Nothing To Fear

19. Telling Them

Later in the day, Stella had come up to Stevie's bedroom. She would go there a lot just to snuggled with Stevie in the morning.

"Hey you?" Stevie whispered.

"Hi," Stella whispered with a smile. She was happy to see her daddy sleeping in the bed. She loved to cuddle with him also, but their time had been slim since he was at their house taking care of Kristen and Stella and her siblings were being taken care of by Stevie at her home. She stepped on the step stool by Stevie's bed and crawled on.

Stevie held a smile as the child aboarded. She held her free hand out so, she could sit on the other side of her.

"Is daddy sick?" Stella whispered to Stevie.

"No sweetheart, he's just tired and not feeling well. But he's not sick," she told her.

"Oh," she then crawled over her governess and wiggled her way into her dad's arms.

Lindsey kind of flinched, but then smiled. "Hi princess," he put his arm around his youngest daughter and shut his eyes once again.

"Hi daddy," she held a cheeky smile. "Are you okay?" she asked. She could sense something wrong, but she wasn't sure.

Lindsey kept his eyes shut as he thought about what to say. He didn't want to lie and tell his kids he was okay because, he wasn't. He wasn't okay, but he had to play the part for a while. "I'm just tired, baby. I woke up very early and I had to rest my eyes a little longer."

Stella had been looking at her father's eyes and noticed underneath they were red. That's why she had asked Stevie if he was sick. She was worried about her daddy and she could tell the atmosphere of the room was different. Being so little, she  couldn't understand what it was.

"I'm gonna check on your brother and sister," Stevie whispered to Stella before slipping out of bed.

The young girl nodded and shut her eyes to try and go back to sleep. She was awake for the morning, but she wanted to snuggle.

Stevie made her way down the stairs to check on the other kids. She could clearly see Stella was in good hands for the few minutes. When she reached the bottom, Leelee was just waking up and William was lounging with his game glued to his hand. "Hi, are you guys okay? are you hungry or anything?"

"I could go for some breakfast," William sat up.

Stevie kind of chuckled.

Leelee nodded in response.

"Alright, sounds good. I'll make you something right now," she disappeared into the kitchen and looked through the pantries. She had more food in the house these days since the kids were staying and they were young. They liked to snack. She had ended up throwing together some pancake batter and making blueberry pancakes for them. It was easy and she was honestly hoping Lindsey would eat too. If he didn't, then surely his kids would know something was wrong.

"Leelee? honey, would you mind getting your sister upstairs, please?" Stevie asked after a while. She had set their plates at the table for them to eat.

Leelee nodded and ran up the stairs to do as asked. She went to Stevie's room and pushed open the door. She was a little shocked, but excited to see her dad in the bed as well. "Stella!" she whispered harshly from the doorway. She was trying not to wake her daddy.

Stella turned her head abruptly and looked at her sister.

Leelee was motioning for her to come downstairs.

"Why?" she asked. She wasn't going to leave unless she had to.

Meanwhile, Lindsey was opening his eyes unbeknownst to them and he was listening intently. He thought their talking to each other was adorable. It was funny most of the time to hear them communicate.