The house they were staying in was much smaller than what they were used too. With only two bedrooms and a miniscule living room, it was generous to call it a tight fit. Normally, Charlie objected to any special treatment because of her gender, but this was one of the few things she was willing to let the boys be 'gentleman' about because it meant that she got her own room. A quick tournament of rock, paper, scissors, had earned Conner and Jeremy the other room to share. A round of tic-tac-toe later, and it was decided that Miles would get the couch and Bass would have to make due with the floor.

Bass complained that he always got stuck with the floor. Miles told him to stop trying to out maneuver him in tic-tac-toe, it was only a game for God's sake. Charlie told them both to shut up or she'd make them both sleep on the floor... They kept their mouths shut after that.

As they ate their dinner crowded around their tiny fire, everyone seemed content with their lives. Everyone except for Conner. He picked moodily at the stew in his bowl.

"This meat is tough." The other boys all turned to Conner, begging him with frantic eyes to shut the fuck up before he upset Charlie.

But it was too late. Charlie glared at him. "Why don't you make dinner next time, then?" The boys groaned inwardly as Conner snorted.

"Because cooking isn't my job."

"Job?" She asked incredulously. "You think it's my job to serve you?"

Miles, Bass, and Jeremy all slurped down the remainder of their dinner and tried to make a hasty exit before Charlie caught them. Unfortunately, Conner seemed to realize a little to late that he'd said the wrong thing.

"No, I just meant-"

"-Oh, you just meant that because I'm a girl, it's automatically my job to make the food." She leaned towards Conner with her own spoon raised as if she might attack him with it, forcing Bass to reluctantly intervene.

"OK, I'm tired, so I guess it's time for bed." He motioned for both Charlie and Conner to get out of his way because they were both sitting where he was apparently planning to sleep. "Go on you two, it's time for bed."

Luckily, if there was one thing Charlie hated more than having her food critiqued, it was being told what to do.

"Fuck off, Bass. I'll go to bed whenever I want." And even though it went against what she said, Charlie glared at him and then at Conner before stomping up the stairs. The boys waited until her bedroom door slammed shut to yell at Conner.

"Do you have a bad memory or something, or do you just like pissing Charlie off?" Miles growled at him.

"It's not my fault she's so sensitive. All I did was say that the meat was tough. It was, I just told her the truth!"

"It doesn't matter. You never tell a girl that her cooking sucks. How do you not know that?" Jeremy hissed.

"And you never call a girl 'sensitive', you idiot. Especially not Charlie, you're lucky she doesn't come back down here and knock you on your ass just for that." Bass told him.

"Why do you guys always take her side? No matter what happens, it's always my fault. You guys are always up my ass about something, but you follow her around like fucking dogs on a leash." Conner shook his head disgustedly at them before going upstairs as well and slamming his door shut. Jeremy frowned up the steps towards his and Conner's room.

"My stuff is up there, you think he'd get mad if I went and got it?" As if in answer, Jeremy's pack came hurtling down the stairs. Clothes, books, and extra rounds falling out and thumping down each step along the way. He picked up his old copy of 'The Hunger Games' and yelled up the steps, "thank you!" They heard something that sounded distinctly like a 'fuck you' but ignored it and went about finding Jeremy a place to sleep in the already cramped living room.

XxX

Bass woke up the next morning to Miles' obnoxiously loud snoring and with Jeremy's feet digging into his back. He rolled over to find Jeremy curled up in a ball using his pack as a pillow and Miles' jacket as a blanket. When he tried to scoot away from his friend, Jeremy rolled towards him and tucked his head under Bass' armpit. After a few more useless attempts at getting away from his cuddly friend, he decided it would be easier just to get up.

Since Bass was always the first one up, starting the morning routine and waking the others was his job. He went about collecting water and set it to boil before going upstairs to wake up Conner, they always had to start with him because he took the longest time getting out of bed. The door to his son's room creaked open, revealing a completely empty bedroom.

"Conner?" He called out quietly, as if he thought he might come out from hiding behind the door. But Bass checked behind the door and even in the small closet before he let the panic start to sink in. Conner's room was empty and his stuff was gone too.

Rushing down the stairs, he heard Miles mumble 'Jeremy, get off' before he burst through the door and out onto the front lawn. "Conner!" But his son's dark, curly head was no where to be found. Bass ran around the outside of the house looking for him but stopped just as he was about to run through a mud hole. There were a few scattered footprints around it, giving him an idea.

Back to the front yard, through the front door, past an irritated Miles with Jeremy rubbing an apparently sore shoulder, and up the stairs to Charlie's room. Bass crashed through the door, nearly toppling onto her bed on top of her, making Charlie groan. "Ten more minutes," she mumbled as she rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head.

Bass grabbed the blanket and ripped it off of the bed, revealing Charlie in nothing but her panties and tank top. "Uh..." He stood stunned for a moment, his eyes scanning over her strong calves and toned thighs, past her simple black panties to the strip of creamy pale skin beneath her tank top, over her breasts which were peaking out of the top of her shirt, and up to her eyes which were watching him with apparent amusement.

