Charlie frowned as the last person she wanted to deal with walked over to her with a smirk plastered across his lips.

"What are you doing here? Back for more?" Charlie questioned with a stern glare. "Sorry. Offer's over."

She gave him an unsympathetic look before turning to face the other way. It was getting late and she was sure she knew what he was doing looking for her at night.

"Sounds like someone's bitter about not getting enough attention since we slept together," Bass taunted.

"No. I'm not," she responded as her jaw clenched and she turned back to glare over at him. "Because that would imply that it meant something, which it didn't."

Although she had been the one who had insisted that the whole thing was just casual, not to be taken seriously, she was still irritated by the fact that he had just disappeared during the night and been all but ignoring her for the last week, ever since the incident.

She knew that Monroe was anything but perfect. Perfect didn't exist, especially not in the world since the blackout. He was anything but perfect, but he was there. And that was why she had stupidly convinced herself that just maybe they could be messes together.

Charlie felt something for him, even though she knew that she shouldn't. While she had been pushing that away before, she had decided to stop after they had cleaned up the last of the Patriots. She hadn't wanted to be alone and so she had given in to her feelings, only to find that it had been a total mistake. She was alone again and now it was even more difficult to keep her defences up and act as though she didn't feel anything for him at all.

"If it meant nothing, then why are you so pissed?" Bass questioned as his smirk only grew in size.

"What are you doing here?" Charlie demanded irritably. "I sleep with you, then you ignore me for a week. Fine. I get that. We both had needs, they were met. That's that. End of story… But what I don't get is why you're here now; acting like this is all some big joke and trying to get me to confess to some imaginary feelings for you."

"Why do you think I'm here?"

A few long seconds passed in silence before Charlie began to laugh. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. You don't seriously think I'm stupid enough to fall for the feelings act. You've been avoiding me like the plague since we slept together because you have actual feelings for me, right? Well, I'm not buying it. Sorry."

"Have you ever considered that you're not the only one who didn't want it to mean anything?" He asked.

Charlie remained silent as a frown crossed her features. There was no way that she was about to admit that she had gone into things hoping that it would mean something.

Finally, she shook her head in disbelief at her own actions before deciding that, whether he was lying or not, it was still something.

"What? Aren't you going to disappear again?" Charlie questioned as she turned to look over at Bass with a small smirk. "Don't bother waiting until I fall asleep."

"No. I don't need to," he responded. "I think I'll sleep here tonight."

She let out a snort that wasn't necessarily attractive before muttering out, "What a gentlemen."

"Hey. You're the one who wants me here," Bass pointed out with a smirk.

"Shut up," she told him as she shut her eyes.

"Relax, I'm not going anywhere," he insisted as he shifted a little closer to her.

"I'm glad," she commented sarcastically.

He let out a laugh, "Don't try to pretend you don't want me to stay. Leaving last time's what got you so pissed."

"If you want to go, then go," Charlie responded. "I don't need you here. I'm fine by myself."

She knew that, whether she needed him or not, she did want him to stay. Still, she refused to tell him that. She didn't need him holding power over her and she didn't want his pity if he didn't want to be there.

He rolled onto his stomach and wrapped an arm around her as he spoke close to her ear, telling her, "I like it here."

"You just like that I'm still not wearing clothes," Charlie responded with a smirk as she turned her head to face him.

"That definitely doesn't hurt," he agreed before bringing his lips to hers.

"Right, so I have your attention for as long as I'm not wearing clothes," she commented with a laugh.

"Something like that," he agreed with a chuckle before shutting his eyes.

Charlie woke up the next morning and smiled a little to herself as she found that Bass was still there, asleep with one arm under his head as a pillow and the other draped over her.

She stayed there for a few moments before she carefully moved his arm off of her and rose to her feet to get dressed.

A little later in the morning, she heard a familiar voice ask her, "Who's disappearing in the middle of the night now?"

"More like getting up in the morning without you," she corrected. "And I didn't think you'd miss me."

"Don't get full of yourself," he insisted. "Would I rather have you there? Maybe. But miss you? Not a chance."

"You sure know how to make a girl feel special," she told him sarcastically.

"Yeah. And you know how to make a guy feel special too," he retorted.

"What? Feeling a little self-conscious?" She asked him with a wide smirk.

"Humour me," he told her as he took a few steps closer to her.

"Fine. You're not the worst person to be around," she told him.

He took a step closer to her and brought his lips to hers for a quick kiss before telling her, "And I could get used to being around you."

A/N: Please read and review! This story is dedicated to SciFiDVM as part of a secret Santa present.