The Last Minutes of Nicholas Schnee:
(Willow POV)
Whitley had just been sent to bed as you tucked your father in. "It's time to go to sleep father." You said with a quiet, kind voice as your father wheezed and coughed.
He had become so frail, his white hair less wispy and firm, but now it was weary, like a torn cord that had been picked apart by hand, frilled and squeezed together. His magnificent beard, once trimmed, and proper, was now long, whispy, and unkempt, he had long given up trying to shave or keep it clean on his deathbed. His frame, once an envious sight to the Atlesian Elite and… your mother alike, was frail, skin and bones. His brilliant blue eyes dull, his sight almost all but taken from him by the dust mines.
"Oh come now my dear, there is no need to hide what troubles you. My condition is getting better… Ho ho-'' He hacked, coughing up blood into his mattress as you walked over to help him. "I'm so sorry my dear, that you must continue to see me like this."
"Father, it's not your fault." yes it was. He chose what he did with his life and he's suffering the consequences. "Age always gets to us eventually."
But you saw your father turn away. "I have failed you, my dear." His words struck you hard.
"No you haven't." you protested as you held his hand, feeling the tears well up into your eyes.
"No, I have." He replied, squeezing your hand, but looking away from your eyes. "I have quested out on adventures and projects that have kept me away from my home, from you. I have let you make assumptions about me, about my work… about if I love you."
"Father, I know you love me." you stated firmly. Whether it was for him, or yourself, you did not know.
"But I never showed it. I was too blind to my own ambitions to see you needed me." He replied, letting go. "And now it is too late… far too late for that to change."
"We can still try another doctor." you begged.
Nicholas Schnee was many things to many people, but to you, he was always the man whom you never could get approval from. You wanted so hard for his approval, that you tried to emulate him. Even when you married Jacques, falling for his grace and nobility, charm, you worked hard to be a Huntress, a wife, and a true Heiress to the Schnee name.
But nothing you could do could net you his approval.
Nothing you did could make him say, I love you to your face.
"Willow, my sweet child, I must ask you something. Something that only you can do."
You raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" You asked.
"Kill me." He begged.
"What?" You stammered. Had he just asked?
"Willow." He held your hand before he put it on his neck. "I know you are strong, but this pain is so horrid, so horrible, that being stuck with it, tormenting my body and destroying it from within."
"Father, I cannot." so many things could go wrong.
"DO AS I COMMAND!" He raised his voice, booming in the way that he had done so on expeditions so many times before his strength failed him. He saw the tears in your eyes and whipped them with his hand, before moving your face towards him.
"Willow… I love you always." He said with softness.
You looked defeated. He knew how long you wished to hear him say those words.
He let go and laid back, tears in his eyes, knowing what needed to happen.
And you granted his wish. The Coroner said he died in his sleep, blood blocking his airways.
How you wished that was the truth.
What Whitley said was cruel…
But he didn't know the truth.
He didn't know how much you loved him by locking him away, to prevent him from trying to emulate his grandfather.
Now it was far too late for him to change.
AN: Enjoy.
Also, this entire thing is told from a biased perspective.
Some of it is truth. Other bits are fabrications of Willow's Guilt and memories.