That night, Don invited Megan over for dinner, claiming that he wanted her to talk to Charlie.
Megan thought Don just wanted to make sure that she was all right. However, she didn't feel like arguing, so she went.
When she saw how shell-shocked Charlie was, she decided that she owed Don an apology.
Poor Charlie was unable to keep still for more than a few minutes. He'd sit down, but he wouldn't relax. Then he'd hop to his feet and go to the kitchen for refreshments for his guests. However, he didn't eat anything himself.
Megan, who was sitting on the couch next to Larry, couldn't blame Charlie. She felt restless, too. She wasn't feeling depressed, exactly, but she wasn't going to protest the mandatory time off, the psych evaluation or even Larry's newly acquired quirk of taking her hand in his and patting it like it was a nervous cat.
Larry had obviously processed the fact that Megan had been attacked more thoroughly than Megan had. The whole episode still had a surreal feeling to her.
"I don't understand," Charlie said for the third or fourth time. He came from the kitchen with a beer bottle and offered it to David. "She dumped me. Why was she stalking me? Why attack Megan?" He plopped into his favorite chair.
David accepted the bottle and set it next to his unfinished bottle.
Charlie hopped to his feet again. "She said she had a fiancé in England. What did she want with me?" He wandered up stairs.
Alan and Don looked at Megan. She shook her head.
Charlie hove back into sight. "Why didn't I notice her? How could I not notice a woman I used to live with?"
David jumped in at this point. "Well, we're not on the investigating team for this, but apparently she had a backpack full of disguises, wigs, hats, etc. That would have made it difficult for you to spot her in passing."
"Especially since I usually have my head up my…" Charlie picked up the extra beer bottle from the table next to David. "Anybody want this?" he asked.
"Nah," Colby said. "Maybe you should have it."
Charlie shook his head. "I took something a while ago." He looked at Alan, who supplied the name of the medication. "It should be kicking in soon."
"I hope," he added under his breath. He sat down again.
"Well, Charlie," Colby said. "The investigating team said that they found a bunch of notebooks in the backpack, too. They said that they're going to take it to a forensic psychiatrist and they'll probably be able to piece together what was going on in her mind."
Amita moved over to Charlie and squeezed his shoulder. "You can't blame yourself for someone else's actions," she said. "Especially somebody as unbalanced as Susan Berry."
Charlie smiled up at her. "You need something to drink?" he asked.
Amita shook her head. "I'm good," she said. She stroked his hair.
Charlie began to relax and they could see the medication finally taking hold.
"Speaking of blame," Larry said quietly, still patting Megan's hand. "Megan isn't in trouble for this, is she?"
David shook his head. "Nah," he said. "Between what's in the notebooks and the depositions of the students who followed Megan and Susan into the room, there's plenty of evidence that Susan Berry attacked without provocation."
Colby nodded and stood up and started pacing himself. "Right, this isn't even going to be a black mark in Reeve's folder. Not when it was so clearly a case of … self-defenestration."
Colby sprinted out the front door, with Megan, David and Don in hot pursuit.
He made to the safety of his SUV.
But only just.