Thank you for the kind words!

—The Dress—

''Andy?'' Liz asked again as she turned to her daughter. Lu was still standing next to her, holding her hand out.

''You remember Dr. Delgado,'' Andy said as she walked over to Lu. They had met for a brief moment when Andy's parents had showed up a few years earlier. She put her hand on the small of Lu's back, ''We had drinks last night and she decided to sleep over,'' she added, trying to keep it as vague as possible. She was well aware that adding too many details only made her mother more suspicious.

Liz didn't quite seem to believe Andy but accepted it nonetheless. She shook Lu's hand with a feigned smile which quickly faded. ''Dr. Delgado,'' she acknowledged. She watched Andy suspiciously, well aware that her daughter liked her privacy even though that didn't keep her from wanting to pry.

''Lu, call me Lu,'' Lu corrected as she always did. She tried to ignore the tension in the room but it was getting harder with every passing second. Liz' hand was cold in her own and after pulling away she instinctually took a step closer to Andy before stepping away. ''What brings you to Philly?'' She asked, trying to make small talk about anything—anything—other than what she was doing at Andy's house.

Andy quickly and somewhat under her breath recounted her conversation with Liz for Lu. ''How about we go get ready and then we can go?'' Andy suggested as she was already backing away. She was just looking for any way to get Lu and herself alone together. She could see her mother nod and tugged on Lu's pajama sleeve to drag her up the stairs behind her. The confused look on Liz' face made her stop dead in her tracks, ''We both need to get ready.''

Liz frowned, ''Are you coming with us?'' She asked. She could see that Andy was anxious to scurry on out of the kitchen and away from her mother and it made Liz wonder why.

Andy shook her head at her mother before quickly looking at Lu, ''No… she just needs to get ready to go back to her own place. Can't very well expect her to go home in her pajamas now can we?'' She asked with a laugh, feigning being comfortable. She felt inclined to just put her arm around Lu's shoulders and guide her out of the kitchen as quickly as possible, but Liz' presence made her want to keep her distance. ''We're going to go get ready,'' she informed her mother, pushing Lu back into the hallway towards the stairs.

''Let's hope you have better luck this time,'' Lu said about the dress shopping as they walked down the hallway. ''With your mother around you don't have the same back up option as you did last week,'' she said quietly, reminding Andy of how well that Saturday had panned out. No, they hadn't found a dress but it had still turned out rather amazing.

''You already went looking for one?'' Liz asked disappointedly as she followed the pair into the hallway without their knowledge. She had only caught the first part of what Lu had said though. It wasn't exactly rare for her to forget some of the things Andy told her but she was sure she would've remembered something like this. It seemed like too much of a mother-daughter thing to do, she didn't expect Andy to have already gone looking without her.

''Yeah,'' Andy said with hesitation as she turned around to look at Liz, ''Last weekend we decided to take a quick look to see if we could find something…'' She hadn't even thought about how her mother would feel about it, she didn't think that much about her parents at all to be honest. When she, Les, and the girls still lived in DC they saw each other almost weekly but their lives were becoming increasingly separated; Andy hadn't even thought about inviting her mother out for this.

Liz watched the two women slowly making their way to the stairs and she eyed the suspiciously. ''Would you like to come with us?'' She asked Lu. It was a snap-decision. A feeling in her gut told her that she should look a bit closer at what was going on whilst also feeling that perhaps she didn't want to know.

Andy turned to Lu wanting to tell her no. It felt a bit too much like a trap. She knew her mother too well to trust that she had completely innocent motives, Liz' suspicious nature had gotten her very far but Andy couldn't say she was a particularly big fan of that trait of her mother's. She couldn't say anything. Not without tipping her mother off at least. All she could do was watch as Lu nodded.

