When Lou finally came back inside the house, with Amy by her side, she looked around the kitchen in hopes of finding Peter. He had been here when she had left, but now he was nowhere to be found. Lou was hoping to talk to everyone about Katie's situation and then explain a little bit about what was going on with Georgie as well. She wanted to have the family meeting they had planned to have earlier, but Peter being gone put her plans on hold.
"Where's Peter?" she asked.
Lisa was sitting with Katie, watching her as they ate the sandwiches they had prepared before Lou had taken away the knife. The look she then gave to Jack told him that Lisa was wondering if maybe he would care to explain, seeing how she herself wasn't aware what the heck was going on.
Jack took the hint and said:
"He went to talk to Georgie", Jack told Lou, still holding a full cup of coffee for her, wondering if maybe he should withhold it; she looked like she was in need of a good night's sleep and offering her coffee would probably only make her more edgy.
"About... her situation?" she asked, and Jack nodded his head indicating that she was correct in her assumption.
Lou wondered to herself why Peter had gone to talk to her alone after they had just talked about acting more like a team.
Seeing the look on his granddaughter's face told Jack that maybe she needed a little clarification.
"Yeah, he figured you needed a break with everything that has happened. He felt you were overloaded", Jack explained.
"Well, that was kind of him, but I wish he would have waited a little while longer. I wanted to-"
Before Lou could finish, Georgie rushed through the kitchen into the mudroom, running into Amy and almost knocking her off her feet before she put on her shoes and stormed out.
"Woah, Georgie!" Amy said as she stepped back, trying to gain her balance so she did not fall down.
"Georgie, where are you-" Lou's question went unanswered with a slam of the screen door.
Amy walked over the window to see where her niece was heading. When she saw her going into the barn, she turned to Lou and let her know where she had seen Georgie go:
"She's going to the barn."
"Okay", Lou said, feeling relieved Georgie wasn't running away like she sometimes did when things got to be too much. She didn't know what had made her so upset, but maybe allowing her to cool off before she went to see why she was so upset would do some good. She returned her attention to the rest of the family and resumed her conversation. "When Peter gets here, I'd like to talk to all of you. I know Ty and dad aren't present, but this is too important to wait for them, so maybe you could pass along the message?" she requested, looking at everyone in the room.
"Sure", Amy promised.
"Will do", Jack agreed too.
"Should I go to play with Katie...?" Lisa asked then, wondering if she was going to be left out again. Since coming back to Heartland, Jack had been talking in code with the rest of the family, and Lisa wasn't sure if it was because of her or something else.
"No, I'd like you to stay. You need to know about this too", Lou said.
She could tell Lisa was a bit surprised, even though Lou thought she had no reason to be. But then she realized she might have been looking things too much from her own point of view to understand what others were probably feeling and thinking.
"I'm sorry I've made you feel like you're nothing but a maid to me, because that couldn't be farther from the truth; you are Katie's godmother, Georgie's grandmother and Grandpa's wife - therefore you are family. I know you love to help, but I hope you know that I don't expect it from you. It's kind of you to offer every time you do, and I really appreciate it. I don't say that enough, but I should", Lou continued.
Lisa was choked up as she fought to hold back the tears of joy. "Thank you, Lou", she replied wiping the corner of her eye.
She wanted to say how much what Lou had just said meant to her, but she was interrupted by Peter who was coming downstairs at a much slower pace than Georgie.
"What happened...?" Lou asked Peter, wondering what had made Georgie rush out so hastily. The man looked embarrassed as he scratched his neck nervously, wondering if he had helped the situation at all or actually made it worse. Maybe he had been too confident to go in like that.
"Well, I talked with Georgie, and I got to hear her side of things, which is something we have to talk about, by the way", he noted, then continuing he said, "and I brought up the counselling. I thought I was in a good place with her at the moment to bring it up, but..." he sighed heavily. "Obviously it didn't work out quite as I has planned. - Where is she now?" He looked around to see if she was with everyone else.
"She's outside. She looked really mad", Katie told her father. Whatever the adults were talking about mostly went over her head, but whenever she heard a familiar sound or a funny word, she started paying attention.
"She's in the barn", Amy said as she clarified Katie's explanation. "I could check up on her, if you guys want?"
"Hold that thought. I would like to talk to you now that we are all here", Lou requested, even though she appreciated Amy's offer. Everyone gathered around the table and Peter stood next to Lou so they would show unity in what Lou was about to share.
Lou began. "The past twenty-four hours or so have been crazy, and I know it's been hard to keep up with what has happened; it's been hard for me to keep up with it too and I've been in the eye of the storm. But that's why I would like to take time to talk to all of you, so everyone is on the same page and there is no confusion about what's going on. I would like this to be a new set of rule that we have to live by from now on. - And like I said, I'd appreciate it if you'd tell Ty and dad about this too", she continued, getting another set of nods from Amy and Jack. "Peter and I will talk to Georgie about this as well."
