A/N: I did NOT expect so many people to be surprised to find that the most frequently written villainess on the show was the one that I used for this story. Lol. I can even only think of 4 that have ever been on the show and Nurse Cohort is the only one that I recall being there multiple times. I even used a similar exchange between her and Captain Man from the show.

I've been sick AF, so I'm just now able to actually edit this chapter that's been chilling in my docs. I'll be glad when flu season over. These kids, at the shelter I work at, just pass the germs back and forward, mutate them and give them to me. Sigh.

Also, I'm thinking in the next couple of chapters I may have a time jump or two. This story is taking way longer than I intended to take on it and the new episodes of the show have me in a different mood that I can't quite describe yet. Something along the lines of I kinda wanna see where they're going before I move forward here, yet I also wanna finish before something happens in canon that makes me feel like finishing this is pointless.

If y'all have any long messages to send me, the best chance for me to read and respond is to send it to my Tumblr blog mysamcedesmadness or even the main, I guess (neshatriumphs), because THIS site it's BS to try to message from the app/my phone, and that's what I'm generally on. The truncated email only shows me the first part of the message, then when I try to go into the link, it never lets me see the thing once I get to the site. I can only see them when I get on the laptop. I haven't touched my laptop for more than a few minutes in weeks.

Truth Bombs

Throughout Autumn, things between Henry and Charlotte seemed back to normal. They both couldn't imagine that things ever would be, but so long as it seemed so, maybe it was headed in the right direction. Jasper noticed the shift, but also couldn't point out what was wrong, so he presumed that he was imagining things.

Henry and Charlotte bickered the way that they always had - innocently and inconsequential, despite his parents calling their friendly debates "lovers' quarrels," and his father leaving a box of condoms on his nightstand whenever she spent the night.

They returned to the old level of affectionate, with friendly hugs and knowing just when a fist bump was necessary. She spent visiting nights at the Hart house when she came into town and left with a new pair of pajamas each time, and took half the condoms, just in case. (She never made time to use them).

Fall semester, they were both in school, but at least back to closer time zones. She sent him to her parents' house to gather any notes that he might need for his classes, since she had boxes full in her old closet. He'd also help with the upkeep, because even though the Pages were rarely at home, sometimes they needed the house dusted, and the yard rarely got the attention it deserved, with Charlotte gone.

He'd rake their leaves up and do a little pruning here and there, voluntarily. Sometimes, he'd have to go through and make sure they didn't accidentally leave perishables in the fridge during a business trip. He did this up until the point that Mr. Page asked him if he had some type of compulsions. Then, he realized it was really weird to just be doing housework at somebody else's house.

Charlotte laughed when Henry reported that as he left the house, he heard her father say, "I thought Jasper was her weird friend."

"Joke's on him. ALL my friends are weird," she commented. "Speaking of… I have a plus one to bring with me to a wedding that I'm going to be in. You wanna come with?"

"Do I have to like dress up? I don't think I have wedding clothes."

"Well… I'm gonna be dressed up, because I'm in the wedding, but I don't think that the guest attire is formal. At least, my brain can't imagine it."

"I'll be glad to help."

"Cool. And just to let you know, it's in March, and it is Bysh's wedding…" she heard the clatter and scatter of him dropping his phone and trying not to lose control of it completely. He eventually caught it after swiftly tossing it about several times. "Henry?" The next thing she heard was a roar of laughter. "Henry!" Then, she heard him wind down from laughing and try to catch his breath. "Henry."

"Yeah. I'm here. Woooo. I thought you said it was Bysh's wedding. As in Byshelle. As in Bilsky."

"Soooo… Bysh is getting married in March to a National Wrestling champ and she's asked me to be her maid of honor."

Henry was silent. After a while he repeated, "Bysh Bilsky???"

"Yes!"

"Okay. I mean… I guess that's cool. A wrestler though?"

"They look cute together. Well… they look like a good match for each other. Guess who Mitch is bringing?" Before Henry could guess, she told, "Bianca!"

