---- Chapter 64
Lois pulled a shirt on over her head, pulling her hair loose from the collar. Sighing, she looked around at her room, noting the that even though she'd been moved to a new facility, it still wasn't much of a room. At least now she was allowed to wear real clothes.
They'd never had her on suicide watch, but she'd been treated like all the other crazies: a drab room full of nothing. Clothes that seemed to suck the life out of everything around them, they were so dull. She'd never been one to gravitate towards bright clothes, aside from the occasional yellow shirt here and there, but those dull whites had been awful.
Standing up, Lois pulled on a pair of shorts and slipped her feet into some sandals. She walked over to the window and looked out at the green of spring. Until a couple days before, it had been a month since she'd anything resembling nature. Granted, for the first week she'd had trouble doing anything that wasn't being scared by every sound she heard.
It had been like being trapped in a never ending circle. Every time the world around her seemed to calm down and she could breathe again, something else would pop up and the attack would jump into her mind, and those were the few times the memory wasn't just happening over and over again. She'd see the attack, almost feeling it again, and curl into a ball to protect herself from the memory of the pain.
Getting to the point where the world didn't petrify her had been liberating, though it had seemed to take ten times as long as it had. They'd said it was a minor miracle it didn't take week or months.
Since then, she'd been able to make slow progress in accepting what she'd experienced. It... hurt. She frowned, thinking about the days she'd spent with therapists, asking her about what she could recall. When she would tell them that she could remember everything, vividly, they would ask her to tell her in detail. Getting through it in one telling without falling into sobs had taken two weeks of two therapy sessions a day.
Aside from the memory itself, she hated the uncontrollable crying the most. For most of her time at the first facility, she didn't even realize she'd started until she was already half curled up and her sides were hurting. It wasn't as bad now, but it still took her unawares at times. Crying had always been something she thought was something that only happened in weak moments, and she always knew it was coming before it happened until now. After this, it seemed as likely she would cry as laugh.
Lois walked out of her room and out into the hallway, smiling at the various orderlies and patients she passed until she got to the doors leading to the lawn. Walking outside, she took in the fresh air a moment before going down the few steps and walking through the courtyard. She spied a spot that she'd come to like in her few days here; it was shaded throughout the day, keeping it cool in the June sun, and had a nice breeze that ran across it.
Walking over to the spot, she sat down on the bench and sighed as the breeze wafted across her face. Peaceful. This spot was peaceful, and peace was not something she'd had a lot of recently. Not only was her mind anything but peaceful, but she was told to talk about this, consider that, describe such and such... She'd never been big on being told what to do, and despite the fact that it was helping her recover, she still wasn't fond of it. This was the one spot in the world that seemed to leave her in charge of herself lately.
Lois spent a little while just sitting and watching people move around the courtyard. It wasn't a big facility, but had enough people that she didn't think she'd ever meet more than half of them unless she was here for years. What an awful thought. Fortunately, she'd been told that it wasn't highly unlikely. Of course, so was her remembering the attack.
The attack jumped into her mind and Lois winced, feeling her heart rate jump as it played out. She took deep breaths, calming herself down as the memory played itself out and she felt her heart slow down again. That had been another one of those annoying things she'd experienced: a panic attack. She'd had one while she'd been at the other facility, and if she never had another one she would be giddy.
Thirsty, Lois got up off the bench and slowly walked inside, getting a bottle of water from the cafeteria. She grabbed a couple bagels, too, tearing a hunk off one and popping it into her mouth as she walked along the hallways. She smiled at a few people, not getting much in return as she walked back outside and headed towards a small fountain on the opposite end of the courtyard from her bench. She listened to the falling water as she sat on the edge of the little pool underneath the fountain, eating her bagels in a content not quite silence.
"Lois, how are you doing today?"
Shielding her eyes against the sun, Lois looked over and spotted who was talking to her. "Morning, Dr. Deter. I'm alright, how are you?"
"I'm fine, thank you. How are you enjoying your time here so far?"
"I'm able to be outside and see a color other than drab, dull white, so you've got the old place beat. I'm still in a mental health facility, though, so enjoying my time isn't exactly what I would call it. I just want to be better and see my girls again."
