Poison and Wine

Chapter 36

Disclaimer: Revolution is not my property.

A/N: Thank you to all those who are still reading this story and sharing your thoughts with me. It means a lot. :D Note that I updated chapter 35. I didn't in any way change the story; but I did add a recap at the beginning for those who hadn't read the story in a while and couldn't remember the last 30+ chapters. Check it out if you'd like.

This chapter is for LadyH who was worried about the ending of the last chapter. For Lemon, who believes in happy endings and for Ice too. Thanks ladies for being wonderful cheerleaders and sounding boards the last few months. I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations.

I wrote this chapter with two songs in particular on repeat: U2's "All I Want is You" and Sia's "Breathe Me." I'd suggest playing them.

"Go ahead. Say whatever you want to say," Bass said after he entered the small space—nothing more than a cubicle really—he shared with Charlie. He slid the door closed behind him and leaned against it waiting for her explosion. Her back was to him and she looked out the small window that let in the sun. She said nothing for long moments and Bass wondered if she'd ever speak to him again.

"Why did you still have one of those pendants?" Charlie broke the silence.

"At first I took it because I wasn't sure if the power could be turned back on again," Bass admitted. He hated not being able to see her face but her posture was so rigid he could tell she was furious and closing herself off from him. "There's so much that power can do. Charlie, you have no idea."

"I know that power can allow helicopters to fly and gun down people. I know that power can create mass murder with so little effort or risk to those doing the killing."

"That is true," Bass agreed. "I never attempted anything with the pendant Charlie. I couldn't. I had been betrayed by my troops at the Tower. I was a dead man walking back east when I heard the reports that bombs had been dropped on Atlanta and Philly. My city. Thousands of people that I was supposed to take care of nothing more than ash now."

"So why did you keep it?"

"I kept it as reminder of my biggest mistakes," Bass said and released a defeated sigh. "I allowed Randall Flynn to get into my head even though I knew better than to trust that S.O.B. But I was convinced that power could work to make lives better. I was insane, Charlotte. My mental health was hardly great before the Blackout and then afterwards when everything just…it really fell apart. Miles and I really were only trying to make it better for everyone. People were killing one another over canned beans and shoes. It was…I'd seen war before Charlie but I'd never seen the total dismantling of civilization like that. There was no code of honor, no rules of warfare that were being engaged after the blackout.

"And it wasn't just the acts of violence that got to us. We once found a mother huddled under a make-shift tent with her two young kids. They were dead because of hypothermia. The kids couldn't have been any older than two and five. We spent a long time walking, determined to get to Chicago and meet up with your family. We never quite got there because all this other stuff happened. We kept seeing all these things—disease started to spread, smallpox returned; there was no order. We just wanted to restore order so that people could find shelter and not worry about being killed by marauders or die of the common fuckin' cold or any of the other unspeakable things we saw as we marched for years."

By now Charlie had turned around to look at Bass. But he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were closed but his face was contorted with the pain of his memories. His voice broke and tears were leaking out of the corner of his eyes. Even in her anger and confusion, Charlie could not bear to see Bass suffer, and to suffer alone. She moved to stand next to him but he still didn't open his eyes to look at her though she knew he knew she was close to him.

"Then I met Shelley and we fell in love and she wound up pregnant," Bass continued on. "You know what happened after all that. She most likely wouldn't have died if she'd had access to a modern hospital. I became convinced that power—both figuratively and literally—was the key to stopping that. But I still ended up doing more harm than good. I just got people killed and I lost the only family I'd ever had in the process. I kept that pendant as a reminder of what was really important—I wasn't looking for power all this time but family."

"I guess I just don't understand because I've really only seen the power do bad things," Charlie admitted.

"I get that, really I do," Bass said and opened his eyes to look at her. He raised his hand to cup her cheek and brushed his thumb across her dimple. That one feature always intrigued him: Something sweet on a woman who was so fierce. "But I don't need power. That pendant is only so I don't forget what's important. I have you, Charlie. That's more than power. That's everything; you're everything. But I won't lie. The power being on made life better—the health care was better. Education was better."

"I understand, Bass," Charlie told him. "Thank you for being honest with me. I wish I'd known you had it all this time but thank you for telling me."

"I'm sorry I kept it from you. I wasn't sure you'd take it very well and really it was for me not what it could do," Bass said. "But speaking of things being secret: Why didn't you tell me the truth about the Nano? Why the hell did I have to hear it from your mother of all people?"

Charlie grimaced. "I was afraid of how you'd react," Charlie admitted and smirked a little when her words so closely mirrored Bass'. "I know you feel guilty about Nashville but it wasn't your fault. I got captured and it wasn't your fault."

