Lynn runs into the house. After hearing Margo's news, she can't wait to tell Francisco that there is a doctor that can perform a surgery to help him walk without pain. All his suffering will disappear and things can finally get back to normal.
"Francisco! Francisco!" she screams as she runs around like an excited puppy looking for him.
He quickly hides his phone in his pockets and calls out to her from the living room, "Follow my voice!"
Lynn runs into the room and leaps onto the couch, next to him, "Guess what?"
He isn't sure what to guess. In the short time since he sat down after leaving her alone in the car, he can't imagine what news she would have received to make her as happy as she is now.
"Uh, you–"
"Forget it," she interrupts. "I'll tell you! Margo found a doctor for you! You can get help! Aren't you excited?"
He isn't sure why he should be. For most of the year, he has been seeing doctors, and he doubts that whatever doctor Margo found would be able to do anything different than what he has already been told.
"Okay…" he says, clearly not understanding what the new doctor would change.
She smacks his arm, "What do you mean 'okay'? She said that the doctor could do your surgery and without the risk of paralysis. You could be more excited, you know."
"There's no way that the surgery could be done without some risk–"
"There you go again! You can't hear any good news without jumping into the worst case scenario. Why can't you just be happy that there's a possibility to get you feeling better rather than suffering as you roll around in your wheelchair?"
"I'm looking at reality," he corrects, "There's a difference. All surgeries have risks – you know that."
"Well I'm trying to look at the bright side, so that maybe you have a little hope in a good thing happening," Lynn grabs his shoulders and begins to shake him, "Margo is going to send us some contact info so that you can get a hold of the doctor and get better. Be more excited!" she commands.
In apathetic tone, he responds, "Sure."
Lynn groans as she walks away from him. It frustrates her to see him suffer, but when she gives him an opportunity to be healed, she expects him to be excited at the opportunity. She stomps to their bedroom and crashes onto the bed, exhausted after everything that has gone on today.
"Stupid Francisco…stupid Luna…" she says into the pillow. "Shouldn't have told Margo or gone to that stupid barbecue…"
Lynn's phone buzzes. She's sure that it's probably from Margo, but for now, she doesn't want to do anything, except lay in bed and try to forget everything. The day begins to play over in her head, the smell of the food, the sounds of her nieces and nephews running around, the sticky counter, and the argument that she and her sister had.
She covers herself under the blankets and asks herself, "Why is it bugging me so damn much?"
Francisco opens the door to their bedroom and spots Lynn under the covers. He rolls up next to her and when she sees him, she turns away from him, "Leave me alone."
He considers it, but decides to stay, knowing that she'll eventually open up if he doesn't say a thing. She notices that he isn't leaving and decides to move to his side of the bed. Her phone falls to the ground and Francisco picks it up. It buzzes, letting both of them know that Lynn received another message.
He reads the cut-off message which includes the name of the doctor and part of a phone number. Francisco gets up and takes a seat on the bed. Lynn scoots as far as she can away from him; not in the mood to be around anyone at the moment.
"I have been in pain for so long–"
"That's why I tried to help you."
He smiles, "I know, and I should thank you for that, but that doesn't take away the risks or my fear of what can happen. The last time I was in a hospital overnight it didn't exactly end well," he notices that she isn't saying anything. "Do you miss the athlete I used to be?"
Lynn doesn't answer. She does, but it isn't the reason that she's trying to help him. She feels helpless knowing that there isn't much that she can do for him, except stand there and hope for the best.
"…just trying to make your life easier."
He can hear the exhaustion in her voice. Through all these months, she's endured all the changes and the least he can do is give her a little comfort in trying, "I'll call the doctor."
Francisco wraps his arms around her, and she mutters into his torso, "Great…" she says with very little emotion in her voice.
Lynn stands on her tiptoes and looks down the laundry chute with her little brother. The sound of thumping and the darkness reminds them both why they have been told countless times to not go near it. Their parents would warn the siblings they could fall down and get hurt, but curiosity always strikes the girl and she wants to jump down.
The seven-year-old opened the hatch, it is dark, but it isn't scaring her. She turns to her brother, "Do you wanna go down?"
Lincoln shakes his head, "Nuh-uh," clearly scared of the unknown noise.
