Disclaimer: I do not own anyone who you might recognize. Mickey and Elizabeth are owned by Lindsay.

A/N: Sarah has been a kick-ass beta-reader on this, as well as many previous stories. She keeps me honest and on-target and what more could one ask for in a beta-reader? Thanks are due also to Lindsay for being the one who came up with this idea. She's the one who demanded that I write it down and for that I'm very grateful.

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Mickey and Owen didn't speak the rest of the day after their fight about Luke. When Mickey delivered Lorelai's lunch, the older woman had asked the most bizarre question. "Did he say anything?"

Mickey thought for a second and then said, "Who?"

"Luke, did Luke say anything?"

"He said he'd put it on your tab."

Lorelai leaned back in her chair. "Oh."

"Do you need anything else?"

"No, I'm good," Lorelai said, snapping out of herself. "Thanks."

Mickey nodded and went back to the kitchen. The test was three weeks away and she needed every second of study time she could get if she was going to pass it. The rest of the day went quickly. Mickey loved the fast pace of the kitchen, creating something beautiful that was also filling and delicious pleased her to no end. Sookie was a wonderful mentor and she always felt so fulfilled when working, that it more than made up for how exhausting it was.

That night, when Mickey had dragged herself and E up the two flights of stairs to their room, she saw that Owen's door was ajar. Stiffening, she passed it without a glance and swiftly entered their room and closed the door behind them. The stink from E's diaper made it necessary to immediately address the problem. While she was up to her arms in poo, someone knocked on the door. E started to squirm.

"Come in," Mickey called.

"Eeeeeeeee!" Elizabeth squealed. She loved it when her diaper came off.

Owen entered and blanched at the sight of E's bare bottom. "You're busy," he said. "I can come back."

"Wait!" she said. "Hand me that cream. I can't quite reach it." Mickey finished using the wet wipes to clean off the poopy butt and reached for the diaper rash cream he held out to her.

Owen watched as she expertly slathered the cream onto her daughter's skin, then struggled to get the new diaper on. Elizabeth hated this part, though, and she began to whine and wriggle. "Stop it, E. Let me just get this one and we can go to sleep."

With frustration etched across her tight face, Mickey finally looked up at Owen and said, "Distract her, will you?"

Bending down so that he was kneeling at E's head, Owen started playing peek-a-boo. Elizabeth quieted to study this new development. Mickey quickly finished with the diaper and pulled a pair of footy pajamas from a dresser drawer.

With more skill than Owen had anticipated, Mickey stripped E of her t-shirt and had two legs into the p.j.s before he knew it. With the legs done, Mickey lifted the baby up and held her under her arm pits and said, "Grab the rest of it and get her arms in."

Owen did as he was told, surprised at how difficult it was to dress something so small. Finally, they zipped up the red train pajamas and Mickey said, "Done!"

Elizabeth looked at them both as if they were traitors. Then she crawled over to some blocks and started to bang them together and Owen said, "I really am sorry about today. I was completely out of line."

Mickey softened a little bit and said, "It's okay."

"So, what do you guys do now?"

"Play until she falls asleep and then I study."

"Do you want some help? With the studying, I mean?"

"That would be great," Mickey told him. So they played with Elizabeth until it was clear that she was getting tired, then Mickey sent him back to his room because she knew the E would never fall asleep if he was still around to play with. Finally, at about nine-thirty, Elizabeth drifted off with Luke's plaid shirt clutched in her little fingers and Mickey opened her door and called softly, "Owen."

He appeared again, this time in a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and an old t-shirt. They studied together until about midnight and then Mickey made him leave. She had to be up at five to prep for breakfast and she could barely keep her eyes open. This became their routine for the next few weeks as Mickey prepared to take the G.E.D.

They'd finish work and get upstairs about at about seven, then they'd play with E until she was sleepy and then Mickey would make Owen leave. Then, once E was asleep he'd come back and they'd study until about midnight. It was grueling, but Mickey wouldn't have it any other way.

One night, Owen looked up from where he was diagramming a sentence to ask, "When is the test again?"

"Saturday morning," she answered, leaning back against the bed. They were seated on the floor as always and Mickey leaned her head back to check on E. She was sleeping hard with Luke's shirt draped across her legs.

"Three days."

"Yep," she agreed, feeling a bit like a caged animal again. She was never going to pull it off.

"You'll be fine," he told her and she scoffed.

"It's late," Mickey said, glancing at her alarm clock. "I have to be up in five hours."

"Let's call it a night, then," Owen agreed as he stood up. Before leaving he gave her one last look and said, "I know you can do this."

She waved him out and dropped to the bed still wearing her clothes. In her sleep, Elizabeth sneezed.

The next morning, Mickey woke up to her alarm clock and hazily rolled out of bed. Since she got up so early to be in the kitchen, she and Owen never fought over the bathroom. Placing a still-sleeping Elizabeth in her car seat/carrier, Mickey carried her to the bathroom where she deposited her on the closed toilet seat and turned on the shower.

