Secret Santa gift for mustbethursday3 from shortysc22
I loved all of the prompts mustbethursday3 gave me. Thanks for running this amazing community! Merry Christmas!
Title: Christmas Thoughts
Author: shortysc22
Prompt: Charlie + Rachel; “I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent.”
Summary: Charlie and Rachel have a little heart to heart at the holidays.
Rachel was grateful to be spending Christmas back home in Texas with the ones she loved. This was the first Christmas in years where she’d be able to enjoy her family and the holiday, despite everyone not being there. Miles and Bass had managed to find a Christmas tree and were just getting it set up in the living room while her father had gone up to the attic to hunt for all of their old Christmas ornaments. Charlie was attempting to help Miles and Bass get the tree in the house, but somehow more pine needles just ended up everywhere. Her father had already found some of the glittery garland, so Rachel was stringing that around all of the doors. As she was doing this, she started humming the chorus to “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” Bass chimed in and started singing along, with Gene and Miles following his lead. Rachel sighed, thinking that this is how every Christmas should have been. It was only missing Ben, Danny and her mother and she could almost count this as a perfect Christmas.
With the tree set up and tested to be stable by Gene, they all descended on the tree with the ornaments. Rachel paused every so often as she remembered the history with each ornament she picked up. She looked at some of them and realized she wasn’t the one who made the ornaments, but that they had been made by Charlie. She doubted Charlie remembered making them, but her eyes welled with tears as she thought of all that had been lost when they left Chicago. She had just wiped away some tears, when she heard Charlie gasp and then laugh.
“Guess we won’t need these,” she said as she pulled the tangled string of lights from the box. Rachel turned to look at Miles, hoping he was thinking the same thing.
“Your father always had such patience, it was tradition for him to untangle the lights, even at a young age,” Miles said as he took them from Charlie, moving all of the now completely useless Christmas lights out of the way.
“What Miles is leaving out is that somehow he and Bass were usually the ones that would purposely tangle the lights,” Rachel chimed in as she added a strand of silver foil garland to the tree.
Once Rachel was done with the garland, she stepped back to admire the tree. Glancing around, she noticed that it was just Charlie and Bass standing around the tree. She knew Miles had moved all of the empty ornament boxes and useless lights back upstairs, but she wasn’t sure where her father had gone. As she headed towards the kitchen she smelled something that took her back to her childhood. The smell of a steaming cup of hot chocolate would always bring her happy memories of sitting around Christmas morning with her parents. She wondered where or how her father had gotten the chocolate. What really made this special was the added treat of homemade marshmallows that Charlie had made to surprise Rachel.
After everyone had grabbed a cup, Charlie and Bass sat down on the couch in the living room, with Gene taking a seat at the piano to play some classic Christmas songs. “Jingle Bell Rock” was not one of Rachel’s favorites so she moved to sit outside on the porch swing where Miles had already gone as soon as the music started. They sat in silence for a little bit just glancing up at the stars in the sky. The next song her father started singing was “White Christmas.” Rachel turned to look at Miles.
“Did you ever think this was where we’d be?” she asked.
“From when? Did I ever think I’d be happily spending Christmas with my family? Yes. Did I picture it this way with no power? I don’t think any of us could have predicted this.”
Rachel turned back to look inside. Her father was still singing and playing along with the piano but Bass had moved to Charlie’s side and held out his hand, motioning for her to dance. She never imagined her life like this. Her relationship with Charlie was probably the one thing she wished would be better but any time she tried to approach Charlie, she was fearful that Charlie would reject her. Charlie was not the same little girl and Rachel wasn’t sure how to change that.
“Charlie said to me something the other day. I told her I wasn’t good anything. She told me survival was a talent. But what’s the point of surviving when it didn’t turn out the way you planned?” Rachel said seriously.
“I think you and Charlie need to talk. When was the last time you two talked about something that wasn’t immediately relevant?” Rachel stayed silent. “Exactly. Let me drag Charlie away from Bass and you two should talk. Really talk. But don’t kill each other.”
Miles went back in the house to send Charlie out while Rachel tried to think of what to say to Charlie. She didn’t want to overwhelm Charlie and she definitely didn’t want to start a screaming match, which is what happened the last time they tried to talk. Rachel was staring out at the open field when Charlie approached the swing.