Thirty four days. It had been thirty four days since she'd seen Jordan and Andy, and it was tearing her heart apart. She'd seen Clark a few times, and he'd done his best to keep her up to date on how the girls were doing, but it was seriously lacking. She didn't get to hug them, kiss them or tell them that mommy just needed more time to feel better. She sighed as she wiped a tear off her cheek. Every time she thought of them she started to feel the tears.
As much as it hurt, it was for the best. She didn't want Jordan and Andy seeing her like this.
"They're allowed to come here, Lois. Unlike your last facility, Larned, visitation is encouraged here. Your husband and daughters are free to come anytime they wish, and it might be helpful with your progress."
"Not like this. I love my girls more than I can say, but I do not want them seeing their mother in a mental hospital."
"Why?"
"Why?" Lois laughed bitterly. "I'm in a mental health facility! Even if the place doesn't have a big honking fence surrounding it to keep the truly nuts in, it's still what it is and I'm still not healthy!"
"I never said you were healthy, Lois, just that it might be helpful to see them. Your children are obviously very important to you, as they should be, but this is the first we've talked about them at any length and I can tell that you pride yourself on being strong for them."
"I pride myself on being strong for everybody. That's who I am." Lois took a sip of her water, looking at the trees instead of at the doctor. Impromptu sessions like these, where she was ambushed by a doctor, made her want to kick things, mostly the doctor that ambushed her, which was usually Dr. Deter.
"Identifying yourself as the strong person in the lives of those close to you, as the pillar they can lean on, is something that you may need to let go of to fully recover. Being there for the people close to you and being strong are not one and the same."
"Being strong is what I do for family, Doc," Lois said as she rubbed at an eye. "If they need somebody to talk to, to tell them what they don't want to hear or just need help, I was, and will be again, that person. I had to be strong when I was young, because I had to be a mother figure for my sister. She didn't like it, but that's how it was. I stayed that way because it worked for me."
"What put you in that position?"
"My mother died when I was young. Instead of stepping up as a father, the General delegated Lucy to my command. Instead of being her sister, I tried to be a replacement for our mom, and she rebelled until daddy decided to send her to boarding school in Europe."
Dr. Deter was silent, so Lois took a bite of what was left of her second bagel, washing it down with some water. Plain. Whoever had put a plain bagel in the cinnamon raison basket should be thumped upside the head.
"Do you think that you're mistaking the need for strength with the need for understanding, Lois? There is strength in understanding."
This outta be good. "How so?"
"From what you've told me, it sounds like you tried to be strong for your sister, but you never went out of your way to be understanding. Or maybe you did, and you didn't like the way you saw yourself, so you stopped looking at her angle and just saw that she needed an authority figure, and that's who you were going to be.
"I think that, as you said, you've kept that trend going through your life; when family needs somebody to hear them and understand their problems, you're there for them. You're not trying to understand their problems, though, so much as fix them without thinking about them. It's admirable, but now you're doing the same thing in regards to your daughters.
"Instead of understanding that they can help their mother now, you're trying to fix yourself so that they can have her to lean on in the future. It's not wrong to want to fix things for them; that's part of being a parent, and I'm guilty of the same. The same goes for family. You have no idea how much family support can help this process, though, and if you continue to shut out your daughters, they won't be able to help you."
"My daughters are four and one. They could only be hurt by seeing their mother like this."
Lois nearly growled in annoyance when she heard the doctor chuckle. "I know that children are often more observant than we give them credit for, Lois, but do you really think your children will be scarred by seeing you here? I think they'll jut be happy to see you. Your four year old may vaguely remember it twenty years from now, but your youngest won't even know it ever happened until you tell her one day."
"I don't want them to see me when I'm so weak, alright! I don't know when or if I'm going to cry in any situation anymore, and that's not the mother my girls know. They don't need to be confused by seeing me break down at random! I'm supposed to be there for them, and be a constant in their lives. That's already being disrupted by this whole thing, and I don't need it to be screwed up anymore than it already is!"
Dammit, again with the crying. Lois wiped away some tears and sniffled, taking a hanky from Dr. Deter when he offered it. She sighed, wishing that she could be better, or at least stable. As it was, she seemed to be on a big teeter totter, going up and down perpetually. Annoying was the first and least forceful of many words to describe it. It fu-king sucked. She turned to face him as he spoke.
