I told you guys you were in the middle of something. And I said it was gonna get ugly, and unpleasant, and that I didn't see it coming. I'll tell ya, it only gets worse from here. So if you wanna stop reading, I'll understand. And this is where that little whoops from earlier in the story comes into play, back when I had no idea the story was taking this turn! So just gloss over that bit, like ya had to gloss over Charlotte suddenly doing nothing to Addison. Cuz let's face it, I need Addison in this story. Couldn't take her out, and couldn't have Charlotte do anything without creating even more drama, as I'm inclined to write myself into a corner as it is. So this is what you get.
"Hey Dell?" She knocked on the door then opened it.
He looked up and smiled. "Yeah, what can I do for you?"
She blushed and looked down. "Nothin'. Just I'm going down to Aunt Charlotte's office to get some actual food. You want anything?"
He grinned at her and laughed. "No thanks."
"kay."
She turned, pushed her hair behind her ear self consciously and went down the hall.
When Violet had finished speaking with Naomi she pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed Charlotte's cell, though she knew she was still directly downstairs. Even though for some reason it felt like she'd been at the practice for hours, they still had a half hour before they even opened for business. So she knew Charlotte was still downstairs at her practice as well. Hell, if she jumped on the floor in the right place, the woman would hear it. The thought made her giggle.
"Turner, what is it?"
"Good morning to you too."
"Yeah, yeah. What is it? You need something?"
"Yeah," Violet wandered down the hall as she spoke as Caroline disappeared through the stairwell door, headed, no doubt down to breakfast at Charlotte's practice.
"I wanted to let you know that I spoke with Caroline just now, who by the way is headed right to your practice, and"
Violet stopped talking abruptly, pulling the phone down from her ear, then she ran for the stairs, pulled the door open and seeing what she was afraid she'd see, she turned back into the practice.
"Dell! Naomi!"
Somehow Naomi overtook Dell, as Violet held the door open she saw Charlotte storming up the steps from her practice as Naomi rushed down the stairs nearest her.
"What happened?" Charlotte barked the question, still running, her voice full of fear.
"I heard a yell," Violet began then let her voice trail off. She was surprised Charlotte knew exactly what had happened. Though she might have heard the echo when Violet yelled for Naomi and Dell, that plus the fact she'd announced that Caroline was headed downstairs. Still, she was impressed.
Charlotte sat down next to Caroline who had pushed herself up to sitting on the stairwell landing, her face red.
Naomi had flown down the stairs and now crouched next to Caroline opposite Charlotte. "Honey, are you okay? What happened?"
"I'm fine," she answered, not looking either of them in the eye, clearly embarrassed. She grabbed the stair railing to pull herself up, but Naomi's hand on her arm stopped her.
"What happened?" Charlotte repeated. "You're not going anywhere."
Caroline scowled looking angry. "I was walking down the stairs- just walking," she insisted before anyone would question or doubt.
"So you were walking down the stairs and-"
"I guess I know how to walk down stairs!" She clawed her hair behind her ear and glared.
"Sweetie, no one meant anything by it."
"I'm not stupid!" She was yelling and on the verge of tears. "I know how to walk down stairs! I was just walking," she insisted again, "I stepped down, but I couldn't-"
"You couldn't see your feet," Charlotte muttered.
"No!" Her lower lip pouted and inverted and she wrenched her fingers across her skin and ripped them through her hair. She drew blood from her cheek as she did so.
"It's okay," Charlotte whispered.
"No it's not!" She screamed. "It's fucking stupid," she gasped trying to keep from crying, "I can walk down the stairs!"
"Caroline, when you're pregnant and you-"
"I'm not pregnant!"
"Honey people trip or slip or fall down the stairs all the time when they can't see their feet. Why do you think moving people use elevators instead of stairs? If you're carrying a box and you fall?"
Caroline was still glaring and breathing hard.
"You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Hell, it's not like you fell outta bed or something," Charlotte tried to lighten her mood.
"Why don't you let me take a look and make sure you're okay?" Naomi asked.
Caroline shrank away from Naomi, eyes wide in fear.
"No way!" She put an arm over her stomach, in case she were thinking of trying to raise her shirt right then and there.
"How far down the stairs were you when you slipped?" Violet asked from the top of the stairs. Dell stood behind her,looking on, wary of Charlotte. Knowing that Caroline had fallen down the stairs, and being pregnant, she wasn't about to risk the very likely same fate.
"Up where you are," she grumbled.
"Oh my god! You fell all the way down here?" Charlotte was amazed and scared.
"More like slipped," she answered, "and rolled a little,"
"Get up!" Charlotte insisted ready to shove her into an exam room, her voice made sharp by her fear. "Can you stand up?"
