Here is the final chapter!
Sorry about the long delay but I wasn't happy with the chapter at first so it went through an entire rewrite and I struggled with the ending.
*******Important note****** When I originally started the story, Bob's mother's name hadn't been revealed. Now that we know her name I went back and edited chapters that mentioned her by name, most notably, the scene with Louise's birth in the first chapter.
********Another important note*********** I'm workshopping another Bob's Burgers story staring Louise. It's in it's early stages now and I'm going to have to do a little research (Ugh) but I'm excited to write it.

Anyways, here is the final chapter. Please review it and let me know what you think.
Thank you for all of the reviews!
-Dyermaker90

XXXXXXXXX Flashback 33 years ago XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Mom look! Look!" 12 year old Bob Junior shouted for his mother's attention. He had just received a hand-me-down Hot Wheels racing track set from his older cousin and he was excited to show it off.

"Hold on a second sweetheart, I just want to get this lasagna in the oven. I'll come see it when I'm done."

"Ok Mom." he took the extra time to perfect the tracks for optimum speed but he was growing impatient. "Mooooooooommmmmm... Are you ready yet?"

"Yup! I'm coming Bobby!" She joined her son on the couch in the living room. She watched him line the cars on the coffee table leading up to the track. The beginning of the track sat on the edge of the coffee table and extended out over 10 feet. About halfway through the track contained a tall loop that seemed impossible for any car to make it through.

"You ready mom?" He turned to his mom with a toothy grin. She loved nothing more than to see that goofy face of his. She nodded her head but her husband interrupted when he popped his head in from the kitchen door.

"Lily, Doctor Rothman is on the phone, he says it's important." Big Bob pulled the phone cord over to her.

Lily took the receiver. "Hello?"

Bob Junior studied his mother's face as she listened to the doctor.

"Oh." She let out a deep breath that she had been holding. "Thank you." She placed the phone back on the receiver.

She saw her son and husband looking at her, without saying anything she turned and disappeared into her bedroom, locking the door behind her.

"Mom!? Mom!?" A very concerned Bob Junior shouted after her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX End of Flashback XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sound of a loud burp brought Bob's mind back to the present. He caught a whiff of garlic and what is that? Peanut butter? Linda was standing next to him and was likely the source of the stench. "Ugh excuse me. God that tastes awful." She confirmed his suspicions.

Bob chuckled and fanned the air away from him. "Jeez Lin. What did you eat?" They were outside, but the air around them seemed to stay stagnant.

"Mr. Fishoeder's maid Inga served me a grilled cheese and a vodka tonic."

That didn't really answer his question, and now he had some follow up questions, but he'll just ignore them for now. They were on their way back from talking to the Fishoeders' lawyers and the police to assure them that Calvin and Felix had no absolutely no involvement in the murder of Cotton Candy Dan, and were oblivious to Grover's plan.

Afterwards, they found themselves wandering around Bayside Ave, Linda wanted to take the scenic route home. "It's not really a scenic route." Bob pointed out. "It's just a longer route with different shops than Ocean Ave." None the less, he still found himself enjoying the walk. He took his wife's hand and pulled her closer to him. She squeezed his hand in response. After the near death experience they had the other night they agreed that they needed to take time to cherish the moments that they had together. "What do you say we walk the kids home from school today?" Bob suggested.

"Aww sure that'd be fun." If they started walking now they'd be at Wagstaff just as it lets out. When they arrived at the school Gene and Tina were surprised but happy to see them. They ran up to their parents as fast as they could.

"Hey kids how was your last day of school?" Bob asked when Gene and Tina arrived.

"You guys will never believe what happened at recess today." Gene shouted.

Tina slightly nudged her younger brother's elbow. "Gene I don't think she wanted to make a big deal out of it."

"Sorry." Gene whispered. He started back up once he composed himself. "So today at recess, Louise decided to show Chloe Barbash up by doing the dead man's drop... and then it happened!" He threw his hands up in the air and put an extra emphasis on the word "it". He then paused for dramatic effect, but his parents weren't too entertained. Instead they were starting to get concerned.

"What happened? Where's Louise?" Bob looked around for his youngest child.