"Of course it was my fault," Bass countered and moved away before he accidently hurt her with the rage that just poured like molten lava in his blood. "We were together; we were a team. You fell and I couldn't get to you in time. Then I couldn't find you. You were captured and tortured and it was my fault."

"What if you'd fallen instead and then were the one captured and tortured?" Charlie asked. "Would that have been my fault?"

"No," Bass said fiercely.

"So then why is it true the other way around?" Charlie demanded. "If it's because you have a dick and I don't—well you're being a dick."

"It's not because I have a dick," Bass said but Charlie quirked her brow in disbelief. "It's not. Not really. I'm supposed to protect you Charlie. I save you from that stuff—the Tower, that bar, the school. I can't bear the idea of you being hurt, Charlie. I never have and that's before you were even mine. But now that you are—now that I've come to know every part of you intimately and the way you've opened up to me—when something bad happens to you, it happens to me. You were lost to me and I couldn't find you; I couldn't save you. When I thought you were dead, Charlie, I died with you."

"Bass…"Charlie said, so unspeakably moved by him. He was facing out the window now so she stepped up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. She felt his heart beating wildly beneath her palms and pressed his back closer to her, pressing her face in between his shoulder blades. There was a tiny mirror hanging on the wall that he used for trimming his beard and she could see their reflection staring back at her. The glass showed that his eyes were shut tightly but she watched as he brought the hand not leaning against the window to wrap around her hands and squeezed them.

"I haven't been able to protect any of the people I loved, Charlie," Bass confessed. "Protecting you means everything, even my own life."

"Ditto," Charlie told him and pressed a kiss onto his back. He reciprocated by leaning down and kissing her hands. "I haven't been able to protect the people I love either, Bass. I was trying to protect you from the pain the truth would bring you."

"What are you talking about?" Bass turned around to look her dead in the eye.

"They were fascinated by us and our relationship," Charlie admitted. "They couldn't understand how I love you after all the things you've done."

Bass' jaw clenched immediately before he spoke roughly. "First time I've ever had something in common with a computer."

"It kept trying to make me feel guilty—wondering what it would take to break me or break my love for you by having images of my dead loved ones saying hateful things to me," Charlie confessed. "No matter what it tried, it didn't work. It won't work, Bass. I'm here. I'm in this. I'm wearing this ring because I want to."

"You don't wonder what your family would say to you if they could?"

"I think my family would want me to be happy," Charlie said. "They might not understand but I don't think they'd hate me. But I can't live my life wondering what ghosts will say to me. I've spent all of my life living it for other people. I want you. I want us. Don't I ever get to be selfish?"

"You can be selfish all you want," Bass told her and wrapped her close. "I'm so sorry about what you went through and that any of it had to do with me. I love you, Charlotte."

"I love you too, Bass."

"Thank you," Bass said and pressed a chaste kiss to her temple. "And thank you for agreeing to marry me. I know you agreed mostly for my benefit and I appreciate that—especially knowing now everything you've been through because of us."

"Let's get married," Charlie suggested.

Bass pulled away to stare at her in surprise. His piercing blue eyes stared awestruck into her blue-gray ones. "Now?"

"Yes. Now. Right here," Charlie told him.

"Charlie, we can't get married right now. We don't have anyone to officiate it and don't you want your family with you?"

Charlie shook her head no. "I don't need a ceremony—besides, what would it really mean these days anyway? That's not what marriage is."

"And what is marriage?"

"A promise," Charlie declared, thinking back to her conversation with Priscilla. "You're right that I'm not a big fan of traditional matrimony or any of that stuff. It's never meant anything to me. Look at my parents. To me it's just an archaic tradition where you say a bunch of words that are not your own. As far as our family and friends being here to see it: Yes, we love them but they aren't why I love you or why we want to be married, right?

"But we don't have to do it the traditional way, Bass. We are hardly traditional. I've really given this some thought. If you really want to do a ceremony with everyone we can do that some other time. I want your promises right now. That's what marriage really is and I don't want you giving me someone else's words. I want yours."

Bass was rendered speechless. He stroked her cheek again before leaning down to brush her lips softly with his own, nothing more than a whisper of a kiss. He rested his forehead against hers and murmured, "You have all my promises forever."

"I know and you have mine," Charlie said. He could feel her smile as her dimple appeared beneath his thumb once again.

"Okay, Charlotte, what's your idea?"

She turned away from him after she gave him a brief kiss of her own. She went to her pack and dug into a small pocket before she pulled out two long strands of red string.

"What's that?"

"These are going to be our promises, Bass. For every promise we make we will tie a knot. When we're done, we'll exchange our promises. The last promise will be the same: A final knot that we will never take these off because the only way to do that is to cut them."

