Lou brings Wayne to visit Vic in rehab.

Vic leaves a week later and is now sober for the first time in her adult life. She stays with her mother because she needs to make amends, the eighth step of the recovery process. At the end of the spring, Lou calls Vic to see if Wayne can spend the summer with her. They’ve been separated for three years but are still on good terms. During a stay in a psychiatric hospital, Vic accepted that her trips to the Shorter Way were delusions. She feels more stable now that she has been treated for her mental health. She rents a cottage for the summer and feels optimistic, but her mother dies that weekend. Wayne flies in to stay with her, along with Hooper, his Saint Bernard. As they drive, Vic thinks of the days ahead as, Vic McQueen Tries to be a Mother, Part II.

Vic remembers a girl that had sung a song about Christmas in the Denver psychiatric hospital. The song included a line about Vic and Santa’s Sleigh. Later that night, Wayne hears Vic whispering the words, and she realizes she had been the one yelling the lyrics in the hospital.