Word count; 3263

Notes at the bottom

CHAPTER 35 :

The gun went off and her heart stopped. She watched helplessly as Bass was thrown back from the force of the bullet hitting him and her heart stopped. Her breath caught in her throat and her skin went numb when she saw his shirt color red with blood. Her heart stopped.

She could hear voices in the distance but they were muffled like in a dream, Charlie tried to get her muscles to work but they wouldn't listen. Dazed she watched Evan sink down next to Tom Neville who had fallen to the ground as well, a neat hole right between his eyes, a drop of blood running down his nose. Who had shot Neville?

Her eyes slid left and noticed Truman was lying on the ground, a knife protruding from his throat. His eyes were wide open and there was a shocked, pained expression on his now lifeless face. She sank to her knees next to Bass while around her the members of the War Clan dragged Neville and Truman off onto the side of the road.

Charlie reached out hesitantly and touched Bass' still warm chest, her fingers coming away sticky with his warm blood. He was dead. She'd finally decided she loved him and wasn't going to let anyone stop her and now he was dead.

He lay lifeless before her, eyes closed as the stain on the side of his chest grew bigger and bigger. A silent sob wrecked her chest and her shaky hands cupped his face.

"Charlie?... Charlie!" Someone was calling out her name and this person was becoming more and more agitated. "Charlie, snap the fuck out of it!" Evan grabbed her chin so hard it hurt and might leave a bruise come morning but she didn't care. "Charlie, someone might have heard the shots! We have to get out of here! We have to get him out of here, he's losing blood."

She nodded her head, they did need to get out of here. Then his words got through to her muddled brain. "What?" She asked dazedly. "What do you mean?" Evan sighed and motioned over two other men "He's been shot in his side Charlie, we have to get him out of here, so we can patch him up."

Her blue eyes just looked at him as if he were crazy, Tom had shot him in the heart, no amount of care was going to fix that and she told Evan so.

The blond man grinned and shook his head "Grazed." Was the only word he said and she blinked at him "Charlie, Tom fired in a reflex of being shot himself, I already checked. The bullet grazed his side, that's where the blood is coming from. Dumbass knocked his head on a rock on the way down. THAT'S why he's out, he's not dead" Evan pointed at a rock that had some blood on it and she looked at Bass' head to see a bruise forming on his temple, he was alive?

She reached out her hand and placed her fingers, that were still sticky with his blood in his neck where his pulse should be and that's when she felt it. The faint but steady thump, the proof that his heart was still pumping blood through his veins.

Charlie let out a sound that was a cry and a laugh at the knowledge that he was still alive, for the moment. Because she was going to kill him for scaring her to death the moment he woke up.

"Let's get him on the wagon!" Evan and two other man grabbed up Bass and quite unceremoniously dumped him in the back of the wagon. The blond warrior grabbed her waist and lifted her onto the wagon as well. "Get something to put on the bullet wound. Keep pressure on it so the bleeding will stop, he's gonna need all the blood he still has in him because even though Greg over there is a pretty good field medic... he can't transfer blood."

Without hesitation she opened her bag and pulled out a tank top that she ripped to shreds before pressing it tightly to the wound. The wagon was set in motion but she was too busy, too focused on Bass to even notice where they were going.

Bass was pale and still out cold, not even pressure against the wound woke him up and she was glad for it because she imagined it would hurt pretty bad were he awake. It looked a lot like a knife would to her, the skin of his left side was slashed and bleeding but there was no bone visible and it was obvious the bullet hadn't gone in.

They traveled for about an hour before she heard Evan yell out that he heard water and that they should find a place to camp out. The clan members scouted the area and set up two people for watch so they couldn't be ambushed.

Charlie stayed with Bass in the wagon as they build a fire and boiled some water. Evan and Greg slowly lifted Bass from the wagon and carried him over to the fire. Greg had gotten some sort of toolkit from his bag, pliers, scalp and some other things and he set to work.

Sometimes he asked Charlie to hold something, pour some alcohol on the wound or make sure Bass wouldn't all of a sudden move. Thank got for bullet shortage because it had forced Tom to use a small caliber hand gun. Greg cleaned the wound as best as he could but they didn't have sowing needles or something to stitch the wound close with.

Evan came walking up to them holding a rather large knife that he shoved into the fire. "Jesus Christ." Charlie exclaimed but the warrior just shrugged "This is the easiest, quickest and best way to stop the wound from bleeding. Burning it closed will kill off any bacteria still there and it will stop the bleeding instantly."

Greg moved Bass to his other side, his shirt was completely off now and he motioned for Charlie to keep Bass' left arm out of the way. Evan waited until the blade was red-hot before he pulled it out of the fire.

The moment Evan pressed the searing blade against Bass skin the former General opened his eyes and let out a scream that could wake the dead. Blue eyes muddled with pain looked straight at her before he sank down into oblivion, the pain knocking him out once again.

