Word count; 2352

Notes at the bottom

CHAPTER 33 :

"My mom back yet?" She asked Evan as soon as she and Bass got back to the camp. The War clan member shook his head and took "Nope, but she still has a little while before it gets dark." Charlie nodded and left Bass with Evan as she headed over to Miles.

"Where've you been?" He asked as he handed her some venison. Charlie sat down next to him and shot him a glance that said all he needed to know. Miles was skilled in hiding his emotions but Charlie saw a flash of anger before he schooled his face into one of indifference. Obviously Miles wasn't as good with her and Bass as she had initially thought but she was glad that he wasn't trying to make trouble.

"I still don't get it though. You and Bass." He sat down next to her. "Me neither." She chuckled and glanced at him "Trust me, in the beginning I didn't understand, I didn't want to but it just happened. I decided not to fight it anymore. He's good to me. He protects me he respects me, believe it or not he makes me laugh and ... he cares for me. Kind of strange to say it out loud but he really cares about me, maybe love, we'll see."

"Your mother will never approve." Charlie scowled and shook her head "At this point I just don't care about that. After everything she's done... after what you and her did before the blackout..." There was a shocked look on his face "What, you think I didn't know? I'm not stupid, you know. I saw how weird the two of you were to each other in the beginning when we got her back and everything that's happened since, I put two and two together."

"And you're not killing me for ... having an affair with your mother, why?" Miles handed her a canteen of water and she took a few sips "I guess because now I understand that you can't help who you fall in love with." He sighed "You're gonna have to give me a little time to get used to it, okay."

Charlie nodded and glanced at him again "How about this, whatever you and my mom do in front of me and Bass, Bass and I can do in front of you." Miles glared at her "Nice, Charlie." She chuckled and took another bite from her food, nearly dropping it when she saw her mother walk back into camp followed by none other than Aaron and and an Asian looking woman.

"Aaron!" She jumped up and ran towards the small group of people who'd just entered the camp. "You're alive!" She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close. He wrapped his arms around her waist and for a moment they just stood there, hugging. Charlie was ecstatic that her longtime friend, more like uncle, was alive and well. When she pulled back she shot the woman a smile as well "Who's your friend?"

"Charlie, this is Priscilla... my ex wife." Her eyes widened and she shook the other woman's hand "You don't say." She saw her mothers eyes narrow and a presence behind her "Stay Puft. Good to see you're still among us." Bass reached past her and shook Priscilla's hand "Way out of his league." He commented and Charlie hid a chuckle with a cough.

"Where the hell have you been?" Miles' question was directed towards Rachel and Gene and Charlie wanted to know too. "We went into town to see what the situation is, nothing happened." Rachel's eyed her up and down "How did everything go in Austin?" She wanted to know.

"Fine, we prevented the assassination." He paused for a moment "We lost Jason Neville, he's dead." Rachel's blue eyes widened "What happened?" Charlie cleared her throat "I killed him. Self defense." She explained to her mother what had happened and why she had no other choice than to kill Jason. Her mother only nodded and didn't mention anything else, though Charlie saw a strange look play across her mothers face that she hadn't seen before.

She caught her grandfather glancing at Bass with a peculiar look on his face and she couldn't help but wonder if he knew about them. Lately she had caught him staring at the former General on occasion and never with a friendly look on his face.

"Miles... can we talk for a sec?" Her uncle looked at Bass and Charlie noticed the serious look on his face. She guessed her uncle saw the look as well because he nodded and followed Bass a couple of yards away from the group.

Charlie tried to ignore Rachel's and Gene's talking in favor of watching Miles and Bass to see what they were talking about. The two men were too far away though and she couldn't read their lips, the conversation looked heated though. Not directed at each other but just heated in general. Slowly she moved closer and in between her mothers rambling she caught words like 'patriots' and 'head quarters'. Charlie grew more curious by the second.

"Why don't you just come closer and join the conversation, Curious George." Bass' voice pulled her from her eavesdropping-mode and she blushed at being caught. He winked at her and she couldn't fight the urge to stick her tongue out at him. "You better be careful who you wag that tongue at." Bass smirked and changed the subject "I was just telling Miles about the other pages from the book that Soner has translated. Turns out the Patriots HQ is in Washington DC ... Not exactly right next door. Fucking pastel inbreeds."

"It's gonna take us at least a month to get there, even with all the wagons and horses we've confiscated from the camps we've attacked. It's going to be a long, hard and dangerous journey." Bass nodded in agreement with Miles.

"I don't think it's wise to leave here." Gene intervened "Willoughby needs our help and we're relatively safe here." But Miles shook his head "Willoughby is a lost cause, Gene. They've been on the Patriot drug for too long. We've hit all the surrounding camps and dwindled their numbers as much as we could. They just keep coming. If we really want to hurt their cause we need to cut the head from the snake's body. We do that in Washington. We might be safer here but safer isn't going to win us this war., and I want to win."

Bass clapped him on the back "Finally, we're on the same page. Now... let's go kill ourselves a president." Charlie noticed a mocking glance on Bass' face "Hmmm" He continued "Something that should be familiar to you, right Rachel." Charlie wanted to smack him upside the head for antagonizing her mother but she held herself back from doing so.

"So do we have a plan?" Charlie wanted to know. "Right now the plan is to get to Orlando in one piece, that's gonna be tricky enough as it is. We can't go in one big group so we're gonna have to split up into segments and hope we don't get spotted by a squad of zombie-patriots." Miles ran a hand through his hair "I'd rather go all at once but a large group is more likely to get spotted and smaller groups can hide and move quicker in case of danger... It's either this or we call it quits now, we have to make a choice. We stay here and we let it go, we surrender to the patriots... or we march to DC and try and kill the son of a bitch who's trying to take over the continent."

