A/N: Hey! So a couple of you had some questions and I figured I would answer them up here. Quinn is a new character that was introduced in season 13 and he quickly became one of my favourites. He's (spoiler alert) Georgie's love interest in the show and the two of them are in the beginning stage of their relationship. Quinn fit really well into this story, so I thought I should add him in. I hope you guys liked this addition. And about Lou's health situation, I've expanded on it in this chapter - I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for :) It's true, the family is a bit of a mess but they love each other, and I think that Quinn's character will provide them all with another lens with which to look at their situation.

Thanks for reading!

A little while later, Georgie arrived at Lou's door. She knocked. "Mom? You in there?"

"Yeah, honey," Lou called out. "Just a minute."

Georgie heard Lou shuffle around a bit and eventually close a drawer. It must have been her nightstand, Georgie thought to herself. She waited a few moments for her mother to get the door.

When Lou arrived, she led Georgie into the room. "Hey, did you need something?"

Georgie walked in and closed the door, leaving it slightly ajar. "Yeah, I, um…I was hoping that Quinn could stay the night."

"Yeah, sure," said Lou, nodding warmly. She walked over to her window to crack it open a little. She moved the curtains to the side. "You don't even have to ask. He's always welcome. I'll bring some more blankets over to Amy's old room, make sure he's comfortable."

"Uh, actually…I was hoping he could stay in my room."

Lou stopped what she was doing. She turned, looking at her daughter tentatively. "Georgie, I don't…"

"We've been apart for ages. I had been waiting for the right time to call him over, and I just…there's so much I haven't told him."

"I'm not saying you guys can't talk, or anything. You can catch up."

"Wait, what's wrong with him staying in my room? I'll set up another mattress for him, don't worry."

Lou visibly relaxed. She was relieved, to say the least. "Oh. Okay."

"He wanted me to ask you first because he thought you might get upset if we just went ahead and decided without asking you."

Lou smiled a little. "He was worried about my reaction."

"Yeah, well, he holds you in pretty high regard. It's no surprise."

Lou sighed quietly, looking at her a moment. She didn't want to push her too much. "Okay, of course he can stay."

"Thank you." Georgie sighed with relief. She moved to sit on Lou's bed.

Lou walked over and took a seat beside Georgie.

Georgie waited. She had a feeling Lou was about to go on.

"So…we're very obviously not okay."

Georgie turned her gaze back to in front of her. "No, we're alright."

"You said some things today that I haven't been able to get out of my head."

"I was mad, so I said it. Meant nothing."

"I find a lot of the time that when people are angry, that's when the truth comes out."

Georgie exhaled. "What truth?"

"You think that I haven't been giving you as much time as I should be."

"I'm not a child anymore. I don't need anyone taking care of me."

"It took you eleven years…"

Georgie turned her head toward her mother.

"It took you so long to find this place, to find a life that you'd be happy with."

"It wasn't so much this place that I was looking for. It was you."

Lou smiled to herself. "Yeah, well, I don't want you to think that you need to begin looking for another place. I love you so much, Georgie, and I can't stand the thought that I might have a part in causing you any pain…"

"You're not. I'm just tired and angry. I'm directing my anger at you when I have no reason to."

"There is a reason."

Georgie sighed. She put her fingers to her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, there is. There's always something."

"Honey, please don't leave. Please."

Georgie's throat closed up momentarily. Lou's voice was breathy, almost wavering.

Lou waited for her to say something. She desperately wanted to hear that Georgie wasn't about to take off to God knows where. She needed her here. "You know, when I had that health scare, and before we knew what was really going on, I really thought that was it. I thought that it was over for me. I thought that…the only reason my heart was still beating was because of you."

Georgie's eyes seemed lost, her gaze was unfocused. When she heard the last thing her mother said, she clicked her tongue. "Let's not talk about that. Please, I just…I hate thinking about that time."

Quinn's words came back to Lou. I kept trying to ask her all these questions, and all she could do was cry.

"Do you really want to leave?"

