Hunter had not slept all night long and had spent it reading and re-reading every single one of the letters and hadn't even packed for the shows yet. It was barely seven in the morning and he knew that he shouldn't do what he was thinking of doing incase she was still sleeping but he just couldn't wait. Picking up the letters and his car keys he headed out of the house to go to visit her.

Linda had arrived home from working on her campaign Friday night to spend the two hours before she went to bed listening to her husband go on and on and on about wanting to know how Stephanie's meetings had gone all day. Setting her alarm clock for an hour earlier than it needed to be on Saturday morning she was going to go and visit her daughter so she could tell her husband that things had gone well and she could have an easy life again.

Getting dressed she didn't bother leaving her husband a note to tell him that she was leaving early because she wanted a quiet life. Making her way over to her daughter's she was a little surprised to see the house still all in darkness at half past seven in the morning as normally she was up if Mikey wasn't. Climbing out of the car she walked to the front door knocking on it gently to see if she was awake.

Laying in bed Stephanie was still curled up against her pillow staring at the wall in front of her when she was sure she heard a car in the driveway. The stillness of the house allowed her to hear everything and when her Mom knocked on the door she definitely heard it. Sighing heavily she threw the covers off of her body and reluctantly padded down the stairs to see who was bothering her today. Swinging the door open she groaned when she saw her Mom and immediately attempted to close it again not wanting to deal with that or her today.

Linda was shocked when she saw her daughter's appearance when she opened the door and she was even more surprised when she attempted to close the door on her so she quickly put her hand against the door to stop her.

Not having the energy or being in the mood to fight with her Mom over this Stephanie let go of the door allowing her to push it open again, "what?!"

Concerned for her daughter's health and well-being Linda stepped inside the house slightly, "did you work all night?"

Shaking her head Stephanie shrugged, "no, I went to bed."

"Then why are you still dressed in whatever you clearly went to the office in yesterday and why do you look like you had no sleep? If you also throw in the fact that you look like you've been crying excuse me if as a Mother I am concerned."

"Because I didn't feel like getting changed last night bad because I didn't have much sleep because my life is falling apart. Anything else you want to know to report back to Dad over?"

The person stood in front of her right now was not her daughter and Linda was greatly concerned by what was going on. Stepping further into the house she shut the front door before she turned back to her daughter and ushered her towards the kitchen, "we are going to go into the kitchen and I am going to make you a strong coffee and you can tell me exactly what is going on."

Her Mom's tone was the one she had used so many times with Mikey that said 'don't argue with me' without actually saying those words so she didn't but it did help that she was too tired to anyway. Allowing her Mom to lead her to the kitchen she took a seat at the island and waited for the questions to start.

Watching her daughter's demeanour as she waited for the kettle to boil concerned Linda greatly, she hadn't seen her daughter look this depressed in a long time, if she had to put a time frame on the last time she saw her looking like this it would be when she split up with Hunter. Suddenly it all made sense to her, something had happened with Hunter.

Making a really strong cup of coffee she took it over to the island and placed it in front of her daughter before she took a seat next to her, "start talking. What happened yesterday?"

Wrapping her hands around the cup Stephanie lifted it to her face inhaling the smell of the coffee in the hopes that it would give her a boost whilst she waited for it to cool down, "nothing much."

"Yeah okay, I don't believe it so don't pull that shit with me this morning. Did something happen with all of the meetings you had at the office?"

Shaking her head she wished, that would have been easier to fix than her heart, "no. I told Hunter the truth about Mikey and now he hates me."

Confused Linda wasn't even sure how she had seen Hunter because Stephanie had told her that they weren't going to go on a date this week because things were so busy, "okay clearly I missed something this week so do you care to fill me in please?"

Shrugging her shoulders Stephanie sighed, "not really but I'm guessing I don't have an option in this."

"That would be correct so start talking as I have to leave soon."

Taking a small sip of the steaming hot liquid she really didn't want to have to relive the day, "Mikey's babysitter had a family emergency so he was left at the offices to be looked after by my Secretary and then Hunter turned up with some lunch for me and ended up offering to watch Mikey for the afternoon so I stupidly agreed. When I got home from work he had cooked dinner for Mikey and left some in the cooker for me and then did the dishes whilst I put Mikey to bed."