“Miles said you want to talk,” Charlie said hesitantly.
“I do. Please sit,” Rachel motioned next to her and Charlie sat down. Rachel took a deep breath before continuing.
“Charlie, this isn’t how I planned on life turning out. You said something about survival being a talent but what’s the point on surviving when everyone around you isn’t there or hates you?”
“Mom, I don’t hate you. At least not now. I was angry for you leaving us the first time and angry when you left again. You’ve done a lot of things I don’t agree with at all but I’ve also become a completely different person in the last two years. One thing I’ve learned is to cherish the time you have with people.”
“I’m sorry for everything but I can’t go back and change the past. We can only move forward. I fought for you to have a future. With the Patriots gone, now is your chance to live it. I understand if you don’t want to stay here,” Rachel said, not really believing the words coming out of her mouth. Now that she finally had her daughter back, even if they disagreed on almost everything, she still didn’t want to lose her. She had also seen how attached Charlie had become to Bass, though she wasn’t sure of the exact nature of their relationship.
“Honestly? I don’t know what I want. Before, it was expected I’d eventually marry and have children, stay on in the small town even if that’s what I didn’t want. I couldn’t leave Dad and Danny. Then my life was wrapped up in fighting and now? I don’t know. I guess I inherited your talent for survival without meaning to.”
“Well it’s not a bad thing to have inherited,” Rachel said.
“No, it’s not,” Charlie, said finishing off her hot chocolate and moving off the swing to head back in the house.
“Wait, Charlie, one more thing. Let’s resolve to talk for five minutes every night we’re here. I want to know you. Your hopes. Your dreams.”
“Mom, I promise you now, when I figure out my hopes and dreams, you’ll be the first to know.”
Title: Jeremy's List on Princess Charlotte
Author: shortysc22
Prompt: Jeremy...but never Jeremy in a vacuum. Jeremy with Charlie - Jeremy writing long lists about what the 'Princess' of the Militia can and cannot get away with. Jeremy writing letters to the local newspaper about bb!Charlie's lost kitty Muffins...
Summary: Jeremy begins writing his list about what Princess Charlotte can and can't get away with.
Notes: This is an AU where the militia was formed much sooner.
When Charlie first came to Philadelphia, she wasn’t sure what she expected to see. She hadn’t seen Uncle Miles since before the Blackout and her parents never really mentioned him. One night they were peacefully sleeping outside of Chicago and the next thing she knew the militia was dragging her whole family off to the militia headquarters in Philly. They had only just started calling it the Monroe Republic. Her mother said it was named after Uncle Miles’s best friend Bass Monroe but other than that, her parents had kept silent on most of the journey to Philadelphia. Danny had slept and so that prompted a very bored Charlie. And that was when Jeremy Baker began writing his list.
1. Charlie Matheson is not allowed anywhere near anything that goes boom.
Jeremy had been put in charge of escorting the Mathesons to Philly. He didn’t know what was going on, other than the Mathesons were to be escorted unharmed back to Philly. There was something more going on than simply bringing Miles’s family but Jeremy hadn’t known the reasons and was not about to question it. After spending several weeks with the family, Jeremy realized he probably should have asked more questions. Danny seemed to struggle a lot with his asthma and allergies as it was high pollen and season and there wasn’t much relief as the wagons kicked up lots of dust.
Charlie spent most of the trip trying to keep Danny happy and Jeremy could see the love she had for her younger brother. But whenever they stopped, Charlie’s curiosity seemed to get the better of her and she’d go poking around the camp. The latest straw happened to be when she found the weapons store and managed to light some of them on fire. The explosions scared her, which caused a domino effect and most of the weapons had gone up in flames. Luckily they were near a base camp and would be able to restock, but ever since that unfortunate incident, Charlie was not out of Jeremy, Ben, or Rachel’s sight ever.
2. Princess Charlotte is not allowed to explore on her own.
The next addition to Jeremy’s growing list came after the Mathesons arrived in Philadelphia. Bass had already overtaken Independence Hall for running the government, and Miles thought it’d be nice to set his family up in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Jeremy had finally learned why Ben and Rachel were so important, they knew something about the Blackout and had told Miles right before it happened. The Museum was large enough for them to research and there was already plenty of furniture there. It was also far enough away that Ben and Rachel would be kept out of the day to day affairs of running the government.
