Charlie needed the time that separated her from sunrise, that separated her from meeting his eyes, to calm herself down and shake the dream off. She tried to put some distance between her and the intense waves of her dream.

Distance between her and his deep voice close to her ear.

Distance between her and his hand under her tank top.

The raw feeling of lust and desire.

For him.

But most of all she was completely overwhelmed that it had been him, that it had been Monroe who was able to let her body respond with hunger for him. Sure, she had noticed before that he was not the worse guy to look at, but this impossible want for this one man was new.

Charlie wanted to be the first person to be up, so she could get up and quite literally put some distance between her and him. But that plan had failed. She had fallen asleep again, and when she woke up, she noticed that everyone had started their day. Well, almost everybody, Miles was still in deep sleep on the bed not far away from her, her mother asleep next to him.

The sunlight was sharp, making her eyes blink when she walked outside. There was still a chill in the air, so she put on her jacket.

The first person she noticed was Aaron, sitting down, his eyes full of grieve. She walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulders. They had buried Cynthia a little further ahead, after Horn put a bullet in her, right in front of Aaron. Aaron had still not talked to her grandfather, something she understood, after his betrayal. She squeezed his shoulder before she walked on.

She was thirsty and decided to head for the water pump, behind their safe house. She let the cold water run through her hands, and splashed some water in her face to wake her up, and to force out the persistent last images of her dream.

The cold water brought her back to her senses.

That was until she heard familiar footsteps right behind her. Charlie could feel her back tense up. She removed some drops of water from her lips with the back of her hand before she turned around. She looked directly in the face of the man who's hands, lips and touch she was trying to forget so hard since she had woken up.

When Bass had woken up there was this noise he couldn't place at first. Then he watched how Charlie was moving under her blanket. He was ready to move over to her to shake her out of her nightmare, like he had done some times before, when they were on the road from Vegas to Willoughby.

But just before he had wanted to move, she had started to moan softly. It was dark in the room, but not dark enough for him to prevent to see how her lips were slightly parted, her body moving slowly, her head tilted back when she let out another moan. What the hell? Her breathing accelerated, becoming more shallow. Then the moaning slowly fading away.

He had only wanted to screw with her, so when she walked to the pump he had followed her. And now he had been following her hand, and how it removed drops of water that were on her lips.

'Got a good night of sleep, Charlotte?' His voice still roughly from the hours of sleep.

'Just fine Monroe, how about you? The floor not too hard for your back?' She snapped at him, but not too unfriendly. She watched his bare arm, he was wearing a simple shirt, that brought out the edgy lines of his muscles in his arms.

'Water is all yours,' she nodded in the direction of the pump next to her before she started to walk back. Did she just see a hint of amusement in his eyes?

'Are you sure, you looked quite thirsty just now,' his eyes were on a point in the distance on his right.

There was something in his voice that warned her, bracing herself for what could come next.

'And a little flushed, I have to say,' He turned his head back to her, his eyes pierced into hers.

'Something to do with your good night of sleep?' There was a smirk around his lips.

The way he had pronounced the word good brought a shiver through Charlie's spine. Charlie forced herself to not look away. She never did when it came to Monroe. Her mind racing. So, apparently he had been awake, he had noticed her. But there was no way in hell she was going to back down.

'Oh, it was good Monroe,' casually crossing her arms before her chest, raising one eyebrow at him, 'real good, the amazing kind of good.' she spoke the words slowly, never letting go of his gaze.

Bass had a hard time swallowing all of a sudden. Charlie standing close to him, something deep in her eyes he never saw before. The sound of her moaning so damn close to him last night, suddenly echoing in his ears. There was no mocking in her voice. Fuck, she had meant it, they both knew damn well what they were talking about. It made him want to take her mouth with his. Now.

Charlie noticed how his eyes got bigger, and she watched how he swallowed with unease while his eyes were glued to her. It gave her strong sense of satisfaction to see his reaction.

She then turned away from him, a small smile around her lips, leaving Monroe behind, not saying another word to him.

One week later

One moment she stood by a water pump with Monroe, another moment Charlie found herself in the middle of a quarantine camp, helping her grandfather with a sudden outbreak of what seemed to be nothing less than typhus. After her little moment with Monroe things had kicked into high daily life gear. Charlie had heard Monroe talking about his son before, when he was arguing with Miles right before they had to save Aaron.

