Epilogue

The trip to Willoughby from Gruene was thankfully uneventful. The only hint of a problem came as they were leaving Gruene. The guardsman had taken offense at Bass' tone when he demanded the return of his weapons at the city gate.

"Hey, dip shit! I'll be taking my weapons with me. Not that I would need them against your sorry ass. I could kill you with my bare hands, without breaking a sweat," Bass had shouted up to the nervous guardsman.

Charlie elbowed him in the side. How he had found out that the young man had been one of the men trying to woo Charlie with sweet notes and pretty flowers, she would never know.

"Bass, stop it," Charlie said, a slight edge to her voice. "You can't have your fun tormenting Rachel if they refuse to let us out of Gruene because you're being an ass."

She really didn't have to say anything though. The people of Gruene were ready to see Sebastian Monroe on the other side of their gates and Bass' weapons were tossed down with an unfriendly, "don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out," from the guardsman.

Bass and Charlie pulled up in front of Grandpa Gene's house as dusk was settling across the sky. Charlie handed Angie to Bass and headed toward the front door.

"Just wait here a minute," she said.

Charlie quietly entered the front door and found her family sitting in the living room. Miles was seated by her mother, a glass of whiskey in his hand - no surprise there. Grandpa Gene was reading a book, and Rachel was writing in her journal. Still with that journal, Charlie thought. Some things never change.

Charlie cleared her throat, "Um, hello."

Three heads whipped in her direction and everyone got up at once.

"Charlie!" Rachel exclaimed, coming forward for an awkward hug.

"Hey kid. I was wondering when you were going to make it back," Miles said, dropping a peck on her forehead.

Grandpa Gene just grabbed her and pulled her into a warm embrace.

"Hey, guys. I am glad to see you, but there is someone I would like for you to meet." Charlie said, her nerves clearly heard in her voice.

Miles and Rachel exchanged a worried look. Bass was not going to take this well.

Charlie led her family out onto the porch and Miles breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the man who had his back to them at the wagon.

"I know you've been gone a while kid. But, how could you forget that we all know this prick," Miles smirked.

"Very funny Miles, but I wasn't talking about Bass."

Rachel didn't miss the fact that he was no longer Monroe. Something had definitely changed.

"Sebastian," Charlie said softly, and he turned around with a sleeping Angie resting peacefully in his arms.

"Wha…" Gene began.

"What the hell, Charlie," Rachel stammered, taking a subconscious step backward.

"You have got to be shitting me! I'll kill you, you bastard," that would be Miles.

Bass just stood there, a huge smile on his face, silently taking in their shocked faces for a moment.

"Miles, you aren't killing anybody," Charlie said as she brushed past him.

"I would like for you to meet Angela Claire…," Charlie trailed off when she saw how her family was staring at her.

"Monroe." Bass supplied, with a cocky smirk on his face.

Rachel was still backing up and looking at the ground, "No. No. No. We'll never get rid of him now," she muttered to no one in particular.

"Mom?" Charlie asked quietly, silently willing Rachel to at least look at her granddaughter.

"NO!" Rachel screamed and headed back into the house.

Charlie just stood there thinking, 'well, this is going about as good as I expected'. She was jarred back to reality when she heard a loud thud, followed by an "Ouch. What the hell, Miles?" Apparently, Miles had run across the yard and taken down Bass in an open field tackle that would have made an all-pro defensive back proud.

As Miles pounded Bass into the ground, the screen door opened back up and Rachel stormed back out of the house. She walked straight up to Charlie, took Angela from her, spun, and walked right back into the house.

"Mom...?" Charlie began, but Rachel cut her off. Charlie heard, "I can't deal with you right now Charlie," as the screen door once again slammed behind her.

Charlie looked at her grandfather, only to see him shrug and mutter something about "going into the house to have a look at my great granddaughter."

"Great, leave me to break up the two idiots," Charlie said under her breath, heading over to where Miles and Bass were still rolling around on the ground like two fifth graders fighting over a girl.

Charlie picked up a thick limb that was laying in the yard and gave Miles an attention getting whack across the back.

"Dammit Charlie," he huffed as he stood up.

Charlie turned and gave Bass a smack with the limb for good measure.

"Hey, I was just defending myself," Bass said, as he too got to his feet. Both men were breathing heavily.

Bass' left eye was swollen almost shut, his lip was bleeding, and he was bent over holding his ribs and trying to catch his breath. Miles hadn't fared any better. Both of his eyes would be black tomorrow and he was holding his head back and pinching the bridge of his nose to try and stop it from bleeding.

"You better not have broken my nose again, you dick," he said to Bass.

"Again?" Charlie asked no one in particular.

Bass looked at her out of his right eye and winced as he tried to smile, "Yea, I broke it when we were in the eighth grade. Miles thought it would be funny to hide behind the door and scare me. Only, when he jumped out my reflex was to punch. Caught him square in the nose. It was hilarious."

"Yeah, real funny," Miles muttered, still trying to stop his nose from bleeding.

"If you two could stop acting like complete ass hats, that would be great," Charlie said, looking back and forth from Miles to Bass like a mother breaking up a fight between her two rowdy sons.

Bass looked over at Miles, "Do you feel better? Now that you have that out of your system, I mean."

"No, I don't. Obviously you knocked her up," Charlie hit him with the limb again, "Ouch, gimmie that," Miles said as he snatched the limb from her hand.

"Anyway, obviously you got her pregnant - 'Is that better, Charlie?' – and then let her run off because you were too stupid to figure it out. Can you not count, you moron?"

"I can count just fine. I just had better things to do than math," Bass said, giving Charlie a 'you know what I mean' look as he said it.

"Oh, hell no," Miles said as he went after Bass again.

