Page 2 of Daddy's Little Patient

“Why didn’t you call me?” he asked, letting go of her arm.

She shrugged. “I did call you.”

“No, I mean, why didn’t you call before now?”

“You were on a business trip.”

“You don’t think I’d have rushed home for this?” he asked incredulously.

“I dunno.” She averted her eyes, looking at the TV instead.

“Don’t you play ‘I dunno’ with me, little girl.” He’d been a Daddy Dom long enough to know evasion when he saw it, but before he could catch her chin in his fingers and gently bring her gaze back to his, a doctor swept into the room.

“Hello.” The doctor was an older gentleman, a good foot shorter than Cole, with only the slightest hint of a paunch on his otherwise thin frame. What hair he had was gray, what hair he didn’t have was covered with a bandana held together with asafety pin, a peace-sign, a whole rainbow of ribbon pins, and a rhinestone studded, seven-feathered leaf brooch. If not for the lab coat, Cole would have thought he’d been far more at home on the back of a motorcycle than in a hospital.

Rising far enough to shake his hand, Cole said, “What’s the news?”

“Now that you’re here?” Doctor Biker returned, feigning a cheerfulness his face didn’t quite match. “I assume you’re the husband?”

Cole startled, but before he could even arch his eyebrows, Kelly was out of her chair, hugging her hospital bags like a puppy.

“Yup, that’s him,” she chirped as her foot accidentally-on-purpose came down slipper-hard on his. “This is Cole. We live together, so… see? I won’t be alone.”

Doctor Biker was looking right at him. “Then you’re free to go.”

“Yay!” Kelly edged past him, shuffling her way toward the door without looking at either of them.

“Hold on.” Cole caught her by the elbow, holding up a commanding hand. “What do you mean, ‘not alone?’”

Still smiling, still not quite as cheerful as his tone would indicate, the doctor said, “We’re sending Miss Aberdeen home with some of the good-stuff medication. There will be no driving while she’s on it. There shouldn’t even be a lot of walking, which—” He turned his smile on Kelly. “—means you will sit your butt back down in that chair, young lady, and wait for a nurse and a wheelchair. Right?”

Kelly groaned theatrically, rolling her eyes at the ceiling and shuffling oddly in place, as if she had started to stamp and thought better of it at the last instant. Obviously, she was beyond ready to go, and Cole was beyond ready to find out exactly what he was being used for—because that’s exactly what this was. Heand Kelly had been dating for six months, and he loved her completely. If there was such a thing as ‘The One,’ he already knew it was her, but he also knew when he was someone’s very convenient excuse. That and finding out about her accident, four days after the fact, was very much on his mind.

“I’ve been here forever,” she pouted, a hint of her sulky Little coming out. “I want to go home.”

He didn’t care if they were in public or not. His Daddy Dom snapped right to forefront.

“Sit your butt,” he repeated, even as the fed-up doctor, who’d obviously seen too much of her uncooperative side already, added, “Back in that chair, young lady.”

Kelly sat on the foot of the unmade hospital bed instead, muttering defiant affirmations.

“Your wife is a stubborn patient,” Doctor Biker told him flatly.

“You have no idea.” Even the sunniest Littles were apt to act out to a certain degree when they were feeling sick or hurt or insecure, and his Little Kelly wasn’t exactly in the running for Most Obedient to begin with. “I’m sorry if she’s made things difficult for you.”

Kelly shot him a side-eyed frown.

Doctor Biker snorted. “Not half as sorry as I am for what she’s going to put you through.”

“She,”Kelly said with inflections of her own,“is sitting right here.”

“What do I need to do?” Cole asked, biting his tongue before he said something that might either trigger the doctor’s ‘domestic violence’ triggers or Kelly’s fit button.

“Nothing,” Kelly muttered. “I can take care of myself. I’m fine.”

“Absolutely no driving,” the doctor said again. “The pills might make her drowsy or dizzy and she should be considered a fall risk. Keep her off ladders and away from anything that mightbe dangerous if she were to fall into it, like an oven. She can walk, but no exercise and absolutely no heavy lifting. Also, try to get her to rest her hands as much as possible for at least two weeks. They need to heal. Things like typing, knitting, cleaning… anything that requires rapid, repetitive movement of the fingers, can cause swelling and pressure that can in turn cause nerve damage. The surgery went very well and I have every reason to expect a full or near-full recovery of her fine motor skills, but this time of healing is vital to that recovery.”

“Got it,” Cole said with a nod, while Kelly threw her frustrated growl at the ceiling and through gritted teeth said, “I’m not going to fall! I’m fine.”

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