Rachel watched her daughter walk home, leaning against her husband and looking up at him adoringly.

It made her sick.

The only part of the picture that didn't make her skin crawl was Emily snoozing away. The fact that her little head was pillowed against Bass' chest was forgiven. She was just a baby, after all.

But Charlie... no. Charlie could not - and would not - be forgiven for this sin. She didn't deserve it. Rachel knew that Ben and Danny might have let it slide but since they were dead, she was free to hate whomever she liked. Which now included Charlie as well as the majority of the population.

How dare Charlie accuse her - her own mother - of being responsible for the boys' deaths? How dare she accuse her of loving Danny more? She wasn't in her head, she didn't know what she was thinking.

It was true though. Rachel knew that. Danny had been a sickly child so he needed her attention. And Charlie had been nothing but a blonde, bull headed reminder of the fact that Miles didn't love her. Well, at least not as much as he loved shooting people. That didn't mean that she didn't love Charlie, it just wasn't as strong.

Clearly, Charlie had made her choice to be with Bass, though. Now Rachel was making hers.

And her choice was Emily.

Rachel was prepared to do whatever was necessary to save her granddaughter from being raised by that... that... thing. Bass would certainly have to go. The how had been a little harder to come up with - turning him in to the Rangers hadn't exactly gone the way it was supposed to - but she was confident that this plan would work.

Hell, if she played it just right she might even be able to get Charlie back on her side. But she'd have to be careful. If Charlie suspected that she was involved... well, she'd deal with it if it came to that. Lethally, if necessary.

Rachel followed Bass, Charlie, and Emily out of town to their small house with its mismatched windows and crumbling front porch. Sitting right in front of the door was her master plan at work. Bass picked up the dusty bottle of scotch. Even from a distance, she heard him whistle appreciatively.

"Wow, I guess somebody's really happy I'm still alive."

"What's the note say?" Charlie asked. He pulled the blue ribbon from around the neck of the bottle and handed it over to her. Charlie opened the note and shrugged. "It just says 'Congratulations'." She snorted. "For what? Still being alive?"

Bass slung an arm over her shoulder and steered her towards the door. "Actually, I think they're referring to our wedding."

"Oh, well that was nice of them."

He looked down at her and grinned. "Which means we have a few things to attend to."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well we can't accept a wedding gift without being properly married."

Charlie frowned up at him. "But you said that we are-"

Bass rolled his eyes, getting impatient with her cuteness, and kissed her deeply but pulled away too soon for her liking. "We are married. Now let's go make it official."

Charlie hurried into the house after him with a smile of her own and Rachel had to resist the urge to vomit. She couldn't believe - actually, yes she could - that Bass was using a single word written on a note to get laid.

She watched from a distance through the window as the two went about preparing for bed. Emily was cleaned and changed while Bass took the quickest bath anyone had ever seen, then he was back in the kitchen with Charlie, snuggled up against her with a glass in one hand and the other in places she didn't even want to think about. Rachel watched him down a glass of scotch with a smile, then sat back to watch. She knew that having his hand in Charlie's pants was as far as he was going to get tonight anyway. Charlie drank a glass as well and Rachel watched them kiss drowsily as they moved towards the bedroom. She ran around the side of the house to their bedroom window, finding both Charlie and Bass in a messy heap on the bed, their chests rising and falling steadily as they slept.

Quietly, though it's not like either of them would have woken up even if she made noise, Rachel entered the house and picked up her sleeping granddaughter. Emily squirmed a little in her sleep but otherwise remained silent. With a smile on her face, Rachel made her way out of the house and into the woods.

XxX

Bass woke slowly, his eyes straining in the sunlight, his ears only vaguely registering the 'thump, thump, thump,' coming from outside. His arms and legs felt heavy and he was feeling a little nauseous. Charlie, laying partially on top of him, was still deep in sleep. He rubbed her back as he yawned, noticing that she was still wearing her bra under her shirt.

Which was weird.