"Detention." Gene and Tina said in unison.

Bob rolled his eyes. "Of course she's in detention." She has had more detentions this year than Gene and Tina combined, and currently holds the Wagstaff record for most detentions in a school year for any grade.

"So much for our talk the other day. What'd she do this time?" Linda didn't really want to know, but as a parent she had to ask.

"It was for ditching school the other day." Tina handed them the detention slip that Louise was given. "She also took the blame for making us ditch school."

Bob and Linda sighed in relief. "Aww that's kinda sweet of her." Linda cooed. "So you said something big happened at recess?"

"Oh yeah!" Gene's face lit up with excitement. He told his parents every little detail about Louise's hat falling off, the looks on everyone's faces, Mr. Frond's freak-out, and most importantly how cool Louise was with the whole situation.

"Wow." Was all Bob could mutter. He was shocked to hear how calm Louise was when her hat fell off. At the beginning of the school year when Logan Bush stole her hat she was furious and acted out. Now she doesn't even need the hat anymore.

"Bob what's wrong?" Linda knelt down in front of him and cupped his chin.

"Wait why was she kneeling?" He thought to himself. "Why... am I on the ground?" He wondered if he fainted. How embarrassing would that be? Men don't faint.

"You sat down. You don't remember sitting down?" Tina asked.

Bob just shook his head. "I just remember thinking about how Louise is growing up, and next thing I knew I was on the ground. Oh god I fainted didn't I?" He never responded well to the fact that his children were growing up.

"No you didn't faint. You just kinda slowly slid down to the ground. It was a little weird, but it wasn't definitely wasn't a faint." Linda patted his arm. "She is growing up fast huh."

"Yeah all of the kids are growing up fast... too fast, but wow it just hits a little different when the baby starts to grow up. Every time she hit a milestone I'd remember that that's the last time we'll see our kids go through that. Like her first steps, potty training, and when she said her first word...dada." Bob smiled as he fondly remembered some of the big moments in his youngest child's life.

"Her first day of school, her first pun, her first detention..." Linda laughed.

"But not her last!" Gene quipped.

"When she rode a bike for the first time and dad cried for the rest of the day." Tina added.

"The rest of the day? I caught him crying in the walk-in at least 3 times that week and Teddy kept complaining that his burger was salty." Linda let her husband's secret slip.

"That's not why I was crying, every burger of the day that week...had...onions... I was crying... because... I was... cutting onions" As usual Bob had no confidence in what he was saying.

"Tina and Louise cried the other day when I cut the cheese." Gene pointed out. Tina gagged at the recollection.

"So why were you crying the next day when we went to the post office?" Linda interrogated him further.

"I just... couldn't believe...that they raised the price... of stamps... again. Oh hey there's Louise. Louise!" He was relieved to see his youngest approach them.

"That was a quick detention." Linda pointed out.

"Mr. Frond wasn't authorized to give detentions on the last day of school so Principal Spoors let me out early and tore Mr. Frond a new one."

"Mmm." Bob wasn't too thrilled with his daughter's choice of words.

"Are you guys lost?" Louise was surprised to see her parents at school, they usually only picked them up if it was raining or if one of them were sick.

"We just finished talking to the police and the Fishoeders' lawyers, then we decided to walk you guys home."

"Ok which one of us is dying?" Gene asked.

"How much time does Gene have left?" Louise covered her brother's ears. He must've overheard because he gave her a worried look.

Bob chuckled. "No one is dying. Come on, let's go get some ice cream before we open the restaurant."

"So Louise, Gene told us about what happened at recess... you wanna talk about it?" Linda nudged Louise.

"About Peter Pescidaro sticking that slug up his nose? Not really it was nasty."

"Then why'd you dare him to?" Tina asked.

"He did!? Oh I used to put salt on them and watch them freak out and die HA!." Linda cackled. People on the street stopped and stared at her.

Bob was both disgusted and shocked. "Lin."

"Yeah then we used to take the dead slugs and..." She looked at her husband who was shaking his head. "Wait no... we're talking about your hat."

"Oh that." Louise shrugged. "It fell off, everyone saw. I picked it up. It's no big deal."