Neither one notices their younger sister watching over the two of them. Lucy grabs her doll and goes down the stairs to warn her mother of what Lynn is about to do. She spots her mom breastfeeding the twins on the couch, and she pulls on her pant leg.
Rita can feel a tugging sensation, but she can barely move to notice her daughter, who continues to tug in an effort to get her attention. When the feeling doesn't stop, Rita makes an attempt to see what that feeling is and she spooked by Lucy.
As she waits for her racing heart to calm down, Rita asks, "What is it sweetie?"
Lucy mumbles quietly, but Rita can't understand her.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
Lucy tries again, but her mother still can't hear her.
"Lucy, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to–"
She points up the stairs, "Lynn is bad!" she says as loudly as she can, which is only loud enough to get Rita to barely hear her.
Rita knows that she can't stop her daughter while running with the twins, so she quickly calls out to her husband, "Lynn! Go upstairs!"
He runs from the kitchen into the living room, "What is it?" he asks his wife.
"Go check on Lynn before she does something she shouldn't."
Lynn Sr. heads upstairs, but is quickly met with his son looking down the laundry chute and the sound of Lynn squealing in delight as she goes down to the basement. He runs back downstairs in an attempt to catch Lynn, "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" he says as he runs as fast as he can.
He runs into the basement and sighs in relief as he spots his daughter who landed in the dirty laundry basket. She is laughing with glee, but after the relief begins to die down, he picks her up and places her on the washing machine so that he can talk to her.
"Lynn Jr., what have we told you about going down the laundry chute like that? It's very–"
"Fun!"
"No, not fun. You could have gotten hurt. We told you this before and you didn't listen, so we have to punish you."
"No!" she screams as she makes a dash for the stairs to go into the kitchen. Lynn Sr. runs after her, but he isn't able to catch his daughter.
Lynn runs upstairs and Rita, after putting the twins down in their playpen, is surprised by the sudden disruption by the father and daughter. The girl runs as fast as she can as she jumps over the toys that are littering the ground and turns to avoid running into her siblings and parents.
"What's going on?" she asks her husband.
As he tries to catch his breath he answers, "She went…down…the laundry…chute…" he falls to the ground in exhaustion, and Rita helps him to his feet.
"We can catch her; we just have to corner her," Rita says as she thinks of a plan.
The parents decide to slowly follow after Lynn. They figure that they can probably keep her from running if they corner her in the basement or in one of the bedrooms. When Lynn spots her parents approaching her upstairs, she finds an opening and leaps down the stairs to escape their grasp.
They slowly go after her. As they go down the stairs, the parents notice that she isn't in the living room, and their bedroom door hasn't been moved. Rita silently signals her husband to wait, in the living room, while she searches the kitchen. The room is quiet and Rita is sure that Lynn has either escaped outside or into the basement, but both doors are closed and she's sure that her daughter wouldn't be so careful to close the doors.
The sound of rustling from the pantry grabs Rita's attention and she opens the door and is surprised to see Leni, "You found me!" she happily declares. "Can we play again?"
Rita smiles, but is quickly interrupted by the sound of cabinet being opened, "Lynn! She's headed towards the dining room!"
He runs and blocks her before she is able to escape again and, through a miracle, he is able to catch her as she tries to run under him, "Got her!"
"Let me go!" Lynn says, as she tries to squirm out of her father's grasp.
Rita takes a hold of her daughter and sets her down on the couch to talk, "Lynn, what have we told you about going down the laundry chute?"
She doesn't answer.
"Lynn?" Rita repeats herself.
Lynn Sr. takes a seat next to her, "LJ, you know that we've talked about this. We've warned you and it seems like it isn't working, so we might have to…" he struggles to finish the sentence, he hates punishing his children.
"Punish you," Rita finishes. "You have to learn that actions have consequences. Now go up to your room, no toys or playing until tomorrow."
"No fair!" Lynn complains as she stomps upstairs and loudly slams her door shut.
That night, after some of the guests have left and after the house has gone quiet, Rita takes a seat in bed and begins to play out the conversation, argument, if she is being honest, that Lynn and Luna had in the kitchen hours ago.
'Do you seriously think that I'm drinking again?'
'You know that this is a lifelong problem…'
'You tell me that I'm an alcoholic…'
'…like I couldn't have helped you.'
