Lynn places a plate of breakfast in front of Francisco. Since Elena brought it to Lynn's attention how close she is to moving in, she figures that maybe it isn't a bad idea; there isn't any point in keeping an apartment that she barely uses, and even Francisco admitted that he likes having her around, so there shouldn't be a problem.

"Francisco, do you think that I stay here a lot?"

He chuckles a bit before taking a sip from his coffee mug, "You're kidding, right? You spend about five nights a week here. Honestly, you're getting ripped off by paying your landlord for an apartment you barely use."

"Well my lease is about to be up, and I figured, maybe I can just move in," she suggests.

He isn't sure what brought this up, until he recalls what happened after their 'camping' trip a few weeks ago. He told her that he loved her, and while her constant presence in his house shouldn't make it too different; the news is still taking him by surprise.

"Well, there's no reason that you can't stay, so whenever your lease is up we can help move you out of your apartment."

"Great! Are you free this Thursday?"

"This Thursday?" he asks to clarify.

"Yeah, I figured that I can probably have everything packed soon enough and then we can get the stuff left in my apartment here. You aren't busy Thursday are you? If you are we can probably do it Wednesday, but I won't have everything packed as well as could be."

He's surprised that she brought it up with only a few days left until her lease is up, but it's Lynn, so he should just expect it by now. He figures that he'll have a few days to make some extra room for her stuff, and if her sisters are able to help with the move, then things should go smoothly.

Lynn asks, "Is Chuy free any time this week?"

"I don't know, why?"

"My sisters can't help with the move, so I was hoping that between Chuy, you, and me, we can handle everything."

He can understand why Lucy can't help; she gave birth recently, "Why aren't Lily and Lisa able to help?"

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "They said that they were busy with work or something."

"Did you forget that Chuy works too? I doubt that he wants to help you move after spending a day on the job."

She sighs, "Fine…I guess I can just do it myself."

He knows what she's trying to pull; she's done it before with her family, and it seems to always work, "Alright, I'll ask him, but look into getting some movers just in case."

She smiles, "Deal!"

"And rent a moving truck for a couple of hours," he reminds her.

"Why can't we use your truck?"

"Do you want to make multiple trips between your apartment and my house, or do you want to be done in one trip?"


Lynn steps through the front door of the hospice with a basket in hand. The waiting area reminds her of her Aunt Ruth's living room, except without the cats, the dust, and the mind-shattering boredom. She walks up to the front desk, and the nurse greets her.

"Here to see Bud again?"

"Yeah, I recorded some games this past week, since you know, you guys don't have a decent sports package," Lynn jokes.

"We're in the business of easing pain and–"

"Exactly, ease his pain by having a sports package with DVR in his room," she suggests.

The nurse laughs, "We'll think about. What's in the basket, Lynn?"

She sets the basket down on counter, "Just my lunch. I figure that I'll probably be here a while and I don't want to be a pain and ask you guys to fix me up a plate."

The nurse notices the two sets of silverware and the large quantity of food. It isn't a secret to the staff that Lynn brings some of Bud's favorite foods, despite constantly telling her not to bring him so much food, but she insists that it's for mostly for her.

Lynn closes up the basket, "Same room as always? I'll see you in a few hours," she tells the nurse.

She walks down the hallway, passing by some of the same patients that she did the week before; some of the patients that she's talked with before greet her as she heads down to Bud's room. Lynn knocks on his door and steps inside of the dark room where she spots him napping in bed.

She turns on the lights, and calls him, "Hey Mr. Grouse! Who's ready for some football?!"

Bud chuckles as he gets up from bed, "About time you showed up, I thought that you forgot about me," he jokes.

Lynn takes a seat in a chair, and invites him to sit next to her, "Like I'd forget the guy whose house I'm watching. Besides, I brought you your favorite," she tempts him as she takes out a tray of lasagna.

"Am I that predictable or are you such a bad cook that all you can make is lasagna?"

"Ha ha," she laughs sarcastically, "This coming from the man who could literally be paid in the stuff."

Bud snickers, "Okay, I had that coming."

Lynn serves a small slice of lasagna onto his plate; the nurses and staff mention that patients normally don't have large appetites, but Bud rarely turns down her dad's recipe, even if he does sometimes struggle to finish these days.

