Chapter 15:The End and a Beginning

Oval Office. Affleck, Monroe, Charlie, and Miles are planning her Ambassador Trip. They're gathered around a map on Affleck's desk.

"Maybe we should start with the Republic," Affleck says, looking at Charlie. "Your home town."

"Or maybe we end with that?" Charlie says. "If we want to leave within a week, we can't start with the Republic."

Affleck looks at her blankly.

"Winter." Charlie says. "Winter is coming."

The rest of the three laugh, and Charlie rolls her eyes.

"There was this TV show–" Affleck starts to explain.

"Yeah, I read the books," Charlie says, shaking her head. These people and their TV shows. "Let's start in the south."

"I like it," Affleck says. "Maybe a little safer for Monroe right now anyway." She leans back in her chair. "I'll let you two figure out how we're going to explain why our National Security Lead is guarding our ambassador. Because I assume you're going to insist on going."

"Yes." Bass nods definitively.

"But it's technically beneath your station."

He shrugs. "It shows respect for Charlie and her role."

"Fair enough." She looks out the window at the position of the sun. "Okay I need to spend some time with daughter, so we'll figure out towns to stop in later."

She heads to the door, stopping to say one last thing over her shoulder. "And you two need to decide if you're going to hide that you're sleeping together so we can figure out accommodations." She gives a little wink and leaves.

"She's obsessed with us," Monroe says.

"She's trying to force your hand so she can have her happy family 'narrative.'" Miles uses air quotes to be extra douchey.

"I've got to go meet with potential "staff members,'" Charlie uses air quotes as well and they laugh.

"Jesus, will you look at us," Miles shakes his head.

"I'll walk out with you – I've got to head to training," Bass says.

They cross the lawn, Bass heading to the National Mall, and Charlie to a little building that's been assigned to her as an office.

"I'm thinking separate sleeping quarters," Bass says. "We don't need to let everyone know our business."

"Yeah I know. But sneaking into each other's quarters every night will be really annoying. And people will talk."

Bass sighs. "Life would be so much easier if we didn't have to deal with people."

She laughs. "See you later." They briefly rub their fingers against each other and part ways.

He watches her for a beat, appreciating the sway of her hips.

He turns to go towards the training ground. Some of these guys are truly hopeless but others intrigue him. He's sensing a love of country again and that's giving him some hope.

"Sebastian Monroe!" he hears an angry voice coming at him from his right. He looks to find a man walking towards him very fast, holding something in his hand. He briefly slows down as he gets closer to Monroe, long enough to scream, "You will know how it feels to lose the love of your life."

He runs towards the building Charlie just entered. Monroe has quickly figured out what's happening and takes off after him, screaming Charlie's name. But it's too late. The man has pulled the pin in the grenade and throws it at the building Charlie just entered.

Time seems to stop for a moment, and all Monroe can think is Charlie. I have to get to Charlie. He keeps running towards the building even as it explodes in front of him. It knocks him back onto the grass, but he gets back up and keeps running. Onlookers have come to help, pulling him away from the building but he fights them, repeating Charlie's name over and over.

"My wife died in the bombs that you launched!" the man with the grenade screams. "You now know what that feels like! Murderer! Murderer!"

Finally it's over, and all that's left of the building is a pile of smoking rubble and some small fires. Bass runs to the rubble, climbing through it, calling for Charlie. The president's guards take the man with the grenade away, but he still yells that Sebastian Monroe is a murderer who killed thousands.

After a few minutes Bass hears Rachel calling his name. "Bass! She's here! She's over here!" He comes running to find Charlie leaning against the building next door, with Rachel squatting next to her. Her hands are on either side of Charlie's face, looking into her eyes. "I found her here. She has a huge bump on the side of her head. Must have hit the wall in the blast. Charlie. Look at me sweetheart."

Bass squats down next to Rachel, then calls out, "We need a medic!" "Bass." Charlie whispers, voice shaking. "Stop yelling."

He briefly smiles in relief. He brings his hands to the sides of her face, and Rachel moves her own hands, letting him.