"I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do with your daughters, Lois. That kind of decision is up to you and your husband. But, I think that allowing your daughters to see you here, when you feel you're at a weak point, will be a good step to getting yourself to a place where you're able to feel in control again."
"How in the world will it help?"
"It will be something that you control. One of the main things you've described hating about this is a lack of control over your body and how it reacts when you think about what happened, and of course the lack of control you had in the attack."
Lois winced and noticed that he wasn't speaking anymore a second later. She closed her eyes and calmed herself down, taking deep breaths as the attack played through her mind. Every time it happened, she relived every punch and kick that had been used on her. The sound of the boned in her leg snapping might be the worst sound she would ever remember hearing.
"Are you alright, Lois?" She nodded and opened her eyes, and he continued from where he'd been a second later. "From what you've described in your life, you like to be in control of your life, and what goes on around you. Everybody does. Seeing your daughters while you're here, while difficult, is something you ultimately control in a big, uncontrollable world."
Lois frowned and tossed the rest of her bagel on the ground for the birds. Stupid psychiatrists and their sense making theories! Understanding instead of strength, controlling things in a world where control was hard to come by... Jesus, maybe she was transparent or something. That would be annoying. Hopefully it was just a psychiatrist thing.
"I'll, uh... I'll consider having the girls come to see me. It's not my idea of a good time, but if you think it will help... I just don't like using them to get better."
"It's not just for you, Lois. Your daughters haven't seen you in over a month, and if you're half as close them as you describe, I'm sure that they miss you as much as you do them." He stood up from where he'd been sitting next to her. "I hope you'll really give this some thought. I'll see you Monday."
She gave him a small, less than enthusiastic wave, sighing. Why hadn't she just gone to her good spot in the shade? Now she was stuck with all these extra things to think about and consider. Damn doctors! Why couldn't they just leave her alone for a day? She'd wanted a little peace and quiet, getting some sun by the fountain, and instead she got an impromptu twenty minutes of hearing that she needed to do this or that because of the attack and her apparent love of control.
"It's been five days since we talked about having your daughters come visit. Have you thought anymore about it?"
She pulled her legs up under her body, scratching at an eyebrow as she looked at Dr. Deter. He looked like he always did, with a buttoned up shirt and khaki pants. The grey in his beard was starting to overtake the dark brown. All in all, he looked like a therapist, or at least what she'd always imagined one would look like.
"I have."
"Have you come to any decisions?"
"No. I talked to Clark about it when he visited a couple days ago, and he thought it was a good idea, but I still don't like it. As much as it could be helpful to my recovery, I still don't want my daughters to see me like this. I feel like I've lost the strength of mind I always thought I had. Why should I show my daughters a wounded version of me when they can see a whole version of me?"
"You're not wounded, Lois, you're healing. You keep saying how much you dislike the process, but when I bring up an option that may expedite your release, you don't like what I say."
"Then say something that doesn't involve my daughters seeing me crazy."
"Why do you keep calling yourself crazy? You're recovering from an extremely traumatic, life defining moment. That takes time."
Lois scoffed. "And that time has me in a building full of people with mental health problems, leading me to the conclusion that I also have mental health problems! Do you know what they call people with mental health problems? Crazy!"
"You're not crazy, Lois. The fact that you've come as far as you have since your breakdown is quite remarkable, and shows your mental fortitude. I don't think you've lost the strength of mind, as you said, so much as you're proving it."
"Proving it? If I'm recovering quickly, then why the hell am I still here?"
"Because you still have problems dealing with what happened to you."
"I accept that I was attacked." She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth for a second as it played through her mind. "My reactions are normal."
"They are. The fact that your heart rate jumps whenever you think about it is evidence that you need more time, though. Accepting the attack is fine, but you're not accepting that it affects more than just your memory. Right now it affects your mental health, physical health and your relationships."
"It is NOT affecting my relationships!"
"How many people in your life have you allowed to see you?"
"Just my husband."
"Why?"
"For the same reasons that I don't want my daughters to see me. Clark has already seen me at some of the lowest points in my life, even if I don't remember them, and so him seeing me like this is less... jarring, I guess would be the word."
She watched as he tapped his pen against his arm, then looked back up at his eyes. She could see the gears turning in his head, but had no idea what he was going to say. He liked to take these opportunities to surprise her. "What about your cousin, Chloe?"
Yeah, she wouldn't have expected that. "What about her?"
