Chapter 7:

Friends with Benefits part 3

a.n. Please forgive any blatant errors. I'll be happy to fix if you'll point them out. There's just simply so many times you can make sure everyone's undressed when they should be, all limbs are accounted for and if a person is actually limber enough to do what you want them to do. :) Happy Friday. Let's drink.

Charlie groaned as she slowly stretched in her now cold and empty bed, her hands running up and down her body before brushing up against something as she moved an arm over her head.

Looking over to where she had last seen Bass was a piece of brown paper, scrawled with familiar handwriting, lying in his place. Picking it up, she read it with a smile, "I owe you a new shirt. Bass." before tucking it under the pillow he had used.

Deciding she had better bathe before going anywhere if the smell of sex hung on her the way it did her room, she wandered into the kitchen lighting a fire in the stove before hauling in water to heat. Moving back to her bedroom, she was unable to locate the torn shirt or her panties. Her pants, boots and socks lay in a pile at the end of her bed. "Surely he didn't…." She thought as she began to lay out clean clothes for the day. Putting the dirty clothes into a basket to be washed on her next day off, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror standing in the corner of the room.

She had scoffed when Miles had brought it over, wanting to know what in the world he was thinking. "You're a girl. Do girl things with it."

"Girl things?" She asked biting her lip to keep from laughing at his flustered appearance.

"Where do you want me to put it?" he finally asked, done with the entire conversation.

"Over there in the corner is fine."

She watched as he carried it to the corner she indicated, sitting it down and making sure it was stable. "Thanks, Miles," she whispered moving to stand beside him, looking at their reflections in the mirror.

He threw an arm around her shoulders pulling her to him. "You're welcome."

As she moved to stand in front of it, she frowned at the hand and fingerprints on her throat and arms. She wasn't upset that they were there; just that she was going to have to find creative ways of hiding them for the next week. It had been easy enough to pass those types of bruises off when they were in the middle of a war. Shit happened after all. Now? This wasn't going to be so easy to explain. Deciding to worry about it after her bath, she went to check on her water.

"Hey, Charlie," Gene greeted her distractedly as he finished making notes in a few patient files before heading home.

"Hey, Grandpa. Quiet day?"

"A little busy actually. Seems to be an early summer cold going around town. It's hitting the little ones especially hard."

"That's too bad. I wish there was something we could do for them."

"Me too, honey. Me, too." Putting down his pencil and files, he slid his glasses off his nose. "Hey, I haven't seen you since, Saturday. I told Miles and Rachel to give you some time. I know how hard losing a patient can be, but by Sunday night with no word from you, Miles was about to combust. Thanks for dinner by the way. Is this your grandmothers?" He asked fingering the scarf tied around her neck.

"Yeah, I forgot that Mom had given them to me when I moved out and I found them yesterday when I was putting some things away. Thought I'd try one out." She shrugged while trying to scoot around the edge of the desk as his hand shot out clamping around her upper arm.

"Charlie, when did you start layering?" he asked taking a good look at her. She wore the scrubs that he had found tucked away in the back store room but under that she had on a three quarter sleeve t-shirt. If nothing, since he had known his granddaughter, she was allergic to clothing. Spying a bit of purple on her neck, Gene reached up and attempted to unknot the scarf.

Charlie caught his hand. "Grandpa, don't."

"You can show me or I'll go home and get your Mother. Or Miles." He threatened.

"You're bluffing."

"Try me."

With a huff, Charlie untied the knot and yanked the scarf away, causing Gene to suck in a breath as he reached out a hand to move her chin back and forth.

"Charlie, who did this to you?"

"Grandpa, it doesn't matter." She tried soothing him as she took his hands in hers.

"Charlie, baby, someone hurt you." Gene was nearly in tears at the thought of her being injured or assaulted and Charlie really didn't know of a good way to talk him out of the trip to the sheriff's office that she could see brewing without being blunt about it.

"Grandpa, I want you to listen to me. Okay?"

