Chapter Fourteen: "New Bacon-ings" Burger:

They came outside to face the family, exploding through the doors of City Hall. Gene carried Alex bridal style, drawing attention in all directions with their bold matching suits. There was confetti. There were clapping bystanders. There was a river of tears.

That's how Tina would have written it, anyway. But Alex and Gene were still inside, signing the marriage license.

"I'm doin' it. I'm gonna cry. These are tears, boys," Zeke said wiping his eyes. Alex's mother was dabbing the corners of her eyes with her shawl. She embraced Zeke as she began to bawl.

"Stop it, you're gonna flood the street," Louise said, looking down to prevent anyone from seeing her own happy tears forming.

Linda was standing in front of the rest of the family on the sidewalk, camera poised at the large glass doors, finger hovering over the button and ready for the moment the large glass doors of City Hall swung open.

Alex and Gene emerged awkwardly, Gene holding Alex's hand and both holding wide grins on their faces. The happy sobbing and camera clicking was the soundtrack to their first moments as a married couple.

"My precious 'lil lamb is all grown up," Zeke said through a heavy breath. Tina patted him on the back as she tried to avoid being sucked up in the joyful, snot filled grope of Mrs. Papasian.

"Reception time yet?" Mr. Papasian asked, in an ignored attempt to move everyone away from the City Hall steps. Surrounding citizens were growing annoyed as they dodged the large family while making their way into City Hall.

Gene and Alex hadn't been more than a month graduated from Huxley High when they found a cheap apartment in Bog Harbor. Their boxes hadn't been packed yet, but they had pulled the money from their graduation checks together and put down the security deposit and first month's rent. There was nothing stopping them now, but themselves.

Those were the words Gene had used a week earlier when he got down on one knee in front of family and friends. Alex went to open Gene's gift and found a small velvet box in the obnoxiously large gift bag. It was Alex's eighteenth birthday party and he said he only wanted a gift card for Falafel on a Waffle. Gene wasn't sentimental, but he was flamboyant and he knew he could give Alex something so much better than a gift card.

Bob closed the restaurant in the early afternoon for the wedding and reception. Quick cards, rushed gifts, and fresh envelopes containing checks were piled on the counter near the register. Darryl stood by the window with a microphone as Peter Pescadero and Regular-Sized Rudy accompanied him.

Bob and Zeke were in the kitchen filling orders as Linda and Tina buzzed around the dining area. The restaurant was full of friends and family squeezing into booths and standing at the counter between already occupied barstools. When Linda took Dalton's order, he told her, "This is the best Fabulous Reception I've been to all week. And I've been to three."

Louise looked out at Jessica as she passed hot plates of food to Tina through the service window. Jessica was sitting two stools away from the abbreviated version of Pi and she was spending a lot of time staring at Regular-Sized Rudy. Jessica was looking at Rudy the way Louise looked at Jessica when she thought Jessica wasn't looking. Her stomach began to hurt and she couldn't figure out why, but it seemed to spike up everytime she caught a sideways glance of Jessica and her shiny auburn hair. Louise wasn't involved with Jessica, but she wanted to be. And she wanted Jessica to want to be, too.

Gene came up to the microphone after Pi finished their set. His colorful suit was a little wrinkled from all the sitting, but still complimented him from head to toe. "I've found someone who is more special to me than ice cream cake and midnight cheese platters. I've found someone who I want to share all my ice cream cake and midnight cheese platters with. Do you know how big of a deal that is, people? I guess what I'm trying to say is: I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you, Alex. But only in matching clothes."

Gene hardly finished his speech before Teddy was pouring out tears of happiness, his sobbing loud enough to eclipse the entire restaurant in its noise.

Tina looked down at her feet briefly. She was certain she's already found the robot-fearing, wrestle-loving butt she wanted to stare at for the rest of her life. Would her favorite butt ever declare his desire to spend the rest of its life sharing ice cream cake and matching outfits? Tina raised her head and smiled at her brother and his cheesy speech. Time would just have to answer her hard questions, wouldn't it?

Tina sat in front of Linda, staring straight into her own reflection. Her glasses were on the vanity next to scattered makeup palettes and brushes. Tina tried to appreciate the soft, subtle make up with her blurry vision as her mother fussed around with her hair.

