A/N: Thank you for all the likes, follows and reviews. It's always lovely to get those.
It's always darkest before the light
Chapter 2
The days melted into one another. Monroe shared a dinner with Charlie every evening. At first she had been feisty. But as the days went by, she had started to cool down.
The more they spent time together, the more Monroe was impressed by her. She always said what was on her mind and she wasn't afraid of saying it. It was refreshing. She was different than anyone else he had met. Although young but full of Matheson traits.
Monroe wondered why he even bothered to try and have a conversation with her. How come she had this influence on him, that he tried to be civil with her. With anyone else he would have not been so patient.
"Why don't I tell you something about myself and then you tell me something about yourself?", Monroe asked.
"Tell me about you and Miles.", she said.
He gazed at her. Wondering why she wanted to know about that.
"We were best friends. For a long time."
He wrapped his fingers around the wine glass. He gazed at the dark, red liquid in it.
"Not anymore?"
"No. Now, tell me about you. What was your life like?", he asked, not wanting to talk about that subject.
He took a sip of his drink.
"Peaceful.", she said, looking him straight in the eye.
Challenging him.
"That's good.", he said softly, knowing what she was trying to do. He didn't take the bait.
"Luckily Ben had Maggie because Mom never came back.", she said, her eyes full of blame.
"You don't understand. Things were… complicated.", Monroe said.
"Tell me."
"Miles left..."
"It was a revenge?"
Monroe looked at his glass. "No. Tell me what was your life like."
"If you want to know about it so bad, it wasn't fun when someone took your mother."
"She came by herself because Miles was here!", he yelled, frustrated with all the accusations.
Charlie was suddenly quiet, her eyes wide.
"I'm sorry. You must have thought that Rachel and Ben were happy together."
She didn't talk to him after that. Monroe drank his wine and left, without saying another word.
Monroe didn't know why he felt like crap after that. Maybe it was the look on Charlie's face he had seen just before he left. She appeared to be shocked by the new information.
Charlie didn't show any emotion when Monroe entered the dining room the next day.
"Evening, Charlotte.", he finally said, his voice hoarse.
She seemed to wake up from deep of her thoughts. "Evening, Monroe."
"How are you?"
"Why do you ask? You don't care.", Charlie said.
"I know you were upset for what I said last night."
Charlie just stared at him.
"It wasn't my intention.", he said, gazing her.
Monroe wondered in his mind what the hell she was doing to him. He never apologized for his behavior. Not to anyone.
He took a bottle and opened it. This time it was champagne, as he had ordered. He poured some for them to the tall but thin glasses. Shortly their dishes arrived.
"Tell me about Maggie.", Monroe said, breaking the silence.
Charlie looked somewhere, like she was trying to remember.
"She was nice. We had all kinds of plants all over the place. Herbs, vegetables. Anything that grew. She died, you know."
"Sorry about that."
She looked like she was dreaming, her eyes looking into distance.
"She made medicine… for Danny, my brother. He used to hate how it tasted but it helped him to breathe."
"So she was a healer?"
"Yeah."
"You liked to live there?"
"The Sylvania Estates? Of course. Things were good at there. People working together. Living peacefully in harmony. Children running around, playing."
"Sounds happy."
"It was.", Charlie said, her voice choking a bit.
The steel started to form in her eyes again. Monroe knew why it was there.
"I asked your father to be found. Not to be killed. I didn't know that Neville would shoot half of the village.", he said.
Charlie took her glass from him and tasted it. He took his and took a sip. They started to eat, quietly.
"I'm happy you had a decent childhood.", he said finally.
Charlie gave him a look.
Danny was sharing a cell with Rachel. They were always taken down the corridor when it was time to eat.
The door opened into a dining room and left there alone. The table was set for two. There was red wine and steak, some fried root vegetables and potatoes. They sat down and Rachel started immediately eat and drink.
Danny just watched her and wondered how Rachel could even eat.
"We are in a cage. And you're acting like nothing is wrong.", he said, tilting his head.
"We have beds. We have food. Things could be worse.", Rachel said, taking another sip of the wine. And another piece of food went to her mouth.
"We don't even know where Charlie is. And what Monroe is doing to her."
Danny watched her mother's cold eyes while she was chewing.
"I'm sure she's fine.", Rachel said finally.
"How can you be so sure? We have to get out of here."
"Shh, they might hear you."
"What we are going to do?", Danny whispered.
"We have to wait. If something bad happens, we will hear about it. Be patient. No news means good news.", Rachel said.
Danny tasted a piece of his steak reluctantly.
Monroe became to realize that when he didn't have urgent matters to take care of, he often thought about her. Standing behind his desk, checking some paper work. His mind started to drift away.
He started to wait for the evenings, the dinners they shared. The discussions they had.
Some time later
Charlie did have a new room. It was a luxurious big bedroom, size of a small apartment. She wasn't visibly detained but the hallway was heavily guarded. The other way went past Monroe's bedroom, the doors at the both ends were closed. One door led to her bathroom.
One morning she woke up early and couldn't sleep. It was still dark outside. These last days she had come to know a different part of Monroe. A glimpse of what he probably used to be, before the blackout. In another conditions, she might have liked him or even have an interest towards him.
He was a damn good looking man. Charming, whenever he wanted to be. Around her he was usually cordial. She could imagine him being young, how the women must have looked at him at the college where he studied. Or on free time, drinking beer with Miles.
Maybe, if they had met in different circumstances, they would have been interested in each other. If he hadn't been so crazy and the commanding General of the Militia. And she so young and his captive.
She didn't want to, but part of her felt drawn to him. Maybe it was lust. Maybe it was Stockholm syndrome. Or the fact that he had power and wealth. Added the fact that he was very confident.