"Hi." He whispers.

"Hi." She whispers back.

"Where do you hurt?"

She closes her eyes. "Head. Shoulder." She moves her shoulder.

"No, try to move it, sweetheart." He moves his hands down her body, checking for injuries. "Where else hurts? Can you feel this?"

"Yeah." Now she's getting annoyed at the attention. "I'm fine. Just hit the wall pretty hard." She moves to get up.

"Charlie no." Rachel says. "Stay put. The doctor is coming."

"I don't need a doctor."

"Humor us." Bass grabs her hand as the doctor approaches.

"I'm Doctor Collins," he says, putting his bag down. "Do you know what your name is?"

She gives Monroe and then her mom a look, like is he serious right now? But Bass and Rachel don't respond and let the doctor do his thing.

"Charlie."

He checks her pupils. "Okay. Can you tell me what this man's name is?" he points to Bass.

"Bass."

The doctor looks to Monroe for confirmation since he only knows him as General Sebastian Monroe. Bass nods.

"And this woman?"

"My mom."

"Do you know where you are?" he asks, as he checks the movement of her hands and legs.

"Building. National Mall."

"Okay great, that's right."

Bass's patience has worn thin. "Doc can we cut the chit chat and get her to Medical?"

The doctor ignores him. "Charlie, do you know what happened?"

She looks at him, then at Bass and finally her mom. "A bomb? I don't remember the details."

The doctor nods. "Perfectly normal to have some short term memory loss around the event. Let's get you to the Medic Building and have you checked out."

Bass picks her up gently in his arms. She wraps her arms around his neck, and rests her head on his shoulder, as he walks down the mall to the makeshift hospital. Rachel follows.

They get to the hospital, and the doctor asks Bass to lay her down o gurney. "Just tell me where you're going to examine her, and I'll bring her there," Bass says.

"Okay," the doctor says as they walk towards the private examination rooms. "But we really only allow family back here." He opens the door to the exam room. "You're not her husband, right?"

Bass would love to say yes, but he knows the doctor knows the truth. And if the doctor didn't call him out on it, Rachel probably would. Instead he just glares at the doctor.

"He stays," Charlie says. So he does. And Rachel lets him.

He steps out with the doctor when it's time for Charlie to change into her hospital gown. No need to shove it in Rachel's face that he's seen Charlie without clothes on several times.

"She has a concussion," the doctor tells him. "Otherwise she looks fine to me. Are you sure she was in the building? Because her injuries don't indicate that."

"I saw her go in."

"Well, we'll keep her overnight for observation. We can bring in a comfortable chair if you'd like to stay with her. But I'd like to keep her visitors to just one or two people at a time."

"I'm staying with her."

After her exam, Charlie is brought into another room with a few beds in it, mostly empty. She's just getting in the bed when they all hear Miles's voice. "Charlie!"

He fills the doorway. "What the hell happened?" "Hey Miles," she smiles weakly.

"It's Fort Knox out there, just trying to convince them I'm family. I finally had to remind them about Affleck's speech introducing us. Aaron and Connor are in the waiting room." He looks Bass. He doesn't need to ask how Bass got back here. There's no stopping Bass from doing what he wants. "What the hell happened?"

"It's me," Bass says. "He threw a grenade into the building because he knew Charlie was there. And he thinks I dropped the bombs that killed his wife. He wanted me to feel the same loss."

"I got out," Charlie says, relieved to finally remember."I heard the man screaming, and I looked out the window and heard what he said. About losing the love of his life. And I knew what he was going to, so escaped out the side window before he even threw the grenade."

"How did you know what he was going to do?" asks Rachel.

"Because Bass warned me about it enough times. That something like this would happen." She closes her eyes, feeling tired.

Rachel gives Bass a look. You nearly got her killed you selfish jerk. He gives her a look of anguish in return. "It's just a mild concussion," Charlie says, her eyes still closed. "You all can stop overthinking."

