A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer. I also just want to note that with this being an AU (Alternate Universe) story, I'm (obviously) not staying completely true to cannon. (Anyone as familiar with the cannon as I am knows that I always deviate from the cannon with my pregnancy stories. I know that Louise tells Florence in the episode Baby Love that she was unable to have more children because of complications from Lionel's birth. I always wanted Louise and George to go through a pregnancy together and have another baby, though, which is why I'm almost always making Weezy pregnant in every Jeffersons story I write, lol. Plus, Weezy's the most wonderful mom ever as far as I'm concerned, so it's hard to resist the temptation to make her a mommy again. Hopefully, Isabel Sanford up in heaven will understand and forgive me, ha. However, even though all my Jeffersons stories are AU, I do try to stay true to the spirit of the cannon as much as possible.) Anyway, as I'm sure you guys have noticed, Florence is still only a part-time cleaning lady after Mother Jefferson's death, which is slightly different from the original cannon. In the original cannon, Louise hires Florence as her full-time maid in season 3 and Florence had already moved in with the Jeffersons before Zara Cully made her final appearance in the series as Mother Jefferson. In this version, she's still only working for the Jeffersons part-time when Mother Jefferson is on her deathbed. There's a reason for this slight deviation from the cannon and it'll play into the story later on. Thanks so much for stopping by. God bless you all, and happy reading.

Chapter 4: Louise is Done

After Olivia's painful deathbed confessions to Louise that day, she quickly fell asleep, and she remained in a semi-conscious state over the next six days. It wasn't until that following Wednesday, the fourth of January, that Olivia opened her eyes again. And as soon she looked up and saw that her son was sitting on the side of her bed, holding her hand, she knew that this was it. She knew that this was the last time she would ever speak to George in this life.

"Hey, Mama," George lovingly whispered. "I'm here, Mama. I'm right here."

"Louise," Olivia gasped. And even though her oxygen mask was covering her nose and mouth, George still understood what she said.

"Weezy's not here, Mama. She was here with you and me all through the night last night, and she wasn't feelin' too good this mornin', so I told her to go home and get some rest."

Olivia then took off her mask, looked right into her son's eyes, and told him, "We blew it, George. You and I…we really blew it."

"What do you mean, Mama? What are you talkin' about?"

"We did Louise wrong…all these years, George. The way we both have treated her…it was all so wrong. You put me ahead of Louise…ahead of your marriage…far too often. And I let you get away with it…because I was jealous of Louise. I didn't want to…I didn't want to share you. I didn't want…another woman…to be the most important woman…in your life. I should have been…a better mother to you both. And you should have been…a better husband…to Louise. A much better husband. You never should have…allowed me…to get away with disrespecting your wife…the way you always did. I should have been willing…to step aside…and let Louise be the main woman in your life…when you two got married. And you should have been a husband…a real husband…and put Louise first…put your marriage first…no matter what I said or did. I've apologized to Louise…for the bad way I've treated her…and you need to apologize to her too, George. And you've got to change. You have to be there for now, George. Do you understand? You have to really be there for her. It's high time…that you finally…started taking your marriage seriously. Started taking being a husband seriously. Louise needs you, George. She needs you now…more than ever before. You have to start…being there for her. You have to…finally…start putting Louise before me…and before yourself. Before the business. Before money. Before your own stupid pride and ego. You always…put Louise last, George. Always. And she has put up with being in last place…in your life…for far too long. She's a saint…for having come this far…with fools like us. She's a saint…just for still being married to you…after the way we've treated her…all these years."

"I don't understand, Mama. Why are you sayin' all this to me now?"

"I'm saying it because…Louise is going to have…she's going to have–" Olivia gasped as the last bit of life went out of her body. In the next instant when she exhaled, her heart stopped, and there was no longer any life in her face. Just the cold, blank stare of death.

Visitation for George's mother was held the following night at the nicest funeral home on the East Side, and her funeral was the afternoon after that, on a cold, gray Friday in January. George's brother Henry and his wife and son came out for the funeral and stayed with George and Louise for a few days before returning to their home upstate. And after they left and George and Louise had their apartment to themselves once again, George spent many hours just crying on Louise's shoulder. And even though Louise knew that she had to finally tell George the truth about everything that was going on with her health, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Out of everyone in the family, George had been the closest to Olivia by far, and her death was hitting him terribly hard, and Louise just didn't feel right about adding to his burdens now with him already going through so much.

"You know what the hardest thing has been about this past year, Weezy?" asked George as they were sitting together at the kitchen table one night in mid-January.

"What's been the hardest thing, George?" asked Louise.