"Should we go up or down," Linda asked, voice slightly muffled with the bobby pins she was holding in her mouth. She began a complicated up-do on Tina's short hair before either of her daughters gave their input. Sweat was beading at Linda's temples and a fan was trained on Tina to prevent her from having runny makeup. Louise sat on the edge of her parents' bed, lazily waving some papers to create a breeze in Tina's direction.

"Just because I am sitting in the Menstrual Hut, doesn't mean I'm participating in the activities," Louise said turning the papers to wave the breeze toward herself. The early July heat made the Belcher apartment sticky, humid, and far from the ideal place to prepare the bride for her big day.

Tina's flowing white dress hung from a hanger in the open closet, where it had been there for the last three weeks since Linda had helped her pick it out. Three stores, ten dresses, and unlimited amounts of complimentary champagne shared between Linda and Louise. These were all the things Tina had to endure before finding the dress.

Louise had made it clear she had come for the free champagne, being moral support for Tina in her time of need was just a bonus. Louise had been espousing to her mother all the reasons wedding dresses were impractical and stupid. Linda was tipsily countering her younger daughter's argument. Then Tina had walked out of the changing room and stood on the platform in front of the three sided mirror. The Belcher woman stopped their debate, eyes drawn toward the platform. Tina couldn't recall another time when she'd seen her zealous mother and headstrong sister both speechless.

"That's the dress. My baby found the dress," Linda said as she approached Tina.

"Mom, keep the champagne away," Tina said, voice getting a little high pitched as Linda surveyed the dress, turning her head to view at multiple angles.

"You look good, T," Louise said, downing the remainder of her flute of champagne.

"I thought wedding dresses were 'impractical and stupid?' " Linda quoted, flashing a playful look at her youngest.

"I said 'impractical and stupid.' I didn't say ugly," Louise said.

Tina had stayed the night in the "guest closet" formerly belonging to Louise. Zeke had stayed at his and Tina's place. Because it "wasn't tradition" for the groom and the bride to see each other before the wedding. Louise respected Tina's desire to not jinx any part of her wedding day, City Hall being deferred aside. Tina respected Louise's opinion that it was pure stupidity to spend the night away from someone you had had sex with and had been dating for the last eight years. Both of the young women respected their mother's opinion that most of the swirling around the Belcher residence over the past twenty-four hours was in the name of "tradition" Linda was working so hard to keep tradition. Including casting her husband out of the house, to help the groom prepare for the wedding.

Gene and Alex had stayed the night in Gene's childhood room. Gene would sleep in and inevitably be late to the entire affair. This was his personal "tradition." The one tradition Linda would not allow to be maintained.

"Okay, Mouthy Melodie, do you wanna do your sisters hair?" Linda asked, brushing off the comment about the "Menstrual Hut"

"I want it down," Tina announced, finding her voice.

"It lives!" Louise exclaimed.

"That's the first thing you've said all morning. Is my Teeny Tina getting cold feet?" Linda asked.

"No. You're both just driving me crazy." Tina ran her hands through her hair, untangling the partial up-do. "I just want everything to be perfect and you're both making me nervous."

"You're nervous? Imagine how Zeke feels not being able to wear cargo shorts for the first time in twenty-six years," Louise said.

"He wears pants when he has to, Louise," Tina said.

Linda sat down next to Tina and put her arm around her daughter. "It'll be perfect, no matter how not-perfect it is, honey. When you see Zeke standing there, all the nerves - poof - gone."

"I hope so," Tina said, leaning into her mother. Louise still sat on the edge of the bed, fanning papers laid to rest.

Gene walked by the open door, eyes immediately homing in on his mother and older sister, "Hugging without me? This is a betrayal!"

The smallest event room at the Spinnaker Hotel was laid out with a white lattice arch, small white chairs symmetrically arranged, and an off white carpet creating an aisle to the altar. Small tables for the reception were placed with chairs and seating cards a few feet back from the ceremony setup. Guests had started filing in and taking seats, while others scattered in small groups across the venue talking in hushed tones.

"It looks like the Arctic threw-up in here," Logan said as he straightened the tie on his pristine tux.

"This was months of planning, you insensitive shithead," said Louise. Her arms were crossed as she rocked back and forth on her heels. She stood in between Gene and Logan, the three of them in the back of the room.

"Don't get grumpy just because you had to dress up," Logan smirked at Louise, clad in flats and a frilly olive green dress.

"Well, we can't all be used to nice things like you are."

