Charlie returned about half an hour later, finding Monroe waiting at the front door. "That was fast- any trouble?"

"None, in and out job," Charlie remarked as they walked into the house. "And Miles?"

"Safe and sound," Monroe said kindly. "Doc, Charlie's back!" Gene ran down the stairs.

"Here," Charlie handed him a large duffel bag filled with pill bottles. "I wasn't sure what he needed, so I helped myself to everything." She smirked at him as he looked overwhelmingly happy and rushed back upstairs. Charlie sighed and turned back to Monroe. "Where's Aaron and my mom?"

"Your mom's helping Gene with Miles," Monroe said dryly. "And Aaron, he's upstairs somewhere, said he wanted to be alone though." He added that as Charlie immediately made a move toward the stairs. She ran a hand through her hair tiredly and sat down on the couch, deciding that, despite her better judgment, she should leave him be. Her many fights with Miles taught her that. Monroe joined her uncomfortably on the opposite side of the couch.

"So," he coughed. She raised an eyebrow at him when he didn't continue. "I'm not very good at small talk."

"I noticed," she muttered. "But, if you're bored, wanna help me with something?" She grinned evilly.

"I'm in," he agreed. He didn't feel like being glared at by the other members of her family. "What's up?"

"Their base was deserted, but their files and stuff are still there. Why not help ourselves to more? Well, what do you think?"

"I think… you've been spending too much time with me and Miles," he said smiling. It was a pretty damn good idea, probably one he would've thought of himself. "Got a plan?"

"Try not to get caught?"

"Ingenious." She smiled, but to be honest, she was definitely going to keep an eye on him on this mission. She needed to know if she could actually trust Sebastian Monroe, at least enough not to worry that he might abandon her in a fight. Or worse.

About ten minutes later they were out the door, weapons in hand. "So, Monroe?"

"Hm?"

"What's your plan after this? Miles wakes up, tells you where your kid's at, you find him, then what?" Maybe she wasn't very good at small talk either.

"That's my whole plan."

"That's it?" Charlie asked incredulously. "What happens after? What are you going to say to him?"

"I don't know, I haven't gotten to that part yet," he snapped, annoyed. The plan had its holes, but he didn't need Charlie freakin' Matheson to point that out to him.

"Sorry," Charlie said. It wasn't her business, but she couldn't help but think of her own similar baby mama/daddy story. "I just wanted to help."

"And why would I want your help?" he said turning to face her.

"Excuse me? Sorry for trying to give you some advice, but are you serious? We wouldn't even be having this conversation right now if you didn't force your 'help' on my family," she laughed acidly.

"You guys weren't complaining when I saved your asses," he told her. He had thought she had finally learned to accept him and had been grateful. That was all bull, obviously.

"Or when we saved yours? Or when you just abandoned us?" she said bitterly. Damn, she was supposed to be sly about this. Her statement hung in the air and they both avoided each other's gaze. Finally, she broke the silence with a less harsh voice. "Look, I get it. You don't know me, so why should you risk your life for me?"

"You're right. I left because I wasn't willing to die for you or Aaron, but I came back to help and I don't care what you say, that means something," he hissed. He was offended that she had basically called him a coward.

"Fine, why'd you come back?" Her voice was hostile and bored; she shifted her weight and stared at him, waiting for a response. He bit his lip and thought, looking into the horizon. Finally he turned back to her, his gaze not friendly.

"I don't owe you an explanation."

"Yes you do," she barked. "How the hell am I supposed to trust you?"

"Trust me? You don't need to trust me, Charlie. Trust means nothing as long as I'm an advantage to you and your goals right now. Maybe you're not like me and Miles after all."

"I consider that a compliment then. But Miles is nothing like you, General." Every word she spoke was like punch in the face to Monroe. After a minute, they collected themselves and kept walking in silence. There it was: the cold, hard truth that Monroe had guessed earlier. Miles had gone soft, he was a puppy dog, and Monroe was 100% sure that Charlie was the cause of that. The sooner Miles told him where his son was so he could get out of here, the better it would be for all of them.

Once they entered the base, the two of them split up to search. Charlie scanned the papers for potentially helpful information before shoving them into her bag. Monroe appeared in the doorway with full bags. He nodded towards the exit and they continued until a sound in the other room stopped them in their tracks. They ducked into the nearest room and poised themselves to attack.

