Word count; 1300
Notes at the bottom

CHAPTER 41 :

Slowly consciousness started to seep back in. There was a cloud of cotton surrounding her and her eyes felt light their lids weighed a ton. Sound was muffled and she could barely feel the sheets against her skin.

She started to panic, she could remember exactly when she last felt like this. It had been months ago in some dive of a bar and she'd been surrounded by a couple of filthy men. "Bass?" Charlie's voice sounded unlike anything she ever heard and she cringed at the sound.

Light and sound started to filter through and with great effort she opened her eyes. It was day and the sun was shining through the window. Window? It took her a minute to remember that she was in a hotel room, Bass had brought her here.

"Bass?" She asked again and once more there was no answer from the man. She raised her hands to her face and tried to rub the sleep from her eyes, it was more difficult than it usually was.

Sounds from the streets came next, her ears picking up voices and loud noises that she couldn't place. Charlie struggled with the sheets and sat up on the edge of the bed "Bass, are you in the bathroom?" No reply and she got up on shaky legs.

Nearly falling to the ground she steadied herself on the foot of the bed, what the hell had happened last night. She remembered vaguely that she'd been shopping with Bass and everything after that was still a bit blurry but she was sure they'd gotten back to the room safely.

She rinsed a glass and then drank down two with the tepid, slightly stale water from the bowl on the nightstand. "Bass?" Slightly more upset now that he wasn't answering.

Moments later she realized that she was alone in the room and a couple more moments to realize that the sounds coming from outside were screams and gunshots. Death screams, to be exact.

The battle! Her eyes opened wide and she flew over to the window, falling on her face because she wasn't up to full strength just yet. She used the sill to pull herself up and gazed outside.

The streets were in chaos! People were running around, screaming and yelling trying to get away from the violence. In the midst of the running people were smaller groups of people fighting with swords, knives and guns. What the hell was the time and why hadn't Bass woken her up. Where the hell was he?

Charlie drank some more water and tried to expel the fuzziness from her head, luckily it wasn't as bad as the other time when those pervs had drugged her. She did wonder how the hell she'd been drugged since she'd been with Bass all day long.

Maybe they'd drugged him as well and had hauled him off while she was passed out on the bed.

As soon as she felt up to it she gathered her clothing and got dressed. That's when she noticed her gun and sword were missing, her knife was still there though. Who the hell had taken her weapons from her?"

She laced up her boots good and tight and headed for the door. Aggressively she turned the knob and pulled, nothing happened. Someone had locked the door from the outside!

Charlie pushed and pulled and kicked against the heavy wooden door but the damn thing wouldn't budge. She tried prying her knife in between the lock and the jamb but it didn't work. She was locked inside this room while out there people were fighting and dying, her people!

Again she went over to the window and peered out, futily trying to open the window. Hell, even if she could get the window open, how the hell was she going to get down there.

There was no fire escape, no means to get to the ground without breaking every bone in her body.

Slowly she was starting to feel better, whatever had been in her system was quickly filtering out. Charlie decided to give the door another try and kicked against it furiously, screaming frustrated when she couldn't get the door open. She needed to get out there, she needed to find Bass.

Putting all her weight behind it she slammed her entire body against the door, it didn't budge so she did it again and again until she felt she was going to be bruised tomorrow from the force of her slamming herself against the door.

"Help!" She creamed and yelled, willing, wishing for someone to hear her. Yesterday the lady at check in had said the floors were regularly checked by staff to see if the people needed something so someone should hear her eventually.

Charlie kept screaming and kept slamming and kicking the door to no avail. She decided to try it one more time before giving it a slight rest, her muscles getting sore. After she kicked the door again, with all her strength she head a voice call out.

"God damn it, Charlie. Will you fucking stop?!" Evan? What the hell was Evan doing in their hotel?

"Evan?" She heard the man curse on the other side of the door "Evan? What are you doing her? The door is locked, get me out of here. I don't know where Bass is, he could be in serious trouble."

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the locked door, a door that remained locked even though she asked Evan for help. "Evan, open this damn door! Kick it in or something, anything. I need to get out there, I need to help Bass and Miles. People are dying down there, come on, Evan!"

Nothing came from the other side of the door and she wondered if Evan had maybe left "Evan?" Her voice softer now, not so much anger.

"Yeah?" Good, so he was still there. "Why haven't you opened the door, Evan?" She wanted to know.

"I can't." Charlie snorted "What the hell do you mean 'you can't' go find a damn employee and get this fucking door open." Again the man called out "I can't." Charlie was getting well and truly pissed again and kicked the door with force "Stop pulling this shit, Evan. Go downstairs, get the fucking manager or something and open this damn door!"

