Silver linings

a.n. you'll need either some pancakes to soak up the sap or a toothbrush if you want it straight up.

I read entirely too many romance novels as a child.

I just wish I actually owned some of this stuff.

Miles was in Blanchard's office as they went over the latest battle when Beau came racing into the office. "General! It's the Captain!"

Miles was right behind him as they ran back to medical together. As they got closer Miles could hear Charlie screaming for Bass. "What the fuck happened?" He shouted at Beau as he approached her room which was in complete chaos as Gene held Rachel back from Charlie who was standing in a corner, a bloody hand pressed against her side as she screamed profanities at her mother.

"What the hell is going on?" Miles boomed as he entered the room causing everyone but Charlie to flinch.

"Miles?" Charlie sobbed upon seeing him, her heart breaking as she began a slow decent down the wall. Miles caught her up in his arms and turned attempting to lay her on the bed, but she refused to let go of him when he attempted to put her down, sobbing Bass' name into his chest.

"What did you do?" He hissed at Rachel.

"She woke up asking for you and Bass. I told her that you were with Blanchard and would be back in a little bit to check on her, and when she asked about Bass again I told her that he was gone. That's what the nurses told me." She said coldly as Gene looked on sadly.

"Unbelievable." He heard Bass' voice say from just outside the door. And not simply Bass. That was General Monroe. And from the look on Rachel's face she knew it too.

Bass gathered up the men by name that he wanted to take with him on this mission. They weren't necessarily the best but it didn't matter. He was out to teach a lesson. Riding back to the place they'd been ambushed, Bass picked up a trail from the area Charlie's body had been found and tracked it for several hours before coming across the camp that the men had set up for the night.

"I want them alive. Understood?"

Each man nodded in response. They took the three soldiers by surprise quickly forcing them to their knees in front of Bass, their hands bound behind their backs.

"Who did it?" he asked the men eyeing them each up and down. "Was it you?" he asked pointing to the man in the middle. The men remained silent. "You do know who I am don't you? General Monroe of the Monroe Militia. The Terror of Toledo, the Scourge of Scranton. I can assure you they didn't give me those names just because they're catchy," he said getting in the man's face. The soldier, blink and you missed it, flicked his eyes to the left. Instead, Bass turned to the man on the right, who began violently shaking his head. "I didn't touch the woman. Wasn't anywhere near her."

"So that leaves you, my friend," Bass said looking over to his left.

"She didn't even see me coming." He said spitting on the ground at Bass' feet.

Bass nodded grimly before standing to his full height, pulling his gun out. Shooting the other two men between the eyes, he turned back to the guilty man who was staring open-mouthed at his fallen comrades. "Welcome to hell," he said putting his gun away and pulling out his knives.

By the time he had finished, the man who Charlie had fought with two nights ago was puking his guts up by a tree and the two men that he knew she had fucked at some point were looking decidedly green around the gills. "That's what happens when you hurt my family," he said wiping his knives off on the dead man's clothes, while making eye contact with his three men.

Pushing the horses to their limit, they raced back to the base, Bass going straight to medical. There was a commotion going on as soldiers and medical staff where all hovering around the entrance as screaming echoed from inside. "What's going on?" He asked his voice separating the crowd.

Wilkerson appeared by his side. "It's the Captain, sir," was all he got out before Bass was taking the stairs two at a time.

Hearing Charlie's cries nearly broke him as he raced through the halls, coming to a stop outside her room as he heard Miles asking someone "What did you do?"

It took everything he had to control his fury as he heard Rachel's explanation. She had purposely let Charlie think he was dead. "Unbelievable." He ground out. Gene opened and then immediately closed his mouth, knowing his daughter had just burnt her last bridge with these men and her own daughter. She had never been able to accept their importance in Charlie's life.

"Lt. Wilkerson!" Bass shouted even though the man was still beside him. "Please escort Mrs. Matheson and Doctor Porter to the gates. They will be leaving immediately."

"Yes sir!" Wilkerson responded holding his arm out in the direction of the hallway.

Bass stopped Gene with a hand on his arm, "Gene, feel free to visit Charlie anytime you're here as long as you're alone."

Gene nodded his head. "Thank you, Sebastian."

Bass nodded dismissing them as, still covered in blood from head to toe, he walked into Charlie's room shutting the door behind him. Looking him over as he approached, Miles crooned to his niece, "Charlie, look who's here. It's Bass."

Feeling a hand on her head, Charlie lifted her face from Miles chest and looked right into the eyes of a very alive Bass. "You're alive?" she gasped reaching out for him as Miles scooted her over to Bass' lap as he tucked her up into his arms. Keeping a hand on her bleeding wound, Miles wrapped an arm around them both, blocking the rest of the world out.

Charlie had barely gotten back on her feet when the war finally ended. As much as they all wanted to get the hell away from Texas and the Military, fighting was now a way of life for them. It was really all Charlie knew. Blanchard had agreed to extend their contracts, offering them each a position at the Teaching Academy he was putting together for new recruits.

"What's not to like? We'd be together, living in the same house, sharing the same bed. It sounds like a pretty good life to me." Charlie said one night as they were getting ready for bed.

Miles looked at Bass and shrugged. "I'm in."

"Me too, Charlie," Bass said kicking his boots off.

"There's just one other thing we need settle."

"What's that?" Miles asked eyeing her suspiciously as she climbed in the middle of the bed with something that looked like a jewelry box clutched in her hand.

She patted the bed on each side of her as she waited for them to join her. She took one of each of their hands clasping it with one hers as she pulled them into her lap. "When we move to Waco, I want to start using the name Matheson-Monroe. Would you both be ok with that?"

"What are you saying, Charlie? Bass asked softly stroking her hand with his thumb.

"I guess I'm saying that I don't care if people know that we're together. One way to do that is to add Monroe to my name." Releasing their hands she lifted the lid of the box on her lap. "And this is another." Inside the box lay three identical rings, made of copper, silver, and brass, the one in middle simply a smaller version of the others. She picked up one of the men's to bring it closer. "It's a merging of three strong, yet malleable things, with a silver lining to always remember the good things in life."

Speechless, Miles watched as she took the ring in her hand placing it on his finger "I love you, Miles."

"I love you too, Charlie."

Smiling brightly at him she pulled the other ring from its resting spot, placing it where it belong on Bass' finger. "I love you too, Bass."

Tears in his eyes, he cupped her face. 'And I love you,Charlotte. So very much." Reaching down he took Charlie's ring out of the box, looking at Miles who nodded and watched as Bass slide the ring on Charlie's finger, followed by a kiss.

Slipping down into the bed, Miles and Charlie waited on Bass to blow out the lamp on his bed side table. Turning on her side, Miles spooned up behind her and as Bass curled up against her front, Charlie fell asleep between the two of them, just as it always would be.

The End