Note: I appreciate your comments! What makes fanfic so interesting is, we all have different interpretations, or we wouldn't have different stories, would we? We've seen on the show that Charlotte is comfortable with Sheldon, and I already wrote a fic on this with Violet, so I am exploring a different route. And we've seen too that Cooper has not been behaving perfectly. He'll get there, but, as they are on the show, I am exploring his NOT being there first :) If it's not your thing, no biggie. And if you're enjoying it, thanks for reading!

Part 4

They curl up on the couch together, and he rocks her gently.

"Can I say?" he whispers. "I'm just really...I'm really grateful you're letting me touch you again."

"Shhh. Just sit."

"Okay, whatever you need. I..."

"Coop. Just, quiet. And sit."

So they sit, and he rocks her, and then she fidgets and settles again, with her head in his lap and his hands stroking her hair, gently brushing her cheek. He fidgets too, tries to ease her off his lap, but she burrows deeper, aching for the comfort.

"Char? Can I bring some food over?"

"Just, quiet," she says again. "Please, can we just..."

"Okay. Baby, it's okay..."

She needs sleep, dreamless sleep, and she has the desperate thought that she'll only get it if he's right there with her. He fidgets again, and she clings to him. He settles in, lets her sleep.

When she wakes up again, she's still on the couch, and she's stiff from the awkward position she slept in, but oddly refreshed. She looks up, and Cooper is smiling down at her, still stroking her hair.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey. What time is it?"

"Two a.m. And I'm starving and I really need to use the bathroom, so are you okay for a sec?"

She stretches, sits up. And rewards him with a true smile. "Hey. No dreams."

"That's good. That's good, right?"

"That's very good."

"Great. So...be back in a few, okay? You can move to the bed if you want to."

She nods, leaves him to his business. Says nothing about what's been going on with her father. Poor boy's done enough heavy lifting for one night.

She doesn't sleep again. Doesn't trust herself to. But she lies in bed with him, watches him for awhile. Then gets up and starts cleaning.

It's something to do. She heads to the bathroom first, scrubs down every surface. The smell of the cleaner makes her dizzy, but she pours it on even thicker, takes everything off of the surfaces, scrubs them down too. She empties the drawers, pours in the cleaner. Scrubs for all she's worth. Then she puts everything back, just so, and wonders what else she can do.

She goes to the kitchen, appraises her options, decides on a plan. First, she takes everything out of the fridge, snacks on a few of the more appealing bits and pieces as she works. Wipes down every shelf. Disinfects it. She breaks out the tupperware, slices every fruit and vegetable, puts them in the little boxes for easy grabbing. There's a pound of ground beef in there. She fries it, adds some peppers, adds some beans and some chili seasoning. Plops that into a tupperware container too. Then she spies a tub of ricotta cheese...

By the time Coop comes out in the morning, she's made lasagne and chicken with biscuits, and ham with eggs and bacon for the morning time. Also, a pan of chocolate chip muffins and two trays of peanut butter cookies.

Coop's looking at her with the crazy eyes again, and she hears the wariness in this voice when he speaks to her. "Morning, babe."

"Morning!"

"You want to tell me what this is about?"

"Making breakfast."

He opens the fridge, takes in row upon row of tupperware container. Looks back at her, and she can tell he's making little mental notes for Sheldon.

"Didn't know you were such a cook," he says.

"Half-raised two brothers, Coop. I picked up some skills."

"Apparently. So, um..."

"Look, stop it, will ya? Stop looking at me that way. Couldn't sleep is all. Thought I'd best keep busy. Would you rather I just lay there in bed with you, and think about it all?"

"Well, I guess I'd rather you'd have woken me up and just told me you were having trouble sleeping."

"But then you'd not be sleeping either. Seems a waste for both of us to..."

"No," he says. "That's what being here for you is, Charlotte."

"You're grumpy when you haven't been sleeping."

"So are you."

She shakes her head. "No. This is my problem. And I'm dealing with it. Coop, I'm dealing. As long as I just stay busy, I..."

He sighs. "I don't want to fight with you. Look, get ready, okay? We can head in and talk about this with Sheldon."

She puts the towel down, takes off her apron. "There's stuff out here needs putting away."

"I'll do it. Go, get ready."

She heads into the bathroom, and finds Big Daddy waiting. He's looking at the wet towel Cooper used, and the globs of water he dripped onto the carpet, and he's shaking his head. "That boy's sure a slob, ain't he?"

"Big Daddy!"

"Just saying. All that work you did, and does he appreciate?"

"That work I did is my deal, not his."

"Fair enough. Look, next time, just call for me, will you, baby girl? You want to let him get his sleep, that's fine, I'll keep you company. You shouldn't be alone."

"That's very generous."

"Just doing my part. My baby girl needs me, don't she?"

"Right now, your baby girl needs a shower. So, can you go? Don't really need company, for this one."

He shrugs. "Up to you." He inhales, as deeply as someone in his condition can inhale, and sighs. "Too bad, about me being dead and all, though. I always did enjoy your peanut butter cookies."

She comes out again, showered and dressed, and he's eating a bowl of cereal. She arches an eye. "You didn't want to eat my Crazy Food?"

He blushes, and she knows she's hit it straight on, but he says "Nah. Just felt like cereal."

"Liar."

"Look, can we save it for Sheldon? Please?"

She plucks a muffin from the nearly-cooled pan. "Knew I should have kept my mouth shut. Kept pretending."

"Charlotte..."

"No, it's fine. You have your cereal. I'll just be over here, enjoying my muffin. And smiling. Smiling real hard, cause everything's just ducky. That what you want to hear?"

"Look, can we please, please just save this for Sheldon?"

And Big Daddy is back again, and he's tut-tutting and patting her arm. "That boy has no spine, baby girl. No spine at all."

"Charlotte, you're scaring me," Cooper says. "Okay? You're scaring me so bad I'm just freaking out a little, and I don't want to say anything or do anything that might make it worse, so can we just not talk right now, and save it for Sheldon?"

"No spine," Big Daddy says.

She shrugs. "Like I said. I'm just smiling over here. I'm not saying anything at all."

They don't speak, on the drive in. He keeps his mouth shut and his eye on the road and doesn't even turn to look at her when they stop in traffic as they near the office. She sits there too, bites her lip, tries not to think about what she'd rather be doing right now. Tries not to feel hurt at the chill from his side of the car.

He does wait for her, when he gets out of the car, and they walk in together. But then he sees Sheldon and he marches over, starts talking really fast, pointing at her with large, frantic gestures. She stomps off to her office, closes the door, takes deep breaths and tries to collect herself.

A few minutes later, she hears a gentle knock, and Sheldon's voice. "Charlotte?"

But she doesn't quite have it together yet. Her heart's still beating too fast, and that thrum of panic, of craving, of misery, is gonging just a little too loud...

"Charlotte, I'm going to talk to Cooper for a few minutes, and then I'll come and get you. Will that be okay?"

"Piss off, Sheldon."

"Take some deep breaths, will you? Try and relax. I know this is hard for you, and I'm going to come and get you, and I'm going to help you. Just give me a few minutes to get Cooper squared away, and then I'll come back for you, Charlotte. I'll come back for you."

It's just noise, what he's saying. She tunes him out, and tries very hard to just breathe.