She looked at Peter who looked back at her, giving her an assuring look. Then Lou turned back to the others.
"Ever since Katie was born, you've all been a big help in raising and looking after her, and I think it has been a good thing for her as she has been showered with love and care as we've all guided her along through ups and downs of growing up so she could become a good person. Fortunately, she's stayed out of harms way under our watchful eyes - until now. I made a mistake of not looking after her yesterday morning", Lou admitted, knowing that she couldn't make excuses but had to be honest with herself and others so there would not be this feeling of secrecy anymore, "and when she was out of my sight, she fell into the pond between the fields."
Her voice was now more low as her throat felt weird explaining something so emotional to people who were naturally curious and concerned because of the events that had taken place.
Peter brought his hand behind Lou's back and gently stroked it to show his support.
Lou glanced at him quickly as as way of saying thank you and then continued.
"The good thing is we were able to locate her fast and she was taken to hospital pretty quickly. I performed CPR with Grandpa's help and the doctors said there was no permanent damage that they could tell of. - Of course I take blame because she should have been safe with me, but the doctors also told us that they found a blood clot in her brain. It's possible that that might have also played a part in this accident. They told us that they wondered if maybe she had had a seizure and fell into the pond because of it. We don't know, and she couldn't tell us what had happened because she did not remember", Lou explained, looking at Katie who seemed to be wondering what she was talking about and why was everyone so serious.
"After I had come home from the hospital yesterday, Katie had a seizure. Peter was there with her and fortunately it wasn't too bad, but it made the doctors look into it and do some more tests, that's how they made the discovery of the clot. The blood clot is the reason why Katie's now taking medication, a blood thinner, for a while. That is why I acted the way I did when I saw her with the sharp knife earlier, and I'm sorry for how I reacted. - The doctors are hoping that the problem of the seizures will disappear if they can get the clot to dissolve and she will not have anymore. That's also something that's important for you guys to know", Lou pressed. "I was thinking we could have some kind of chart at the fridge door where we would mark down if she's already taken her medicine for that day so we would all be up to date."
"That's a good idea", Jack said. "With you so busy, it can be hard to remember if she has taken one already, and when it is us looking after her... it will help us too."
Lisa nodded in agreement with Jack's statement, yet she was feeling a bit scared after hearing Katie's diagnosis, but as the little girl seemed to be doing okay, she figured there was no immediate danger.
She would have not been allowed to come home if there was.
"If it seems like she's having a seizure, you need to try and protect her from injury. Try and position her on her side so if there's any fluid coming out of her mouth so it can leak out", Lou continued with the instructions, "do not force anything into her mouth - that includes water. Don't hold her down, because it can cause an injury."
The room was silent as everyone was paying attention.
"If it looks like the seizure's not ending or something's terribly wrong; call help. If you notice that she's acting weirdly during a normal daily routine, it's a cause for concern", Peter explained continuing Lou's description of what to look for.
"After the seizure, let her rest - and again - don't give her anything to eat or drink until she's fully awake", Lou picked up where he had left. "Now, she might not have any more seizures - hopefully that is the case - but this is good for you to know."
"Understood", Lisa assured.
"What's a seizure?" Katie wondered out loud as she had heard it mentioned so many times now. It sounded funny to her and she wasn't even sure if she had said it right.
Everyone looked at each other, wondering who was going to explain it to her.
Eventually, Lou took over.
"It's this thing that happens to people sometimes, their body twitches and shakes, and it can be kind of scary but then usually everything's alright in the end", she told her, wondering what might be the best way to explain it. She had come across lot of these sort of things within the last day and she could only hope she was doing a good job explaining them so that Katie would understand them without getting too scared. "You might have one as you've had at least one that we know of, but hopefully you won't have anymore. I was just explaining everyone here what they should do if that would ever happen again."
"Okay", Katie thankfully accepted the explanation and didn't seem too concerned about it. The good thing about everything was that she had no recollection of all the things she had been through, so she had hopefully not formed any phobias toward hospital or medical procedures.
Lou was relieved and felt proud of her brave little girl.
"So how do we give her the medicine if we have to?" Amy asked even though she mostly lived elsewhere. But she was here during days and sometimes she even looked after Katie if no one else was available, so it would be good for her as well as the others to know.
"I'll show you", Lou said as she opened the pharmacy bag they had brought home with them.
She was tired, but now that she had let off some steam and was focused on informing her family of how to care for Katie, she didn't let it bother her. She knew if she did this right now, she would not have to worry about it later.
