Charlie feels warm. Content. Like she did before everything changed and she became Charlie Greyson. Before she became untouchable.

Her fourth glass of whiskey rests snugly in her palm and she watches Bass watching her with a kind of tenderness that she's only seen occasionally in her uncle when she was a child. God she misses Miles. She misses the way his eyes would light up when she would tell him a joke or make a snarky comment that was so identical to him it only could come from spending endless amounts of time together. She misses Nora and her smooth voice, sitting on Charlie's living room floor as they watched movies together. She misses feeling safe.

Miles knows her job, knows it because he's done it. But she knows it kills him to be out of contact with her for weeks –even months –all in an effort to protect them. Different last name. Different phone number every month. Security precautions up the ass to be able to see each other for an hour. Especially now.

Charlie eyes Bass as he watches her and she remembers the man from her childhood who watched over her almost as much as Miles did. God has he changed. It's been almost seven years since she saw him and the fact that he hasn't recognized her means that everything's changed more than she's ever realized it would. He looks rougher, the lines around his mouth and eyes defined and his beard nonexistent anymore. He seems at peace now, the version of Bass from seven years ago a hazy memory that was constantly at war with himself. The man in front of her is solid, peaceful and steady.

Charlie runs a hand through her hair and wonders how long it took him to find peace. She feels it inside of her sometimes –the uncontrollable rage that fills her and she has no place to put it except for into her fist, her knuckles scarred almost horrendously from her pounding a brick wall after a call. At least it was a brick wall and not a person -she can control her rage enough that hitting people are a thing of her sealed past.

She remembers her past far too clearly and she wears it too often on the job that it has to be kept in a steel box inside her chest where it can never escape outside of the job.

Charlie sees Bass staring at her and can't help the smile that creeps onto her lips.

"What?" She asks him, her eyebrow arching in a challenge of a good answer and he grins in response before shaking his head.

"You are the most intriguing woman I have ever known."

"Oh yeah?" She teases him and he smirks at her.

"You're a mystery to me." He says, his eyes glowing when he talks before they turn nostalgic. "You remind me of a friend."

Charlie feels a clenching in her gut but plasters on a smile anyway.

"Yeah? Who's the friend?"

Bass doesn't seem to pick up on the trepidation in her voice, instead his face warming with memories.

"Miles. He's my best friend. You remind me of him." Bass's eyes are glazed over with whiskey and happiness and Charlie can't help but smile.

"How so?" She's curious of the answer and props her chin on her fist and leans in close to him across the table.

"You're both… puzzling. And snarky." He grins at that. "And so damn stubborn. His niece is probably like that."

"His niece?" Charlie keeps her voice steady, as her insides ride the shock out that he remembered her.

"Yeah, you would like her. I haven't seen her in years but if she's anything like I remember then you would like her. Everyone does. Miles told me she's backpacking around Ireland right now."

Charlie hears the wave of sadness in his voice and decides to pry further.

"You knew her well?"

At this Bass shrugs almost noncommittal. "For a time yeah. She had a shitty childhood and when she came to stay with Miles she was this tough kid who wouldn't ask for anything. It took Miles damn near a year to break down all her wall –but fuck when he did? That girl had a heart of gold. You could never find anyone who compared. But then again she's a Matheson –that's her last name. Special is in their nature."

"She was special to you?" At this Charlie's voice wavers and she masks it by taking a drink.

Bass doesn't answer for a moment and she watches him study the table in front of him – a stalling tactic that failed subtlety.

"She had all this anger when she was a kid, you could see it in her eyes when something happened that reminded her of her childhood. Miles used to call me to pick her up from school detention because she had hit kids in her class. No fear, just anger from them hitting her soft spot."

Charlie remembers those moments vividly, Bass's look of concern when he had come all those times to pick her up and his snappy maybe you should teach kids to watch their mouths to the teacher when she had tried to tell Bass that Charlie had issues. No shit she had issues.

"I remember her parents."

Charlie can't breathe at the mention of her parents and tries not to start shaking, the familiar spouts of anger starting to thrum through her veins.

"They had this kid, Danny. He was a sweet kid sure, a little too doted on but he was only a toddler, you couldn't blame that on him. Especially when they found out he was sick. But here they have this daughter who is only what- six? Seven maybe. And when they find out their son is sick what do they do? Drop the girl off at Miles and tell him they'll be back when they're done finding treatment for Danny.

Charlie knows how this story ends and feels the familiar dropping of her heart.

"They promise they'll be back as soon as they find a treatment for Danny, saying that flying around the world is no way for a little girl to have to live. They say if they don't find anything in two weeks they'll come back. But two weeks turns into a month, then two, then six. This little girl spends two years without her parents coming to visit her once. Then suddenly one weekend the girl's mother shows up on Mile's doorstep. Rachel -that's her name. Mile's refuses to let her see Charlie given that it's been two years that they haven't even heard from them. Rachel claims that she came back to see Charlie, but then again -she's had two years. After an hour of yelling at her Mile's finds out the real reason Rachel came back –because Danny needed a bone marrow transplant and neither Rachel nor Ben –that's the girl's father – are a match. But she is."

