A/N: Here's another chapter guys! I had a lot of fun writing it (which I always do, but you know) so I hope it's to your liking! I'd love the feedback, it's always appreciated. I'm curious on how you like the flashback scene... do you like it? Would you want more? I'm always open to requests. Oh and the wedding is in this chapter (should've mentioned that the last time ;)

"Hey, what are you thinking?"

Lou snapped out of her reverie, her eyes travelling over to Peter.

His eyes had a concerned look about them. His look had a softness to it, like he wanted to be gentle, careful with her.

Lou smiled a little. "Nothing, I just…" Lou trailed off, looking down at Georgie. "I mean, Katie's too young to understand what happened, and she doesn't know what sorts of things I did—"

"Woah, woah. What are you talking about? You didn't do anything wrong."

"I did. I lied to the girls, the rest of the family. Repeatedly. I distanced myself and drowned myself in tears…I mean, my daughters needed me, and all I could think of was myself."

"All the lies were to protect them. And everyone needs to let out their tears at one point."

"Yeah, but Peter…I was just so selfish. I wasn't emotionally present for them. I wasn't the mother that they needed, or even the one I wanted to give them. I was gone for a really long time. In my place, there was this…stranger, I guess."

Peter looked at her questioningly.

"I just…felt myself slipping. Barely holding on. My mind was so consumed. Even when I was home, I wasn't. I was back there with him, listening to him scream and shout, listening to him call me names, feeling his pounding fists—" Lou broke off as she saw Peter flinch. She quieted a moment. "I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"No, no, just go on."

Lou sighed. "I just wasn't able to be a mother to them. Georgie took over. That wasn't even a little fair to put onto her." Lou said quietly. "She took care of herself, she took care of Katie…she took care of me." Lou said, laughing sadly. "How could I let her do that—how could I have been so selfish?"

"Honey, come on…" Peter turned to her, moving a hand over hers, squeezing tight.

"And she just forgave me for it."

"That says a lot about how you raised her."

"Maybe. You know, I specifically remember…after this fight I'd had with him…I came home and I was—well, I could feel the bruise under my shirt. It was on my side—here."

His eyes followed her hand. When she placed it at her ribcage, he recoiled internally, his heart shuddering. Lou…

"I stupidly forgot to shut the door to my room, and I was just looking at the bruising in the mirror, seeing just how bad it was, you know, if I should do something about it. Next thing I hear is Georgie's freaked out voice. I quickly just pulled my shirt down, but obviously it was too late. She'd seen it."

"And then?" There was a child-like anticipation in Peter's voice.

"She sat me down on the edge of the bed, probably worried I'd fall to pieces if I stood any longer, and then she headed out of the room. Once she came back, she had this ice pack in her hands. She wrapped it in this thin washcloth and helped put it to my bruise."

"Did she never say anything?" Peter asked when he'd seen Lou had gone quiet.

"Of course she said something." Lou said with a small smile. "She asked what happened, so I lied…I lied to my teenager and told her I tripped and fell at the dude ranch, that I didn't really want to get into the details."

"You lied to protect her."

"But I still lied. And every time that I did, it made me hate myself even more. She saw how freaked out I was, and she just stayed there with me. She told me not to move, that I should keep on using ice packs until the bruising went away, and…Peter, I let her take care of me."

Peter sighed. "There's nothing wrong with that. And it isn't as if you forced her."

"I may as well have. You just should've seen her—her face was full of so much fright, so much worry. And I put that on her. I let her believe that her mom was weak, in need of being taken care of. And that's not fair."

Peter thought a moment. "Well, at least you didn't become a drunk." He said matter-of-fact.

"Peter, this isn't funny."

"Nobody's making jokes here. I'm serious. You could've done a lot worse, but you were strong. You handled it way better than most people would have."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Of course."

Lou smiled. "Thanks. But it's just…she never even brought it up. She just let it go. I mean, she probably thought back to it after the truth came out, and knew that I lied."

"Because she didn't want to embarrass you. Is that so awful?"

Lou looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You know, parents screw up all the time. And yeah, maybe we make selfish choices, but it's because we're human, you know, and it's bound to happen. The only thing we can hope for is that our children see that we didn't mean to hurt them, that what we did was out of blindness, ignorance. We hope that our children can find it in themselves to forgive us."

Lou looked at him, realizing he'd begun talking about himself. She put her hand onto his. "Peter, come on…they love you. Of course they've forgiven you."

Peter looked over at Katie, who was immersed in the movie. She sat happily, clinging onto her stuffed animal. Peter smiled to himself, and then looked over to Georgie. "Yeah, you're right." He stood to sit beside Lou.