She notices him poking at the dish in front of him, "Do you want me to chew it for you and feed you like a bird?"

"No, I'm more than capable of doing that myself."

Lynn laughs, "Alright, but don't say that I didn't offer," she takes a bite out of her lasagna, "I heard the Lions game was really good this week," she says with her mouth full of food.

Bud looks at her and hands her a napkin, "Did you hear it or did you watch it?" he asks; knowing that Lynn isn't the type to not watch a game live.

"I'm serious! I heard it," she places a hand on her heart, "I didn't watch the game."

He isn't sure if he believes her; regardless, she still gets just as excited at watching a live game as she does a recorded one, so he won't know the difference, "Good, after you finish your lunch we can watch it."

She looks down at her plate; she's almost done, and he hasn't even taken a bite, "What about you? Since when do you leave lasagna on the plate?"

"I'm saving it for when I watch the game, unlike you, who's always hungry."

"Ouch!" she says sarcastically, "Excuse me for having a healthy appetite."

Bud laughs. He takes a bite out of the lasagna, "Alright, pop in that cassette so we can watch the game."

She smiles as she shakes her head; even after all these years, he still calls anything that records the game a cassette. Lynn walks over to the tv and plugs in the packed device so that they can watch the game.

Bud gets nice and comfortable in his chair and Lynn pulls out her lucky cheese puffs from the basket, "Seriously? You're still hungry?"

"It's good luck for the team, even if we missed the game live."

"You're still sticking to that story, huh?" she nods her head, "and remember, if you puke, you're cleaning it up."

She sticks her tongue out and offers him some cheese puffs, which he rejects in favor of the lasagna in front of him.

The two stare at the screen. It doesn't take long for Lynn to notice that he's being to doze off, she snaps her fingers in front of his face to wake him up, "C'mon G-Man! This is a good game!"

He slowly opens his eyes, "Alright, alright, quit your bellyaching."

He attempts to stay awake by taking bites of his lasagna, but he can barely finish the small piece that Lynn gave him; luckily, Lynn doesn't mind skipping over commercials to get through the recording faster than normal.

"Can you believe that crap?! I thought that the Lions were going to win!" Lynn complains, before noticing that he finally finished his lasagna, "Hey! About time! I thought that you were never going to finish that! Do you want more?"

Bud yawns, "I'm tired. Besides, I can't eat a heavy meal before a nap, I won't be able to sleep and then I'll be cranky at dinnertime," he tells her as he gets up from his seat. Lynn watches as he abandons the plate, and heads to his bed, "Sorry to cut this trip short, but there's always next time.

Lynn nods in agreement. She gathers her things and watches the man get ready to sleep. She closes the door on her way out and tells him, "See you later."

"Alright Loud, see you in a few days," he tells her.


Lynn wipes the sweat from her brow. She misses the days when she could count on all of her siblings to help with a move, but her sisters are all busy at the moment, so she settled on Francisco and his brothers instead. Luckily for everyone, her habit of spending nights at Francisco's place led to them having fewer things to move than normal.

Chuy walks up to Lynn, "Are all your appliances staying here, or are you taking them?"

"No, the appliances came with the apartment, so it's mostly furniture and a few boxes," she tells him.

Chuy takes note while he heads to check on how full his truck is. He heads towards the parking lot and spots his youngest brother pacing back and forth around the trucks with his eyes fixated on the ground.

"Can we fit anything else or do we have to make another trip?"

Francisco snaps his head up, "What?"

Chuy stops by the truck to mentally take note of how full each truck is, "Never mind, I figured it out." He sighs, "We're almost done, but we're only playing the boxes in your garage, you know that, right?"

"Yes," Francisco responds, "and thanks for helping out."

It wasn't much, the couple loaded most of the boxes into Francisco's truck before he arrived, but Chuy nods his head, "Just remind Lynn to pay us and we'll be even."

"I will," he notices his older brother resting against the truck, "Long day?"

"Yeah…"

"You didn't have to agree to do this. You could have said no, and Lynn would have had to hire movers instead."

"It's over, don't worry about it," Chuy stretches his back, "I better get back in there before one of them tries to kill the other," he turns back to Francisco, "Why did you invite him again?"