Georgie paused a moment. She didn't want to say anything stupid. "No. I just can't stand seeing you so…I don't know. Sad, broken. And seeing you deal with all those—those symptoms. I can't tell if they're because of your antidepressants or because of—" she broke off, refusing to talk about the one thing that scared her most.

"You know I'm okay."

"I don't, actually. That's what's driving me insane. I don't have it in me to see you like this anymore."

"I'm feeling good. Dr Virani even cleared me yesterday."

Georgie looked at her mother, wide-eyed. "Really? Well—that's—that's great!"

Lou nodded. "Yeah, and this medication that I'm on, it's given me this sense of security. I feel like I have something to fall back on if I'm not able to stand up straight."

"You know, you don't have to go around hiding your meds from me. I'm glad you have them."

Lou smiled a little. "Alright."

"And forget what I said about packing my bags and leaving. Really."

Lou exhaled. "Okay, okay…"

"That's the last thing I want to do," she said, reaching out to tuck a strand of Lou's hair behind her ear. When Georgie's skin came into contact with her mother's, she froze.

Georgie placed a steady hand to Lou's cheek and then checked her forehead. "You're kind of warm."

Lou brought her hand up to hold onto Georgie's. "Honey," she said, trying to get Georgie to focus on her voice, "It's a side effect."

It took Georgie a couple of seconds to process what Lou had said. She finally exhaled audibly. "Oh, okay. Okay…" she quieted, laughing a little.

"It'll subside."

Georgie gazed earnestly at her mother for a little while, the look in her eyes full of adoration. She was unable to hold off any longer and she brought her arms around Lou, hugging her tight.

"What's this for?"

"Don't know," she mumbled, resting her face against Lou's hair.

"I love you," said Lou in a low voice.

"I love you, too." Georgie cradled Lou's head with her hand and planted kisses to her mother's hair.

When Georgie arrived upstairs to her room, Quinn was sitting up in her bed, leaning back against the pillows. He was resting his eyes. "Hey, you."

Quinn opened his eyes and when he looked at her, he smiled. "There you are. How's Lou doing?"

"She's alright. She said you can stay in my room tonight," said Georgie as she came to sit beside him.

"Oh, that's great."

"Yeah, I'll set up a mattress for you."

Quinn smiled. "Perfect."

Georgie sighed. "You know, today has just been one of those days…"

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, but then you arrived and it just…it almost felt like everything was okay again."

Quinn smiled brightly. "It felt that way for me, too."

Georgie exhaled as she placed her elbow on her knee and turned to look at him. "I don't know why, but for some reason…I still can't believe you're here. I mean, how did you get here so quickly? I don't even…I mean, we were on the phone pretty late last night."

Quinn looked at her, a smirk at his lips. "Yes, well…while we were still on the call, I was able to book my ticket and get started with packing my bags."

Georgie bit down on her lip, amused. "Oh, my God…"

"What?"

"You are something else, you know that?"

Quinn smiled. "Yeah, yeah."

"So did you get enough sleep before your flight?"

Quinn shrugged. "I couldn't really get to sleep after we said goodbye, to be honest."

Georgie hummed thoughtfully. "I guess that's on me."

Quinn turned to face her. He held her hand in his. "No, you know it's not like that. I just…it's hard to believe that Katie is gone."

Georgie inhaled sharply. "You know, I woke up yesterday…and I got this reminder on my phone. Katie and I…we were supposed to go to a concert together. I was going to introduce her to one of my favourite bands," she said, a distant look in her eye. "I never got to do that. Never will."

Quinn was listening quietly. He hoped Georgie would go on, say something more. Because he didn't know what to say this time.

"I'm so mad, you know, like…just so angry," said Georgie in a tight voice. "I'm mad all the time, and everything else just keeps getting so messed up, and I keep having to scramble, to…to try and fix it."

"But you can only do so much," he said, a gentle tone in his voice.

"Yeah. I just wish I had a grip on my temper. I keep saying the wrong thing to Mom, and to Mitch."

"They understand, you know. I'm sure they're not holding it against you."

"Yeah, but I feel awful. There's so much that I want to explain to them, but it's never the right time."

Quinn was quiet again.

