A/N: Alright, get ready for a couple of Tyler chapters. Don't fret if you're reading this for Sid, he's still very much present in Charlotte's thoughts. There are some conflicts with Tyler that need to be resolved and then she will know if she can move on or not. And as always, thanks so much for reviewing! Feel free to leave some suggestions of things you'd like to see in upcoming chapters!

I walked over to where Tyler was sitting on the leather couch in my living room.

"You can't just come in here anymore," I added, but he didn't respond. "Hello?"

He just stared at me. He looked exhausted, his face scruffy, his expression blank and distant. He had a grey sweater on and some jeans, and just the sight of him made me nauseous. I would have to get over that eventually, but right now wasn't the time for this. Whatever this was.

"Tyler, go home. I don't want to do this tonight."

"You don't have to hide your suitcase from me," he finally said.

My pulse started to quicken. He knew I went to Pittsburgh, and there would only be one reason for me to go there in the off-season. He had probably sat on my couch and waited for me to come home for all I knew.

"I can go get if for you if you want," his voice was raised sarcastically but his tone was dark, and he stood up so his height was apparent next to my small frame.

"Go." My voice was weak, and I couldn't look him in the eye.

"What?" He protested, knowing I would try to avoid him for as long as possible. "You can't face me? You can't talk to me? You know we need to talk, so why keep running from me Char? Why run all the way to Pittsburgh?"

"I said go." I still couldn't make eye contact. I could feel the anger build up in me, but it was the wrong kind of anger. It was at myself, not Tyler. And it was the kind of anger that forced tears to push at the corners of your eyes, even if you tried your hardest to convince yourself not to cry.

"Fine." Tyler shook his head and walked past me. "But I lost him too," he said as he stood in the doorframe, looking back at me for a second before he closed the door behind himself.

I felt like I was going to throw up – to just explode. I stood there in my living room, my feet cemented to the floor. But I acted without really thinking, and ran out the door after him. He had just gotten to the Maserati and was about to open the door when he heard my front door open and saw me rushing down the front steps towards him.

The streetlamp above bathed him in a soft light, and his eyes looked red, as if he was choking back the same feelings I had tried to forget for a long time. He started taking a few steps in my direction and I crashed into him quickly, throwing my arms around his torso and letting my emotions and tears pour out hysterically into his chest. I could feel him hesitate to put his arms around me for a second, but he gave in, and held me as close to him as possible.

"I'm sorry, shh.. I shouldn't have said that." Tyler's voice had softened since our brief encounter in my living room.

I literally couldn't say anything, but he tried to pull me back into the house so we wouldn't cause a scene. I followed him through the door and up the stairs where he sat me down on my bed and put his thick arm around me once again.

"I'm so sorry," I finally choked out in between sobs.

"Me too," he admitted.

We sat there for a few minutes until he readjusted himself, laying down on my bed with the pillows propped up against his back. I looked at him suspiciously, but he gave me a reassuring look and I snuggled up next to him, tucking myself up against his right side and continuing to cry into his chest. He rubbed my back as my thoughts swirled around my weekend and everything that had happened with Sid, and how I knew Tyler and I had unfinished business and that I wasn't being fair to him. And now I was hysterical and Tyler was sitting here dealing with me and I felt like a child. A complete child.

"Let's talk when you calm down," Tyler suggested, and it was the least I owed him after being so horrible to him.

It took me about an hour to settle down to the point where I could actually have a conversation. I stayed practically attached to Tyler's side as we started to talk, and it wasn't the type of conversation we could just ease into. It would have to hurt.

"I'm so sorry, Tyler. I didn't deserve to treat you like I did. I just… I was just lost. I didn't know what to do."

"I know. I'm sorry too, I didn't make it any easier."

"You didn't do anything wrong. You tried, and I didn't."

Tyler was silent for a minute, pressing his lips to the top of my head, holding me tight. This was completely unexpected and horrifying at the same time, but it also felt…good? If it's even feasible. I knew he was crying, softly, at this point. I could feel the change in his breath against my cheek as I listened to the change as his lungs filled and exhaled staggered. He had held it in for a while, which was progress, considering our previous feeble attempts at talking ended in us both red-eyed and tear-soaked within the first few minutes. I didn't look up at him for fear of making him feel uncomfortable if our eyes met, so I kept the left side of my face pressed against his sweater.

"I made this so much worse than it had to be," I continued, my past mistakes and actions flooding my current vision.

"You did what you had to do," Tyler said, trying to bridge the gap between us.

"You scared the shit out of me."

"What do you mean?" The tone of his voice changed a little.