"Another set of hands is worth it if you ask me."

"For me or for you?" Chuy complains.

Lynn heads towards her room to finish taking out the contents of her closet. Upon opening the door she is annoyed at what she sees, "What the hell are you doing?" Lynn asks Kiké, who is currently rifling through her closet and tossing things haphazardly on the floor.

He doesn't answer, "Hello, what's this?" he asks as he takes out a rifle from the closet. Kiké randomly points it around as Chuy walks into the room.

"What the hell, Kiké?" Chuy asks as he ducks from his brother's sightline, "Look, I know that you both hate each other, but don't plant guns in Lynn's apartment."

Kiké sets the rifle down, "I didn't plant this on the freakishly small garden gnome; she already had them in her closet."

A yellowing piece of paper that is attached to the butt of the rifle falls to the ground. Kiké looks down, but Lynn hastily takes the note and the rifles away from him as she walks out of the room without acknowledging the two brothers.

"What was that about?" Kiké asks.

"Maybe she has enough of your fingerprints," Chuy jokes.

She walks straight to Francisco's truck and places the weapons into the backseat before going back to the apartment. Francisco is surprised by her silence and looks inside to see what she put away. He never pegged her as the type to own a weapon, especially since she is a capable martial artist, but he doesn't ask her why she owns two rifles.

When the trucks are packed, the four adults do a last minute check of the dwelling to make sure that they didn't leave anything behind that they might have forgotten.

Kiké leans against the counter, "So when the hell are we getting the money? You can't expect me to just give up a weekday to help. I know that Chuy doesn't have a life, but that doesn't mean that I love giving up a day to help the monkey in women's clothing."

Lynn scowls at the middle brother before heading towards the kitchen cabinets looking for anything to hit Kiké over the head with. She finds a wine bottle and grabs it, before Francisco stops her.

"Lynn, you still haven't opened that wine bottle that I got you?"

She looks at the bottle. She doesn't remember how she got it at first, but after hearing Francisco's question, it hits her, "No, I guess not. Well, I guess it's probably no good after so many years," she says as she is about to throw the bottle out.

"Hold on," Kiké says, as he takes the bottle from Lynn. "Do you have a wine opener?"

"You plan on drinking old wine?" Lynn questions.

"Yeah, because unlike you I'm not some goody two-shoes." Rather than wait for Lynn or anyone to find him a wine opener, he pulls out a Swiss army knife and opens the bottle himself. He taken aback by the temperature, but Kiké doesn't mind drinking it, "Anyone else want any?"

Chuy shakes his head, "I'm driving one of the trucks, and so is Pancho."

Kiké shrugs his shoulders, "Do you want some?" he asks as he points the bottle to Lynn.

"It's probably turned to sewer waste after touching the lips of a rat," Lynn remarks and turns away from the bottle.

"More for me then."


Lynn walks through the doors of the hospice. She passes by the counter, "I'll be in Bud's room," she tells the staff, figuring that they should know who she is after so many weeks.

"Wait," the nurse stops her.

Lynn stops in her tracks, "Seriously? C'mon! It's been long enough, do I really need to sign in? Besides, I'm running late as it is."

The nurse walks towards Lynn, and leads her to a seat in the waiting room, "Actually, Bud said that he didn't want any visitors."

"Wh-What? What are you talking about? I'm his sports buddy; of course he wants to see me!"

"Lynn," the nurse places a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry." She walks behind the counter to grab a box and hands it to her, "He did say that he wants you to have these though."

The disappointed woman takes the box, "But he was doing fine a few days ago…"

The nurse gives her a comforting smile, but doesn't know what to say. This happens frequently, but it never gets easy to see how guests react when their loved ones say that they want to see them. The nurse notices that Lynn's thumb is gliding on the creases of the box, she opens her mouth to say something, but leaves Lynn with her thoughts as she hears the phone at her work station.

Lynn slouches in her seat; she doesn't want to see the contents of the box, she wants to see her friend, and no nurse or hospice staff is going to stop her. She spots the nurse still looking at her, so Lynn decides to go another way.