"You know, I don't know if I told you this, but I ended up in the hospital a day or two after the accident."

He looked at her, rather agitated. When Lou had told him about her injuries, he had assumed that…well, he didn't know. He'd figured she had just been to the ER and that was it. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't know, you know. It slipped my mind, I guess," she said, laughing a little.

Quinn laughed sadly, horrified. "Georgie…"

"Yeah, they were minor injuries. It was mostly the cut on my head, which led to some bleeding and this awful concussion, but Jade got me there in time, you know, before anything got too serious."

Quinn tried his best to keep his face emotionless, but his distress over Georgie's situation got the best of him. He put his hand through his hair, quietly thinking. "Georgie…"

"I wanted you by my side so badly, believe me. But I didn't want to rip you away from your family. And the first few days after the accident I could barely do anything, let alone have enough sense to call you. I didn't even call Jade. And then my mom got sick."

"How long was Lou in the hospital for?"

Georgie shifted uneasily in her spot. "Just over a week."

"You must have been terrified."

"Yeah, I was. Terrified…and paralyzed. Enough to know that I never want to feel like that ever again. I'm relieved it's over, but anytime I hear any mention of Mom not feeling okay, it brings me back to all of that, and I just lose it."

Quinn nodded. "And rightfully so."

Georgie laughed a little. "Don't encourage me. I feel awful. The way I react sometimes, it's ridiculous. But I can't seem to control it either."

Quinn was quiet for a moment. "I know what you mean…it can get really hard to keep your emotions in check. Especially at a time like this. Just give yourself a break."

"You know, I haven't seen you in ages, and there's still so much I haven't told you…"

Quinn breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried that Georgie wouldn't open up to him. But that seemed not to be the case. She'd just been waiting for the opportune time. He nodded.

"We need to catch up."

Quinn was up pretty early the next day. It was about half past seven when he exited the shower. He walked out into the hall and was drying his hair with a towel when Mitch walked back into the house.

"Quinn, you're up."

The young man stood there, his brown locks tousled. He was shivering a little from the cold blast of air that came into the house when Mitch had come in. "Hey. Yeah, I figured there was no sense in lying around. I got a decent sleep last night."

Mitch nodded. "Good. That's good."

When Mitch didn't shift his gaze or say anything else, Quinn figured he should do the talking. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course. It's just…you were asleep in Georgie's room."

Quinn's lips parted a little. "I was asleep on the floor. We brought out an extra mattress." Standing in front of Mitch, he felt like a little kid who had gotten caught in a lie. He felt as if he had to continue covering for himself. "You can ask Georgie if you want to."

"Yeah, no, I'm sure you did."

"I don't understand. Did I do something wrong?"

Mitch's voice seemed to soften. "No, kid, you didn't. It's just…Georgie's father isn't around and I'm the next closest thing. I need to look out for her. She's been through so much in the past few weeks, and I don't want anything…or anyone to get in the way of her healing."

"That makes two of us. Mitch, I promise you…I'll look out for her. I only have her best interest at heart.

Mitch nodded again. "Look, I know you're a good kid, but it's just hard for a parent to let go. I try not to boss her around too much, but…" Mitch trailed off, laughing a little. "Well, anyways, I'm glad she has you. I know you two are good at looking after each other."

Quinn smiled. "Thank you." He paused a moment before going on. "Alright, how about I get started on breakfast? You guys can join as soon as you'd like."

Mitch moved closer, tapping Quinn's shoulder and continuing to walk past. "You do that, alright? I'll be in to help."

"Cool." Quinn answered a little awkwardly. This whole time he'd thought that he only had Peter, Jack and Tim to worry about. He was wrong, he mused to himself. He chuckled softly, shaking his head.

When Lou awoke that morning, she felt surprisingly lighter. She still constantly missed Katie, there was no doubt about that. There was a hole in her heart that would never be repaired. She would always miss her daughter. Always.

But today, she felt almost happy. Her and Georgie had finally had a conversation without it resulting in tears, and Lou felt like she had cleared a bunch of her worries. She had finally been able to tell Georgie she loved her, and her daughter finally seemed to listen. Lou just hoped that today would run smoothly. She couldn't go through another repeat of yesterday, or the day before for that matter.

