Grace Under Fire

Grace has divorced her abusive husband and is faced with supporting their three children. In the premiere episode, she takes a job at an oil refinery and dates the local druggist. Quentin gets into fights at school.

Quentin's bad moods are puzzling to Grace. Perhaps he needs a male role model. Grace tells Russell that she is not ready to have a new relationship. These serious discussions take place up on the roof.

Grace and Nadine take a night out and flirt with some frat boys, while Russell and Wade try to steal Russell's dog which his ex-wife got as part of the property settlement.

Grace is angry when her paycheck is attached to pay the back taxes of her ex-husband; Russell's ex-wife upsets a date with Grace when she decides to return to him.

The 'nice' guy Grace meets, at the behest of Nadine to attend a 'second time around' meeting, turns out to be Nadine's first husband (of three, she married the second twice. Wade is #4).

Faith asks Grace to talk to Evie, their wild younger sister, but when the three get together, Grace refuses.

Grace and the kids are set to wait out the big storm and rising flood when her ex arrives.

Grace tries to smooth things over when a new female employee charges Bill with sexual discrimination.

Grace lets Quentin and Libby care for themselves while she goes to work. Her new boss makes it clear that he is only concerned with himself and his retirement.

Grace dates a minor-league ballplayer while Faith wants a major commitment from Russell who backs off.

Jimmy's new girl friend comes to Grace for advice and Grace gives her the bitter truth. Otherwise, Grace has problems with her credit card.

Nadine and Wade have a marital battle with Grace in the middle. Nadine catches Libby shoplifting.

To Grace's great shock, Nadine asks her to donate an egg so she and Wade can become parents.

Downsizing becomes a problem for Grace as she discovers that her job was not eliminated but usurped by her boss.

While her relationship with Ben is waning, Rick asks her out on a date.

Grace faces a problem as she starts a relationship with Rick before she terminates Ben.

Grace is tired of kids, so she puts on a wig and goes to a bar where she assumes another identity.

Grace demands that a day care center be provided at work when she can't find a suitable sitter.

After years of doing improvements on her rental house, Grace learns that her landlord is putting it on the market. Grace and Nadine attempt to discourage potential buyers, but the house is sold. When Libby's ""pet"" squirrel bites her, Wade, Russell and Floyd round up all the neighborhood squirrels so the culprit can be identified and tested for rabies. Libby is devastated to learn that the rabies test required killing the squirrel, and she tearfully ""runs away"" to the deserted, ramshackle house across the street. Grace follows her there to console her, and after seeing the inside of the house, decides to buy it and fix it up.

When Russell's ex-wife Barbara shows up with her current boy-toy in tow and says she's dragging Russell back to court to have her alimony payments raised, Russell thinks he's doomed, but Grace says they should investigate Barbara's finances and Russell should take a stand in the name of working women everywhere. At the hearing, Grace reveals that Barbara owns a condominium complex that she hadn't reported, and the judge orders her to return much of her alimony to Russell. Jean offers Grace a loan to fix up the house and, although she claims to have an extremely busy social life with her many friends, even suggests she could move in to help with expenses. Grace bluntly turns her down on both offers, but when Floyd pressures Russell to offer Grace a $5,000 loan for a new roof, Russell hesitantly complies and Grace takes him up on it. And Grace is touched when she learns that the friends Jean claims to be spending time with are really the names of characters in a book that Jean has been r

Russell asks Grace to be his date at the dance at the Victory Country Club where he's applying for membership; though Grace can't imagine why he'd want to associate with such a bunch of snobs, she agrees to attend the dance. Jimmy brings Quentin home after spending the summer with him in Ohio, and Quentin couldn't be angrier with Jimmy. When Grace learns that the reason for Quentin's anger is that he wanted to keep living with Jimmy, she talks to Jimmy who says he wants to be more of a father to the kids, so he's moving back to Victory. Wade goes to take the test to become a garbage collector and comes home with a job as a police officer. At the dance, Russell proves he's willing to go to any lengths to be come a country club member.

Dougie moves into Grace's garage apartment, and it soon becomes apparent that he's a forty-two year old man who still needs his mother. Grace comes up against a brick wall in her attempts to communicate with Quentin. Libby gets a present from the sailor she's writing to as part of a class project and confesses to Grace that she's never told him her age; Grace says Libby will have to stop the deception, but it's too late as sailor Bob arrives in the Kelly's driveway. Grace is determined to straighten everything out until she gets a look at Bob; she then says she's Libby and goes on a date with Bob to a Star Trek convention, but Libby resents that she's lost her new friend to Grace, and Grace finally tells Bob what's really going on.

Grace and Russell are so bored with their lives that they decide to go out on a pretend date. Grace and the guys at the refinery learn that they've been fired and rehired as independent contractors which means they'll get no benefits. The guys decide to stage a group protest on the decision; they don't get their benefits back, but they do get free coffee. On her pretend date, Grace meets Rob, a very attractive man who she thinks would be great for cheap, meaningless sex, and agrees to go out with him, but when he comes to pick her up she discovers he's far too intelligent to use as a sex object, so they just go for coffee. And Wade and Nadine go back to the lakeside cottage where they spent their honeymoon, but all they do is go fishing.