"I think just…illness in general, you know? It's so hard seein' somebody you love so much have their health just go completely downhill the way Mama's did. Mama went from bein' energetic and sassy to bein' completely frail and weak and fragile…practically overnight. She was never the same after she broke her ankle. Her health went down the drain so fast. That's not supposed to happen to your mama, you know? Your mama's supposed to be okay. Your mama's supposed to be healthy and strong. Your mama's supposed to be that person that's always there no matter what."

"I know, George. Nobody ever likes to think about their parents getting sick and dying. We all want our parents to always be healthy and strong; always be there no matter what. But sadly, life just doesn't work that way."

"It seemed that every time I would see Mama over this past year…she would always be a little bit thinner, a little bit frailer, than she was the last time. It killed me seein' that happen to her. It really did. It scared the crap out of me. Ain't nobody in our family ever been good at handlin' sickness and death. It scares Henry even more than it does me. That's why he didn't come out until the funeral. He just couldn't take it. And I can't ever take goin' through somethin' like that again. If I had to watch another person I love get sick and waste away before my eyes like Mama did, it would just destroy me inside. It really would. Especially if it happened to you," George admitted. And in the next moment, he locked his gaze with hers and told her, "I know I don't say it nearly enough, but you mean everything to me, Weezy. Everything. I couldn't even begin to take it if you got sick and wasted away like Mama did. You've always gotta remember to take good care of yourself; take good care of your health. You've gotta remember to do that every single day, Louise. You hear me?"

After a long pause, and not knowing how else to respond, Louise finally said, "I hear you, George."

George then stood, bent over, gave Louise a big kiss, and said, "It's late. Let's go to bed."

Louise gave George a tired nod, and then got up and went to bed with him, wondering how on earth she would ever be able to tell him about everything.

Shortly after George left for work the next morning, the phone rang, and Louise answered it in the kitchen.

"Hello?" she said.

"May I speak to Mrs. Louise Jefferson, please?" asked a male voice on the other end of the line.

"This is she."

"Mrs. Jefferson, this is Eddie Jones. I'm an attorney who used to work for Mr. Andrew Martin, the man who employed your uncle, Ward Thomas, for many years."

"Oh, yes. My Uncle Ward used to talk about Mr. Martin all the time. How do you do?"

"I'm doing well. Thanks for asking. And you, Mrs. Jefferson?"

"I've had better days, but I'm sure it'll all work out somehow."

"Well, Mrs. Jefferson, I have some very good news for you that'll be sure to make your day better."

"Well then for heaven's sake, tell me. I'm all ears."

"As I'm sure your Uncle Ward told you, Mr. Martin was a very wealthy man when he was alive. He was a millionaire many times over."

"Yes, he told me."

"And as I'm sure your uncle also told you, he and Mr. Martin were very good friends."

"He told me that, too," said Louise with a smile as she fondly remembered her uncle.

"I don't know if you know this or not, but Mr. Martin died just two months before your Uncle Ward did, and in his will, he left just over two million dollars to him."

Shocked, Louise truthfully told him, "No, I didn't know that. I had no idea. My Uncle Ward never said anything to me about it."

"That's probably because the family contested the will after his death. They didn't want one single red cent of Mr. Martin's money going to anyone other than them. Especially someone who's black. They're a pretty delightful bunch," said Mr. Jones with obvious disgust.

"They sound like it," Louise said sarcastically.

"Over these past two years since the deaths of your uncle and Mr. Martin, they've had everything tied up in all kinds of red tape. But Mr. Martin was a good friend of mine, and I wanted to fight to make sure that his final wishes were carried out. And so did your late uncle. Mr. Thomas also left behind papers that made it crystal clear that if I were to win this legal battle in his name after his death, he would want all the money to go his dearly loved niece, Louise Jefferson. And I finally won that battle yesterday. Congratulations, Mrs. Jefferson. As of this morning, you are officially a millionaire."

"I…I can't believe it," Louise gasped.

"I'm guessing that your uncle probably never told you because he didn't want to get your hopes up in case we lost."

"That sounds like him. He was a very kindhearted and considerate man."

"Indeed he was."

"You're right, Mr. Jones. This is good news, and I really needed some good news today."

"I'm very glad I was able to give you some good news. Congratulations," he told her happily as she began to feel so much relief. Inheriting so much money certainly couldn't solve all her problems, of course, but it could help make the difficult path ahead of her smoother, especially where medical care was concerned.

The next day, a Wednesday, Louise made an appointment with Helen's gynecologist. Now that things had started to settle down in the Jeffersons' lives a bit, Louise finally had the chance to go to an OB/GYN and see how the babies were doing. She and George had a good family doctor they both liked, and she always went in to see him for her yearly physical, but she hadn't bothered to go see a gynecologist for ages. Helen's gynecologist was a tall, slim man with brown hair and blue eyes, and his name was Dr. Horn, and she had an appointment to see him at three-thirty that Thursday afternoon.