Bass scrubs his hand over his face and his eyes have the hazy glint of being lost in remembering, so lost he's oblivious to Charlie looking pale as a ghost and shaking as he speaks.

"She's fucking rambling on and on about how Charlie can save Danny and then they can be a family again. Honest to god, if this girl saves her brother then she can be part of a family that left her. I'm sitting with this girl on her bed, her knees pulled to her chest and I know she can hear every word of what's being said and no matter how many times I try to distract her she just keeps staring at the door, listening to them yelling. But when she hears that Danny will die without a transplant, she loses it, tearing through the house to find her mom and Miles has to hold her back from Rachel. She's shaking, and you can almost see the air around her vibrate from how angry she is, and Rachel is almost looking scared as she looks at her daughter as the words pour out of her mouth about being a family if she helps Danny. And you'll never believe what she says to Rachel."

But Charlie will, because she knows exactly what she said.

She said "Miles and Bass love me." And Rachel looked confused as what that had to do with anything and then she drops a bomb in the house. She says 'I'll help Danny but then you don't come back." And Mile's face is pure relief that she isn't going with Rachel until Rachel pulls the 'I love you' line and the look in this kids eyes is heartbreaking. And then she grabs onto Mile's hand like it's a lifeline and looks right at Rachel and says "But you love Danny more." And Rachel had no answer to that, I mean of course she didn't. She left her kid with her brother in law for two years without seeing her. There are no words to justify that. Especially when I found out that Rachel leaving was actually a godsend for Charlotte when Mile's told me what Rachel had done to her."

Charlie can't breathe, can't even move as she feels the pounding of her heart fill her ears. Panic, pure panic that she hasn't felt in years settles into her veins like lead and her hands clench into fists, her blunt nails digging into her palms and drawing blood.

"You know."

"What? What do I know Charlie?"

She hears pure confusion in his voice but she can't even look at him as she lifts her deadweight of a body out of the booth, almost tripping over her own feet and feels Bass's hand close around her arm.

"Hey, you okay?"

She wants to hit the concern out of him and instead settles for ripping her arm out of his grasp. "Don't touch me." She spits out, her hands shaking violently as her pulls a hundred dollar bill out of her pocket and throws it on the table.

"Charlie what the hell is going on?"

She can see the concern brewing in his eyes when she finally looks at him before she runs out of the restaurant, passing the waiter who looks alarmed at her as she runs by. She runs, the ice air making her shake as she runs, past the office buildings and through alleys. She runs until she can't feel her legs anymore, then she settles for walking. She can feel the anger brewing inside her like a coiled spring, just waiting to be released and she pulls out her cellphone and dials the number by heart.

"Yes?" She hears the familiar dull monotone voice on the other end and speaks impatiently.

"Matheson, access code: Golden Angels."

"One moment." The shrill beeping that connects her call echoes in her ear and she paces the alley in frustration.

"Charlie?"

She hears the worried voice of her uncle on the other end has to bite her tongue till she tastes blood to keep from crying.

"You told him."

"Told who what?" Miles's voice has the same confusion as Bass's did and she tries to reign in her anger to make coherent sentences.

"You told Bass what Rachel did to me?"

Her voice is almost a whisper and she hears the silence grow on the other end and her pacing increases.

"How do you know this Charlie?"

"Bass told me."

"He told you?! What is going on?" Miles's voice bleeds worry and she wants to tell him to stuff his worry.

"Steve hired Bass to consult on my case. He's been here for the last two weeks."

"And he knows who you are?"

Charlie lets out a frustrated sigh and runs a hand through her hair. "No, he said I reminded him of you. And then he said that he's sure that your niece is just like you. Me Miles. And then he fucking knew things about me that only you know. Like what Rachel did to me. He fucking knows Miles!"

This time the silence on the other end isn't worried, its guilt and it only feeds Charlie's anger.

"You told him didn't you?"

Mile's sighs and Charlie can only imagine him pouring a drink and scrubbing his face with his hands.

"Charlie, it was never supposed to get back to you. You have to understand, you were only seven and the things you told me about what Rachel did to you? I couldn't process that, let alone know how to help you. I needed to tell someone who would be there for you and know what you were fighting against. And Bass never judged, just listened and was there for you as much as I was."

"I told you! I never told Bass or Nora. Only you. That was my secret to share, not yours! How am I supposed to go into work and look at him now, knowing that he knows?!"

"Charlie… he won't judge you for it. He'll want to be there for you. Let him."

"Fuck you Miles." She snarls into the phone before hanging up on him, the rage taking over as her hands start to shake frantically.

"Fuck!" She screams, her phone dropping the cement as her hands curl into fists and she punches the brick building in front of her, her knuckles splitting open with the impact. She keeps hitting away anyway, the sharp sting only powering her until her hands are numb and her knuckles are a smeared crimson and violet mess. They'll heal, unlike the mess inside of her.

She stares at her phone on the ground for a moment before picking it up and slipping it into her back pocket before starting the long walk to her apartment, intent on drinking until she can't feel anything.