'All you care about is yourself and you know it!'
She didn't do anything to help them resolve their issue and after the argument, and there was a clear tension between the two of them. Rita knows that people around them could sense it, but no one could put their finger on what changed after the sisters left the kitchen.
Rita turns to her husband, who is about to fall asleep, "Lynn, do you think that we helped our kids as much as we could when they were growing up?"
He turns towards her and yawns, "I think so…"
"Like they could talk to us about anything that is going on in their lives…"
He can sense that she is concerned, so gets up and holds her, "Honey, you did a great job with the kids. You know that this house would have burnt to ashes if it wasn't for you, and the kids love talking with you about anything. Remember how Lori would talk to you about her relationship? You used to complain that it would go on forever, but I know that you look back fondly. Or how Leni wanted your opinion on how to ask out her first boyfriend? Lisa and Lana used to ask you how you built things. How Lucy would ask for your opinion with her poems, Luan with her jokes and Luna with her lyrics. And didn't Lincoln talk to you recently about how to be a good parent? And no matter how much Lily grew up, she always loves talking with you. Meanwhile, Lola calls to check in on us, granted, it's mostly to bring up what's going on in her life, but she still calls." The two laugh and he takes her hand, "Trust me, you know that they will come to you if they have any problems. I know it," he says before giving her a goodnight kiss.
That last part hurt Rita. If what her husband was saying was true, then Lynn would have opened up to them about her drinking; instead, she only found out after overhearing her daughters arguing. Lynn mentioned that she had a grip on it, but if Luna was still worried then it had to have been occurred recently.
"What about Lynn?"
He stops to count the kids and realizes that he did forget to mention her, "Kickboxing, remember that? You both went because you had a coupon, and I know that you both had a lot of fun, because you went back over and over and then you both went for ice cream to talk."
Rita remembers that, although she does remember that Lynn liked going to spar with the instructor, who was more than eager to face the teenager, and ice cream was mostly the two of them enjoying their treat than talking about anything substantial.
He notices that his wife does not look satisfied with that answer, "Is something wrong?"
"I don't know," she sighs, "did you feel anything off about Lynn and Luna during the barbecue?"
"Yeah, although, I think that Lynn was hungry and bored and Luna was exhausted, I think working nights is starting to get to her."
She shakes her head, "No, it was something else."
He stops to think about it, "Come to think of it, they did seem to be avoiding each other," he sighs, "Do you think that something happened?"
"Maybe, but I don't know what it could have been…"
Rita sets down the twins for their nap. It's a precious moment that makes her smile as the two sisters hold each other to nap. She and her husband try so hard to separate them, but they refuse to be away from the other. As she quietly steps back towards the door, the sound of a banging ball against the wall causes the two sisters to whimper in their crib. The sound stops and she sighs in relief as the twins go back to sleep, but a loud crash wakes them up.
"It wasn't me!" Lynn yells, waking the twins.
Rita sighs and walks over to sooth the crying girls, but the sound of the bouncing ball returns. She turns on a music box and the lullaby begins to relax the twins enough to fall asleep. She quickly walks away and goes to see her grounded daughter.
She opens the door and spots her daughter, surrounded by a mess of toys and clothes littering the room, continue to bounce the ball against the wall, clearly disobeying the punishment that she was given, "Lynn, what did we say about playing with your toys?"
The girl continues to bounce, as if unaware that her mom is in the room.
"Lynn," she repeats.
She finally looks over to her mom, and begs, "Can I go play now? Please."
Rita is surprised that she is asking that, since she has only been punished for about an hour. While the woman knows that her daughter isn't the best at determining how much time has passed, she should know that 'grounded until tomorrow' involves the sun setting.
She takes a seat and pulls Lynn onto her lap, "No sweetie, you're still being punished."
"Still?! But it's been forever!" the girl exaggerates as she slides down onto the floor.
"I'm sorry, but this is what happens when you do something you we told you not to do." An idea pops into Rita's head, "How about this? If you can clean your room, I'll let you go play, but everything has to be clean and then you have to tell me why jumping down the laundry chute is bad."
