The Final Chapters: Book 4: Love, Lies and Levi

Chapter 3: Love?

*Present Time*

You walked in after Kuchel as she ran from the bathroom to her room in just her towel. You walked in, and giggled out as she tripped over her own towel, falling face first, but then immediately got up and began to run around again.

It was rare to see Kuchel cry from falling over or, hurting herself, you were honestly worried for a while that she didn't feel pain until the time she broke her leg when she tried to mimic you and Levi that one time and fell.

"Go get changed." You stated, grabbing the hair brush from her night table and you heard her make a struggling noise to open the bottom drawer to get her night gown.

"I can't do it." She groaned, but then popped it open. "Oh, nevermind!" You snickered and she pulled it out and pushed it closed with her bum, and ran to you.

"Thank you." You said, grabbing the nightgown and throwing it over her head and she dropped the towel from her body. You picked her up and put her on your lap as you began to brush out her hair a bit.

"Can you braid it?" She asked.

"Of course." You smiled and you began to part her hair.

"Is daddy coming home tonight?" You paused in your movements and gulped down.

"He should be." You said, and continued.

"I mean before I go to sleep?" She looked up at you now, with those steel puppy dog eyes, and you shook your head.

"I don't think so." She had a heartbreaking look on her face and she turned around, letting you finish the braid, and she didn't say anything else as you continued. "All done." You said softly and you picked her up from off of your lap and laid her down on her bed.

"Can you lie with me for a bit?" She asked, holding onto your arm.

"Of course." You pushed the sheets down a bit as you snuck in, turning the light off from her lamp on the nightstand. You threw your arm over her and she cuddled into your chest as you stroked her loose hairs.

"Mommy?"

"Hm?" you looked down at her, and she wasn't looking at you, just straight ahead. "Does daddy not love me?"

"No baby, he does love you." You reassured her. But it broke your heart that she would even ask that...

"Then why does he never come home to see me." She looked up at you now, tears falling from the corners of her eyes and you almost broke at the sight of her. "You always say he kisses me goodnight, every night." She choked up a bit, her breathing growing unsteady. "B-but, I force myself to stay up as late as I can and never once have I seen him in the past couple of months." She was practically fighting for her breath now, and you sat her up right, rubbing her back as she started to wheeze.

"Deep breaths, Kuchel, okay, follow how mommy breathes." You held her up and took a deep breath in and she followed, but struggled a bit. You did this with her a couple more times before she finally was breathing normally again.

Only recently did you notice Kuchel started to have breathing problems, she could be running around like it's nothing, but then she would practically stop breathing. You brought it up to Levi once, but he was too tired to acknowledge it and he just suggested to take her to a doctor, but the doctor was basically just as useless as Levi since his solution was to just tell her to take it easy.

You laid back down with her in the same position as before. "I promise daddy loves you, it's just... his job is very hard, Kuchel. He saved countless lives before and he's continuing to do so. But daddy made a promise to someone, someone very special to him and me and he hasn't fulfilled that promise yet, and he won't be able to rest properly until he lives up to that promise." You brushed her stray hairs. "He loves you." You said again, not wanting her to think like that ever again. "Now go to sleep." You kissed her forehead.