As Stephanie took a break to have another sip of her coffee Linda's mind wandered and she tried to figure out what the hell happened for things to go so badly after he had been so good to her and Mikey all day, "and?"

"I came back downstairs from putting Mikey to bed and cuddled to him and I blurted out that I loved him, I didn't mean to and it was a stupid thing to do but it just came out. He said he loved me back and then I realised he needed to know the truth if we were going to be together so I gave him all of the letters I wrote since we broke up."

Putting her hands over her daughter's hands as they rested on the island she squeezed them gently, "you don't know that he hates you, not yet anyway. You never know how he will react when he reads those letters and you really shouldn't beat yourself up over it."

Moving her hands from beneath her Mom's Stephanie drank half of her cup of coffee, "it's hard not to. I fucked my relationship up with him once and apparently because I couldn't keep my big mouth shut I have fucked it up a second time because I am just that amazing. If I had just kept my mouth shut and not told him the truth then I could have been happy, we could have been happy."

"You do realise that he would have found out eventually right? It's better to be honest now and he won't resent you because you told him so early on." Linda didn't want to tell Stephanie what she knew that Hunter had said he would treat Mikey like he was his son no matter what so she had a small glimmer of hope that he would be okay with it after a few days.

Their conversation was interrupted by Mikey appearing in the doorway, "Gramma!"

Linda smiled and slipped off her stool and hugged her Grandson as he ran to her, "good morning handsome. Did you sleep well?"

Nodding his head he lifted his hands for her to lift him up, "yups. I hungry."

Stephanie sighed and quickly downed the rest of her coffee before she stood up, "I will get on with breakfast for you."

Linda turned to her daughter balancing Mikey on her hip, "why don't you go and have a nice hot shower and I will take care of Mikey and get him some breakfast before I have to leave."

Raising her eyebrow Stephanie wasn't sure, "I don't know Mom, you've got to go to work, I can't expect you to stick around to help."

Shrugging her shoulders Linda placed Mikey onto her stool, "I have time. Just go, make the most of the time you've got right now as you have all day to deal with."

Mikey pointed to the door, "go Mommy, Grammy gots it."

She couldn't help but laugh at her son and ruffled his hair, "okay Mommy's gone. Be good for Grandma."

Linda watched Stephanie walked out of the kitchen before she turned back to her Grandson, "okay so what can we get you for breakfast?"

Just as she placed the plate in front of Mikey Linda heard the doorbell ring, confused by who the hell would be visiting at such a ridiculous hour of the morning she shook her head, "you stay here and eat your breakfast and I will be back in a minute."

Walking to the front door she pulled it open and was surprised to see Hunter stood on the other side, "Hunter."

Confused as to why Linda was answering the door Hunter raised his eyebrow, "umm hi, I actually came to talk to Stephanie."

Feeling concern for her daughter she wasn't sure if she should let him in, "I don't know Hunter, I don't know that I should let you talk to her."

Hearing Linda say that she wasn't sure she should let him talk to her concerned her, "is she that bad? I knew she wasn't great when I left last night but I had hoped she would get better."

Knowing that he had picked up on her behaviour made her a little happier to let him talk to her, "yes, she didn't sleep last night. Why are you here?"

Holding the letters up he kind of waved them in the air, "I need to talk to her about these, I can't wait until Monday or later."

"Can I ask if it is going to involve shouting?"

Shaking his head he wasn't going to talk it over with her Mom, he had to do it face to face with his girlfriend, "it will not involve shouting but I don't want to talk to you about it, I need Stephanie to hear this directly from me, I need to have the discussion with her."

Reluctantly Linda stepped away from the door, "she's in the Master bedroom. Take the stairs and then it's the third door on the right."

Nodding his head he was grateful to her for letting him in, "thank you Linda, thank you."

As he walked past Linda he gave her a kiss on the cheek before he took the stairs two at a time.

Watching him practically running up the stairs Linda took a deep breath before she made her way back into the kitchen anxious incase things went horribly wrong with Hunter and Stephanie, she hoped it didn't but she had to prepare for the worst.