As Bass slowly opened his eyes, the conversation he had with Charlie the night before was the first thing on his mind. 'Please don't leave.' He could hear her voice in his head and see her beautiful eyes begging him to stay. He never imagined that she felt anything for him. Sure they worked well together, and he even thought of them as friends (he had been cautious not to mention that to her though.) But now she cared, Charlie wanted him. His Charlotte.
His reveling was cut short though as the door, that presumably led to the bedroom, opened and the wrong shade of blue eyes found him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" But without even waiting for a response, Rachel turned angrily back into the room to yell at someone else. "Miles, what is he doing here? I thought you said we were finally done with him."
Bass could hear movement on the other side of the wall and Miles grumbling indistinctly. His best friend suddenly appeared in the doorway with his hair sticking up in odd places and the ghost of a smile on his lips. Now Bass' mouth was dry, he had been so worried about Charlie that the way Miles would react to his reappearance hadn't even crossed his mind.
"Hey brother." His voice was hoarse from sleep and he smiled weakly at his oldest friend while he hoped for the best. The last time he had seen Miles, the man had put a gun to his head after all.
Miles didn't respond right away. The way he was looking at him was almost calculating. Miles' eyes flicked ever so slightly to the door that led outside, that led to Charlie.
Realization his Bass like a freight train. Miles had known he was coming. He looked his brother straight in the eyes and gave him the smallest of nods.
Miles had that little smile in his face again, but it disappeared as he turned to Rachel.
"Guess he came back." She clearly thought that that was a horrible explanation because she glared at him.
"Obviously, Miles. I meant, why?" This whole thing had been Bass' fault, so to save Miles from some misery he got up off of the floor and did the one thing that he hates above all else. He spoke directly to Rachel.
"I'm here because this is important, and I promised I would help," he let his eyes drift to Miles for a moment, "I just needed a minute to get my shit together." Rachel was looking at him like he was gum on the bottom of her shoe, but he wasn't paying attention to her. Miles was standing far enough behind her that she didn't see him nod his head. Just one nod, but that was all Bass needed to know that Miles was on his side.
Rachel rolled her eyes and Bass couldn't help but notice it wasn't cute when she did it. "That's great, but we don't need your help. Go ahead," she gestured at the door, "go build your little kingdom. With any luck you'll get yourself killed this time." Anger bubbled in his chest, but before he could do anything about it the front door opened.
Charlie stepped into the house with a small bundle in her hands. She wasn't looking at anyone in particular, she was busy with whatever was in the bundle. "Morning guys, I brought breakfast..." She had finally looked up and saw Miles standing in the bedroom doorway, tension covering his features. Conner was still laying in his bedroll on the floor but his eyes were wide open. The last things she noticed were Bass and her mother glaring daggers at each other from across the room.
She had known that this would happen. They had told Rachel that Bass had taken off and she had been, of course, ecstatic at the news. So understandably, she was angry when he suddenly returned to their open arms. She also knew that when her mother found out about the other thing, meaning her and Bass, shit was really gonna hit the fan. Probably better to just get it all out now.
So before she could stop herself or change her mind she walked across the room, put her hand on Bass' chest, and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "See? I told you that you needed to sleep, you look much better now." She smiled up at him and hoped to whatever god that existed, that he would play along.
He chuckled lightly and she could see the nervousness in his eyes. "Alright, alright, you were right. You happy now?"
She pretend to think really hard about it. "Yeah, I guess so. For now." She winked at him and turned to the fire place to make breakfast, sneeking a peek at her mother as she bent down.
Rachel's face was a mixture of horror, shock, and confusion. Her mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. Behind her, Miles looked like he was preparing for a nuclear explosion.
When Rachel finally found her voice, it was icy cold and deathly calm. She looked directly at her daughter. "Charlie, what the hell is going on?"
Charlie took a deep breath and tried to calm herself before the fight started. "What do you mean?" She didn't even bother trying to sound innocent, they all knew what Rachel was talking about.
The rage seem to come off of her mother in waves. "I know that you did not just..." Rachel took several deep breaths before continuing, "You can not possibly be this stupid."
