Almost done here, folks. Can't wait for the next couple of chapters, cuz I think they're hilarious. When you see a little breaking line, you should probably take a break. Because this one is LONG. Like 2 chapters in one. Review anyway if you can remember the beginning by the time you get to the end. My advice? Review halfway through, then review again at the end! lol. Hey, it's a good idea. Edit: Okay now is just messing up left and right! Wow. Maybe I'll make corrections when the site decides to behave itself. Review anyway. Ignore the weirdness.

"Get away from me, Cooper," she hissed, shoving her way past him in the parking garage to get to her car. How the hell he beat her getting down there was anyone's guess.

"I heard what you said to Caroline- you were loud enough for the whole practice to hear."

She looked at him as if he were dense. "So?"

She threw her purse into the car ahead of her, and was about to follow it in when Cooper grabbed her and stopped her.

"She's not a bother, or a burden, she wasn't disturbing any-"

"Christ, Cooper, you called and told me she was cryin', hyperventilating n' hollering about wanting to go home! Like that'll fix anything," she rolled her eyes and scoffed at the very idea.

"You said she was a fool! You called her a fool for reacting the way she did"
"You said that Violet said she thinks if she goes back home sh'ell somehow get to skip labor and being pregnant. I wouldn't call that smart," Charlotte countered.

"She's in denial."

"Where I'm from that's also called being a fool."

Cooper stared at her, amazed that she couldn't see the obvious. He was about to say something about her, the adult in this situation was the one behaving the most foolishly- then something better popped into his head. He was angry at Charlotte for the first time since he'd learned she was 'harboring' her niece from Alabama.

"Stop taking your fear out on her! She has enough to deal with, Charlotte."

HE thought she would slap him. Instead her eyes just reflected her rage, her chest heaving with the weight of her surpressed emotions.

"I have to get back to the hospital," she shoved him and got into her car. "Let me know if she acts up again," she called out as she put the car into drive.

Cooper was dumbfounded. As the car was driving off he yelled, knowing she'd hear him, "She's scared! And don't act like you're not!"

PRETEND THERE"S A BREAK HERE, Okay? isn't allow it's usual little line break things.

Charlotte sat on the arm chair staring at Caroline. Caroline stared right back. When Caroline's cell, rather the cell Charlotte bought for her, went off they both jumped. Caroline checked it then grinned. Shoving herself up to standing she grabbed the phone up walking away to take it.

Charlotte didn't trust this. For the months she'd been there she'd taken no calls. Any calls came through her phone and they were usually Landry, his wife, or Duke. She knew this was neither of the three.

"You take that call in here," she ordered.

Caroline's back was to her, but Charlotte knew, she just knew she was rolling her eyes.

"Hey," she answred.

"Yeah." Her words were curt, an audible clue that almost always said I'm not alone and can't talk.

"Yup," she laughed then laughed again.

"So, what do you think?" She asked.

There was a lengthy pause. Finally Caroline sighed sadly. "Yeah," she answered her tone decidedly depressed, or sullen.

"I hate it."

"Ha! Yeah right! I can count the number of places on one hand."

She shook her head. "Whatever."

She glanced back at Charlotte.

"I"ll call you later."

Charlotte smiled engratiatingly at her. "You talking to your cousin Anna?" She guessed.

Caroline shrugged carelessly. "Maybe."

Charlotte wasn't falling for it. "Uh huh." Charlotte had no doubt the kid was trying to hatch a scheme to get herself back home.

Carline sat back down. They resumed staring at each other, or staring into space directly between one another.

"Well, this sure as hell is fun," Charlotte commented finally.

Caroline just stared, looking as though she could do this all day. Then Charlotte remembered that as a school student, the girl was in much more practice of sitting still for long periods of time and staring, probably practicing sleeping with her eyes open.

"Why are you mad at me?" Caroline asked finally.

"You're hot and cold! Fine one minute, flipping out the next. I never know which it's gonna be."

Caroline set her jaw.

"Luanne, talk to me!"

Caroline stared at her aunt in disbelief.

"You slapped me!"

"True," she answered. "I'm not apologizing."

"Why?"

Charlotte breathed in not eexpecting that. She thought about it.

"Don't give me some stand off answer either. I'm not your employee. No need to keep me at a distance."