Most of the morning had been a blur for Andy. She knew that her mother knew her way too well and had expected Liz to try to get alone with Andy so she could grill her on what was going on, not expecting Liz to ask Lu to come dress shopping with them. She had seen her mother watch them with narrowed eyes, clearly not believing the lie—that Lu had merely stayed over—they had fed her. The disappointment on her mother's face when Lu let it slip that they had already gone looking for dresses… it caused Andy to let her guard down just the slightest bit. It wasn't that she wanted to be secretive towards her mother though, it was more the fact that she knew her mother wouldn't accept her relationship with Lu.

She looked into the mirror in front of her, watching the bridal consultant close the back of the dress. They had already gone to several different boutiques over the course of the morning but they seemed to have finally found one which had some decent options. This particular dress had been one of her mother's choices; the other two had already flopped. Despite how much Liz loved her daughter she was still quite critical and Andy could only imagine what she would say about this one.

Andy admired the dress in the mirror before exiting the changing room, showing it to her mother and Lu. She ran her hands down the sides of it. The dress was slightly tighter than she had wanted and she tried not to be too self-conscious about it. ''Okay, what do you think?'' She asked, barely having enough time to get it out before her mother made her way over to her, wanting to take a closer look at it.

Andy could hear her mother picking the dress apart, both mentioning that it wasn't the dress as well as detailing every single detail that would have to be adjusted. Liz was more so talking to the sales girl than Andy herself, clearly with a clear idea in her head of what kind of dress Andy should wear. The nitpicking wasn't something Andy particularly cared for and she quickly turned her attention to Lu, caring much more about her opinion than her mother's.

To Lu neither Liz nor the salesgirl existed anymore, it was just her and Andy in the shop. She had her hands over her mouth, tears in her eyes. A quiet voice in the back of her head was reminding her of Andy talking about the two of them getting married one day, and this was the dress she had envisioned back then. She slowly nodded to Andy.

Liz' critiques were drowned out by Lu's face, and Andy smiled at her. Since the proposal Andy had been wondering about what kind of dress to wear—it was part of what had made it so difficult to go looking for one, just aimlessly looking until something felt right. Until just a few seconds ago she hadn't even been sure about this dress, but Lu had—without a word—told her everything she needed to know.

Andy and Lu stared at each other for a few more minutes before she turned to her mother, ''This is the one.'' She caught her reflection in the mirror hanging behind Liz and it just reaffirmed her feelings. It drowned out her mother's ramblings as her eyes met Lu's eyes in the mirror.

''Oh honey, you don't have to settle,'' Liz reminded Andy, ''There are plenty more places we can go look for one, and I can come back any time to help you out.'' She put her hand on Andy's shoulder, aware that her daughter wasn't really listening to her anymore. Andy had barely had a rebellious phase as a teenager and Liz wasn't used to this kind of treatment from her daughter. ''Are you okay?''

Her mother's voice snapped Andy out her thoughts, ''I'm not settling. This is the dress.''

Liz knew her daughter well enough to know that once Andy made up her mind there was no changing it. ''Are you sure?'' She asked, looking Andy deep in the eyes. When Andy again affirmed her choice, Liz nodded. ''Okay,'' she walked over the couch she had been sat on to wait when Andy was putting the dress on and she picked up her purse, ''I'll go pay.''

''Mom, you don't have to…'' Andy was stopped by Liz with a single hand gesture that just said 'let me do this for you'; Andy being hard to argue with once she made up her mind was a trait she had gotten from both her parents. She watched Liz narrow her eyes at Lu—who was not paying attention to the older woman at all—and for a second Andy worried that Lu's reaction had been too much, that they had been found out. However, Liz followed the consultant to the front room without a word, leaving Andy and Lu alone.

Lu took a few steps closer to Andy, taking one of her hands into her own as she kept her eyes on the French doors through which Liz had just disappeared, the sound of the footsteps getting fainter and fainter. They were out of sight. ''You sure about this?'' She asked softly, wanting Andy to make the decision for herself, not just pick the dress Lu liked.

Andy turned back to the mirror, taking a second to take her eyes of Lu and back on the dress. She nodded, ''This is the one.'' She had barely heard any of her mother's criticism anyway and now she couldn't imagine what she could've possibly said. It was perfect.