"You know… everything about you scares me, Tyler. What I felt for you, what happened, what I still feel for you every time I see you…"

"You scare the shit out of me too," his laugh escaped from his throat for a split second, and it put me at ease a little. At least maybe we were starting to get on the same page.

We were quiet for a bit. So many thoughts coursed through my mind that I didn't really know where to focus my attention. Tyler cleared his throat a little, and I wasn't prepared for what he was about to ask me.

"Why haven't you cleaned out his room yet?"

Then my mind went blank. I should've known that he would've unlocked the door across the hall from mine.

"I locked it for a reason," I said, my voice suddenly indicating that I was going to be very defensive.

"I'm sorry, I …. I don't know. I shouldn't have looked. Forget it."

It wasn't that I didn't want to talk about it. I just hadn't talked about it at all, and was caught off guard by the extremely sensitive topic. Of course, he was referring to our son's room. When I lost him at 5 months, we had known it was a boy for a few weeks. My dad bought the brownstone and the Audi as graduation presents, and the nursery had mostly been set up when Tyler and I moved in, but I wasted no time adding to it.

We had literally lived in the house for two weeks before I had the miscarriage, and the worst part was that I had to go through the delivery process, only to know that the hard work of labor had been for nothing. My mind flashed back to that night, when I frantically woke Tyler up at 2:30 in the morning. His expression when he saw the fluid blood on the sheets was enough to kill me, and we sped to the emergency room only to find out that it was too late, and any attempts to stop the labor would fail anyway. He was too small to live outside of me. We named him William, per my father's request, so he would have a name from both families – William for Williams, and he had Tyler's last name.

We cremated him and I locked the nursery when I got home and that was that.

I hadn't given Tyler a fair chance after that, but I felt like there was enough damage done that we couldn't go back and try a relationship again. Not yet, atleast.

"It's okay. I just don't know what to do with it I guess."

"Okay. So can I ask you about Crosby?" He knowingly changed the subject, and his voice wasn't as hostile as I had expected it to be.

"What do you want to know?" I was willing to be open with Tyler, we had already gotten this far in our conversation. I supposed he had somewhat of a right to know what was going on, especially after how I treated him when we lost the baby.

"I don't know. You guys aren't a secret though."

I figured it wouldn't be a secret. Boston's little princess couldn't do anything, let alone chase after the crown prince of the NHL without any attention brought to it. I constantly felt violated like this. I was gone for two days, and if it had gotten around to Tyler, it had gone through many people first.

"We're friends." I guess that's all we were, since he couldn't promise me anything and we didn't want to add the stress of defining what we were doing.

"Okay…if you're happy I guess that's what matters." His voice wasn't so convincing and I knew he was saying that just because he felt the need – like it's what you say in these kinds of conversations. But I knew it wasn't true, he wouldn't want me to be happy with anyone but him for a long time, and I would probably feel the same way about him too, even though I couldn't be with him right now.

"Yeah, I'm pretty happy right now. As happy as I can be I guess." It was true and I most certainly wasn't lying to him. But this was just such an awkward conversation that it felt sort of wrong to be saying it.

"I went over to your parents' to hang out with Braedon yesterday, and your mom wants to start doing Sunday dinners again. I told her it might not be a good idea but….I don't know. It would be nice to have an excuse to see you once a week, besides at work. And your mother's cooking is hard to turn down…"

My heartstrings sort of tugged at this mention of an old tradition being revived. We always did family dinners on Sundays, but we hadn't had one since everything happened. And I was a little surprised that he was at my parents', especially when I hadn't heard from my own brother – or really made an effort to talk to him, since he started at BU. Plus he had talked to my mother, who had probably spilled the news that I had been in Pittsburgh with Sid. She had quite the agenda of her own, and I could feel my self tense up a little.

"Yeah I don't know… I'll have to talk to her."

"Alright. I just miss you I guess, don't listen to me…"

"I miss you too, Ty. I really do. It's just… you scare the shit out of me."

"Yeah, tell me about it," he laughed softly.

But he wouldn't ask me for a relationship tonight – not now. Just looking at him killed a part of me, because he represented everything I had been through over the last year. I mean, he was the reason it all happened. And though I'll never really have a reason why, it still happened. Too much has happened and I needed to get to a place where I could have my head on straight. Don't get me wrong, I missed my best friend more than anything in the world. But right now… right now it's too hard to even look at him. We could work on things – maybe make it easier to be around one another, but I couldn't love him in the same way right now. Maybe someday….

Tyler started shifting and I sat up, as he got up off the bed and stood awkwardly in front of me. I rose too, and he took me in his arms once again and squeezed me.