"And I guess no matter how cute you are, we can't all be bothered to put effort into our appearances," Logan gave Louise a side glance, looking her up and down in her wrinkled dress. "Aren't you supposed to be a bridesmaid or something?" Amusement infused into his tone, impish grin still plastered on his face.

"Do you two always talk to each other like this?" Gene asked

"Only when we pretend to get along," Louise said.

Tammy Larsen paraded in through the side door, looking around the room with her face twisted into a sneer. She had an oblivious Jocelyn on her arm. The height difference making the two look out of place next to one another.

"There's no cocktail hour?" Tammy asked, making sure she could be heard throughout the venue.

"Is that, like, a wedding thing?" Jocelyn muttered.

"Only at the good weddings," Tammy told her girlfriend.

"I can't believe they actually showed. Scratch that, I can't believe T actually invited them," Louise said

"Your sister does seem like the 'kill them with kindness' type," Logan said.

Gene squinted in Tammy's direction as she and Jocelyn took their seats. "She had work done. Lots of work. Especially the nose."

"Too bad none of it was on her personality," Louise said

Alex and his parents were at the front of the venue, chatting animatedly with each other. Bob and Linda were standing a few feet from the altar with Zeke's half brother. Bob adjusting his tie and Linda combing the young teen's unruly hair with her fingers. The ringbearer looked like he'd just come from a mud wrestling match and had changed into his tuxedo in the backseat of a truck. As people began looking for their seats, Andy, Ollie, and Harley took their seats in one of the back rows.

"Think Jimmy Jr. 's gonna show?" Gene asked gazing at the Pesto twins.

"I doubt it," Louise said.

"It's gonna break Zeke's heart," Gene said.

"I also doubt that," Louise said.

Tina didn't get to ride a horse down the aisle and her father never learned how to play the harp, but if Tina had a fairy tale wedding, this was about as close as she could have gotten.

As Tina walked down the aisle, Bob had to help keep her steady. It felt surreal, like she was flying and didn't know where she was or where she was going to end up. She should have felt happy, but mostly it was butterflies.

Her eyes passed over her mother and her sister, her perfect bridesmaids. When she'd seen Zeke standing there, the nerves certainly did not disappear like Linda said they would. The nerves worked their way all the way up from her stomach and into her heart. It felt like that first time Tina'd seen Zeke after his graduation party. It felt like the first time she tried to tell Zeke that she loved him and had nearly hyperventilated. It felt like minutes to get down the aisle to be next to him and the butterflies kept multiplying. Yet despite all the nerves, Tina had still felt like she couldn't get to the end of the aisle and be next to Zeke fast enough.

The butterflies disappeared when Zeke put the ring on her finger. The happiness took over when they kissed. If she was going to be a nervous wreck with each momentous change for the rest of her life, she knew it was Zeke she wanted to be standing next to when those butterflies formed.

"I think I finally found a place," Louise said, lounging on Logan's couch with her laptop balanced on her knees. Ween was asleep on the floor in front of the couch.

"Yeah, I think I found a place too," Logan said, taking his foot and pushing lightly on one of her ankles, creating a wider gap between Louise's legs. Louise took her foot and gently nudged him back.

"You're subtle," she said sarcastically.

"No, I thought it was pretty obvious," Logan said from the other end of the couch, lowering his newspaper to look at Louise

"I'm busy and I'm not sad and lonely enough to find you attractive, yet," Louise smirked.

"Not even with your sister getting married today and leaving you in the dust? You're not jealous and lonely and needing someone to make you feel special?"

"You're really laying it on thick."

"Just reminding you what I have to offer."

"Well this building has more to offer than you do," Louise peered over the screen of her laptop at him, giving him an amused smile.

"I'll be the judge," Logan moved over and stuck his face in front of the screen so he was looking at the screen upside down. "I've seen better."

"I didn't ask you for your lousy opinion, Logan."

"Those windows are a little open for a living space. You gonna sleep behind the counter? Or up in the ceiling?"

"When 'Belcher's Burgers and Beer' opens up, I'll let you lick the floor clean in exchange for a place to sleep behind the counter."

"An offer I can't refuse. Too bad it's a pipe dream for you."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"You can barely afford to keep that food truck running with all the parts and shit. You're gonna have the money to rent the place out? If you think your overhead is bad now, just wait. You're not even the one paying the bills and suppliers and the rent. "

"I'll show you overhead."