She had seen a glimpses of real him, behind all that facade he was pulling. It made her see him in a different light. Maybe he was a human after all, with all of his own demons from the past and for whatever had happened to him. He didn't like to talk about himself. She guessed he was avoiding that.
She decided to visit him. She had only her night dress on. The thin shoulder straps revealed her skin and a part of her chest, the fabric covering her breasts. For the coolness of the manor she put a morning gown on it. At first she headed out from her room, to the corridor.. It was odd, the guards greeting her.
"Morning, Miss Matheson."
"Morning guys."
She passed them by, going for the bathroom. She took care of herself and drank some water, after washing her hands and her face.
Charlie walked slower. She didn't know what to expect. She knocked on Monroe's door. No one answered. She tried the door knob. It was unlocked, so she opened the door quietly. Everything started to feel too real at that point. She held her breath, trying to listen the sounds inside the room.
It was dark and all she could hear, was someone's steady breathing. She knew that Monroe was probably a womanizer. He seemed like that kind of a man. Not caring about anything or anyone.
If there was a woman with him, she didn't know. It would be awkward to find someone there with him.
She went in anyway and closed the door. Doing it slowly, so it wouldn't make a sound. Taking the steps towards the bed, cautiously. Feeling her heart pound. There was only one person in the bed. Clearly sleeping. Then she wondered what to do. She was hungry. She put the candle on and saw a fruit bowl on the table. She took an apple and started to chew.
"Morning.", Monroe said with drowsy, low voice, turning to see her better.
Charlie could see that he didn't have a shirt, his blanket covering the lower half of him. He was lean and wiry muscled. His shoulders wide. He put his hands under his head. Some hair in his armpits. A few days stubble on his face. Blue eyes, watching her every move.
"Hi. I was hungry."
"I can see that."
Charlie dug in deeper in to the apple.
"What are you doing here?", Monroe asked.
"I came to see you."
Monroe got up. Charlie wasn't sure where to put her eyes. She didn't know if he slept without clothes or not. She couldn't look away either so she took a peek. At least he had some kind of pants on. Charlie felt butterflies in her stomach but she continued eating.
He walked at her, stopping close to her. "I'm gonna go and refresh myself. Make yourself comfortable."
When he was out of the room Charlie swallowed, then she continued eating her apple.
When he came back, she was sitting in the chair, finishing her fruit. Monroe took an apple too and went for his bed, eating it there.
"Come here. If that's why you're here for?", he asked.
Charlie put the remnants of the apple to the table. She wasn't sure what to do. She just stood there. Monroe got up and he left his apple core on the table. Then he walked behind Charlie. She closed her eyes, feeling him barely touch her. His warmth radiating from his body to her back.
"You can leave anytime.", he said.
Charlie felt his hot breath on the sensitive skin of her neck. He smelled like the apple he had just eaten. Underneath his own, unique scent, of a man and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on. Maybe Aloe Vera, she thought.
Monroe walked around her slowly, ending in front of her. He looked her in the eye. Charlie looked back. When he slowly reached for her, she couldn't stop looking at his hands.
What was he going to do?
She felt him slowly slide the morning gown down with his fingertips, letting them slightly touch the skin on her shoulders all the way. She felt weird, like electricity flowing through his fingers to her skin. She watched his right hand and then the dropping cloth. Then she returned her gaze to Monroe's eyes. He watched her curiously.
Charlie didn't know what to do. She felt like she should be running away and fast. Yet the same time, she felt the same curiosity that Monroe had in his eyes.
What would it feel like to touch him? Would it be a bad decision?
Those feelings were tearing her apart.
Suddenly Monroe dropped his intense gaze, turned away and let her be. Charlie flickered her eyes. The next thing she saw, Monroe was just lying down on his bed.
She hesitated. But eventually took some steps slowly, towards the bed. She moved slowly, then she sat on the side of the bed.
Charlie felt Monroe's weight shift, moving the mattress under them. She was completely still, her body tense. She turned her head a bit to see him from the corner of her eye.
Charlie was ready to fight if Monroe would happen to be violent in his bed too.
"Don't be afraid, Charlotte. I'm not going to hurt you.", Monroe whispered softly.
Not far from her. She swallowed.
Was she really going to do this?
Charlie tried to remember something useful. All she could think about was the farm boys she had shooed. Monroe was not a young farm boy, shyly trying to steal a kiss from her, with a slobber mouth. He was a grown man.
Then there was Nate. Nothing useful there either.
Charlie was lost in her thoughts when a new sensation suddenly pulled her out. Monroe had been getting closer and he planted his hot mouth on her cold shoulder. She inhaled sharply. She could feel him kiss her shoulder again, his few days old stubble scraping her skin. She shivered, closing her eyes. No one had ever done this to her before and she wasn't sure whether she liked it or not.
When he moved to her sensitive neck, she gasped. His touch sending waves of pleasure through her body. She swallowed hard, trying not to leave a sound. She had planned before that she wouldn't give him that satisfaction. She just didn't know at the time how hard it was going to keep that promise.
His hot mouth on her skin and that damn stubble making her waver with that decision.
She had not been prepared for that she might actually enjoy their encounter. For the unnatural reasons she was doing it, she hadn't come to think of that. She had imagined him being selfish and evil.
That evil was now pulling her to the bed and she didn't resist. Although her thoughts of the situation remained still conflicting, she wasn't going to quit. If he had something in mind that felt anything like those kisses on her neck, she was willing to try it.
Part of her hated him for waking those feelings. She had always thought that those were the things she would explore with her beloved partner. Not with her worst enemy.
A/N: Please leave a review if you like!