This time Charlie stepped in between them as they lunged toward each other, trying to put an end to their childish behavior; however, Miles reached around her and managed to punch Bass right in the ear.

"Holy shit, what it wrong with you, you asshole," Bass said, grabbing his now ringing ear.

"Enough!" Charlie said, with enough force to get their attention. "Miles, I am only going to say this once. Sebastian isn't your punching bag, and the reasons I left aren't any of your business; although, I am sure that the next time you two drink yourselves into oblivion, Captain Overshare will be happy to tell you all about it, and then you can pretend like you don't remember it the next day."

"Sebastian, huh? She not only demoted you, Captain, she also turned you into a puss," Miles threw the words at Bass, just to see if he would bite. He still had some aggression he wanted to work out.

Bass shrugged his shoulders, "Sebastian is sexy when she says it, and I would rather be her Captain than the world's General any day. Hey, where's Angie?" Bass asked, finally noticing that Charlie hadn't been holding their daughter while she beat them with a stick.

"Well look who suddenly remembered he has a daughter," Charlie said sarcastically. "Mom took her into the house, and I think it's time we go check on them. Mom looked more than a little shook up."

Charlie stayed between Miles and Bass as they made their way into the house. They found Rachel and Gene kneeling down in the floor over a very naked and angry Angie. Gene had his stethoscope at Angie's chest and Rachel was in the way counting fingers and toes.

Bass and Charlie each took a quick step forward, their faces white, "Is she ok?" "Is something wrong?" they both asked at the same time.

Gene calmed them with the wave of his hand, "She's fine. Perfect even. Guys, I am a doctor and I wanted to make sure my little great granddaughter was healthy, and she's just a beautiful little girl. Aren't you my little sweetie?" Gene said the last in a soothing voice aimed at Angie, who had finally stopped crying to coo her great grandpa.

Rachel, who finally seemed satisfied that Angie was healthy, re-dressed her granddaughter and stood up, rocking her in her arms.

"Mom," Charlie began, but Rachel held up her hand to silence her and looked back and forth between Bass and Charlie.

"I knew about you two, you know. You weren't hiding anything. Well, obviously you were hiding something," Rachel said, looking down at Angie. "Why did you run away Charlie? Why did you put yourself, and your baby, in danger? You had a doctor here, and your family. I know we haven't always seen eye to eye, but to leave without a word? Monroe was frantic. Miles and I half expected him to restart the Militia if only to have an army to look for you."

"Dammit, why didn't I think of that," Bass said under his breath. Rachel gave him a look that would have set him on fire – if she had been Aaron.

"Mom, I was afraid of how you would react knowing your granddaughter is Sebastian's daughter."

"Charlie, I am only going to say this once and then we will never talk about it again. I had to hate Bass for everything that happened, because if I didn't hate him, the only person I would have had left to hate would have been me. I set this whole mess into motion the day I traded the nanotech for Danny's life. It was entirely my fault. All of it. But I was too prideful to admit it. Yes, Bass gave the orders that eventually led to Ben and Danny's death, but I gave away the power to turn off the lights in the first place. I have more blood on my hands than Miles and Bass together. I love you. I forgave Miles. I can tolerate Bass. And one day I may find peace with myself."

You could have heard a pin drop in the house.

Bass was the first one to speak, "You know she's taking all of the fun out of this, right?" Charlie glared at him and Miles slapped him in the back of the head.

Rachel wasn't about to let Bass have the last word, so she gave him one of her coldest stares and said, "I know you wanted to rub my face in this, and bask in my misery, But, I have taken so many lives I deserve to enjoy this new life. So, tough shit."

"Charlie, how old is this sweet baby? Dad and I guessed just a few weeks," and that was Rachel's cue for everyone to move on. She had said all she was going to say and that was that. Take it or leave it. She really didn't care.

Charlie looked quickly from Bass, to Miles, to her grandpa. Was that really it? No fit? No histrionics? No knives, swords, or guns? Wow, that had gone way better than she imagined.

"She was six weeks old yesterday," Charlie said, taking a step toward her mother. She hadn't really thought about it before now but maybe Angela would be the key. Maybe she was the one who would heal old wounds and smooth old scars. That was a lot to expect from a baby. But hell, she was half Matheson, half Monroe. She would probably conquer the entire planet one day.

Later that evening:

Miles and Rachel sat out on the porch long after everyone had gone to bed, sharing an old bottle of whiskey.

"So, are you ever going to tell him?" Rachel asked, taking a sip from her glass.

"What?" Miles asked, looking at her over the rim of his own drink. "You think I should tell Bass that we heard him ride up that night and staged our little argument for him to overhear so he would go get our girl and bring her home?"

"You know that's what I mean," Rachel shot back.

"Well, we couldn't just tell him outright. That would have broken Charlie's trust, and we both agreed we would never do that again. Besides, why should we tell him? We got what we wanted and a bonus in Angie. I say we let it slide. Better yet, I will make a deal with you. The day you tell me that's my granddaughter up there sleeping beside my best friend and my daughter, is the day I tell Bass that we helped him out."

"You know," Rachel gasped, as she choked on her whiskey.

Miles chuckled, "Please, unlike Bass, I can count."

Bass stood just inside the door with a look of utter shock on his face. Who knew that a trip downstairs for a glass of water would be so enlightening? Bass released a long breath that he hadn't even been aware he was holding, and for the first time since he got the call that his family had been killed in that car crash all those years ago, Sebastian Monroe was a peace. He had his best friend back and was forging a truce with Rachel. Charlotte really had chased the monster away. Bass turned around and headed back up the stairs to his family with a cocky smile on his face. He hoped Charlie was still awake, because he had every intention of spending the rest of the night thanking her.