"All I heard was the part about head."

"I've calculated all the costs. I've looked into the suppliers, insurance, rent, all that boring business shit. I'm always improving this plan. How many times have we had this fucking conversation?" An edge was apparent in her voice as she set her laptop down on the coffee table.

Logan knew it was true. Louise had a business plan, a solid one that she kept modifying every time she thought of something new or something that could be done better. They'd discussed it together endlessly from the standpoint of a business major and a marketing major. He'd seen her notes and spreadsheets and how much they'd changed since they first started talking about marketing strategy months ago. Even though the dream of opening up her own restaurant wasn't going to happen for her anytime soon, she was already prepared. Maybe a little too prepared.

"Maybe I'm just afraid you'll stop needing my help if you have it all figured out. You won't need my opinion anymore and you'll be done with me," Logan admitted.

"Wow, you're so fucking full of it today," Louise said. She reached out and pulled the collar of his shirt, pulling him toward her until their lips met.

She clearly didn't get that he was being serious about his fear of her getting bored of him, he realized. Or maybe she was good at playing it off, just like everything else that involved emotions. Logan kissed her back harder. For now he guessed he was going to take what he could get.

Whatever anger or desperation had been felt, they'd worked it out of their system for the moment. They'd collapsed on the couch, limbs tangled up and heavy breathing. Logan looked at Louise and felt a stirring in his chest. He almost said it then, but she untangled herself from him and got up from the couch.

"Stop looking at me all weird."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, voice far away, staring at their clothes scattered around on the living room floor.

"I'm going to take a shower."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry, Louise, but she's dead," Teddy told her as he dropped the hood of the truck down with a slam.

"How much to fix her?" Louise asked, standing on the step by the back door of the restaurant, trying to ignore the scent of the overflowing Dumpster.

"You'd be better off buying a whole new truck, kiddo." Teddy wiped his hands off with a rag.

"This blows," Louise muttered, looking down at her feet.

"I can give you the name of a guy I know, but he'd be way more expensive and I don't think he'd do much more for you than I could," Teddy's eyes softened and Louise wanted to punch the apologetic look off his face for a moment. She took a deep breath.

"Yeah, I'll take it," Louise said, exhaling a breath and releasing her misplaced rage.

Teddy tucked the rag into his back pocket and pulled a card out of his wallet.

"I won't charge you for the consultation."

"Cool. Do you want a burger? On the house?" Louise asked, shoving the card into her jeans pocket.

"We missed you this morning at breakfast," Bob mumbled as he worked to scrape off the grill. Linda was behind the counter balancing the till and humming to herself. Louise had been silent and surly most of the day. While Louise was busing tables earlier in the day, Bob and Linda had a very brief and forceful discussion on whose responsibility it was to face the wrath of their daughter. Bob lost that round.

"I was handling a crisis," Louise said, turning her back to Bob as she put clean plates away.

"Teddy told me."

"Of course he did."

"You got that other guy to come look at the truck?" Bob's question was punctuated by the scraping against the flattop.

"How did you guess?" Louise asked bitingly. Bob had become expertly practiced in selectively ignoring his daughter's misplaced sarcasm over the last twenty-two years. The look Louise wore all day was enough to tell anyone how bright the future of Bob's Burgers 2.0 was.

"You've been grumpy all day. More than usual."

"It's a lot of money and a lot to think about. If I bought a new food truck, I'd just be breaking even. I'd be broke. I still have school books to pay for next semester. I have loans. What am I going to do, Dad?"

Bob stopped cleaning the grill and turned to face his daughter, "Welcome to the last thirty years of my life."

"Think of all the extra advertising and business we're losing, Dad?"

"The restaurant is doing fine, Louise." Louise glared at her father. Bob only looked back at her more firmly. It was true. The restaurant was doing just fine. More than fine, actually. Louise had helped Linda with the book keeping enough to know that her parents were doing better than most. She was there when Linda finally started a retirement account.

What about all of the extra money? What about all the hard hours? All of the time and sacrifice she'd spent on making everything balance out for herself? All the sleepless nights and mornings? All the classes she'd fought to stay ahead in? All the real college and other things normal twenty-two year olds did that Louise had missed out on? Things Louise wasn't sure she even cared about anyway. What about her independence and her opportunity to move out of her parents that she'd pushed off for the last four years? Why couldn't anyone else see her dreams were crumbling in front of her? Everything she'd worked toward was fading fast.

