Trigger warning for cutting and eating disorders. Please, read carefully.

Louis's POV:

I have the day off, so I'm trying to clean up the house a bit before my daughter Airah comes home from school. So far, I've gotten the kitchen, living room, and my room done, and next up is the bathroom. I start cleaning the bathroom, and I'm just about done, when I see a bunch of bloody tissues and a razor in the garbage. "What the hell?" I think to myself, "What's happened here?" I kind of ignore it a bit, thinking that Airah got a razor cut while shaving. I mean, I'm a single dad, raising a 13 year old girl. I don't know how to teach her how to shave her legs or whatever else they shave.

I head over to Airah's room and start cleaning it. I'm almost done when I see a pack of razors, laying out under her bed with blood all over them. It hits me what she's been doing, and I start crying because I don't know why she would do that. As I'm crying, I hear the door open downstairs and Airah yells, "Dad, I'm home! Dad? Where are you? Da..." She walks through her bedroom door and sees me crying next to the razors. "Sweetie, why would you do this to yourself? What did I do wrong to make you feel so bad that you'd have to cut?" I ask her as I stood up and gave her the biggest hugs in history to try to heal her pain. She starts crying, and saying, "I'm sorry daddy. I'm sorry", and I continue to hug her while whispering, "We'll get through this. We'll get through this together".

Once we both have calmed down a bit, I ask, "Airah? Where did you cut?" She hesitantly shows me her wrists and lifts her shirt up a bit and shows me her stomach. Both her wrists and stomach have massive cuts on them and are starting to look a little infected. "Sweetheart, these are getting infected. I think I have to call Harry over to take a look and see if we have to go to the hospital", I tell her as I gently feel one of the cuts and she winces in pain. Once she hears what might happen, and that she might have to go to the hospital, she starts freaking out. She tries to run away and hide, but I catch her before she can do anything. She's sitting in my arms, kicking and screaming, as I call Harry over to take a look at her cuts. Harry is a family friend. We've known each other since before high school, and have continued that friendship throughout. He's also become a doctor, and has been Airah's and I's family doctor since she was born, and helped me through a lot of struggles, especially when Airah's mom left me. If anyone can help Airah, Harry can.

I call him up and after the third ring, he answers. "Hey Lou, what's up?" he asks. "Hey Hazz, Ugh, I was wondering if you could ugh come on over tonight and ugh check on Airah. I found cuts all over her body, and she's been self ugh harming herself. They look infected though" I say while Airah continues to struggle in my arms to run away and every so often, she would end up jabbing me in the ribs, or kicking me in the knee, or something like that and I would make a noise. "Yeah, I can come over and take a look at her. Um, do you have this on speaker phone?" he asks me. "No, why?" I ask. "I just wanted to make sure that Airah can't hear. I'm going to bring a sedative as well then, since I know that she'll have a hard time sitting still for us, and probably be scared. I'll be over in about twenty or so minutes, I just have to get my supplies. See you then", he tells me, and I say, "Thanks Haz, see you then", and I hang up the phone.

While we wait for Harry to get here, I continue to struggle with Airah in my arms. She may be skinny, but when she wants to be, she is strong. I grab her by the waist a little tighter, and she winces in pain. "Sorry sweetie. I don't like hurting you, and I definitely don't want to make this worse than it is, but you have to let Harry take a look. He's going to help you though, not hurt you", I tell her, but she struggles even more. Pretty soon, Harry uses his key that I gave him years ago, and let's himself in. He walks up to Airah's room, and sees her basically kicking my butt. "Lou, I know it will be hard, but try to hold her as still as possible", he tells me. "Yeah, okay, like I'm not already! Hurry up Haz!" I say and he quickly comes over, and jabs the sedative in her leg, administering the medicine quickly.

Pretty soon, Airah settles down in my arms and almost goes limp in them from the drug. I catch her before she can fall and set her down, laying her on her bed for Harry to begin. He first starts checking and cleaning the wounds, and seeing what all she's been doing to herself. "Lou, it looks like she's also really thin. Like to the point that I can actually see her ribs. I think she's also been starving herself", he tells me and again I start the water works. He gives me a hug, telling me that everything will be alright and that he'd help me through it. "I love her so much. I mean, she's all that I have left. Her mom left me, the only one from our group of friends that I'm still in contact with is you. I haven't seen Liam, or Niall in twenty years! And don't even get me started on Zayn. We got into that argument so long ago, and I haven't heard from him since. I can't lose her too", I tell him as he holds me in his arms and comforts me by rubbing my back. "It's okay. She's not going to leave you. We'll get through this. But first, I think we need to have a talk with her and see what's been going on to make her want to cut. I also think that she should be admitted to the hospital, in order to try to get her eating again and everything", he tells me and I nod.