"Come for some morning fun, Bass?" She mocked him. He coughed and cleared his throat, shaking his head in an attempt to remind himself why he was there.

"Conner's missing," he finally blurted out. Charlie's smile dropped and she rolled her eyes before grabbing her blanket and rolling over to go back to sleep. Annoyed by her lack of action, Bass moved around to the other side of the bed. "Charlie, Conner is missing." But she merely huffed and pulled the blanket over her head again. "Charlie-"

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Well... I... Help me look for him. You can track him and then we'll find him."

Still under the blanket, Charlie huffed, and Bass could picture the irritated look on her face. "He's probably hiding somewhere jerking off. He'll be back."

Dropping to his knees beside the bed, he pulled the blanket back from Charlie's face so she could see how serious he was. "He took his stuff with him, Charlie. He's gone." She frowned at the pitiful look on his face and he could see her resolve breaking. "Please, Charlie." He begged. Rolling her eyes, Charlie pushed him out of her way so she could get up and pull on some pants. Bass took that as his cue to leave her alone for a few minutes and went back downstairs to find Miles and Jeremy packing up their stuff, both of them being unusually quiet.

"What's wrong with you two?"

Jeremy kept his eyes trained on the blanket he was rolling up, leaving Miles to answer for them. "I woke up with this asshole laying on top of me."

"I didn't mean too," Jeremy mumbled.

"Yeah, well I'm not your fucking teddy bear. Cuddle with somebody else!"

But before Bass could even think about dealing with those two, Charlie came stomping down the steps looking decidedly grumpy.

"What's up with you?" Miles asked her.

"Junior's missing again. Gotta go track him down." She slung her pack and crossbow over her shoulder and waved for Bass to follow. Out in the morning sunlight, Charlie took her time yawning and stretching, giving Miles and Jeremy enough time to get their stuff together and follow along as well. The three boys followed her around the house in a large circle a few times before deciding that it would be easier to sit and wait for her to tell them when she'd found what she was looking for. They munched on some dried jerky and bread while they waited and watched Charlie disappear into the woods surrounding the house. Fifteen minutes later, she came back into view and called for them to follow. She lead them out to the area around the back of the house that everyone had designated as the 'bathroom' and pointed at some footprints on the ground.

"Conner went through here early this morning, headed south."

Miles looked down at the mess of shoe prints littering the forest floor. "We've all been out here, how can you tell who's are who's?"

Charlie appeared to resist rolling her eyes with much difficulty, but patiently explained herself nonetheless. "You see those giant prints over there by that tree? Those are size fourteen, which means that they are obviously yours." She moved around to another tree and pointed to a trail that went past it. "These are twelves, so Jeremy made these."

Jeremy looked down at what were supposedly his footprints and spotted another, smaller set not far away. He pointed to them. "So those are Conner's?"

She couldn't resist rolling her eyes that time. "No, those are mine, you moron." She moved again to a rocky path between two trees and pointed down. "Elevens, these are Conner's."

"But I wear size eleven, too. How do you know those aren't mine?" Bass asked doubtfully.

"Because your boots are older than Conner's and the tread is worn down. You can still see the tread on his."

Cbarlie waited patiently while the boys inspected the outline of tread in the muddy shoe print. They even made Bass make a print right next to the one that was already there so they could compare them. After they finally decided that she must be right, Miles motioned for Charlie to take the lead.

"Alright über tracker, do your thing."

XxX

Conner's trail wasn't hard to follow, they had gone about five miles without an issue. He apparently hadn't been blessed with his father's sneaky skills. Some of the tracks were so obvious that even Jeremy was able to spot them.

"Hey, Charlie, over here." Jeremy called out to her from a spot in between two large trees.

Without even looking at him, she responded, "those are deer tracks, Jer. Definitely not Conner."

"No, not those," he hissed. "Look."

Charlie moved over to where he was standing and looked between some of the lower tree branches to see what he was looking at. Miles and Bass crowded around her to get a good look, too.

"Are those-" Bass started to ask.

"People." Miles finished for him.

Through the trees, they could see a small river running parallel to their path. On the other side of the river was a camp made up of five tents. They could see two woman washing clothes in the river and two young children playing a game nearby.

"Why would someone want to live all the way out here?" Jeremy asked.

"Does it matter? We should go talk to them though, maybe they've seen Conner." Bass suggested.

Miles shook his head. "No, look over there." He pointed farther up river where four men were standing around talking. "Those guys have guns. Whoever these people are, I don't think they're friendly."

"I couldn't hurt to ask," Bass protested.

"Dude, it's early. Can't you wait just a few more hours before you try getting us killed again?"

"My son is missing, Miles."

"Oh, I'm sure he's fine. Probably found himself a nice little spot to jerk off."

Bass turned to glare at his best friend. "You know, if it was Charlie that was missing, you would do whatever it took to get her back. But since it's Conner, you don't even fucking care. It's your fault he took off anyway!"

