Chapter 9: The Dinner Guest

Violet was in her office, sitting in the closet. She wasn't hiding in it like her one patient had. She was just trying to find a safe place, a peaceful face. She realized that this wouldn't inspire any confidence in her therapy abilities, but she didn't care at the moment. She only had one more patient left for the day.

She hugged her knees closer to her when she heard the click-clack of heels heading into her office. Okay, maybe she was hiding. From her spot she could see Addison staring down at an open file in her hand.

"Violet, do you think you can speak to-." The redhead stopped talking as soon as she realized that Violet wasn't at her desk.

"I'm over here."

Addison turned in the direction of her voice and arched an eyebrow in question. "In the closet?"

She shrugged. "I'm trying something different."

Addison nodded, but the confusion shown through in her eyes. Violet buried her head in her arms, embarrassed at being found this way and the redhead joined her after a few minutes of nothing happening.

She heard Addison grumble as the redhead tried to sit down without her skirt riding up to much.

"You okay?" Addison asked.

She looked up. "No, not really."

The redhead waited for her to elaborate.

"And Cooper's not here. He's never around anymore because of Charlotte. And Pete and Sheldon…well, one of them is the father and I'm going to be a mom and I need…"

"Cooper," Addison said a little surprised.

"Yeah, I need him," Violet agreed.

"No," The redhead said shaking her head. "Cooper's here. Look."

And she did. Standing just outside her office door was a very tired, but very happy Cooper.

"You know," the redhead said as she began to rise. "You can talk to me if you need to. We've never been extremely close, but I'm a good listener. Plus, I know a little something about babies and pregnant women." Addison smiled and then left passing Cooper on the way out. She thought about getting up, but instead waited for Cooper to come over.

He stood in front of her for a second before saying, "Bad day?"

Violet nodded, but didn't look him in the eye. Cooper knew exactly what she needed. He took a seat beside her in the closet and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She sighed and leaned into him.

"So how was your day," she asked.

"Pretty good. I spent the morning with Charlotte and Charlene. We went to the beach and made sand castles. Well, me and Charlene built a sand castle. Although she said it was more of a fortress, but it was still fun. You should see her kid Vi. I think you'd like her. Charlene is so smart. She's nine and she reads Shakespeare and Poe and that guy who wrote the No man is an island, for whom the bell tolls poem."

"John Donne," she said flatly.

"Yeah, that guy. She's incredible and sad, but mostly incredible. You should see Charlotte. She's so good with Charlene. And…" He paused and looked at her. "And how was your day?"

"Not as good as yours." She was about to elaborate, but Cooper was so happy and she didn't want to rain on his parade. "I'm happy for you Coop. You and Charlotte…that's great." She tried to smile, but she just didn't have it in her.

He placed a kiss in her hair and tugged her closer. She missed this.

"So, uh, I'm about to pick up dinner and head over to Charlotte's, but why don't you join us?"

She pulled away from him and when she looked at his face she could tell he was being serious. "I don't think that's a good idea Coop."

"No it's a great idea," Cooper said firmly. "Charlotte is a part of my life too and I would really appreciate if the women I loved didn't try to kill each other."

He gave her the puppy dog eyes and she knew she couldn't say no, but she could still complain.

"Do I have to be nice to her?"

"Yes. I don't understand why you two just can't be friends?"

"Because she's evil and spills secrets, secrets that my best friend just can't keep to himself." She punched him lightly in the arm just for good measure.

"Hey! That hurt, but I guess I deserved that." He paused to rub his arms. "So, you'll come?"

"Coop, I don't know."

"Please, you just have to meet Charlene. Please, Vi. Don't make me beg."

She finally relented and said, "Yes, I'll go eat dinner with Cruella and her cute but probably evil offspring."

Cooper stood up immediately and put a hand out to help her up. "You have to be nicer. She's still grieving. They both are."

She took his hand and was instantly pulled to her feet. "I have a craving for Italian. Pasta, maybe chicken and some tiramisu."

0oo0oo0

Charlotte was helping Charlene unpack the boxes that had arrived that afternoon as she Cooper to come with the food. Charlene was excited to have her things back with her again and had immersed herself in the task, but Charlotte was distracted. More like impatient.