One of Lu's hands brushed Andy's hair to the side before resting her head on Andy's shoulder, her arms around Andy's waist. She closed her eyes for a second in an attempt to forget that Liz could be back any second; when she opened her eyes again she took the sight in the mirror in. ''You look beautiful.''

''So what's going on between you and that woman?'' Liz asked as she put her hands around the steaming cup of coffee in front of her, trying to warm herself up somewhat. It was Sunday. The previous day had been rather uneventful after leaving the boutique: Lu had gone home and Andy and Liz had had a quiet evening with Lizzy. It had been Andy's idea for the two of them to get out of the house for a bit and get lunch together downtown before Liz had to go back to D.C. Dying for some alone time with her daughter Liz had accepted right away.

''That woman?'' Andy asked with a frown, ''Do you mean Lu?'' It had taken a second to sink in what her mother had meant. After spending most of Saturday together she would've thought her mother would at least refer to Lu by name, apparently not. She shrugged, ''We've gotten a lot closer over the years,'' she said, ''She's a good friend.'' She looked down at her own cup of coffee, wanting to change the conversation to any other topic but failing to come up with anything.

''A lot closer,'' Liz repeated her daughter, ''Don't you think maybe a bit too close?'' She asked, immediately being able to tell from her daughter's face that she disagreed, ''She's very affectionate,'' She argued and Andy agreed with a slight nod, ''Not to mention she went with us to go look at dresses. I thought that was something for a mother and daughter to do.''

''You invited her,'' Andy reminded her, wondering why her mother was being so strange about the whole situation all of a sudden.

''Common courtesy,'' Liz argued, ''Just because I was being polite doesn't mean she had to take me up on it.'' She had hoped to spend some time with her daughter and granddaughters, never had her plans consisted of swapping out her granddaughter for some random colleague of her daughter's and she had expected Lu to be able to tell that.

Andy sat back in her chair, looking at her mother who didn't look back at her. ''What is this about? Is it that weird that I could become friends with someone I work with?'' Close friendships in the military weren't quite the same as the ones made in civilian life, she knew that. She immediately regretted asking the questions, pushing her mother to look deeper at the events of the weekend in an effort to explain herself.

''I'm just saying that it looks like… she has feelings for you,'' Liz said, expecting Andy to get defensive but surprised by the lack of reaction coming from Andy, ''The amount of affection…'' She could see the look of disbelief on her daughter's face, ''I just think that maybe you should keep your distance, not give her any false hope.''

Andy was flabbergasted for a moment. She knew that it was difficult for herself to keep secrets from Liz and so she had expected her mother to guess that she had feelings for Lu, not the other way around. She stumbled for a second, trying to find a way to rebuke her mother's arguments and steer the conversation back into a more comfortable direction, ''She knows I'm marrying Milo,'' Andy said. It was the excuse she had prepared in case anyone asked about her and Lu's relationship. It didn't explicitly deny that there was anything between them but most people didn't seem to notice that.

''That doesn't change anything, honey,'' Liz said, surprised that her daughter was this naïve. ''You can marry Milo and she could still have feelings for you. Who knows… maybe she had feelings for you when you were still with Leslie and you two were married for 20 years…''

''She didn't,'' Andy countered, trying to build an argument in her head and not immediately realizing her mistake. She could see the confusion on her mother's face and after a second of replaying their conversation in her mind her error registered. She opened her mouth, ready to back-pedal but already getting interrupted by her mother.

''What makes you say that?'' Liz asked before taking a sip from her coffee, leaning forward in her chair and watching Andy expectedly. It made her think that perhaps what she had been sensing all weekend really was true. When Andy didn't respond she decided to ignore Andy's words in favor of getting her own point across, ''I just think that it's best to stay away from… those kinds of people,'' she said after hesitating on how to phrase it.

