Tig woke up the next morning, the memories of his past mistakes clouding his mind. Not seeing Charlotte in the bed next to him made him feel even more vulnerable and alone than the demons clawing at his brain did. In order to quiet them he popped the top off a vodka bottle in their liquor cabinet and started drinking. Before he left the house he saw a pink post-it note stuck to the back of their door where Charlotte had written, in purple marker: "Left early. See you at the club later today" signed with a small heart in front of a capital 'C.' He smiled at it and took another swig from the bottle, trying to quell the new ache of her not being in his arms at that very moment then folded the note and put it gently into his pocket before riding over to Teller-Morrow to start his day.
When Tig was volunteering to go help Gemma collect the guns at her house after hearing about her rape Charlotte had already been up for hours doing a walk through of the building with a city manager and inspector, her attorney and the real estate agent. Apparently, the building had been up for sale for so long that the agent was more than eager to get rid of it.
After the city manager left and a lot of haggling between Charlotte's lawyer and the real estate agent over the state of the building Charlotte finally agreed to a price.
"Congratulations" the seedy agent said, shaking her hand. "You now own a pile of rat shit."
At the moment that Charlotte held the keys in her hand Tig looked down at the floor of the hallway in Gemma's house while he was fucking her from behind and - through his drunken, lonely stupor - saw the small pink piece of paper with a purple heart and an uppercase 'C' that had fallen out of his pocket and landed on a shattered picture of a young Jax.
"Jesus" he said softly, blinking the sweat out of his eyes and pushing himself away from Gemma. "Jesus." he said again, pulling his pants back up before bending down to pick up Charlotte's note. "What have I done?" His eyes started to fill with tears as he ran his finger over the small heart she had drawn for him then he got up at stormed out of the house.
As he sped off toward Teller-Morrow he knew that no amount of alcohol or meaningless sex could fill the void that his actions had left in him and today was the day he unburdened himself before the grief consumed him and he ruined the one good thing he had in his life: Charlotte.
"Alex!" Charlotte screamed when she pulled into the Teller-Morrow lot and saw him getting beaten by Opie. Tig was hanging limply from where Opie had a hold on him by the top of his head just taking the beating. She had barely put the car in park when she was bolting out of it and running toward him only to be passed by Jax doing the same thing.
When Opie had hopped on his bike and left the lot Charlotte took Tig's broken, bleeding face in her hands and just stared into his blue eyes while Clay demanded to know what Tig said to Opie."I don't even know who I am anymore." Tig responded to Clay but didn't take his eyes off of Charlotte's until Clay pressed him for more details and he moved Charlotte next to him, holding her his body as though it were giving him the will to live. Charlotte avoided everyone's eyes when Tig admitted to killing Donna by hiding her face in his kutte and when he told the men in front of him that Opie knew that true killer was Stahl she squeezed his hand supportively, realizing that he had heard every word she spoke to him the night before, despite the drugs in his system.
The club having finally dispersed after Jax went to chase down Opie Charlotte helped Tig into the passenger seat of her car and drove them both home.
"I am so proud of you." she said softly when she sat him down at their dining room table with the First Aid kit in her hands. "Telling Opie, being truthful like that. That was the right thing to do, baby."
His eyes snapped up to meet her when she said that and he grabbed her hands quickly, pinning them to the table. "Do you believe that? That telling the truth is the right thing to do?"
"Of course." she said, her eyes darting from his to the painful grip he had on her hands. "Alex, let go." She looked at his eyes and saw the painful longing behind them that made her stomach lurch. She tried to pull away but he held her to him tighter.
"I had sex with Gemma." he blurted out, keeping his tear-filled eyes fixed on hers and watched them change from nervous to brimming with tears of pain to angry in a span of mere seconds.
The knife that this confession had driven into her heart gave her the strength to wrench free from his grasp and slap him square on the gash in his cheek that Opie had given him. Tig's face whipped quickly to the side with the force of her hand making contact with his cheek as he took his punishment but he turned to face her again, his eyelids red and tears continuing to stream down his face.
Charlotte only heard ringing in her ears and her head began to spin when she stood up and stumbled backward, knocking the dining room chair over onto the floor with a clatter that sounded far off to her. Seeing how uneasy she was on her feet Tig, instinctively, got up to help her only to be met with another blow to the face.
