Charlotte opens her eyes and knows it is going to be a tough day. Mason is lying in bed between her and Cooper. Mason had woken up from a nightmare at 2 a.m. and crawled under the covers without a word. He hadn't said anything when Charlotte and Cooper had asked what was wrong; he had just curled himself against Charlotte and let her hold him until he eventually fell back asleep.

This morning, Charlotte doesn't feel like she has the strength to take care of Mason how he needs. Everything is overwhelming, and Charlotte feels like she is about to fall apart. She's been awake a minute, and she already wants out of this day.

She would wake Cooper if their son weren't nestled between them, but she doesn't want to wake Mason after he had been up for hours last night. Charlotte climbs out of bed and grabs her running shoes instead. She's been leaving them by the door so she can make a quiet exit in the morning.

Charlotte had been running for two hours when she realized that a run wasn't going to be enough to take the edge off what she was feeling. Charlotte is keenly aware at that moment that her mother's pill stash is still in the house, and that she could so easily go back, take something, and make these feelings go away. She would never do it, but the fact that the thought is even in her mind scares Charlotte.

She needs to go to a meeting. Badly. She changes directions and runs down the road that leads to town. Her parents would be so angry at what she's about to do, but right now that doesn't matter. Charlotte needs to be at a meeting, needs to be with people who understand what it feels like to want to use so damn badly that it's all you can think about.

After Charlotte had come out of rehab she had told her parents about her addiction. Her mother had sneered, told Charlotte she was just being dramatic and was trying to make Augusta feel guilty for her own drug use. Charlotte had insisted that this had nothing to do with Augusta, that Charlotte blamed no one but herself for her own actions. Big Daddy had told Charlotte not to mind her mother, that he was proud of her.

Charlotte had visited her family a few months after she'd left rehab, when she was still going to a meeting everyday. She'd looked up where and when meetings were in Monroeville, but when she'd grabbed the keys to head to a meeting the first day she was home, her father had in no uncertain terms told her that going there would be unacceptable. It was all well and good that she had gotten help, but there was no need to go airing ones dirty laundry in public. The Kings had a reputation to maintain, and the town did not need to know that Charlotte was an addict. So she had driven 45 minutes everyday to Evergreen, a town that Big Daddy had deemed far enough away that Charlotte wouldn't bump into people who would recognize her.

Charlotte could go back to Evergreen now. It was a good group; she had kept going to meetings there every time she visited her family. But screw that. Screw the silence.

Charlotte runs the two miles into town. It's 7:45 when Charlotte reaches the church, but she can see that people are already gathering for the 8 o'clock meeting. Her stomach flutters a little with the anxiety of revealing this part of her life to all these people she knows. This is the first time Charlotte is going to an NA meeting with people who know her from outside the group.

Charlotte is bending over the water fountain when Pastor Timothy spots her. "Good morning Charlotte," he says warmly.

"Good morning Pastor," Charlotte says, wiping a few drops of water from her chin.

"Did you decide to come and pray this morning or are you just stopping in for a drink of water on your run?"

"I'm here for the NA meeting, actually."

If Pastor Timothy is surprised, he doesn't show it. "Well, I won't keep you then. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call me."

Charlotte thanks the pastor before walking into the meeting hall. A few people glance at her; it is a shock seeing the daughter of John and Augusta King at an NA meeting. Charlotte sits down in the middle of the hall between the woman who owns the barbeque place on Alabama Avenue and a man who looks vaguely familiar but who Charlotte can't place. The meeting begins and Charlotte feels the comfortable familiarity of prayers and readings that she's heard thousands of times.

The meeting begins with the Serenity Prayer – God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Charlotte has said these words for almost ten years now. She had recited them with Amelia on one of the worst days of her life, and she had recited them with a group of people in Santa Monica on the morning of one of the happiest days of her life – when she had married Cooper.

She listens as a group member recites, Just for today my thoughts will be on my recovery, living and enjoying life without the use of drugs. She is living and enjoying life these days in ways she never had before, and she sure as hell isn't going to throw that away. She deserves better than that. Her husband and son deserve better than that.

