[This chapter is dedicated to marga0_0. Thank you for supporting all of my novels.]

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"Are you done with your call?"

Lucille was rooted on the floor seeing her father casually sitting on the chair and asking her a normal question.

She was lost for words and just nodded slowly. She wondered if he heard what she talk with her mother.

"Soraya isn't here. What can I help you with to prepare for bed?"

She shook her head, "I'll take a shower, brush my teeth, and put on my pajamas. And then you read me a bedtime story!"

"Okay," he pushed himself out of the chair, "Pajamas," he opened her closet and picked the pink silk pajamas with a small white ghost printed on them on the pile of sleepwear. "What are these ghosts? Why do they look like earplugs?"

"They are not earplugs! Nor ghosts!" she laughed, "They are called Kodama. They are spirits that live on a tree."

He chuckled, "You okay with this?" he lifted the pajamas for her approval.

She nodded and took the pair of pajamas from his hand and went back to the bathroom to shower.

"Do you need help?"

"I can do this on my own, daddy. Don't be silly. I always do this alone at home."

He watched his daughter close the bathroom door behind her. She was okay doing things on her own. A tinge of sadness crept in his heart. She is growing too fast.

He gritted his teeth in rage for those bastards that kept on attempting to hurt his daughter. He would take their sorry lives into his own hands with everything they did that put his daughter's life in danger.

He heaved a deep breath and released a long sigh. He tried to steady his emotions because he doesn't want Lucille to get affected by it.

Speaking of his daughter, he wondered why Lucille looked so surprised and scared when she saw him inside her room. What could have she talked to her mother for her to act that way, he asked at the back of his mind.

He returned to the chair next to Lucille's bed. He pulled out the blanket from being tucked in the edge of the bed and picked up the book that they were reading.

He checked the bookmarked page, and a smile tugged the corner of his mouth. The bookmark she was using with her book was a polaroid photo of them together in the East Potomac Park in Washington, DC.

The photo was taken under blooming cherry blossom trees. It was a bit windy that day. Lucille was having a grand time twirling around under the trees as petals of the said tree rain on her.

That was a good memory of their trip. Until some bastard 'accidentally' pushed her in a pond. He gritted his teeth as he recalled the memory. It surprised him that Lucille never remembered anything bad about that trip, whenever he asked her.

She honestly believed that those were just random accidents. Probably, the same thing will happen with the toppling of the tube thingy thing that happened today. Or not because with the accident today, Lucille saw Soraya got hurt.

He was advised to watch out for signs of post-traumatic syndrome by the child psychologist. According to the child psychologist, we tend to overlook those experiences because we don't believe they are significant enough to cause trauma.

But it is not. If the traumatizing experience was not processed properly, and if possible early on, it could have a negative effect later in life.

"Daddy, I'm done!"

Lucille's cheerful voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He gave her a big smile. "Wow! Indeed you can do things on your own."

He took out his phone and snapped a photo of her. She looks so adorable with a towel wrapped skewed around her small head.

"Let daddy dry your hair, so that I still feel that you need me," he patted the edge of her bed, "Come over here."

"Silly, daddy. I will always need you." she giggled as she climbed on her bed.

"Wait, here. I'll go get the hairdryer in the bathroom."

He was surprised to see the bathroom neat and tidy. It pleased him to see her becoming an independent young woman.

He grabbed the hairdryer and returned to the room where Lucille was waiting, her legs swinging on the edge of her bed, humming a familiar song.

He started drying her silky jet black hair, while she continued humming the song.

"What song is that?" he asked over the noise of the hairdryer.

"Little Miss Jessie hummed this song when she rescued me. I like it because it's a song from one of my favorite Ghibli films."

"The one where parents turned into pigs?"

"No, a different one."

"Daddy, do you think Little Miss Jessie will watch that movie with me? I want to watch it again."

"She will be out of the hospital tomorrow before noon, I think. Why don't you ask her?"

"Hmm, kay…" she replied then looked up at him, "I'm getting sleepy," she said followed by a big yawn.

"I'll hurry up with drying your hair," he chuckled softly, remembering Jess who also felt sleepy when he dried her hair.

The air from the air dryer is warm in his hands. And it's now only his hands that are warm. His heart too felt a certain warmth that made him want to hum a song like his daughter.

"No, daddy. You can take your time drying my hair. I only feel sleepy but I won't sleep."

He chuckled, "How does it work? Sleepy but not fall asleep?"

"Because the sleepiness I feel when you dry my hair isn't really sleepy." she cocked her head when she realized what she said made no sense.

"I don't know how to explain it, Daddy. It's just a nice feeling. Like a warm and fuzzy kind."

"Hmm, it's a good thing then."

"Uh, uh."

As the hairdryer buzzed as he dried his daughter's hair, he listened to Lucille humming the tune that Jess hummed for her.

"All done!" he declared, turning off the hairdryer. "Do you want me to read you a story now?"

"Daddy?"

"Yes, princess?" he asked, pulling the chair near her bed as Lucille went under her blanket.

"Can you sleep with me tonight?", she asked in an almost whisper voice.

He stared at his daughter and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "Can you wait for me for a bit? I will go get my pillow in my room."

He watched her face lit up with the idea of them sleeping together.

"How about I sleep in your room tonight?" She suggested, throwing the blanket away from her small frame.

His heart constricted in his chest. He would definitely crush those bastards that were after his daughter.

"My room it is!" He agreed cheerfully. He picked her up from the bed and threw her over his shoulder. "Let's go!"

Lucille shrieked with delight as they walked into his room.

Noah put her down in his bed, while he took a shower and changed into fresh clothes. When he returned to bed, Lucille was already snoring, deep in sleep.

'She must have been so tired with everything that happened today.' He bent down and kissed her rosy cheek, "See you tomorrow, princess," he whispered.

She slept too close to the edge, so he moved her to the center of the bed. She was clasping her panda stuffed toy close to her chest.

He stared at the panda stuffed toy. The toy looks old now. He remembered giving Lucille the toy for her fifth birthday and the toy never left her side.

A soft shadow of a smile played around the corner of his mouth. Despite the fact that Lucille seemed to grow up too fast, there are still a lot of things that show how she is still a child. Like her strong attachment to an animal stuffed toy.

He put the book that they are supposed to read on his nightstand as he climbed on the bed to lie down next to her.

He opened his phone to send a message to Jess, hoping she is still awake to chat. They weren't able to talk at the hospital that much. He has a lot of things to tell her.

One is that they are going to cut short their stay here in San Lucas. With what happened to Lucille, Jin and Markus decided that they should go home early. He would like to ask her if she would like to fly home with him.

[You awake?]

He stared at the message he sent her. It remained unread. He glanced at the clock, it was just ten past nine. 'Did she also go to sleep early?' He wondered if she was alone in the hospital or Luke was with her.

He was debating if he should send her another message when Lucille whimpered in her sleep. He dropped his phone and gently stroked her back to soothe her back to sleep.

He found himself humming the song Lucille was humming when he was drying her hair.