"Rest Charlie," Rachel says. "I'll check on you in a little bit. Bass?" "I'm going to stay here." She doesn't say anything as Miles leads her from the room.

As they walk down the hallway, Miles can guess what she's about to say. "They're both adults. They're happy."

"He is going to get her killed."

"Rachel," He stops and looks at her, hands on his hips. "What happened today was terrifying. But if we're going to worry that she will get killed because of who loves her, then any of us could get her killed. Looks what we've done. All of us."

"But him..."

"Rachel. His feelings for Charlie are more likely to get himself killed than her. He would die protecting her."

She doesn't look convinced, so he continues. "You might not like the idea of them together - it was hard for me at first too - but look at them. They're happy. And in a weird way they make sense." He puts his hands on her shoulders and looks into her eyes. "And you know it."

She listens. "Miles I – I don't want them to make sense. What kind of mother am I that –" She starts to cry. "What did I do to my daughter?"

"Tell people what happened with Randall Flynn. You don't need to give everyone details about your involvement, but don't make Bass the villain here. He can rightfully be a villain about a whole bunch of other stuff. But don't let him take the fall for the bombs. Please."

She steps forward into his embrace. "There's something else I need to tell you about Charlie."

** Two days later. Charlie is still in the hospital, but her concussion is abating, and she's going to be fine. Miles has finally convinced Bass to head back to the White House and clean up. Maybe take a nap.

Rachel comes to the White House to see Bass. She finds a packed bag at the top of the stairs and him in the east sitting area. He looks like hell.

"Are you going somewhere?" She asks.

He turns to look at her. His eyes are rimmed with red, and puffy. "What do you want Rachel?"

"To talk to you about my daughter."

He turns back to the window. "You're getting your wish. I'm leaving."

"May I?" She points to couch opposite him.

He briefly looks at her and nods.

"Bass." She sighs. "I didn't trust your intentions with Charlie. I didn't believe that you were capable of love. And I definitely didn't want you to be happy."

He gives a bitter laugh. "Well, like I said. You're getting your wish."

"You're leaving."

"Yeah."

"Where?"

"Anywhere. You're right, Rachel." He looks at her. "I'm not fit to love your daughter. She almost got killed because I do."

"I know you do." She pauses to let that sink in. "And she loves you." His eyes search her face, not sure where she's going with this.

She continues. "And I want her to be happy and she's happy with you." She smiles. "Miles is right – it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense and yet it really does."

"Rachel, everyone I love dies."

"Not everyone." She stands up and rests her hand on his shoulder. "Don't leave."

The next morning. Rachel attends a planned update on the Mall to let the locals and the press know what is happening with the electricity.

"The good news is that we have the tools we need to eventually get it working again." She means the pendants but she's not going to mention those. "The bad news is that the power has been out for so long that our grids have eroded. Even if they hadn't, the amount of electricity we will be able to generate isn't going to be powerful enough to travel through the system. We'll need to build a new one. In the meantime, Aaron Pittman and Connor Bennett are working on a new form of batteries and amplifiers."

There are some boos and some hopeful noises.

"But there's something else I want to say. And this is about the bombs that dropped." She sketches the story of Flynn hiring her to work on a special project, that she eventually realized wasn't ethical. Skipping the part about Bass letting him in to the Republic, she tells everyone that it was Flynn who dropped the bombs. "Sebastian Monroe wasn't even there. And I know that because I was there. He was in a sealed off room..." Her vice cracks. "There was no way to stop him. And I will live with that for the rest of my life.

"But don't place your blame on Sebastian Monroe."

Two weeks later. Charlie has finally recovered, and she and Monroe are preparing for their trip across the United States in a week. It's sunset, and they're in the round Yellow Room, beams of light coming in through the window.

Charlie is horizontal on the couch, feet up, facing the windows, holding an empty glass. She hears Bass enter. "Took you long enough." She raises her glass without looking at him. "One thing I miss about bars. A barkeep, eager to keep my glass filled."

Except her glass isn't being filled, and she looks up to see why. Bass is indeed holding a bottle of whiskey in his hand. But he reaches out with the other hand, and drops something into her glass. It clinks against the bottom.

