Hello lovelies! I've really missed posting on here, and I finally found some to write and post this chapter. Yessss. Also, I'm glad you guys liked the family's reaction to Lou and Peter's news ;) Thanks for reading!
"Jeff! Jeff, guess what!?"
There was a smile in the young man's voice as he said, "Georgie, would you just tell me!"
"Lou and Peter are getting married! They're—they're actually getting married!"
"WHAT!? Georgie, that's just—that's fantastic. I'm so happy for you! And see, what did I tell you? I knew they'd work things out. I told you."
"Yeah, yeah, you called it." Georgie said, a smirk making its way onto her face. "Okay, well, you have to come to the wedding!"
"Yeah, of course I will! When is it?"
"It's on Thursday."
"Wait, what…? You mean this Thursday? That's soon. I, uh—"
"So…? You'll be able to make it, right?"
"Oh, Georgie, I'm at this conference right now that doesn't end until Friday morning… I don't know if I can."
"Jeff!" Georgie groaned.
"Georgie, look, I'm really sorry! If it were on the Friday, I could try to make it, but…"
There was a knock at the door, and Georgie turned, the phone still held to her ear.
Lou stood there, a hand resting on the doorframe.
"Mom? Is everything okay?" Georgie asked.
Lou inhaled, shaking her head a little, dismissing Georgie's words. "Honey, what is it? What's the matter?"
Georgie exhaled, holding the phone out for Lou. "It's Jeff. He says he can't come."
Lou took the phone and put it to her ear. "Jeff? Honey, it's Lou. What's the matter? Why can't you make it…? Is everything okay there in Fort Mac?" Lou kept asking worriedly, making her way to sit on Georgie's bed.
"Yeah, it is. It is okay…it's just that I'm actually in Edmonton, at a conference that's supposed to last until Friday morning, and there's no way they'll let me out early. I—I could try asking, but you know my boss…" Jeff trailed off, sighing. "I can't believe I'm going to miss this. I can't believe I'm going to break her heart…"
"No, Jeff, don't." Lou said, glancing over at Georgie, who had her hands clasped together in anticipation. "It won't come to that. You know what? We'll have the wedding on Friday. We're going to be working out the details later, but—would Friday work, then? Would you be able to attend?"
Georgie sucked her breath in, moving ahead.
"Yeah! Yeah, that's perfect! I'll be there. I will. Thank you…" Jeff responded, relieved.
Lou laughed happily. "No, thank you. It means so much to us that you'll be here. It means a lot to me."
Jeff was quiet a moment. "I'm so happy for you and Peter. Congrats, Lou. I just knew you two would patch things up."
"Thanks, Jeff."
"Lou, if you don't mind me asking…why the rush with the wedding date?"
"Jeff, you know that…you know about—"
"Bennett. Yeah."
"Yeah, exactly. And…"
"And I know about Sunday. Peter called."
"Right…and Jeff, I'm terrified." Lou said, averting her eyes to Georgie's, who was looking back at her already. "And so…" Lou hesitated, biting her lip. She was fearful of Georgie's reaction. "Peter and I decided that the girls are going to Vancouver with him…this Friday. And we just, we wanted to get married before they left." Lou sensed Georgie tense up and take half a step back.
"For how long?" Jeff asked.
"I don't know yet…but Jeff, I—"
"You don't need to explain yourself. You're Georgie's mom. I completely understand, and you have my full support."
Lou exhaled in relief. "Jeff, thank you."
"Yeah, of course."
"Okay, you must be busy. I don't want to keep you from your work, but…Friday, okay? We'll see you then."
"Yeah, you will. Bye Lou."
"Bye, honey."
Once Lou was off the call, she handed Georgie's phone back to her.
Georgie took the device from Lou, shoving it in her pocket, exhaling angrily. "Vancouver!?"
Lou closed her eyes a moment, sighing. Putting a hand to the bed frame, she stood. "Sweetheart, you have to understand—"
"No! No, I don't understand!" Georgie's voice rose. "You can't seriously think that I'll actually go!"
Lou stepped forward, holding onto Georgie's hand. "No, don't do that…" Lou said, beginning to fret. "Honey, it's for the best."
"No, it isn't! Mom, you can't just send us away!"
Lou's eyes darkened, her heart squeezing painfully. "I'm not sending you away…I'm doing this so that—"
"No, you know what? Just save it, because I really don't care." Georgie said harshly as she tore her hand away from Lou's, starting for the door.
Peter appeared in the doorway. "What is it?" He looked from Georgie's anger-filled face to Lou's distraught one. "What's going on?"
"Vancouver…" Lou said in a broken voice, looking to Georgie and then moving her gaze to Peter.
At the sound of Lou's voice, Georgie turned her head partly back to her mom, keeping her gaze low. She shut her eyes tight, sighing regretfully. Then she ran past Peter, heading down the stairs.
Lou bounded forward, about to go after Georgie. "Honey! Georgie, wait!"
Peter blocked her way. "Lou, just…just hold on. Let her come back to you on her own. She needs some time to process all this."
"But Peter, she—"
"She'll be fine." Peter said, bringing an arm around her head protectively.
Lou leaned into the hug. She cried softly into Peter's shoulder.
He brought his other arm around her, holding her tight. "She'll be fine."
A moment later, Lou heard the front door slam. She jolted, moving away from Peter. "She left the house. No, no...Peter, you have to go after her. The last time I let her walk out like that, she went missing...You have to go after her, make sure she doesn't—"
"Okay, okay." Peter said, putting a hand gently to her face. "I'll go get her." With that, Peter disappeared down the stairs.
