The next two days were very, very tough. Nicky didn't leave Red's side, and Red wanted it that way. She needed to get as much time with her daughter as she could before she left this place the next day.

Nicky helped her cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner; helped her clean up before and after each meal. Nicky was beside herself. It's as though she was there physically but not mentally or emotionally. She didn't know where she was mentally and emotionally...somewhere far from there.

And Red was the same way.

As they were cleaning up after dinner, Nicky brought up the inevitable, although she really didn't want to. It was tough. She never thought she'd ever actually have to talk to her Mom about leaving this place. About leaving her...

"So where are you going to live?"

Red stopped whipping the table tops and looked up at Nicky, who had stopped cleaning a while ago to just watch her.

"Well as you know, Dimitri and I split up but he left me the house. So I'll be there I guess."

"Oh. And don't they make you get a job or something?"

"Yes, I have that worked out too. Dimitri left me the shop as well so, even though it's closed now, I'll get it back up and running again. Once I'm back in there, business will be booming again." She said, a little hopefully. "Dimitri always told me everyone missed my cooking and that's why they stopped coming."

"Oh, well that's good."

"It'll be a struggle but it's all I have "

Nicky just nodded her head. "Sounds like you're going to be alright, Mom."

"I might have a stable plan but, listen my sweet girl, I will not be alright. The people who put me in here, are still out there. Once they figure out that I'm out, they might come back for me. Finish me off, you know? There's a lot of unfinished business." Nicky could hear the fear in Red's voice.

"That's scary, Ma."

"It is. Makes me want to stay here where I know that I am safe." She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again she had tears in them and looked at Nicky. "Where I know that I have you."

"Ma, don't start this now." Nicky pleaded in a soothing way, feeling tears come to her own eyes. "Tomorrow morning is going to be rough enough, save it for then."

"You know, I always knew this day would come. We always knew that I would be getting out before you. But I never thought of it actually happening, you know?" Silent tears were running down Red's cheeks. "It was always so far in the future. As though we had years and years to plan for it or before we even had to think about it. It seemed unreal..."

Nicky walked over to Red, but couldn't help herself, she was crying too. Nicky whipped the tears from her mother's cheeks, like so often was the reverse, and whispered, "You're going to be ok. Make it out there, 5 months without me and then when I'm out, I'll come find you and make sure no one messes with you. No one is going to bother you, not while I'm around. You've protected me beyond all that I could pay you back for in here. You've saved my life a few times, and," Nicky began choked up at this point, "you became my mother. So, let me protect you out there."

Red was sobbing at this point, both because she was going to miss her daughter to no end and because she was so touched by her sweet girl's words.

"You'll live with me?"

"Live with you? You want me to?"

"When you get out. Come live with me." Red nodded her head vigorously.

Nicky hesitated. Not because she was going to say no, but because she wasn't really expecting that. She always had this vision of living with one of her friends back from before the days of drugs. But this...this was better.

"Yeah." She nodded her head slowly. Nicky started to cry again. "Ok, Mom. I'll come live with you."

Red wrapped Nicky in a hug so quickly that Nicky became dizzy and had to hold on tighter to keep her balance.

"5 months, not that long." Red tried to convince herself and Nicky.

"Really long."

"It'll be over before you know it."

"It's going to take forever."

They hugged in silence for several minutes.

"Ma?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Is it ok if I don't come and say goodbye to you in the morning? Can this be our goodbye? I'm not going to be able to handle it, I can already tell. I don't want to look like a complete wreck in front of the others. I'd rather go someplace alone tomorrow. Other people will think I'm a wuss..."

Red couldn't help but smile. Her daughter had started babbling like she always does when she attempts to hide emotion.

"Yes, that's fine. But listen to me." And Red cupped her daughter's face like she so often did. "This is not goodbye. You remember that. This is a 'See you later', ok?"

Nicky nodded her head. And started to shake as reality really began to hit her.

"It's going to hurt. It already has started to." Nicky said between sobs.

"I know, and it hurts me too. Probably more than you. Trust me." Red hugged her little girl again.

"But you're going to be alright in here. And I'm going to try my best to be alright out there. I'll have a room nice and ready for you."

"I'm going to miss you." Nicky cried.

"I'll miss you more, sweetheart."

More silent minutes passed by.

"Promise me something?"

Nicky nodded against Red's shoulder.

"Promise me that you won't do anything in here that I wouldn't approve of. Promise me that you will remain as strong as you are and as good as you are. And if you get in a sticky situation, you remember where you're going to be when you get out of here: with me. Promise me," Red hesitated to say it for fear of upsetting or offending her daughter, but she had to, "you'll stay clean."

Nicky knew she was going to go down that road. And Nicky knew it wasn't because Red didn't trust her. Nicky knew she just needed to hear her say it. Hear her say, "I promise. I'll be strong, for you, and for me. I won't do anything to mess it up. I promise."

Red sighed satisfactorily.

"Ma, I really am going to miss not having you here everyday." Her sobs became heavier.

"Listen, Nicky." She grabbed her daughter's hand and put it on her own chest. "Feel that?"

"Your heart."

"Yes, and when I was young adult, I had to have a heart surgery. They had to open one of my arteries up more. They used a device made of nickel."

Nicky smiled a little for the first time that night.

"So you see, I have nickel, Nicky, in my heart always."

Nicky's smile grew at the pun her mother was making.

"And look at this." Red took her daughter's hand off of her heart and put it on Nicky's. "Feel that?"

"My heart."

"What color is your heart, love?"

"Red." Her smile grew ever more.

"So you see, I am always here." Red pointed to Nicky's heart. "And you are always here." Red pointed to her own heart.

Red hugged her darling girl. And in her daughter's ear, she whispered, for the last time for the next 5 months, "I love you, Nicky, so very, very much."

And slightly muffled by her sniffles, Nicky replied, "I love you too, Mommy."

They didn't let go of each other for the next few long hours.

The next morning, one thought didn't leave her mind.

Red said her goodbyes to everyone that mattered to her. It all happened so quickly. Morello was crying, Boo was quiet, & Norma too had a tear in her eye.

One thought didn't leave her mind.

She was processed out, and changed into other clothes. She walked out to the van that would take her to the bus station. She looked back at the place that had been her home for over 15 years.

One thought didn't leave her mind.

She climbed into the van and put on her seat belt.

One thought didn't leave her mind.

She looked out of the van window up to the window of the second floor of Litchfield. There was her one thought.

Nicky, her daughter, her very sweet and loving Nicky, was standing at the window with her hand pressed against the glass, as if to say "Mommy, don't leave me here." She was bawling her eyes out and visibly shaking. Red's heart broke, as she knew it would and blew Nicky a kiss.

The van turned on and drove away. Red turned her head away from looking out of the window and let the tears roll down her cheeks.