Oh, Mere, this was fabulous! <g> The angst was well-done; it was very realistic that Lois would need some time to sort things through, and be angry about some of them! But I'm glad she didn't let that overcome everything else. Their eventual reconciliation was very very sweet.
Thank goodness, self got watered in time!
And this bit:
if that tuneless, off-key humming didn't stop soon, self wouldn't be accountable for self's actions...
Poor plant! You've got a great way with writing, ahem, unusual characters <g> I'll never look at ficuses (ficii?) the same way again!
PJ