Page 18 of Kinsey

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David watched Kinsey sleeping.They said he’d had a rough night with bad dreams.He’d had few himself about the accident and wouldn’t want anyone to know how badly the thing had bothered him.He looked around the room that Kinsey had for himself.

He hadn’t always been a good man, not like he was today.If it hadn’t been for his wife, he might well have gone on being a bully and a bastard.But she told him that she’d not marry him if he was going to act like a child without a nap, and that had him changing things around, not at first, of course.But he’d learned his lesson when he’d ended up on the wrong end of a gun and it had nearly killed him.David had learned really fast that he was headed down the wrong path in his life, and it would surely get him killed.

“You learn anything from this?”He was lying in a hospital bed with all kinds of tubes coming out of him when he’d been shot three times in his chest.“I won’t be back if you ever pick up a gun or knife again to settle your problems.”

David couldn’t even talk to her; another machine was keeping him alive.Nodding his head once, he hoped that she’d understand that he was going to keep right on being what he was and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.But she misunderstood him.

“Do you have any idea what my dad did to keep you out of prison?He had to call in favors from all over the world so that you could marry me someday.If you still want that?”Again, he nodded, but he was determined not to be a changed man because she wanted him to.“I won’t put up with you doing things by your own hand anymore, David Winchester.I’m a good woman, and you’d be better off if you were to do what I tell you and live.I would have no problem pulling the plug on you the next time.”

Turns out she’d been asked to do that when he’d been brought in.The diamond on her finger had given her a lot of rights that week.One of them being the one who decided if he lived or not.He was really glad that she’d been in a better mood than she’d been in when he finally woke up.She got right in his face.

“You have one week to get your affairs in order, or I’ll order a hit on you that won’t miss this time.And if I’m given the chance, I’ll pull that plug and see you dead before I’ll have my name associated with you being a monster.Do you understand me?I’ll do it too.”He had no doubt that she would, and it frightened him a great deal that she would have him killed by someone better than the man who had tried.“One week to get your shit together, or I’m going to do it too.And it won’t matter if I go to jail or not.My dad has a lot more favors he could pull in for me, and see you six feet under and me living my life without you.”

After that talk, he never so much as touched a gun, only to have them sold from his house and every one of them out of his house.He made amends to those that he’d wronged, and there were a lot of them, and spent the next fifty years or so being married to a woman that kept him on the straight and narrow and never once gave him reason to not love her.When they found out that his youth had cost him the ability to have children, she stayed with him then, too.David knew that he was a lucky man and knew that for the rest of his life, he’d love the woman who had threatened him with certaindeath if he didn’t get his shit together.Now he was looking in on a man that he would have loved to have fathered had he been given the chance.

“What are you doing here?Don’t you have some other farmer that you could pester?”He told Kinsey that he didn’t, he’d had enough of that for one lifetime.“Good.You’re kind of growing on me, and I like having you around.”

“I’ve been wondering when you’re going to get to go home.”Kinsey laughed a little and stopped when the pain got to him.The boy was in a great deal of pain, and the contusion from his armpit to his hip bone was testament to how much he’d done to save himself and his brother.“There are some things that I wanted to talk to you about now that you’re going to be all right for the next fifty years.”

“They said that I could possibly go home on Tuesday.I just have to be able to move a bit better.My leg is giving me the most pain.They said that my ankle was turned up under the clutch, and it bruised it all the way to the bone.”He said that they’d told him he was lucky that he’d not broken his ankle.“I think I’m lucky on a lot of fronts about that accident.More than I would have ever thought when I was sitting in the truck with the police all around.”

“Wylie went home yesterday, as you know.He’s been looking at houses around the town.It’s been put out there that you’ve sold the land now, and people are clamoring to get to see the six of you to see if you’ll spend a bit of your money on them.”He said that he needed to get him a house, too, if he was going to be living somewhere besides a hotel when he got out.“I have that taken care of.You and Meggie are going to be staying with my wife and I until you can get around enough to purchase yourself a home.She’s thinking that you should build, and I don’t blame her.There aren’t enough houses in your town for a man with as much money as you have.”

“I can live anywhere.”Sitting him up a bit better hurt him in ways that he didn’t explain to the younger man because he couldn’t stand for him to hurt.“I know that you’ve demolished the old house by now, haven’t you?”

“I have.They started construction on the new house last week.”It seemed that every day they were finding things that were wrong with Kinsey, and it hurt his heart that he’d not tried harder to get him to ride in the limo with him.But as Wylie had explained, someone would have been hit by the semi, and they might not have survived like the two of them had.“You’ll live in the big house with Alice and me, and we’ll take care of you.”