She steps outside and walks around the building; she has a general idea of where his room is from the outside, but everything looks alike and it's confusing her. When Lynn is sure that she has found his room, she knocks on the window to greet him. An elderly woman draws open her curtains and spots Lynn, "Hey, Mrs. Anderson…how are you doing?" Lynn asks before the elderly woman waves at her. "I have to get going, but I'll see you next time," she says before walking away. She knows that Mr. Grouse's room is only a few away from Mrs. Anderson, so after arriving at his window, she knocks on it, waiting for him to open up.

Unlike the previous instance, Lynn is met with silence, "C'mon G-Man! I know you're in there! It's your sports buddy!" she happily says, but still no response. She knocks again, but after some time, she realizes that he isn't going to see her. "Fine! Be that way!"

She grabs her things and walks away. She can't believe that he won't see her; she goes through a lot of trouble of finding the best game of the week for him to watch and making his favorite meal, and it hurts to know that he won't even look at her.

Lynn takes a seat on a bench near the entrance. Her stomach rumbles. She sighs before taking out the lasagna that she made for this trip. Lynn pulls back on the foil and begins to eat the meal; trying her best to forget about what just happened. She looks over at the box that he told the nurse to give to her. Lynn shakes her head, whatever it is, it can wait until the next time she sees him.

Lynn finishes the entire dish and places the container and fork back into the basket, "Well I guess I'm done eating my damn frustrations…I can't believe that he didn't want to see me…"

She notices an elderly woman coughing as she is wheeled outside; she has a smile on her face and begins talking to the orderly who is escorting her. Lynn stares at two, before she is reminded of why people are here; it isn't to get better, but to comfort people in their final days.

She knew that when he arrived here that he wouldn't be around for long, but seeing him during her last visit, made her forget that he was very sick. It was almost like every other trip; they eat, they joke, they watch a game, and they have fun; except it wasn't like that…he was tired, and he barely talked.

Lynn sighs as she takes the basket and the box towards her car.


Lynn runs into the restaurant. After making progress in ensuring that she doesn't make her sisters wait on her for their usual Saturday breakfast, the former athlete has picked up the habit again. She spots her sisters and takes a seat, hoping that they won't say anything about her tardiness.

"You know, Lynn, I miss the days when you would actually get here on time," Lily says with a hint of playful teasing in her voice.

"Why am I the bad guy? Lucy isn't here either," Lynn says in her defense.

Lisa looks up from the menu, "She's at home with her newborn children, unlike you, who has no dependents."

Lynn rolls her eyes, "Whatever, I was training with my friend and it ran a little long, besides, I'm here, aren't I?"

Both younger sisters mutter under their breath before placing their attention back on the menu; there is no point in teasing Lynn any further, she can take it too seriously, and it ruins the fun that they have at her expense.

Lily turns over to Lynn, "Have you had a chance to see Lucy lately?"

The older sister shakes her head. A few weeks ago, Lucy gave birth to her twins and from the way her parents and some sisters have said, she's clearly exhausted; not surprising considering that she's a new mother with two young babies.

"I guess we won't be seeing Lucy again until she hires a babysitter," Lily says.

"Or Rocky gets a day off," Lynn suggests.

"Or Lisa invents a machine to age them so that they can stay home alone."

"Or Lucy is able to make her crystal ball into a baby monitor."

"Wait? Would it get signal all the way out here?"

"Only if it can connect to the restaurant's wifi."

"Which reminds I gotta tell dad to upgrade the router, it's almost a year old."

Lisa groans as the two continue their conversation, which is currently straying from their missing sister.

The waitress comes to take their orders, however, unlike the usual Saturday breakfast trips that involved the sisters interacting with a waitress after receiving their food; their father is the one who brings the sisters their breakfast.

"Girls, how are you? I've missed you so much," he says before giving each of them a hug.

"Dad," Lily starts, "We saw you this morning before you came to work."

"And it's been a long morning," he whines. He clears his throat, "Anyway, I have something to tell you girls," he tells them as he takes a seat, "I was sort of thinking about retirement."

"Are you serious?" asks Lily, stunned to hear him mention the idea of retirement.

"Well, I've been in the restaurant business for almost twenty years, I think it's time that I pass on the torch, maybe to one of you kids," he says with some hope in his voice.

