"It's going to take a while for me to get used to your uniform," Emma commented when Connor entered her room in full militia uniform.

"Me too," he admitted. He had avoided wearing it and worn suits instead before and the collar of his uniform was chafing against his neck. "I don't like wearing it, but I need people to take me seriously while he's gone."

Connor wasn't looking forward to his father coming back. At least now, he had some authority. As soon as his dad came back he would lose that and go back to being nothing again.

"You don't have to take over all of his responsibilities," she pointed out.

"I'm not just going to sit around and let Baker make all the decisions," he told her. "I don't trust him."

Besides, maybe if he managed to hold things together, his dad would have to admit that he had done something right and wasn't totally incapable of taking over the republic someday.

Miles was on his way to his room to get rid of his bag, when he spotted Rachel and Nora sitting together through an open doorway. They were eating and even though he had been starving a moment earlier, he suddenly lost his appetite. He was just debating whether he should rip the bandaid off right away or go to his room for a minute first when Rachel turned her head and spotted him. Bandaid it was.

He stepped closer without crossing the threshold of the doorway as he grimly announced, "She doesn't want to be found. We're not getting her back."

"Are you sure about that?" A voice challenged from behind him.

He turned around startled and found Charlie and Danny standing a few feet down the hall. Charlie had her bow strapped to her back and Danny had his crossbow dangling in his left hand. Clearly, they were either just leaving on a hunting trip or had just come back from one.

There were endless questions running through his head, but the one that pried its way to the surface when he opened his mouth was "What about Connor?"

"He was a Monroe and I'm a Matheson," she said with a dismissive shrug. "It wasn't going to work out."

He could tell there was something deeper to it than her casual response, but she wasn't elaborating and he wasn't about to ask.

"Besides," she added with a teasing smile. "Did you really think I was going to leave you to fend for yourself? I mean, I was gone for half a day and you turned yourself in to Monroe. Clearly you need me around to keep you from doing anything completely idiotic."

"Alright, smartass," he cut her off with a low chuckle. He was too happy to see her to be truly annoyed.

She shifted her weight then her grin shrunk a little, but did not dim as she moved towards him and told him, "I missed you, you know."

She punctuated this point by pulling him into a tight hug the likes of which he might be liable to complain about under different circumstances.

"Yeah," he responded as his lips brushed against her hair. "You too, kid."

She pulled back from the hug and looked him dead in the eye as she questioned, "So how'd you get away from Monroe?"

He didn't want to get into that at the moment, especially in the middle of the hallway where anyone could hear them. He wasn't sure what he was going to do and he needed to think things over a little before he told them anything. And he needed to talk to Nora. She had better judgment than he did and she knew how wrong things had gone last time he was helping Monroe lead the republic.

"He offered me a deal," Miles said as he scratched at his stubble.

"What kind of deal?" Charlie questioned.

Her and Danny were both looking at Miles suspiciously. He supposed that they should be looking at him like that. After all, there had to be something wrong with him that had him debating going back to Monroe and the militia voluntarily.

"Nothing you need to worry about now," he responded. "The important thing is that he let me go."

"You should have just killed him," Danny insisted. "Then you wouldn't have had to make a deal with him. You could have come back and we would have all been better off."

"It's not that easy," Miles countered, although he knew Danny was right. If he was smart he would have killed Monroe, but he wasn't smart and he still couldn't go through with it. Worst of all, he was stupid enough to miss the way things had used to be with Bass and he was terrified of that clouding his judgment with the decision he had to make.

"What'd I miss while I was gone?" Monroe asked unenthusiastically as he entered his office while looking down, buttoning up his jacket.

"Well, I had to take over while you were off on vacation," Connor commented in an amused tone.

Monroe's head shot up at the sound of his son's voice and Connor forced a smug smirk onto his lips to disguise his nerves.

There was a split second of confusion crossed his father's features before Monroe's face broke into a grin. The same grin he'd had the first time Connor had taken an interest in taking over his republic.

"I was looking for you," Monroe told him.

"Me or Charlie?" Connor questioned. He moved to lean back in his father's chair and set his feet on top of the desk. He wanted to appear as indifferent as possible.

"Both."

"I'm not telling you where she is," Connor told him. "Even if she is a Matheson and an escaped prisoner."

"She didn't really escape so much as you let her out," Monroe pointed out. "And I wasn't planning on bringing her back here."

"That doesn't make any sense," Connor pointed out, then it dawned on him. "What? Were you going to offer her to Miles Matheson as a present?"

"Not exactly," Monroe said, which just confirmed to Connor that he was right. "Miles turned himself in, trying to get me to set her free. He didn't know you'd already run off with her."

"So then where is he now?" Connor asked. "Not that I could care any less about Miles Matheson's location."

He was pretty sure he gave himself away though when his father didn't respond and he looked over at him curiously. Sure, Connor cared where Miles was. He wanted him very far away from him and his father.

"We went looking for you two together," Monroe continued as if Connor hadn't asked a question. Typical. "The deal was you come back with me and she goes back with him."

"Who says I wanted to go back with you?" Connor questioned. "Or that she wanted to go back with him? Maybe we just wanted to stay away from both of you, together somewhere else."

"You're back here. Aren't you?" Monroe challenged.

Connor just scowled in response.

"And she was bound to leave you and join up with the rebels again sooner or later. She's a Matheson."

Connor hated how his father had guessed that it was Charlie who had picked the rebels over him, even if it was just Monroe's way of projecting his Miles issues onto him.

"No, she's not," Connor lied through his teeth. He wanted to get even with his father. "Not anymore. I was already running away with her anyways, so I figured what was a proposal compared to throwing my life away for her. She's a Bennett now."

He knew it would hurt his father if he thought Connor had married Charlie, especially without him there, but it would hurt most if he thought she took Connor's original last name. Not the new one that had been slapped on when he entered Philadelphia.

