By the time she let go both of them were crying. Jason wanted to run over and comfort her, hold her close, but Nora put a hand on his shoulder. "Give them some time." She said to him and Jason listened.
Charlie was crying and couldn't seem to force herself to stop. All those days where she'd blocked her emotions so that Monroe wouldn't know she was hurting, but now she could let it out, she was safe with Miles.
"Miles, you came." She whispered.
"Did you ever think I wouldn't?"
"I told you not to. If Monroe sees you he'll kill you."
"And if I didn't come he'd kill you."
"Why did you come for me? You had your get out of jail card, I couldn't annoy you into doing things you didn't want to."
"Because we're family, kid." He teased.
"That's my line." She laughed.
"Do you want to stand up and see your mother, Aaron, Nora and your boyfriend?"
"I want to, but I don't think I can. The running for my life sort of hurt a little. I can't stand up." She smiled, but it came out more of a grimace.
"You do realize that when we have time you're going to have to tell us everything he did to you? We need to see Charlie, so that we can know how to help."
"I know, Miles, I know."
Miles turned round and waved Nora over, Nora came over and hugged Charlie, before she put one of Charlie's arms over her shoulder and helped her stand up, with Miles on the other side. When she was on her feet she moved her arm off of Nora's shoulder, letting Miles alone help her. "Thanks Nora, but I don't want two people helping me. I need to be able to walk and not need a lot of help if we're going to get out of here."
"Charlie, its fine. You don't need to justify it." Nora smiled.
"If you'd come over here, it'd be a lot easier." Miles said to Aaron, Rachel and Jason. They all came over. Aaron got the first hug.
"I didn't think I'd see you again." Charlie whispered to him.
"Me either, Charlie. Me either."
When Aaron moved back Rachel took his place.
"Mom." Charlie whispered her eyes full of tears again.
"Charlie," Her mother whispered back, embracing her in her arms. "You're lucky Aaron spotted you in Monroe's tent, I was going to blow it up."
"That wouldn't have been too good for me." Charlie grinned, "I didn't think, I didn't think I'd see you again. You told me you weren't coming back."
"I also told you I was coming back in a few months when I left the first time, it seems I've got the two phrases mixed up."
Rachel moved away and Jason took her place. "I'm sorry Charlie. I was right there, I let them take-"She cut off his rambling by brushing his lips with hers, only lightly, Miles was still liable to murder him.
"Grace?" Rachel asked suddenly. The petit woman smiled warmly.
"Your daughter Rachel?" Rachel nodded.
"Wait, Grace? As in Grace Beaumont?" Aaron interrupted.
Grace nodded.
"I've been looking for you for a very long time."
Everyone went quiet for a moment. Nora and Charlie moved to the side to have a talk, Rachel, Aaron and Grace were having a nice catch up and then there was Tom, Jason and Miles that just stood round looking a little bit awkward.
Nobody was looking towards where Charlie and Nora were, but only for a moment. Jason and Miles were busy half listening to Tom talk about his favorite topic, himself. "Miles." Miles knew that voice well, it was the one Charlie used when she was worried or trying to cover up how she was feeling. He turned on his heels and looked towards where Charlie and Nora had been standing.
He cursed. Nora was unconscious on the floor, how nobody had heard that was beyond him and Charlie was pinned against a wall with a gun to her temple, her back to all of them. "What are you doing?" Rachel cried.
"Stop this, that's her daughter. Remember? Rachel brought her by the office once a few weeks before her son was born. You met her, Robert, you met her when she was three." Grace said as she took a few hesitant steps forward.
"We kill her, this tower is safe. We kill her and the power can't be erased and it can't be brought back on. If Monroe tries to turn the power back
on, the world could die, it isn't worth it!"
Miles started to move towards his niece, but then he noticed that all the scientists that had been milling about moments ago, had all formed what appeared to be a ring around Miles, Aaron, Tom, Jason, Rachel, Grace and Nora, Charlie and Robert and all of them had guns. Miles swore again.
Grace took control of the situation first. "What if we need to turn the power back on? What if the world will die without it? We can't just kill an innocent girl because of worries."
"We can kill this girl because without her there isn't a fifty percent chance of pressing the enter key and setting the world on fire!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Somebody said. Miles cursed and looked over the other way. Monroe.
The reaction of everyone in the group was almost instant. Everyone stood in three different groups, there were the crazy scientists holding Charlie and Nora hostage, Monroe and his militia and Miles, Rachel, Aaron, Jason, Tom and Grace.
Nora's eyes fluttered open and she got a face full of floor. She lolled her head to the side a little and looked round. She was on the floor with all the scientists behind her, Monroe and his men at the main door, in front and to her left and Miles and the gang directly in front of her, near the kitchen and what could have been a back door.
She met Miles's eyes and he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds before opening them again. Nora understood what he meant; he meant that she needed to make them think she was still unconscious.
"Give us the girl." Monroe ordered.
"We'll give you this one." One of the scientists barked as they grabbed Nora from the floor and before she knew what was happening they through her light frame across the room. She hit the floor hard, but then hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her onto her feet.
Monroe smiled at her and twisted her round in his arms so that she was facing both the other groups of people. So the situation was simple. The scientists could shoot Charlie, Monroe and Miles and the gang, Monroe could shoot her and Miles and the gang, but not the scientists because they had who he wanted and Miles and the gang couldn't shoot anyone. Completely par for the course.
"So, this is how I see it. There is no way we can accomplish this." Grace said as she stood just a little way in front of both Miles and Rachel. "Robert, if you shoot Charlie, Monroe and all of us over here will open fire on you. Monroe, if you shoot Nora, us over here will open fire on you and maybe Robert and the scientists would join in."
"Well, Miss Beaumont, is it? The way I see it we could just kill both of them now and then all our problems would be solved anyway." Monroe said to her. "And then we could turn on all of you and make sure that we kill Aaron Pittman."
Grace swallowed. "None of us want to shoot each other, we can come to a civilized agreement about this and nobody has to die."
"But we want everyone to die anyway." Monroe said.
Nora found that she was the only one looking at Charlie now. She met her eyes and could tell that Charlie had a plan. It was then that Nora noticed that Robert had loosened his grip on Charlie almost completely. Monroe also wasn't being very vigilant holding Nora. Both the girls nodded and both of them moved at the same time. All it took for Nora was for her to give Monroe an elbow to the gut and he reflexively let go of her, he wasn't used to people fighting him. Robert took a little more effort. Charlie elbowed him in the gut, kicked him in the shins and then managed to twist round and punch him in the face, sending him falling backwards.
In the chaos they ran back to Miles and the others and back out into the tower. "Meet at the copter. Everyone split up." Tom ordered. They were a bit shocked that he was ordering them about by they accepted it as being the right thing to do, so they did. Miles, Charlie and Rachel went one way, Tom and Jason went another and Aaron and Nora and Grace another.
Miles held Charlie's hand and refused to let go. He could tell when she was in pain, she slowed down considerably. "Charlie, you need to keep going. You can do it kid."
"I'm trying. I'm really trying Miles." She panted.
"I know you are, but they're going to catch us if we don't keep going." Her eyes widened with panic and she wasn't looking at Miles anymore. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Monroe was right there. He moved himself so that he was standing in front of Charlie and he raised his gun. So did Charlie and Rachel.
"Now, friend, you can't win a shootout. You're out gunned and out manned. So, are you going to come with us, or do you want us to kill all three of you now?"