"You know I love you, right?" He asked, trying to make sure I knew.

"Yeah, I know. I love you too." The words were sharp but didn't feel wrong to say.

"I'm sorry, I really am. I don't mean to be an asshole to you, it's just been hard seeing you around the rink and not being able to be like we used to. And the whole Crosby thing… I just wanted to hear it from you. I don't know."

"I know, Ty. It's okay. I've been horrible to you too." My arms were still wrapped around him and a part of me really didn't want to let go, but I had to.

"Can we be okay?" His words were sincere, and I knew it would be best for everyone if we were civil again. Maybe not friends yet, but friendly.

"Yeah, we can be okay."

"Alright good, because your mom invited my family to stay with your parents next weekend to celebrate the beginning of the season…."

"…She what?" I was surprised, sarcastic, horrified – all at the same time.

"She told me not to tell you but I figured I'd give you a heads up…"

"Ty, your sisters hate me." I sat back down on the bed, trying to imagine what next weekend would be like. It would be a complete horror show, for one. Candace, his younger sister, has absolutely despised me from day one and now, I was public enemy numero uno to her. His youngest sister, Cassidy, was always sweet to me, and she's a little too young to fully understand what's going on, so she wouldn't be so bad. But his mother… she was on my mom's team. Having them both together under one roof was always a little crazy. You'd think they were sisters separated at birth or something. And since his parents had gotten divorced over the last year, I wasn't sure if he would be there or not, but I guess I'll find out.

"It'll be fine," he reassured me. "I should let you get settled though, I really didn't mean to bombard you. I wasn't really thinking."

"Alright, I'll walk you down."

I followed Tyler downstairs and outside once again. It was completely dark and it had cooled off a bit, and I wished I had a jacket to keep me from shivering.

"I'll talk to you later. Night, Char." Tyler pressed his lips to my forehead, just where Sidney had only a few hours earlier, and got in the driver's seat of his Maserati before I could respond.

Dumbfounded by the past couple hours, I headed back into the house, only to remember that I had left my phone downstairs the entire time and I had forgotten to let Sid know I made it back to Boston alive.

There was only one text from him, just wondering where I was and if I made it back safe, but I decided to call him instead of text him my response. I already missed the sound of his voice and I could talk while laying in bed with a movie and my cats, who were thankfully alive under Chelsea's care. I decided I'd leave out the conversation and encounter I just had with Tyler, atleast for now. I didn't need him to worry and it didn't really concern him at all.

...

By Thursday I was completely exhausted from working all week. Dad knew I had taken off for the weekend but didn't question me about it. In fact, he didn't say a single word about my impromptu trip to Pittsburgh, and I didn't say anything. We had an interesting relationship I guess, and he was starting to understand that I had to do some things for myself and didn't need his approval – nor did I really care about it at this point. He wouldn't fire me like he used to when I was wild, and I had gotten my act together exponentially over the past couple months. I knew he had probably heard rumors about Sid and Tyler but he went on about the usual business and kept me busy planning and keeping track of people.

As I sat at my desk, my phone erupted with vibrations and my mother's picture. As much as I didn't want to answer it, I had to. I just couldn't let on that I knew what she was talking about, even though I was beyond furious that Tyler knew about the weekend plans before I did, and that he had already briefed me.

"Hello?" I half sighed, already annoyed with the conversation before it even began.

"Hi, sweetie! How was your weekend? You didn't cause trouble with Sidney did you?"

I rolled my eyes, her voice too energetic – meaning she would try to talk me into doing something she already knew I had no interest in being a part of.

"It was good, Mom. No trouble. How was yours?"

"Oh it was wonderful, Tyler came over and spent time with Braedon. Have you talked to him?"

"Talked to who?" I asked, not knowing whether she meant Tyler or Braedon.

"Tyler, who else?" she sounded offended that I didn't know who she was referring to.

Good god.

"No, I haven't talked to him," I lied straight through my teeth.

"Well, his parents and his sisters are going to be staying with us this weekend. They're flying in tomorrow afternoon. We're going to have dinner here tomorrow night and Sunday we're going into the city to see the Orchestra." My mother's enthusiasm was slightly terrifying by this point.

"Nice, well have fun." I was short with her, trying not to let on that I had already made nice with Tyler and that things would actually go a lot smoothly than she had planned. But I knew I had to play her game, and she would try to make everything right in the world, especially between Tyler and I, so I had to put up some sort of fight or she would be completely suspicious.

"Excuse me, you know you're expected to be there."

"What if I have plans?"

"Then you know you're expected to cancel them."

And sure enough, the next night I was driving home to Wellesley to have dinner with the Seguins and my family.