Louise sat at her dressing staring at herself in the mirror, her hair was still damp from the sea water and while she wasn't completely drunk anymore she still felt pretty tipsy. She kept trying and failing to make sense of everything that had happened in the last few hours, she finally decided she would just take a shower to try and reclaim herself. As she was tiptoeing into the bathroom Louise peeked in the kitchen where her mother was working on her second or third bottle of wine and talking to someone on the phone, Louise figured it was probably Ginger but she couldn't muster up enough or a thought process to really care all she knew was that she didn't feel like dealing with her mother's questions at that moment.
The water was searing hot against her skin, just the way Louise like it. As she scrubbed at the sand and seawater in her hair all she could think of was Logan's kiss, she couldn't figure out if it meant anything to her or not. She sat under the water until it turned cold trying to figure things out she finally wrapped her hair in a towel threw on her robe and went to her room. She sat down on her bed even though she hadn't figured anything out she fell into a dreamless sleep within minutes.
Louise woke up the next morning with the sun in her eyes, it took her a minute to realize where she was and to at least partially remember everything from the night before. It had been a really long time since she had drank that much and her hangover was determined to remind her of it. As she collected herself a bit she realized that the sun was a lot higher than it should have been, she quickly jumped up and checked her phone. She felt horrible the restaurant should have opened hours earlier, she had an unopened message from Logan but decided she would deal with it later, she threw on the first clothes she found, put her hair in a bun, and sprinted downstairs. She couldn't believe she had been this irresponsible after one night of going out, she hadn't told her parents but the restaurant was already in trouble, Bob's insurance wasn't covering the bulk of his treatments and their savings were completely gone. Louise had only managed to get by on rent this long because Mr. Fischoeder was giving her breaks and letting her pay when she could out of sympathy, now on top of everything else she had lost hours' worth of business to stay out late with Logan.
As she rounded the small space between the apartment's front door and the restaurant's Louise stopped dead in her tracks, she had assumed that maybe just maybe Linda would have opened the restaurant, she never expected this though. She had been terrified that she would never see Bob in his apron again, that she wouldn't run through the glass door and see him standing behind the counter, or flipping burgers on the grill. She had spent almost a year in the restaurant by herself missing the smell of her father's clone and the cheesy burger of the day puns that he came up with. She was afraid that she would never see him rolling his eyes as Teddy aimlessly talked about the stupidest things. There he was though. She felt her eyes stinging as she looked in through the window and saw Bob leaning on his can while everyone stood around him, a smile on every person's face, as Bob passed out plate after plate with the Burger of the Day.
She was frozen in place staring through the window she wasn't sure how to react. The restaurant wasn't exactly overflowing like when he was stuck to the toilet but Bob being back had apparently inspired quite the turn out. She wanted to run in, hug her dad, apologize to him for being so late that he had to get out of bed and open the restaurant. She wanted to cry and laugh and she was so overwhelmed that honestly she just wanted to punch someone, she couldn't bring herself to walk inside though, she knew her emotions were going to overtake her and she didn't want anyone to see that. She jumped slightly as she heard footsteps coming up beside her, she didn't have to turn to see who it was though since she already knew, he hadn't changed that damn cologne in four years.
"Wow," Logan started "out of all the scenarios that ran through my head walking down here this was not something that I expected." He stood there rocking back and forth waiting on Louise to say something, anything. He knew her well enough to know that she was almost definitely having issues dealing with all of this and while he wanted to help he wasn't sure how, after a few minutes he decided that in his experience acting on instinct was almost always the best thing to do with Louise. She saw something move next to her and looked down, Logan had his hand held out and as always she seemed to know exactly what he was thinking, he was basically the only person that knew exactly when she needed someone to lean on. She gave him a small sweet smile and took his hand as he led her into the restaurant to see her family. Louise wanted to pull away from him and keep everything that had happened a secret but that was just for simplicity, right now though she knew that he was probably the only person around that could understand how to deal with her complex emotions and she was anxious to gauge exactly how her family was going to feel about what seemed to be their budding relationship.
When the bell chimed that they had entered the restaurant everyone turned to look at them Louise looked around at everyone surprised at all of the familiar faces that Bob had drawn in. Teddy and Mort held their usual stools at the counter with Marshmallow and her friends, Louise glanced around and saw that even Fischoeder had come out for Bob's appearance. She started to panic, she was breaking down and there were way to many people there to see it, she tried to pull away from Logan determined to take off back outside and run to her room but the jackass wouldn't let go of her hand. She looked up at him and he immediately got lost in her eyes, he could see her internally pleading to him to let her go and as she looked up at him his eyes said everything she needed to hear; he was there for her, and she couldn't run from everyone forever. As Logan finally let go of her hand he wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulder and she secured her arm around his waist clinging onto him as tight as she could, he smiled slightly as he heard her let out a sigh of relief as he squeezed her closer to him and they started towards the counter.
A slight hush fell over the restaurant and Louise felt everyone's eyes settle on her, Bob already knew what it was about, nobody quite knew how Louise was going to react seeing as she had always been the pure definition of unpredictability. He turned from his customers to face his youngest child, everyone knew how hard Louise had been working to keep the business floating and taking care of Bob. While she had obtained the reputation of a trouble maker as a child she had turned into a beloved pillar of the community as a young woman and they all wanted to extend their support to her as much as they could. Bob couldn't help but tear up as he looked at her now under the lights of the restaurant, they gave him a much better look than the lamp in his room. She looked so tired, it wasn't just a hangover though he was sure that it must have been a pretty bad one, she had sunk every part of herself and everything she had into keeping the family going when it was thrust on her with no warning and he couldn't help but admire her for it. He took in the sight of Louise and Logan together and realized that maybe, just maybe, this could be a good thing. Louise needed someone to be her rock, she had given up everything and it was time she get something back.