Surprises are better than Promises

Charlie was half way through her Sunday shopping when she first realized that something was off. She had never really cared about what the pious townspeople of Willoughby thought of her. She was afforded a small amount of respect being the granddaughter of the towns longstanding Doctor and had been declared a war hero in her own right but this, this wasn't respect.

There was something almost malicious about what was happening here. The married women were frowning, some with more than an a hateful comment or two as she passed, the single ones torn between frowning or tittering, while a few of the old women running the stalls had given her a discount and a broad wink. And don't get her started on the men. On more than one occasion she had felt someone staring only to turn and find a group of them ogling her ass.

She decided to stop by the bar on her way home. Since it was Sunday, Bass would be closed but he was usually there cleaning up and making repairs. She was just pushing open the door when Mr. Hanson walked by, tipping his hat while giving her a overly friendly wink. She backed into the bar watching the man walk away.

"Hey Bass? Have you noticed anything strange going on?" she called over her shoulder as she pushed the door shut with her foot.

"Yeah." She heard him drawl out. "You might say that."

Charlie turned around to see Miles and her Mom sitting at the bar, each with a drink and a bottle between them as Bass braced himself against it, looking down at the floor. "Oh, hey you two!"

"Who died?" she asked pointing to the large flower arrangement sitting on the bar beside them. "I mean between the flowers and Miles looking like the time he drank the turpentine by mistake." She chuckled. "Oh, are those Roses?" she exclaimed setting her bags on the bar, moving to the flowers to smell them, not noticing Miles downing his drink and picking up the bottle to refill it.

"Actually those are for you, honey," Rachel replied pushing an envelope towards her.

"But this is addressed to both me and Bass," she commented picking the envelope up.

Opening it, she recognized Frank Blanchard's scrawl even if the stationary hadn't screamed that it was from the desk of the President of Texas. "Charlotte and Sebastian," she began reading out loud, "Cocksucker" she murmured at the use of their given names causing everyone in the room to bite back a smile. She and Frank Blanchard had butted heads the moment they had met. Probably due to the fact that Frank didn't know who she was and his hands did tend to wander when it came to the ladies. "May I be the first to officially congratulate you upon your recent nuptials and wish you a long and happy life together."

Charlie looked up from the note in confusion. "I don't get it. Is this a joke?"

As Miles opened his mouth to speak, Bass held up his finger stopping him. "Do you remember on New Year's when these two," pointing between Miles and Rachel, "decided that they needed some time alone and you and I were stuck entertaining Frank and his entourage?"

Charlie nodded "And that little old man from the Plains Nation that didn't speak a lick of English. I wish you could have seen him Mom, he was just the sweetest old man ever, even if that blessing he insisted on giving us took bloody forever,"

Rachel made some non-committal noise as she pressed a finger to her upper lip.

"Charlie, that old man was his tribes Shaman."

"That's like a priest, right?" she asked turning away from the flowers to look at them, taking a sip of the drink that Bass sat in front of her.

"Something like that," Miles ground out.

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain why…Oh, my God." she breathed out looking up at Bass, "The blessing?"

"Was actually a wedding ceremony." He replied

"Welcome to the party, Pal," Miles mumbled as Charlie downed the drink in front of her, holding it out to Bass who refilled it and watched as she downed that one as well before slamming her glass on the bar.

"Blanchard, that Bastard! He did this on purpose! He's being trying to find a way to get back to me ever since...Well that part doesn't matter. Does anyone else know about this?" she demanded.

"Basically every newspaper in the state thanks to the fact that Frank had a marriage certificate drawn up and registered at the state courthouse. According to Stay-puft we're the hottest power-couple since Brangelina." Bass answered as Rachel slid over the weekly copy of the "Willoughby Times, Aaron Pittman owner."

"What's a Brangelina?" Charlie asked in confusion as Miles dropped his head to the bar with a thunk and Rachel tried to cover her snort with a cough while patting his back.

Picking up the copy of the single page paper, Charlie's mouth fell open as she read the headline looking up at Bass for conformation of what she was reading. He nodded with a sigh.

"And this is why everyone at the market was acting the way they were?" She said in a cold voice that Bass recognized as he slid out from behind the bar moving to cut her off from the door.

