"Are you sure you don't want to stay?" Charlie asks with her best puppy dog eyes.
Maggie chuckles and rolls her eyes. "I've got an early day at the clinic tomorrow. I can't afford to spend the night getting drunk with you."
Charlie pouts with her arms crossed over her chest, looking more like an eight year old than the twenty year old she is. "Fine. I guess I'll just go find my broody uncle and get drunk with him."
Maggie rolls her eyes again but leans over for a hug and a kiss. "I'll see you for lunch on Friday?"
"Wouldn't miss it."
The guards hold the doors open for her so she can exit Independence Hall, though Maggie is delayed in the doorway by Jeremy's arrival. He comes up the front steps quickly and smiles shyly at her.
"Good evening, Doctor Foster." He says in his deepest, most formal voice. Charlie suppresses a laugh as Maggie blushes.
"Captain Baker, it's lovely to see you."
Jeremy bites his lip awkwardly, looking out at the darkening sky. "Are you headed back to the clinic?" He asks nervously.
"Oh, yes," she answers quickly, somewhat breathless. "I have a lot of work to do in the morning."
Charlie groans at the massive stupidity of her two friends and decides that it's time for her to intervene. "Jeremy, why don't you walk Maggie back to the clinic," she suggests.
Maggie turns her back to Jeremy and looks at her with wide eyes, subtly shaking her head. "Oh, no, I wouldn't want to be a bother." She says.
"Nonsense!" Charlie says with a maniac grin. "We wouldn't want the Republic's best doctor wandering around the city at night all by herself. I'm sure Captain Baker would be happy to escort you home."
She glances at Jeremy who is looking torn between being excited and uncomfortable. Maggie turns back to Jeremy and he immediately slaps on his best winning smile. "I'd be happy to walk you home Doctor Foster."
Maggie hesitates only for a moment, then smiles hugely. "Well, alright then."
Charlie watches the two disappear down the walkway, Jeremy with his hands shoved deep in his pockets and Maggie clutching tightly to her purse.
"I thought Jeremy told you to keep your nose out of his business?" Jason whispers close to her ear.
Charlie turns her head to look at him and grins. "Well I think he forgot that I don't take orders from him." Jason laughs. "Besides, he'll thank me later."
Changing the subject, Jason jerks his head in the direction of the living room upstairs. "Heard you were looking for a drinking buddy. Thought you might prefer me over Miles' surly-self."
"I though you had plans with Becky?"
He rolls his eyes. "I broke up with Becky three weeks ago."
Charlie dismisses this with a wave of her hand. "Well, whatever her name is. You know I can't keep track. You go through woman like Miles goes through recruits."
"Her name is Lucy. And yes, we did have plans, but her brother came into town this morning so we had to cancel. Which means I'm free to be your drunk friend for the night." He offers her his arm and Charlie takes it, letting him lead her through the house.
"Lucy?" She asks suddenly. "Really?"
Jason rolls his eyes at her as they settle comfortably on the couch. Charlie grabs a bottle of scotch from the nearest table and takes a drink straight from the bottle before passing it to her friend. He takes a drink and passes it back to her before kicking of his boots and propping his feet up on the coffee table. They do this for a while, passing the bottle back and forth in comfortable silence.
"Where is Bass, anyway?" He asks after a while. "Isn't he usually the one drinking with you?"
Charlie nods and leans back against the arm of the couch, setting her feet in his lap. "He usually rubs my feet, too."
Jason makes a face knocks her feet aside. "And yet another reason I'm glad I'm not your husband."
She giggles and kicks him playfully in the side. "He's in Delaware, trying to help calm down some of the rebel activity."
They go quiet again, drinking and relaxing. After a while, Jason turns his head to look at her, his eyes oddly serious. "I heard a rumor today," he says quietly.
This is nothing new. Gossip is easy to come by around here. "What is it?" Charlie asks, though she isn't all that interested. "Did Miles get caught wearing his jacket inside out again?"
"No." Jason gives her a serious look. "It was about you and Bass."
Charlie sits up quickly. As a drama filled family who is constantly surrounded by gossiping soldiers, Charlie, Bass, and Miles can't even eat breakfast without everyone knowing about it. Though it's been quite a while since there's been anything worth mentioning, so she's definitely curious about what people could be saying about she and her husband.
"What is it?" She asks, hoping that she doesn't sound too worried about it.
