Georgie had lost count of the days that came and went, and eventually, it just felt like she was living in her own little bubble. There was nothing to indicate that time was changing. Some days, she would wake and not know which day of the week it was. She would have to specifically check her phone for that. And some days, she didn't care to check.

One day, a few weeks after the funeral, Georgie awoke, feeling lost and light-headed.

A reminder popped up on her phone and Georgie leaned forward to grab her phone and read it. What it said hit her in the gut. She sighed, sitting up lazily in bed. When she checked her clock, she saw it was past ten o'clock. No wonder she was feeling awful; she'd overslept again. She got up headed into the shower.

At about quarter to eleven, She made her way into the kitchen where Lou was seated, a mug held loosely in her hands.

Georgie plastered a smile to her face when she saw Lou look up. "Hey." She walked over behind her mother and hugged her tight, planting a loving kiss on her temple.

Lou put a hand to her arm as if to hug her back.

Georgie stood there a moment. "Are you alright?"

Lou didn't say anything.

Georgie was disdained. There was never anything they could ever talk about. Georgie loosened her hold on Lou, and walked over to the counter and was about to pour out some coffee. She didn't say anything for a few moments, trying to hold back her tongue. But she just couldn't control herself. Not today. "You know, you're going to have to talk to me one of these days."

Lou's head turned a little. "What did you say? Something happen?"

Georgie exhaled sharply, setting the coffee container back down on the counter. She walked over to the cabinet and picked up her medicine. "You just…you don't even look at me anymore, let alone talk."

"No, really, I didn't hear you. What's the matter?" Her voice was quiet and piercing.

"It's like you're giving me the cold shoulder."

"It's not the cold shoulder. I just…"

"Okay, just save it." Georgie dismissed Lou's words. Her tone was gentle, but her words were sharp. She took the blood thinner and swallowed it with a sip of her coffee.

"You're the one that brought it up." Lou gently accused, worried about Georgie's reaction.

"Well, I'm sorry that I did." Georgie shot back as she walked back to the cabinet and put the pill bottle away.

"Do you still have plenty of the medicine left?"

"It's almost gone. Don't worry, I'll figure it out on my own. That's nothing new," Georgie answered as she crossed over to the mudroom, about to head out of the house.

"Where are you going?"

"Oh, you care?"

"Georgie—" Lou let out, standing up from the table. "Sweetheart, come on."

Georgie stopped at that. She turned, placing a shaking hand on the door frame. She stopped, waiting for Lou to go on.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, I'm just in my own head right now."

Georgie turned as she heard the front door open.

Jack walked in and took off his hat. When he saw the look on Georgie's face, he seemed to pick up on the atmosphere right away. "Everything okay?"

Georgie didn't answer.

Jack decided to drop the subject and instead crossed over to Lou and planted a kiss on her hair. "It's good to see you up, honey."

Lou smiled tiredly. "It's good to be up."

"Where's that husband of yours?"

"He left to go run some errands in town. He made coffee before heading out," Lou said, gesturing to the counter.

Jack chuckled. He walked over to pour himself a cup.

"Mom."

Lou turned to Georgie, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"You still in your own head right now?"

The light in Lou's eyes died down. "Georgie…"

"You seem to be able to function just fine, don't you? But only when it's convenient for you!"

"Georgie!" Jack called out. "Is that any way to talk to your mother?" he demanded from her. "What, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?"

Lou turned partly to face Jack and she waved a hand. "Grandpa, it's fine. Don't worry about it."

Georgie bit down on her lip. She could feel the tightness in her throat beginning to intensify. It was like the tight feeling was always there, but when something was wrong, it would get worse. She blew out her breath and started for the door.

"Where are you going?"

Without stopping to answer, Georgie disappeared out the door.

When the door slammed behind Georgie, Lou sunk back in her chair. She groaned, putting her head in her hands.

"What's going on with her?"

"She's upset with me. Let's just leave it at that."

"Not good enough," Jack said as he came around and sat beside Lou. "What happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure. She must have said something, but I didn't hear her. She thinks I'm giving her the cold shoulder. What could I possibly be giving her silent treatment for?"

Jack sighed. "She'll be alright. You just worry about taking care of yourself."

"Who's going to worry about Georgie?"

Jack relented. "You, probably."

A weak smile appeared at her lips. "Yeah, probably."

"Mitch told me you haven't been feeling too well."

"Hmm. It's nothing new."

"You know, you should probably see someone about this."

Lou nodded. "When he gets back, Mitch and I are going to head into town to see Dr Virani."

"Well, good. That's good."

