Louise sat at the counter of Bob's Burgers pouring over the webpage that she had created and nurtured for her family's restaurant. When she initially suggested her ideas for changes to the menu and advertising her parents didn't really take to the idea but luckily her one semester of business classes seemed to have paid off. She ran her hand over the counter thinking about all the times she had sat here in her nineteen years; the meals with her family, the pranks with Gene and Tina, all the antics of the Belcher family had made quite an impact on the place. Louise ran her hand over a portion of counter slightly less faded than the rest remembering the time Bob and Teddy had a contest between their knife and hammer, she smiled as she got lost in thought again trying to decide if her decision to leave college and come home was the right one.
She had managed to convince all of her family and her customers that had become friends that she had failed out of school and come home, honestly though she had been a perfect student. After barely passing high school she realized it was time to get her act together and once she made it to college she worked her ass off; she didn't miss any classes, she put in as much effort as she could, and with the help of a couple of friends and study partners she had straight A's. She couldn't stay there though she missed her family and even the restaurant too much and after everything fell apart she felt obligated to come home and take over the place. Tina had gone to college in New York and gotten a job writing for a magazine immediately after graduating, she outgrew her obsession with Jimmy Jr and finally started steadily dating Josh. They got an apartment in New York together while she rose through the ranks to editor and he worked trying to dance on Broadway, despite all the teasing Louise gave him for it he managed to get his dream. He also managed to immediately break up with Tina after almost 6 years together, she had been focusing on her work hiding under a rock ever since. Gene was a little closer to home, he decided to forego college and went straight to Ferdie Spratt. He finally got his meeting with the board members and started living his dream writing jingles for Spratt's Sweets and some of their subsidiary companies. His job also got helped along by his new father-in-law, he and Courtney got married straight out of high school and the Belcher's had received the call a week or so earlier that they were expecting their first child.
"All kinds of things are going to be wrong with that kid." Louise chuckled to herself.
She glanced out the window and saw that it was dark and gloomy outside and most likely going to storm within a few hours. She never liked days like this as a kid; when it stormed she couldn't go down to the pier looking for beached animals, she couldn't go out riding on her green machine causing trouble through the streets, she couldn't even go down to Wonder Wharf. She hated the gloom for an entirely different reason now though, it just reminded her too much of the day she got the call from her mother. That one phone call changed everything and she found it rolling around in her head again.
"Mom, what's wrong?" Louise asked nervously.
That was the second or third time Louise had asked Linda the same question only to hear silence at the other end and Louise was starting to seriously panic, she knew that if her mother couldn't find words or even tears then something must be really wrong.
"Mom please, just say something, you're starting to scare me…" Louise sat for a few moments waiting on Linda's response when she finally her a small sob through the receiver, hearing Louise admit that she was afraid was a rare thing and it made what Linda had to tell her even harder as she broke down in tears. Finally she mustered up as much courage as she could to be there for her poor little babies as she had been breaking the news to them one by one.
"Louise, sweetie," Linda started to get choked up as she thought of all the times that Louise had proved to be the spitting image of Bob, they were best friends, "It's your dad baby, he's been at the hospital in Bog Harbor for a few days now and the doctor just came and talked to us-" Linda was cut off by Louise yelling that she would be right there and then silence. Louise sprinted down the hall away from her class and drove 90 the entire way down the interstate with rain pelting the windows of her car until she reached the exit for the hospital.
As she ran through the large white lobby to the elevators three hours later Louise heard a soft voice behind her that stopped her in her tracks, "Let's sit and talk for a bit."
Louise turned to face her older sister, it had only been a month since they talked last but at that moment it felt like years. She ran up and hugged Tina catching her sister off guard, she stepped back to take in Tina's appearance; her hair was unkempt and it looked like she had been in the same clothes for a few days, her eyes were red and puffy and instead of wearing the contacts she had adopted in high school she was back in her glasses. Louise was pretty sure that Tina had come down as soon as Linda called as well.
"Damn girl, you look like a mess." Louise tried to break the tension with the small joke but it elicited little more than a smirk from Tina.
"Like I said, let's sit and talk Louise." Tina turned without waiting for a response and started towards an area with chairs and tables. From the looks of it Tina had made it her base camp as it was littered with magazines, books, wrappers, drinks, and electronics.
"Is this all yours?" Tina was preoccupied with clearing the chair next to hers and simply shook her head so Louise continued. "Okay so is Gene here to?" Tina finally sat down and patted the chair next to hers, Louise rolled her eyes as she took a seat.