"What about -"

"You?" Bob finished his daughter's question.

"Yeah," Louise said weakly, setting a clean stack of plates down on the edge of the dishwashing station.

"You move on to the next thing. Even if you're not sure what the next thing is or how to do it."

"Like raising three kids," Linda said, sticking her head through the service window. Her and Bob exchanged quick, knowing smiles at one another.

"Maybe like raising kids cost wise," Louise muttered. "You never really wanted the food truck anyway. Kind of like kids."

Her parents didn't laugh.

"I know the food truck was your baby, but babies grow up. And sometimes they disappoint you. But sometimes they make you more proud than you could ever imagine. You learn to adapt," Linda said.

"I put so much time and so much of myself into this thing and I just feel like I failed," Louise said.

"You didn't fail, Louise. Life has a way of kicking you when you're down. You've seen how hard it is to keep this place running. I'm surprised you're so surprised," Bob said, crossing his arms.

"Bobby," Linda said through gritted teeth.

"He didn't say anything that wasn't true, Mom," Louise mimicked her father's posture.

"Honey, you grew up in a household where your father always tried too hard to prove himself and always felt like he had something to prove. He always fusses about doing things his own way and never selling out."

"I'm right here, Lin."

"Hush, Bobby," Linda said, waving her husband off. "I love your father and I'll always support him no matter what. Just like I'll always be supportive of you kids. But who are you trying to prove anything to? We've always believed in you. I dunno why you don't believe in yourself more. Even if it means having to start over. Or start something new."

"Mom, I -," Louise was overcome with a strong urge to run to her mother and hug her, but she didn't. She stood in the kitchen with her arms crossed, looking down at her feet and holding in her breath.

There were a lot of things that were important to Louise Belcher: fighting her battles, always being right, and fierce independence. But her family was at the top of that list in big, bold letters.

Louise parked in the driveway behind Logan's shiny car and slammed the car door shut. Ween barked when he heard the noise.

"Wow, you replaced the food truck already? With an even more useless and shitty vehicle?" Logan asked. He was standing on the front porch, holding the small dog like a baby. He looked sinister with the streetlights illuminating just one side of his face, impish grin on display.

"It's Tina's car," Louise said as she came up the steps. Tina and Zeke had given Louise free reign of their car while on their Honeymoon, so long as Louise agreed to collect their mail and watch their place.

"They're still in swinging seventies paradise?"

"You can just say they're visiting my grandparents. Unless you're trying to make me vomit in my mouth." Louise walked into the house, Logan following behind her.

"Tempting, but not my goal," Logan set the dog down inside the doorway and followed Louise into his kitchen. He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed as she poured herself a large glass of whatever she had pulled out of the liquor cabinet first.

Louise let out a sigh and walked past Logan toward the stairs. Logan snatched the pink hat off of Louise's head. She whipped around and yanked it out of his hand.

"Hands off the Ears," she warned.

"Nice to see I still have your attention."

"I'm at your damn house. It's pretty hard to ignore you here."

"Somehow you still manage," Logan said. Louise stuffed the hat in her jeans pocket and made her way up the stairs. Logan followed behind her. "What's with the Ears anyway. You haven't worn them this much in months."

"I'm having a bad day."

"Yeah, you've been having a few of those lately."

"Nice to see I still have your attention," Louise said, turning Logan's words on him. She sat down on the side of the bed and set the mostly full glass on the nightstand.

"You're allowed to be pissed off, but don't take it out on me."

"Sorry, it's been a lot to process the last few days."

"Did you just apologize? You really are feeling horrible," Logan said.

"I'm not getting another food truck. I decided today and it's bothering the fuck out of me. It just feels like I'm sliding backward."

"I'm glad you finally realized it. You're a horrible failure who has no hope. It's kind of entertaining to watch you fool yourself, though," Logan said sarcastically as he sat down on the bed next to her.

"You're not funny," Louise turned toward him.

"Stop sulking. It's getting on my nerves," Logan smiled at her.

"Your existence gets on my nerves," Louise said sharply, collapsing onto the bed.

"So we're done bantering now? I thought that was our thing."

"I didn't exactly come over here to banter."

"Right, it was for the sex and the liquor. Got it."

