Charlotte woke up when she heard the screaming. At first, she had thought she was just dreaming. It was like the kind of noise that your alarm clock makes and wakes you up. First, integrating itself into your dream world, then finally drags you to reality. She always was a reasonably light sleeper, especially in comparison to Cooper, who could honestly sleep through a concert in the living room. She blinked twice, and then sat up fast, making her head spin. Pulling Coops arm off her, she started to get out of bed. Mason. He was screaming. She shook Cooper as she stood up. "Cooper, get up." He rolled over and mumbled something, then stirred the screams of his child obviously loud enough to pull him from his slumber. Charlotte and Cooper ran to Mason's room, where he lay in bed, apparently still asleep, but screaming. Charlotte sat down next to the boy and pulled the blankets back. He had wet the bed, again. "Mase... Mason wake up." She said to him soothingly. He still didn't wake, but continued to thrash around in his bed whimpering and screaming. "What do we do Coop?" Charlotte asked, panicked. Her voice cracked a little as the fear escaped from her. He shook his head in confusion. "I don't know. Should I call Violet?" Charlotte bit her lip and then took Masons body and pulled him into a hug. She began to rock his thrashing body back and forth, hushing him like a baby. His body slowly relaxed, until he stilled. He was still whimpering though, digging his face deep into Charlotte's chest, searching for comfort. Cooper sat down next to her and put his arm around his wife and son. "Mason, buddy wake up." He soothed gently. Eventually, Mason's eyes opened and he looked at his two parents confused and scared.
"Hey buddy, you were just having a bad dream" Cooper told Mason kindly, rubbing his back. Charlotte smiled and stood up, still holding Mason. Coop saw her struggling under the weight of Mason and took him from her. Charlotte was petite anyway and trying to lift a boy half her size when she'd only had three hours sleep wasn't going to end well. "Let's get you all cleaned up and then we can all go back to sleep." Charlotte told him. Cooper kissed her forehead and then left the room, with her following. Whilst Cooper headed into the bathroom, she headed into their bedroom, getting back into bed. Pushing her pillows over, she got comfortable again. She felt bad for Mason. He's been having nightmares a lot recently, ever since they moved into a bigger house. Cooper and her had spent months wondering if moving was the right thing for Mason, but eventually, the lack of space and the one bathroom-with its only entrance being through their bedroom, they had given up and moved anyway. They now lived closer to Violet, something that Pete and Charlotte had argued about at first, but Cooper, Mason and Violet had convinced them. Plus, their house was kinda perfect for them. It wasn't too small. A nice, three bedroom house, all three of the bedrooms with an ensuite, and a master bathroom that now, was only used by guests. Cooper and Charlotte's bedroom had a balcony, overlooking their backyard, which was all green and grassy, apart from the centre, which held a decent sized swimming pool. On their first day moving in, Mason had been extremely hyper and pushed Cooper, fully clothed into the pool. When Charlotte had found it so hilarious, Cooper had signalled to his son to do the same to her, so he did. However, Charlotte had not been quite as thrilled with finding herself in the pool, her favourite jeans soaked through. But, given that she was the one who had allowed the kid to gorge out on candy and chocolate, she gave in and pulled her son in anyway. They had spent hours in the pool, in their clothes, just playing. And at first, things had looked up in the new house, but when it came to the nights. Well, they were working on the nights. And just because he hadn't quite made it through the night once without waking up scared since they had arrived, they both had hope that one day, he would.
Cooper came into the room, holding Mason, dressed in new PJ's. "We decided he could sleep in here tonight." Cooper told her softly, as if it was something new to them both. They both knew all too well that he ended up in their bed each night. Cooper placed Mason down and he crawled closer to Charlotte, wrapped his little arms around her, and closed his eyes, going back to sleep. Cooper slipped in next to him and pushed some hair out of Charlottes face. "What are we going to do?" He whispered at her, looking sad. She shrugged, and lay down properly, trying not to disturb the boy latched onto her.
"I honestly don't know Cooper. We could get Violet to talk to him more. But he's fine during the day. He's absolutely fine. He laughs, he makes jokes, he smiles, and he's cheeky. I just wish I could take his pain of the nights away. I don't know what's set it off again." Cooper reached over Mason and took Charlottes hand in his. "We'll get through this babe. We always do." Charlotte sighed and squeezed his hand. God, she hoped he was right. She loved Mason so much and she hated seeing him in this much pain. Plus, she wasn't all too keen on having an eight year old in her bed every night. One night a week, that, she could handle, but every night meant that morning sex was completely out of the window for Cooper and her.
