"I think next year, even though we think shopping early is a good idea, we should refrain from clothes shopping until the kids have had their growth spurts," Austin sighed, tucking the shopping bags into the backseat. "I'm not a fan of returning everything."

"At least we're organized and everything is still tagged, right?"

"Yeah. But we need to stop for coffee before we go out and do this or I'm going to have a fit."

"Duly noted," Lindsay chuckled, starting the car.

"Where's Averylin today?"

"Adam has the day off. They're going to put stars on her ceiling like the boys have."

"I bet she's "most" excited."

"Oh yes. She's such a daddy's girl, they could spend the day cleaning the bathrooms and she would be thrilled."

"So are you going to just return the stuff and take the kids out later to replace it or are you getting them stuff today?"

Lindsay shrugged and turned the heater on while Austin buckled her seatbelt.

"Ben has requested new fancies, so I'm going to have to try and find him some."

"More fancies?" Austin giggled. "His entire closet is full of nice clothes."

"I know. He wants some more because he wants to take his girlfriend out for a date."

"Oh really? And what are they going to do?"

"I don't know. Adam is chaperoning but won't tell me a thing about it, which I think goes against the married code, but he won't listen to my arguments."

"I wonder if I can get it out of Daniel."

"If you do I'll love you forever."

"You already love me forever."

"Yeah, but this will be more."

"I'll see if he'll give."

Lindsay nodded and merged into traffic, heading to the first store on their list and glad that they'd done their initial shopping together.

"So how come you're not just passing Isa's too-small clothes off to Sarah?"

"Sarah would never wear the kind of clothes Isa wears. She's too finicky about fabrics."

"What?"

"Notice that she hardly ever wears jeans? Denim is scratchy. And she doesn't like button up shirts because they're too tight in the shoulders and she can't raise her arms."

"And Isa lives in jeans and wears nothing but flannel with band t-shirts lately. Gotcha."

"I totally underestimated how much they would all grow. Some of Daniel's pants are an inch too short."

"Colton's too. I told him to go try his clothes on and he came downstairs with them on and just looked at me while I laughed."

"Isa turned her nose up at the N'Sync shirt I found. I thought it was funny, she said "Ma, they're old and vintage but they ain't Cobain." Then she went in her room and blasted "Heart Shaped Box" for an hour."

Lindsay smiled; those three sentences described Isabeth Messer to a T.

"How's she doing? Daniel asked me the other day if she would ever get back to normal."

Austin shrugged and looked out the window.

"I think it changed her, Linds. This whole thing… she saw that no one is invincible. She's been sleeping in our room a lot. She tries to play it cool but she has a hard time leaving me. I get it, I do. But I don't know if it's getting any better. I don't want her to be afraid her entire life."

"She won't be. Time helps."

"That's all it took for Colton?"

"No. But they're two different kids in two different situations in two different stages of life. You can't assume that they'll deal with things the same way."

"What would you do?"

"I can't tell you that, Austin. As much as I love Isa, I'm not her mother. I don't know what's best for her the way you do."

"You know how to grieve. I don't."

Lindsay sighed and tapped her hand against the steering wheel, loathe to say what she really thought because she had no interest in arguing with her best friend today.

"Have you and Danny talked about it?"

"A little. He thinks it's a normal reaction and I agree with that to a point, but it's changing who she is. Her sass is gone. And while I've always hoped she'd grow out of it, I didn't want her to lose that fire too."

"I'll tell you what I think but you can't get mad, okay?"

"Alright."

"I think it would be… beneficial if you maybe talked to a counselor."

"No, we don't need that."

"Okay."

"I mean, yeah, she's having a hard time coping but there's nothing mentally wrong with her."

"Mm-hmm," Lindsay offered, lips in a thin line. Most of her knew that Austin didn't mean it that way, but it was hard to hear it differently.

"She's just dealing with something now but it'll get better. Maybe it's just because she's growing up too and everything happened at once."

"Yeah, you're right."

Her words were clipped and she kept her eyes on the road, wishing Austin would just change the subject.

"Do you think this is going to mess her up?"

"Nothing is wrong with her, you just said it yourself. I wouldn't worry about it."

She didn't mean for it to be so snippy, and Austin glanced over at her, wondering where the hostility had come from.

"Okay, what?"

"What? Nothing."

"Linds."

"What? I said you're right."

"You're mad."

"Just leave it, okay?"

"Lindsay, what's the deal?"

"You think there's something mentally wrong with me? With Colton?"

Too late, Austin realized what she'd said, and thumped her fist down on the seat.

"You know I didn't mean it like that."

"You said it."

"Lin, you know I don't think that. I just don't think that this is as big as what you and Colton have both been through."

"It feels that big for Isa."

Austin sighed and leaned back against the seat, wishing her brain to mouth filter hadn't gone faulty all those years ago. She didn't mean that at all and didn't think it either but Lindsay was never going to just let it go.

"You and Danny and Isa need to figure it out together. Whatever you decide is going to be what's right. And if counseling isn't right, then it's not right."

"You're mad."

"I'm not mad. I just didn't know you thought that way is all."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with you, Linds. I think you went to counseling to prevent things from going wrong."

"Okay."

"Lin?"

"We're fine. I'm just sensitive or something today."

"Do you wanna talk about-"

"No, let's just change the subject."

"Okay. Let's see, did I tell you about Flack's thinning hair?"

"I noticed it the other day, but I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. Do you think he knows?"