"No!" Evan's voice sounded determined. "Why the hell not?" Charlie asked again. "Because I have my orders." Orders? "Orders?" She asked "Who the hell gave you orders, what kind of orders?"

She could hear Evan sigh on the other side "I have orders not to let you out until the fighting is done." Charlie screamed out in frustration "What kind of moron gave you such order? You listen to me, you spineless little shit, open this door or you'll be sorry!"

Still the door didn't open and she sank down to the ground, she needed to get out of here. "Who gave you these orders, Evan." She dreaded the answer. "Monroe." Charlie closed her eyes at the expected but unwanted answer.

"Why the hell did he give you orders to keep me prisoner here?" There was a soft chuckle "You're not my prisoner, Charlie. You're my ward." She scoffed "What's the damn difference?"

"The difference is that when the fighting is over I unlock this door and you go free but until then... you're just gonna have to sit tight, like me."

Charlie decided to go a different route "Don't you wanna join in the fight?" She asked "Unlock this door and we can both go help the people we care about."

Evan chuckled softly "I don't have anyone I care about. Everyone I've ever cared about is dead, either by the black out, by rival clans or by these pasty assholes. All I am is a soldier now, and soldiers follow orders." She could hear he rested his shoulders against the door "Monroe says not to let you out until the fighting is done... so I'm not letting you out until the fighting is done."

Again she growled in frustration, damn those men. She wished he'd left Pete or Connor by her door, those two she could have sweet-talked into letting her go, But Evan? No, the man was loyal to a fault, loyal to Bass so there was no way she could get him to let her out before he decided it was the right time.

She looked around the room, trying to see if there was anything she could use to open the door with but aside from the bed and some furniture the room was sparsely decorated. The windows weren't an option because not only were they nailed shut, they were also five stories up with no way of getting down. This sucked.

Outside the fighting still continued but she could hear the sounds of shots becoming less and less, also the screaming was subsiding. The streets were mostly empty, the only people there were Patriots and Rebels, fighting each other. It was frustrating to be here and be able to watch it but not be able to join in and help.

Bodies littered the streets, both Patriots and people that fought on her side. It was no surprise to her, she knew there would be casualties on both sides. Patriots were good fighters and she hadn't been under the notion that they would just wipe them out like that. Seeing from the activity on the street though it seemed to be that her side was winning.

More uniforms were littering the streets than people dressed like they belonged to her group. Charlie squinted her eyes and tried to see if she could find anyone she knew but the melee was so erratic and chaotic it was hard to distinguish anything from up there.

She swore to herself that when she found Bass alive and well, and she would, she was going to kill him for locking her up in this room. She was going to kick the shit out of him for drugging her because by now it was obvious that he had. How could he do that after what had happened in that bar, how could he have chosen this way to keep her in the room.

Out of pure frustration she started opening drawers and closets and her eye caught a coat hanger. One of those cheap, old fashioned ones that were basically just a thing strip of metal. It was easy to bend and with a few snaps back and forth she had broken of a piece of about three inches long.

Charlie looked at the piece of metal in her hand and an idea began to form. She snapped off another piece of about the same length and walked over to the door. It's not like she was super good at picking locks but she had some skill. Charlie pushed one of the strips into the lock and added the other, trying to remember what Miles had taught her she moved the two strips around.

" Charlie, what are you doing?" Evan's voice sounded suspicious from the other side of the door and she tried to make her voice sound as casual as she could "Nothing." She replied.

It didn't fool him, he wasn't born yesterday and he probably knew by know that she wasn't just going to sit back like some meek woman. "Charlie, stop doing what you're doing. I'm not going to let you get by me anyway." Well, they would see about that, Charlie thought.

With a satisfying 'click' the lock opened and she quickly pushed the door open. Evan was standing in the hallway an irritated look on his face "Get back into the room, Charlie." He demanded.

Like hell she was! There was no way he would get her back into that room, she was going to go down and out and find her family, find Bass. "I'm going out there, Evan. You can't stop me." Strong hands wrapped around her shoulders and he pushed her against the door "I have my orders, Charlie. You're not going anywhere."

She sagged against the wall and pretended that she was giving up, the moment she felt his muscles relax she slammed her knee into his groin and punched him in the head. Charlie didn't wait to see if he went down or not, she just ran and quickly made her way to the lobby of the hotel.

It was filled with people hiding from the violence outside but she didn't want to hide, she wanted to go out there and join in. Charlie opened the door under protest of the people inside and slipped out into the streets, it was only then that she realized she didn't have any weapons aside from her knife.

There was a body in front of her and she stepped over it, it was a Patriot and his eyes were still open but he didn't see anything, he would never see anything ever again. It had died down out there, literally. Small groups of Patriots were being lead to the square by rebels and Charlie stopped one that looked vaguely familiar.

"Bass Monroe, where is he?" She demanded to know from the man. He looked at her like he didn't know who she was but then his eyes flashed with recognition "Square, probably." He replied "Walk with us, we're going that way too."

"Where's my other family?" She needed to know if anyone knew if they were alive or not. "There are a few collection sited across the city where we execute the Patriots that are left over." It was a harsh measure but Charlie knew it was the right thing to do, they couldn't risk the Patriots regrouping. "After that's done we leave the city in the hands of the people who used to run it and we head back out. Rendezvous is the campsite we used before."

"Do you know if..." The soldier looked at her and smiled apologetically "I'm sorry, ma'am, I don't know whether or not your family made it. Monroe is alive though, I saw him five minutes ago walking to the square, couple of cuts and bruises but nothing serious, it seemed."

Even though she despised Bass at the moment she was happy to hear that he'd survived the battle, though she wasn't sure about her letting him live just jet.

When they got to the square Charlie's eyes widened at the bodies there, both Patriots and Rebels, though mostly the former. She looked around and her eyes found that all too familiar frame of the man she'd been sharing a bed with for the past time.

A sense of relief went through her at the sight of him, he did look a little worse for wear but he was standing upright and he was talking to a man who looked pretty important, president or mayor if she had to take a guess. The the sense of relief got pushed aside by anger at what he'd done to her and with big strides she started walking towards him.

"Monroe!" She used his last name to let him know she meant business. His head shot up and she saw the happiness on his face at her arrival, that quickly turned to guilt. Good.

She advanced on him and shoved him hard in the chest "You drugged me, you son of a bitch!" Charlie didn't care that anyone could hear her and she pushed him again "What the hell were you thinking? How could you do that to me?"

Bass turned to the man he'd been talking to and said something she didn't hear through the haze of relief and anger. "You know what almost happened to me, you were there. Why the hell would you do something like that?"

"To keep you safe!" He screamed back at her "To keep you safe, okay." The look in his eyes was apologetic and he reached a hand out to her that she smacked away "I know it was an asshole move to pull, Charlie." He admitted "But the other option wasn't an option at all."

Charlie was confused "What the hell do you mean by that? What other option?" Bass took another step towards her "You fighting and risking death! Don't you understand?" He was angry as well but she didn't feel he had the right to be "Why not? You risked your death, mom, Miles, Gene... everyone risked their life for this fight, for this win. I wanted to be a part of it, not just some spectator! Why lock me up?"

"Because I don't give a shit about the others! I only care about you." He stopped screaming and grasped hr face in his hands "Because the only death that would completely break me would be Connor's... and yours, don't you understand?"

She shook her head "Then where is the room you locked Connor in, hmm. Why wasn't he there with me?"

Bass lowered his head "I tried to get him to be the one to guard you, that way taking the both of you out of the fight simultaneously but he wouldn't do it. By then he knew what I was planning for you so he avoided me so I couldn't do it to him. I got Evan to guard you because I knew he would never disobey a direct order."

She sighed in exasperation "Bass..." He just lowered his forehead to touch hers "I'm sorry I did what I did, the way I did it... but I'm not sorry you're standing across from me right now, safe and sound." His lips lowered to hers and she accepted his kiss. It was soft and gentle, like he only was with her.

Charlie softly pushed against his chest "I haven't forgiven you, not by a long shot and we will talk about this more. Right now I just wanna go back to the camp, though. Are you almost finished here?" Bass nodded and smiled at her "Just about, give me five minutes to hand this city back to the rightful owners and we'll be on our way."

Avoiding numerous dead bodies she started to make her way over to where Pete was standing. She was happy to see that the man had survived their ordeal without to much damage, at least from what she could see. Pete saw her coming and waved at her, Charlie replied and called out his name, then... everything turned to black.

Latest chapter! Like I said, whatever happens, KEEP READING, have faith :D

Hope you guys enjoyed this one! There are about three more chapters left and then the epilogue so we're almost there. After this one is done I got two other sotries in the works for you all :D

I will be updating those once a week, maybe twice if I can find the time but like you guys must have noticed… I'm a bit short on time lately. Please do feel free to ring my bell when it's taking me too long to update, RedBanker has shown that it is (in my case) very helpful because I see those mails in my inbox and my foggy brain gets a jolt that it's been too long and PRESTO… updating ;p

So, enjoy this story while it lasts and I hope I can keep you all entertained with the new ones I am working on :D

Love you all,

Marisa