She stayed by his bedside all night, finally falling asleep against the med bag and a box of field rations they'd taken from Camp Liberty. A loud hissing groan woke her up and she was instantly alert. Bass was sitting up on the edge of his cot gripping the edge so hard his knuckles were white.

"What are you doing?" She knelt down, looking up at him in alarm. "What's wrong?"

"First of all, I've gotta piss. Second of all, Patriots. Third of all, drugs. Find some."

She rummaged around in the med bag and found some of the pills that he'd given her when she'd been in pain and handed him some. He took all of them with the flask of moonshine from the night before. She gasped. "Are you supposed to do that?"

Bass turned to her. "Charlie, find Miles."

"Why? Did something happen? You need to lay back down."

"I need to take a piss, and I can't do that with you around."

She looked around the tent. "You're going to pee in here? I'll get a bucket or something."

"Oh my God, Charlie, I don't need a nursemaid. Can you just get Miles?"

"Someone's bitchy when they're in pain," she muttered, standing up to go get her uncle. Bass grabbed her hand before she could leave, sucking in a breath with the pain.

"Charlie, I'm sorry," he gasped out, closing his eyes.

She bent over him and gently eased him back onto the cot. "You need to lay down for a minute, or you'll pass out. I'll get Miles, I promise, but you have to take it easy. Let the meds kick in. And I'll get you water, and some food, okay?"

"You're sweet, Charlie," he slurred, trying to reach up and touch her face.

She shook her head, dodging his fingers. "And I think they just kicked in. Stay here, Bass."

"I mean it. You're the best…"

He closed his eyes and Charlie straightened. She moved a bucket over to him and an MRE and then left the tent. She bumped into Miles on the way out. "Oh good. He wants you. I gave him drugs and a bucket. Have fun."

She made her way through the camp slowly trying to figure out where her mom was bedded down and whether or not she wanted to sleep there.

"Charlie."

She scowled and stopped walking. Connor. She turned her head to him, still tied the tree, thank God. Then she started walking again.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You didn't," she called back. "And you never will. You're nothing to me."

He didn't say anything back.

XXXXX

Miles stared down at Bass with a sour look on his face. "Looks like you pulled through, buddy."

"Don't sound so happy," Bass slurred, pointing a finger up at him. "If I die, who'll be around to save your ass?"

"Charlie said you wanted me? What?"

"I need to take a piss."

"Ugh, Bass, I'm not holding your dick for you."

"I need to stand up, but I can't."

"Jesus, what did you take?" Miles bent over his friend to pull him up to a sitting position.

"Fuck," he moaned. "If Neville wasn't already dead, I'd kill him again. And it was Percocet. Just three."

"Three, jeez, Bass, why didn't you just swallow the whole bottle."

"God, you sound like Charlie."

"Well, most of the time she knows what she's talking about so thanks."

"Just help me stand so I can pee. Oh good, there's a bucket." Bass wrapped his arm around Miles' and let himself be pulled up. "Damn." His head swam and everything went white until Miles' steadied him. Finally, he was able to pee and then Miles helped him back down. "Fuck, Miles, the Patriots won't wait for me to get better before attacking again. What the hell are we going to do?"

Miles sat down on the box Charlie had previously occupied, a little heavier than usual. "Not gonna lie, Bass. We're not in good shape. But we've been in worse situations before."

"Oh yeah, when?"

Miles exhaled loudly and tried to think back. "Can't think of anything right now, but I'm sure we've had worse."

Bass closed his eyes for a second. "So we've been down an army and one of our kids has tried to kill the other one?" His eyes flew open and he suddenly started laughing. "Dude, you're right. This is just last year on repeat."

Miles shook his head, but there was a small smile on his face as he did so. "Well, Charlie's not my kid, but I guess she's the closest thing I'm ever gonna have."

Bass watched him through half-closed eyes and was silent for a moment. "I know."

Miles looked over. "Know what?"

"I know, Miles. About Charlie. It makes sense when you think about it."

Miles glared at him. "What exactly do you think you know?"

Bass closed his eyes again. The pills were really dragging him down. "I know she's your kid, not Ben's. And I know you were willing to die yesterday and not tell her the truth."

"Bass, you don't know what you're talking about, and if you even think about telling Charlie-"

"I'm not going to tell her." He waited a heartbeat. "Even though it would make her super happy."

Miles scowled. "Oh yeah? How in the hell do you think that finding out that the father she loved who's dead-by the way your fault-isn't really her dad? Instead it's me. Her dad's brother who slept with her mother and then dumped her in a futile attempt to be noble. And then spent fifteen years murdering, screwing, torturing-torturing her mother by the way-and generally just being a drunken asshole. You tell me how she's going to be happy to find out that?"

Bass was fading fast into oblivion but he managed to get out, "She loves you, man. Looks up to you. And doesn't have a dad anymore. She'll be happy." And then he passed out.

XXXXX

"I want to tell Charlie the truth."

Miles spit out his whiskey. "Why the hell would you want to do that? I thought we agreed."

Rachel slid an arm around Miles and pressed a kiss against his back. She closed her eyes and could almost imagine it was twenty years ago. Miles was forty-six now, but she didn't love him any less than she did at thirty-one. He was still the most handsome man she'd ever seen. "Miles, it's the right thing to do. If it helps, she'll hate me, not you."