"Why would she go out with him a second time? Like... on purpose?"

"Maybe he's grown up? None of us are kids anymore. I mean, hello.. Bysh is getting married."

"That's wild."

"Right? She's too young."

"She's a little older than us, though."

"I reserve the right to believe that if you aren't old enough to drink, you aren't old enough to sign on to spend forever with a person. I think that at least one should be 22 before even getting engaged! And there are a lot of steps between getting engaged and getting married. Bysh and this guy have only known each other for a few months. What do you really know about a person in that timeframe?"

"I have no idea, but he's good to her, I suspect. She's got a huge brother and she's no little damsel herself."

"He's bigger and stronger than her and Mitch, but he does seem to be good to her. I don't know, because I've only spoken to him once. I'm gonna go to the Bilskys when I visit for winter break, so I'll have a little more time to size him up."

"I wonder what the Bilskys home is like. I mean… it spawned two utter delinquents."

"Bysh isn't that bad. She's just a girl who spent a lot of time wanting love. I don't know what to say about Mitch. He's still a menace, to this day. But, if you're super curious, you can come there with me too."

Henry's Whiz Watch sounded and he rolled his eyes and answered, "Yeah, Ray. What's up?"

"Henry! We've got an emergency at the Man Cave. Whatever you're doing, cut it short."

"What's the emergency?"

"Get here!"

Henry got up, still on the phone with Charlotte. "I'm so serious - if I get there and he wants help waxing his back or something, I'm definitely quitting my job."

"This sounds very specific and must have a backstory to it," she said, chuckling as she logged into the control center in her apartment. "But, I'm sure you'll tell me. In the meantime, it looks like you two have a robbery in progress and another being called in… And… Another being called in. Dude, what the butt?" Charlotte opened up the Captain Man line and noticed that the calls were all from within the same few blocks. "At least you won't have to go far…"

Jasper had been saving up to try to move out of his parents' house. He wasn't super great at saving up, but his incentive was pretty great, as the older he got, the more into dating and finding himself, and the longer he worked for Captain Man, the more important his privacy became and the Dunlops didn't really interfere with his business, but they didn't allow a lot in their homes, either.

Piper had been telling Henry that he and Jasper should get a place together and save themselves some money. But, now that Henry was in college and paying for it himself, afraid to take out any loans, well… getting a place wasn't really in his plan for the moment.

Henry was trying to make sure that he did things around the house to try to feel more productive. He even offered to cook for Thanksgiving. So, this Thanksgiving, he was going to be in charge of the event. He had gotten some suggestions from Jasper and Charlotte of what he should prepare, considering that they would both definitely at least stop by if not have dinner with his family, along with Hart classics that he had to ask his mother for recipes for. Jasper shared an app with him that he could plug the recipes and the menu into and the app told him exactly when to do prepping, preheating and cooking. This was going to be SUCH a great holiday! Plus, he had a surprise for Charlotte.

Now… he wasn't sure if he should be giving her gifts, because after her summer trip, they never discussed everything that had happened between them. But, he also had been really enjoying rediscovering their friendship after the fact and if they were never going to be… he at least wanted to be a good friend this time around. Plus, it was Thanksgiving and he was thankful for his best friend. A few months before, he was sure that he'd lost her.

So, whenever she said that she might not get into town until Thanksgiving night, he was a little disappointed and, when she told him that she wanted to "check in with Max," because it was his first Thanksgiving without Phoebe; he remembered that she had a significant ex, meanwhile the two of them were always just friends, even though they'd been physically intimate.

Then again, when she was in town by Thanksgiving afternoon, he was stoked. Siren had sent Jake out a few times to get some things that Henry needed and when Charlotte showed up, she was seated on the couch reading while Henry was slaving in the kitchen. "Hi, Charlotte! I thought that you wouldn't be able to make it today!"