I gently lift Airah in my arms and we drive over to the hospital. She gets admitted under Harry's name, which means that he'll be the doctor there taking care of her. Once we get her admitted and in a room, she starts to come to and wake up. She looks around, and a look of fear and panic spreads through her face. "Love, everything's okay. You're safe. We had to bring you to the hospital in order for you to get better", Harry tells her, but she starts freaking out again and hyperventilating and Harry quickly puts the oxygen mask on her to try to help calm her down. "Sweetheart, you're going to be okay, but can you tell me why you've been doing what you've been doing? Have I been a bad dad? What's going on sweetie?" I ask her and she starts crying. "Oh baby girl, I'm here. What's on your mind sweetie?" I again ask as I pull her into my arms and hold her tight, trying to hold her together.

"It all started with mom. She always put so much pressure on me to be perfect, and then when she left, it was like I wasn't good enough for her. It hurt me and I started to stop eating. It felt good to do something about it, so I continued to eat only small meals, making it seem like I was just skinny from all the running I do for track. Then, at school, some of the kids started picking on me. They'd call me names and say that I was sleeping around with others and other mean things. That was when I started the cutting. It felt good to get the emotions out and turn the emotional pain into physical pain. I could handle the physical pain, but I can't handle the emotional pain of it all. Then you started working more and I could tell that you were stressed with your job, and trying to get over mom leaving, which was a huge change in all of our lives, and I didn't want to stress you out even more. I'm so sorry dad", she says as tears run down her face. "Oh baby, I love you no matter what, and I will be there for you no matter how little time I have. You can always come to me no matter what and I'll always be there for you. Now, from now on, you have to be honest with me, and we need to have an open relationship, both ways. That means that I'll be honest with you, and you be honest with me. Can you do that for me?" I ask as I pull her even closer to me, and kiss her head.

I can feel her head nod and then she pulls away. "Daddy, if we are going to be honest, I have a confession. My back and side has been hurting for about a week now. I didn't want to say anything, because I didn't want you to get mad or tell me that it's nothing", she says and starts crying again. "Okay sweetie, thank you for telling me. I'll ask Harry to take a look at it in a minute. Just rest for a bit while I get him", I tell her and disentangle myself from her and get Harry.

"Hey Haz, Airah says that her back and side has been hurting her for a while now. Do you think you can take a look at it for her?" I ask and he nods his head as he walks with me through her door. "Hey Airah, your dad said your back and side has been hurting? I'm just going to do a quick check, okay", he tells her and starts feeling her side. She winces in pain and I instantly grab her hand and give it a squeeze to let her know that I'm here for her. "It seems to be a kidney infection. I just have to give you a shot, and you'll be good to go, but you'll have to come back within the next week for follow up appointment to see how you're doing and if it's still bad, then I'll have to give you another shot", harry tells her. I can see Airah's face pale when she hears that she's going to get a shot, and I go into protecting, calming mode. "Airah, just look at me. Keep your eyes on me for a bit and it will all be over in a few seconds", I say in a soothing voice, while rubbing her hand in mine. She looks at me and I start making funny faces to distract her. She's mid laugh when Harry jabs her with the needle, and she lets out an, "Ow!" and Harry quickly pulls the needle out and says, "Done. All good, now as I said before, for your eating disorder you're going to have to come in every week for an examination for me to see if you're getting better. I will also be checking your cuts and seeing if you have any new ones. If it's not better, we will be forced to keep you here under observation and feed you through a tube. We don't want to do that, so it'd be better if you would try to eat more. I know that your dad will help you through it, as well as if you need me, I will help you through it. You have a lot of support around you, which you'll need to get through this. Now, your free to go whenever, but I'll be coming over tomorrow to change the bandages on your cuts and check up on you", Harry tells us and we thank him and get going.

6 months later:

Airah, come on down for breakfast!" I tell her and I see her running down with a smile on her face. Since we had to go to the hospital, with the help of her friends, Harry, and me, Airah has made a full recovery. She's now eating every meal, even if it's in smaller portions because her stomach still isn't full recovered from her starving herself. She has scars on her arms and stomach, but no new ones. She constantly tells me that she hates her scars, but I tell her that scars only show that you survived. They are what tells your story and shows others just how strong and brave you are.