Lynn agrees and jumps up to her feet and begins to pick up a discarded shirt. Rita is happy to know that her daughter is trying, but she knows that, even with the promise of waiving her punishment, she isn't excited and as soon as she grabs one of her bouncy balls, she begins to bounce it against the wall, forgetting that she has to clean. That has always been a problem with Lynn, and while Rita is aware that it isn't unique to her, it seems harder with her than with her older daughters.
Lynn tosses a ball into a trash basket and grabs a pair of shoes to toss into her closet, but a pile of clothes falls out onto the floor. She looks over at her mom and smiles, "Do I have to clean this too?"
Rita nods her head, and Lynn groans as she plops down on the ground, frustrated at the added work.
After seeing her daughter's clear frustration, Rita grabs a book from her and Lincoln's shared bookshelf, "How about instead of cleaning, we read a book?" she offers in an effort to calm the girl down.
Lynn immediately gets up off the floor and takes a seat next to her mom, who opens 'The Adventures of Ace Savvy and One-Eyed Jack! Missing Dolly'. As Rita begins to read, Lynn turns away from the book and her mom. "Look Lynn," she says as she tries to show the pictures from the book to her daughter, but she only glances before crashing back onto the bed. Rita sets the book down when she realizes that reading to her isn't making her feel better.
"Can I go play now?" she whines.
"No, you're still in trouble for jumping into the laundry chute," Rita reminds her. "You have to remember, Lynn, there are consequences to bad actions."
Lynn groans. She scrambles towards her pillow, clutches it around her arms, and scowls towards the wall. She hates being stuck in her room while on punishment; she can see her siblings in the backyard or hear them as they walk down the halls, and it reminds her that she isn't a good kid like her sisters and brother, who can go outside and play.
Rita reaches out to Lynn, who tells her mother, "I try really hard, but I'm not a bad kid…"
"I know that," Rita answers back, as she rubs Lynn's back.
Francisco and Lynn walk down the hallways of the school. It has been months since he has visited the campus, but Lynn, who is visiting for the first time, is looking around like an excited student on their first day of class.
"You know," Lynn starts, "I sort of imagined private school to be more fancy with newer stuff, but it just looks like a regular school."
"It is a regular school, just with smaller class sizes, uniforms, better resources to get her into a good college, and tuition."
"Exactly! With tuition shouldn't the building be a little fancier?"
"Maybe they spend it better equipment or teachers' salaries," Francisco reasons.
"I guess, so why did we need to have this meeting a two weeks before school starts? Wouldn't it make more sense to have this meeting on the first day?" Lynn asks, as she continues to look into the classrooms.
Francisco, who is looking for the room number, reminds her, "The school psychologist wanted to catch up with some of her patients before school started, to see how their summers went. You didn't have to come. I have my license back and chances are that you'll be sitting around waiting for me."
"I wanted to come. I've known Elena long enough and it never hurts to have another person to help her out with her sessions with…" Lynn blanks on the doctor's name. "It doesn't matter. Point is, I wanted to come, plus, we spend our lunches together so I'm tagging along."
"Alright," he says.
Francisco spots Caroline, Elena and Andrew waiting outside Dr. Lopez's office. Lynn takes a seat next to Elena and Caroline looks over at Francisco, silently wondering why Lynn is with him. He shrugs his shoulders and mouths to her, 'She wanted to come.'
After exchanging pleasantries, everyone goes quiet. This is the first time in a long time that they have gotten together and no one knows what to say.
The quiet begins to bother Lynn and she turns to Francisco, "Did the doctor finally get back you about seeing her? You haven't been saying much and I don't even know if you have an appointment."
Francisco sighs. He isn't fond of the silence either, but he didn't expect that Lynn was going to bring up the doctor's appointment, "Yes."
"Great, when is it?"
He doesn't say a thing, but it begins to pique everyone's curiosity.
"What appointment?" asks Elena.
"It's not important," Francisco stresses to Lynn.
Caroline looks over at him; after all these years, he still keeps secrets and he still won't tell Elena much. She shouldn't be surprised, considering that he kept his drug addiction hidden and his relationship with Lynn from their daughter, but she figured that he would have opened up a little more after what has happened in the past.
"Did you book the flight already? Because I wanna know what days to tell my dad that we're going to be down in Houston. Wait, we're not flying are we?"
