Charlie looked out the window of his London house. It was located in the very tony Primrose Hill district, near Regent's Park. He'd bought his parents a house a few blocks away where they lived with his sister, Anna, and until very recently life here had seemed very nice indeed. Charlie had always felt a sense of deep satisfaction at knowing he'd provided for his family's security in such a lasting way.

Now, looking out at his garden, meticulously maintained during his nearly four-month sojourn in New York, he felt only sorrow and loneliness. His Jane loved flowers, and she would've enjoyed being here, even though it was still winter and nothing was blooming. He'd spent many hours while in bed describing the details of his home while he held her. 

It was early March, and Charlie had told everyone he was working on his new album, so to leave him alone. He'd actually spent the past two months doing nothing at all, simply suffering miserably while he missed his Jane. He truly believed that the best thing he could do for her was stay the hell away, leave her alone to get back to her nice, normal life in New Jersey. To this end he'd stayed away from all social media, just sleeping and eating, binge watching movies, and only leaving his house to visit his parents. 

Charlie's career had weathered the scandal relatively well. There had been some endorsement deals in the works that had fallen through, but nothing too catastrophic, nothing Charlie cared about, anyway. The lasting damage was to his family, and no amount of apologizing would make Charlie feel better about what he'd done to them.

His doorbell rang, startling him. It could only be his sister; anyone else would've waited at the gate to be buzzed in. He'd told her, over and over, that she needed to text him when she was coming, but she was fifteen, and a smart aleck, and insisted on just showing up unannounced.

He opened the door and let her in, a gangly, athletic girl with long legs and Charlie's hazel eyes.

"You're supposed to let me know when you're coming, you prat," he said, following her to the kitchen.

"I'm coming," she announced to him as she opened his refrigerator, "you git."

"What do you want, Anna?" Charlie asked. "Mum and Dad all right?"

"Fine," she responded briefly, pulling out some juice and drinking it straight from the carton.

"Barbarian," he remarked.

"Wanker," responded with a smile.

She opened his cupboard and pulled out a box of crackers, which she took to his kitchen table.

"I want to talk to you," she said.

He sat across from her. "Okay," he said. "Go."

"It's about your girl," she began, and he was already shaking his head.

"No, I don't want to talk about Jane," he said firmly.

"Listen! Just listen for a minute, all right?" she asked. She gestured toward his laptop, which was sitting on the table. At his nod, she opened it and turned it toward him so he could enter the password. Then she quickly typed something, found what she was looking for, and turned it so they could both see the screen.

"The Glamorous Life of a Porn Star"

Look, everyone, at how the other half lives! Jane Bennett Carroway (yes, most unfortunate name for such a plain specimen, we agree), lately of the lively sexcapades with Charles McAllister captured in the back of an automobile on the mean streets of New York City, has been trying to get back to life as usual in the suburbs of Redmond, New Jersey, where she's a senior at Lincoln High School. 

Apparently life as the sex toy of an A-list celeb didn't agree with our Miss Carroway, as she's steeped herself in her books and classes once more, possibly trying to leave the glitzy lights of the movie biz behind her. Here she is walking to school, wearing her cute knee socks, looking oh-so collegiate; and here she's enjoying her lunch, though it seems no one wants to keep her company, poor thing. 

Perhaps life out of the limelight isn't as fun as she thought it would be, hm?

Fuck.

"Why did you show me this, Anna?" Charlie copied the link and pasted it into an email, which he sent to the agency he'd hired. They'd have it taken down within the hour.

"Charlie, she's obviously suffering as much as you are," Anna said. "Look at the photographs! She's alone in all of them, all hunched over, like she's terrified, it's awful!" She looked at her brother. 

"I know I'm meant to be giving you space so you can do whatever it is you're doing up here in this huge house all alone, but this is just ridiculous," she declared. She put a hand on Charlie's arm. "All kidding aside, brother. I care about you, and I can't stand seeing you like this." Her voice got softer. "I know you haven't been online, you've been avoiding anything where you might see her or get any information about her, but you needed to know this, I thought. Was I wrong?"