She woke up the next morning, to Mason lying next to her, staring at her face. "Hey you." She said, smiling, shifting a little out of the uncomfortable pose she had fallen asleep in. Her hand was still intertwined with Coopers and Mason still had hold of her waist, despite the fact that he had been awake for just over an hour. "I'm sorry." He started out, but Charlotte took her hand from Coopers and gently placed a finger over his lips. "No." She said to him kindly. "Don't apologise. You've done nothing wrong. This is all perfectly natural." Mason still didn't look convinced, but he didn't argue with her. "When I was fifteen, I had this horse. I'd had her since I was about your age, and then she got bitten by a snake. And I had to shoot her. Because she was gunna die anyway, and the pain would of- anyway, I was fifteen and I had to shoot the only thing that I'd been close to. And when she was gone, I had nightmares, for about a whole year after. And I was fifteen, and it was a horse. So don't feel bad. You've gone through worse, and you're coping better than anyone would expect ya to."
"You shot your horse!" Mason asked, in shock. Charlotte nodded slowly. "It was the kind thing to do. When a horse gets bitten by a poisonous snake, you can't treat them like you do a human. So I had to. It almost killed me to do it though." Mason lay there, thinking this new information over when he rolled over to see if his dad was still asleep. "How can he sleep so much?" He asked Charlotte, a cheeky grin on his face. Charlotte stifled a laugh. "God, I don't know. But I'm tellin' ya, that daddy of yours could sleep through an earthquake." Mason giggled, and then hugged Charlotte tightly. "I love you Charlotte." He said simply. Charlotte smiled and stroked his hair. "Well, I love you too." She whispered back. She couldn't help but smile. This boy meant more to her than anything. Despite thinking that she'd never ever want kids, he brought her so much joy.
"Shall we go watch some TV?" She asked him, rubbing his back. He didn't even answer; he just jumped to him feet and ran towards the door, yelling something about missing the Phineas and Ferb marathon. Charlotte laughed and rolled closer to Cooper. She'd join him in a minute, right now; she wanted to steal a few moments alone with the husband she hardly got to see alone any more. She kissed his sleeping lips and rubbed her hands along his chest. Slipping a hand under his white shirt, she smiled. He was hot. Not in the looks department, although, he was hot in that way too, but his was physically hot. He always over heated when he slept and normally, he'd have kicked the blanket off by now. There were so many nights, where the only heat Charlotte needed, was to lie next to him, screw the blankets.
"Are you taking advantage of me?" He mumbled sleepily, his eyes still closed. Charlotte giggled and kissed him again, this time carefully biting his lip. Coop stirred and kissed her back, letting his hands wonder down her back. He pulled her on top of him and smiled, his lazy eyes, still closed. "Mason?" He asked in question. He didn't want to go any further if his son was simply in the bathroom. "Watching TV." She whispered back at him, straddling him, and bending down to place her lips on his. He slipped his hands down past her back and held her butt tightly. Charlotte held on to his cheeks as she kissed him. "Cooper" She said, breaking apart the kiss and sitting up. "Do you think moving was the right thing to do...I mean, moving when we did?" He moved his hands up and down her back, pushing up her shirt, so he was touching skin. "I think it was just as good as any other time." He pulled her down to his mouth again, and begun kissing her once more. Until she broke it off again. "But he's gone backwards. He was gettin' better and now..."
"I'm not gunna get laid am I?" Cooper asked, smirking. Charlotte sighed and her shoulders drooped. "I just don't know what to do." She shifted off Cooper and sat on her side of the bed. Cooper sighed and sat up. "Well I'm going to shower." He told his wife, as she sat cross-legged on the bed, frowning. He leant across the bed and kissed her quickly, lifting her head up with the kiss. "Smile and don't worry. He'll get through this. We all will." He played with her hair, and then left the room, entering their bathroom. Charlotte groaned. It was times like this that made her long for her own momma. How the hell was she supposed to do this? She wanted to make everything okay, but she knew she couldn't, and it killed her. Mason still hadn't told either of them what his dreams were about, only Violet, and as he was technically his patient, Violet had taken it upon herself to finally respect the patient-doctor confidentiality rule. She had refused to share Mason's secrets with either Charlotte, or Cooper, something that had bugged the hell out of both of them. Yet, to be fair, Violet was probably right. They really should wait until Mason was ready to tell them. That way, they'd be able to talk about it, instead of forcing him when he wasn't ready. Charlotte raised her eyebrows and blew out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding in, blowing her hair out of her face. She might as well go and watch some TV with the kid before he came up, demanding why she wasn't downstairs already. Staying in her PJs, she slipped off the bed and down the stairs.