"Sure, sure." Linda looked over at Bob when she heard him chuckling.

"That's another thing you and my mom had in common."

"Daring her schoolmates to do stupid things?" Louise honestly had no clue what he was talking about.

"No. Hiding her feelings."

"What?" Louise kicked a pine cone on the side walk and scoffed. "I don't do that..."

Bob, Linda, Tina, and Gene stopped in their tracks and laughed.

"You're killing me smalls!" Gene slapped his knees for emphasis.

Once Bob composed himself he put a hand on his youngest child's shoulder. "My mom was big on hiding her feelings, and you've been doing that since you were little. I remember this one time..."

"BURP!"

"Oh my god Linda." Bob laughed and fanned the air in front of his face. The smell was even worse this time.

"What? We're Belchers! We belch! Ha! Does anyone have an antacid?"

"Uh... no I don't. Sorry..." Bob awkwardly apologized.

"I have some probiotics." Gene offered.

"It's fine I'll figure it out."

XXXXXXXXXXXX Flashback 4 and a half years ago XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bob stood in front of Gene with a pencil in hand, he lined his son up against the wall and placed the pencil on the top of his head. Gene tried to step on his tip-toes, but Bob noticed and pushed him back down.

"You don't need to cheat Gene, you grew a lot this year." Tina pointed out.

"Yeah, you outgrew all the clothes that we just bought you, and now we have to go shopping... again."

"Sorry bro!" Gene hugged his father.

Bob smiled. Gene has been saying "bro" a lot lately. Bob doesn't mind though. It's one of the cuter phases that the kids have gone through, unlike Tina's recent habit of neighing like a horse after every sentence, or Louise refusing to wear shoes forcing Bob to have to carry her whenever they leave the house.

"Wow Gene! You grew 3.5 inches since last year."

"Alright! Tina grew 3 inches, Gene grew 3 and a half inches. Let's see how much Louise grew."

Bob shot Linda a look. He didn't want to get Louise's hopes up. As a result of being born at just 33 weeks gestation, Louise was smaller than average 4 year olds. She was lucky in most aspects, she avoided serious health complications of being born so early. A small stature and slightly impaired hearing was nothing compared to the health issues that premature babies often face.

"Daddy how much did I grow?" Louise brought him out of his thoughts.

He repeated the same process that he did with his two eldest children, he looked at the wall behind her. "That can't be right..." Bob whispered. Fortunately it was too quiet for Louise to hear.

"Bobby?"

"She only grew an inch."

"Wha? Are you sure? You're not the best at measuring stuff Bob."

"I'm a chef! I can measure stuff! Look at the line from last year, it's only an inch off from her current height."

"An inch and a quarter." Linda mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing." Linda inspected the lines on the wall. The one labeled "Louise age 3" wasn't too far off from her current height, and Gene and Tina's 4 year marks were several inches higher than Louise's. When Louise was born the doctors said that there was a chance she would be smaller than other children but her parents always hoped that they were wrong. Louise hated being small. Being told that she was too little to do what her older siblings were doing really ticked her off.

"Daddy!" Louise yelled and tugged at Bob's shirt, she was growing impatient. "How much did I grow?"

Bob contemplated telling her she grew as much as her siblings, but in the end he decided to tell her the truth. She would eventually realize that she was smaller than average.

"You grew 1 inch Louise."

Louise stared back at her father confused, she had no idea what an inch was but she knew how to count. "But Tina and Gene grew 3, 3 is more than 1."

"Yes it is, but not everyone grows the same amount. Do you remember when I told you how you were born early and you were really tiny?"

She nodded. "You said I was sick and had to stay in the hospital. Am I sick again?" She sounded a little scared.

"No!" Bob and Linda shouted together.

"No Louise, don't worry you're not sick again. It's just..." Bob sighed. He put his hands on Louise's shoulders. "The doctor said you might not grow as tall as other kids your age. You might be a little...short." Bob squinted when he said short. He thought Louise's short fuse would surely go off.

She didn't respond at first and that scared her parents. "Ok." Louise sounded so small. She looked down and toddled to the room she shared with Tina and slammed the door behind her.

"I'll go talk to her." Bob followed her into the room.