"Still haven't found any survivors?" a voice asked.

"Not one," a man replied angrily. "I knew we shouldn't have catered to Horne's whims, the guy's insane!"

"I don't know, look at what they found at the school. He's the only one that understood that. Anyways, we've got to find the Mathesons at least, town's getting antsy." Monroe and Charlie stared at each other.

"No big deal," the other man scoffed. "We'll find 'em and execute 'em like we did Monroe. Gene with them." Charlie's hand on her knife tightened.

"Gene? I thought it was Miles that we wanted for all of this?"

"We've got holes in this story and the only to fix them is to make sure no one really knows what's going on- that means we get Gene, Miles, Rachel, and her daughter."

"Yes, sir." Charlie bit her lip, fighting the urge to take them out. Monroe looked just as unhappy as her, but managed to stay down also. He gave Charlie a look that she took as him pleading her for patience- they'd get them eventually. She rolled her eyes in silent agreement- as long as she got to take them out, she supposed she could wait.

The two of them waited until they could no longer hear the footsteps of the men before leaving quickly. Once they were out of town bounds again, Charlie sighed. "I don't think they sent all their troops to Horne."

"Neither do I," Monroe said without looking at her.

"We should move to another location soon then, maybe-," she almost continued before dropping her gaze to her feet. Now Monroe faced her, waiting for her to finish. "It doesn't matter, I'll talk to Mom and Gene about this."

"Hey, just 'cause I'm going to split, doesn't mean I'm not going to help you and Miles get somewhere safe."

"You don't have to," Charlie said, trying to keep her voice tough.

"Listen, if you want to stay alive, just accept my goddamn help, Charlie. Jesus," he sighed. "Despite what you think, you need my help- you're not that tough." Charlie rolled her eyes again, what she wouldn't give to punch him in the face right now. Unfortunately, someone else did that for her. She recognized his uniform, patriot scout. Monroe quickly recovered and took him down with his sword. He rubbed his jaw sorely, silently blaming Charlie for distracting him. They were about to hide the body when three more patriots appeared. Charlie threw one of her own knives at the first and got into a sword fight with the one of them while Monroe fought the other. Suddenly another patriot arrived, Monroe cursed under his breath as he fought the both of them. He just had a look of slight annoyance. And then another appeared. "Damn, were you all just hiding in the bushes?" The last guy pulled out a gun and pointed it at Charlie. One of them restrained her and held a knife to her throat, causing Monroe to pause. "I'd just like to say that I was right before," he told her. She laughed shakily, eyeing their weapons.

"Well I'll be damned, is that… Monroe?" the man with the gun wondered.

"What?" Charlie scoffed. Monroe caught her eye and understood the plan immediately. "His name's Nate." Damn, she thought to herself, where'd that come from? The fake name of her ex-boyfriend just popped into her head, as if she didn't have enough issues.

"Nate?" the man repeated, he sounded unsure. "He sure looks like Sebastian Monroe."

"I get that sometimes," Monroe said, shrugging his shoulders as he was shoved into a tree. "Easy there, buddy." The man shoved him harder. Monroe, quick as a flash, elbowed the man in the face and grabbed the sword. Charlie freed herself also and joined the fight with the three patriots. The armed man aimed at Monroe, almost pulling the trigger when Charlie punched him out and grabbed his gun. "Thanks!" Monroe yelled, still fighting.

"Don't mention it," she muttered, trying to fend off one of the patriots that was trying to take the rifle from her. He wrestled the gun away from her and used the butt of it to hit her in the head. She fell to the ground as the man pointed the gun at her.

Monroe finished off his guy and looked toward Charlie. She was outnumbered, the other guy had gotten up and one of them was pointing a gun at her, the other had his attention on him. Monroe threw his only weapon at the armed man's chest, causing him to fall. "I won't," Monroe said while Charlie took out the last guy. She collected the weapons and then turned to Bass.

"Thanks, Bass" she said, lifting her eyes reluctantly to his face. He smiled at the sound of his nickname.

"Does this mean you trust me, kid?"

"God, help me, I think it does," she laughed. They continued walking back to the cabin, both of them slightly uncomfortable but content with their new found friendship.