Peter's arm went around her and she leaned her head into the crook of his neck. As she closed her eyes, she felt Peter plant a loving kiss on her hair.

"We both could've done a lot worse."

"Where are you going?"

"Maggie's."

Georgie gave her a look. "It's almost closing time."

"There's an emergency. I'm not really too sure on the details, but one of the servers, she…"

Georgie was looking to Lou, waiting on an answer. "Yeah?"

"I'm not really too sure. I'll see when I get there."

"Okay, let me come with you."

Lou's head snapped up. "Absolutely not. No, it's late and you have school tomorrow."

Georgie sighed. "Fine, just be careful. And text me when you get there."

"Sure. Yeah."

Hours later, Georgie sat at the roundtable in the kitchen. She glanced at her phone for about the millionth time and saw it was nearing ten o'clock. She sat up when she heard Lou's truck on the driveway. Sighing with relief, Georgie stood from the table.

She exited the ranch house and met Lou at the car. "Okay, seriously, Mom, where were my texts?" She demanded.

Lou sighed regretfully, getting out of the truck. "Oh no…honey, I forgot. I just, I got there, and everything just sort of…I'm sorry, I'll remember next time."

"You look seriously tired. Did—did the bruising get any better? It looked really bad before, as if it were spreading."

"Honey, that's ridiculous. It wasn't."

"Okay, yeah—" Georgie struggled to get the words out. "Because we stopped it, with the ice. Is it better now? Does it hurt?"

"A little."

"Maybe next time don't leave the house in the middle of everything to go to work. Not if you're all bruised up." Georgie had an inkling of annoyance in her voice.

"Georgie, I didn't really have a choice." Lou sighed. "Right now, I just need one of those…um…"

"What, a heating pad?" Georgie guessed.

"Yeah, that."

"Okay, no, that's not a good idea. You'd better stick to the ice for now."

"Oh." Lou looked at her, surprised.

"Yeah, just trust me. Heat will only make it worse right now. Let's get you inside."

Around twenty minutes later, Georgie texted Amy. She had explained the situation to her aunt and asked her to come over.

Amy arrived in no more than a couple of minutes. "Hey, Georgie."

Georgie looked up from the computer, where she was frantically doing her best to research a cure of some sort. "Amy, thank god! Look, Jack and Lisa are asleep, and there's no one else here that I can ask for help. I wouldn't have bothered you, but—"

"Georgie, it's fine." Amy waved away her concern. "Just let me take over. You go to bed."

"Wait, what? No, I can't just let you—"

"Georgie, go to bed. Lou and I can handle it."

Georgie sighed. "Okay. Um…when she's done with the ice, could you make sure to compress the bruise? It's supposed to help with swelling and pain, and it'll lessen—"

"Georgie, just relax. I'll do it, I promise. You go to bed."

Minutes later, Amy arrived in Lou's room. Knocking, she called out her sister's name.

"Amy? What are you doing here?"

"Taking care of you. Because apparently you're incapable."

"Amy, I didn't ask for you to come here. How did you…?"

"Georgie texted me."

"What? She's not asleep yet? I told her to go to bed."

Amy laughed. "Yeah, well she was in the kitchen, waiting for me to get here."

Lou groaned. "I didn't ask her to."

"You may as well have. Lou, come on! She's a teenager, you're the adult here. You're the one who's supposed to be looking after her, not the other way around!"

"I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think that she would—"

Amy scoffed. "You know, you're not exactly meant to unload every single burden onto that kid. And then you head out of the house when you're meant to be resting? You obviously made everything worse. You need to start thinking about more than just yourself."

"Amy, it was a work emergency."

"You could have easily asked Dad to go in your place. And then you stayed out for hours! We all know Maggie's closes half past eight. What were you doing in town until ten?"

Lou didn't respond.

"And of course now you won't even answer me. Fine."

"Amy, would you please just stop getting so mad?"

"You know what? If your behaviour is affecting Georgie, then no, I'm not going to stop getting mad. You need to quit being so selfish. Wake up, Lou. You have two daughters. You're not twenty years old anymore, living in New York by yourself. There are people who wait for you to come home every night, in one piece."

Lou sighed helplessly. She put a hand to her side, adjusting the ice pack. "Look, I don't want to fight with you. I'm sorry that you were disturbed. I'll talk to Georgie, this won't happen again."

Amy noticed she was speaking stiffly, attempting to keep a straight face. "Don't do that. You didn't disturb me, okay? And I'm furious with you right now, but I told your daughter I'd help you with your bruise."

"I'll do it myself, you can go."