The last statement pricked at her. Maybe she had been keeping the girl at a distance. She felt her shoulders relax then, and was surprised, not realizing they'd been tense. But she wasn't ready to talk, not yet.

"Maybe I shouldn't have smacked you," she relented, "that second time," she added. "But you can't go back home yet, even if you could it wouldn't make this magically dissapear. If you go around saying stuff like that people'll think you're addle minded."

"But stuff wouldn't happen to me," she objected. I wouldn't have people all lookin at me and doing tstuff to me."

"You crazy? Sure you'd still have drs visits probably see more of them than you do now. "

"Mama wouldn't make me."

Charlotte laughed sharply at that.

"You wouldn't be stayin' with her. And believe me, none of them would have known what to do when your pelvic floor was hurting so bad the other night. You know, what we need to do is get you doing that p.t stuff every other day or so, that'll help you. You can do it yourself now. It's not hard. I'll just be sitting in the room to supervise, just in case the machine blows up or something. We can do it at night, after the practice is closed. I'll give you relaxin too, it'll help. You've got weeks and weeks left, but it'll help."

She stared at her in disbelief wondering how her original statements had taken this turn.

Charlotte watched as Caroline's previously bored and passive face seemed to screw up tight in a mix of emotions.

"I don't want that!" She yelled seeming out of breath suddenly.

"Why don't you fix this? That's all I ever wanted! That's all you had to do! Now you're shoving all this stuff at me, when if you'd just have let me get an abortion before there wouldn't be a problem!"

"And you're upset because I'm upset? You're the reason I'm upset!" She screamed.

This truth was too much for Charlotte to bear. "I am not the reason!" She shot back, standing up towering over her niece. "Your father is!"

Caroline pushed herself up from the couch with remarkable speed. Then once standing, she shoved Charlotte to the floor. Or rather, she tried to. Shoving her to the floor in a righteous rage had been her intention, however angry as she was, all that rage in a tiny package wasn't quite enough. Charlotte barely wobbled.

I'm not staying here with you," she added. "You are not my favorite aunt anymore!"

Charlotte spun around and walked out of the room. Caroline called after her.

"Where are you going?"

Charlotte was headed down the hallway. "We don't have any small trees or shrubs," she answered. "I've had it. I put a roof over your head, keep you from dyin' and this is what I get?"

Caroline made a sputering noise and started backing away as Charlotte added, "Given you way too much slack, your Uncle Landry woulda tore your lil' butt up by now."

Caroline grabbed her cell phone and dialed.
"Dr. Bennett, can you come get me? Like, really quick?"

She opened the door, to put at least that between her butt and her aunt. She was shocked to see Cooper stnding there. Still hearing Dr. Bennett's voice in her ear, and also Charlotte's footsteps, she pulled him forward, so that she could hide behind him.

"Aunt Charlotte's gonna kill me!" She announced this to explain both to Cooper why she was using him to block her and to Naomi as her reason for calling her.

Cooper smiled hearing Naomi's voice over the phone, "You're talking to Naomi?"

She nodded, keeping an eye on the doorway able to see Charlotte coming towards them.

"Funny, she's right behind me," he turned to point to the street, then stopped seeing Naomi stepping out of her car, cell to her ear. "Right there," he corrected pointing now to the car behind his.

Shocked at Charlotte's approach, he put a hand up to stop her, blocking the exit with his body.

"Move, Freedman!" She snapped. "She's had this coming for a long time!"

Hearing this and seeing Charlotte, Naomi quickened her pace, running to the girl, then grabbing her by the arm and nearly dragging her to safety and to her car. Without a word she got her into the backseat, slammed the door, and with a quick glance back at the house, she hopped into the driver's side.

Once they were both in the car, Naomi let out a breath.

"Was that a belt your aunt had in her hand?" She asked, unable to believe what she'd just seen. The tires squealed as she backed out of the driveway and drove off.

IMAGINE THERE"S ANOTHER BREAK RIGHT HERE

Cooper used both hands to back Charlotte back into the house.

"What's going on?"

"Nothin'."

He rolled his eyes. "So tell me, is denial and misdirecting anger a thing with your entire family, or just you two?"

She glared at him.

"You have a belt in your hand, Charlotte," he kept his voice low to counter with her emotions, "something happened. Tell me. You said before you'd talk to me, tell me things." He held out his hands to her. "Talk to me?"

