Chapter 41
“Tinkerbelle,” he managed to get out before his throat burned in protest.
“Don’t try to talk,” Aidan said as a straw was pressed against his lips. “Take a small sip.”
Blinking his eyes open and trying to force them to stay open, he took a small sip as he waited for his vision to clear and when it did, he couldn’t help but ask, “What the hell happened to your face?”
“Ummm,” Aidan said, licking his lips nervously as he shot a quick glance over his shoulder. “Nothing much,” he muttered, which earned a snort of amusement from somewhere to his right.
Groggily, he looked to his right to find his sister and brothers standing by his bedside, looking exhausted, relieved and somewhat amused. Frowning, he looked back at his brother, took in his black eye and then shifted his gaze to find Lucifer standing in front of his bed, looking just as exhausted and not quite meeting his gaze behind another black eye that actually looked a hell of a lot worse than Aidan’s.
Deciding that he really didn’t care, he shifted his attention back to Aidan. “Where’s Tinkerbelle?”
Aidan shifted nervously as he shared a look with Lucifer, a look that he didn’t like. “She’s umm,” Aidan said, pausing as he pursed up his lips thoughtfully. “She’s ummm,” he cleared his throat nervously, “taking a nap.”
“A nap?” he asked flatly as he looked back at his brothers and sister to find them all looking anywhere else but at him. “Where is she taking this nap exactly?” he asked, looking back at Aidan, who couldn’t quite bite back his wince.
“She’s right here,” his father said, drawing his attention to the closed curtain behind Aidan.
“Open the curtain,” he demanded, trying to sit up, but he was too exhausted and weak to do much more than glare at his brother as he registered the feel of metal and bandages wrapped around his torso.
Aidan held up his hands. “Before I do that, please let me explain that it’s not as bad as it looks and that she’s going to be fine.”
He let his brother’s word register before he opened his mouth and shouted, “Move the fucking curtain!”
The pathetic whimper that followed had him reaching for his brother, ready to throw him through the curtain. Aidan smartly realized this and moved his ass. He grabbed the curtain and yanked it back and-
Who the fuck were all these people? he couldn’t help but wonder as he took in all the men standing around the other side of the room. The only people he recognized were his parents and Greg. Frowning, he looked away from the men glaring accusingly at him and looked at the-
“What the hell happened?” he demanded when he spotted Jodi, out cold with one arm in a cast and the other one attached to the bed with a soft restraint. A quick glance down at the foot of her bed told him that her legs were being restrained as well.
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?”