"Mom and Gene have been sitting down here periodically to, there's too much commotion upstairs for everyone to stay in dad's room but none of us want to leave, they're getting lunch now. I'm going to lay everything out that has happened so please just sit and take it in, okay?" Louise nodded knowing better than to fight it when Tina was in her down to business mood, so she just sat and listened. She listened to how Bob had been severely tired and worn down for weeks but had refused to say anything, how he had started to lose weight but everyone brushed it off as him getting healthy, most importantly how while Linda went out for drinks with Gretchen Teddy rushed Bob to the hospital after he collapsed while cooking.
When Louise heard what the doctor had told them that morning she just sat and stared blankly at Tina and then stood up without a word and started towards the elevator. Tina watched as Louise walked away and went back to working on her laptop trying to drown her mind in her work. As the elevator rose to the fourth floor Louise stared at her reflection in the door vaguely aware of the tears running down her face, she wanted to contain herself but she just couldn't. She started to blame herself for what was going wrong, she hadn't been home since she graduated high school and hadn't seen any of her family more than twice in that amount of time. She, Rudy, and Jessica had all packed up the day high school was over and took off on a road trip across the country. They ended up staying gone so long that Louise was only home for a day or two before moving into her dorm, she stood there trying to remember if there had been any signs she missed but she couldn't think of anything, sure Bob seemed a little tired but she figured it was lack of help in the restaurant. Maybe if she had been there she would have been the one to see that something was wrong.
When she reached Bob's room Louise stood frozen in the doorway for what felt like hours before she finally took a deep breath and slowly walked in. As soon as she saw him she immediately broke down, he looked so small lying there asleep hooked to so many monitors. His hair was greying, it seemed like he had lost almost 50 pounds, and there were dark bags under his eyes and they seemed to be sunk into his sockets. Louise stormed out of the room, she never knew how to handle emotion, she was always the strong one in the family the one that didn't break and didn't was always there to whip everyone else into shape when they did. She wasn't sure what to feel at that point, there was a pit in her stomach that she couldn't seem to get rid of, her eyes were burning through the tears that wouldn't end, and she felt like she was spiraling and she couldn't pull it together. What she did know though was that she was pissed, really pissed, it was obvious that Bob had been physically bad for a while but still nobody did anything or said anything, they all just accepted his bullshit excuses and moved on. Linda was always dense but the one time that she needed to be overbearing and vigilant and she couldn't have cared less. All of a sudden she heard Linda's voice coming down the hall talking to Gene and Tina rambling some nonsense about Ginger's fucking car and laughing.
Before she could even think about what she was doing she stormed angrily up to Linda and squared up to her less than a foot from her face, Linda may have had a good three or four inches on Louise but she still seemed to shrink beneath Louise's glare.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Louise screamed immediately getting the attention of the hospital staff. "Why the hell would you let him get this bad? Why didn't your fucking call me? You know I wouldn't have hesitated, I would have been there in a fucking second to help him! This is your fault. He's in there dying and you're standing out here laughing? You couldn't fucking care less!" With that Louise marched back to Bob's room immediately regretting her actions, she knew deep down that it wasn't Linda's fault and she could still see the pain in Linda's eyes and the tears running down her face as she stood there quietly taking Louise's anger.
As she strode through Bob's door wiping her eyes and trying to compose herself she heard a familiar but weak voice talking to her. "You can't blame her Louise, this isn't her fault. It's life, it happens. This is cancer not the flu, it would have happened anyway."
She stopped in her tracks and looked at her father as he laid there, eyes open staring at his daughter. She saw the tears rolling down his face, it was never an oddity to see Bob cry he was a fairly emotional man, this was different though. She couldn't stop herself as she ran to Bob's bed and grabbed his hand with tears pouring out of her eyes. She dropped to her knees beside him shaking with sobs and she could only get out one word, "Daddy…"
In that moment as she sat there on her knees, her father's frail hand in hers, crying harder than she ever had before she felt three sets of arms wrap around her, she laid her head on her mother's shoulder supported by Tina and Gene and they all sat there for hours until Bob had to be taken away for testing.
Louise tried to go back to school but she just couldn't, she stayed just long enough to finish her semester so that Bob didn't blame himself and then packed up and moved back home. That was about 8 months ago and ever since she had pretty much taken over the entire restaurant. Gene helped some at first but he couldn't devote much time once he started getting more responsibilities at work, Tina was hours away working, and Linda stayed upstairs 24/7 taking care of Bob. Sometimes Louise could get a break in between the lunch and dinner rushes but other than that it was non-stop running of the restaurant and Louise loved every second of it.