Jodi mumbled something into the mattress, but since there was no way either one of them could understand her, and he doubted that she was going to pull the pillow off her head to answer them, he decided to answer for her. “She becomes disoriented and intoxicated.”

His father nodded thoughtfully as he looked over the damage done to Jodi’s poor damaged skin while Danny did the same. He felt like such an asshole taking her like that.

“I’m afraid it’s necessary,” his father finally said with a sigh. “Jodi, I’m going to clean the abrasions now and I’m afraid that it’s going to sting.”

He wasn’t sure, but he thought she nodded. “Once your abrasions are clean I’m going to apply a topical antibiotic, which also has a numbing agent and should give you some relief. After that I’m going to give you a shot to make sure that you don’t develop an infection. Is that okay with you?”

The pillow on top of her head shifted slightly again. His father took that as another nod. “I’m going to get started now,” his father said with a reassuring smile as he reached into his bag and took out a kit.

Another nod had him walking past his father and around the other side of the bed where he sat down on the bed next to Jodi and took her hand in his. She squeezed his hand, but didn’t say anything as his father cleaned her back, bottom and arms.

“She’s not going to feel like doing anything for a few days, which is for the best. She should relax, stay in bed and give the abrasions a chance to heal. She should refrain from taking baths for the next two days. Showers are fine, but make sure that you apply more antibiotic afterwards.”

She groaned, long and loud beneath the safety of her pillow.

“I’m going to have some antibiotic ointment delivered later,” his father explained as he pulled out a syringe and a small vile of medicine. “For now this should help you sleep.”

The pillow shifted from side to side and he knew that she shaking her head, because they both knew that whatever his father gave her wasn’t going to help her sleep.

“It will be fine. I promise,” his father said reassuringly as he leaned over and injected Jodi with the medicine that was guaranteed to make the next twelve hours a living hell.

*-*-*-*

“Sit on her!”

“You!” Danny snapped back at his father, who was pressed against the door, trying to stop Jodi from making another escape.

“Please! I just want to go on one ride, two at the most,” Jodi said with that damn perky smile that she’d been trying to use on them for the last couple of hours as she pulled at the collar of the tee shirt they’d finally managed to wrestle on her an hour ago. It was one of his shirts and she was practically swimming in it, but at least she was covered.

“We’re not taking you to the Magic Kingdom,” he said, realizing that he probably sounded like a broken record by now.

“I don’t need you to take me. I can take one of the hotels super friendly, fast service shuttles,” she said with that damn smile that was starting to make his eye twitch.

“Jodi,” his father said softly, “sweetheart, I don’t think that right now is a good time for you to go to the park.”

“Oh,” she said, scrunching her face up adorably as she considered his words. “Then can I have something to eat?”

His father sagged against the door as he mumbled, “Thank God.”

“What would you like, Tinkerbelle?” Danny asked soothingly, hoping not to startle her into skipping to another subject since food was safe. They could handle feeding her and if she was eating, that meant that she wasn’t driving them out of their fucking minds and, not that he would ever admit this, scaring the shit out of them.

“Can I have a burger and fries? And a chocolate milkshake? Or a root beer float?” she asked with a hopeful smile.

“You can have whatever you want,” he said, leaning down and brushing his lips against hers, glad that she was finally settling down.

“Write down how she likes her burger and I can go get-” his father began to say, sounding eager for a reason to get the hell out of there.

“I’m getting her burger,” he snapped, turning around to face down his father.

“I’m getting it,” his father snapped back, pushing away from the door.

“You’re the one that gave her the medicine,” he pointed out, keeping his gaze locked on his father as he reached out and grabbed his wallet. “You should stay and monitor her.”

“You’re the one that gave her rug burn!”

“He really did,” Jodi said with a dreamy little sigh and smile that he forced himself to ignore and headed for the door.

“I’ll be back in twenty minutes,” he said to his father. “Please just watch her.”

He thought that his father was going to argue, but much to his surprise, his father stepped away from the door with a nod. Thankful for a break, even a small one, he left the room and headed towards the elevator, praying the entire time that Tinkerbelle would be sound asleep by the time he returned so that he could pretend for at least one night that his father didn’t know that he’d skipped getting matching Mickey ears so that he could fuck his girlfriend raw.

Chapter 34

“So……,” he said, facing the small woman watching him curiously and having absolutely no idea what to say to the woman that his son was obviously head over heels in love with.

She blinked adorably up at him.

Just blinked.

“Have you ever been to Disneyworld before?” he asked, just to break the increasingly awkward silence.

Nothing.

“We brought Danny here when he was two, but shortly after that the ban started,” he said, expecting a comment or question about the ban, but instead she simply stood there, blinking and starting to freak him out a little bit.

“When they finally lifted the ban a few months ago Mary decided that it was time to bring the kids down here. We-”

“Why do you hate Danny so much?” she suddenly asked, startling the hell out of him.

“I don’t hate him,” he said, blinking down at the small woman.

“You don’t talk to him,” she said, blinking up at him curiously.

He rubbed his hands roughly down his face as he admitted, “I don’t know what to say to him.”

“You don’t look at him.”

He sighed heavily, suddenly wishing that he hadn’t put Aidan in a headlock and threatened to beat him within an inch of his life if he didn’t tell him where Danny was staying.

“I look at him,” he said, wondering when the medicine was going to kick in and knock this small woman out and put him out of his misery.

“No, you don’t,” she simply said, not sounding mad, but curious. “Why?”

He chuckled without humor as he double-checked to make sure the door was locked and then walked past the small woman, pausing only long enough to pat her on the head simply because he couldn’t help himself, and sat on the couch. “He doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Why?”

He rubbed his hands down his face and leaned back against the couch as he studied her. “Will you remember any of this in the morning?” he asked, watching as the small woman walked over to the bed, sat down and winced.