New Kid On The Block
Charlotte hated being the new kid on the block. Everyone treated her like crap. So she hadn't been nice to the people at Oceanside before. So what! The least they could do was be polite. Addison didn't talk to her at all. Sam didn't like her, but tolerated her. Cooper was still uncomfortable with her new specialty and Violet…well Violet didn't really care.
This morning the members of the practice had all decided to gather around Violet's offspring in the break room. There was a plethora of oos and ahs, but not much work was being done. She stood by the doorway waiting impatiently for the morning meeting to begin.
As it turned out, Pete had left little Lucas in the care of Oceanside today. He had to go to the hospital and couldn't bring the baby with him.
"This is ridiculous," she mumbled under her breath.
Suddenly a round of beeping went off. Cooper, Addison and Sam all looked at their pagers.
"Shit," they all said in unison.
Addison rushed out of the room first, followed by Sam. Cooper who had been holding the Lucas last handed the baby to Charlotte.
"I have to go. Can you watch him? Thanks."
"No wait…Cooper. I can't."
And then he was gone.
She sighed and looked down at the baby in her arms. Sure it was cute, but what was she supposed to do with it? She watched his tiny face screw up and knew exactly what was going to happen.
"Oh no. No. No. No. Don't cry kid." Too late. She never understood how something so tiny could make so much noise. She tried rocking him, the bounce and walk, jiggling her keys, but nothing worked.
Violet peeked her head in when she heard the crying and knew it wasn't stopping anytime soon. Charlotte's face flooded with relief as she saw the mother of the child she was currently holding standing in the doorway.
"Here, you take him." She walked over and deposited the crying baby into Violet's arms. Lucas went silent the second he was in Violet's arms.
"Shit. How'd you do that?" she asked.
Violet shrugged and stared down at Lucas entranced.
"So I can leave him with you, right?" She asked while backing out of the room slowly. Just as she was about to make it out the door, Violet spoke.
"Charlotte, stay."
She sighed and made her way back in. Now, normally she would have just walked away, but Violet was all messed up and pathetic and the woman had just helped her attacker stay out of jailed.
Violet sat down in one of the chairs surrounding the island and Charlotte took a seat next to her.
"So…sexology?" Violet finally said.
She smirked. "Yeah."
Violet gave her a ghost of smile. "I like it."
"Thank you." She shifted a little in her seat. "So you're pretty good at that," she said while pointing at Lucas.
"I guess." Violet ran a finger over his little lips and then his chubby cheeks. "He's pretty cute, huh?"
She peered at Lucas. "Yeah, cute."
"You don't like babies?"
"Babies cry and puke on everything, but I can get over all that stuff if I'm with the right person."
"Like Cooper."
"Exactly like Cooper."
Charlotte took a closer look at Lucas. "He kinda looks like you."
"You think?" Violet studied Lucas's face. He had her eyes and her chin and even her curly hair. He did look like her. She smiled down at the baby. She finally felt some kind of connection to her child, her child who looked like her.
Charlotte nodded.
Violet hugged Lucas closer to her. "I think you'll be good here."
0oo0oo0
Cooper couldn't believe what he was seeing. Violet was in her office feeding Lucas and talking to him. She was acting like she liked Lucas, like she cared again.
"Hey, are you looking after Lucas…by yourself," he asked her.
"Yeah, he's my son," Violet replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world, like hadn't been avoiding the baby like the plague for the last month and a half. "Can you tell Pete, I'm taking Lucas home with me today?"
"Sure. How did this…? Why are you…?"
Violet put the bottle down and kissed the baby's forehead. "You can thank Charlotte."
"Charlotte? What did she do?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, but she helped."