Chapter 41
“Tinkerbelle,” Danny 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, Danny 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, Danny 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, Danny 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?” Danny asked flatly as he looked back at his brothers and sister to find them all looking anywhere but at him. “Where is she taking this nap exactly?” Danny 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,” Danny 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 words 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? Danny 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?” Danny 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?” Danny asked, wishing that he could touch her, but he could barely 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?” Danny asked as his eyes slowly slid shut.
“She’s going to be fine,” he heard someone say just as his brother asked, “Can you move your legs?”
“Sweetheart,” Danny 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,” Danny 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!” Jodi snapped, giving the spoon in her hand a little jiggle in warning.
“Tinkerbelle,” Danny said, reaching up and placed his hand on her back, drawing his hand down her bare back, enjoying the feel of her soft skin.
Still holding that spoonful of pudding up, Jodi 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,” Danny 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 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 yell, followed by Tinkerbelle’s cry of pain.
It was Tinkerbelle’s cry of pain that had him opening his eyes and trying to focus on the blurry figures surrounding him.
“Tinkerbelle?” Danny 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,” Danny 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, Jodi 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 fucking mind.
“Danny?” he distantly heard his father say. “Danny? I need you to wake up now.”
“Tired,” Danny 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,” Jodi 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?” Danny 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.