Her and Quinn had spoken during dinner the previous night, and he had promised he would take Lou into town today. She wanted to get Georgie's refills on time because she knew her daughter wasn't about to go. Lou needed to do this one thing, partly to prove to herself that she could go out into town and get this done, and partly because she needed Georgie to know that she cared for her.

Lou loved Georgie more than words could say, but it seemed that fact was getting lost in translation these past few weeks. Lou said her thanks everyday for the fact that Georgie was still here and she needed to make that clear to her daughter. The thought of her leaving shook Lou to her core.

When Lou got herself ready and walked into the living room, she saw Mitch and Quinn were deep in conversation.

Her husband was seated with his back to her so he didn't react right away, but when Quinn saw Lou, he stood.

"Morning. How are you doing?"

Lou sighed contentedly. "I'm feeling good."

At the sound of her voice, Mitch turned, his eyes smiling. "Morning, babe."

"Morning."

Mitch stood as well, walking her over to the kitchen. "You look all dressed up."

"Am I not allowed?"

"Of course you are," he said as he helped her take a seat at the table. "It's just…are you headed somewhere?"

"Yeah, Quinn and I were going to head into town to run a couple of errands."

Mitch nodded. "I could've gone with you."

"No, I know how busy you are."

"Busy? I'm not—"

"Look, I know you took a lot of time off work these past couple of months. And I know you did it for me, but you really need to get back to work. You know, and I know, how Garland is."

Mitch sighed. "Well, I'm glad you're going with Quinn. Just be careful, alright? I know Dr Virani gave us the go-ahead, but I still want you to take it easy."

"I will."

Mitch put an arm around her shoulder and kissed her hair. "Oh, Head and Shoulders?"

Lou laughed a little. "Yeah. That's the one."

Mitch smiled, quite pleased with himself that he had made her laugh.

A little while after Lou and Quinn had gone, Georgie awoke. She grabbed her towel because she wanted to take a shower, and when she went down to the living room, she saw Mitch was seated in his chair. He was reading the paper.

"Mitch?"

"Hey, Georgie," he said, closing the paper and turning her attention to her.

"Where are Mom and Quinn?"

"Oh, they headed into town. Lou had some things she had to attend to, and Quinn was kind enough to give her a ride."

A smile formed in Georgie's eyes. "Oh."

"Yeah, neither of them wanted to wake you, so I figured I'd stick around for a bit. Let you know when you woke up."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Georgie started for the bathroom but she then remembered the previous day's events. She turned back. "Mitch."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about yesterday. I had something going on, and…I didn't mean to snap at you. I really am sorry."

"Kid, don't even mention it."

Georgie smiled sadly. "No, you were just trying to help, trying to be there for my mom…And I appreciate that a ton, believe me. And I get it. You couldn't lie to her."

Mitch exhaled. He seemed relieved. "I didn't mean to put you on the witness stand. I was just trying to put things into perspective for her."

"I know. It makes me wonder why it's so easy for me to lie. I don't…" she trailed off, stealing her gaze down to the side. "I don't like it. It makes me hate myself, but…I feel like I have to, you know?"

Mitch nodded. "Yeah, I know," he said in a low voice.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry. And that I'll—I'll try to cool it. Try to be more honest. I love you both," she said apologetically. "And I don't want to keep hurting you guys."

Mitch's eyes lit up as a smile made its way onto his face. "Yeah, I appreciate it."

Georgie smiled. "Alright, I'll see you in a bit."

Mitch folded the newspaper up and placed it beside him. He exhaled. He felt as if a weight had been lifted from his chest. Georgie had been so angry with him the day before, and he didn't know when to talk to her, or what to say.

It seemed she had sensed exactly what he needed. His eyes welled up, and he laughed to himself. He was a huge softie, and his stepdaughter saying "I love you" to him had most definitely made his day. Mitch desperately wanted to share the news with Lou, but his wife was of course out of the house. He couldn't wait to tell her.