Charlie was apparently having the sleep of her life still. Bass had gotten maybe an hour or two of sleep the night before, but whenever he had glanced her way during the night she had been fast asleep. Traitor.

It figured that she could sleep. She didn't have a care in the world. She did whatever she wanted. Charlie certainly hadn't lain awake last night trying to figure out what the hell they were or dwelling on what they had done. Hell, she had barely given their little tryst a second thought five seconds after it was over.

They couldn't leave until she woke up and Miles kept insisting that they should leave her alone while she was actually sleeping, since she could use the rest. Bass could use some fucking sleep too, but that wasn't an option for him. He just had to keep on sitting there, trying not to wake her up, like he had for the whole goddamn night. Hell, if she didn't wake up soon he was going to throw her in the wagon himself so that she could snooze as long as she wanted and at least they'd make a little progress. Then they could mark a few more miles his kid wasn't in, compared to the endless ones they could never cover.

He heard rustling and turned his attention over to where Charlie had just woken up and was stretching like a cat that had just taken a twenty-hour nap in the sunshine. She was still lying down and as she raised her arms over her head, her shirt slid up higher exposing a patch of flesh. Bass forced himself to ignore it and shifted his gaze up to her eyes just as they fluttered open.

"You look like shit," she told him in a hoarse voice.

"Good morning to you, too," he muttered out sarcastically, although in all reality it was closer to noon.

"It is a good morning," she agreed with a smile as she sat up cross-legged. "I actually got some sleep last night."

"I noticed," he responded dryly. Some seemed like an under-exaggeration.

"Don't tell me you were watching me sleep again."

"I already told you I wasn't watching you," he grumbled out. "I've just been awake for most of your mini-coma. And you snore."

That was a lie, but there was no way she could know it.

The smile fell from her lips and she shot him a glare. She only became more irritated when he let out a chuckle in response to her scowl.

They made it to a town that night and headed for the local bar to ask if anyone had seen anyone matching Connor's description, since that was the place they were most likely to get an answer and he was most likely to have stopped on the off chance that he had actually been through there.

After half a night of asking around with zero luck, Monroe was sitting by the bar downing his fourth drink. Miles had been sitting with him at a table before, but Monroe had brushed him off to go sit by himself after Miles had made the mistake of cracking a joke that Monroe should try making fun of Connor, since that was what had made him show up last time they had been sitting in a bar with no idea of where to look for him.

Apparently, he was still just as grumpy as when he had stalked off, since when Charlie slid onto the stool next to him, he stared straight forward as he grunted out, "What do you want?"

"What? I'm not allowed to drink here?" She questioned. "Who said that's your decision to make?"

"I'm not in the mood, Charlotte," he said with a heavy sigh.

"Really?" She challenged.

He finally turned to look over at her as he demanded, "What?"

"You're calling me Charlotte again?"

If he didn't know better, he would have thought she was trying to mask her hurt with that tilted smile that wasn't sitting just right. Or maybe the nanites had gotten her smile wrong and he had gotten used to that lie, like all the others.

"Why? Does it bother you?" He asked in an amused tone. If she was going to pester him, then he was going to distract himself by pushing her buttons in return.

"Yes." She admitted.

"Why?" He challenged. "It is your name. Isn't it?"

She glanced down at the bar instead of staring him down and making some quip and that's when he realized that it was more than a pet peeve.

He took another swig from his glass as he waited to see if she was going to shoot a delayed comeback in his direction or if she was going to shrug the subject off.

"Why are you trying to intimidate me?" She questioned as she looked up at him with the fire back in her eyes.

"I'm not," he pointed out in a confused tone. "I was just trying to annoy you."

"No, you were trying to scare me off," she insisted. "Like you always are when you call me Charlotte. It's a General Monroe power move and I don't want to go back to thinking of you like that. I don't see why you'd want me to, either."

That struck his interest as he asked, "How do you think of me then?"

She ignored his question, of course, as she confessed, "You kept calling me it when you weren't really you. The nanites were using it to try to get under my skin. I thought you weren't actually like that anymore and it was just them trying to intimidate me. Now I'm not so sure. I mean, this isn't even the first time you've done it since you woke up."

He couldn't even remember the other time, but it had stuck with her. As soon as she had started asking about his dream world, he had pulled her full name out again.

"I'm not," he told her as he stared into her eyes seriously for once instead of staring her down. His voice came out softer as he told her, "I won't call you it again. Alright?"

Charlie hesitated. She wasn't sure she wanted to let him off the hook that easily, especially when he had openly admitted he had been trying to annoy her.

"I didn't know it bothered you that much," he pointed out.

"But you did know it bothered me," she countered.

"Yeah, well, between the sleep deprivation and no one having any clue where Connor is I'm not in the greatest mood tonight," he responded. "If it makes you feel any better, I was snapping at Miles, too."

She eyed him skeptically. "You're really not going call me it again? Even when you're trying to brush me off?"

"Really," he agreed. "And, clearly, I'm not succeeding at brushing you off. So, I guess you may as well go ahead with whatever it is you came over here for."

"I came to see if you wanted to make a deal," she told him. Her tone was guarded and his interest was piqued. Why was she nervous if she was the one coming to him with an offer?

"What kind of deal?" He asked. He was interested enough that he decided not to purposely be difficult.

"Don't read too much into this, but yesterday helped me sleep," Charlie told him. "So, if you wanted to make it a regular thing, I wouldn't object."

If he wasn't supposed to read too much into it, then how much was an appropriate amount to read into it? He glanced around at the bar full of guys she could have been working on instead of sitting there with him. Maybe she wanted to use him just to help her sleep, but then why would she choose him over everyone else in the bar?

"What about yesterday?" He questioned as he furrowed his brow in mock confusion, even though he knew damn well what she was talking about.

"The sex," she responded bluntly.

"If you want me, all you have to do is ask," he told her with a cocky smile.

Charlie should have known that he would gloat about it. Hadn't she learned anything from last time?

"Are you in or not?" She asked himself an exasperated tone.

Of course, he was in. No matter what her motives were, this was a far better offer than he had ever expected to get.

Bass shrugged, pretending to be indifferent, then answered, "I guess we could give it a try."

A/N: Please read and review! A giant thanks goes out to banneg, crschuetz, and lcbacteria for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :)