Word count; 2612 (ex notes)

Notes at the bottom

CHAPTER 8:

Goddamnit all to hell! He'd kissed her again, he told himself that the one time was the only time but obviously his mind and body weren't exactly on the same page. She'd looked so sad, so helpless, so beautiful that he hadn't been able to control himself. It was stupid, he knew that. Even more so now they were reunited with her family, the moment Miles and Rachel found out the thoughts he had about their precious little Charlie... yeah, he'd be dead before he'd hit the ground.

Against the wall of the barn there was an old barrel filled with rain water and he dunked his head in the icy cold liquid. He stayed under for a few seconds trying to cool his head and the rest of him. It wouldn't do him any good to walk back to Miles and Rachel while he was sporting wood. Neville would have a field day. Thankfully the water was so cold it snapped his mind out of the heated kiss and he pulled his head out of the chilly water. Rivulets were dripping down his face into the collar of his shirt, it needed a wash anyway so he didn't really care.

"Trying to drown yourself? I'm willing to help you out, you know." Jason Neville, the little brat. "You're not getting rid of me that easily, Lieutenant."

Maybe that was one of the other reasons he'd kissed Charlie. Seeing Jason and knowing that there had been something between them, hell, she'd been the reason the little ass had defected in the first place so he knew that Charlie meant something to the former Militia member. Jealousy, that's what he felt when he'd seen Neville JR stare at Charlie when they'd reunited moments ago. Pure, unadulterated jealousy.

"Making friends, Bass?" Miles walked up behind him, Charlie in tow, he could sense her before he actually looked back and saw her standing there. The look on her face was closed and he hoped it wasn't because she was pissed he'd kissed her again. "Wouldn't dream of it. Not with this boy-band reject." Bass sneered "I have better taste than that." He kept eyeing the younger man and he didn't like what he saw when those brown eyes kept resting on Charlie. "Hey!" He snapped his fingers in Jason's face "We gonna have a problem here?" Really, he just wanted to get the Backstreet reject to focus his attention anywhere but Charlie.

"No, no problem." This was said by Tom and Bass' head snapped in his direction "You know Tom, you weren't capable of keeping your boy in line when he was Militia, I doubt you can keep him in line now. So I'll ask the question again." He turned back to Jason "Are we, or are we not, going to have a problem?" Jason shook his head "No problem." Without saying any more he turned around and walked away. Bass frowned and had to keep himself from grabbing her arm when he noticed Charlie went after him. "Charlie, stay in sight." She turned to him and chuckled "I can take care of myself, Monroe."

"I know... but I don't trust him one little bit, stay in sight." He was afraid she would argue but a soft smile graced her lips and she joked "Yes, sir." Bass was unaware of the strange look Miles was giving them, his eye solely on her "Good, didn't save your ass all those times only to have that Timberlake wanna-be off you while I'm not looking." Her blue eyes squinted, obviously not getting the Timberlake reference but then she just smiled at him again and went after Jason. He followed her with his eyes to the other side of the field and was satisfied when she and Jason sat down on a fallen tree in full view of both him and Miles. "Good girl" He muttered.

"What did you do to her?" Miles snapped at him and Bass felt strong hands grip his collar, the words were said with the same amount of venom as they had been the first time Miles' said them just outside of Willoughby. "God damn it Bass, if you hurt her, if you did anything to her.." "Fuck, Miles. Calm down! Why on earth do you think I've hurt Charlotte?" Like it would ever even cross his mind... now. Before, yes, when he hadn't known her, he would have killed her without a doubt. Now, he would move heaven and earth to keep her safe, for Rachel, for Miles and if he was completely honest... for himself as well. Also... killing her wouldn't be as easy as before if only because the girl was a pretty good fighter. Not to say he wouldn't win but she wouldn't go down easy.

"Because she just listened to you, Charlie doesn't even listen to ME! Let along you, what the hell happened on the way here, Bass? Why is my niece all of a sudden not busting your chops?"

Bass sighed. He knew this would happen if Charlie and he started to act civil towards each other, people would get suspicious. "We were out of the road for weeks, Miles. We were put in some seriously shady situations and had to rely on one another to get out of them. We understand each other and... believe it or not, I respect Charlie and I don't want to see her get hurt." It was the truth, it had been a while since he'd told Miles the truth and he didn't know if his old friend would believe him. Especially not after all the horrible things he'd done, though Miles had done his own fair share of fucked up shit.

"Just stay away from her, Bass."

"No." His reply was short and demanded no further explanation, though that was lost on Miles "Excuse me, what the hell do you mean by 'No' Bass? You leave her the hell alone!"

"No, Miles. Charlie and I, we work well together and since these Patriots are not just gonna up and go I'm gonna have to keep working well with her. I'm not all of a sudden gonna start riling her up against me again just because you can't stand us being civil." He was calm on the surface but underneath a fire burned. "I'm not gonna stay away from her, after all this is done and she goes back to wanting to plant an arrow in my chest, yes, then I'll leave... but until then, you're stuck with me."

Miles seemed to process that information "Fine" but the frown on his face implied he was anything but fine. "But if you touch her, if you hurt her... I'll kill you for real, Bass. This time I will not hesitate." Bass nodded, he understood Miles' need to protect his niece. Hell, Bass himself felt that same desire... though maybe just a little bit different. "I don't think you have to worry about that. Girl can take care of herself, if I hurt her I'll most likely wake up with several arrows sticking out of important appendages."

The next hour they spent discussing on what they were going to do now and whether or not to merge the two camps. "I think we should stay separated, not only that, but split our group between the two camps as well, that way we force the Nevilles to split up if they want to keep a close eye on everything that is going on." Bass suggested. "You, Gene and Rachel Stay here while I take Charlie back to the men Duncan provided. I'll bet you anything the New Kid on the Block will follow us, there's no way he's letting Charlie out of his sight."

"No, No way. Charlie stays here." Bass wasn't surprised Miles objected to Charlie coming with him. "The men Duncan sent only listen to her. Duncan told them to not take orders from anyone else so she has to come back to the camp."

"Fine, then you stay here and I go with Charlie." Miles wasn't giving up so easily. "Oh, yeah. That's brilliant, and leave me here with Rachel? I'm sure that's gonna go over very well."

"Fuck!" Bass nodded at Miles' curse "Pretty much. And if one camp is gonna hold you, Charlie, Rachel AND the new men, do you really think Neville will feel the need to split up with his boy?" Bass shook his head "You really think they're gonna feel Gene, Staypuft and Me are going to be a threat?" Bass noticed the truth sink in with Miles and he nodded "So, like I said. I'm gonna take Charlie back up to the camp just a few miles west of here. You, Rachel, Gene and whichever Neville decides to stay here wait for Staypuft to get back from his unexpected journey, yeah?"

They caught a little bit of protest from Rachel but luckily Charlie realized that it was a solid plan and told her mother that she was going to go with him, back to her new men and away from Miles and her. As Bass had guessed it was Jason who was going to go with them for even distribution according to Tom. Bass saw it for the bullshit it was and just rolled his eyes without comment.

It took them approximately 45 minutes to get back to the camp and it was starting to get dark when they arrived. Connor and the others had gotten a small fire going and had caught some food, Bass gladly took the offered squirrel and munched away as his eyes followed Jason's every move through the camp.

Bass snorted when he noticed Jason placed his sleeping bag ridiculously close to Charlie's. He got up and walked over to the young man, without a word he picked up Jason's sleeping bag and threw it to the opposite side of the fire, as far away from Charlie's as possible and dropped his own in it's stead. "You don't go near her unless one of her men, Connor or I are present. And you definitely don't go anywhere alone with her. Do you understand." The look on the former Generals face left nothing to be discussed and he smugly watched as the younger man angrily strode over to the sleeping bag Bass had just tossed aside. "That's what I thought."

A watch schedule was set up so everyone could get a decent nights rest. Bass made sure Charlie was excluded from that schedule so she could sleep through the night. He took first watch and made sure he stayed on Charlie's and Connor's side of the fire. He meant what he said when he told Miles he didn't trust the Neville's one bit.

Dawn came quickly and when Connor woke him up his eyes flew over where Charlie was, or at least, where she was supposed to be. He glanced around the camp and noticed Jason wasn't there either. "Where's Charlie?" Were the first words out of his mouth after he'd woken up.

"She went to the other's for a while. Wanted to talk to her mom or something. Pete went with her." Bass sighed in relief "Good, that's good. Where's Neville JR?"

"Around here somewhere." His son replied "You want me or one of the other guys to keep an eye on him?" Bass shook his head "That won't be necessary unless he starts heading out into the woods for long periods of time."

They ate some breakfast and used the water they had carried to the camp to wash up a bit. Around midday Bass was about to go stir-crazy if he didn't find anything to do, quickly. War was 90% waiting and 10% action but right now he wished they'd get to the action part already. In a burst of energy he jumped up and reached for his sword "Okay... who's up for some one on one?" He eyed Duncan's men and smiled pleased when Mark stood up and pulled a sword from his own belt. "I'll take you on, General." Bass smirked "Good man!" He stepped forward and pointed his sword to the other man "No connecting blows to the opponent, no drawing blood on purpose. Training not killing."

Mark nodded and before Bass knew it he was being attacked by the stocky man. They went at it for a good ten minutes, Mark was more skilled with a sword than Bass had expected. This put him in a good mood and they went blow for blow for 15 more minutes before Bass felt the need to express his superiority. With a few fast and hard moves he disarmed his opponent and lightly placed the blade of his newly acquired sword on Mark's throat. "Not bad" He complimented the other man as he handed Mark his sword back. "Seriously, I hadn't expect you to be quite that skilled with a sword. All you guys got that talent?"

Roger got up and took the sword Mark offered him. "Why don't you give us a test run, General?" The smile on Bass' face widened even more. The day was hot and the sword fighting left him sweaty and a little out of breath. He slipped out of his shirt, throwing it over to where his stuff was and wiped his brow. "Let's go, He-Man!"

To his delight Roger, too, was an excellent swordsman. This was beginning to look very promising. He'd initially been disappointed that Duncan had only granted Charlie five men but if the other men were such good swordsmen as Mark and Roger then they were a great asset to their little resistance. He noticed he was working up quite a sweat, since Miles had left not many people had been able to give him a good workout with swords involved so he was liking this immensely. The other three men were sitting on the ground encouraging their friend, calling out when he made a mistake and cheering when he drove Bass further back while Connor was cheering him on.

The smile on his face couldn't be bigger. This is what he'd missed when he'd been solely responsible for the republic. Camaraderie, laughing, feeling a part of something bigger than just himself.

"Come on, Monroe. Kick his ass!" Charlie. Her voice caused him to look in her direction and he sent her a smile. She smiled back and he was a goner. This was his mistake, she distracted him like nothing else so what happened next was no surprise. Because he was looking at Charlie he didn't see Roger's next move and his opponents' sword caught him in the head. Luckily Roger had been paying more attention than Bass had and the flat side, in stead of the sharp blade, caught him on the side of his head.

He fell to his knees and cursed, he could already feel the small trickle of blood on his temple. "Bass!" Her voice was worried and sharp, her fingers soft and gentle as she fell to her knees next to him and grabbed his face in her hands "Bass, are you alright?" She tilted his head up and inspected the side of his face where he'd been struck. Somehow a cloth magically appeared in her hands and she gently pushed it against the cut on his temple. His eyes were fixated on her as she leaned over him to see how bad it was.

"Talk to me!" She demanded and his eyes found hers, a smile on his face. "I'm good. Just a little cut, nothing serious." She didn't step away though, slowly she peeled the towel away from the wound and inspected it closely. Her slender fingers brushing his hair out of the way, her breath on the side of his face as she made sure he actually was telling her the truth. "You'll live." Was her cheery reply.

Author's notes;

Little bit of Neville and Jason in this. Aaron... meh, I might add him and Priscilla, I might not. I find him the least interesting and I don't really like the whole nano route they've been taking.

The gang is back together again. I'm probably going to somewhat follow the show story-wise but make my own adjustments so it's Charloe instead of what seems to be a Charlie and Connor thing (stupid writers!) I loved the whole 'where did you find the time to bang my son' it was awesome and I feel that it's a cop-out from the writers that they put Connor and Charlie together. I also fear that this is the last season we'll be getting so I don't think any actual Charloe will happen. I guess I'll have to make do with my story and the stories other people post here.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, thank you so much for reading, following, favorite-ing and reviewing, that's what keeps me going... Well that and my unhealthy obsession with everything Bass Monroe ;p

Love, Marisa