Charlotte nodded, and confessed, "So did my parents. They made other arrangements, so I won't see them until tomorrow…"

"Well, I'm sure Henry counted you when he was making serving sizes, just in case. Henry!" Siren called.

Henry was concentrating pretty hard on glazing the ham, but he looked up and had to remind himself not to jet to Char and collect her like a lover. "Char! Hey, thought you'd still be at the Thundermans…"

She shrugged her shoulders, "My plans changed. I'm gonna go throw my things down in your room."

"Sure," he said with a smile, taking off his apron and gloves as she went upstairs.

A moment later when he followed her up, Siren smiled to herself and got on the phone, "Honey, Charlotte's stopped in earlier than expected. Pick Henry up some protection, just in case he's out."

Charlotte was studying a pair of pajamas folded on Henry's bed when he came in to give her a proper hug as a greeting. "Hey… what are THESE? They're nice!"

"Those are top quality pajamas. Microfleece, hooded, adjustable straps, and pockets, with footies."

"Omigosh. You're sleeping in style, huh? These feel super cozy." She hugged them to herself.

"They're all yours," he said.

"I'm not gonna steal your nice new jammies, Hen. I have some discipline."

"No, I got them specifically for your thievery. They're literally yours."

She smiled brightly, pleasantly surprised and obviously impressed by the gesture. Henry blushed, noticing that he'd successfully done this thing for her. "Wait… these are your size, though."

"You wear my size pajamas."

"I'm significantly smaller than you."

"Yeah, but every pair of pajamas that you have is in my size, because you don't buy yourself pajamas." She just laughed at the accuracy. She could still wear things she had from middle school, so she really didn't purchase pajamas. In fact, if it weren't for the ones she took from Henry (which she wore lounging around her apartment more than she slept in), her night clothes were boy shorts and tank tops.

"Thank you, Henry. I can't wait to wear these out of here." She gave him a hug and stared at him a while, knowing she shouldn't move in for a kiss. They'd been doing too well to murky the waters again… Siren knocked on the door and Charlotte jumped.

Henry opened the door and his mother was smiling, "Hey, one of your phone alarms is going off." He dashed passed her as Charlotte folded the pajamas back up and set them down.

Thanksgiving evening, Henry took a shower and got changed, with Charlotte in the bedroom, having already gotten ready for the day and he wondered, "Should I put on a tie?"

"A tie?"

"I made Thanksgiving. That's like a special occasion, right?" He wondered.

"Do… you even own a tie?" She asked.

"I think so…" he went into the closet and she followed, simply because she wanted to see if there really was a tie in there. Henry's closet was painfully neat. She couldn't believe how organized everything was, but then again, his room was always pretty neat and he was a tidy person in general, so she wasn't sure why that surprised her. "Here we go," he said and pulled down a box, and yes, there was a tie in it. "Okay. So, now, I guess I search online to see how this goes."

"I can help," she said. "Whenever my uncle Roscoe lived with us, he got me to help him to put his ties on so that he could pretend he had been searching for a job." Henry chuckled and let her help him. "There. Handsome."

At dinner, Henry picked at Charlotte a few times. She loved the food so much that more than once, she tried to eat too fast and spilled some on her face. He laughed and teased, "Hey, you ever eat before? Bit of advice, the food goes into your mouth." She snickered and meat juice ran down her chin, which Henry reached out and wiped away with his thumb and sucked off before he realized that Jasper was watching. He tried to play it off and hand Charlotte a cloth napkin. Jasper wore a proud, deep smirk.

After dinner, Jasper helped Henry to clear everything away and clean up. Piper left the house, Siren and Jake retired for the night, and Charlotte went to get washed up and ready for bed. "So… Couldn't help but to notice that chemistry between you and Charlotte…"

"Don't start, Jasp."

"I can't stop, now. You put your finger on her face, then put said finger in your mouth! And. She. LET. You! This is monumental! She not only allowed you into her facial space, but the look of utter disgust when germ exchanges she disapproves of was not there!"

"She really liked the food," Henry said, innocently.

