Charlie let out a groan as she looked down at the caller ID on her ringing phone. Apparently her mother must have come home and found out that she'd come back for a bag of stuff, then realized that she wasn't going to give up easily. Rachel clearly had gone into freak out mode as a result of her daughter not coming crawling back home and promising to stay away from Bass.

Charlie hit the ignore button and silently hoped that her mother wouldn't try to call back. That hope was crushed when her phone began loudly ringing again just seconds later. Charlie frowned to herself before hitting ignore again and then shutting her phone off. She waited a few seconds, half-expecting the phone in Bass's apartment to start ringing, but either her mother didn't know where she was staying or she had taken the hint, since no such call came through.

Less than five minutes passed before she came to regret that train of thought as the phone in Bass's apartment started to ring loudly and Charlie felt a surge of anger run through her. She got up and stormed across the room to grab the phone, without bothering to check who it was before answering. She was convinced that she didn't need to as she ordered into the phone, "Stop calling me."

"Already answering the phone in Bass's apartment. That was quick," Miles commented into the phone. "You do realize this is the first time I've called, right?"

"I had to turn my phone off because my mom won't stop calling me, probably to give me another lecture to try to get me to come back home and do whatever she says," she responded. "Which is all your fault since you decided to rat me out before I could tell her myself. And we both know that you're not calling Bass, considering you refused to even talk to him all day, so you can stop calling me too."

"Wait, hold on a second before you hang up on me," her uncle insisted.

"Why should I when you didn't even hesitate before siccing my mom on me?" She retorted.

"Alright, fine. I deserved that," Miles admitted. "But come on, Charlie. If you knew half of the stuff I know about his relationship history- if you can even call it that -then you'd understand why I reacted like that."

"I'm not stupid, Miles. In case you haven't noticed, I didn't fall for his usual tricks. Besides, I've already heard more than enough lectures and seen more than enough to know that he has a past," Charlie insisted. "And if I'm an idiot and completely wrong about him, then you're off the hook. Congratulations. It'll be all my fault and you and Mom can brag about how you both knew better than me. Maybe even throw yourselves an 'I told you so' party."

"Alright, fine. You can take care of yourself," Miles gave in. "But that doesn't mean that I can't still be pissed at him for insisting that he wasn't going to go after you anymore and lying to my face."

"Nora might have had something to do with that," Charlie told him. "...But don't get mad at her for it."

There was a brief silence before Miles questioned, "You know I didn't mean to get you kicked out, right?"

Charlie sat in a defiant silence for a dragged out couple of seconds before admitting, "I know." She felt a small smirk form on her lips as she added, "That doesn't make it any less of a dick move though."

Miles chuckled audibly through the phone, which Charlie couldn't help but smile at, before he responded, "No, I guess not. Sorry, Kid... Are we good?"

She pretended to consider for a moment before she told him, "That depends. Are you planning on reporting this conversation back to my mom?"

"No. Somehow I don't think that would go over well for either of us," he admitted.

"Well, did you tell her that I'm staying with Bass?" Charlie questioned.

"I'll let you deal with that one," Miles responded. "I'd rather not get injured just for being in her proximity when she finds out anyways."

"Okay, then we're good." She put on a teasingly warning voice as she added, "For now."

He let out a small laugh at that before he told her, "Alright, you can hang up on me n-"

Charlie didn't let him finish before hanging up with a smile on her lips. She set the phone back down before turning and walking towards the kitchen, following the smell that made it clear that Bass had made quite a bit of progress on dinner since she had gone to put her bag away and gotten side-tracked on the way back by the bombardment of phone calls from her family members.

"What's with your phone ringing so much?" He questioned as he glanced up to watch her enter the room. "You write your phone number on the door of a bathroom stall somewhere?"

"That sounds like me," Charlie agreed sarcastically. "My mom just can't take the hint that me not taking her calls means that she should stop calling. I turned my phone off now."

"Was that her calling here too?" Bass asked, looking a little bit concerned by the idea.

"No, it was Miles," she told him. "I don't think she knows I'm here."

"Good. That means there's still a chance that I won't wake up with a gun to my head, then," Bass responded. He was only mildly joking.

"Don't worry. She wouldn't pull the trigger with me in your bed," Charlie assured him. "Waking your daughter up to the sound of a gunshot and the feeling of brains being splattered all over her is a sure-fire way not to get her back on your side."

"Might keep you away from me though," Bass pointed out in an amused tone.

"Except for the fact that I'd be stuck picking parts of you out of my hair for days," she retorted.

"Your pre-dinner conversation is astounding," he complimented her with a smirk. "Really."

"You're the one who brought up the scenario," Charlie pointed out innocently.

"You're right. I brought that on myself," Bass responded sarcastically. In all actuality they both knew that he had, at least to a degree. "What'd Miles want?"

"Back on my good side," she told him with a small shrug.

"Did he succeed at that?" Bass questioned as he struggled to seem indifferent.

"Yeah. He's not the real problem and he claims he's going to stop treating me like I need to be over-protected, so..." She trailed off. "You're still on his bad-side though."

"That sounds about right," Bass commented. "You can't keep your mouth off of me in front of him and I'm the one on his shit-list for it."

"You're right," Charlie responded sarcastically. "You were just the poor, innocent victim that tried to kiss me in front of him five minutes earlier while not wearing any clothes."

He let out a laugh and then told her, "Exactly. As soon as Miles figures that out, he'll get over himself and be begging me not to be mad at him for this."

A smirk formed on Charlie's lips as she insisted, "You keep telling yourself that."

A/N: Please read and review! Another giant thanks goes out to driver picks the music, RevolutionReader, IceonFire7, LemonSupreme, ranDomXx, Hollywoodlove09, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, RyansDreamMaker, banneg, and the anonymous guest for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :D