- BASS -

Bass loved menial, mindless, repetitive tasks since his early days in Basic. It gave him a good chance to work through his shit while also doing something productive. In this case chopping firewood. He kept going through the motions, and circled again and again back to the fact that he lost another shot at having a family. He'd of course clammed up and avoided Charlie altogether while they were on the road. He used the excuse of taking point and rode ahead in case there was any sign of trouble. It wasn't an outright lie so no one stopped him. Rachel wanted nothing to do with him yet again. Charlie was as quiet as he was, for her own reasons that he was too scared to unravel in his mind. But now there was no comfort he could give her that her family couldn't. Miles probably understood and if he could be honest he definitely appeared to be wary of him, but did his best not to start with the whole don't-fall-apart shiftfest.

So he'd ridden out on his own all the way to what he deemed was appropriate camping ground at sundown. They needed to regroup and really figure their shit out. No doubt Miles had some plan he'd present at dinner and to hell with anyone who didn't agree with him. He couldn't fucking wait.

Now he only had one thing left to work out – whether he'd spare Charlie the aggravation and just split now. The irony wasn't lost on him that he'd pushed her so hard about not running away from her family when he was about to do the same to her not even a week later. He just couldn't shake the thought that yet he'd indirectly caused her suffering yet again. It was the huge target on his back that got them caught, that got her to lose their child. This blood was on him.

He stole a look at Charlie who'd been excused from doing anything. They'd practically threatened to tie her down if she so much as lifted a finger to help around camp. It wasn't so much Bass that did the threatening, more Miles being all preachy with Rachel nodding in approval. If it were up to him, he'd have her keep busy. Maybe it would have helped her process stuff a bit better. But because Rachel apparently had to lay in bed for the entire duration of working through her issues with ending the world a second time over, then Charlie had to do it too. As if the two of them shared anything besides DNA and really good bone structure.

- CHARLIE -

Charlie caught Bass staring at her with a look that swayed between guilty and outright depressed. There was no doubt he'd have welcomed that child and that he'd taken the loss awfully hard. She was more certain about his own feelings than she was her own. But she knew he was a flight risk. And all she wanted was a fair warning. She wasn't some crazy psycho that would force him to stay if he couldn't look at her without falling apart anymore.

She sighed and stole a glance over at her mother and father as they worked together, skinning a couple of unfortunate rabbits she'd shot down while they were still riding.

She got up and walked over. He dropped the axe and waited for her, arms awkwardly hanging to his sides. She stopped a few feet short of him, not wanting to get too close. Surely there was a metaphor in there somewhere she didn't care to unpack. This felt foreign and awkward. Almost more awkward than sharing a wagon in silence with him all the way down from Pottsboro when they'd barely known each other and in her eyes he was still a murderer.

He waited for her to say something, but the words wouldn't come. She just stood there looking at his face wondering what she could say to him.

She dropped her gaze to her feet when she asked. "Did you mean it? What you said back at the prison?"

When there was no response from him she closed her eyes. She couldn't keep crying. It wasn't her… She'd become this broken person she didn't recognize and it happened overnight. She steeled herself and looked at him just as he spoke.

"I care, Charlotte. No matter what y'all think of me. That I'm a cold-blooded asshole or whatever. I do actually care."

"I never said you didn't." She quipped.

"There was a time not so long ago you believed that to be true as well." He stared back, and he wanted to slap that cold, impassive façade he'd put up as soon as she walked over off his face.

"What changed?" She asked, fighting the urge to look back down at her shoes again. "It's like I've done something wrong. You won't look at me and –"

In two strides he was right in her face, his eyes menacing like she'd personally offended him.

"Don't you ever say that."

"Then what?"

"Miles was right." He seemed surprised with himself, as if it almost slipped out. And then he laughed bitterly. "Of course Miles was right. He's always right."

"Right about what?"

"It's always gonna be like this, Charlie. Some random guy down the line that will remember what I've done and would wanna end me for it. I'm the problem. And you deserve a future."

Charlie finally caught on.

"Everyone keeps talking about this bright future of mine and I don't think you understand that I'm in the same fight as the rest of you. I could catch a bullet tomorrow and that would be it."

He winced as she said it and she instinctively put her hands on his cheeks forcing him to look at her. His eyes wild and wounded, reminded her of the animals she'd find trapped in her snares.

- BASS -

She said catch a bullet so flippantly as if she was talking about catching a cold. Bass hated when she got like this, it reminded him of how young she was. It was like staring back in time looking at Miles all wild look in his eyes as they set foot in Iraq. It's not that she felt invincible though, like the two of them did back then. She'd stared death in the face enough times to know it didn't matter anymore.

He sighed in resignation. "Call me selfish. I just wanna see you make it through a few more years. And who knows? Maybe some day we won't have to run anymore." He said as he put his arms around her.

She let out a laugh that sounded more like a scoff. She clearly didn't believe there would ever be a time of peace, of not running. And he remembered she'd grown up in the country he ran, that he'd played a more than integral part to her turning out this way than he'd have like to admit. She felt tense against his body, it wasn't their usual seamless melting into each other and he knew there was one more order of business to take care of before they could put this whole thing to rest. He considered carefully for a second, unsure of how to proceed.

"Charlotte…" he began and she stilled. He almost didn't want to face the look in her eyes when she'd hear all he was about to say, but she needed to believe that all he had to say was true. "I did mean everything I said to you."

It was a quiet admission. Of course he'd grown to love her, she made it impossible for him not to. He spared her the details that'd never thought he'd be capable of an emotion like this ever again. Instead he pressed on, as her beautiful features were arranged in a look of quiet surprise. "I don't want you to doubt for a second what it would mean to me to have a child with you." He paused. Thinking back to the night she'd gotten pregnant. "We were reckless and –"

He ate his words as he body shook with a sob that enveloped her, she was always so strong, so fierce; it was almost impossible to square the fearless warrior with this small, shaking young woman who grieved the loss of her child. When she'd grieved in the past, it was anger and determination that she projected. She assigned blame, she sought revenge. He could deal with that because it was directed at him, but this… it wasn't resignation. And then it hit him, because as much as Charlie was like Miles, she was also like him.

"Do you… think it's your fault?" He asked quietly. One thing he knew all too well about was blaming yourself.

She pressed her lips into a thin line. The grimace instantly reminded him of Rachel which usually would be enough to send him into a tailspin of anger, but he kept it together. For her sake. He cupped her face with both hands and levelled his eyes with hers.

"Don't you dare, Charlotte. If it was anyone's fault it was mine or those bastards'."

He could drown in those grey blue eyes that latched onto his with such despair. He pulled her to his chest again and this time it wasn't jagged – it was like they morphed into one body, their pain binding them together even tighter.

"I thought I'd lost you." He whispered in here ear.

And just like that any thoughts of leaving, of abandoning her dissipated as he processed the fact that she'd practically said to him that if she only had 24 hours left on this Earth she'd want to spend them with him. The thought woke something deep and fierce within him, like he could face a whole army for her. Not for revenge – although his pain was so immense he couldn't put into words, but to protect her. He'd keep her safe if it was the last thing he did.