"Yeah, well what's your excuse for touching her face? Her mouth, to boot?"

"Gravy," Henry shifted nervously.

"Yeah, I'll bet you've served her some of your gravy!"

Henry cringed, "Crass." But, then he also thought about the last time he did serve her some gravy. Good God, had it really been eight months since he touched her? It had only been five since the last time he saw her over their steamy screen dates, and that still felt like a lifetime. It had been three months since the last time they kissed, and the last time they even so much as mentioned their relationship…

While Henry was agonizing over these numbers, Jasper had walked off. Henry super sped through the rest of cleaning up the kitchen and went to find Jasper and Charlotte.

"Then he told me that he's not trying to pressure me, but that he doesn't have to waste his time trying to figure out if I'm down…" he heard Jasper saying.

"What are you two talking about?" Henry wondered. Charlotte was in her new pajama top and a pair of boy shorts, working on twisting her hair for the next day. Jasper had one of those overnight tooth strips on and was rolling his hair into rollers. "And what are you doing?"

"Gonna bring back my curls. Got a post Thanksgiving date tomorrow."

"Tell him with whom," Charlotte said, smiling.

Jasper blushed and said, "Just this guy that I'm pretty confused about."

"Jasper is exploring his own truth." Charlotte said. "His bravery is giving me courage to be less afraid of my own emotions. Thanks for the inspo, Jasper."

Henry folded his arms and nodded his head, "So… you like dudes?"

"Sometimes. I mean… do you not?" Jasper asked, defensively.

"Never really thought about it, so I guess not. I figure that we all just want people to connect with and we meet them and know after that happens. I won't say that it's impossible, but I haven't made that kind of connection with a dude before."

"Henry, you rarely make connections to anyone," Jasper said, then expounded to Charlotte, "His dates keep asking me why he's so distant. What am I supposed to do, lie to the poor girls? I tell them, it's not him. It's you. You're not the one."

"I'm sure they appreciate your honesty," Charlotte said, sarcastically.

"Not one bit," Jasper told her. "My turn in the shower!" He grabbed his bag and went to the bathroom.

Henry grabbed Charlotte's pajama bottoms and set them aside to sit next to her on the bed. "Need any help?"

"I need a personal hair specialist every night. Whenever I'm rich, I'm definitely investing in one." He moved to sit behind her, his legs straddled around her smaller frame and she froze.

"I think I've now seen you do this enough to get it."

"Honestly, I'm not super worried about the curl pattern for a day, if it isn't perfect."

"Okay." He was quicker than her, obviously, with his power, but he made sure to do it as close to what she was doing as he could, and he finished things up within a few minutes. "I do believe that I nailed it, Miss Page." After he said that he he winced in confusion. Why on Earth did he call her that?

She picked up the mirror to inspect it and nodded her head, "This is a dang good job, Mr. Hart. Maybe I'll hire you someday."

"Does it pay a lot? Because, you know? Trying to get an apartment and stuff…" She turned her head to look at him. "It was a joke."

"Oh!" She laughed. "I thought you were seriously thinking about leaving the house. I was gonna offer you a loan."

He scoffed, but then wondered, "Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah. I've got savings. My parents pay for most of my necessities on my academic merit and I still make money from Ray and from other work, online. If you do think you need a little help, that's what friends are for." Henry was looking into her eyes, his hands were on her skin, stroking on her sides, and she slightly fluttered her eyelashes as her eyes traveled to his lips. She missed those lips. He watched her lean towards him, but he was frozen in place.

By the time Jasper came back in, Henry dashed away from her. That was close. He was pretty sure that she was about to kiss him, and he knew that he would let her. He would want her to. He would return it. They didn't need to kiss. They didn't need to confuse themselves or each other with affection that neither seemed ready to realistically discuss.

