Here you go you pushy people! :P I hope you liked chapter 2 has much as you seemed to like chapter 1. I haven't started chapter 3 yet but I'll get on that later. Until then Chapter 2 will have to tide you over...and here's a Santa Claus you keep you company! 0{}:o)}

Charlotte Matheson walked down the snow covered street; fat white flakes falling around her; with one hand shoved in her pocket and the other wrapped around the waist of the man that walked beside her.

She's not sure when it happened but at some point along the way, Sebastian Monroe had become her friend. Not only that, he had become her best friend. He was the one that she could always talk to, the one that she knew would always be there for her no matter what.

They had fought side by side during the wars, both with the patriots and with the nano. They had mourned the loss of their loved ones together, more than once sharing a bottle of whatever they could find, passing it back and forth between them as they sat around a fire.

Then after they had settled here, when she needed help moving the old couch in her apartment, he was the one she asked. When she was having trouble with a customer at work, a guy that just didn't want to take no for an answer, he was the one that set the guy straight and then hung out late every night for the next week to make sure he had really gotten the message. Not that she needed someone to handle a customer for her really, most everyone in town knew of her reputation and while it wasn't quite as colorful as Bass' or Miles', they all knew that she had been trained and fought along side them and could take care of herself, but it was nice to have the extra muscle around anyway.

And when she had a fight with her mother about some topic that was better left alone, he was the one that she would sit and complain to, knowing that she could say anything she wanted about Rachel and he would never judge her or try to make her feel guilty for the way she felt.

Every time she needed someone it was him, Monroe. Bass.

It wasn't until recently that she realized that something had changed and somewhere along the lines; don't ask her when because the hell if she had any idea; she had developed what could only be described as feelings for the former dictator.

She honestly has no idea when her feelings towards the man changed from friendship to something more, but she knew they had when she saw him leaving the bar one night with Sophie Jones, the woman who came in a few nights a week and sang for tips.

When she saw them leave together she had felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room. Sure she had seen him with some of the other women from around town, and yes she knew the kind of things they were doing together; she might be young but she's not stupid. But that night, seeing him leave her bar with another woman, it hit her just how much she didn't like him spending time with someone else.

But as much as she hated seeing him go off with other women, she pushed those feelings down, because he's Bass and she's Charlie and that's all they would ever be. There were too many different obstacles standing in the way for it to ever be more than that.

Now here they were, on Christmas Eve, walking down the snow covered street together.

She had over heard Aaron and Miles talking a few days before and knew that Christmas was always an especially hard time for Bass. It had been his mothers favorite holiday and as such it was always a big deal in the Monroe household. After they had died the joy of the season had dimmed for him, and it had only gotten worse after the loss of his wife and child.

Christmas in the republic was always a grand affair, but he could never quite find the joy and the charm of the season that his mother had always so readily put forth, seemingly without effort, until he just stopped trying all together.

This year was different though, they were all together and she was going to do her best to make sure that he had as good of a Christmas as possible; even if that involved convincing her mother he should join them for dinner; she was just glad that he was alone tonight instead of with one of the women around town that he had found to occupy his free time with.

She knew he probably thought she had turned into some kind of crazy person, but she wanted to be happy tonight. There had been enough heartache and bad moods to last them all a life time and she was going to do her best to lighten the mood, if only for one night. They could all go back to being broody and snarky and sarcastic with each other after Christmas.

So she had smiled and laughed and joked around and when he wrapped an arm around her shoulders instead of pulling away from her, she found that she wasn't really having to work to keep the happy smile on her face.

"I've always loved the snow." He said before tipping his head back and stuck his tongue out to catch some of the flakes on it.

Charlie laughed and pulled her hand out of her pocket to wave as a couple of the shop keepers who were closing up for the night saw them and chuckled at the pair walking down the street.

She pulled her arm from around his waist and held both hands out to her sides as she tipped her head back and stuck her tongue out as well. They both laughed as they staggered though the street as the each tried to catch the biggest flakes.

"You know, Danny and I always loved the snow too. We always tried to see who could build the biggest snowman." she said as they came back together, arms going back around the other in silent agreement, both seeking the warmth the other provided.

Bass looked down at her surprised once again; Danny was another on an unspoken list of topics they never broached. For Charlie to bring him up now made Bass feel almost nervous and he didn't want to say the wrong thing and ruin the mood, so instead he let her do the talking.

"He always won." she said and shrugged one shoulder as she smiled up at him. "I might have let him win every once in a while."

Bass smiled down at her. This was a side of Charlie that he rarely got to see and he found himself liking it more and more.

Charlie sighed when she realized that they were almost to the house her mom shared with Miles and her time alone with him was almost over.

It was moments like this when she felt almost ridiculous. She had never been the kind of girl to become moony over a boy. There had been boys in the past that she had cared about and if you asked her, she would tell you without hesitation that Jason Neville was her first love. Because she had loved him. But she knew now, as she looked at the man beside her, that that had been a childs love. She had been a child.

But she wasn't a child any longer and Bass was far from a boy and what she felt for him was real and it was grown, the kind of love that a woman feels for a man.

Only what was she supposed to do about that? What is she supposed to do about the feelings she has for the man that obviously doesn't feel the same if the women he flaunts in front of her are any indication?

She'll do what she has done for months now. She will push those feelings aside and be his friend. She will smile and be happy to be the one that can make him smile and be happy on a day that he has always reserved for sadness.

Bass tugged her closer with the arm around her shoulder, bringing her out of her thoughts as he smiled down at her once more. "Are you ready to go inside?" he asked.

Charlie nodded and pulled away, not knowing that he missed the warmth of her body pressed to his just as much as she did.

"Yeah." she said with a smile as she reached for the door. "This should be interesting." she said quietly to herself. Praying; as she led him into the house; for that Christmas miracle they had joked about before.

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