She chucked the belt down at his feet where it whipped at his ankles and clanked the buckle end to the floor and sped to her room, slamming the door behind her. Cooper waited a few beats, then walked after her and opened the door.

"Why are you so upset?"

"Same as always!"

"Which would be?" He decided it was time to push her, the way he knew she'd pushed Caroline when she wanted her to talk.

"That god damn kid is pregnant!"

"Do you resent that your family sent her to you?"

"I coulda said no, you know."

He gave a small smile to her, knowing she'd have never done such a thing. For all her fronts and pretenses, she knew that she loved her family, and especially loved Caroline.

"That kid drives me up a wall! She is so pig headed and stubborn! She thinks she can just say whatever she wants to hell with the consequences. It's like she doesn't think. I tell her what to do and she won't do it. Or I help her and she resents me. She thinks she doesn't need anybody. The harder you try to help her the harder she pushes you away."

Cooper stared at her, shaking his head. Charlotte could just as well be describing herself to him, but he knew better than to say this. Not now at least. He sat down on the bed.

She's mad because she can't have what she wants. I still have to force her to get out of bed most days. She just wants to lie in and sleep. I've had to lock up the liquor or it'd all be gone by now. She's angry, she's hurt, I get that- I can't even imagine what hell she has to live in each and every day-"

"But you snapped on her this morning, and just now you were going at her with a belt."

Nothing.

"Addison said she was a brat. Do you agree with her now?"

"That woman was wrong as hell. I stand by everything I said. Luanne is more entitled than anyone I know to be a mean ass hell witch if that's what she wants. Whatever makes her happy. What's she's doing is nothing to what she could be doing. She's a good kid, but it doesn't come naturally to her, like it does to some. She's always been rebellious, never the perfect lady, her eyes say things that make you want to slap her because you know she's thinking something sassy. But that's just how she is. She's like Duke that way, he was always rebellious, fighting against how he was 'supposed to be' or brought up to be. "

"She has rough edges, that probably comes from having to fend for herself at her Mama's, not to mention how the kid's at school treat her. I went to that school I know how the kids there can be."

"She's smart, but she's alienated. I know she doesn't have many friends back home- she's always been a loner. Teacher sent a note home once because the girl would sit in the corner and read the enclyopedias during silent reading. She said, "I'm concerned that Luanne King is not reading socially acceptable books in class. I strongly suggest you talk to her about her reading choices as well as trying to fit in more with the other girls in her class." Fortunately the friends she does have now are smart too. Too smart to care about petty crap.

Seeing Charlotte had calmed down he spoke again. "Charlotte, you need to talk to her about labor."

"The hell I do!" She spat back. Then softer she added, "Not happening."

"Clearly it's bothering you. You can't get over it until you talk about it."

He watched her eyes widen and she stared off into space her face suddenly frozen. Then she snapped out of it and shook her head.

"Can't do that. Not goin' there. Wouldn't help anyway."

"You're going to have to talk to her at some point. Or she's going to want to talk to you, I'm sure she does already. That's why she's hyperventilating. It's got nothing to do with going home- that she can talk about. Anything she can talk about isn't the problem- it's what she's not saying that's making her hyperventilate. You need to be ready to talk to her when she comes to you about it."

"Violet tell you that, or you come around to that conclusion on your own?"

Not taking the bait, he continued, "I'll even get you started. Personally I am scared to death all the time that Caroline is going to go into labor right in front of me, or miscarry or whatever. Terrified. And I sometimes think that you might want me in the room with you, and that scares me. I hated my ob rotation. I don't do well with seeing people in pain."

AND ANOTHER ONE

There was the sound of giggling before the door even opened, which only got louder when it did. She'd forgotten Sam was dropping off Maya and her friend Bea today, Sam was already driving off, as she knew he would be once he saw the girls go in the front door.

Her heart ached when she saw the fear in Caroline's eyes at the sound of the laughter, knowing that it wasn't just Maya. She watched helplessly as the girl quickly tried to scrouge herself against the couch arm, hunkering down as much as possible, and reposition her plate so as to hife as much of her stomach as possible, just as the girls walked in. Whereas before the girl had looked like she was hiding a soccer ball beneath her shirt, now it looked like she'd swallowed a beach ball. It was painful to watch.