You could practically see the steam rolling off of her body in waves. She looked at Miles who was still an interesting shade of purple and over at Rachel who had that innocent smirk plastered on her face that always made Charlie itch to rip it off.

Approaching her like an injured porcupine, Bass held his hands out in a non-threatening gesture. "Aaron's out of town, Charlie and you know you wouldn't kill him anyway."

"But how could he do this to me?" she whispered a rare moment of weakness filtering through.

Bass shrugged as he shook his head. "I'm so sorry, Charlie, we'll handle this however you want."

Drawing herself up straight, she slapped the newspaper against his chest gathering her bags from the bar. "Well I clearly didn't buy enough food for two, so I'll need to stop back by the market so I can be ostracized and ogled some more. I mean who else can claim they're Mrs. Scourge of Scranton." She turned on her heel sharply to look at him, "Is there?" She asked with a glare.

He returned her look dryly with a shake of his head.

"Dinner's at six. And bring the flowers."

"And you two," she said pointing at Miles and Rachel, "Mind your own goddamn business."

What most people didn't know, including Miles and Rachel was that Bass and Charlie had been seeing each other off and on for months now. "Friends with benefits" Bass had called it and it was the perfect arraignment as far as Charlie was concerned. They got along well when they were together, the sex was spectacular, and there was no commitment.

And it's not like the dating prospects were overwhelming in the bustling metropolis of Willoughby.

They never actively sought each other out, it always just seemed to happen. She might stop by the bar after a long shift at the clinic, they might run into each other at the market on a Sunday, he might walk into the clinic hauling an injured brawler with him and wait on her to finish or they might find themselves both invited to dinner with Miles and Rachel. Just normal events in the course of living in a small town that brought them together.

It had been going on so long now that they each had a change of clothes at the others home along with a spare toothbrush tucked away in empty drawer reserved just for them. No one would would ever understand her demons the way that Bass did, and she knew that he felt the same way.

She also knew that he didn't want to be the reason she held back from other men so she had dated off and on when they had first started this, but her heart just wasn't in it. She had spent the last four years in the trenches beside Miles and Bass fighting for her very life at times. She had nothing in common with "the boys" and "the men" were only interested in trying to find someone to raise their motherless children. The sex was tame and the conversation boring. The thought of throwing her up against a wall before plowing into her, a hand wrapped around her neck as they came an inch away from choking her unconscious, giving her an orgasm so that hard that she did in fact black out, would never cross their mind.

With Bass, that was not a problem. She took what he dished out and gave it back tenfold.

Destructive? Maybe.

But it was satisfying as hell.

At promptly six o'clock there was a knock at her door. Opening it she found Bass leaning against her door-frame, packed duffle bag at his feet. He had taken the best of the monstrous flower arrangement turning it into a smaller bouquet for her, tied with a length of ribbon.

"Gimmie," she said reaching for the flowers. He shook his head no holding out his hand. Narrowing her gaze she put her hand in his. Stroking her palm with his thumb, he brought her hand his mouth pressing his lips to her knuckles. Only then did he give her the flowers which left her with a sweet smile on her face as she buried her nose in the fragrant blossoms. "Come on in. Dinner's ready."

He followed her into the house, dropping his bag next to the door as he closed and locked it to the outside world.

She went to the kitchen putting the flowers in water, placing them on the bar that separated the kitchen from the dining area. As she filled their bowls with the simple venison stew she had made, Bass poured them each a glass of water. Setting some home made bread and butter on the table, their meal was ready.

Eating in silence, she finally pushed her plate away from her with a sigh, meeting his eyes. "What do you want to do?"

"Don't really see where this changes much for me, Charlie. You're the only person I've been sleeping with both literally and figuratively. If we stay married and move in together, we'd just be doing more of it."

"I haven't been sleeping with anyone else, either. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

She looked around her small home taking stock of things. "And we can live here?"

"Don't see why not." He replied grabbing her hand as he pulled her onto his lap. "So what'ya say Mrs. Monroe. Wanna shack up?"

"That depends," Charlie answered a smirk gracing her mouth.

"On what?" Bass asked a smile beginning to form on his mouth.

"On if we can...," putting her lips to his ear to finish her thought.

"Oh, we definitely can," he growled grasping her ass as he stood walking them towards her bedroom, Charlie's throaty laughter wrapping itself around them.