A/N: Kudos to missmarialewis for the Chris Jackson idea!

One night, Lin and Vanessa had a date night. I tried to convince them I didn't need a babysitter, but they weren't convinced. As far as babysitters, I got pretty lucky. It was Uncle Chris. He and dad had been friends forever, apparently. When he arrived around 6:00, I was feeling kind of down. Dad and Vanessa kissed me and the boys goodbye and they were out.

I sat down on the couch as Uncle Chris played on the floor with the boys. I just watched them silently for a while, resting my chin on my hand. I must have looked pretty pathetic, because after a while, Uncle Chris came over and sat next to me. He patted my back.

"What's up, kid?"

"Huh?" I asked, confused. I was snapped out of my thoughts. Thoughts of my mother, all alone. I should have asked if I could go be with her tonight instead of staying here. God, why didn't I think of that?

"You've been staring off into space for 15 minutes," he informed me. "You seem kind of sad."

I shrugged and picked at a bit of dirt on my shoe.

"Is everything okay with your mom?" He asked me.

"Not really," I said softly. He sighed.

"I'm sure that must be hard, especially when you're not around her all the time," he said in understanding. I nodded. Everyone said things like that, but no one could tell me the answer. How did I stop thinking about it all the time? How did I make my mom better? Why couldn't I figure it out?

"I miss her a lot," I admitted to him, knowing I was safe with Uncle Chris. He didn't judge me, and I knew I wouldn't offend him if I complained about my dad. He wouldn't tell my dad.

"Didn't your dad say you could go visit her any time?" He reminded me.

"Yeah, but it's not the same," I said. "I'm supposed to be here. I mean, I like Dad and Vanessa and the boys, but I want my mom too."

"That's a tough one," he said, nodding. "What about what's best for you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're always thinking about your mom," he pointed out. "You're trying to figure out how to help her, but that's not your responsibility. You're a kid."

"But I have to help her," I told him. "I'm the only person she has."

"You may be able to help her at times, but that's not a burden you should have to bear."

Cisco wandered up and passed Chris a block. He thanked him and then Cisco waddled back over to his brother.

"So, where do you think you do best? Your mom's house or your dad's house?"

"That's not a fair question," I told him.

"Why not?"

"Because you're asking me to pick between them."

"Forget about the fact they're your mom and dad for a minute," he said. "Where do you do best? Where are you happiest? Where do you get to be a kid?"

I had to admit, it was at dad's house. At his house, I got to let him be the parent and I got to be the kid. Dinner was always cooked, the laundry was always done, and I always had to do my homework. I didn't get woken up in the night by loud noises on my street.

"At dad's," I admitted softly.

"I know you've had a hard time since he got full custody of you," Uncle Chris went on. "But I think you being here is a good thing. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yeah," I admitted.

"Your dad wants what's best for you. So does your mom. She just can't provide you with it right now."

I sighed loudly, longly. "Why can't she get herself together?"

"I know she's trying. Drugs are powerful."

"She should love me more," I said softly. Uncle Chris put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a supportive squeeze.

"You know I'm here for you, right?" He reminded me. "If you need to talk to an adult that's not a parent, just call me up."

I nodded, smiling. I was lucky to have so many awesome adults in my life.

The next month or so passed slowly. The days seemed to run into each other. Every Wednesday after school I would take the subway to Queens to be with my mom. Every other Friday I went to mom's as well. It was strange having two places to live. I had two beds, two sets of clothes, two sets of everything. At mom's it was kind of lonely. Sometimes she had to work, so I was left on my own. It seemed so quiet without Sebastian and Francisco making all sorts of noise.

My mom seemed to be on a bit of a downhill spiral. Sometimes I could tell she was high or had been drinking when I showed up. I knew why she did it. She needed to numb the pain. She was 38 years old and she was working a minimum wage job, was unmarried, and had lost custody of her only child. I tried my best to keep her spirits up, but it was hard. A stream of different men stayed over, usually not the same one more than twice.