Jason leans in close and whispers, "everyone is saying that you and Bass can't have any children."
"What?"
He nods quickly and continues. "Yeah, they're even saying that you met with Maggie to try and find out if somethings wrong with you - well, your lady parts at least - and if that's why you can't get pregnant."
Charlie's heart sinks down into her stomach and she drops her head in her hands. Jason seems to think that this is an admission of truth and rubs her shoulder comfortingly.
"Hey, don't worry about if Charlie. There are plenty of kids out there that need families. You guys could alway adopt."
"It's not that," she says, her voice muffled through her hands.
"Then what?"
Charlie lifts her head to look at him, sadness filling her usually happy face. "It's not that I can't have children, it's that Bass doesn't want them."
Jason stares at her. "Bullshit."
She jerks back a little, startled by the outburst from hertypically laid-back friend. "What do you mean?"
"Bass loves kids. Of course he wants them." He says simply.
Shaking her head sadly, Charlie takes another drink. The bottle is two-thirds of the way empty. "Every time I bring it up, he just ignores me, like he's afraid I'll get pregnant just by talking about it."
Jason frowns. "What's his problem? Why doesn't he want to have a baby?"
"Shelly, I think."
His frown slowly turns into a face of understanding. "Oh... God, it's been so long. I didn't even think of that."
"I know, but it was a really bad time for him. I think that he's just afraid the same thing could happen to me."
"That's no excuse to be a dick about it though," Jason says, suddenly angrily. Charlie raises her eyebrows at him, but he ignores it. "He could at least have the decency to tell you what's wrong instead of treating you like crap."
Charlie sighs. As grateful as she is to have Jason angry on her behalf, Bass is still her husband and she feels the need to defend him. "Bass treats me like a queen, you know that."
"But still," Jason persists. "You don't deserve to be ignored."
She reaches out an squeezes his hand gently. "I know. Thank you, Jason."
He squeezes back and then grins mischievously. "You want me to kick his ass? I'm sure that'll get him back on track."
Charlie throws her head back and laughs, the effort shaking her entire body. "Like you could! You can't even beat him at arm wrestling!"
Jason scoffs and sputters. "Well... Obviously, I can't just go around beating the President at stuff like that. It would make him look bad. But I could totally beat him if I actually wanted too."
This of course, only makes her laugh harder.
Jeremy enters the living room, finding Charlie laughing hysterically and Jason pouting like a child. He ignores this, as it's how the two of them are often found, and tosses a pillow from an armchair directly at her face. It shocks her from her laughter and she throws it aside with a scowl. "Hey, what was that for?" She whines.
"How many times have I told you to quit trying to push me and Maggie together?"
Her face breaks into a huge grin. "Soooo, how'd it go?" Ignoring the annoyed look on his face, she scoots to the edge of her seat and leans in excitedly. "Did you kiss her?"
Jeremy huffs and plops down in the chair. "No, I did not kiss her. Maggie and I are friends. That's it." Charlie and Jason share a quick glance, then promptly burst into laughter. Rolling his eyes at the two drunk idiots, Jeremy leaves the room and heads off to bed.
After they've laughed themselves hoarse, Jason leans back on the couch and closes his eyes. Charlie slides over to him and tucks her feet up under herself, resting her head on his shoulder.
"What am I going to do about Bass?" She asks after a few minutes.
Jason sighs and wraps an arm around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head. "I don't know," he admits quietly. "But we'll figure it out. Just be patient with him." Nodding, Charlie drifts off to sleep on his shoulder and Jason follows soon after.
Miles wanders into the living room several hours later in search of his expensive bottle of scotch. He finds it mostly empty, discarded on the floor near Charlie's feet. She's snoring away on Jason's shoulder and he's sleeping with his head tilted back and his mouth wide open. Miles resists the temptation to drop something disgusting in his mouth and instead grabs a blanket to cover them up. They look so much like the little kids they used to be that for a moment he's tempted to kiss both of their foreheads, but he doesn't. He shakes that thought away, blaming it on the booze, and goes in search of a different bottle.
A/N OK, I lied. (Shocking, I know. :-)) No Charloe in this one. But I write what's on my mind and for some reason Jason was there today. I like to think that this is what their friendship would have looked like (eventually) if the writers hadn't killed him off. I plan to start the Bass/Charlie pregnancy talk as soon as I post this, I promise!