"I'm not sure. I keep trying to carefully bring it up in conversation but he either isn't getting the hint or he knows and he's avoiding the mocking."

"Poor guy. He takes so much from you."

"He does. Maybe I should just let this one slide."

"Might be a good idea."

"What's been going on with you lately, Linds? You seem tired."

"Nothing, just keeping up with the kids. And Adam."

"What did he do now?"

"Last night I fell asleep on the couch and he usually wakes me up and sends me to bed. I'm woken up by him shaking my foot and calling my name so I'm wondering what in the world is going on."

"It was nothing, I'm guessing," Austin chuckled, knowing that Adam tended to start out frantic then mellow with time.

"He wanted me to make him a cake. It was ten at night and he's standing there asking me if I could make him a cake. I said no and he goes "Well what about a pie? I saw that crust in there. And there's Cool Whip!" I told him it was too late and he starts begging me for chocolate crème pie and telling me there's pudding in the cupboard."

"You didn't get up and make it did you?"

"No. I went to bed, but I ended up making it this morning. I let him lick the whisk and he said I was the best wife ever, then pouted when I told him it would be four hours before he could have any pie."

"Bet you money between him and Avery, it's already gone."

"No, they'll leave just enough for me that when I eat it, the dish will become my responsibility to wash."

"The life of a wife."

"It's a hard-knock one at times, that's for sure."

"Hey-o, Ma and Aunt Lin are both pickin' us up today!" Junior shouted, jumping off the last step off the bus. "Afternoon, ladies."

"What a dashing smile you've got, young man," Lindsay chuckled, wanting to cover his cheeks in kisses but refraining because other kids could see out the bus window.

"Yeah, it's a Messer thing. Maybe a Ross thing too because Ben's got it."

"I got what?" Ben asked, joining his best friend on the curb.

"A dashing smile."

"Oh yeah, I do got that. I got that good."

"How was your trip to the Planetarium?" Austin asked, reaching down to take Junior's hand while Sarah clambered off the bus and joined them.

"It was great, ma! Ben made the whole class crack up."

"You did?" Lindsay asked warily, knowing the verbal antics her middle child could get up to.

"Yep, I did. We were layin' in this dark room looking at a fake sky and I said "That there's the Milky Way!" and suddenly a big voice boomed out "The Milky Way." And everyone laughed a lot."

"It was hilarious," Junior chuckled. "I keep laughing when I think about it."

"So do I. Where's sissy?"

"She's at home with daddy."

"Oh. Me and Junior want to tell her about the Planetarium."

"You can tell her when we get home."

"Ma!" Isa screeched, jumping off of the bus and running across the sidewalk. "I thought just Indy was picking us up today."

"Surprise. We went out and exchanged all your clothes today. Thought we'd let you kids have a fashion show."

"I bet Averylin is already dressed up," Sarah giggled. "And not matching."

"You'd be correct."

"Let's go home, gang! Cole! Get off the bus and quit flirtin' with that girl!"

Colton's face colored as he finally hopped off the bus, ignoring the laughter and hooting from the other kids, walking ahead of them all, slightly angry at his brother for embarrassing him.

"Ma, are you really makin' us kids have a fashion show?" Isa asked, adjusting her backpack.

"Nah, we just thought it would be fun, but you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Maybe the other kids can. I'll just sit with you."

Lindsay and Austin exchanged glances that the kids couldn't see, both of them thinking the same thing.

"You never know, it might be fun."

"We'll see. Do you feel okay today, ma?"

"Of course."

"Your scar is okay?"

"It's just fine, Isabeth."

"But-"

Austin crouched down and took her daughter's face in her hands, wanting to be clear about what she was going to say.

"Baby, I'm alright. I'm all healed up now, okay?"

"Ma, I know that."

"You don't seem like you know that."

Isa sighed and shook her head, taking Austin's hand and pulling her down the sidewalk.

"Let's just go."

"I think we need to talk about this."

"Why? I know you're okay, ma. Let's go. Indy always has the best after-school snacks."

Austin sighed and followed her daughter, putting the conversation on the back burner for now, but wondering if Lindsay had been right. She had nothing against counseling, had gone herself and found a lot of help in it, but she just couldn't fathom her little girl needing it, at least not yet.

"Averylin Grace, I don't care how dramatic your story is, you don't step on the table."

"But mama!"

"Butt in seat."

Avery sighed and sat down, arms crossed over her chest.

"Well it was a good story, 'til mama ruined it."

"Sissy, I think you just need to work on your delivery. Be aware of your audience. I learned that off the video daddy got me, 'bout being a standing up comedy person. I will show it to you later."

"Thanks Ben."

The chatter around the table resumed and Avery only pouted a little bit longer before joining in, happily describing the chocolate crème pie that she and Adam had shared right out of the dish.

"Are you kids done eating yet?" Junior asked finally. "Let's go play!"

The kids all started to get up from the table but were stopped with a shout of "Hey! Plates!" from Austin. Groaning, they cleared their places, dishes clattering into the sink before running upstairs.

"They sound like stampeding wildebeests."

"Mufasa better watch out."

"Well I'm glad they're gone," Lindsay started, pushing her plate away. "We have something to tell you guys."

"Now?" Adam asked, surprised.

"Might as well."

Confused, Austin and Danny helped to clear the rest of the table and in a few minutes the dishwasher was loaded and they were sitting in the other room with cups of coffee.

"Okay, you two gonna give us some bad news?"

"No, it's not bad."

"I'm not convinced," Austin sighed. "Let's have it."