"In our first meeting, when you were telling me everything, you said that she'd been there for you most of your life. Hasn't she seen almost as many low points in your life as Clark?"
"I guess."
"Why haven't you seen her since you came here, then?"
Lois swallowed, her mouth suddenly feeling dry. "I, uh... I asked her not to come, through Clark."
"Why?"
"Because I like being there for her. I've never had a problem asking her for help, but having her see me so weak, so lost..."
"You're afraid that how she views you will change."
Lois ran a hand through her hair and unfolded her legs so that she was sitting more normally again. "How can it not?"
"Our views of others are always changing, Lois. When you woke up without your memory, didn't your views change of both Clark and Chloe? When you found out your cousin had children and saw how happy they are, didn't you go from viewing her as your younger cousin you did things for as your younger cousin, a mother and wife?"
"Well, yeah, but that would have happened anyway. This whole thing wasn't something we knew was going to change."
"What about Clark?"
"I always thought he'd be a good father, though a more mopey one than he turned out to be."
"But how you viewed him changed along with how he viewed himself."
"That's true."
"It's also true for you. How you view yourself directly impacts how others view you. If you view yourself as crazy and weak, which is how you've taken to describing yourself, then that's what other people are going to see. It might not impact their reactions to you, and what they say, but they'll see the difference, even if it goes unsaid."
She knew this. It was basic psychology that how you saw yourself impacted how others saw you. She couldn't help hating the fact that he was right about how she saw herself. No, she didn't hate that he was right about it, she hated that it was true. She saw herself as weak and crazy.
"How... how do I change how I view myself?"
"Time. Not calling yourself crazy and weak. Believing that your time here is for the best, and not just a means for an end. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable with your entire family, not just your husband, even if the only times those vulnerabilities show through are when you have no control over them."
"So, not a whole lot?"
Dr. Deter laughed, and Lois smiled a little. It really felt like it had been days since she'd smiled, when she'd only gone through about half her session so far. "I think a good first step would be to allow your cousin to see you. I would say your daughters, but with the resistance you've shown to that..."
"No. If I'm going to start, then I'm going to start with my daughters. Just... not yet. I need a little more time."
"So, I'm told Clark stopped by this weekend. Did you two discuss bringing your daughters here to see you?"
"We did," Lois said, looking down at the ground. "He still thinks that it's a very good idea, and is willing to do it anytime I want. The problem is... I'm scared."
"What has you scared?"
"It's difficult for me to go an hour without thinking about what happened to me. What am I supposed to do when Jordan asks me about why I'm here? The attack is going to pop into my mind and I'm going to have to fight down the panic I can feel lurking, waiting to overtake me." Lois looked at her hand and found that it was shaking, and she held it out for the doctor to see for a moment. "You see what just discussing it does to me?"
"You can deal with the panic and fight it off, though. That's why you were allowed to transfer here: if you still fell victim to it, you'd still be at Larned."
Lois sighed and leaned back on the couch, looking at Dr. Deter. "I've been doing my best to think positively about all this, and tell myself that I am neither crazy, nor weak, but when I see my hand shaking like that I just go back to them. I think that I'm not supposed to be that person, and it feels like it unravels everything positive."
"I hate to say it, because it's not the most helpful, but it's two steps forward, one step backwards. Progress is rarely quick, otherwise there would be a better name for it, like instant. You are moving forward, though, and that commendable."
"Commendable is great, but I want to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. Hell, the last time that I felt like I accomplished something was when I walked my other therapist at Larned through the attack without ending up curled into a ball."
"Success can be tricky. When you get something you want, it doesn't always feel like you've actually accomplished something. That's how it may be; success may come, and you may feel like you haven't made any strides towards your goals."
"You're not instilling me with a lot of warm fuzzies here, doc. Shouldn't accomplishments feel rewarding? I know that you consider me considering bringing my daughters in to see me an accomplishment, but it makes me jumpy! With everything that it entails..." Lois flexed her hands to keep them from starting shaking again. "Not feeling like I'm making progress just makes my stay here feel like it's ten times longer than it is."
"Before your breakdown, what did you define as a success?"
Lois thought for a moment before answering. "Professionally, it was seeing that somebody who'd escaped justice have to face the people he or she had wronged. It was exhilarating to investigate a story, but knowing that I was exposing the crimes of people who thought they were better than everybody else and could get away with it always filled me with a kind of pride. Not that they were wrong, but that I was making a difference.