Her jaw drops a little as she brings the glass back down and sees that he's dropped a ring in her glass. It's a simple gold band with small diamonds inlaid in it. "This is definitely not something the barkeep usually does," she whispers.

"I hope not."

She turns to face him. He's still standing, looking a little nervous. "Well are you just going to stand there, or are you going to get down here and ask me?" she says.

He gets to his knees. "Charlie. I don't want to have separate quarters when we're traveling." He searches her eyes. He swallows, suddenly finding a lump of emotion in his throat.

"So you want to cut down on traveling costs." She sees how emotional he is, and teases him gently.

He briefly grins, but is still feeling very emotional. "I want to marry you Charlie," he whispers.

She finds herself getting emotional as well. "Then I guess you better ask," she softly says, taking the ring out of her glass and setting the glass on a side table.

She hands him the ring and he takes it. "I knew you wouldn't make this easy." He takes her hand. She smiles into his eyes, letting him know what her answer will be.

He pulls her hand to his heart, and brings his forehead to hers, "Will you marry me?" he asks softly.

"Yes," she softly responds, and kisses him.

The spark that is always between them springs to life, but Bass pulls back long enough to slip the ring onto her finger. He kisses the backs of her fingers, and then cups his hand behind her head and kisses her passionately. She wraps her legs around his waist, as he moves over her onto the couch, which starts to creak under their weight.

They stop and look at each other. "We may need to consider redecorating," Bass says. He scoops her off the couch and moves her to the floor. She takes the opportunity to roll them over so she's on top. "Bigger couches. Maybe more floor space. Less stuff on the walls," she raises an eyebrow.

"I like the way you think, Charlotte." He moves her hair out of her face and brings her down for a kiss.

She pulls back up and lifts her shirt over her head. "I'm glad I didn't kill you." "It'd be hard to marry me if I was dead." He rubs his hands over her breasts. "Yes it would." He rolls them back over, so she's on her back. "I love you Charlotte."

"I love you too Bass."

The next day.

Miles and Charlie are on the Truman balcony watching Bass teaching people how to fight. He's a fantastic teacher, but he does love to yell at them. "What the hell are you doing? Your knees are locked like a statue!"

She and Miles laugh. "You sure you want to marry this guy?" Miles asks with a smile. Her smile lights up her whole face. "I'm sure." "My daughter is marrying my best friend," Miles marvels. "When's my father going to marry my mom?" she teases.

His smile lights up his whole face. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yeah? Yeah? You think that's a good idea? You just got yourself killed. Jesus. Okay who's next?" Bass's yelling at the recruits carries across the lawn.

Miles and Charlie are enjoying this probably more than they should. "That's always been his problem," says Miles. "He has a big heart." She smiles, rubbing her finger over her ring. "Promise me you'll take good care of it."

"I will," she says softly.

"I'm glad it's you, Charlie."

She looks at him and smiles. "Yeah."

One year later.

Charlie is on the balcony outside her West Wing office, having a meeting with her staff.

"So half the country has about a quarter the amount of electricity that used to be possible. Once we have almost the entire country at that level, it's time to go visiting again. I don't want to run into infighting problems with Texas and California over it."

"Yes ma'am. Madam Vice President. Ambassador." This new kid is nervous.

She's about to remind him to call her Charlie, when someone beats her to it.

"Hey Charlie," says a voice over her shoulder. She turns to see Bass in the doorway. No wonder this poor new kid was nervous. Not even their Girl Warrior marrying General Sebastian Monroe could make some people any less terrified of him.

"Charlie," Monroe repeats."Who are these goons following me around?" "They're there for your own protection. Because of who you are to me."

"I can take care of my-" " He laughs. "Well played Charlotte. Okay will you remove the goons if I promise not to be an overprotective dick?"

"Sure." She smiles. He turns to go. But then turns back. "I love you."

"I love you too," she says, running her hand over her 5 months pregnant stomach. They grin at each other, then get back to work.