She waited for him to nod before taking a breath.

"Grandpa, I may not have directly asked for someone to do this, but I didn't object when they did it and I may have even encouraged them to go further."

Gene looked at her for a few seconds as he processed what she was telling him. "Oh. Oh!" he replied his eyes going nearly as big as saucers when he realized what she was telling him. He took a step back from her, coughing into his hand as his cheeks turned slightly pink. "Please, forgive me, Charlie."

"It's all right, Grandpa. It's nice to know you have my back if I need you."

Taking a step forward he embraced her, rocking her in his arms for a moment before pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Charlie?"

"Yeah, Grandpa?"

"Miles said that Bass spent the night at your house Saturday night."

Charlie pulled away to look at him with an arched brow. "Yes he did. Last night as well, but we're going to keep that between the two of us aren't we?"

"Charlie, you can't just expect me to sit back and stay quiet if he's the one that did this."

"And what would telling anyone accomplish, Grandpa? He didn't do anything that I didn't want him too, so the sheriff isn't going to get involved. If you tell Mom, she'll just go bat shit crazy and once is enough in my opinion, not to mention she'll wind up in jail for attempted murder, causing me to leave town, yet again, but this time I can promise you I won't be back. Or, you can tell Miles who'll kill Bass, probably end up dead himself, which in turn will drive Mom bat shit crazy and be the cause of me leaving town, again."

Gene sighed throwing his hands up in the air, "Well when you put it that way, Charlie!"

"Grandpa," Charlie tried again, "The jobs Blanchard had me doing were pretty high stress and at times very brutal, and right or wrong, I had someone in my unit that was willing to help me come down from a job." She looked down at her hands rubbing at the imagined blood she could still see there. "And sometimes you're willing to do anything just so you can sleep at night."

"Oh, Charlie," Gene sighed wrapping his arms back around her, as Charlie hung on to him in return. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Grandpa."

She managed to avoid Rachel and Miles that entire week and weekend, letting word trickle back to them through Gene that she had caught the cold going around town. Having a scarf wrapped around her neck that she pulled up to cover her "cough" was a nice touch in her opinion.

So late Sunday night when there was a knock at her door, she was more than hesitant to answer it. Slipping her robe on over her t-shirt and underwear, she slid open her night stand drawer, pulling out the small handgun that she kept there. Making her way down the darkened hallway, she clicked the safety off and stood to the side of the door.

"Who is it?"

"The Rachel Matheson Delivery service," Bass answered in a mocking tone.

Charlie reached over unlocking the door, pulling it open to reveal Bass, with a container in his hands, leaning against her door frame. "You're what?" she asked waving him in the darkened house as she clicked the safety back on, shutting the door behind him. "Let me light a lamp," she said striking a match on the table next to her, keeping the wick down low.

"I guess the good doctor really played up this cold that you caught up to dear old Mom and Uncle Miles, insisting that they shouldn't be around you but it was just fine to send some soup with me since I had already been exposed to it."

Charlie took the bowl, sidestepping around him into the kitchen to put it away. "Grandpa can be a bit overly dramatic at times, especially when he's trying to hide something from Mom." She called back over her shoulder.

Bass shifted his weight to his heel, propping a hand on his hip with a frown. "And just what is it that he's trying to hide from Rachel, or should I even bother to ask?"

Charlie sighed as walked back by him, turning up the lamp. She brushed her hair back off her shoulders as she turned towards him. "It was a little harder to hide than I anticipated."

Bass was beside her in seconds, smoothing his hands over the mottled skin, "Jesus Christ, Charlie, It was still dark when I left last week. I had no idea it was this bad."

"It's alright, Bass. I certainly don't blame you, and neither does Grandpa, not really. He's just having a hard time accepting that this is something I like doing on occasion. If the books on his desk are any indication, he's been reading up on PTSD and attempting to have a therapy session with me every night for an hour. I've decided this week I'll tell him I'm dreaming about being a baby kangaroo stuck in its mother's pouch. That should send him into a Freudian tailspin long enough for me to catch a breath.