"Well, at least we know he most likely didn't suffer brain damage. He's not in a coma since the hot blade woke him up. It's gonna hurt like a son of a bitch for a while but this guy might just be the luckiest bastard on this whole fucking planet." Evan threw the knife to the floor and held Bass into a sitting position so Greg could wrap strips of alcohol-saturated fabric around his chest.

"Rachel Matheson sends her regards." Evan's voice was flat and anger was dripping from the words. She faced him and frowned "Huh?" She asked, not getting what he meant. "That's what that bastard said before he tried to pull the trigger. He said 'Rachel Matheson sends her regards."

Charlie lowered her gaze to the wounded man on the ground, she had heard the words that Neville had spoken before he tried to kill Bass but she didn't want to believe them. "How the hell did Neville know where we were? We split into at least four groups, how the hell did he know that Monroe would be in this one, Charlie? How the hell did he know which roads we would take?"

"I don't know...I don't know."

"Well I fucking do know, Charlie. Your mother put Neville on Bass under the pretense that he killed his kid while we all know he was actually responsible for that." She shook her head "She wouldn't do that! She knows that Neville can't be trusted, that he would kill our entire group given half the chance." But Evan scoffed "Your mother hates Monroe, do you really think she'll stop at anything to get rid of him? If she pulls shit like this now what will she do when she finds out you've been screwing him, huh?"

Her eyes widened and he scoffed again "Yes, Charlie. I know. Everyone knows but your mother and maybe your grandfather. To be quite honest I wouldn't be surprised if they had figured it out as well because the way the two of you look at each other is a little hard to miss. Not to mention the way you sneak off together whenever you get the chance." The warrior shook his head and changed the subject.

"We shouldn't stay here." Evan stated. "His wound isn't too serious, he should be fine to travel in the back of the wagon, it won't be comfortable but he'll be even less comfortable if anyone catches us." Charlie nodded hear head and supervised Evan and Greg as they carried Bass over to the wagon.

The others put out the fire and erased any proof that they were ever there "Let's head out!" Evan jumped on the front of the wagon and set the horse in motion. Charlie had taken a seat with Bass, his head in her lap and she ran his fingers through his curls that were matted together on the side because of the blood that the head wound caused.

About two hours into the ride Bass finally started to stir "Bass?" Charlie stroked the side of his face and sighed relieved when his eyes opened and he looked around a bit dazed. It took him a few minutes but when his eyes landed on her he frowned "Charlie? What happened?"

She couldn't keep a smile from her face, he sounded weak but he was awake and he knew who she was "Evan shot Neville, he must have shot you in reflex because a bullet grazed your ribs." He frowned and raised his hand to his head "A bullet graze shouldn't have knocked me unconscious."

Charlie chuckled "You hit your head on a rock when you went down." She gently caressed the bruise that had formed around the small cut on his temple "Scared the fuck out of me, Monroe." When he cleared his throat again and she handed him a canteen with water "Drink." She ordered and helped him hold the canteen to his mouth as he drank.

"My Kingdom for some morphine or anything to dull this fucking pain in my head and side." Bass reached for the bandage around his chest and winced from the movement "Fuck, we don't need this right now." Charlie just shushed him and guided his head back into her lap so he could rest "We have at least two more weeks of travel ahead and then we're gonna hang around Washington for a week or two to wait for reinforcements, remember? You have plenty of time to get back to fighting strength."

"Who patched me up?" He wanted to know. "Greg did. He cleaned out the wound and cauterized it using a hot blade. He and Evan wrapped it with strips of fabric soaked in alcohol." Bass chuckled "Well that explained why I smell like a distillery." She could see by the set of his eyes he was exhausted though so she wasn't surprised that within moments his lids slid closed and his breathing became heavy and even.

Greg pulled up along side of the wagon with his horse "How is he?" Her eyes lowered to the man in her lap and she smiled softly "He'll be fine." And he would be "Killing Sebastian Monroe isn't an easy thing to do."

The man chuckled and nodded his head "No, it's not. Glad about that too. Good man, good leader." Charlie raised her gaze to the warrior slash medic "You like him?" It still surprised her sometimes to find out that people actually liked Bass even though she did. Greg nodded again and smirked "Afraid of hardly anything, knows what he's talking about, good strategist, great leader. Yeah, I like him, the whole clan does."

Greg scrutinized her "That surprises you?" Charlie nodded "I don't know a lot of people who actually like him." He smiled "You do... so why shouldn't other people." She shrugged "He's different towards me than I've seen him be to other people during traveling together. That, and before I actually got to know him all I heard or saw about him wasn't all that good."

The other man's face slipped into a sad look "The blackout did things to people." He said "All of a sudden surviving became a lot more difficult and a lot of people lost friends and loved ones the first few years to things that were no problem before the blackout. Some people even lost themselves..." He ran a hand through his blond beard "War... it does strange, horrible things to people. If you don't have enough reason, a good support system... it's easy to slip off the ledge.

