Part 2

There are voices, too many of them, and she scrunches shut her eyes, tries to block them. There is a hand on her, and she thrashes away from it instinctively, bumps straight into a different hand, another hand, reaching out for her. Another voice yelling her name.

She's dizzy, and she backs away again, and there is Cooper, she recognizes his smell. But she can't do this now. When she feels his hand on her arm she screams again and lashes out with all she has in her.

"Hey!" One voice, rising above the other ones. Sheldon, she thinks. That's good. She can do Sheldon.

"Okay, okay, clear out, let's give her space..."

She hears Cooper say something. She hears Sheldon answer back. Hears the clomp of high heels and dress loafers and sneakers creeping away. Hears the silence, the blessed welcome silence rain over her for a second before Sheldon speaks again.

"All right, Charlotte. We're alone now."

She stills, opens her eyes- but carefully. Verifying. And he's right, it's just them in here.

He sits, taps the spot beside him. "Can you sit with me?"

She takes a deep, shaky breath. "Don't touch me."

"I won't. Just sit with me, will you? It's okay. Let's just sit for a minute."

She sits, draws up her knees. Lets her head rest on them. She can talk to Sheldon, but she isn't sure she can look at him too...

"So," Sheldon says after a moment. "You want to tell me what happened?"

"He said something. Didn't like hearing it."

"Who said something, Charlotte?"

She hesitates. "Am I a patient right now?"

"You want to be?"

"Hell yes, full rights, confidentiality, all that. You can't say anything."

"Of course."

"And when it's done, you forget we ever talked about this."

"Come on, Charlotte. This is me you're talking to. Give me some credit."

"You're right. Of course, you're right. Question?"

"All right..."

"Are there certain things that automatically say 'crazy' to your type?"

"I'm going to need some context here."

"I'm just wondering. Cause maybe something happened that some other time I might say is crazy, but today it didn't seem that way. Well, until he said something that set me off a little, anyway. Then I started worrying that maybe it wasn't safe, like I thought it was, and..."

"Charlotte. Context."

"Right. Coop yelled at me, yesterday, bad enough to...well, he yelled. And I guess I just needed someone to...I don't know. I needed someone. And he came. My daddy came. Thing is, he's been dead going on two years..."

"And was he with you again today, Charlotte? Before you started screaming?"

"He was. And I thought he was supposed to help me, you know, talk me through some of this. But then he started talking about the pills..."

He's quiet for a moment.

"Okay," Sheldon finally says. "There's a lot going on here."

"Including me being crazy?"

He smiles gently. "No. You're not crazy. Lacking in coping skills, maybe. But not crazy."

"Well, there's that, I guess." She tries to smile too. "So, what now?"

"Well, why don't you tell me?"

"I know what you're gonna say. That I need to tell Coop about this."

"Is that what you want to do?"

"Stop doing that! Just tell me what you want from me."

"Well, I think this is actually part of your problem. You're worrying a little too much about what other people want. The cliches? The smiling?"

"Coop needs me to be okay."

"But you're not okay."

"He needs me to be."

"But you're not. And you may think that you're fooling him, by pretending, but he sees it, Charlotte, and that's probably why he yelled at you. He's trying to work through this too. And he feels like you're not working through it with him, because you're so wrapped up in pretending that you don't need to be."

"You know, Big Daddy said Coop was the one needing lessons here. Said I was off the hook, because of what happened."

"Well, maybe you're off the hook as far as blame goes. But Charlotte, you're not off the hook as far as life goes. And if you want yours back again, you need to start dealing with this."

"Coop needs me to be okay."

"No. He needs you to be you. Even if right now, that's a different, hurting you. He needs to see that you're in there somewhere, trying to get back to him."

"What if I can't?"

"Can't what?"

"Can't get back. What then?"

"Let's just take this one step at a time."

"No, that's not good enough. I need an answer, Sheldon. I need someone to tell me what to do!"

"So you conjured up your dead father? Cause you knew he'd give you that answer, and then you could just check out and not have to worry about this?"

"Damn it, Sheldon!"

"You asked. I'm telling you. Look, something I should probably disclose before we go any further. He came to me, Charlotte. Wanted to talk a little."

"What?"

"And I was about to suggest that I refer you out to avoid any conflict. Violet, or someone else if you'd rather. But actually, I think the two of you would benefit from coming in together on this. Couples therapy. And, although I do want to emphasize that I don't think you're crazy, I also think it needs to be said that this therapy should not be coming from your daddy, you understand?"

"Do I...do I have to tell Coop about this? About Big Daddy coming in on me?"

"Not if you don't want to. But here's one thing you can do. If he comes back again and says something to Cooper, I want you to tell him what it is."

"What, just repeat it back to Coop when Daddy says it?"

"Yes."

"He won't like it. Big Daddy has a mouth."

"He'll manage. Charlotte, you'll tell me? If he comes back?"

"What, so you can add up the points in your crazy book?"

"You know it doesn't work that way."

"I need to know that he won't leave me. Sheldon, if he knows I'm not okay..."

"He knows he wants you to be. And he knows that you need to work through this to get there. He loves you, Charlotte."

"Not sure I'm very lovable right now."

"Not sure he is either," Sheldon says.

And she smiles, her first genuine smile in days. There's truth in that. Lord help her, there's truth in that, and it's the truth she needed to hear.