The wind is blowing hard on a clear, cool, August evening. Summer is coming to an end – Cooper can feel it in the air. That, and Mason has begun a solemn count down of the days until he starts school again – currently nineteen.

Cooper is standing at the back door of his new house watching Charlotte and Mason sitting on the deck together deep in conversation. Mason's allergies have been acting up, which prompted Charlotte to begin explaining the immune system to him. Cooper's pretty sure that at this rate, if Mason does go to medical school, he will have already heard all the material from his momma.

"So B-cells are the ones that make your body remember when you've been sick before?" Mason clarifies.

"Yep. And T-cells are the ones that kill the bacteria or virus that's attacking your body."

Cooper shakes his head with a smile. Mason's forth grade teacher is about to have her hands full.

It's been five months now that Mason has been living with Cooper and Charlotte, and things are settling down. The three of them have gotten into the daily routines of being a family. Today, Charlotte and Cooper had woken Mason up early to make the most of their Saturday. They'd had a day at the beach, followed by Charlotte trying to teach Mason to play tennis (an attempt just successful enough that Mason and Cooper could be on one team and not lose horribly to Charlotte playing alone). Family dinners had become part of their routine. Cooper was generally in charge of cooking, though Charlotte was trying to learn to make a few things. Barring emergencies with patients, dinner with all three of them sitting down together was a must.

When Cooper and Charlotte started sleeping together – long before Charlotte would acknowledge that they might actually have been in a relationship – Cooper had developed the habit of watching Charlotte when she wasn't looking. She'd be doing something, not paying attention to Cooper, and he would just stare at her, trying to memorize everything about the woman with whom he seemed to be unable to stop himself from falling in love. Charlotte would notice eventually and yell at him, but that was small price to pay.

Cooper's gotten back into that habit recently, and he often finds himself lost in watching Charlotte and Mason together. Some days when Cooper watches the two of them brushing their teeth at the sink together or reading a bedtime story, he still marvels at how lucky he got. Cooper is pretty sure that Charlotte is the happiest he has ever seen her. For a woman who had told Cooper that she didn't like or want kids, Charlotte is obviously in her element as a mother. Right now, finishing up a bowl of ice cream and teaching Mason about the immune system, Charlotte looks completely content.

Charlotte glances at Cooper then, and he knows he's been caught. Charlotte smiles at her husband, "What are you staring at?"

"My two favorite people," Cooper tells her, walking back to the table and sitting down next to his wife on the long bench seat at the table. Charlotte chuckles and pulls Cooper against her. Cooper lays his head on his wife's shoulder, and she runs her fingers through his hair.

"Momma," Mason whines a minute later, drawing Charlotte's attention back to him.

"Aren't you impatient?"

"I'm sorry that I want to learn." Charlotte laughs softly – no way to argue with that one. She messes up Mason's hair and goes back to explaining vaccines.

Cooper closes his eyes and listens to the chirp of insects and the rhythm of Charlotte's voice.

Next thing Cooper knows, the sound of the phone ringing brings him back to consciousness. He groans as Charlotte nudges him off her shoulder so she can run inside and answer the phone.

"Hey Landry," Charlotte greets her brother.

"Charlie, you need to come down here."

"What's wrong?"

"It's Momma. She's in the hospital. It's real bad." Landry's speaking quickly and he sounds like he's been crying. Charlotte can count on one hand the number of times that she's seen her brother cry.

"What happened, Lan?"

"The doctors said it's her liver. It's bad, Charlie," Charlotte can hear in her brother's voice what he isn't saying: that their mother is dying.

"What were her liver enzymes?"

"I don't know. I'm not a doctor. They were saying she might need a transplant, but her kidneys are bad too now. You need to come."