A slight smile formed on his face and his gaze slipped from Bass to her "Some of us are lucky though. Some of us find something, someone who can turn it all around. Someone that allows us to let go of this insane, jumbled mess of hate, anger, pain and loss in our heads. Like Evan said, Monroe is a lucky man." He dug his heels into the sides of the horse and moved back to the front of the pack.

Charlie focused back on the man who's head was in her lap and thought about what Greg had said and realized Bass wasn't the only one who found someone who helped make sense of it all. Bass was her something, her someone that allowed her to let go of everything that had happened the past year, he was her escape.

Several hours later Bass woke up again and Charlie was startled from a slight slumber when she felt him move. "Careful, you'll rip your wound open." Bass being the stubborn bastard he is didn't listen though and pulled himself up into a sitting position "See, nothing to be worried about." He bit out through clenched teeth, obviously in pain. "Stubborn ass."

"We'll stop for the night in a little while." Evan's voice came from the front. It was starting to get dark already and about half an hour later Evan steered the wagon off the side of the road and into the thick brush. As per usual on their trip there were two, three men watches set up. Bass got excluded because he needed all the rest he could get but Charlie insisted she'd take one because she'd already slept some on the wagon and felt someone else could really use the sleep. Especially since she was planning on riding in the wagon tomorrow again, she wasn't gonna let Bass out of her sight until he was up and about again.

It was easier for Bass to stay in the wagon so they didn't bother with getting him out. Charlie did place an extra blanket over him since he couldn't go and sit by the fire in his current state. He still moved with difficulty but he was awake and alert. "Here." She handed him a piece of fish they had caught and grilled over the fire. Bass ate with enthusiasm and when he was done she walked back over to the fire and got him some more.

Being camped out near water was a luxury because the men were efficient fishers so there was no shortage of food this night. They ate and drank in silence until the food was all gone.

"Come sit with me." Bass stretched out the arm on the side that wasn't hurt and motioned for her to come join him. Charlie hesitated for a moment because she didn't want to hurt him but a few moments later she slipped into his embrace. Silence took them for a while before Bass cleared his throat. "Charlotte, about what Neville said.."

So he did remember what Neville had said before trying to kill him. She closed her eyes and waited for his angry outburst. "I'm sorry." His words confused her and she looked into his blue eyes. "I'm sorry that your mother can never accept me and I would understand if you..." She raised her brow "Understand if I... what?" She wanted to know.

Bass sighed "I'd understand if you would decide to break us off. I know how much family means to you." Who was this man? How could someone who she feared for so long be this understanding, it was almost scary and if she didn't know better by now she would have thought he had a hidden agenda. "No!" She exclaimed a little too loud so it made a few of the warriors look up before they went back to their diner.

"No." She continued softer "I don't want to break us off. What my mother did was stupid because Neville could have killed us all if he saw fit. It was stupid f her to give him our position, if that's really what she did." Charlie leaned heavier into Bass side "Lately ... lately she seems less and less like my mother and more like a warden. She hardly ever talks to me unless she wants t tell me what I'm doing wrong of when she's giving me stuff to keep from getting pregnant."

The man next to her chuckled "Maybe I should write her a thank-you note for that, don't you think. Because to be quite honest I am really grateful to her about that." Because he was hurt she didn't smack him in the chest but she did lightly pinch his arm "Dick." She commented and he nodded with a chuckle "That part of my anatomy is especially grateful to her."

"I don't want her to kill you, or to be the reason you get killed." She said softly "But I don't want you to kill her either, even though maybe she deserves it after what she pulled." Bass turned his head and rested his lips against her temple. "I'm not gonna kill her." He said "It's gonna take every ounce of my self control, but I won't kill her... I might pummel her just a little." But the wink he sent her told her that he wouldn't.

"How come all the self restraint all of a sudden. I mean, not too long ago you would have just killed her."

"Because it would hurt you. She's your mother so I won't kill her, though I might change my mind if she keeps trying to kill me, then it just becomes a question of survival." He locked his gaze on her "But for the moment she won't die by my hand or any hand I command, promise."

"I'm gonna tell her. The moment she and Miles catch up to us I'm going to tell her." She promised and he smiled "Tell her what?" Charlie rested her head on his shoulder "That you're my family now. That if she hurts you, she hurts me and I won't allow her to do that any longer. She doesn't have to love you but if she keeps trying to kill you then she will lose me. If she keeps trying to kill you she can't live in the house to our right any more."

Here we go. Another fresh chapter for you to sink your teeth in. :D I hope the cliffhanger was resolved to your satisfaction.

The Rachel showdown is still to come and naturally the 'end battle' against the Patriots. Slowly leading up towards the ending now. Also, in the future is some more sexiness between our two fave people ;p

Thank you so much for reading and for sticking with me during this long ass story :D Please let me know what you think of it, it feeds my little writers heart.

Also, I posted a story in The 100 fandom. It's pure smut between Bellamy and Clarke. I blame my good friend Krys who put me on to this show and now I cannot stop watching it and I'm shipping Bellarke like nothing else. Don't worry though, I'm still working on my next Charloe story that I will start posting after this one is fully up :D

Love you all,

Marisa