"Gene why aren't you wearing pants?" Linda asked her son when she went to check on their older children.

Bob took a deep breath and knocked on his daughter's door. "Louise?" He walked in and looked around the room. This wasn't going to be easy, Louise was really good at hide and seek. He checked under both of the girls beds, and in the closet but there was no sign of her anywhere. He looked out the window. She wasn't on the fire escape, not that she could climb down it, could she? He was starting to panic. "Louise! Linda! I can't find her anywhere!"

"WHA?" Linda started frantically looking around the house for Louise. Tina and Gene tried to look too but they weren't being very helpful. They were opening bottles and jars of various condiments and screaming their sister's name.

Bob was about to search another room when he heard a sniffle come from the closet. He already looked in the closet so he was a little confused. He slid open the door again. He moved all the clothes, shuffled all of the objects on the floor around but she wasn't there. He heard the sniffle again, it sounded like the source was nearby. He looked up at the top shelf of the closet and saw his youngest perched up there cuddling with her favorite blanket and rubbing her eyes.

"I found her!" Bob let the family know that they could disband the search party.

"Oh thank god!"

"Neigh!"

"Good job bro!"

"How did you get up there?" The shelf was over Bob's head. Louise was a good climber, but that climb seemed impossible for a 4 year old. He pulled her off the shelf and held her in his arms, but she avoided eye contact.

She pulled the blanket over her head. Bob responded by joining her under it. "Who are we hiding from? Is it mommy? I like to hide from her sometimes too."

Louise sniffled. Bob realized she was crying, that's why she hid. Louise does not like anyone seeing her cry.

"What's wrong Louise?" He pulled her closer to him.

She shook her head.

"Are you upset because you didn't grow as much as your siblings?"

She sniffled louder. "It's not fair!" Then the water works came. "I wanna be tall like you n' mommy!"

Bob wanted to cry himself. As a parent you want to give your child the world. When you have to tell them "no" and see their disappointed little faces, your heart shatters.

"You know being small has it's perks."

"What's a perk?" This snapped Louise out of it. She was a curious toddler who loved to learn new words, especially if they were curse words.

"It's a good thing. So being small can often be a good thing."

"It's not good! You 'n mommy are always telling me I'm too little to do things. I was too little to ride that ride at the wharf with Tina and Gene yesterday. I'm too little to be in the car without a car seat, and I'm too little to walk down the street without holding your hand.

"But that will change before you know it. Trust me time moves fast. Before you know it, you'll be riding all the wharf rides with your siblings. You'll be the one driving the car. One day you'll probably be taking me for walks, and making sure that I don't run off into traffic.

Louise giggled. "Cuz you're old!"

"Yeah, cuz I'm old." That was another current phase of Louise's, calling Bob old. Hopefully this phase will be over soon. Bob was just glad to see that she wasn't upset anymore.

"Let me show you something Louise." Bob carried her to the master bedroom and placed her on the bed. He looked in his weird smelling closet and pulled out a book. He sat next to Louise and flipped it open. He pointed to one of the pictures. "Do you know who that is?"

She shook her head.

"That's you the day you were born. Look how tiny you were."

"I look like a bug."

Bob smiled. He pointed to another picture. "Look at this picture of me holding you. I certainly didn't grow since this picture was taken."

"It looks like your belly did." She poked her father's abdomen and grinned when she saw it jiggle.

"Hmm yeah it did." Bob continued to flip through Louise's baby book with her pointing out how much she grew with each turn of the page. "So you see, Louise, it may not seem like you're growing now, but you are. You're growing faster than you can see it. You're growing too fast actually, cut it out." Bob squeezed her cheeks.

"No." Louise smiled and slapped his hand down.

"Hey you! I saw that! Put it back!" Linda shouted from the kitchen.

"Sorry Bro!' Gene shouted back.

Louise and Bob laughed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX End of flashback XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When Bob finished his story he found Louise looking down at her feet while she walked. This would be normal behavior if she was kicking rocks, cans, or anything else she found on the sidewalk but this time it looked like she was avoiding her family's eyes. Her height was a still a bit of a sore subject to this day. Bob and Linda often have to remind her how far she has come, and how things could've been much different considering how premature her birth was.

