"Ew, Jer, that's disgusting."
Jeremy grins as he continues shoving a piece of toast slathered with jam into his mouth, bits of it dripping from the corners and onto his uniform jacket.
"Wha'?" He asks with his mouth full.
Rolling her eyes, Charlie continues on down the hallway of Independence Hall in a hurry. The two of them burst through the kitchen doors, finding both Miles and Bass seated at the table arguing about something over breakfast. The argument stops as soon as she enters and Bass smiles.
"Oh, Sleeping Beauty's awake." He stands to pull out a chair for her and goes to give her a quick kiss, but Charlie stops just out of his reach.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" She asks, hands on her hips and her eyes just daring him to say something she wouldn't like. Bass looks confusedly at Miles and Jeremy for help.
"No, don't look at them," Charlie scolds. "Neither of them were explicitly told to wake me up early this morning."
Bass gives his wife a weak smile. "But you looked so cute, sleeping all peaceful like that. I didn't want to ruin it."
Charlie huffs, but reigns in her irritation and turns it into a small smile. "Thank you." She gives him a quick kiss. "I'm glad that you find me so adorable, but when I ask you to wake me, it's because I have plans." She turns to leave the kitchen, but Bass pulls her back by the hand.
"Wait, babe, you haven't even had breakfast."
Huffing impatiently, Charlie gives her husband another kiss. "I know that. But if you must know, I would be having breakfast right now if you had woken me up when you were supposed to. Maggie got back into town yesterday."
Jeremy perks up at the mention of the Republic's most renowned doctor. "She did?"
Ignoring his friend, Bass asks, "What does that have to do with your breakfast?"
Charlie sighs and pulls herself from his grip, sweeping her way over to the exit leading from the kitchen. "I'm having breakfast with Maggie. Duh. And thanks to you, I'm late." She gives him an annoyed shake of her head but offsets it by blowing him a kiss before disappearing through the door. "Love you guys, see you later!"
Bass smiles and sits down to finish his breakfast with his two best friends. "How did I not know that Maggie was back in town?" He looks to Jeremy, who blushes and shrugs.
"Don't look at me, I didn't know either."
Miles takes a sip of his coffee, his eyes scanning the newspaper in front of him distractedly. "Relax Bass, you know how Charlie is, she'll tell us what's going on when she's good and ready."
He nods in agreement, wondering what his wife and the doctor are up to this time.
XxX
Charlie rushes into Central Philadelphia's clinic, bypassing the woman at the front desk and all of the people in the waiting room heading towards the back office. She bursts through the office door and flings herself at Maggie before the elder blonde even has time to breath.
"You're late" she scolds, but there's no real bite behind it.
"I'm so glad you're back. I missed you so much, Maggie."
"Well, don't I feel important then." Charlie tears herself away from Maggie to find the source of the snarky voice.
"Nora!" The brunette grins and embraces her tightly.
"What are you doing here?" Charlie asks. "I thought you were working a job in Boston."
"I was, but I caught another job on my way back and got sidetracked to Baltimore. Since I knew Maggie would be coming back here soon, I decided to hitch a ride."
Turning to Maggie, Charlie punches her arm playfully. "Why didn't you tell me she was coming with you?"
"She asked me to keep it a secret so she could surprise you."
Charlie gives Nora a skeptical look. "More like she didn't want a certain someone to find out that she's in town."
Nora rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "He has nothing to do with this, I just wanted to surprise you, that's all!" But her defensive tone is a dead giveaway.
"You know you can't avoid him forever, right?"
Nora sighs and sits down at the small table set up for breakfast. "Can we not talk about him, please? Let's just have a nice, quiet breakfast."
Charlie joins her at the table as Maggie starts pouring cups of coffee. "He's my uncle, Nora. I live with the man. Am I really supposed to keep your being a town a secret?"
"Just for a little while, OK? I just... I don't think I'm ready to jump right back into it with him."
Giving her friend's hand a light squeeze, Charlie smiles. "Alright fine. But don't expect me to lie to him forever, he'll figure it out eventually and I don't want to be stuck in the middle."
"Deal."
Maggie sits down and starts dishing food onto her plate. "Alright, enough of Nora's depressing love life. Let's hear about the happy couple. How's newlywed life?" She asks Charlie with a grin.
Trying to hide a giant smile behind her cup, Charlie acts nonchalant. "It's great. Bass is... perfect. I couldn't be happier."
"The sex is that good, huh?" Nora asks with a laugh, making Charlie blush.