"Oh, but don't say anything to Georgie. I'll talk to her myself."

"You got it."

"You know, I didn't…um, I didn't realize how much Georgie slept these days," Lou said, putting a hand to the nape of her neck. "And her classes. Is she still making her classes on time?"

Jack froze in place, suddenly at a loss for what to say. "Lou, uh…"

"What? What is it? Has she not gone back yet?"

"She dropped all her classes over a month ago. Said she didn't want her GPA to dip."

Lou was silent for a few moments, trying to digest the news. "Oh."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just trying to process, I guess…"

"Yeah."

"Well, what's she going to be doing now?"

"Not much of anything. She quit jumping, too."

Lou exhaled tightly, leaning back into her chair. "I should've…I should've thought about this. This is what she does when things fall apart, I should've known."

"I think it's for the best. She'll get back to all of this when she's ready."

"But she needs to get busy, she needs to do something with her time…"

"Well, we can't really push her, can we? She needs to pick herself up on her own. All we can do is just be there."

Lou felt her chest tightening up, and she placed a hand to her torso to steady herself. "But that's just it, Grandpa. I haven't been there."

"You didn't really have a choice, now did you? Doctor's orders."

Lou turned to look at him, as if she'd just realized he was sitting there, beside her. "What? No, no, I just…is she alright? Has she said anything to you lately?"

Panic was rising in Lou's voice, and Jack knew he had to do something sooner rather than later in order to keep her grounded. "Look, what she's doing…it's normal after a loss like the one she's faced. It's perfectly normal. She'll be back to her old self in no time."

"I lost one kid already…" she said in a trance. "And that still hasn't hit me yet. I'm worried I may lose the other one, too."

"You know that's not happening. You're just scaring yourself."

"I'm arming myself. This is going to happen, I just know it, and I need to be ready."

"Lou, she's fine! She's taking a break from everything, that's all it is."

Lou breathed out shakily. "No, no…it's only a matter of time before she leaves me, too."

"Where's this coming from?"

"Everyone I've ever loved, they always find a way to get away from me," she said quietly, nodding her head ever so slightly. "I'm always left alone, and…I'm just arming myself."

"Lou—"

"Except you. You've never left me."

Jack's eyes darkened with sadness. "Nobody's leaving. Do you understand me? This Georgie business will figure itself out in no time."

"And if it doesn't?"

Jack was startled. Lou sounded like she was having trouble speaking. He put a hand to her arm to get her to look at him. "Talk to me. Tell me what I can do to help."

"I don't…" she shook her head, trying to put the pieces together.

"I can check in on her today or tomorrow. She listens to me," Jack offered.

"You'd do that?"

"Of course."


Lou and Mitch returned home late that afternoon. Both of them had a lot on their mind. When they stepped into the house, Lou called for Georgie.

When her daughter arrived downstairs, Lou told her to take a seat.

"Is everything okay? You guys seem a little off."

"It's fine. Just sit."

"Okay…" Georgie mumbled to herself as she sat down at the round table.

Mitch stood by Lou as she took a seat as well.

"Okay, so," Lou began. "I went to the clinic today."

"Woah—" Georgie waved a hand in front of her. "Why would you…"

"As I said, everything's fine. I've just been having trouble sleeping lately. So Dr. Virani prescribed me something."

"Wait, sleeping pills?"

"Honey, I'm tired all the time, but then at night when I go to lie down, I can't get to sleep. So I lie awake, and it makes everything worse."

Georgie swallowed. "Mom, come on. You—" she broke off, exasperated. "There has to be another way for us to fix this! You can't rely on medicine to go about your day…that's just—"

"Georgie," Mitch spoke, a tightness to his voice. His eyes held the same, stern warning. He shook his head a little.

Lou reached into her purse and pulled out the pill bottles she'd gotten from the pharmacy.

Georgie's eyes darted back and forth from the bottles to her mother's face. "What's that second one?" Georgie felt her frustration increasing by the minute.

"Here," Lou said, placing the first of them on the table and handing Georgie the second one. "Read the label," she said tiredly, clearly too exhausted to explain this one as well.

Georgie hesitantly took the pill bottle from Lou's grasp, and she then quickly read through the label. She was confused at first; she hadn't seen a label like this before. But as she continued to read, it became apparent to her what it was. "This is an antidepressant…" Georgie said in horror, looking from Lou to Mitch. "Wait, what? Why do you need this?" She demanded from Lou.

Lou sucked in her breath and turned partly toward Mitch. "Maybe telling her this wasn't the best idea," she said to him under her breath.