Charlie stood up, walked over to her mother, and looked her right in the face. "I guess you and I have different idea's of what stupidity is." Rachel may have been angry, but that was nothing compared to the ten years worth of unresolved issues Charlie had been carrying around. All of which, concerned her mother. Every angry feeling she'd ever had, every tear that had fallen, and every single day she had wished for her mom to come back, led to this moment.
But Rachel was Rachel, she wasn't going to go down without a fight. "How could any child of mine be this incompetent? Your father-"
SMACK.
The sound of Charlie's open hand hitting Rachel's face echoed through the room. All of the men held their breath, waiting.
Slowly, Rachel brought her hand to her burning cheek and Charlie let out a ragged breath. "You don't get to talk about my dad. You don't get to judge the choices that I've made."
Outrage covered Rachel's face. "I'm your mother, I can-"
"No!" Charlie had to step back to keep herself from smacking her again. "Your just some woman who was married to my dad. You weren't my mother. Where were you when I needed you, huh?" Rachel looked taken aback at that question, like it had never even occured to her that Charlie might have needed a mother.
"Mothers are supposed to be there! Where were you when I was scared of the militia coming through town? Where were you when Danny was sick and I didn't know how to help him?" Tears threatened to fall but Charlie pushed them away angrily. "You were never there. Not even for the stupid stuff. My first crush, my first heartbreak. What about when I started having my period? I cried for you everyday when I thought you were dead." Her voice had reached dangerous levels so she stepped away, shaking her head.
"Maggie tried to talk to me and help me, but I wouldn't let her because she wasn't my mom. I thought that you had been taken from me, and I resented her for being there, only to find out later that you weren't taken. You left. You willingly left your family, your children, so that you could go play house with Miles in Philadelphia." Charlie looked disgusted. "You lost any right you had to judge me and my choices when you abandoned me on the side of the road."
Charlie turned her attention back to the fire, trying to pretend that she hadn't just unloaded ten years worth of baggage in one go, and added a few more pieces of wood and put a pot of water on to boil. She picked up the bundle she had been carrying when she came in and held it out to Bass, "Can you cut these up for me?"
He could see the stubborn determination in her eyes. She was finished with the discussion, and she wanted him to follow along. "Yeah, of course." He gave her a small, but encouraging smile and took the bundle. It was full of fresh apples. He sat down next to her, pulled out his knife, and set to work doing what he was told while Charlie added a small amount of sugar to the pot.
He could feel Rachel's eyes boring into him, but he ignored her. Rachel seemed to realize that both he and Charlie were done with the conversation so she turned to Miles to try and make him deal with the 'situation.'
But when she looked at his face, the man she had loved longer than any other, she knew that it wasn't going to work. Miles face was grim, but determined which only made her even angrier. "How can you be ok with this? How is he even still breathing?"
Miles sighed and looked away from her. "A long time ago, I told the woman I loved to go be happy with someone else... and I regretted it everday afterwards." He looked back at her with sympathy on his face. "I don't want that to happen to them. Either of them."
Everyone else in the room had been trying not to look at the two of them, but as Miles words reached Rachel's ears, they just couldn't help but sneak a peek. Rachel was shaking her head with unshed tears brimming in her eyes. It was all too much for her and she took off out the front door at a run.
Charlie had expected Miles to follow her, so she was surprised when he put a hand on her shoulder. "Just give her some time, this is a lot to take in."
"I know." She put her hand over top of his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Go ahead, we'll be fine." He nodded and quickly left the house in search of the only woman he had ever truly loved.
Once the door shut behind him, Charlie let out a long breath and tossed the sliced apples into the pot. "Well it could have gone worse." Bass let out a laugh and pulled her into a tight embrace, pulling her off of the floor and into his lap.
His face was in her neck and she could feel the smile on his lips against her skin. "Thank you." He didn't elaborate, but she knew what he was talking about. He must have been worried that the inevitable confrontation with her family would end whatever they were trying to build.