Charlie looked at the photographs. In the first one, Jane was walking, long legs looking even longer in her knee socks; why wasn't Camilla driving her? She held her books in front of her like a shield, looking down at the ground. In the second, she was sitting at a picnic table on what was obviously a school grounds. She looked cold. Why wasn't she indoors? She was huddled in her coat, blonde hair falling forward, curtaining her face in a way he remembered so well. No one else was at the table with her. He could feel his heart twisting slowly as he looked at the pictures.

"And then there's this."

Anna pulled the laptop to face herself, found what she was looking for, and turned it back to her brother.

It was Bear's tweet.

"I know you thought you were leaving her in the safe arms of people who loved her, Charlie, but I don't think that's what's happened. It seems like she's having a really rough go at that horrid school of hers, and that it's been going on for a while." Anna gestured at the screen. "This tweet's from way back in January, and the article's from just this morning."

She closed the laptop and turned to her brother. "At the risk of sounding terribly sexist, the fact of the matter is that you're a boy, and that fact, coupled with what you do for a living, makes what happened much easier for you to deal with.

"Your Jane's a girl, a very young girl, not much older than me, as a matter of fact," Anna went on. "And she seems terribly shy, and introverted, and not very self-confident, and normal, all of which have got to make what happened extremely difficult for her.

"So you need to stop being such a knob and go help her, do you hear me?" Anna concluded firmly. "You're in love with her, Charlie, aren't you?"

Charlie nodded, his eyes filling with tears. He put his hand over his eyes.

"God, you fucking idiot," Anna said, rising and going to hug him from behind. She leaned forward to kiss the top of his head.

"You need a shampoo," she remarked. "When's the last time you showered?"

He laughed. "I'll go right now," he agreed. "You hop online and get me a flight to New York, yeah?"

"Yeah."

So Charlie quickly showered, feeling better than he had in a long time. He debated texting his people to let them know where he was going, but he knew that everyone would be all over him about not going to see Jane, which was ridiculous, since that was why he was going in the first place. He threw some stuff in a bag and called his car service. He stuffed his hair up in a knit hat, hoping to avoid being recognized.

He dropped Anna at home on his way, kissing and hugging her gratefully, waving good bye. It was a drizzly evening, but his mood was cautiously optimistic. He was going to see Jane! He was also concerned and felt terribly guilty. He shouldn't have left her alone for so long. What had he been thinking?

In fact, should he text her to let her know he was coming? He thought back to the last time he'd seen her, in her kitchen with her brother.

Maybe not.

And there was the fact that Jane hadn't tried to contact him. Why not? Did that mean she didn't want to see him? Or that she thought he didn't want to see her? Fuck, thinking in circles like this would get him nowhere. Probably her lawyer, who was also her father, had advised her that it was better if they didn't talk to each other for a while, that's all it was.

Right?

Charlie got out at the airport and made it on to the plane unaccosted. He finally sat back, able to relax slightly for the first time in months, it seemed like. At least he was doing something, at long fucking last.

"Tony! Hey, mate!" Charlie shook hands with his old driver. He'd specifically requested Tony, to show that he bore him no ill-will and had complete faith in him. He didn't want anyone thinking he believed Tony was in any way responsible for the horrible events of last December.

"Mr. Charlie! Good to see you, sir," Tony responded with a smile. He was grateful. He knew how significant it was that Charlie had asked for him again.

"Where we off to, sir?" he asked Charlie as they pulled away from the Newark airport. 

"We're going to Redmond," Charlie replied briefly. 

Tony nodded, making eye-contact in the rear-view, and Charlie knew that Tony understood how important this trip was.

It was a sunny, chilly afternoon in New Jersey as Charlie settled back into the seat. He knew he'd be too nervous to sleep, though he was exhausted. 

Please just let Jane be happy to see him. Please let her not hate him.