All three sisters turn their gaze away from their dad. None of them had ever considered taking on the restaurant, despite every one of them having worked at the establishment at one point or another.

"So what do you say? Let's keep the Lynn's Table dream going for another generation."

None of them say a thing. The sisters can tell that no one is interested in the idea of taking over after their father, but after seeing the look in his eyes, none of them can bear to see him upset at the moment.

They each mumble under their breaths, which the elder Lynn takes as a maybe; he knows that it would be difficult to make any of his children change their lives at the drop of a hat, but he figures that with enough time one of them is bound to come around at the idea.

As he walks away, the sisters groan as soon as they're sure that he's out of hearing range. This isn't the first time that their dad has brought up the idea of someone taking over the restaurant or even working at it, but they know that no one is interested in doing so, yet he won't give up.

They feel bad for not wanting to continue the restaurant, especially when they remember those teary eyes, but there's no point in saying yes when they don't mean it.

Lynn takes a bite out of her breakfast, "Okay, I think that that got rid of that weird feeling in my gut."

The two younger sisters smile at Lynn's silly words, and decide to eat their breakfast.


Lynn sits in the chair. Her eyes are fixated on the picture of her old friend; she recalls seeing that picture on the mantle above his fireplace and now it's blown up for everyone in the room to see. She knew that once the doctor recommended that he stay in a hospice, it was only a matter of time before he passed away, but it still hurt, especially when he seemed fine the last time she saw him.

The guests begin to get up from their seats; most begin talking amongst themselves as they share memories of Bud, some are still crying, and Lynn just sits there trying to process everything. She feels some tears falling down her cheeks. It isn't the first funeral that she's attended, but it's definitely the first where she has plenty of memories of the person who has passed.

She feels a hand on her shoulder, and Lynn looks up and sees Bud's son, "How are you holding up?"

"I've been better…"

"Yeah, me too…"

The two sit quietly; neither one has talked with the other for more than a few minutes, they knew of each other, but their only real connection was Bud, and now he's gone.

Family members begin recounting their favorite memories of Bud. As each person speaks, Lynn's mind grows blank as if she just forgot where she is and how to speak. Everyone around her is either crying or laughing and all she's doing is just sitting there in her seat.

As the room empties, Lynn drives away back to Bud's house, where she spots his son waiting in his car by the driveway.

"Hey…Listen, I don't know if you ever knew what my dad was planning on doing about the house, but–"

"Don't worry, I'll be out of there in a week," she says.

He pauses for a bit, "Dad mentioned why you were here…" Lynn glares at the floor, upset that Bud told his son, "I was sort of surprised considering how adamant he was against a nurse, but I guess he finally turned around on the idea to at least have someone around in case anything happened."

Lynn nods her head as she quietly remembers that Bud lied to his son about the real reason that she stayed with him. She understands why he did it, and it kept him from asking too many questions.

"You don't have to go immediately," he tells her, "The house seems like it's in fine shape, so you can stick around for a little while, it's the least I can do after you helped take care of my dad." He hands her a piece of paper with his phone number, "Let me know if anything changes."

She nods.

"Also…thanks for being there for him, I know that it meant a lot to him."

There is an awkward silence between the two, and the man decides to leave; not able to bear being near his childhood home immediately after his dad's death.

Lynn watches him drive away. She walks through the front door, despite living here alone for weeks, it feels even quieter now that Bud is really gone. Lynn takes a seat in front of the tv; she stares at the blank screen, unable to turn on the device to numb her mind. She taps her fingers on the armrest as her eyes wander around the room; her eyes stop at his liquor cabinet and she swallows, tempted by a beverage.

Lynn pours a glass of whiskey and raises it in the air, "And could you raise your glasses to Bud Grouse; a good neighbor, a great friend and an amazing sports buddy that a lonely teenager could ask for."

She stares at the photo of him and his wife from a football game before putting down the glass, "Man, I can't believe how long it's been since that first Lions game," she lets out a chuckle as she remembers how frustrated he was by her overbearing nature, "and to think, that that day was the start of a great friendship."