He shook his head. "You weren't there yesterday. You didn't hear what she told me. Rachel, she's drowning. She's drowning, and I can't think of one single thing to do to help her."

Rachel pressed her face against his back and nodded. "I know. I can't either. I don't know how to get closer to her. It's all I want."

"Well, maybe quit slapping her across the face in front of the whole camp for starters."

She sighed. "I lost control of my temper. I can't stand that man, and I can't stand that she seems to like him. I want to go into that tent right now and smother him with a pillow. Why does she like him and not me? It's bullshit."

He shook his head. "I almost gutted him yesterday. Then I almost shot him in the head. But then Charlie… she broke down. She's doing the classic using-sex-to-feel-thing which of course, I know all about."

"Me too," Rachel murmured.

"I hate him too, Rachel. At least I think I do. But they have some sort of connection. And he keeps saving her life. Yesterday, he took a bullet for her. It missed, mostly, but it still counts. What the hell is up with that?"

"He's using her. Probably to get to you somehow. Stay in your life."

"He knows, Rachel," Miles said quietly. She tensed. "He knows about Charlie … and me. I don't know how. He passed out before I could ask him."

She stiffened and squeezed his arm anxiously. "Miles, this is not good. He cannot be the one to tell her. No, that's it. I'm done with the lies. I'm telling her tomorrow. You can be there if you want. I think you should but not if you're uncomfortable."

Miles dragged a hand down his face. "This whole conversation is making me sick."

Rachel smiled and slid around to look him in the face. She kissed his cheek. "I think I can find a way to cheer you up."

Miles perked up a little bit. "Yeah? What'd you have in mind?"

She planted kisses down his shoulder and then across his back. "Oh, just a little sex-to-make-us-feel thing."

He reached around and dragged her across his lap. She made a sound of delight in her throat before he lowered his mouth to hers and slowly started kissing her. She wrapped her arm around his neck for leverage and then maneuvered around until she was straddling him.

"Miles," she said between kisses, "do you think we can get away with having sex in the middle of the day?"

His hands were already fumbling at her jeans, sliding his hands inside and over the curve of her ass. "Yes."

She pushed him backwards until he was horizontal. She pulled his pants and underwear down and then kicked hers off as well. "We'll have to be quick." She sank down on him, inch by delicious inch, until he filled her completely as only he could. She inhaled sharply and settled for a second, appreciating how Miles' hands felt on her hips, and how he felt moving impatiently underneath and inside her.

Then she bent over and kissed him fully on the mouth. "I love you, Miles. I've loved you since the moment I met you."

He slid a hand behind her head and angled his mouth wider to access her's. He kissed her with everything he had in him. "I love you too, Rachel. I've never loved anyone else the way I love you."

Then she began to move over him, sliding up and down, and losing herself in the sensations that for them had been perfected over half their lifetime. Her breaths came in short. He moaned and arched his back, pushing himself further into her.

"Fuck, Rachel. Now," he gasped out, thrusting up into her as hard as he could. Their fingers entwined together and she angled her hips just the way she liked it so that they would come together. Miles felt her clench tightly around him as she rode him to completion. He pulled her hips down hard against his, thrusting upwards with a low moan. They both collapsed, breathing hard for a few minutes. Miles lazily traced patterns along Rachel's back as they came down from the high.

"You forgot to pull out," Rachel murmured against his chest.

Miles didn't answer right away.

She moved her head to look down at him. "Miles?"

He shrugged. "You might get pregnant. Would that be so bad?"

"I'm forty-three, Miles. Don't you think I'm a little past my prime for child-rearing?"

He gave her a look. "No. I don't. But I'm just saying, if it happened, I wouldn't mind."

She smiled and laid her head back down on his chest.

XXXXX

In the night, Charlie went back to Bass. He was asleep again so she just dragged the med bag over to recline against and took the flask out of her jacket to drink.

"I buried Neville today," she told him quietly. "I didn't tell anyone. Got one of Duncan's men to help me. You'll probably think it was stupid, but I did it for Jason."

Bass' breathing stayed even so she continued. It was nice to just talk to someone who didn't talk back.

"I would've let Neville rot, but Jason… he loved him. He did so many bad things for him. Lied to people, betrayed people, betrayed me. So. Many. Times. Why don't I hate him for it?" She shook her head and took another swig. "Miles would say I'm too soft. I need to toughen up. I'll get someone killed or myself. Like yesterday. I almost got you and Miles killed. Because of what? My mom pissed me off? It's just like what happened with Danny."

She sank quietly down into her memories and let the tears flow. Every now and then she'd drink some 'shine and get closer to falling into oblivion.

"Bass?" she whispered into the darkness. His breathing never changed. She relaxed. "I can never tell Miles or my mom this. Every day I get closer to just giving up. I'm so tired of losing people, of fighting. I don't know how to be happy anymore. Except for when…" It was too much to say aloud. She shook her head and closed her eyes, hoping to get a few hours of sleep before dawn.

Marion had come to them earlier with a couple people who were willing to help. They knew something about something and whatever the Patriots were going to do it was happening this weekend.

Four days away. And Bass still looked like death. How were they going to win?