Georgie was on the brink of losing it. "Why do you need this, though? Mom, answer me! I mean, okay, fine—the sleeping pills I get, but this…? You're fine—"

"I'm not," said Lou simply. "This is me trying to be."

"Okay, if you would just...just listen to me for a second."

"I wanted to tell you myself. I didn't want you finding out on your own."

Georgie placed the bottle back down on the table. She put a hand to the back of her head, bunching up her hair. "No, you don't—you don't need these…What you need is to talk to someone, anyone. These pills…are you even aware of the side effects?"

"I'm aware."

Georgie exhaled heavily, her hand slipping off of the surface of the table. "I don't understand why you can't just talk to someone."

"Talking isn't going to help me."

"You're going to become so reliant on these. What's going to happen once they decide you don't need them anymore? Do you know how hard the withdrawal is?" When Lou didn't answer, Georgie continued on. "Is there something going on that's making you need these? Is it something I said? Because if that's the case, then I can promise you—"

"It's nothing you said or did. Honey, I just need these. I'm sorry. If all of this is upsetting you…" Lou gestured to the pill bottles. "Then I won't take them in front of you. You don't have to worry about seeing them, ever."

"I'm not a child that needs coddling! I want you people to be straight up with me, for once in my life! God, I just..." Georgie trailed off as the tightness in her throat was getting worse.

Lou recognized the look in her daughter's eyes. It was the same look that Peter had when he was upset or worried about something. Her eyes were shining in the light, and Lou worried she was at her breaking point.

Georgie let out a shuddering breath. "Well, whatever. You made the decision to do this without me, so it's not like I need to stick around and see this through. You can do whatever it is you want. Don't let me stop you."

"That's what this is about? The fact that I went ahead and did this without your permission?" Lou questioned her.

Georgie moved back in her seat. "No! I don't want you asking my permission, I wanted to be part of this decision!"

"Right. Okay."

"'Okay,' what?"

"No, nothing. It's just…you really made sure I was part of your decision to drop out of your classes, so it only makes sense that we should have involved you in this."

Georgie was stunned for a moment. She scoffed, shaking her head. "It's not the same! This is important!" Georgie gestured toward her mother. "It's about you!"

"The decision about the funeral was important, too. You guys decided, all on your own, how it would happen and who would be there. Without even consulting me about it."

"What were we supposed to consult you for?" Georgie demanded. "You had just gotten out of the hospital! We weren't about to drag you all the way to a memorial service."

"I needed to be Katie's mom for as long as I was able to. But that, too, was taken from me because nobody in this family thought that I could hold my own out there."

"Look, that was…" Georgie began, trying to defend herself. But the way Lou had put it made everything she was about to say not make sense anymore.

"Lou, just tell her," Mitch said under his breath.

"What? Tell me what?" Georgie asked.

Lou didn't say anything for a moment, but then Mitch put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "Lou."

"It doesn't matter. She doesn't want to hear it."

"Just tell me," Georgie said in a low voice.

Lou sighed. "I've been dealing with these aches and pains—it's non-stop, and no matter what I do, or what I take for it…it doesn't work. At first, I thought that it might be tied with—" Lou broke off when she saw the look on Georgie's face. "—with my cardiac episode, but then I realized there was nothing going on besides…well, you get it."

Georgie's lips parted in astonishment. That's what was going on? She quieted for a few moments, taking in what Lou had said.

"Georgie," Lou called out, vying for her daughter's attention. "Say something."

She exhaled. "So the antidepressant is supposed to help you manage all that as well. You think these are going to help?"

Lou studied her a moment. There was an innocent look in her eyes as if she were looking to her mother for reassurance that this was the best course of treatment.

Mitch answered. "They're doctor recommended. Specifically designed to help with chronic pain."

Georgie winced at her stepfather's words. "Okay. Fine, then," she said.

"But this isn't a magical, instant cure. It'll probably take some time for the medicine to actually kick in and start working." Mitch added.

Georgie was afraid to ask. "How long?"

"A month, or maybe a little longer."

Georgie blew out her breath. A moment later, she turned to Lou to apologize. "I'm sorry for being such a jerk. Both just now and this morning."

"Don't say that. Georgie, come on."

Georgie pursed her lips. "But it's true. I was being a jerk. I had no idea you were dealing with all of this. Today was just...um, it was just a bad day from the start. I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Lou forgave her instantly. She didn't want Georgie to think she was holding anything against her, because she wasn't. And Lou was afraid that one wrong move, one thing she'd say wrong would set her daughter off. She didn't want to give Georgie an excuse to push her away. "We're okay."