There was a long silence where Monroe looked like he had been slapped across the face. Connor was surprised he didn't make a snarky comment about his taste in bride.

"Are you going by Bennett again?" Monroe asked finally.

"Depends on the day," Connor said with a shrug. "Your name doesn't get me much anymore."

There was another silence, then Monroe asked, "You took her to your mom's house. Didn't you?"

Connor clenched his jaw and didn't dignify that with a response. He was sure anything he said would be used against him.

"What were you thinking?" Monroe questioned. "Do you know how dangerous it is telling a rebel that she's alive?"

"It's only dangerous for people to know she's alive because of you," Connor countered in an annoyed tone.

"Where is she?" Monroe asked.

Connor frowned, "I already told you I'm not telling you where she is and I'm definitely not telling you now so that you can eliminate the threat. She's not going to tell anybody that Mom's alive."

He didn't think that was the right time to mention that it didn't particularly matter because his mom had decided to come out of hiding anyways.

"Not Charlie," Monroe corrected. "Your mom."

"What?" Connor asked in a surprised tone. If someone had already told him she was there, then he wouldn't need to ask, but there was no reason that he should be suspicious about where she was.

"I went to Jasper," Monroe told him. "She wasn't there. It looked like she left with you and Charlie, but that doesn't make any sense if you're back here. So, where is she? Or is she hiding from me now too?"

"Wouldn't blame her," Connor muttered under his breath.

"Connor." There was an edge to Monroe's voice now. Apparently, he still cared about keeping Connor's mom safe. Or maybe he just cared about keeping tabs on her.

"She's here," Connor responded, then braced himself for the lecture he was bound to get.

"Why?" Monroe demanded. "She made it pretty damn clear that she didn't want anything to do with me or the militia."

Connor would tell him to ask her himself, but he wasn't sure he wanted Monroe anywhere near her, so he shrugged instead.

"She changed her mind," he responded. "What does it matter to you if she's here or there?"

Monroe didn't respond, but his jaw clenched. Clearly Connor had hit a nerve.

"Right. I'm the only one that's supposed to answer questions around here," Connor said sarcastically. "I'm still waiting to hear where you're hiding Miles. Or why you're allowed to take him to her house and I'm the one who gets in trouble for taking a rebel there."

"That's different," Monroe insisted. "Miles knows your mom. He wouldn't hurt her, not even to get to me. Not that it really mattered when you'd already left with her anyways."

Connor didn't believe Miles was any less likely than Charlie to hurt his mom and he hated that his dad thought he had the authority to make that call. He could have authority over the whole damn republic, but not over her and her well-being.

"And where is he now?" Connor asked because he still wanted to make sure Miles hadn't come back and because he wanted to avoid getting into a big fight about his mom.

"With the rebels," his father responded, much to his surprise. "I let him go, but don't worry. He'll come back."

"You let him go? After you waited so long to catch him?" Connor asked, unable to conceal his surprise. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"I need him to help me lead the republic," Monroe responded. "Which means he has to choose to come back, not come back as a prisoner."

Connor was going to be sick. Not only did his dad let Miles walk free as if it were nothing, he still wanted Miles to help lead the republic ahead of Connor.

"And why would he do that?" Connor asked.

"Because I gave him an ultimatum," Monroe said. "Or an excuse, really, which is all he needs. He comes back here in three days or I go after the rebel base."

So, Connor was stuck with Miles Matheson around, ruining everything, or the rebel base where Charlie lived would get wiped out.

"What about Miles?" Connor questioned, using his father's vulnerability against him, instead of admitting to his own. "Are you really going to take down the rebel base and him in it if he doesn't come back?"

"He's got three days," Monroe pointed out. "That's plenty of time to evacuate the base if he wants to make the stupid decision. We might not stop all the rebels in that base, but they'll be scattered with whatever they managed to carry on their backs. Miles would be long gone by then. She'd be with him too."

Connor forced himself not to react. He wasn't convinced Charlie would scatter and run just like that. He was terrified that she would want to stay and fight, even if she would be outnumbered and outarmed.

"You know, you're going to have to tell me how you helped her escape without the guards seeing you," Monroe insisted.

"No."

"It's a safety concern," his father pushed.

No one but him and Charlie knew about the room with loose bars on the windows. No one else even went near it. Connor needed a way to get away without his father having tabs on him twenty-four hours a day, especially if Miles really did come back to the militia. Sure, he knew a few other ways out, but they were harder to get through undetected and he wasn't about to give up his go to method.

"No one's sneaking in that way without guards catching them two minutes later," Connor responded. "And I'm not telling you anything else about it."

"Is it just me or is Miles acting weird since he came back?"

Nora frowned as she considered for a moment. "It's probably just because it was weird being around Monroe again."

Charlie hoped that was true as she asked, "So, you think the deal he made with Monroe was just that they both go back home and let each other live and keep their truce until they make it there?"

Nora said nothing and turned away and Charlie suddenly had the sneaking suspicion that Nora knew more than she was letting on.

"Did he say something to you?" Charlie asked.

"Sure," Nora admitted. "He told me the same thing he told everyone else. When they didn't find you and Connor, they gave up and came back. Monroe and him made a deal and now he's back here."

"You're lying," Charlie said.

Nora looked away from her quickly and didn't even bother to deny it. That confirmed Charlie's suspicions.

"He told you what the deal was, didn't he?" She asked.

"Maybe," Nora admitted. "But he told me not to tell you what it was."

"Why?" Charlie asked. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. "What's he going to do?"

"Nothing for sure yet," Nora responded carefully. "But if you want to know, you should talk to him."

A/N: Please read and review! Another great big thanks goes out to TheLateNightWriter93 for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :D