Lynn taps her pockets. She sighs in relief when she feels the plastic bottle in her pocket. For the past week, she has been driving herself crazy making sure that she doesn't misplace Francisco's medicine, especially since they just refilled the three-day prescription yesterday.

"There should be seventeen pills in there," she mutters to herself.

Greg looks over at Lynn. He and Rob were used to Lynn being a little jumpy in the kitchen, but lately, she appears to be on edge every minute of the day; she has constantly stepped out of the kitchen, forgets ingredients, and keeps patting her pockets as though she's expecting something to drop out of them.

Rob walks over to her, "Are you okay? You've been acting weirder than normal since you came back to work."

"I'm fine, the fries should be ready in a bit," she tells him, despite the fryers being empty at the moment.

Greg excuses himself out of the kitchen. He isn't the type to meddle in his coworker's lives, but whatever Lynn was dealing with needed to be addressed by someone who would know the problem better than him.

He knocks on Francisco's door before walking in, "Hey, there's something going on with the boss's daughter."

Francisco, who is preparing to head to his appointment with Hutchison, asks, "What?"

"Lynn, she seems like she's out of it. I mean, you know what she's like in the kitchen, and now it seems like it's getting worse. We've been patient, but she keeps stepping out, burning food, forgetting food, and stopping what she's doing in the middle of the kitchen, and all to count some pills."

Francisco has an idea. When he first started, Greg, Rob and even Mr. Loud have told him that Lynn can be somewhat disorganized and running like her mind is going a million miles a minute, but lately it appears as though she is running even faster. He assumed that she was fine while at work, especially since there weren't any complaints, but Francisco can't ignore it when it's brought up to his attention.

"I'll go check on her right now," he says.

As Francisco steps out of the kitchen, he walks over to the pick-up window, and looks into the kitchen where he immediately notices what Greg was referring to. He sees Lynn running around, as if telling herself that she's forgetting something, and then running back and forth to perform basic tasks.

He walks into kitchen to help her out, but as he steps into the kitchen, she doesn't appear to notice that he's near her. Lynn continues running around the kitchen, going back and forth from the same stations, presumably due to forgetting something, and she is constantly tapping her pockets as though she's expecting something to fall out of them.

"Lynn," he says, "do you need any help?"

She stops and looks at him, "Has it been four hours already?" she turns to Rob, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Was I supposed to?" he asks, unsure what she's referring to.

Francisco gestures Rob to leave the kitchen for a few minutes while they talk. Rob does as he's told and Francisco calls out to Lynn, who has begun plating another dish, "No, I'm fine, but what's going on with you?"

"Nothing," she snaps, "I'm working and doing my job, which you are interrupting for nothing. There is nothing wrong with me, I'm just backed up in here because everyone left without telling me!" she yells out the pick-up window. Lynn turns back to Francisco, "Don't you have an appointment in a bit?"

"Yes, but I can cancel them if you need more help in here," he offers.

"I'm fine. Besides, you know that you can't miss going to the physical therapist, the doctor said so."

He sighs, "Well, I'm about to head out," he starts, but he's a little distracted by Lynn moving around, "so I may not be back in time to help close down the restaurant. Do you want me to leave you the truck so that you can get home? I can get a ride to my appointments."

Lynn taps her pockets and pulls out the amber bottle to count the pills again. Despite having a week to get used to her overly cautious behavior, Francisco still hasn't gotten used to it. At first, he didn't pay much attention, but as the days passed it was getting harder to ignore that Lynn has been anxious since she was handed over the pills.

"Lynn," he calls out to her.

She pours a few pills onto her hand and continues to count the pills without looking up at him. Francisco pulls out the keys from his pocket and approaches her. He takes a pill from her and pops it into his mouth, "One less to worry about."

She scowls at him and begins to count the pills again.

Francisco takes a hold of her hand, hoping to snap her out of her counting spell, "What's going on?"

"Nothing," she stresses, annoyed that he isn't leaving her alone long enough to count the pills.

"Lynn, are you okay? You've been off a little and I'm getting worried about you."

"I said I'm fine," she stresses. "What time is it?" she asks as she looks around for a clock to check the time.

When Francisco realizes that Lynn isn't going to pay attention to him and his concerns he tells her, "Here," he says as he gives her the keys, "I'll see you at home in a few hours," he tells her before giving her a kiss goodbye.

Lynn doesn't react and when Francisco pulls away, she goes back to counting the pills in her hand.

He sighs and walks away.

Lynn bounces back and forth as she waits outside Cesar's dorm. Unlike most students who went back home for the holidays, he stayed behind, granting him plenty of free time before classes started while students were getting settling in again. After Lynn finished moving back into her dorm, she texted Cesar and he invited her over to hang out for the afternoon; which she accepted.

As he approaches the locked door, Lynn smiles and waves to him in hopes of getting him to open the door a little faster, this, unfortunately, doesn't work. She watches him casually walk down the hall; she is sure that he's enjoying watching her suffer as she waits for him to let her into the building.

When he opens the door, Lynn immediately runs in, "About time, I thought that you were never coming," she jokingly complains.

He shrugs his shoulders, "It's so easy to forget how quickly you think time passes," he jokes back.

"Ha ha," she flatly says to him, "C'mon! Last one to your room is a rotten egg!" she says running down the hall.

Cesar doesn't even bother running after her, deciding to let her have her little fun until she remembers that he has the room key.

Lynn is waiting at the end of the hall for him, she calls out, "Are you serious?! What's with the snail's pace?"

He catches up to her, "Relax, my room isn't going anywhere."

"But I might," she threatens.

He decides to call her bluff by not moving, but she stands still by the door, waiting for him instead of walking away.

Cesar eventually reaches his room and opens the door so that the two can walk inside. Lynn looks around, not at all surprised that he still has a tidy room with everything organized while still maintaining a lived-in look. She takes a seat on the bed across from his and notices a pot with a bunch of twigs growing from it.

"What the heck is that?" she asks, pointing at the pot.

"A Bloomerang lilac – I'm hoping that it manages to bloom by the time I have to go back home," he says as he walks towards it so that he can water the plant.

She lays down on the bed, "What did you have in mind for us to do? Movies? Video games? What?"

Cesar sets down the watering can and takes a seat next to her, "I was hoping we could catch up since last semester. We didn't get much a chance to talk much after you went back home."

Lynn gets up and looks at him, "Are you serious? That's what you want to do?"

He shrugs his shoulders, "I don't exactly have a lot of friends, so excuse me for not knowing how to entertain."

She is about to slap his back, about to offer her services as the fun coordinator, but he quickly grabs her hand to stop her.

"Don't hit me," he tells her, clearly unhappy with the potential gesture.

Lynn puts her arm down. She gets up and looks around for anything that they could do to entertain themselves, but unsurprisingly, he only has books. She looks at the titles, but most are about economics, gardening, and one stray book about learning disorders.

"How is it that you aren't like a normal guy who likes sports or video games or anything fun like that? I mean, do you honestly only read for fun?"

"For the most part, yes," he answers. "I've always wanted a quiet place to myself so that I can read and I'm taking advantage of my dorm room."

"That sounds boring," she says, but curiosity about the books she found, drives Lynn to ask, "How'd you get into gardening?"

"My mom, well, her side of the family likes to garden and I picked it up growing up, it was nice to able to hang out with her without anyone else bothering us."

Lynn is sure that he means his brother. In the months that they have known each other, Cesar has occasionally brought up his younger brother, but if she ever tries to get more information, he immediately turns the conversation towards something else.

"Yeah, I know that feeling. I loved those moments when my dad and I would toss a football or a baseball or a Frisbee with me, just the two of us. Although I did wish that he had more free time to help me with my other teams," she sighs, "but that's what happens when you have ten other siblings to share parents with."

"How many other sports did you participate in growing up?"

"Do you have to ask?"

He nods his head. Cesar knows that she likes to watch sports and that she always have an array of sports balls in her bag, but he can't imagine that she has actually played everything on a team without being an alternate or something.

"Well–"

Lynn's stomach rumbles and Cesar chuckles, "Do you want to order some takeout?"

She stands to her feet, "Yup! Chinese, you're buying!" she says as she walks towards the door.

"When did I agree to that?" he mutters to himself.

Francisco checks in for his appointment with Hutchison. It's his first appointment since the surgery, and he feels almost excited to show the doctor the progress that he is making; in their first session, Francisco was grumpy and bound to a wheelchair in pain, now he can walk and move around with much less pain than he's felt in a long time.

Dr. Hutchison opens the door and greets Francisco, who walks into the office to start the session. The doctor takes a seat across from his patient, who appears to be doing much better than the last time they met.

"I see that the surgery has done you some good. How are you feeling?"

Francisco turns on the alarm on his watch before taking a seat, and says, "Sorry, I can't stay seated in the same position for too long. Well, since the surgery, things seem to be going good – Caroline is planning on letting me see Elena more often, I can walk around without feeling as much pain, I'm allowed to push my limits a little, but Dr. Lee still wants me to take it easy so that I don't hurt myself."

"So would you say that things are looking up for you at the moment?"

He nods his head. There isn't much to say, but at least on paper it is noted that he is doing better since the surgery.

"I know that after these sort of procedures, people are prescribed pain medication, how have you been dealing with that?"

"I've been doing good. I'm still a little tempted, but the doctor gives me a three day prescription, and Lynn is holding onto them for me, so at least I'm trying to be responsible."

Hutchison nods his head and takes note.

Francisco takes a deep breath, "Did you know that I first had a crush on Lynn when I was sixteen years old?"

The doctor is surprised to hear that come up out of nowhere, but he holds back and says, "Really? Did you ever let her know?"

Francisco shakes his head, "No, I was afraid that she would shoot me down. She always seemed so confident in herself, plus she was pretty upfront so assumed that if she ever had such feelings for me I would have noticed."

"What changed? What brought you two together as adults?"

"I took a chance, and if it didn't work out, then I wouldn't have to see her as much as when we were kids. Looking back, I could have been smarter when it came to telling her, especially when she hit me after giving her a surprise kiss, but I wanted to take a chance, the chance that I missed out on when we were kids."

"It's good to know that you found the courage to express the feelings that you were holding onto."

He smiles before remembering, "Before our appointment, I saw her so frazzled at work, she's been like that all week, and I'm worried about her."

"What do you think may be the cause of that?"

Francisco nods his head, "I think that she's under this pressure because of me, at work, I saw her counting the pills, keeping track of the time – it should look like she's being responsible, but the look in her eyes, the absentmindedness, and her muttering clearly says otherwise. Would alcoholics feel the same sort of temptation from pain pills?"

Hutchison is confused, "She's an alcoholic?"

"Yeah, but she's been sober for years," Francisco answers, unaware of what the doctor's concern, "Over and over again, I've given her the option to not do this, that we can find another way to take my medicine, but she insists that she can handle it. She's driving herself nuts, and now our coworkers are taking notice. I get that she doesn't want me to get addicted again and it's convenient because we're around each other plenty of hours a day, but at what point does it cause more harm than good?"

The doctor shakes his head, "I can't answer that for you. The only information I have about her comes from you."

Francisco sighs, "But based on what I said, you would consider she is stressed, right?"

"Again, I can't answer that."

"But you work with addicts; there must be something that overlaps between a drug addict and an alcoholic, help me help her!"

Hutchison sternly reminds his patient, "Unless, she asks for it, there will be no benefit. Even if I suggest something, there is no guarantee that it's the right course of action for her. With you private conversations are the way to go, but I had time to observe you and see how you fared in group therapy, I haven't seen Lynn, and all the information I have about her, comes from you." He sees that Francisco isn't satisfied, he asks, "Does she talk with anyone about her addiction? What is she doing to help herself with the disease?"

Francisco shakes his head, "I don't know. I think that she deals with this all by herself, there was probably this woman that she talked to, but Lynn hasn't seen her much in a while and I don't even know if that was their relationship."

Dr. Hutchison gets up from his seat, he pulls out one of his business cards and writes down a phone number, "My old professor lives in Royal Woods, he keeps contact with plenty of his students and he might be able to help you find someone that she can talk to," as he hands over the card to Francisco, "Do not, and I repeat, do not give her this card, unless she clearly asks you for it."

Francisco nods his head and places the card in his wallet to give to Lynn.

Cesar and Lynn walk into the room with their food. They take a seat on the floor and set down between the two of them. Lynn takes a container and begins to chow down on some fried rice, and he asks, "I still don't believe it," he says, despite hearing Lynn's claims that she has played every sport offered in Royal Woods.

"I'm serious! Every single sports team in town has had Lynnsanity try out and make the team," she boasts.

He isn't sure to believe her, but he decides to humor her and ask anyway, "Well, I know that you're here on a softball scholarship, so that's out. Basketball?"

"Yup."

"Soccer?"

She nods her head.

"Rowing?"

With confidence, Lynn nods her head, "Yup."

"Wrestling?"

"Only girl on the team, only one in our district's weight class, and only undefeated wrestler," she says with pride. "Although it did get boring since I wasn't allowed to wrestle some of the heavier opponents."

"I bet." Figuring that she may not be interested, he asks, "Cheerleading?"

"I tried out…" she clarifies, "and I made the team over that bitch Brook Sanders, but I gave it up since I wasn't interested. Tell me that I might as well be a boy," she mutters under her breath.

"So that doesn't count, then."

"It does!"

"But you didn't join the team," he reminds her.

"But I did make the team," she stresses.

"Fine, I'll count it. Why do you play so many sports? Most people stick with a few; meanwhile, you claim to play them all."

"You know that I like to compete, you said so yourself."

He can't argue with that, instead he decides to try asking her about a few more sports, "What about hockey?"

"Let me save your breath, I did ice hockey, field hockey, football, gymnastics, lacrosse, swimming, roller derby, track, tennis, water polo–"

"Golf?" he asks.

Lynn shakes her head, "Nope," she quickly answers, "just wasn't interested."

Cesar finds that difficult to believe. After listing so many sports, he finds it difficult to believe that golf fell between the cracks. He knows that it isn't high speed like the other sports that she mentioned, but it still is a competition and a sport.

She begins to stuff her face with some Kung Pao chicken to keep herself from answering any questions that Cesar may have. There isn't anything special about why she doesn't like golf, she just doesn't and she wants to end the darn conversation about her athletic career.

"So what's that lilac going to end up looking like?" Lynn asks as she points towards the potted plant.

He knows what she is trying to do, but he humors her and answers, "It's going to be a purple flower that is clustered and have a nice pleasant aroma, unfortunately it can grow out a little, so I'm probably going to have to plant it in a larger pot soon," he takes out his phone and shows her a photo.

Lynn looks at the photo and then at him, "Why'd you pick it?"

"No reason," he says. "I grow flowers every once in a while and I thought, why not? Besides, at least when I'm here, I can grow them without having to worry about my brother."

Cesar knows what he did. For years, he has made a point to avoid bringing up his brother in conversation, but every once in a while it must come out, whether he likes it or not.

Lynn quietly asks, assuming the worst, "Was it that bad?"

He shakes his head, "No, he just likes to pluck the flowers and I could never get him to stop so that they can bloom. I try to tell myself that he doesn't understand and that he's like a little kid, but it's difficult to remember that when he's bigger than I am."

Surprised, she asks, "Really?" then she realizes, "Wait, if he's a little kid then how is he bigger than you?"

Cesar raises his hand, "I don't want to get too into it, but long story short, it's how he is, and he isn't going to change. Growing up, my brother and I were like a package, we were always together, or better yet, he wouldn't leave my side. He was more memorable, while I was quieter, so most people knew me as his brother."

She understands that life, granted she thinks that she was one of the more memorable sisters, there were times that she felt like she was known because of her siblings.

"I figured that college would be my opportunity to be my own man, but somehow, I can never bring myself to be more outgoing…a little more different from who I was."

"It's hard, isn't it?"

He nods his head, "Yes, it is."

Cesar looks at her, as if he is waiting for Lynn to open up. He locks eyes with her for a brief second, but Lynn takes a bite out of an eggroll and looks towards his bookshelf to avoid his gaze.

Lynn arrives home. She is exhausted and doesn't want to think about anything except sitting down in front of the couch in the dark. She hopes that the darkness can help her calm down, but her shaking foot and headache are not helping her out.

"How does Lucy sit still for so long?!" she complains to herself.

She looks around, Lynn knows that Francisco isn't home, so he can't complain or say anything when she spits three times on the floor. She lays back on the couch, "That feels a bit better," she says in relief, but her anxious feelings begin to creep back up on her.

The sound of silence is beginning to bother her and by instinct, Lynn pulls out the amber bottle to count the pills. There are the exact same number of pills as there were since she last counted before leaving work, but she's sure that at some point, she's going to lose some due to her own negligence.

"I can do this," she tells herself, "I can do this. Francisco is not going to get his hands on these pills, he's not going to get addicted and fall apart," she slaps her face, "What's wrong with you, Lynnsanity?! I can do this! Francisco trusted you and you are going to do a good job for his sake!"

Lynn crashes back down, "Don't screw this up," she tells herself, as she punches her forehead three times.

The silence becomes unbearable for Lynn, and she walks outside in hopes that the sound of birds, squirrels, and wind can keep her from fixating on the medicine and how she's going to mess up somehow.

She takes a seat on a lawn chair, when she hears, "Good evening, neighbor," calls out Jackson.

Lynn groans, "Hey…"

"Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…just needed some fresh air after today," she says as she leans back and closes her eyes.

Jackson doesn't probe any further, and steps away, whistling as he heads into his shed. Lynn listens for his whistling, but is instead met with the sound of a rattling push mower. She turns her head towards the sound and watches him as he mows his lawn, carefully avoiding the colorful flowers in his garden. For years, she has watched him tend to that garden, which she assumes to be another hobby on top of his already numerous pursuits, but she never asked too many questions about it.

Lynn gets up from her seat and walks over to the fence. She leans over to watch her neighbor, but her eyes are drawn away from him towards the flowers on the ground.

While Jackson continues to mow his lawn, he notices her staring, but doesn't disturb her. He discreetly continues his task until he is done and returns the lawn mower into the shed.

When he steps out, he decides to offer her something to do other than standing around looking at flowers, "Would you like to join me for a bit while I tend to my plants?" he offers.

Cesar takes a bite out of his food. He can tell that Lynn doesn't want to talk much, and while he is curious about golf after he opened up a bit, he respects her privacy and doesn't ask any more questions. Both eat their food, but the silence is killing Lynn. She doesn't normally speak about these sort of things, but she feels like she can trust him to not make her feel worse or stupid.

"I actually made the team, you know, but I didn't stick around for long, because everyone on that damn team just kept asking about my older sister," she says. "they were like, 'oh do you play like your sister?', 'is Lori going to visit for our games?', 'did she teach you how to play? I bet you're going to be on the varsity team like her' and I got sick of it. Even the coach too!"

Cesar is a little surprised, but went along with it, "What did the coach say?"

"Nothing, but I could tell. Even with her eyes hidden behind those sunglasses, I knew that she was comparing me to Lori. She was the golf legend at school, and I was just her little sister, who just happened to try out."

Cesar remembers being told about her large family and, to an extent, he can somewhat relate to her. Growing up, and despite being the older brother, he felt like he was defined more by his younger brother than he was by his own merits, and based on what Lynn is saying, she might feel the same way.

"I got so sick of the constant references to my sister and her calling me to give me pointers that I quit. I told everyone that it was because of other commitments, they believed me, but I just wanted it to end."

He doesn't say anything; he doesn't know what to say, and only mutters, "Okay…"

"Was it ever like that with your brother?"

"A little, a lot of my family members would ask me things or tell how I 'have to grow up to be successful to take care of your brother' or something along those lines. They probably thought that they were motivating me, but it always put this pressure on me because I thought that–"

"That you need to be successful to have any value," she finishes.

Cesar quietly nods his head, "Did you ever feel like that?"

"Sometimes, that's why I took any job that I was given seriously, so that we, or I, could succeed. It didn't matter if it was at school or sports, if it was to prove to anyone that I could do it, I would give it everything I had."

From the way she talked, it seems as though Lynn put this pressure on herself, but it doesn't take away the fact that it also has a strong hold on her.

"It's funny how we grow up differently and still have some of these little overlapping similarities. I thought that since we have two different sibling relationships, you a middle child in a sea of siblings, me the oldest of two with a brother that everyone babied, that we would be more different, but we can still feel the same weight on our shoulders. What do you do about the pressure?"

In a matter-of-fact tone, she answers, "Running, punching a bag, baseball, a good luck ritual – whatever gets rid of those knots in my stomach."

"Good luck ritual?"

"Don't knock it 'til you try it. I can't tell you how many times a good Cossack dance helped me calm down enough to win a game."

He chuckles at her logic, "I don't think that that's good in the long run."

"Well, it hasn't failed me yet, so I'm calling it a win!"

Lynn jumps over the fence and stands around by the faucet, waiting for Jackson to return with a hose. It's been a long time since she helped tend to flowers, but it isn't like spraying water on them is rocket science.

Jackson exits from the garden shed with a pair of watering cans. He hands her one and they fill them with water to begin their task. It isn't what Lynn was expecting, but she isn't going to argue with the man, after all, it is his garden.

The two head towards opposite ends of the garden bed and begin to quietly water the flowers. She doesn't know why she agreed to help him, but it is nice to able to do something other than standing around doing nothing. Lynn makes sure that each flower gets an appropriate amount of water before sidestepping towards the next one.

He notices that as she walks around, Lynn isn't paying attention to where she is stepping, and is about to trample on some carnations, "Be careful!"

Lynn jumps up and looks around at the potential danger, "What is it?!"

The man walks over to her and leads her away from the pink and yellow flowers that Lynn had yet to notice, "Please be careful around these."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see them" she says.

Jackson stays quiet as he looks down at the carnations. Lynn watches him get on his knees to make sure that they are okay, and she steps away to let him be while she continues watering the plants.

After inspecting the carnation, he looks over at her and notices that she is flicking herself in the leg as she steps away from him. She appears nervous and while he hoped that the simple task would have calmed her mind, it seems that she is taking a step backwards.

Jackson stands up and helps her finishing watering the flowers, and instead of bidding goodbye, he takes a seat on the bench, "Would you like to take a seat?"

"Sure."

"Have you done much gardening before?"

"A little," Lynn says as she joins him, "I had a boyfriend in college who liked to garden and he would tell me about plants sometimes, but I only knew him for a little bit so I didn't pick up much."

"It was actually my wife who taught me about plants and flowers. She was such an enthusiastic botanist, which made it rather easy to pick up information on the subject."

Lynn stays quiet. For as long as she has known Jackson, he has never mentioned his wife. Francisco says that all he knows about her is that her name is Rebecca, but other than that, he doesn't know much either, since Jackson rarely brought her up.

"I don't think that Cesar was as enthusiastic, he was more of the type to do it to relax or something like that."

Jackson nods his head, "There is an innate allure to nature. The warmth of the sun, the smell of flowers in the air, the sound of water as it splashes. Lynn, have you ever taken a minute to meditate or sit back without a care or thought in the world?"

Lynn shakes her head, "Wait, I think I did it once, but I ended up getting bored from sitting in such a quiet room. The sound of silence was driving me nuts! I ended up making a list of errands I needed to run and then, any time that I heard a noise it threw off my concentration, so I had to start all over again," she sighs, "It was like being in school again."

He chuckles, "It can be hard the first time, would you like to try it now? I can walk you through it," he offers.

"No, thanks," she says. "Besides, I can't bring myself to be sitting around right now."

Jackson folds his legs and asks, "Why do you say that?"

"It's never been my thing. I'm a woman of action, who constantly needs to be on the move, I don't have time to stop and think for too long, if not," she shakes her head, as if trying to whisk away something bad.

"That must get stressful. You know, every once in a while it never hurts to stop and take a deep breath – it can be therapeutic."

Lynn complies, but doesn't feel any different than before. She can feel her heart begin to pound again, and she taps on her pockets to ensure that she didn't lose the pills while she was helping Jackson. She takes another deep breath, but it isn't doing anything.

"Is something bothering you?"

She shakes her head, "These days, I am so exhausted, I feel like I need a drink…"

That is the first time this week that she has admitted that out loud. The stress of everything that has gone on this year from finding out about Francisco's addiction, rehab, therapy, her confrontation with Luna, the surgery, and now being responsible for holding the medicine that could drive Francisco back is getting to her.

Jackson gets to his feet, "If you'd like I can get some from the kitchen, I have bourbon, vodka, and–"

She shakes her head, "Nope, I'm fine...I just want to sit here. No, I want to…I want to…punch something, but that hasn't worked in a long time…"

He isn't sure that she means by that, "What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter…"

"You know what my wife would do when she knew that someone was upset, she would bring over a bouquet of flowers in hopes of brightening their day."

"Did it work?"

"A good thirty-seven times it did. Would you like some? I can't promise that the bouquet will be as beautiful as her's were, but we can try."

Lynn gets up grabs two carnations from the garden. She gives him the pink carnation and she takes the yellow one and places it behind her ear.

He takes the flower and smiles at her, and she returns the gesture. For a brief moment, she forgets her troubles before her hand grazed her pockets and feels the amber bottle.

As the sun begins to set, the room begins to get darker and Lynn checks the time on her phone, "Dang, it got late fast."

"Looks like we did find a way to entertain ourselves."

Lynn rolls her eyes, "Well, it was nice to talk, I guess…" she gets up and walks towards the door, but stops to look over at him, "Do you mind…?" she asks sheepishly pointing her head towards the door.

Cesar isn't sure what she's talking about at first, but when he realizes it, he decides to see her out, "Let me grab my jacket."

The two step out of the room and quietly walk down the hall. Lynn doesn't know what possessed her to ask him to at least see her out the building, but after spending hours talking with Cesar, she felt something that she couldn't describe. She told him things that she hasn't talked with to anybody and now she feels as though a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

Lynn sees the front door of the building and is almost regretting that she has to go back to her room. She didn't realize how much time passed hanging out and talking, but it didn't feel like enough.

When they get to the door, she tells him, "I guess I'll see you around."

Cesar raises an eyebrow, "I thought you wanted me to walk you to your dorm?"

"What? Why…yeah, you could do that if you want."

She didn't realize that he assumed that her gesture back in his room meant that she wanted him to escort her back to her building, but she isn't going to complain about it either. A part of her wishes that her building was a bit further away, but a short walk is better than being alone in the night.

When they arrive at her building, Cesar tells her, "I know that today wasn't what you had in mind, but hopefully, you–"

"Yeah, I– sorry," she says, after realizing that she interrupted him from finishing his part of the conversation.

"No, no, it's fine. I guess you did have a little fun."

"I did. It was…something, but good. You know, nothing bad, just unexpected."

"Great, would you want to hang out another day? Maybe one where we aren't studying or something?"

She can feel her heart pounding, and she stiffly nods her head, "Yeah, that'd be nice."

Lynn turns towards the door and slides her card. The two hear a clicking sound, and before she takes a hold of the handle, she turns towards him and gives him a quick hug.

Cesar is surprised by the gesture, and before he is able to do anything, Lynn lets go, "Thanks for today, it was nice."

"I'm glad you thought so."

As she walks inside, she yells, "I'll text you tomorrow after class!"

He stands there for a minute as he watches her go. He assumes that talking may have made her feel vulnerable, but he never imagined that it would have caused her to express herself like that.

