A/N - This hasn't been edited much so I'm sorry if it's a total mess. Like I said on the Absence of Light update, I'm heading to the hospital in a sec (they've been yelling at me to move for the past 45mins lol) , so it was update both stories or reply to my reviews and I figured you guys would prefer it this way. I promise I'll get on when I get home and get caught up.

Thanks again, so much, for the fabulous support and encouragement you all give, I can't wait to hear what you think of the new chapters.

Charlie woke up disorientated, in a dark room. Slowly, she sat up, taking in her surroundings. She was in her bedroom and there was somebody hunched over the end of her bed asleep, but she couldn't make out who the dark shape actually was.

She felt numb. Could hear in her head over and over again what her mother had said. "He raped me." Normally when a person heard the same words on repeat they tended to loose all meaning - but those words. They hit her like a slap every time they went around her mind.

Last time she had woken up in this room she had been filled with contentment, a sense of peace; the idea that she could have just a little bit of happiness for herself. Right now she only felt empty. And stupid. This was all her fault, all of it. She wiped quickly at her eyes as the bed shifted.

"Charlie?" Of course it was Miles. Who else could it have been?

"Yeah." She felt rather than saw him move up to sit beside her. His arm touched her back and she knew he was going to hug her. She didn't deserve it. So she stood up just to get away from him.

"Charlie-"

"Where is he?" She cut in.

Miles answered quietly, "Downstairs."

"All alone?"

"Connor is with him. And Aaron." She nodded, even though he couldn't see it.

"Where's my mom?"

"She's resting in her room, she's going to be alright, she's strong."

"Can I see him?" She asked, voice small.

"Charlie, that's probably not a good idea..." Miles said gently.

"This is all my fault, I caused all of it." Tears were threatening at the corners of her eyes and she wiped at them furiously. Miles stood then and grabbed her to him, holding on tighter the more she fought him, they were making quite a bit of noise but eventually she gave in and held onto him. "I'm sorry Miles, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to I just..." She trailed off and he gripped her to him. "I was so angry...felt so betrayed.. Lies... right to my face" she cried against his shoulder, "please don't hate me." Charlie had never felt younger, or more fragile than she did right now.

"Hey, hey, look at me," Miles gently tilted her chin up, making her meet his eyes, "None of this is your fault, do you hear me? None of it! You didn't do a damn thing wrong."

"How can you say that?" Charlie stared up at him, begging him with her eyes to make this all okay, but even her uncle Miles couldn't fix what she had just done.

Time had slowed down, her hand was gripping the gun and cold fury was running through her, poisoning every inch of her. "Charlie, don't." Monroe was saying to her. Connor was calling her name, but her attention was all for her mother. As their eyes met Charlie saw confirmation of what she had known in her heart since the second her mom had opened her mouth.

"Liar."

Rachel had the audacity to smirk at her and Charlie felt herself slip over the edge, finger closing around the trigger. Then her mom's expression shifted again. "Your dad and your brother are dead because of him. Whatever excuse he uses with you, his actions caused their deaths and you're in love with him. Don't you see how wrong that is?"

And there it was. Charlie was wrong. Monroe was a murderer. Rachel Matheson was the innocent victim of it all. Bile rose in her throat. This wasn't just about Monroe anymore, this was about everything. She felt someone come up beside her and immediately swung around to aim the gun at them. Connor backed away from her slowly and she turned back to her mom.

"Dad and Danny are dead because of you. Half the fucking world is dead... because of you." Rachel flinched visibly but Charlie wasn't even nearly finished. "Don't you dare act like I've betrayed them... YOU.. The woman who left her kids and husband to go screw his brother AND his best friend?" Charlie watched as her mom's eyes widened, feeling a stab of satisfaction. "Yeah he told me. Because unlike you, he doesn't lie to me."

She could see the others out of the corner of her eye, but the world consisted of just her and her mother now.

"You're right, Charlie." Her mom said quietly, "it wasn't Bass' fault your dad and brother are dead... It was yours."

"You poisonous bitch!"

As Rachel's words hit her hard, Monroe had launched himself at the smirking blonde again. Miles and Aaron dragged him backwards as he struggled to get at her.

"Charlie!" She heard uncle Miles' call out, voice strained with the effort of holding Monroe back, "she's sick, she doesn't mean it, don't listen to her."

But one look at her mom's face confirmed it. Rachel was staring balefully at her daughter. "If you had done your job properly then your dad wouldn't have been shot, Danny would never have been taken, he would never have been killed fighting your boyfriend!" There was no denying the truth of her words. Charlie felt the weight of it all of a sudden. The pain, and the death. It had all happened to her family because she had failed that day, when she was needed most.

"Connor, stop her!" Somebody, she wasn't sure who, yelled out. Her gun was trained on her mom, finger on the trigger and ready to take the shot. She had started to loosen her grip when Connor barreled into her - but it was too late - the impact caused her finger to twitch and as they both fell sideways the gun went off.

Everything went quiet. The noise had stopped everyone in their tracks.

Charlie was on the floor of the porch, Connor's arms tight around her. She saw her mother slumped to the side, saw Miles move over as if in slow motion and pull Rachel to him.

Connor sat up, pulling her with him, holding her against him tightly, "It's okay," he whispered in her ear, "you're okay."

Suddenly Monroe was kneeling in front of her. His eyes were filled with fear. For her, she realized. "I killed her."

"Charlotte..." His hands cradled her face, his lips touched her forehead and his son's chest was firm at her back. It was almost like the Monroe men were attempting to shield her from what she had done. It fit, somehow.

"She's okay." Miles' voice was shaky. "She's alive Charlie, the bullet only grazed her."

Blue eyes met hers as that sunk in. Then she passed out.

Charlie cried herself out in Miles' arms. What kind of a person was she now? Trying to kill her own mom was worse than everything the Butcher of Baltimore and the Scourge of Scranton had done combined.

"Your mom didn't mean anything she said, Charlie. She's lost it. Nothing you could have done would have saved Ben or Danny." Miles told her.

"Do you believe her? About Monroe?" Charlie lifted her head to look at him.

Miles' hesitated, it hurt her heart to see him struggle like this. "Bass is a whole list of things, most of them pretty bad - but he's not a rapist."

Charlie nodded, "He told me that he slept with her. Said it happened one night not long after you left. She came to his room, saying she wanted to talk and they ended up drinking-"

"Yeah, that's okay kid, I don't need to hear anymore." Miles cut in.

"You lasted three whole words longer than I did before I punched him. If you don't believe her, why won't you let me see him?" Did Monroe not want to see her, was that it? Had he decided she was even crazier than him and wanted nothing more to do with her?

"Bass was the one who carried you up here." Miles said, as if he'd been reading her mind. "He sat with you while Gene checked Rachel over and he wanted to stay with you, they all did actually, but I threw them out. You needed time." Charlie understood. It had been him who needed time. Miles was a mess of emotion and anger and he needed to not be around people for a while, it was how he coped. She had seen him do it before, close off and regroup.

"Uncle Miles?"

"Yeah Charlie?"

"What's going to happen now?"

"I don't know kid, I really don't know."

The door flew open and Monroe appeared with Aaron panting behind him.

"I tried," Aaron said over Monroe's shoulder, "He's way too strong and Connor fell asleep..."

Charlie wasn't listening. He was sporting a bruise below his eye - Miles' handiwork most likely. The utter relief of seeing him standing there lit up her face. He was staring hard at her, his eyes searching hers. Whatever he was looking for he must have found, because he was across the room in a heartbeat and pulling her out of Miles' arms.

"I told you to stay downstairs asshole."

"Go to hell, Miles. I stayed down there long enough." Her face had found his neck and she buried it there, breathing in his scent and immediately feeling a little bit less like a frightened child.

"I told you to stay there until morning."

"Well guess what? I don't have to do what you say, you dick." Bass glared at his brother over the top of Charlotte's head. He was holding her against him. one hand in her hair, the other wrapped around her. The look on his face made his feelings clear to Miles, he knew. This wasn't like all the other times in their lives when Miles made a request of him and he carried it out blindly without thinking. Charlie was his to take care of now and his brother was just going to have to fucking deal with it.

He still couldn't quite believe what Charlie had done tonight. The way she had stood up to her mom had been amazing to see. Rachel was a manipulative bitch, the moment he had realized what she was telling them about him he'd been convinced that it was all over. Miles would hate him - he would kill him and Charlie... the thought of her believing it had sent him into a rage. He'd been determined he was going to take the evil bitch down with him. Not for what she'd just done to him, but to her daughter. She'd been happy to let her own child believe that she'd gone to bed with a man who had forced himself on her. It was sick beyond belief. Rachel hated him so much she was prepared to destroy Charlie if it would mean the end of him as well. What kind of a mother did that? He was going to kill her.

But then his Charlotte had looked in his eyes and everything changed.

As he'd watched her pull out her weapon and aim at Rachel, the part of him that was still General Monroe felt like laughing in the lying bitch's face. But the rest of him was terrified. If Charlie killed her mother it would destroy her - no matter what the crazy bitch had done. So he'd asked her to stop. Pleaded with her. But the look on her face had chilled him to the bone. She had the same look in her eyes in that moment that he and Miles had seen staring at them in mirrors hundreds of times over the years; lost, broken, unhinged. He'd stood frozen, watching Charlie defend first him, then herself.

When Rachel had finally seen that she'd lost this one, her true colors had emerged. Miles was convinced that she'd just had a psychotic break but Bass had known this side of her for a long ass time. The blind idiot and Staypuft had saved her life when she taunted her daughter with the things she had known Charlie tormented herself with, things that weren't even true. Not that it had mattered to Rachel. If he'd gotten to her, he would've snapped her neck for it.

Connor had filled him in on what happened in between that and the gun going off. Kid was blaming himself. If he'd been faster, or smarter about it he was convinced it might not have gone down the way that it did. Bass had explained that it might have gone down worse. This way it was an accident and not a purposeful bullet between the eyes. And as sad as it was, Rachel would live. Bass hadn't liked the look in Connor's eyes at that, but he'd ignored the bad feeling it gave him. His priority was Charlie.

Staypuft brought him out of his thoughts by asking, "So what happens now? I mean, Rachel clearly isn't herself and I'm sure being around her after what she said about you both..."he trailed off. Bass liked the man. He was good to his girl and seemed determined to be civil with Bass himself. And he asked good questions too. What the hell were they going to do?

He felt Charlie pull away from him. "I want to go. I don't want to stay here, not with her."

Miles had stiffened, "She won't hurt you Charlie, not again, I'll make sure of that. You don't have to leave."

Charlie shook her head, "I'm not worried about her hurting me Miles. I'm worried that I might hurt her. "

Twenty minutes later he was finally alone with her. Miles and Aaron had reluctantly left them after extracting promises that they wouldn't disappear into the night without saying anything.

Bass sat on her bed, watching her as she stood by the window, staring out.

"You didn't believe her." He said gruffly, drawing her attention.

Charlie turned to look at him, clearly confused. "Why would I have believed her?" She was surprised that he'd even question it, he could tell from her demeanor. God he loved her. If he lived for a hundred more years and saved babies from burning buildings for every damn say of them - he'd still never deserve her.

"I know you didn't do it, Bass. So does everyone else." Charlie said softly. She moved over to him then, climbing into his lap and winding her arms around his neck.

"I'm sorry Charlie." This was all his fault. Rachel had gone wacko because of him - she had caused her daughter, and Miles all this pain because he was too damn selfish to keep his hands to himself. If he'd stayed away from Charlotte none of this would have happened. But it was too late now, he couldn't do anything to fix it.

"Don't be an idiot, Monroe." He heard her sigh. "I know what you're thinking and if you leave me now I'll hunt you down and kick your ass."

Bass couldn't help but laugh. "Charlie, I've now officially destroyed the rest of your family."

She leaned back to look him in the eye, the moron actually believed himself. Charlie slowly shook her head, "When are you going to get over yourself?" Before he could answer, she shoved her hand over his mouth. "No, you're gonna listen to me. You. Did. Not. Destroy. My. Family. My family destroyed itself. You didn't tell my mom and dad to turn the power off. You specifically told Neville to not kill my dad. You tried for years to get the truth out of my mom, the truth about why you ended up watching your second chance at a real family die horribly - because there weren't any hospitals left to look after them." Tears were streaming down both of their faces. "You have been a terrible person, but you're not the only one. Miles has been pretty damn bad himself. I just attempted to kill my own mother." He shook his head at her, but she continued, "I wanted to kill her, I was going to do it. Maybe I would have lowered the gun but even I will never know for sure if I would have done it. So if you're this evil monster, what does that make me? Cause I get it now. I get how one bad thing too many can make you jump over the edge into darkness - because it becomes a point where it's the only thing left that makes sense. So just stop. I forgive you, for your part in all of it. I love you."

His eyes widened. They were both shaking. Her hand fell away from his mouth. "Charlotte." Her name fell from his lips like he was reciting a prayer. And then he was kissing her. Deeply. It wasn't a passionate kiss, or even a soft one. It was a consuming, breathtaking show of devotion and Charlie clung to it, letting it push away everything bad, and just for a moment; everything was alright again.

A/N - Admit it girls, for those first few paragraphs you were scared, weren't ya :) xx