Francisco doesn't answer. He didn't see the point in bringing it up at the moment, especially around Caroline and Elena, and he doesn't want to mention that the surgery may not be fully covered financially as he hoped. His frequent visits to the doctor are starting to cause his bank account to dwindle, and he knows that Lynn is aware of it.
"Francisco, Francisco!"
"I booked it for next Monday and we should be back by Saturday night," he answers, in an effort to get her to stop.
"Not even a week? I was hoping to spend more time down there," Lynn whines.
After what Lynn said about her last trip to Houston, he doubts that she wants to spend a week of her summer there, but he then remembers Margo and her family and that seems to beat out excessive heat.
"I'm sorry, but after what happened earlier this year, I don't want to make a habit of taking too many days off for medical reasons."
Lynn crosses her arms, "Fine."
Dr. Lopez opens the door to her office and is surprised to see the four adults. During her last session with Elena's parents, she only met Caroline and Francisco, and some sessions back in May mentioned Andrew, although she can't recall who the brown-haired woman in the chef's coat is.
The doctor starts, "It's nice to see everyone here today," she looks down to the uncomfortable teenager, who is overwhelmed by the amount of people that decided to show up for session. She looks down at the teenager, who looks overwhelmed, and asks, "Do you want to come in?"
Without hesitation, she answers, "Yes!" as she gets up and goes into the room.
Dr. Lopez quietly signals Francisco and Caroline to let them know that she'll speak with them shortly. When the door closes, silence takes over again. This is the part of the session that Andrew dislikes the most, despite being Elena's stepfather, he doesn't get as much say and will mostly be reduced to waiting around while Caroline and Francisco join the session. He looks over at Lynn, who also appears to be bored. At least, he won't be waiting in the hall by himself.
Lynn, after noticing the signal, asks, "What was that about?"
"After she talks with Elena, Caroline and I are going in and talking all together."
"So what about me and Andrew?! We're just supposed to sit here?"
Francisco shrugs his shoulders, "Probably."
Lynn slouches in her seat; the look of regret obvious on her face.
Over half an hour later, Dr. Lopez opens the door and asks to see Francisco and Caroline. When the door closes, Lynn looks over at Andrew, who is pulling a laptop out of his briefcase, and she sighs in boredom at the silence.
Lynn looks over at her teacher, then out the window, then the door, then the bell, and then a flying piece of fiber that catches her eye; each one interrupted by a sound made a classmate. She ignores the piece of paper on her desk as she waits for the recess bell to ring. Lynn isn't fond of school; she'd rather be playing outside in the sunshine through grass as she chases after something than be sitting in the boring classroom with the flickering light hovering over her.
The teacher, Ms. Harris, calls out to the girl, "Ms. Loud, can you please stop tapping your foot. You're distracting the other students."
Lynn didn't notice that she was tapping foot, but the sound of her foot tapping against her creaky desk gets her attention and she continues to tap away as she ignores the test in front of her.
"Ms. Loud," the teacher sternly repeats. "I don't want to have to repeat myself."
Lynn stops. She looks down at the piece of paper that she has been ignoring for the last ten minutes. It's a test, and Lynn hasn't answered a single question. She looks around at her classmates, who seem to be answering the questions with ease, while she waits for the dang bell to ring so that they can go to recess.
She grabs her pencil and taps it against her desk as she looks at the words on the paper. Ms. Harris said that the test is a review on the book that the class was supposed to be reading, but she ignored it in favor of having fun doing anything else.
The bell rings.
"Okay, class. Turn over your tests and line up for recess."
The students do as they're told, but in the hustle of class movement, Lynn blindly answers a few questions so that she can line up and go outside.
When the students are gone, Ms. Harris collects the tests. She mentally grades some of the tests, but upon seeing Lynn's test, she is disappointed to see that the girl didn't finish and answered a lot of the questions incorrectly.
She has tried to get through to her student, but Lynn can be difficult whenever she sits still for too long; the girl can be disruptive, asks questions that were already answered, doesn't listen, . Over the last couple of years, she has heard of her older sisters, and even taught Leni, but never heard of the sisters being as difficult as her student.
Ms. Harris walks over to her desk and writes a note for the Louds to request a parent-teacher conference to discuss Lynn's behavior and how they can remedy the situation.
