A Father's Love

Chapter 30

    By bedtime, Shelby was still over at her mom's so Luke went to bed, thinking the call would come in the middle of the night. But when it was his alarm clock that woke him from his sleep and not the phone, he thought it was all a dream. He looked over at the bed beside him to find it empty.

Jumping out of bed, Luke checked the bathroom, finding it empty. He checked under the beds, looked around the apartment, checked out in the hall and downstairs. Shelby was nowhere to be found. Luke ended up calling Rachel. It rang a few times before she answered, groggily.

"Hello?"

"Is Shelby still over there?" he asked anxiously.

There wasn't an answer at first. All that could be heard from her end was the bed moving. "Sorry, I'm still waking up. Now what were you saying?"

"Did Shelby sleep the whole night at your place?" He was even more anxious than he was before.

A yawn escaped before Rachel answered. "Yeah, she did..." It dawned on her, fully awake now.

Neither one said anything for a minute as it sunk in. Shelby made it through one entire night at her mom's. Surprise slowly turned to proudness for both parents as Luke couldn't help smile. She did it. Shelby did it.

Luke heard Rachel choke out a sob, but it sounded happy. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she told him. "I'm just so relieved to know our daughter slept over here with me."

"Do you know if...? Did Shelby wake up at all during the night?"

Rachel paused for a moment to remember. She panicked. "I don't recall. I hope I didn't sleep right through her cries." He heard her grab the walkie talkie and the static from it.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking to make sure the walkie talkie still works and the volume is up enough," she explained. "Seems to be." Luke heard the bed creak. "I'm gonna check on her."

Luke sat down on the edge of the desk. He still couldn't get over his little girl had made it through the night.

"Good morning, peanut," he heard Rachel say and heard Shelby's bed creak, guessing she probably sat down. "Did you sleep all right?" Luke could also hear Billy in the background, singing one of the later songs on the CD, so Shelby must have been awake for a while. He had gotten her used to his sleep schedule. Suddenly, his heart sank when he heard Rachel say, "No? How come?" There was a long pause before Rachel asked, "did you have any bad dreams? Yeah? Did you try to wake me? I don't remember hearing anything. How come?"

Luke never thought a heart could skip more than one beat in under a minute.

Rachel returned her attention to him, "Luke?"

"Yeah, still here."

There was a pause, including a door being closed before she answered. "I'm worried. Shelby hasn't said a word since we went to bed last night and even before then, she hardly spoke at all, except maybe one or two words. Just now, all she did was nod or shake her head and shrug."

He held his face in his free hand, rubbing at his eyes. He hoped what happened yesterday didn't reverse everything they had worked so hard for. Luke sighed under his breath. "Well, don't force her to talk. Just give her some time. Should I pick her up from school?"

"Well, let's see if Shelby wants to come home yet or not and I'll let you know."

Luke ran the same hand through his hair, placing it on his side afterwards. "Yeah, okay. I'll talk to you later." He quickly remembered. "Do you have everything? Did Shelby take her backpack with her?"