Lou and Peter were on their way back to the ranch. Peter drove, while Lou stared out the window. Her hand at her side, she was breathing in a way that limited her movement.

Peter looked over at her. "Lou?"

She didn't respond.

"The tests are gonna come back and it'll be fine. The doctors are just being cautious, it's what they do."

Lou refused to look at him. "And if they find something?"

"Then we'll deal with it, together."

"Can we please not tell the girls just yet?"

"Lou…"

"I just don't want to scare them. You just said it might not even be anything. So let's wait until the results come back."

Peter knew all she was doing was clinging to the optimism he had just moments before presented to her. "Yeah, you're right. No need to worry them over what could be nothing, right?" He said with a smile in his voice, prompting Lou to finally look at him.

She nodded.

Neither of them knew what else to say, and the rest of the drive home was quiet. Lou rolled the window down just an inch to fill the silence.

She let her eyes go unfocused, and the fields blurred together until they turned onto a familiar driveway.

Lou and Peter entered the kitchen, where Jack and Tim were waiting for them both.

Tim's eyes darted to Lou's side, where her hand rested. "Honey?"

Lou let her hand drop. "It's a broken rib. It'll heal."

Peter brought a hand up and scratched the bridge of his nose with his index finger. "Uh, yeah. But they, uh, they saw something. And ran some tests."

"What!?" Tim burst. "What tests?"

"Peter!" Lou smacked his shoulder with the back of her hand. "I thought we said…" Lou trailed off, realizing she'd only cautioned him from telling their daughters about this.

"Well?" Tim demanded. "What were the tests for?"

Peter turned to Lou, signalling to her it was now on her to delegate the news.

Lou sucked in her breath, her hand travelling up to her torso at the flickering pain. She fixated on the near-empty coffee pot and made herself aware of the pleasant whiff of coffee. "Um…when they did the, uh, scans, they saw something in…in my chest."

Silence followed. Lou took in Tim's expression, but was unable to see Jack's, who had half turned away from her and was directly facing Tim.

Tim had a grave look on his face. "Lou, honey…"

"You know, it's…it's probably nothing. They're being cautious, it's their job to be," Lou said, noting the change in her father's energy. "It's not a big deal, don't worry about it."

Lou couldn't stand to look at Tim anymore. She turned to Peter helplessly, because what else was she to say?

Peter met her eyes, bracing himself. He inhaled sharply. "But we can't tell the girls. Not until we know for sure."

"I can't worry them over nothing. Especially Georgie. She's so far away." Lou added.

There was a chorus of "yes, of course" and "you got it" as Lou attempted to remove her jacket.

"Where's Amy?" She asked once she'd hooked the item of clothing on the wall of the mud room.

Jack pointed her in the direction of the bedrooms.

"Thank you."

Lou walked over, her legs feeling like jelly.

Before she could knock on Amy's open door, her sister looked up. "Hey!" She immediately walked over. "How are you doing? Did they clear you?"

A sad smile made its way onto Lou's lips. She shook her head.

"What?" Amy deflated. "Something wrong?"

"I broke a rib."

"Oh," Amy said with a small laugh. "That's…that's fine, right? It'll heal."

"It will. But…they saw something on the scans and made me undergo some more tests."

Amy swallowed. "What? What did they see?"

Lou sighed. "We don't know yet. I'm sure it'll turn out to be nothing, but I had to tell you."

Lines formed between Amy's eyebrows. For some reason she wasn't piecing it together. "What tests did they make you do?"

"Amy, look at me." Lou silenced herself until Amy met her eyes.

Amy turned her head up.

Lou continued. "They don't know for sure that anything's wrong. They're just being cautious." Lou found herself echoing Peter again.

Amy didn't answer.

"You remember how it was with Dad? All that waiting and then it was all fine."

"Cancer?" Amy said loudly.

"We don't know yet if it's…cancer. All they saw was a shadow on the x-ray they did for my chest." A moment later, she added, "It's going to be fine, alright?"

With a shaky breath, Amy's strength seemed to seep out of her. Lou's reassurances did nothing for her. Maybe it was because of how much it sounded like Lou was trying to convince herself of the fact, or maybe it was because Amy knew that that's what people did—clung to hope until it was too late.

Amy wasn't sure if she could do this. She'd lost a lot—her grandmother, her mom, and Ty—but she wasn't sure if she could go through it again. Not with Lou. Not when it would mean doing it without the one person who was supposed to always be there.

"Okay," Amy said.

On the fourth day, to Lou's dismay but also to her relief, the results returned inconclusive. Peter drove her to the hospital, and back again, for another round of tests.

When they returned home, Peter turned to her, determined. "Look, we have to tell Katie what's going on. I know we don't know that much ourselves, but the walls of this house are thin. She already knows you had to go to the hospital today."