Caroline and Dr. Lopez take a seat. Like in their last session, the doctor wants to have an open and honest discussion amongst the three of them to help air out any issues, but also like their last session, no one is willing to be the first to speak up.
"Elena, would you mind telling your parents what you told me?"
She sighs and looks down at the floor. She doesn't want to bring it up, but after so many months, "I want to see dad on the weekends again."
Neither parent says anything. Francisco is happy to know that even knowing his history that his daughter wants him to be in her life, but he also knows that he doesn't get to make the decision. He turns to Caroline, who looks back at him, and then her daughter.
She sighs, "I don't think that it's a good idea."
Elena pleads, "Why not?! Dad's been going to therapy and he's seeing doctors. So why can't I?! What good is it that he tries to get better if you're still not going to let me see him?"
Francisco stays quiet; it's rare that Elena talks back the way she just did, but he isn't going to let her be disrespectful, "Elena, that's enough, if your mom doesn't want you to see me than it's fine," he says, biting the inside of his cheek.
"Really?" she asks, not buying that he's okay, "You're fine with it?"
Caroline interrupts and looks over at Dr. Lopez, "We talked about it in our last session, and it's clear that I'm not comfortable, especially since Francisco hasn't been sober for a long time."
"Why am I the bad guy in all this?" Francisco asks, "I get that I messed up, but it isn't as though I was ever so bad that Elena never had a dad that she couldn't talk to, had worry about where I was, how I earn money, or if I was going to be found in a ditch somewhere on the side of the road. I took her to her favorite museums, showed up for her games, recitals, concerts, and I sure as hell tried my best to make sure she never felt like I didn't care about her. For a drug addict, I was pretty damn high functioning!" he defends. "If the worst thing I ever did was be addicted to pain medication and not tell her, then yes! I'm a monster!"
"It's not the only thing you never told me," Elena mutters under breath.
Francisco knows where this is going, "Does that still bother you?" he asks her.
"Yes! I'm still bothered, and I try not to make a big deal about how you never told me anything, but it's more than infuriating to be kept in the dark and having to go along with it. How would you feel never being told something that could affect you until long after it happened?"
He looks over at Caroline and then back at Elena. He knows that feeling, and he can feel his throat beginning to close up as he fights back his emotions. Everyone can see the stress in his eyes. They know he wants to say something, but his mouth is shut and his lips are quivering.
"Francisco, I want to remind you that this is a safe space," says Dr. Lopez.
"I know…"
"Would you like to talk about it?"
"I would rather talk about Elena's request," he says, looking in Caroline's direction. "Elena just told you that I'm going to therapy myself, I go to doctors, and next week, I'm going to see a surgeon, also this wheelchair isn't just for decoration, I'm in pain, I can barely take a few steps, and have been dealing with it for months, so to know that everything that has happened isn't enough to prove to you that I'm not going to stumble backwards so that I may see my own daughter, when you know how much it means to me…"
Dr. Lopez can sense the tension between the adults is beginning to get away from their daughter and onto each other, she looks over at Elena, "Can you give the three of us an opportunity to talk in private, please?"
Elena walks out of the room, and is surprised that Andrew and Lynn weren't waiting in the hallway. She figured that Lynn would have probably run off or gone back to work, but Andrew was going to take them to her mom's doctor's appointment.
After all of the children are asleep, the parents take a seat on the couch. Like most nights with their nine children, it's exhausting, but the couple lives for these few hours that they get alone, however, the two are exhausted after caring for their children and the added activity of Lynn's parent-teacher conference.
Lynn Sr. walks into the room with a bowl of popcorn, "Ready to watch Operation Petti-cat?"
Rita changes the channel and she rests her head on her husband's shoulder as the movie begins to play. She can feel her eyelids growing heavy, but she does her best to stay awake to enjoy the increasingly blurry movie. The sound of snoring snaps Rita awake and she notices that her husband has fallen asleep.
"I guess it has been a long day," she reasons, after dealing with their children while her husband was visiting with Ms. Harris.
He wakes up, "Wh-What?" he yawns, "Did I fall asleep?"
Rita closes her eyes and nods her head, "Yeah, but I'm no better."
Lynn Sr. looks up at the clock, "It seems a little early to go to bed, we just put the kids down, and I really want to finish the movie."
