A/N: I do not own nor I am affiliated with Private Practice or the characters from the show. Shonda Rhimes owns everything. In future chapters, this will be Charlotte/Cooper. Read and review!
"What's the matter, Vi?"
It was the look on her face that gave her away. She was ready to break down in tears, and she wasn't telling him what was wrong. Taking a step closer, he reached out to stroke her arm, but she stepped away from his touch.
"He's gone, Coop. He just . . . packed his things and left." Now the tears started, and Violet's voice cracked, "That sonovabitch left me alone with our son.. He didn't even say a word."
Pete left? Is that what Violet was saying? Pete had just . . . left? Ignoring her resistance, Cooper closed the distance between him and his friend, capturing her in a tight hug. How dare someone do this to her? How dare Pete leave his family?
"I - I can't do this without him," Violet's plea came from his shoulder, muffled by his shirt and divided by sobs.
Stroking her hair, Cooper attempted to comfort the woman, "Shh . . . sh-sh-sh. He'll be back, Vi. He made an irrational decision, and when he realizes that, he'll come crawling back. Shh . . . Do you hear me?"
A nearly imperceptible nod could be felt against his body. She could hear him, though, and he knew it even without her confirmation. The fact that he was sounding like a shrink didn't pass by him unnoticed. He sounded like Violet did when she was comforting him.
She clung to her best friend like he was her last breath. The shock that she felt was unbelievable. Things between her and Pete hadn't been so extravagant as of late, but she had never expected this. He was a good father. He was a responsible man. He loved her. He loved her. Right? At that moment, she didn't know. Violet wasn't sure of anything. The only thing she knew was that there were divorce papers on her kitchen counter, and Pete was gone.
Her life was falling apart.
Cooper was her only constant. There was one person she could rely on and look to, and it was him. And soon enough she would lose him to Charlotte for good. They would be married and Cooper would no longer be Cooper. He would be married Cooper. Family Cooper. Charlotte's Cooper.
She wasn't thinking straight. She didn't know what she was doing. All she knew was Cooper's warm breath on her neck, his hand on her head. He was what kept her going, and they both knew it. He was the reason that she hadn't jumped off a building by now.
Removing her face from his chest, Violet placed a gentle, testing kiss on his lips. She knew that this was the stupidest, most irrational thing that she had ever done and would ever do, but she couldn't help herself. Without waiting to see his reaction, she closed her eyes and pressed her mouth full against his. Either he would kiss her back, or he wouldn't. Violet was screwed with both options.
Cooper's hands immediately flew out as if in surrender. He would not touch his best friend. He would not touch his best friend. He would not touch his best friend. But he was already doing worse than touching her. He was kissing her. Why was he kissing her? Obviously, because she had kissed him. But no! Why was he kissing her back? It was his sex-crazed ex-self making an unexpected reappearance, and ruining everything.
The kiss had lasted a good eight seconds, and Cooper couldn't control himself any longer. Allowing his hands to settle on Violet's waist, he pulled her body closer to his. All of his senses were alert. Her hands on the back of his neck; in his hair. The scent of her conditioner. The taste of her tongue . . .
No.
No.
No.
Cooper's hands reached up and grabbed hold of Violet's, pulling them down and away from him. He took three steps backward, until his back collided with the wall behind him. "What the hell are we doing, Vi? What the fuck was that?"
Violet's gorgeous eyes were wide with surprise, as if she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. That had been the best kiss of her entire life. Kissing Cooper should have felt foreign and wrong, like kissing her brother. Instead it had been like kissing Bill Clinton. Good ol' Bill.
The only problem was . . . Cooper was frantic. As if on cue, both Violet and he looked up to see Charlotte standing just outside Violet's office, peering through the blinds directly at the two culprits. The look on her face was clearly one of anger, but Cooper saw something else. In her eyes, there was hurt.
"Shit!" He moved for the door, wanting to make things alright with Charlotte before they got worse. She had already turned her back and was on her way down the hall.
Violet tossed out after him, "I'm sorry, Coop!" He heard her but was too preoccupied to care.
Charlotte was going to hate him.
Charlotte was going to kill him.
And worst of all, Charlotte was going to leave him.
Cooper watched as Char ducked into the kitchen. She'd probably chosen it because it was the closest room that wasn't preoccupied. He caught up to her seconds. She was standing in her solitude with her back the the doorway. "Charlotte, you don't understand. It was nothing. It was stupi-"
She kept her back to him, "I don't give a damn if it was nothing. I don't give a damn if it was once. I don't fucking care, Cooper! You just threw away our entire relationship for fourteen seconds."
"Don't do this, Char . . ." he knew what was coming, "Don't -" He didn't know. Reaching for her shoulder, he yearned for her touch. He could tell that she was crying by the way that her body shook, but her voice did not betray her.
Suddenly, she spun around, her palm meeting with the side of his face in a flurry of blond hair and anger. It stung. "I hope they were a helluva good fourteen seconds, because that dirty tramp will never be as good as me." It looked like she was going to hold her hands together, but the next thing Cooper knew, Charlotte's engagement ring was flying into his chest and had landed on the tiled flooring. She left the kitchen with tears streaming down her face.
A/N: Reviews would make me very happy! I will update soon, if enough people would like for me to continue. This WILL be Charlotte/Cooper.