"Personally... my daughters. I've never done anything better in my life than make those two girls with Clark. They're going to grow up to be amazing people. I don't know how much credit I can take for that, really, because Clark is... well, he's special, and I don't remember the first three years of Jordan's life. But I can already see in their personalities that they're going to be like me, and I'm not afraid to say that scares me a little."
"Why's that?"
"I'm a risk taker. The worst kind of risk taker, really, because I never think about what could happen before I do something. It's not that I don't look before I leap, it's that I don't even realize I've jumped until somebody tells me. By that point I'm already a hundred percent in, so I just keep going. I don't want that for my daughters. I prefer that they be safe, forever."
"As much as it pains every parent, you can't control everything your children do, especially once they're old enough to make bigger decisions."
"I know. Believe me, I'm the poster child for a parent not being able to control his daughter. Having been that, I do not trust Clark's genes and good influence, along with my warnings and probable badgering, to overwhelm their nose for mischief. I've already seen the rebelliousness in Jordan. Hell, she already likes to look out for her cousins, Aly and Liz, when they play together. She's going to be me, except she'll look like her father."
"How old are her cousins?"
"Five. They're nine months older than she is, but she's already got an inch or two on each of them."
"Do you think she learned this behavior from the way you've tried to look after your cousin?"
Lois shrugged. "It's entirely possible. She's always seems most attentive when I'm at my loudest, and I'm generally at my loudest when I'm trying to help." Lois paused a second before speaking again. "We seem to have strayed from our usual topic of me. Not that I mind, really, since I enjoy talking about my kids."
"How you view your daughter is another view on how you viewed yourself as a kid, but much less critical."
"I take it this is a good thing."
"Would you rather see something from one angle or as many angles as possible?"
"Right, right."
"Clark and I decided on a day when he would bring Jordan and Andy in to see me." She smiled when Dr. Deter looked surprised. She never got to be the one to do the surprising in these sessions.
"I'm glad to here that, Lois. When's the big day?"
"Saturday. I think that's the 24th if you need to write down a specific day in a file or something." She noticed him lean towards his desk and write something, figuring that the specific date was indeed something that he wanted to know.
"I think your visit needs to be supervised, Lois."
"Um, alright. Clark's going to be there for it, of course..."
"I was thinking more along the lines of myself, or another psychiatrist that works here if you prefer it."
Lois frowned. "If it has to be somebody, it would be you, but why?"
"A person doesn't always know how he or she will react in a given situation. When you see your children, it may very well be the best thing you feel has happened to you since your breakdown. But, you may see them and have an adverse reaction to it. You had a panic attack at Larned, and I would like to be with you leading up to the visit in case you become overly anxious. I'll also be there during your visit to observe, but I'll be out of your way."
"Doc, an anxiety attack isn't going to happen! It's my girls, for Christ sake!" Lois paused a second. "And even if it could, can't you give me some sort of anti-anxiety pill before the visit so that it's a lot less likely?"
"I could, but that might mask something that needs to be seen and dealt with before you're released. Better to fix your problems now rather than have something related to the attack pop up five years from now."
Lois leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs. "Will I ever be a hundred percent healthy? I know that I'm going to be in therapy at least twice a week once I get out of here, but can problems really pop up down the line, out of the blue and totally unexpected?"
"With the long term continuation of therapy, chances should be slim and none, but nobody in the mental health profession claims to know everything about the mind. We've made strides, but everything that happens in a persons thoughts, conscious and subconscious, may always be a mystery to us. We are still a very young field of medicine."
"That's disheartening," Lois grumbled.
"Like I said, better that we see and deal with things now. That's why your first visitation with your children, and others that are close to you, is observed. Sometimes second visitations are observed as well, and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, as the saying goes."
They sat in silence for a moment, and Lois swallowed, closing her eyes before she spoke. "Do you think something negative might happen when I see my girls?"
"So, the big reunion is tomorrow. How are you feeling?"
"Nervous. I know that to Jordan, this will probably be a vague memory, and Andy won't even remember it, but seeing them... All those issues I was telling you about, with the feeling weak and crazy? They've kinda come rushing back into my mind, no matter how positive I've tried to stay. To be honest, it's pretty damn annoying."