On Saturday morning, in the middle of the night I awoke to the sounds of my mom moaning in pain. I had spent most of the previous evening in my room because she had friends over and I was pretty sure they were all smoking pot out in the living room. After they'd left, mom had drunk herself into a stupor. I had helped her to bed.

The moans continued so I quietly extracted myself from my bed and made my way to mom's bedroom. She was sprawled out on the bed, a pile of puke in the bed beside her. I'd never seen her look so awful. Her face was pale, and she looked really out of it.

"Mom?" I asked, and she groaned in response. I took her hand and her skin was clammy and cold. I knew she was alive, but I held my fingers to her neck and my neck at the same time. Her pulse was really slow.

"Mom, I'm gonna call 911," I told her and went back to my room to find my cell phone. I called 911 and told the dispatcher that my mom was barely responsive and had been vomiting. The operator stayed on the phone with me until the ambulance arrived. They came into her room and started checking her vitals. They asked her how much she'd had to drink, and she'd said a lot.

They put her on a stretcher and wheeled her out to the ambulance. I'd heard some of the paramedics say it was probably alcohol poisoning. The cops showed up as well and they discovered I was there.

"Is your father around? Is there anyone you can stay with?" He asked me.

"Yeah. My dad lives in Washington Heights," I told him, in a bit of a daze. He asked for dad's number and I gave it to him. He called dad to say he was bringing me over. I packed up a couple things I had brought with me and hopped in the backseat of the cop car.

The cop tried to engage me in conversation, but I wasn't in the mood. When you found your mother close to blacking out from alcohol, it didn't really put you in a very chatty mood. I gave him one word answers, hoping he was take the hint. Finally, he did.

We pulled up to dad's apartment building in the dead of night and the cop walked me up. I walked in and dad immediately pulled me into a hug.

"Nora, I'm so sorry this happened," he said softly as he held me. I just nodded, feeling numb. I didn't cry. Dad thanked the cop and they closed the door. Dad let me go and I went to the sink to get a drink of water. I quickly gulped it down. I hadn't slept well last night so I climbed into bed and fell asleep quickly.

When I awoke a couple hours later, I quietly wandered out to the kitchen to get a drink. I could hear Lin and Vanessa quietly talking.

"I think she needs to go to rehab," I heard dad say. "Nora can be with us full time."

"Will she even be open to rehab though? And how would she pay for it?" Vanessa wondered.

"I'll help her if she needs it," dad said. "Nora deserves to have a functional mother. She can't go on like this."

I stepped into the room and they looked over at me. "Nora!" Dad greeted me. "How are you feeling?"

He got up and walked around the couch. I shrugged. How was I supposed to be feeling?

"The hospital called, and your mom is stable," he told me. "They had to pump her stomach. She had alcohol poisoning. They'll probably keep her a day or so for monitoring."

I nodded as I poured myself a glass of water. "Is she going to rehab?"

Dad looked back at his wife. "Vanessa and I were just talking about that," he said. "We think it would be a good idea, but your mom's gonna have to want to do it."

"I doubt she'll want to," I mumbled, knowing my mother. She never thought she needed help. She just thought she was having fun.

"Well, I'll talk to her when she's feeling a bit better," Dad said. "Are you hungry? We can go out and get some food."

I nodded, and Dad took me out by myself to a little diner down the street. It was actually breakfast time, so I ordered chocolate chip pancakes. I drenched them in syrup and dug in. I knew dad wanted to talk to me about what happened, so I just waited for him to bring it up.

"Nora, I'm sure it must have been scary to find your mom like you did this morning," he began, resting his chin in his hand. "Are you doing okay?"

I shrugged and shoved more pancake in my mouth.

"You did the right thing by calling 911," he said. "She could've gotten a lot worse if you hadn't."

"Can I go see her?" I asked.

