Marion walked into Hudson's vet clinic and looked around. She heard meowing and distant barks from the shelters as she got closer to Scott's reception desk. The man was checking the sounds of a bunny's inner organs when she reached the doorway. His eyes went to her automatically and because his ears were listening to the stethoscope, Scott's glance requested her to wait for a second so he would be done with the furry patient.

The woman was happy to wait, knowing how important it was to keep calm around situations like this so the vitals could be followed accordingly and the results would be truthful.

It still made Marion smile, seeing Scott surrounded by all of this. She could remember the vet being a young punk with a lot of unnecessary attitude and problems sticking to rules - but here he was, with his own clinic, proving he was more than anyone would have expected him to be.

When Scott was done with the bunny, he pulled the ear tips out, left the stethoscope to hang around his neck and smiled.

"Hey", he greeted her. "Just a sec, I'll put Bouncer away."

"Yeah, no hurry", Marion replied, looking at the fridge that had many pictures of Scott's clients, animals he had given second chances. They all looked very happy and cute, and no doubt gave the man motivation if or whenever he needed it.

He lifted the bunny and placed him in one of the cages on the side of the room, then penning down the time and results so he would later remember what he had heard and when that had been.

"Okay", Scott said then, feeling like he could now fully focus on his former mentor. "Good to see you, Marion. I suspect you're here to pick up your delivery?" he guessed, already going to get it for her from one of the shelves.

"Indeed I am", Marion confirmed, smiling. "Keeping busy?"

"Yeah, it's the holidays, so... you know", Scott said when he picked up a cardboard box full of items Marion had requested from him for the horses she treated. "Somehow the world goes crazy around the holidays. But I'm not complaining, I mean, I chose this because I love helping animals and that's what I get to do."

"I know what you mean", Marion said. Looking after and helping horses was her passion project. She couldn't just not get up from the bed one day and decide she wasn't feeling it anymore. When Marion had been a little girl, she had made the decision to work with horses and she couldn't think anything put sticking to it for as long as she would live. People often said she had "a special gift", a way to see inside horses' souls, that not many people had. That intuition helped her navigate the difficult process of communicating with them and helping them heal.

"The invoice is in the package", the young man said. "And don't worry too much about the due date; you'll pay me when you pay me. I owe all this to you after all."

He knew Marion occasionally fell behind with her payments, sometimes because her business was struggling and other times because she simply forgot to do the boring part of her job as she wasn't that organized. While Scott had a business to run, he was still forgiving toward his old mentor, because it felt wrong to be so hard on her as she was the one who had been taken a chance with her and been so gentle and understanding when he had been struggling.

"Oh, thank you, Scott", Marion said and took a hold of the box. "You know, I had been hoping to bring you a special guest today, but unfortunately she decided to skip the town sooner than expected."

"Oh yeah? Who was it?" Scott asked, curiously.

"Lou. She came by, but... she left early this morning back to New York."

Scott looked surprised. "Oh really? How was she?"

He often thought about Marion's older daughter - his ex-girlfriend - but since she rarely came to visit Hudson, they had not really seen since high school days. Scott doubted Lou ever thought about him - after all, she had other things to think about these days, probably a boyfriend, fiance or even a husband too.

For him, she had always been the one that got away and Scott often wondered if the feelings were still there.

Marion was trying to come up with a story to tell, but then again, Scott would probably see through her. He had been part of the family for a long time and could tell when she was lying.

"Well... things didn't go well with her and Jack", Marion admitted. "And not with me and her either, if I'm honest. I don't know... I can't help but wonder about all the things I should have done differently, not just now but generally speaking. She will probably hate me for the rest of my life."

"Don't say that", Scott replied, shaking his head compassionately. "You know it's not true. Lou's just... opinionated", he tried to put it into words, then making both of them laugh.

"That's one way to put it", Marion admitted, feeling a little better to be around someone who knew Lou so well and could understand the struggle to understand her, but at the same time was experiencing deep, profound love toward her. "At least I know that I'm not entirely bad at guiding young people into the world; I mean, look at you with the clinic!"

"You're not, Ms. Fleming", Scott gave her some credit. "I'm glad I had someone like you to give me a chance. I don't know how I can ever thank you enough for everything you've done for me. And all those horses you help, you're amazing for doing it. Don't doubt yourself too much, you're a miracle worker, and you will continue to help people and horses for years to come. It might be difficult with Lou, but... I'm sure you tried your best with her, given the circumstances. It was not easy."

"Thanks, Scott", Marion said. She came to give him a hug before she left. "That means a lot."


When she drove back to Heartland, Marion couldn't stop thinking about Scott's words. The young man had come into her life just some time before Tim's accident and seen her at her worst. When the cowboy and Pegasus had gotten hurt, life had become a mess. Still, somehow, things had worked out. It almost seemed like somehow the worst times brought the best out in people. Marion could recall it was then that Scott's interest in medicine had really become alive. He had wanted to help Pegasus just as anyone.

And looking at him now, it was good that he had stuck to it because he was a natural in it with his gentle mind and heart of gold.

Helping Pegasus had been a form of therapy for her, even though it had mainly been about the horse getting better, but guiding Scott had also given Marion hope. Hope that there were going to be people in the future helping others to heal, and she was lucky enough to somehow be a part of that.

Even though she had struggled with Scott at first, eventually everything had paid off and she couldn't have been more proud than when she had been looking at him graduate as a veterinarian years later.

Kind of like with horses, all the trust and love had paid off. Marion was happy she had taken a chance on him.

Marion didn't know if it was because she was again at her lowest from Lou's departure or if she was more hopeful after seeing Scott - or the combination of the two - but she was thinking about all those troubled children that needed someone to guide them and give them a chance.

Maybe she should give another kid a try. She knew there were plenty of those who wanted to prove themselves and she knew she had been able to help one already, so... why not?

Marion also figured Jack probably wouldn't mind the help, with him getting older and all.

Upon arriving back to the ranch, Marion saw Jack and Amy at the barn doorway when she put her truck on the park. It was like there was some kind of intervention waiting for her, but she couldn't figure out what this could have been about. She stepped out and took the box from Scott with her.

"What's going on?" she asked when she walked closer to her family.

"We can still turn this around", Jack announced.

Marion frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The thing with Lou", Amy explained. "I've been texting her, casually, so she doesn't suspect anything, and asking where she is and when her flight is - and she's going to leave in an hour!"

"So we better hurry up", Jack added.

"Hurry up - why?" Marion didn't understand.

"If we're going to catch her before her flight, of course, Mom!" Amy explained. "Come on, we've already made sure the horses will be fine for couple of hours, we need to go now if we want to make it there!"

"Put that box down and follow us", Jack instructed.

Marion was slowly starting to understand what her dad and daughter meant. Lou's flight was leaving in an hour, and they were going to go to the airport to stop her from going back to New York, just like in the movies.

"Come on, come on! Hurry up!" Amy said before she got in Jack's truck.

"There's no time to waste!" Jack continued in the same breath.

"I'll just take this to the barn office", Marion said, starting to get excited and nervous too. Could they really make it happen? Would Lou give them a second chance? But even her dad seemed to be willing to give this another try, so maybe there was still hope. "I'll hop in my truck after that!" she announced while Jack and Amy hurried to Jack's truck.