When Charlie first saw where she would be living, she exclaimed that it looked like a palace. After she had said that, Bass had turned to her and told her that he would call her Princess Charlotte since she would be living in a palace fit only for a future queen. She protested when anyone but Bass called her that, but the militia picked up on the nickname and slowly she became known as Princess Charlotte.
But that didn’t take away her clumsiness. While the militia was setting up the Museum to be converted into labs for Ben and Rachel, they needed to clear out many of the paintings and reorganize and divide the rooms up. Jeremy lost track of Charlie for just a brief moment when he heard a crash. She had managed to knock down the swords that were held in the ancient weapons room. Luckily, she wasn’t hurt, but Jeremy wasn’t sure how he ended up with babysitting duty and how he could get out of it.
3. Princess Charlotte must always accompany Jeremy when he has to deliver bad news to either Miles or Bass.
Jeremy learned next that it was important for Charlie (she only answered to Princess Charlotte from Bass or people she didn’t know. She insisted that Jeremy, Miles and her parents call her Charlie.) to be with him whenever he had to tell Miles or Bass bad news. If Charlie was present, they refrained from cursing, though they would still yell at him. The first time, Charlie told her uncle that it wasn’t nice to yell and to use his inside voice. Ah the innocence of a child. Not that Jeremy could blame Bass or Miles, Charlie had slowly worked her way into his heart as well since he split his time between the militia and being the princess’s guard.
With all of the time he was spending with Charlie, he was not keeping up on his exercise regimen. He mentioned this once during dinner with Rachel and Ben, which led to Rachel suggesting he take Charlie out for basic training to help her use up some of her endless energy. Danny managed to sit quietly while Rachel and Ben worked so it wasn’t necessary for him to be watched at all times, unlike Charlie who was constantly finding ways to get into everything.
Jeremy realized that this list was going to grow long quickly, but he found himself enjoying spending time with Charlie and wondered what the future would bring for the Mathesons. Most importantly, he was curious if the Monroe Republic, which wasn’t really a republic, would continue being a military dictatorship or if would end up turning into a monarchy. The public loved Princess Charlotte and continued to call her that. He would certainly have to work with her if she was ever going to rule in this new country. Not that he wanted the power, but he wanted to make sure the power didn’t go to anyone’s head.
Title: Christmas Thoughts
Author: shortysc22
Prompt: Charlie + Rachel; “I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent.”
Summary: Charlie and Rachel have a little heart to heart at the holidays.
Rachel was grateful to be spending Christmas back home in Texas with the ones she loved. This was the first Christmas in years where she’d be able to enjoy her family and the holiday, despite everyone not being there. Miles and Bass had managed to find a Christmas tree and were just getting it set up in the living room while her father had gone up to the attic to hunt for all of their old Christmas ornaments. Charlie was attempting to help Miles and Bass get the tree in the house, but somehow more pine needles just ended up everywhere. Her father had already found some of the glittery garland, so Rachel was stringing that around all of the doors. As she was doing this, she started humming the chorus to “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” Bass chimed in and started singing along, with Gene and Miles following his lead. Rachel sighed, thinking that this is how every Christmas should have been. It was only missing Ben, Danny and her mother and she could almost count this as a perfect Christmas.
With the tree set up and tested to be stable by Gene, they all descended on the tree with the ornaments. Rachel paused every so often as she remembered the history with each ornament she picked up. She looked at some of them and realized she wasn’t the one who made the ornaments, but that they had been made by Charlie. She doubted Charlie remembered making them, but her eyes welled with tears as she thought of all that had been lost when they left Chicago. She had just wiped away some tears, when she heard Charlie gasp and then laugh.
“Guess we won’t need these,” she said as she pulled the tangled string of lights from the box. Rachel turned to look at Miles, hoping he was thinking the same thing.
“Your father always had such patience, it was tradition for him to untangle the lights, even at a young age,” Miles said as he took them from Charlie, moving all of the now completely useless Christmas lights out of the way.
“What Miles is leaving out is that somehow he and Bass were usually the ones that would purposely tangle the lights,” Rachel chimed in as she added a strand of silver foil garland to the tree.
