I'm glad everything worked out, kid. Now you don't have to worry about it anymore and you can really move on." Uncle Ben patted her arm and gave her a warm smile before throwing his cards down on the table. "Well, I'm out. I gotta piss," he looked down at Charlie, "I meant pee, don't tell your mom I said that, she likes to pretend like you're still five."
She chuckled, shaking her head as her uncle made his way to the bathroom, swaying as he went.
"He's right, Charlie." She looked up to find Bass staring at her intently. "Your dad would be happy, he never wanted you to have to carry that kind of burden for him." She couldn't tell if he was still mad at her or if he genuinely meant it, so she avoided the entire conversation by placing her bet.
Uncle Ben came back into the living room and plopped down on the couch with a groan. "God, I don't think I've drank this much since Miles threw me that party after Charlie moved in with him."
They all chuckled at him while he started searching his pockets. "Hey, you guys seen my phone?"
"Check down in the couch, it has a tendancy to eat things." Bass laughed his own little joke and then groaned as Aaron took the last of his chips.
Ben reached down in between the couch cushions and pulled out a pair of black lace panties with a look of surprise on his face. Charlie felt her eyes go wide and snapped her head over to look at Bass who was wearing an equally horrified expression. They were her missing black panties from the night of their first date.
Ben tossed them onto the seat next to him. "Gross. Now I need to go wash my hands again." He got up and waddled back to the bathroom while Jeremy and Aaron roared with laughter.
When they fially calmed down, Aaron wiped the tears from his eyes and Jeremy punched Bass' shoulder. "Black lace, that's nice man."
Charlie had to focus really hard on the opposite wall to keep her face from going brick red as her uncle came back into the room, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, gotta love a classy girl."
She couldn't help it. Charlie groaned loudly and smacked a hand to her forehead. Her uncle just said that he liked her underwear because it was classy. Gross.
Ben misunderstood her dilema, thinking that she thought he was refering to her mother. "Oh come on, Charlie. I hope you didn't think your brother just fell out of the sky."
Her mom and Uncle Ben, black lace, Danny. The images running through her mind were too much. "I think I'm gonna be sick. Change the suject, please."
The boys all laughed, but Jeremy happily obliged. "Bass, I didn't even know you were seeing anyone. Were you ever planning on telling anybody?"
She saw Bass' eyes shift slightly in her direction before moving back to Jeremy. "I'm not seeing anyone... we broke things off."
"We? Or did you break things off," Ben's voice came from over on the couch.
Bass sighed before admitting, "I did. But it was for the best, for both of us."
Ben looked at him carefully, "wait, you actually liked this girl." Bass didn't answer, but his blush was more than enough of an answer. "Then why did you break it off?"
"I ended it because the relationship wasn't right for either of us."
"Right..." Ben's voice trailed off like he didn't really believe him and Bass was starting to get defensive.
"What is that supposed to mean? It's the truth."
Ben held up his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright, I'm just saying that you do this all the time. You go out with a girl but as soon as she gets too close, you push her away. Don't you think it's time to move forward with your life? Your not getting any younger Bass." His statement was met with a stony silence. Charlie was trying to keep her head down while also being interested in what Bass' response might be. Aaron and Jeremy were keeping quiet in order to see how the conversation was going to play out.
When it became clear that Bass wasn't going to say anything else on the suject the room fell into an awkward silence, broken only by the shuffling of the cards. Aaron and Charlie finally lost all of their chips, making Jeremy a winner for the first time since he had joined her father's poker nights.
As they all congratulated him, Priscilla texted Aaron to tell him that she was outside. Charlie hugged Ben and Jeremy goodbye and gave Bass a tight smile and an awkward, one-armed hug on her way out of the house. She hurried to the car, and hopped in the backseat, breathing easily for the first time in what felt like hours while she tried to hide the moisture in her eyes.
OpOpOpOpOp
Bass helped Jeremy into his girlfriend's car when she came to get him and went back inside, breathing a sigh of relief now that the night was over. It hadn't been that bad up until Ben found those panties. He cursed his stupid couch and its habit of eating people's belongings.
"Sorry about earlier." Ben's voice made him jump, he had forgotten that he was still here.
"Don't worry about it." He moved to go around Ben, but he put a hand on his arm to stop him.
"Hey, listen, I'm just trying to help. Look... Miles always worried about you and now that he's gone, I guess it's my job now. I know it's been a long time since Shelly, but it's time to move on. Miles would want you to be happy."