She walks up to the photo, and notices a ball from their first football game together, "I can't believe that you still have that ball," she tells him. As if she was speaking to a crowd, she says, "I remember you complaining that there was a crowd around the quarterback, and in true me fashion, I tackled everyone, put on my best puppy-dog eye routine and got that autograph for you. It probably helped that I was so small, he thought that I was a little kid too."

Lynn imagines him laughing at the jab she took at herself. She tries to think of another story, "Do you remember when we went to the Red Wings game and a puck flew right into my face and I got blood on my popcorn?"

She can hear him reminding her that she also ate the non-bloody pieces of popcorn because she didn't want to miss the game after going into overtime.

She laughs, "What about at the Tigers game? Remember when I promised you a foul ball after I forgot my money at home. I was so desperate to get it for you that I didn't care whose shoulders I had to climb to catch that ball."

Lynn stares at the photo, "I never did find out where that hat went either…doesn't matter," she feels tears forming in her eyes again, and she lets them fall free as stands alone in the big empty house.

She grabs the whiskey to bring it to her lips.

'What are you? A quitter?!' she hears his voice speaking out loud.

She stops in her tracks, and looks around the room; no one is around, but she is sure that she heard Bud stop her. She tries again.

'C'mon! I've seen losers try better than you!'

"I ain't no loser!" she declares. Lynn heads to the kitchen sink, raises the glass one more time, "This is for you, you were more than a sports buddy to me, you were a best buddy," she says out loud as she pours out the drink in her glass.


Francisco gets out of bed. He can hear Lynn groan as she moves away from the noise, and he tries to keep as quiet as possible, but she ends up waking up regardless.

Lynn stares at the alarm clock, "What are you doing up so early? It's Sunday. Can't you just sleep in like a normal person?"

"It's late enough to not be early, besides, I promised Chuy that I would help him with his truck today. Can you watch Elena for a few hours?"

Lynn immediately gets up from bed, "What? Why?"

"We're just going to fix his truck and there's nothing for her to do there. Rather than let her be bored in an empty apartment, I figured that she could stay here."

He notices that she's nervous. This is the first time that he's asked her to watch Elena all by herself, but he assumes that she can handle it, especially since her moving into his place is the reason that Chuy's truck is acting up.

He gives her a kiss on the cheek, "She's easier than you think she is. Besides, it's only a few hours, you'll both be fine," he tells her before leaving.

She gets out of bed, and looks around the room trying to get her thoughts organized. It's only a few hours, so it should be easy and it's not like she doesn't remember what it's like to be an eleven-year-old girl; she just doesn't know what it'd like to be as girly as Elena is.

Lynn gets changed and sees Elena searching the kitchen for something to eat, "Do you want me to make you something to eat?" Lynn asks, startling the girl.

Elena jumps and tries to catch her breath, "Um…okay…"

Lynn gets to work, and quickly whips up something for the two of them. They silently eat, unsure of what to talk about. As they finish their meal, Elena heads to her room, and Lynn sighs, upset that she didn't try harder at making conversation, but she can barely make small talk without it going to sports, and Lynn knows that Elena isn't going to be interested in that.

Elena walks out of her room and takes out some nail polish, "Have you ever painted your nails before?"

Lynn shakes her head, "Nope. I can give myself a decent pedicure, but I never bothered to paint my nails."

"Why?"

"What was the point? I wore shoes that covered my feet and my fingers would be covered by my gloves. It's like why bother with nail polish or perfume, especially when I ran around and sweat it off," she claims, forgetting that she would steal her sisters' perfume, even if it was to cover the smell of her hockey pads.

From the stories that her dad has mentioned, Elena knows that Lynn was not a girly-girl growing up that worried too much about her appearance, but she hoped that behind closed doors she would be willing to give it a bit of a try.

"Can I paint your fingernails?"

Lynn doesn't have a reason to tell her no, so she gives in and lets the girl paint her fingernails.

As Elena paints Lynn's nails, she starts talking, "I used to do this with dad when I was little," she said. Lynn is surprised that he would allow her to do so, but she doubts he would say no to his young daughter, "Dad also mentioned that when you were both kids you used to play seven different sports."

Without thinking about it, Lynn takes her hands back and begins to count out the sports on her fingers, "Let's see…football, lacrosse, ice hockey, baseball, basketball, roller derby, tennis, soccer…do you count martial arts?"