“You know that I can pretty much take care of myself.”He asked him how he was going to do that when he couldn’t even piss without help.“I’ll figure it out.”

“I think Meggie likes the idea of living in the big house with us.She said she should have thought about you not being able to get around as well when she suggested her house to live in.Ours is all one floor, but for the wine cellar, and you don’t drink, so that’s not an issue.Besides, you’ll be getting around sooner rather than later.”

“I know, but I don’t want to put you out.”He promised him that he wasn’t doing that at all.“What does Alice think about having a grown man around the house that can barely feed himself, much less piss?I bet you’ve talked her into it.”

“You’d be surprised to know that this was her idea.Not to mention, when you get to know her better, you’ll see that nothing happens that she doesn’t approve of before I say a word.She’s kept me out of enough scrapes since I married her that I know when to keep my mouth shut and do as I’m told.You’d be well to remember that when you’re all settled in the house with us.”David thought about all the things they’d talked about since Kinsey was brought into their lives, like he’d been.“It’s all settled.Once you’re free to leave here, we have a live-in nurse who will take care of all the necessary things you have to do in the bathroom taken care of.Also, she’ll be able to do your physical therapy too.I’m to understand that you’re going to need a bit of that.”

“I hurt myself.”Which was an understatement if he’d ever heard of.Most of the boy’s body had been hurt in some way, and he was luckier than he’d thought.Not only could he have been cut in half, but he would have lost him that day, and he hated to think about that.“I’d do it all again to save us, but I surely do hurt a great deal now that I have.Who would have thought that I’d be here for all thistime because I was in an accident?”

“Anyone that looks at you would have known it wasn’t just an accident, but a god-awful, terrible, horrific accident that nearly took you both from us.”He didn’t want to talk about it, so he changed the subject.“Alice and Meggie with Grace are out shopping.Since you didn’t have much in the way of clothing when we packed you out of the house, they decided to go and get you things that you could wear around the house when you get there.Did you even own a pair of slippers?”

“I didn’t have any use for them.I’d get out of bed and dress for the day after a shower, then go to bed when I undressed for the evening.If my feet got cold, I’d simply put on an extra pair of socks.I don’t even own a robe.”He said that he knew that, too.“You seem to know a great deal about my clothing habits.What’s all this about?”

“I want to tell you something.Something that I’ve never told another being in my life.”He looked at the young man and felt the tears fill his eyes.“I love you like you were my son, Kinsey.Your brothers, too, though not to the same extent.They’re…you’re all good men, and you make me want to be good too.I know that sounds sappy, but it would give me the greatest pleasure on earth if you were to treat me like the father you never had.”

“I don’t know what to say.”He took his hand into his and held it.“You’ve been like a father to me since I met you.Every decision I’ve made since meeting you has been in the form of what you would say if I were to have asked you about it.”

“I do the same thing when I think of what I’m doing.Even Alice has said that I’ve become a changed man since you came into my life.”He pulled his hand away and blew his nose.“I’m getting too old for sentimentalism.It gets me in the feels if you want to know the truth.”

“I feel the same way.”As they sat there talking, he could tell that Kinsey wanted something for the pain.It hurt him that the younger man could barely sit up without being sick with the pain of it.But the doctor told them all that in a few days, he’d be better at sitting up and even standing.When he stood up, on his own, he’d be able to go home on Tuesday, and they’d be able to pamper him at home all they wanted.

“Let me get the nurse for you.”Kinsey said he’d be all right for a little bit; he wanted to talk to him about this house that he was moving into.“It’s a nice little ranch style with eight bedrooms.You’ll be taking up one of them for your room with Meggie, and then one of them will be set up for your therapy.Like the doctor said to you, once you start getting up on your own, things will feel better for you.Especially walking around.He said that once you get your feet under you, things will start to feel like they’re back in place and you’ll feel better about eating and everything else, too.”

“I’ll be happy when I can eat better food.This soft stuff is for the birds.”He laughed a little, and David could see what it cost him.“I’ll be working on getting better so we don’t push you out of your home, David.Meggie and I appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”

“To be honest with you, Kinsey, we’ve enjoyed having someone to care for.We’ve not had anyone to pamper since we got married, and we’re having fun.”As soon as he got him situated in the bed, he called the nurse in.He’d only wanted about half of the pain meds, and David was happy for that.The sooner he was off those drugs, the better off he’d be, too.

Chapter 9

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