"Look, I know that neither of us want to be in the same room as each other—"

"Actually, it's just you...who doesn't want to be in a room with me."

Amy paused a moment. "But I made a promise to my niece, and I'm not going to let whatever problems we have get in the way of that."

Lou relented, too worn out to argue. "Okay. Fine."

"Georgie, Katie…! Are you two ready yet?" Lou called out to her daughters. They were getting ready to go to the wedding ceremony which was meant to begin soon, and Lou wanted to be on time. "Girls?" Lou called again.

"Mom, I need help with my dress!" Georgie yelled back.

When Lou arrived in Katie's room, she saw Georgie was near to a mental breakdown. "Mom, seriously, where did you even find these!?"

Lou snickered, coming ahead. "I didn't. Lisa bought them for the two of you."

"Oh. Well…I just—"

"You don't have too much to say about it anymore, do you?"

Georgie laughed a little. "No, seriously, it's still just so impossible to—" Georgie broke off, reaching a hand behind her back, trying to close up the dress. She exhaled angrily. "Mom, help, please!"

"Okay, okay." Lou's voice was calm and soothing. She came ahead to save her daughter from the evil dress.

Once Lou was done with the dress, she turned Georgie toward the mirror. "Oh, honey, you look so pretty."

Georgie looked down at the dress. "Thanks," she said shyly.

Lou smiled as she fixed a lock of hair behind Georgie's ear. "Both of you look so pretty," she said, looking toward Katie as well, smiling to her youngest.

"Yeah, well, you look just beautiful." Georgie turned around to look at Lou. "That dress is really something."

Lou was surprised at the compliment. "Oh…thank you, sweetheart."

Georgie smiled, her dimples showing. "So when are we heading out?"

"Uh, I guess when Dad and Grandpa are ready to go. Maybe in thirty or forty minutes."

Georgie nodded. "Okay."

Lou noticed she'd gone a little quiet. "Hey, I'm sure Jeff will make it."

Georgie scoffed a little. "Yeah, he'd better. He said he'd be here."

"You know, worst comes to worst, we can delay the ceremony a little."

"No, absolutely not. We're not delaying it anymore."

"Maybe you should call him. See what's taking so long."

"I tried. His phone is going to voicemail. I'm guessing he's out of range, or something."

"Well then maybe we should wait."

"No, he'll probably want us to start without him. I mean, he'll get here when he gets here, right?"

Lou exhaled. "Are you sure?"

Georgie nodded. "I'm sure he's just stuck in traffic, or something."

Lou looked at her. "Honey, I'm sorry…"

"No, seriously, don't be. I'm good." Georgie waved away Lou's concern.

Peter arrived right then, dressed in his tux. "There are my girls."

Lou looked at him. He had that smile at his lips, the one that had made her fall in love all those years ago.

Peter looked at her and came forward. "Lou, you look beautiful." He laughed, a little incredulous. "Wow, that dress."

"It's the same dress."

"Yeah, I remember. You look amazing."

"You don't look so bad yourself. I could almost say you look handsome in that tux."

He smiled again, blushing.

"But we're going to be wearing coats over these, aren't we?"

"Well, I guess it depends on how cold it is outside. I probably won't be."

"Right."

Before he could say anything else, Katie piped up. "Daddy, go away! You can't see the bride on the day of the wedding!"

Peter parted his lips. "Oh, honey, I really don't think—"

But Katie was adamant. She stood from her spot at the edge of her bed and made her way over to Peter. She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room.

"No, Katie, honey, wait!" He laughed, holding back a little. He looked to Lou for some help.

Unfortunately for him, his bride-to-be was on their daughter's side. "She has a point."

"Aw, come on! Lou, we've been through this before, I just don't think that—"

"No, out—" Lou shooed him away. "I'll see you at the dude ranch."

When Peter was out of earshot, Lou turned to Georgie. "There, Katie got rid of him for us." She raised her hand to high-five Georgie.

Georgie giggled as she returned the gesture.

Lou moved to sit down on Katie's bed. She watched as Georgie adjusted herself in the mirror, fixing her hair again behind her ear.

Katie ran back into the room. "I got rid of Daddy!" She shouted excitedly. Katie looked at Georgie and noticing her dress, she walked over to her sister. "I like your dress better."

Georgie glanced at Lou a second. Looking back to her sister, she said, "Katie, we have the same dress."

"Yours looks better."

Georgie laughed. "I think yours does."

"Really?" Katie smiled mischievously.

Georgie laughed. "Really."

Katie looked back to her mom. "Mommy, tell Georgie she has to promise we'll play together in Vancouver. I don't like it when she goes on her phone."