Her mother, Miles and Monroe left a week ago to finally find him, Monroe not wanting to waist another moment, something she understood. She had walked out the room when Bass had demanded time with Miles, and there was this werid pull of her shoulder touchgin his on the way out. It was like they both were playing with personal distance.

There was still no sign from them. Charlie had watched them leave, her look drawn to him when he disappeared in the distance. Three forms, three horses.

It was weird not having them all around, the safe house felt strangely empty when they all had left. What didn't help with that feeling of emptiness was the fact that Aaron had decided to take off in the middle of the night, leaving her pissed off and her and her grandfather behind. She had tried to track him down but Aaron knew her well enough to make sure she wasn't able to follow him that far.

When they had been looking for Aaron, her grandfather had stumbled upon what appeared to be a quarantine camp, lead by the same people that were holding their town. She had warned her grandfather to stay away from the camp, but just like her mother, listening wasn't his strong point. When she realised he did the exact opposite of staying away, she had sighed with irritation and grabbed her weapons and decided to help him. That had been the plan, but of course, it had backfired. They ended up in the middle an outbreak, Truman asking for their help, leaving them with no other choice than stay and give that help.

They did everything they could, but Charlie had to watch how the virus did its devastating work. Her body felt tired, and it was frustrating to see so much death around her. She was just taking a much needed break, when she realised that her mother was standing before her.

It was Rachel who discovered that the virus wasn't natural, that it was handmadet, with the sole purpose too control who got sick and who didn't. The nauseating concept of separating the weak from the strong by this disgusting method filling Charlie's throat.

Absolute panic set in when she had to watch how her grandfather got sick too. She knew her mother got word to Miles, Monroe and Monroe's kid to find the antidote they knew just had to be there. Those cowards wouldn't take the risk of getting sick and die themselves. But when she had to watch how her mother tried to get her grandfathers heart going again, after he had stopped breathing, it brought Charlie to tears, holding on to his life as hard as she could, watching her mother fight for his life.

Moments after he started to breathe again, a small moment of relieve washing over her for now, he stormed in, little bottles of antidote in his hand. She knew immediately who he had to be. When she was busy using the antidotes, she shot a look at him.

'So, you're Monroe's kid?' She asked when she administered another dose of antidote, her hands working fast, wanting to save as much people as possible.

'Really, you want to do a meet and greet now?' His voice raspy, clearly anxious to get the hell out this camp.

She let her eyes roam over the younger Monroe. Tall, dark curls, strong jaw lines. Deep eyes, but not the same colour as his father. Sounded a little bit like his father though, she had to admit.

Bass threw his stuff in the corner of the safe house, it was still weird to know that his kid was here too. His back still hurt like hell, the cuts slowly healing but the pain far but gone. Hell, if this was what he had to do to get his kid out of that dump in Mexico, so be it.

Rachel walked passed him, on her way to get water for her father, shooting him another of her special loathing looks.

Yeah, this trip had been a whole lot of fun, he thought bitterly. Hell, listening to her bitching on about the fact that Connor had turned into this, into the young man he had met in Mexico, simply because he was his, his blood. The challenge and icy look in her eyes, her back turned to Miles, when only the sound of her voice had irritated him already enough to hell and back.

When Bass saw Charlie again, the first time in more than a week, she walked into their safe house. He had seen her before from a distance, when they were scouting the camp.

He noticed she looked like hell, her eyes tired, missing their normal fire. Connor was not far behind her.

'Hey, you are back.' her eyes lit up for a small moment when her eyes found his. He could hear the exhaustion in her voice.

'You okay? ' His question simple, but with a low intensity.

She gave him a nod and held his gaze for a couple of seconds before she was on her way again.

Bass watched Connor from the other side of the room, watched how his kids eyes were roaming all over Charlie when she walked away. At that moment he had to fight the impulse of grabbing Connor by his shirt and tell his kid to stay the hell away from her.

So, I know, Connor is here...but remember, this is a charloe season :) more in next chapter! I appreciate you reading this chapter and all your reviews and follows for tis story! Love from Love