When she finally got out of the shower she was feeling more awake but the general state of exhaustion hadn't passed. Elizabeth was still sleeping which was nothing unusual. Mickey brought her back to their room and put the carrier down while she dressed. Now that she was in the kitchen full time, she'd been winding her long red ponytail into a knot which she then secured with an elastic band. When that was done and she was dressed in her jeans and t-shirt, she picked up the still sleeping E and made her way downstairs. The Inn was quiet except for the kitchen which was already bustling with energy. Mickey helped herself to a cup of coffee and set E down in the playpen to finish her sleep.

The sneeze that Mickey had heard the night before gradually worsened throughout the day until by the time they went upstairs E was alternately crying, coughing or sneezing. Mickey was beside herself over what to do. Owen knocked when he heard them come up and Mickey answered ready to fall apart.

"She won't stop crying!" she told him. "I don't know what to do! I've called the doctor, given the medicine and she won't stop!" Owen pushed passed her and picked E up. The baby was crying and drooling and sneezing and it was a mess.

"Why don't I watch her for a while and you can study in my room."

Mickey looked at him with open adoration. "Really?"

"Absolutely. Go, we'll be fine," he told her, feeling much less sure of himself that he let on.

Mickey went to his room and studied for a couple of hours by herself but over the next two days her world gradually fell apart. When she'd get back to her room at night, E wouldn't want to go to sleep so she'd be up all night trying to calm her daughter down. The doctor said it was a combination of a cold and the teething process which was very painful.

Whatever the problem, for the next two days and nights Elizabeth did nothing but scream. When Mickey arrived at the testing place on Saturday morning she was worn out, sleep deprived and felt like she was hanging on by a very thin thread.

Owen stayed with Elizabeth that morning and they spent the time in their little room. He tried, unsuccessfully, to get her to calm down. Finally, feeling that he was at the end of his own rope, he bundled her up in her winter coat, put her in the stroller and set off for Doose's. He knew she had a cold, but he also knew that teething was part of the problem. There had to be something you could buy that would help.

Finding the baby section he quickly scanned the items while Elizabeth wailed. Finally, he saw something that might work. It was a tube of gel that you put on a baby's gums that supposedly numbed the area. Elizabeth's face was beet red from all the crying and Owen knelt down and opened the tube. Slathering some of the gel onto his index finger, he pushed it into her mouth and rubbed it on her upper and lower gums. After a few seconds a look of surprise came over her face and she stopped crying. She stared at him as if thinking, "Well, damn. It doesn't hurt so bad now."

Taylor rounded the corner just then and said with shocked indignation, "Young man, I hope you're planning on buying that!"

Luke, who'd heard Elizabeth's pitiful wails when he'd first entered the store, had headed toward the noise even thought it went against his better judgment. He arrived just in time to see Taylor bearing down on Owen and E. "Of course I'm going to buy it, Taylor, I just wanted to get her some relief as soon as possible."

Taylor scowled and left in a huff, while Luke headed toward them. "Where's Mickey," he asked suspiciously.

"She's taking the G.E.D. this morning. I'm babysitting."

"Everything okay?" Luke wondered, taking in E's red, teary face and Owen's look of exhaustion.

"She's teething and has a cold. It's been nonstop crazy but I think this stuff will help."

Luke nodded and then said, "Have you seen Lorelai lately?"

"Yeah, but I work for her, so I see her daily," Owen shrugged.

"Have you guys been busy?"

"No more than usual."

"Huh. All right, well bring Mickey in to celebrate when she gets back."

"Celebrate?"

"The G.E.D." Luke said. "It's a big deal. Whatever she and the kid wants is on the house."

"I'll tell her," Owen said.

Once back at the Inn, Owen took her upstairs and E was able to fall asleep on the bed, something she hadn't done for three days. Owen used the quiet time to straighten up Mickey's room. He piled all the toys into a basket and put all the dirty clothes into another, then straightened the clean diapers and organized the makeshift changing table. When he was finished he got a book from his room and sat down on the floor near the bed so that he could keep on eye on the sleeping infant and began to read.

When Mickey came home two hours later she walked into the room, saw that E was sound asleep and the room was neatly organized and immediately burst into tears. "I'm a terrible mother!" she wailed.

Owen stood up and led her over to the bed. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm gone for one morning and you've got her sleeping and the room is clean and I just…just," she gasped, "failed the test!"

"No, it'll be okay," he soothed as she down and put her head in her hands.

"It won't be okay, it will never be okay. I don't know what I was thinking!"

He sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. She looked as if someone had just punched her in the stomach. Her face was drawn and pale, the dark circles under her eyes looked like bruises and her body had gone slack as she cried on shoulder. "What are we going to do? If I can't pass this test then I don't have a job and we'll have to leave and E will grow up without a mother she can respect." The last word came out in a choke, as if Mickey had been thinking about this for a long time.

Owen hugged her to him and said, "I'm sure you did fine, but this is not the last time in the history of the world to take the test. We can get you scheduled for the next one and you'll do great. It's not your fault. E got sick and you did what you had to do."

Mickey quieted down and pulled back feeling drained. All the frustration, anger, and anticipation from the last two days had left her completely done in. "I think I'm going to lay down for a little while," she told him.

Owen stood up and took the laundry basket. "I was going to do some laundry, let me throw some of yours in, too, okay? Relax," he finished as he closed the door behind him.