Naomi stood up to at least partially block Caroline from view once the girls were on the stairs. Fortunately, the girls rushed straight to and up the stairs.

"Hi Mom!" Maya called out not looking anywhere but toward her destination, followed closely behind by Bea who echoed, "Hi, Mrs. Bennett- I mean, Dr. Bennett!"

"I'll bring you girls up some snacks," she called back to ensure that they both stayed upstairs for the moment.

Turning back to Caroline she saw hurt in her eyes. The moment the girls rushed in carefree and giggling, Caroline had looked happy and eager. Naomi realized then that likely most of all Caroline missed having friends, her friends back home and people her own age here. It'd probably been months since she'd spoken to anyone that wasn't an adult. She didn't know that much about where she and Charlotte King grew up, but something told her that Caroline wasn't calling them, and those girls parents certainly wouldn't allow them to call her, even knowing Caroline's situation. It was probably looked upon as shameful, something best to be ignored and forgotten.

Naomi sat down next to Caroline, wrapping an arm around her, squeezing her tightly, putting her lips to the top of the girl's head. She held her for a long moment, before releasing her ready to bring up a plate of food for the girls as a distraction.

"I should go back now." Caroline's voice was hollow, a whisper.

"What?"

"I appreciate you coming to get me, m'am," she explained, "But I should go back now. I don't want to be a bother to you. I should go back now. I'll call Aunt Charlotte to come fetch me. Thank you for the cookies, ma'am."

Caroline seemed deflated, lacking the strength to do or be anything other than how she'd been trained. So tired that she was falling back on what she knew which included lacing her statements with ma'ams.

Naomi put a hand over Caroline's as she reached for her cell phone. "You'll do no such thing. I didn't come to get you, I was already on my way there. Cooper and I were going to- well, never mind," she shook her head. "You're staying here for tonight."

"But-" she looked up at the stairs.

"Don't worry about them," she smiled. "Just give me a minute."

In seconds she was mounting the stairs with a plate of cookies, a bag of chips, and two sodas.

"Maya, honey can you grab the door?"

The door opened instantly revealing Bea's smiling face. She smiled back.

"Here's your snacks girls, she walked forward purposely placing them in the middle of Maya's bed, so that they would both be encouraged to go forward for the food, rather than back downstairs for something different. As soon as Bea reached for the soda, Naomi looked at her daughter. "Maya, can I see you for a minute?"

She shrugged. "Sure, Mom."

Naomi smiled again at Bea as she stepped out of the room. Maya followed, and Naomi led her down the hall.

"What is it?"

"Caroline's here, Dr. King's niece?"

Maya brightened, and Naomi was genuinely glad to see that response. Nonetheless she knew Caroline needed adult time rather than a girl's night.

"She's going to be staying for tonight. I was hoping that at least for this afternoon if you'd like to go over to Bea's house, maybe even sleep over."

Maya's face brightened further. Bea's house had a pool and a jacuzzi. "Can I?"

"If her mother says it's okay, and if she can come and get you."

"Thanks Mom!" She hugged her and raced back to the bedroom calling as she went, "Lemme ask Bea!"

'NOTHER

Looking at Charlotte in a dead sleep beside him, he wasn't entirely certain sleeping together had been the best idea. Not that he hadn't seen it coming, what with sex being one of her favorite ways to avoid dealing with emotions. But she was exhausted from trying to hold herself together, and he figured that she deserved to get what she wanted, even if what she wanted was the simple escape of sex.

Fine, so it didn't exactly kill him either. And he was glad to be able to do something to make her happy. They'd talked only for so long, before she'd reached her talk threshold.

He sighed, reminding himself to call Violet and let her know he'd be staying over at Charlotte's. Naomi had left a message already saying the kid was staying the night. It was good. Sometimes even the people you love the most can make you want to kill them if you never have time away. This was good, he considered and made another mental note to ask Sam to talk to Charlotte.

It hadn't occurred to him until the middle of their conversation that he could only help so much. He realized that she needed someone who could relate to what she was going through. He thought about that for a long time before he realized that person was Sam.