"You sure?" she asks.
He yawns loudly and nods his head, "I'm sure."
The two quietly watch the movie. Both are clearly tired, but they like to treat these quiet evenings like date night and falling asleep shortly after the kids go to sleep is not part of the plan. As the movie continues to play both occasionally doze off, but manage to keep themselves awake long enough to finish watching the movie.
Rita looks over to her tired husband, "Are you ready for bed?"
He nods his head, but his body is too comfortable on the couch.
Lynn, who can't get to sleep, walks out of her room to get a midnight snack. She stops when she notices the lights on in the living room and can hear her parents talking. After coming home from school, nothing seemed to be different, but she knows that her parents are probably mad about going to see the teacher. As far as she can remember, none of the other siblings were ever called in for a parent-teacher conference unless it was one of those big conferences that the school holds.
Lynn Sr. gets up from the couch and yawns, "Remind me to book a doctor's appointment for Lynn."
"Why?"
He tries to remember the reason that her teacher mentioned, but exhaustion is making his memory foggy, "I think Ms. Harris mentioned something about her struggling in school and that maybe there's something–"
When Lynn begins to hear that, she runs downstairs and jumps into her parents' arms, ready to stop their conversation. She knows that she's nothing wrong with her; she just needs to work harder in school, even if it is tough.
"Lynn, what's wrong?"
"Are you okay?"
The girl nods her head, "I'm gonna be better in school, I'm gonna try really hard too," she tells them.
Both parents know that Lynn can always use a little more help in her academics, and that she doesn't seem to take to it as well as her siblings, but they figure that they can set a little time aside to help their middle child.
"It's okay," Lynn Sr. reassures her. He lifts her up, "Look, your mom and I are going to help you out with your homework, but you have to promise to try harder."
She nods her head, "Promise."
"Alright, let's get you up to bed," he says.
"But I'm hungry," Lynn whines.
"Nope," he says, "it's bedtime, you can eat in the morning," he tells her as he takes her back to bed.
Once their daughter is in bed, Rita, who is waiting in their bedroom, asks, "Are you going to make that doctor's appointment?" He doesn't seem to remember, "The one that Ms. Harris said that Lynn needed it," she reminds.
Lynn Sr. shrugs his shoulders and yawns, "I don't know; maybe if we give her a little more help with her schoolwork, she'll be okay."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure, besides if something was wrong, I think that her parents will be the first to notice, especially when we had four before her."
Despite the teacher's recommendation, Rita decides to trust her husband, besides, he does make a point.
Andrew pulls up a spreadsheet on his laptop so that he can work while he passes the time, but the sound of Lynn pacing back in forth down the hallway is making it difficult to concentrate on his work. He can tell that she's bored and frustrated while they wait in the quiet hallway, but he wants some peace while he catches up on some work.
"Are you sure that you don't want to sit down?" he asks, hoping to get her quiet.
Lynn, who is still pacing, shakes her head, "I'm good. Just didn't realize how boring the wait would be. Did you come last time?"
Without looking up from his laptop, he answers, "Yeah, it's why I brought something to work on. They're going to be in there for about another hour and it is going to go by so slowly," he complains.
"So why did you come? Why didn't you stay home or at work?"
"I can take my work wherever I please, and we have a doctor's appointment after this. It doesn't make sense to drive Caroline and Elena here, go home, come pick them up and then go to the doctor's. It's easier to wait it out."
"Makes sense," Lynn looks out the window and sees the big empty field. The grass is calling out to her to run around and enjoy the summer day before students return. She turns to Andrew, "Do you wanna go play outside?"
He looks up from his laptop, "Excuse me?"
"I have a pair of gloves in the truck in case Francisco and I stumble on a place to play catch. Are you left-handed?"
"No."
"Do you wanna play football?"
"There's only two of us, unless you just wanna play catch with it."
"Let's do that! C'mon! Anything is better than sitting around here waiting for the three of them to come out."
Andrew looks at the door. She is making a good point. He knows that they aren't going to suddenly be asked to go into the session and it would be nice to blow off some steam before heading to another doctor's appointment.
"Al–"
"Great!" she says, before running down the hall towards the truck. "I'll be right back!"