"That sounds perfect, Charlie," Bass said, humbled greatly by the amount of the thought she'd put into this. Clearly the act of marriage was more than just humoring him and that thoughtfulness helped soothe some hurts he'd carried around for a long time. It'd been so long since anyone had truly thought of him first. "I'll wear your promises." She grabbed him and pulled him in for a long, lingering kiss that was almost enough to make him forget what they were about to do. Almost. "So who goes first?"

"Since it was my idea, I'll go first," Charlie volunteered. She handed him one of the strands before grasping hers and begin forming a knot on the band. "I promise to always love you even when I may not like you."

"I promise to always take care of you," Bass said and made his first knot.

The train rumbled beneath them and the low afternoon sun shimmered on the snow covered trees and ground. Sometimes it twinkled like the diamonds on the band Charlie wore on her thumb; other times it glowed as the approaching sunset cast pink and orange on the flat landscape closest to the horizon.

"I promise to always look after your blind spot," Charlie said with a soft smile.

"That's you," Bass confessed to her.

"What is?"

"My blind spot is you, Charlotte," Bass elaborated. "I can't see without you."

A tear spilled out over her lashes without her ever being aware tears had formed. How strange that the greatest and truest love she'd ever come to know would be from someone she once saw as her enemy.

"I promise to always come back for you," Bass vowed as he wiped away her traitorous tear.

"I promise to believe in you even when you cannot."

"I promise to trust in you."

So they went on knotting up the red strings as they made vows that were meant for them; vows only they could make.

"I promise to always be the light against your shadows, Bass."

"I promise to always want you more than anything else, Charlie."

Charlie's fingers deftly placed another knot as she vowed, "I promise that forgiveness will always be a part of our marriage."

"I promise to respect your strength and you remind you of it when you don't feel it."

"I promise to always be your family."

"I promise to be yours, Charlotte. Just yours. First, last and always above anything else."

They had finally reached the end of their red strings. They exchanged the strands and took turns tying the makeshift bracelets around each other's right wrists with the same promise: "I promise to never break our promises." Then once the final knot had been tied, Charlie then pulled off the diamond ring on her thumb and handed it to Bass and held out her left hand.

"You agreed to marry me this way. Put the ring on my finger, Bass. I'll put your ring on yours. We'll carry our promises with both hands," Charlie said. Bass' fingers trembled a little as they took his mother's wedding band and finally slid it home on Charlie's slender ring finger. He bent down and grabbed his father's ring from his pack and gave it to Charlie. Unlike him, her fingers were rock steady as they slid the ring onto his finger and pushed it down until it rest at the base of his finger.

"You're really my wife now?" Bass wondered.

"Yeah. I am."

"Does that make you Mrs. Monroe?"

Charlie's eyes squinted at him. "Matheson-Monroe, buster."

His grin was fast and delighted. "That definitely suits you."

"Are you disappointed that we didn't do this in front of everyone?"

Bass shook his head no. "Not at all. I liked it better this way—we didn't promise generic things, we promised things that mean something to us. I don't want to share that with anyone, Charlie. But I cannot wait to tell everyone you are my wife."

"Oh really? So are you going to do that right now?" Charlie inquired.

"I think it can wait. There's something else I'd much rather be doing," Bass decided.

"Oh what could that be?" Charlie wondered, but the way Bass' hands were sliding lower down her body gave her some indication what his plans were.

"Making love to the new Mrs. Matheson-Monroe," Bass declared before he unsnapped her jeans. "I think I might be done in time to get breakfast tomorrow, but no promises on that one."

Charlie snickered as his poor pun just before his mouth claimed hers.

With deft fingers skilled with continued practice, Bass unfastened her belts and the jangling sound as they hit the floor was like music to his ears. "I want you to know that if we still had access to music I'd have the most romantic and sensual playlist to soundtrack our honeymoon," Bass informed. His long fingers skimmed that alluring trace of skin exposed by her belly shirt.

Charlie smiled and gave a small laugh, "Oh yeah. What ones?" Not that it would matter, she wouldn't recognize a single song he'd say. He could make them all up.

"Hmm…let me think," Bass said as he nibbled on her lips before trailing chaste kisses on her jawline to her ear where he whispered, "All of them. It would be a long honeymoon." He emphasized his point by biting her lobe then licking away the sting with his warm tongue. The unrestrained moan that Charlie gave unfurled all his control. He needed to see his woman, his wife, naked and taste her.