"I don't think I should be discussing my sex life with my uncle's girlfriend."
"Oh, come on, we broke up!" She whines.
"Yeah, for the five hundredth time," Maggie says, grinning from ear to ear. "I give it a week and you'll be back together."
"Leave her alone, Maggie," Charlie says playfully. "It's not her fault Miles is emotionally stunted.
Nora sticks her tongue out at her. "Says the woman who married a man twice her age but acts like he's half of it."
Charlie opens her mouth to defend her husband's usual childish behavior, but ends up laughing instead. "Yeah, I don't think the boys are good influences on each other. And poor Jeremy gets the worst of it from both of them."
"Oh, speaking of Jeremy..." Nora says, looking to Maggie. "Is there something you'd like to tell us Mags?"
The older woman blushes a deep red. "No, what are you talking about?"
But Charlie and Nora simply laugh. "He's so excited you're back, Maggie. You should have seen his face when he heard the news this morning."
Shaking her head, Maggie sips her coffee and pretends not to know what they're talking about. "Captain Baker is a very good friend of mine. I'll be happy to see him again as well."
"Bullshit!" Nora yells.
"Sorry, Mags. I'm with Nora on this one. You and Jer are even worse at hiding your feelings for each other than I was at hiding mine for Bass."
"And everyone knew she was in love with Bass," Nora adds, earning herself a glare from the younger girl. "What, they did." She adds defensively.
"Speaking of you and Bass being in love," Maggie says loudly, clearly desperate to change the subject. "You two are coming up on six months soon, right?"
Charlie smiles one of those lovesick smiles reserved especially for newlyweds. "Yep. It'll be six months in two weeks."
"Two weeks?" Nora asks with a frown. "Aren't they having the summit in two weeks?"
"Yeah." Charlie shrugs. "It was the only time Kelly and Frank could get away at the same time, and in order for the summit to actually be useful, we need both Texas and Georgia to be here."
"And do the boys still not know that you invited you-know-who?" Maggie asks, her eyes narrowing with dislike at the mere mention of the woman.
Charlie takes a big bite of a muffin and nods.
"You're a bad liar, Charlie." Nora says grimly.
Swallowing down the muffin, she nods in agreement. "I know."
"You do plan on telling them, don't you?" Maggie asks.
"Of course I do! I'm just waiting for the right time. Lately it seems like it's one thing after another going wrong, and they're nervous about the summit, plus Bass is all worried about making our sixth month anniversary special... It's just been hectic lately."
The girls both nod understandingly. "I still don't get why you felt the need to invite her in the first place," Nora mutters.
Charlie sighs. "We've been over this. Duncan Page controls the majority of the clans throughout The Plains Nation, and the entire point of the summit is to discuss how we want to deal with the refugees coming out of The Wastelands from California. It makes perfect sense to consult the person in charge of the area between us and The Wastelands."
Nora makes a disgusted face. "I know but I can't stand that bitch."
Charlie chuckles. "Why, because she slept with Miles?"
"She did what?" Nora jumps to her feet, her eyes full of rage. "I swear to God, I'll-"
But her rant is cut off by Charlie's hysterical laughter.
"Miles didn't sleep with Duncan." Nora says quietly, lowering herself back into her seat.
"No he didn't. But believe me, I don't like her anymore than you do. The last time she was here she tried to seduce my husband."
"In her defence, you were only thirteen at the time." Maggie points out.
"So?" Charlie says quickly. "I still don't like her."
"Yeah, well, the boys like her even less than you do so imagine how pissed they're gonna be when they find out you invited her."
Charlie huffs. "Look, as much as we all don't like her, we need her cooperation with whatever refugee plan we come up with. We'll just have to play nice in the meantime."
"I'm not worried about us playing nice," Nora tells her. "I'm worried about what Bass is gonna do when someone who has previously threatened his wife's life walks into his house again."
Biting her lip thoughtfully, Charlie picks at the food on her plate. "Maybe I should warn the house security to be on high alert for her arrival. Just so we don't have any... accidents."
Nora snorts into her coffee. "I highly doubt that anyone will consider it an accident when Bass has her publicly executed."
"He's not going to execute her," Charlie says tiredly.
"You better hope not," Maggie tells her. "Otherwise we'll have an all out war on our hands with the clans."
Charlie rubs at her forehead, trying to push away the headache that's starting to form. "It'll be fine," she says, though it's more to herself than them. Now if only she could make herself believe it.