"Katie!" Georgie said, unhappy at being caught. "I never go on it."

"Yeah you do."

Georgie sighed. "Okay, I won't go on it. We'll have fun together, I promise."

"Good." Katie said, raising her chin and feeling all important. She turned to Lou. "Mommy? Mommy?"

"Yeah, sweetie."

Katie walked ahead and hugged Lou. "I'm going to miss you."

Georgie stiffened at their exchange. She wished her sister would have just let it be. She looked on as Lou stroked her sister's hair and she said a few words back.

Lou looked back to Georgie, who had turned back to the mirror. She seemed to be airing out her dress. Looking back to Katie, she said, "And I'm going to miss you too. But your dad and sister will be with you the whole time."

"Why aren't you coming?"

"I have to stay here for a little bit, but I'll join you as soon as I can. Okay?"

"Okay."

Georgie walked over and sat beside Lou. "Hey. We love you. Doesn't matter where we are, we'll always love you."

"We'll always love you, Mommy." Katie added as well, with a cheeky smile.

Lou laughed through the tears that were quickly building up.

"Oh god, okay, no crying. You might…" Georgie began.

Katie ran over to the dresser and picked up the box of tissues. Returning, she lectured Lou as she took a tissue out. "Mommy, no crying, or else your makeup will be ruined."

Both Lou and Georgie laughed at her enthusiasm and sure footedness.

"She's right, you know. You don't want to mess up your makeup."

"No, I'm okay, I just…I can't believe you two are headed off to Vancouver tonight."

Georgie shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, well. It's not as if we have a choice, do we?"

Lou hummed in response. "Sweetie, promise you'll look after yourself and your sister."

"Promise." Georgie paused a moment. "Okay, can we just forget about it for a little while? I mean, look at today—you and Dad are getting married. Come on, that's so perfect. It's like this fairytale ending. Why don't we just get excited about that?"

Lou nodded. "You're right."

Georgie sighed, relieved. She looked down, smiling to herself.

"What are you smiling at?" Lou asked, her brows furrowed in amusement.

She shrugged and planted a kiss on Lou's temple. Standing up, she said, "Just seeing how happy you and Dad are today."

"Katie, get into position! Stop fiddling with the bouquet!" Georgie whispered to her sister. "Mom's coming any minute now."

Georgie nervously glanced to Peter, who she then noticed was even more nervous than her. "Dad." She called out to him in a whisper.

Peter looked over at the sound of Georgie's voice.

"Good luck."

Peter chuckled nervously. He winked to his daughter.

Heads turned as Jack's truck arrived and he exited the vehicle, crossing to help Lou out of the truck.

As Lou emerged, she felt everyone's eyes on her. It didn't really feel like she was facing an audience, though. This was just her family. She felt comforted.

As both Tim and Jack came ahead to walk her down the dock, she breathed in a little. Here goes nothing.

As they tread, Lou noticed how mild and calm the weather was. Despite it being December, it felt like early fall, but with a blanket of snow. Lou thought to herself she'd made a good choice in leaving her coat in the truck.

Lou's eyes met Peter's. She suddenly felt overwhelmed, her heart aflutter. It was this feeling of deja vu, wasn't it? She was brought back suddenly to the day they'd gotten married—the first time. As she arrived to her spot beside him, she breathed in a sigh of relief.

As the minister spoke, both Lou and Peter seemingly drifted away. Gazing into each other's eyes made them forget there even was a world beyond their bubble.

"You may now repeat your vows."

As Georgie listened in to her parents' vows, a thousand emotions ran through her. She stood there and watched as the two of them promised themselves to each other. There were smiles in their voices, their faces lit up in happiness. Georgie was thrilled, ecstatic.

Katie turned to her sister and smiled. Georgie returned the warmth of Katie's smile.

"Do you, Samantha Louise Fleming, take Peter Walter Morris to be your lawful, wedded husband?"

Lou smiled. "I do."

"And do you, Peter Walter Morris, take Samantha Louise Fleming to be your lawful, wedded wife?"

Peter's eyes glinted. "I do."

The next few moments felt like an eternity as everyone waited for the minister to announce that the two of them were married.

"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride."

Katie turned to Georgie, her eyes wide. "Mommy and Daddy are…" Katie trailed off, clearly taken aback and rattled.

Georgie giggled at her sister's reaction.

Georgie turned to Jade, who smiled back. "Congrats, kid."

As Peter moved back, he gazed into Lou's green eyes. "Look at you…Mrs..."

Lou blushed a little. She felt young again, carefree and ready to take on the world.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Morris."

Peter smiled to her. "Well, there you go. Mrs. Morris."