Monroe remained awake and alert as the night sky darkened. Every now and then he glanced over at Charlie, each time wondering what the dull stirring in the pit of his stomach meant.

As the sky reached its blackest, Monroe let out a low laugh, jealousy, he decided. Jealously that she could sleep so peacefully against a rock; when it would be his turn, he would toss and turn and no doubt wake with her hand smothering the sound of his unconscious terror.

As the night began to lighten and his lids began to feel heavy, he decided it was time to switch over. It wasn't a long stretch to extend his hand from where it rested on his thigh to her wrist. He squeezed her soft but dirtied hand gently and waited patiently for her eyes to fly open. Within seconds her free hand was gripped around the knife strapped to her hip.

The corners of Monroe's mouth twitched as he leaned in, not wanting to make any more sound than necessary, breathing against her ear, "wakey wakey Charlotte, your turn to watch."

He noticed that her grip on her knife hadn't loosened as she simply nodded. He shifted, looking for a somewhat comfortable position against the rock, soon giving up and leaning is head backwards, in search of sleep.

OOO

"Rachel, please, will you just sleep?"

"No, no I won't Miles," her eyes were roving around madly in the darkness, "my daughter, my only child is out in the wilderness with that psychopath, how could I sleep?"

"So, you're just going to stay awake for the next three days?" He winced as he sat up in the bed, his arm was yet to regain full strength. "Depriving yourself of sleep is not going to help her in away."

"It's not a choice Miles!" her words were frantic now, "he doesn't care about anyone. Even if he doesn't just get bored and decide to kill her, he'll leave her at the first sign of danger!"

"I don't know Rachel, I think Charlie is just about the only person in the world he won't hurt."

"What makes you so sure, Miles?"

"She's innocent in this, the rest of us are carrying around a whole heap of mistakes, but Charlie, I reckon he sees her as whole, he's gonna hold onto that."

"I'm not entirely sure that makes me feel better," an entirely new set of motherly concerns now flooded her mind, but she was momentarily reassured of her daughter's immediate safety and her mind turned to other concerns, "but you think he'd hurt us?"

For a moment Miles was lost in thought, then as he spoke he stared to the end of the room, "he wouldn't kill us, anymore, I don't think. But, if we crossed him, I don't think he'd mind causing us some pain to save his own skin."

Rachel flinched at the pain in his voice as he talked about his best friend, moving to sit on the bed bedside him, "he never would have been able to kill you Miles."

"Perhaps."

She leaned in towards his face, lips parted, desperately. She inched forwards slowly, reasting her forehead on his. They held this position for a long moment, before her close the space, pressing his dry lips against hers, salty with tears. He tangled his good hand in her hair, pulling her to him, kissing her roughly, familiarly.

OOO

Charlie shifted slowly, turning to peer over the rock that had been their resting place, she watched for a few seconds as the camp began to stir in the dawn sunlight. She sank back into the ground, next to Monroe.

She reached over to wake him the way he had her, gently squeezing his calloused hand. Suddenly, she felt his body tense and his jaw twitch, preparing to cry out. She moved quickly, swinging herself over his extended legs, kneeling in from of him with her mouth pressed against his mouth, just as he let out a shout, which was dampened by her grip. Charlie lifted herself to peer over the boulder, it seemed the strangled cry had gone unnoticed by the camp so she lowered herself slowly, regarding Monroe's panicked eyes. She waited, still, until his body relaxed before she lowered her hand and shifted her weight, so that she was sat beside him once again.

She turned sideways to look at him; his demeanour had changed in that short moment of her movement. His eyes were hard and teeth grinding, setting his jaw into a hard square. It had been a long time since he had looked quite so much like the General of the Monroe Republic.

"We need to move, try and get some ears on them." She began gathering her weapons together, keeping low as she swung her cross bow over her shoulder and wrapped her hands around a gun.

As she moved through the trees Monroe followed her silently. It wasn't long before the whole camp was awake and it took them a while to get close enough to hear anyone who had anything to say that mattered to them.

They crouched, just metres away from the camp, hidden by a tangled mess of fallen branches and listened in.

"If they've gone any further than this, we can be pretty sure they're not planning to return to Willoughby." Charlie caught her breath, was that really true? She'd not been at Willoughby long, but it was the first time in a long while that she'd been anywhere remotely homely, but they'd already said it themselves, there was nothing to be gained by going back. For a moment she considered all of the people they'd left behind, wilfully ignorant of how evil the patriots really were. Evil, she'd once thought that about Monroe, and yet her she was. "We'll send a small party of trackers to finish them off and put out a bounty on their heads just to be sure, but the rest of us will be heading back to town."