"Louise?" Bob questioned.

"So what feelings was grandma hiding?" Louise chose to deflect the focus elsewhere.

Bob wasn't really ready for that one. "Oh uh a lot of things really... nothing specific... that I can think of."

"Then what was the point of that whole story?" Louise sounded pretty annoyed.

"You asked the other day how you reminded me of my mom, and that's how. What flavors of ice cream are you guys going to get? I think I'm getting mint chocolate chip. What about you Gene?"

"Can I get ramen instead?" Gene pointed to a restaurant "Aww Phu" on the other side of the street.

"No Gene we're getting ice cream."

"I'm just going to get strawberry." Tina had a dreamy look on her face, it looked like she drifted off into one of her pervy daydreams.

"I thought you hated strawberry." Linda asked.

"I do, but the little chunks of strawberry at Smooth Cream-inals look like little butts...little creamy butts." She dozed off again.

"Tina." Bob reprimanded.

The Belchers ordered Ice Cream from Smooth Cream-inals, and Gene convinced Linda to get some Ramen to-go. When they returned to the restaurant the hole was finally being filled in, they watched from the comfort of the diner. The news of the family that saved the Wharf was still fresh which lead to another busy night for the restaurant, they even stayed open late due to the rush.

Linda sent the kids to bed at 9 and joined them after closing. Bob feeling excited from the dinner rush tried to wind down with some TV. He broke out an "air bajno" as The Beverly Hillbillies theme song started. "A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shootin at some food, And up through the ground came a bubblin crude. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea." He got too swept away by the theme song to notice his youngest child approaching.

"Dad?"

Bob jumped in fear like he was caught watching something with adult-situations. "Oh Louise it's just you. You scared me. What're you doing up?" He motioned for her to join him on the couch. She sat next to him and he put an arm around her.

"You're a lot like your mom too you know." Louise cut right to the point.

"Huh?" Bob wasn't sure what she was talking about, but he knew that it had nothing to do with the Beverly Hillbillies.

"You sometimes hide your feelings too. You don't do it all the time, but you do it a lot when your mom is mentioned."

Bob sighed. She was right. He didn't want to be this way, especially because his dad was so closed off about his feelings. "I'm sorry, I guess I need to work on that. From now on, if you guys ask about my mom I wont hold back."

"I know you were hiding something earlier. You try to hide your feelings too, but you're not very good at it."

"Well we can't all be pros like you Louise." He tried to joke his way out of the situation but Louise just gave him a look. "Right. Well there was one thing in particular that I remember my mom hiding her feelings about, but it's not exactly a fun story. It's not something that I like to think about often."

Louise wasn't sure why but her heart started to pound. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the rest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Flashback 33 years ago XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Big Bob and Bob Junior just watched Lily lock herself in her bedroom after a phone call from her doctor. Whatever the doctor said couldn't have been good news. Bob Junior tried knocking on the door and yelling for his mom but she couldn't hear him over the sound of her favorite Cher album.

A few days later Big Bob sat his son down in the kitchen to tell him the news. "Your mother's cancer is back. It's uh not looking good." He immediately regretted his words, when does cancer ever look good? "It's in her bones now. It's stage 4."

Bob Junior looked up at his father's usual stone cold face. He looked different. He looked a bit pale and thin. The wrinkles on his face looked more pronounced. He worried that his father was getting sick too.

"Is mom going to be okay?" Bob Junior chocked out, trying to hold back tears.

"The doctors are going to try their best." Big Bob excused himself with some excuse about the restaurant, leaving his son alone, something he had been experiencing a lot lately.

Cher's greatest hits once again filled the silence in the air. As "Come and Stay with me" faded out ,Bob Junior heard sniffling coming from the master bedroom, and it hit him. His mother wasn't just feeling nostalgic listening to her old records, she was hiding. She was upset about the news and didn't want anyone to see her like this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX End of flashback XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"My dad didn't want to say it at the time, but they had just found out that her cancer was terminal. My mom didn't want us to know that she was scared and upset. After the diagnosis, anytime she'd get upset she'd hide in her room and play her favorite Cher record."