He took a mental inventory of himself, noting that he still had his boots on and that his belt buckle was digging painfully into his stomach.

Had they gone to bed fully clothed?

Sure, he'd been tired, but he could distinctly remember fooling around with his beautiful wife in the kitchen the night before. But even as he thought about it the memory seemed to blur and fade.

Man, he really needed to lay off the drink.

Charlie lifted her head groggily and glared over at their dingy window. "What the hell is that noise?" He followed her gaze, only just then noticing that the 'thump, thump, thump' was still going on outside.

"I'll go check it out." Bass crawled out of the bed, finding his legs even more uncooperative than usual. Outside, around the side of the house, he found Miles and Gale arguing over a long piece of wood while Ralph was instructing Aaron on the proper use of a hammer.

"Uh, guys? What the hell are you doing?" Miles' head shot up and he grinned.

"What's it look like? Where helping you with the renovation."

Bass rubbed the sleep from his eyes, trying to wake up his foggy brain. "Renovation?"

Ralph went over to him and slapped him on the back. "Well, yeah. You gotta have a place to put Emily in there. Y'all can't live in one room forever."

Bass looked around at the four men; one he'd only spoken to a handful of times, Emily's godfather (who probably wouldn't actually be much help), his surrogate father (who wouldn't be much help either), and his brother. The four of them made for an interesting little crew and the thoughtfulness behind the gesture caused moisture to fill his eyes.

But before he could even thank them, Charlie came bounding out of the house all smiles and sunshine. She looked around the group of men and her smile drooped a little. "Where's Em?"

"In her crib." Bass shrugged his shoulders in a 'duh' sort of way. Charlie's face went from a frown to confused, to worried, and then to full blown fear in a heartbeat. Charlie flew back into the house with Bass hot on her heels, the others following quickly as well.

She dropped to her knees in a skid, landing in front of Emily's empty basket. Charlie's head shook from left to right as she sat for a moment and stared at the empty space where her daughter should have been. Then, as though she thought Emily might be hiding, she turned the basket upside down and they all watched as the blankets fell to the floor.

"Emily?" Charlie squeaked. It was so quiet that Bass barely heard it. Then it got much louder. "Emily!" She screeched. Charlie threw herself flat on the floor and looked under the bed.

But there was nothing there.

As Charlie ran out into the kitchen, still frantically searching for their daughter, Bass found that his brain seemed to have stopped working. Emily couldn't be gone. She couldn't. It wasn't possible.

He felt a warm hand on his shoulder and looked up to find Miles' dark brown eyes fixed on his face. "Bass..." his voice sounded far away. "BASS!"

Snapped back to reality, the sound of his wife's voice screaming for Emily pushed him into action. He grabbed his sword belt without so much as glancing at Miles and ran out through the - finally fixed - back door. Charlie was already out there looking in bushes and under rocks, Aaron was bent over the well trying to see inside, and he could hear Gale and Ralph calling for Emily out front.

Charlie pushed over a particularly large rock and after finding the space beneath it empty, slumped to the ground, crying out for her baby and sobbing in earnest. Something inside of him snapped. Fear and worry ceased to exist, replaced by white hot fury. He knelt down next to Charlie and kissed the top of her head. When she looked up at him with wide, terrified eyes, he only said one thing.

"We'll be back by sunset." And then he was gone.

XxX

Rachel watched her brilliant plan unfolding from her perch in the woods, Emily resting, snuggled in a blanket next to her. She felt little remorse for Charlie's distress. Emily would be perfectly fine and returned to her mother in due time. As soon as Bass tracked her down, she would kill him and then take Emily back home, claiming that she met up with Bass while searching for Emily as well and that he had died in his attempts to retrieve her.

It was a good plan.

And she couldn't wait to slit his pathetic, manipulative, little throat.

A/N First time I've written from Rachel's POV. I feel like I may have made her a little crazier than was really necessary, but it was so much fun! :-) Leave me a review if you have a second and let me know what you think.