Andrew watches her go, but decides to use the few spare minutes to finish some work. In a few short minutes, he hears rapid footsteps coming from the direction that she ran, and he puts his laptop away.
"Ready to go?"
He grabs his briefcase and gets up from his seat, "Lead the way."
Lynn runs down the hall and in an instant she is almost out of his sightline. Andrew runs in an effort to catch up to her, but he is not dressed for the activity. She waits by the double doors and opens them, letting the sunshine and fresh air hit her face.
"I miss this."
Andrew, who caught up to Lynn, asks in a surprised tone, "You don't go out much? From what Elena used to say, you lived for being outside."
"Work gets in the way," she answers. "I used to be outside, work outside, workout outside, now its restaurant five days a week and outside on weekends or whenever I can squeeze it in."
He understands, his job is mostly indoors, and he too, is used to being outdoors because of his previous job.
Lynn begins to run towards an empty grass field, heading towards the other end while Andrew walks to opposite side. The two toss the ball back and forth in silence. Neither one has much to talk about due to their occasional messaging, but also because neither one knows more than a few pieces of basic information.
"So what were you working on?"
"Just some spreadsheets for work. Is work going well?" he asks, not sure about what else to ask.
Lynn nods her head, "Yeah, it's been fine."
Andrew, who has wondered for a while, asks, "How'd you become a chef at a restaurant? Culinary school? Worked your way up? Bought–"
"My dad started it, then when he retired, he offered it to me and my siblings. No one wanted it, so I ended up with it. Before I even started, I had to prove that I was able to jump in without a problem, but I think that my dad went easy on me, since, you know, he's my dad. I've been doing okay, especially since I only got the job by the skin of my teeth, and my coworkers have really been helpful."
More than Lynn cares to admit. There are still mistakes that she makes constantly and she can tell that her coworkers may be getting annoyed, but despite her best efforts, when the rush of the lunch rush starts, it feels like she's on autopilot. Rather than worry about her coworkers, she turns the conversation back to Andrew.
"Are you nervous about the baby? You know, since Caroline looks like she's ready to give birth soon."
He slowly nods his head, "Yes, in a few weeks, our lives are going to change, but I'm also excited to have a child of my own."
The way he said that gets Lynn thinking. Elena may be his stepdaughter, and while he is around for lots of moments, she knows that the teen is closer to her dad.
Lynn, who is now a little more curious, asks "Is this normal?"
"What?"
"Coming to these sort of meetings and waiting on the sidelines while those two do all the parenting. I mean, they aren't her only parents, but this is something that she could get help with from you and you're just waiting in the hallway or playing with me."
He nods. He knew what he was getting into when Caroline mentioned Elena and Francisco, however, he didn't realize how much Francisco would be around for these occasions. Andrew makes attempts, but at best, he gets the smaller issues, and isn't typically the first man that Elena goes to for fatherly advice.
"It's not that bad, I try not to take it personally, after all, those three were a family before either of us came into the picture. It's easy to fall into habits after they've been doing it for so long, and I give a little push every once in a while to remind them that I'm here, but after the tension those two had earlier, it's better to be smart." He looks over at Lynn, "Why do you ask?"
"I just noticed is all," she claims.
Andrew has an idea of why she asked, and takes a guess at what brought the subject up, "Should I say congratulations?"
Lynn is confused, "For what?"
"Never mind," he says, before tossing the ball back at her. Andrew's phone buzzes and he sees a message from Elena, asking where he and Lynn are. "We should probably head back."
"Seriously? It hasn't been that long."
"The session is over, I guess," he says.
Lynn concedes and runs over to him. As the two walk back towards Dr. Lopez's office, he thinks about the role he plays in his stepdaughter's life and Lynn, who, despite not being Elena's stepmother, is in a similar position too. They're both going to feel like they will be on the sides, but maybe they can help mend fences to give the teen the best that they can give her.
"If you're curious, Caroline seems like she'll be willing to let Elena visit you guys on weekends again. Hopefully, Dr. Lopez and I can push her to try soon."
"Thanks, I'm sure they'll all be happy when this is all behind us."
I think it's safe to say that chapters may now be released every other week. I'm working more hours these days, which unfortunately doesn't always give me free time to write, but I'll work on the story whenever I can for you guys.
Thank you for your patience and thanks for reading