Bob didn't make it too far into the story without crying. Through his blurred eyes he could see Louise tearing up too. There was no hiding their feelings this time. Bob pulled her close and held her until they calmed down.

Once the tears stopped Louise looked up at her father. "Up until now I liked that your mom and I had a lot in common. I could probably do without this similarity though."

Bob nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean. How bout you and I make a pact. When something bothers us and we find ourselves wanting to hide, we'll find each other and talk about it. No judgement."

"I guess we could try that." Louise leaned her head on Bob's chest.

Bob picked up the remote and handed it to her. "A little Burn Unit before bed?"

Louise perked up and began flipping through the channels. Bob wrapped an arm around her and they played one of their favorite games until they fell asleep.

Bob woke up and saw a figure wrap a blanket around him and Louise. He thought it was Linda at first but her hair and figure were a lot shorter than Linda's. Then he realized Linda hardly ever wears hats. Bob rubbed his eyes but as soon as he opened them again the figure was gone. "It was just a dream."

XXXXXXXXXXX EPILOGUE 2 Years in the future XXXXXXXXXXX

"I really appreciate the help, this is the worse possible time to throw your back out." Big Bob thanked his family for helping him clean out his basement. He was getting older and chose to move into a one story apartment so he'd have less space to clean, and he wouldn't have to walk up and down stairs multiple times a day.

"What about during sex?" Gene asked. He was about to join Tina at Huxley High and has already joined her in the "puberty pack" as Louise calls it. Lately Gene has shown a influx of hormones, though he never got anywhere close to Tina's level which his family was grateful for.

"Gene." Bob reprimanded. Somethings never change.

"Lift with your legs T!" Louise shouted from the other side of the basement. She and Tina were struggling to pick up a large storage chest.

"What does that even mean!?" Tina shouted back, she focused on her legs lifting them up and down as she stood in place. Tina hadn't changed a bit since she went on too Huxley high. She was still the boy crazed, horse crazed, not so bright girl that she was in 8th grade.

"Girls that's kinda heavy, why don't we save that for the movers."

"What's in this thing anyway? It felt like I was trying to lift Gene up. Louise brushed the dust off of the chest.

"I'll have you know I'm trying to carbo-load for football season." Gene patted his stomach.

"You don't carbo-load unless you play football." Tina pointed out.

"You also don't watch football." Louise threw a bag of mothballs at her brother smacking him dead in the face with it.

"Oh wow I haven't seen this chest since I was a teenager." Bob opened it and shuffled through the contents. "This is your grandmothers stuff."

That piqued the kids interest. They sat by Bob and listened to him describe all of the objects that he pulled out.

Bob pulled out a plastic bag with some pink fabric in it. He pulled the fabric out and smelled it.

"Umm what is that?" Louise wasn't sure what she was watching. She watched her father rub the fabric on his face.

"It's my mom's hat."

Louise froze. Suddenly her father's bizarre behavior made sense. He was holding the very hat that inspired her beloved bunny ears.

Bob noticed her fixed gaze on the hat. "Why don't you try it on?" He handed it to her.

"Are you... sure?" Louise sounded nervous and stuttered like her father.

Bob nodded and placed the hat in her hands.

Louise slowly pulled off her bunny ears and pulled the beanie on. She was glad her mother was back at the restaurant, if Linda was there she'd probably be sneaking pictures of this momentous occasion.

Bob smiled. "You look beautiful Louise."

"You look like Lily." Big Bob added.

"Thanks." She looked in a mirror that Tina handed her. She decided to stop wearing her pigtails at the start of 6th grade and let her hair grow out passed her shoulders. She changed a lot in the past year, but struggled with the idea of getting rid of her bunny ears. At the end of the fourth grade she wanted to stop wearing them because she thought she was getting too old, but she was afraid. After saving the wharf and learning about the true origins of her hat she didn't want to take it off in-honor her grandmother.

"Why don't you keep the hat." Big Bob suggested. "She'd want you to have it."

Louise was shocked but honored. She hugged Big Bob.

"Are you going to stop wearing your bunny ears?" Tina asked the big question on everyone's minds.

Louise thought for a moment and shrugged. "We'll see."