March 13, 2014
Miles Matheson's house
Charlie is six years old.
"Two years, and that's it... no note. Nothing. She's just gone." Bass' voice was full of heartbreak.
"Are you sure she left? Maybe she had a family emergency or something, maybe she'll come back." Miles took another sip of his beer as he watched his best friend, slumped in a chair on the back porch while Charlie played in the yard.
"No. All her stuff is gone, she's not coming back." Bass' voice broke as he choked on his words, Miles patted his back awkwardly.
"Hang on, I'll get you another beer." As Miles disappeared thought the sliding glass door, Charlie came bounding up the steps and ran full out straight into him. Out of instinct, he caught her easily and she sat happily on his lap. But she frowned when she noticed his tears.
"Why are you sad, 'Bastian?"
He couldn't help but smile as he looked at her big, blue eyes, so full of the innocense only a child could have. "Everybody leaves me." The words left his mouth before he could stop them, that wasn't really the kind of thing you tell a six year old. But she merely smiled up at him and flung her arms around his neck.
"I'll never leave you, I promise." The matter of fact tone in her voice brought tears to his eyes and he wrapped his arms around the little girl. She was really something else.
"Thank you, Charlotte." She leaned back with a big smile on her face. "Guess what? I found a spider, you wanna come see?" Miles had come back out of the house with more beers in hand in time to hear their conversation, and laughed at the terrified look on his friends face.
"No honey, leave Bass alone, go play." Little Charlie rolled her eyes at her father but took off running all the same. Bass watched her go, marvelling at how the simple words of a six year old could ease the pain in his chest.
"Well," Miles laughed, "at least you know you'll always have Charlie." Bass joined him in laughing.
"Yeah, well at this rate, I'll probably still be single by the time she's old enough to date." They both laughed even harder before Miles punched his shoulder.
"Keep your hands off of my daughter."
Bass chuckled, gesturing in Charlie's direction. "Oh please, look at her. I bet she's gonna be hot as hell, and I'm gonna be the least of your worries."
Miles groaned and leaned back in his chair, which only made Bass laugh even harder. Teasing Miles always made him feel better. Their laughter faded away and the two men sat in comfortable silence sipping their drinks. As the sky darkened, Miles broke the silence.
"You'll find her Bass, and I don't mean Shelly. Somewhere out there is your perfect girl, and you'll find her eventually." Bass turned to his best friend, his brother.
"Yeah, and what about you?"
Miles merely shrugged, "I don't need one. I've got Charlie." They both watched her as she carried a jar, likely full of spiders, towards the tree and sat down to study them. "But I guess until you find your girl we can share Charlie, it's not like we haven't shared everything else."
Bass chuckled, never taking his eyes off of the little girl in question. "She is one amazing kid. I honestly don't understand how she could be related to you."
To his surprise, Miles nodded in agreement. "She's more than I deserve, that's for sure. I guess I just got lucky."
They lapsed into silence again, Bass thinking that he felt just as lucky to have that little girl in his life.
Present
Ben gave him one last pat on the back as Rachel pulled up, Bass waved politely to Charlie's mother and rolled his eyes at the glare she sent him.
With Ben's words on his mind and that long lost memory fresh in his brain, Bass suddenly realized how incredibly stupid he'd been. Of course Miles would want him to be happy. Would he like that Charlie was the one that did that? Probably not. But the more that Bass thougth about it, the clearer it became, that Miles would have dealt with it if it meant that he and Charlie were happy. Miles would have adapted, he was a soldier, that's what soldiers do.
Bass' heart was thumping wildly in his chest at the realization. He should never had said those things, Charlie wasn't just Miles' daughter. She was a beautiful woman, her own person, who for some insane reason had feelings for him. Him.
Then reality sunk in. She had feelings for him before, but now? He had ruined everything, and the worst part was, Ben had been right. Charlie had gotten too close, and he let his fear push her away, using Miles as an excuse.
He climbed into his bed, thinking that none of it mattered anyway. He blew it. Now that he had finally realized just how much she actually meant to him, it was too late, Charlie didn't want anything to do with him anymore.
A/N I know... no Charloe reunion, YET. I wanted to do a Bass and Miles flashback, and then had to add Charlie in there because she's just to darn cute. :-) Thanks for reading and leave me a review if you have a minute!