They turned to face each other, Charlie noticing the small smile that pulled at Monroe's lips. A small party of trackers? That would be no problem for them.

OOO

It had been a quick journey down this road when they had been heading to the camp, but now they were tracking trackers, they were moving slowly. Either these trackers were lucky or they'd caught a good trail because they were heading in the direction of the inn where Rachel and Miles were still staying.

Monroe and Charlie watched at a distance as the trackers stopped to drink and eat, clearly not worried by the thought that anyone was following them. Turning to grin at each other, they both mouthed 'now'.

Charlie got the first hit, from a distance with her cross bow, she had restrung and fired again before Monroe swung in with his machete. Charlie followed suit, dropping her bow the he ground and taking hold of her knives and running into the combat. They had decided against guns, though quicker and easier, they were too close to the road to draw such attention.

Charlie gasped as she was rammed into a tree, but sunk a knife into the man's abdomen before he could bring his gun up to her head. As he sank to the ground, she knocked him out with the butt of the blade. She turned to Monroe, whose t-shirt was drenched in blood splatter. Around them lay six bodies. He walked over the unconscious soldier who had pushed her against the tree and sliced his throat open. Charlie caught him off guard, knocking the weapon from his hand.

"Hey! Was that really necessary? He was out cold!"

Monroe grabbed her wrist and stepped close to her, spitting out his words, "Yeah, he was. And what about when he wakes up? You want him reporting back to Willoughby and bringing the whole damn patriot army down on us?"

She shook her wrist free of his grip and held his angry stare.

It was Monroe who looked away first; he turned and retrieved a canteen of water from the ground. Charlie followed suit, scavenging food from the lifeless bodies. They hadn't eaten since they left the inn and now that she'd realised, it was her own concern.

They sat on the ground as they silently shared their findings.

"You don't like killing, Charlotte."

She looked at him in disgust, "do you?"

"No, Charlotte, I don't. But you grew up after the blackout, in a world where killing isn't so taboo."

Her words were slow and bitter, "The world might not be bothered about it, but in my village, in my home, it was a pretty big deal, General."

Monroe laughed bitterly, "so, we're back to that are we?"

"I guess so." She took a swig from the canteen as she got up and walked away, to sit down, further away from Monroe, leaning against a tree. Night had fallen as they had eaten their food and though they could easily make their way back in the night, Charlie didn't fancy the walk. "You can take first watch."

Monroe didn't question her decision to stay for the night.

OOO

She felt his fingers wrapping around her hands and pressing gently, waking her up. She pulled her hand away sharply. She knew it was childish to be so bothered about such a tiny bit of contact, but he had bothered her yesterday and she wanted him to know.

His face was close to hers in the darkness, as he spoke to her in a hushed voice, "I'm sorry Charlotte, for what I did yesterday, it was necessary," the glint in her eye was unyielding, "and I'm also sorry for what I said."

"Just go to sleep Monroe."

"No, I think we should head back now, it'd be safer."

They moved steadily through the trees, still a distance from the inn as the sun rose. It was gone midday as they made their way through the bar.

"Stop for a victory drink?" she turned to regard him coldly, noticing the mocking glint in his eye, he was toying with her, but she also didn't want to give her mum the benefit of knowing Monroe had gotten to her, so she nodded stiffly.

They sat at a table in silence, letting the warmth of the alcohol wash over their aches. He finished a while before her and regarded her as she continued to drink in silence. Conversation had flowed freely last time they shared a drink at this bar, but she closed off from him now. He guessed he'd have to wait until he was back on her good side, or at least not on her bad side.

As she finished her drink, she regarded him bleakly, before forcing her mouth into the shape of an unconvincing smile, "happy faces, then?"

"Happy faces" he agreed.

He followed her upstairs and followed her to the door that would take them into the main room where Miles and Rachel would be. She pushed the door open; ready to share the good news that no-one was watching them, at the moment.

Miles walked into her as the stopped suddenly in the doorway, eyes fixed on the scene in front of her, Rachel was on all fours above Miles, his hands splayed against her shirtless back, they were locked in a passionate kiss as Monroe cleared his throat comically, pulling their attention to the figures that stood in the doorway.

For a moment, they were all silent, before the spluttered explanations began.

"Charlie, I'm – we thought, uhm – that was quick?"

"Kid, I… are you alright?"

Charlie mad a bee-line for the door to the adjoining room, "I'm going to get some rest."

Monroe chuckled as he followed her, "We'll fill you in on our success later then."

As he shut the door behind him, he regarded Charlie's shocked expression and stepping closer, teased, "what happened to your happy face, Charlotte?"