A/N My knowledge of the military expands to what you see on tv and thats pretty much it lol. So please don't be offended if I write anything horribly wrong. :-)

April 28, 2030

Chicago, Illinois

Charlie Matheson's apartment

Steam covered the mirror in the bathroom as Charlie stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. Today is her day off, and she plans to spend it relaxing.

Unfortunately though, ringing coming from the direction of her bedroom pulled her out of the small bathroom. She picked up her cell phone and sighed when she saw Jason's name flashing on the screen.

"Hello."

"Charlie? Hey," he sounded genuinely surprised that she had answered the phone, "what are you doing tonight?"

She tried to think fast and come up with an excuse to be busy, but just as she opened her mouth to tell him she had things to do, the doorbell rang.

"Hey, someone's at the door, I'll have to call you back." Without waiting for a response, she hung up the phone and grabbed her fluffy pink robe off of the bathroom door. She headed out into the hallway and to the front door of her small apartment, the floor cold against her bare feet.

Charlie looked through the peep hole in the door and the sight that met her made her heart stop and her stomach drop. She drew a shaky breath and slowly opened the door to reveal two men, standing in front of her in Marine dress blues. They saluted her and she could feel the tears already burning in her eyes.

"Charlotte Matheson?"

She couldn't breath, this couldn't be happening. He can't be dead, he's supposed to be home in two weeks.

"Yes?"

"Ma'am, were here to inform you that..."

Everything seemed to blur. She could see them talking, but none of their words seemed to reach her ears. The tears flowed freely down her face and her body shook with the effort to breath through her cries. It felt like she wasn't breathing at all.

At some point someone must have called Rachel, because her mother was suddenly on her couch, cradling her like she was still a baby. Somewhere in the back of her mind the words kept playing over, and over again.

He can't be gone. He can't be gone. He can't be gone.

October 3, 2012

Lakeview Elementary School

Charlie is five years old

"Daddy, daddy, daddy!" A small voice, attached to a tiny body with bouncing, blonde curls comes running down the slope towards his car. Charlie jumps into his arms and he lifts her off of the ground to swing her around.

"Oh, I missed you." He places a big kiss on her little, chubby cheek and she giggles, smiling up at him.

"I missed you more daddy." As usual, even at five, Charlie insists on always being right. Just like her mother.

"No, I missed you more." And he can't help but get on her nerves. The little frown on her face is to cute to pass up.

She sighs in an exaggerated way and rolls her eyes. "Daddy, we've talked about this. I always miss you more."

He can't help but laugh, and he would tease her more, but he is interrupted by the car's passenger window rolling down.

"Now that we've cleared up that everyone has missed each other, can we please go get some food? I'm starving."

Charlie giggles at his friend in the car. "Hi, 'Bastian."

It wouldn't matter if she called him a moron and whacked him with her backpack. That little girl could make him smile any day. "Hello, Charlotte. Now can we go eat please?"

Still giggling, Charlie climbs into her father's car. He shuts the door behind his daughter and gets back into the drivers seat.

"I'm in the mood for tacos. What do you think Charlie?" Bass turns in his seat to look at the her and she smiles nice and big.

"Yay, tacos!" He turns back to the front and looks at his best friend.

"What do you think Miles?"

"Ok, we'll go eat your tacos." He glances at his best friend then back at his daughter. "What do you want to do this weekend Charlie?"

She scrunches up her tiny face in thought before shouting, "I wanna go to the zoo!"

Miles and Bass chuckle. They both hate the zoo, but Miles only gets to see Charlie on the weekends so if she wants to go to the zoo, then they'll suffer through it.

Present

Charlie pulls back from her mother's arms and sits back on the couch. Looking around the room she realizes that Uncle Ben and Danny have arrived as well, though she doesn't remember when. She vaguely notices that she is still wearing nothing but her bathrobe and excuses herself to change.

She walks through the apartment in a daze and when she reaches her bedroom, she has already forgotten why she was going there. Ignoring the fact that the rest of her family is in the living room, she crawls into her bed and curls up into a ball under her blankets.

He's gone.

Miles Matheson is dead.

A/N I have this entire story outlined already its about eight chapters and the rest of them will all be longer than this little intro. I love the idea of little Charlie and Bass hanging out, I couldn't get this idea out of my head.