They parked a block or two away and walked down Oceanside towards Bob's Burgers, Louise could tell even from a distance away that the dining room area was dark she was instantly concerned considering they shouldn't have closed for a couple more hours. Her mind started racing as she started jogging down the sidewalk, the restaurant was locked up tight, so she ran upstairs to find Linda sitting on the couch and Bob nowhere in sight.
"Hey, you guys closed early, is everything okay? Where's dad?"
Linda gave a small grin at Louise's concern it had been such a rare thing for so long that, even with the horrible circumstances, it made her happy to know that Louise was capable of love.
"He's fine sweetie it's just that all the excitement wore him out, so I sent him up to bed. I was thinking we might open back up once you kids got here and then stay open late to make up the money."
Louise didn't say anything as she looked beside Linda and saw the account books for the restaurant next to her, she put her head down ashamed, she thought she had hidden them well enough but there they were. She had worked so hard to make sure they didn't know that she couldn't take care of the place. Why of all the times for her fool proof hiding spots to fail, did it have to be right then?
"Why didn't you tell me we were so bad off Louise? I could have helped."
Louise threw her head back and let out an exasperated sigh.
"Why would I tell you mom? Why would I tell you that I'm a failure at running the business and can't keep us up? I've tried so hard, but no matter what I do it just doesn't seem to ever be enough. I thought that I could do this on my own, but it's just been too much. I just keep failing. I ruined the dream."
Linda got up and gave Louise a tight hug.
"I don't want to hear anymore of that Miss Missy you are not a failure. Nobody could have prevented this; we'll just have to figure something out"
Louise felt a huge grin spread across her face Her mother had always been a lifeline, no matter how much she pushed her away she couldn't deny that she loved her. Linda had a habit of taking any bad situation and trying to spin it to make people feel better, Gene had inherited that from her. Lousie sat there staring at her mom, and for a second she felt overwhelmed at the shock she knew she was about to give her, but it felt nice knowing that for once she would be there to be able to make Linda feel better. For once, maybe she was going to be able to bring some of that light back to her mother, and she was almost giddy at the thought of how her parents would react when they saw Warren and heard his proposition.
"Actually, mom come with me, I've got surprise."
Linda's interest was piqued and so after checking on Bob to make sure he was fast asleep the two of them headed downstairs to find Tina and Logan chatting by the front door, Louise looked back and forth but didn't see Warren anywhere and started to panic. Tina and Logan both shrugged as she glanced at them, all of a sudden, they heard Bob scream from upstairs and they all took off running. As Louise reached the top of the stairs she glanced over and saw the window open at the fire escape, she started chuckling as Bob hobbled out of his room soaking wet and Warren stood behind him laughing with an empty glass in his hand.
