Jane let herself into the house in a daze. She realized she didn't have her backpack when she got to the kitchen and turned around in time to see Charlie set it on the counter. She hadn't realized he'd even come in with her. Did he plan to stay? 

"What happened to your photo shoot?" she asked politely. She remembered he was supposed to do a shoot for some English magazine today.

Charlie looked at her as if she'd grown a second head. "I canceled it," he finally said. "I thought this was more important."

Jane nodded. She poured herself a glass of iced tea, and automatically poured him one, too. When he stared at the tea the way he'd stared at her moments before, she shook her head. 

"I'm sorry, you like hot, don't you?" she asked, pouring his glass back into the pitcher and carefully replacing it in the fridge. "You Englishmen like hot tea." She turned to the cupboard. "And you're in luck, because so does my mother, which means that we have good, English tea in the house. Or Irish, rather," she corrected herself, looking at the box. "It'll take a second, have to boil the--"

Charlie took the box out of her hand, placing it on the counter before putting his arms around her. Jane sighed as she felt his arms around her, arms she thought she wasn't going to feel for a long time.

"Jane, I don't care about the fucking tea," he said softly. "You need to sit down before you fall," he continued, leading her into the family room. He sat her down and left briefly, returning with her glass of iced tea.

"You've never been here before," Jane suddenly remembered. "I used to sit here and just wish you could be with us, hanging out and watching TV after dinner, you know? I wanted to clean up before you saw it for the first time, though," she mused.

"Jane, you need to just sit quietly for a bit, I think," Charlie said, and Jane could hear the concern in his voice, though she had no idea what he could be concerned about. "You sound seriously fucked up right now, you've gone right off your head, so stop talking, okay? You've had quite a shock."

Jane nodded, leaning against him, happy he was there, though she couldn't remember exactly why he'd come in the first place. She closed her eyes for a moment, but opened them almost immediately because she heard shouting. 

She looked around in confusion. 

Charlie was gone, and she was covered by his coat. It smelled like him. The clock on the DVR said 3:12. How could that be?

"You son of a bitch!" she heard her brother yell. 

She saw Bear and Charlie in the kitchen, facing off.

"Stop, please!" Charlie held his hands out. "I'm just here to take care of Jane, that's all!"

"I think you've done enough to my sister!" Bear shouted, slapping Charlie's hands out of his way. "And if you think you can just wander in here and steamroll everyone, you can think again, asshole."

"I'm not trying to steamroll anyone," Charlie said. "Come on, this isn't helping her at all--"

"What the fuck do you know about what'll help her? If you cared about her at all, you wouldn't have put her in this position, you son of a bitch!"

Bear grabbed Charlie by the collar of his shirt and pinned him against the cupboards, lifting him nearly off the floor. Charlie's face was turning red.

Jane jumped up off the couch and ran to the kitchen, shouting for Bear to let him go.

"Bear! Bear! Stop, please! You're going to hurt him!" Jane put her hand on her brother's bicep and tried to pull him off. Bear saw her and slowly lowered Charlie to the floor, letting go of his collar finally.

Charlie walked to the sink and coughed shallowly a few times while bent over it. He turned around and looked warily at Bear, who still looked angry enough to hurt him. Jane realized after seeing them together that they were close to the same height; her brother had to outweigh Charlie by thirty pounds, however.

"Get the fuck out of our house, now!" Bear shouted, gesturing angrily. "You've got a lot of nerve showing up here, motherfucker."

"Look, I was worried about your sister," Charlie said cautiously. "I was worried about Jane, and I wanted to get her out of school and somewhere safe before things--spread," he concluded. "That's all. Now that you're home and I know she's with someone who cares for her, I'll go, okay?"

He looked at Jane, full of sorrow, full of apology. "Will you be all right?" he asked softly.

"She doesn't need you," Bear responded before Jane could open her mouth. "Get the fuck out, now!"

Jane put her hand on her brother's arm again. "Bear, stop," she said gently. "Hurting Charlie isn't going to help anything."

Bear was staring at her. "This is his fault," he said loudly, though he couldn't bring himself to yell at his sister. "He's the famous one, he's the one everyone wants to know about." He gestured toward Jane. "You think anyone cares about who you're--you're--" he couldn't finish the sentence, wincing at the thought.

He turned back to Charlie. "Mr. Hot-shit grammy winner, Hollywood golden boy could have anyone he wanted. Why'd he have to mess with you?

"I hope you realize what you've done to her," he said, and somehow his voice was more menacing now that he wasn't yelling. "What you've stolen from her, from our family."

Charlie was listening to Bear, eyes wide. His eyes flicked to Jane for the briefest of moments.

"Don't you look at her," Bear said warningly. "Just don't."

Charlie sniffed, wiping his nose with his hand. "I'd better go," he said quietly. He took a business card out of his wallet and laid it on the counter, after scribbling a couple of numbers on it.

"This is my attorney's card," he said, addressing both of them. "Your father should contact him, probably tonight, okay?" 

Then he turned to Jane, taking her in his arms as if Bear weren't even there and hugging her fiercely. "Good bye, darling Jane," he said, releasing her.

He turned and left without another word.

Her brother turned to her after he was gone. "Are you okay, sis?" he asked.

Jane nodded. "How much do you know?" she asked him carefully. 

He just looked at her.

"Oh god, Barrett, you haven't watched it, have you?" she gasped. She swallowed, grasping the counter for support. "Why? Why would you do that?" she asked.

"Look, at first I didn't know who--who was in it," he defended himself. "The whole school knew Charles McAllister made a sex tape, but that was all. So a bunch of us went into coach's office seventh period and used his computer, with the teacher's override password." He wiped his face. "I'm so sorry, Jane, I really am. I shut it off as soon as I realized it was you."

"Who was with you?" she asked in a voice filled with dread. It didn't really matter, she knew, since everyone was at home probably watching it right now.

"Just a few of the guys." And Jane could tell from his voice how bad it had been. And it was only going to get worse.

Her brother saw the look on her face. "Come on, Janey, let's go sit down. You don't look good."

Her phone was sitting on the coffee table, still turned off, right next to Charlie's coat. Seeing the black peacoat made Jane's throat tight. Bear picked it up and hung it in the front closet.

He came and sat next to her. "Just got a text from Mom. I think she knows. She asked if you were here, and when I said yes, she said she was on her way, and that Dad is too."

"How bad is it, Bear?" Jane asked softly. 

"Well, the part I saw wasn't so bad," he said. "But the time counter said that the whole thing was fifteen minutes long..."

Oh my god.

"I'm so sorry," she said, turning to him. "This must be so terrible for you."

He hugged her. "Not your fault," he said evenly.

"So that's where you've been these last few months?" he questioned. 

Jane nodded, putting her hand over her face, crying.

"No, no no, don't do that," her brother said. "If for no other reason than it's going to get so much worse, you know?" he continued with a smile. "God, Jane, you really did it, didn't you? You couldn't just get some local yokel to fall in love with you and lose your virginity to him? You had to go and choose Charles McAllister."

She looked Bear. "How do you know he loves me? Or that I was a virgin, for that matter?" She nudged him. "Hm?"

"Please," he said. "You wouldn't just give yourself to someone for the hell of it. And I saw how he looked at you," Bear finally said. "He's an international superstar, but he actually crossed a bridge and came to New-fucking-Jersey from Manhattan to rescue you. I mean, if that isn't love, what is?"

They heard the door open and close, and their parents talking in low voices.

"You ready for this?" Bear asked her.

Jane nodded.