When the meeting is over a woman who Charlotte recognizes as a teacher at the local high school walks over. The woman grasps her arm, and tells her, "I'm very sorry to hear about your mother. If you need to talk, you can give me a call anytime." She hands Charlotte a slip of paper with her name – Beth – and phone number. Charlotte thanks Beth, and in that moment Charlotte feels comfortable and free in a town that has always been synonymous for her with secrets and silence.

Charlotte walks the two miles back to her family's house. Her legs could use the rest from running, and a peaceful, quiet walk feels like exactly what she needs. As Charlotte approaches the house, she spots Cooper and Mason outside on the lawn throwing a football.

Mason runs up to Charlotte. "Hi Momma," he says, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Charlotte hugs Mason tightly and lifts him off the ground, swinging him around. Today she is going to live her life. Today she is going to enjoy every second she has with her family. Today she is not going to touch those damn pills in the house.

"You two are up and at 'em early," Charlotte tells Mason as she sets him back on the ground.

"I had to drag Dad out of bed to play with me. You should come play with us," Mason says.

"Sounds good to me," Charlotte says, and Cooper tosses her the ball as she walks over.

They get a bit of a game going. Cooper finds every opportunity possible to tackle Charlotte, so he can get her on the ground and start kissing her – an action that earns them an "Eww!"from Mason every time. Eventually during one of these prolonged kissing sessions, Mason decides that his parents are hopeless and heads towards the house. "Hey," Cooper says, "Where are you going?"

"I'm hungry," Mason replies, before continuing walking.

Charlotte rolls onto her back, stares up at the bright, cloudless sky. Cooper props himself up on his elbow, so he can look at his wife. "You went for a long run this morning," Cooper comments. He had woken up for a moment when Charlotte had left this morning and that had been almost four hours ago.

"I ran for two hours, and then I decided to go to a meeting," Charlotte tells him. "I need you to help me do something."

"Hmm?"

Charlotte turns to Cooper, and tells him, "I want to get rid of all the pills that my mother had hidden in this house. I just can't be so close to that right now."

Cooper's concerned about his wife. He never knows how to help Charlotte when she wants to use, and it freaks him out to not know what to do for her. Charlotte can see the concern written all over Cooper's face. She takes his hand and kisses it. "I'm ok, Coop. Going to the meeting helped. I just really need the pills out of the house." She doesn't add that she doesn't trust herself to hold the drugs in her hands without Cooper there and not take anything.

"Do you want to do that now while Mason's eating?" Cooper asks his wife. He's scared as hell that she's tempted right now, but he reminds himself that Charlotte is talking to him about this, that she asked him for help, that she went to a meeting – she's taking care of herself.

"Yeah, thanks," Charlotte says, before they stand and make their way to Charlotte's mother's room.

Charlotte sits down on her parents' bed, taking in the room. "This is a great bed," Charlotte tells Cooper. "Best bouncing bed ever." A huge grin spreads across Cooper's face, because he now has the most adorable image of young Charlotte bouncing on her parents' bed.

Charlotte gets up and goes to the bedside table. She takes out an orange prescription bottle. "Valium," Charlotte tells Cooper, and he walks over to take it from her. Charlotte hands Cooper the bottle, then comments, "that was never my drug of choice."

Charlotte walks to her mother's dresser, knows where her mother had kept her pills for decades. Charlotte finds the bottles of oxycodone behind her mother's sweaters. Her hands shake a bit as she hands the bottles to Cooper, who presses a kiss to her forehead. "I'm going to go get rid of these," Cooper tells Charlotte.

Cooper leaves and Charlotte stands in the middle of a room that still feels haunted by her mother's ghost. Charlotte can't imagine the loneliness of closing yourself in a room with bottles of oxy and Valium, while your children play on the other side of the door. Charlotte feels a deep sense of sorrow wash over her. Sorrow for a woman trapped by her own addiction, a woman who couldn't show love to her children.

The anger that had plagued Charlotte yesterday is fading. She walks back to her mother's bed, and sits down, smoothing her hands against the silk sheets. There were good moments here too. Charlotte remembers one day when she had snuck into her parents' room to jump on the bed. Her momma had come in, and instead of yelling at her daughter; Augusta had gotten on the bed and started jumping too. She had been drunk of course, but Charlotte had been too young to understand that then. All she knew was that her momma was jumping with her and smiling. Charlotte closes her eyes and pictures her momma's smile. Right now, Charlotte wants to focus on that and put all the rest of it aside.