"But not unexpected."
"No. You told me that this may happen, that my feelings weren't going to be gone just because I wanted them to be, but I was hoping you were wrong. I like to be right, if you haven't noticed."
"I have."
"I want to see my daughters. I haven't wanted anything more since I was pregnant with Andy and past my due date, wanting her to be born. I haven't seen them going on two months now. It might be less painful to tear my own heart out, one little piece at a time, if I panic and can't make myself see them tomorrow. I love them, so much, but seeing them... it scares me.
"It scares the hell out of me that Jordan, with her photographic memory, will remember seeing her mom in a mental health facility. Then, when she's old enough to understand it, what if she thinks less of me? I know she won't, because I like to think we'll teach her better than that, but there's that little inkling in the back of my head that the part of her that's me could win out and she'll start thinking I was weak and crazy, because hey, that's how I think.
"Or what if she's fifteen and one of her friends brings it up? What if she's teased because her mom spent time in a place like Larned? Until I had kids, I never thought more than thirty seconds ahead. Now, I find myself thinking about how my actions, how my life will affect my kids five, ten and twenty years down the line."
"You share that trait with many people, Lois."
"I know. I try my best to be a good mom, and I like to think I'm succeeding, but suddenly my world is different! Instead of knowing that I'm going to lose my memory every few years, I now know that while that shouldn't happen anymore, I'm going to be a profoundly different person. Well, maybe not profoundly, but I'm not going to be who I was, and that means my approach to life is going to change. That makes me all kinds of uncomfortable, because I was very used to what I was.
"We've been over this, but strength is what I always had. Strength was easy, or at least it was for me. I never had to work at being strong, it's just what I was. Now, Jordan emulates me. I've told you how she's always most attentive when I'm at my loudest. When I'm loud, I'm trying to help, and that's when I'm being strong. I'm afraid that she'll emulate me being strong, and has inherited my penchant for skipping the understanding. How do I teach not only her, and eventually her sister, something that I'm not even sure I understand?"
"How are you feeling?"
Lois bit her lip and scratched her arm. She took a couple deep breaths and smiled at Dr. Deter. "Better than I thought I would be, actually."
"Ready to try again?"
"Yeah... yeah, I'm ready. Are they still here?"
"They're waiting in the front room."
Lois stood up and took another few deep breaths, calming herself down before starting to walk. She ran a hand through her hair as she passed the doctor and got out into the hallway, heading towards the front room. Everything was going to be alright. She was going to see her daughters. Everything was going to be alright because she was going to see her daughters. They would make everything alright. If she could just get to them without freaking out, everything would be alright!
Keeping her head down as she walked, she passed a bunch of feet on her way towards the front of the building. She could do this. It would be alright. She took a couple deep breaths, feeling her heart speed up. She could do this. It would be alright. God, how far was it to the front of the building? Why wasn't she there yet?
"Mommy?"
Lois froze, her heart jumping into her throat. She closed her eyes and did her best to catch her breath. Her heart was pounding as she opened her eyes again and looked up, spotting Jordan standing a few feet in front of her. "Jordan?"
"Mommy!"
Jordan ran and jumped, leaving Lois no choice but to catch her, wrapping her arms around her baby girl. When Jordan wrapped her arms around her neck, Lois felt her heart rate drop and for the first time since her breakdown, she felt relaxed. "Oh God, my baby girl... I've missed you so much, Jordan."
"Are you feeling better, mommy?"
"I am now. God, I am now. I love you, Jordan." They stood there for a minute and Lois felt the tears leaking down her cheeks, which she finally didn't mind. "Where's daddy and Andy?"
"We're behind you, Lo."
Lois turned around and smiled when she saw Clark holding Andy. She put Jordan down on the ground and pulled Andy into her arms as she reached for her. "My little Andy... I've missed you so much. I love you so much, little girl."
What had been scary just minutes before was suddenly as happy as Lois remembered being. Why hadn't she done this sooner? "I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've seen you two. I love you both more than you know. I promise, we'll never be apart so long again until you leave for college, or something like that."
"Mama!"
"I couldn't agree more, my little Andy."
"Are you coming home now, mommy?"
Lois ran a hand over Jordan's head, smiling down at her. "Soon, baby girl. I'll be home when I'm all better, and I think that will be soon."