Cesar turns around and walks back to his room, with a small smile on his face and a tint of red in his cheeks.

Lynn notices a car pulling into the front of the house and knows that Francisco is about to step out. He has been gone for hours, and she knows that he is probably either exhausted or hurting after walking without any help from his medicine.

She takes a deep breath, gets up, and thanks Jackson for keeping her company for the last couple of minutes. After she leaps back onto her side of the yard, Lynn looks over at the dark house and is almost filled with dread. Her heart begins to pound. She taps on her pocket to feel the amber bottle and sighs in relief.

When she steps into the house, Francisco is slowly walking towards the couch with pain in his steps. Lynn walks over to him in an effort to help him. As she wraps her arm around his, he feels shaking in her arm. He knows that she wouldn't be so weak that she couldn't handle some of his weight on her, but it is taking him by surprise. Lynn helps him take a seat on the couch, and crashes next to him.

"There was so much traffic on the way back," he complains. Francisco turns to Lynn, who still seems frazzled, and asks, "Do you want to order some take-out? I am in the mood for some dim sum."

"Yeah, that sounds nice…"

"Alright let me order something…" he says as he pulls out his phone from his pocket.

She notices that he is biting down on his bottom lip and takes out the bottle from her pocket, "Do you need your medicine?" she asks.

He nods.

Lynn is about to open the bottle, but stops when she realizes that there isn't any water around for him to take it with. She sets down the bottle and heads to the kitchen to get a glass. While she is gone, Francisco stares at the bottle of pills that Lynn accidentally left on the coffee table. For a week, she has been diligently keeping them away from him, but now they are within his grasp to stash away and lie about. He can feel his heart racing as temptation begins to overcome him, but rather than take that chance, Francisco gets up and walks outside with the pills in hand.

"Where are you going with those?!" asks Lynn, who notices the bottle in his hands.

"I'm handing off the responsibility to Jackson."

Lynn attempts to tackle him to the ground, but Francisco, with his limited strength, runs outside and calls out to his neighbor before tossing the pills over the fence, "Jackson!"

The older man looks over at the couple and notices an amber bottle land in his yard. He inspects the label and looks over at Francisco, who is trying to keep Lynn from jumping over the fence.

"Can I trust you to give me these every couple of hours?"

Before Jackson can answer, Lynn demands, "Give them back! I can do this."

"Well I'm giving that job to him," Francisco responds. "Can I trust you?" he asks again.

The neighbor looks at the couple; he can tell that Lynn doesn't want to give up control, but Francisco appears desperate to have him accept the task. With some hesitation, he accepts the responsibility, and Lynn stomps into the house in anger without saying a word to either man.

Francisco tells his neighbor, "Thank you. I know that she's not happy about it now, but she has been driving herself nuts over this."

Jackson pockets the medicine, "These are rather powerful opioids, is she worried about potential addiction issues?"

The younger man nods his head. He didn't mention anything to Jackson about where he has been earlier this year or how he has been getting treatment for his addiction to pain medicine, and he doesn't want to mention it now.

"Are you going to be taking them for long?"

"Just a few more weeks, but the doctor is only giving me a few days' worth of medicine at a time and she's going to slowly taper me off as the weeks pass."

"Well, I'm happy to help you, but maybe you should have discussed the issue with Lynn before throwing them to me."

Francisco sighs, "I know, but she's so stubborn, and she wouldn't have agreed to it. I'm just tired of seeing her stressed out and if her being angry at me is the price, I'm willing to pay it."

"Well, I hope you know what you're doing," the older man says.

"I hope so too."

Well, it didn't take long for the pressure to get to Lynn, but considering everything that she has had to put up with this year, it was bound to happen. Not to mention that she's still holding onto other childhood pressures, so it ended up with paranoia about messing up a job that she was trusted with.

Was Francisco's tactic the best? No, but it gives me the opportunity to write something that I've been wanting to write for a long time

Also, I am curious if you noticed something in the details that I left

Thank you reading, everyone