Lou went over to the sink and poured herself a glass of water, only to take a single sip and set the glass down again in the basin.

"I don't feel good about lying to her," he added after a few seconds.

"It's not a lie if we're protecting her, is it?" Lou tried.

"You really think she'll see it that way? Or Georgie, for that matter."

Lou huffed. "Why can't you let this go? This isn't a conversation I can have with either of them!"

"I can talk to her for you, if that's alright."

Lou gulped involuntarily. "Fine. You do that."

"Seriously?" Peter was surprised.

"Well, it's not like you're giving me a choice!" Lou turned to look at him. She exhaled, realizing that had sounded harsh. "Just…go talk to her. I need this over with."

Peter sighed. Suddenly, he was the one who needed convincing. How was he supposed to sit down and tell his daughter that her mother might be sick? She would have questions, and he wasn't sure he was going to have the answers.

Peter knocked on Katie's door.

"Come in." Katie's voice called out.

Peter placed a hand on the doorknob and pushed the door open. He stepped inside and let the door half close behind him. "Hey, honey."

Katie had been reading, a book placed on her crossed legs. She took in Peter's expression, and without thinking much of it, automatically closed the book and tucked it beside her.

Peter sank into the mattress. "So…you know how I had to take your mom in to the hospital after she had that fall?"

"Yeah. Is her rib healing okay?"

"It is. But, um…when we went in the other day, the doctors saw something, a shadow, on your mom's scans. So today, we had to go in to do some more tests."

Peter took a look at Katie. Her expression was disoriented, she was struggling with what to say next.

"Is she going to be okay?" Her voice came out small.

Peter paused. He didn't want to scare her, but he also knew he couldn't give her too much false hope. "We don't know yet. I hope she will be."

Katie was having a hard time understanding. She visibly inhaled, her lips parting. "Is this because of her fall? Is that what made the shadow…" she trailed off. No, that can't be right.

It was difficult watching Katie like this; she reminded Peter so much of Lou, the way she was twisting her fingers together, fixating on absolutely nothing to avoid looking at him.

"No, it wasn't because of the fall." He answered gently. "We're waiting now to see if…if it's something more serious."

Lou stood outside in the hall, where she could listen in, but still be far enough away where she could shelter herself, so that if Katie were to look in this direction, she wouldn't see her.

From inside the room, Lou heard Katie's voice pipe up. "Does Georgie know?"

Lou felt her heart twist at the mention of her eldest. She was all the way down in Florida, and hadn't a clue about anything that was going on with Lou.

Peter's voice was now hushed, and Lou had to crane her neck to listen. "Your mom doesn't want to distract her right now. Maybe once these next results come back, we'll fill her in."

After a while, Peter appeared in the hallway. He clicked the door shut behind him and stood there for a bit. He didn't notice Lou standing until he finally turned around.

Peter stopped in his tracks. "Lou." He said under his breath, surprised. He walked closer.

Lou nodded timidly, nodding her head in the direction of Katie's room. "Is she okay?"

"I don't know." He answered honestly. "She's processing."

Lou shook her head ever so slightly. "I need to talk to her, she's probably—" Lou broke off, starting for Katie's room.

Peter caught her in his arms, compelling her to look up at him. "Why don't you let her come to you?"

"You don't think she wants to see me right now?"

Katie's door opened and she stepped into the hallway. She didn't have to look up to know that both her parents stood just a few feet from her. But she did look, straight at Lou.

"Katie." Lou said her daughter's name because no other words would come to her.

A hand still at the doorknob, Katie stood with her eyes clear, her chin held high. "Nothing's gonna happen. You're going to be fine."

For a second, all her worries washed away and all she could focus on was Katie's confidence, the firmness of her words. Lou discerned that, just maybe, this would turn out to be nothing.

Lou held her hands out in front of her and gestured for Katie to come closer. Peter was transported back to when Katie was learning to take her very first steps, and how Lou would beckon her forward, watching her baby with awe.

Lou crossed over to Katie and enveloped her daughter, crushing her close, hard enough that the pain in her chest flared up. Lou closed her eyes, trying to overlook it. Lou rested her cheek atop her daughter's head and caressed Katie's hair, and her upper back.

A/N: So, this idea came about for a reason. And no, it's not because I like putting this family through hell, but because of Georgie's non-presence in season 15. This is my way of bringing her back home, so to speak. I miss her and Lou's relationship A LOT, and I was talking to nocontextheartland (on Instagram) and she gave me the idea to write a c*ncer fic, so please nobody attack me because...I'm actually excited to write this?!

Please do review if you can, it helps to know what clicks with you guys, and also fuels my motivation to write more. Thank you for reading!