"I can confirm the results of the blood test you had at the hospital three weeks ago, Mrs. Jefferson," Dr. Horn said as he took a seat in front of the exam table Louise was sitting on. She'd changed into a hospital gown about half an hour ago so he could examine her, and now, she was sitting on the exam table in the purple pantsuit she'd worn to the doctor's office that day. "I believe you are around fourteen weeks into your pregnancy."

"When is my due date, Dr. Horn?"

"If you do decide to keep it, you should deliver around the twenty-fifth of July."

Louise gave him a small sarcastic chuckle, and she said to him in disbelief, "If I do decide to keep it? It sounds like you're talking about a dog or a cat, not a baby."

"Mrs. Jefferson, with all due respect, you are not a young woman anymore. Older women are much more likely to experience miscarriages and premature births. And it's actually not that uncommon for some women who conceive in their late thirties and forties to have more than one baby. Some women tend to release more eggs at ovulation as they get older. And if you actually are carrying more than one baby at your age, the risk of complications is even higher than it already would be with just one. And I'm talking about pregnant women at your age who are healthy. If you decide to postpone your cancer treatment and try to carry this baby to term, you are basically signing your own death warrant. If you try to have this baby, I can assure you, you will not still be here one year from today."

"Believe me, Dr. Horn, I'm well aware of all the risks. But come hell or high water, I'm having this baby."

"And what about your husband? What about your son? What about your friends and all the people who care about you? You're just going to throw them under the bus and make them lose you? Mrs. Jefferson, I lost my mother to cancer when I was just a boy, and it really messed me up inside. You can't do that to your family."

"I don't want to hurt my husband and my son, but I will not allow some doctor to put a suction device or forceps inside me and tear my babies apart limb from limb. I don't care what you say. I don't care what anybody says. I will not do something so vicious and cruel and inhumane to my own babies. And besides, I do not have to justify myself to you. This is not any of your business. It is not your place to try to shame me into killing my babies. It is not your job to tell me how you feel about my desire to protect my unborn children. Your job is to examine me, tell me where I am in my pregnancy, tell me how my baby is doing, and tell me what I need to do to keep my baby and myself as healthy as possible through the rest of my pregnancy, and that's it. And if you can't do your job while treating me with respect, then I will no longer require your services. I'll find another doctor who will treat me with respect and not overstep his bounds. Good day, doctor," Louise said very curtly, and then she immediately got down off the exam table, grabbed her purse, and left.

It was around five o'clock that evening when Louise left the doctor's office, and she knew she needed to get home and start George's supper, but she was just too emotionally exhausted to even think about cooking right now, much less dealing with George. He'd allowed himself to be very vulnerable with Louise in the days and weeks after his mother's death, but over the past couple of days, he'd been reverting back to his normal way of dealing with pain and stress – biting people's heads off – and Louise just couldn't handle that now. So understandably, she delayed her return home as long as she could. She knew they needed a couple of things from the grocery store, so she went shopping, and she purposely took as long as she could before finally returning to her apartment. And unfortunately, when she finally did get back home at about seven that evening, George and her part-time cleaning lady, Florence Johnston, did absolutely nothing to help ease her burdens. As a matter of fact, they only made everything so much worse.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" George raged at Florence as Louise walked through the door and took off her coat. "You ain't done nothin' around the apartment today!"

"I have so! Now look, Mr. Jefferson, don't you take it out on me just because you're mad at your wife for not bein' home when you got home from work today with that big new client of yours! It ain't my fault that Ms. Jefferson wasn't home to cook supper for that big restaurant owner you're tryin' to impress! If you wanna yell at somebody, yell at Ms. Jefferson! Don't yell at me!"

"Alright, I will!" George shouted, and then he turned to Louise. "Damn it, Weezy, where the hell were you today?!"

"I had a doctor's appointment today, George. I told you about it yesterday."

"You didn't tell me nothin'!"

"Yes, I did. More than once. It's not my fault that you were so wrapped up in your business deal and so wrapped up in yourself that you weren't even listening to me."

"You couldn't postpone goin' in for a checkup until after we got this new deal signed? I needed you here tonight, Weezy! I needed you! I promised Harris a good dinner tonight, and I promised him that I'd introduce him to you. I could've lost this big deal because you weren't home! How could you be so selfish?!"

"I'm selfish for going to a doctor's appointment?" Louise said incredulously.

"I couldda lost this whole deal because of you, Weezy! I couldda lost everything!"

