A/N: The first couple of chapters take place in a time period of about a week. This is my first Private Practice fic, so please be nice! Constructive criticism is appreciated. Also I'm not a doctor, so please forgive any medical errors that might be in this. I'm also not a researcher, but I've tried my best!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. All characters belong to their owners, I've just borrowed them! Some lines are borrowed from episodes. You'll know the ones.

Chapter One - Sweet Home Alabama

Charlotte King picked up her bag and walked towards the elevator. Today had been beyond long. Cooper still wouldn't talk to her and Sheldon was slowly running out of good advice, or so Charlotte thought. Maybe it was time to call it quits. After all, there was only so much verbal abuse a woman could take, especially from the man she's in love with.

You're just a sex toy I found on the internet

Charlotte shuddered, that one sentence kept replaying itself in her head and had been for weeks now. It was the worst thing she had ever been called and she'd been called quite a lot in her time.

When Charlotte arrived back at Violets, she saw the light blinking on the answering machine. After kicking off her shoes she walked over and pressed play then proceeded to make herself a drink.

Message one:

"Charlotte, it's your mother. I've tried calling your cell but I kept getting an error message. I'm calling about Duke. He's not been too well recently so we took him to the local doctor, who gave him some pills, it's not good Charlotte. We need you here. Lacey's refusing to let any doctor near him now, so please, we need you to come home. Call me when you get this, love you baby doll."

Message two:

"Hi Charlotte, Just wanted to let you know that I'll be back in a couple of days. Few things I have left to sort out, then I'll be back. Hope you've been looking after my plants! See ya then!"

End of messages.

Charlotte rushed upstairs, grabbing the phone as she went. She pulled her suitcase out and started packing, whilst also phoning information to get an airline number. After booking the first available flight, she then phoned Addison.

"Montgomery, I need a favour"

xxx

It wasn't until after her flight took off, that Charlotte realized she never called her mother back. Her mind was all over the place, constantly wondering what could be wrong with Duke. Charlotte was also wondering if she should have told Cooper she was leaving, but then as they weren't together anymore, it wasn't really his business.

After landing in Mobile Regional Airport, Alabama, Charlotte collected her bags then joined the line at Enterprise car rental. Once she'd got the keys, found and loaded up the car, Charlotte was then driving up the interstate towards Monroeville. After being awake for nearly 18 hours Charlotte was physically and emotionally exhausted. She could not get home quick enough.

After driving for nearly 5 hours, she eventually pulled up outside her childhood home. Charlotte was ready for sleeping for a week. She pulled her luggage out of the trunk then locked up the car.

She walked up the fronts steps and pushed open the front door.

"Momma, I'm here!" Her voice echoed off the walls and caused her to shiver. She loved this house, but after Big Daddy had passed on, something changed. The house seemed colder and emptier than it used to. She walked further in and dropped her bags by the staircase. "Momma, you up there?"

She climbed the stairs and went over to her mother's room. After knocking and getting no response, Charlotte pushed the door open and peered in. The curtains were still drawn but the bed was made. When Charlotte was little, she'd played many hide and seek games in this room with Landry. The thing with being so small was that she could always slide under the bed. And every time they played Landry would wander around the house calling her name but never finding her. Charlotte always came out before he could find her so that he would never know her hiding spot. At this moment Charlotte wished she was still small enough to hide under there.

She pulled the covers back and laid on the bed. It wasn't long before she felt her eyes begin to close.

xxx

Charlotte woke with a start. Someone was watching her, she was sure of it. After sitting up and looking around, she saw Landry standing by the window.

"Hey Ladybug, didn't mean to wake ya."

"That's ok; I should get up now anyway. Where's Momma?" Charlotte asked.

"She's with Duke, Lacey and the girls down at Monroe County. I'm glad you're here Char." She could tell from the tone of Landry's voice that whatever was going on was real bad.

"Of course I'm here. So, lay it on me. Don't sugar it, gimme it straight." She stood up and faced Landry.

"You might wanna sit back down for this"

xxx

Charlotte drove into the parking lot of Monroe County Hospital and parked up. She made her way into the main entrance and smiled at the quietness of it. After living in LA for nearly 5 years, this made a nice change. She followed the directions Landry had given her and made her way to room 239.

She pushed the door open and stepped inside the room. Her mother and sister –in-law were sitting on opposite sides of the bed each holding one of Dukes hands, whilst her nieces were quietly playing in the corner.

"Hey Momma, Lacey" Charlotte greeted after closing the door behind her. "How's he doing?"

At the sound of her voice Lacey jumped up and ran over to Charlotte.

"I'm so glad you're here" Charlotte could feel her tears leaking through her shirt.

"Hey now, It's gonna be ok, I'm gonna fix this, you hear?" Once Lacey nodded against her shoulder she let go and turned towards her mother.

"Landry filled me all in on what happened. I've spoken to the doctor about him getting me Duke's file and then I'm gonna get the best damn surgeon to fly their ass here and sort this. I promise momma, I'ma do everything I can."

Caroline King looked at her daughter and smiled. It was about damn time.

xxx

Charlotte sat for hours reading her brothers file. None of it made sense. Duke was prescribed medication for anxiety. He apparently took the medication as advised and then 3 days later found him in a coma.

Charlotte pulled out the med fact sheet and read all possible side effects. She looked over his CT scans, lab results and ultrasounds. Nothing.

Charlotte knew of only one person who could help with matters of the brain. She rooted through her purse until she found her cell. After switching it on she was swamped with text messages.

I just got ur note. Hope all is well, call when u get chance, V

I found a few more of ur things; will drop them at Vi's after work.

Hi. All things at hosp are sorted. Don't worry. Addison

Vi says ur out of town, where did u go?

Oh real mature not texting back, don't know why I bother

After reading and then erasing them all, she phoned Violet and explained what was going on. Just before she hung up she asked Violet not to tell Cooper about anything that was happening. After securing a promise she then phoned Addison.

"I need you to send Amelia Sheppard to Alabama"

TBC

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