"Don't come near me." she said, her breath was jagged and she put her hand to the ribs under her left breast where she felt a shooting pain spreading. "Ah!" she cried in pain, blinking rapidly to stop the tears from falling down her cheeks but, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't. Instead, she found herself in the most compromising position she had ever been in as she began weeping in front of Tig, unable to catch her breath to the point of hyperventilation.
"Oh, God" Tig said, holding his head in his hands as he watched her crumble in front of him, longing to touch her and comfort her but knowing that it would only make it worse. "Charlotte, please. God, baby, I didn't know what I was doing. I was completely out of it.I didn't even-I didn't even want it and I stopped it before anything even happened. Please." He reached for her face as she hung her head between her legs, trying to normalize her breathing again. "I love you." he whispered when his hand made contact with her hot, wet cheek.
"No!" she screamed, standing up straight again and pushing his hand away from her. "No you fucking don't" she said angrily through bared teeth and pushed him away from her before running up the stairs to her bedside table and grabbing her PX4 Storm compact Beretta.
"Charlotte, what the-" he said when he saw her coming back down the stairs, checking the chamber of her gun. She elbowed him out of the way of the door he was attempting to block, bruising his solar plexus, and got into the Nova, squealing out of the driveway toward Gemma's house.
Blinded by tears of anger, Charlotte pulled the car up onto Gemma's lawn, leveling her mailbox and got out while the engine was still running. She raised her arm, suppressing the shaking in her hand before squeezing the trigger of her pistol and shooting a hole into the radiator of Gemma's Cadillac that was sitting innocently in the driveway. She she fired two more shots into the car's front tires and was about to shoot again when Gemma burst out of the house and ran down the driveway toward her.
"What do you think-?!" Gemma began
Charlotte cut her off by screaming, her voice hoarse from crying and her eyes positively wild, "HOW DARE YOU!" she dispelled the round in the chamber of her gun and put the safety on before reaching Gemma and continuing to scream in her face. "HOW DARE YOU MISTAKE MY LOYALTY FOR WEAKNESS!" She stared defiantly at Gemma until the sound of Tig's motor drew her attention from Gemma to Tig who was now bolting up the driveway towards the two of them. Before he could touch her again Charlotte lifted the gun in her hand again and pointed it at Tig's heart.
"Don't" she sputtered through tears and watched as he got down on his knees in front of her and grabbed the barrel of her gun.
"Do it." he begged, pointing the barrel at his head. "Do it, please."
Gemma saw Charlotte's hand shaking and came up behind her to help remove the gun from her loose grip and held her tightly in her arms, guiding her away from Tig and into the house. The women sat quietly across the table from one another while Charlotte waited for her shaking and tears to subside.
"Charlotte…" Gemma began
Charlotte held up her hand and Gemma stopped speaking, "I know." she said, avoiding Gemma's gaze by looking at her hands. "I know what it's like to feel empty and unwanted and needing anything and everything to fill that hole." She met Gemma's eyes and saw that they were filled with regret. She waited a beat then attempted to collect herself, "That is to say." she cleared her throat, "I forgive you...regardless of the fact that you haven't even apologized yet."
"I am sorry." Gemma said, "Of course I'm sorry. I was selfish and only thinking of what I wanted...not who would be ruined because of it. Char, darlin', please don't ruin what you have with Tig because of a silly mistake."
"Ha." Charlotte laughed coldly, "I've ruined nothing...because that's what we had. Nothing"
She started to leave when Gemma spoke again "You know...someone once told me that sex is just sex."
These words stopped Charlotte in her tracks and she stood, frozen, with her hand on the doorknob. "Well" she croaked, "when sex is all you have, then..."
Gemma slammed her hand on the door in front of Charlotte, forcing her to look at her. "That's bullshit and you know it."
Charlotte swallowed new tears threatening to break through her resolve, "Let me by, Gem."
Gemma refused to move for what felt like ages to Charlotte who was listening to the combined ticking of the clock and pounding of the blood in her ears, her face growing hotter and hotter until a single tear fell from her cheek and Gemma let her go.
Charlotte was glad to see that Tig was no longer on Gemma's front lawn and even more relieved that he wasn't at their house when she arrived. Worried that he would soon return she called a cab and, while she waited for it to arrive, she packed a bag.