"Ms. Jefferson, I've been listenin' to this turkey yell like this for the past two hours now! Why didn't you warn me that you wouldn't be here today?! If I'd known, I wouldda called in sick so I wouldn't have to put up with all this! I'm a saint for workin' here, takin' all this garbage all the time!"

Unable to believe her ears, a baffled Louise looked at Florence and said, "You're a saint for all the garbage you take by working here? Let me tell you something, Florence. When I was a maid, I would've severed a limb to have it as good as you've always had it here! The rich white woman I worked for was an arrogant, racist snob, and whenever I went to work at her house, she always made me feel like dirt, no matter how hard I worked or how hard I tried to please her! I worked my fingers to the bone and I always treated her with respect, no matter how hard she was to put up with! But you? You don't work at all! And you have never treated me with respect! There were so many times when George wanted to fire you, and it was only because of me that he didn't! The only reason you've had a job and money coming in all these years is because of me. If somebody had done for me what I've done for you to help me keep my job, I would've treated them with respect, and I would've done the job they paid me to do! I am sick and tired of you making me do half of your work for you while you goof off! You go on about what a churchgoing Christian woman you are, yet you don't act like a Christian should act at all! You are selfish and stubborn and prideful and arrogant! Jesus was so humble, He washed the disciples' feet, yet you won't even do the job you get paid to do! And you're like that because, in your pride and arrogance, you believe you're too good to be a maid! You think serving somebody else is beneath you! You don't know the first thing about Jesus or who He is, no matter how much lip-service you give Him! And I'll tell you something else, Florence: you may think serving me is beneath you, but the truth is, with all the crap I constantly take from you, YOU DON'T DESERVE THE HONOR OF SERVING ME! And it's an honor you will NEVER have again! You're fired! I NEVER want to see you again as long as I live!"

"Damn, Weezy! Damn!" George cried out in pure shock.

Louise then turned to George and yelled, "And I've got some things to say to you too, George! You're always running your mouth, telling other people what's wrong with them and what you don't like about them and how mad they make you! You always love to dish it out! Now it's time for you to take it! George Jefferson, you are LITERALLY the most selfish man I have ever known in my entire life! All you EVER think about from the moment you first wake up in the morning 'til the moment you fall asleep at night is YOU! When it comes to selfishness and pride and arrogance, you're even worse than Florence is! You've been so caught up in yourself these past couple of days that you didn't even bother to ask me why I needed to go to the doctor just now! Did it ever ONCE dawn on you to be concerned about my health?! Of course not! As usual, all you ever think about is you, you, you! You just assumed I went in for a physical! What if I went in to see the doctor for another reason?! What if there was something wrong with me?! Something serious?! Did you think of that for one second?! NO! And WHY didn't you think about that for one second?! Because you are a narcissistic, selfish, coldhearted, worthless creep!"

"Alright now, Weezy! Shut up! That's enough!"

"I will not shut up!"

"Oh, yes you will, woman! I am the man of this house and what I say goes!"

"And that's another thing! My name is not, 'Woman!' My name is, 'Louise!' Husbands will even address family pets by their proper names, but they won't give the same level of respect to their wives that they're willing to give to their stinking pets! Why do you have to be that way, George?! Why can't you at least treat me with the same level of respect you would a pet?! Why?! You're always dehumanizing me, yelling at me, 'I'm the man of this house and what I say goes!' as if I'm an object and not a person! As if I'm not a human being with the God-given right to think for myself and make my own choices! As if I'm a subhuman toy or robot that you own and have the right to control! HOW DARE YOU TREAT ME THAT WAY AFTER ALL THE YEARS OUR PEOPLE WERE DEHUMANIZED BY WHITES?! HOW DARE YOU?! As a black person, YOU of ALL people should know better than that! HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE MY OLD RACIST EMPLOYER AND MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I'M LESS THAN HUMAN JUST SO YOU CAN FEEL MACHO?! HOW DARE YOU BE SUCH A HYPOCRITE, TREATING ME LIKE I'M AN OBJECT AND NOT A PERSON, JUST LIKE RACIST WHITES USED TO DO TO US?! JUST LIKE ARCHIE BUNKER! HOW DARE YOU BE SO STUPID AND SO MEAN-SPIRITED AND SO SELFISH AND SO CRUEL?!"

"Well if you think I'm that bad, why'd you marry me?!"

"Temporary insanity! I was completely insane to ever have anything to do with either one of you, and I have completely had it with both of you! I'll send for my things! I'm leaving this house for good! I'M DONE!"

Louise then immediately grabbed her coat and her purse and stormed out, slamming the door behind her, leaving George and Florence, two of the most blatant bigmouths on the planet, shocked and utterly speechless.