Once Rachel was done with the garland, she stepped back to admire the tree. Glancing around, she noticed that it was just Charlie and Bass standing around the tree. She knew Miles had moved all of the empty ornament boxes and useless lights back upstairs, but she wasn’t sure where her father had gone. As she headed towards the kitchen she smelled something that took her back to her childhood. The smell of a steaming cup of hot chocolate would always bring her happy memories of sitting around Christmas morning with her parents. She wondered where or how her father had gotten the chocolate. What really made this special was the added treat of homemade marshmallows that Charlie had made to surprise Rachel.
After everyone had grabbed a cup, Charlie and Bass sat down on the couch in the living room, with Gene taking a seat at the piano to play some classic Christmas songs. “Jingle Bell Rock” was not one of Rachel’s favorites so she moved to sit outside on the porch swing where Miles had already gone as soon as the music started. They sat in silence for a little bit just glancing up at the stars in the sky. The next song her father started singing was “White Christmas.” Rachel turned to look at Miles.
“Did you ever think this was where we’d be?” she asked.
“From when? Did I ever think I’d be happily spending Christmas with my family? Yes. Did I picture it this way with no power? I don’t think any of us could have predicted this.”
Rachel turned back to look inside. Her father was still singing and playing along with the piano but Bass had moved to Charlie’s side and held out his hand, motioning for her to dance. She never imagined her life like this. Her relationship with Charlie was probably the one thing she wished would be better but any time she tried to approach Charlie, she was fearful that Charlie would reject her. Charlie was not the same little girl and Rachel wasn’t sure how to change that.
“Charlie said to me something the other day. I told her I wasn’t good anything. She told me survival was a talent. But what’s the point of surviving when it didn’t turn out the way you planned?” Rachel said seriously.
“I think you and Charlie need to talk. When was the last time you two talked about something that wasn’t immediately relevant?” Rachel stayed silent. “Exactly. Let me drag Charlie away from Bass and you two should talk. Really talk. But don’t kill each other.”
Miles went back in the house to send Charlie out while Rachel tried to think of what to say to Charlie. She didn’t want to overwhelm Charlie and she definitely didn’t want to start a screaming match, which is what happened the last time they tried to talk. Rachel was staring out at the open field when Charlie approached the swing.
“Miles said you want to talk,” Charlie said hesitantly.
“I do. Please sit,” Rachel motioned next to her and Charlie sat down. Rachel took a deep breath before continuing.
“Charlie, this isn’t how I planned on life turning out. You said something about survival being a talent but what’s the point on surviving when everyone around you isn’t there or hates you?”
“Mom, I don’t hate you. At least not now. I was angry for you leaving us the first time and angry when you left again. You’ve done a lot of things I don’t agree with at all but I’ve also become a completely different person in the last two years. One thing I’ve learned is to cherish the time you have with people.”
“I’m sorry for everything but I can’t go back and change the past. We can only move forward. I fought for you to have a future. With the Patriots gone, now is your chance to live it. I understand if you don’t want to stay here,” Rachel said, not really believing the words coming out of her mouth. Now that she finally had her daughter back, even if they disagreed on almost everything, she still didn’t want to lose her. She had also seen how attached Charlie had become to Bass, though she wasn’t sure of the exact nature of their relationship.
“Honestly? I don’t know what I want. Before, it was expected I’d eventually marry and have children, stay on in the small town even if that’s what I didn’t want. I couldn’t leave Dad and Danny. Then my life was wrapped up in fighting and now? I don’t know. I guess I inherited your talent for survival without meaning to.”
“Well it’s not a bad thing to have inherited,” Rachel said.
“No, it’s not,” Charlie, said finishing off her hot chocolate and moving off the swing to head back in the house.
“Wait, Charlie, one more thing. Let’s resolve to talk for five minutes every night we’re here. I want to know you. Your hopes. Your dreams.”
“Mom, I promise you now, when I figure out my hopes and dreams, you’ll be the first to know.”
Title: Jeremy's List on Princess Charlotte
Author: shortysc22
Prompt: Jeremy...but never Jeremy in a vacuum. Jeremy with Charlie - Jeremy writing long lists about what the 'Princess' of the Militia can and cannot get away with. Jeremy writing letters to the local newspaper about bb!Charlie's lost kitty Muffins...
Summary: Jeremy begins writing his list about what Princess Charlotte can and can't get away with.
Notes: This is an AU where the militia was formed much sooner.
