Two weeks later, Cooper is in the kitchen at work passing around baby pictures of Ethan that Jen had gave him. "He does resemble you in some of these pictures." Violet tells him.
Charlotte walks in the room. "What are y'all looking at?"
The room stays quiet until Cooper answers. "They're baby pictures of Ethan"
"Oh." Charlotte walks out of the room.
"She's still mad at you?" Sam asks.
"What gave it away?" Cooper raises his eyebrows.
"She'll get over it. She just needs time to adjust to the fact that you have a seven-year old." Pete assures him.
"How is she doing? Violet says she's fine but tell me the truth Pete. How is she really doing at your place?"
"She misses you."
"Then she should come home."
"She's hurting." Addison adds. "I'm going to go check on her."
Charlotte's at her desk trying to do some work and fighting back the tears. Addison walks in. "How are you?"
"How do I look?"
"You look like you could use some cheering up."
"I can."
"Let's do that ultrasound today instead of waiting until Friday."
Charlotte nods. She climbs on the exam table at Addison's office. Addison prepares her for the ultrasound.
"Well?"
"Here's embryo number one. By the heartbeat and stage of development I estimate you're at eight weeks."
"Really. I didn't know I was that far. I must have got pregnant right after I went off the pill."
"Here's embryo number two. Same thing."
"There's two?"
"You're having twins. Congratulations."
Charlotte smiles and them some tears leak down her face. She wishes she could share this moment with Cooper. He would have been so excited to find out they're having twins. Another moment ruined since Jen and Ethan entered their lives.
"Just talk to him, Charlotte. You're never going to be able to change the ways he feels about Ethan. You know Coop. He's always been crazy about kids. He's not going to turn his back on Ethan and I'm not sure if he should."
"His first baby was supposed to be with me."
"It is. He met Ethan when he was seven. He wasn't there for the birth or to hold him after he was born or watch him grow. He missed his first birthday and his first steps. He missed the first day of kindergarten. Your babies will be his first time for all that. He'll be doing it all for the first time just like you."
"He'll probably miss them being born to go to a Lakers game with Ethan."
"Charlotte, he would not. Talk to Cooper, before he starts missing more firsts with your babies. He's already missed the first ultrasound, because we didn't tell him about it."
Addison prints up a bunch of pictures from the sonogram. She prints up three copies of each embryo alone and three of them together. "I'm giving you three copies. One for you, one for Cooper and an extra."
Charlotte takes the pictures. "Thank you." Charlotte walks into the conference room where Violet, Pete and Sam are still finishing up lunch. "Y'all want to se some sonogram photo's?"
"Sure." Violet holds out her hand. Charlotte hands her the stack. "Are you having twins?" It looks like two little sea monkeys in this photo."
"You're good." Charlotte nods and confirms.
"Maybe you can be a sonogram tech." Pete teases Violet since she is currently without her license and not working.
"Very funny." She nudges him and passes the pictures to him.
Pete looks over the photos and passes them to Sam. "Wow Charlotte. I can't believe you're going to be a mother."
Cooper saunters into the kitchen for a banana. "Are those what I think they are?" He smiles and tries to grab a look over Sam's shoulder.
Charlotte quickly snatches the pictures out of Sam's hand. "These are my pictures to pass around. You had your turn earlier."
"Can I at least see?"
"No."
"Charlotte, they're Cooper's babies too. He has a right to see them." Violet tells her.
"Cooper has Ethan. These babies are mine."
"What do you mean babies? Are you having twins?"
Sam and Pete get up and leave the room.
"What's it to you?"
"They're my children."
"And maybe I'll let you meet them when they're seven."
Violet interferes. "Charlotte you're not being fair. Give Cooper a chance."
"No." Charlotte walks briskly out of the room with her photos.
"How do I fix this Violet?"
"You start by apologizing and kissing Charlotte's feet. This is a lot for her to deal with."
"And?"
"And you need to set limits on the time you spend with Ethan. Charlotte didn't go into the marriage knowing you had a son and now she's forced to share you."
"I didn't do it on purpose." Cooper sighs. "What can I do short of pretending Ethan doesn't exist to make her happy?"
"Schedule and limit your time with him. Like in custody situation where one parent has him set days of the week. This way Charlotte knows what days you will be with Ethan and she doesn't make plans for you on those days. But you have to stick with it. If you have Ethan on Wednesdays you can't take him to the movies on Saturday. Saturdays are for Charlotte. Because right now she feels that you'll drop anything to spend time with your son and not her."
"It's just that I missed so much of his life already. I don't want to miss anymore of it."
"That's Jens fault for shutting you out. Charlotte shouldn't have to sacrifice for what Jen did to you."
"I'll talk to Jen about setting up a schedule."
Cooper knocks on the door of Jens apartment. "Ethan's not here. He's at his friends house."
"I came to see you."
"Come in. Sit down." Cooper sits on the couch. She hands him a beer. "What did you come to see me about?"
"I want to set up a visitation schedule with Ethan."
"I don't think so."
"Why not?"
"I'm not sharing my son. You can come visit him and spoil him but he's not staying overnight at your place."
"That's fine. But I want to set up one day of the week that I can see him."
"Why?"
"This way I'm guaranteed to see him once a week."
"No offense but Ethan doesn't need or want that. He comes home from school does his homework and plays with the neighborhood kids. He's not going to want to go with you once a week."
"He's been happy to go with me these past two weeks. I played basketball with him. I took him shopping and we've been playing video games."
"And each time, you came with a present for him. You got him new basketball sneakers, a Nintendo DS 3D, video games, a huge teddy bear and just about every style of Lakers shirt they make. He likes the presents."
"You told me not to play favorites when my wife has the babies and now you act like you don't want me around Ethan."
"Babies?"
"We're having twins."
"Great." Jen says sarcastically. Now he'll have baby twins to compete with. Jen lights up a cigarette.
"You smoke?"
"Want one?"
"No. I don't smoke. You don't smoke around Ethan, do you?"
"Only when I let him share my cigarettes."
Cooper looks stone faced. "I'm kidding silly. I don't smoke around Ethan. He thinks it's disgusting. They teach them that it's s drug in school. He tells me mommy, you do drugs because I smoke."
"It's an addiction?"
"We all have them."
"Not all. I don't have an addiction."
"What about alcohol? You were pretty drunk the night we made Ethan."
"I drink socially. Not everyday."
"But you can't handle your liquor."
"Says who?"
"Says me. When I first met you that night, you seemed like a nice guy. That's why I went home with you, but after a few drinks of the hard stuff, you got loud and obnoxious."
"Why didn't you leave?"
"I intended to have sex with you when I went home with you. I was willing to put up with a little obnoxious until I found out you had no protection. Who brings a woman home for sex and doesn't have protection?"
"I must have run out. You weren't the only woman I met ont he internet and took home" Cooper remotes.
"So, you remember that night?"
"No, but I wouldn't willingly bring you home for sex and not have protection. Guess couldn't keep the supply up to meet the demand." Jen rolls her eyes at him.
Ethan runs through the door with his friend Sean. "What's for dinner mom?"
"Hot dogs."
"Can Sean stay for dinner? He loves hot dogs."
"As long as it's okay with mother."
"We'll go tell her now." The two boys run back out of the apartment.
"He didn't even say hi to me." Cooper grunts.
"He didn't mean anything by it. Stay and have hot dogs with us. He'll notice you then."
"Okay." Cooper agrees. It beats going home to his empty loft since Charlotte's moved in with Violet and Pete.