Peter made his way into the Heartland house. He called out, "Hello?"
Immediately, he saw Georgie. She was standing by the kitchen sink, leaning over.
When she saw her dad, she quickly walked over to him. "Dad, you came."
Peter hugged her lovingly. "Of course I did."
"When did you get here?"
"A while ago. I went to see your mom," Peter informed.
"Oh, really? How is she? Is she okay?" Georgie asked in a fury.
"Hey, hey...she's fine. I promise. In fact, she asked me to bring you there to see her. Are you okay with that? I just-don't want to disappoint her."
"Yeah, of course I'll go with you. I really want to see her and-and say I'm sorry."
"Sorry? For what, sweetheart?"
She looked down. "I don't know...I just-nevermind...I just miss her and I want to see her."
"Yeah, I know. She misses you too, a lot," he said and he saw Georgie's eyes light up for the first time that day.
"Yeah, let's go," Georgie decided.
"Great. I'll just put my bags in Amy's old room, is that okay?"
"Yeah, definitely. Um, Katie is out with Lisa. Lisa had some errands to run," Georgie filled him in.
"Oh, that's good. As long as she's busy. Does she know yet?"
"Not yet...she thinks mom's at work…"
"Oh, well we should tell her soon. Mom's probably getting home tomorrow."
Georgie nodded. "Sure." Georgie suddenly remembered something. She went into her mother's room and unplugged Lou's phone that was charging. Lou probably needed it nearby, but hadn't said anything, or she'd forgotten about it. Georgie packed the charger into a side pocket of the bag, and placed the phone inside her own pocket. She picked up Lou's bag, swung it over her shoulder and headed out of the room.
The ride over took longer than expected. There was a lot of traffic in town at this time, and it didn't help that the hospital was so far away from the ranch.
It was almost six pm when Georgie and Peter walked into Lou's room. They found Lou sitting up in her hospital bed. Georgie sensed Lou was feeling a little better-emotionally speaking. Even so, when she put Lou's bag down on a chair in the room, she looked back at her mom, and hesitated.
Lou sensed her hesitation. "It's okay sweetheart. You can come closer. Come here." Lou outstretched her arms and motioned for Georgie to come over.
Georgie walked over, and sat down at Lou's bedside. She immediately went in for a hug, not ready to exchange any words with Lou just yet. Her head rested in the crook of Lou's neck, but she was holding her mother, supporting Lou's body weight because Georgie was afraid she might hurt Lou if she leaned over too much.
"I need to go have a chat with your doctor," Peter said to Lou. He waited for a response, saw Lou nod back at him, and then headed out of the room.
Lou brought her hand to the back of Georgie's head and cradled it. Lou smiled because she now had Georgie close to her, and she could finally relax.
They moved out of the hug, and this was the first time Georgie really observed her mom's face. It was broken, and she didn't like how that made her feel.
"Your lip, your forehead..." Georgie breathed out slowly. She moved her gaze to Lou's arms, and saw they were almost as bad. She put a light hand to the bruise on Lou's forearm.
"Georgie, look at me. It's okay, it's still me under all this, okay?"
Georgie's eyes welled up. She looked down.
"Hey, hey." Lou was alarmed. She brought a hand to Georgie's chin. "It's okay."
"None of this is okay. This is what I was worried would happen," Georgie said, her voice broken. She took Lou's hand in hers and kissed it lightly.
Lou sighed, and looked at her. "I know. But it's only going to get better from here."
"What happened?"
"Details aren't important."
"Well, where else did he hurt you?"
"Georgie, come on…" Lou said.
"No, mom I wanna know. I-did he… he stabbed you, didn't he?"
Lou stopped and looked at Georgie. How does she know?
"Mom."
Lou answered, "Did your dad say something?"
"No. When I called in this morning, the nurse told me what'd happened to you."
Lou sighed. "Yeah, well...that's something they should've kept to themselves."
"Are you in pain?"
Lou said, "No, they've given me something for it."
Georgie looked relieved. "Okay, good…and you're going to be fine, right? I mean, the head injury … It's nothing serious?"
"It's not, and yes, I will be," Lou said to Georgie.
Georgie sighed heavily. "I just felt so powerless, because I couldn't protect you. I was so scared, mom. I found your bedroom door swinging wide open, your phone on the bedside table…" Georgie sighed again. "Just…don't ever do anything like that ever again, okay? Do you have any idea that-that we almost lost you, and if that'd happened, I don't know what I would've done."
"Georgie-"
"No, mom, hear me out," Georgie said quietly.
Lou waited for Georgie to continue.
"When I was younger, maybe eight or nine, I lived with a foster mother whose husband was...well, controlling and abusive. He was mean and scary… I remember I'd always be hiding behind her." Georgie saw Lou tense up suddenly, to which she said, "She never let a scratch on me, though. But he hurt her a lot...and this one time, she was sent to the hospital, and I was sent to another home. I didn't even get to say goodbye."
Lou was silent. She hadn't thought of this. No wonder Georgie had picked up the signs so quickly-she'd seen it all before. She must've picked up on Lou's agitation, the way she was acting. It must've been really obvious to her.
"But I can't lose my mom. Not ever," Georgie finished.
"And you won't. I promise."
Georgie moved forward and hugged her mother tight. "I love you," Georgie said as she kissed her mom's cheek. "So much."
"I love you too, sweetie."