- CHARLIE -

Charlie lost track of how many times she'd fainted in the last day. Judging from the excess of candles around the room, it was nighttime. She tried to move her hands, instinctively bring them to her stomach and she realised she was tied up to the bed. A doctor, white coat and everything, walked in, cued in by the rattle of the cuffs on the metal frame of the bed no doubt. She sank back into the sorry excuse for a pillow.

"How are you feeling, Charlotte?" He asked.

"My name's Charlie." She couldn't stand anyone else call her Charlotte, she could barely stand Monroe call her that. As the thought of him invaded her mind it all came flooding in. "Tell him it's a miscarriage." He'd said.

"Was I pregnant?" She asked.

"I'm afraid you were." She eyed him carefully. He reminded her of her grandpa, he was older though. His expression seemed genuine, he truly was sorry for her. And with that thought she started to cry.

"I understand your situation is quite… difficult. But try to avoid stressing as much as possible. You've lost a lot of blood."

He hesitated, but leaned in and continued in a lower voice. "Whatever you've done, these people want to keep you alive. So I suggest you play along if you can." He slipped her a tiny round pill and he looked at him, confused. "Just aspirin. For your head. You have a concussion, which I can't do anything about. But the headache I can try and help with. Good luck." He gently padded her hand and left the room.

Almost immediately two soldiers came to take her back to her cell, but to her surprise they opened Bass' cell instead, while he placidly waited on the back well, arms up the whole time. They locked the door back behind her and as soon as they did Monroe covered the distance between them in one stride and just buried her head in his chest. And then against doctor's orders, Charlotte Matheson started crying like a baby again, her whole body shaking with uncontrollable sobs. He planted soft kisses on her wet lashes and as his cheek touched hers she realized, he was crying too.

Up until that moment she didn't have the courage to face him, but she looked up at him and she truly wasn't prepared for what she saw. It was inexplicable, it wasn't dark, psychotic, tyrannical Monroe; it was sweet, caring, tender Bass either – this was a man she was meeting for the first time, it seemed.

"I'm so glad I didn't lose you, Charlotte." He whispered as he kept padding her hair.

- BASS -

Bass sat on the ground; legs apart and Charlie lay between them with her back against his chest. Holding her was the only thing keeping him from finding a way to slipping the cell and going full butcher, much more bloody and quick than Miles would have ever been. Last time he'd been in this position, losing a child, something had inevitably snapped and he'd made what he could later identify as the catalyst decision that took them down the path that ultimately formed the Republic. This time he did something far worse; he gave up Miles, betraying him to pull a move out of Strausser's playbook of all people. Dangle Charlie in front of him like a carrot to get him to cave, he took that shit right to the Patriots and they ate it up. if he had an ounce of sanity left, he would have despised himself. But it had all gone down the drain when he watched Charlie bleed out helpless and alone just mere feet from him and he couldn't do shit-all to help her. So he gave up the only thing that he felt was his to give up, the only thing he knew they might be interested in – Miles.

'If he were here he'd have done the same thing, in a heartbeat.' He tried to reason with himself. And out of all things Rachel Matheson's ever-judging face popped up in his mind, pressed lips and narrowed eyes, the slight shake of her head. 'You sold him out.' He knew she'd have a million more reasons to hate him now and she'd be right. He also knew that this little guilt trip was at the very least counterproductive when he very obviously had to put the functioning part of his brain to work, hatch a plan to take to Miles. But instead he continued his sappy trip down memory lane, Charlie's slack body reminding him of the consciousness snuffing out of Emma as she went grey in his arms. He raised a hand to his side where the bullet that killed her, that travelled through her body and into his had lodged. Now nothing more than another scar in his evergrowing tableau of pain memorabilia and he wondered what it'd been like, Connor's birth and whether the only reason his boy survived was because he was lucky enough to be born before the Blackout, whether something in Bass' seed was broken, tainted with his sins of past and future. Perhaps he'd never get another chance at building a family of his own – he was just with just Miles.

He was about to plunge even deeper, and think of Shelley when Charlie moaned again and he wondered if it was the head or her insides. She was digging around in her pocket, fearing she'd attract attention he grabbed her, closing his fist around her delicate wrist to stop her. One wrong move and they'd be hauling her back into a cell on her own where he could do nothing to protect her.

"What is it, Charlotte?" He whispered in her ear.

For a moment she just lay there, confused, she didn't even try to fight his grip. It terrified him how docile she was, he half-expected her to be kicking and screaming. He was about to repeat when her voice came out, barely audible. It was the first time she spoke in what Bass assumed to be the last five hours.

"I got aspirin. In my pocket… Left pocket."

His mind nearly exploded. Of course the fucking Patriots had aspirin. Was it even aspirin though that the doc passed her? They had no reason to poison her after they'd just saved her. But Bass was paranoid.

"Stay still." He warned as he released her arm and he slipped his hand in there as discreetly as possible.

To his utter surprise Charlie responded to his touch, pressing her hips harder against him. he used his free hand to stroke her hair, while he fished the tiny pill out of her tight jeans. Once his hand was no longer in her pants, Charlie relaxed again. Bass discreetly observed the tiny white round in his hand. He had half a mind not to give it to her until Miles got there so that she'd be easier to move around. But she was in pain now and Miles could get to them in two hours or two days. So he did the only thing that made sense to him. He snapped the pill in half.

Charlie turned to look at him, eyes wide with confusion and he couldn't help but smile. "Relax, it still works."

And he leaned down and planted a soft kiss on her lips. Maybe he was still capable of human interaction after all. He knew of course that all that could change if another hair on Charlotte Matheson's body was harmed. But for now he kept it together, for her sake. Pretending to smell her hair, he hid his hand as he bit off a tiny corner off the halved pill and swallowing it quickly.

"Let's see if I don't turn into a blood sucking zombie or a pile of dust in half an hour and then you can take half."

If his theory was correct, Charlie had never taken aspirin her entire life. So half would more than likely do the trick and then he'd give her the rest once Miles actually graced them with his presence.