While Henry was in the shower, Jasper and Charlotte settled in the bed, looking at the ceiling and talking with the space in the middle reserved for Henry. He was the only one neutral enough to sleep in the middle. Jasper sweated a lot and Charlotte was a wild sleeper. Henry could sleep through practically anything and didn't care about being sweat on or possibly even elbowed in the ribs… both things that had happened from sleeping near the two of them.

"You love Henry?"

"Everybody loves Henry," Charlotte deflected.

"Yeah, but I thought I saw something else there today and when I thought about it more, I realized that I'd seen it before. So many instances since you and Max broke up. Speaking of, what happened today?"

"He messaged me that he was accepting a mission to avoid the holidays with his family. I sent them a fruit basket, instead of visiting."

"He looks really good with that beard."

"Right? I'm not even big on facial hair, but that beard could get me in trouble."

"Henry trouble?" Jasper asked, smiling. She turned to face the opposite direction. "You know, I think that the reason he can't date other girls isn't because of Kid Danger, like he wants people to believe. It's because he already found his perfect girl and he compares everybody to her, whether or not he means to."

"We're still young. He's got plenty of time to figure out how to maintain healthy adult relationships."

"He'd be able to maintain it if it was with you."

"No, he wouldn't."

"Yes he would! You just have to give him a chance!"

"I tried to!" She blurted.

Jasper shot up in the bed, "WHAT???"

She sat up too and faced him, "We tried for a little while to have a casual, flow buddy arrangement. It went okay. We let it travel to a long distance thing and then one day, he just started dating." She shook her head, "He said he needed a distraction and I realized that I had a distraction. Him. He was my distraction from the things I needed to do. Henry won't work with anybody, Jasper. Not right now. Maybe after he figures out what he wants out of life. Until then, everything will be a distraction for him."

"You two casualed???" Jasper said, looking about ready to burst. "Did it happen in this bed?"

Henry came back in, wearing Char's pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. "These are amazing… what's going on in here?"

"I told Jasper about us. Goodnight." She rolled over and laid down.

Henry climbed into bed between them and said, "I wanted to tell you from the start. Somebody insisted that you couldn't handle it." He pointed a thumb at Charlotte.

"He's doing exactly what I was trying to avoid. Might as well break his poor love fool's heart."

"Trust me, all you've done is confirmed that I've been right all along," Jasper said. "It didn't work out because neither of you had good counsel! You needed my help!" Henry and Charlotte looked at each other, then fell onto each other's shoulders, cackling. "I see how it is. Belly shirts, sweaty sleeping Jasper can't possibly have good romantic advice!"

Henry tried to catch his breath as he sat up, "No. It's not THAT. It's.. You realize that you're Jasper, right? We don't get advice from you on… social situations."

"And that's your loss!" Jasper fussed. "I'm the only one in the room with a fulfilling love life that I'm confident about." Charlotte winced. That was sad… but absolutely true. "Charlotte needed me to tell her not to insist to keep things casual, because I would have known that Henry couldn't do that, not with you, Charlotte. I would have told you to tell him to just SEE where it goes instead of trying to quantify it as casual. It would have still been casual, but it would have had the room to become whatever was happening that scared you two off." Charlotte opened her mouth,but Jasper shushed her and continued, "Henry needed me to tell him DON'T WORRY ABOUT what she's doing when you aren't together. She's not that much of a selfish jerk. She'd at least be honest if she thought you needed to move on. And to talk him out of dating! Dating has been TERRIBLE for him and all he wanted was to hang out with you!!" He shook his head and though he looked funny with a head full of rollers and a belly shirt, neither Henry or Charlotte was in the mood to laugh right now. "Sleep on that!" Jasper said and laid down facing the opposite direction of his friends.

Charlotte and Henry glanced at each other, then she faced her side of the bed, too, away from the boys and Henry laid with his hands under his head, to make a little more room for them and stared at the ceiling for hours, through Charlotte's weird semi-panic dreams and Jasper's almost constant mouth noises. Both of them eventually ended up cuddled up against Henry. It wasn't until some time after they were that he actually finally fell to sleep.