Daughter of the Moose (sequel to 'Married to a Moose')

Chapter 23

"Hey Alex?" I heard, waking me up.

"Yeah dad?" I said groggily.

"Sorry to wake you, but I think my stitches are coming loose. I feel blood on my face." He said, rather calmly. I got up quickly and grabbed a first aid kit that I brought into his room with me.

"Jeez. yeah, they are coming out. I'll close them back up. Don't worry, I know how." I said calmly.

"Ok. as long as you know how, thats fine."

He was bleeding, but not too bad. I got a washcloth from the bathroom and cleaned his face. He winced from feeling it touch his open sore.

"Sorry."

"It's ok. It's just cause its an open cut."

"Ummm. When Dean put them in before, you were unconscious. How do you want me to do this? Stitches in the head hurts a lot more than anywhere else."

"Give me a towel and I'll bite into it. It's all we got. We don't have sedatives." I did as he said. He gripped the bedposts until his knuckles were white and he bit down so hard on the towel that I thought he was gonna break his jaw. I stuck the needle in and his whole body went rigid and stiff. I had to do 6 since 4 .didn't stay put last time. I did it quickly but precisely. I tied it off at the end and set my stuff down. I nodded at him to let him know I was done.

He slowly removed his hands from the bedposts and removed the towel from his mouth. He was breathing heavy.

"I'm sorry. I had to take longer to make sure they would stay. Are you ok?"

"Yeah. It just hurt like hell. Thanks though Alex."

"Of course. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to get me up again. I won't mind." He nodded and we both went back to sleep.

It was about 11:00 am, and I was still sleeping. I heard my name again. My dad was standing at the foot of his bed.

"What are you doing out of bed?"

"I'm tired of laying around all the time. I just want to move a little. I'm still really sore. I'm so sorry I woke you Alex. I got this far then realized I can't get back in bed or go out of my room without help. It hurts too bad."

"Fine." I said crankier than I wanted to. I helped him downstairs to the kitchen where he sat and ate some breakfast. Dean was already up and looked at me weirdly. I probably looked really gross considering I didn't get much sleep since my dad's stitches took longer than expected, and I only got a few hours until he woke me up again. I made us all some coffee, and we ate breakfast together.

"How'd you guys sleep?" Dean asked

"I slept ok. My stitches came a little loose in the middle of the night, but don't worry, Alex fixed them." Dean looked at the stitches and gave me an approving glance.

"How about you Alex?"

"I slept pretty decent, and the stitches didn't take too long. He let me sleep as long as possible this morning, and he's ok and just sore, so I can't complain." I downplayed my lack of sleep partly so Dean didn't try to criticize dad, and also because my dad didn't mean to wake me up, and I felt bad about being so snappy. Dean headed upstairs after breakfast to change into decent clothes rather than PJs so he could go out and stock up on food and beer.

"Why'd you downplay all that? I know you're pissed I woke you up so much."

"I'm not pissed Dad. I didn't mean to snap earlier. I'm happy you woke me up. You needed stitches and it was an easy mistake with getting up on your own. Plus, Dean would have been on your case about getting up alone, so I figured, save you the mess with him."

"Thanks for being so cool with this. I hate making you and Dean take care of me so much."

"I know you do, but I'm happy to help you out." The rest of the day, I sat with my dad on the couch doing research and helping Dean find cases.