"I don't think that would be such a good idea right now," he said gently. "We should probably wait until she gets back home."

I didn't argue, just nodded.

"Nora, has your mom been this way for a while?" he asked me.

"Like how?"

"Drinking to the point of passing out?"

"Not as bad as this, but she's drunk sometimes. And she smokes pot."

Dad sighed, leaning back in his eat. "I wish you'd told me it had gotten so bad."

I shrugged. I knew my dad wasn't a big fan of my mom right now and I didn't need to give him more excuses to judge her.

"Nora, I need to talk to you about something else," he continued, looking at his coffee mug. "I got a job offer for a TV show. It's in Wales."

"Like, in Great Britain?" I asked, and he nodded.

"It starts in about a month, and we'll be filming for a couple months. Vanessa and the boys are going to come live there with me during filming. I wanted to give you a choice whether to come with us or not. But, with your mom the way she is, I'm thinking you should probably come with us."

I bit my lip, processing what he'd just told me. He was moving across the ocean?

"Would I have to go to school there?"

"I think online school might be easiest," he said. "What do you think?"

"I guess," I agreed. "So...I wouldn't see my mom for, like, two months?"

"That's right," he told me reluctantly. "But it could be a good thing. It would give your mom a chance to focus on herself 100%. She could be in rehab during that time and get her life together."

"What if I decide I want to stay here?" I wondered, because I really wasn't sure if I wanted to leave my mom for that long.

Lin sighed and thought for a moment. "Well, you could stay with my parents," he said. "I don't think it would be a good idea to be with your mom full time."

I realized that. It would be a disaster. "Take some time to think about it," he told me. I think he realized I had some major hold-ups about this. Being thousands of miles away from my mother would be huge. We were kind of quiet the rest of the meal. Dad paid the bill and we walked back home.

That evening, the hospital called again to say that mom was being released. She'd arranged to have one of her friends stay with her. I wanted to talk to her, so I called her cell phone.

"Mom?" I asked.

"Hi baby," she said, sounding tired.

"Are you home yet?"

"Yes, I just arrived. Leslie is staying with me," she said. "I feel like shit. Pardon my French."

I was used to my mom cussing so it didn't phase me. "Mom, why are you drinking so much?"

She let out a tired sigh like she wasn't sure where to even begin. "Baby, I've got a lot going on right now. I'm sorry. I'm not being a very good mother."

"Dad wants me to go to Wales with him for a couple months while he's filming a show," I blurted out. I wasn't sure if dad had talked to her about it yet.

"What?" She asked. Obviously, dad hadn't brought it up yet.

"We'd be leaving in a few weeks," I said. "But I don't know if I want to go."

"It might be a good idea," she told me. "I'm not going to be much of a mother for the next couple months. I got enrolled in a detox program. Free since I'm below the poverty line."

"That's good," I said. "I don't know if I want to be away from you that long. I'll miss you too much."

"We can FaceTime," she pointed out.

"It's not the same," I said.

"I know," she admitted. "But I think you should go. Living in another country would be a good experience. You definitely won't get that opportunity with me."

I was a little upset that she was so quick to agree to the whole thing. Didn't she want me close by? Wouldn't she miss me? I almost wanted her to argue and insist that I stay nearby.

"Can I talk to your father?" She asked. We said goodbye and I walked out to the living room where dad was sitting on the couch.

"Mom wants to talk to you," I said, handing him my cell phone. I really wanted to eavesdrop, so I hung around, but dad walked back to his bedroom. He came out a few minutes later.

"I wanted to talk to your mom about Wales first," he told me. "It's kind of a big deal."

"Sorry," I told him.

"It's okay," he said. "She seems to be on board. How are you feeling about it?"

"Okay I guess," I told him.

"Are you sure?" He asked, studying my face. I looked away. Truthfully, I wasn't really sure. I just shrugged. I didn't seem to have much of a choice.