A/N These one-shots are just alternate options that I wrote for flashbacks in The Time That Follows. If you haven't read it, all you really need to know is that Miles and Rachel were married and had Charlie, after they divorced, Rachel married Ben and had Danny. And of course Bass is always hanging around. :-) Enjoy!

Disciplinary Action

Charlie is fourteen years old.

"You have got to be kidding." Charlie stared up at her father with disbelief written all over her face.

"Does this look like a joke to you, Charlie?" Miles asked, as he stood in front of her holding a blue toothbrush.

"Dad, come on, it's not even that bad-"

"Not that bad? Charlie, this is going to be on your permanent record, colleges are going to see this when you apply. Getting suspended for getting into a fight on your first day of high school, doesn't exactly make you look good." He sighed, shaking his head and held the toothbrush out to her again.

Charlie had never heard her dad sound so serious in her life. The only thing that had ever come close to this, was the lecture he had given her on gun safety when she moved in with him when she was eleven. Hoping that her signature puppy dog eyes would do the trick, she looked up at him and pouted. "Daddy, I'm sorry, I-"

"Oh, uh-uh. Don't make that face at me. You do the crime, you do the time." Miles pushed the toothbrush into her hands. "Now go. I wanna be able to see my reflection when you're done."

Charlie huffed angrily as she went into the bathroom and got down on her hands and knees in front of the toilet. She pulled the small bucket of bleach water towards her and got to work. Miles watched her for a moment, trying really hard to stick to the punishment he had set while his baby girl slaved over a dirty toilet.

'You do the crime, you do the time' he reminded himself. If he had been caught fighting the first day of school his dad would have made him lick the toilet clean. He was being lenient by Matheson standards. Miles went to the kitchen to grab a much needed beer and was shutting the refrigerator door when the front door opened and his best friend came into view. He silently handed over the beer he hadn't even had a chance to open yet and grabbed himself another one, taking a long drink.

Miles had nearly gulped down half of the beer before Bass asked, "where's Charlie, doing homework already?"

Miles merely grunted in response and gestured towards the bathroom. Bass raised an eyebrow questioningly before making the short walk to stand in the open doorway of the bathroom. "Oh... hey, Charlie... whatcha doin'?" Miles didn't need to see his daughter's face to know that she was glaring at Bass, she did however remain unusually silent.

Bass turned back to look at him with wide eyes and Miles gestured towards the sliding glass doors that led out onto the back patio. As soon as the door slid shut behind them, Bass started rambling off questions one right after the other. "What's going on? Why is Charlie cleaning the toilet? Why do you look like an angry rhino? And why the hell is she using a toothbrush?"

Miles collapsed into one of the deck chairs with a groan and downed what was left of his beer. Looking up at his friend, he replied flatly, "she got into a fight at school. They suspended her for a week."

Bass let out a low whistle and plopped down into the chair next to him. "On the first day? Jeez, even me and you weren't that bad." Miles nodded his agreement. "I take it the toothbrush was the best thing you could come up with."

Miles decided to ignore the slightly teasing tone in his friends' voice in favor of snatching the beer held loosely in his hand, and taking a sip. "Grounding her is useless, she spends most of her time at the house anyway, so... that was the next best thing."

Chuckling, Bass said, "dude, you are just like your dad."

"Shut up, dick." He punched Bass' shoulder as the sliding glass door opened and Charlie stepped out onto the deck.

"I'm done." She stood with her arms crossed over her chest and her head held high.

"You were only in there for like five minutes. I told you, I want it to shine. Get back to work."

"Dad, this stupid he started it!"

"I don't care who-"

"Whoa, wait a sec," Bass stopped them both by jumping up from his seat. "He? You got into a fight with a boy?"

Charlie scrunched up her face, as if remembering something that had only happened a few hours ago was difficult. "Not exactly."

Bass looked from Charlie to Miles, and back to Charlie. "What does that mean?"

She looked at her father and he nodded, telling that it was alright to tell the story. Charlie huffed and sat down in Bass' vacated chair, he then proceeded to usher her out of it so he could sit down and she sat on the edge of the armrest facing him.

"This guy came up to me in hallway and started talking to me right after my first class. I didn't even know who he was, I just knew that he was a junior and he was hot, so I flirted with him. Then during lunch this girl, who I've never even seen before in my life, came up to my table and was like," at this point Charlie stood up, mimicking the girl's high pitched voice, " 'you better stay away from my man you little skank or I'll rip your freakin' hair out'. And I was just sitting there looking at her because I had no idea what she was even talking about.

"So then she gets all mad, 'cause she thought I was playing dumb and was like, 'bitch, I know you hear me.' " Charlie stopped and looked at Bass very seriously. "I don't like it when people call me that, but I ignored her, like Dad told me I was supposed to." Looking pointedly at her father, she succeeded in making him look a little guilty before continuing. "I guess she didn't like it when I ignored her, so she grabbed my hair and pulled me out of my seat."

Bass looked between Charlie and Miles with shock on his face. "Seriously?"

Charlie looked like she wanted to smile, but seemed to think better of it because she knew her dad was still angry. "Yup."

Bass looked at her carefully, sending Miles a quick sideways glance. "You kicked her ass, right?"

"Bass!" Miles shouted over Charlie's laughter, glaring at his best friend before looking back at his daughter. "Go back inside Charlie, I know you're not done with that toilet yet." The smile fell from her face and she made her way slowly back into the house, muttering to herself as she went.

Once the door was closed, Miles looked at Bass, who was grinning at him. "She kicked her ass, right?"

Miles slumped back in his seat, trying to hide the smile forming on his lips before finally giving in. "Hell yeah, she did. They had to take the girl to the hospital, she needed six stitches in her cheek."

Bass let out another low whistle, "Nice, just like her old man."

Miles couldn't have hiden his proud smile even if he tried.