A Father's Love

Chapter 14

 Shelby woke thirty minutes before Luke's alarm clock went off, whimpering and crying in her sleep. Luke quickly got out of bed and hurried over to wake her.

"Shell, Shell. Hey, it's okay, kiddo," he told her, softly. Luke sat on the bed, touching a hand to her stomach. "Hey, hey, hey. Kiddo, wake up." It took a few tries before she bolted awake, her face soaked with tears. He moved his head to look at her, directly. "You okay?"

Shelby panted at nothing. She glanced up at her dad. When he tried to reach out for her shoulder, Shelby flinched away from his touch.

Luke took his hand, back. He still wasn't sure why Shelby was keeping her distance from him when Luke had been honest from the start about the possibility of her mom leaving. Why was she giving him the cold shoulder?

Unless...

Luke was wondering how much Shelby heard from that night, between them, and understood at that. It wasn't like he didn't try to talk about it with her, but Shelby would not give him the time of day.

He leaned a hand on the bed beside him. "I wish you talk to me, kiddo. I know your mom leaving is hard on ya. Let me in. I'm still here and your mom said she'd call and check in as soon as she can."

Shelby had grabbed onto Pikachu, clutching the toy to her chest as she stared at the bed in front of her. Luke saw her head move, left and right.

"No, what?" he asked, as gentle and patient as he could be.

She bit down on her lip, sucking it in.

Luke rose from the bed, kneeling beside it, and folded his hands, leaning forward. "If you're worried any of this is your fault, it's not. None of this has anything to do with you. I messed up. Even I get scared sometimes. I should have been honest from the start with your mom. Can you forgive me, Shell?" He looked up into her tear-stained face. A smell had wafted across his nose, letting him know Shelby had another accident. Things were quiet as Luke let time past, giving Shelby all the time she needed.

After a few minutes, he reached over to tickle her side. Luke may as well had tried to pet a junkyard dog. Shelby beat her tiny fists at him, landing a punch on his arm.

Luke took his hand back and stared at his daughter in utter surprise as she glared at him. He held his hands up in surrender. Finally, he said, "Fine, I'll leave it alone until you're ready." Luke rose to his feet. "Can we at least get ya changed out of those wet pajamas?" To his relief, Shelby at least agreed to change. She climbed out of bed and stripped off her soiled pajamas.

While Shelby washed off in the shower, Luke striped the bed and tossed them into the wash. He had gotten a mattress protector a while ago to help protect against the ongoing bed-wetting occurrences, which were easier to clean. It was only when Shelby would sleep on her own. Whenever she slept in his bed with him, did Shelby stay dry.

Once Shelby was out of the shower, she got dressed in shorts and a Pokemon t-shirt. Rachel had taken her clothes shopping a few weeks ago and let Shelby pick out what she wanted.

Luke kneeled to her level. "Hey, why don't I fix ya up some chocolate chip pancakes? How does that sound? Whipped cream and strawberry syrup, all your favorites."

Shelby just walked away where he had moved her hat over on the nightstand. Grabbing it, she placed it on over her eyes.

He couldn't help look away at the floor. Luke looked back up to see Shelby roll onto the mattress. The sound of plastic filled the room. Guilt and pain were flooding his heart and mind to no end.

Eventually, Luke had to open the diner, so for now he left Shelby alone, reminding her to come downstairs when she got hungry.

The whole morning, Shelby remained upstairs.