The middle aged man with hair as blonde as Jodi’s answered him, “It seems my daughter took exception to what happened to you.”
“She beat the shit out of your brothers,” Greg clarified with a huge shit-eating grin.
“Why is she restrained?” he asked, wishing that he could touch her, but he could hardly keep his eyes open never mind move.
“Drugs,” all the men in the room said as one, making him smile, because he could only imagine what hell his little Tinkerbelle had put them all through.
“Is she going to be okay?” he asked as his eyes slowly slid shut.
“She’s going to be fine,” he heard someone say just as he his brother asked, “Can you move your legs?”
*-*-*-*
“Sweetheart,” he heard his father say, “put the pudding down.”
“Get away from him!” he heard Jodi yell just as he registered the feel of her small body crawling onto the bed next to him.
There was a tired sigh as someone said, “I told you that she was faking.”
“How were we supposed to know that?” he heard Aidan snap. “It’s been four hours since her last dose!”
He felt his lips pull up into a small smile as he realized that his little Tinkerbelle was still drugged out. “It takes twelve hours to get it out of her system,” he whispered hoarsely as he somehow managed to open his eyes, not exactly surprised to find Tinkerbelle in an oversized hospital gown that was hanging off her, kneeling next to him on the bed, holding up a spoonful of chocolate pudding threateningly in front of her.
“Move back!” she snapped, giving the spoon in her hand a little jiggle in warning.
“Tinkerbelle,” he said, reaching up and placed his hand on her back, drawing his hand down her bare back, enjoying the feeling.
Still holding that spoonful of pudding up, she glanced back and whatever she saw had her nodding firmly and returning her attention back to the small group closing in on her. He opened his mouth to tell them to back off, but felt himself drift off before he could get the words out.
*-*-*-*
“She needs to be in her own bed,” he heard a woman say sometime later.
“She’s fine,” he heard his father say just as he registered the feel of Tinkerbelle curled up by his side, her small casted hand resting on his chest and her soft light snores lulling him back into a deep sleep.
“I’m sorry, but we need to move her to her own bed,” the woman said again, “hospital policy.”
“And I’m overriding that policy,” his father said firmly. “She stays.”
*-*-*-*
“You broke him!”
“Stop hitting us!”
“And we told you that it was an accident!”
“Ow!” he heard one of his brothers, Reese? yell followed by Tinkerbelle’s cry of pain.
It was Tinkerbelle’s cry of distress that had him opening his eyes and trying to focus on the blurry figures surround him.
“Tinkerbelle?” he said hoarsely, searching desperately for her.
“She’s right here,” the blurry object to his left said.
He looked in that direction and blinked, and blinked again until the blurry image sharpened and he could make out his brother Lucifer struggling to hold Jodi back as she tried to lunge at Darrin.
“Get the restraints!” Lucifer yelled, sounding a little desperate as he tried to place Tinkerbelle back on the bed next to his, but she wasn’t having that.
“You broke him!” she yelled accusingly.
“It was an accident!” Lucifer snapped back, but that only seemed to piss her off more. “Would someone get the goddamn restraints?”
“Tinkerbelle,” he said weakly, trying to raise his arms, but whatever drugs they were pumping in him made it impossible.
“Danny!” Tinkerbelle said, sounding relieved as she suddenly shifted her attention from beating the shit out of Reese to going to him.
“Thank God,” Lucifer muttered, picking her up and carefully placing her on the bed by his side.
With one last glare at Lucifer, she curled up by his side, placing her injured arm across his chest and her head on his shoulder. Within minutes he was once again dozing off, absently wondering why they were keeping him drugged out of his mind.
*-*-*-*
“Danny?” he distantly heard his father say. “Danny? I need you to wake up now.”
“Tired,” he mumbled, turning his head to the side as he tried to go back to sleep, but his father wasn’t having that.
“Danny, I need you to try and move your toes,” his father said when all he wanted to do was go back to sleep.
“Go…away,” he muttered, feeling like he was drowning in a haze.
“Danny, move your toes,” his father said more firmly.
He shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut as the move threatened to make him hurl.
“Come on, son. Just wiggle your toes for me and you can go back to sleep,” his father said, starting to sound desperate.
“I can’t,” he mumbled, starting to drift off when he heard the sweetest voice in the world say, “Danny, wiggle your toes.”
“Tinkerbelle,” he said, feeling his lips pull up into a pleased smile.
“Move your toes, Danny,” she said, as he registered the feel of her soft lips brushing against his.
“Hurts,” he muttered, numbly realizing that he was hurting, everywhere.
“I know, baby,” she said, “but I need you to move your toes for me.”
“What will I get if I do?” he asked, still struggling to open his eyes even as he bit back a groan as immense pain shot up his spine.
“What do you want?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“You,” he simply said.
There was a sniffle before she said, “You’ve got me, Danny. Now just move your toes, okay?”
He nodded even as he felt himself drifting off again and this time when they tried to wake him, he was able to ignore them.
Chapter 42
“You left me,” Danny whispered hoarsely when he finally managed to open his eyes.
“You didn’t leave me with much of a choice,” she said, trying not to cry or show him how relieved she was that he was finally awake.
“Had to,” he said, glancing around the room as she poured him a small cup of water. “Where is everyone?”
“It’s three in the morning so I’m guessing that they’re either sleeping or getting kicked out of a buffet,” she said, earning a weak smile from him.
“Take a sip,” she ordered, holding the cup in front of him with her good hand.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, obediently taking a sip.
After a minute, she pulled the cup away and placed it on the tray, wishing that his father was here to help with this, but around an hour ago Mary had finally managed to browbeat her husband into going back to the hotel and getting some sleep. Now, she was sitting here by herself, terrified that she was about to find out that Danny was paralyzed.
She should call a doctor, but instead she found herself climbing into bed with him and curling up by his side. She needed this after everything they’d been through over the past two weeks, she needed a moment before their lives went to hell and stayed there.