Stand By Me One Shots/Imagines + Preferences (The Cobras x reader)

Vet Visit (Ace & Eyeball's daughter)

(Set when Y/N is about eight and Kenny ten)

"Dad? Bonnie threw up in front of my bed."

Ace, barely awake enough to make sense of his daughter's words, rolls out of bed and follows her to her room. When he sees the little puddle of bile on the rug he's fully awake.

"Why's she throwing up when she didn't even eat her dinner?"

"I don't know, honey. We'll take her to the doctor if she isn't feeling better in the morning, okay? Go back to bed now, I'll bring you a towel Bonnie can lie on in case she has to throw up again."

He picks up the rug, thanking everything it's washable, and takes it to the laundry room. When he comes back with a towel, Y/N has curled up in her bed, Bonnie on the floor beside her.

The dog looks up at him with big, sad eyes, and Ace feels bad about making her get up again, but he has to to put down the towel for her.

Girl and dog both get a kiss to the top of their heads, and after repeatedly assuring Y/N that Bonnie will be okay he can go back to bed.

Eyeball is awake and waiting for him.

"Everything okay?"

"I'm not sure. Bonnie threw up. Let's hope she just ate something wrong or it's stress. I really don't wanna imagine what would happen if she's seriously sick."

"Mhh. Did you get Y/N to go back to sleep?"

"More or less. She was still awake when I left, but she could barely keep her eyes open. I bet she's asleep by now."

Eyeball reaches over to turn off the light, then wraps an arm around Ace. "Let's go back to sleep too, then."

The next morning Bonnie still doesn't want to eat, and Y/N refuses to eat her breakfast too — out of solidarity, Ace supposes.

When he tells her she has to go to school anyway she throws a tantrum, screeching at the top of her lungs every time Ace and Eyeball try to make her leave Bonnie's side. All efforts to make her go are futile, and nothing can console her, until, when there's only fifteen minutes left until school starts and Y/N is still in her pajamas, curled up in the dog bed with Bonnie and crying, they give in.

Ace drives Kenny to school, while Eyeball finally convinces Y/N to stop crying and get dressed by telling her she can't come to the vet with them in her pajamas. That a visit to the vet will be unavoidable is made all the more apparent by the way Bonnie listlessly watches from her dog bed as Y/N gets ready instead of jumping around her feet as she usually would.

She doesn't even look up when Ace comes back.

They don't waste any time, wanting this cleared up as soon as possible, and luckily there aren't many other people at the vet yet, so they don't have to wait very long.

The doctor tells them Bonnie has a bad tummy ache — No shit, Ace thinks. I could have told you that myself. — and gives her a shot to relieve the pain.

Why she's unwell the doctor can't tell them either, but he suggests she might have eaten something wrong, or simply caught the stomach flu. Barely ten minutes in the examination room, then they're sent home with some painkillers and a medicine against nausea to mix into Bonnie's food, along with instructions to put her on light diet for a while.

They stop by the store on the way home, buying cottage cheese, camomile tea and some other stuff for Bonnie — Ace already sighs at the prospect of having to force the tea into the dog somehow — and a chocolate donut as breakfast for Y/N, who is already a lot happier now that she knows her beloved Bonnie isn't seriously ill and they know how to help her.

When Kenny comes home from school he stops in the doorway to the kitchen and watches with a look of sheer confusion as his sister pours spoonfuls of tea into her dogs mouth, which she's forcing open with her other hand.

"Uhh, Dad? What on earth is she doing?"

"We're supposed to give Bonnie chamomile tea until she starts eating again, but she doesn't want to drink it, so Y/N got creative," Ace explains without looking up from the bowl in which he's mixing cottage cheese and rice with a bit of chicken.

He throws in the advised amount of the medicine powder, even if he doesn't have much hope that Bonnie will actually eat just yet. She's a lot more lively since the doctor gave her that shot of painkillers, but hasn't shown any interest in the food as he prepared it.

"I think that's enough for now, Y/N," Ace says, turning to his daughter. "You can give her some more later."

"Okay."

She dumps the dog-drool covered spoon into the cup of tea, and Ace watches, horrified but unsurprised, as she raises the cup to her own lips and takes a sip.

"Y/N..."

"What? I just wanted to know what it tastes like. It smells just like peppermint tea."

Ace sighs. Why did she have to make that discovery now of all times?

"Make another cup for yourself then! I'm not saying you can't try it, but do me a favor and don't drink from the same cup as the dog, please. If she has the stomach flu we really don't need you to get it too."

"Sorry Dad. Can we try if she'll eat now?"

"Yeah."

He puts two tablespoons full of the food into Bonnie's bowl — they're supposed to start with small portions — and has to hold Clyde back from stealing it.

"Take him to your room with you, Kenny, would you?"

"Yeah. C'mon, Clyde, you can help me with my homework."

Dog and boy trod out of the room, Eyeball joining his husband and daughter instead, and Ace calls Bonnie to him. The fact that she hasn't approached him on her own when she saw the food isn't a good sign, but at least she comes, sniffing the food.

Just when he thinks she's actually gonna eat she turns away. Before she can retreat to Y/N's room he grabs her by the collar and holds her back.

"Come on, Bonnie, eat. Just a bite. At least try it."

He realizes he's talking to Bonnie the same way he would to Y/N if she was refusing to eat, but while he never would admit so, he does believe the dog understands everything they say.

She gives him another look, almost like she's pouting, and hesitantly licks the food. It's only a tiny amount disappearing into her mouth before she turns away again, but Ace hopes at least some of the medicine made it into her.

"She seems at least a little better, doesn't she?" Eyeball asks, and Ace nods.

They'll try giving her some more later. For now Y/N and Bonnie retreat to their room for a nap, because in the end sleep will always be the best medicine.