Cooper called her from the hospital and told her he just had to stop off at Oceanside before coming over. In her head this was going to be a perfect dinner. She had slipped into something short, red and sexy. They would have dinner and polite conversation and then she would put Charlene to bed and Cooper would stay the night and engage in some very fun, very hot, sex.

Everything was going to be perfect. Perfect that is, until the door bell rang and she opened the door.

She smiled flirtatiously at Cooper and then she looked behind him and she knew her whole night had just been ruined.

"Turner?"

The therapist smiled nervously. "Cooper invited me," Violet said sheepishly.

She let them both in and then shut the door. "Cooper, can I talk to you privately?" She grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the kitchen before he could answer. "What is she doing here," Charlotte hissed.

"I invited her," he said simply.

"You invited her, into my home, without even telling me?" She was absolutely livid now.

Cooper put the food he was carrying on the kitchen table. "I brought Italian."

She glared at him. "Good for you."

"Hey, she's feeling kind of stressed right now with the whole Pete and Sheldon knowing thing. And I'm pretty sure you're the cause of that, so be nice to her. Okay? Maybe try being friends?"

"When hell freezes over," she fired at him.

"Okay so not friends. Can you at least be a decent human being?"

Charlotte pursed her lips, but nodded. "Fine."

"By the way, you look really hot."

0oo0oo0

Charlie paused in her unpacking upon hearing the silence outside of her room. She had heard Cooper come in and then nothing. She wondered if something was wrong so she left her room and ventured out.

She found a lone woman standing by the front door, one she recognized. The woman had been to the house before. Violet she remembered. Cooper had told her the woman was his friend.

Violet spotted her and waved awkwardly to her.

"Hi," she said as she stepped towards Violet. "I'm Charlene."

"I'm Violet. I'm Cooper's friend. I work with him to at the practice. I'm a therapist." Violet smiled at Charlie as she continued to examine the woman.

"Do you want to see my room? All of my things came today."

"Uh…sure."

Charlie placed her small hand in Violet's and led the therapist through the living room, down the hall and to her room. All six of the large boxes that were spread throughout the room had been opened. A few of the boxes contained books. Others contained personal artifacts: pictures, stuffed animals, an ipod, a laptop, a journal, a camera and many, many other things.

"These are my books," Charlene said proudly.

The therapist leaned closer to look at the pile of books she had stacked on the shelves of her desk. On closer inspection Violet found an abnormal psychology book among the nonfiction section. Charlie had organized her books well.

The psyh. book wasn't a textbook. It was something you might find in your average bookstore to amuse the average adult person. It was still safe to say that Violet was still impressed by Charlie's reading prowess.

"Have you read this," the therapist asked her.

"I'm still reading it. I'm on the chapter about dissociative disorders. You know, Amnesia, fugue, DID, depersonalization."

"Yes I do know. I have some more books on this subject that you might be interested in. I could loan them to you if you want?"

Charlie beamed and nodded her head vigorously.

Violet grinned back at her.

0oo0oo0

Charlotte had finally stopped glaring at Cooper in favor of finding Charlene. Cooper followed behind her as she made her way to the guest room, no her daughter's room. She was still having a little trouble remembering that a child lived with her now. At least it was an enjoyable experience.

The door had been left open and she paused just outside of it watching Violet laugh with her daughter. Great, now Violet was taking her daughter away from her as well as Cooper. Her lips twisted in anger as she watched them chat amicably.

"You hate that they get along, don't you?" Cooper said behind her.

She held her tongue on this one. "Dinner time," she announced loudly, before heading back to the dining room. She took her seat, followed by her daughter and Violet. Cooper came in last with food.

0oo0oo0

Once Cooper had served the food and the eating had commenced they fell into an uncomfortable silence. Violet played with her food, oddly not hungry anymore and Charlotte glared down at her dish still resentful to have the therapist in her house.

"So Vi, how was your day," Cooper asked, in an attempt at polite conversation.

"Okay."

After she said nothing else Cooper turned his attention to Charlotte and asked her the same question.

"Fine," she said tersely.

Cooper sighed. "Charlene how was your day?"

Charlene finished chewing her bite of pasta before answering. "I had lots of fun building sand fortresses with you today.

Cooper grinned. "I had fun with you too munchkin."