"WE need to get you looked at now," Naomi added. "You could have internal hemoragging, broken bones, we need to have another sonogram"
"What's that?"
"The thing Addison did to you"
"Nooo! Uh uh. No way!"
"Not that thing," Charlotte provided. "It's the machine that looks into your stomach. Use it all the time for appendicitis and all sorts of other stuff, not just on pregnant people."
Caroline glared and shoved Charlotte away. "Shut up! I'm not pregnant!"
Naomi took the opportunity and put both hands over Caroline's shoulders. "I need to do a sonogram on you now, come upstairs and we'll get that done and make sure you're not on death's door."
From the top of the stairs Violet was able to clearly watch Caroline's body language. She watched the girl's body tense, relax.
"Here," Charlotte stood up. "I'll go with you."
Caroline's body tensed again. Now she balled herself up facing away from Charlotte, while still seated by Naomi.
"No," it was a weak whine, nothing with any substance to it. "Not gonna."
"Luanne, you need to be looked at. Don't be a moron. We can't sit here all day with you while you whine about not wanting something done."
"Caroline," Violet called down. "How about if you just go with Naomi for that test?" Immediately she could see her relax, relieved. "I have something to show your aunt."
"Okay," Caroline readily agreed, and even smiled a bit.
Without another word, Naomi helped her to stand, and guided her up the stairs. Charlotte trailed them.
Once upstairs, Charlotte snatched Violet.
"What the hell was that about?"
"She didn't want you to go with her."
"She didn't want to be examined," Charlotte corrected.
"Well as you can see she just made an enormous jump from being scared to death for anyone to even look at her, to allowing Naomi to examine her."
"Quit skippin' around the subject."
Violet sighed. "I don't think Caroline wants you to see her like that, to see her in that way."
"All she's doing is a sonogram! It's not like she's doin' a pelvic! And hell, I've seen tons of pregnant patients, examined millions of them- why"
"They're not your niece. And your niece didn't want you in there. I think she's embarrassed."
She and Charlotte were walking down the hall to the exam room. Clearly Charlotte didn't believe a word of what Violet said.
"Luanne," she called from just outside the door, "I'm right out here if you need me."
The door opened and Charlotte smiled in triumph, the smile vanished when she saw Naomi step outside.
"All done," she smiled. "Dell?" She called down the hall.
He stepped out of his office, where he'd admittedly been watching. "Why don't you have Caroline sit in your office for a bit?"
Dell nodded and slipped past her into the exam room. As he was leading Caroline out Naomi looked at Violet. "Didn't you have something you needed to tell Charlotte?"
She nodded. "Yes, yes that's right," she lied. She wasn't about to tell her of her suspisions, but could clearly see that for some reason Naomi wanted Charlotte as out of the way as she'd wanted Caroline out of the way. Something was wrong.
Naomi didn't move until both women were well down the hall. Then she hurried over to Addison's office.
"Get over here and look at this."
"What is it?"
She pulled her into the exam room, where she'd left the sonogram image frozen on the screen.
"How old does that baby look?"
Addison shrugged, then looked closer. "You can clearly see it's a boy, the head, the nose, ears, fingers," she muttered softly. "Is this some sort of test?" She smiled at her friend.
"Just answer the question, please."
"I'd guess about 22 weeks."
"Not, say, 15 or 16 weeks?"
"Nae, have you been to med school? There are marked visible differences that even on the worst sonogram machine would be clear. Have you lost your mind? Did you tell someone that's how old their baby was?" She looked at Naomi now with genuine concern, and concern the parents she'd possibly miscounceled. "Whose baby is this?"
"Caroline's."
Addison marched out the door intent on heading straight down to Charlotte King's office to get to the bottom of this, when to her surprise, she saw the woman sitting in Violet's office. Confused, but without a moment's hesitation she opened the door and walked in.
"Hey, Addison," Violet smiled.
Addison smiled and nodded in greeting, but turned her gaze to Charlotte.
"What?"
"When was Caroline raped?"
"You mean, Luanne?" She corrected.
"I need the date, now. And I know you know the date."
"January 25th."
Addison left the room and grabbed a calendar from the front desk, brining it back with her to Violet's office. She made a clear show of counting off the weeks. "That would mean that Caroline, Luanne, is exactly 17 weeks pregnant, or about four months along."
Naomi had entered the room, and stood next to Addison, she nudged her arm, and Addison was very happy at that moment to have a friend that could read her mind. She grabbed the picture Naomi held in her hand and showed it to Charlotte.
"Does that look like a 17, or even 18 week fetus to you?"
Charlotte's face reddened and her jaw dropped in shock. Tears sprang to her eyes. "Jesus Christ," she whispered.