"Miles.." Her mother was cut off by her uncle "There's no other option, Rachel. The Patriots aren't going to go away so we either stop them or we let them go their way. If we let them have their way millions of people are going to die, Rachel, only because they are deemed inferior." Charlie saw the understanding look on her mothers face but Rachel was far from happy with this course of action. Anyone could see that both Miles and Bass were in agreement though and no one really dared to tell them otherwise, when these two men set their minds to something it was happening, come hell or high water.

Charlie watched as Bass turned towards Evan and told him to get the clan packed up and put them into groups of about ten people since they would be traveling with a wagon. Miles and Bass made a departure and route schedule that would allow everyone to get to Orlando in a timely manner. A total of four groups would head towards Washington spread over four days and in different directions. Some would take a little longer due to a detour so they wouldn't travel too close together.

She helped Evan pack one of the wagons. She didn't exactly like the man, he was quiet and stoic but the silence was comfortable as they worked.

"No!" Charlie's head shot up when she heard her mothers voice. Miles was trying to calm her down but obviously it wasn't working. "No!" Her mother repeated "She's not traveling with that... monster." Charlie let Evan know she was gonna go over there and she joined her mother and Miles "What the hell is going on here?" She wanted to know.

Rachel turned, the look in her eyes angry and determined "Your mother has a problem with the fact that I suggested you travel with Bass' group." Charlie was actually a little surprised by that herself seeing as how Miles wasn't all that good with what was going on between her and Bass. "It's not happening." Rachel stated. Charlie's hackles rose and she turned towards her mother "That's not up to you to decide."

She turned back towards Miles "Why do you think it's a good idea?" She was curious. Miles sighed "Because we're all too close to each other and I don't think that on a journey as dangerous as this one possibly will be it would be a good idea to all travel together. From the original group there's only us left, and Gene. I suggested Aaron and Priscilla go with Pete's group, Rachel, Connor and I will travel with Randall and a few others and You and Bass would travel with Evan and his crew."

"That doesn't really sound all that smart." Charlie interjected and Miles rolled his eyes "It's so if one group gets caught the other can go on, we split up Evan's group so we should split ourselves up as well."

"She is not going anywhere with that monster of a Monroe, Miles." Her mother once more protested. "She'll be a hell of a whole lot safer with me than she would be with you, Rachel." Charlie jumped when she heard his cold voice. "Yeah, right. Because you're such a saint," Bass grinned evilly "I'm anything but a saint... which is exactly why she'll be safe with me."

"Bass." Charlie spoke softly and placed her hand on his arm "Please." She didn't want him to agitate her mother further. "Mom, I think Miles is right. I'm not a little girl anymore, I can take care of myself and I'll be safe with Bass." Rachel still looked skeptical "No one is safe where Monroe is concerned." Charlie noticed Bass bit back a snarky reply and she was grateful for that.

Without realizing Rachel was just pushing Charlie more and more towards Bass. His respect and kindness such a stark contrast with her mothers continued selfishness and superiority complex. "I'm going with Bass and Evan, that's final."

Her mother walked up to Bass and got in his face "You keep her safe and keep your hands off of her, you hear me!" Charlie saw the flash of anger in Bass' blue eyes "You don't get to tell me SHIT, Rachel." He growled at her mother before he turned on his heals and marched off to join Evan.

Charlie's group was one of the groups that would leave that night, under the cover of darkness. She was tired and mentally exhausted from everything but she knew there was no choice, they needed to get going because the Patriots were several steps ahead of them.

Evan had loaded the wagon and there were two mercs on the front seat and three in the back. She wasn't really looking forward to joining the rough looking bunch in the back of the wagon. A backpack came flying past her and landed in the wagon "My Lady... your steed... and horse." She turned and looked straight into Bass' smirking face. He was holding a big, brown horse that had a thick blanket where a saddle should be "Get up."

Charlie looked at his quizzically "What?" She asked but he just grabbed her waist and lifted her, more out of instinct than anything she slung a leg over the horse's back and she was sitting atop the large animal. Miles and Rachel walked up to them "You guys be careful." Miles ordered.

Her bow was in the wagon as were several guns they had 'confiscated' from the patriots, Bass had his gun and swords so she figured they were well stocked on weapons. Bass grabbed the sides of the blanket and hoisted him self up onto the horse, settling down behind her. Rachel let out a sound of protest but Charlie silenced her with a look. "We'll be fine, Mom. I'll see you in Washington."

Miles grabbed Bass' leg "You make sure she gets there in one piece." She felt Bass nod behind her "You know I will." The horse started moving and the wagon followed into the dark of the night. It was slow and careful due to the darkness but she felt warm and safe with Bass' strong arms wrapped around her, the feel of his hard chest and heartbeat against her back. It wasn't long before she fell asleep, her head against the firm shoulder behind her.

A new chapter on the night when the last episode of Revolution will be aired... ugh. Damn tv networks.

So, I'm not sure if Miles' plan made any sense at all, I just needed them to split up in groups so there ;p Did you all figure out yet who was watching them? Don't worry, trouble is up ahead.

To the people who asked if I could keep it going after chapter 40/45... Sorry guys, but when the story's finished, it's finished. I am already working on another Revolution story with Charloe as base so there will be more reading material. As for this story, it's slowly coming to an end and like I said, done is done. I will not be making a sequel, this will have a little epilogue though, to show where they are a couple years after the story ends.

Please let me know what you guys are thingking? Am I missing something? are there any plotholes? Please let me know, I can still fix those now, there is still time.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter :D drop me a line anytime :D

Love,

Marisa