Bass snorted at her antics as he pulled her close to him, placing slow, easy kisses across the darkened skin of her neck. "If that's something you only like to do occasionally, what do you like doing the rest of the time?"

Scratching at his scraggly beard, she grabbed his hand as she pulled away, turning the wick on the lamp back down low. Tugging him towards the couch, she waited for him to sit down before dropping her robe on the floor at his feet. Making sure she had his attention, she tugged her shirt over her head adding it to the pile before shimming out of her panties. She stood still for a moment as Bass ran his eyes up and down her body, his appreciation shinning in his eyes as he met hers.

Reaching out his hand towards her, Charlie took it, straddling his lap, as she placed his hand on her breast, leaning forward to drag her hand through his hair before nipping at his lips. "Sometimes nice and slow is really good, too," she whispered before darting her tongue out to brush against his.

He pulled her closer, crushing her against his chest, his hands tangling in her hair as he worshiped her mouth with his own. By the time he moved on to her throat, she was panting, little mewls escaping from her mouth as he set her skin on fire with his hands and lips.

His mouth found purchase on a stiff, hardened nipple, his fingers toying with her as they slid from the crease under a plump cheek, back around to tangle in her curls but never to where her inflamed skin needed him the most. She had managed to get his coat and shirt off, as she ground down against him, desperately seeking traction.

As she reached between them to unbuckle his belt and unfasten his jeans, Bass lifted his hips to help her slide them down enough to free his straining cock. They both sighed in relief as she wrapped her cool, dry hand around it, sliding smoothly up his length before she put her lips to work on his skin, placing slow, wet kisses below his ears, his collarbones, even snaking her tongue out to whirl around his nipples, causing them to hardened at her touch. When she began stroking the head of his cock with her thumb, he jerked her hand away pulling her close against him once more, his erection jumping and throbbing between them. He lathed her jaw line just below her ear with his tongue. "Tell me what you want, Charlie."

"I want you, Bass," she pleaded as his tongue drove her wild.

"No, that's who you want. I wanna know what you want."

She grabbed hold of his face with both hands, holding him still in front of her. "God Bass, I wanna fuck you, so bad." She panted feeling like one of the junkies addicted to heroin she had seen once, a long time ago.

"So fuck me," he whispered back.

Charlie eyes nearly rolled back in her head of their own volition as his mouth found its way to her neck once again. She eagerly grasped on to him, lining him up with her center before sinking down slowly, her bottom resting against his cloth covered thighs. They both went still as Charlie's walls twitched around him and he was convinced she was about to come right then and there as he watched her eyelids flutter shut.

After a few moments, she brought her hands up to rest on his shoulders with a slow motion roll of her hips. Sighing as she found the sweet spot, she began to move, nothing but sounds of pleasure coming from her throat as Bass never stopped his lips in his quest to map her skin. Running them down her throat to the valley between her breasts, he gripped her waist bending her backwards to taste the soft flesh underneath them.

Charlie settled her hands behind her on his knees, arching her back as he suckled at the smooth flesh. She was lost in her own world as she moved up and down, her hair swaying as it brushed against her hips. At this angle, Bass was able to look down at where they were joined, damp curls mingling, a fleeting glimpse of the base of his cock as she moved over him.

Moving a hand up further on her back to offer support, Bass drug the other hand down the center of her body, his thumb pressing and rubbing against her clit, causing her to jerk and lose her rhythm. She brought herself back up, meeting his eyes as her mouth fell open and her pace quickened, her breathing ragged as he rubbed faster until she splintered apart, fingers digging into this shoulders, crying out his name. Pulling out, Bass spilled himself against her soft belly as her head rested on his shoulder. He slowly rubbed circles against her bare back as she ghosted her lips against his neck and shoulders before finding the strength to move.

Standing, she held her hand out, a silent question in her eyes.

Knowing better, but not really caring, Bass got to his feet and let her lead him down the hall to her bed.