"I will if I can go back to painting your nails."

Lynn complies before going back to naming more sports, "Rowing, swimming, rock climbing, did I do gymnastics?" she asks herself, "Maybe…cricket, but that one I picked up in college."

"How'd you get into that?"

Lynn tries to recall, "I was in the park and I saw these guys playing it. I learned the rules quick enough, and then I joined them. It's also how I got this scar on the side of my head," she turns her head to show the girl, "you can't see it because of my hair, but it hurt like hell."

"I bet," she says, "I'm done. What do you think?"

Lynn looks at her nails; she isn't sure what to think; they're just colorful nails, but regardless, she says, "You did a great job."

"Thanks. When they're dry, can you paint mine?"

"Okay," Lynn shakes her hands up and down to get the polish to dry, "What color do you want?"

"Surprise me."

Lynn's eyes look over at the green nail polish so that it matches her eyes, but something clicked in her mind, "Grass, no, leaf blower, your grandpa always seemed to be using one."

Elena is confused, "What?"

"Remember when I told you that if I remembered anything about your grandpa I'd tell you. Well that's something new."

It is, but not the sort of thing she was expecting. The first few things Lynn told her gave her an idea of his personality, but using a leaf blower isn't memory worthy.

"Okay…that's something new."

"I wish I met him more to tell you anything, but your dad wasn't fond of inviting people over to his house."

"Why not?"

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "Probably because of your uncle."

She can believe that, especially with if childish squabbles are anything to go off of, "I think your nails are dry."

The woman checks her nails and agrees that they're dry. She grabs the nail polish and begins to paint Elena's nails, "I'm curious, have you ever really liked sports?" Elena shakes her head, "Then why did you play a couple of years ago?"

With a smile on her face, she says, "To get dad to visit more, and maybe have a little more to talk about besides school. His eyes would light up when the Tigers would win a game, and they really lit up when I told him that I wanted to play."

"But you didn't."

"I know, but I was seven when I hatched that plan and I was willing to do anything if it meant that I could see him happy."

As Lynn finished painting her nails, Elena asks a question that's been on her mind for a while, "Speaking of family, what was it like growing up with so many sisters?"

"Crowded," Lynn says with a straight face.

"I'm serious. I've never met anyone with so many siblings, and I thought that I'd get a chance to hear your experience as a middle sister over Lily's."

"You've asked Lily?"

She nods, "She says that you all treat her like a little kid."

"That is bound to happen, especially when she's the baby. And it was crowded; there was never any privacy, at least Lincoln had it, but it's not like he always had it, at least not until he was older when dad put a lock on his door."

"Why'd he do that?"

Lynn stops talking, and quickly changes the topic, "Doesn't matter, point is crowds."

Elena was hoping for a little more; Lily brought up more than Lynn did, and she was hoping to do so again, "Nothing else?"

"Well it was nice to have someone to talk to sometimes, although sometimes I wished that they would do some of the things I liked doing, like sports or at least watch it, but at least we had the Dream Boat."

"You watch that too?" Elena asks excitedly.

"Yeah, I've watched it for years; it was my family's favorite show. We text about it after every episode," Lynn tells her before pulling out her phone to see their Dream Boat chat. "What was your favorite season?"

The two chat about the show and begin to talk about other things they enjoy; while there isn't a lot of overlap, it is a chance to at least get to know the other. As the hours pass, Lynn is relieved to have finally gotten over her initial fear of not having anything in common with the girl, she's gaining confidence around her and even laughing at herself for being afraid.

"Are you hungry?" Lynn asks as notices the time.

"I could eat," says Elena, as she turns towards the kitchen, somewhat spoiled by the idea of a home cooked meal from Lynn.

"No nononononono we're not going to eat here, I was thinking about going somewhere else instead. Trust me you're going to love it!"

Lynn leads her to the car and drives them to her favorite little place, Romano's. As she pulls into the parking lot, she notices a bunch of construction trucks and workers walking into the deli.

Elena turns to Lynn, "What's going on?"

"I don't know…"

After parking the car, Lynn leads Elena through the array of workers and construction materials; she looks inside of the deli and notices the men talking, presumably about their plans.