When Charlie first came to Philadelphia, she wasn’t sure what she expected to see. She hadn’t seen Uncle Miles since before the Blackout and her parents never really mentioned him. One night they were peacefully sleeping outside of Chicago and the next thing she knew the militia was dragging her whole family off to the militia headquarters in Philly. They had only just started calling it the Monroe Republic. Her mother said it was named after Uncle Miles’s best friend Bass Monroe but other than that, her parents had kept silent on most of the journey to Philadelphia. Danny had slept and so that prompted a very bored Charlie. And that was when Jeremy Baker began writing his list.
1. Charlie Matheson is not allowed anywhere near anything that goes boom.
Jeremy had been put in charge of escorting the Mathesons to Philly. He didn’t know what was going on, other than the Mathesons were to be escorted unharmed back to Philly. There was something more going on than simply bringing Miles’s family but Jeremy hadn’t known the reasons and was not about to question it. After spending several weeks with the family, Jeremy realized he probably should have asked more questions. Danny seemed to struggle a lot with his asthma and allergies as it was high pollen and season and there wasn’t much relief as the wagons kicked up lots of dust.
Charlie spent most of the trip trying to keep Danny happy and Jeremy could see the love she had for her younger brother. But whenever they stopped, Charlie’s curiosity seemed to get the better of her and she’d go poking around the camp. The latest straw happened to be when she found the weapons store and managed to light some of them on fire. The explosions scared her, which caused a domino effect and most of the weapons had gone up in flames. Luckily they were near a base camp and would be able to restock, but ever since that unfortunate incident, Charlie was not out of Jeremy, Ben, or Rachel’s sight ever.
2. Princess Charlotte is not allowed to explore on her own.
The next addition to Jeremy’s growing list came after the Mathesons arrived in Philadelphia. Bass had already overtaken Independence Hall for running the government, and Miles thought it’d be nice to set his family up in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Jeremy had finally learned why Ben and Rachel were so important, they knew something about the Blackout and had told Miles right before it happened. The Museum was large enough for them to research and there was already plenty of furniture there. It was also far enough away that Ben and Rachel would be kept out of the day to day affairs of running the government.
When Charlie first saw where she would be living, she exclaimed that it looked like a palace. After she had said that, Bass had turned to her and told her that he would call her Princess Charlotte since she would be living in a palace fit only for a future queen. She protested when anyone but Bass called her that, but the militia picked up on the nickname and slowly she became known as Princess Charlotte.
But that didn’t take away her clumsiness. While the militia was setting up the Museum to be converted into labs for Ben and Rachel, they needed to clear out many of the paintings and reorganize and divide the rooms up. Jeremy lost track of Charlie for just a brief moment when he heard a crash. She had managed to knock down the swords that were held in the ancient weapons room. Luckily, she wasn’t hurt, but Jeremy wasn’t sure how he ended up with babysitting duty and how he could get out of it.
3. Princess Charlotte must always accompany Jeremy when he has to deliver bad news to either Miles or Bass.
Jeremy learned next that it was important for Charlie (she only answered to Princess Charlotte from Bass or people she didn’t know. She insisted that Jeremy, Miles and her parents call her Charlie.) to be with him whenever he had to tell Miles or Bass bad news. If Charlie was present, they refrained from cursing, though they would still yell at him. The first time, Charlie told her uncle that it wasn’t nice to yell and to use his inside voice. Ah the innocence of a child. Not that Jeremy could blame Bass or Miles, Charlie had slowly worked her way into his heart as well since he split his time between the militia and being the princess’s guard.
With all of the time he was spending with Charlie, he was not keeping up on his exercise regimen. He mentioned this once during dinner with Rachel and Ben, which led to Rachel suggesting he take Charlie out for basic training to help her use up some of her endless energy. Danny managed to sit quietly while Rachel and Ben worked so it wasn’t necessary for him to be watched at all times, unlike Charlie who was constantly finding ways to get into everything.
Jeremy realized that this list was going to grow long quickly, but he found himself enjoying spending time with Charlie and wondered what the future would bring for the Mathesons. Most importantly, he was curious if the Monroe Republic, which wasn’t really a republic, would continue being a military dictatorship or if would end up turning into a monarchy. The public loved Princess Charlotte and continued to call her that. He would certainly have to work with her if she was ever going to rule in this new country. Not that he wanted the power, but he wanted to make sure the power didn’t go to anyone’s head.