Grace finds some of Mrs. Walker's old dresses and tells Libby she can use one of them for a Halloween costume. Jean's chairlift suddenly stops working, and Wade agrees to have a look at the wiring in the house, but Libby says that Mrs. Walker's ghost, who she claims to have seen around the house, probably has something to do with the problem. Grace meets Tom at a Halloween party and then learns that he's Reverend Maxwell from Jean's church--the minister that Jean's always raving about. Tom Maxwell stops buy and asks Grace out on a date; she accepts and they have a terrific evening and a great conversation in which Grace encourages Tom to have the courage to pursue his dreams. Patrick tells Grace that there's a ghost outside, and an unbelieving Grace gives him a water pistol and tells him to squirt the ghost, but when she and Libby find a warm pie in the backyard and no one else is around, even Grace begins to wonder. When Reverend Maxwell turns in his resignation at the church, Jean ho

Grace arrives home very late from her job in St. Louis and finds the kids still up, the house in disarray, Jean asleep on the sofa and Libby cleaning the kitchen. The next day Grace gets an unexpected work assignment and Libby must cancel her plans to go to the bookstore with Grace. Later they all go to a construction site where a bridge is being built, to see the large tractors. At the site, they're approached by an African American man who Jean thinks is about to mug them, but he's D.C., the owner of the company that's building the bridge. They talk briefly, and when Patrick gets his arm caught in a piece of equipment, D.C. rescues him and gives Grace some grief about working out of town and not being around for her kids. On Sunday night, as Grace is preparing to leave for St. Louis, she realizes it's getting more and more difficult for her to leave her family. When everyone gets up in the morning, Grace is there cooking breakfast. She's quit her job.

Grace is in search of a job and Libby is worried that they're going to be poor again. Russell knows D.C. is looking for an assistant and suggests that he hire Grace, but D.C. says Grace talks too much and would give him attitude. He relents and offers Grace the job. She arrives at work and immediately begins making suggestions. D.C. says he'd like her to do what she was hired for and do it quietly. He's afraid she'll never be able to keep her mouth shut and thinks he'll probably have to fire her before the end of the day. But when D. C. realizes that Grace has saved the company several hundred dollars by effectively dealing with a stubborn delivery man, he says she can hang around for a while. Wade tells Grace that he and Nadine have been fighting over the phone since she's been at her mother's. Grace suggests that he put his feelings in writing, but he misunderstands and sends an angry letter to Nadine. And Grace introduces Wade to Dot, who tells him he needs a haircut.

Wade's back from Colorado and tells Grace that he and Nadine are splitting up. He also tells her he's heard that some kids were partying down by the quarry, and it's possible Quentin may have been there. Libby tells Grace that Quentin has a new girlfriend. When Grace questions Quentin, he volunteers nothing and accuses her of not trusting him. Grace tells Quentin she'll try to back off a bit, but he'll have to meet her halfway. He admits that he and his girlfriend Laurie stopped by the party, but they didn't drink and they're not having sex. Grace is greatly relieved until Russell accidentally reveals that Quentin's been in the pharmacy buying condoms. When Grace confronts Quentin, he's on the defensive and demands his privacy. She tells him she just wants to be there for him and give him the benefit of some life lessons she's learned.

Louise, Grace's mom, arrives for the holidays, surprising everyone. Louise has definite ideas about how little girls are to be brought up and she disapproves of Libby's tomboy behavior. Her mission is to turn Libby into a demure young lady, and she starts with a present to Libby of ballet slippers. Grace has no use for Louise's attempts to mold Libby into the lady that Grace never was. She likes the strong, independent Libby and doesn't want her to change. And Libby is feeling quite uncomfortable from all the pressure she's getting from her grandmother. Meanwhile, Russell is selling ""Photos With Santa"" at the pharmacy with Quentin doing the photography, but Russell's disappointed when Dot refuses to pose in a silly elf costume

Jean is upset, complaining that the new bridge will cut off Emmet's (grave) view of the river, so Grace suggests that she move the grave site. Jimmy and Quentin attempt to do that and Russell takes Dot to the gambling boat, but won't gamble.

Libby wants to go to Washington on a class trip, but Grace can't afford to send her. A tornado has hit Victory and there has been much destruction: the church steeple blew off, and an armored car from the casino took a direct hit and money flew all over town. After the storm, Quentin finds a cloth bag by the house with two-hundred-thousand-dollars in it. Everyone has an idea about how they could use the money, but Grace makes it clear that they'll be returning it. The casino management calls a press conference to thank the Kellys for returning the money, but when Grace hands over the bag, twenty-thousand -dollars is missing. Grace is interrogated for hours. She's afraid Jimmy took the money, and Wade makes her furious by hinting that maybe she took it herself. But when Grace finds the missing money in the cookie jar, Jean confesses she took the money to help the church rebuild. As Grace returns the rest of the money, she cleverly tells a TV reporter that the casino has offered to pay f