Charlene wrinkled her little nose in distaste. "I'm not a munckin."

The dinner went semi-smoothly after that. Conversation between Charlene and Cooper flowed nonstop, but Charlotte and Violet stayed silent. He wished he could get those two to talk to each other.

After the dining room had been cleaned up, he asked Charlene to show him her books. His intention was to leave the Charlotte and Violet together. Maybe they would bond or something while he was absent. One could only hope.

0oo0oo

Violet was sitting on Charlotte's pristine white couch nervously wringing her hands as she waited for Cooper to come back from Charlene's room. Charlotte, whose gaze she was trying to avoid, was sitting across from her in an equally white arm chair.

Violet had never even remotely liked the blonde, but here she was sitting, uninvited, in Charlotte's living room.

"I'm sorry," the blonde said suddenly.

Violet startled a little and looked at Charlotte. "W-what?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Everyone knows you're pregnant and that's my fault. I'm sorry, okay?"

Violet nodded her head in acceptance to the blonde's sincere, but irritated apology. She stopped wringing her hands and rested one hand on her stomach, aware that just beneath it was her baby. Her forehead creased as her thoughts became more reflective and after a moment's hesitation she began to gently rub her belly.

Charlotte eyed her suspiciously. "You're not nauseous are you?"

She quickly snatched her head away from her stomach. "Oh…uh, I'm fine."

Charlotte shifted uncomfortably in her armchair. "So have you started planning anything yet? A nursery? Names? Anything?"

"I, um, haven't gotten that far yet. I'm still dealing with…" The nausea, the fear, the loneliness, my lack of parenting skills and the fact that I don't know who the father of my child is. "Look, can we not talk about this?"

The blonde let out a huff of laughter. "I thought you liked talkin' and expressin' your feelings, being a therapist and all."

Violet wrapped her arms around herself. "Yeah…well." She lowered her eyes away from Charlotte's critical gaze.

Charlotte noticed her meek behavior. "What's the matter with you? We're not even fighting."

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I'm just having a bad day."

Charlotte said nothing, but Violet saw a light of recognition and understanding in the blonde's eyes.

"So your daughter is pretty great."

The blonde smiled. "She is isn't she?

"So, how did you get her back?" She asked. She figured if she was ever going to get any information about Charlene it would be from the source. Cooper wouldn't tell her a thing, yet he would tell Charlotte all of her secrets.

"Didn't Cooper tell you everything already?" Charlotte said bitterly.

"No, Charlotte, he didn't tell me anything." She couldn't conceal her annoyance.

The blonde smiled at her smugly.

Violet fought the urge to roll her eyes and focused her gaze on the side table.

"Oh, don't pout Turner."

She huffed, but managed to restrain herself. "Is Cooper going to be out soon?"

"You wanna go home?" Charlotte asked softly.

"Yeah."

Charlotte moved to the edge of her seat and studied her for a moment. "You look tired," the blonde observed. "You'll feel better after a good night's sleep."

0oo0oo0

Cooper could tell Charlene was tired by the way she kept rubbing her eyes. He asked her if she wanted to get ready for bed and she said yes. While Charlene gathered her things and headed towards the bathroom, he peeked down the hall. There was silence in the house and he thought now would be a good time to take Violet home. He made his way to the living room where Charlotte rushed over to him immediately.

"I'm just going to drop her home and then I'll be back," he told her

Violet was already walking towards the front door.

"Wait here a second," Charlotte told him before he could follow after Violet who was now outside.

He stood there waiting for the blonde, feeling a little confused but also curious. When she returned she placed something small and metal into his hand. It was a key to Charlotte's house. His eyes widen in response, like he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

"What is this?"

She gave him a funny look. "It's a key."

"Yeah, I know that." He ran a finger along the key's jagged edge.

Charlotte sighed. "Well, it's annoying having to let you in all the time and it'll be late when you come back and if you ring the door bell, you'll wake up Charlene. It's a spare,' she said indifferently. "Keep it."

He looked down at the key in awe.

"Don't keep her waiting Coop. She's pregnant and getting crankier by the minute."

She was smiling at him when he looked back up. He pocketed the key before pulling her in his arms and kissing her with feeling. He tried pour all his love for her in that kiss and he wasn't sure if he got the message across, but the blonde hummed appreciatively.