Cooper can hear the conversation from where he's sitting. Just from listening to Charlotte's end of the conversation, Cooper knows it's bad. Cooper gets up, squeezes Mason's shoulder, and walks inside. Charlotte is leaning against the kitchen counter. She's silent and looks like she's trying to keep herself from breaking down. Cooper stands next to Charlotte and wraps his arm around her waist. Her husband's touch is enough to make Charlotte feel like she could dissolve into tears, but she takes a deep breath and swallows the lump in her throat.

"Charlie," Charlotte hears her brother say, and Charlotte realizes that she hasn't responded to him yet.

"Yeah. Sorry. Of course. I'm going to look at flights."

"Hurry, Charlie. I don't know what to do here. Momma keeps screaming at everyone. Says she wants to go home. And Duke's no help."

"I'll see if I can find a flight tonight. Call me if anything changes, ok?"

"Yeah. Bye."

"Bye." Charlotte hangs up the phone. She's staring at the phone in her hands, and Cooper watches as his wife tries to keep herself together.

"Char?" Cooper whispers, rubbing her back gently.

"It sounds like she's in acute liver failure and her kidneys are shutting down. I need to go down there."

"I'll call about flights. Should we take Mason or do you want me to call Violet? I'm sure she could watch him for a while."

Before Charlotte can mull the question over, Mason is standing in the doorway to the kitchen. "I promise I'll be good. Please, can I come with you?" He asks sounding panicked at the idea of not going with his parents. "Please. I won't get in the way at all."

Cooper isn't entirely sure what Mason's reaction is about. Charlotte walks over to Mason, puts her hand on his back, and guides him to sit with her on the sofa. Cooper follows behind and joins them. "Take a deep breath," Charlotte tells Mason, who looks like he is on the verge of tears.

"Can I come with you, Momma?"

"Of course, Mase," Charlotte tells her son, rubbing his back. She wishes that she and Cooper had gotten to have a conversation about bringing Mason, but if he's this upset, she can't leave him home. "Your dad and I are just worried that coming with us would be hard for you." Cooper's hand finds Charlotte's thigh and gives it a squeeze. Charlotte looks over at Cooper, and she offers him a sad smile. "It sounds like my momma is really sick," Charlotte tells Mason, "and I know that's a lot for you to deal with now."

"I really, really want to come with you," Mason tells his parents, apparently still not sure he's convinced them.

"Ok, sweetie," Charlotte tells Mason, running a hand through his hair. "Are you ok?" she asks, and Mason nods. "I want to try to leave for Alabama tonight, so why don't you go upstairs and pick out some clothes to take. Remember that it's still really hot down there."

"Ok." Mason says, before leaning over and giving Charlotte a hug. "I'm sorry that your momma is sick," he tells her squeezing tightly.

Charlotte feels the tears building in her eyes again. She turns her head and places a kiss against Mason's soft hair. "Thank you honey." Mason reluctantly pulls away, seeming to not want to leave his momma if she's upset. "Do you want to talk about anything?" Charlotte asks when Mason stands up, sensing his continued uneasiness.

"No. I'm ok, Momma. I'll go pack."

"Ok. I'll come up and check that you have everything in a few minutes." Charlotte waits to hear Mason's footsteps on the stairs before letting herself melt into her husband's side. Cooper wraps his arms around Charlotte. "I couldn't say no to him," Charlotte tells Cooper.

"I agree. We can't leave him like that," Cooper tells Charlotte. "What do you think that was about?"

"He's never been away from us, and I'm sure my momma being sick makes him think about Erica. This is going to be hard on him," Charlotte says shaking her head. She'd finally started feeling like Mason was getting back to being a happy, carefree kid.

"Hey," Cooper lifts Charlotte's chin so that she's looking at him. "He'll be fine." Cooper's worried about Charlotte. He's scared that she's about to throw herself into taking care of everyone around her and ignore her own needs.

As much as Charlotte wants to take comfort in her husband's arms and forget everything that's waiting for her in Alabama, she knows that she can't do that right now. She gives Cooper a long, deep kiss, trying to draw strength from him, before standing to get the phone and book three tickets to Montgomery.