''''Those kinds of people''?'' Andy repeated, the disbelief evident in her voice. She took a deep breath, trying to keep herself calm. She knew that her mother wouldn't be okay with Andy herself being gay but she hadn't expected her to be this anti-gay. It reminded her a bit too much about how her parents had black friends but weren't exactly okay with her being with Milo at the beginning of their relationship.

''Not that there's anything wrong with it. People can decide for themselves what kind of lifestyle they want to live, it's not my place to judge them for that.'' Liz said before circling back to the observations she had made, ''I just think that Dr. Delgado likes to be close to you, likes to be affectionate, and you don't need that in your life.''

Andy looked away, making a split decision that she knew she would come to regret soon enough. ''Mom, I'm one of 'those kinds of people','' she said softly, holding her breath without realizing it, far too nervous for her mother's reaction to even make a sound or move. She had swore to herself that she would never let her parents find out about this since the moment she had asked Lu out on a date and had even thought about asking her daughters to not tell them. Looks like that wasn't necessary anymore.

Liz cocked her head, ''no honey, you're not,'' she dismissed Andy's words without a second thought, putting her hand on Andy's, ''You're marrying Milo,'' she reminded her.

''And just like how that probably won't change Lu's feelings for me, it probably won't change my feelings either,'' Andy said, being careful not to mention her own feelings for Lu. It was one thing to come out the closet about her attraction to women—or actually just one single woman—but she wasn't ready to tell her mother about her relationship with Lu. Besides, she was sure her mother had already drawn that conclusion for herself and didn't need any confirmation.

''But you're marrying Milo,'' Liz iterated. They sat in silence for a few moments before Liz' curiosity and confusion got the better of her. ''Andy, honey, what are you saying? You're not… a lesbian,'' she had to force the words out of her mouth, ''You've only ever been with men, not women. Now I don't know what Lu has tried to convince you of, what ideas she has planted in your brain, but-''

''Mom,'' it sounded almost like she pleading her mother to stop talking, ''Yes, I'm marrying Milo, but I do also have feelings for Lu…'' She took a deep breath, ''We've been seeing each other.''

''And Milo…?''

''He knows about it,'' Andy said, ''He's okay with it,'' he still seemed to have his moments of doubt but overall he seemed like he had accepted it. She watched her mother take all this new information in and wished that her mother had just not shown up at all that weekend. It didn't feel like a relief to have her mother know about it like she had thought it might be.

Liz bit her lip, wondering if she should ask what she wanted to ask. ''Is this some kind of phase?'' She asked, hoping that it didn't sound too belittling, hoping that it didn't sound too much like she was treating Andy as a teenager. ''Maybe you could grow out of it if you give it some time, if you don't spend as much time with Lu maybe?''

''It's not a phase,'' Andy said. The words, the tone of voice, the rhythm of the words… it was like Jesse was speaking through Andy's mouth and in that moment Andy regretted every time she had asked Jesse if something she was into was just a phase. ''I'm not going to grow out of this, and even if I could I wouldn't want to.'' She could see that her mother didn't get it. ''Would you grow out of your feelings for daddy if you didn't spend time with him?''

''I've spent lots of time without him,'' Liz said, remembering all the times he had been away to fight in wars while she was left at home taking care of the household. Andy's point seemed to somewhat sink in but she didn't look entirely convinced. ''I just think that your feelings are different.''

''Feelings are feelings,'' Andy said. ''You don't have to accept it,'' she said, knowing her mother probably wouldn't anyway, ''But this is who I am. You don't have to like it, you don't have to recognize that these feelings exist,'' she could feel a lump in her throat, she knew her mother wouldn't accept this side of her but to have to actually go through this now… Even though Liz' words hadn't been aimed at Andy specifically they still hurt.

Liz seemed uncomfortable. She could see how heartbroken Andy was and wished she could do something about it. She would do anything but she couldn't pretend she condoned her daughter's choices, ''Just…'' she patted Andy's hands, trying to find the right words, ''Just don't let your father find out.''