Quick hands removed Charlie's shirt and Bass took a moment to enjoy the view of her plump breasts filling out her black bra. He put his hands underneath them and cupped them so he could tease her nipples to tautness with his fingers. When he pinched them between his thumb and forefinger Charlie groaned and leaned back, luxuriating in the tension, knowing that when he released her a flood of pleasure would pool in her center—and sure enough it did. It brought out the wildcat in Charlie as she decided that her husband had far too many clothes on for her liking. She wasn't neat about it; it was a wild need to see and touch. Rough hands shoved his jacket down his arms and ripped his T-shirt from his body—she was fairly certain the shirt was past mending but she couldn't find the energy to care.

She raked her fingernails down the smooth expanse of his chest. Bass wasn't as muscular as some men but he knew exactly how to use every one of his lean muscles and it made him far more lethal than people would suspect. The fact that his body was hers to do with what she wanted; the fact that he would use this body to please her but also fight side by side with her and if need be defend her filled Charlie with a heady combination of lust and affection. Charlie didn't need anybody to take care of her because her entire life had been spent being the caretaker of herself and others. So it wasn't that she needed him to protect her; she scoffed at the idea. But there was something about knowing that there was finally someone would put her first, always first, that loosened a knot that had existed in Charlie since she was a child. She finally mattered. Not for what she could do for someone else but just her. Charlotte Matheson was enough for Sebastian Monroe. Tears leaked from her eyes as the idea freed her from a lifelong chain.

"Charlie?" Bass whispered when he noticed her tears. The sheen of tears on her blue-gray eyes twisted his gut. "What's wrong baby?"

"Nothing, Bass. Everything's perfect," she assured him and kissed him tenderly, soft caresses of lips and lingering strokes of tongue. "Make love to me."

Charlie's hands were trembling now as she unsnapped his jeans and released the zipper. She snaked her hands around and beneath the pant line. Simultaneously grabbing his ass—for the sheer pleasure of touching his superior ass—and using her forearms to pull the jeans off his hips until they pooled at his feet. Bass took advantage of her distraction in undressing him to unhook her bra and push it as far down as it could go with her arms still wrapped around him. Feeling his hard length pressed tightly against her belly had Charlie undulating against him and Bass let out a heartfelt groan at the pressure on his aching cock. It turned it a long, slow moan when Charlie removed his briefs and curled her fingers around his length. Slow, meticulous strokes morphed into quicker pumps and Charlie added a little twist of her wrist that had Bass seeing stars. The tip was leaking, needy for release.

"Baby lay on the bed," he begged. Charlie must have known that she'd taken all the strength from him because she did as he heeded without protest. He removed his boots and unhooked his pants from around his ankles and then gave Charlie the same favor. Rough fingertips danced on her pale skin as Bass bent her knee so that he could suckle behind the joint. Charlie's legs immediately trembled. Bass trailed open mouthed kisses up the smooth expanse of her thigh and he breathed in her intoxicating scent. He had no words to describe it except that it was Charlie. It was an elixir of sweet and spice that only someone like Charlie possessed—she could undo him with a soft smile, send his blood boiling with a simple word and turn him on with her unfailing courage.

Bass absorbed Charlie's moans as he feasted on her core, her wetness leaking out and turning him on even more. He pressed his thumb into her center as he tongue flicked quickly across her swollen head of nerves. Then he joined his thumb with his tongue and Charlie ground down on his face. The sounds his woman was making his cock leak more. He liked that he could unlock the restraint Charlie kept around herself all the time. With him she always let herself go. Because he promised to always be there to catch her when she fell over and as her orgasm shot through her, Bass licked through her pleasure until her moans had faded into soft mewls.

"Are you ready for me, baby?" Bass asked as he crawled up the glorious wonder of her body.

"Now, please, Bass," Charlie responded and spread her legs further apart to cradle him into her pelvis and tilting her ass up to grant him easier penetration which Bass did with leisurely pleasure. It felt like an eternity until she felt Bass fill her all the way up, his balls brushing against her bottom. He made the pleasure last with unhurried, easy strokes. It was amazing but not enough; it was just teasing the wild hunger in her. Unconsciously she clawed her fingernails into his back, desperate to get him to move faster and deeper. "More please. More."

Bass granted her strangled wish and pulled out further and further each stroke and he'd hover for a second before plunging back into her heat, brushing up against her cervix each time. He hitched her thigh higher around him and pumped faster and harder driving them both to a bliss they could not name but could not live without. Together they tumbled over that canyon and clung to each other through the freefall.

"I love you Charlie," Bass whispered against her ear afterwards as he cradled her body close to his. Completely sated, Charlie could only nod and reached around to stroke a finger across his new red bracelet: "Me too, Bass." She whispered softly before she slipped into slumber.

A/N: I'd love to hear from you all. And no, this is not the last chapter.