Time moved forward and Charlie's life was full and content. He and Darla made quick work of settling down. They had 2 boys and a girl before the decade was over and she happily left her job to spend her time raising the children. Conversely Charlie found himself a sought after person in the behind the scenes world of network news gathering promotions and awards throughout the 70s.

In 1979 he was approached by a man who was building a 24 hour news network out of Atlanta and wanted Charlie to come on board as senior director for news operations and production. He had a few reservations at first but he and Darla talked it through and she was thrilled with the prospect of moving close to her parents. Knowing it would be good for his children to be close to at least one set of grandparents the family left DC and moved to Atlanta. When CNN began its first broadcasts in 1980 Charlie was standing in the control room with a proud smile on his face.

Their time in Atlanta was as peaceful and happy as Charlie ever remembered being. He found transition to life as an executive to not be nearly as dreadful as he had once feared. The rest of the executive team had deeper backgrounds in business than in journalism and Charlie quickly learned the games they played and that the best way to beat them was to defy expectations and not participate in the standard foolishness of cross-double-cross. He quickly grew a reputation as being both a valuable, truth-telling asset but also an unpredictable force. This prevented him from climbing the promotion ladder but he wasn't bothered, he never wanted to be far from the actual stories and broadcast anyway. He took great delight in amusing himself by occasionally indulging the assumptions of his colleagues that he would react to something in an unpredictable way.

Despite truly enjoying his work the best part was that it was a 9 to 5 job and was able to seize each opportunity to enjoy quiet evenings with his beautiful wife and 3 children.

Charles Jr began to have a growing interest in mechanics and Charlie and his eldest son spent hours building model cars and tinkering with the old Buick Charlie kept in the garage. Darla insisted they pose for a picture when they came in one day in matching coveralls and grease stains on their foreheads. She snapped the Polaroid and sighed, telling her son she was happy he was so similar to his father.

Elizabeth was the middle child and spent her young years as an absolute conundrum to her parents. She changed her preferred nickname almost yearly and would pout when Charlie would forget and call her Ellie instead of Liz or Beth instead of Betsy. She also alternated between tom-boy and quintessential Southern damsel. She would beg her Mother to sit for a tea party with her and her dolls but then would rush to exchange her dress for denim and run outside when she overheard her father playing catch with her brothers.

Nathan was the baby and even from a very young age he displayed an intense desire to prove himself and not be underestimated. He was the athlete of the family, becoming the star of his little league team the very first year he was eligible to play. The same dedication he had to athletics he also applied to his studies. He filled his voracious appetite for learning by being the only of the three children who would sit contently on the couch with his parents as they watched the evening news.

For the first 8 years of their time in Atlanta happiness defined the lives of the Skinner family. That fairy tale was shattered in late 1987.

Darla's parents had taken the children for a trip up to their farm for a long weekend. On the day they were due to return a rare Georgian winter storm hit the greater Atlanta area, leaving the roads slick. Darla's elderly father lost control of the car less than a mile from the house and the resulting car crash killed both of Darla's parents and the two oldest Skinner children were killed instantly. Being the youngest, Nathan was the only one in a seat belt and survived with a shattered pelvis and femur.

The sudden and tragic loss turned their world upside down. Darla teetered on the edge of depression but was able to occupy herself with tending to 13 year old Nathan. As the boy healed and grew stronger he began to resist his mother's doting and reassert his independence. Darla was left with nothing to occupy her time and only her occasional fights with their son to distract her from her overwhelming grief. The tragedy spun her optimistic view of the world upside down and made her question everything. Unsure of everything she had taken for granted she pulled away from Charlie who was struggling with his own grief.

At first he responded by stopping at a bar before heading home but after a particularly vitriolic argument between Nate and Darla Charlie knew he needed to work on finding ways to help what was left of his family regain some normalcy. His efforts were met with resentment from Darla.

It was a dark time in his life. At the very lowest point he feared he and his family would never recover but he recalled those gloomy days following his time in Vietnam. Knowing he had once had the strength to survive that gave him faith that he and his family could survive this tragedy.