LAST BREAK

After dinner, and after Caroline had become so aggitated that the baby was kicking and dragged her fingers through her hair hard enough to pull chunks of it out, Naomi decided it was time to talk. She'd put the girl to bed, then sat there with her fidgeting uncomfortably probably currently wishing to be anywhere but there. She wasn't going to wait for her to start hyperventilating.

"Is there anything you want to talk about? Anything you want to ask me?"

A vehement shake of the head was her answer.

"I think we need to talk about what's been bothering you."

The girl looked panicked, but shook her head again. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Now we can play this game all evening or we can get it over with."

She watched Caroline''s little nose wrinkle in disgust and she swallowed, her mouth curled in disgust as well. She looked away.

"Alright then, I'll start."

Caroline moaned in fear and abruptly buried herself beneath the covers.

Naomi spoke on, as though Caroline were still sitting up. "I think you're worried about labor."

Caroline made a much more vocal groan of disgust, the sort usually accompanied immediately by exclamations of yuck! Or ugh!, but the girl said nothing. She squirmed, and even beneath the covers, Naomi could see her ribcage rising and falling rapidly.

"Now calm down," she answered Caroline's silent argument, "we're just going to talk. I think you need to talk about this."

An angry growl of disagreement was her only answer.

"Tell me, what do you know already about labor?"

"Gross," Caroline hissed softly, but not so softly that Naomi missed it.

"I need more explanation than that. Come on, out with it. and I can sit here all night."

"I read about it in books," she finally answered. "A lot to times they talk about that."

Naomi was alarmed. "Addison's medical books again?"

"No, ma'am," she answered.

"What books did you read? What did they say?"

"I was reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and it said it was like being boiled alive in hot oil, but no one will ever just let you die. It's like torture. There was this one book at school that said this lady tore most of the fingernails out of her hands- not broke them, but tore them straight out so she had no nails at all, just bloody mess, from trying to grip the bed so hard."

Naomi could hear her gasping for breath and was ready to speak up but the girl continued rapidly,

"And on tv people are always screaming their heads off."

Naomi sighed. She'd wondered for a while just what to say to the girl about this, and so she was surprised at just how easily an answer popped up.

"Ever read anything about girls getting their periods for the first time?" She asked.

"Eew, gross," Caroline whispered, disgusted yet again.

"Well?"

"Not on purpose," she answered. "If it's a part of the story then yeah."

"Seen stuff about it on tv?"

"Yeah."

"And how do they portray all that? How do the girls feel about it?"

"Stupid usually," the acerbic tone was back to Caroline's voice and Naomi took that as a good sign. Caroline pulled the covers off then, and Naomi knew she was right.

Caroline rolled her eyes and continued, "They're all worried that they won't get it. Or they really want to." She rolled her eyes again. "Stupid."

"That's not how you felt about it, ever?"

Caroline looked at her as if she were insane.

"No way!" She answered. "I had better things to think about, plus I knew better than to look forward to it. I was smart enough to hope to not get it. I always knew to think of it as a hellish curse," she added, "which is had turned out to be," she finished, glaring down at her stomach.

Naomi winced. Oops. Why, why didn't I see that coming?

"Sorry," she murmered. She took a breath and tried again.

"Okay, then how is the actual event of menstruation discribed then?"

"Well, when people actually talk about it realistically, it's all about how much it sucks. Or you hear stupid stories about people who can't get out of bed they're in so much pain, or they bleed through the bed or something. Or are always screaming at people and have to eat chocolate all day."

Naomi laughed. "That's realistic?"

She shrugged.

"So, when you got your period was it that bad? Were you in so much pain you couldn't stand up? Did you start screaming obscenities at people?"

She laughed. "No. But I only had my period like, a couple of times, then it just stopped. Maybe I just didn't get enough practice."

Naomi squeezed her shoulder. "My point is that sometimes what you hear and see and read isn't all it's cracked up to be. For example, I've delivered tons of babies, and I don't know of a single woman who's ripped her fingernails out!"

Caroline sighed, then looked at Naomi half in hope, half in doubt. "So.....it's not that bad?"

"It's different for everyone."

She looked at her like she was lying, then looked away, drawing her knees up close.

"I'm scared. I don't wanna do it. I'm really, really scared."

Okay wake up and review now! Don't worry I'll come back in tomorrow and fix all the errors I know are here. I gotta get to bed though. Wanted to post this anyway.