A few minutes later, Peter and Georgie made it back into the house. Lou was waiting for them in the kitchen. Her back was to the door when they arrived, and once she heard it swing open, she whipped around. "Sweetheart…" she breathed out, finally a weight lifting off of her chest.
Georgie avoided Lou's gaze as she threw off her boots, and took off her jacket.
"Okay, so I have a couple errands to run." Peter said, stepping into the kitchen. "I'm taking Katie with me, and so while we're out, I want you two to figure things out, one way or another. We all need to be on the same page moving forward, okay? And please don't kill each other while I'm out."
Once Peter and Katie left, the house went deadly silent, and only the ticking of the clock was audible. The tension between the two of them could be sliced with a knife.
Neither of them knew where to begin, what to say…
Georgie watched Lou a minute. Her mother was sitting at the roundtable, her head in her hands. Georgie knew that getting angry wasn't about to solve the problem. The scene upstairs had proven just that. God, why couldn't she just be more gentle, more sensitive? Lou had been shaken when Georgie had reacted so strongly upstairs.
Georgie shut her eyes tight when she thought of how violently she had snapped her hand away from Lou. And then listening to Lou's voice shake and tremble afterwards had really cut at her. It hurt Georgie seeing Lou like this, except she'd been the one doing the hurting. How am I any different from Warren, then?
She walked over, calling out to Lou. "Mom." Putting a hand to Lou's wrist, Georgie said, "Mom, I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…I shouldn't have shouted at you like that, so loudly and so suddenly. I feel like…like I really startled you, and I'm so sorry."
"I'm not even thinking about that, honey."
"But I scared you, didn't I?"
"No, you didn't." Lou said, raising her head. She brought her hand to hold onto Georgie's. "The only thing that can scare me is the thought of you and your sister in danger." Lou's voice was quiet and breaking.
"Mom—"
"Georgie, listen. Just go to Vancouver with your father and sister. Please don't make this any more difficult than it already is."
"Okay, fine then. But you have to come with us."
"And what, just leave the rest of the family at his mercy...? Make them his next targets?"
"You think that Katie and I are targets…? Mom, he wants nobody but you! That's why you have to get away. You have to get as far away from him as possible!"
"For how long?"
Georgie exhaled, unsure of what to say.
"I need to resolve things. I need to end this, once and for all."
"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"
"That's not for you to worry about. You just need to get away. I can't risk anything happening to you two."
"Fine. Send Katie to Vancouver with Dad. But if you're staying, then so am I."
"No, you can't. What if he comes after you? What if when he comes back, he—"
"I don't care what he does to me."
Lou's head shot up. She felt her chest tighten, her breath get hitched up in her throat. "But I—I do…sweetheart, look at me! Listen to me for a minute."
Georgie sighed, folding her arms across her chest.
"Georgie, you can't just say something like that to me—to my face—and expect me to be just fine with it. Do you have any idea what—what I went through when you went missing—?"
"Mom, really, this again…? You're never going to let it go, are you?"
Lou sighed. "Up until that day, I had never felt such immense fear and restlessness…and fear seems like such a small word to describe what I went through in those twenty-four hours. But I just…I never want to feel that way again…"
Georgie was quiet a moment, contemplating. "Ty told me you didn't sleep that night. That you were out, looking for me."
"I couldn't. Knowing that you were—not knowing where you were, what you were going through…"
Georgie looked at Lou, perplexed. "Mom, I was fine…"
"But I didn't know that! Alright…? And I was losing my mind, and—"
"And you kept yourself up all night, and you went god knows where. You were just driving all night, without a thought to yourself—anything could have happened! Why would you do that?"
Lou shook her head, her eyes welling up. "Because I didn't know if my daughter was safe or not…so how could I be conscious of anything around me? I felt like a corpse, unable to think, unable to do anything besides trying to figure out where you were. I just…I felt like I was already dead."
"Mom, just stop it!"
"And I never want to feel that way again…So please, honey…just go to Vancouver, just do as I say…do it for me. Please?"
"But I don't want to leave you."
Lou's eyes went sad, her lip beginning to quiver. "I don't want you to leave me either. But I'm begging you at this point."
Georgie had a lot more to say, to argue in her own defense. But she stopped, in fear of what she'd let slip if she quit thinking clearly. So she took a different, more humble approach. "Then promise me that you'll take care of yourself. No more running around trying to keep the house in order, or cooking and cleaning…just let someone else take over. You need to focus on your recovery."
Lou nodded.
"Promise me."
"I promise."
Georgie nodded, content. "And just know that if I'm going, it's…I'm doing it for you, because I don't want anything happening to you. I'm not doing it for me…I would never abandon you like that."
Lou's head went up. "Abandon me? Who said anything about—" Lou broke off, realizing then. Her lips parted. "You heard him that day."
Georgie nodded.
"Oh, honey…no, I know you're not abandoning me, or anything of the sort. This is my decision, and it's not on you."
Georgie looked down, nodding her head. "I'll go, but Mom…promise me you'll stay safe. Don't ever find yourself in a situation where you're alone with him…just promise you'll always have someone there for you."
"I promise."
"Okay then."
"Oh, sweetie, thank you…thank you for doing this."
Georgie quieted. She moved forward to wrap her arms around her mother. She caressed Lou's hair, lightly combing her fingers through the locks. "I'm doing it for you."
They were both quiet a minute, holding onto each other and the love they had for one another.
"We're going to get through this, right?" Georgie asked, still holding Lou against her.
"We will." Lou answered, wrapping her arms tighter around her baby girl.