She dug her fingers into his hair and kissed the top of his head. "Always. Remember?"
He pulled her tighter against him and whispered into her neck. "Always."
"God you two are adorable." They were shocked out of their own little bubble by Conner, who seemed to deem the house safe with Rachel gone. He was still in his bedroll but he had propped himself up on his elbow and was watching them with amusement.
Charlie couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the guy that had been driving her nuts two days ago. "Since when are you so calm and collected?" Bass snorted into her shoulder and looked at his son. She looked between the two of them. She was obviously missing something. She pushed back from Bass and stood up, hands on her hips. "Alright, what's going on?"
Bass looked amused but Conner at least had the sense to look slightly guilty. "It turns out," Bass spoke up to save his son the trouble, "that Conner's known how I felt about you all along. And his annoying attempts to get your attention were actually just him trying to make me jealous."
Charlie blinked at him a few times trying to comprehend what he had just said. After a moment she stalked over to Conner's place on the floor and started whacking him on the head. "Are you freaking kidding me!" She continued to assult him while he tried to untangle himself from the blankets. "Weeks, and weeks," she stopped to take a breath, "I am so gonna kill you."
Conner had finally managed to get up off of the floor and was holding his hands up in surrender, he looked at his dad for help. "Uh, aren't you gonna do something?"
Interested in his response, Charlie turned to look at Bass. "Nope, you did this to yourself." Taking that as her cue, she raised her hand to strike him again.
"Wait, wait, wait," Conner's eyes were wide with fear, "I just wanted to help. I guess I could have found a better way, but it's the thought that counts right?" He was looking at her nervously.
Charlie let him suffer a moment longer before she burst into laughter. She staggered back over to the fire while she wiped the tears from her eyes. When she finally caught her breath she turned back to Conner, who was still huddled in the corner. "I'll let it slide this time," she smiled at him, "but if you ever say another word about my ass, I will kill you."
She looked at Bass as if asking him if he was alright with that and he nodded his head. Conner nodded his agreement as well, and then mumbled something about having to pee before he practically ran out the front door.
Charlie was chuckling when she looked over at Bass, but he stopped her with his lips on hers. It was a hard kiss, his lips pressed firmly against hers, he tangled his fingers in her hair and greedily pulled her closer. She let herself melt into him, placing her hands on his shoulders and moving to straddle his legs.
Their kiss turned heated quickly, his tongue finding its way into her mouth and hers rushing out to meet it. They swirled together, and Bass ran his hands down her back to grab her ass, squeezing each handful roughly. Charlie gasped and reached up, pushing her fingers into his curls to try and anchor herself in the moment. It felt so different to have a man desire her, but also care for her at the same time. She loved the feeling of simply being wanted.
Almost like he was reading her mind, he slowed the kiss down. Moving his hands up to lightly stroke her sides and kissing her gently. When he finally pulled away from her they were both out of breath. He moved her back to the floor beside him and cupped her cheek in his palm. "I love you, Charlie."
She couldn't help but steal one last, long kiss and whispered against his lips. "I love you too." They smiled at each other in that sickeningly cute way for a moment before he turned his attention back to the fire.
"So you wanna tell me what's with the apples in the water?" Charlie snorted.
"Isn't it obvious?" When he looked completely clueless she rolled her eyes. "I'm sick of eating dried apples."
Bass laughed out loud, his eyes were bright and she could see the cute, little wrinkles around his eyes. She ran her hand over the scruff on his cheek. "I like it when you laugh, I want you to do it more often." Her voice was soft and so full of love that it made his heart constrict in his chest.
He chuckled low in his throat and the sound sent shivers down her spine. "Don't you know by now? I'll do anything you want."
Charlie raised her eyebrows and grinned at him. "Anything?"
His blue eyes found her and she could see the truth there in them. "Anything."
A/N I hadn't planned on giving Rachel so much attention but she kinda wormed her way in there and I think it's good for Charlie to get some of that stuff out in the open anyway. If Rachel were my mom I'd have slapped her a long time ago :-) Please tell me what you think, I love seeing what you have to say.