"It was so my mom would stop asking me if I was okay every twenty seconds. The sex and liquor are just added benefits."

"Speaking of added benefits?" Logan asked, sinking down on the bed next to her. Louise brought her mouth to his, fully intending to take advantage of the added benefits.

"You're staring at me weird again," Louise said, throwing her towel in the laundry hamper.

"Sorry?" Logan asked, stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist.

"You've been doing that a lot lately. It's really annoying, actually."

"Taking a lot of showers? Or staring at you weird?"

"The second one," Louise said, slipping a borrowed t-shirt on.

"I've been thinking, that's all," Logan sighed as he ran a comb through his hair.

"Didn't know you were capable of that, but it explains why you look so vacant."

"Yeah, like when you try to be nice," Logan joked.

"Only when I try to be nice to you, because it really does take a lot of effort."

"Seems like a lot of things take a lot of effort for you," Logan said only-half joking this time. He slid on a pair of sweatpants.

"Why do I have a feeling this is going to be a serious conversation and it's going to have something to do with feelings." The last word came out of Louise's mouth high-pitched and biting. She was sitting on the foot of the bed.

"I like you and I think maybe we should talk about what this thing between us is," Logan said as he walked out of the bathroom and closed the distance between them.

"We're friends, Logan. As much as it pains me to admit that I can tolerate you."

"I'm serious, Louise. We've been tip-toeing around labels for months. You sleep in my bed practically every night, but we're 'not together.' "

"I'm having a quarter life crisis and I lost my first ever independent source of income and you want to talk about frickin' feelings?"

"It wasn't your own 'independent' anything. Everything was from your parents' restaurant."

"Fuck you."

"Okay, okay, maybe that wasn't totally fair. But this conversation isn't supposed to be about the food truck. It's about us."

"There is no 'us'."

"Really? Because from where I'm standing, it sure as Hell seems like there is."

"Stop trying to make more out of this than it is."

"Then what is this Louise? Your sister just got married and this kind of feels like -"

"Just because Tina got married, I should be too?"

"It was a bad example. I'm just saying that -"

"That I should do everything based on everyone else's expectations? Including yours?"

"Louise, would you just fucking listen?"

"What? Are you gonna tell me you love me and want to marry me and have trust-fund babies with me?"

"Clearly this was the wrong time to talk to you."

"Clearly."

"Do you even like me, Louise? Because the way you're making it sound makes me think I'm just a convenience."

"You're...you're fine," Louise lost steam. She wasn't sure how to answer that question without being honest with herself. Without having to acknowledge what this whole thing really was. Without having to acknowledge her feelings.

"Just fine?" Logan asked quietly, the fight deflating out of him like a popped beach ball.

"You're...I like...I'm...it's a lot to think about. I mean, how do you answer that?"

"I know I want more," Logan said firmly. "I love you. I see a future with you in it, even if we're both doing very different things with our lives. That's how I'd answer the question."

"I don't know if I can answer that the same way. All we ever do is fight. It's the basis for a real healthy relationship," Louise sneered.

"That's not true. We don't always fight," Logan said.

"We're fighting right now."

"If you wanna call it that," Logan muttered, looking down at the floor in front of him.

Louise had seen love make people do all kinds of crazy things. It made Tina keep a picture of her and Zeke on her nightstand. It made Gene get married to Alex as soon as they graduated high school. She'd seen an IRS agent jump into a jellyfish tank to impress an aquarium owner. It made Teddy more bumbling and awkward than normal until Kathleen got the picture and finally asked him out.

She'd grown up in a household where her father ran after her mother and ended up piloting a seaplane to save his wife from a cad who took advantage of bored housewives. She'd grown up in a household where her mother ruined an astronaut's empowerment speech just to make sure Tina wasn't mad at her or embarrassed by her. It was also the driving force for Louise making Bob promise her, in a crowded theater, that they would never stop being close just because she grew up and ultimately reunited another estranged father and daughter in the process.

All of these things were beautiful, Louise couldn't deny that. But she wasn't sure that she was ready for it. She wasn't sure that she even deserved it. And here was Logan, saying all of these things that she already knew were true, but had worked so hard over months and months to stop him from saying. She'd finally reached the point where she couldn't hold him off from saying it any longer.

"Louise?" Logan asked, breaking the silence after what felt like minutes.

"I need time to think," was all she could manage to say.