"My fault? Maybe you should try keeping better track of your kid!" Charlie and Jeremy both groaned. Miles and Bass were best friends, practically brothers, and they had a bad habit of fighting like brothers usually do... all the time. The two men continued to fight while Charlie's attention was drawn away by the men on the opposite side of the river.

"Jer, look, one of them is leaving." And sure enough, they watched one of the men strap a bag full of stuff to his back and start wading through the water about twenty yards upstream from where they were.

"We should go talk to him." Charlie nodded in agreement and the two left Bass and Miles to their arguing, though they had moved on to 'how did you not know your girlfriend was pregnant?' Which Charlie thought was a little hypocritical on Miles' part considering that Emma had technically been his girlfriend at the time.

They waited until the man had come out of the river and walked about fifty yards before Charlie made the approach.

"Um, excuse me." The man turned around quickly with a hand on the button of the gun he had tucked into the front of his jeans. When he spotted Charlie, he slowly moved his hand away from the gun and looked her up and down. She shivered as his dark eyes travelled up and down her body.

"Ay, mamí. Javier at your service." He bent low and left a long, lingering kiss on her knuckles.

Charlie gave him her best charming smile. "I'm actually looking for my friend. We were camping but when I woke up this morning, he was gone."

Javier scowled but quickly covered it up. "I have an idea. Why don't you come with me and we can look for your friend together."

This wasn't going at all like Charlie wanted it too.

"You know what, I should probably just go back to camp and wait for him to come back." She made to walk away, deciding that they would just have to find Conner on their own when Javier grabbed her arm and yanked her towards him, making her crash into his chest.

"I'm just trying to be nice. why don't you show a little gratitude?"

Now utterly done with this guy's shit, Charlie grabbed for the gun in the front of his pants, clicked off the safety, and rammed the barrel right into his balls. "I have a better idea. You are gonna help me find my friend or I will pull this trigger. What do you think?"

Javier's dark eyes went wide with fear and Jeremy chose that moment to come out from his hiding place in the trees. When Javier spotted him, he called out.

"Help me! Está loca! Please, help me!"

Jeremy snorted. "No way. You pissed her off. Now you have to deal with her."

Deciding to take his chances, Javier tried to push Charlie away from him, but all that did was end up with him shoved against a tree with Charlie's forearm braced across is throat.

"Now, my friend. Late twenties, six feet tall, dark curly hair. Have you seen him?" Something like recognition flashed across his face, but he shook his head. "Don't lie to me, Javier."

"I'm not, I swear!"

Charlie ripped the gun out of his pants and aimed right between his eyes. "Last chance. Don't lie to me again."

"He left."

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know." But at Charlie's raised eyebrow, he changed his story.

"México."

Jeremy came up to stand next to Charlie. "Mexico, what the hell does he want with Mexico?"

"Please," Javier begged. "I can't tell you. They will kill me."

"If you don't tell me where my friend is, I'm going to kill you." Charlie stepped closer, pressing the gun into his chest.

"OK, OK, Señor Nunez."

Jeremy, who hadn't been around when Miles and Bass brought Conner back from Mexico, looked confused, but Charlie suddenly had a deep sense of dread.

"What about Nunez?"

"El jefé was very angry when Bennett left with that bitch, Monroe. He told everyone that if we find him and bring him back, that we will be rewarded."

Charlie tossed the gun to the ground and slammed herself against the scared man, wrapping her hands around his neck.

"You sent him back so Nunez could kill him."

He shook his head frantically, gasping for air. "No, no, not me. Alejandro, he's going back to pick up another shipment, he told Bennett that he could tag along. Bennett thinks that Nunez is back home, waiting for him with open arms."

Charlie released Javier's neck and pushed herself away from the tree angrily. "Damn it. He's gonna get himself killed."

Ignoring the man slumped against a tree and gasping for air, Jeremy shook his head. "We can't tell Bass. If he finds out that Conner left to go back to whoever this Nunez guy is, it'll crush him."

Charlie waved her hand impatiently, acknowledging that what he said was true, but deciding to deal with that particular problem later. "Let's just focus on getting him back before they blow his brains out. With any luck, Bass will never have to know."

And of course, Bass and Miles chose that moment to reappear from their fight, both apparently over it and unharmed. "What don't I need to know?" He asked, spotting the guy still struggling for breath on the ground.

Making a quick decision, Charlie kicked Javier in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious before turning to Bass. "Trust me, you don't want to know what I had to do to get that guy to talk."

Jeremy nodded quickly behind her. "Yeah, dude, it was... pretty sick."

Miles and Bass both frowned a little, looking confused, but before they could think too much about it, Charlie directed the group towards the Mexican border. "Come on, boys. Conner's this way."

A/N I normally really like writing dialogue but I have realized that writing for five people that are all trying to be apart of the same conversation is actually really hard, so I apologize for how repetitive it got. Hopefully I didn't screw it up too bad or get people confused, if I did, I'm sorry. Hope you guys still liked it though. The next chapter will involve more Bass/Charlie and Miles/Jeremy hanging out, so it'll be lots of fun.