Page 36 of Keeping His Brat

“No.”

“Charlie … don’t think I won’t spank you right here if I have to.” The warning was backed up by his best Dom look.

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open briefly as she tried to find words. “You can’t spank me in the hospital.”

“Wanna bet?” The hand that wasn’t tied down with tubes suddenly slapped down hard on her ass. It wasn’t his dominant hand, but he put some extra power in the swing to make his point.

She yelped and sat up, looking like she was going to scramble off the bed and escape. Before he could say anything, they were interrupted by an efficient rap on the door.

As usual the door swung open almost as soon as the knock ended, without waiting for anyone to reply. Hospitals apparently weren’t big on privacy and the knock was more of a warning that they were coming in.

The doctor had returned, finally. She glanced over at the bed, at Charlie next to him looking flushed, and offered them both a slight smile and no comment. Now that Sam was behaving himself and had let the nurses have their way, she seemed to be in a much better mood.

“Okay kids, do you want the good news or the bad news first?”

Charlie tilted her head back to look up at Sam and he shrugged. “The bad news, I guess.”

“Okay. The x-rays confirm pneumonia in one lung. I’m guessing you aspirated on some water during the storm. That would have sped things up quite a bit. On top of that you do have a bacterial infection in your blood. I expect that came from the cut on your hand. It’s possible you are in the very early stages of sepsis which can be quite dangerous.”

“Sepsis?” he repeated. That didn’t sound good at all.

“Bacterial infections sometimes cause your body to react in strange ways. In your case, I suspect that the combination of pneumonia and infection worked together to crash your immune system. Which is why you became sick so quickly. The high fever was your body’s attempt to fight off the infection.”

Charlie was trembling. He tightened his arm around her, giving her a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay darlin’. There’s good news too, remember?” he said to her quietly. Then, louder, “Thereisgood news, right?” He looked at the doctor, waiting.

“There is, but let’s finish the bad news first.” She must have seen his wince because she smiled. “It’s not as bad as all that. I’d just like to get it all out of the way first.”

He nodded. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

“Sepsis is nothing to fool around with. It can cause organ failure if we’re not careful.” She quickly held up a hand as Charlie sat up and gasped. “As I saidveryearly stages. He’s in no long-term danger at this point. But wearegoing to have to keep him in the ICU for a few days to watch him.” She gave Sam a look, as if daring him to argue with her.

He wasn’t a fan of the hospital and was hoping he’d be able to go home soon, but he wasn’t going to fight with her about it. The fact that he’d been that ill at all was a shock that he was going to have to process.

“How—what’s the treatment for all of this?” Charlie asked. Her voice didn’t betray how scared she was, but then she was good at hiding that from anyone but him.

“Nothing too complicated, I assure you. We’re going to hit him with a strong course of antibiotics to knock out the infections before they get any worse. We’ll put him on Norepinephrine to improve his blood pressure, push fluids for the dehydration, aspirin for the fever and cough syrup as needed. I don’t think we need to look at doing a breathing treatment unless the congestion gets worse.”

“That’s all?” Sam cleared his throat. “I mean that sounds like something we could take care of at home if there’s no special treatments needed.”

“Absolutely not,” Dr. Oliveri snapped. “I don’t think you realize how lucky you are that she called an ambulance when she did. And any one of theseveralissues you have could get worse. You’re going to stay right here so we can monitor your condition and keep an eye on things.”

Sam sighed and let his head fall back against the pillow. The throbbing was still there despite the pills they’d given him. What he really wanted was for the lights to be off, and some sleep. It was starting to take real effort to focus on what the doctor was saying.

“Fine, fine. So, where’s the good news?”

“The good news is that youaregoing to recover. You shouldn’t have permanent damage, as long as you let us help you. And I can arrange for Charlie to stay with you most of the time though—” She nodded to Charlie. “—I do think you should go home to get some rest. I don’t want to have to roll a second bed in here for you.”

It was obviously a joke, but Charlie nodded like she was taking it seriously and her response surprised him. “I will. I need to be home at least part of the day anyway. Sam usually runs things on the ranch, but if he’s not around they might need me.”

He'd fully expected her to be glued to his side and refuse to leave. But she was right, one of them had to be there at least part of the time in case of emergencies. Ben just wasn’t up to making the important decisions. “Yeah, that’s a good idea, Charlie. Go ahead home, get some sleep. Tomorrow afternoon you can come see how I’m doing.”

He almost laughed at the look on her face. She’d been hoping he’d tell her to stay. She knew what the responsible thing to do was, and if Daddy said she didn’t have to do it then she could skip it without feeling guilty.

He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “You know it’s for the best, darlin’. And when you come back you can bring your schoolwork too. No sense you just sitting here.”

“But Sam …” She trailed off with a nervous glance towards the doctor. It was clear she was worried that if she argued with him, he might say something that she would find personally embarrassing.

He probably would, but for the moment reaching down to give her ass a gentle, and discrete pat, was enough. “I’m probably going to be sleeping a lot anyway.”

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