They'd been tracking Connor for much longer than any of them had intended. Bass had been getting increasingly short-fused and his anger was almost always directed at Charlie, since she was 'supposed to be the damn tracker'. The more he complained, the angrier Charlie got and the less inclined she was to continue helping him. Especially when he acted as if it was all her fault that the trail they'd been following for weeks disappeared often and left them with little to no clues until they managed to find someone who had seen Connor and discover a new trail, rather than his own fault for being the one who had driven his son away in the first place.

Tensions had risen so high between the pair that, when they lost the trail for what felt like the hundredth time within a couple of weeks, they opted to go off in separate directions to look for any hints of where Connor might have gone. Bass was still fuming and cursing under his breath, so Miles gave Charlie a quick look that warned her not to do anything stupid or get herself lost before heading off with Bass to make sure that he hopefully wouldn't do anything too moronic himself.

The pair moved in silence, spotting nothing even remotely helpful, as they walked past what seemed to be an infinite number of practically identical trees before they finally came to a stop. They were debating turning back to meet Charlie when they heard the sound of water splashing coming from not too far away.

The two men exchanged a glance and each moved to grip their weapons as they followed the source of the noise.

"It's just a squirrel," Bass mumbled irritably as he spotted the creature that was walking along the edge of the body of water.

The squirrel turned at the sound of the voice and stared between the two men with nervous, beady eyes before skittering away, off down the beach.

As they watched it go, the pair realized that they recognized the beach further down. It still looked almost exactly the same as it had last time they'd been there.

"Tower doors are probably still blown open," Miles commented as he watched Bass staring after the disappearing squirrel like he thought it somehow possessed the answers to where his missing son had gone. "Big abandoned building seems like it might be your kid's speed."

Miles figured Connor was definitely the type that would consider the Tower to be a castle free for the taking if he happened to stumble upon it. And according to Charlie's best guess, he'd been in the area, so it seemed like as reasonable of a bet as any.

Meanwhile, within the Tower walls, Connor had gotten himself into the middle of a very heated fight between his co-habitants.

"Hey, Asshole, leave him alone," he complained as he threw a piece of food at an especially big squirrel. "No killing the little squirrels. There's enough food to go around without stealing his."

The big squirrel turned it's focused from what appeared to be the runt of the squirrel species in order to bare it's teeth and glare at Connor in a way that assured him that the moment would not be forgotten.

At first, the squirrels that had infested Connor's latest home had bothered him, but he was the one invading their home so he'd let them stay. Somewhere along the way, he'd developed a sort of understanding with them and now he found himself enjoying the company. He had bonded with the squirrels and developed a sort of family with them, as strange as it seemed. They had taken him in and were loyal, for the most part. He'd even managed to train most of them pretty well and had grown to be able to tell them apart. He'd even started to name them and was convinced that most of them had learned their new names and recognized them.

Asshole was the exception though. He didn't listen to Connor and had never been welcoming. He didn't get along with the man or the other squirrels and Connor had learned not to get too close to him, since he had a strong history of biting and scratching when he got upset. Which was always.

When Asshole finished off his own food and decided that it still wasn't enough, he targeted the little one once again, clearly not looking for a fair fight.

Connor sighed as Asshole swatted the piece of food out of the other animal's hand before calling over to the shaking little squirrel, "Come here, Tiny."

The puny creature made a beeline around the content looking bigger one and over to Connor. It stopped next to him and sniffed the air hesitantly.

Connor stretched his hand out closer, letting Tiny investigate the food. The squirrel continued to stare at the piece of food nervously, as though it thought it might be a trap, for a few seconds longer before it decided that its hunger trumped its fear and took a step forward.

"It's like a freaking zoo just for squirrels in here," Bass muttered as he walked further into the Tower and shoved a squirrel away with his foot, causing it to make an annoyed squeaking sound at him before running off further into the building. A couple other squirrels chose to follow that one's lead, while a few others just eyed the pair nervously.

Miles was just about to agree with him, when he thought he heard a faint voice.

"Well, someone's here," he commented. "...Unless the squirrels have evolved and taught themselves how to talk, in which case we're probably all fucked."

Bass was clearly not in the mood for his friend's joke as he followed the voice down the hallway, without acknowledging that Miles had even spoken. When he turned the corner, Bass stopped so abruptly that Miles practically ran into his back. Miles grumbled something under his breath and pushed his way into the room before pausing and staring with his friend in a totally silent shock.

Connor had looked up at the sound of footsteps, but still remained crouched on the ground, virtually surrounded by squirrels at various stages of eating as Tiny nibbled timidly at the food in his hand.

The silence dragged out for what felt like an eternity until finally Miles decided that he had to break it, whether he had any idea of what to say in that moment or not. As he turned his head to look at Bass, with a smug smirk on his lips as if he had just received the Christmas present of all joke material, Bass just glared over at him.

"Not a word." He warned.

Miles' grin only widened. He didn't need to make a joke. He just needed Bass to acknowledge just how joke-worthy the moment was and he'd already accomplished that. So, instead, he just shrugged and commented, "Well, we found him."

A/N: Please read and review!