Lynn walks through the door, "Wh-What the hell is going on?" she asks out loud.

The workers ignore her, and rather than wait around, the frustrated Lynn looks around for a familiar face. She walks through the backdoor sees Martino reading through some paperwork.

"Martino! What's going on? Why are there so many construction workers around and-and-and-"

Martino places a hand on her back to get her back on track, "Calmati Linda. Andràtutto bene." He points towards the stairs, "Raffaelina è di sopra. Vai a parlarle."

Lynn walks in the direction of the stairs, almost forgetting that Elena is with her. She turns around and called out to the girl, "C'mon! We're going upstairs."

The two head up to the family's home. Lynn spots the matriarch in the living room, "Raffaelina, what the heck is going on downstairs?!"

The older woman almost spits out her coffee after being startled, she glares at Lynn, "Cos'haiche non va?" She takes a deep breath, "What is wrong?"

Lynn takes a seat next to her on the couch, "What the heck is going on downstairs?"

Raffaelina ignores Lynn's question and turns to Elena, who followed after Lynn, "Would you like a bevanda…uh, beverage?"

"Yes, please," Elena responds and follows Raffaelina into the kitchen.

"What the hell?" Lynn says to herself as she follows the two into the kitchen. "Raffaelina, you haven't answered my question."

The older woman looks at the girl, "Francesco's girl?"

Elena isn't sure what she meant, "Francesco?"

Before Raffaelina could respond, Lynn answers, "She means your dad."

Raffaelina places a small plate of taralli in the middle of the table and brings Elena a water to wash it down with, "I hope you like it."

"Thank you," Elena says as she grabbed a taralli. "So, signora Raffaelina, how long have you and your family run the deli?"

"A few years. We wanted a business and Martino wanted a building with home on top. A nice woman was selling this building, and Martino used all of his money to buy it."

"Then what is with the constructions downstairs?!"

Raffaelina ignores Lynn's outburst and continues telling the story to Elena. Lynn can't believe it; the two have started talking like nothing is going on downstairs and they are both ignoring her like she isn't there.

"We're not going to talk about the construction crew? Or the noise?! Or the dust? The blueprints? Materials? Anything?"

Raffaelina stays quiet.

"Mamma! Tell Stefano that Caesar's Palace is a stupid theme for the trattoria!" Laura complains as she walks around the house and notices Lynn. "I mean; tell Stefano that he can't decide on Roman palace as a theme for the trattoria."

"A what?" Lynn asks, "Is that what you guys are doing downstairs?! Why the hell are you changing the deli?"

Stefano storms into the room, "What's wrong with Caesar's Palace? It's better than Theresa's idea to make it bright pink." He notices Lynn, "Oh, I think I misspoke, I meant southern Italian Palace."

Lynn rolls her eyes at the siblings, "So why the hell are you changing the deli to a tractor-ia?"

"Trattoria," Raffaelina corrects, "And we have to change. Abbiamo ricevuto soldi da un investitore e lei ha suggerito un'esperienza culinaria più tradizionale, invece dei panini Sei vuoi arrabbiato con il ragazzo testardo che voleva la mia salsa di pomodoro davanti a lei."

She doesn't want to have this conversation at the moment, especially with Lynn's temper and because Elena is around, so resorts to telling Lynn in Italian, even if she can only understand a few words.

"Excuse me, I have to go check on Martino," Raffaelina says as she goes in search of her husband.

Lynn mutters under her breath, "I hate when they speak Italian when they talk to me." She grabs a handful of taralli, "Let's go. They're clearly too busy right now, besides I can make us something back home."

"Shouldn't we tell them? I mean we already walked into their home unannounced."

"Then we can leave unannounced too."

Elena gets up from her seat and follows after Lynn; she spots the family looking back at them as they leave, but notices that Lynn is too focused on leaving the area.


Well I finally got around to writing a small piece with Lynn and Elena interacting without Francisco around; it's a small start, but they'll have some moments together, especially after such little nuggets of wisdom like a leaf blower and the Dream Boat.

Also, we should keep in mind something - Google translations are not always the best, but I haven't mastered Italian well enough, so it'll have to do.

As always, thank you everyone for reading, until next time